Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 592: Yimu and the Mountain of Gen

乙木 = "Yimu" (Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches term representing the second of the ten heavenly stems 乙 paired with the wood element 木)

艮山 = "Gen Mountain" (艮 being one of the eight trigrams representing mountain, often used in Taoist/Buddhist contexts)

Elder Xun stood with his hands behind his back. With just a single glance, the four formations on the array disc dissolved silently, leaving no trace behind.

He walked straight out of the Dao Transmission Pavilion, following the jade-paved avenue at the center of the Great Void Sect, heading alone toward the rear mountain.

Along the way, every disciple he passed bowed deeply and greeted:

"Greetings, Elder Xun."

Elder Xun nodded slightly in response, "Good."

When he reached the rear mountain, even the inner sect elders and true transmission elders all bowed respectfully:

"Greetings, Elder Xun."

Elder Xun merely gave a slight nod.

Back at the Elder's Residence, Elder Xun brewed a cup of tea and gave an instruction toward the door:

"Go fetch a copy of the background record for me."

A young Dao attendant outside cupped his hands, "Yes, Patriarch."

Then Elder Xun remained in his room—one cup of tea, one scroll—reading as he furrowed his brow in thought.

The Elder's Residence was empty and solemn, containing nothing else.

Only a table. A meditation cushion.

Even the tea had a bland and simple flavor.

But Elder Xun didn't mind in the slightest.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the Dao attendant returned, respectfully presenting a record to him.

Elder Xun took it with a nod, his cloudy gaze scanning across the document.

"Lizhou, second-tier Tongxian City, rogue cultivator…"

"Mid-lower grade spiritual roots…"

"A rogue cultivator… with mid-lower spiritual roots…"

Elder Xun showed a trace of surprise, then nodded slightly again. "Accepting talent regardless of origin… I suppose that's some progress."

He continued reading until he reached the "Specialty" section, where four characters were written: Skilled in Formations.

He paused thoughtfully, then nodded. "Indeed, not bad…"

A disciple from Lizhou, traveling ten thousand miles to study here...

"How rare and commendable…"

Elder Xun's expression softened with faint emotion, his gaze sharpening slightly—lost in unknown thoughts.

At the disciples' quarters, Mo Hua was eating, surrounded by a group of fellow disciples.

He had been at the sect for over a month. With his cute appearance, pleasant speech, and innocent demeanor, he had developed decent popularity and gotten familiar with many from Taiyi Residence.

Most of the disciples from noble families focused solely on cultivation and were also somewhat immature.

Though many were seventeen or eighteen, they were still inexperienced in the ways of the world, far from the age of chasing fame and fortune, so they remained straightforward and valued camaraderie among sectmates.

One disciple warned Mo Hua:

"Mo Hua, be careful."

"You've caught some serious attention…"

"Elder Xun is really petty, you know…"

Another disciple gestured for silence, "Shhh! Are you looking to die, speaking ill of Elder Xun?!"

"He won't hear me from here, right?"

"Can't say for sure…"

"And if he does hear, what then…"

"Well, you'll soon experience just how profound and boundless the Dao of Formations can be…"

"Yeah, Elder Xun will give you special attention, teach you those really, really hard formations. Your sea of consciousness will run dry, your hair will fall out, and you still won't master them…"

"That's… a good thing, right?!"

"Of course it is…"

Mid-sentence, one of the disciples froze—only now realizing that one voice in the conversation didn't quite match the tone of the others.

He turned quietly toward Mo Hua, at a loss for words.

Mo Hua asked in a small voice, "Elder Xun will teach very hard formations?"

The disciple gave him a strange look. "Mo Hua… why do you look like… you're excited?"

"No, no," Mo Hua shook his head quickly.

"Lies! Your eyes are literally glowing!"

"Exactly!"

"My eyes are always like this!" Mo Hua replied righteously.

"…"

"…But," a disciple asked with curiosity, "Mo Hua, how are your formations so good?"

Mo Hua replied shyly, "Are they? Just average…"

Someone, green with envy, muttered through clenched teeth:

"Modesty is good for progress, but excessive modesty deserves a beating!"

