Chapter 1059: The Killing Array Master
Cultivators forming their Core need to first forge their Life Treasure.
Mo Hua's situation was special. His foundation of flesh and spirit was shallow, so ordinary Life Treasures simply didn't suit him.
Even if he forced it, he could only barely form a mediocre Core.
His future cultivation would fall further behind others. Compared to other prodigies, he would lag much more, with almost no chance of remedy.
Therefore, he had to abandon the common treasure forms and take a different path—using array formations to refine his Life Treasure, which also matched his identity as an Array Master.
But choosing this Life Array Formation was also extremely difficult.
Mo Hua initially planned to forge the Life Array based on the Four Symbols Azure Dragon Divine Beast Formation Diagram of the Great Wilderness royal family.
This array started as an evil formation created by the Ten Thousand Demons Valley, branded onto the Great Wilderness royal descendant Shen Tu Ao. After purification by the dragon vein, it was fully formed, but was ultimately intercepted by Master Tu, who even stripped off the entire human skin.
The Azure Dragon skin diagram is currently in Master Tu's hands, and Mo Hua couldn't get it for now.
Deriving it himself through demon marks to deduce dragon patterns was very difficult and time-consuming — who knew how long it would take.
Moreover, after careful thought, Mo Hua realized the Azure Dragon Formation really wasn't suitable for him.
Although having a dragon tattoo on his body would be very cool and powerful, his weak fleshly body couldn't withstand the overwhelming backlash of dragon power.
He came from a humble background and lacked the royal bloodline of the Great Wilderness. This Azure Dragon Formation heritage wasn't meant for him to bear.
Aside from the Azure Dragon Formation Diagram, the only clue now was the Wild Ancient Array Diagram that the Second Elder mentioned.
The Great Wilderness clan had a long legacy.
The Second Elder was an ancient shaman of the Great Wilderness clan and knew many secrets; his words should have some basis.
But no one knew exactly what kind of formation the long-sealed Wild Ancient Array Diagram was — it had even once been banned by the Great Wilderness royal family, and Master Tu was also unaware of its details.
Mo Hua was both curious and eager, but then furrowed his brow.
He didn't know where Yu'er was, nor where Master Tu had hidden the human-faced goat-horned skeletal evil god statue.
In this huge evil god temple, searching alone for one person or one statue was like finding a needle in a haystack — the hope seemed too slim.
Moreover, this dungeon was a death trap. Without Master Tu opening the door, he couldn't escape.
Even if he escaped, outside there was the Ascended Old Demon eyeing him greedily.
Countless Golden Core demons also lusted after him.
Demons running rampant, enemies everywhere.
Besides these, there was an even more troublesome thing.
Mo Hua touched the tooth-bone circlet on his head.
His previous panic wasn't entirely feigned. Master Tu's white bone circlet really sealed his divine sense, making it impossible to project his divine awareness.
Master Tu was right: sealing his divine sense was equivalent to sealing all his means.
But still…
"Great Wilderness sealing treasure… is that really necessary…"
Mo Hua muttered quietly.
He was just a Foundation Establishment cultivator; did Master Tu have to use a Great Wilderness treasure to seal him?
This Master Tu was really generous…
Mo Hua sighed softly.
So far, some of his predictions had come true.
Even alone, Master Tu didn't dare kill him.
But other objective circumstances deviated from his expectations.
Namely, Master Tu took him far too seriously and guarded him much more strictly than he thought.
Now, his physical body was imprisoned.
His divine sense was sealed in the sea of consciousness.
Outside, demons were rampant, and the Arhatian Blood Sacrifice Grand Array covered the sky and earth.
In this situation, he could do nothing — he was almost truly trapped in a dead end.
Mo Hua frowned, thinking for a long time, but still found no good solution.
For now, he could only wait, wait for the situation to change, for a turning point.
The evil god wanted to descend into the world using the Arhatian Blood Sacrifice Grand Array, acting so arrogantly and defiant, surely provoking the wrath of all forces in Qianxue, even the central Dao Court, resulting in powerful suppression.
With righteous and evil forces clashing fiercely, such an intense situation must bring huge changes.
Among those changes would be his opportunity.
So, he must be patient and wait.
But before that, he must find a way to break the seal on the "white bone circlet" on his head.
Otherwise, with his divine sense sealed and all his skills "disabled," even if an opportunity came, he could only watch helplessly.
Mo Hua calmed down, retracted his divine sense, and began probing himself, studying the white bone circlet's seal.
