Chapter 1558: Five-Elements Poison Formation

Chapter 1558: Five-Elements Poison Formation

Regardless of the danger, he had to try.

For a cultivator seeking the Dao, their path inherently demanded continuous trials and relentless inquiry, an unwavering resolve to explore the Laws of heaven and earth and the Dao Laws of all creation.

Unorthodox Path Fāng Arts were merely another facet of the Great Dao's principles. Since that was the case, the underlying truth remained the same.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, settled his emotions, and took out brush and paper. He began to organize and construct a set of Fāng Arts rules tailored exclusively for himself.

First and foremost: he was not a true 【Fāngshì】.

Mo Hua knew this well, so there was no need to adhere strictly to the traditional conventions of how a 【Fāngshì】 cultivated or cast techniques.

Unnecessary, redundant forms of Fāng Arts could be omitted entirely.

While many of their esoteric secrets remained unknown to him, based on the knowledge he currently possessed:

Executing Fāng Arts required a tangible 'material medium' and specific 'rituals.' The objective was to extract intangible Divine Sense Thought Power from the physical realm, forging it into invisible Curse Power to attack, mutilate, or curse-slay others.

The essence of the ritual was to induce a qualitative transformation in Divine Sense Thought Power.

The Divine Sense Thought Power of ordinary cultivators, demon-beasts, or other living beings underwent only quantitative shifts, never qualitative ones; thus, it could not be refined into Curse Power to cast Fāng Arts.

Because of this, 【Fāngshì】 had to subject humans, demon-beasts, or other creatures to cruel torture and slaughter through specific rituals.

Using agonizing pain, the terror of death, and boundless despair, they forcibly induced an abnormal, grotesque 'mutation' within the creature's Divine Sense Thought Power, ultimately bringing about the qualitatively transformed [Curse Power].

This intangible [Curse Power] often possessed destructive might that defied common sense.

Consequently, material mediums and rituals were indispensable to a 【Fāngshì】.

Yet to Mo Hua, such cruel transformative rituals seemed entirely unnecessary.

His Divine-Sense had already undergone a qualitative transformation long ago.

His Divine Sense Thought Power was extraordinarily complex in composition and could practically be regarded as a potent form of [Curse Power] in its own right.

Thus, Mo Hua was fundamentally different from an ordinary 【Fāngshì】.

Theoretically speaking, as long as he understood the Spell Formula Structure and execution methods of a Fāng Art, he could dispense with the material medium and ritual entirely.

He could directly use his own Divine Sense Thought Power within his Sea of Consciousness as Curse Power, shaping it straight into an Unorthodox Path Fāng Art via the Spell Formula's structure.

However, Divine Sense Thought Power, being a pure manifestation of Divine-Sense energy, was still too monolithic on its own.

To amplify its might and expand its versatility, it needed to undergo a 'conversion' of form and attribute.

In Mo Hua's understanding, the ultimate method of conversion was undoubtedly Formations.

Formations were the manifestations of the Great Dao Laws, the circulatory structures of cultivation power.

In an absolute sense, mastering a Formation allowed one to simulate the corresponding cultivation power through it.

This was precisely how ordinary cultivators used Formations.

Pure, non-elemental Spiritual Qi was infused into a Formation, and depending on its type, it could be converted into the powers of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Mo Hua was not a Sword Cultivator, and his sword technique was rather mediocre.

The formidable Sword Qi within his Divine Sense Transforming into Sword was partly converted directly from his Divine Sense Thought Power through sword formations such as Mountain-Cleaving, Severing-Gold, Yin-Water, and Li-Fire.

Sword techniques could be converted this way; Mo Hua had tested it and succeeded.

Therefore, Fāng Arts should work the same way.

The question was... what should it be converted into?

Cultivating Divine Sense Transforming into Sword naturally required using sword formations to convert Divine Sense Thought Power into Sword Intent.

But to cultivate the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art, what kind of Formation should he use, and what form of formation power should it yield?

"Ghosts?"

Mo Hua thought about it and shook his head.

He was not dead, was not a ghost, and knew no ghost formations.

Ghost formations were the purview of sinister, heterodox Evil Formation Masters. As an orthodox Formation Master, where would he even learn such things?

"Gu?"

No, he didn't know any Gu formations either...

"Curses... even less so..."

It was precisely because he did not know Curse Arts that he sought to convert Divine Sense Thought Power into Curse Power using Formations in the first place...

"Slaying?"

He couldn't just go around slaughtering people.

...

