Chapter 315: Unraveling
Chapter 315: Unraveling
The following days were calm and serene. With his relentless efforts, Mo Hua's spiritual consciousness and derivative calculation abilities improved day by day.
Then, one day, he suddenly thought of a question:
"Can I try to unravel the array?"
Although Mr. Zhuang taught him spiritual consciousness calculation, it was not for the purpose of unraveling arrays. But since he had learned derivation, he might as well give it a try.
Mo Hua wanted to see what an unraveled array would look like.
Even Mr. Zhuang found the power of unraveling arrays unfathomable. Just how strong could it be?
The principle of unraveling arrays was not complicated, but learning reverse spirit arrays and spiritual consciousness derivation was extremely challenging.
Mo Hua had already mastered reverse spirit arrays, and while he was not an expert in spiritual consciousness derivation, his constant practice over the past few days had made him much more proficient. He now possessed the basic skills needed to unravel arrays.
Still feeling uncertain, Mo Hua found Mr. Zhuang again and indirectly asked about the things to note when unraveling arrays.
Mr. Zhuang immediately understood the thoughts running through Mo Hua's mind, but he didn't mind.
Curiosity was a good thing.
If one lacked curiosity and a thirst for knowledge about arrays, it would be easy to become numb to the monotony of cultivation on the long path of self-improvement, causing them to lose their initial enthusiasm for seeking the ultimate truth of arrays.
Moreover, unraveling arrays was not an easy skill to master.
With Mo Hua's current level of spiritual consciousness, being able to derive and unravel a first-grade single array was already quite impressive.
The power of unraveling a first-grade single array was not weak, but it wasn't exceptionally strong either. If he made a mistake while unraveling it, there wouldn't be any life-threatening consequences.
Mr. Zhuang offered his guidance:
"Unraveling an array is built upon the foundation of spiritual consciousness derivation."
"First, derive the trajectory of the array's spiritual power, and then, based on that trajectory, set up a reverse spirit array on the array's pivotal point."
"Once the array is activated, the spiritual power will flow through the pivotal point and sequentially be reversed by the reverse spirit array, causing the entire array to unravel and generate a destructive force akin to the primordial source of the Dao..."
...
Mr. Zhuang explained in great detail.
Mo Hua committed every word of Mr. Zhuang's explanation to memory. Afterward, he found an opportunity to go to the Great Black Mountain to experiment with unraveling arrays.
The array he chose to unravel was still the first-grade Earth Fire Array.
Although Mo Hua's spiritual consciousness had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, he couldn't derive anything too complex, so he could only start with a regular first-grade array.
Mo Hua set up the Earth Fire Array and spent some time deriving the trajectory of the spiritual power. Then, based on that trajectory, he drew the reverse spirit array on the pivotal point of the original array.
After a lot of fuss, Mo Hua finally finished all the preparations.
Everything was ready, except for activating the array.
Mo Hua placed the spirit stone on the array and then ran far away.
Since he didn't know how powerful the unraveling would be, it was better to be safe and keep his distance.
Mo Hua cast a Fireball Technique, accurately shattering the spirit stone and causing the spiritual energy to overflow into the Earth Fire Array.
The array flashed with light for a moment, and then it disappeared.
Hiding far away, Mo Hua only saw the array shine for a moment before it went dark again.
There was no explosion, no sound, no spiritual power fluctuations—it was as if a firecracker had failed to ignite...
Mo Hua was stunned.
Had the unraveling failed? Or had he made a mistake in his derivation?
Puzzled and hesitant to approach, Mo Hua waited a while longer but still didn't notice anything unusual. He released his spiritual consciousness but couldn't sense any flow of spiritual power, so he finally walked forward.
However, just a glance was enough to deepen his frown, and his confusion only grew.
The array was gone!
There was nothing left where it had been.
Only the stones that had served as the array's foundation had been reduced to a pile of fine powder, which the wind soon scattered.
"So, does this mean... I succeeded?"
The array had been completely unraveled, leaving nothing behind, not even the array medium, which had also been turned to powder.
But was this what unraveling looked like? Mo Hua wasn't sure, so he decided to try again.
Once more, he drew the array, derived its trajectory with his spiritual consciousness, and then drew the reverse spirit array on the pivotal point before activating it.
This time, Mo Hua didn't run too far away. He observed while releasing his spiritual consciousness, focusing on sensing the changes as the array unraveled.
And this time, he finally saw what was happening.
As soon as the array was activated, spiritual power began to flow, starting from the pivotal point and connecting the array patterns. But when the spiritual power flowed to the reverse spirit array, it was decomposed.
