Chapter 468: Peering

Chapter 469: Peering

Going out? Not for now.

Even without mentioning Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan, just facing the two iron corpses at the gate, there was no way he could win in a direct fight.

Moreover, when Mo Hua entered the room, he noticed that around the entrance, a Dust-Revealing Formation had been set up.

In some special spots, there were also Shadow-Revealing Formations.

The ink marks were fresh, clearly drawn not long ago, meant to guard against Mo Hua.

“If someone knows your trump card, they’ll target it…”

Mo Hua shook his head, a bit helpless.

But as long as it was a formation, it didn’t matter too much.

He didn’t dwell on it.

It was already past midnight.

Mo Hua pretended to lie in bed and sleep, but his Divine Sense sank into his Sea of Consciousness, practicing the incomplete Ling-Pivot Formation on the Dao Monument all night.

The next morning, he woke up and carried on his usual cultivation.

When in a situation, one must settle into it, unaffected by outside matters.

Someone brought meals to Mo Hua’s door.

He ate and drank as he pleased, completely unrestrained.

A few days passed like this. Lu Chengyun hadn’t approached him, and Mo Hua, getting a little bored, went to find him and asked:

“Master of the Lu family, is there something you want me to do?”

Lu Chengyun smiled:

“No rush, a few more preparations are needed. Little Master, rest a bit first.”

Though he said rest, it was essentially “house arrest.”

Knowing Mo Hua had discovered his secret, Lu Chengyun likely feared he would cause trouble.

“Very well,” Mo Hua nodded.

Lu Chengyun added: “If Little Master finds it boring, you may wander around.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Lu Chengyun replied with a smile.

With that permission, Mo Hua naturally didn’t hold back.

The next day, he stepped out and casually summoned a passing corpse cultivator: “Come here.”

The corpse cultivator approached, bowing:

“Little Master, what are your instructions?”

“Take me for a tour.”

The corpse cultivator hesitated, but knowing Mo Hua was a guest of Lu Chengyun, he didn’t dare neglect him.

So the cultivator led Mo Hua around.

After exploring, Mo Hua realized that the place he was in was actually a massive stone hall carved within the mine.

The many stone chambers were all part of this hall.

The hall was grand and eerie, yet simple.

Most of the furnishings were related to corpse cultivation.

At first, Mo Hua found it novel, but after a few rounds, it became dull.

The stone hall was newly constructed; there wasn’t much to explore.

Everywhere were monotonous stone chambers.

All around were gloomy corpse cultivators, black coffins, and ominous zombies.

There were formations, but they weren’t particularly sophisticated.

Some chambers were tightly sealed, clearly suspicious, yet entry was forbidden, and no probing allowed.

Mo Hua thought to himself:

This Lu Chengyun may seem generous, but he watches everything closely, afraid his secrets will leak.

Like inviting guests to a meal, saying “help yourself,” but only serving radishes and cabbage—no richness at all.

After a few days in the corpse mine, Mo Hua became familiar with his surroundings.

He even grew somewhat comfortable.

Except for the inability to uncover certain secrets, everything else was fine.

The corpse cultivators didn’t dare offend him. Any requests—food, drink, research, practicing formations, even ink, paper, and brushes—they tried to satisfy.

In these days, Mo Hua hadn’t seen Zhang Quan.

He was likely hiding to avoid being provoked.

If Zhang Quan lost his temper again and acted against Mo Hua, it would be tantamount to offending Lu Chengyun, and there would be no good outcome.

Mo Hua didn’t seek him out.

Now wasn’t the time to reclaim the “Zombie Diagram.”

Wandering aimlessly wasn’t a solution.

On the surface, Mo Hua had already memorized the basic layout of the stone hall, but that wasn’t enough.

He needed to find a way to investigate some hidden areas.

Mo Hua considered using concealment techniques.

The Dust-Revealing and Shadow-Revealing Formations were no higher than first-grade, so tampering with them wasn’t difficult.

The challenge was avoiding detection by Lu Chengyun.

After thinking, he realized it was impossible not to be discovered.

Being noticed by him was actually reasonable.

Lu Chengyun was naturally suspicious; Mo Hua’s honest behavior would make him doubt.

It was better to make small moves right under his nose.

He could believe he hadn’t been detected, while in reality, Lu Chengyun had noticed, so he wouldn’t suspect.

Mo Hua’s eyes gleamed with an idea.

He first put on his cloak and activated the formation within it, concealing his figure.

Then he quietly approached the door and undid the Dust-Revealing Formation.

As soon as it was undone, it was indeed detected.

A Divine Sense swept into Mo Hua’s room, scanning back and forth, searching for him.

This Divine Sense belonged to Lu Chengyun.

Mo Hua was very familiar with it.

These past days, this Divine Sense occasionally watched him.

Gentle, subtle, with a hint of chill, hard for others to detect.

But to Mo Hua, it was perfectly clear.

This Divine Sense matched Lu Chengyun’s aura exactly.

From this, Mo Hua deduced that Lu Chengyun’s Divine Sense had about twelve lines, not reaching thirteen.

Comparable to his own, but slightly weaker.

Lu Chengyun’s cultivation, though peak early Foundation Establishment, and being a formation master, had ordinary Divine Sense strength.

Compared to ordinary cultivators, it wasn’t weak.

