Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 646 – The Evil Array Master

Seeing Mo Hua's face take on a look of sudden realization, Gu Changhuai was slightly startled.

"What did you figure out this time?"

Mo Hua thought for a moment and replied concisely:

"If my guess is right, this demon palace contains a Primordial Magnetic Composite Array. It likely serves to coordinate all the magnetic arrays within the cavern, while also monitoring spiritual fluctuations and any unusual movements in the hall…"

The expressions of Gu Changhuai and the others grew solemn.

"In other words…" Mo Hua continued,

"We're not only being watched by patrolling demon cultivators and hounds… but also monitored by hidden magnetic formations and invisible magnetic currents…"

"A moment of carelessness, and we could trigger the formation and be discovered."

"And worst of all, we might not even know how we got exposed."

Gu Changhuai frowned.

"Can this composite array be broken?"

Mo Hua shook his head.

"A Primordial Magnetic Composite Array would be at least a Seventeen-Rune-level formation—it's beyond me right now, I can't break it."

Gu Changhuai looked slightly disappointed.

He really thought Mo Hua could break any formation.

Didn't expect there'd be one he couldn't handle…

But then he thought again—and something didn't quite add up.

Seventeen-rune formation... and he calls that just 'a bit beyond me'?

Gu Changhuai couldn't help but roast inwardly:

"Just how off is this kid's sense of 'too advanced'?"

Still, after everything he'd witnessed on this journey, he'd become pretty numb to being shocked.

Primordial Magnetic Composite Arrays… formation surveillance…

Gu Changhuai looked up again at the heavily guarded demon palace and said gravely:

"If that's true, then we'll have to withdraw for now and plan our next move…"

Mo Hua frowned.

Withdraw and regroup?

That would take time—and that meant no way to kill Fire Buddha within seven days.

If it took longer than that, he'd have to return to his sect for classes—and getting the Meteorfire Art would become impossible.

"It's not that we have no options…" Mo Hua said slowly.

"We could try to locate the central core of the composite array…"

"The array core?" Gu Changhuai asked.

"Yes." Mo Hua nodded.

"Composite arrays contain multiple sub-arrays. They need a central hub to manage and control them. The bigger the formation, the more obvious and centralized the core becomes."

"Destroy the core, and the composite formation will collapse. Then we can move freely—no more tiptoeing around like this."

"And if we could take control of the core…"

Mo Hua's eyes lit up.

"We could flip the script—turn the demon palace's surveillance system into our own."

Gu Changhuai was stunned.

Even Gu An and Gu Quan looked incredulous.

A formation master… can really do that?!

After a brief moment of thought, Gu Changhuai nodded firmly:

"Good. We'll do as you say."

"Mm."

Without delay, Mo Hua began to deduce the location of the array core.

The palace was heavily fortified and its layout complex.

On the surface, there didn't appear to be any structured magnetic formations.

But the array media were just tools, and runes were merely the physical shell.

The true essence of any array… was still spiritual energy.

Even if invisible to the eye, the faint spiritual energy traces of these hidden formations were clearly perceptible to divine sense.

Mo Hua released his divine sense, tracing the magnetic formations and the connections between them to map out the entire array structure.

When he hit a dead end, he'd use deduction—sensing the weak magnetic currents in the air.

By following the Secondary Thunder Runes left behind by those currents, he gradually unearthed all the hidden magnetic formations in the outer palace—like pulling up radishes and dragging out the mud.

Each array had its own classification and purpose.

Some of them Mo Hua recognized—

—like the common Small Primordial Magnetic Arrays, or the Beacon Magnetic Arrays.

But others had runes so obscure and complex, they exceeded Mo Hua's current divine sense level. He could locate them, but not fully understand what they were.

Still, that wasn't a problem.

These arrays were for positioning—used to trace the layout and pinpoint the direction of the central hub.

Once he'd marked out all the array nodes in the outer palace, Mo Hua reverse-analyzed the layout to find the place where all the magnetic flows converged.

Where the magnetic currents converged—that's where the array core must be.

This process, however, was both mentally draining and time-consuming.

Gu Changhuai silently watched from the side, a little confused.

In his eyes, Mo Hua was just running back and forth, occasionally looking up at the sky.

Sometimes, he'd act like a little spiritual dog, sniffing around and suddenly declaring he'd found an array, then claiming he'd located the core…

But no matter how Gu Changhuai looked, the surroundings all seemed like ordinary buildings, without a single trace of anything unusual.

If he didn't already know Mo Hua's formation skills were extraordinary, he might've thought the boy was just pretending to be busy.

Gu Changhuai was baffled.

