Chapter 509: Escape

Thirteen-stripe peak spiritual sense!

More than enough to crush most Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivators.

In the realm of spiritual perception, he could match the very top tier of Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivators.

Compared to before, Mo Hua's spiritual sense had grown deeper, and his control over it had become more agile.

Mo Hua's gaze grew profound as he released his spiritual sense; the pale white spiritual vision stretched endlessly…

His perception range expanded, and the things he could perceive multiplied.

A single tree, a single stone, a single flower, a single blade of grass, living cultivators, dead corpses, iron corpses—all could have their essential nature glimpsed through their external physical forms.

The internal trajectories of qi, corpse qi, and various natural energies within all things in heaven and earth became clearer by a fraction.

What the naked eye sees is mere appearance.

Only within the spiritual vision can one perceive the intrinsic essence of all things.

With every slight strengthening of spiritual sense, the essence perceived grows deeper…

In addition, Mo Hua's understanding of the Ling Shu Array had deepened further.

In his mind sea, using the zombie spiritual sense of the Zhang family, Mo Hua practiced the Ling Shu Array hundreds or even thousands of times in one go upon the Dao Stele…

The once complex array patterns were now thoroughly memorized.

Even with his eyes closed, the Ling Shu Array was clear in his mind.

Controlling the Ling Shu Array, dividing spiritual power into spiritual threads, and manipulating the medium had become effortless.

In addition, his other techniques had naturally improved as well.

Mo Hua's entire arsenal—whether array techniques or spellcraft—was intimately tied to his spiritual sense.

Now that his spiritual sense had strengthened, his array techniques had advanced further still.

All his spells—whether the Flowing Water Step, Fireball Spell, Water Prison Spell, or Concealment Spell—would now be more effective.

But he was trapped inside the coffin, unable to get out for now, with no chance to test them.

Mo Hua was overjoyed, unable to help but smile with half-closed eyes.

As he smiled, Mo Hua's smile faded.

He realized something embarrassing.

His spiritual sense was now extremely strong—comparable to the peak of Foundation Establishment early-stage.

But his physical body remained weak, and his cultivation level had not increased.

Qi Condensation Eighth Layer, frail physical body.

No way to get out of this small coffin…

This small coffin was neither stone nor iron, its material tough, sealed shut from the outside with coffin nails, so he could not escape…

Forcing it open with spellcraft would injure himself.

Mo Hua sighed, helplessly.

This problem needed serious attention.

Although his innate physique was weak and he could not train his body, he still needed to find ways to compensate with some body cultivation methods…

But this issue would have to wait for later consideration.

The immediate priority was still to find a way out.

Mo Hua released his spiritual sense again, observing the outside movements, when suddenly something struck him as odd.

Inside the corpse mine, it seemed to be under martial lockdown, yet also in chaos.

Far away, dense, disordered energies mingled, entangled, clashed, flickered, and died out.

It looked as if many cultivators were in fierce battle…

"What exactly is happening outside?"

Mo Hua wondered.

Someone had attacked into the corpse mine.

Who could it be?

In Nan Yue City, there should be no faction capable of standing against so many iron corpses and corpses within the mine…

Mo Hua frowned.

With the battle erupting, Shi Dian would be in grave danger.

He needed to find a way out sooner…

Also, Lu Chengyun still hadn't come—perhaps he'd been delayed by the battle and simply forgotten.

If he happened to remember and came to check, that would be bad.

Though hiding inside the coffin might fool him, given Lu Chengyun's cautious nature, the odds were low—it was better not to risk it.

Mo Hua began pondering how to escape.

But after much thought, he found no good solution.

The little zombie was too far away within the Ten Thousand Corpses Array; he could not control it to come and open the coffin for him.

The little tiger—he hadn't left it outside either.

Mo Hua sighed again.

His preparations had still been insufficient, and he had been less than Zhou Mi.

It seemed he could only wait patiently and see if an opportunity arose.

For several days, Mo Hua frequently released his spiritual sense to sense the outside movements, searching for a chance to escape.

And the chaos outside Shi Dian continued, with no opening ever appearing…

Until three days later, Mo Hua suddenly sensed two familiar energies subtly circling around him.

It seemed they had concealed their bodies, dodging others in the melee, quietly searching for something in Shi Dian...

Mo Hua's eyes lit up.

It's Senior Brother and Senior Sister!

Are they looking for him?

Mo Hua strained to release his divine sense, sensing those two figures, while faintly hearing them speaking in lowered voices:

"... Searched for so many days... not a shadow of him..."

