Arrays of Immortality

Chapter 20: Forming the Formation

Mo Hua followed Yan Jiaoxi's advice and tried drawing the formation symbols several times, and sure enough, it felt like a breakthrough.

That night, he practiced on the stone tablet, and his comprehension improved significantly.

For things that were unclear, he drew a few more times and gradually began to understand the key points.

As long as the basic formation symbols were firmly grasped, learning more complex variations wouldn't be too difficult. The hardest part was the lack of guidance. Without someone pointing him in the right direction, Mo Hua couldn't think along those lines and naturally felt stuck.

Mo Hua continued familiarizing himself for another day, and by the evening of the third day, when the class ended, he began to formally draw the Earth Solidifying Formation.

At first, it didn't go smoothly, but after some trial and error, he finally completed it, though it took longer than expected.

The four-symbol Earth Solidifying Formation took Mo Hua an hour and a half to finish, and after completing it, he had to rest for an hour due to the exhaustion of his spiritual consciousness.

By the time Mo Hua finished the Earth Solidifying Formation, it was already the midnight hour.

After checking his work, he found that, as expected, he had made a mistake.

Mo Hua sighed.

He had only completed one formation that night, and it was wrong.

With only five days to finish ten formations, time was getting tight.

"What should I do?"

Mo Hua thought for a while, and finally, with no other choice, he decided to skip some of the cultivation courses.

He couldn't skip classes like Cultivation History and Basics, as these would broaden his perspective and experience. However, he could skip classes like Alchemy and Talisman-making, which required purchasing herbs and talisman stones, as well as renting the sect's alchemy furnace—costs that added up. He chose to skip some of those classes.

After all, in the fields of cultivation that demanded large expenditures of spiritual stones, there was little hope for him to progress in this lifetime.

The Body Refining courses could all be skipped.

Cultivators refine their spiritual power through techniques and use Daoist methods to control that power for attacks.

Daoist methods are divided into two categories: magical techniques and martial techniques.

Magic techniques involve controlling spiritual power with spiritual consciousness to cast spells, while martial techniques use spiritual power to enhance the body's potential and engage in physical combat.

Few spiritual cultivators exist in the Qi Refining stage, and many cultivators in Tongxian City make a living by hunting monsters, as spiritual cultivators are physically weak and unsuitable for monster hunting. Therefore, most independent cultivators practice martial techniques.

To address this, Tongxian Sect had a special Body Refining course to help disciples train their bodies in advance.

But Mo Hua was destined not to practice Body Refining.

He had not inherited his father Mo Shan's talent for body cultivation. Instead, like his mother Liu Ruhua, he had been frail from a young age—possibly even weaker than his mother.

According to Master Feng of the Xinglin Hall, cultivators are born with the Dao of Heaven, and their spiritual consciousness and physical body should be balanced.

When Mo Hua was born, he had the memories of two lifetimes, making his spiritual consciousness inherently too strong, causing an imbalance between his spirit and body. As a result, he had been frail and sickly from birth.

Where others could easily lift a hundred-kilogram stone cauldron, Mo Hua couldn't budge it even with all his might. Cultivators of the same age were generally taller and stronger than him.

Though Mo Hua was thin, he was still handsome, with a gentle demeanor, rosy lips, and white teeth. At ten years old, he looked like a porcelain doll.

While his appearance was fine, Mo Hua still felt that a man should be more imposing and strong.

Like his father, who was tall and imposing, his looks exuded strength and dignity.

Mo Hua dreamed of himself in a white robe, practicing unparalleled techniques, wielding a spear like a dragon, standing firm in battle, invincible to thousands of enemies.

Sadly, that scene was something he could only see in his dreams.

"Oh, right."

Mo Hua remembered that when he fell asleep, his spiritual consciousness would automatically enter the sea of consciousness, so he couldn't dream.

The instructor who taught Body Refining originally intended to strictly discipline Mo Hua, but after seeing him fail to even move the stone cauldron and injure his arm, he became much more lenient.

Cultivation is like that—sometimes effort alone can't solve the problem.

The instructor understood Mo Hua's situation well.

When the Dao of Heaven closes a window for you, it might be trying to push you to go through a different door, not to force you to keep pushing against the closed one.

So, Mo Hua chose to skip those courses, and the time he saved was spent in his room, focusing solely on drawing the Earth Solidifying Formation.

By the end of the five-day break, Mo Hua had finally used up all the materials, completing ten formations. Out of these, six were successful.

Not only did he break even, but he also earned four spiritual stones, which he was quite satisfied with.

Mo Hua used his one-day break during the mid-month period to go to the "Yuan Zhai" on North Street and handed the completed Earth Solidifying Formations to the chubby steward.

The steward took a look and said, "Your brother's basic formation skills are quite lacking, but he learns quickly. These formations are visibly improving with each one. However…"

The steward took the first formation and criticized it: "This one looks like something drawn by a beginner. Even the basic formation symbols are drawn in a sloppy manner…"

Mo Hua was already used to the steward's complaints and let them go in one ear and out the other.

Besides, the steward was talking about his "brother," which had nothing to do with him, since he didn't have a brother.

Mo Hua directly asked, "Can I exchange these for spiritual stones?"

The steward rolled his eyes at Mo Hua but still handed him four spiritual stones, saying, "Tell your brother to do better next time."

"Mm-hmm," Mo Hua nodded repeatedly, accepting the spiritual stones.

He bought pastries with the four spiritual stones, ate two pieces himself, and saved two, giving the rest to Big Tiger and the others.

When Big Tiger and the others saw so many pastries, they were deeply moved and asked Mo Hua if he wanted to eat some meat. They had seen that the elder kept a multicolored, fat duck.

Mo Hua felt a headache coming on and told them not to steal anymore. Otherwise, if the sect notified their parents, they would surely be beaten.

Big Tiger and the others reluctantly gave up the idea.

Afterward, Mo Hua continued drawing the Earth Solidifying Formation for over two months.

The more he practiced, the more proficient he became.

Before, drawing one formation would take nearly three hours, including the time spent resting to recover his spiritual consciousness. Now, it only took about an hour and a half.

This was partly because practice makes perfect, and the deeper his understanding of the formation symbols, the faster he could draw them. Additionally, the continuous consumption and recovery of his spiritual consciousness during practice strengthened it, making it more solid than before.

A stronger spiritual consciousness made drawing formations much easier.

The success rate of the Earth Solidifying Formation reached about 80-90%, and occasionally, all ten formations would succeed. Each successful formation earned him two spiritual stones. Over the past two months, after covering his daily expenses, Mo Hua had earned a total of 100 spiritual stones.

Mo Hua planned to save up 200 spiritual stones to buy a mid-level cultivation technique from the sect. After choosing it, he would tell his parents, otherwise, they would insist on paying for it and telling him to keep his own spiritual stones for cultivation or use them for marrying a Dao partner or buying a cave residence in the future.

(The End of This Chapter)