Chapter 630: Forbidden Technique

"Huh?" Mo Hua was startled. He remembered the record in the secret manual of the Water Prison Technique, which mentioned, "...this technique, organized by Yi Zhenren into a volume and included in Tai Xu Gate..."

"Is the Water Prison Technique in the Merit Record the one you included?"

Elder Yi was slightly taken aback. "You also learned the Water Prison Technique?"

"Yes!" Mo Hua nodded.

Elder Yi was a little surprised.

The Water Prison Technique is easy to learn but hard to master, and also very difficult to use...

But he still shook his head. "Not me. That was included by a predecessor of our Yi family..."

"A predecessor?"

"Yes." Elder Yi nodded. "Our Yi family is a family of techniques. Most of the elders and disciples are spirit cultivators proficient in techniques, and they also like to collect some rare and strange techniques..."

"Oh..." Mo Hua nodded.

Elder Yi looked up at the sky and said, "Alright, I should go. If you have any questions about techniques, you can ask me again."

"Thank you, Elder Yi!" Mo Hua said obediently.

Hearing the address "Elder Yi", Elder Yi felt a little more comfortable. He turned to leave, but suddenly thought of something and said somewhat awkwardly:

"Mo Hua, ah..."

"This matter of your injury is indeed due to my negligence, but, cough... Old Mister Xun..."

Mo Hua immediately understood. "Elder Yi, rest assured, I will explain clearly to Old Mister Xun. This time it was my mishandling, not your fault!"

This matter was originally not Elder Yi's fault. Moreover, Elder Yi had told him such important principles about techniques, so he certainly couldn't implicate him.

Elder Yi saw that Mo Hua was so intelligent and understanding and was greatly relieved. He also didn't mind that Mo Hua had studied techniques with him for so long and still didn't know his surname.

"Alright, you should recuperate well." Elder Yi left with a relaxed expression.

"Elder, walk slowly."

After Elder Yi left, Mo Hua lay on the bed with his left hand wrapped in a bandage, pondering in his heart:

Twin fireball technique... divine sense guided collision... technique structure collapse... spiritual power gathering transformation power...

This kind of "collapse" technique method has great power, but it's unstable and easy to get out of control.

If he tried to ponder and experiment on his own, once it got out of control, it would be easy to get injured, and the risk would be very high.

This time, he was lucky. Although the technique was out of control, he still relied on his divine sense to forcefully control the runaway spiritual power and avoid direct impact...

Plus, in Tai Xu Gate, there were many skilled alchemist elders who carefully treated him, so he didn't suffer too severe injuries and wouldn't have any aftereffects after recuperating.

But if there was a next time, it might not go so well. He was a "small fragile skin"...

Strong pressure and collision of fireballs, technique structure collapse, spiritual power gathering transformation power, just like the collapse of an array, adheres to certain Great Dao laws of change, and the killing power is astonishing.

Once mishandled, it's really possible that his little life would be gone immediately...

But if he didn't research it... Mo Hua was unwilling.

As a spirit cultivator, casting techniques quickly and locking onto targets accurately is a great advantage.

But if the power of the technique itself is limited and hitting others is like tickling, then this advantage is greatly diminished.

No matter how great the power is, if you can't hit others, it's not very useful. Conversely, no matter how accurate the hit is, if there's no power, it's also not very effective...

Before, in the second-grade state boundary, he mostly encountered rogue cultivators or disciples from small families with weak inheritances. Relying on his powerful divine sense and casting special fireball techniques, the power was still considerable.

But after arriving at Qian Xue state boundary, there were families and sects everywhere, and countless heavenly proud disciples with high-grade spiritual roots. Even some self-indulgent criminals wanted by the Dao Court Si had good foundations, and their spiritual roots were much better than his. Among some disciples, they even carried superior Dao laws inheritances.

The power of the fireball technique was simply not enough.

This fireball technique's aggregation still needed to be researched...

Mo Hua thought for a moment, combining Elder Yi's "pointers", and roughly sorted out the principle of this technique's damage:

The principle of common techniques is that spiritual power flows from the inside out, forming the technique structure and then the technique. The power of the technique is determined by the strength of the spiritual power.

The most representative examples are superior techniques that consume a lot of spiritual power, have a strong technique structure, and astonishing power.

But his spiritual power was weak and he couldn't cultivate superior techniques, so he could only do the opposite. Relying on technique changes, reversing the technique structure, causing internal spiritual power changes, and thereby erupting powerful spiritual energy.

