Chapter 1454: Formation Kill

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Chapter 1452: Formation Kill

Smiling Face was at the Late Golden Core Stage and cultivated the Corpse Technique. At this moment, being mocked as a “skinned frog,” he was furious, so his movements were extremely fast, and his strikes were vicious.

In the blink of an eye, he closed in on Mo Hua, swiping a claw toward Mo Hua’s head.

The Corpse Claw of a Late Golden Core cultivator was sharp and immensely powerful. If this claw struck true, Mo Hua’s head would be severed instantly.

A sinister grin had already appeared on Smiling Face’s face.

But the next moment, the figure before him vanished, only to reappear seven zhang away.

Smiling Face frowned and, like a skinned frog, leaped forward again to kill Mo Hua.

Yet with another swipe, Mo Hua drifted away lightly like a butterfly.

Enraged, Smiling Face continued to strike, but each time, the result was the same.

This “Black-Faced Fiend,” wearing a ghost mask, appeared to move slowly, drifting leisurely.

But whenever the Corpse Claw was about to touch his body, he would accelerate instantly, like willow catkins stirred by the wind or a fish touched by flowing water, drifting away.

(TN: Willow catkins are the early spring flowers of the willow tree. Distinctive for their soft, furry texture—often referred to as “pussy willows”—these cylindrical clusters serve as a vital, early pollen source for pollinators.)

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Figure: Willow catkins

Smiling Face struck over a dozen times, each move missing its mark. He could only watch helplessly as the “Black-Faced Fiend” drifted before his eyes, unable to do anything about it… not even a corner of his robe could be touched.

Such movement techniques were beyond his understanding.

Smiling Face stopped, his expression cold and stern, the smile gone from his face.

These dozen or so exchanges of movement techniques were perilous and profound. Elder Tian and Uncle Ping watched with stunned expressions, finding it unbelievable.

If this ghost-masked individual were at the Late Golden Core Stage, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to maneuver like this against Smiling Face.

But his cultivation was clearly only at the Early Golden Core Stage.

To possess such movement techniques at the Early Golden Core Stage, unafraid of pursuit by a Late Golden Core cultivator—this was more than just defying the heavens.

Smiling Face set aside his contempt and asked, “Who exactly are you?”

Mo Hua replied in a hoarse voice, “I am who I am, Black-Faced Fiend.”

Hearing this, Smiling Face grew even more annoyed: “You’re a damn Black-Faced Fiend. Do you really think I’m a fool?”

Among all those making a living in Houtu City, anyone with any skill—who the hell is called ‘Black-Faced Fiend’?”

Smiling Face asked coldly, “Where are you from, and what is your purpose?”

Mo Hua smiled slightly but did not answer. Instead, he pointed a finger, and another fireball smashed into Smiling Face’s face.

This fireball was absurdly fast. Smiling Face couldn’t dodge in time and was once again struck in the face by the fireball, black smoke billowing.

Smiling Face wiped the flames from his face, his expression terrifyingly cold: “Today, I will peel off that ghost mask of yours and refine you into Corpse Residue.”

Amidst a foul wind, Smiling Face lunged at Mo Hua again.

Mo Hua continued to employ his movement techniques, like an illusory water butterfly, nimbly evading Smiling Face within the narrow tomb chamber.

At the same time, Mo Hua occasionally released some Five Elements Spells to attack Smiling Face.

These spells were not weak in power; in fact, among cultivators of the same realm, they could be considered highly threatening offensive methods.

Golden light, flames, water arrows, and swirling sand intertwined.

The ground of the tomb chamber was churned up and finely shredded by these Five Elements Spells.

The dust from the quicksand technique further shrouded the tomb chamber in a hazy mist.

But given the vast disparity in cultivation realms, these minor spells couldn’t harm Smiling Face at all.

In fact, Smiling Face often didn’t even bother to dodge, directly using his corpse-transformed body to withstand Mo Hua’s spells head-on.

