Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 1129: The Heavens Are Dead

After thoroughly "destroying all traces," Mo Hua still felt lingering fear.

"What kind of karma… was that just now? Why was that thing entangled with Mister Wu?"

"What is his true identity…"

Mo Hua furrowed his brow.

In his mind, he recalled the scene he had glimpsed during the earlier divination, thoughts churning.

"Chains of dragon bone shackling a massive fireball, blazing like the scorching sun, suspended in the sky…"

What did that mean?

Were the dragon bones being used to seal something?

Mo Hua's gaze grew slightly grave. He could sense an immense sealing power emanating from the dragon bones—someone had forcefully locked away that blazing sun-like karma, clearly not wanting others to peer into it.

"Which cultivator of great power left behind such a technique?"

The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.

"I peeked into that immense karmic web… will someone track me down through its traces?"

Even though he had acted decisively at the first sign of danger—destroying all the divination media and cutting off the ritual—he still wasn't at ease.

He already had enough troubles of his own.

He really didn't want to be targeted by yet another "ancient monster."

To be safe, Mo Hua summoned a fireball and reduced everything used in the divination—demon bones, fire basin, and other items—to black ash. Then, using a Clear Wind Technique, he scattered the ashes completely, finally feeling a bit more at ease.

Having done all this, Mo Hua couldn't help but sigh in his heart:

"Karma really is extremely dangerous…"

He had only just obtained this Great Wilderness Demon Bone Divination Art, and hadn't used it for more than a few days. Yet just trying to divine something about a dead person almost sent him tumbling into an abyss.

The scarcity of cultivators who study destiny arts probably had something to do with this.

One careless moment, and you could calculate yourself into death.

Involuntarily, the image of that karmic vision—the dragon bones binding a sun capable of burning the heavens—floated back into Mo Hua's mind. He shook his head unconsciously.

"Forget it. I can't think about this anymore…"

Even thinking is a form of karma.

Dwell on it too much, and someone might reverse-deduce their way to you.

His martial uncle was capable of such feats.

Mo Hua forced himself to forget it all. He then picked out a formation scroll and began practicing quietly, using it to calm and center his mind.

But after drawing for a while, Mo Hua's brush froze. His brows furrowed again.

"Can I really ignore it?"

Mister Wu was someone from the Great Wilderness.

That karma, while unclear in its specifics, was definitely related to the Great Wilderness.

And he himself was heading there next.

There was no way he could avoid this trouble.

Mo Hua knew himself well. Even if he didn't go looking for trouble…

…trouble would come looking for him.

Evil gods, heavenly demons—all of it seemed to follow him like a curse. He was the type of person who attracted calamity.

"I need to find a way to figure this out… I don't have to tangle with the karma directly, but at least I should understand what this is about, so I'm not caught off guard later…"

Mo Hua brooded silently. "In that case… should I try divining again?"

Then he shook his head.

"No, I can't divine it again. The earlier attempt already 'alerted the enemy.' Trying again would be like walking into a trap."

"Karmic destiny is like a pitch-black mist—whoever reveals themselves first dies first. So the same path must not be walked twice."

"Mister Wu's karmic thread is already severed. I absolutely cannot start from him again."

But if not from Mister Wu, then from whom?

Who else could he divine to gain insight into this matter's karma without being noticed?

Mo Hua thought for a moment but came up empty. He sighed:

"If I'd known, I would've left someone alive…"

Whether it was Mister Wu or the former sect master of Cang Wolf Sect—if even one of them had been kept alive, he could've skipped karmic arts altogether and just used formation-based torture to pry out a few clues.

Mo Hua felt a twinge of regret.

"That was too hasty…"

Sometimes, being too decisive in killing wasn't a good thing.

Strike too fast, and you miss out on important information.

"I wasn't always so ruthless… It's the Slaughter Qi's fault. It clouded my mind and made me impulsive."

Mo Hua reflected in his heart.

But it was too late for regret now.

