Chapter 471: The Myriad Corpse Formation
Chapter 471: The Myriad Corpse Formation
Mo Hua stepped into the mural, entering the mouth of a zombie and a hidden passage.
The secret passage was narrow and dimly lit, but not very long.
In less than the time it takes for a kettle to boil, Mo Hua had traversed the passage, and before him now lay a vast space.
A massive altar greeted his eyes, exquisite and opulent in its design.
The altar was crafted from precious sandalwood, adorned with jade candlesticks, and golden-etched candles. A large incense burner, etched with golden beast motifs, sat at its center, emitting tendrils of fragrant smoke.
Upon the altar lay five-colored spirit flowers and offerings of pig, sheep, and spirit beasts.
Hanging before the altar was a golden-yellow banner, and beside it, a lamp with coiling dragon patterns.
At the heart of the altar stood a sculpture, shrouded in yellow cloth, obscuring its form.
However, one could discern that it was crafted from either gold or jade—materials of the finest quality.
The entire altar exuded an air of grandeur and luxury.
Mo Hua's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but wonder to himself,
"How many spirit stones would this have cost...?"
His gaze lowered, and his brows furrowed as his eyes landed on something even more startling.
Below the altar lay a massive bronze coffin, its surface tinged with a verdigris patina, a testament to its great age.
Encircling the giant coffin were dozens of iron coffins, their surfaces a dark bluish-green, slightly smaller than the central bronze one.
Beyond the iron coffins lay a sea of black wooden coffins, countless in number, stretching as far as the eye could see.
The wooden coffins were connected by blood-red formation patterns, forming a complex network.
The formation directed energy from the wooden coffins to the iron ones and, ultimately, to the central bronze coffin, serving as the heart of this intricate web.
On the ground, surrounding the coffins, were painted numerous sinister and anomalous formations, each one linked to the next, creating a vast and eerie tableau.
Mo Hua's heart trembled.
This was... a grand formation of the demonic path?
He suppressed his shock and focused his spirit sense to calculate the formation's core and the number of formations involved. After a moment, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
It wasn't a grand formation...
Despite its intimidating appearance, the number of individual formations, the complexity of the formation cores, and the overall scale fell short of qualifying it as a grand formation.
At best, it could be considered a "quasi-grand formation."
In essence, it was still a composite formation, and while it lacked the full power of a grand formation, it was significantly more potent than a typical composite formation.
This was, without a doubt, the most powerful composite formation Mo Hua had ever encountered, especially given its origins in the demonic path.
Lu Chengyun, noticing Mo Hua's astonished expression, felt a sense of satisfaction. A smile played at the corners of his mouth as he asked, "What do you think, young master Mo?"
Mo Hua, having already formed a plan in his mind, feigned surprise and shifted his expression uncertainly before exclaiming in disbelief, "House Master Lu, you're constructing a grand formation!"
Lu Chengyun humbly replied, "It's not quite a grand formation; it's just a composite formation on a larger scale."
However, a hint of pride flashed in his eyes, revealing his satisfaction with his handiwork.
Mo Hua pretended to be overwhelmed, shaking his head as he exclaimed, "Even at this scale, it's not considered a grand formation...?"
Lu Chengyun smiled and asked, "Young master Mo, have you ever seen a grand formation before?"
Mo Hua blinked, thinking to himself, I certainly can't tell him that not only have I seen one, but I also played a leading role in constructing the Five Element Demon-Slaying Grand Formation, an eleven-pattern first-rate formation. And in the end, we used that formation to slay a powerful demon...
He probably wouldn't believe me if I told him that.
So, Mo Hua earnestly shook his head and replied, "No, I haven't. My master only mentioned it in passing. He said that a true formation master possesses an incredibly strong spirit sense, a broad understanding of formations, and a profound level of expertise. They are renowned figures capable of overseeing the construction of grand formations."
Mo Hua praised himself shamelessly.
Lu Chengyun nodded in agreement, "Indeed."
Becoming a master formation builder and creating grand formations was the lifelong aspiration of every formation builder, and Lu Chengyun was no exception.
However, he had not yet attained the capability to create a grand formation. This composite formation was already the limit of his abilities.
Even so, he had surpassed most other formation builders by a wide margin.
With this formation, the Lu family could dominate the Little Barbarian State.
