Chapter 484: The White-Eyed Wolf

Lu Chengyun entered the altar, opened the bronze coffin, and began drawing the array.

As the clan master, Lu Chengyun was busy daily; when matters delayed him during the day, he would return to the altar at night to draw the Spirit Pivot Blood Array.

Mo Hua, seeing he hadn't noticed him, exhaled slightly in relief.

It seemed Lu Chengyun's spiritual sense was indeed weaker than his own—under normal circumstances, he couldn't easily detect Mo Hua's concealment.

But he couldn't let his guard down; he mustn't reveal any trace.

Otherwise, if Lu Chengyun discovered him, sneaking into the altar in the dead of night, no excuse would convince him to trust Mo Hua again.

He'd probably kill him and turn him into a little zombie.

Mo Hua stayed quietly hidden behind the altar.

Lu Chengyun was still drawing the array.

He simply couldn't imagine anyone else was present in the altar at this moment.

In the silent altar, only the faintest rustling of ink moistening the brush and the whisper of strokes could be heard.

Whenever Lu Chengyun drew an array, he became utterly absorbed.

Mo Hua stole a glance at him with the corner of his eye.

Lu Chengyun didn't notice.

Mo Hua nodded slightly.

The Spirit Pivot Array was extremely difficult to draw.

Drawing the Spirit Pivot Array required complete focus, heavy spiritual sense expenditure, and all one's attention devoted solely to the array patterns—no distraction allowed.

But Mo Hua dared not be too bold; he calmed his mind, cleared his thoughts, emptied all emotion, killing intent, and distractions, observing Lu Chengyun's array-drawing with a hollow, empty gaze.

A hollow, clear spiritual sense was less likely to be detected.

The array Lu Chengyun was drawing, though also a Spirit Pivot Evil Array, differed slightly from his daytime method.

Lu Chengyun was suspicious by nature.

Even though he believed Mo Hua couldn't understand or learn it, he still held back when drawing the Spirit Pivot Array in Mo Hua's presence.

He added redundant array patterns and distorted the core structure.

Some demonic techniques also had subtle differences.

Mo Hua suddenly understood.

Earlier, when he'd watched Lu Chengyun draw arrays and noticed irregular patterns, he'd assumed Lu Chengyun had made mistakes—or that the demonic array methods differed from orthodox ones.

Only now, by comparison, did he realize.

Lu Chengyun had been deliberately misleading him.

"Truly treacherous…"

But Lu Chengyun didn't know that Mo Hua had already mastered most of the Spirit Pivot Array.

Later, when Lu Chengyun demonstrated the Spirit Pivot Array diagram before Mo Hua, those few glances had allowed Mo Hua to memorize the entire remaining sequence.

He didn't need to watch Lu Chengyun draw—he'd already learned it.

Mo Hua observed him merely to refine his own understanding, fill gaps, and uncover any backdoors Lu Chengyun had left—not because he wanted to learn from him.

Lu Chengyun's petty tricks were like throwing flirtatious glances at a blind man—completely pointless.

Mo Hua frowned again.

Lu Chengyun's extreme caution had given him a warning.

The Spirit Pivot Ultimate Array was Lu Chengyun's core secret.

He relied on the Spirit Pivot Array to control the Corpse King and command the horde of corpses.

The Spirit Pivot Array was his lifeline.

He would never teach it to anyone—not even Mo Hua.

His earlier promises to teach Mo Hua the Spirit Pivot Array had been empty words.

Mo Hua's heart grew cold.

Lu Chengyun likely still believed that, across the entire Xiao Huang Continent, he alone knew the Spirit Pivot Array.

He alone could comprehend the entire Spirit Pivot sequence.

He was the king among kings, the master of the Corpse King.

Therefore, Lu Chengyun must never learn that Mo Hua had mastered the Spirit Pivot Array.

If he found out, Mo Hua could alter the sequence patterns and undermine his control over the Iron Corpses and Walking Corpses.

He would kill Mo Hua without hesitation!

No matter what, he would never spare his life.

No matter how talented Mo Hua was or how useful he seemed.

"Even if I were his father, he'd still find a way to kill me…"

Mo Hua thought silently.

He'd already committed patricide, ancestral betrayal, and murdered others to turn them into corpses—don't expect him to have any conscience…

Mo Hua took another chance to observe Lu Chengyun's array-drawing technique.

With no outsiders present in the altar, Lu Chengyun no longer held back—he poured all his strength into drawing the Spirit Pivot Evil Array.

He still used his bone brush, dipped in human blood, painting onto the bronze coffin.

His eyes glowed green, as if borrowing some demonic spiritual sense.

Thanks to this, Lu Chengyun drew with great fluency and speed.

Mo Hua was slightly surprised.

The demonic array techniques were indeed effective.

If an array master lacks sufficient personal insight to draw a complete array pattern, he resorts to heretical methods to aid in drawing the array.

Human skin, human blood, human bones, and so on.

Cultivators are naturally attuned to Qi.

Killing people to obtain materials as array mediums reduces the difficulty of drawing arrays and enhances their power.

But all these are merely ways to lower the threshold.

In simple terms, it's cheating.

Mo Hua nodded.

