Chapter 1069: Enlightenment
Chapter 1069: Enlightenment
Wenren Jingxuan looked into his daughter's gentle eyes, seeing the sorrow and pain there, and felt a pang in his heart. His face turned grim, and all the words of consolation he had prepared died on his lips.
Shangguan Ce let out a slight sigh of relief.
Naturally, he hoped Wenren Wan would agree.
This decision had been made by the many Elders of Qianxue Prefecture after much deliberation. As the head of the Shangguan family, he did not want to go against their wishes.
On a smaller scale, this matter concerned the life of the Shangguan family's heir and the family's reputation.
On a larger scale, it concerned the safety of the entire Qianxue Prefecture.
If Wenren Wan agreed, it would be a favor.
Regardless of whether they could save Yu'er or what would happen to Wenren Wan afterward, it would be a good thing for the Shangguan family.
As the head of the family, he was weighing the pros and cons.
However, this "weighing" was somewhat selfish and cold, and Shangguan Ce did not dare to voice it, lest he anger the Wenren family.
Fortunately, Wenren Wan, driven by her love for her son, made her own decision. Otherwise, if she had ignored the blood ties and preserved her own well-being, Shangguan Ce would have found it difficult to persuade her.
Given the current situation, he was naturally pleased.
Shangguan Ce stood to the side with his sleeves crossed, a calm expression on his face, seemingly indifferent to everything.
But at that moment, Shangguan Yi stepped forward.
Seeing his wife's pained expression, he couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in his heart:
"I am Yu'er's father. Blood is thicker than water. If we must enter the dream, I'll do it..."
As soon as these words left his mouth, Shangguan Ce's face turned green with anger, and he berated him:
"Nonsense! What does this have to do with you?"
Throughout his life, he had been a womanizer with countless lovers, but he had only one son.
He relied on this sole son to inherit the family business.
If his son's mind was damaged, his cultivation path would be cut off, and his cultivation would stagnate. The position of family head would then be out of the question.
All his life's hard work, the painstakingly built connections, and the carefully accumulated foundation would be for nothing.
Wenren Jingxuan gave Shangguan Ce a cold look, then turned to Shangguan Yi, who had a sorrowful expression. He felt both comforted and repulsed.
He was comforted that Shangguan Yi truly loved his daughter.
His daughter had not married the wrong person.
He was repulsed because, if not for this marriage, his precious daughter could have lived a carefree, honey-sweet life, free from the trials and tribulations of the Shangguan family. She wouldn't have to face the harsh choice of losing her son and having no hope for her own cultivation.
"It's all fate, nothing is left to human will..."
Wenren Jingxuan's face darkened, and he finally sighed.
"Wan, you..."
Wenren Jingxuan looked deeply at Wenren Wan, and all his words turned into a heavy sigh.
But this was his own flesh and blood, and as a father, he could not abandon her.
"Come with me, and report to the Elders."
Wenren Jingxuan extended his hand and led Wenren Wan out of the room.
Wenren Wan took a few steps, then turned to look at her husband, her eyes filled with longing, which soon turned to a determined sadness. She followed Wenren Jingxuan out of the secret chamber.
In the secret chamber, only Shangguan Ce and his son remained.
Shangguan Yi stood there, pale and dazed.
Seeing his son in this state, even Shangguan Ce, with his deep scheming, could not suppress his anger, and he scolded:
"Is this all you're capable of?"
"As my son, Shangguan Ce, are you filled with nothing but sentimental feelings?"
"Without your wife and child, you look like you've lost your soul. How can you become a great figure with such a mentality?"
Shangguan Yi remained calm, enduring his father's scolding, and finally said quietly:
"Father, I am Yu'er's father and Wenren Wan's husband. If I can't protect my son and my wife, can I truly become the great figure you speak of?"
"If I can't protect my own family, how can I take on the responsibility of leading the Shangguan clan?"
Shangguan Ce was taken aback, "Those are two different things."