After a period of such fierce combat, Mo Hua appeared to be “toying” with Smiling Face using spells, leaving him covered in dust and looking utterly disheveled, but in reality, he had inflicted little substantial damage.

Through this, Smiling Face also gauged Mo Hua’s true capabilities.

His gaze sharp, he charged toward Mo Hua while sneering coldly, “All this commotion, and these are the only clumsy tricks you have?”

“With such meager skills,” Smiling Face grinned viciously, “you dare to meddle in a situation like this? You must truly be tired of living!”

Smiling Face no longer held back in the slightest, pushing a certain Array Formation within his body to its limit. Corpse Qi surged beneath his skin, causing his entire form to swell even larger.

Mo Hua seemed to sense something, casting an unusual glance at Smiling Face.

Smiling Face’s face twisted into a ferocious expression, his corpse body growing even more terrifying as he pursued Mo Hua with increasingly brutal methods.

It was like a powerful ferocious beast hunting a lamb.

Mo Hua, in turn, had no choice but to channel his spiritual energy to its utmost, activating the Flowing Water Step. Water-attribute energy enveloped his entire body as he dodged Smiling Face’s lethal strikes.

In this back-and-forth chase, Smiling Face’s Corpse Claw came within a mere inch of Mo Hua’s body.

The slightest misstep from Mo Hua would have meant being disemboweled and killed.

This kind of “tightrope-walking” application of movement techniques, fraught with extreme danger, caused even Elder Tian in the distance and the barely breathing Uncle Ping to furrow their brows and tense up with anxiety.

Smiling Face inwardly cursed but couldn’t help but acknowledge the skill.

When it came to the mastery of movement techniques, this “Black-Faced Fiend” before him was undoubtedly the finest he had ever encountered in his life.

That one-inch distance, though seemingly within reach, felt as distant as the horizon.

If someone at the Early Golden Core Stage possessed such movement techniques, what would become of them if they were allowed to grow?

“If he truly manages to escape now and leaks the secret, it will undoubtedly bring endless trouble.”

“This person must die.”

Killing intent surged within Smiling Face, yet his emotions grew calmer instead.

As if aware of the brilliance of Mo Hua’s movement techniques, he no longer rushed to kill him in a short exchange.

Instead, he maintained a high-frequency assault, using increasingly swift and fierce corpse-body techniques to pressure Mo Hua.

Smiling Face was at the Late Golden Core Stage, and with Corpse Transformation, his speed was astonishingly fast.

To keep up with Smiling Face’s attack speed, Mo Hua, at the Early Golden Core Stage, had no choice but to further amplify his spiritual pressure with Divine-Sense, forcibly overdrawing his Golden Core to accelerate the circulation of his spiritual energy.

He engaged Smiling Face in a mode akin to spiritual energy overload.

This was the drawback of having a low cultivation stage and insufficient spiritual energy.

Smiling Face aimed to overwhelm Mo Hua with relentless attacks, forcing him into spiritual energy “overload” under high pressure, thereby rapidly exhausting him.

For any cultivator, once spiritual energy is overdrawn, they are largely incapacitated.

While this method wouldn’t work against a Late Golden Core Stage cultivator, “bullying the weak” by leveraging higher cultivation to oppress the meager spiritual energy of an Early Golden Core Stage cultivator was almost an insurmountable tactic.

Moreover, Smiling Face had discerned that this “Black-Faced Fiend” before him had even lower spiritual energy in his Golden Core than the average cultivator.

Perhaps his core quality was only of the lowest grade.

Since he couldn’t match him in movement techniques, he would simply exhaust him with spiritual energy.

Sure enough, after another hundred or so rounds of high-speed pursuit, Mo Hua’s spiritual energy visibly waned.

Once his spiritual energy supply faltered, this movement technique that allowed him to contend across stages would instantly become riddled with flaws.

After another thirty exchanges, Mo Hua’s speed plummeted once more, his aura faint—clearly, the spiritual power within his Golden Core was nearly depleted.