"Where do you think... Little Junior Brother could be?"

The voices came in broken fragments, along with Bai Zisheng's sighs.

"Let's keep looking..."

That voice was cool and pleasant—it was Senior Sister's.

Bai Zisheng hung his head dejectedly, "Zixi, Junior Brother, he wouldn't have had some accident, would he..."

Bai Zi Xi said nothing.

Mo Hua felt a faint warmth in his heart.

It seemed that during these days he had been locked in the coffin, Senior Brother and Senior Sister had been worried about him, searching for him all along.

Mo Hua released his divine sense, brazenly spying on the two of them.

Bai Zisheng and the other sensed something, and their hearts both chilled.

Had they been discovered?

Then the two of them felt a sudden joy.

That aura—it's Little Junior Brother!

Joy had just appeared on Bai Zisheng's face when he suddenly frowned and said:

"No, Junior Brother's divine sense isn't this deep..."

"The aura seems right."

"True, this aura shouldn't be faked..."

"Did he 'eat' something again..."

"No way, how could he 'eat' every day? Isn't he afraid of 'eating' that little brain of his silly?"

"... That little brain of his was already a bit broken to begin with..."

"Let's go take a look..."

"Mm."

Mo Hua's divine sense did not waver.

Bai Zisheng and the other, also sensing Mo Hua's divine sense, draped in concealment cloaks, hiding their forms, found the secret chamber amid the chaos of Shi Dian.

The secret chamber was cramped but exquisite, with a strange altar above.

On the altar, white bones were offered, white candles burned, corpse oil flowed, and the candlelight gleamed with a sinister glow.

Beneath the altar sat a white coffin.

Mo Hua's divine sense was emanating from within the coffin.

Seeing the white coffin, Bai Zisheng's expression was stunned, then his face grew pained, and he said in grief:

"Little Junior Brother, he's dead!"

Bai Zi Xi gave him a look, "If he's dead, where's the divine sense coming from?"

Bai Zisheng paused, his pained expression vanishing, and he couldn't help but scratch his head, saying sheepishly:

"Oh, right..."

Bai Zi Xi's voice rang clear:

"Open the coffin."

Bai Zisheng nodded, examined the coffin for a moment, figured out its construction, then with brute force pulled out the coffin nails at the four corners, twisted off the lid's catches, and slowly lifted the lid.

Inside the coffin, sure enough, lay a familiar figure.

It was none other than their junior brother, Mo Hua!

Mo Hua's complexion was somewhat pale, his gaze deeper, and a faint inner radiance seemed contained within—familiar, yet somehow a little strange.

Joy first showed on Bai Zisheng's face, then his expression grew stern:

"How do you prove you're my junior brother?"

Mo Hua gave him a look, "Dummy!"

Bai Zisheng let out a breath of relief, setting his heart at ease.

That manner, and that familiar tone—truly his little junior brother...

Bai Zi Xi said softly, "Are you alright..."

Her expression was calm, but her gaze was like a stream under autumn sunlight—warm and bright.

Mo Hua was briefly lost in thought, then beamed and said with a smile:

"I'm fine."

Bai Zi Xi blinked, and nodded.

Bai Zisheng asked curiously, "How did you end up locked in here?"

"Lu Chengyun wanted to kill the donkey after the mill was ground, to trap me to death," Mo Hua said.

Bai Zisheng flew into a rage, "Outrageous! Bullying my junior brother is bullying me; wanting to kill my junior brother is wanting to kill me!"

He patted his chest and said to Mo Hua:

"Don't worry, I'll slaughter him for you!"

He's a Foundation Establishment cultivator…

Even a Foundation Establishment can be killed!

Fine…

Mo Hua didn't know if he was boasting, but he still felt deeply grateful.

"But how exactly do you 'unload the cart and kill the ox'?" Bai Zisheng asked curiously.

"They use me as a sacrifice, feeding my spiritual awareness to that visualization map," Mo Hua explained succinctly.

"Where's the map?"

"I 'ate' it…"

"You ate it again…?"

Bai Zisheng looked utterly speechless, then muttered: "Are you the sacrifice to the map, or is the map your sacrifice…?"

"So your spiritual awareness got stronger again?" Bai Zisheng asked.

"Mm." Mo Hua nodded, humbly saying:

"A little stronger—thirteen patterns now…"

Even Bai Zi Xi was startled upon hearing this.

