Chapter 571: Windfall

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Grandmaster Luo's words stopped here, and he didn't delve into it further.

It's often said that those who endure hardship will become superior.

If Mo Hua relies on the world's great families and sects in the future, aligning himself with them and becoming "superior," then these words would be useless.

If Mo Hua maintains his Dao heart and remains true to his original intention, with his intelligence, he should understand what Grandmaster Luo is trying to say and will naturally have it figured out.

Grandmaster Luo looked at Mo Hua and saw him slightly frown, appearing thoughtful.

Knowing that Mo Hua had understood his meaning, he nodded slightly and said nothing more.

After some time, the conversation returned to arrays.

Grandmaster Luo said:

"Second-grade arrays are divided into three tiers based on Foundation Establishment cultivation stages: early, middle, and late, and correspondingly, initial, middle, and high tiers."

"Upon entering Foundation Establishment, a ten-pattern array is a second-grade entry-level array..."

"Entry-level arrays are relatively simple. Although they are second-grade, they are not considered tiered..."

"Foundation Establishment early stage, eleven to thirteen patterns, is a second-grade initial-tier array;"

"Foundation Establishment middle stage, fourteen to sixteen patterns, is a second-grade middle-tier array;"

"Foundation Establishment late stage, seventeen to nineteen patterns, is a second-grade high-tier array..."

"Second-grade array masters are also divided in this way, into initial-tier, middle-tier, and high-tier array masters."

"The threshold for first-grade array masters is very high. They only talk about being graded, not tiered. But in reality, all first-grade array masters should be considered 'first-grade high-tier array masters.' It's just that these earlier subdivisions were all removed by the Dao Court..."

"Once you reach the second-grade array realm, the divisions become quite detailed and strict."

"It's not easy to become a second-grade array master, and advancing within the second-grade tiers is even more difficult. Each advancement requires an examination..."

Grandmaster Luo furrowed his brows and sighed.

Grandmaster Qian also looked helpless.

Even the first-grade examination wasn't easy, let alone the second-grade one...

Mo Hua pondered carefully for a moment and then asked, "So, for a second-grade initial-tier array master, is it enough just to be able to draw second-grade initial-tier arrays?"

Grandmaster Luo shook his head and smiled wryly:

"It's not that simple. Second-grade initial-tier arrays encompass arrays with eleven to thirteen patterns. The difficulty difference within this range is also extremely large..."

"Each additional pattern in an array increases the difficulty by a level."

"You must master the most difficult thirteen-pattern arrays within the initial tier, and not just one or two."

"The Dao Court stipulates that you must learn at least four or five of the thirteen-pattern arrays to apply for evaluation and promotion to a second-grade initial-tier array master..."

"The same applies to later stages."

"Master sixteen-pattern arrays to be promoted to the second-grade middle tier; be proficient in nineteen-pattern arrays to be promoted to the second-grade high tier..."

"Therefore, those who can truly pass the grading and gradually advance to second-grade high-tier array masters are without exception rare array masters who are extremely proficient in second-grade arrays..."

Mo Hua nodded and said, "So, generally speaking, a Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivator can become a second-grade initial-tier array master?"

He spoke a bit conservatively.

Because his current divine sense was already fourteen patterns strong, if calculated according to arrays, learning fourteen-pattern second-grade arrays already touched the threshold of a second-grade middle-tier array master...

Grandmaster Luo still shook his head and said:

"No..."

"Generally speaking, only Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivators can become second-grade initial-tier array masters, and Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivators can become second-grade middle-tier array masters, and second-grade high-tier array masters..."

Grandmaster Luo paused, sighed, and said:

"...either they have already broken through to become Gold Core cultivators, or they have been stuck at the Foundation Establishment late stage for too long, unable to advance, and can only spend a hundred or two hundred years painstakingly learning arrays to be promoted to a second-grade high-tier array master..."

Mo Hua opened his mouth, "So difficult..."

"It is difficult..."

