Chapter 65: Chapter Sixty-Five: Dismantling the Array

After returning home, Mo Hua had dinner with his parents, then asked his mother to prepare some braised beef, pastries, and fermented rice wine; after that, he locked himself in his room and focused on deciphering arrays.

He first drew a fire-element array pattern on paper; once completed, the pattern glowed faintly red and emitted a slight warmth.

Then, following the method in the book, Mo Hua drew a water-element array pattern adjacent to the fire pattern's Kan position.

After drawing it, the red hue of the fire pattern gradually faded, the faint red spiritual energy vanished, and when touched, the slight warmth was gone.

This meant the fire pattern had become inert.

Mo Hua's spirits lifted; he tested the other several elemental array patterns one by one, and indeed, all could be dismantled using the principle of the Five Elements' generation and克制.

Next came the array itself; Mo Hua spent a little more time drawing a Bright Fire Array.

The Bright Fire Array consisted of three array patterns and was among the simplest types of arrays.

When Mo Hua had transcribed arrays for Master Mo, the first one he drew was the Bright Fire Array; now, drawing it again required no effort at all.

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a Bright Fire Array with neat, disciplined strokes appeared on the paper.

Mo Hua stared at the Bright Fire Array and pondered.

Previously, when Mo Hua drew the Bright Fire Array, he had merely copied it mechanically without deep analysis; now, examining it closely, he realized that one of the patterns was indeed for gathering spiritual energy, while the other two were ordinary fire-element patterns used to activate the array's illumination.

Mo Hua carefully compared each component with what Bai Zisheng had explained.

The spirit-gathering pattern was the array's core; the Three Talents positions were the array's pivots; the paper used to draw the array was the array's medium.

Mo Hua tore a small tear in the array paper; sure enough, the array immediately failed. He redrew the Bright Fire Array, then altered the spirit-gathering pattern serving as the core—and the Bright Fire Array failed again.

"So this is what they mean by 'damage the array medium, destroy the array core—that is how you break an array'…"

"This method is… simple and brutal; even someone who doesn't understand arrays can break one… Hmm, if you don't understand arrays, you can only resort to this crude method."

"Then what serves as the core and medium of the mystery array in my mind?"

"The spiritual energy in an array is supplied by the core—so my dantian is the core; the mystery array resides in my mind, so my mind is the medium? If I want to break it, then…"

"Destroy my dantian and then destroy my mind too?!"

Mo Hua broke into a cold sweat.

"No, forget it…"

Breaking arrays this way was too crude, lacking the refinement of an array master, and revealed no skill.

Mo Hua pushed aside distractions and drew another Bright Fire Array, then drew a water-element pattern adjacent to one of the fire-element patterns.

After drawing it, the Bright Fire Array did not fail, but its glow dimmed slightly.

The dismantling took effect—but not fully.

Mo Hua then drew another water-element pattern beside another array pattern; instantly, the light of the Bright Fire Array vanished, and the entire array was neutralized.

"Unlocked!"

Mo Hua felt a surge of excitement; then he pondered: "To dismantle a fire-element pattern, I needed to dismantle two—so to dismantle the spirit-gathering pattern at the core, would I only need to dismantle one?"

"Elemental patterns can be dismantled using the Five Elements' generation and克制—but what pattern dismantles the spirit-gathering pattern? Spirit-gathering patterns shouldn't have generation or克制 relationships…"

Mo Hua began searching through the array texts given to him by Mr. Zhuang, and finally found a page annotated with the method to dismantle the spirit-gathering pattern.

Mo Hua read every word carefully, and only then did he gain some understanding.

The spirit-gathering pattern did have a counter-pattern—the Reverse-Spirit pattern.

The spirit-gathering pattern concentrates spiritual energy; the Reverse-Spirit pattern causes it to flow backward and disperse—contraction and dispersion naturally follow the principle of generation and克制. But Mo Hua had never learned the Reverse-Spirit pattern; searching related texts, he found no diagrams of it, only textual records.

The records stated that the Reverse-Spirit array was an advanced pattern, passed down internally within elite families skilled in arrays, rarely taught outside.

Advanced patterns are hard to learn—and impossible to learn without access.

Mo Hua set it aside for now.

There was another method: using a spirit-gathering pattern to dismantle a spirit-gathering pattern. Simply draw another spirit-gathering pattern near the original one, using the new pattern to absorb the spiritual energy of the core pattern, thereby depriving the core of power—effectively dismantling the array.

Mo Hua's eyes widened. Using a spirit-gathering pattern to dismantle a spirit-gathering pattern—he had never thought of that.

But the text also warned this method had risks: the spirit-gathering pattern used to dismantle could accumulate too much spiritual energy, fail to release it, and cause the array to go out of control, creating unpredictable dangers.

Moreover, if his guess was correct, the core of the mystery array in his mind was his own dantian; whether absorbing the dantian with another dantian or carving a Reverse-Spirit pattern into the dantian to scatter spiritual energy, both sounded like suicide.

And these methods were impossible to execute anyway.

In other words, dismantling the core was not currently viable.

Mo Hua rested his chin on his hand and thought:

"Then I must learn to dismantle each pattern one by one. Indeed, in the end, the only shortcut is to have no shortcut—the cultivation world has evolved for tens of thousands of years; there are no loopholes to exploit."

Mo Hua drew another Bright Fire Array and dismantled it completely, then suddenly realized his method wasted too much ink and paper—drawing once, dismantling once; if he made a mistake, he had to redraw it entirely. He consumed more paper and ink than when practicing arrays.

The problem of spirit stones was still serious; though his family's finances had improved thanks to the eatery's income, and daily spirit stone needs were no longer scarce, every bit saved mattered—there would be many uses for spirit stones ahead.

"The Dao Stele in my mind… should be perfect for practicing dismantling arrays…"

As he thought this, Mo Hua sank his spiritual awareness into his mind.

In the vast, empty expanse of his mind, the mystery array woven from threads of spiritual energy still lingered; the Dao Stele remained there too, seemingly unaffected by the spiritual threads.

Mo Hua, familiar with the process, drew the Bright Fire Array on the Dao Stele, then attempted to dismantle it; once done, the array dimmed as expected.

Mo Hua erased both the array and the dismantling patterns; his consumed spiritual awareness immediately restored.

"Exactly!"

Mo Hua rejoiced—the Dao Stele was not only ideal for practicing arrays, but perfect for practicing dismantling them.

Draw, then erase—the spiritual awareness restored, meaning no spiritual awareness was consumed, and no paper or ink wasted.

Mo Hua devoted himself to practicing dismantling arrays within his mind, only emerging at Yin Hour; after sitting in meditation for an hour, he felt refreshed and alert.

Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua also rose early; Mo Shan was going to Great Heishan to hunt demons, and Liu Ruhua was preparing for the eatery's business.

After eating a simple, tasty, and warm breakfast, Mo Hua slung his food box and headed to Mr. Zhuang's.