Mister Wu and Sect Master Duan were already dead.

And Mister Wu's karma couldn't be divined anymore.

So what now?

Mo Hua closed his eyes and mentally retraced everything about the incident, searching for any thread of karma he could follow.

He didn't know how long had passed when suddenly a flash of insight struck—his eyes snapped open, glowing brightly.

"If I can't divine Mister Wu—then I'll divine myself!"

After all, the very start of this entire incident was his own feeling that something wasn't right, as though he had overlooked something important.

It was his own suspicion that Mister Wu was involved that led him to divine him in the first place.

So in other words, the initial cause was within himself.

If he could divine why he felt that sense of wrongness—what he had missed—then maybe he could still uncover some useful insight.

Mo Hua's eyes lit up. Without hesitation, he repeated his previous method: burning a wolf bone with phosphorescent flame, performing the demon bone divination again.

"What did I overlook… what did I overlook…" Mo Hua chanted in his heart.

The ghostly flame flickered. Lines surfaced on the wolf bone.

Karma began to circulate…

Faintly, Mo Hua once again saw a scene.

In the image was a dim room, with tables set on either side and glowing formation patterns on all the walls.

He stood alone in that room, staring dead ahead into a fog of the unknown—his face frozen in shock, as if he had witnessed something beyond comprehension…

"Is this… a future fragment?"

"What exactly… did I see that left me so stunned?"

Mo Hua frowned, unable to stop himself from continuing the deduction, wanting to know what his future self had seen.

But as soon as he touched that clump of unknown fog, the vision suddenly shattered—karma snapped, and all dissolved into green smoke.

Mo Hua's heart chilled. Without hesitation, he immediately incinerated all remaining media from the divination until nothing was left. Only then did he feel safe.

After that, he sank into deep thought again.

This last divination had followed a chain from cause to effect, predicting a scene he would one day witness.

And in that karmic glimpse, he had uncovered something—he had seen an "unknown" karmic truth, and had been visibly shaken by it.

But the problem remained…

"Just what… is that unknown karma?" "What exactly is this unknown karma?"

"How did I even come to discover this 'unknown' karma in the first place?"

"If I was the one who discovered it, then it must fall within the bounds of my knowledge and abilities…"

Mo Hua's brows furrowed deeply as he sank into further thought.

"That dark room earlier looked a bit familiar… could it have been… Mister Wu's secret chamber?"

"The glowing array patterns—were those the demon sigils in the chamber?"

"In that case, that mass of unknown mist corresponded exactly to… that empty altar?!"

The altar!

Realization struck Mo Hua like a bolt of lightning.

No wonder he had felt like he had forgotten or overlooked something.

As someone who had half a foot in the divine realm, Mo Hua was particularly sensitive to altars. Even an empty altar wouldn't escape his attention—he would always take the time to investigate it carefully.

But in that secret chamber, he had somehow unconsciously glossed over the altar.

"Something's not right…"

Mo Hua moved immediately. His figure flickered like flowing water as he made his way toward the forbidden grounds of Cang Wolf Mountain, circling around the paths until he reached the chamber.

The area around the chamber was deathly quiet—not a single Cang Wolf Sect member in sight.

This had been Mo Hua's specific instruction to Sect Master Zhao: no one was to approach the vicinity of the chamber.

Zhao had done well.

Mo Hua stepped inside the chamber.

Everything within remained as it was.

Of course, it had been thoroughly "looted" by Mo Hua before, so it was now completely empty, with nothing left behind.

What remained were only fragments of demon sigils scattered across the floor—and the barren altar.

Mo Hua swept his divine sense over the room—he found nothing unusual.

The altar was indeed empty.

At least… "On the current karmic level… it's 'empty'…"

That thought alone sent a chill down Mo Hua's spine.

He scanned the surroundings again and compared them with what he had seen during his divination—and found a single point of discrepancy.

"The formation."

Right now, the formation in the chamber was dim, damaged, and inactive.

But in the divined vision, the formation had been glowing.

