Chapter 1401: Bottleneck
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Chapter 1399: Bottleneck
Within the Sea of Consciousness.
Mo Hua gazed at the scene before him-like a divine tree reaching for the heavens, with formation patterns blooming like flowers, covering the entire expanse of his Sea of Consciousness-and he still couldn’t suppress his astonishment.
He hadn’t expected his divine sense to advance so quickly this time.
From the peak of twenty-nine patterns, he had directly taken a huge step forward, approaching the bottleneck of Divine-Sense Feathered Ascension.
Either he had eaten too much before—too mixed—demons, evil spirits, fierce ghosts, evil gods, barbarian gods… devouring a whole heap of them.
The accumulation of various Divine Sense within his body had been immense, grown excessively abundant, so after long accumulation, it erupted all at once. Without the constraints of the Heavenly Dao, it surged violently, directly pushing him to the bottleneck of Divine-Sense Feathered Ascension.
Or perhaps, within the Endless Abyssal Marsh, he had unconsciously digested other things.
After losing the suppression of the Heavenly Secret Deceptive Algorithm and the Heavenly Secret Derivative Algorithm, his Divine-Sense regressed and rebounded, allowing his Divine-Sense realm to advance another large step.
If he could break through this bottleneck, his Divine Sense would directly ascend to Feathered Ascension stage.
Golden Core realm, Feathered Ascension Divine-Sense.
What form would Feathered Ascension realm Divine Sense take, and just how powerful would it be…
Mo Hua felt an almost uncontrollable excitement in his heart.
But when he raised his head and saw the overwhelming, sky-filling Heavenly Puzzle Formation in his Sea of Consciousness, he couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.
“A peak Third-Grade formation… even containing a certain degree of Law power…”
And the number of formations within it was several fold greater than the Heavenly Puzzle Formation he had encountered during Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages.
How was he supposed to solve this?
If he solved them one by one, how long would that even take?
Mo Hua sighed, his emotions complicated.
The good news was that his Divine-Sense was even stronger than he had imagined, truly at the limit of twenty-nine patterns.
He was just one step away from breaking through the bottleneck and entering thirty-pattern Feathered Ascension.
The troublesome part was that the Heavenly Puzzle Formation in his Sea of Consciousness had evolved again, its scale larger, its difficulty even higher.
Those densely packed formation patterns appeared beautiful and dazzling, like countless flowers in bloom. But to Mo Hua, they made his scalp tingle.
He couldn’t help but wonder:
“Is this Celestial Evolution Art really something a human can cultivate?”
“Can anyone truly cultivate the Celestial Evolution Art to above Feathered Ascension, even reaching the Profound-Hollow-Void?”
Mo Hua was highly doubtful.
But now that things had come to this, with the bottleneck already blocking his Sea of Consciousness, there was no other way but to think of every possible method to overcome it.
Fortunately, this kind of near-despairing problem wasn’t new to him.
Mo Hua had already grown accustomed to the unreasonable nature of the Celestial Evolution Art.
“It’s just solving a Heavenly Puzzle Formation. Could it be more terrifying than facing Martial Uncle head-on in battle…?”
Mo Hua comforted himself silently.
But even so, it was still mentally exhausting. He shook his head, withdrew his Divine-Sense Thought from his Sea of Consciousness, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of eyes as clear and crystalline as ice and snow.
The two stared at each other for a moment before Mo Hua exclaimed in surprise:
“Little Senior Sister? Why are you in my room?”
Then he turned his head and realized it wasn’t just Little Senior Sister, True-Person Rong was also nearby.
Seeing Mo Hua awake, Bai Zixi finally let out a sigh of relief. Then, with her jade-like hand, she touched Mo Hua’s forehead, looked closely into his eyes, and after confirming that the person before her was indeed her Little Junior Brother, she asked:
“What were you doing just now?”
“I…” Mo Hua’s thoughts stirred slightly, “was cultivating.”
“Cultivating?”
“Mm.”
Bai Zixi frowned slightly. Since it concerned her junior brother’s cultivation foundation, she didn’t press further, only asking:
“Your body… is it alright?”
“It’s fine,” Mo Hua replied.
Bai Zixi nodded lightly. After a moment, she asked again, “Really fine?”
“Mm.” Mo Hua nodded.