This was a life-or-death battle, where survival hung by a thread.

Seizing the opportunity meant a single strike could end it all.

Seeing this, Smiling Face let out a sinister chuckle, then his corpse claw, hard as blue iron, shot toward Mo Hua’s head, aiming to crush it outright.

After the prolonged struggle, Mo Hua’s spiritual power was overdrawn. As the terrifying corpse claw descended, he could only remain still, powerless to dodge.

In the distance, Elder Tian and Uncle Ping felt a pang of sorrow, sighing helplessly.

But in the next instant, their expressions shifted.

Even Smiling Face’s pupils contracted sharply.

Before their eyes, the “Black-Faced Fiend,” who had seemed drained of spiritual power, suddenly began to glow with an eerie blue light, his aura surging once more.

It was as if a ferocious beast had broken free from its seals.

Torrents of spiritual power began to flow around Mo Hua.

In almost the blink of an eye, watery light erupted, and Mo Hua’s figure vanished.

This time, his disappearance was even faster.

Smiling Face’s claw struck empty air, half his arm plunging into the ground. Stunned, he realized he had been humiliated again, his rage boiling over.

“You wretched beast, I will kill you!”

Smiling Face cursed furiously, but as he tried to rise, a flicker of red light caught the corner of his eye.

This light was familiar to him—it was the glow of an Array Formation. As a Formation Master, he could not possibly mistake it.

But…

“Who laid this formation?”

In his confusion, a flash of insight struck him like lightning.

It was this Black-Faced Fiend.

He had been wildly casting Spells, creating a smokescreen to secretly set up the formation.

Then he had used his movement techniques to entangle with him, all to buy time?

And in the end, he had feigned exhaustion of spiritual power to lure him into the center of the formation?

He, Smiling Face, had been solely focused on killing this wretched creature, too careless to notice these petty tricks.

But… what good would it do?

Even if he laid a formation, what could he accomplish?

Could he possibly kill him?

Even Elder Tian’s formation hadn’t been able to kill him.

What could a mere Early Golden Core Stage cultivator do to him?

Smiling Face took a step forward, intending to repeat his earlier tactic—relying on his formidable physique to break free from the formation’s restraints.

But as soon as he moved, he suddenly felt emptiness beneath his feet.

Looking down, Smiling Face was horrified: “Where are my legs?”

His two legs seemed to have been “evaporated” out of thin air, the flesh even charred.

At the same time, an even more violent aura surged up from beneath him.

The ground cracked, and murderous crimson light flowed like molten lava.

Condensed flames oscillated at an extremely high frequency within the formation’s range, grinding everything inside to dust.

Smiling Face’s face turned pale with terror.

“A third-grade high-tier killing formation?”

“Is there a Feathered Ascension expert present?”

A Formation Master’s grade was generally lower than their cultivation realm. A Third-grade High-tier Killing Formation was something only True-Persons at the Feathered Ascension realm could comprehend.

But at this moment, Smiling Face, in his panic, had no time to dwell on such matters.

The Twenty-Eight Runes Blazing Inferno Killing Formation, like a fiery blade from hell, had already severed his legs.

He could have noticed it earlier.

But his attention had been entirely fixed on Mo Hua.

Moreover, due to the “corpse transformation” of his body, he had lost his sense of pain, causing his reactions to slow significantly.

It was also impossible for him to imagine that a Third-grade High-tier Killing Formation would suddenly appear on the ground.

Just this brief moment of carelessness had already led to a grave mistake.

Seeing that he was about to be engulfed by the Blazing Inferno Killing Formation, Smiling Face immediately drove his remaining body to flee outside the formation.

However, Mo Hua, from a distance, pointed into the air, and a Water Prison Technique descended, blocking Smiling Face momentarily.

But the Water Prison Technique clearly couldn’t hold Smiling Face back; it only delayed him briefly, allowing one of his forearms to be burned off by the flames of the Blazing Inferno Killing Formation.