This Lu Chengyun's array skill is still somewhat inferior to mine.

After all, I drew the Spirit Pivot Array properly—no cheating!

"Looks like I'm still quite impressive…"

A tiny spark of pride stirred in Mo Hua's heart.

Lu Chengyun was still drawing the array.

Mo Hua was still secretly watching him from the corner of his eye.

As he watched, Mo Hua remembered something else, and felt puzzled:

How exactly did Lu Chengyun cultivate the Corpse King?

If the altar's offering was the corpse of the Lu family's ancestor, "Lu Bopi," then what was sealed inside this bronze coffin?

Lu Chengyun was drawing the Spirit Pivot Evil Array on the bronze coffin.

Again and again.

He must be deepening the array during the corpse cultivation process.

But the corpse rests atop the altar—so where exactly is he deepening the array on the coffin?

Or perhaps the Corpse King is special.

Is this a unique method of corpse cultivation?

As Mo Hua pondered, Lu Chengyun finished drawing one array, exhausted his spiritual sense, and paused to rest.

In the empty altar, Lu Chengyun sat in meditation, but after only a moment, he furrowed his brow, suddenly opened his eyes, and glared coldly:

"Still watching me?"

Mo Hua was startled.

"Found out?"

Lu Chengyun whirled his head, his gaze icy, locking onto the altar.

Mo Hua curled his small body tightly, steadied his mind, suppressed his aura, and remained silent.

Meanwhile, Lu Chengyun slowly rose, stepped forward to the altar, and sneered:

"Are you still unwilling to die with your eyes open?"

Mo Hua froze.

"Unwilling to die with eyes open?" He wasn't talking about me?

So Lu Chengyun hadn't discovered me…

Mo Hua slowly exhaled in relief.

"Still watching me… unwilling to die with eyes open… altar…"

Mo Hua instantly understood.

Lu Chengyun thought the Lu family ancestor was watching him!

The offering on the altar truly was the Lu family ancestor—and this Lu ancestor had been betrayed by Lu Chengyun, which was why he died unwilling to close his eyes.

"Old bastard!"

In the empty altar, with no one around, Lu Chengyun tore off his refined facade and suddenly became grotesque and hysterical.

"Greedy fool!"

"Old beast!"

"Because I married into your family, you look down on me?"

"Look down on me!"

"In front of all the elders, you called me a dog raised by the Lu family, an ungrateful Bai Yanlang…"

Lu Chengyun sneered, "Yet the spirit stones I earned from cultivating corpses and mining—you still took them."

"The 'dead meat' my dog brought back—you, old beast, didn't you swallow it?"

"Insatiable greed…"

"Even as death approached, when I lied to you, claiming I could make you achieve Dao through corpse transformation and live a thousand years—you actually believed me?"

"The Dao of Heaven is constant; life and death are inevitable—how easily do you think you can deceive them?"

"Become a zombie and think you can escape death? Dream on, you fool!"

After ranting and venting his emotions, Lu Chengyun smiled coldly again.

"Come to think of it, I should thank you."

"Thank you for your incestuous, foul, and stupid daughter."

"Thank you for your greed, which let me become head of the Lu family."

"Otherwise, even if I had learned the Spirit Pivot Array, I could never have built the Corpse Mine, the Ten Thousand Corpses Array, or cultivated the Corpse King…"

"This Corpse Mine was built with the labor of your Lu family; this Ten Thousand Corpses Array was constructed with your Lu family's wealth."

"Now, all of it has become my dowry!"

Lu Chengyun couldn't help but let out a dark chuckle.

"You never imagined you'd die like this..."

"While alive, you held great power, and I obeyed you—I worked like a beast for the Lu family, doing exactly as you commanded."

"But now that you're dead, and I've forged you into a zombie, you must obey me—you are my servant, under my command, enslaved by me."

"The Lu family still bears the name Lu—but it is no longer your Lu Tianliang's 'Lu'; it is my Lu Chengyun's 'Lu'!"

After Lu Chengyun finished speaking, the altar trembled slightly.

Beneath the yellow cloth, corpse qi surged thickly.

A savage energy seemed to churn within it.

The Lu family's ancestral elder was already dead; this savagery was merely residual instinct, a remnant of his spiritual will.

Lu Chengyun did not fear it—in fact, he laughed with delight:

"Good!"

"The angrier you are, the stronger the corpse qi—only then will the zombie suit me perfectly!"

The corpse qi surged again, then seemed to swell with resentment before gradually subsiding.

Lu Chengyun whispered with a cold laugh:

"Your fate is spent. Once forged into a zombie and bound by the Lingshu Array, you will be nothing but my slave—trapped within my grasp, never to rise again."

Then Lu Chengyun snorted, swept his sleeve, and left the altar, returning to the bronze coffin to resume meditation and restore his spiritual awareness.

Every word he spoke, exactly as uttered, was heard by Mo Hua, who hid behind the altar.

Mo Hua sighed inwardly, then couldn't help but admire:

Lu Chengyun was truly a "talent."

The Lu family's ancestral elder had truly found a "treasure."

Lu Chengyun and the Lu family were perfectly matched—a Bai Yanlang entering a den of wolves, a match made in heaven.

(End of Chapter)