Mo Hua weighed every possibility, turning them over in his mind. In the end, there seemed to be only one power he could simulate using the Formations he currently knew:

Poison.

The Five-Ghost Human-Faced Spider was, ultimately, a venomous spider.

The five ghosts here did not refer to literal ghosts, but to the five poisons.

Gu Arts, in truth, were a branch of poison arts.

Stripped of its surface trappings, poison was the true core of this Five-Ghost Human-Faced curse technique, the wellspring of its strength and the fundamental form of its Curse Power.

"Then I'll use a poison formation to convert poison power and simulate Curse Power..."

"Which poison formation should I use..."

Mo Hua fell into deep thought once more.

He rarely used poison formations, generally relying on Defensive Formations, Trap Formations, Killing Formations, or productive utility formations.

Poison formations were ineffective at trapping enemies, dealt damage far too slowly, and took too long to show results. Aside from specific circumstances, Mo Hua hardly ever touched them.

Moreover, poison formations were inherently unorthodox and rather awkward to employ.

Used well, they were vicious and insidious, clinging like maggots to bone—more loathsome than anything else.

Used poorly, however, they were utterly useless.

"The situation is special right now. If I must use one... a Wood Poison Formation?"

Among poison formations, Wood Poison was the most potent. Most poisons under heaven stemmed from flora, and their toxicity was inexhaustible and ever-renewing.

Other poison formations existed, each with their own merits. Yet when it came to truly powerful poison formations, none could bypass the Five Elements Wood Formations.

As it happened, Mo Hua did possess a Wood Poison Array, a Second-Grade High-Tier one.

Back when he was at the Great Void Sect, Old Mister Xun had personally taught it to him to fortify his foundation in Formations.

It was named the Azure Wood Poison Formation.

This was the strongest poison formation Mo Hua had in his repertoire.

Even though he had never used it once.

As for poison formations at the Third-Grade or higher, Mo Hua possessed none.

Third-Grade Formations were exceedingly rare and strictly regulated to begin with, to say nothing of such obscure, sinister, and harmful poison formations.

"I'll just make do with what I have..."

Mo Hua sighed inwardly. Given the harsh circumstances, he could not afford to be picky.

He then began utilizing the Azure Wood Poison Formation to simulate poisonous thought-power and Curse Power, attempting to cast the Five-Ghost Human-Faced curse technique according to Master Wu's Fāng Arts method.

A Second-Grade High-Tier Formation posed little challenge to him.

To be frank, stripped of the material mediums and rituals like worm-breeding, venom-feeding, Gu-rearing, and parasitism, Master Wu's signature technique was rather mediocre in difficulty.

Before long, Mo Hua gained an initial grasp of it. After studying it a bit more, the general technique process was clearly etched into his mind...

Half a day later, within his Sea of Consciousness.

Mo Hua sat cross-legged in the vacant void, looking down at his hand.

Across his fair, jade-like palm, teal-green formation patterns slithered and crept.

They resembled a venomous emerald blossom slowly unfurling, thread-like herbal patterns spreading from his palm to engulf all five fingers.

Mo Hua's entire hand looked as if it had been steeped in venom, glistening with a vibrant emerald hue.

It was now suffused with the Curse Power of Wood Poison.

It already bore a striking resemblance to Master Wu's hand when he had transformed his five fingers into the five poisons to curse-kill Mo Hua.

The only difference was that Master Wu's fingers had been black, rotting, writhing, and crawling with insects.

Mo Hua's hand, by contrast, was translucent and crystalline like jade, bearing intricate formation patterns within that mirrored the profound, subtle veins of flora.

In theory, he had succeeded.

Yet Mo Hua felt something was lacking; its power seemed somewhat inadequate.

First, the grade of the Formation was ultimately on the lower side.

Second, using only a single Wood Poison coating all five fingers resulted in a toxicity that was far too singular.

Mo Hua recalled that back then, the Gu insects emerging from Master Wu's five fingers had different toxicities, each carrying distinct types of Curse Power.

The Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art utilized the five poisons and reared five ghost-faced spiders.

With only one poison, the numbers simply did not align.

Without the stacking effect of the five poisons, not only was the curse technique incomplete and superficial, but its destructive power was also noticeably diminished.

"Five Gu, five spiders, five poisons..."

"Five..."

Mo Hua muttered under his breath. Suddenly, inspiration struck, and his eyes lit up.

"What if I use the Five Elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—to assemble five different poisons?"

"Replacing the five Gu poisons with the poisons of the Five Elements would match the quantity perfectly, allowing for a seamless substitution within the Spell Formula Structure..."