Bai Zixi said nothing more, only softly said, “Then rest well.”
“Alright.” Mo Hua replied.
Bai Zixi glanced at Mo Hua once more, confirming the familiar look in his eyes, before rising and slowly leaving.
True-Person Rong, however, stood to the side, watching Mo Hua coldly.
She had confirmed several times that Mo Hua was indeed at the early Golden Core stage, which only made things feel even more inconceivable.
She also wanted to ask him something, but although the astonishing trace of Divine-Sense in the air had disappeared, that heart-palpitating, strange aura still seemed to linger.
To the point that even she—a Feathered Ascension True Person—didn’t quite dare to interrogate a Golden Core junior like Mo Hua.
Not getting answers was one thing. But what if she actually uncovered something… and became entangled in some unknowable karma?
In the end, True-Person Rong could only give Mo Hua a deep look before following behind Bai Zixi and leaving together.
…
In the night.
Bai Zixi in white robes and True-Person Rong in formal attire walked one after the other.
Just as they were about to return to their respective rooms, True-Person Rong suddenly called out:
“Zixi.”
Bai Zixi turned to look at her.
After a moment of silence, True-Person Rong sighed and slowly said:
“Keep your distance… from your junior brother…”
In every sense, the two being together was not very safe.
Especially since Bai Zixi’s identity was special, she absolutely could not have other emotions.
Bai Zixi only nodded.
True Person Rong looked at her, silent for a moment before finally setting aside her True Person demeanor, her tone softening considerably as she said gently:
“Zixi… consider it as me begging you.”
“Some things… you should understand…”
Bai Zixi was slightly taken aback, her gaze dimming as she softly replied, “Mm.”
True-Person Rong sighed and said nothing more.
After bidding farewell, Bai Zixi turned and walked alone into the night, disappearing from True-Person Rong’s sight.
True-Person Rong thought of Zixi, then of Mo Hua, and ultimately let out a helpless sigh.
“What exactly… did I bring back to Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land…”
The days ahead in Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land would likely no longer be peaceful.
…
Meanwhile, Mo Hua guessed that triggering the bottleneck of Divine-Sense Feathered Ascension had probably alerted True-Person Rong.
But he didn’t think much of it. As long as it didn’t alert his Martial Uncle, he generally wasn’t too worried.
Having been busy all night—resolving the two Heavenly Secret Algorithms issue, healing his Divine-Sense injury, and touching the bottleneck of thirty-pattern Feathered Ascension—Mo Hua was utterly exhausted and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Under the bright moon of the small Blessed Land.
True Person Rong, unsettled by Mo Hua’s strangeness, felt uneasy; Bai Zixi, burdened with thoughts, was restless. Neither of them slept that night.
Instead, Mo Hua slept soundly until dawn broke. When he opened his eyes, his Divine-Sense was full, and his spirit refreshed.
The injuries to his Divine-Sense had healed completely, and even his mental state had improved significantly.
Mo Hua could finally properly plan what to do next.
In a sense, this was also a new beginning.
Taking the Golden Core as his starting point, he would seek higher realms.
His core objective, of course, was still to unravel the Heavenly Puzzle Formation.
By doing so, he could break through the bottleneck of the Celestial Evolution Art, allowing his Divine-Sense to reach thirty patterns and step into the Feathered Ascension realm.
But to unravel such a Grand formation, his formation mastery would need to advance further, he might even need to reach the level of a peak third-grade formation master.
At the same time, given the unprecedented scale of the Heavenly Puzzle Grand Formation, actually deciphering it would undoubtedly be an immense and complex undertaking.
He needed to find a way to solve the problem of “large-scale decryption.”
None of this could be achieved in a short time. For now, all he could do was continue studying formations and improving his mastery.
Aside from formations, his cultivation also needed urgent attention.
Now that his Divine Sense had recovered, his inner perception of himself had become clearer.
By actively using his Divine Sense to guide spiritual power through the Minor Circulation, the contamination and injuries in his flesh were also healing more quickly.
On top of that, with Little Senior Sister refining pills for him every day to nurture his recovery, his physical condition had improved considerably.
This meant that he could finally resume proper cultivation and increase his strength.
There was just one issue… his Life-Bound Spiritual Skeleton seemed somewhat strange.