Shangguan Yi shook his head, "Family and clan, one must have a 'family' to have a 'clan'."
Shangguan Ce was furious, "But you can't sacrifice your cultivation and future for your family. Entering the dream with divine perception will destroy your mind. Is that something you should do?"
Shangguan Yi's face was calm, "It's just a matter of losing my mind. If it can truly save Yu'er and protect Wenren Wan, I would be willing to do anything, even if it means becoming a slave."
Shangguan Ce was so angry that his chest hurt, but seeing his son's "weak" appearance, he could only sigh in frustration:
"This is karma..."
He had been a womanizer all his life, yet he had a son who was deeply emotional.
Shangguan Ce's face was cold as he swept out of the room, leaving Shangguan Yi alone in the secret chamber, thinking about his child whose fate was unknown, and his wife who had to sacrifice her cultivation to save their child. He felt both ashamed and powerless, his face full of regret.
...
In the Sword Viewing Pavilion.
Wenren Jingxuan brought Wenren Wan to Situ Zhenren and the other Elders.
Situ Zhenren asked, "Have you made your decision?"
Wenren Wan nodded, her gentle face showing the resolve of a mother:
"As long as I can save Yu'er, I don't care about my mind or my cultivation."
Situ Zhenren was moved, even feeling a bit of admiration. But the more he felt this way, the more he felt a sense of sorrow.
If the situation was hopeless, neither the mother nor the child might survive.
In this world, the more virtuous a person is, the more they seem to suffer the torments of fate.
The other Elders of the Void nodded slightly, feeling a bit relieved.
Though they were Elders of the Void, with high cultivation and great power, they could force the matter even if Wenren Wan disagreed. They could coerce the Shangguan and Wenren families into compliance, but the "Heavenly Dream Induction" technique involved the mind.
If Wenren Wan resisted internally and truly disagreed, the process of the Heavenly Dream Induction would definitely not go smoothly.
Now, driven by her desperate desire to save her son, she was willing to risk her own path and personally agree to it, which was indeed a good thing.
However, this was indeed too unfair to the Wenren family’s daughter...
The assembled elders all frowned.
Xun Laoshi pondered for a moment, his murky eyes flickering, and he slowly spoke:
"This journey of yours is not only to save the child but also to avert the crisis of Qianxue Prefecture."
"I cannot fully explain the details to you."
"However, regardless of the outcome, the Elders of the Void from our various sects and clans will owe you a favor."
Wenren Wan lifted her sorrowful and delicate face and bowed to Xun Laoshi, "Thank you, Xun Laoshi."
She then turned and bowed to the other Elders of the Void, "Thank you, all elders."
The other Elders of the Void were slightly taken aback, but after some thought, they remained silent, tacitly acknowledging this "favor."
And so, the matter was decided.
Situ Zhenren sighed deeply, "In twelve days, the great calamity will descend. Before that, everyone should make their preparations."
The Elders of the Void nodded.
Wenren Wan, worried about Yu'er, was pale-faced.
Xun Laoshi raised his head, gazing at the blood-red array in the sky, his brow furrowed, unable to help but worry about Mo Hua's safety.
He had calculated it many times.
Over these days, he had done so repeatedly.
But the matter was too significant, seemingly entangled with too many causes and consequences, involving too many unspeakable beings and powerful cultivators. The heavenly signs were obscure and extremely complex, making it impossible to predict even a hint of what was to come.
Xun Laoshi had no idea what the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array would look like in twelve days.
He didn't know if he would ever see Mo Hua again.
He didn't know what Mo Hua would be like if they met again...
Xun Laoshi sighed softly.
...
Throughout Qianxue Prefecture, demonic troubles were rampant.
Gu Changhuai was still leading the Dao Ting Si's classics officers, patrolling the borders of various states, hunting down demon cultivators, especially evil array masters.
However, the demon cultivators were becoming more vigilant, making it increasingly difficult for him to succeed.
But he didn't give up. He did his best, killing as many as he could.
After all, it was the only thing he could do.