"Furthermore, since the Five Elements share a common origin and mutually generate and overcome one another, the effect of the curse might be even stronger..."

"Though lacking the eerie malevolence of Gu poison, its Technique Principles would be far more upright and profoundly superior..."

A spark of joy bloomed in Mo Hua's chest. He immediately racked his brain, digging through his memories for the other Five Elements poison formations he had learned.

Mo Hua possessed an exceptional memory.

However, after his ordeal in the deep abyss, many memory fragments in his mind had grown blurred.

Adding to the fact that he rarely used poison formations, he pondered for a long time before only managing to piece together two formation diagrams:

The Minor Blazing Fire Poison Formation and the Water Poison Formation. Both were also Second-Grade poison formations.

As for Metal and Earth poison formations, Mo Hua searched his thoughts for ages without recalling a single trace of them, not even of the Second-Grade.

Had he never learned them, or had he simply forgotten?

Sitting in his Sea of Consciousness with his chin resting on his hand, Mo Hua found himself in a dilemma:

He couldn't complete the set...

He couldn't even assemble a full set of Second-Grade Five Elements poison formations? This was absurd...

The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more bizarre it felt.

"That makes no sense... Why can't I complete the set?"

If rare formations like Absolute Formations or sword formations were missing, that would be understandable. But how could he be missing poison formations?

"Is my memory at fault?"

"Where am I supposed to find the missing poison formations now?"

He was currently stranded in the chaotic, desolate Qingchou Prefecture. With nothing for miles around, where could he possibly search for Five Elements poison formations?

Mo Hua's brow furrowed tightly.

After racking his brain for a long time in bewilderment, he suddenly remembered an item.

Mo Hua withdrew his Divine-Sense from his Sea of Consciousness.

Within the military tent, Mo Hua opened his eyes to complete silence.

Bai XiaoSheng had been sent out on patrol.

Gu Changhuai had left to covertly smuggle the other Dao Court Division Executive Officers into the city and plant them within the Changshan Army, bolstering the core faction of the Tongxian Cult.

Sheltered beneath layers of defensive formations, the tent was entirely peaceful.

Mo Hua's eyes flickered slightly. Rubbing his thumb against his Storage Ring, he retrieved a yellowed, ancient scroll.

The Five Elements Source Diagram.

This was the Five Elements Sect's foundational formation repository, housing a [Five Elements Source Rune].

Through the 《Source-Tracing Algorithm》, nearly all the Five Elements Formations of the Five Elements Sect had been encoded within this Source Rune.

So long as one could reverse-calculate it, they could decipher the entirety of the Five Elements Sect's treasured formation archives.

By all rights, this should have been an unparalleled treasure.

The problem was that it was excruciatingly difficult to use. Deciphering it consumed an immense amount of Divine-Sense computational power, and the randomness was absurdly high.

Every time Mo Hua attempted to decipher it, he had abysmal luck.

Most of the time, he couldn't calculate any decent formations at all, squandering his Divine-Sense and feeding his computational power to the Source Diagram for nothing.

Previously, whenever Mo Hua remembered the diagram, he would take it out to run a few calculations.

Yet after burning through his Divine-Sense and computational power only to yield worthless formations, he would toss it back to gather dust.

Now, in the resource-starved Qingchou Prefecture, Mo Hua was truly out of options. After mulling it over, his only recourse was to try his luck and see if he could squeeze a few usable formations from the Five Elements Source Diagram.

Five Elements poison formations were, by definition, Five Elements Formations.

They had to be in the Five Elements Source Diagram; it was simply a matter of whether he could calculate them out.

Mo Hua glanced at the ancient, yellowed scroll in his hands, recalling his past experiences in the Five Elements Sect with mixed emotions.

The [Five Elements Source Rune] undeniably harbored eerie mysteries and unfathomable dangers.

Given his dire circumstances, however, he could not afford to hesitate. He would just have to proceed with caution.

Mo Hua slowly unrolled the diagram. Within the scroll, the five-colored, formless Source Rune remained tightly shut like a human eye, appearing remarkably docile.

Mo Hua stared at it for a long time, but the [Five Elements Source Rune] showed no reaction.

Putting all distractions aside, Mo Hua focused his mind, mobilized his Divine-Sense computational power, and began deciphering the Source Rune using his established method.

Having performed this reverse-deduction countless times, he was thoroughly practiced.

Before long, a formation diagram was indeed deciphered from the vast depths of the Source Rune.

