Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 572: Drawing the Earth as a Formation

Mo Hua knew clearly in his heart that he only possessed a mid-to-low-grade Minor Five Element Spirit Root. Though he had a sect admission token for his journey to Qianxue Prefecture, it wouldn't necessarily be smooth sailing. Obstacles and hardships were to be expected.

Even so, he had to go to Qian Prefecture.

Cultivation was never meant to be easy.

When the enemy comes, draw your sword. When the flood rises, build the dam. Never fear setbacks—charge forward without hesitation. If one becomes timid, their Dao Heart will falter, and progress will become impossible.

And if he was going to Qianxue Prefecture, then he needed to prepare thoroughly.

Qianxue Prefecture was full of sects and overflowing with heaven's chosen.

Mo Hua was a rogue cultivator—no background, no powerful lineage, no noble bloodline, and on top of that, his spirit root was poor. If he truly wanted to join a sect in Qian Prefecture, he would definitely face scorn, disdain, and exclusion.

With a weak constitution that made body cultivation impossible, a mediocre spirit root, and limited spiritual power, he was at a great disadvantage in head-on confrontations.

So... he would have to take a different path.

Mo Hua recalled his Master's instructions:

"The Nine Provinces of the cultivation world are teeming with geniuses..."

"Your main path is slaying—this puts you at odds with heaven's chosen. You are their rival, and they will not treat you kindly."

"But if you support slaying—then you become a tool they need to defeat their rivals. Then they have to treat you kindly."

"The stronger your support methods for slaying, the less they'll dare offend you."

"In that way, even without a noble family, any noble family could become your ally..."

"Even without a sect, any sect could become your backing."

"In this pragmatic and status-driven world of cultivation, even among those with outstanding roots and Dao methods, you too will earn a place and not be belittled!"

Mo Hua rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Support slaying... that means enhancing spiritual power—that's the Five Element Spirit Formation."

The Absolute Five Element Formations he'd obtained from the Five Element Sect—that was the foundation that would allow him to stand firm among the peerless geniuses of Qian Prefecture's cultivation world.

He didn't need to outshine heaven's chosen, nor dominate them.

His spirit root wouldn't allow for that kind of showboating anyway.

As long as he could gain a foothold in Qian Prefecture, avoid being bullied, cultivate steadily, and deepen his array mastery to make up for his weaknesses—that would be enough. That would lay the foundation for forming his Golden Core, and eventually, ascending to immortality.

Five Element Spirit Formation.

Spiritual power amplification. Support for slaughter.

As long as he mastered the Absolute Five Element Formations and gained the ability to enhance others, then even if he wasn't a genius, those geniuses would have to watch their attitude around him.

Mo Hua nodded.

But... the name Five Element Spirit Formation…

That had to change.

His Master had warned him about this too.

Qianxue Prefecture was deep in heritage—it was a Grade Five prefecture after all. There would certainly be high-realm, long-lived, and knowledgeable cultivators there.

The moment they heard the name Five Element Spirit Formation, they'd likely guess its origin.

Then the fact that Mo Hua had inherited the legacy of the Five Element Sect would probably be exposed.

And the place where his Master had been trapped... was the Five Element Sect. Anyone with a sharp mind might follow the clues back and uncover their connection.

That would be trouble.

So the name had to change.

Mo Hua mulled it over for a while and finally decided: he would rename the Five Element Spirit Formation to the Five Element Source Formation.

If someone asked about its origin—he'd say he picked it up somewhere.

If someone asked how he learned it—he'd claim it just sort of came to him.

If they didn't believe it and kept pressing—well, he'd just reluctantly admit that he was a once-in-a-century array genius...

Besides, Qian Prefecture probably had no shortage of "geniuses" anyway…

Mo Hua chuckled inwardly.

Five Element Source Formation.

Derived from the Source Patterns of the Five Elements, tapping into elemental essence and amplifying their spiritual power.

After mastering Second-Rank formations, Mo Hua had compared them. All the First-Rank Absolute Formations were still effective for Foundation Establishment cultivators—and their power hadn't diminished much. The gap with Second-Rank formations wasn't as big as expected.

The same was true of the First-Rank Five Element Source Formation.

Mo Hua pondered this and suspected the reason had to do with the number of formation patterns.

Although Absolute Formations were First-Rank, the number of formation lines they used were on par with Second-Rank formations.

Which meant Absolute Formations still worked perfectly well at the Foundation Establishment stage.

But that brought up another issue.

Second-Rank formations used a combination of two First-Rank patterns, and so naturally consumed double the Divine Sense.

