Chapter 1405: Spiritual Skeleton and Spells

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Chapter 1403: Spiritual Skeleton and Spells

Inside a guest room in the Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land.

As hundreds of thousands of spirit stones melted away, vast amounts of spiritual energy surged like rivers through Mo Hua’s body, ultimately being completely absorbed by that ferocious, half-black, half-blue Taotie Spiritual Skeleton Formation—a fusion of artificial formation refinement and the raw brutality of a primordial beast.

The Taotie patterns flickered, bright then dim, as if the beast itself were breathing.

After an unknown amount of time, four hundred thousand spirit stones had been completely consumed by Mo Hua.

The river of spiritual energy dried up, and the Taotie patterns gradually dimmed, yet Mo Hua’s spiritual skeleton remained ravenous and restless.

Like an insatiable monster, it still wanted to devour more—its aura violent and restless—but under the suppression of Mo Hua’s powerful will, it finally settled back into dormancy.

As this “greedy” intent was subdued, Mo Hua’s second Taotie spiritual skeleton—the Hand Taiyin Heart Meridian—having been infused with four hundred thousand spirit stones of spiritual power, finally began to change, emitting a gentle, lustrous glow.

With this, Mo Hua ended his cultivation.

All traces of spiritual energy withdrew into his body, no longer leaking outward.

On the surface, he still appeared to be an ordinary Inferior-grade Golden Core cultivator, with a very faint spiritual pressure.

But what outsiders could not see was the far more vast and violent spiritual power hidden beneath his skin—engraved into his bones and refined into his Life-Bound Formation.

Feeling the long-lost sensation of abundant spiritual power within his body, Mo Hua slowly let out a breath, then turned his divine sense inward.

Previously, he had already nurtured one spiritual skeleton of the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.

Now, after consuming four hundred thousand spirit stones, the second spiritual skeleton of the Hand Taiyin Heart Meridian had also been activated.

However, its progress was only about one-fifth complete.

Mo Hua estimated that filling this meridian, would require roughly two million spirit stones.

“Two million…”

This amount was exactly double that of the first Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.

A bad feeling suddenly arose in Mo Hua’s heart.

What he feared wasn’t this “doubling.”

Two million spirit stones to fill one spiritual skeleton—while a lot—was still within his ability to earn.

Especially in Kun Province, where resources were abundant and prices inflated.

What he feared… was continuous doubling.

If the third meridian required twice the second, the fourth twice the third…

If it kept escalating like this, the cost would become terrifying.

Later on, it might take tens of millions, hundreds of millions—even billions of spirit stones—just to fully “feed” this Taotie.

And this… was his Life-Bound Formation.

Mo Hua’s feelings were complicated.

Then another thought arose in his mind:

Just how powerful would a Taotie Spiritual Skeleton Formation that required billions of spirit stones to fill, will become?

Or rather, what were the specific effects of this Spiritual Skeleton in its current effects?

Frowning slightly, Mo Hua pondered for a moment, then stood up and left the room.

…

Previously, Mo Hua had asked Xiao Ju and learned that within the Blessed Land, there were some training rooms specifically designed for practicing spells.

After all, this was a place for high-level cultivators to seclude themselves—naturally, all necessary facilities were available.

And despite appearing cold, True Person Rong was quite generous; these training rooms were not restricted from Mo Hua’s use.

“True Person Rong may seem indifferent, but she’s actually a really good person,” Mo Hua thought to himself.

Soon, he arrived at one of the carefully arranged training rooms within the blessed land.

The training room was extremely quiet, with only Mo Hua present.

Inside were defensive formations, spell-testing puppets, and a full array of weapons and spiritual tools—spears, swords, halberds—everything one could need.

This setup was familiar to him.

Back in the Great Void Sect, he had spent plenty of time in training rooms practicing spells. He had even blown one up once, nearly taking himself with it.

Compared to those, the Blessed Land’s training rooms were similar in layout, but far more comprehensive and of higher quality.

After all, the Great Void Sect’s rooms were meant for ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples.

These, however, were likely for True Person Rong or his Little Senior Sister, so naturally of a much higher grade.

The spell-testing puppet was an armored dummy made from unknown mystic iron and spirit jade, capable of resisting impacts and absorbing spiritual energy. It looked extremely sturdy.

Without hesitation, Mo Hua raised both hands and began casting spells, bombardinga barrage of spells at the puppet.

Fireball Technique, Water Prison Technique, Golden Blade Technique, Quicksand Technique, Wooden Spike Technique…

Countless basic Five Elements spells fired continuously like a machine gun, relentlessly bombarding the puppet.

These spells were almost tangible, shimmering with a faint crystalline glow. Their casting speed was fast, swifter in trajectory, and significantly more powerful.

These were Third-Grade Five Elements spells.

Since they were all basic spells from minor Five Elements branches, they weren’t particularly rare, and their manuals were easy to obtain.

Mo Hua had prepared for this long ago, collecting these jade slips early on. With his divine sense and comprehension, learning them was effortless.

Now, as a Golden Core cultivator, with powerful divine sense and qualitative transformed spiritual power… When he cast these minor Five Elements spells again, both speed and strength were on an entirely different level.