In a demon stronghold, Gu Changhuai, covered in blood, used wind blades to slaughter a group of corpse cultivators and blood thralls. He looked up at the sky.
The blood sacrifice array was still there.
And in the depths of the array, the blood color was even more intense, as if something was hatching. The atmosphere was heavy, like a storm was brewing, weighing heavily on everyone's hearts.
"Mo Hua..."
Gu Changhuai's brow furrowed with worry.
Meanwhile, in various places, Tai Xu Gate's elders, including Xun Zixian and Xun Ziyou, and the long-distance traveler Zhang Lan, were also battling the demon sects.
But amidst the fighting, they were equally concerned about Mo Hua, whose situation was unknown and from whom they had received no news.
...
Outside Yanluo Mountain.
The Tianjiao disciples from the four sects, eight gates, and twelve streams were still "waiting" for Mo Hua.
However, with the array's expansion, they had to retreat over twenty miles, entering the Qian study territory.
As the situation worsened, their hopes for Mo Hua's return diminished.
The Tai Xu Gate disciples, in particular, were deeply worried.
Though they trusted their junior master, the array was a quasi-third-rank evil array, filled with countless demon cultivators and high-ranking demon lords.
"Will Junior Master really return unharmed..."
A heavy weight pressed on the hearts of Ling Hu Xiao and others.
...
Inside the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array.
Mo Hua was also frowning, but his concerns were entirely different:
"Can I really destroy this array?"
How to deceive Mr. Tu?
How to control the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array hub?
How to maximize the power of the Reverse Spirit Array to unleash a greater force and send everything to its grave?
Over these days, Mo Hua had thought and thought, but he couldn't come up with a good plan.
He could only pretend to draw the array, claiming he was too tired, lying on the ancient beast's skeleton to rest, and then closing his eyes, his divine perception rapidly revolving, recalling all the array principles and knowledge he had learned in his life, like a carousel.
But no matter how he recalled, he found nothing.
He was just a Zhu cultivator, a second-rank array master, and had only lived for about twenty years.
Mr. Tu, on the other hand, was a Yu Hua, a fourth-rank array master, with a human-like appearance that was neither human nor ghost, and had lived for who knows how long.
Mo Hua had no confidence that his array techniques could fool Mr. Tu, a wily old fox.
"Since that’s the case, I’ll have to start with an array that I know and Mr. Tu definitely doesn’t..."
Mo Hua frowned, racking his brain, pondering bit by bit:
"Something I know that Mr. Tu doesn’t..."
"Thick Earth Absolute Array? Spirit Pivot Absolute Array? Five Elements Origin Array?"
Mr. Tu might not know these, but it was hard to say. He just hadn’t used them in front of Mo Hua, and to conclude he didn’t know them based on that would be too hasty.
Moreover, in the current situation, these arrays didn’t seem to be of much use.
"Reverse Spirit Absolute Array..."
This array had immense destructive power. Even if Mr. Tu didn’t know how to use it, he would certainly recognize it. Mo Hua knew that drawing it wouldn’t fool Mr. Tu.
"Then what else?"
After much deliberation, Mo Hua suddenly froze. "Mystery Sky Array."
The Mystery Sky Array was the opposite. Mo Hua could confidently say that Mr. Tu knew the Mystery Sky Array, but he definitely wasn’t as proficient as Mo Hua. After all, this was a divine-born array.
Mr. Tu was merely a lackey of the Great Wasteland Evil Deity.
Mo Hua, however, was a "demigod" transformed by the Heavenly Derivation Technique.
Mr. Tu might understand it, but he definitely didn’t understand it as well as Mo Hua.
"But how can I use the Mystery Sky Array to fool him?"
Mo Hua furrowed his brow, deep in thought. Suddenly, Mr. Tu’s previous guidance came to mind:
"The Mystery Sky Array is used to discern the true from the false for the array master..."
"The surface of the Mystery Sky Array is ‘false,’ and the core is ‘true.’ Only by piercing through the surface can one see the essence of the array."