After a while, Mo Hua pointed at a small side path in the outer hall and declared confidently:

"The magnetic currents are converging over there."

Gu Changhuai finally couldn't hold back.

"How can you tell…"

He stopped halfway through his question.

He already knew what Mo Hua would say:

"I can just see it."

So instead, he rephrased:

"Why can't I see it?"

After all, he was a Golden Core cultivator—his divine sense should be stronger than Mo Hua's.

Mo Hua replied matter-of-factly:

[System notice]

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"You're not a formation master. Of course you can't see it."

Gu Changhuai: "…"

He didn't think this was a problem with formation masters—he was pretty sure Mo Hua was the problem.

But Mo Hua ignored him, striding confidently down the path where the magnetic currents converged.

Gu Changhuai's gaze sharpened, and he sighed—there was nothing to do but follow quietly.

At the end of the path was a wall.

It was built from solid stone and reinforced with strange and demonic runes through a formation. But at a glance, it looked just like any other wall.

The area was quiet and empty.

Mo Hua went up and began knocking and feeling around, inspecting the entire wall inch by inch.

Then he paused before a brick etched with an eye-shaped rune, lost in thought.

This brick was suspicious…

After locking eyes with the "eye" on the brick for a moment, Mo Hua took out his ink and brush, drew runes around it, and dispelled the Earthen Reinforcement Array anchoring it.

Cracks appeared around the tile.

Gu Quan stepped up and removed the brick—revealing a pitch-black tunnel behind it.

The passage was narrow, barely half a person tall, filled with thick streaks of bloody black ink.

That ink was the trace of the array core.

Mo Hua's eyes sparkled.

He had guessed right.

Just like when he built the Five Elements Demon-Slaying Grand Array, if a central hub was needed to control multiple sub-arrays, then the core's "ink skeleton" had to connect both the inner and outer halls.

And of course, that hub had to be hidden inside the architecture, not exposed to the outside—

—to avoid being discovered by a "clever person" like himself.

But no matter how well they hid it… they still couldn't fool him!

Mo Hua nodded smugly.

Now, all that remained was to follow this "vine" to the root—trace it to the central control of the entire composite formation…

But there was a problem.

Mo Hua examined the entrance and turned to the others:

"You guys are too tall… You might not be able to crawl in."

The three of them looked visibly conflicted.

It's not like they could shrink themselves just to fit inside…

Mo Hua sighed,

"No helping it. I'll go check it out myself."

Gu Changhuai frowned.

"You're going in alone?"

"It's fine," Mo Hua said.

"This place holds the array core—I know it well. There won't be any danger."

Array cores were confidential.

Not only were outsiders forbidden to know of them—even allies weren't allowed near.

Structures housing array cores might have some defensive measures left over from construction…

…but to someone like Mo Hua, who had built such arrays himself, those traps were nothing.

Gu Changhuai pondered and said,

"There's always Bone-Shrinking Pills—we can shrink our bodies temporarily…"

"Bone-Shrinking Pill?" Mo Hua was stunned.

There's a thing like that?

The cultivation world really was full of bizarre and mysterious stuff.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then still shook his head.

"Shrinking the bones won't work either. The spiritual flow inside the array core is chaotic. It might radiate into spiritual tools, disrupting their formations and making them fail…"

He pointed at the jade pendant on Gu Changhuai's waist.

"Your Water-Concealment Jade might get affected and fail to conceal you."

Gu Changhuai's gaze darkened slightly.

He hadn't considered that.

After all, he wasn't an array master and didn't understand these subtle array principles very deeply.

"…Wait a second."

Gu Changhuai suddenly realized something.

"If our Water-Concealment Jade fails and we can't hide… wouldn't yours fail too?"

"I'm different," Mo Hua said.

"I know the Art of Concealment."

Gu Changhuai's jaw dropped.

"Since when do you know that?"

Mo Hua looked completely innocent.

"I've always known it…"

Always.

Gu Changhuai looked utterly betrayed and speechless.

"You never asked…"

Mo Hua muttered under his breath.

The Art of Concealment wasn't something he'd blurt out unprompted… Uncle Gu never asked, so why bring it up?

Gu Changhuai took a deep breath and gave Mo Hua a sharp look.

"Then why did you accept the Water-Concealment Jade I gave you?"

"Ah, that's where the finesse comes in…"

Mo Hua spoke righteously:

"According to my research, combining a concealment artifact with concealment spells creates a dual concealment effect. The stealth becomes much more thorough."

"This demon lair is so dangerous. I'm just a little Foundation Establishment cultivator, walking on thin ice here. Of course, I need as many life-saving tools as possible…"

Gu Changhuai was momentarily convinced.