Master Tu hadn't explained the circlet's origin clearly, only saying it was a treasure forged by a Great Wilderness expert thousands of years ago.
But Mo Hua guessed its core was probably a very advanced divine sealing array formation.
It could absorb divine marrow and purify divine sense into pure gold, sealing it completely — indicating the array's level must be extremely high.
Even a god might be sealed by it.
But the problem was, Mo Hua wasn't an ordinary god, and he might not even be defined as a "god."
Gods were born with innate divine powers.
Mo Hua's divine sense was god-like but was cultivated by himself.
His "god" was also an anomaly who could continuously comprehend the heavenly Dao, learn arrays, and use divine sense to form array formations.
Almost no one knew this except the evil god incarnate he had "devoured."
While Mo Hua was continuously trying introspection, communicating with his consciousness, sensing the white bone circlet's seal, chaos surged in the Qianxue state border; the bloody storm grew fiercer and spread outward, pulling more state borders and cultivators into the turmoil.
The Arhatian Blood Sacrifice Grand Array was a quasi-third-grade grand array, affecting no more than the fifth-grade Qianxue border.
But all third-grade and below surrounding areas were almost stained with blood, slowly being devoured by the Blood Sacrifice Array.
The blood-red horizon became increasingly vivid.
Within the blood color, terrifying evil thoughts stirred restlessly.
Under the surging evil thoughts and blood covering, cultivators from both righteous and demonic sides broke out into constant battles.
More and more scattered cultivators or ordinary ones died at the hands of the demonic path, then were transformed into zombies or iron corpses by corpse cultivators of the Yin Corpse Valley.
The Demonic Sword Sect slaughtered cultivators, sacrificing to the demonic sword.
The Demon Cultivators of the Ten Thousand Demons Mountain began devouring human flesh, leaving limbs scattered everywhere.
The Blood Refining Sect's cultivators started sucking blood, transforming people into "blood slaves."
The Joyful Sect captured young boys and girls in forests and wilds, using dual cultivation techniques to squeeze them into human corpses.
…
Various bloody and brutal atrocities occurred without end.
Various kinds of bloodshed and cruelty abound without end.
Likewise, more and more demonic cultivators are dying at the hands of the Qianxue clan sects and the Dao Court officers.
In terms of straightforward strength, the righteous forces in the Qianxue provincial domain are much stronger than the demonic cultivators.
Not to mention many Dongxu Ancestors and Feather-Transformed Immortals are stationed within the fifth-grade Qianxue provincial domain.
If it weren't for the evil formation only spreading within the second and third-grade provincial domains, limited by the Heavenly Dao, these terrifyingly powerful cultivators—once manifesting their Dongxu forms, flying through the skies and tunneling through the earth—could wipe out the evil god's minions and thousands upon thousands of demonic cultivators in an instant.
But under the current situation, they simply cannot exert their full power.
Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators are the main force in this Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice slaughter battle.
That is why the battle is so fiercely deadlocked.
The righteous and demonic sides constantly tug and carve territories along the boundary of the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Outside the Blood Sacrifice Formation, the righteous forces are stronger. As the battle intensifies and the situation heats up, the defensive lines of all provincial domains shrink, and most scattered cultivators gather inside the Immortal City to avoid the slaughter by various demonic cultivators.
The demonic cultivators find it increasingly difficult to create massive massacres and seize territory.
Inside the Blood Sacrifice Formation, however, the righteous cultivators are likewise no match for the demonic cultivators.
Even if they manage to gain the upper hand temporarily, and even breach the formation to kill some demonic cultivators, they must quickly withdraw.
Because within the Blood Sacrifice Formation, blood-tinged ley lines flow.
Within these ley lines dwell countless flesh-and-blood demons and invisible evil spirits. Once engulfed by the flesh demons or tainted by the intangible evil spirits, even late-stage Golden Core great cultivators risk corruption and demise.
For all these reasons, the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Formation has become a formidable barrier.
The situation has thus fallen into a kind of brutal but delicate balance.
This "balance" is not good for either side.
The longer the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Formation endures, the stronger its power becomes,
the deeper the killings, the heavier the evil aura, and the greater the harm. For the various righteous forces of Qianxue, it is a humiliation, and for the Dao Court's prestige, a grave insult.
For Master Tu and the others, the "balance" means delay, meaning the birth of the Divine Lord is postponed bit by bit, which would incur the Divine Lord's displeasure.
Likewise, delay makes change more likely.
But the formation was hastily opened, and their manpower is insufficient.