Through inner observation, Mo Hua could see that his originally pure blue Life-Bound Spiritual Skeleton had turned half-blue, half-black, tainted with a trace of pitch-black impurity.
It looked as though it had been contaminated.
Yet strangely, this contamination didn’t seem to conflict with his Spiritual Skeleton. Instead, it added a primitive, savage undertone to his exquisitively refined “artificial” Taotie patterns.
Half black, half blue. Half artificial, half primal. Half pure, half contaminated.
Mo Hua didn’t know whether this was a problem, but after trying to activate the Spiritual Skeleton, it seemed usable—it was just that the spiritual energy within carried a wild, brute force.
Mo Hua, who was both knowledgeable and experienced, understood one principle:
If it works… it’s probably fine.
At the very least, the underlying logic was functional. Otherwise, this Spiritual Skeleton simply wouldn’t function.
Mo Hua had too many “makeshift” things on him. Many of his techniques and forbidden arts were cobbled together from various sources.
Even his Divine Sense Sword Transformation True Art had been altered beyond recognition, let alone this Spiritual Skeleton.
The Taotie Spiritual Skeleton Formation itself was already a taboo of the Great Wilderness, far from orthodox, and hardly anyone had ever verified it.
He was crossing the river by feeling the stones—figuring things out on his own. There was no way to worry about everything; as long as it worked, that was enough.
No matter how strong the contamination was… could it be stronger than his Martial Uncle?
Having climbed out of the abyss, Mo Hua’s mindset had grown increasingly bold.
…
After checking his Spiritual Skeleton, Mo Hua turned to examine his Golden Core.
His Golden Core now had a dim luster, with weak Five Elements—it was an Inferior-grade Minor Five Elements Golden Core.
On it lingered strands of True Dragon Qi.
This was the “True Dragon Lock,” used in the Dragon Pool of the Great Wilderness to forcibly lock the grade of the Golden Core.
Among the prodigies who formed their cores in the Great Wilderness, whether righteous or demonic, most only had a single True Dragon Lock, just enough to lock the grade once.
Yet Mo Hua’s Golden Core had five.
And still, five True Dragon Locks had failed to secure even an Intermediate-Lower grade core…
Mo Hua was utterly speechless.
From the outside, his Five-Qi True Dragon Lock Golden Core looked domineering—five dragons coiling around it, majestic and profound—yet it was merely Inferior-grade.
There was something absurdly ironic about it.
Mo Hua didn’t even know who to complain to.
But since things had come to this, Inferior-grade it was. He didn’t rely on his Golden Core anyway.
The problem of insufficient total spiritual power in his circulation could be compensated with his Life-Bound Spiritual Skeleton Formation.
All problems could be solved with formations, that was the essence of a Formation Master’s ability.
Next, aside from studying formations, he would continue cultivating, advancing toward the mid and even late stages of the Golden Core realm.
At the same time, he needed to consider how to fully “fill” his Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual Skeleton Formation.
This Spiritual Skeleton Formation was his Life-Bound Magical Treasure, there was no way he wouldn’t nurture it.
Mo Hua was very curious just how powerful his Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual Skeleton Absolute Formation would become once fully “fed.”
He felt a sense of anticipation.
However, this meant he first needed to obtain a massive amount of Spirit Stones.
Not just a regular “large amount”—it would likely need to be an enormous, even astronomically oceanic quantity of Spirit stones.
Mo Hua’s cultivation method didn’t rely on spiritual materials, only on Divine Sense and formation mastery.
His need for Divine Sense was practically a bottomless pit.
And now, with his Life-Bound Formation, his need for Spirit Stones had become another bottomless pit.
The problem was… he was currently penniless. His storage bags had been destroyed, and he had nowhere near enough Spirit Stones.
He also couldn’t bring himself to “borrow” from Little Senior Sister .
Because the amount needed was truly far too great.
Although Little Senior Sister was a “wealthy lady,” the Spirit stones required for the Taotie Spiritual Skeleton might be beyond even her means.
Moreover, she had already saved him, helped him recover, taught him formations, and let him stay in her Blessed Land…
Her kindness was already impossible to repay. Asking her for Spirit Stones on top of that would be too much.
“A real man earns his own Spirit Stones.”
Mo Hua refused to believe that, with his formation mastery, he couldn’t earn Spirit stones.
