Chapter 20: Formation Complete
Mo Hua went back and tried drawing the array patterns as Instructor Yan had instructed, and sure enough, everything suddenly became clear.
That night, as he slept, he practiced on the stone tablet in his sea of consciousness, and his comprehension noticeably sped up.
For the parts he didn't understand, repeating the drawing process several times gradually revealed the underlying principles.
As long as he had a solid grasp of the basic array patterns, learning the more complex variations wasn't too difficult. The real challenge lay in the lack of guidance—without someone to point the way, Mo Hua wouldn't even think in that direction, and naturally, he'd be stuck in a rut.
After another day of familiarization, by the third evening, Mo Hua officially began attempting the Earth-Stabilizing Array.
The initial attempts weren't smooth at all, but after stumbling his way through, he finally managed to complete one—though it took him quite a long time.
A four-pattern Earth-Stabilizing Array took him an hour and a half to finish, and the strain on his divine sense was so great that he needed a full hour to recover afterward.
By the time he finished his first array, it was already midnight.
Mo Hua inspected his work—no surprise, there were mistakes.
He let out a sigh.
Only managed one array the whole night, and it was wrong.
If he wanted to finish all ten within five days, time was going to be tight.
"What should I do..."
Mo Hua thought about it for a while. In the end, he had no choice but to start skipping some cultivation courses to make time.
Of course, classes like cultivation history and general knowledge couldn't be skipped—those broadened horizons and enriched cultivation experience.
As for alchemy and talisman crafting, since they required spending spirit stones on herbs, jade slips, and renting the sect's alchemy cauldrons—costly endeavors—Mo Hua selectively skipped a few sessions.
He figured he wasn't likely to have any future in these spirit-stone-burning fields anyway.
Then there was the body refinement course—which he could skip entirely.
Cultivators cultivated spiritual power through techniques and used that power to cast Dao arts.
Dao arts fell into two categories: spells and martial arts.
Spells used divine sense to control spiritual energy and cast attacks. Martial arts, on the other hand, stimulated the body's potential using spiritual energy, allowing one to fight with the body itself.
Those who practiced spells were called spiritual cultivators, while those who cultivated martial arts were body cultivators.
At the Qi Refining stage, there were fewer spiritual cultivators and more body cultivators—especially in Tongxian City, where most cultivators hunted monsters for a living. Spiritual cultivators were frail and unfit for the hunt, so most rogue cultivators leaned toward the body path.
To accommodate this, the Tongxian Sect had specially established a body refinement course to help disciples train their physical strength early.
But Mo Hua was simply not cut out for body cultivation.
He hadn't inherited his father Mo Shan's talent for it. Instead, like his mother Liu Ruhua, he was frail from a young age—actually, even weaker than she had been.
According to Elder Feng, the alchemist from Xinglin Hall, a cultivator was born of the Heavenly Dao, with a natural balance between divine sense and physical body.
Mo Hua, however, was born with two lifetimes of memories, and his divine sense was innately too strong. This imbalance caused his physical body to weaken. From birth, he'd been sickly and fragile.
Others could easily lift a hundred-kilo stone cauldron. Mo Hua, even using all his strength, couldn't budge it. Most cultivators his age were at least a head taller and visibly more robust.
Mo Hua's figure was slim and delicate, but fortunately, his features were beautiful and his temperament gentle. With rosy lips and white teeth, he looked like a porcelain doll at age ten.
It wasn't a bad appearance… but Mo Hua still thought that a real man should be strong and imposing.
Like his father—tall, handsome, and radiating heroic energy.
Mo Hua's dream self wore white robes, practiced peerless techniques, and wielded a spear like a dragon—holding the line alone, invincible against ten thousand foes.
…Unfortunately, such a scene only existed in his dreams.
"Oh, right."
Mo Hua remembered that once he fell asleep, his divine sense would automatically enter his sea of consciousness. He couldn't even dream...
The instructor teaching body cultivation initially wanted to hold Mo Hua to the same standard as everyone else. But after watching him try to move a stone cauldron—where the cauldron didn't budge, and Mo Hua ended up spraining his arm—the instructor became much more lenient.
That's how cultivation is sometimes—effort alone doesn't always solve the problem.
Even the instructor was understanding.
Heaven may close one window for you, but it might just want you to go find a door—not to keep banging your head on the same wall.
So Mo Hua skipped those courses and used the freed-up time to shut himself in and focus on drawing Earth-Stabilizing Arrays.
Five days later, on rest day, he had used up all ten sets of materials—succeeding with six of them.
Not only did he avoid a loss, he even earned four spirit stones. Mo Hua was quite satisfied.
Taking advantage of his one-day break, Mo Hua went to North Street's Fated Treasures Pavilion and handed in the completed arrays to the plump steward.
The steward glanced over the arrays and commented, "Your elder brother's array foundations are honestly a bit rough, but he learns fast. Each array is visibly better than the last. But…"
He pulled out the first array to critique it harshly: "This one's like it was drawn by a total beginner—even the basic patterns are clumsy and uneven…"
Mo Hua was used to the steward's grumbling. In one ear, out the other.
Besides, the steward was talking about his "elder brother." What's that got to do with him?
He didn't have an elder brother.
Mo Hua went straight to the point: "Can I exchange these for spirit stones?"
The steward rolled his eyes but still handed over four spirit stones. "Tell your brother to draw better next time."
"Mm-hmm!" Mo Hua nodded repeatedly, happily taking the stones.
He used all four to buy pastries—ate two himself, saved two more, and gave the rest to Da Hu and the others.
The three boys were touched to see so many pastries and even asked Mo Hua if he wanted to eat meat. They'd seen that one of the elders was raising a fat, multicolored duck…
Mo Hua felt a headache coming on and warned them not to steal again. If the sect reported it to their parents, they'd be lucky to escape without getting their hides peeled.
Only then did the three reluctantly give up on the idea.
Afterward, Mo Hua continued practicing the Earth-Stabilizing Array—keeping at it for over two months straight.
With so much repetition, his grasp of the array grew steadily more refined.
Where it used to take three hours (including resting his divine sense) to finish a single array, now it only took an hour and a half.
Partly because of experience—greater mastery and understanding meant faster execution. And partly because of nonstop day-and-night practice. The constant use and recovery of divine sense had, without him noticing, significantly strengthened it.
A powerful divine sense made a huge difference when drawing arrays.
His success rate for the Earth-Stabilizing Array now reached 80–90%, and he could sometimes succeed ten out of ten.
Each array earned him two spirit stones. Over the past two months, after subtracting basic expenses, Mo Hua had saved up a full 100 spirit stones.
Once he reached 200, he planned to pick out a Mid-Grade, Low-Tier cultivation technique from the sect.
And only after he'd selected one would he tell his parents—otherwise, they'd definitely insist on covering the cost themselves, telling him to save his spirit stones for future cultivation… or for things like finding a Dao partner or buying a cave-dwelling.
(End of Chapter)