Mo Hua explained, "I'm only a bit better at formations. That's how I got admitted with mid-lower spiritual roots…"

"Mid-lower?!"

Everyone at the table was stunned.

"You have mid-lower spiritual roots?!"

"No wonder… I was wondering why your spiritual energy felt so faint…"

"Your blood vitality's a bit weak too…"

"Your Dao foundation isn't solid…"

"And you're kinda short…"

Mo Hua was not amused. "Okay, enough already…"

Spiritual energy and blood vitality were fine to bring up, but his height?! That's crossing a line!

The other disciples quickly gave awkward smiles.

Someone else frowned. "Wait… no, even if you're good at formations, with mid-lower roots, you shouldn't have been accepted…"

"Right? My clan's patriarch tried everything to squeeze someone with even upper-lower roots into the Great Void Sect and still failed…"

"If upper-lower won't cut it, then mid-lower…?"

"Mid-lower roots… entering one of the Eight Great Sects…"

One by one, the disciples turned to stare at Mo Hua with increasingly strange expressions.

Moments later, a group of disciples approached from a distance, stopping in front of Mo Hua. Their eyes were bright as they cupped their hands in greeting:

"From Qianzhou's Cheng Clan—Cheng Mo. Let's be friends!"

"From Lizhou's Situ Clan—I'm Situ Jian. Future top sword cultivator of the Nine Provinces! Pleased to meet you!"

"From Qianzhou's Wen Clan…"

"From Genzhou…"

…

Mo Hua was baffled.

He had thought that all those people approaching with such imposing momentum were coming to pick a fight.

But in the end… they were just here to make friends?

What the heck?

If he remembered correctly, hadn't he clearly said he had mid-lower grade spiritual roots? Not top-grade, right?

Could it be… the Great Void Sect's spiritual root rankings go in reverse?

Is mid-lower better than top-grade?

Mo Hua was completely confused.

Off in the distance, a few disciples were whispering among themselves. Though their voices were low, Mo Hua still picked up on their conversation.

"Why are you trying to befriend someone with mid-lower spiritual roots?"

"What do you know?"

"If he really was just mid-lower grade, how could he have entered the Great Void Sect at all?"

"Getting into the Great Void Sect? As if it were that easy!"

"Exactly."

"And let's be honest, for someone with mid-lower roots to enter one of the Eight Great Sects—either his cultivation talent defies the heavens, or… his background is terrifying!"

"Right… mid-lower, huh…"

"With such a shallow Dao foundation…"

"Think about it. Even like this, he still got in…"

"Then just how deep must his background be?! Just how powerful must his connections be!!"

The moment this thought crossed everyone's minds, they all looked at Mo Hua with newfound reverence.

"Probably some secret love child of a powerful cultivator. Might even be connected to one of the Great Void Patriarchs…"

"If that's the case, wouldn't his spiritual roots be better?"

"What do you know? Spiritual root inheritance isn't 100%. There are always anomalies."

"Parents with lower-grade roots can have kids with higher-grade ones. Even top-grade roots can sometimes produce mid-lower…"

"Just… very low probability, is all."

"Now that you put it that way… mid-lower might actually make sense…"

"Makes total sense…"

Mo Hua had a complicated expression, speechless. He emphasized:

"I really am just a rogue cultivator…"

The disciples paused, then all nodded earnestly, "Mhm, mhm."

But their faces said exactly otherwise—"We know what's really going on."

"Don't worry. We'll keep your secret…"

"Won't say a word…"

Mo Hua sighed, helpless.

Then another disciple, with a hint of concern, said:

"Mo Hua, even if your background… cough…"

That disciple spoke with great meaning: "Even if you're just a rogue cultivator…"

"…you still shouldn't offend Elder Xun. His seniority is extremely high. Even the Sect Master might not be able to sway him."

"You've only just joined. Your time in the sect is long. If you upset Elder Xun and end up punished with drawing formations day in and day out, life's gonna get rough…"

Mo Hua nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

But in his heart, he was wondering,

"I wonder if Elder Xun will 'teach' me some even harder formation techniques…"

Right now, he couldn't even find any formation that felt challenging to learn.