"The surface is ‘illusion,’ and the core is ‘reality.’ Between illusion and reality lies the profound principle of transformation from illusion to reality and from reality to illusion..."
True and false in the Mystery Sky Array!
Mo Hua’s expression brightened, feeling as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mind, clearing the fog.
He finally knew how to fool Mr. Tu!
And it was Mr. Tu who had taught him this!
But...
What after fooling Mr. Tu?
Mo Hua frowned again.
Could a Second-Rank Reverse Spirit Array Pattern truly trigger a Quasi-Third-Rank Blood Sacrifice Array?
If it were a Second-Rank array, Mo Hua would have some confidence.
But the current array was Quasi-Third-Rank, and Mo Hua’s past experience with "array detonation" wasn’t very applicable.
A Second-Rank Reverse Spirit Array could only reverse a Second-Rank array.
It was unrealistic to expect a Second-Rank Reverse Spirit Array to dismantle a Third-Rank array’s core, causing a powerful spiritual energy explosion that would destroy everything within the array.
The Wasteland Blood Sacrifice Array did have some "combined patterns" at the Second-Rank level, many of which Mo Hua had drawn himself.
However, whether the power generated by reversing these Second-Rank cores could destabilize the Third-Rank cores, causing the array to collapse or explode on a large scale, was still uncertain.
There was no way to test or verify this.
He only had one chance, and if he failed, Mr. Tu wouldn’t give him a second.
"What should I do..."
Mo Hua lay for a while, lost in thought, then turned over, lying on the massive bone, gazing at the giant array eye and the earth vein it was immersed in.
Blood was still flowing.
The earth vein was still wailing.
Mo Hua felt a pang of sympathy, but as he watched, his mind was suddenly stirred by the way the earth vein’s essence was drawn, and his thoughts became a whirl of ideas.
"Earth vein..."
"Earth’s nature is to be humble and inclusive, embracing all..."
"Life and death, spiritual energy and evil energy... they intertwine and dissolve within the earth vein..."
"Righteousness and evil are the same..."
Mo Hua felt a tremor in his heart, a profound insight that was indescribable yet clear, slowly taking root in his mind.
An ancient, simple principle began to dissolve a corner of Mo Hua’s heart.
The great principle was clear, and the light and dust were one.
Amid the myriad thoughts, he suddenly remembered what Elder Zheng had told him: "Righteousness and evil are one. Evil is not born from the womb or the egg, but from transformation..."
Righteousness and evil, opposing yet interwoven, transforming into each other.
Mo Hua’s eyes, black and white, were clear and distinct.
Elder Zheng spoke of people, but also of principles, of the Dao. If it was the Dao, then it was also a principle of how arrays operated in the universe.
Mo Hua gradually had a glimmer of understanding.
He had a preliminary idea.
Although he wasn’t sure of the final outcome, it was worth a try.
After all, he had no better options.
But implementing this idea wouldn’t be easy.
He needed a deeper understanding of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice Array to fully reconstruct and deeply deconstruct it.
Then he would need to invest a great deal of effort and divine perception to derive the true spiritual energy trajectory and the changes in spiritual energy from imbalance to balance and then to destruction, triggered by this trajectory through "reversal."
Mo Hua nodded slightly, then looked deep into the earth, at the blood-red earth vein polluted by the evil array, which was now weeping, and whispered:
"All sins will eventually fade; all evil will be erased..."
"Rest assured, I will cleanse it for you..."
Deep within the earth's veins, blood-red waves churned, a faint spark of vitality trembling. It seemed the Dao essence of the earth was responding to Mo Hua...
...
After that, Mo Hua started to "slack off."
Every day, when he drew the array, he would mumble and groan, drawing only a few strokes before pretending his divine perception was severely drained. He would lie on the ground, eyes closed, and rest. In his heart, however, he was quietly sensing the earth's Dao essence.
In his mind, he was also deducing the overall structure of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice.
