Chapter 1438: Golden Stone Mighty Warrior and Mechanical Arts
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Chapter 1436: Golden Stone Mighty Warrior and Mechanical Arts
After a while, Xiao Ju came running over again on her short little legs, her expression excited but carrying a heavy sense of sneakiness.
“I stole True Person Rong’s ink… no…”
Xiao Ju said with a serious face, “I openly and righteously took it.”
True Person Rong probably disciplined Xiao Ju quite often.
Now that she had a chance to steal True Person Rong’s things, Xiao Ju couldn’t be happier.
Mo Hua took the several jade bottles from Xiao Ju’s hand, unsealed them, and instantly, a powerful spiritual energy rushed over. Mo Hua’s heart also trembled slightly.
“Such high-grade Spirit Ink.”
The quality of this ink was so high, its spirituality so strong, and its vitality so rich that it even gave Mo Hua the feeling that even a fool could succeed in drawing an array formation with this Spirit Ink.
Of course, a fool couldn’t draw an array formation, but an ordinary Formation Master would find it much easier to draw array formations using this kind of Spirit Ink.
This was absolutely top-tier, high-grade Spirit Ink that a Golden Core realm Formation Master could use.
Seeing Mo Hua somewhat dazed, Xiao Ju asked, “Is this ink good?”
Mo Hua snapped back to reality and nodded, “Very good.”
Xiao Ju breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good.”
Suddenly feeling puzzled, Mo Hua asked Xiao Ju, “Was this Spirit Ink entrusted to you for safekeeping by True Person Rong?”
Xiao Ju shook her head, “I don’t study array formations, why would True Person Rong give it to me to manage? This Spirit Ink was placed in the Repository by True Person Rong. It’s just that I have the key to the Repository.”
Mo Hua said in surprise, “True Person Rong… gave you the key to the Repository?”
“What’s the big deal,” Xiao Ju said righteously, “In this Little Luan Mountain Blessed Land, I’m the one feeding all the birds and cranes. I also take care of Sister Zixi’s daily life. Naturally, I manage the Repository too. Of course, that’s on the premise that True Person Rong isn’t around.”
Xiao Ju had quite the air of “when the tiger is away from the mountain, I am the king.”
Mo Hua smiled, thinking to himself that although True Person Rong seemed strict, she actually valued Xiao Ju very much.
Mo Hua didn’t dwell on it further for the moment.
Xiao Ju also urged him, “Hurry up and draw the array formation.”
Mo Hua nodded.
Although Xiao Ju was young and not very proficient in array formations, she knew the basic Five Elements.
She could also tell that Mo Hua was drawing an “Earth element” array formation, so the three bottles of Spirit Ink she “borrowed” were all Earth element Spirit Ink.
They were blended according to a certain ratio from the essence blood of Third-Grade high-tier demon beasts and Third-Grade high-tier spirit herbs.
It was no exaggeration to say each drop of ink was as precious as gold.
Mo Hua didn’t dare waste a single bit.
To show respect for the superior Spirit Ink provided, he even dared not use Divine Sense Brush Control. Instead, he personally held the Formation Brush with his hand, dipped it in the high-grade Spirit Ink, and began drawing the array formation with utmost seriousness.
Because the quality of this Spirit Ink was truly exceptional, containing vast spirituality, the brushstrokes were incredibly smooth.
So much so that Mo Hua felt his own array formation skill level had seemingly increased by twenty percent out of thin air.
Mo Hua sighed inwardly.
The last time he had such a distinct feeling was back in the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice Grand Array, when he was dealing with Mr. Tu deceitfully and used “Blood Ink” to draw array formations.
Evil Cultivators, in their pursuit of advancement in drawing array formations, would use human bones as brushes, human blood as ink, and human skin as paper.
Because things related to “humans” possessed strong spirituality, the skill level in drawing array formations would suddenly improve by a notch.
Many Formation Masters simply couldn’t resist that feeling of their array formation ability “advancing by leaps and bounds,” and thus, with a single mistaken thought, they strayed onto the wrong path.