The technique is just a fuse. It's a guide. It relies on the technique to cause a change in the essence of spiritual power, similar to the reverse solution of an array. Thus, it consumes little spiritual power but can create powerful killing power.

This process requires clever calculations of heavenly mechanisms, subtle divine thoughts, and dual techniques casting. It also requires powerful divine sense to instantly control the technique at high speed, and the divine sense consumption is also high.

But Mo Hua's divine sense is strong, while his spiritual power is weak. This idea of reversing the technique perfectly plays to his strengths and avoids his weaknesses, leveraging his strong divine sense while avoiding his weak spiritual power...

Mo Hua nodded, determined to thoroughly research this gathering-transformation fireball technique. He already understood the principle of the technique.

Currently, the only problem with this fireball technique... is instability.

The collapse of the technique structure and the gathering and transformation of spiritual power are very easy to get out of control. It's possible to injure himself before injuring others.

"Need to think of a stable and controllable way to conduct the technique structure collapse and the fireball gathering transformation..." Mo Hua said silently in his heart.

The next day, Mo Hua went to class. His injury, treated by several alchemist elders "personally instructed" by Old Mister Xun, had basically healed and only needed a little recuperation. He could attend class.

However, besides that, he couldn't use his spiritual power or draw arrays.

Mo Hua took this time to research the "fireball gathering transformation". As long as he had time in cultivation class, he would ponder how to stably conduct the fireball collision, technique collapse, and spiritual power gathering transformation.

As long as the technique was controllable, a little less damage was also fine.

But after researching for several days, the progress was extremely slow. Mo Hua couldn't think of any method that could make the technique structure collapse stably and control the gathering and transformation of spiritual power directionally.

Mo Hua then realized that he was somewhat arrogant.

This unconventional, reverse-thinking technique structure was definitely not something he could create with a flash of inspiration, let alone make the technique structure stable and perfect.

A mature technique, no matter how unremarkable, must go through generations of cultivators' practice, research, and summation to finally be perfected.

He was just one person, and his technique attainment was not deep. His time was also limited, and wanting to self-create a technique structure was indeed somewhat wishful thinking.

Mo Hua sighed, but he wasn't discouraged. Since researching by himself in isolation was useless, he needed to find a way to research other fire system techniques and find some places that could be referenced from their technique structures...

Standing on the shoulders of predecessors to perfect his own technique.

Mo Hua nodded, feeling that this idea was very feasible.

Mo Hua didn't feel that the idea of "fireball gathering transformation" was something only he could discover. There were so many geniuses in the cultivation world, and they had definitely thought about some problems themselves and summarized them.

Dao Court has existed for over twenty thousand years, and there have been countless technique masters. They definitely have more mature research. Perhaps there are already formed technique structures that he could "copy" a bit.

However, this type of transformation technique is obviously both difficult and dangerous. So, few cultivators learn it, and the inherited technique structures are probably not many.

"Copy a bit..."

The first person Mo Hua thought of was Elder Yi. The principle here was still told to him by Elder Yi. The Yi family is a family of techniques, so they might not have this kind of technique, but they must have at least researched it.

So Mo Hua, with his small arm wrapped in a bandage, went to find Elder Yi.

When Elder Yi heard this, he immediately shook his head. "No, no, no..."

Mo Hua had injured his hands by messing around himself, and because of this, he had already received several days of glares from Old Mister Xun. If he really taught Mo Hua something... and Mo Hua practiced and practiced and blew up his small arms and legs again. Old Mister Xun would probably deduct all his sect salary.

Thinking of this, Elder Yi added two more sentences. "No, no, no..."

This was also within Mo Hua's expectations. Mo Hua said curiously, "Because it's too dangerous?"

"That's not generally dangerous..."

Mo Hua blinked. "How dangerous?"

"That..." Elder Yi just opened his mouth and suddenly startled, looking at Mo Hua vigilantly. "You kid, you aren't trying to trick me, are you..."

Mo Hua smiled shyly. "Elder, what are you saying? I'm so young and don't have many schemes. How could I trick you?"

Elder Yi looked at Mo Hua silently, clearly not believing a word.

"I'm just a little curious..." Mo Hua said.

"Curious is also not okay."

"Alright then..." Mo Hua sighed, somewhat disappointed.

Seeing this, Elder Yi saw Mo Hua's dejected little face and instead felt a little sorry. He thought for a moment and finally gritted his teeth and said:

"I'll only tell you a little bit. Just listen, don't mess around and ponder on your own, and absolutely don't mess around and practice, and don't injure yourself..."

"Mm-hmm." Mo Hua nodded. "I won't 'mess' practice."