But compared to Mo Hua, it fell short.

Previously, Mo Hua had twelve-line Divine Sense, and after refining several Zhang family zombies, he was near the peak of twelve lines, just shy of thirteen.

And breaking thirteen lines would take some time.

Mo Hua wondered:

“Lu Chengyun is peak early Foundation Establishment, studying formations daily, why isn’t his Divine Sense thirteen lines?”

“Could it be he spends his days drawing evil formations, cutting corners, not properly training his Divine Sense?”

Still, under thirteen lines was convenient.

In the corpse mine, Lu Chengyun was the strongest in cultivation and Divine Sense.

His Divine Sense being below thirteen lines meant none of the corpse cultivators, not even Lu family elders, would surpass Mo Hua.

Moreover, Mo Hua hadn’t revealed that his Divine Sense had already reached Foundation Establishment.

Even Elder Su didn’t know.

So in Lu Chengyun’s perception, Mo Hua’s Divine Sense should match a Qi-Refining cultivator, between nine and ten lines.

Mo Hua’s eyes brightened.

His Divine Sense was stronger than Lu Chengyun’s, yet Lu Chengyun didn’t know—perfect.

Mo Hua activated the concealment formation, then released a trace of aura.

This slight aura was enough for Lu Chengyun to sense.

Sure enough, moments later, Mo Hua detected a subtle Divine Sense on him—Lu Chengyun’s.

He pretended not to notice and quietly left the room.

The Dust-Revealing Formation at the door had been undone, so his figure wasn’t revealed.

Outside, Mo Hua sneakily checked the previously suspicious chambers.

These chambers had secrets, but not many.

Even if he discovered them, Lu Chengyun likely wouldn’t care.

Sure enough, after investigation, Lu Chengyun’s Divine Sense remained completely calm.

After surveying a bit and finding minor secrets, Mo Hua returned to his chamber and lay on the bed.

A short while later, Lu Chengyun withdrew his Divine Sense.

The next day, he saw Mo Hua but said nothing.

Mo Hua acted “guilty,” his gaze evasive.

Lu Chengyun remained calm, and after Mo Hua left, a faint, knowing smile appeared on his lips.

“So it was a concealment formation…”

He shook his head slightly. “Trivial skills, can they truly hide from the world…”

Indeed, nothing Mo Hua did afterward escaped Lu Chengyun’s notice.

Wherever Mo Hua went after hiding, Lu Chengyun knew clearly.

A few days later, Lu Chengyun relaxed.

The secrets Mo Hua found were insignificant.

That night, Mo Hua went out in concealment as usual, and on returning, found Lu Chengyun’s Divine Sense had already withdrawn, seemingly uninterested.

Mo Hua lay in bed, unmoving.

Sure enough, after a while, Lu Chengyun’s Divine Sense returned.

Mo Hua continued to feign sleep.

This repeated three or four times, until past the second watch, Lu Chengyun finally stopped.

Mo Hua felt exhausted.

This Lu Chengyun’s suspicion was extreme…

After a full cup of tea’s time, no Divine Sense peered at him.

Mo Hua quietly got up, donned the concealment cloak, used concealment again, and retracted his Divine Sense to the extreme, then stealthily left his room.

“Three burrows for a sly rabbit,” Elder Yu had taught him.

By day, roam the corpse mine openly;

By night, use concealment formations to probe minor secrets under Lu Chengyun’s nose;

Once Lu Chengyun relaxed, fully conceal, and invisibly explore the true secrets of the corpse mine…

For example, how many iron corpses? How many zombies?

What formations are used for corpse refining?

Where is the Ling-Pivot Formation?

What are the Lu family’s schemes?

…

Mo Hua had many questions.

He first went to a few sealed chambers, carefully opened a gap, and peered inside, discovering iron coffins.

Inside the iron coffins were iron corpses.

During the day, he counted about ten similar sealed chambers.

So there could be at least ten iron corpses, maybe more…

There were also some secret rooms.

These had altars and offerings, but not things like ancestral diagrams.

Instead, they contained grotesque objects—ghost sculptures, zombie limbs, and the like.

Mo Hua couldn’t make sense of them.

There were other areas he didn’t have time to check.

While exploring, he reached the main gate.

This gate separated the stone hall from the mine outside.

Inside, many stone chambers housed corpse cultivators.

Daily activities—living, refining corpses, controlling them—all occurred inside.

Outside was the mine.

Mo Hua had only glimpsed it upon entry; pitch black, full of coffins, very strange.

He wanted to check the mine, but the gate blocked him.

Formations were drawn on the gate.

After calculating with his Divine Sense, Mo Hua realized he could dismantle the formation, but doing so would alert Lu Chengyun, so he held off.

At that moment, he heard bells outside the gate.

Following the ringing, countless zombies seemed to crawl from their coffins, producing eerie sounds, unknown in purpose.

These sounds, piece by piece, merged into a river.

Even with soundproofing formations, it was noisy and piercing.

It felt like the dead laboring like the living in a deathly underworld.

Mo Hua frowned.

“What is Lu Chengyun doing refining all these zombies?”

“Could it… be mining?”

…

Author Notes:

Forgot something—there still wasn’t a book fan group…

Thought about it, best not open one yet.

Afraid of being roasted by you guys. (￣▽￣)

No mood to write for now~