Chapter 478: Dao Name

In the Ten Thousand Corpses Altar, blood runes covered the ground, thousands of coffins lined up, candles cast dim light, and the space was vast and deathly silent.

No one was here.

Except Mo Hua.

After Mo Hua manipulated the small zombies to close the gate, the murals behind him twisted and sealed off the path he had come from.

Mo Hua nodded.

This Spirit Pivot Array was truly an ultimate array—far more practical than he had imagined.

He then began to examine the altar.

During the day, with Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan present, Mo Hua hadn't felt anything unusual.

Now, in the deep night, alone here, he felt the altar, though gilded and splendid, was far more sinister and malevolent, not to mention the countless coffins and the zombies inside them.

Mo Hua couldn't help feeling a slight tension.

He calmed his mind and began carrying out his plan, one task at a time.

First, he studied the Ten Thousand Corpses Array.

Although he had designed the array's core, the core only connected to the pivot to allow spiritual energy to flow.

He did not fully understand the entire array's structure.

This Ten Thousand Corpses Array was the culmination of Lu Chengyun's decades of effort.

During the day, he hadn't dared to examine it closely, lest he offend Lu Chengyun's taboos.

Moreover, based on Mo Hua's understanding of arrays, this Ten Thousand Corpses Array was likely not merely a compound array—but a great demonic array!

Mo Hua activated the Flowing Water Step, coating his feet with spiritual energy, walked along the walls to the ceiling, and hung upside down, peering downward.

From above, the entire array lay fully exposed.

The core was its heart, the pivot its skeleton, the runes its flesh and blood.

Front and back responded to each other, beginning and end linked seamlessly.

Indeed, it was a complete, grand-scale array.

Mo Hua memorized the overall layout in his mind, then descended and began examining the rune details, one by one.

These runes appeared on the surface to be demonic markings.

But beneath their essence, they still applied the principles of the Five Elements: earth, wood, water, and so on.

Earth-element arrays fused corpse flesh;

Water-element arrays mixed in blood;

Then, with certain poisonous plant and herb juices, wood-element arrays were constructed to harmonize flesh and blood, forming the demonic array's runes.

Human flesh and blood naturally resonated with spiritual energy.

Thus, demonic arrays often used human blood as ink and human flesh as medium, enhancing array effects and lowering array difficulty.

Though the threshold was lowered, the understanding of Daoic principles embedded within became vastly shallow.

Mo Hua shook his head.

Such opportunistic shortcuts, abandoning the root for the branches, could never lead one to the Dao of arrays.

Yet to know oneself and know the enemy, Mo Hua still examined and organized every single rune from start to finish.

After organizing them, he combined them with the pivot and his own designed core, performed slight calculations, and clarified the flow logic of spiritual and demonic energy within the array.

A complete map of the Ten Thousand Corpses Array appeared in Mo Hua's consciousness.

Mo Hua wrote this array map from his consciousness onto paper, then bent his head to study it closely, lost in silent thought.

After a moment, he sighed:

"It's truly a prototype of a great array…"

Not some crude, hastily assembled array meant merely to fill space.

But one refined through generations of evolution—runes complete, pivot streamlined, core power profound, and clearly bearing the marks of inheritance.

"Ten Thousand Corpses Demonic Great Array…"

Mo Hua frowned.

"Where on earth did Lu Chengyun get this array map?"

"Could it be that the Lu family, or even this corpse mine, harbors a demonic cultivator, trained in orthodox Mo Sect demonic array techniques?"

Yet in these days, he had become quite familiar with the corpse mine.

He had never seen such a cultivator—not even a trace of one.

"Could it be some demonic rogue, who happened to meet Lu Chengyun and gave him this?"

A demonic rogue…

Mo Hua recalled the strange Daoist the Mr. Zhuang had mentioned—someone one must not look at, not mention, and best not even think of.

"Could it really be that coincidental…?"

Mo Hua murmured.

If it were…

That Daoist had passed down the Qian family's ancestral transference-of-lifespan-and-essence demonic pill formula, and now had given Lu Chengyun the Ten Thousand Corpses Demonic Great Array map—likely he had also passed other corrupt cultivators other forbidden demonic methods.

What did he want?

To create Daoic Abominations?

Could Daoic Abominations, these celestial calamities, truly be mass-produced by human hands?

Or did this Daoist have some deeper agenda?

Mo Hua frowned, deep in thought.

As he thought, he grew absorbed.

Suddenly, an icy and terrifying chill surged into his heart.

In Mo Hua's heart, a faint silhouette of a Daoist slowly emerged.

The Daoist's silhouette resembled dark ink wash.

Around him were withered black lines.

Yet these lines gradually solidified, taking shape.

The Daoist's face also became clearer; a pair of eyes slowly opened, deep and hollow, inch by inch turning toward Mo Hua.