Elder Yi then relaxed a breath and nodded, saying:

"This type of technique involves 'spiritual transformation', and it is naturally extremely dangerous..."

"The power is strong, it's easy to get out of control, injuring others and yourself. Moreover, after cultivating, it's also extremely easy to cause irreversible damage to your own meridians or qi sea."

"Therefore, this type of technique is generally sealed as a 'forbidden technique'. The inheritance is either cut off, sealed, or destroyed."

"Forbidden techniques?!" Mo Hua was startled. "Forbidden to cultivate?"

"Yes." Elder Yi nodded.

Mo Hua felt a little guilty and softly said, "If I practice it, will the Dao Court Si come to my door, arrest me, chain me up, and lock me in the Dao Prison?"

Elder Yi sighed, "That, also not necessarily..."

"Although it's called 'forbidden techniques', it's also divided into many kinds..."

"Harvesting, evil techniques, corpse techniques, ghost techniques... these Dao laws cultivated by demon sects are listed as forbidden techniques because they disregard human life and cause immense harm."

"While techniques involving 'spiritual transformation' are sealed as 'forbidden techniques' because they have great power and are uncontrollable."

"As long as you don't use them for massacre or indiscriminately killing innocents, and just cultivate them secretly, at most the technique will go out of control and injure yourself - just like you injured yourself. The Dao Court Si is also too lazy to bother..."

After Elder Yi finished, he immediately said vigilantly:

"I'm not telling you to practice secretly, ah!"

"You don't practice, ah!"

"Mm-hmm." Mo Hua nodded. "You continue to speak..."

Elder Yi nodded slightly and continued, "But having said that, since they are listed as 'forbidden techniques', this type of technique, more or less, all have serious aftereffects."

"Like burned meridians, spiritual power backflow, yin-yang imbalance, etc..."

"Some cultivators even take the path of evil cultivation or demon cultivation just to overcome the drawbacks of 'forbidden techniques'..."

"So the Dao Court had to implement a blanket seal on all 'forbidden techniques'."

"Unstable techniques are not suitable for promotion, otherwise, they are a big hidden danger..." Elder Yi said with a solemn expression.

Mo Hua softly said, "The Dao Court won't secretly collect 'forbidden techniques'..."

Elder Yi was startled, and then he didn't hide it from Mo Hua. "The Dao Court has collected them, after all..."

Elder Yi didn't say it, but Mo Hua also understood. The Dao Court is unified, and everything in this cultivation world belongs to the Dao Court. The status of the Dao Court is naturally honorable, and no one can control what it wants to do.

Mo Hua asked again, "Then the sect... will also collect them?"

Elder Yi immediately shook his head. "No."

Mo Hua's gaze was suspicious, similarly not believing him at all.

Elder Yi was stared at by Mo Hua and sighed. He looked left and right, saw that there was no one around, coughed, and then said in a low voice, "The sect also... cough, also collects some..."

"Of course, not demon arts and evil techniques, this type of 'forbidden technique'."

"Demon, magic, corpse, ghost types of evil techniques, which harm heaven and earth, are certainly sealed without any room for negotiation."

"What the sect collects are generally those techniques that involve Great Dao rules, are extremely powerful, but are basically impossible to cultivate, extremely difficult to control, or have extremely serious aftereffects after cultivation..."

"These forbidden techniques will be deliberated and decided by the sect master, elders, or ancestors."

"Some techniques could be cultivated in the past, but possibly the cost of cultivation was too high and not suitable for passing down, so the ancestors would decide to list them as 'forbidden techniques' and seal them."

After Elder Yi finished, he looked at Mo Hua solemnly again. "You absolutely don't harbor any ideas about this type of 'forbidden technique'."

"Although this type of technique is collected in the sect, disciples are strictly forbidden from cultivating it."

"Our Tai Xu Gate has strict rules. Any disciple who disregards the rules and secretly cultivates 'forbidden techniques', no matter the reason, will be directly expelled from the sect!"

Mo Hua was startled in his heart, and his gaze also became solemn. Elder Yi patted Mo Hua's shoulder and sighed, "Old Mister Xun values you so much. For your own sake, and for Old Mister Xun's intentions, you absolutely must not harbor any crooked ideas and break Old Mister Xun's heart..."

Mo Hua nodded solemnly. "Elder Yi, please rest assured."

Elder Yi looked at Mo Hua's eyes and saw that his gaze was clear and his expression was sincere, so he felt relieved.

After Elder Yi left, Mo Hua returned to the disciple residence. He summarized his conversation with Elder Yi a bit: Techniques containing the principle of "fireball gathering transformation" definitely exist, and this type of technique is definitely a "forbidden technique". Cultivating this type of "forbidden technique" will have aftereffects.