His divine sense had plateaued at fourteen lines and hadn't advanced for a long time…

Elder Xun…

Mo Hua's eyes lit up slightly, and he began to plot in his heart:

"Maybe tomorrow in class… I should just nap again?"

"See if Elder Xun punishes me with something even more 'difficult' to draw?"

The next day, Mo Hua discovered he didn't need to nap at all—

Because Elder Xun had indeed given him special treatment…

During class, Elder Xun handed out formation notes to every student. The material covered the essentials of a Grade-One Nine-Line Gold Fusion Formation, complete with diagrams.

Everyone got one—except Mo Hua.

Instead, Elder Xun personally brought a different handout to Mo Hua and solemnly said:

"Learning formations must be solid. Foundation is everything."

"The greater your talent, the more important your fundamentals."

"You will study this."

All the other disciples looked at Mo Hua with eyes full of sympathy.

Mo Hua kept a straight face… but inside, he was thrilled.

"New formation to learn!"

He quickly opened the handout and saw it was a dual-element (metal and fire) Grade-One Five Element Compound Formation.

Mo Hua had never seen this one before, but the structure wasn't complex. Plus, it was a Five Element Formation—he could see through it at a glance.

It was technically harder.

But only a little harder…

Barely-a-snack level difficulty.

Mo Hua was a little disappointed but still carefully read through the entire handout. He noted a few things he hadn't learned before and then began drawing the formation.

While Elder Xun lectured at the front, Mo Hua was drawing in the back.

By the time Elder Xun finished and the other disciples began trying to draw the formation, Mo Hua had already finished. He sat there leisurely, watching everyone else struggle—scratching their heads, chewing on their brushes.

Elder Xun's eye twitched slightly.

But his expression remained stern, and he said nothing.

Next class, the other disciples were still working on Grade-One Five Element Formations.

Mo Hua got something harder—this time, a three-element compound formation.

Still Grade-One.

Mo Hua, as always, finished quickly…

And from then on, every new formation he received was a little harder than the last…

Just a little…

After four or five rounds of increasing difficulty…

Mo Hua finally encountered unfamiliar array patterns.

It belonged to a formation system related to the Five Elements, but distinct from it:

The Eight Trigrams Array System!

The Five Elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth.

The Eight Trigrams—Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Dui—represent Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire, Mountain, Thunder, Marsh, and Wind, respectively.

While some parts of the Eight Trigrams system overlap with the Five Elements, the rules it touches upon and the Dao principles it involves are broader and more complex.

Moreover, Eight Trigram formations incorporate the imagery of Yin and Yang, Two Forms, and Six Lines. While they don't directly invoke Yin-Yang forces or Six-Yao interactions, these concepts form their skeletal structure, from which entirely different formation logic is derived atop the Five Element foundation.

By comparison, Five Element arrays are a bit simpler but more universally applicable—also the most common type in the cultivation world.

(System notice: This chapter's not over—click "Next Page" to continue!)

But Eight Trigram arrays are more variable, broader in scope, and deeper in inner logic.

Mo Hua had read about them in his starter textbook, "A Concise Introduction to Formations", distributed when he joined the Great Void Sect.

He read that book every spare moment he had. In less than half a month, he had practically worn it out.

Unfortunately, it was just a beginner-level book—the content was far too basic.

It barely contained the most rudimentary Eight Trigram concepts. There were no full Eight Trigram formation patterns, and no complete formations to learn.

Even if Mo Hua wanted to study them—he couldn't.

But now—"food" had been served straight to his mouth!

The handout Elder Xun gave him contained a compound formation that combined both Five Elements and Eight Trigrams.

This type of compound array was completely new to Mo Hua. It merged two distinct schools of array logic.

One side: a Five Element formation—Yimu Formation (乙木陣).

The other: an Eight Trigram formation—Gen Mountain Formation (艮山陣).

Thus, the full name of this compound array was:

Yimu-Gen Mountain Compound Formation (乙木艮山複陣)

Among the core structures, there were a few additional simple formations and scattered formation patterns, but they weren't important.

