Chapter 1413: Earth Formation

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Chapter 1411: Earth Formation

Old Mo was shrewd and perceptive. Noticing the change in Mo Hua’s expression and the fluctuation in his tone, he asked in surprise:

“Young Master Mo… you seem to care quite a lot about reviving the dead?”

Mo Hua restrained his emotions and replied calmly:

“I’m just a bit curious… after all, bringing the dead back to life is far too mysterious and miraculous. I’ve never encountered anything like it before…”

Qian Jin said speechlessly, “Like anyone else has…”

“This sort of thing is ultimately just hearsay,” the scholar shook his head. “How could something like reviving the dead truly exist in this world? Even if there were such a thing, it would merely be corpse transformation, ghostification, or reincarnation—demonic methods that leave one half-human, half-ghost, stripped of their original nature. Calling it ‘resurrection’… you’d honestly be better off dead.”

Da Shan said solemnly, “All living beings are governed by the destiny of the Heavenly Dao. Whoever dares disrupt that destiny will surely suffer heavenly retribution. It’s hard to end well.”

Mo Hua frowned. “If there’s truly no possibility at all, then why would the Earth Sect expend so much effort researching resurrection?”

Old Mo shook his head. “Who can say… maybe it’s exaggerated, maybe it’s just a cover for something else.”

“Or perhaps it’s simply rumors spreading misinformation. Revival, rejuvenation, spirit restoration… in the cultivation world, a single word’s difference can lead to vastly different meanings. Outsiders like us, without true teachings, can only interpret based on surface meaning and make blind guesses…”

Mo Hua nodded and said nothing more.

Yet Old Mo still noticed a faint obsession lingering in Mo Hua’s eyes.

So young, yet so fixated on ‘resurrection’? Afraid of death, are you…

Old Mo muttered inwardly, finding Mo Hua increasingly strange. But at this critical moment, he had no time to dwell on such minor quirks.

Old Mo looked at everyone and asked, “That’s the situation. So… are you still going down?”

Everyone fell silent.

Clearly, the involvement of the Earth Sect made them wary.

After thinking for a moment, Old Mo said slowly, “If the tomb’s owner truly was a powerful figure of the Earth Sect, then whatever lies inside must be extraordinary. Of course… that also means greater danger.”

“The choice is yours. As for me…”

He paused briefly. “I’m definitely going down. The Earth Sect is powerful and wealthy. Opportunities to obtain their treasures are once in a thousand years. I want to take a gamble—to see if this old man can grab something good, defy fate, and before I die in this lifetime… perhaps catch a glimpse of the scenery of Feathered Ascension.”

Upon hearing this, Da Shan also nodded. “I’ll go down too!”

The scholar and Qian Jin didn’t even need to be asked.

The scholar, thinking of the beauty at Jade Spring Pavilion, said, “I’ll go.”

Only with enough spirit stones could he redeem his beloved.

Qian Jin smiled. “As I’ve said it before, one must gamble in life. I’d rather risk dying in a tomb than remain poor forever.”

Not wanting to seem out of place, Mo Hua nodded. “Same here.”

Old Mo’s eyes gleamed brightly. “Good. Then let’s go and see what the Earth Sect has buried below.”

Afterward, Old Mo turned to Da Shan and said. “Break through the coffin.”

Da Shan nodded, once again channeling the Mighty Divine General to forcefully shatter the bottom of the coffin.

The sturdy coffin, in his hands, was torn apart like thin tofu skin.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but marvel inwardly once more.

However, a coffin was not the same as stone. After breaking through it, Da Shan’s strength was clearly drained, cold sweat seeping from his back.

At the bottom of the coffin, a pitch-black hole appeared.

Old Mo glanced silently at Da Shan, expression unchanged, then said to the scholar:

“Release a mouse to scout below.”

The scholar took out a black mouse from his storage bag. Its eyes glowed red, its tail was long, and its limbs were clearly made of refined iron and wooden components… obviously a mechanical construct, yet remarkably lifelike.

He tossed the mouse into the hole, then lay by the edge and sensed for a moment before saying:

“No problem.”

“Good,” Old Mo said. “Let’s go down.”

With that, he leaped into the opening at the coffin’s bottom.

Da Shan and the others followed.

Mo Hua was last. He glanced back at the surrounding burial chamber, frowned slightly, then jumped down as well.

Below lay even deeper darkness.

After what felt like a long time, Mo Hua landed on solid ground. The air was damp and chilling, the atmosphere grew even more oppressive, clearly indicating they were now deeper underground.

At the same time, a intensely powerful aura of causality rushed toward him.

Mo Hua was momentarily stunned before realization dawned on him.

No wonder he had been unable to divine anything about the auspiciousness or peril of this journey earlier, the causality had been severed by the “tomb within a tomb” layout.