The aftereffects can be big or small, and some can even lead people into becoming demons. There are definitely "forbidden techniques" hidden within Tai Xu Gate. But where they are hidden is definitely not known to disciples, at least in normal cultivation courses and within the Merit Record, there cannot be "forbidden techniques".

And he cannot secretly learn Tai Xu Gate's forbidden techniques. The gate rules are strict. If he secretly learned them and violated the gate rules, Old Mister Xun, even if he favored him again, would probably have to ruthlessly expel him from the sect. Old Mister Xun is so good to him, he cannot disappoint his good intentions.

But! Mo Hua thought. As long as he doesn't secretly learn Tai Xu Gate's forbidden techniques, then there's no problem! As long as he doesn't learn evil demon "forbidden techniques" of the demon, magic, corpse, and ghost types, the Dao Court Si also won't bother. He's not afraid of aftereffects either.

He didn't really want to "learn" forbidden techniques. But through forbidden techniques, he could research the principle of "technique gathering transformation" a bit. "Copy" a bit of their technique structure, and thereby think of a way to constantly optimize, improve the technique structure, and perfect a truly stable and controllable "gathering transformation fireball technique".

And according to what Elder Yi said, sect disciples who secretly learn "forbidden techniques" will be forcibly expelled from the sect. In other words, they are "rebel sect disciples"!

Mo Hua's eyes lit up. So in this way, among those various criminals on Old Jiang's list, it is very possible that there is one or two who cultivate "forbidden techniques", rebelled from the sect, did evil outside, and became criminals.

Old Jiang might really be his "lucky star"! This list of his is just like an inherited "treasure map".

Mo Hua squinted and smiled, then took out Old Jiang's list again. He marked out some of the criminals whose titles contained the word "fire". This was what Mo Hua had originally specially "screened" out because he wanted to learn fire system techniques.

Mo Hua checked the "titles" of these criminals one by one. "Fire Worker Head, Fire Wolf Head, Fierce Fire Palm, Fire Butcher..."

Mo Hua frowned. He looked left and right, but didn't feel that these criminals looked like they had learned "forbidden techniques". Their techniques also didn't look like they could involve technique structure collapse, spiritual power gathering transformation, and had reference meaning for his "forbidden techniques" research.

More importantly, Mo Hua didn't have that feeling of a "thump thump" heartbeat after the heavenly mechanism warning and causal omen.

"No?" Mo Hua was greatly disappointed.

Mo Hua put the jade slip back into his storage ring, but after thinking for a moment, he was still unwilling. He took out the jade slip again, placed it on the table, and carefully examined it with his strange derived heavenly mechanism algorithm.

This time, he discovered that there seemed to be a faint, red causal chain on the jade slip.

Mo Hua was startled, and his heart was shocked. In the heavenly mechanism pattern and causal omen, there was an inheritance of "forbidden techniques" similar to "fireball gathering transformation" on this list!

Mo Hua quickly opened it and looked again. But all the criminals' titles in the jade slip were "ordinary", without any anomaly. It was as if the "causal omen" just now was just an illusion.

Mo Hua derived and calculated a bit, but still found nothing.

"What's going on..." Mo Hua lay on the table, propping his chin, and frowned in thought.

"Is there something... I didn't discover?"

"Is there still something hidden deep in Old Jiang's list that hasn't been decoded?"

Mo Hua read Old Jiang's diary again, while reading, he released his divine sense and carefully discerned each word. He read it once, but found nothing. Mo Hua continued to read it again...

It wasn't until the third time that Mo Hua finally detected a trace of a clue. Some of the sentence breaks had blank spaces, which added "secrets", and the method was more covert. When Mo Hua looked at it, he subconsciously skipped over it, so he didn't discover it immediately.

Mo Hua sighed a little. "This Old Jiang has so many tricks..." He was almost deceived!

Mo Hua's eyes brightened and he began to try to decode, but these blank spaces' secret patterns were completely different from other places. There was no other way, Mo Hua could only use his old method, patiently, using the secondary thunder patterns in the "secondary thunder pattern library" to compare and decode one by one.

Three days later, Mo Hua finally decoded a new title in the blank space of the jade slip. This title was hidden extremely deep and the ink was heavy. It seemed to be entwined with blood color, and in the sea of fire, a deep killing karma surged, making people faintly feel palpitations.

Mo Hua's gaze slightly condensed, and he slowly read:

"Fire Buddha."

(This chapter is complete)