Mo Hua had always thought that only when Evil Cultivators used “blood ink” to draw Array Formations would they have that kind of feeling.
Yet he never expected that when using genuine high-grade Spirit Ink to draw an Array Formation, it would be even more “smooth,” surpassing his imagination.
Thus, the Twenty-Seven Runes Earth Coffin Formation was completed by Mo Hua in just a few rounds, leaving him with a lingering sense of satisfaction.
Usually, he used cheap ink, prioritizing quantity over quality.
Now, having occasionally used some good ink, Mo Hua truly felt a bit of the discomfort that comes from suddenly becoming rich after a life of hardship.
And because he had used high-quality Spirit Ink, the patterns of this Array Formation were noticeably more vivid, with spiritual energy so concentrated it seemed about to overflow, as if injected with adrenaline.
It seemed that with just a gentle activation and the infusion of spiritual power, the formation would instantly spring to life.
Mo Hua was about to manipulate the Formation Pivot to open the spiritual pathway when he suddenly thought, “Wouldn’t it be a waste to activate such a good Spirit Ink formation without a target?”
After some thought, Mo Hua asked Xiao Ju, “Do you have something like a target?”
Xiao Ju asked, “What kind of target?”
Mo Hua explained, “This is a trapping formation. I need to test whether it can trap something.”
Xiao Ju understood and asked, “Should I catch a crane?”
Mo Hua quickly said, “No, something with thick skin and rough flesh would be better—preferably an inanimate object.”
Xiao Ju asked, “Would a Golden Stone Puppet work?”
Mo Hua was taken aback. “You have a Golden Stone Puppet?”
“Not in my possession,” Xiao Ju said. “True Person Rong’s Repository has them. But intact puppets are very, very expensive. I wouldn’t dare steal one. I can only steal a broken one for you to test.”
Xiao Ju still knew her limits.
Mo Hua said, “Alright, as long as there’s one.”
Xiao Ju hesitated again, “But if True Person Rong asks about it…”
Mo Hua replied, “You were bewitched by me into stealing. It’s my fault, not yours.”
Xiao Ju nodded. “You really do make sense when you talk.”
With that, she ran off again. After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, she returned, clutching a storage bag.
Back and forth, under the thrill of “stealing from True Person Rong,” Xiao Ju’s face was flushed red.
“Here you go.”
Xiao Ju handed the storage bag to Mo Hua.
Mo Hua took the storage bag, focused his Divine Thought, and then shook the bag upside down. Out tumbled a puppet, tall and imposing, standing five times Xiao Ju’s height.
This puppet was forged from extremely expensive golden stone.
Mo Hua found it familiar and realized that this Golden Stone Puppet was none other than the “Golden Stone Mighty Warrior” that True Person Rong used to move mountains and carry sedan chairs.
Xiao Ju asked, “Will this work?”
“It will work,” Mo Hua said. “It’s just… too valuable.”
Xiao Ju said, “It’s fine. It’s broken.”
Mo Hua couldn’t say much else.
He approached the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior, released his Divine-Sense to inspect it for a moment, and then his Divine Thought stirred slightly.
The Golden Stone Mighty Warrior’s exterior was as indestructible as metal, but inside its body were hidden many mechanisms, inscribed with numerous Array Formations.
This was a refined fusion of puppet crafting, Mechanical Arts, and Array Formations.
Mo Hua stared in fascination, suppressing for a long time the urge to dismantle the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior.
Although it was broken, it was still largely intact. If True Person Rong discovered it, it could still be returned.
But if he took it apart, scattering its pieces like a dismembered corpse, there would be no way to explain it.
Xiao Ju asked Mo Hua, “Do you know how to use it?”
Mo Hua thought for a moment and nodded.
Although he had never refined puppets, out of sheer desperation, he had actually refined a corpse or two.
Especially during the tribal wars in the Desolate Wilderness, he had personally controlled the corpses of General Lu Gu and Wujiao Young Master.
Now, it was simply a matter of replacing the corpses with puppets.