If that's the case, then for the same number of lines, an Absolute Formation should consume half the Divine Sense of a Second-Rank formation.

After all, Absolute Formations used First-Rank patterns.

But in practice, Mo Hua found that the Divine Sense consumption was just as high as a Second-Rank formation with the same number of lines.

This puzzled him.

Why?

Where was the "extra" Divine Sense going?

With Mr. Zhuang no longer around, Mo Hua could only rely on himself to find the answer.

After much reflection, he finally had a lead.

If his guess was correct, the extra Divine Sense consumed by Absolute Formations was used for comprehending, visualizing, or communicating with certain Dao laws, or perhaps invoking powerful Dao Resonance.

So the Divine Sense consumed while drawing Absolute Formations was half for the lines, and half for the laws.

That's what made them so special—and so difficult.

That's also why First-Rank Absolute Formations could rival Second-Rank formations, without any decline in effect.

"The Dao really is fair in its own way—Absolute Formations are hard, but they're worth the effort…"

Mo Hua quietly mused.

He'd even tested the amplification power of the Five Element Source Formation in battle.

The only offensive spell he knew right now was Fireball Technique.

Fireball was a fire-element spell and needed the Fire Source Formation to amplify it.

With the Fire Source Formation's spiritual power boost, the power of his Second-Rank Fireball Technique increased by nearly 20%.

In spellcraft, improving damage output was notoriously difficult—methods were limited and demanding.

A 20% increase was already terrifying.

It was almost equivalent to raising the spell's tier, turning a low-tier technique into something close to mid-tier.

"No wonder this is a Thirteen-Line Absolute Formation... no wonder the Five Element Sect relied on it as their signature formation for thousands of years..."

For a lone cultivator, this kind of boost was already formidable.

But in large-scale cultivation wars, with formation-enhanced Dao soldiers clashing—if supported by the Five Element Source Formation?

Then disadvantage would become parity.

Parity would become advantage.

Advantage would become absolute domination.

No wonder the Five Element Sect held such status back in the day.

Even though Mo Hua had just entered Foundation Establishment and wasn't yet proficient with the Second-Rank Fireball Technique, with the Fire Source Formation's boost, the power was already considerable.

He'd tested it on a late-stage First-Rank demonic beast from Black Mountain.

One enhanced Fireball was enough to kill it outright. The ones with tougher hides would still be severely injured and close to death.

As for Second-Rank beasts…

Mo Hua didn't quite have the movement skills yet—he wouldn't go looking for trouble with them solo.

With the Five Element Source Formation sorted out...

The next problem was ink, brush, and paper.

Mo Hua had no ink, no brush, no paper. No matter how much he practiced on the Dao Tablet, even if he became a master of Second-Rank formations, he couldn't use them in the real world.

Preparation is everything.

Waiting until he reached Qianxue Prefecture to solve this would be too late.

Besides, Qianxue Prefecture was a Grade Five prefecture—everything there would be more expensive. Ink, brushes, paper—he probably couldn't afford any of it there.

"Ink is unavoidable…"

"If that's the case… I need to consider a way to draw formations without brush or paper—a method that can save a ton of spirit stones…"

Mo Hua sank into deep thought.

"If that's the case, then I need to consider a method of drawing formations without brush or paper… something that can save a great deal of spirit stones…"

Mo Hua pondered deeply.

"Just like in the Sea of Consciousness…"

"No brush? Then use divine sense as the brush. No paper? Then let the earth be the medium…"

This was something Mo Hua had envisioned long ago.

Now that he had reached Foundation Establishment—

A cultivator at Foundation Establishment had enhanced divine sense, and their spiritual perception was strong enough to control objects.

Though Mo Hua's divine sense hadn't exactly doubled, his fourteen-pattern, mid-Foundation Establishment divine sense was already powerful.

Moreover, thanks to the Heavenly Deduction Art, and the Heaven-Obscuring Formation that had reshaped his spiritual consciousness, his divine sense had undergone a qualitative transformation.

So, for Mo Hua, controlling objects with divine sense wasn't difficult at all.

But what he wanted now wasn't just controlling objects—he wanted to go a step further: controlling ink with divine sense.

Typically, Foundation Establishment cultivators used divine sense to control sharp or sturdy items for attack or manipulation.

Like sword control, for example.

Sword cultivators at Qi Refining were average in power.

But once they reached Foundation Establishment and could control swords with divine sense, their combat power soared dramatically.

Even if they didn't control swords, directing flying daggers or needles with divine sense was quite powerful.

However, swords were expensive—Mo Hua wasn't considering those for now.