That meant that in the future, at some point, he would activate the formation—and only then see the unknown karma.

The formation…

Mo Hua examined the formation carefully, beginning to deduce its structure. His expression gradually shifted.

These demon sigils were disorganized, scattered, lacking cohesion. He hadn't taken them seriously before.

But now that he looked closely, he realized that there was more to them than met the eye.

"Fragmented sigils… eagle sigils, tiger sigils, snake, deer, ox…"

"This is… the technique of Ten Thousand Beasts Transforming into Dragon?"

"And it's a variant system too—a divergent evolution of the technique, sharing roots with the Great Wilderness lineage… but the dragon it forms isn't a Azure Dragon…"

Mo Hua's heart sank. His expression grew solemn.

Ten Thousand Beasts Transforming into Dragon was a technique that extracted the essence of various demon sigils, merging them into a single array pattern—a dragon pattern.

It was a method of "forging a dragon."

One of Mister Tu's core schemes in the Qianxue region was precisely this—raising demon cultivators in the Valley of Ten Thousand Beasts, using them as materials to test the Four Symbols sigils, eventually piecing together a genuine "dragon pattern" through those sigils.

This was the essence of "dragon forging."

Mo Hua had always been fascinated by the array technique behind dragon forging and had been studying it diligently.

But it wasn't something one could master overnight. In a short time, results were hard to achieve.

He still hadn't reached the level where he could craft a true dragon pattern on his own through formation mastery.

Mo Hua focused his gaze, studying the fragmented array on the floor closely again. A breath of relief escaped him.

"Fortunately… it doesn't require actually forging a dragon…"

Which made sense—there were barely a handful of people in the world who could perform dragon forging.

So far, other than himself, only Mister Tu had done it.

And Mister Tu was already dead—blown to ashes by a formation.

Across the world, those with this skill could be counted on one hand.

The sigils in front of him weren't designed to forge a dragon—but rather seemed to form a "Dragon Sigil Lock".

Each demon sigil was like a puzzle piece.

Only by piecing the demon sigils together into a coherent dragon pattern could the array lock be undone, restoring the formation.

This kind of formation puzzle had a predefined "key."

Without the key, solving it would be exceedingly difficult—it required deep expertise in Four Symbols sigils, thorough familiarity with various demon sigil types, and a keen grasp of their interrelations and transformations.

But that was for other formation masters.

For Mo Hua—who had already been experimenting with re-integrating demon sigils and attempting to "forge" dragon patterns himself—it was child's play.

Mo Hua first shut the chamber doors, pointed a finger, and sealed them with a formation, ensuring no energy could leak out.

Only then did he begin calculating in his mind and began filling in the sigils.

Droplets of ink swirled at his fingertips, weaving into tiny streams that drifted through the air, gliding to the floor and solidifying into sigils of all shapes and sizes.

Some like ferocious tigers, some like greedy wolves, some like mighty boars, or massive serpents…

The fragmented demon sigil formation was being repaired piece by piece—at a speed visible to the naked eye—under Mo Hua's swift, precise strokes.

At his fingertips, the ink flowed like spirit, agile and alive.

Mo Hua's fingertip—ink coiling—moved with agile speed.

One formation sigil after another surged forth like a hundred beasts stampeding across the ground…

He didn't know how much time passed before all the demon sigils finally converged—scales, claws, and flesh fully formed. A karmic dragon, brimming with demonic energy, opened its eyes and lit up with radiance.

The surrounding space trembled violently. A dragon's roar echoed.

A scorching heatwave swept forth. On the previously empty altar, a powerful fluctuation burst out.

The dragon sigil lock was undone. Karma reversed. Dense mist surged upward.

As the mist dispersed, the shadow of an object appeared.

Mo Hua's pupils contracted. Fixing his gaze, he saw that atop the altar—now cleared of karmic veils—was a banner. Black background, golden trim, and at its center… an embroidered Azure Dragon.

