Chapter 571: Windfall

Master Luo said no more on the matter.

As the saying goes, only by enduring the harshest hardships can one rise above others.

If Mo Hua were to later join the Shijia Sect, aligning himself with them and becoming a "person above others," then these words would be meaningless.

If Mo Hua upholds his Dao heart and remains true to his original intent, with his intelligence, he should already know what I mean and understand it within himself.

Master Luo looked at Mo Hua and saw him frowning slightly, as if lost in thought.

Knowing he had grasped his meaning, Master Luo gave a slight nod and said no more.

Afterward, the group returned to discussing arrays.

Master Luo said:

"Second-grade arrays are divided into three tiers—low, middle, and high—based on the cultivator's spiritual sense before, during, and after Foundation Establishment."

"At the very beginning of Foundation Establishment, a ten-line array is an entry-level second-grade array…"

"Entry-level arrays are relatively simple; though classified as second-grade, they are not ranked."

"During early Foundation Establishment, eleven to thirteen lines constitute a low-tier second-grade array;"

"During mid Foundation Establishment, fourteen to sixteen lines constitute a middle-tier second-grade array;"

"During late Foundation Establishment, seventeen to nineteen lines constitute a high-tier second-grade array…"

"Second-grade array masters are similarly divided into low, middle, and high tiers."

"The threshold for first-grade array masters is extremely high; they are judged solely by entry into grade, not tier—but in reality, all first-grade array masters should be considered 'high-tier first-grade array masters,' though these subdivisions have been erased by the Dao Court…"

"At the second-grade array realm, the divisions become more precise and stringent."

"Becoming a second-grade array master is not easy, and advancing within the second-grade is even harder—each tier advancement requires an examination…"

Master Luo frowned and sighed.

Master Qian was also helpless.

Even the first-grade examination is difficult, let alone the second-grade…

Mo Hua pondered carefully, then asked: "So, does a low-tier second-grade array master simply need to know how to draw low-tier second-grade arrays?"

Master Luo shook his head, smiling bitterly:

"It's not that simple—the low-tier second-grade arrays encompass eleven- to thirteen-line arrays, and the difficulty varies greatly within them…"

"Each additional line increases the difficulty."

"You must master the most difficult thirteen-line arrays within the low tier, and not just one or two."

"The Dao Court requires that you learn at least four or five of the designated thirteen-line arrays before you may apply for evaluation and advance to low-tier second-grade array master…"

"The same applies to the next tiers."

"Master sixteen-line arrays to advance to middle-tier second-grade; master nineteen-line arrays to advance to high-tier second-grade…"

"Thus, those who truly pass the grading and steadily advance to high-tier second-grade array master are few and far between—only those exceptionally proficient in second-grade arrays…"

Mo Hua nodded and asked: "So, does that mean a cultivator in early Foundation Establishment can become a low-tier second-grade array master?"

He spoke slightly conservatively.

Because his spiritual sense was already at fourteen lines—by array standards, studying fourteen-line second-grade arrays had already brought him to the threshold of middle-tier second-grade array master…

But Master Luo shook his head:

"No…"

"Generally, a cultivator reaches low-tier second-grade array master only in mid Foundation Establishment, high-tier second-grade only in late Foundation Establishment, and…"

Master Luo paused, sighed:

"…either they have already broken through to Jin Dan, or they've been stuck in late Foundation Establishment for so long they cannot advance further, and must spend a hundred or two hundred years studying arrays to become a high-tier second-grade array master…"

Mo Hua opened his mouth. "Is it really that hard…"

"Extremely hard…"

Master Luo's brow furrowed into a "川" shape.

He glanced at Mo Hua; though he knew this boy could not be judged by ordinary standards, he still needed Mo Hua to understand certain Daoist "common knowledge."

He was him; others were others.

Not everyone is a little monster.

"Even if a cultivator's array skill lags one minor realm behind their cultivation, they can still be called an exceptionally gifted array master—ordinary cultivators typically study first-grade arrays only after Foundation Establishment, and only begin second-grade arrays in late Foundation Establishment or even Jin Dan—this is normal…"

Mo Hua asked: "Because their spiritual sense isn't strong enough?"

Master Luo nodded, weakly: "Their spiritual sense isn't strong enough…"

"Blood qi and spiritual energy can be enhanced through cultivation techniques, but spiritual sense cannot."

"Most cultivators cannot train their spiritual sense; unless born with exceptional spiritual sense, their spiritual sense matches their realm exactly—and rarely exceeds it."

"At early Foundation Establishment, spiritual sense rarely exceeds thirteen lines—you must learn thirteen-line arrays to become a low-tier array master…"

"Studying like this is extremely taxing."

"Spiritual sense drains rapidly and recovers slowly; studying arrays this way is like crossing a river by feeling for stones—you must proceed with extreme caution, never making a mistake, or risk spiritual exhaustion."

