Chapter 1063: Mysterious Valley
Mo Hua counted on his fingers, calculating a bit, then furrowed his brow, realizing these matters were not so simple.
Saving Yu'er was not easy.
The evil god statue was not something easily obtained.
Even escaping from Mr. Tu, who was at the Feathered Transformation realm, or leaving this chaotic temple of evil gods, was fraught with difficulties.
These matters required a huge expenditure of spiritual awareness and effort, careful deduction, and meticulous planning.
He needed to seriously think about how to break the deadlock...
Frowning, Mo Hua stared at the fragmented array pattern Mr. Tu had given him. From time to time, he casually drew a few strokes, pretending to study the formation, but his mind churned turbulently, his spiritual awareness constantly pouring out, repeatedly sorting through causes and effects...
After an unknown amount of time, Mr. Tu returned.
Mr. Tu's arrival came with a cold, chilling aura, breaking Mo Hua's train of thought. But Mo Hua feigned ignorance. When Mr. Tu came before him, Mo Hua suddenly realized and stood up, cupping his hands in salute:
"Mr. Tu."
Seeing Mo Hua's earlier intense focus on the array formations, Mr. Tu nodded slightly and asked:
"How is your learning going?"
Mo Hua presented several rough formation sketches to Mr. Tu, his expression bitter:
"It's too difficult. I don't really understand it well, so I can only draw up to this level by copying the pattern..."
Mr. Tu briefly glanced over them, his heart skipping a beat, a hint of admiration appearing.
No wonder he was recognized as the top prodigy of array formation studies — in such a short time, he had managed to grasp this ancient formation to such a degree.
Even if it was mere copying without truly capturing the essence of the formation, it already showed his astonishing aptitude.
Mr. Tu said, "Not bad, keep drawing. Draw the array a hundred times, its meaning will naturally reveal itself."
"Yes."
Then Mo Hua followed Mr. Tu's instructions and continued from the basics, drawing the core ancient formation patterns of the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Formation.
Mo Hua carefully controlled the pace of his "learning" progress.
Simulating a "step-by-step" process, he gradually showed his improvements from shallow to deep to Mr. Tu.
Mr. Tu's face remained pale and expressionless, but occasionally his eyes flickered with signs of approval and delight.
As Mo Hua's formation learning improved, he became increasingly respectful toward Mr. Tu.
As if Mr. Tu was a respectable "instructor,"
And he himself was a diligent and eager "disciple."
They had a harmonious teacher-student atmosphere.
During this peaceful time, Mo Hua asked Mr. Tu:
"Sir, these ancient formation patterns — to which category of formation do they belong? What do they mean?"
Mo Hua had always been somewhat confused about the Mysterious Heaven Formation.
Although the entire Mysterious Heaven Formation was integrated into his sea of consciousness,
He was familiar with most of the patterns, and even drawing them was not difficult.
But this level was just rote copying—knowing what they looked like, but not understanding their underlying principles.
The patterns of the Mysterious Heaven Formation were too unusual, obscure, strange, and full of confusion — like one riddle after another woven into a vast "mysterious fog" concealing some terrifying unknown truths.
That was Mo Hua's impression of the Mysterious Heaven Formation.
If his master were still here, he could ask him as usual to clear up his doubts.
But now, alone, he dared not reveal even an iota of these life-related secrets.
Now, Mo Hua discovered that the Great Wilderness evil god was also constructing a "Mysterious Heaven Formation" disguised by the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice.
Meaning that besides himself, there were also "gods" and "men" researching the Mysterious Heaven Formation, and they had truly applied this set of formations in practice.
Although this was an evil formation, it was a rare opportunity.
He must seize it to understand some deeper mysteries.
The Mysterious Heaven Formation was of great importance—not only related to the current situation but also his future cultivation.
A vague worry lingered in Mo Hua's heart.
His cultivation method was the ancient Tianyan Technique.
The bottleneck of the Tianyan Technique was not spiritual stones, nor spiritual items, and it did not require rare materials or treasures, but there was a rigid threshold:
Spiritual awareness.
Or rather, the array formations born from spiritual awareness.
When he broke through Foundation Establishment, the bottleneck in his sea of consciousness was a whole Mysterious Heaven Formation.
Now in the late Foundation Establishment stage, craving the Golden Core, the bottleneck to forming the core must also be related to this Mysterious Heaven Formation.
The Tianyan Technique was very unconventional.
The stronger the spiritual awareness, the stronger the Tianyan Technique; correspondingly, the bottleneck was also stronger.
Mo Hua's spiritual awareness had now become godlike, his divine mind powerful enough to rival a deity.
