Chapter 225: Seven Layers

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The noisy hot summer passed, and Mo Hua was then thirteen years old.

He had grown in height, but only a little. Looking up, there wasn't much change; he was still that small cultivator.

And Mo Hua's thoughts, besides drawing some array formations daily, were mainly focused on cultivating.

He had already completed the sixth level of Qi refinement. It wouldn't take long before he would encounter the bottleneck of cultivation and face the threshold of the middle stage of Qi refinement.

As long as he broke through the bottleneck, he could become a cultivator of the later stage of Qi refinement.

The later stage of Qi refinement was even closer to Foundation Establishment.

The cultivation world was vast, with numerous cultivators. The Qi refinement stage was just ants, and becoming Foundation Establishment was the first step in changing one's cultivation destiny.

Foundation Establishment was building the foundation of cultivation.

No matter what one's Dao heart was like, without Foundation Establishment, everything was empty talk.

This day, Mo Hua got up at the Mao hour, cultivating as usual.

Suddenly, his Qi sea trembled, and spiritual power flowed rapidly upward.

Mo Hua's spirit vibrated. He took out spirit stones, calmed his heart, and cultivated. These spirit stones were refined by Mo Hua, forming pure spiritual power that gathered towards Mo Hua's Qi sea, until it was full and overflowing.

And then, just like the first time he broke through a bottleneck, he encountered the same situation.

This full and overflowing spiritual power, following his meridians, flowed upwards towards the Baihui acupoint. When it reached the Tiangate acupoint, it again seeped inwards like silk threads into his Sea of Consciousness. It wandered and wove within the Sea of Consciousness, condensing into a spiritual curtain.

This spiritual curtain was a riddle array, and also the bottleneck that needed to be broken through when cultivating the Tianyan Jue.

Mo Hua's heart held both expectation and trepidation. He calmed his heart and focused his spirit, beginning to comprehend the riddle array.

A moment later, he let out a breath.

The array patterns on these riddle arrays had become hundreds and thousands, wandering randomly, numerous and complex. If not an array master, one would fundamentally have no clue.

But Mo Hua looked closely and discovered that most of the array patterns, although obscure and constantly wandering and changing, did not depart from the category of Five Elements array patterns. He could also recognize all of them.

As long as he could recognize them, there was a way to solve them.

Mo Hua recalled the basic points of solving arrays, utilizing the generation and overcoming of the Five Elements, the melting and dissolving of array patterns, and the rules of positive and reverse spiritual power, and began to crack them one by one.

Half a day passed, and Mo Hua had solved more than ten array patterns.

Mo Hua's heart was joyful.

The process of solving the array was smoother than he had expected.

Benefiting from Mr. Zhuang's teaching and Mo Hua's day and night practice, including his comprehension and application of Grade 1 complex arrays, Mo Hua's current array formation level and experience in array formations among Grade 1 array masters were already considered outstanding.

He could now rely on his own array formation attainment to solve these riddle arrays by himself.

Above the riddle array, the spiritual power threads were disordered, the array patterns were dense, and they flowed non-stop.

This made ordinary cultivators at a loss, and caused general array masters to change color upon seeing the changing riddle array. In Mo Hua's eyes, it was already clear and distinct, no longer a difficulty.

All the effort previously spent on array formations was worth it.

Only, the quantity of riddle arrays was too many, and it would take some time to solve them all.

Just like this, Mo Hua forgot about eating and sleeping, working tirelessly day and night, always wholeheartedly cracking the riddle array.

Sometimes when eating or walking, he would be distracted, suddenly frowning, suddenly realizing, suddenly meditating, suddenly again his eyes would brighten.

The surrounding cultivators, seeing his state, knew that Mo Hua should be comprehending some difficulty, so they were also quiet and did not disturb him.

Finally, one month later, Mo Hua solved all the riddle arrays.

The spiritual curtain suddenly dissipated, the riddle array instantly dissolved, the silk-like spiritual power gradually dissipated, and finally merged into Mo Hua's Sea of Consciousness.

Mo Hua's Sea of Consciousness enlarged a bit, his divine sense thickened some, and his spiritual power also became thicker.

He also finally broke through the bottleneck and became a cultivator of the seventh level of Qi refinement.

The seventh level of Qi refinement was exactly the later stage of Qi refinement!

