Chapter 1458: Xirang
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Chapter 1456: Xirang
Mo Hua was lightly glared at by his little senior sister’s clear and beautiful eyes, snapping him out of his daze. He suddenly realized and said: “Oh, it’s my… Martial Aunt.”
Bai Zixi’s gaze remained clear and beautiful as she glanced at Mo Hua again, but said nothing.
Mo Hua pondered for a moment before exclaiming in surprise: “My Martial Aunt actually… knows Fāngcùn Mountain well?”
This completely caught him off guard.
Bai Zixi nodded slightly and said, “My mother cultivated in Kun Province for a period back then and had some interactions with… a female abbess of Fāngcùn Mountain. They had a good relationship. When that abbess underwent Feathered Ascension, my mother even sent gifts to congratulate her.”
“Abbess?” Mo Hua asked.
“Yes,” Bai Zixi replied. “Within Fāngcùn Mountain, there are many Daoist temples. Each temple represents a lineage.”
Mo Hua nodded and asked again, “Then, did Martial Aunt ever enter the gates of Fāngcùn Mountain?”
Bai Zixi shook her head. “No, Fāngcùn Mountain does not allow outsiders to enter. My mother was no exception.”
Mo Hua said, “But when the abbess of Fāngcùn Mountain underwent Feathered Ascension, Martial Aunt sent gifts…”
Bai Zixi explained, “She only selected gifts and had someone deliver them. She never personally entered the mountain gates.”
“I see,” Mo Hua murmured softly, feeling somewhat regretful. “Even my Martial Aunt couldn’t…”
(TN: Will we finally get to see Mo Hua make use of his second Jade Certificate?)
After all, Martial Aunt was a distinguished direct descendant of the sixth-rank Bai Clan, a True-Person at the Feathered Ascension realm, and the junior sister of his master, Mister Zhuang, and his Martial Uncle, Strange Daoist.
With such status, she still couldn’t enter the gates of Fāngcùn Mountain?
Was Fāngcùn Mountain really that prestigious?
If so, wouldn’t someone like him, a mere Golden Core cultivator, never be able to step through the gates of Fāngcùn Mountain in his lifetime?
Mo Hua frowned.
Bai Zixi glanced at him and asked, “Why are you suddenly asking about Fāngcùn Mountain?”
Mo Hua replied, “In the tomb…”
He originally intended to tell his little senior sister about the matters of “nurturing ghosts to extend life” and “hiding death in the Earth-Ground Formation.” However, after some thought, he felt these matters were still unresolved and, more importantly, involved his master’s life and death, which could easily affect his little senior sister’s Dao Heart. So he vaguely said: “In the tomb, I encountered a tomb raider who knew some strange techniques. He claimed to have some connection to Fāngcùn Mountain, so I became curious.”
Bai Zixi looked at Mo Hua, and with just that glance, she knew her little junior brother was making up a story to deceive her.
On the surface, he appeared no different—still serious and earnest.
But Bai Zixi knew in her heart that Mo Hua’s demeanor when telling the truth was different from when he lied.
She had grown up with her little junior brother and was very familiar with his temperament.
However, Bai Zixi didn’t expose him and only softly hummed in acknowledgment.
After thinking for a while, Mo Hua suddenly remembered something and asked, “Senior Sister, do you know where my Martial Aunt is now?”
Bai Zixi fell silent for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know either. It’s been quite a while since I last saw her.”
“Oh,” Mo Hua nodded and didn’t press further.
Mo Hua vaguely knew that his little senior sister didn’t have the best relationship with Martial Aunt.
Otherwise, back then, Martial Aunt wouldn’t have made her… and his little senior brother travel over mountains and rivers, enduring so much hardship, just to seek out their master and learn the Immortal Heaven Formation lineage.
From Martial Aunt’s perspective, she might have done it for the good of her children.
But this approach, after all, felt somewhat utilitarian.
From the perspectives of Little Senior Sister and Little Senior Brother, this was actually a somewhat “cold and indifferent” scheme; it was impossible for there to be no estrangement in their hearts.
Mo Hua sighed softly.