On either side of the Azure Dragon banner were lines of ancient, archaic Great Wilderness script.

Mo Hua had previously studied Great Wilderness script at the Great Void Sect to learn the Gluttonous Spirit Remains Formation, so he could now recognize what these cryptic characters meant.

To the left of the dragon banner:

"The Heavens are dead."

To the right:

"The Wilderness shall rise."

Mo Hua gasped, a cold breath escaping him, his heart surging with violent shock.

"The Heavens are dead; the Wilderness shall rise!"

"Could this be… the rebel banner of the Great Wilderness?"

And almost at the exact moment Mo Hua broke the dragon seal, shattered the karma, and revealed the Great Wilderness Dragon Banner—

—the demon sigils on the floor surged into blazing demonic fire, converging toward the dragon banner. Beneath the flag, the flames refined themselves into two lines of blazing words:

"Pass on this Dragon Banner—Exterminate the Dao Court!"

At the same time, the dragon banner erupted with blinding light. The aura of the Azure Dragon descended like a beacon fire—

—transmitting this dragon's presence across Heaven and Earth.

Karma surged. The secrets of Heaven roiled.

Across the vast land, under the blue sky—the dragon's cry echoed.

Mo Hua was completely stunned.

In that moment, he vaguely realized what he had just done.

He had seemingly, with his own hands…

lit the Great Wilderness's "Rebellion Dragon Banner."

Thousands of miles away—

In the endless expanse of the Great Wilderness, inside the solemn Dragon Hall.

A towering giant sat upon a throne—massive body, awe-inspiring gaze, golden beard flowing, dragon armor draped across his shoulders. Easily five to six men tall.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

Within them—vertical pupils gleamed with a terrifying sharpness.

A black-robed witch-priest stepped forward, trembling as he knelt beneath the throne.

"Dragon Lord…"

"The Great Wilderness's Dragon Bone Lock… has been triggered. Heaven's secrets have been exposed…"

"The Dragon Banner of the Wilderness… has been lit by someone… The beacon has already spread…"

The giant in dragon armor remained cold and indifferent, his eyes filled with sovereign majesty that looked down upon all creation.

"Such is fate. It was only a matter of time."

He slowly stood up. The dragon armor clanged, and his towering figure exuded the unstoppable might of a humanoid dragon—capable of sweeping through armies.

His voice, like the tolling of a mighty bell, resounded with supreme authority:

"Spread my decree: From this day forward, the 3,000 clans of the Great Wilderness—shall no longer serve the Dao Court, nor honor the Son of Heaven."

"The Heavens are dead."

"The Wilderness shall rise."

"Exterminate the Dao Court!"

The black-robed witch-priest prostrated, trembling all over, his voice devout:

"Yes…"

Dao Court Central Realm –

Tianshu Pavilion

The Pavilion Elder, citing age, had recently stepped down to rest.

Currently, the acting Pavilion Master of Tianshu Pavilion was one of the elders from the Tianquan Pavilion, but most actual authority had fallen to the Astrologer-In-Chief—the Zhenzheng.

This was a trial.

If all went well, in fifty years—or a hundred—he would become the next Pavilion Elder.

At this moment, the Zhenzheng was sipping tea and contemplating his future position when suddenly—

—across the sky, a red streak of light blazed like burning fire, falling toward the Southern Wilderness.

As he watched that fiery trail, Zhenzheng's heart seized. An icy chill ran through his body.

"Yinghuo…?"

At that same moment—across the Nine Provinces, many Void Tribulation–level ancestors raised their eyes to the sky—

—to behold that blazing meteor.

To watch as it burned through the firmament.

South of Lì Prefecture, the sky blazed—firelight swallowing the heavens and blotting out the sun.

No one's gaze wasn't filled with shock.

Dao Calendar Year 20,037, Autumn

Yinghuo falls to the South.

Li Fire tears the sky.

Violates the Central Palace.

The omen of war arises.

The world begins to descend into chaos…

(End of this Chapter)