Chapter 475: Perfection

Lu Chengyun never imagined that after merely glancing at Mo Hua, Mo Hua had memorized the Ling Shu Array Diagram and reproduced it perfectly.

First-rank, twelve-patterns—the legendary Ling Shu Array, inherited by the Lesser Lingyin Sect from the Great Lingyin Sect over a thousand years ago!

Mo Hua was overjoyed; there was no time to waste—he immediately began studying it.

The Corpse Mine is no place to linger.

He must learn the Ling Shu Array as soon as possible, so he could find a way to escape sooner.

And there was Lu Chengyun and the Lu Clan.

Once he mastered the Ling Shu Array, he could free himself to deal with Lu Chengyun and the Lu Clan.

No matter what scheme Lu Chengyun had, he must not be allowed to succeed.

The Lu Clan had wielded power and terror for so many years—they deserved retribution.

The Ten Thousand Corpses Array must be destroyed, the Ancestral Map must be seized; this Corpse Mine, along with its Iron Corpses and Walking Corpses, must not be left alive—otherwise, disaster would endure endlessly.

Of all these tasks, the Ling Shu Array was the key.

With his mind made up, Mo Hua began focusing entirely on studying the array.

Progress in learning the Ling Shu Array was swift.

Because previously, Mo Hua had already obtained partial fragments of the Ling Shu Diagram from the Walking Corpses and Iron Corpses, and had grasped its general principles.

Having comprehended the underlying logic of the Ling Shu Array, he had also tested its application on Little Tiger.

Now that he possessed the complete Ling Shu Diagram, he merely needed to fill in the gaps and deepen his understanding of the array.

Mo Hua spent some time memorizing the array patterns, then practiced them several times on paper.

At midnight, as Mo Hua slept, his spirit sense sank into his mind sea, where he continued practicing on the Dao Stele.

The next day, he feigned exhaustion of his spirit sense, physical discomfort, and a pale complexion, avoiding the task of drawing the Ten Thousand Corpses Array's focal point.

Instead, he hid in his room and secretly practiced the Ling Shu Array while Lu Chengyun was unaware.

On the third day, he pretended to have recovered and went into the Ten Thousand Corpses Array, squatting among a cluster of coffins to draw the focal point.

After finishing, he returned at night and resumed practicing the Ling Shu Array.

But after several days, Mo Hua noticed something was wrong.

The Ling Shu Diagram had been tampered with…

On the surface, the array appeared complete.

The highest-weight Ling Shu Master Array controlled the lower-weight Ling Shu Sub-Arrays, which in turn controlled the even lower Ling Shu Base Arrays.

But Mo Hua discovered that the Ling Shu Master Array had missing pattern lines.

It was as if someone had left a "backdoor."

These few pattern lines remained in someone else's hands.

As long as those few lines were not completed, the Master Array would retain a backdoor.

The Master Array would no longer be the Master Array—it would merely be a Sub-Array.

Others could exploit this "backdoor" to bypass Mo Hua's Ling Shu Master Array and take full control over all the Sub-Arrays and Base Arrays he had drawn.

At that point, all the painstaking effort Mo Hua had invested in setting up the Ling Shu Array might become someone else's "wedding gift."

"Snatching the peaches!"

"So treacherous…"

Mo Hua shook his head.

This backdoor was undoubtedly left by Lu Chengyun.

But he suspected Lu Chengyun had planted it not merely to guard against him.

Rather, it was meant to guard against any Array Master who saw the Ling Shu Diagram, learned the Ling Shu Array, and attempted to construct a hierarchy of Ling Shu Array authority.

Whether it was corpse cultivation, artifact forging, or even puppet-making or Daoist instruments—if they used his Ling Shu Array, they would ultimately be usurped by him.

Because Lu Chengyun held the highest-permission Ling Shu Master Array.

"Thankfully I noticed it—if not, I'd truly have fallen into Lu Chengyun's trap…"

Mo Hua felt a pang of dread, then grew puzzled.

What exactly were the missing array patterns?

And where had Lu Chengyun hidden them?

Mo Hua pondered for a long time but found no leads.

Lu Chengyun was head of the Lu Clan; the Lu Clan was vast, the Corpse Mine was vast—hiding a few array patterns was trivial.

"Use invisibility to tail him?"

Mo Hua thought about it, then shook his head again.

With his current spirit sense and concealment, tailing Lu Chengyun was still too risky.

For an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, maybe.

But Lu Chengyun himself was an Array Master—a dark Array Master—with a suspicious nature; stealthy surveillance would surely arouse his suspicion.

This matter must wait until his spirit sense grows stronger.

"But what then?"