Bai Zisheng opened his mouth, helplessly saying:

"If you keep going like this, you'll really become a little monster…"

Qi Condensation eighth layer, Foundation Establishment thirteen-pattern spiritual awareness…

Even among all the ancestors of the Bai family, he had never seen such a record.

Bai Zi Xi's eyes flickered slightly as he warned: "Don't tell anyone…"

Bai Zisheng immediately realized and nodded:

"Right, you absolutely must not tell anyone—there are plenty of people who'd want to carve open your skull to see what's inside. Human hearts are terribly cruel."

Mo Hua was startled, nodding rapidly: "Mm, mm!"

Bai Zisheng was about to say more, but Bai Zi Xi said: "Let's leave this place first."

The Corpse Mine is no place to linger.

She and her brother came here solely to find Mo Hua; now that they've found him, they must leave as soon as possible.

"Alright!"

Inside the Corpse Mine, cultivators and zombies fought in chaos.

Swords and spears showed no mercy, spells rained down, the ground was thick with corpse poison… and even Foundation Establishment cultivators clashed with Iron Corpses.

If caught in the crossfire, it would still be extremely dangerous.

The three of them concealed themselves and left through the secret chamber.

Before leaving, Mo Hua paused, then set up a Ground Fire Array around the chamber, detonating it and reducing the entire altar, along with the coffin, to shattered fragments.

Even though he himself hadn't died, he still had to destroy the corpse and erase all traces.

Or rather—precisely because he hadn't died, he had to "destroy the corpse and erase the traces," just in case.

Meanwhile, the blank visualization map was also taken by Mo Hua.

The Zhang family's Liezulie Sect ancestors within the map had all been "eaten" clean by Mo Hua.

Now the map was blank.

But Mo Hua found the map deeply suspicious—it could contain the Zhang family's generations of ancestors, whose posthumous malevolent thoughts manifested as corpses and parasitized within the map.

This was clearly beyond the capability of any ordinary Daoist artifact.

Mo Hua stored the blank visualization map.

He would study it himself later, or ask his master for guidance.

…

The Dao Court side was still attacking Shi Dian, with Dao Soldiers leading the charge while other cultivators provided cover.

The Corpse Soldiers, now with a countermeasure, had lost much of their threat.

Lu Chengyun used the Ten Thousand Corpses Array to nurture and refine corpses, continuously replenishing his corpse supply to endure the Dao Soldiers' onslaught.

The two sides were locked in stalemate; within Shi Dian, the battlefield was chaotic.

Foundation Establishment cultivators, Qi Condensation Dao Soldiers, Iron Corpses, and Walking Corpses clashed together…

This situation was beyond the capability of Mo Hua and the other two Qi Condensation cultivators to resolve for now.

The immediate priority was naturally to escape the Corpse Mine first, then plan further.

The three concealed themselves and circled along the battlefield's edge, retreating toward the outer reaches of the Corpse Mine.

Though they were extremely cautious, the Corpse Mine was too chaotic—too many cultivators, even more zombies—and they still slipped up, drawing the attention of a Corpse Cultivator.

Several Corpse Cultivators summoned one Iron Corpse and dozens of Walking Corpses to surround and attack them.

Bai Zisheng held the rear, swinging his spear to block the zombies.

Mo Hua and Bai Zi Xi restrained the enemy with spells and sword qi respectively; the three did not linger, fighting as they retreated.

Later, other cultivators arrived to reinforce them; after an hour of chaotic battle, they finally escaped the Corpse Mine and withdrew to a campsite cave outside.

Inside the cave, Yang Jishan, Yun Young Master, the withered old man, the middle-aged cultivator, and other cultivators were gathered, discussing how to exterminate the Corpse Mine.

On the way here, Mo Hua had already asked and learned everything.

He learned the Dao Court had ordered the suppression of the Corpse Mine and the extermination of the Corpse King, which was why so many cultivators had gathered.

So seeing so many people didn't surprise him.

A Dao Soldier led Mo Hua and the other two to Yang Jishan.

Yang Jishan saw Mo Hua, learned his identity, and was clearly stunned.

He heard from Bai Zisheng that this was his "little junior brother," who had learned of the corpse mine's location and leaked the information out.

Since he was a little junior brother, his age must be small.

But he never imagined he'd be this young.

Mo Hua's pale face still carried a touch of childishness.

He looked no older than those just starting their cultivation training in his own family.

Could such a child be used by Lu Chengyun? Could he be locked inside the corpse mine?

And still manage to sneak out intelligence and deliver it from a heavily guarded corpse mine?

How did he do it?