Grandmaster Luo's eyebrows furrowed into the character for "river" (川).

He looked at Mo Hua and, although he felt that Mo Hua couldn't be measured by common standards, some cultivation "common sense" still needed to be explained to him.

He was him, others were others.

Not everyone was a little monster.

"Even cultivators whose array standards lag behind their cultivation by a small realm can be considered extremely talented array masters. It's normal for ordinary cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage to learn first-grade arrays, or even for those at the Foundation Establishment late stage or even Gold Core to learn second-grade arrays..."

Mo Hua said, "Because their divine sense isn't enough?"

Grandmaster Luo nodded and said powerlessly, "Their divine sense isn't enough..."

"Blood energy, spiritual power, can be enhanced through techniques, but there's no way for divine sense."

"Most cultivators' divine sense cannot be cultivated. Unless they have innate excellent divine sense, generally whatever realm they are in, their divine sense will be at that level, and only slightly lower..."

"A Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivator can have at most thirteen patterns of divine sense. To become an initial-tier array master, they need to learn thirteen-pattern arrays..."

"Learning this way is very strenuous."

"Divine sense consumption is extremely large, and recovery is extremely slow. Learning arrays this way is like feeling for stones to cross a river, cautious and careful. If you're not careful, there's even a risk of divine sense depletion."

"Even so, with a whole day's divine sense exhausted, you can only practice two or three times..."

"Second-grade thirteen-pattern arrays are complex and profound. Practicing two or three times a day, how is that enough?"

"Waiting until you truly comprehend them, you'll have to practice until the Year of the Monkey and Month of the Horse..."

Grandmaster Luo said bitterly.

Mo Hua nodded involuntarily.

He had the Dao Stele, so he practiced arrays much more. Sometimes, in one night, he could practice twenty or thirty times.

Two or three times a day was indeed too few, not enough for him to even fill the gaps between his teeth...

Relying on this little bit of proficiency to comprehend arrays was indeed somewhat difficult.

Moreover, cultivators still needed to cultivate and earn spirit stones.

Even cultivators from families and sects were probably not idle and needed to be busy with various sect affairs, with not much time to spend on arrays every day.

"So..."

Grandmaster Luo continued, "Sharpening the knife doesn't delay the woodcutting. First raise your realm, enhance your divine sense, then come back and learn arrays. This way, with abundant divine sense, learning will be easier."

"So that's how it is..."

Mo Hua nodded his little head again, his eyes suddenly lighting up:

"So, if I am at the Foundation Establishment early stage and just became a second-grade initial-tier array master, would it be... still quite impressive?"

"Foundation Establishment early stage... second-grade initial tier..."

Grandmaster Luo choked, a little hesitant to talk to Mo Hua.

But he thought again, on Mo Hua's body, this matter seemed not impossible...

Grandmaster Luo felt a bit of expectation in his heart.

If Mo Hua, at such a young age, in the Foundation Establishment early stage, could become a second-grade initial-tier array master, then perhaps he could go even further in the future...

Grandmaster Qian also praised, "If little mister can become a second-grade initial-tier array master at the Foundation Establishment early stage, even among the world's great families and clans, he would be a rare array genius..."

"However..."

Grandmaster Qian sighed, saying with some regret:

"Within Tongxian City, the inheritance and resources for second-grade arrays are too scarce..."

Arrays were scarce, and the materials like pens, ink, and paper were all expensive consumables.

With Mo Hua's family background, truly wanting to learn them would be very difficult.

Grandmaster Luo also felt pity for Mo Hua.

After talking about arrays, everyone drank some more tea.

It was almost noon when the school disciples finished their classes one after another, respectfully bid farewell to Grandmaster Qian, and then went home to eat.

Suddenly, among the crowd, a five or six-year-old child saw Mo Hua, his eyes lit up, and he pounced into Mo Hua's arms, shouting in a childish voice:

"Brother Mo!"