Mo Hua did not know who he was, but in an instant, he knew the Daoist's Dao title:

"Guǐ Dàorén!"

A seeker of the Dao, half-ghost, half-phantom.

Mo Hua was stunned, quickly calming his mind and banishing all thoughts.

But the more he tried not to think, the more he could not help but think.

Even the three characters "Guǐ Dàorén" nearly slipped from his lips.

Mo Hua had a feeling: the moment he spoke those three characters aloud, the Daoist would immediately detect him.

"Do not speak it, do not speak it!"

Mo Hua kept warning himself.

Yet as he forcibly suppressed his spirit, his mouth suddenly disobeyed him—he uttered the first character: "Guǐ…"

The Daoist's hollow gaze suddenly gained spirit; he silently turned his head, his eyes about to fix upon Mo Hua.

Mo Hua's heart turned cold; in desperation, he pinched his own cheek.

His pale face bore two finger marks from his own grip.

Mo Hua winced, "Sss!"—and finally did not utter the three characters "Guǐ Dàorén."

Having not spoken the name, Mo Hua gained a moment's respite.

What should he do?

Mo Hua's mind suddenly cleared; he quickly pulled out spirit ink, dipped his finger in it, and used his spiritual awareness to commune with the Earth's Dao essence, beginning to draw the Thick Earth Array on the ground.

Once he began drawing the array, his spiritual awareness focused, and he could no longer wander in idle thoughts.

He would not even think of uttering any name.

And the Earth's Dao essence he communed with occupied Mo Hua's spirit.

A faint, ancient resonance spread outward, gradually obscuring the Guǐ Dàorén's aura…

……

Meanwhile, beneath a cliff overgrown with dead trees.

The seated "Sun Yi" opened his eyes.

He was filthy, draped in a soiled Daoist robe once worn by a corpse; his gaze was black and hollow, his voice hoarse and thick:

"Who…"

"…yearns for my name?"

"So familiar…"

He closed his eyes to sense, then opened them again; his hollow gaze flickered with confusion:

"Earth's Dao essence?"

"Disciple of the Earth Sect?"

"How could it be…"

Where in the Xiao Huang Zhou border could there be a disciple of the Earth Sect—and why would they speak my name?

"No…"

"Sun Yi" extended his right hand; several fingers were broken, twisted together in a strange shape, as if calculating something.

Some karmic threads linked together:

"Earth's Dao essence…"

"Thick Earth Array…"

"There is a cultivator…"

"Array master…"

"Short in stature… no—very young?"

The karmic threads ended here.

Unclear.

"Sun Yi"'s eyes streamed blood; his sparse hair gradually turned white; his spiritual sea trembled, and his remaining spiritual awareness strained to calculate:

"Without the Dao essence to conceal him, in three breaths, this person will inevitably speak my name…"

"Then remove the concealment of the Dao essence…"

"Sun Yi"'s eyes gushed blood; his gray-white hair fell strand by strand; his face visibly aged, as if using his life force to compensate for the insufficiency of his calculating power after exhausting his spiritual awareness.

He murmured numbers:

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three…"

Three breaths had passed; in the future he had calculated, someone indeed, uncontrollably, spoke his name:

"Guǐ Dàorén!"

The voice that spoke his name was clear and melodious.

"Sun Yi" was slightly stunned, his expression surprised, "A child?"

Why would a child chant his own title?

Who on earth could it be?

And what connection does he have with me?

Sun Yi listened carefully again, only to find that the voice had changed.

From a child's voice, it gradually cleared and became a youth's voice, then gradually deepened into a middle-aged man's voice.

In the end, it became a voice he knew and missed—utterly familiar and longed for.

This voice was clear, crisp, and refined.

The three characters "Gui Daoren" also became two characters:

"Senior Brother."

Sun Yi opened his eyes, and in a daze, saw a cultivator of striking appearance and extraordinary bearing, looking at him.

His gaze was clear, gentle, and the corner of his mouth held a faint, elusive smile.

It was Mr. Zhuang.

After a moment, everything dispersed like clouds and mist.

"Sun Yi" could no longer recall who had chanted his title.

He only remembered that one call of "Senior Brother."

He pinched his fingers to divine again, and found that the sea of consciousness within this skin had cracked, his divine sense had already dried up, and the hair on his head had all fallen out...

Nothing left to divine...

"Sun Yi" sat in a withered daze for a long time, his expression strange, muttering to himself:

"My good junior brother... what on earth are you hiding?"

"Fallen to such a state, what is still worth hiding?"

The mountain forest was withered and silent, no one answered.

"Enough then..."

"Sun Yi" rose unsteadily, wrapped in a dead man's Daoist robe, his steps uneven, walking out of the mountain forest...

"Once I find you, I'll know everything..."

Sorry for the delay.

A little tired...

There should be another chapter later.

(End of chapter)