Chapter 478: The Daoist's Path Name
Chapter 478: The Daoist's Path Name
Within the Ten Thousand Corpse Altar, blood patterns crisscrossed the ground, a thousand coffins lay in rows, and dim candlelight cast an eerie glow. The place was deathly silent and deserted, except for Mo Hua.
After Mo Hua manipulated the little zombie to close the gate, the mural behind him distorted, sealing off their path of entry. Mo Hua nodded in satisfaction. This Spirit Pivot Array was indeed an invincible formation, even more practical than he had imagined.
He then began to survey the altar. During the day, with Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan present, Mo Hua hadn't felt anything amiss. But now, alone in the depths of the night, the altar seemed sinister and uncanny amidst its splendor, not to mention the countless coffins and the zombies within them.
Mo Hua couldn't help but feel a tinge of nervousness. He calmed himself and proceeded with his plan, one step at a time.
First, he needed to study the Ten Thousand Corpse Array. Although he had designed the array's eye, it only connected with the array's pivot, facilitating the flow of spiritual energy. Mo Hua was unaware of the full scope of the array.
This Ten Thousand Corpse Array was Lu Chengyun's life's work. During the day, Mo Hua hadn't had the opportunity to examine it closely, lest he incur Lu Chengyun's displeasure. Moreover, according to Mo Hua's understanding of arrays, this array was likely more than just a replica—it seemed to be an evil grand formation!
Mo Hua employed the Flowing Water Step, attaching spiritual energy to his feet as he walked along the walls and onto the roof. Hanging upside down, he surveyed the entire formation below him.
With the array's eye as its heart, the array pivot as its skeleton, and the array patterns as its flesh and blood, the formation echoed in perfect harmony. It was indeed a complete and grandiose array.
Mo Hua committed the overall layout of the formation to memory before climbing down and examining the array patterns in detail, bit by bit.
On the surface, these array patterns appeared to be evil patterns. However, when one delved deeper, they were simply applications of the five elemental array principles—earth, wood, water, fire, and metal.
The earth-based array merged with the corpses' flesh, while the water-based array was infused with bloody water. By incorporating the juices of venomous plants, a wood-based array was created to harmonize the flesh, forming the evil patterns of the array.
Human flesh and blood inherently possessed an affinity for spiritual energy. Thus, evil arrays often used human blood as ink and human flesh as a medium, enhancing the array's effectiveness and reducing its complexity.
While this lowered the threshold for creating the array, the understanding of the Grand Dao's principles it encompassed was rather shallow.
Mo Hua shook his head. "Such trickery, neglecting the fundamentals and focusing on trivialities, will never lead to mastery of the Grand Dao of arrays."
Nevertheless, for the sake of knowing his opponent, Mo Hua meticulously examined and analyzed the array patterns from start to finish.
After organizing his thoughts, he combined his understanding of the array pivot, along with the array eye he had constructed, to perform derivative calculations, unraveling the logic behind the flow of spiritual and evil energies within the array.
A complete diagram of the Ten Thousand Corpse Array emerged in Mo Hua's sea of consciousness. He then transferred this mental image onto paper and studied it closely, deep in thought.
After a moment, he sighed, "It truly is a grand formation in its embryonic form..."
Moreover, it wasn't a rudimentary grand formation that was merely pieced together. Instead, it was a formation that had undergone generations of iterations, featuring complete array patterns, a concise array pivot, and a robust array eye, bearing the marks of a distinguished evil cultivation technique.
"The Ten Thousand Corpse Evil Grand Formation..." Mo Hua furrowed his brows. "Where did Lu Chengyun get this array diagram from?"
"Could it be that the Lu family, or someone within this Corpse Mine, has a demonic cultivator who is well-versed in demonic array techniques and hails from a legitimate demonic sect?"
However, he had been familiarizing himself with the Corpse Mine for quite some time and had never encountered such a cultivator, nor found any traces of their existence. "Could it be that a demonic cultivator happened to stumble upon Lu Chengyun and imparted this knowledge to him?"
A demonic cultivator...
Mo Hua recalled the mysterious Daoist that Mr. Zhuang had mentioned, the one who should not be seen, spoken of, or even thought about. "What a coincidence..." Mo Hua muttered.
If that was the case...
That Daoist had imparted the formula for the Transfiguration Pill to the Qian family's ancestor, and the Ten Thousand Corpse Evil Grand Formation to Lu Chengyun. Perhaps he had also passed on some forbidden techniques to other cultivators with dubious intentions...
What was his goal?
Was he seeking to create Daoist calamities? Were these calamities truly something that could be "mass-produced" by humans? Or did this Daoist have some deeper, more sinister motive? Mo Hua frowned, deep in contemplation.
As he sank further into his thoughts, he became engrossed. Suddenly, an icy chill of terror crept into his heart.
