Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 1135: Massacre of the City

"Master Mo, what exactly is going on?"

Back at the inn, Elder Ji cautiously asked Mo Hua.

Though he was usually indulgent and pleasure-seeking, after years of mingling with all kinds of cultivators, his instincts were sharp. He could tell something was very wrong.

Mo Hua had no intention to explain, but seeing Elder Ji looking uneasy and restless, he reconsidered. After laying down an array to isolate sound and sight, he slowly said:

"In this relay town… every single cultivator is fated to die."

Elder Ji's face changed drastically.

"Then… the city gates…"

"The city's sealed," Mo Hua replied.

Elder Ji quickly said, "Should we force our way out?"

Mo Hua shook his head.

"There are several Golden Core cultivators guarding it, at least mid-stage. If we force our way out, we'll be hunted down—and there's unknown karmic backlash involved."

"Mid-stage Golden Core?!"

Elder Ji was horrified.

Even the sect master of Cang Wolf Sect was only at the early Golden Core stage, and for years, he'd been the only Golden Core in all of Cang Wolf City.

Yet here, in this small relay town, there were multiple Golden Core mid-stagers just guarding the gates?

Elder Ji turned to Mo Hua.

"Then, Master Mo…?"

Mo Hua thought for a moment and said:

"I'll go outside and observe. Stay in the inn. Don't wander."

Elder Ji hesitated, then nodded. "Yes."

Mo Hua left the inn and strolled alone onto the street.

The street bustled with noise and crowds.

Most cultivators were going about their day as usual, completely unaware that their glabellas had turned dark… and death was approaching.

"Golden Core cultivators sealing the city…"

Mo Hua furrowed his brows, deep in thought.

If it were just about saving himself, he could easily hide or break through the formations. None of that would be difficult for him.

But watching a whole city of cultivators walk into death—he couldn't do nothing.

Even if he couldn't save everyone, he could try to save some.

The problem was… time was too short. The enemy was unknown. The situation, unclear. Without prior warning or preparation, many of his skills were useless here.

On top of that, all the cultivators in this town were strangers.

As an outsider with little influence, Mo Hua couldn't mobilize them.

"I can only do my best and leave the rest to fate."

Mo Hua sighed quietly. Then, blending into the crowd, he inconspicuously walked a full circle around the city wall, memorizing the terrain and formation layout.

Taking advantage of the inattention around him, he concealed himself in shadow, used divine sense to guide his brush, and began dismantling formation cores and sketching new arrays.

But time was simply too short.

This trap in the relay town had clearly been set up long ago. The formations were solid and thorough.

No matter how skilled Mo Hua was, even he couldn't alter the formation layout of the entire city in just an hour or two.

Especially not while avoiding detection.

An hour and a half passed. The street crowds thinned. The city guards rotated shifts.

Several Golden Core cultivators began patrolling the area.

Mo Hua knew that was all he could do.

Sighing, he disguised his intent, blended back into the crowd, and returned to the inner city, heading back to the inn.

Once inside, Mo Hua shut himself in, used a demonic bone divination to get a rough prediction, then calculated further with heavenly deduction to verify the karma.

Then he called for Elder Ji and said:

"Tonight, something will happen. During the chaos, we'll…"

Before he could finish, Mo Hua's pupils suddenly shrank as he looked at Elder Ji.

Elder Ji, who had previously shown no sign of death, now had a jet-black glabella.

And Mo Hua clearly remembered—he'd been fine before.

Mo Hua fell silent, then asked sternly:

"Where did you just go? What did you do?"

Elder Ji's gaze flickered, but he still managed a grin.

"Young Master, what could I possibly have done? Didn't you tell me to wait here? I haven't moved an inch…"

Mo Hua's eyes stayed calm.

"Tell me the truth. Otherwise… you may not survive."

Elder Ji's face paled. His expression wavered. But in the end, he hardened his heart and chuckled awkwardly:

"How could I lie to you?"

"Besides… in this backwater place, where could I even go?"

Mo Hua stared at him silently, sighing inwardly.

"No matter what happens tonight—stay close to me."

Elder Ji nodded repeatedly. "Understood."

Mo Hua said no more. He returned to his room, sat cross-legged on the bed, and closed his eyes to rest and plan his next move.

Night fell, and lanterns were lit along the streets.

The lanterns glowed red—dim and hazy—casting a bloody hue on the streets.

Another hour passed. The time was now the Hai hour (9–11 PM).