"Even then, after exhausting your spiritual sense in a full day, you can only practice two or three times."

"Thirteen-line second-grade arrays are complex and profound—practicing only two or three times a day, how could that possibly be enough?"

"By the time you truly comprehend them, it could take years…"

Master Luo said bitterly.

Mo Hua nodded unconsciously.

He had the Dao Stele—he had practiced countless arrays, sometimes twenty or thirty times in a single night.

Two or three times a day was far too little—it barely filled his teeth…

With such minimal proficiency, truly comprehending arrays was indeed difficult.

Moreover, cultivators must train and earn spirit stones.

Even cultivators from clans or sects likely wouldn't have time to idle—they'd be busy with all sorts of sect affairs, not enough to spend every day immersed in arrays.

"So…"

Master Luo continued, "Sharpening the axe doesn't delay chopping wood—first advance your realm, strengthen your spiritual sense, then return to learning arrays. With a full spiritual sense, studying will be easier."

"I see…"

Mo Hua nodded his small head again, then his eyes suddenly lit up:

"So if I become a Second-Rank Beginner Array Master while still at Foundation Establishment Early Stage, wouldn't that… still be pretty impressive?"

"Foundation Establishment Early Stage… Second-Rank Beginner…"

Master Luo fell silent, suddenly not wanting to speak to Mo Hua.

But then he thought again—this might not be impossible for Mo Hua…

Master Luo felt a flicker of anticipation.

If Mo Hua, at such a young age, could become a Second-Rank Beginner Array Master while still at Foundation Establishment Early Stage, perhaps he could go even further in the future…

Master Qian also praised: "If young Master Mo becomes a Second-Rank Beginner Array Master while still at Foundation Establishment Early Stage, even among great clans and families, he'd be a rare array prodigy…"

"But…"

Master Qian sighed, sounding regretful:

"In Xiancheng, the inheritance and resources for Second-Rank arrays are far too scarce…"

Arrays are rare; brushes, ink, paper, and parchment all cost dearly.

With Mo Hua's family resources, truly continuing to study would be fraught with difficulties.

Master Luo also felt sorry for Mo Hua.

After discussing arrays, everyone drank tea for a while longer.

Near noon, the students of the academy began to leave, bowing respectfully to Master Qian before heading home for lunch.

Suddenly, a child of five or six spotted Mo Hua, his eyes brightening as he dashed into Mo Hua's arms, crying out in a toddler's voice:

"Big Brother Mo!"

Mo Hua froze slightly, then realized the child was Zhou'er.

Zhou'er's surname is Chu—he is the son of Uncle Chu, a beast-hunting expert skilled in traps who taught Mo Hua trap techniques.

Zhou'er's mother is Jiang Yi, who helps out at Mo Hua's family eatery.

Several years ago, Uncle Chu suffered severe injury and could no longer hunt beasts, so he begged Mo Hua to teach his son some arrays, so the boy could earn a living without risking his life on the blade's edge.

Later, when Mo Hua left to travel, he entrusted Zhou'er to Master Qian.

Master Qian, seeing Zhou'er's behavior, sighed:

"No discipline, utterly improper."

Zhou'er hid behind Mo Hua, peering out with his small head.

Master Qian's tone was strict, but his expression held no blame—he clearly favored this young disciple.

Mo Hua patted Zhou'er's head and asked Master Qian:

"Master Qian, how is Zhou'er progressing in arrays?"

Master Qian said: "He's young, just starting—first he memorizes texts, grasps basic array principles, and learns one or two array patterns…"

Mo Hua nodded.

It was noon; Mo Hua had asked all he needed to, so he rose to leave.

Zhou'er clung to Mo Hua, so Mo Hua took him home, picked out some tasty, easily digestible food from the eatery, fed him until he was full, then let Jiang Yi take him home.

…

In the days that followed, Mo Hua began practicing Second-Rank arrays with undivided focus.

Each night, when darkness fell, Mo Hua sat upright on his bed, sinking his spiritual sense into his mind sea, endlessly practicing arrays upon the Dao Stele.

The array he had been practicing these days was the "Second-Rank Thorn Array."

The Thorn Array is a Wood-element array.

Once triggered, it summons vines and thorns to entangle enemies—it is one type of the Five Elements Binding Array.

The Thorn Array contains eleven array patterns, making it a relatively simple Second-Rank Beginner array.

This array was reverse-engineered by Mo Hua from the "Five Elements Array Flow Diagram."

It is also the only Second-Rank array Mo Hua has ever reverse-engineered and successfully applied…

The "Five Elements Array Flow Diagram" used a peculiar "Five Elements Source Pattern" to trace back all Five Elements Sect arrays.

But these arrays have since coalesced into a single "Source Pattern."