Yang Jishan's brows knitted into a "川" shape.

Other cultivators, upon seeing Mo Hua, also wore complex expressions, unsure what to say.

Inside the cave, silence fell for a moment…

But Mo Hua stared at Yang Jishan, glancing left and right, feeling a strange sense of familiarity, and asked:

"Commandant, do you know an uncle named Yang Jiyong?"

Yang Jishan froze. "You know my fifth brother?"

Mo Hua nodded. "We have some acquaintance. Uncle Yang even invited me to visit the Yang family when I have time…"

Yang Jishan frowned, muttering "Mo Hua" twice, then suddenly realized, his eyes lighting up:

"Mo Hua! I thought the name sounded familiar—last year, my fifth brother mentioned meeting a young array master with extraordinary talent…"

Extraordinary talent…

Yang Jishan thought again.

Back then, his fifth brother hadn't said much.

He'd been serious, solemnly declaring he'd met a "terrifyingly talented" young array master…

When asked how terrifying, he refused to explain, only saying he had to keep it secret.

Yang Jishan hadn't taken it seriously.

His fifth brother and he were evenly matched in array arts—what difference could there be? So he'd just half-listened and ignored it.

When he arrived in Nanyue City and heard Mo Hua's name, it rang a faint bell.

Now, hearing Mo Hua mention Yang Jiyong, he finally remembered.

Yang Jishan's demeanor instantly softened.

He couldn't judge array talent, but he remembered his fifth brother saying he must thank this young array master, treat him well, and ideally recruit him into the Yang family.

His fifth brother had a prickly temper and a touch of arrogance, but he was generous and loyal—those he truly admired were few.

If this young cultivator had earned his fifth brother's praise, his character must be at least decent.

Besides, he was so young and already an array master.

Even if his talent wasn't "terrifying," it was still quite impressive.

And he'd risked his life alone to uncover the corpse mine's secrets—this was a great help.

Yang Jishan immediately spoke warmly:

"You've been through a fright, young brother. I'll have some wine, spirits, and spirit meat prepared—eat, drink, and rest well."

Mo Hua smiled. "Thank you, Commandant!"

Yang Jishan waved his hand. "No need for formality—you're close to my fifth brother. Just call me Uncle."

Mo Hua readily complied, calling out clearly:

"Uncle Yang!"

Yang Jishan nodded with a smile.

Everyone watching was bewildered.

How had they become acquainted so quickly…

One moment he was "Commandant Yang," and less than a cup of tea later, he was "Uncle Yang"…

Yang Jishan, who had been stern and square-faced moments ago, now looked as if bathed in spring sunshine.

It looked utterly incongruous.

Just who is this young cultivator?

People whispered among themselves.

Yang Jishan turned to Mo Hua. "Go rest with your senior brothers and sisters—we still have matters to discuss."

Mo Hua nodded. "Alright, I won't disturb you, Uncle Yang."

Yang Jishan gave a slight nod.

Mo Hua bowed and took his leave.

Yang Jishan watched Mo Hua depart with a kind expression, then turned back, his face solemn, and addressed the group:

"Let's continue…"

A deputy commandant–style Dao soldier picked up where he'd left off:

"... the number of zombies keeps growing, our manpower is insufficient, the balance shifts against us—we can't sustain the losses. We must find a way to break the Ten Thousand Corpses Array…"

"Ten Thousand Corpses Array?"

Mo Hua, just reaching the doorway, perked up his ears at those three words, pausing slightly.

The deputy commandant had lowered his voice, but Mo Hua's spiritual sense, at its peak of Thirteen Patterns, was too strong—he heard it clearly despite the whisper.

Mo Hua hesitated, then turned back and asked:

"Uncle Yang, are you discussing the Ten Thousand Corpses Array?"

Yang Jishan looked stunned and couldn't help asking:

"Young brother, you know the 'Ten Thousand Corpses Array'?"

Mo Hua nodded.

Yang Jishan froze, then remembered—the intelligence had come from Mo Hua; it wasn't strange that he knew of the Ten Thousand Corpses Array.

"Then… do you know this Ten Thousand Corpses Array well?"

Yang Jishan's eyes brightened slightly, asking with cautious hope.

Mo Hua hesitated, then said slowly:

"I'd say… I know it fairly well."

What could he say…

He couldn't admit that the central array core of the Ten Thousand Corpses Array was drawn by him…

Thank you to Shiguang Daozei, flinng, chanso, and the rabbit on the small boat for your rewards~

(End of chapter)