The entire town had quieted. Most cultivators seemed to have gone to sleep.

Inside his room, Mo Hua opened his eyes.

He released his divine sense—and within it, he sensed seven or eight concealed, powerful auras roaming throughout the city.

Every one of them was Golden Core.

They clustered together, then scattered across various key points of the city.

In the dark, eerie whispers began to rise.

Chilling yin energy surged from all directions.

Crimson arrays slowly lit up, encasing the entire relay town.

The ground trembled slightly, as if something was crawling up from beneath.

Mo Hua's powerful divine sense could clearly sense it: the corrupt, rotten waves of evil energy.

But the rest of the city's cultivators—immersed in a peaceful night—remained completely unaware of the coming disaster.

Until…

Cries of horror echoed through the darkness:

"Walking corpses!"

"Monsters! Someone's cultivating corpse dao—those bastards, I'll—!"

"No, wait—copper zombies?!"

"Tier-3 Copper Zombies!"

"—RUN!!"

The screams began to spread. Beams of light from spiritual weapons and techniques lit up the night sky.

But stronger still were the sinister red lights… and the foul stench of rotting corpses.

Amid the chaos, the roars of walking corpses, iron corpses, and copper zombies mixed together with the gruesome sounds of flesh being torn and bones being chewed.

The entire town had become a corpse-path purgatory.

The demonic cultivators had begun slaughtering the city.

Under the Dao Court's rule and righteous laws, "city massacres" had been banned for thousands of years.

Yet now, with the chaos in the Great Wilderness, and war spreading far and wide, these atrocities were returning to the lands of Jiuzhou.

And they were happening here—in Mo Hua's homeland, Lizhōu.

The plot behind it all became clear.

Taking advantage of the war, the demonic cultivators had disguised the relay town as a peaceful sanctuary—drawing in cultivators from nearby, especially Foundation Establishment ones, who were rich in cultivation and wealth. Perfect prey.

As the population grew, the city gave off the illusion of prosperity—luring in more and more cultivators, becoming a supposed "safe haven."

But it was all a lie.

Once the city had been fattened up, powerful Golden Core demonic cultivators sealed it—and began a brutal, methodical slaughter. Every soul inside was turned into a zombie.

The whole process was seamless and hidden.

And with the chaos of war in Lizhou and fate itself clouded, even Mo Hua—who had mastered karmic deduction—had only sensed it half a day in advance.

As for ordinary cultivators trapped inside—they had no chance. By the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late.

The iron and copper zombies had begun… eating people.

Seven or eight Golden Core experts, countless corpse cultivators, and waves of undead… all unleashed upon the city.

The demonic cultivators had truly gone all-in.

As for Mo Hua… there wasn't much he could do.

He was an array master—expert in formation arts, which required preparation and foresight.

The more setup time, the more powerful the array.

But without that time—his strength was crippled.

Granted, Mo Hua wasn't a normal array master. His divine sense allowed him to construct formations on the spot.

But at Foundation Establishment, even the best on-the-fly arrays could only kill enemies in his own realm. They were no threat to Golden Core cultivators.

He couldn't use Divine Thought Sword yet.

And even if he could, he couldn't defeat seven or eight Golden Core demonic cultivators.

His "Demon-Seeding Dao Heart" also required setup and dialogue.

But in a massacre like this, those cultivators weren't interested in talking—they just wanted to kill.

"Foundation Establishment… is still too low of a realm…"

Mo Hua sighed deeply, face solemn.

Then he heard the thumping of steps.

Screams of terror and rage from cultivators.

And the sound of blood splashing.

A foul stench crept from downstairs, seeping upward.

The stairs trembled. Something was clawing at the walls.

Moments later, the windows and doors burst open— Several fierce iron corpses charged in.

Mo Hua raised his hand, conjured fireballs like molten lava, and in a flash, blasted their heads into charred lumps.

The iron corpses dropped dead on the spot.

Mo Hua moved immediately—he knew this inn was no longer safe.

But as he passed by the next room, he noticed it was completely empty—Elder Ji was already nowhere to be seen.

Mo Hua frowned.

Just now, he had been wholly focused on tracking the movement of the hidden Golden Core corpse cultivators and hadn't noticed when Elder Ji had left.

He thought about it for a moment—whether Elder Ji lived or died really had nothing to do with him. He couldn't be bothered.

Mo Hua hid his presence, suppressed his aura, and quietly slipped out of the inn alone.