The Ling Shu Array lay right before him—he couldn't possibly refuse to learn it.

Yet once he learned and used it, he'd essentially be working for Lu Chengyun—no gain, only loss.

Even if he searched, finding it wouldn't be easy.

Who knew where Lu Chengyun had hidden those few pattern lines?

Mo Hua rubbed his chin, then suddenly remembered:

"The Bronze Coffin!"

Lu Chengyun would hold back with others, but he wouldn't hold back with himself.

The Spirit Pivot Array he drew himself must be complete, without flaws.

The array he painted inside the bronze coffin must be complete!

Mo Hua's eyes lit up.

The next day, when Lu Chengyun painted the array inside the bronze coffin, Mo Hua quietly leaned in again to watch.

Zhang Quan noticed and gave Mo Hua a warning glance.

Mo Hua glared back with perfect justification, then turned his head to keep watching.

Lu Chengyun's Spirit Pivot Array differed from his own.

His Spirit Pivot Array used demonic array techniques: bone as pen, blood as ink, corpse as array medium.

Moreover, his method of arranging the array also differed.

He repeatedly dipped his brush in blood, painting the Spirit Pivot Array onto the bronze coffin.

The bloodstains would gradually fade, and the array would slowly merge into the coffin.

Mo Hua didn't quite understand this trick.

But fortunately, the inner array patterns and principles were identical.

Mo Hua could still recognize the inner array patterns of the Spirit Pivot Array.

Lu Chengyun's eyes faintly glowed green; he concentrated intensely and didn't notice Mo Hua—occasionally catching sight of him, he didn't care, only asked with a faint, ambiguous smile:

"Young Master, what do you think?"

Mo Hua frowned and shook his head:

"Too difficult. I don't understand…"

Even though he didn't understand, he kept watching.

Array masters are like this: the less they understand, the more they want to understand; the less they see, the more they want to figure it out…

Lu Chengyun knew this feeling, so he found nothing amiss.

Mo Hua watching was only natural to him.

As he watched, he mentally critiqued:

"Lu Chengyun draws too slowly—I've been waiting forever. If I drew it, I'd have finished long ago…"

"That stroke is wrong, and he hasn't even noticed…"

"Bone pen, blood ink, corpse medium… so many fusses…"

"So sluggish…"

…

After muttering to himself for a long time, Mo Hua finally saw Lu Chengyun's wrist flick—his brush speed surged, leaving several new array patterns.

These array patterns were unfamiliar to Mo Hua.

He matched them against the Spirit Pivot Array and found they fit perfectly, filling the missing "backdoor" in the array.

Mo Hua's face remained confused, but inside, his mind was clear as a mirror; with a flick of his spiritual sense, he memorized those array patterns.

As soon as Lu Chengyun finished, he instinctively sensed something odd, turned his head, saw Mo Hua's expression unchanged, and finally relaxed…

The incomplete array patterns were now in his hands.

Back in his room, Mo Hua used these array patterns to fill the gaps in the Spirit Pivot Array, sealing off Lu Chengyun's backdoor.

After several more days of contemplation and tuning, Mo Hua finally fully mastered the Spirit Pivot Array.

At the same time, his understanding of the Spirit Pivot Array deepened further.

The principle of the Spirit Pivot Array is to clarify the structure of spiritual energy, using the array's core to exert minute control over spiritual energy.

The key to this control is spiritual threads.

Splitting and refining spiritual energy into finer filaments, using these filaments to achieve delicate manipulation.

At the same time, similar Spirit Pivot Arrays resonate with each other.

Like the Master-Son Compass Array, where the master array and son array resonate—the spiritual energy fluctuations sensed by the son array manifest in the master array.

Similar Spirit Pivot Arrays resonate and connect with each other.

This connection is spiritual energy control.

The master array controls the son array, the son array controls the base array—allowing a small amount of spiritual sense to control a large number of animated corpses or puppets.

This function of array usage was something Mo Hua had never discovered in the Five Elements Arrays.

"The Forbidden Array truly touches the essence of spiritual energy, stealing the workings of heaven and earth…"

Mo Hua was stunned, silently thinking to himself.

After learning it, he tested the complete Spirit Pivot Array on Little Tiger.

Mo Hua owned a pile of Little Tiger puppets.

These were all made by Puppet Master, requested by Mo Hua, prepared for testing the Spirit Pivot Array.

He picked out one slightly larger one, named it "Big Tiger," and painted the master Spirit Pivot Array on Big Tiger.

Then he painted son Spirit Pivot Arrays on six or seven other Little Tigers.

Mo Hua used his spiritual sense to control the master Spirit Pivot Array, using the array to control Big Tiger.