In Mo Hua's mind, the silhouette of a Daoist gradually took shape. The figure was like black ink, outlined in desiccated black lines.
These lines solidified, forming a distinct figure. The Daoist's face became clearer, and his eyes slowly opened, revealing a profound and hollow gaze that fixed upon Mo Hua.
Although Mo Hua didn't know who he was, in an instant, he knew the Daoist's path name:
"The Eccentric Daoist!"
A seeker of the Dao, half-ghost and half-mystic.
Even the words "The Eccentric Daoist" almost slipped out of his mouth.
Mo Hua felt that if he uttered those words, he would immediately be discovered by the Daoist.
"Don't say it, don't say it!" he admonished himself.
Just as he was suppressing his thoughts, he suddenly lost control and uttered the first character of "eccentric"...
The Daoist's hollow gaze suddenly sharpened, and he turned his head, about to fix his stare on Mo Hua.
Mo Hua's heart sank, and in a moment of quick thinking, he pinched his own cheek.
His fair face now bore two red fingerprints from the force of his pinch.
The pain startled Mo Hua, and he bit back a hiss, successfully stopping himself from uttering the rest of the words.
Having stopped himself from speaking the name, Mo Hua took a moment to catch his breath.
What should he do now?
In a flash of inspiration, Mo Hua quickly took out his spirit ink and, with his finger, dipped in the ink, he communicated with the earth's dao essence, beginning to draw the Thick Earth Array on the ground.
Once he started drawing the array, his spiritual sense focused, and he no longer had stray thoughts.
Nor would he think of uttering any names.
The earth's dao essence that he was communicating with also occupied his mind.
A hint of ancient and simple meaning permeated the air, gradually obscuring the Eccentric Daoist's presence...
...
At the same time, beneath a desolate cliff where dead trees grew, "Sun Yi" opened his eyes.
His body was dirty, and he wore a tattered robe that had once belonged to a dead man. His eyes were black and hollow, and his voice was hoarse and thick as he asked, "Who...
"...is thinking of my name?"
"So familiar..."
He closed his eyes to sense something and then opened them again, his hollow gaze filled with confusion.
"Earth's dao essence?
"A disciple of the Earth Sect?
"How could that be...?"
In the desolate state of Xiaohuang, where would a disciple of the Earth Sect come from, and how would they know his name?
"That's not right..."
"Sun Yi" extended his right hand, which was missing a few fingers, and held them together in a strange shape as if calculating something.
He started to piece together some cause and effect:
"Earth's dao essence..."
"Thick Earth Array..."
"There's a cultivator..."
"...an array master..."
"He's small in stature...no...he's very young?"
The cause and effect ended there, leaving him with more questions than answers.
"Sun Yi" shed tears from his eyes, and his sparse hair gradually turned white. His sea of consciousness trembled as his remaining spiritual sense desperately calculated:
"If not for the obscuration of the dao essence, after three breaths, this person would have surely uttered my name..."
"Then let's remove the obscuration of the dao essence..."
Blood gushed from "Sun Yi"'s eyes, and his ashen-white hair fell out strand by strand. His face visibly aged as he seemed to be using his very life force to make up for the insufficiency of his calculation power.
He counted aloud:
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three..."
Three breaths passed, and just as he had calculated, someone involuntarily uttered his name:
"The Eccentric Daoist!"
The voice that spoke his name was crisp and pleasant.
"Sun Yi" was taken aback, his expression one of surprise. "A child?"
Why would a child know his name? Who was this person, and what connection did they have to him?
"Sun Yi" listened intently, but the voice began to change.
It transformed from a child's voice to a clearer, more youthful tone, then deepened into that of a young man, and finally, it matured into a voice he found incredibly familiar and missed dearly.
This voice was crisp and refined.
The three words, "The Eccentric Daoist," also changed into two:
"Senior Brother."
"Sun Yi" opened his eyes and, in a daze, saw a handsome and exceptional cultivator looking at him.
His gaze was sharp yet gentle, and a mysterious smile played at the corners of his mouth.
It was Mr. Zhuang.
A moment later, everything faded like clouds of smoke.
"Sun Yi" could no longer remember who had spoken his name.
He only remembered that voice calling him "Senior Brother."
He tried to calculate further but found that the sea of consciousness in this body had cracked, and his spiritual sense had dried up. Even the hair on his head had fallen out...
There was nothing left to calculate...
"Sun Yi" sat there for a long time, his posture strange and his expression odd. He muttered to himself:
"My good junior brother...what exactly are you hiding?"
"In your current state, is there anything left to hide?"
The desolate mountains remained silent, with no answer.
"Never mind..."
"Sun Yi" stood up shakily, his body wrapped in the dead man's robe. With uneven steps, he walked out of the forest...
"Wait until I find you, and then I'll know everything..."
(End of Chapter)
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