All techniques interconnected, the Five Elements in constant flow.

This was the spellcasting style recommended to Mo Hua by Elder Yi, who was in charge of teaching spells back in the Great Void Sect.

As Mo Hua’s cultivation rose, this seemingly “cheap” spell style began to display a very different kind of oppressive force.

But one issue remained.

This high-frequency, high-speed spell suppression consumed enormous amounts of spiritual power.

Before long, the spiritual energy within his Inferior-grade Golden Core was completely drained.

Normally, this would be the end of it.

For Golden Core cultivators, once the energy within their core was depleted, they could no longer cast spells.

But at that moment…

As his spiritual power was about to run dry, Mo Hua activated his Life-Bound Formation.

Instantly, his spiritual skeleton lit up, faint blue patterns emerging on his skin.

The Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual Skeleton Formation, using bones as the formation medium, connected internally to organs and externally to meridians, linking directly with the body’s twelve primary meridians.

A strand of slightly violent spiritual power seeped from the skeleton, flowed along the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, and replenished Mo Hua’s depleted spiritual energy—allowing him to continue casting spells.

The Five Elements spell chain, which had nearly broken, surged once more like an endless tide.

Moreover, these spells, powered by the spiritual skeleton, carried a faint, almost imperceptible aura of a ferocious beast.

Their colors also became darker.

The assault continued.

As time passed, Mo Hua exhausted the entire spiritual power of the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, unleashing another full barrage of Five Elements spells.

Then, the second meridian—the Hand Taiyin Heart Meridian—began to supply energy.

However, since it was only one-fifth nurtured, its function was incomplete, and it quickly ran dry as well.

At this point, nearly all of Mo Hua’s spiritual power was exhausted.

He had no choice but to stop the bombardment.

The continuous explosions generated by spells gradually subsided.

The armored puppet, forged from mystic iron and spirit jade, had endured the relentless barrage, its surface glowing continuously.

Once all spiritual fluctuations faded, the puppet remained completely intact, without the slightest damage.

Its grade was simply too high, its durability too strong.

Mo Hua’s attacks were never meant to seriously harm it.

Even so, the light on its body showed a brief delay.

It seemed that due to the prolonged bombardment, the puppet had struggled to keep up, and some internal formations had experienced slight “short-circuiting.”

Mo Hua’s eyes flickered slightly.

Continuous spell bombardment—though composed of low-tier spells—could still produce astonishing suppressive and destructive force, as long as the duration was long enough, the total energy sufficient, and the attack frequency high enough.

The key lay in “suppression.”

Under such rapid and relentless spell pressure, the enemy would hardly have any chance to catch their breath.

If even a spell-testing puppet was affected to this extent… then against cultivators made of flesh, blood, and meridians, the effect would likely be even more pronounced.

Mo Hua nodded, fairly satisfied with this result.

A single spell might not amount to much, but once the quantity and speed of spells stacked up to a certain level, their significance became entirely different.

As long as he earned more spirit stones in the future to nourish more Taotie spiritual skeletons and increase the spiritual power of his minor heavenly circulations, the suppressive force generated by this uninterrupted Five Elements spell bombardment would become even stronger.

Unfortunately, staying within the small blessed land, he had no chance to find someone to serve as a “target” to test the actual damage of his spells.

How effective this kind of spell suppression would be in real combat remained unknown…

Mo Hua felt somewhat regretful.

Cultivation emphasized applying what one learned, this was true for formations, and equally true for spells.

Only by using them in real combat could one discover their strengths, weaknesses, and ways to improve.

“Maybe… I should spar with Little Senior Sister?”

The thought flickered in Mo Hua’s mind, but after a moment, he shook his head.

Little Senior Sister possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root and seemed to practiced both body and spiritual cultivation. Her foundation was flawless, and her talent was extraordinary.

Without using Divine Sense or relying on formations, and only using spells, Mo Hua felt he probably wasn’t her match.

Moreover, if something went wrong during the sparring and he angered her, ending up being pinned down and beaten by her… that would be utterly humiliating.

Just imagining that scene made Mo Hua abandon the idea of sparring, thinking to himself:

“Little Senior Sister is very diligent in her cultivation. No need to disturb her without good reason, lest I delay her progress…”

The experiment with spiritual skeleton and spells temporarily came to an end.

Having gained some understanding, Mo Hua tidied up the training room a bit before turning to leave.

At the same time, as he walked, he pondered how he could “earn big spirit stones” in the future to fill up this bottomless-pit-like spiritual skeleton.

If he filled all twelve meridians, then in future battles, could he drown people to death with just Fireball Technique alone?

Also, if he really fought Little Senior Sister without using the Taixu Divine-Slaying Sword, how much chance of victory would he have…

Moreover, a trump card like the Taixu Divine-Slaying Sword should be kept hidden as much as possible, lest others take notice or prepare counters against it.

So aside from the Divine-Slaying Sword, what other powerful methods did he have to confront strong opponents head-on?

At this thought, Mo Hua’s heart skipped a beat as he recalled a special spell:

“Meteor Flame Technique!”