Then, using the master Spirit Pivot Array as the base, he radiated outward to the son arrays on the other Little Tigers, controlling them through those son arrays.

All levels of the Spirit Pivot Array appeared in Mo Hua's spiritual sea.

Mo Hua's spiritual sense stirred slightly.

Big Tiger began clumsily running across the table.

At the same time, the array on its body transformed spiritual energy into filaments, triggering the other son arrays and pulling the other Little Tigers into motion together.

Seven or eight tiger puppets sprang to life on the table, chasing each other in a lively, jubilant scene…

And the divine sense consumed to control these puppets was not much at all.

This was only controlling small puppets; if he were to control corpses, dividing control step by step, he might truly be able to command tens of thousands of walking corpses with his divine sense alone.

One man, an army.

That was truly terrifying.

Mo Hua clicked his tongue.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then sank his divine sense back into the Sea of Consciousness.

He wanted to see whether the spiritual power manifested by his divine will had undergone any change.

Within the Sea of Consciousness, Mo Hua appeared, then closed his eyes and concentrated, manifesting spiritual power.

After a moment, he found that the spiritual power he manifested grew finer and finer, finally taking the shape of "spiritual threads," like pale blue silk floss, or like the sticky threads of lotus root.

Spiritual power, thread-transformed!

Just like the refined threads of spiritual power within the Spirit Pivot Array.

"This is what Master meant — the deeper the comprehension, the truer the manifestation."

The moment Mo Hua's divine sense stirred, almost effortlessly these spiritual threads flowed lightly according to his will.

Mo Hua pressed two fingers together, and in an instant a Fireball Art condensed at his fingertip.

This time, the Fireball Art also carried some thread-transformation within its flames.

Like a great mass of tangled fiery-red cotton fluff.

Only this "cotton fluff" was accumulated, wound, and compressed from threads of flame-attribute spiritual power.

The spiritual power surged yet remained orderly.

Mo Hua was a little stunned.

The Fireball Art in reality and the Fireball Art manifested in the Sea of Consciousness seemed to be two entirely different things.

The Fireball Art in reality was dark red, with compressed spiritual power and considerable force, already showing faint signs of condensation.

The Fireball Art in the Sea of Consciousness was still bright red, but its spiritual power had divided into wandering threads, finer still, and its power of division seemed stronger.

For the moment, Mo Hua could not tell whether this was good or bad.

Which was stronger?

Should he make the real Fireball Art converge toward the Fireball Art manifested in the Sea of Consciousness?

Or should he, within the Sea of Consciousness, manifest the more realistic Fireball Art?

Mo Hua was a little unsure.

"When I go out, I'll ask Old Gui…"

Besides the Fireball Art, Mo Hua's Flowing Water Step had also grown more exquisite.

Flowing Water Step had always relied on divine sense to control spiritual power.

The stronger the divine sense control, the more profound the footwork.

The Water Prison Art within the Sea of Consciousness was cast faster, and its binding power was stronger too.

Before it was spiritual power forming chains; now it is spiritual power forming threads, then chains — enough to bind an enemy fast.

Most important of all, were arrays.

Mo Hua gave it a try.

The moment his divine will stirred, the speed at which he drew an array on the ground had doubled.

In just a few breaths, standing still and relying on divine sense alone, Mo Hua could manifest a first-grade nine-pattern array.

Mo Hua devised a combo for himself:

First use Water Prison Art to pin the enemy in place for a few breaths, then manifest Gold Lock Array, Overturning Water Array, Wood Prison Array, Quicksand Array, and other control arrays to lock the enemy down.

Once locked, the enemy was a living target.

He could blast them with Fireball Art.

He could manifest Earth Fire Array to bombard them.

He could also form Molten Fire Array to refine them.

This combo locked the enemy down seamlessly, and the forms of attack could be tailored to the "enemy," with many variations.

As long as it was a divine-will body at Foundation Establishment, with divine sense not exceeding twelve patterns, once hit by this whole combo, even if not utterly destroyed in body and spirit, it would likely be on its last breath.

Mo Hua nodded, very satisfied.

Using the Sea of Consciousness as a prison, divine will as the killing weapon.

It could trap, and it could kill.

The self within the Sea of Consciousness was far stronger than the self in reality.

Mo Hua gave a light hum: "Let's see who dares to trespass in my Sea of Consciousness this time — come one, I'll slaughter one!"

Only now, all around the Sea of Consciousness was empty, not a single evil spirit or ghost in sight.

Mo Hua rather felt like "a hero with no stage to display his skills."

Mo Hua's hands itched for action; his eyes darted, and he thought:

"I need to find something to test my skills on…"

(End of chapter)