Mo Hua was slightly startled, then he realized that this child was surprisingly Zhou Er.

Zhou Er's surname was Chu, and he was the child of the Chu uncle, a demon hunter who was skilled in using traps and taught Mo Hua how to use them.

Zhou Er's mother was Aunt Jiang, who helped out at Mo Hua's family's eatery.

Several years ago, Uncle Chu suffered a serious injury and couldn't hunt demons anymore, so he entrusted Mo Hua to teach his son some array methods so that he wouldn't have to risk his life in the future and could still make a living.

Later, when Mo Hua went out traveling, he entrusted Zhou Er to Grandmaster Qian.

Grandmaster Qian saw Zhou Er's behavior and said helplessly:

"He has no manners, completely improper."

Zhou Er then hid behind Mo Hua, sticking out his little head.

Grandmaster Qian's tone was strict, but his expression showed no blame, indicating he was quite fond of this little disciple.

Mo Hua stroked Zhou Er's head and asked Grandmaster Qian:

"Grandmaster Qian, how is Zhou Er doing with his array studies?"

Grandmaster Qian said, "He's young and has just started learning. First, he's memorizing some books and understanding some array principles. He's only learned one or two array patterns so far..."

Mo Hua nodded.

It was already noon, and Mo Hua had asked everything he needed to. He then stood up and left.

Zhou Er was sticky with Mo Hua, so Mo Hua took Zhou Er home, picked out some good and easily digestible food from the eatery, fed Zhou Er until he was full, and then let Aunt Jiang take him home.

In the following days, Mo Hua began to practice second-grade arrays with all his heart.

Every nightfall, Mo Hua would sit on his bed, sink his divine sense into his sea of consciousness, and continuously practice arrays on the Dao Stele.

The array he had been practicing these days was the "Second-Grade Thorn Array."

The Thorn Array was a wood-attribute array.

Once triggered, it would grow vines and thorns to trap enemies. It was a type of Five Elements trap array.

The Thorn Array contained eleven array patterns, considered a relatively simple second-grade initial-tier array.

This was an array that Mo Hua had deciphered by tracing back its source from the "Five Elements Array Flow Diagram."

This was also the only applicable second-grade array that Mo Hua had managed to decipher by tracing back its source so far...

The "Five Elements Array Flow Diagram" contained a strange "Five Elements Source Pattern," which traced back all the Five Elements sect's Five Elements arrays.

But these arrays had already been condensed into one "source pattern."

This source pattern was very strange and dangerous, but ever since it had been suppressed by the Dao Stele, it had become much more obedient...

Despite this, it was still very troublesome for Mo Hua to "decipher" the Five Elements sect's array inheritance from the source pattern.

One reason was that this kind of tracing back consumed a lot of divine sense.

Mo Hua still needed to learn arrays. Although his divine sense was strong, it was limited, so he could only spare some time, or when he was tired or bored from drawing arrays, to "decipher" this source pattern.

Another reason was that the arrays "deciphered" from the source pattern were random...

Mo Hua didn't know what rules or laws the Five Elements sect ancestors used to derive the Five Elements arrays into the source pattern.

So the arrays traced back were messy and disorderly.

This was like a "lucky draw"...

The Five Elements were different for each, and the grades were mixed between first and second.

Mo Hua didn't know what array he had "deciphered," what attribute of the Five Elements it belonged to, whether it was a first-grade or second-grade array, or how many array patterns it contained...

Mo Hua could only guess.

He could only speculate that the upper limit of the "deciphered" arrays was related to his divine sense strength.

The number of patterns his divine sense had determined the highest number of patterns he could "decipher" in an array.

Mo Hua had fourteen patterns of divine sense. In theory, he should be able to "decipher" Five Elements arrays with up to fourteen patterns.

But theory was theory, and reality was reality.

The best array Mo Hua had deciphered so far was the one he was currently practicing, the second-grade eleven-pattern Thorn Array.

This was still acceptable. What made Mo Hua feel most absurd was that this source pattern offered no guarantees!