This Source Pattern is strange and perilous, but since being suppressed by the Dao Stele, it has grown far more docile…

Even so, Mo Hua still finds it extremely Zhou Zhe to "decipher" the Five Elements Sect's array inheritance from the Source Pattern.

First, this reverse-engineering consumes immense spiritual sense.

Mo Hua must also study arrays; though his spiritual sense is strong, it is still limited, so he can only decipher the Source Pattern during spare moments, or when he's tired from drawing arrays and bored.

Second, the arrays deciphered from the Source Pattern are random…

Mo Hua does not know what rules or principles the Five Elements Sect ancestors used to condense the Five Elements arrays into the Source Pattern.

Thus, the arrays reverse-engineered are chaotic, disordered.

It's like drawing a lottery…

The Five Elements differ, First and Second Ranks mixed together.

Mo Hua has no idea what array he will decipher—its elemental attribute, its rank, how many patterns it contains…

Mo Hua can only guess.

The only thing he deduced was that the upper limit of "deciphering" a formation was tied to the strength of his spiritual sense.

If his spiritual sense was N lines, he could theoretically "decipher" formations up to N lines.

Mo Hua had a fourteen-line spiritual sense; theoretically, he should be able to "decipher" up to fourteen-line Wuxing Sect formations.

But theory was theory, and reality was reality.

To date, the best formation Mo Hua had deciphered was the one he was practicing—a second-rank, eleven-line Thorn Formation.

That wasn't too bad; what truly baffled Mo Hua was that this "source line" had no guaranteed minimum!

The lower bound was even horrifyingly low!

Most of what he had deciphered so far were first-rank formations, including numerous unranked ones, and even one mere three-line formation—the lowest-grade Bright Fire Formation!

Although Wuxing source lines encompassed all five-element formations, it was normal for these low-tier formations to be included.

But Mo Hua still felt some formations were merely filler, added by Wuxing Sect ancestors to "contaminate" the source lines…

Mo Hua sighed, helplessly.

He could only practice formations while hoping one day he'd get "lucky" and draw…

No—decipher—a fourteen-line, second-rank Wuxing formation!

Until then, he could only use these ten-line and eleven-line formations for practice…

Mo Hua set aside his thoughts and practiced formations on the Dao Stele all night.

When he woke in the morning, he still felt unsatisfied.

Unfortunately, the several bottles of second-rank spiritual ink given to him by Master Luo and Master Qian were already used up; he could no longer physically draw formations.

Seven bottles were far too few—they couldn't withstand Mo Hua's usage, and even with extreme caution, they wouldn't last long.

"Learn and apply…"

Mo Hua firmly remembered Mr. Zhuang's teachings.

He had the Dao Stele—learning was no problem.

By sinking his spiritual sense into his mind sea and practicing formations on the Dao Stele, he needed no brush, ink, or paper; his spiritual sense could rewind, allowing him to practice ten times—or even dozens of times—more than others.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua felt grateful.

"Thank goodness I have the Dao Stele…"

Not only could he practice formations, but also refine his spiritual sense.

As long as he persisted, kept practicing, he could learn more and more formations, and his spiritual sense would grow stronger, enabling him to learn even more formations…

This cycle would repeat endlessly, expanding his spiritual sense and formation skill like a snowball rolling downhill.

But now he could "learn," yet couldn't "apply"…

It wasn't just spiritual ink—the brush and paper were also problematic.

Mo Hua had bartered with Old Master An for several stacks of second-rank "formation paper," but it wasn't enough; soon, he used it all up.

These second-rank formation papers were expensive.

Hard to buy, yet easy to exhaust…

Even so, formation paper was the cheapest formation medium.

Other mediums—spiritual tools, formation discs, formation flags—were even more expensive, far beyond Mo Hua's means.

Besides formation paper, there was the formation brush.

Mo Hua hadn't expected the brush to be even more expensive than the paper, and second-rank formation brushes wore out faster than first-rank ones.

Second-rank spiritual ink contained more intense spiritual energy and demonic blood qi.

When the brush soaked in spiritual ink, it wore down faster.

Inferior brushes often ended up "bald" after just a few uses…

And those durable, top-grade brushes used lavish materials and cost exorbitantly—Mo Hua couldn't afford them even if he sold himself.

"Is there any way to draw formations without paper or brush…"

Mo Hua stroked his chin, thinking.

He had a faint idea forming, but needed time to research it.

But even if he didn't use paper or brush, ink was still essential…

"Second-rank spiritual ink is made by blending second-rank demonic blood…"

Mo Hua thought of that great tiger.

Drawing blood from the great tiger… definitely not possible; he had a good relationship with the tiger—he couldn't take advantage of it.

Then…

Could he find a way to team up with the great tiger and hunt other second-rank demonic beasts in Great Heishan?

