Immortality Through Array Formations

Mo Hua returned home and, after dinner with his parents, had his mother prepare some soy-braised beef, pastries, and fermented rice wine. Then he locked himself in his room to concentrate on solving formations.

He first drew a Fire-series Formation Pattern on a piece of paper, which appeared in a pale red color and emitted a faint sense of heat.

Following the methods described in the books, Mo Hua then drew a Water Formation Pattern next to the Kan position of the Fire Formation Pattern.

After he finished drawing, the red color of the Fire Formation Pattern gradually dimmed, and the misty pale red Spiritual Energy could no longer be seen. Touching it with his hand, there was no longer a slight sense of heat.

This meant that the Fire Formation Pattern had lost its effectiveness.

Mo Hua’s spirits lifted, and he tried to dismantle the other Five Elements Formation Patterns one by one. Indeed, they could all be solved by using the Five Elements Generation and Restraint principle to break the Formation Patterns.

Next came the formations, and Mo Hua spent some more time to draw a Bright Fire Formation.

The Bright Fire Formation was composed of three Formation Patterns and was the simplest type of formation.

When Mo Hua sketched formations for Manager Mo, the Bright Fire Formation was the first he drew. Now, drawing this formation again was effortless for him.

In less than the time it takes to brew a pot of tea, a standard Bright Fire Formation was outlined on the paper.

Mo Hua looked at the Bright Fire Formation and pondered.

Previously, when Mo Hua drew the Bright Fire Formation, he simply copied the pattern without delving too deeply. But now, upon close examination, he found that, despite its apparent simplicity, indeed one of the Formation Patterns within the Bright Fire Formation was for gathering Spiritual Energy, while the other two ordinary Fire-series Formation Patterns were for activating the formation to provide illumination.

Mo Hua compared them one by one, as Bai Zisheng had said.

The Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern was the Formation eye, the Three Talents position was the Formation Pivot, and the paper used for Drawing Formation was the Formation media.

Mo Hua tore a notch in the Formation Paper, and indeed, the formation on the paper became ineffective. He drew the Bright Fire Formation again, then altered the Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern that served as the Formation eye, rendering the Bright Fire Formation ineffective as well.

“This is what’s meant by, ‘Damaging the Formation media, destroying the Formation eye, this is called breaking the formation’…”

“This method is certainly… straightforward and crude. Even without understanding formations, one could break them… Hmm, without understanding formations, this forceful method would be the only way to break them.”

“Then what serves as the Formation eye and media for the Mystery Formation within my Sea of Consciousness?”

“If the Spiritual Power in the formation is supplied by the Formation eye, then the Qi Sea must be the Formation eye. The Mystery Formation resides in the Sea of Consciousness, so the Sea of Consciousness would be the Formation media? So, to break the formation, would that mean…”

“To disable my own Qi Sea and then also destroy my own Sea of Consciousness?!”

Mo Hua instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

“Forget it…”

Breaking a formation in such a crude and simple manner lacked the cultivation of a Formation Master and did not reflect the level of a Formation Master’s skill.

Discarding his distractions, Mo Hua drew the Bright Fire Formation again, and this time, he drew a Water Series Formation Pattern at the Kan position of one of the Fire-series Formation Patterns.

After the Formation Pattern was completed, the Bright Fire Formation did not lose its effectiveness, but its luminosity dimmed slightly.

The dismantlement was effective, but not yet completely effective.

Mo Hua then drew another Water Series Formation Pattern next to another Formation Pattern, and with that, the light from the Bright Fire Formation instantly disappeared, and the entire formation was rendered useless.

“I’ve solved it!”

Mo Hua was a bit excited. He immediately pondered, “To solve a Fire-series Formation Pattern requires dismantling two; does this mean that to solve the Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern, which serves as the Formation eye, only one needs to be dismantled?”

“The Five Elements Formation Patterns can be solved through the generation and restraint between them, but what about the Spirit Gathering Formation Patterns? There shouldn’t be any such relations within the Formation Patterns used for Spirit Gathering…”

Mo Hua started flipping through the formation manuals Mr. Zhuang had given him and finally found a page with annotations on how to solve the Spirit Gathering Formation Patterns.

