Chapter 377: Small Town

Mo Hua returned to the room and practiced the Reverse Spirit Array for a while longer.

He indeed felt that the growth of his divine sense had slowed, unlike before when it was rapid.

"It seems I need to find more difficult arrays to learn," Mo Hua thought silently.

He practiced for a while more, and when his divine sense was exhausted, Mo Hua rested for a moment, thought a bit, and then opened his storage bag again.

Given the journey ahead, he didn't know what he might encounter, so he decided to inventory the items on his person first.

First were the spirit stones.

Mo Hua carried over a thousand spirit stones with him.

There were also several thousand more spirit stones placed inside the carriage, sealed with an array, which Mr. Zhuang was watching over for him.

These spirit stones were for Mo Hua's Foundation Building.

Some he earned himself, some were saved by his dad and mom, and some were given by Elder Yu.

They should be enough for his use, at least before Foundation Building.

Besides, there was also the first-grade spirit tool, the Qian Jun Stick.

This Qian Jun Stick had been refined again by Master Chen for Mo Hua, making its quality more solid. He also reinforced it with a layer of the Qian Jun Fu Array, making it handier for delivering surprise blows.

Around Mo Hua's neck, he still wore a piece of Dan Jade.

This was given to him by Old Mr. Feng. It had a faint warmth that could refresh and calm the mind.

Although Old Mr. Feng said, "Merit and virtue are illusory and vague," the Dan Jade seemed to genuinely carry Old Mr. Feng's merit from healing the sick and saving people, always emitting a warm and moist luster.

Every time Mo Hua looked at it, he felt it contained a lot of goodwill.

Besides the Dan Jade, Mo Hua's neck also bore a Hunt Demon Order.

This Hunt Demon Order was initially given to him by Elder Yu; every Hunt Demon Master had one.

But Mo Hua discovered that his piece seemed a bit different.

Other Hunt Demon Masters, after killing a demonic beast, would have a thin red blood mark added to their Hunt Demon Order.

When Mo Hua used the large array to collapse and resolve the situation, killing Feng Xi, a blood mark also appeared on his Hunt Demon Order.

However, this blood mark was half a finger thick and pale gold in color.

Mo Hua went to ask Elder Yu, who also looked puzzled, saying he had never seen such a thing and that it wasn't recorded even in the Hunt Demon Master literature.

A pale gold blood mark…

Mo Hua didn't understand it and decided to leave it for now.

Anyway, whether the blood mark on the Hunt Demon Order was red or gold made no difference and currently offered no benefit. He would figure it out later when he had time.

Mo Hua also put the Dao Ting Si bronze waist card in his storage bag.

According to Zhou Zhang Si, he had applied to the higher ups and allocated a significant amount of merit, stored within this waist card.

Killing Feng Xi in Tong Xian Town was naturally a great merit for the Dao Ting Si.

Zhou Zhang Si, in his later years in office, received an unexpected great merit, and was so happy his mouth couldn't close.

This merit was also thanks to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua's identity was somewhat special: a thirteen-year-old first-grade main array master. Reporting this up, no one would believe it. So Zhou Zhang Si didn't explicitly state it to the Dao Ting Si, only secretly giving Mo Hua some more benefits.

These benefits were the merit within the bronze waist card.

In the future, when Mo Hua went out, if needed, he could use the merit recorded on the merit book to exchange for some spirit stones or spirit objects as an emergency reserve.

As for how much merit there was exactly, or how many things he could exchange, he hadn't tried yet and temporarily didn't know, but he figured it wouldn't be a small amount.

Mo Hua patted this waist card, feeling much more secure in his heart.

Besides, the most important item was the first-grade array master ring.

White jade inlaid with gold, ancient and elegant.

This ring, called the Tian Shu Ring, was refined by the Dao Ting's Tian Shu Cabinet and issued to array masters who passed a fixed grade.

The ring body was engraved with nine star patterns, each star pattern having three star marks, symbolizing the nine grades of arrays, with three levels in each grade.

Mo Hua's Tian Shu Ring now only had one star lit, meaning he was recognized by the Tian Shu Cabinet as a first-grade array master.

The Tian Shu Ring was both a proof of identity for array masters and also a small storage ring.

Like a storage bag, it could store things, but the space was smaller, only suitable for putting some secret and valuable items.

Mo Hua put the Tian Yan Jue jade slip and some rare array diagrams all inside the Tian Shu Ring, tied a rope to it, and also hung it around his neck.

He originally thought of wearing it on his hand, but his hand was too small, and the Tian Shu Ring could only fit on his thumb, like a thumb guard.

Mo Hua was always afraid it would fall off, so he used a string and hung it around his neck.

Now he had three things hanging around his neck. Fortunately, they weren't heavy, and he wasn't tired from wearing them.

After inventorying his items, Mo Hua sat in meditation to contemplate, then started drawing arrays again.

Dinner was eaten at the inn. Everyone simply ordered a few dishes. They weren't particularly delicious, nor were they terrible, just not as good as Mo Hua's own cooking.

After dinner, everyone rested at the inn for the night and set off again the next day.