Originally, in Mo Hua’s understanding, it should have been like this.
But when he actually started working, he realized he had been a bit naive.
Refining corpses and refining artifacts were not the same category.
Mechanical puppets and human corpses were not the same thing.
Although the two were similar and shared some common ground, crossing disciplines was like crossing mountains. To break through the barriers between “categories,” one still had to put in hard work and study—it wasn’t that simple.
“Humans and mechanical puppets…”
Although Mo Hua was a righteous cultivator, objectively speaking, his experience in refining artifacts was less than his experience in refining corpses, let alone the specialized subcategory of Mechanical Arts within artifact refinement.
Just as Mo Hua was frowning, he suddenly thought of something.
He took out a Mechanical Diagram from his Storage Ring, which he had obtained from the dead Scholar when he was previously Entering the Earth.
The Scholar was skilled in tomb-raiding mechanisms.
Therefore, the diagram recorded various techniques of Mechanical Arts.
After obtaining this Mechanical Diagram, Mo Hua had skimmed through it, but his foundation in artifact refinement was lacking, so he could only grasp the general idea. Later, he had set it aside.
Now, a broken Golden Stone Mighty Warrior lay before him.
Mo Hua had no choice but to “cram at the last minute,” learning on the spot.
He held the Mechanical Diagram, comparing it to the internal structure of the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior, and began studying it bit by bit.
Xiao Ju found it strange, but she also knew it was best not to disturb Mo Hua when he was deep in thought, so she silently watched from the side.
The surroundings were quiet.
After who knows how long, Xiao Ju’s eyelids grew heavy, and she was almost dozing off.
Only then did Mo Hua finish reading the Mechanical Diagram. He walked back to the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior, used a Formation Brush to draw a few Formation Patterns on its joints, removed the golden stone armor, pried open the internal mechanisms, took out a few jade pieces, drew a Spiritual Pivot Formation, and inserted them inside.
This series of actions was quite skillful.
Xiao Ju watched in surprise, “Do you really know puppet techniques?”
Mo Hua said, “Just giving it a try.”
Xiao Ju asked, “Can you repair this puppet?”
Mo Hua shook his head, “I can’t repair it. I can only modify some Formation Patterns to make this Golden Stone Mighty Warrior move a little.”
With that, Mo Hua’s Divine Thought stirred, a flash of blue light passed through his eyes, and the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior, accompanied by a creaking sound, slowly straightened its body.
Xiao Ju opened her mouth slightly, somewhat shocked.
How did this Mo Hua know everything?
Mo Hua said to Xiao Ju, “Step back a bit more.”
Xiao Ju nodded and ran farther away.
Mo Hua then activated the hard-as-stone Golden Stone Mighty Warrior, which took clumsy steps and walked step by step toward the Earth Coffin Formation.
The moment the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior’s foot stepped into the Earth Coffin Formation, the ground suddenly trembled, and earth-elemental power rapidly condensed.
Third-Grade spiritual power, channeled through the Formation Patterns, instantly materialized and formed a massive earth coffin three people tall.
With a “boom,” the Twenty-Seven Runes Array Formation opened like a crocodile’s mouth, swallowing the hard Golden Stone Mighty Warrior in the blink of an eye.
Afterward, the earth-elemental power sealed itself, firmly locking it inside the coffin.
The ground beneath their feet trembled slightly, pulled by the force.
A massive, crystallized earthen coffin, so lifelike it could “pass for the real thing,” now lay sprawled before Mo Hua.
This was the power of a third-grade, high-tier trapping formation.
Mo Hua was momentarily stunned, then activated the Spiritual Pivot Formation, attempting to control the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior to break free from the coffin.
Inside the earthen coffin, the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior struggled with all its might, but the strength of this damaged puppet seemed insignificant compared to the sealing force of the coffin.
A trace of awe stirred within Mo Hua.
Even disregarding the intricacies of the formation’s structure, the vitality of the ink, or the crystallization of spiritual power, the mere appearance of the formation was astonishing.
