Chapter 286: Green-Faced Imp
The green-faced, fanged little imp dove into a pale, empty Sea of Consciousness. Its face lit up with savage delight as it screeched gleefully,
“Such deep and rich Divine-Sense! Enough for me to feast on for ages!”
Then its bulging bronze-like eyes rolled—and it suddenly noticed Mo Hua standing within the sea. Its grin froze.
“Why are you in here?”
Mo Hua looked puzzled.
“This is my Sea of Consciousness. Why wouldn’t I be here?”
“No—no, that’s wrong! You shouldn’t be here!”
The green-faced imp’s eyes flickered, its expression twisting rapidly before it suddenly cried out,
“Manifested Divine-Sense! A natural-born prodigy! A heaven-sent tonic! Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!”
Mo Hua frowned.
“A tonic? You mean me? So this green-faced imp… feeds on a cultivator’s Divine-Sense?”
He then recalled what Mister Zhuang once told him:
“A Visualization Diagram reflects another’s Divine-Sense and their understanding of the Heavenly Dao. In other words, what you visualize is someone else’s Dao—or sometimes, something non-human’s Dao. Once one’s Divine-Sense sinks too deep into it, the consequences are often… dreadful.”
Could this green-faced imp be exactly what Mister Zhuang called that non-human Dao?
Mo Hua’s eyes hardened.
“What are you, really?”
The green-faced imp bared its teeth in a cruel grin.
“Little brat, once I’ve eaten you, you’ll find out.”
Before Mo Hua could react, it turned into a streak of blue shadow, ferocious and snarling, lunging straight toward him as if to devour him whole.
Mo Hua immediately withdrew, his movement fluid and swift, narrowly evading the pouncing imp.
The imp hesitated, startled.
Mo Hua, too, was surprised—he realized that within his Sea of Consciousness, he could still use Flowing-Water Step.
When he’d first entered his Sea of Consciousness, he had always sat before the Dao Monument to draw formations and had never tried using movement techniques. Now, while dodging the imp’s attacks, he accidentally discovered that he could.
If Flowing-Water Step works… then what about spells?
The imp lunged again. Mo Hua, dodging nimbly, tried to cast Water Prison Technique and Fireball Technique—but neither worked.
Flowing-Water Step relied on Divine-Sense to control spiritual power, using it to move the physical body.
But within the Sea of Consciousness, Mo Hua existed only as a Divine-Sense form—without spiritual power or a physical body. Naturally, he could move as freely as Flowing-Water Step allowed, but no further.
Both Water Prison and Fireball relied on Divine-Sense to manipulate spiritual power, condensing it into spells. Spiritual power was the foundation of all spells—and here, there was none.
Thus, magic arts were impossible.
The green-faced imp was fast, but Mo Hua’s movement technique was subtler. After several exchanges, the imp had failed to touch him once.
Its feral face twisted in fury.
Meanwhile, Mo Hua felt an increasing sense of unease.
All he could do was dodge. Without Water Prison to trap or Fireball to attack, he was merely a moving target. If he kept running, he’d lose eventually.
I need another plan!
After chasing for quite some time without landing a hit, the imp’s rage exploded.
“You’re forcing me to this!” it howled. “Once I catch you, I’ll chew you to pieces—bite by bite!”
Then, without hesitation, it tore off its own left arm and stuffed it into its mouth, crunching it into fragments.
Instantly, a wave of savage energy surged from its body.
Its form swelled—its killing intent deepened, its fangs grew longer, its visage more monstrous. In moments, the imp had become a true evil ghost.
“Now you can’t escape.”
The ghost sneered at Mo Hua—only to find that he no longer ran.
At some point, intricate runic lines had appeared all around Mo Hua.
“Playing tricks, are you?”
The ghost rasped contemptuously, then charged in without hesitation.
But as soon as it entered within a zhang (three meters) of Mo Hua, a terrifying force erupted outward.
Surging flames engulfed the ghost, burning its spectral body and filling it with unbearable agony.
It screamed in disbelief,
“A formation?! You’re a formation master?!”
Mo Hua exhaled in relief—his formation had activated, and its power was far greater than he’d expected.
Since spells were useless, formations were his only weapon.
Mo Hua’s cultivation art, the Celestial Evolution Art, had its bottleneck tied to a Puzzle Formation.
That Puzzle Formation was formed within his Sea of Consciousness. To break through it, he had to inscribe and decipher formations inside the sea itself.
Meaning—formations worked here.
Yet, they were fundamentally different from external ones.
A formation was a manifestation of the Heavenly Dao’s laws—an expression of one’s understanding of the Dao through Divine-Sense.
In the outside world, formations required mediums to carry them, spiritual ink to draw them, and spiritual power to activate them. Their effects were realized through spiritual power—the Five Elements and such determining their offensive potential.
But in the Sea of Consciousness, there was no matter—only pure Divine-Sense.
Thus, a formation’s effect here was also purely Divine-Sense.
Its power was the strength of one’s Divine-Sense itself.
The First-Grade Earthfire Array Mo Hua had drawn—its explosion’s flames weren’t real fire, but illusory fire born from condensed Divine-Sense.
It burned only Divine-Sense, yet inflicted the very pain of being burned alive.
And fittingly, this green-faced ghost, like Mo Hua himself, was also a spiritual construct—a body of Divine-Sense.
The array’s effect was better than Mo Hua had imagined.
Formations woven from pure Divine-Sense were sharper, purer, and devastating. They could directly harm the ghost’s fundamental essence.
Mo Hua’s spirit surged; his eyes turned cold.
He’d had no time to draw earlier while being chased—but the ghost, in its arrogance, had ranted and even chewed off its own arm, wasting precious seconds.
That was all the time a formation master needed.
Its “transformation” made it stronger—but it had given Mo Hua the chance to complete his array.
And a formation master within his own array… is an unstoppable force.
Cold gleam flashed in Mo Hua’s eyes. It was time to finish this.
Having been hunted and humiliated, he was now ready to return the favor.
The green-faced ghost was blasted backward, tumbling, screaming as illusory fire consumed it.
It clawed and thrashed, but the flames—formed of Divine-Sense—had no substance to extinguish. They burned and burned until its blue skin turned black and charred, only then fading away.
It stood again, its blackened skin quickly regenerating, but its aura was weaker—its essence damaged.
The fire hadn’t marred its illusory form, but it had seared its Divine-Sense.
Its face was still twisted and feral, but its confidence was gone—replaced by dread.
“What kind of monster is this brat? He manifests Divine-Sense… and can weave formations out of it?”
By sheer strength of spirit, the ghost surpassed Mo Hua.
But this little cultivator wielded formations.
Formations inscribed the Heavenly Dao—they were the ultimate expression of Divine-Sense mastery.
Especially in a battle of souls, formations that drew upon Heaven’s laws could strike directly at one’s essence—far deadlier than brute force.
Realizing this, fear took root in the ghost’s heart.
Continuing this fight was pointless.
It couldn’t harm Mo Hua—and if struck again, it might be annihilated completely.
“Brat, I won’t forget this!”
The ghost spat venomous words, yet began to retreat.
Mo Hua frowned as he noticed.
His formation was stationary—fixed in place.
If the ghost fled, he truly had no way to stop it.
The ghost withdrew slowly toward the edge of Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness—nearly gone.
And then—the hour of Zi arrived.
At the center of the pale sea, a broken stone stele silently emerged.
An aura—illusory yet vast, unfathomably deep—spread outward.
Within it surged a terror beyond words.
The ghost froze, its bulging eyes widening, its blue face blanching as it screamed in horror—
“What… what is that?!”
(End of Chapter)