Based on his experience, Mo Hua guessed this Yimu-Gen Mountain formation was likely used on mountains to nurture spiritual trees, herbs, or wood-type spirit plants.

Using "Gen" to stabilize the mountain, and "Wood" to nourish life.

Since Mo Hua had never really studied Eight Trigram formation patterns before, he would now have to start learning from scratch—beginning with the "Gen" branch.

A new formation! A new formation pattern!

Mo Hua's eyes lit up, and he immediately dove into the research.

Elder Xun was lecturing at the front when he noticed, from the corner of his eye, that Mo Hua had a serious little face and was earnestly studying the handout. He couldn't help but nod slightly.

But a moment later, Elder Xun paused.

He realized that Mo Hua seemed to be learning the Gen-patterns of the Eight Trigrams from scratch…

Elder Xun was a bit surprised.

"Has he never studied Eight Trigram formations?"

"That can't be…"

"Even if he hasn't… should he really need to learn the array patterns from the ground up?"

Elder Xun frowned.

"Who taught this child array formations? Why is he so heavily skewed toward one path?"

His mastery of Grade-One Five Element formations was extremely solid.

But aside from that, his foundation in other formation schools was likely very shallow…

If he hadn't even touched Eight Trigram patterns, then what about the even more obscure types—like Three Talents, Four Symbols, Six Yao, Seven Stars formations?

Elder Xun shook his head in pity.

"Excellent aptitude… but such a weak foundation. Narrow vision too."

Whoever had taught him must've focused only on cramming him full of high-level Five Element formations, resulting in this lopsided development…

Elder Xun sighed inwardly but didn't say anything.

He continued teaching as usual. Since Mo Hua was self-studying, he let him be.

At the end of class, the other disciples turned in their assigned "homework."

Mo Hua, however, didn't move. He was still studying—still attempting to draw the Yimu-Gen Mountain Formation.

Elder Xun didn't scold him. He just waited patiently.

The other disciples glanced over at Mo Hua—still furiously scribbling under Elder Xun's "punishment"—and sighed with sympathy.

But there was nothing they could do, so they quietly left.

Now, only Elder Xun and Mo Hua remained in the Transmission Hall.

Elder Xun watched Mo Hua, still feeling a bit of pity.

But after the time it takes for one incense stick to burn, Mo Hua suddenly set his brush down, let out a long breath, and respectfully handed over his formation paper.

Elder Xun was stunned.

This kid… is handing something in?

If you can't finish, just keep practicing. Take it home, refine it, then turn it in later…

What could he possibly be handing in now?

A rough, half-formed mess of random strokes and broken lines?

Slightly irritated, Elder Xun took the paper and looked—

His eyelid twitched violently.

Yimu-Gen Mountain Compound Formation…

It was a clean, flawless, stroke-perfect diagram of the Yimu-Gen Mountain Formation!

Elder Xun's pupils shrank.

"He… actually drew it?!"

From learning the Gen Trigram patterns for the first time, in under an hour, he had drawn a compound formation he'd never seen before—one that included an Eight Trigram structure…

Learned and drew it on the spot?!

Elder Xun's hand trembled slightly. His expression as he looked at Mo Hua became complicated.

"You…"

He hesitated, then finally asked:

"You've studied Eight Trigram formations before?"

Mo Hua shook his head honestly, "No, this disciple only knows Five Element formations…"

(And a few Absolute Formations—but those didn't fall under the Five Element category, and weren't something he could just casually bring up…)

Elder Xun was silent for a long while before finally nodding slowly.

"…I understand. You may go."

Mo Hua bowed respectfully:

"Many thanks, Elder. This disciple takes his leave."

After saying that, he let out a small sigh of relief. And because he had just learned a brand-new formation, he was in a cheerful mood. His steps were light, and he held his head high as he left the Transmission Hall.

Inside the hall,

Elder Xun stood silently, staring at Mo Hua's Yimu-Gen Mountain Formation, his heart turbulent and unsettled.

A long while later, he let out a quiet sigh and muttered to himself:

"Looks like… I'll have to change my teaching methods…"

"Let's see… just how fast this child can really learn…"

(End of this Chapter)