Smiling Face, filled with fear and rage, broke free from the Water Prison Technique and continued to flee.

It seemed that within two breaths, he could escape the range of the Blazing Inferno Killing Formation. Just at that moment, another layer of distinctly different yellow light lit up on the ground.

“What is this…”

Smiling Face’s face twisted in disbelief.

In an instant, the power of earth manifested.

High-quality Spirit Ink, emitting dense spiritual energy, condensed and materialized through the Formation Patterns, shaping into a massive Earth Coffin three people tall.

Then, with a “boom,”

the Earth Coffin took form, like the jaws of an earth crocodile beast opening, and the Earth Coffin Formation instantly “swallowed” Smiling Face.

The earth power sealed itself, firmly trapping him inside the coffin.

At the same time, the fierce Blazing Inferno Killing Formation surged upward, incinerating Smiling Face’s physical body.

The powerful formation energy trapped Smiling Face, while the violent inferno power subjected him to a slow, torturous death.

One Earth Coffin, one Blazing Inferno—two Trapping-and-Killing Formations, like ferocious beasts baring their fangs, almost instantly suppressed and killed Smiling Face after his corpse transformation.

Such a sudden and shocking turn of events left Elder Tian and Uncle Ping horrified, their hearts shaken beyond words.

Inside the tomb chamber, the powerful high-tier formations continued to operate.

The forces of earth and fire nearly solidified into substance, swirling violently around.

This persisted for half a quarter of an hour before Mo Hua felt it was enough and deactivated the formations with his Divine Sense Thought.

The scorching inferno power ceased, and the Earth Coffin opened.

A “blackened” mass fell out of the Earth Coffin.

It was Smiling Face.

Only now, the originally Jiangshi-like Smiling Face, burned by the inferno, had lost all semblance of human form.

His limbs were almost entirely incinerated, and his body resembled a charred toad.

But Mo Hua knew Smiling Face wasn’t dead.

The vitality of a Late Golden Core Stage cultivator wasn’t that weak.

Sure enough, shortly after falling to the ground, Smiling Face regained his breath. His face was charred black, his gaze filled with venomous hatred as he stared fixedly at Mo Hua, his voice hoarse as he rasped: “You… what… are you…”

His heart was a mix of fury and terror.

He couldn’t fathom which Early Golden Core Stage cultivator in this world could, in the blink of an eye, trap him in such a desperate situation.

Truly, just the blink of an eye.

And where did those clearly “out-of-spec” formations come from?

How could such absurd things suddenly appear in a battle between Golden Core Cultivators?

Mo Hua ignored Smiling Face and instead turned to look at Elder Tian and Uncle Ping.

Elder Tian was still staring blankly at the Earth Coffin Formation and Blazing Inferno Killing Formation, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Uncle Ping also wore a look of horror, even tinged with fear.

Among Late Golden Core Stage cultivators, mutual battles and life-or-death struggles were nothing unusual.

But for an Early Golden Core Stage cultivator to kill a Late Golden Core Stage cultivator was truly terrifying.

Moreover, it was almost an instant reversal—a “brutal slaughter.”

Looking at Mo Hua’s ghostly mask, Uncle Ping couldn’t help but feel a deep chill rising from the depths of his heart.

Just then, Mo Hua flicked his fingers, and a pill shot through the air, flying straight into Uncle Ping’s mouth.

Uncle Ping’s expression changed, and he dared not swallow it.

But the pill dissolved upon entering his mouth, transforming into potent medicinal energy that instantly flowed through his limbs and bones, nourishing his body.

Uncle Ping was stunned, finding it hard to believe.

Was this terrifying ghost-faced man actually saving him?

This seemed to be an extremely high-grade healing pill.

Before long, Uncle Ping’s complexion improved significantly. His broken limbs slowly began to heal, and he could circulate his qi once more.