Unable to cause massive slaughter anymore, the "materials" used by the evil formation—human skin, human blood, human bones—have also become scarce.
Even Master Tu has no better way to advance the progress of the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Under such circumstances, Gu Changhai began to take action.
...
At the upper reaches of the Smokewater River, outside the perimeter of the Blood Sacrifice Formation, in front of a hidden mountain peak.
More than ten Golden Core Dao Court officers gathered together.
Gu Changhai spread out a terrain map on the ground, showing formation patterns and several red marks annotated with vermilion ink:
"I went to the Tai Xu Sect and met with Elder Xun. I showed him the formation diagram of Yanluo Mountain passed on by Mo Hua."
"Elder Xun roughly deduced, based on Yanluo Mountain's great formation, the formation diagrams of several other Blood Sacrifice Formations and their key formation nodes, marking them with red dots."
"The formation nodes control the progress of the formation."
"Also, formation nodes must be guarded by evil formation masters."
"Our goal is to infiltrate the formation according to the diagram, find the formation nodes, and kill the evil formation masters..."
Gu Changhai's gaze was icy and resolute as he repeated:
"For any evil formation master, no discussion — none are to be spared, all must be slaughtered!"
He clearly remembered what Mo Hua had told him:
After going out, kill any evil formation master encountered. The more evil formation masters dead, the safer he would be.
Regarding the Blood Sacrifice Formation, he could not help Mo Hua, so at least he could try to kill all the evil formation masters.
This was both for Mo Hua and for Yu'er.
This was all he could do.
After Gu Changhai finished speaking, the other more than ten Golden Core officers nodded in agreement.
Among them were Xia Dian Si, who was close friends with Mo Hua, and Fan Jin, the officer from Gushan City who had also received Mo Hua's kindness.
This Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice affected many, and Gushan City was no exception.
Fan Jin was naturally conscripted to help suppress the demonic plague.
For him, this was both a risk and an opportunity.
He came from a poor background and wanted to climb up. He feared no risk or hardship, only the lack of chance.
And Mo Hua had already given him an opportunity; he had made a name for himself in front of the Dao Court's Xia Inspector.
If he could brave danger and hardship in this Blood Sacrifice calamity, fight hard, and perform well, promotion would naturally follow.
Moreover, since it was to help Mo Hua, Fan Jin was even more spirited and dared not slack off.
Everything arranged, the group wore grim expressions.
Gu Changhai nodded, and then everyone activated their concealment spirit artifacts and infiltrated the formation smoothly, following the weaknesses Elder Xun pointed out, avoiding the demon flesh ley lines, attacking along the way until they found the formation nodes.
The formation nodes were located in a bloody stone chamber.
Inside, there were indeed two or three dozen evil formation masters busy using human blood as ink and white bones as medium to arrange the evil formation, gradually advancing the construction of the Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Without hesitation, Gu Changhai drew his long sword; with a swift clean stroke, he severed an evil formation master's head.
Xia Dian Si stabbed with a sword, freezing blood and sealing the throat.
Fan Jin swung his great hammer with the force of a fierce tiger.
The other Golden Core officers also joined in.
The two or three dozen evil formation masters were either sliced throats by the ice swords, smashed chests by twin hammers, blasted by spells, or strangled... In an instant, all were killed or wounded.
Gu Changhai set fire to burn their bodies and then retreated.
Inside the formation, evil intent filled the air, blood energy spread, and countless flesh demons roamed. They dared not stay long.
Along the way, some Golden Core demonic cultivators tried to block them but failed, and a few died.
After the Dao Court officers withdrew, they rested briefly outside the Smokewater River.
Gu Changhai burned the sandalwood incense given by Elder Xun to calm the mind, cleanse evil, and then led the group to the next location to continue slaughtering evil formation masters...
Gu Changhai acted stealthily and ruthlessly, killing in waves then moving locations. Evil formation masters were killed one after another.
Master Tu finally could not bear it anymore.
...
Inside the Great Wilderness Blood Sacrifice Array, the Evil God Temple.
In a secret chamber.
Mr. Tu's face, already deathly pale, now contorted with ferocity.
"It really is that damned Gu Changhuai, killing off my formation masters…"
Shangguan Wang said coldly, "How did the Dao Court Division so precisely locate those evil formation masters? Who leaked the information?"
Mr. Tu's gaze was sharp. "Gu Changhuai… he previously broke through to Yanluo Mountain. He must have obtained materials of the Blood Sacrifice Array's formation diagram and deduced something from them…"
Shangguan Wang frowned deeply.