Mo Hua looked at it and sighed. As expected.

It was a Second-Grade Blazing Fire Formation diagram.

A common piece of junk he had mastered ages ago.

This useless Source Rune truly refused to cough up anything good.

Mo Hua curbed his impatience and continued deciphering, calculating bit by bit. Yet after burning through a considerable amount of Divine-Sense, the subsequent eighteen or nineteen formation diagrams were all utterly ordinary.

Ninety percent were Second-Grade diagrams. The sole Third-Grade formation was a Twenty-One Rune low-tier Earth Formation that he had already learned.

After all that calculating, not a single one was what he wanted...

A flare of anger surged within Mo Hua. Taking a deep breath, he snapped in frustration:

"Would it kill you to give me a Metal-attribute poison formation?!"

The 'eye' of the [Five Elements Source Rune] remained tightly shut, playing dead without the slightest response.

Seeing it lie there motionless, Mo Hua realized he was acting childishly. Getting angry at a dead object was truly pointless...

Mo Hua shook his head, calmed his breathing, and resumed channeling his Divine-Sense to decipher it with computational power.

Yet barely moments into his calculation, a golden beam abruptly flashed before his eyes, stinging with intense brilliance.

Mo Hua froze, blinked, and focused his gaze.

Within the ancient [Five Elements Source Rune], among the millions of tangled, hair-like patterns, a single golden thread suddenly began to shimmer brightly.

Mo Hua's heart tightened. Instantly mobilizing the entirety of his Divine-Sense, he reversed and deciphered the thread.

The formation patterns inverted, tracing back to their origin and unfolding from simplicity into immense complexity. In Mo Hua's mind, a radiant golden formation diagram materialized:

Geng-Xin Metal Poison Formation, Third Grade Mid Tier, Twenty-Six Rune Patterns.

"Third-Grade?! And Mid-Tier at that?!"

Mo Hua was stunned.

"Wait... it actually gave it to me? It wouldn't budge until I cursed it, and the moment I did, it flashed golden?"

The Geng-Xin Metal Poison Formation, a Third Grade Mid Tier poison-attribute formation...

This was an exceptionally rare diagram, virtually impossible to find anywhere.

Mo Hua didn't even know which sects would possess a Third-Grade poison formation.

Greed quickly took root in Mo Hua's heart, and he mused:

"Now that I have the Metal poison formation, shouldn't I get an Earth poison formation too? That way, the Five Elements poison formations will be complete..."

Adopting a stern expression, Mo Hua pointed at the [Five Elements Source Rune] and commanded, "Give me an Earth-attribute poison formation next, or I'll destroy you."

After delivering the threat, Mo Hua set his computational power back to work deciphering it.

Sure enough, an earthy-yellow light flashed past before long.

Startled, Mo Hua hurriedly ramped up his computational power, tracing the source in reverse to restore this strand of earthy-yellow source rune.

Once it was fully restored, Mo Hua examined the diagram and sucked in a sharp breath of cold air, his eyes wide with shock.

"Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation, Third-Grade High-Tier, Twenty-Eight Runes!"

"High-Tier!"

"A Twenty-Eight Runes poison formation!"

Even something like this was housed within the Source Rune, and he had managed to decipher it on the spot?

Even Mo Hua found it hard to believe.

Could someone as perpetually unlucky as him truly have such a stroke of fortune?

Naturally, an even greater greed began to stir within him:

"I have the Third-Grade Metal and Earth poison formations now, but the others are still Second-Grade. Why not... just max out the whole set?"

Assemble a complete set of five Third-Grade Five Elements poison formations?

Mo Hua's heart pounded violently. He felt a bit shameless even thinking it. After a brief pause, he pointed at the [Five Elements Source Rune] and barked:

"Third-Grade Fire Poison, Water Poison, and Wood Poison formations, cough them all up... or I'll destroy you for real."

With that said, Mo Hua resumed deciphering with his computational power.

There were a few hiccups along the way, with the [Five Elements Source Rune] spitting out some mediocre Five Elements Formations, but the general outcome remained unshaken.

In the end, as red, blue, and teal lights flashed in sequence, Mo Hua's Divine-Sense drained like a receding tide, his computational power pushed nearly to its limit.

Yet hovering within his mind were several more profound and vicious formation diagrams:

"Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation, Twenty-Three Runes;"

"Frigid Yin-Water Poison Formation, Twenty-Five Runes;"

"Bone-Clinging Wood Poison Formation, Twenty-Six Rune Patterns..."

...

(End of Chapter)