What he wanted to do was replace the formation brush with divine sense, directly manipulating spiritual ink to form formations.

Spiritual ink was like water—formless, ever-shifting.

Most Foundation Establishment cultivators, while capable of controlling swords and daggers, couldn't control something as fluid and formless as ink.

But Mo Hua was different.

His divine sense was strong, qualitatively transformed, precise to a minute degree—able to command even the most fluid materials.

He could control spiritual ink like flowing water.

Still—it was difficult.

And in actual practice, his divine sense was a little stiff—it would require lots of practice.

Then there was the earth as the medium.

Mo Hua had studied the Thick Earth Formation, which was drawn directly onto the ground and could communicate with the Earth's Dao Resonance.

He had practiced that formation every day.

His sense for the Dao of Earth had grown sharper, and his resonance with it deeper.

Now, he could also draw other elemental formations directly onto the ground.

But this technique, too, required practice.

"Let thought be the brush, let the earth be the paper.

Wherever the sky covers, wherever the earth reaches—

Divine Sense controls the ink, drawing formations upon the ground!"

After reaching Foundation Establishment, Mo Hua could finally attempt the idea he had back when learning the Thick Earth Formation—the vision of drawing formations free of material tools.

The concept was solid—but ideas must be put into practice.

And that meant—lots of training…

Practicing "Divine Sense Controlling Ink, Drawing on Earth" definitely couldn't be done at home, nor was Tongxian City appropriate.

He needed somewhere secluded and deserted.

So, Mo Hua headed deep into Black Mountain, bribed the big tiger with a few bags of dried fish, and borrowed a patch of open land near its cave to practice formations.

Black Mountain was quiet—the deeper, the quieter.

And the tiger was a Second-Rank demonic beast. Its strength ensured there were no other beasts or cultivators around to disturb him. A perfect test site.

First: divine sense controlling ink.

Mo Hua didn't have Second-Rank spiritual ink, so he had to practice with First-Rank ink.

It didn't go smoothly at first.

Controlling ink with divine sense was like handling water—formless, anchorless, uncontrollable. The spiritual ink often spilled uncontrollably to the ground.

Mo Hua tried a few times—no good.

So he thought about it. Like manifesting divine intent, he began visualizing his divine sense as a calligraphy brush.

At the tip of the brush—fine, delicate bristles—merging with the ink, absorbing it, and guiding it through the air, curving and flowing according to his will.

Though still clumsy and prone to failure, each attempt was better than the last.

Having learned the Heavenly Deduction Art and gained insight into the Spirit Core Formation, Mo Hua had a strong foundation in detailed control.

After the qualitative leap in his divine sense, this precision also reached a new level.

After just a day or two of training, he began to grasp the trick—and repeated it again and again. His divine sense and spiritual ink grew increasingly attuned.

Divine intent became the brush—merging with the ink and guiding it.

The spiritual ink felt like an extension of his will, floating in the air, forming lines and intricate patterns at his command.

After a few more days of practice—having mastered divine sense ink control—Mo Hua began to draw formations on the ground.

His pale hand pointed down, fingers hovering.

The spiritual ink, guided by his divine sense, formed into fine threads, sliding out of the bottle, flowing along his fingertip, and seeping into the ground.

As his finger moved, the ink slithered, curved, and danced—condensing into formation patterns, aligning into a formation structure according to the core matrix.

No brush. No paper. A complete formation appeared on the earth.

A faint glow flickered—the formation activated!

Mo Hua's eyes lit up with joy.

Success!

Then he quickly suppressed his excitement, reminding himself not to become arrogant.

"It's only a simple First-Rank Melting Fire Formation…"

Still a long road ahead. More practice awaits…

"It's still just a basic First-Rank Melting Fire Formation…"

Still need to keep practicing…

Mo Hua would have to start from ordinary First-Rank formations, moving from shallow to deep, from simple to complex—step by step, pattern by pattern—using divine sense to control ink, using the ground as a medium, first drawing First-Rank Absolute Formations, and eventually moving on to Second-Rank formations!

That way, he wouldn't need brush or paper—and could save a huge amount of spirit stones in the future!

And that wasn't all.

This method of formation drawing had far fewer limitations.

It was faster, more convenient, and more covert.

In actual combat, as long as he had a brief window of time, he could silently draw formations—with divine intent as his brush, and the ground as his canvas—without anyone noticing!

Of course, his current skill was still far from enough.

He needed far more practice—to reach the point where the ink moved as his heart willed, and his control was smooth as flowing water.

With enough time, he could reach the point where a mere point of his finger would create a formation at will!