Because the earthen coffin formed by the Earth Coffin Formation looked almost identical to a “physical object.”
If one didn’t look closely, it was nearly impossible to tell whether the coffin was constructed from spiritual power and formations or crafted from earth, stone, and artifact forging.
Using spiritual energy as the foundation and the formation as the framework, it simulated a tangible object of spiritual power.
This already carried a faint hint of “transforming the illusory into the real” and “materializing the spiritual.”
Mo Hua possessed extraordinary Divine-Sense and a mind that worked with exceptional agility.
In that moment, countless insights flooded his thoughts.
Xiao Ju was also utterly immersed in awe.
She had seen many formations before, but most were either in their “dormant state” or depicted on blueprints.
This was the first time she had witnessed a third-grade, high-tier formation fully activated.
Especially the formation’s “earthen coffin,” conjured out of thin air and nearly indistinguishable from reality with the naked eye. Even without a deep understanding of formations, Xiao Ju found it somewhat unbelievable.
It felt as though this belonged to an entirely different level of formations.
Xiao Ju couldn’t help but glance at Mo Hua again, thinking to herself, Is this Mo Hua actually a very remarkable person?
Later, to verify the formation’s effectiveness, Mo Hua repeatedly attempted to drive the Golden Stone Mighty Warrior to break through the coffin from the inside, but each attempt failed.
Mo Hua himself personally used third-grade Five Elements spells like the Fireball Technique, Golden Blade Technique, and Water Arrow Technique, launching them in succession, bombarding the Earth Coffin Formation until he exhausted the spiritual power of his Golden Core and even that of a Spiritual Skeleton.
Yet, the earthen coffin remained completely unmoved.
The might of a third-grade, high-tier formation was indeed extraordinary.
And this was only a twenty-seven-rune trapping formation.
If he learned the twenty-eight-rune “Blazing Inferno Slaughter Formation,” wouldn’t its power be even greater?
Judging by its name, the Blazing Inferno Slaughter Formation was a genuine “fire-attribute” killing formation. It could likely inflict significant damage even against a great cultivator at the Late Golden Core Stage.
Mo Hua sighed inwardly, then suddenly couldn’t help but think:
“If formations are this powerful, why should I even bother learning spells?”
Why not just stick to his old ways and blow everything up?
Mo Hua pondered this seriously for a moment, then suddenly realized something was off. He looked down at the Spirit Ink bottle in his hand and understood the issue:
He wasn’t entirely sure about the grade of the Spirit Ink collected by True Person Rong, but it was certainly expensive.
Even a slightly inferior third-grade, high-tier Spirit Ink would likely cost a considerable amount of Spirit Stones.
“Activate a formation, spend ten thousand taels” was no mere saying; it might even cost more than that.
And if a complete third-grade, high-tier formation were to be detonated, who knew how many Spirit Stones would go up in smoke?
Mo Hua calmed his emotions and gradually recalled his original reason for learning spells:
“Poverty.”
Mo Hua’s reasoning was simple.
Spells only consumed his own spiritual power, making them the most “cost-effective” means of combat.
Mo Hua patted his storage bag and nodded, having to admit, “Spells are good, spells still need to be learned.”
For normal offense and defense, it was best to rely on “cheap” spells.
Third-Grade high-level Array Formations were too expensive and could only be kept as a last resort.
Later, he would find an opportunity to learn the Blazing Inferno Slaughter Formation.
Use the Earth Coffin Formation to trap enemies and the Blazing Inferno Slaughter Formation to attack them.
This way, aside from the “either not used, or used to ensure death” Great Void Divine Slaying Sword, he would have a means to normally deal with Golden Core cultivators at any stage.
From the early Golden Core Stage to the Late Golden Core Stage, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Moreover, the power would mostly be within a controllable range, and the lethality would also be manageable.
It wouldn’t be like taking a life as soon as he made a move.
This way, he could visit most places in Kun Province and no longer have to fear that when engaging in combat with others, his only options would be to kill or flee into hiding.
Mo Hua slowly nodded.