Both his personal influence and his mastery over formations would take a significant step forward.
Given time, he would undoubtedly be able to create a true grand formation.
Lu Chengyun's eyes sparkled with ambition.
Standing beside him was thirteen-year-old Mo Hua, who had already experienced the creation of a grand formation.
When Lu Chengyun finally snapped out of his reverie, Mo Hua quietly asked, "House Master Lu, what exactly is this formation?"
Lu Chengyun's eyes narrowed slightly as he replied slowly, "This formation is called... the Myriad Corpse Formation."
"The Myriad Corpse Formation..." Mo Hua's heart skipped a beat.
"Myriad corpses..."
Something wasn't right...
This didn't sound like the name of a single formation, nor would it be befitting of a composite formation.
A mere composite formation would not bear the name "myriad corpses."
Mo Hua's eyes flickered as he gazed upon the countless coffins below and the dense network of sinister formations.
This Myriad Corpse Formation was undoubtedly intended to be a grand formation!
It should have been called the Myriad Corpse Grand Formation!
The current composite formation was likely a scaled-down version of the original grand formation.
Lu Chengyun lacked the skill in formation techniques to create a grand formation, and the Lu family would not have been able to afford the resources for such an endeavor.
Thus, Lu Chengyun had settled for creating this Myriad Corpse Composite Formation, a diminished version of the original Myriad Corpse Grand Formation.
But where had Lu Chengyun obtained the formation diagram? The inheritance of grand formations was always kept top secret.
As for Mo Hua, his Five Star Demon-Slaying Grand Formation had been bestowed upon him by his master.
Who, then, had given Lu Chengyun the Myriad Corpse Grand Formation? Moreover, being a formation of the demonic path, it must have come from a prominent demonic sect or a powerful demon practitioner...
A chill ran down Mo Hua's spine, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"House Master Lu," he asked quietly, "where did this formation come from?"
Lu Chengyun hesitated, then smiled at Mo Hua and said, "I'm afraid that's something I cannot disclose."
Mo Hua apologized with a smile, "Please forgive me, House Master. I shouldn't have asked."
Then, his curiosity got the better of him, and he asked, "Why did you bring me here, House Master? I don't know how to construct composite formations, especially one of the demonic path like this. My master wouldn't teach me such things."
Lu Chengyun smiled gently, "Rest assured, young master Mo. I won't force you to do anything you're uncomfortable with.
Mo Hua followed closely behind him, walking past the densely packed coffins and the layers of blood-colored demonic formations on the ground until they reached the vicinity of the bronze coffin.
There were some blank spaces near the bronze coffin, where the formation arrays had not yet been drawn.
Lu Chengyun said, "I didn't invite Little Master here to draw demonic formations but to help me construct the formation eye for this composite formation."
Mo Hua asked, "Isn't the formation eye of a demonic formation still a demonic formation?"
Lu Chengyun shook his head. "Instead of using the methods of the demonic path, we will use the righteous path's spirit-gathering techniques to construct the formation eye."
Mo Hua was perplexed.
Why would you resort to the righteous path's methods when you're creating a demonic formation?
Seeing Mo Hua's puzzled expression, Lu Chengyun sighed, "The formation eye of a demonic composite formation carries too much killing karma. Even my Lu family cannot bring ourselves to do such a thing..."
Mo Hua cursed him secretly for his hypocrisy, but he put on a serious face and praised him, "House Master Lu, you truly have a compassionate heart..."
Mo Hua was lying through his teeth, his young face solemn.
Lu Chengyun was slightly taken aback, unsure if Mo Hua was praising or mocking him...
Of course, he didn't really care either way.
"However..." Mo Hua hesitated, "I don't have the formation diagram."
Lu Chengyun then handed the formation diagram to Mo Hua.
Mo Hua glanced at it and instantly grasped the general idea.
This formation diagram was incomplete.
It only had the sections related to the formation eye and the pivotal point.
While it was possible to construct the formation eye system based on this, one couldn't fully understand how the spiritual energy would circulate.
Mo Hua looked over the Myriad Corpse Formation diagram again, gradually understanding more.
The formation eye of a demonic grand formation required an immense amount of blood qi and demonic energy to function.
This Myriad Corpse Composite Formation, derived from the Myriad Corpse Grand Formation, would require less, but the total amount was still astronomical.