Mo Hua thought about how one day, like the divine sense projection within his sea of consciousness, he could casually point a finger and summon a formation—just thinking about it filled him with joy.

With a bright, happy smile, he calmed himself and focused fully on practice.

He wanted to master this technique—to the point of perfection!

There he was, squatting on the ground, drawing formations.

Beside him, the big tiger lazily gnawed on dried fish. Occasionally, it would sneak a glance at Mo Hua—seeing him so focused and fiddling with who-knows-what, it grew curious and quietly moved its head over to take a peek.

On the ground, the formation lines twisted and turned, intricately complex.

The big tiger watched for a bit but understood nothing. Its big eyes were full of confusion. It flopped back down with a shake of its head and went back to chewing its dried fish.

In the secluded depths of the mountain, man and tiger lived in peaceful harmony.

After more than half a month of relentless practice, Mo Hua's divine sense control of ink had become highly refined. His ground-drawn formations were smooth and confident.

And now, among the formations he could draw this way weren't just First-Rank ones—he could even draw the Thirteen-Pattern Five Element Source Formation.

This was still the most advanced formation Mo Hua had mastered to date.

However, drawing the Five Element Source Formation with divine sense took a huge amount of spiritual effort.

And his formation speed was still quite slow.

Far below Mo Hua's expectations.

The high divine sense consumption wasn't a problem—Mo Hua's spirit sense was already deep and powerful; he could afford to burn more of it.

But the slow speed—that was troublesome.

In real combat, there simply wouldn't be time to draw it.

Not unless he was well-hidden and had ample preparation time.

"How can I draw it faster?"

Mo Hua's thoughts stirred—he began pondering once again.

After thinking for a while, the only possibility that came to mind was "Heavenly Mechanism Trick Calculation" (Tianji Guǐsuàn).

But how exactly to use it like his Martial Uncle did—altering divine sense, employing those mysterious and cunning methods of Guǐ Dao spiritual manipulation—Mo Hua had no idea.

After all, he'd only stolen the technique, just copying the surface level without understanding the essence.

He had no formal transmission of the deeper principles—relying on himself to figure it out was tough.

After a long while of frustration and fruitless thinking, Mo Hua decided to set the problem aside for now.

After all, he already knew the foundations of Heavenly Mechanism Trick Calculation. As for its many transformations, he could explore them bit by bit over time. Sooner or later, he'd figure it out.

"That duck's already in the pot. Sooner or later, it'll be cooked—it's not flying anywhere."

With that settled, the next headache… was the Second-Rank formations.

He needed to collect more Second-Rank formation diagrams—learn a bunch and keep them ready for use.

In Tongxian City, there were almost no Second-Rank formation scrolls.

Currently, Mo Hua only had two Second-Rank formations:

The Ten-Pattern Bright Fire Formation, and

The Eleven-Pattern Thorn Formation.

He had practiced those two to death.

What he needed now were harder Second-Rank formations. Once he learned one, he could try to obtain Second-Rank spiritual ink and test it out with his divine sense ink-control ground-drawing method.

To see where his current limit really was—

What grade of formation he could draw with divine sense and ink alone.

Right now, the only way he might get another Second-Rank formation was through the Five Element Formation Flow Chart—specifically, the Five Element Source Pattern.

Mo Hua worked on deciphering that pattern whenever he had spare time.

But to this day, the best he'd gotten was an Eleven-Pattern, Second-Rank Five Element Formation.

And yet—his divine sense was already a qualitatively transformed Fourteen-Pattern level.

In other words, his ceiling should be at Fourteen Patterns!

Mo Hua was a little unsatisfied.

Even with the worst luck and the darkest face, surely by now he should have reverse-engineered at least one decent Second-Rank formation, right?

He wasn't asking much—even a Twelve-Pattern one would do…

He decided to try again.

Before deciphering, Mo Hua lit incense as a show of sincerity, washed his hands, and muttered silently in his heart:

"Second-Rank formation, Second-Rank formation, Second-Rank formation…"

"Twelve patterns, twelve patterns, twelve patterns…"

After that, he began his deduction.

Above the source pattern, profound changes appeared.

Formation lines unraveled one by one. Formation diagrams emerged, one after another…

Who knows how much time passed—

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared before Mo Hua's eyes!

A formation diagram emerged from the source pattern—clearly different from the rest, glowing bright red, much more vivid than anything before.

Mo Hua's breath caught. He fixed his gaze.

It was a formation he knew intimately—and yet it was still complex, profound, and unfamiliar in ways.

"The Earthfire Formation…"

Second-Rank… Thirteen-Pattern!

(End of Chapter)