Even the lower limit was shockingly low!

Most of the arrays he had deciphered now were first-grade arrays, including a large number of ungraded arrays, and even one, the lowest level Bright Fire Array, which contained only three array patterns!

Although the Five Elements source pattern included all Five Elements arrays, it was normal for these low-level arrays to be included.

But Mo Hua still felt that some of these arrays were just made up by the Five Elements sect ancestors to "pollute" the source pattern...

Mo Hua sighed, feeling a bit helpless.

He could only practice arrays while hoping that one day his "luck would turn around" and he could "draw"...

No, it was "decipher," a fourteen-pattern second-grade Five Elements array!

Before that, he could only use these ten-pattern and eleven-pattern arrays for practice...

Mo Hua collected his thoughts and practiced arrays on the Dao Stele all night.

When he woke up in the daytime, he still felt it wasn't enough.

It was a pity that the several bottles of second-grade spirit ink that Grandmaster Luo and Grandmaster Qian had given him were already used up, and he couldn't draw arrays in reality anymore.

Seven bottles of spirit ink were too little and fundamentally couldn't withstand Mo Hua's usage. Even if he used them sparingly, they wouldn't last long.

"Learn to use..."

Mo Hua firmly remembered Master Zhuang's teachings.

He had the Dao Stele, so "learning" was not a problem.

Sinking his divine sense into his sea of consciousness and practicing arrays on the Dao Stele required no pen, ink, or paper. His divine sense could trace back, and he could practice ten, or even dozens of times more than others.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua felt somewhat fortunate.

"It's a good thing I have the Dao Stele..."

Not only could he practice arrays, but he could also temper his divine sense.

As long as he persevered and kept practicing, he could learn more and more arrays, and his divine sense would also become stronger and stronger, thereby allowing him to learn more and more arrays...

This cycle would continue, "snowballing" to expand his divine sense and array standards.

However, he could now "learn," but he had no way to "use" them...

Not only spirit ink, but also pens and paper were big problems.

Mo Hua had exchanged several rolls of second-grade "array paper" from Old Mister An, but it wasn't enough to quench his thirst, and he used it up shortly after.

These second-grade array papers were very expensive.

They were difficult to buy and too easy to use...

But even so, array paper was already the cheapest array medium.

Other spirit tools, array disks, and array flags were even more expensive, far beyond what Mo Hua could afford.

Besides array paper, there were also array pens.

Mo Hua hadn't expected array pens to be more expensive than array paper, and second-grade array pens wore out more easily than first-grade array pens.

Second-grade spirit ink contained spirit power and demon beast blood energy, making it thicker.

Dipping an array pen in spirit ink would accelerate its wear.

Inferior array pens often became "bald" after some use...

And those durable, high-quality array pens were made of luxurious materials and were expensive, too expensive for Mo Hua to buy.

"Is there a way to draw arrays without using paper and pen..."

Mo Hua stroked his chin and thought for a moment.

He vaguely had some ideas in his mind, but he still needed to spend time researching them.

But even without paper and pen, ink was always indispensable...

"Second-grade spirit ink is mixed with second-grade demon beast blood..."

Mo Hua thought of the big tiger.

Drawing the big tiger's blood... definitely not. His relationship with the big tiger was quite good, so he couldn't target it.

Then maybe...

Find a way to team up with the big tiger and kill other second-grade demon beasts in Big Black Mountain?

It eats the meat, and I draw the blood?

Mo Hua silently nodded, feeling that the plan was feasible. This method was still viable.

Suddenly, Mo Hua was startled again.

Big tiger...

He just remembered that the big tiger had also given him some "gifts," which were those unknown storage bags.

After Mo Hua returned home, there were too many people to greet, so he temporarily forgot about them.

"I wonder what's inside those storage bags..."

Mo Hua was a little curious, so he took out the storage bags from under the bed and opened them one by one.