Therefore, breaking through the Golden Core bottleneck in the Tianyan Technique would definitely not be easy.
Since now there was a chance, he had to carefully comprehend this Mysterious Heaven Formation to avoid unexpected mishaps at Golden Core formation, which might cause him to be stuck at late Foundation Establishment for a lifetime.
Mr. Tu looked at Mo Hua, saw his sincere question, thought for a moment, and did not intend to hide the truth.
He first asked Mo Hua:
"Do you know about riddle formations?"
Mo Hua nodded, "Riddle formations are used for guessing and solving riddles. Noble families use them to teach children formation basics as a pastime to enhance intelligence."
Mo Hua thought he had answered well.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Tu was stunned. "Who taught you that?"
"My master told me that since childhood…"
Mo Hua swallowed these words, puzzled: "Isn't that so?"
Mr. Tu frowned, "How could that be? What kind of noble family would use riddle formations as mere amusement?"
Mo Hua was stunned.
Was it not like that?
Had his master lied to him?
The formation knowledge he had quietly believed for over a decade was actually wrong?
Mr. Tu said sternly:
"Riddle formations are superficially like word riddles or lantern riddles, but they are not the same level at all."
"Other riddles are for amusement. But riddle formations have a far more important use..."
Mr. Tu's gaze became solemn:
"The so-called riddle formation is actually used by formation masters to discern truth from falsehood, reality from illusion."
Mo Hua's pupils contracted slightly.
"Discern… truth from falsehood?"
Mr. Tu nodded.
"The riddle surface is 'false,' the riddle answer is 'true.' To see through the surface is to perceive the essence of the formation."
"The riddle surface is 'illusion,' the riddle answer is 'reality.' Between illusion and reality lies a profound Dao principle of transformation—from illusion to reality, and reality back to illusion…"
Seeing through truth and falsehood, transforming illusion and reality.
Mo Hua's expression changed, a moment of sudden enlightenment as if a divine light poured into him. His sea of consciousness churned, vaguely grasping the "tail" of a higher Dao principle, catching a glimpse of a brilliant divine path...
But when he traced it back to its source to think it through, he still could not comprehend it clearly.
He knew it was because his realm was too low.
At a low realm without cultivation support, many insights into the Dao cannot be realized or transformed into practical power.
Mo Hua could only temporarily bury this insight in his heart, like planting a seed.
In the future, with related experience, he could verify and deepen his understanding bit by bit.
After pondering for a while, Mo Hua asked Mr. Tu again:
"Specifically, what is 'true' and what is 'false'? What is 'reality' and what is 'illusion'? How to distinguish between truth and falsehood? How to transform between illusion and reality?"
Mr. Tu looked at Mo Hua deeply, shook his head.
"You ask these things too early; this is far beyond what your current realm can comprehend."
He then pointed at the formation patterns Mo Hua had drawn.
"The reason I tell you this is because what you are learning now—the core patterns of the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice—are a kind of 'riddle formation' involving truth and falsehood, illusion and reality."
"What you see is only the surface pattern, the 'riddle surface.' The true 'riddle answer' involves divine laws and has illusions covering reality that you cannot see through."
"All you need to do is learn these 'riddle surfaces.' By mastering these, the laws of the riddle answer are naturally included, and you can wield some of that power, similar to that of a 'deity.'"
"But this power you may use, do not pry too deep."
"Do not peek at the gods, do not explore... the domain of the divine. That would break taboos and bring disaster."
Mr. Tu looked straight into Mo Hua's eyes, his tone serious and grim.
Mo Hua's face paled slightly but nodded:
"I understand."
Afterwards, Mo Hua no longer asked questions and obediently followed Mr. Tu's instructions, only learning some of the "mystery formation" array patterns, doing things properly—just knowing that they worked, without probing into the reasons why.
And Mo Hua "learned" very quickly.
At first, it was probably still rough, but soon, Mo Hua could reproduce most of the mystery formations' patterns exactly as they were—though they still had only form, lacking the spirit and charm.
Mr. Tu was secretly shocked but, considering Mo Hua's talent in formation arts, he was not surprised.
After the basic array patterns, came the core of the mystery formations—the formation pivots.
Mr. Tu did not hold back either; he began to teach Mo Hua the core second-grade formation pivots within the structure of the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation, one by one, in detail.
These formation pivots were drawn on human skin using human blood as ink.
Mr. Tu handed Mo Hua the human skin map of the formation pivots and simply said, "Study it well yourself. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me again."
After saying that, Mr. Tu left.
Inside the flesh-and-blood prison, only Mo Hua remained.
Enduring the discomfort, he spread out the human skin and flipped through the formation pivots on it, immediately frowning.