Halfway down the road, though, he let out a sigh. He couldn't help but still care a little.

They had traveled together, after all. That created a sliver of connection.

Mo Hua flicked his fingers from within his sleeve, producing a copper coin. He activated his heavenly deduction to calculate Elder Ji's whereabouts.

After a moment, karmic energy stirred.

Mo Hua identified the direction and turned down a street to the right.

The sights along the way were horrific.

The tragedy of the relay town had truly begun.

One cultivator after another fell beneath the claws of corpse poison, then were torn beyond recognition by zombies.

All Mo Hua could do was silently hurl fireballs from the shadows, incinerating some of the corpse cultivators and zombies to ease the pressure on the surviving cultivators.

And so, killing as he went, he followed the karmic thread forward.

Eventually, he reached a lavish pavilion draped in green veils, its doors and windows tightly shut.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Mo Hua broke through the doors and entered. Inside was a room filled with pink decor and a cloying, heavy fragrance.

Downstairs in the main hall, the scene was utter chaos—men and women tangled together, whispering intimately, their clothing in disarray.

They were all utterly immersed in lust and had no idea death was looming.

Mo Hua ascended to the second floor.

It was filled with pink boudoirs, their doors tightly shut. From inside came the muffled, breathy sounds of carnal indulgence.

Mo Hua frowned and walked down the pink corridor until he came to one particular boudoir.

The door was also tightly shut.

With a wave of his hand, ink marks appeared in the air, forming an array pattern that dissolved the seal and opened the door.

A wave of even more pungent and decadent floral fragrance spilled out.

Holding his breath, Mo Hua stepped into the room—and saw Elder Ji.

Elder Ji lay on the bed, his face pale as wax, bare-chested. His skin was loose and clung to bone, all the flesh seemingly drained from his body. His lower half bled profusely, soaking half the bed.

When he saw Mo Hua, he gave a bitter smile and croaked out hoarsely:

"She told me… her mother died young, her father was a gambling addict, she had a younger brother to raise… a tragic beauty with no choice but to sell her dignity for survival…"

"Her eyes were proud… but under me, her expression was humiliated…"

"Maybe she was too beautiful. I actually believed it…"

"Crap like this—I've heard it my whole life. And I believed it. I actually believed it…"

"I thought she was different. I wanted to take care of her. Be good to her… for life…"

Elder Ji's mouth twisted into a self-mocking smile.

But the movement pulled at his injuries, and his remaining life force drained even faster. His complexion stayed pale, but his glabella had turned pitch-black, like a black hole.

Elder Ji seemed to realize something.

He slowly lifted his head, staring blankly at Mo Hua with a complicated expression:

"Young Master Mo… in the end, nothing's more important than your life… I should've focused on cultivation. I should've lived… and cultivated well…"

"Young Master Mo… I…"

Two hot tears slid down his cheeks—then went cold.

And Elder Ji's life force ended.

Mo Hua stood in silence for a long while, a hint of sorrow in his eyes.

He stepped forward and gently closed Elder Ji's eyes, still full of grievance.

Lowering his gaze, he saw a blood-red plum blossom mark on Elder Ji's chest.

The mark was vibrant red, charming yet sinister, with a seductive energy that could sway the soul.

"Hehuan…"

Elder Ji had died from essence-harvesting—and a particularly vicious kind.

This extreme form of dual cultivation only existed within the Hehuan Demon Sect.

That flower mark was their signature.

Mo Hua stared long at Elder Ji's corpse, his thoughts complicated, then turned and walked out of the room.

By now, the pink air in the boudoir had turned foul and depraved.

The moaning of men, once laced with pleasure, was now filled with pain and despair.

The women's laughter, once flirtatious and sweet, had become shrill, vicious, and demonic.

As the pink mist thickened, the entire pavilion transformed into a Hehuan purgatory, drenched in debauchery and agony.

Mo Hua's eyes turned cold as he descended to the main hall.

It too had become decadent and blood-soaked.

The entire building seemed isolated from the outside world.

One half was pink. The other—blood red.

Outside, zombies were eating people.

Inside, the women of Hehuan Sect were also "eating" people.

Two demonic sects—both using humans as sacrificial offerings to glorify their own wicked paths.

And among the carnage, at the very center of the hall, there was one person sitting calmly at a table, drinking alone.

He was the only one without women clinging to him.

A white-faced young master, refined and composed, sipping wine leisurely amidst the chaos.

Before his eyes lay a scene of lust and gore intertwined—yet in his gaze there was only quiet appreciation, devoid of any lust.