Before setting off, Mo Hua intimately hugged Da Bai's neck, patted its back, and said,

"You're going to work hard again."

Da Bai "humphed" a few times and rubbed its head against Mo Hua's small face.

Mo Hua smiled happily.

The morning glow splashed across the sky, sprinkling onto the road.

Several people set out on their journey, leaving the city gate and walking on the main road.

After walking on the main road for a while, they passed a mountain path. Two mountains converged, ridges overlapped, and people on the road were rare, only the sound of horse hooves echoing.

After walking for another half day, they encountered a small town.

Mo Hua raised his head to look and saw the small town's plaque in the distance:

Qian Jia Town.

His gaze took in the entire scene of the small town.

There were quite a few people in Qian Jia Town, but they were clearly all scattered cultivators, and their clothes were stained with mud.

Not far from the small town was a large area of connected spirit fields.

Many cultivators were bending their backs, working in the spirit fields.

Mo Hua had heard his father, Mo Shan, say that among cultivation paths, there was a category called "Spirit Plant Masters" who made a living by cultivating and nurturing various cultivation crops or planting medicinal herbs.

Among them, those who planted fields were generally called "Spirit Farmers."

These cultivators cultivating in the spirit fields should be the "Spirit Farmers" his dad Mo Shan mentioned.

Old Kui stopped the carriage.

Mr. Zhuang lifted the curtain, glanced at the small town, nodded, and said,

"We need to stay here for a while."

Mo Hua and the other two looked at each other, not knowing why they needed to stay here.

Mo Hua thought of what Mr. Zhuang had told him before, his eyes slightly brightened, and he asked,

"Master, is there an absolute array in this town?"

Mr. Zhuang nodded slightly.

Mo Hua again sized up the small town.

The houses were low, the bricks and stones old, many places dilapidated from years of wear, indicating that most cultivators did not live very well.

In the town, there was one conspicuously luxurious mansion, which should be the residence of the wealthiest family in the area.

This was similar to the small towns Mo Hua had seen along the way.

Where there were poor, there would be rich, and where there were rich, there were naturally also poor.

All the houses in the town had arrays drawn on them, but most were very simple, with only sparse array patterns.

Even the array used on the mansion that looked the wealthiest was something Mo Hua could see through at a glance.

How could such a small town have an absolute array?

Mo Hua didn't understand and asked Mr. Zhuang,

"Master, how do you know there's an absolute array here?"

Mr. Zhuang said profoundly, "I can see it."

Mo Hua continued to press, "How can you see it?"

He was very curious.

Mr. Zhuang looked at Mo Hua and said gently, "You guess."

Mo Hua wrinkled his eyebrows.

Mr. Zhuang letting him guess, and not blindly guessing, meant that this method was something he also knew.

Mo Hua again looked at the small town in the distance.

There were no obvious array patterns in sight, which meant Mr. Zhuang wasn't seeing a specific array.

Moreover, they were just passing by this place and stopped temporarily.

This indicated that Mr. Zhuang didn't know beforehand that there was an absolute array here.

It was something he saw, which gave him the temporary idea to stay here.

What did he see?

Or rather, what did he perceive?

Mo Hua released his divine sense. Heaven and earth turned into a virtual white, and then spirit power of all colors appeared one by one.

Mo Hua perceived with his divine sense for a while. His eyes suddenly brightened slightly, and he tentatively said, "Did you derive and calculate it with your divine sense?"

Since he couldn't see the array patterns, he must have used the array spirit power to reverse-engineer the array patterns, thereby judging the strength of the divine sense within the array patterns, and further determining that this place had a hidden lost absolute array.

Mo Hua faintly perceived some array spirit power, relatively far away. The aura of this spirit power was obscure, and Mo Hua couldn't derive it, only guess based on intuition.

Mr. Zhuang nodded with satisfaction, "Not bad."

Then Mr. Zhuang patiently explained, "Absolute arrays are different from ordinary arrays; they are a more refined, more essential, and more advanced use of spirit power."

"The Reverse Spirit Array is for reverse-solving spirit power, large arrays accumulate spirit power, and other absolute arrays also have some unusual aspects, more or less."

"World affairs change, vicissitudes of life, things appear varied, and flow and change."

"Some absolute arrays are therefore buried underground, or sealed in ancient sites, or painted in a corner of some unknown small town, operating silently, and no one knows…"

"Relying on eyes to look, you cannot find the traces of the array."

"Eyes can deceive people, divine sense cannot; the surface can deceive people, its essential spirit power will not."

"So you need to perceive with divine sense, derive and calculate in the sea of knowledge, and through your understanding of arrays and your cognition of spirit power operation, thereby judge whether this place hides a lost array…"

Mo Hua suddenly realized, nodding repeatedly.

Perceiving with divine sense, deriving and calculating spirit power, deducing array patterns, seeking absolute arrays…

Through Mr. Zhuang's guidance, Mo Hua suddenly understood.

Bai Zi Sheng and Bai Zi Xi were still looking at each other.

They completely didn't know what Mo Hua and Mr. Zhuang were talking about…