The physical recovery ability of a Late Golden Core Stage cultivator was still quite strong.

Although it was only superficial healing and his strength had not fully recovered, Uncle Ping was still able to stand up shakily.

Mo Hua casually picked up a sword from the ground and tossed it to Uncle Ping.

Uncle Ping looked bewildered.

Mo Hua pointed at Smiling Face and said, “He’s not completely dead yet. You kill him.”

Uncle Ping didn’t understand why, but at this moment, this mysterious ghost-faced man with Early Golden Core Stage cultivation was the “strongest” person present.

Everyone’s life and death rested entirely in his hands. Uncle Ping didn’t dare defy his words.

Moreover, Uncle Ping himself wanted Smiling Face dead. He had no room to refuse, nor any reason to do so.

Uncle Ping gripped the longsword, dragging his critically injured body as he staggered toward Smiling Face’s mangled remains.

Smiling Face paid no attention to Uncle Ping. His pitch-black eyes remained fixed on Mo Hua as he rasped hoarsely: “Who are you, really?”

“Why… can you master high-level Golden Core Array Formations?”

“How is it possible that you… Who are you? Tell me, or I’ll haunt you even as a ghost…”

Smiling Face’s eyes bulged, dying with his grievances unresolved.

Mo Hua said calmly, “Kill him.”

Uncle Ping raised the longsword, mustering the last of his strength, and plunged it into Smiling Face’s heart meridian.

Smiling Face’s words cut off abruptly, his life force extinguished.

Uncle Ping’s hands trembled as he gasped for breath.

Seeing this, Mo Hua said, “It’s not over yet… Stab him a few more times—heart meridian, internal organs, qi sea, forehead, Sea of Consciousness—stab them all… Only then will he be truly dead.”

Uncle Ping’s pupils contracted as he stared at Mo Hua, as if looking at a malevolent ghost.

Mo Hua said, “Do it.”

Uncle Ping had no choice. He took a deep breath, recovering some of his strength, then raised the sword and, following Mo Hua’s instructions, stabbed Smiling Face’s vital points and key meridians one by one.

Only after seeing Smiling Face pierced like a sieve and completely lifeless did Mo Hua feel reassured and nod slightly.

When eliminating evil, one must be thorough and never careless.

After finishing all this, Uncle Ping finally dared to look up at Mo Hua and asked: “Why… did you make me kill him?”

He knew that if this mysterious ghost-faced man wanted to, he could certainly have killed Smiling Face himself.

Or rather, Smiling Face had already been doomed by his hands.

Mo Hua sighed and said, “Heaven has a virtue of sparing life, and I am soft-hearted by nature, never fond of killing in my life.”

Uncle Ping opened his mouth, his mind somewhat numb, unable to comprehend what kind of nonsense this person wearing a malevolent ghost mask—cunning, sinister, ruthless, and terrifying in his methods—was spouting.

What did he mean by “soft-hearted, never fond of killing in my life”?

Who exactly was he talking about?

A moment later, Uncle Ping’s emotions gradually calmed, and his expression softened. Only then did he look at Mo Hua and solemnly ask, “May I ask… fellow Daoist, which clan are you from, and what are your intentions?”

Mo Hua remained silent for a moment, still unsure how to respond.

Suddenly, he heard Elder Tian on the other side let out a long sigh and say, “Young Master Mo… it was I… who failed to recognize true talent…”

Uncle Ping looked stunned.

Mo Hua was somewhat surprised and turned to Elder Tian. “You recognized me?”

Elder Tian sighed. “Your aura is like fireflies in the night—how could I possibly fail to recognize it?”

Hearing this, Mo Hua nodded and no longer concealed himself. He removed the ferocious ghost mask, revealing a flawless, jade-like handsome face.

Seeing this face, which contrasted so starkly with the mask, Uncle Ping’s mouth fell open in disbelief.

After a moment of stunned silence, Elder Tian couldn’t help but let out another long sigh.