Mo Hua's heart was greatly joyful. His cultivation had finally taken another key step forward. Next, as long as he proceeded steadily step by step, followed the order gradually, and advanced towards Foundation Establishment step by step, he would be fine.

More happy than Mo Hua becoming a cultivator of the later stage of Qi refinement were naturally Liu Ruhua and Mo Shan.

They followed the custom and held a banquet, inviting neighbors and some cultivators with deep friendships.

Mo Hua also received quite a few gifts: from Elder Yu, Master Chen, Old Mr. Feng, the Demon Hunter, Master Luo, and some other array masters also sent gifts.

After the lively banquet with guests, Mo Hua tidied up his mood and considered what to do next.

In cultivation, he cultivated diligently and persistently, emphasizing the principle of water dripping on stone wears away, and water finding its channel. There was originally no shortcut to take, and nothing much to say.

Regarding Dao methods, Mo Hua wanted to learn one or two more spells to be prepared for emergencies.

In the later stage of Qi refinement, although his strength was strong, the dangers he faced might also be greater. It was never bad to have many skills; learning one or two more spells was still very necessary.

Only, Mo Hua temporarily didn't know who to find to learn from.

If he learned by himself, there were no suitable spell classics.

It was also not good to go find Old Kui. Old Kui had already taught Mo Hua how to fish. Mo Hua couldn't keep going to Old Kui and asking for fish to eat.

When he should figure out a way himself, he still had to figure out a way himself.

However, this was not urgent for the time being; he could take his time.

What made Mo Hua hesitate and undecided the most, on the contrary, was array formations.

He was already at the level of a Grade 1 array master, and had also learned more difficult Grade 1 complex arrays. But his cultivation was still far from the Foundation Establishment stage. Without Foundation Establishment, he naturally couldn't become a Grade 2 array master.

So during this period, what array formations should he learn?

Should he always learn complex arrays?

Mo Hua was already familiar with general complex arrays. For some more difficult complex arrays, it was just that the array hub strength was too high, and Mo Hua's divine sense was insufficient, so he temporarily couldn't learn them.

But Mo Hua was already familiar with the principles of complex arrays, especially Five Elements class array hubs. Learning more would only expand the breadth of array formations, and he wouldn't be able to learn deeper things.

Mo Hua would feel a bit bored learning.

Then perhaps he should go learn big arrays?

Mo Hua's understanding of big arrays was still very shallow. He only knew that big arrays were considered large complex arrays; he knew very little else.

Moreover, even if he wanted to learn big arrays, Mo Hua could at most only practice on the Dao Stele in his Sea of Consciousness; he couldn't actually draw them at all.

Because big arrays consumed extremely large amounts of resources, requiring large array mediums, sea-like spirit stones, and numerous manpower. This was simply not something Mo Hua could do.

Besides, Mo Hua still had one point he didn't understand, which was divine sense.

Mo Hua's divine sense was already very strong, stronger than that of general cultivators at the ninth level of Qi refinement. Even the divine sense of general Grade 1 array masters was far less than Mo Hua's.

But compared to the divine sense of the Foundation Establishment stage, Mo Hua was still quite a bit different.

Mo Hua's divine sense was still growing. Borrowing the Dao Stele would enhance his divine sense, practicing array formations would temper his divine sense, and with future realm breakthroughs, his divine sense would still grow.

Then, would there be a day when he, without Foundation Establishment, could have divine sense comparable to cultivators of the Foundation Establishment stage?

Where was the boundary between the divine sense of the Qi refinement stage and the Foundation Establishment stage?

This exceeded the scope of Mo Hua's understanding, so Mo Hua went to visit Mr. Zhuang.

Mr. Zhuang saw Mo Hua, his expression calm, yet he sighed inwardly:

"This child, his divine sense has become strong again..."

He didn't even know how to teach him well.

Mo Hua respectfully bowed to Mr. Zhuang, then asked: "Mister, next, should I still learn complex arrays?"

"Still learn as before."

"Oh."

Mo Hua felt that complex arrays were a bit boring, but he didn't feel comfortable saying it.

Mr. Zhuang asked: "This time, what kind of riddle array was in your Sea of Consciousness?"

Mo Hua thought for a moment and said: "Still Five Elements array patterns, but the grade of the riddle array was higher, mostly Grade 1 array formations, and also contained part of a complex array."

Mr. Zhuang was silent for a moment, then sighed and said: "If this is the case, your Foundation Establishment will be very difficult."