Especially since this was Kun Province.
Kun Province had always been prosperous since ancient times, bustling and overflowing with wealth.
“I just hope Kun Province truly is as rich as they say, rich enough for me to earn the Spirit stones needed to nourish the Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual Skeleton Formation…”
Mo Hua thought silently.
Given this, he could no longer idle away his days in the Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land. He had to go out.
At the very least, he should see what the outside world was like.
After pondering for a moment, Mo Hua went to find True-Person Rong, saying that his injuries had improved and he wanted to go out and experience Kun Province’s local customs.
After all, he was living under someone else’s roof, so it was only proper to inform her first.
True-Person Rong thought briefly and agreed.
She wasn’t worried about Mo Hua causing trouble outside, only about him wreaking havoc in her Blessed Land.
Mo Hua then went to find Little Senior Sister and told her his plans.
Bai Zixi’s expression was somewhat indifferent. She merely nodded and said, “Be careful.”
Mo Hua felt that Little Senior Sister’s attitude toward him seemed a bit more distant.
His thoughts stirred as if realizing something. He smiled gently and nodded. “Alright.”
With the approval of both the master of Little Luan Mountain and Little Senior Sister, Mo Hua immediately decided to set out.
He was decisive—once he made a decision, he rarely delayed it until the next day.
He found a storage bag, hung it at his waist, and headed out of the Blessed Land.
As he passed through the small courtyard, he paused slightly.
He saw Xiao Ju—like a chubby, lucky doll—lying on the white jade table. Despite having plenty of sleep, she looked troubled and downcast.
Unable to hold back his curiosity, Mo Hua asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Ju glanced at him, sighed, and said dejectedly:
“The orange tree… still hasn’t sprouted…”
Mo Hua fell silent for a moment, then slowly asked, “Don’t tell me… you go check on it every day?”
Xiao Ju shook her head. “No.”
Then she raised three fingers.
Mo Hua said, “You check once every three days?”
Xiao Ju shook her head. “Three times a day! Once in the morning, once after lunch, and once more in the evening.”
Mo Hua: “…”
After saying that, Xiao Ju slumped back onto the table, rubbing her little head against the white jade surface, looking utterly downcast. “But I check every day, and it still hasn’t sprouted…”
Mo Hua said, “Maybe you checking on it every day is putting too much pressure on it, so the orange tree doesn’t dare to sprout…”
Xiao Ju shot him a sideways glance and sneered, “Do you think I’m a child? Trying to fool me with such childish talk?”
Mo Hua smiled, thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Then do you want the orange tree to sprout sooner?”
Xiao Ju’s ears perked up. “Is that possible?”
“Hard to say…” After pondering for a moment, Mo Hua added, “I’m going to take a trip to Houtu City. Want to come along?”
Xiao Ju asked, “You going to Houtu City, does that have anything to do with my orange tree sprouting?”
Mo Hua said, “I’ll go into the city and see if I can find some spiritual herbs or formations to stimulate the growth of spirit plants.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“I’ll go in the morning and be back by the afternoon.”
Xiao Ju hesitated, but in the end, still worried about her orange tree, she nodded. “Alright.”
Then she added, “Wait a bit. I’ll brew Sister Zixi’s clear tea first, and prepare some pill formulas and spirit ink for her.”
“Mm.” Mo Hua nodded.
Xiao Ju went off to take care of her tasks. After a while, she returned, clearly having finished her tasks. She had also changed into a simple outfit, with a storage bag slung over her shoulder. The bag looked stuffed full—she seemed to have prepared quite thoroughly.
“Let’s go!” Xiao Ju said.
Mo Hua was a bit puzzled. “Do you often go to Houtu City?”
“Mm.” Xiao Ju nodded. “I occasionally go there to handle purchases and supplies!”
Mo Hua was somewhat surprised. This little bean, who didn’t look very old, turned out to be unexpectedly reliable.
With Xiao Ju, this “little local,” leading the way, his trip to Houtu City would likely be much more convenient.
Mo Hua nodded. “Alright, let’s set off for Houtu City!”
…
Author Notes:
Thanks to Fairy Xiaodie for the Alliance Leader reward~
Didn’t notice it earlier, so making up for it now: thank you~
If I’m not too worn out later, I’ll add extra chapters~ (.)