This forbidden technique had been obtained from the Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator Fire Buddha back in the Qianxue Prefecture.

Come to think of it, Mo Hua hadn’t used it for a long time.

Especially during those ten-odd years in the Great Wilderness, restricted by his Martial Uncle’s schemes, he couldn’t take too many lives, and often couldn’t act at all.

Moreover, at that time he was only at Foundation Establishment, his spiritual power hadn’t undergone qualitative transformation. Even when activating the Meteor Flame forbidden technique, at most he could injure early-stage Golden Core cultivators, most likely just burning them, with little chance of actually killing them.

Against mid-stage or late-stage Golden Core experts, the power of the Meteor Flame Technique was even more inadequate.

For a Foundation Establishment cultivator to rely purely on spiritual power spells to kill mid or late-stage Golden Core cultivators was already a fantasy.

Their spiritual power between the two was simply not on the same level.

But now, Mo Hua had reached the Golden Core stage—his spiritual power had crystallized—so the situation was entirely different.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but wonder:

“What would the power of the Meteor Flame forbidden technique be like at the Golden Core stage?”

Back then, Fire Buddha was only at Foundation Establishment stage, yet with his Second-grade Meteor Flame Technique, he could already wreak havoc.

If Fire Buddha hadn’t been killed and had instead advanced to Golden Core, upgrading the Meteor Flame Technique, things might have turned out completely differently.

With Fire Buddha’s almost monstrous ability and his two artificial “Meteor Flame hearts,” once he reached Golden Core, the power of his technique would have surged dramatically.

If he then cultivated quietly for a few more years, relying on this forbidden technique, he might have risen to become a major figure in the demonic path, perhaps even founding a sect and becoming the “Meteor Flame Ancestor.”

Of course, that was assuming he hadn’t been killed by Mo Hua and Uncle Gu.

And Mo Hua knew in his heart:

Although his own Meteor Flame Technique was far inferior to Fire Buddha’s in scale and range, through the collision and fusion of spell formulas, it produced a kind of spiritual power “fusion,” that concentrated its power into a single point. In terms of pure destructive force, it was actually stronger than Fire Buddha’s Meteor Flame Technique.

Fire Buddha never reached the Golden Core realm.

But now, Mo Hua, who had mastered the mutated Meteor Flame Technique, was a genuine Golden Core cultivator.

“Golden Core cultivation… spiritual power crystallization… Fireball technique fusion…”

Mo Hua suddenly felt a flame ignite in his heart, his fingers trembling slightly, almost wanting to conjure a fireball on the spot to test it.

But after careful consideration, he ultimately restrained himself.

It was too reckless, and carried significant risks.

Mo Hua still remembered it vividly. Back then, just to test the Meteor Flame Technique, he had blown up the Dao Arts Training Chamber of the Great Void Sect… and himself along with it, ending up in the infirmary.

A true hero doesn’t boast about past glories, nor does he make the same mistake twice.

Mo Hua was no longer the same person he once was; he was far more cautious and meticulous now.

The Meteor Flame Technique could be tested, but the risks had to be controlled in advance.

Moreover, the calculations of the spell formulas’ structure, as well as the derivation of the fusion, had to be far more precise…

With this thought, Mo Hua first left the training room, returned to his own room, and took out a book, along with some diagrams and jade slips from his Storage Ring.

On the cover of the book were the three words: “Meteoric Flame Art,” the forbidden technique manual once belonging to Fire Buddha.

The diagrams and jade slips contained Mo Hua’s own analyses of spell structures, as well as his research into the trajectories of spiritual power fusion.

He carefully reviewed all of them once more.

Within Fire Buddha’s Meteoric Fire records, there were indeed studies and notes on some fire-type spell structures above the third grade, but they were incomplete.

Clearly, this forbidden art had never been fully developed, especially the parts beyond the Third Grade, which only contained rough concepts and sketch-like drafts.

The missing parts… Mo Hua would have to find a way to complete them himself.

He then revisited his own “Meteoric Fire research” that he had conducted years ago.

These studies were indeed things he had painstakingly worked out step by step back then, using the Heavenly Secret Derivative Algorithm.

However, too much time had passed, and many of the finer details of the spells had grown somewhat hazy in his memory.

Back then, he had merely been a junior disciple of the Great Void Sect. Whether in cultivation realm, experience, divine sense computational ability, or understanding of spiritual energy… he was limited in everything. As a result, what he produced back then was somewhat crude.

Yet within that crudeness, many of the ideas—when reviewed from Mo Hua’s current perspective—were still brimming with wild, unrestrained imaginative concepts.

Moreover, they reflected a fearless, daring, and almost bold spirit—daring to think, daring to act, overflowing with ideas, and bold to an almost outrageous degree.

Thinking back to how his younger self had managed to cram so many absurdly brilliant notions into that little head…

Mo Hua couldn’t help but smile.

Then, based on the Second-Grade Meteoric Flame forbidden art structure and its fusion-explosion foundation that he had already established back then, he began constructing an entirely new Third-Grade Meteoric Flame forbidden technique, refining its spell structure and deducing the spiritual power fusion anew…

In other words… “Developing a Third-Grade forbidden art.”