It actually… made sense.

It's just… Mo Hua's steps all the way here were way too lively. Nothing about him looked like someone "walking on thin ice"…

Gu Changhuai sighed.

The surrounding air was dense with yin energy, greenish light flickered eerily.

Beneath the stone corridor, foul and sticky water trickled by.

They were in a demon palace—not the time or place to argue over this.

And after all, no matter how precious the concealment artifact, it couldn't compare to Mo Hua's safety.

Gu Changhuai relented with a sigh:

"Alright, be careful in there…"

He paused and added:

"If you run into danger, yell for help. I'll find a way to get you out."

Mo Hua was a little surprised, then nodded.

"Don't worry, Uncle Gu."

Now that he'd found the array core, the danger of this demon lair had already dropped a few notches.

Then, Mo Hua crawled alone into the passage hidden behind the wall, using both hands and feet, following the array lines as he slowly crept toward the heart of the Primordial Magnetic Array.

The stone tunnel was narrow, sometimes flat, sometimes steep and vertical.

Etched along the walls were the structures of the magnetic array core, along with some warning formations.

Mo Hua carefully avoided those traps, using Flowing Water Steps, attaching spiritual energy to his limbs, and using divine sense to guide his movements.

Like a little gecko, he crawled smoothly through the core tunnel.

Earlier, the magnetic currents he sensed were like faint trickles.

Now, within the core, they surged like mighty rivers.

The spiritual flow was crystal clear.

Mo Hua didn't even need his eyes—he could feel the correct direction just from the spiritual currents.

Following the direction of the magnetic flow like a wall-crawling gecko, Mo Hua crept onward.

He didn't know how long he crawled… but eventually, he reached the end of the tunnel.

The passage was dim—no array patterns were visible to the eye.

But with divine sense, Mo Hua could feel it clearly: the magnetic currents all converged here, flowing downward to be governed by a central control node.

This was it.

The core controller of the composite formation—

The master switch that governed the entire Primordial Magnetic Composite Array!

Found it!

Mo Hua's heart leapt with joy.

There was a faint glow at the end of the tunnel.

He climbed to the end, poked out his head, and peered through a gap in the architecture below.

As expected, beneath him was a secret chamber—

—etched with the blueprint of the central array controller.

Inside the chamber, runes densely covered every surface.

At the center sat a unified array disk, with the central array core sketched on it.

Mo Hua held his breath and activated the Five Elements Concealment Art to its maximum.

Then, wide-eyed and silent, he peered through the crack.

He saw that inside the chamber… there was another person.

This person was tall and thin, dressed in a luxurious black robe. His skin was deathly pale, eyes bloodshot, with deep lines etched into his face.

Same kind attract.

As an array master himself, Mo Hua could tell at a glance—this was a formidable array master, one with an evil aura, and blood that could never be scrubbed clean from his hands.

A Dark Array Master.

A high-tier Second-Rank Evil Array Master!

Mo Hua's heart tensed.

That man sat in the chamber, quietly painting a blood-red formation.

After a while, he looked up and carefully examined the control disk before him, clearly monitoring the activity within the demon palace.

Now and then, he would sip from a cup of wine.

The wine was dark red, and soaked inside it was a strange, demonic eyeball.

That eye… would occasionally blink.

Mo Hua found the scene deeply unsettling. He glanced at the man one more time, then silently withdrew his gaze.

He was afraid of being noticed, so he didn't dare look too long.

Once his eyes were off the man, Mo Hua began thinking silently:

"…What do I do next?"

This evil array master had late Foundation Establishment cultivation and could wield Nineteen-Rune formations.

Mo Hua had originally wanted to test his skill against this man…

…but clearly, he'd overestimated himself.

Nineteen runes at Rank Two was already the pinnacle of what a normal Second-Rank formation master could do.

And this guy wasn't just normal—he was evil, so he definitely had twisted and dangerous tricks up his sleeve.

A fair duel? Yeah, no.

Besides, they were in the heart of a demon palace. Danger lurked everywhere.

This wasn't the place for some honorable formation duel.

Focus on the mission.

A mere contest of array skills could wait.

After a moment of pondering, Mo Hua made up his mind:

"In that case, how about… assassinate him first?"

There was no other way.

This guy was the evil array master controlling the magnetic network, surveilling every corner of the demon palace.

Trying to sneak into the inner hall and kill Fire Buddha while he was still alive?

Not happening.

Capture him alive? Not likely.

Since this man controlled the Primordial Magnetic Composite Array, he was definitely an expert in magnetic formations and had plenty of ways to send out messages. If they slipped up and he sent out an alert, things could spiral out of control fast.