Even an honest official finds it hard to settle family disputes—family matters are always the most tangled, with no clear right or wrong.
Bai Zixi glanced at Mo Hua and asked, “What are you thinking?”
Mo Hua shook his head. “Nothing.”
Bai Zixi looked at him suspiciously, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. After a moment, she said, “Continue.”
“Continue what?” Mo Hua asked.
Bai Zixi replied, “You haven’t finished telling your story this time.”
“Oh,” Mo Hua suddenly realized, then corrected himself, “It’s not a story—it’s a personal experience.”
Just that he had “adapted” it a little.
Bai Zixi nodded lightly and hummed in acknowledgment.
Mo Hua then gathered his thoughts and continued narrating his experience of Entering the Earth to his Little Senior Sister—things like Earth Ghost Pulling Coffin, Little Ghost Gatekeeper, a traitor among the Tomb Raiders, and the Empty Coffin Scapegoat Ghost in the tomb.
Bai Zixi quietly watched Mo Hua by her side, her gaze gentle.
Often, she envied her Little Junior Brother.
His Dao Heart was firm, his cultivation diligent, and he was very optimistic. His thoughts were strange and whimsical, his eyes always sparkling with light. He could also run outside every day, like a cheerful yet cunning bird, witnessing the myriad forms of the world and the joys and sorrows of life.
Not like her, who could only stay in a cage all day.
As Mo Hua spoke, he suddenly sensed that Little Senior Sister’s mood seemed a bit off and asked, “Senior Sister, what’s wrong?”
Although her expression remained the same—aloof, breathtakingly beautiful, and unperturbed—
Mo Hua could clearly feel that Little Senior Sister was somewhat unhappy.
Bai Zixi’s gaze flickered slightly as she shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
Mo Hua’s heart stirred, and he suddenly asked, “Senior Sister, do you feel a bit stifled staying in the minor blessed land?”
Bai Zixi was taken aback and said nothing.
But Mo Hua felt he was pretty close to the mark.
Putting himself in her shoes, if he had to cultivate behind closed doors every day, only able to watch Little Senior Sister go out and have adventures everywhere, he would probably feel somewhat frustrated too, more or less.
No matter how serene Little Senior Sister’s temperament was, she was not without emotions and desires.
Mo Hua pondered for a moment and said, “Senior Sister, next time there’s another incident, I’ll take you out to play?”
“Of course, except for tomb raiding.”
Tomb raiding involved Entering the Earth and being exposed to blood qi, yin qi, poison qi, Corpse Qi… It was dirty and ultimately not very clean.
Bai Zixi couldn’t help but feel a stir in her heart, but in the end, she still shook her head: “Forget it. True Person Rong wouldn’t allow it, and… it would easily cause trouble.”
Mo Hua understood clearly that Little Senior Sister’s identity was special.
Especially her bloodline aura, which was practically a “bomb”—it would absolutely cause chaos.
And True Person Rong would absolutely never agree to let Little Senior Sister go out.
As for him often running around outside, True Person Rong could turn a blind eye and let it slide.
But if True Person Rong found out that he had lured Little Senior Sister out, she would definitely cut him down with a single sword strike.
Mo Hua thought for a while but couldn’t come up with a solution to these problems for now, so he could only sigh.
Bai Zixi knew that Little Junior Brother was worrying about her matters. Though she said nothing, her gaze softened a little more.
After Mo Hua finished telling his “adapted” story, it was already quite late, so he reluctantly parted ways with Little Senior Sister.
After parting ways, Mo Hua returned to his own room.
First, he considered whether he could take Little Senior Sister out to play, and what specific difficulties needed to be overcome.
Invisibility, disguise, safety, True Person Rong’s concerns… and so on.
In the end, he realized that no matter what he did, it seemed impossible to be foolproof, so he could only sigh and give up for now.
Afterward, he spent some time calming his mind and focusing his attention before beginning to digest the gains and losses from this tomb-raiding trip.
From the perspective of Spirit stones and material wealth, this tomb raid truly yielded nothing.
But from the perspective of Array Formations, the gains from this trip were immense.