"This isn't quite right…"
These formation pivots were not quite what he expected, even very different from the structure of the "Mystery Heaven Grand Formation" in his mind.
"Why?"
Mo Hua frowned deeply, studying the human skin map carefully and comparing it with the Mystery Heaven Grand Formation in his mind, pondering for a long time before gradually realizing.
The Mystery Heaven Grand Formation was the core, the central hub, the essence of the entire Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation—a "Great Dao Model" containing the rules of truth and falsehood, reality and illusion.
Although this "Great Dao Model" contained extremely profound and powerful laws, structurally, the formation could not supply energy to itself.
The Mystery Heaven Grand Formation in Mo Hua's mind used his own Great Dao foundation, with his spiritual power and divine awareness as the "source," relying on the subtlety of the Tianyan Technique to take shape.
But applying this Mystery Heaven Grand Formation in the real world had to consider how to build a "formation eye" to supply energy to the grand formation.
This was the most basic logic of formations.
Any formation, from a single formation to compound formations, and even vast grand formations, must have a "formation eye" at the core.
Only with spiritual power, mental power, or evil power supplying energy can the formation operate.
And Mr. Tu's method was the "Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice."
Creating slaughter, pumping fresh blood into the earth veins.
Using human flesh and bones as the medium, refining the pain, misery, terror, despair, and other mental energies from human souls,
all fused together and forged into evil power to supply energy for the Mystery Heaven Grand Formation that gave birth to the evil god.
"Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice" was the form, the method, the foundation, the medium—the refined evil power driving the grand formation and ensuring its operation, a complete system of energy circulation at the core of the formation.
The Mystery Heaven Grand Formation was the core, the law, absorbing the evil power gained from the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice, transforming by law, reversing reality and illusion, and becoming the "breeding ground" for the evil god's birth into the world.
This entire grand formation, two parts tightly integrated, neither could be missing.
Mo Hua felt a slight chill in his heart.
"Is this… Mr. Tu's handiwork?"
Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice should be the forbidden legacy of the Great Wilderness Shaman.
The shamans had the Great Wilderness formation legacy.
This Mr. Tu, as a shaman of the Great Wilderness royal family, must have deep formation skill.
Could it be that the Great Wilderness evil god valued this the most, choosing Mr. Tu as his closest servant?
Allowing Mr. Tu to perfectly fuse the Great Wilderness's "Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice" with the illusion-and-reality "Mystery Heaven Grand Formation," putting it into practice to realize the resurrection of the Great Wilderness Lord?
"How many years of planning must this have taken, how many people involved, how much effort…"
Mo Hua sighed with emotion.
Then his heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but think: "Can I use this grand formation?"
He definitely couldn't use the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice, because it was an evil formation that required killing countless people and sacrificing endless blood, flesh, and souls.
But what if no human lives were sacrificed?
What if he used the principle of Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice, but sacrificed something else to supply energy to the Mystery Heaven Grand Formation, and then himself…
could become a fleshly god within the Mystery Heaven Grand Formation?
Mo Hua frowned.
These four words suddenly popped out from his subconscious.
But… in the cultivation world, is there such a thing as "fleshly godhood"?
And if you become a fleshly god, then what?
Mo Hua was a little confused.
Unfortunately, the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation constructed by Mr. Tu used evil power, so Mo Hua could not try it personally, or with a slight mistake, he might replace the Great Wilderness Lord himself and become a ferocious "evil god."
Or perhaps, not replace the Great Wilderness Lord, but merge with him into one, indistinguishable from each other.
Such "tempting fate" matters were better not tried lightly.
Mo Hua pondered silently.
But even if he did not risk himself to try it, this entire profound and complex grand formation system for the resurrection of the evil god must be mastered.
The rules of the Mystery Heaven Grand Formation must be researched.
The formation pivots of the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice must be learned.
Not to mention, as a formation master, Mo Hua could not resist the allure of a "grand formation."
Even if only to "know oneself and the enemy" to counterbalance the evil god, these things must be understood.
Moreover, this grand formation system might still be useful in the future.
Mo Hua resolved to become a formation master who could penetrate heaven and earth. When it came to formations, he naturally adhered to one principle:
"Whenever I encounter a formation, I learn it. I may not use it, but I must never be unable to use it."
Mo Hua nodded, then focused all his attention for the time being on comprehending the Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice formation pivots Mr. Tu had given him…
…
Meanwhile, the grand formation was still running, the forces of good and evil were still fighting fiercely, with undercurrents flowing and an uncertain future ahead.
At the same time, the great formation was still operating, with righteous and demonic forces clashing fiercely. The situation was turbulent beneath the surface, and the future was uncertain.