So—this "roadblock" had to go.

Forget a fair formation duel.

Mo Hua might be an array master, but he was a cultivator first.

Cultivators seek longevity. Preserving life is priority one.

Going into a fight he knew he'd lose just to save face? That would be plain stupid.

Mo Hua nodded to himself.

A fake formation duel? Compete on skill.

A real formation duel? Kill the opponent first.

Then compare notes. Whoever survives, wins by default.

Even if he lost in array skill, the other guy would be dead.

Guaranteed profit, zero downside!

Mo Hua silently made up his mind:

"I need to find a way to kill this evil array master…"

…The problem was, he couldn't do it himself.

That guy was late-stage Foundation Establishment. Much higher cultivation.

And worse, they couldn't make too much noise.

Mo Hua thought about it again and realized…

He didn't have to kill him himself.

"I can't kill him… but I have bodyguards."

And with that, Mo Hua slowly crawled back out of the array core tunnel.

As he retraced his steps, he spread out his divine sense, observed the surroundings, and based on his understanding of the demon palace's structure, roughly confirmed the location of the "Magnetic Array Core Secret Chamber."

Then, following the same path, he returned to the outer hall's entrance.

The three from the Dao Court—Gu Changhuai, Gu An, and Gu Quan—were still waiting anxiously.

When they saw Mo Hua return, they all relaxed a bit.

Then came the questions:

"How did it go?"

Mo Hua nodded.

"Found it. There's a secret room inside with the main array controller, and there's an evil array master guarding it."

"We have to kill him quietly before we can tamper with the array."

Gu Changhuai instantly asked,

"Where's the secret room?"

Mo Hua replied,

"I memorized the route. Just follow me."

"But before we go, we need to plan how to 'assassinate' the guy—fast and clean, without alerting anyone else."

Gu Changhuai paused, then said,

"I have a top-grade second-rank dagger. The blade is inscribed with a Wind Blade Formation. If it pierces a cultivator's heart meridian, the spiritual power inside turns into blades of wind and shreds the heart instantly."

Mo Hua nodded in approval.

When it came to this kind of work, Uncle Gu was solid.

Still, to be on the safe side, Mo Hua suggested,

"Uncle Gu… how about we add some poison? Real nasty stuff. One drop, one kill—the kind that seals the throat with blood."

Cue suspicious uncle stare…

Gu Changhuai silently stared at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua mumbled,

"I've never done something like this before… just being cautious."

After a moment of silence, Gu Changhuai wordlessly took out a bottle of poison…

And wordlessly smeared it on the dagger.

The poison wasn't his—it had been confiscated from demonic cultivators.

The Dao Court didn't use poison.

Usually.

Seeing that the blade was now venom-tipped, Mo Hua nodded in satisfaction.

Then he turned to Gu An:

"Brother An, do you have a club?"

Gu An blinked.

"…A what?"

"A club. For sneak attacks."

Gu An shook his head.

"No…"

"That's fine. I've got one."

Mo Hua reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a thick iron rod as wide as a bowl.

It was his old Thousand-Jin Rod, just a second-rank version.

The first-rank version forged by Master Chen in Tongxian City had become too weak after Mo Hua formed his foundation.

So he had stopped by Void City outside Great Void Sect and spent over a hundred spirit stones to buy this second-rank rod.

Its style and name were different, but…

Mo Hua was nostalgic—and committed to his sneak-attack lifestyle—so he renamed it "Thousand-Jin Rod" again.

He had even engraved a second-rank Thousand-Jin Array on it himself.

Mo Hua handed it to Gu An.

"Try it out. See if it fits your hand."

Gu An blankly took the rod, gave it a couple test swings, and slowly nodded.

"…Not bad."

"Now let me teach you when's the best time to use a sneak attack…"

Mo Hua launched into a lecture on the art of sneak attacks.

Gu An listened, utterly bewildered.

When Mo Hua finished, he asked,

"Got it?"

Gu An nodded numbly.

"Got it…"

"Perfect!"

"Oh, and since that guy's an array master, his divine sense will be sharp. You have to be extra careful during the assassination…"

Mo Hua then walked them through all the other fine details:

How not to get detected.

How to gag him so he can't shout.

How to guard against him activating a formation.

How to prevent him from sending messages via magnetic resonance…

Once everything was ready, Mo Hua gave a satisfied nod:

"Alright, let's go!"

And so, the three Dao Court cultivators followed behind Mo Hua—

Their minds full of confusion and complicated feelings—

—on the path to assassinate an evil array master…

(End of Chapter)