First was the ancient Jade Slip titled “Tian Clan Spiritual Plant Formation Compendium” given to him by Elder Tian. It was a compilation of formations refined over generations by the Tian Clan and represented Elder Tian’s own life’s work.
It contained a vast number of First-Grade and Second-Grade formations, as well as nearly a hundred Third-Grade Earth-attribute Spiritual Plant Formation Diagrams.
This was not a teaching manual for formations—not the detailed kind that meticulously breaks down Formation Patterns, Formation Pivots, and Formation Eyes, explaining each clearly.
It was merely a simple collection of Formation Diagrams.
Each diagram had only a few lines of annotations, recording brief precautions.
Beyond that, there were only “plain” diagrams with no annotations at all.
Such diagrams were difficult to learn.
Formation Diagrams without annotations were like towering mountains without steps.
Without steps, there was no foothold, no direction to follow, and no way to reach the summit.
Without annotations, it was often impossible to understand the abstract and obscure diagrams.
Especially for high-difficulty diagrams above Third-Grade, without annotations, ordinary Golden Core Formation Masters would have no way to begin learning them.
But Mo Hua, with his monstrous comprehension, talent, and Divine-Sense, was an exception—he could learn Formation Diagrams “with the naked eye.”
Through years of effort, Mo Hua’s understanding of formations had become so refined and subtle that he had reached the level of “glimpsing the Laws.”
Whether there were others’ “annotations” was not particularly crucial to him.
His eyes were, in themselves, the “annotations” of the Laws.
For standard formations, even Third-Grade High-Tier ones like the Earth Coffin Formation and the Blazing Inferno Killing Formation, Mo Hua only needed to glance at them, memorize the diagrams, and he could comprehend them.
It was after realizing this that Elder Tian was deeply shocked and resolved to entrust the Tian Clan’s formation legacy to Mo Hua.
Often, a legacy was just a legacy.
The most difficult part of a legacy lay not in the legacy itself, but in whether there was someone capable of learning it.
In most cases, the reason a cultivation legacy was lost was not because the textual or written form of the legacy disappeared, but because there were no longer people who could comprehend it.
As a Formation Master, Elder Tian understood this all too well.
That was why he was willing to hand over the Tian Clan Formation Compendium to Mo Hua, hoping Mo Hua could pass down the Tian Clan’s formation lineage.
Mo Hua immersed his Divine-Sense into the Jade Slip and saw, within it, formations imbued with Spiritual Plant Laws arrayed before him like “well-field” patterns.
The names of each formation also leaped into his Sea of Consciousness.
“Spring Wind Rain Transformation Formation, Soil Moistening Formation, Minor Cloud-Rain Soil Formation, Spiritual Plant Compound Formation, Spring Rain Soil Purifying Formation, Earth-and-Wood Nourishing-Growth Formation, Soil Cultivating Earth Stabilization Formation…”
Mo Hua looked through them one by one, growing more and more delighted.
These Third-Grade formations were not something he could easily find outside.
Now, all of it had fallen into his hands at once. Even Mo Hua himself felt it was too “extravagant.”
Unable to resist, Mo Hua kept flipping through the contents.
But as he flipped, all the way to the end, his Divine-Sense blurred for a moment before gradually clearing again.
When he refocused and looked closely, he discovered that the Jade Slip contained a large number of unfinished formation drafts.
However, these drafts seemed incomplete.
Many Formation Patterns were only half-drawn, and numerous versions of the formation structures had been deduced, but none had been fully resolved.
Moreover, these formation drafts had no textual explanations.
Only at the beginning of the drafts were two words written:
Xirang.
(Translator Notes:
息(Xī) = Breathe / Rest / Grow / Proliferate
壤 (Rǎng) Soil / Earth / Ground / Land
Breathing Earth / Proliferating Soil — a mythical magical soil from Chinese mythology that grows endlessly)
Seeing these two words, Mo Hua inexplicably felt a tremor in his heart, as if weighed down by something heavy.
Mo Hua flipped through the Tian Clan’s Formation Collection Jade Slip from beginning to end again but could find no other clues.