Gu Changhuai may not understand formations, but within the Qianxue Prefecture, there are no shortage of powerful formation experts — especially Old Master Xun of the Taixu Sect, a fifth-rank formation grandmaster with unfathomable skill.
As long as the Blood Sacrifice Array remained sealed and its diagrams weren't leaked, perhaps even Old Master Xun wouldn't have seen through anything.
But once the diagrams leaked, with spiritual traces to follow, it wouldn't be difficult — given Old Master Xun's formation expertise — to deduce part of the array's layout.
Especially the outer structure of the array, which was relatively crude.
Once this part was deciphered, the positions of the formation masters would naturally be exposed — falling right under the execution blade of the Dao Court Division.
Shangguan Wang's expression grew uglier by the moment.
In a long-planned grand scheme like this, the formation masters were of extreme importance.
Too many of the evil formation masters dying meant the grand array couldn't be fully activated. Without it, the divine lord of the Great Wilderness could not be resurrected, and his ambition for "eternal life" would be impossible to realize.
He had even given up his position as an elder with real power in the Shangguan clan.
If the plan fell apart, he wouldn't just lose everything — he'd be hunted and besieged by the major clans, becoming a notorious demon and heretic, unable to show his face again.
"Mr. Tu…" Shangguan Wang gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. "We must… start making preparations now."
Mr. Tu also frowned.
He naturally didn't want a millennium of effort to go up in smoke.
Nor did he want anything unexpected to interfere with the resurrection of the Divine Lord.
Otherwise, he'd have no way to report to the Master of the Great Wilderness. And in the endless hell of the Great Wilderness, a spot would surely be reserved for him.
But the current situation was grim.
Because of the Sword Debate Conference's disruption, the Blood Sacrifice Array had to be activated prematurely.
Though it had been successfully started, in truth, the array was still incomplete and far from finished.
Especially the outer regions — they couldn't even be connected through the array cores, let alone form a complete system that fulfilled his grand vision to pose a lethal threat to the Qianxue Prefecture.
So he had no choice but to order the evil formation masters under his command to work tirelessly, day and night.
The Great Wilderness Blood Sacrifice Array was vast in scope and massive in area. Manpower was already stretched thin, and now — that damn Gu Changhuai had come interfering again, killing the evil formation masters he'd spent tremendous effort nurturing.
Especially at Yanluo Mountain — the slaughter of seventy or eighty evil formation masters there made Mr. Tu's heart bleed.
And now, Gu Changhuai was still killing.
The evil formation masters were still dying.
The situation continued to worsen.
If it continued like this — once the array came to a complete halt — it would all be over.
He had to do everything possible to complete the Great Wilderness Blood Sacrifice Array quickly… to usher in the Divine Lord's descent.
Mr. Tu frowned in thought for a moment. Then his pupils trembled, and in a low voice, he said:
"At this moment, there is only one person who can help us…"
Shangguan Wang was shocked and asked, "Who?"
Mr. Tu's eyes narrowed slightly. Word by word, he said slowly:
"Mo Hua…"
Shangguan Wang was stunned.
He hadn't expected Mr. Tu to value Mo Hua so highly.
But…
Shangguan Wang frowned in contemplation, then sneered, "You mean to count on a Foundation Establishment disciple to build your grand array?"
Mr. Tu shook his head. "He is no ordinary Foundation Establishment disciple. He is the unmatched genius of formation arts in the Qianxue Prefecture…"
Shangguan Wang's expression changed subtly.
Scenes from the Sword Debate Conference replayed in his mind. After a moment of frowning, a deep wariness appeared in his eyes as well.
…
Great Wilderness Prison — within the dungeon.
Mo Hua was still examining the white bone circlet above his head when he suddenly felt a chill — his whole body went cold. He turned toward the cell door and sure enough, saw the tall, thin Mr. Tu standing outside like a hanging ghost, exuding a sinister air.
"Little brother…"
Mr. Tu's voice was still icy, but his tone was notably more courteous. "This old man has something he wishes to ask your help with."
"What is it?" Mo Hua asked.
Mr. Tu got straight to the point. "Draw a formation."
"Draw a formation?" Mo Hua asked with suspicion. "What kind of formation?"
Mr. Tu's pupils tightened slightly. With a solemn tone, he slowly said:
"The Great Wilderness Blood Sacrifice Array…"
Mo Hua's heart trembled violently. His breath caught for a moment, and he barely managed to suppress the excitement in his heart. Gritting his teeth, he righteously refused:
"No. I won't draw it!"
(End of this Chapter)