As if what he saw… were nothing but a bunch of fornicating corpses.

Mo Hua had met this white-faced young master once before.

"Young Master Shi…"

Mo Hua's gaze narrowed as he watched Shi from the shadows.

And Shi, as if sensing something, suddenly waved his hand—summoning white corpse qi, which coalesced into claw-shaped tendrils and swept through the space around Mo Hua.

"White corpse qi?"

Mo Hua's pupils shrank. His figure flickered, dodging the corpse qi claws, and began to appear from concealment.

Shi focused his eyes on Mo Hua and recognized him—somewhat surprised.

"You?"

Mo Hua said nothing.

Shi's brows furrowed slightly.

The two stared at each other in silence.

Just then, a few female cultivators from the Hehuan Sect, upon seeing Mo Hua's handsome and refined face, couldn't restrain their lustful desires. Like seductive snake-spirits, they slithered over to him.

Mo Hua casually flicked out a few fireballs, burning them into charcoal on the spot.

Young Master Shi's pupils contracted slightly.

Clearly only at the Foundation Establishment realm, yet his fireball technique was so refined and potent...

Moreover—within the fireballs, there was an incredibly pure and lethal baleful aura?

Was he also of the demonic path? A direct disciple of the Demonic Slaughter Sect?

Young Master Shi's pale eyes locked onto Mo Hua, staring harder and harder, feeling increasingly puzzled—and increasingly uneasy.

Back at the inn, he'd only given Mo Hua a passing glance and hadn't paid him much mind.

But now that he examined him more closely, he realized Mo Hua's aura was murky and hidden in mist—completely unreadable.

And that face—like it was painted from jade—was nothing short of stunning.

"Who… exactly are you?" Young Master Shi asked coldly.

Mo Hua still didn't answer. At the same time, his figure began to fade—clearly not intending to continue this confrontation.

But just as Mo Hua was about to fully vanish into concealment, Shi snorted coldly, flipped his hand, and took out a golden bell, gently shaking it.

From the ground, a golden coffin suddenly emerged.

On the surface of the coffin, corpse-path runes unlocked—and from within, a corpse with a golden sheen stepped out.

It was a Copper Corpse, but its limbs and claws had already been coated with a thin layer of gold.

Copper turned Gold.

In the corpse cultivation world, this was an exceedingly rare and noble grade of zombie—something one could only dream of obtaining.

And among Foundation Establishment corpse cultivators, controlling one was practically unheard of.

Shi summoned the corpse, his gaze cold and arrogant. He pointed toward Mo Hua and commanded:

"Kill!"

The gold-sheathed Copper Corpse's eyes flared open. A stinking wind rose as it turned into a golden streak, lunging directly at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua, halfway into concealment, frowned slightly.

He'd originally planned to dodge with movement arts—but for some reason, the moment he saw the zombie, a surge of violence erupted from the depths of his soul. It was as if the mere presence of such a lowly corpse creature had provoked him.

His face twisted into something terrifying. His pupils narrowed into vertical slits, glowing with a gloomy bronze hue.

Within his eyes—reflections of mountains of corpses and oceans of blood appeared.

Mo Hua stared directly at the Copper Corpse. His gaze became kingly, and he coldly rebuked:

"Begone!"

The previously ferocious Copper Corpse, upon hearing that word, suddenly felt as though it had been struck by the laws of Heaven punishing unholy abominations—a deep, instinctive fear flooded it.

It dared not touch Mo Hua. As if even brushing against him would be a grave sin—an offense against a sovereign.

Frozen in place, the corpse didn't move a muscle.

Young Master Shi's expression changed drastically, disbelief flashing across his face.

Meanwhile, Mo Hua shot him a glance—and in his heart, killing intent stirred.

This Shi fellow had an unusual background, could wield white corpse qi, and was clearly no ordinary demonic cultivator.

Normally, Mo Hua wouldn't casually kill—but a high-status demonic cultivator like this? He was worth breaking the rules for.

Mo Hua brought two fingers together, conjured a fireball, and silently moved his divine sense. He began inscribing a hidden array on the ground, preparing to kill Shi right then and there.

But at that moment—his heart suddenly surged with a sense of danger.

Mo Hua's pupils contracted as he looked at Shi's forehead—where a blood-red talisman was faintly concealed in the center of his fate palace.

He had seen that talisman before.

"Undying Demon Talisman…"

(End of this Chapter)