Most of the Jade Slip contained complete Formation Diagrams, with well-defined formation structures and names.
Only this final section consisted of incomplete formation drafts, with no textual explanations—only this simple yet puzzling name:
“Xirang.”
Mo Hua frowned. “Is this also… part of the Tian Clan’s formation collection?”
It seemed the style of the formations was different.
Was this an unfinished formation… created by the Tian Clan?
Mo Hua was puzzled, but these formation structures seemed rather complex.
With a quick glance, he noticed many Formation Diagrams with twenty-eight or twenty-nine patterns mixed in. This kind of high-level Third-Grade, complex variant Derivative Algorithm was somewhat beyond his current formation expertise.
Additionally, these drafts contained extensive simulations of Spiritual Plant Formation variations and Laws evolution.
Without sufficient mastery of Spiritual Plant Formations, it would be nearly impossible to understand.
Mo Hua shook his head.
“Don’t aim too high. Start step by step, learning systematically.”
First, he would study all the Spiritual Plant Formations from the beginning, accumulating enough expertise. Then, he could move on to researching these final formation drafts—perhaps he might discover something.
Mo Hua gathered his thoughts and briefly organized the Spiritual Plant Formations he needed to learn next.
He made a plan, intending to progress from simple to complex, step by step, building a solid and rigorous knowledge framework to become a true master of Spiritual Plant Formations.
After finalizing his plan, Mo Hua took out another item.
It was a fang—the fang of that Smiling Face, or rather, the Corpse Transformation fang of the Earth Sect Shadow Division Golden Core expert.
This tooth was a storage space.
Cultivators who operated in secrecy and shunned the light often liked to turn their teeth into miniature storage containers to hide confidential items.
This was “street smarts” Mo Hua had picked up back during his studies in the Qianxue Prefecture realm, when he apprehended Criminal Cultivators in his spare time.
Mo Hua shook the tooth and retrieved several illustrated manuals from it.
These manuals were even more extraordinary.
They contained genuine Earth-Ground Formation legacies, with clear origins and histories.
The few Earth-Ground Formations Mo Hua had obtained before were called “formations,” but they were actually fragments he had deduced, copied, traced, or restored himself.
If they were formations from categories he was familiar with, such as the Four Symbols, Five Elements, or Eight Trigrams, Mo Hua was confident he could fully deduce and restore these fragments.
Even if he miscalculated, with his knowledge of Array Formations, Mo Hua could correct and repair them on his own.
But Earth-Ground Formations were different—Mo Hua’s understanding of them was still too limited. Even if his calculations seemed correct, he couldn’t verify their completeness.
He could ponder and study on his own, but he couldn’t confirm whether what he deduced was truly accurate.
Now, with Smiling Face’s Earth-Ground Formation legacy, everything fell into place.
By examining these Formation Diagrams with “names, origins, and histories,” Mo Hua could develop a more precise understanding of Earth-Ground Formations.
Mo Hua knew clearly that Smiling Face’s mastery of Earth-Ground Formations far surpassed his own.
In that case, he had even more reason to learn from him—even if Smiling Face was dead.
No matter what, as a Formation Master, one must always love learning.
Mo Hua spread out the several meticulously hidden volumes Smiling Face had concealed, and his gaze instantly shifted:
“Finding Soil Acupoint Locating Formation”
“Murky Soil Spiritual Disrupting Formation”
“Earth-Breaking Mountain-Splitting Formation”
“Sinking Soil Life-Slaying Formation”
“Filthy Soil Three-Baleful Formation”
After just a brief look, Mo Hua was utterly shaken, feeling a sense of awe and admiration.
Just hearing the names of these formations made it clear they were extraordinary—no wonder they were considered the Earth Sect’s secret legacy, never passed on to outsiders.
To have obtained this legacy, that Smiling Face from the Shadow Division was certainly no ordinary person.
And to have comprehended these formations, Smiling Face’s talent in Array Formations must have been remarkable as well.
His expertise in Earth-Ground Formations was likely even deeper than Mo Hua had imagined.
“And now, all these Earth-Ground Formations are mine.”
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but lick the corner of his mouth.