The “tomb” he had calculated wasn’t the real one. His target was wrong, so there was no causal feedback at all.

Of course, a mere nested tomb couldn’t completely sever causality.

The main reason he couldn’t calculate anything was likely related to the Earth Sect’s rumored formation capable of “reviving the dead.”

Since they dared to attempt “resurrection,” they would naturally conceal all causality to prevent others from peering into their secrets.

Mo Hua’s curiosity grew even stronger.

Surrounding them was utter darkness, so thick he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.

Mo Hua gently circulated his spiritual power, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes as he activated the “Spiritual Sight” technique.

Under spiritual sight, faint outlines became visible in the darkness.

This Spiritual Sight technique was an extremely obscure minor spell Mo Hua had obtained years ago from Elder Yi of the Great Void Sect.

The spell itself was not particularly remarkable, but its effectiveness depended entirely on Divine-Sense.

Depending on the strength of one’s Divine-Sense, the scenes perceived through Spiritual Sight could vary dramatically.

Old Mo and the others also employed their own methods to see in the darkness. Old Mo used a spell as well, though it differed somewhat from Spiritual Sight.

Da Shan stuck a Bright-Eye Talisman on his forehead.

The scholar used a mechanical lens, and Qian Jin used one as well, clearly provided by the scholar.

Old Mo glanced at Mo Hua, noting that he, too, used a spell, and the pure clarity of spiritual power in his eyes indicated considerable mastery. Old Mo was inwardly surprised but said nothing, instead turning to the group and stating:

“Earth Sect tombs are extremely dangerous. Since we’re taking this risk, we must work together. Otherwise, the consequences will be dire.”

Everyone nodded, their expressions grave, clearly aware that the Earth Sect’s tomb was no ordinary matter.

Old Mo then squatted down, picked up a pinch of soil, and tasted it.

In the darkness, his frown deepened.

He sniffed the air, chose a direction, and said, “Everyone. Follow me.”

Old Mo led the way.

The others followed one by one through the dark passage toward an unknown destination.

The tomb itself wasn’t large, but because it was nested, its structure was complex.

Since it was meant to hide a body to evade “Corpse Dissolution,” it naturally wasn’t be too extravagant.

Thus, after walking for a while, Old Mo arrived at another tomb door.

This door was covered in formations.

This time, Third-Grade formations were in the majority, with only one-third being Second-Grade, purely used to fill and reinforce the formation foundation.

Moreover, these formations were clearly far more complex than those near the “fake coffin” above.

Old Mo and the others couldn’t understand them at all.

Mo Hua remained calm on the surface, but his heart trembled.

On the tomb door, aside from the conventional formations, another type of formation was engraved… one that resonated with the aura of the earth, even more obscure and intricate.

“This is… an Earth-Ground Formation…”

Earth-Ground formations lay between Five Elements earth formations and Eight Trigrams Kun formations. They were the Earth Sect’s exclusive formations, rarely circulated in the world.

Mo Hua had only learned about them years ago from “Mr. Pi,” a tomb-raider he encountered while studying.

He had also found fragmented records and formation patterns, but never a complete high-level Earth-Ground formation.

And now, right before his eyes, a complete Earth-Ground Formation was engraved on the tomb door, merging seamlessly with the underground yin earth energy.

Mo Hua didn’t know which Earth-Ground Formation this was or what it was called, but since it was used on a tomb door to evade Corpse Dissolution, it was certainly extraordinary.

Moreover, this likely wasn’t just a single Earth-Ground Formation.

To construct an entire tomb chamber, it had to be a composite formation.

And this entire unknown composite Earth-Ground formation was likely hidden within the chamber before them.

A glint of desire flashed in Mo Hua’s eyes.

Old Mo stared at the tomb door, his expression grim, his brow tightly furrowed.

He turned to Mo Hua and asked in a low voice,

“Young Master Mo… can this door be broken?”

“This…” Mo Hua took a deep breath, his face troubled. He took a few steps forward and murmured, “I’ll… need to study it.”

Old Mo nodded repeatedly. “Please, take your time, Young Master. We’ll stand guard for you.”

Mo Hua approached the tomb door, sat cross-legged on the ground, and skillfully retrieved a formation brush, a stack of paper, and a blank jade slip from his storage bag.

These were all tools he commonly used for formations.

He then sat upright, focusing intently on the formation carved into the tomb door. Using his powerful divine sense—far beyond ordinary cultivators—to “see through” the surface and probe the complex structure hidden within.

After that, Mo Hua feigned deep contemplation and began sketching and scribbling on the paper, recording the mutual generation and restraint of the Five Elements formations.

That was what he wrote on paper.

But within the jade slip, what he recorded was something entirely different, a completely different kind of formation altogether.

The Earth Sect’s top-secret Earth-Ground formation…

While Mo Hua outwardly worked on one thing and secretly on another, using his derivative algorithm for deriving and recording the formation beneath the tomb, the others also glanced sideways at his “notes.”