Some of these storage bags were still stained with blood, some were gorgeous and exquisite, and some were gray and dirty, with a strange feel to them.

Mo Hua opened all the storage bags and sorted through them one by one, and then he suddenly realized.

Some of these storage bags belonged to cultivators of the orthodox path, while others belonged to demonic cultivators.

Besides proper spirit stones, spirit tools, and pills, there were also some demonic path techniques for absorbing blood, absorbing spirit, harvesting supplements, as well as soul-capturing and corpse-refining demonic spells...

These demonic path techniques and spells were deeply harmful, and definitely couldn't be left behind. Mo Hua planned to burn them later to avoid harming others.

There were also some orthodox path techniques and spells...

As for techniques, Mo Hua had already learned the Tian Yan Jue, so they were useless...

As for spells, most were body-refining cultivation martial arts, and a few were spells. They were second-grade, but they all seemed to be common spells.

However, Mo Hua wasn't picky and could spare some time to learn them...

There were quite a few spirit stones, adding up to several tens of thousands!

If it weren't for these types of storage bags, which had limited capacity and were inconvenient to carry, there would probably be more.

The types of pills were also very rich, including spirit recovery, blood supplement, poison avoidance, miasma dispelling, and even life-saving pills like the second-grade Small Return Pill...

Mo Hua furrowed his brows.

Adding these up was a large sum of "ill-gotten wealth"!

Mo Hua was both surprised and happy, but also a little puzzled.

Who exactly were the owners of these storage bags? How did they

come to Tongxian City, and how did they die? How did the big tiger pick up the storage bags?

Mo Hua searched inside the storage bags again, wanting to find some clues.

Mo Hua searched for a long time and finally found several scrolls of documents. Seeing the words "family head personally open," "sect master report," etc., on them, he suddenly realized.

"These cultivators came to Tongxian City for Master..."

Some were from Dao State families or their vassal small families, dispatched by their family heads or sects to Tongxian City to investigate Master's whereabouts...

There were also some from demonic sects.

But they were probably not from any big sects, just some small forces.

Upon arriving in Tongxian City, both sides fought in Big Black Mountain.

Then, during the fierce battle, they either perished directly or were heavily injured afterward and were picked up by the big tiger.

Several of the storage bags were already broken, with tear marks from tiger teeth on them.

It was probably the big tiger that tore open the storage bags, ate some of the spirit items inside, and after refining them, broke through to become a second-grade demon beast.

It left the other storage bags for Mo Hua out of gratitude.

Mo Hua thought about it and felt that the facts were roughly as he had guessed. Even if there were some deviations, they wouldn't be too far off.

"Since they had ill intentions towards Master, it's just as well they died..."

Mo Hua accepted this sum of "ill-gotten wealth" with peace of mind.

After he sorted and classified the items in the storage bags, he accidentally found a map.

This map was very large and encompassed the Nine Provinces.

In the cultivation Nine Provinces, "Dao State" was the core, located in the center, where the central Dao Court was also located.

Outside of Dao State, the other eight states were named after the Eight Trigrams: "Qian," "Kun," "Kan," "Li," "Gen," "Zhen," "Xun," and "Dui." They were located according to the positions of the Eight Trigrams, suppressing heaven and earth and guarding the central Dao State.

"Nine Provinces Map?"

Mo Hua was startled and carefully examined it.

Although this map encompassed the Nine Provinces, the other states only marked general mountains, and the specific state boundaries were vague and unclear.

Only "Qian State" had dense state boundaries and detailed mountains.

And within Qian State, one state boundary was circled with vermilion pen, with small characters noting:

Qian State, Dragon Path Mountains, fifth-grade Qian Learning State boundary.

A place where cultivators from the Nine Provinces seek learning and victory.

Sects abound, and geniuses gather.

A great collection of arrays, pills, tools, talismans, techniques, and martial arts inheritances.

It is truly the number one great state boundary for seeking the Dao and learning in the cultivation world!

(End of this chapter)