Outside the Qianxue State Realm,
a carriage slowly approached along the main road from the distance.
Inside the carriage were six or seven people.
At the head was an old man with a gaunt face, clad in dark robes, skilled in calculations, with a head full of white hair.
He was none other than the Grand Elder of the Mysterious Mechanism Valley, the Immortal Ascension-stage Master Situ.
At this moment, Master Situ sat solemnly and upright, eyes closed, cultivating quietly.
The others in the carriage were all disciples of Mysterious Mechanism Valley—some youthful in appearance, some middle-aged, some with square features, others with half-white beards and hair—mostly calm and steady in demeanor, their eyes shining with spiritual light.
The carriage was quiet and filled with a faint fragrance; no one spoke.
After a while, soft whispers broke the solemn silence. A somewhat young-looking boy asked,
"Are we really going to Qianxue State Realm? Is it truly safe?"
Someone nearby whispered, "Don't disturb the Grand Elder's meditation."
The boy softly replied, "Oh."
The half-white-bearded cultivator opened his eyes slowly and comforted him,
"With the Grand Elder here, there's no need to worry."
The boy felt somewhat reassured but still looked uneasy.
"I heard... there's an evil formation, and many Void-stage Ancestors who can't deal with it..."
"Each art has its specialty," an elder cultivator said. "Some things aren't solved just by having higher cultivation."
"How to decide? The Grand Elder surely has the answer."
"Mm," the boy nodded.
The tense atmosphere inside the carriage eased somewhat.
But as the carriage continued toward Qianxue State Realm, the blood-red sky deepened, and a strong evil aura blotted out the sun and sky.
The land stretched barren for thousands of miles—desolate and uninhabited, with scattered bloodied limbs and corpses rotting on the ground.
Seeing the surroundings, the cultivators inside the carriage changed expressions, realizing the uncertain and perilous path ahead, their hearts tightening.
Master Situ, who had been meditating calmly all along, slowly opened his eyes, looked at the scene before him, and sighed deeply.
The carriage kept moving forward, toward the depths of the blood-red area.
In everyone's eyes, the bloody and magnificent Archaic Heaven Blood Sacrifice Formation drew closer, its enormous structure continuously expanding outward, "devouring" the Qianxue State Realm and corrupting all life and vitality on the surrounding land.
All were solemn and grave.
They had predicted beforehand that the disaster in Qianxue would be extremely severe; otherwise, it would be impossible for dozens of Void-stage Ancestors to jointly send a letter summoning their Mysterious Mechanism Valley Grand Elder to intervene.
But seeing the bloody formation with their own eyes, they knew the situation was far worse than they had imagined...
Even so, none of the Mysterious Mechanism Valley members retreated.
Just as the carriage wheels crushed a segment of white bones and crossed over the ley line above the invisible blood river,
Master Situ's heart suddenly jolted.
It felt as if he were instantly plunged into a harsh winter, an endless chill surging through his chest.
"Stop the carriage," Master Situ commanded.
The carriage halted. Master Situ looked around at everyone and slowly said,
"Hand me all the secret treasures."
Everyone was confused but dared not disobey the Grand Elder's orders. They presented the precious jade boxes, compasses, Bagua mirrors, and other items they carried to him.
Master Situ took each carefully, then stepped down alone, turning to solemnly order the others:
"You must return to Mysterious Mechanism Valley immediately. Don't stop for a moment, and absolutely do not look back!"
"Grand Elder!" everyone exclaimed in alarm.
Master Situ shook his head, "No more words."
A young disciple from Mysterious Mechanism Valley urgently said, "Grand Elder, I will go with you."
In Master Situ's aged eyes flashed a trace of relief, but he still said gently,
"Go back. The secret of fate cannot be reversed."
Everyone's faces turned pale, their eyes filled with pain.
But all of them, having grown up studying the path of cause and effect, understood the Grand Elder's meaning and the gravity of his words.
One by one, the Mysterious Mechanism Valley disciples got off the carriage, knelt on their knees, and solemnly kowtowed three times toward Master Situ.
Then, with reddened eyes and filled with pain and unwillingness, they boarded the carriage and set off on the road back, leaving Qianxue State Realm behind.
Master Situ stood in place, watching these elite disciples gradually disappear into the distance, severing some terrifying causal ties, before finally letting out a deep sigh of relief.
Freed from burdens, Master Situ turned back, alone, and walked toward Qianxue State Realm, toward the blood-red formation blotting out the sky.
In his deep eyes was a hint of unwillingness and a calm resignation as if destined:
"My 'death tribulation' has come..."
(End of this Chapter)