After taking a look, they stopped paying attention because they couldn’t understand a single thing.

Different fields were like different worlds, and Formations were a highly specialized and barrier-intensive field of cultivation.

The minds of Formation Masters were also vastly different from ordinary people.

Old Mo also glanced at the formation records Mo Hua had casually jotted down. After watching for a while, he raised his head to study Mo Hua, feeling somewhat uneasy.

He didn’t know just how skilled this Young Master Mo truly was in formations.

Based on experience, he felt that a young man like Mo Hua, no matter what, shouldn’t be able to open this tomb door, which had practically reached the level of a Third Grade formation.

Yet now that things had come this far, he desperately hoped Mo Hua really could perform a miracle and manage to open the tomb door.

Time passed bit by bit. Mo Hua continued drawing, calculating, and recording.

Old Mo appeared calm on the surface, but his heart was in turmoil, filled with anxiety.

Finally, after who knows how long, Mo Hua put down his brush, stored away the jade slip and notes, and slowly stood up.

Old Mo’s heart stirred, and he hurriedly asked, “Well? How did it go?”

Mo Hua frowned. “I’m not entirely sure either… I can only give it a try.”

Old Mo nodded. “Alright.”

Mo Hua then picked up his brush, walked to both sides of the tomb door, marking several blank areas with “X” marks.

Of course, this time brute force alone wouldn’t be enough to break the formation.

While drawing the crosses, Mo Hua also drew some formation patterns around them, meant to dismantle the formation.

After finishing all this, Mo Hua looked at Da Shan and said, “It’s ready.”

Da Shan was skeptical but still followed the same method as before, channeling his strength and, as instructed by Mo Hua, smashing all the marked spots, breaking the nodes of the formation’s core.

At the same time, the formation patterns Mo Hua had drawn beforehand to dismantle the formation activated as well.

Light flickered like sparks of electricity, and moments later, cracks actually began to appear across the tomb door.

A Third Grade formation could already simulate physical objects.

Most of the tomb door’s structural hardness relied on the formation for support.

Once the formation became disordered and shattered, the door naturally cracked apart.

Da Shan stepped forward and pushed with brute force. The cracks on the tomb door spread, and it half-shattered, half-split open, revealing a broader tomb passage behind.

On both sides of the passage, eerie pale blood-colored crimson flames lit up one after another, as if passing a torch, illuminating the path into the distant, unknown darkness.

The entire tomb chamber appeared even more bloody and sinister.

But Old Mo was overjoyed. Looking at Mo Hua, he couldn’t hide his delight and repeatedly praised him, “Young Master Mo, your talent in formations is exceptional. You are sure to become a renowned figure in the future.”

When Da Shan and the others looked at Mo Hua again, their expressions held even more respect.

No wonder the cultivation world held formation masters in such high regard.

If you excelled at formations, you could solve problems others couldn’t, and you’d be welcomed wherever you went.

Mo Hua modestly replied, “You flatter me. I’m only doing my part.”

Old Mo shook his head repeatedly. “Not at all, this is far from just ‘doing your part.’ It’s truly remarkable.”

After saying this, Old Mo walked up to the tomb door, licked a bit of the soil, and said, “Not bad… the yin energy isn’t too heavy…”

He glanced back at the group and said, “Let’s go, into the main tomb. This is the real burial chamber. The good stuff is probably inside…”

Everyone’s eyes lit up as they stepped into the tomb chamber.

Now that Mo Hua’s status had risen, he walked second in line.

Da Shan walked behind Mo Hua, followed by Scholar, and finally Qian Jin.

As Qian Jin reached the doorway, Old Mo’s expression suddenly changed drastically. He asked, “Why don’t you have a shadow behind you?”

Qian Jin taken aback. “What behind me? What shadow?”

He turned his head and looked down at the ground behind him.

Old Mo suddenly grabbed his shoulder, pressed close to his back, and with his right hand formed a dagger, stabbing into his back at the heart and pulling it out in one motion. Blood poured out like water.

The dagger was some kind of sinister magical artifact, coated with poison, capable of killing instantly upon drawing blood.

Qian Jin’s face turned deathly pale, his eyes filled with shock and fury. Clutching his throat, he couldn’t utter a word as he slowly collapsed to the ground.

Old Mo crouched down and stabbed him a few more times, letting the dagger soak up his blood.

Then he pulled off the storage bag from Qian Jin’s waist and sighed with some difficulty:

“Don’t blame me. It’s just that four Heavenly Crystals are hard to split among five people…”

After saying this, Old Mo took out the Heavenly Crystal Qian Jin had hidden from his storage bag, turned around, and tossed it to Mo Hua with a smile.

“Young Master Mo, you take this Heavenly Crystal…”