It eats the meat, I take the blood?

Mo Hua nodded silently; if planned well, this method seemed feasible.

Suddenly, Mo Hua froze.

The great tiger…

He suddenly remembered the great tiger had given him some "gifts"—those unclaimed storage bags.

After returning home, there were too many people he needed to greet, and he'd forgotten about them.

"I wonder what's inside these storage bags…"

Curious, Mo Hua reached under his bed, pulled out the storage bags, and opened them one by one.

Some of the bags were still stained with blood; others were elegant and ornate; still others were dull, filthy, and carried an eerie aura.

Mo Hua unpacked and organized every storage bag, then suddenly understood.

These storage bags belonged to some legitimate cultivators, and some to demonic cultivators.

Besides legitimate spirit stones, spirit artifacts, and pills, there were also some demonic Dao techniques for blood-sucking, spirit-draining, and harvesting, as well as demonic spells for soul-seizing and corpse-refining…

These demonic techniques and spells had caused immense harm, so they definitely couldn't be kept. Mo Hua prepared to burn them all together later, to prevent them from harming others.

There were also some orthodox techniques and spells…

As for techniques, Mo Hua had already learned the Celestial Evolution Art, so he had no use for them…

As for spells, most were body-refining martial Dao arts, with a small portion being spell arts of the second grade, but they all seemed to be ordinary techniques.

Still, Mo Hua wasn't picky—he could find time to learn them…

There were quite a few spirit stones, adding up to roughly several tens of thousands!

If not for this storage bag's limited capacity and inconvenient portability, there would probably be even more.

The variety of pills was also very rich: spirit-recovering, blood-tonifying, poison-avoiding, miasma-dispelling, and even second-grade Minor Restoration Pills that could keep one barely alive…

Mo Hua furrowed his brow.

All these together amounted to a huge "windfall"!

Mo Hua was both startled and delighted, yet also somewhat puzzled.

Who exactly were the owners of these storage bags? They

How did they end up in Xiancheng, and how did they die? How did the big tiger pick up the storage bags?

Mo Hua rummaged through the storage bags again, hoping to find some clues.

After searching for a long time, Mo Hua finally pulled out a few scrolls of documents. Seeing phrases like "To be opened by the Family Head personally" and "For the Sect Master's eyes only" written on them, he suddenly understood after reading them.

"These cultivators came to Xiancheng because of Master…"

Some were from families in Daozhou, or their vassal mid- and small-sized families, dispatched by their family heads or sects to Xiancheng to inquire about Master's whereabouts…

There were also some people from Mo Sect.

But they probably weren't from any major sect either—just some small factions as well.

Upon arriving at Xiancheng, the two sides fought at Great Heishan.

Then, in the fierce battle, some died on the spot with both body and Dao dissipating, while others were gravely injured and Sun Dahei picked up the leftovers.

Among them, a few storage bags were already torn, with marks of tiger fangs biting into them.

It was estimated that Sun Dahei had torn open the storage bags, eaten some spirit items inside, refined them, and thus broke through the realm to become a second-grade demon beast.

The other storage bags, out of gratitude, it had all left for him.

Mo Hua thought it over and felt the facts were roughly so; even if there were some discrepancies, they probably weren't far off.

"Since they harbored ill intentions toward Master, they got what they deserved when they died…"

Mo Hua accepted this "windfall" with a clear conscience.

Afterwards, he picked and chose, sorting them into categories, organizing the items in the storage bags. But inadvertently, he caught sight of a map.

This map was very large, encompassing the Nine Provinces above.

Of the cultivation world's Nine Provinces, "Daozhou" was the core, situated in the center, and was also where the Central Dao Court was located.

Beyond Daozhou, the other eight provinces were named after the Eight Trigrams—"Qian," "Kun," "Kan," "Li," "Gen," "Zhen," "Xun," and "Dui"—arranged according to the trigram positions to suppress heaven and earth, guarding the Central Daozhou.

"Map of the Nine Provinces?"

Sun Yi Leng, Mo Hua examined it carefully.

Although this map encompassed the Nine Provinces, the other provinces only had general mountain ranges marked, with their specific borders vague and unclear.

Only "Qian Province" had its borders laid out like a chessboard, with mountains and rivers detailed.

And within Qian Province, there was a provincial boundary circled in cinnabar ink, with small annotations beside it:

Qian Province, Longdao Mountain Range, a fifth-grade Qianxue provincial boundary.

A premier destination for cultivators across the Nine Provinces seeking learning.

Sects stand in great numbers, prodigies gather like clouds.

Gathering the great achievements of formations, pills, artifacts, talismans, and the transmission of martial arts and techniques.

It is the foremost, number one provincial boundary in the cultivation world for seeking the Dao and pursuing learning!

(End of this chapter)