This was a bit beyond Mo Hua's current level.
But he didn't make excuses for himself.
What he could figure out, he did. What he couldn't, he used both deduction and trickery to "force" it.
As he calculated, some things that Mo Hua initially found difficult gradually became easier to understand.
Many things weren't as hard as he had thought.
Mo Hua suddenly realized this.
He suddenly realized that his divine perception was now at the twenty-pattern level.
This was genuine Golden Core divine perception.
Before, his mindset hadn't changed, and he still saw himself as a "Zhu Ji", so his divine perception hadn't been fully utilized.
Now, using the grand array as a "whetstone", Mo Hua pushed himself to the limit, using every trick and deduction to maximize his divine perception. This finally began to fully unlock the potential of his Golden Core divine perception, bit by bit.
His array skills improved step by step, almost imperceptibly.
And his deduction and trickery skills also advanced rapidly under this "polishing."
The entire structure of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array began to be reconstructed in Mo Hua's mind, gradually coming under his control.
After so much time spent learning, comprehending, and studying, everything fell into place.
Mo Hua's understanding of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array underwent a complete and thorough transformation.
While he still didn't know the specific third-rank arrays involved, the uses, structures, and control of the array hubs, as well as the flow of array power, were all revealed in the finest detail by his divine perception.
Mo Hua suddenly felt as if he had become the "master" of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array, in full control of everything.
Although he couldn't define it, Mo Hua vaguely felt that his array skills had reached a new level.
The level of a Master Array Master.
He had already acquired the insights and expertise needed to become the Master Array Master of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array.
However, due to his cultivation level and lack of bloody means, he couldn't actually build the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array.
Once he truly grasped the overall structure and layout of the Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array, the next steps became much easier.
It just required the consumption of divine perception, patient deduction, and careful planning.
Mo Hua settled down and began to refine his grand design, something he had never attempted before.
During this time, Mr. Tu didn't come to find Mo Hua much.
He was being targeted by Situ Zhenren and suppressed by the Xuantian Northern Dipper Seven-Star Array, leaving him stretched thin.
Even so, he still noticed that Mo Hua was "slacking off."
The progress of the grand array had visibly slowed down.
Mr. Tu had initially turned a blind eye to this, but with the Seven-Star Array's light like a thorn in his back and the dark currents of evil cultivation surging, he finally couldn't tolerate Mo Hua's behavior.
"Don't play games. Finish the array as quickly as possible", Mr. Tu said coldly.
Feeling his "little scheme" exposed, Mo Hua felt a bit guilty and nodded, "Yes, Mr. Tu..."
After that, he no longer slacked off and began to work with all his might, constructing the blood sacrifice array according to the array map he had deduced.
This time, he followed Mr. Tu's instructions and didn't slack off, drawing very quickly.
He worked non-stop, putting in extra hours, and fully utilized his twenty-pattern Golden Core divine perception, drawing faster and faster, leaving Mr. Tu with little time to react.
By the time Mr. Tu noticed, the progress of the blood sacrifice array had advanced at an incredible rate.
This pace left Mr. Tu momentarily disoriented.
Mo Hua was clearly following his "intentions" and finishing the blood sacrifice array as soon as possible.
Clearly, once the blood sacrifice array was complete, the god would be reborn.
Clearly, Mo Hua was doing him a great favor.
The progress was unexpectedly fast.
Mr. Tu felt he should be happy, but for some reason, he couldn't, and there was even a strange sense of "panic" in his heart.
He really couldn't understand what this little brat, Mo Hua, was up to.
No matter how he thought about it, the situation was being pushed forward by Mo Hua.
In the blink of an eye, it was too late.
Twelve days later.
The Wasteland Blood Sacrifice array, completed and perfected by Mo Hua, the "Zhen Dao Kui Shou" of Qianxue Prefecture, was fully established.
An ancient heartbeat echoed through every corner of the blood sacrifice array.
The Lord of the Wasteland was about to awaken...
(End of Chapter)
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