According to the formation diagram, the formation eye of the Myriad Corpse Grand Formation was supposed to be a composite formation composed of the Refining Blood Formation and the Blood Spirit Formation.
First, one would kill cultivators and use the Refining Blood Formation to refine their blood qi and extract their spiritual energy.
Then, the Blood Spirit Formation would fuse the cultivators' blood qi and spiritual energy, forming demonic energy to drive the grand formation.
This process would require killing a large number of cultivators.
Mo Hua recalled what his little senior sister had told him.
She said that sometimes, when operating demonic grand formations, they would slaughter an entire city of cultivators, refine their blood spirits, inject them into the formation eye, and power the grand formation.
The Myriad Corpse Composite Formation didn't require killing that many cultivators at once.
However, as long as the formation was operating, they would have to keep killing, constantly refining spiritual energy and blood qi to sustain it.
There weren't enough cultivators in Nan Yue City for that.
Moreover, the Lu family wouldn't dare to kill on such a large scale.
If they did, even a fool would realize something was amiss.
The Court would never tolerate such actions.
Unless the Lu family wanted to turn against the Court, with the entire family falling into the demonic path and pledging allegiance to a demonic sect, they wouldn't dare attempt it.
But such behavior was extremely despicable.
If the Court discovered it, they would surely send troops to annihilate the entire family, leaving none alive.
Mo Hua guessed that Lu Chengyun didn't have the guts to do something like that.
Even if he did, not everyone in the Lu family would be willing to risk their lives like that.
Although it was a demonic formation, they couldn't use a demonic formation eye.
So, they could only use a spiritual energy formation eye.
Mo Hua surmised that Lu Chengyun intended to use a spirit-gathering formation as the formation eye, using spirit stones as the material to refine spiritual energy.
Once the spiritual energy was flowing, they would use the demonic energy from the demonic formation to corrupt it, forming demonic energy to power the entire Myriad Corpse Composite Formation.
"Master was right," Mo Hua thought to himself. "Righteous path formations are the foundation; demonic formations are just shortcuts."
However, this Lu Chengyun also had profound insights into formations.
To think of combining righteous and demonic methods like this was impressive.
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then politely refused, "House Master Lu, I'm not very familiar with composite formations, so I'm afraid I can't draw it..."
But Lu Chengyun insisted, "You can do it."
Mo Hua was puzzled, "How do you know?"
"I heard it from Elder Su," Lu Chengyun replied.
"Elder Su?" Mo Hua frowned, "Is Elder Su also involved in this matter?"
Lu Chengyun shook his head, "It has nothing to do with him."
Lu Chengyun looked at Mo Hua and sighed, "When I was chatting with Elder Su, he mentioned your insights into formation eyes, and I was truly astonished. I was amazed by your understanding, which surpasses even mine!"
"Such insights involve high-level composite formations and even the core structure of grand formations. Without a profound formation heritage and guidance from a formation master, it's impossible to gain such an extraordinary understanding."
"So, I had an idea to invite you to help me construct the formation eye for this Myriad Corpse Composite Formation."
Mo Hua understood.
So it was Elder Su who let it slip.
When teaching him, Elder Su had instructed him not to share this knowledge with outsiders.
Perhaps Elder Su didn't consider House Master Lu an outsider...
Or maybe he just wanted to brag about Mo Hua in front of House Master Lu, trying to boost Mo Hua's reputation but unintentionally causing this trouble.
Elder Su probably never expected that Lu Chengyun was not a good person.
Mo Hua sighed inwardly.
These insights about formation eyes came to him during his creation of the Five Elements Demon-Slaying Grand Formation.
Applying the principles of a grand formation's formation eye to a composite formation would naturally be more than sufficient.
It was understandable that Lu Chengyun had such thoughts.
He had overestimated Mo Hua's formation skills, but this "overestimation" was still a form of underestimation.
Mo Hua hesitated again, "I've only theorized about it; I'm not sure if I can actually create it..."
Lu Chengyun appeared very accommodating, "It's alright. Just give it a try. Formations always involve trial and error. I believe that with your intelligence, Little Master, you won't let me down..."
The implication was clear: if he disappointed Lu Chengyun, there would be consequences.
Mo Hua understood Lu Chengyun's intentions and sighed, feeling helpless, "Alright, I'll try."
(End of Chapter)
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