The pale blue spiritual power didn't become more subtle; instead, it transformed into a completely different kind of spiritual power with faint, fragmented black edges, exuding a desolate aura that seemed to unravel and annihilate everything it touched.
This process was terrifying yet utterly silent.
No, it should be said that even sound had been unraveled! That was why it was so silent...
Mo Hua's heart trembled with awe.
It was a form of spiritual power that existed outside the typical framework of a cultivator's abilities.
This was the power that Mr. Zhuang had described as being close to the primordial source of the Dao, a force of annihilation...
Hearing about it from Mr. Zhuang before, Mo Hua had only partial understanding, but now, having witnessed it firsthand, he truly grasped the terrifying nature of this power akin to the primordial source of annihilation.
The only issue was that the scope of the disintegration was too small...
When a formation exploded, spiritual power expanded outward; when a formation disintegrated, spiritual power converged inward.
The Earth Fire Formation before him, if it were to normally explode with the force of a large watermelon, would only disintegrate to the size of a small hawthorn.
To use this against an enemy, one would need to bind them within the formation, otherwise, it wouldn't be able to inflict any harm.
Even if it did manage to wound them, injuring an arm or a leg, the impact wouldn't be significant.
Mo Hua sighed.
No wonder Mr. Zhuang had shared this dangerous disintegration technique without any hesitation.
With his current level of spiritual consciousness, he could only disintegrate a regular first-grade single formation.
Just as Mr. Zhuang had said, "Regular single formations aren't worth disintegrating because their spiritual power composition is too weak..."
While the spiritual power composition was weak, the power generated from disintegration, though unique, had a limited scope and thus posed little threat.
On the other hand, formations with strong spiritual power compositions were at least somewhat complex compound formations.
With his current level of spiritual consciousness, he was incapable of deriving compound formations.
Mo Hua felt a twinge of disappointment. He had initially hoped that if the power of formation disintegration was strong enough, he would have a new ace up his sleeve.
That way, even when facing a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he wouldn't be completely helpless.
The head and third-in-command of Black Mountain Fortress were still at large, and if they were left unchecked, they would undoubtedly become a major threat in the future.
If he could master formation disintegration, he would have a way to deal with them.
But now, it seemed his initial thoughts had been too simplistic.
Power capable of threatening a Foundation Establishment cultivator wasn't something that could be easily obtained...
Mo Hua sighed again.
Given the circumstances, he decided not to dwell on it and instead focused on practicing spiritual consciousness derivation to enhance his understanding of formations.
"One shouldn't be too greedy," he reminded himself. "It's enough to master derivation; disintegration can wait."
That was his original plan...
However, two days later, at the hour of the rat (midnight)
, Mo Hua immersed himself in his sea of consciousness and practiced derivation on the Dao stele for a while before suddenly falling into a daze.
A frown slowly formed on his face as he stared at the Dao stele.
There were two sets of spiritual power trajectories on the stele, one that he had just derived and another that he had derived previously but forgotten to erase.
Both trajectories coexisted on the stele at that moment.
A question naturally arose in Mo Hua's mind:
"When drawing a formation, one must do it 'in one go,' but is it the same for spiritual consciousness derivation?"
The term "in one go" referred to the process of continuously channeling one's spiritual thoughts to draw out all the formation patterns of a single formation or the complete pivotal points of a compound formation, without interruption, for the formation to take effect.
Mo Hua had assumed that spiritual consciousness derivation followed the same principle, but now it seemed that it didn't.
For a formation, you could derive a part of it today and another part tomorrow. As long as the resulting spiritual power trajectory in your sea of consciousness was complete, it would be fine.
In other words, for a compound formation, he could derive each single formation separately and then piece them together to form the complete spiritual power trajectory of the compound formation.
There was no need to derive a compound formation in one go.
Mo Hua thought about it and soon understood.
Formations were external manifestations of spiritual power, an objective flow, while the spiritual power trajectories derived through spiritual consciousness were a representation of one's understanding of the formation.
Whether you could derive it or not, the formation existed independently; it was just that you might not be able to comprehend its essence.
This realization stunned Mo Hua.
His Dao stele had the ability to retrace his spiritual consciousness.
This meant that with the help of the stele, he could truly and without limitation derive formations.
It also implied that he could derive not just single formations but even complex compound formations and grand formations, given enough time. He could break them down piece by piece.
Being able to derive compound or grand formations meant that...
He could disintegrate compound or grand formations and thus possess the power to annihilate Foundation Establishment cultivators!
(End of Chapter)
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