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

Indeed, there is a Formation Pattern that governs the generation and restraint of Spirit Gathering Formation Patterns—the Reversed Spirit Formation Pattern.

The Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern gathers spiritual power, while the Reversed Spirit Formation Pattern disperses spiritual power in reverse. One gathers, the other scatters; naturally, they follow the principle of generation and restraint. However, Mo Hua had never learned the Reversed Spirit Formation Pattern, and he could not find any charts of it in the related manuals, only some written records.

The records stated that the Reversed Spirit Formation is a profound pattern, often passed down within aristocratic families and clans that specialize in formations, and not easily shared with outsiders.

Profound patterns are hard to learn, and also not available to learn.

Mo Hua didn’t consider it further for the time being.

Beyond that, another method is to use the Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern to solve a Spirit Gathering Formation. One simply needs to draw another Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern near the original, using it to absorb the spiritual power of the original which acts as the formation eye, thereby causing the formation eye to lose its driving force, which naturally equates to having dissolved the formation.

Mo Hua’s eyes were opened. He had never thought of using the Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern to solve a Spirit Gathering Formation Pattern himself.

The text mentioned that this method could also be problematic, with the risk of the Formation Pattern used for solving gathering too much spiritual power and being unable to release it, leading to loss of control over the formation and unforeseeable dangers.

Moreover, if Mo Hua’s guess was right, the formation eye of the Mystery Formation in his Sea of Consciousness was actually his own Qi Sea. Whether using another Qi Sea to absorb the Qi Sea, or carving a Reversed Spirit Formation within the Qi Sea to disperse spiritual power, both sounded like suicidal plans.

And these methods were simply impossible to achieve anyway.

In other words, for now, it wasn’t possible to solve the formation by removing the formation eye.

Mo Hua propped up his cheek, thinking:

“I can only learn to solve each pattern one by one. Indeed, in the end, the only shortcut is that there are no shortcuts. The Tao Cultivation World has evolved for tens of thousands of years; it’s unlikely there’ll be any loopholes to exploit.”

Mo Hua then drew a Bright Fire Formation and solved it completely. He suddenly realized that his method was too wasteful of paper and ink. Drawing and solving every time, and if he made a mistake, he’d have to draw it all over again. It consumed more paper and ink than practicing formations.

The problem with Spirit Stones was still severe. Although the income from the restaurant had improved the family’s finances so that the usual expenses for Spirit Stones weren’t particularly lacking, it was still better to save what could be saved, as there would be numerous uses for Spirit Stones in the future.

“The Taoist Stele in the Sea of Consciousness, it should be just right for practicing solving formations…”

Thinking this, Mo Hua let his Divine Sense sink into the Sea of Consciousness.

In the vast emptiness of the Sea of Consciousness, the Mystery Formation woven by strands of spiritual power remained, and the Taoist Stele stood unaffected by the spiritual power strands.

Mo Hua, with practiced ease, drew a Bright Fire Formation on the Taoist Stele and then tried to solve it. After solving it, the Bright Fire Formation indeed faded away.

Mo Hua erased the formation and the solving patterns from the stele, and his consumed Divine Sense recovered.

“Indeed!”

Mo Hua was delighted. The Taoist Stele was not only suitable for practicing formation patterns but also perfect for practicing solving formations.

Draw and then erase, and the Divine Sense would recover, meaning there was no consumption of Divine Sense, nor was there any waste of paper and ink.

Mo Hua then focused on practicing solving formations in the Sea of Consciousness until 2 a.m., when he exited his Sea of Consciousness, meditated for two hours, and then felt refreshed and energetic.

Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua were up early as well, with Mo Shan setting off to hunt monsters on Black Mountain and Liu Ruhua preparing for the restaurant business.

After a simple yet tasty and warm breakfast, Mo Hua, carrying his food container, set off for Mr. Zhuang’s residence.