Chapter 1560: Divine Art

Chapter 1560: Divine Art

Before the Dao Stele in his Sea of Consciousness.

Mo Hua stared at the terrifying, bright-yellow 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》 taking shape before him, sinking into deep contemplation.

Various scenes from Qingchou Prefecture surfaced in his mind once more.

The rotting earth, a thousand leagues of barren wasteland, soil thick like pus, human corpses scattered everywhere, all brewing together...

The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

"...They wouldn't be this... completely deranged, would they?..."

Were they truly not afraid of suppression by the Dao Court, the backlash from the common populace, or of provoking the wrath of heaven and the fury of men?

Mo Hua's expression shifted continuously until, at last, all his chilling apprehensions dissolved into a deep sigh.

"Regardless of what comes, I should first learn this Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation..."

Whatever the truth may be, mastering the formation diagram and understanding the formation's underlying principles would always allow him to prepare for a rainy day.

Casting aside all other concerns, Mo Hua quieted his mind and began to earnestly comprehend this Third-Grade, Twenty-Eight Runes 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》.

In terms of formation patterns alone, a formation of twenty-eight runes was already extraordinarily difficult to master.

Generally, only Formation Masters of the Feathered Ascension Realm could begin to comprehend such creations.

A Peak Golden Core cultivator who could draw a twenty-eight-rune formation would already be hailed as a peerless genius by the secular standards of formation mastery.

As for the inherent nature of the formation itself, it was equally formidable.

It was simultaneously a poison formation, a soil formation, and an earth-ground formation.

The fusion of all three pushed its Formation Theory to an absurdly complex degree.

Yet Mo Hua himself was even more absurd.

His Divine-Sense was too powerful, his formation attainments too profound, and his scope of study far too vast.

For earth-ground formations, he had learned plenty and acquired numerous formation diagrams after plotting the demise of the Earth Sect Shadow Division's Golden Core cultivator; he had already crossed the threshold into the craft.

For soil formations, he had obtained the ancestral formation archives of Elder Tian's clan and had studied them diligently up to this day, attaining true mastery.

As for poison formations, having just learned three of them, he had accumulated a wealth of insight.

Therefore, this twenty-eight-rune Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation—which brought together the theories of poison, soil, and earth-ground formations—did not prove as difficult to master as Mo Hua had anticipated.

He merely needed to sort through a few details regarding the formation patterns and spend some time deciphering and synthesizing several critical junctures within the formation pivots.

Time trickled away as Mo Hua immersed himself in studying and comprehending the formation, oblivious to how much time had passed.

The Dao Stele in his Sea of Consciousness vanished once its time limit was reached, only to reappear at the midnight hour, repeating the cycle several times.

Finally, Mo Hua unified the complex formation theories into one.

He fused the corrosive property of the miasma with the traits of the soil poison into a single, cohesive whole.

Every intricate formation pattern was etched firmly into his heart.

He even succeeded in transcribing it onto the Dao Stele; all the earth miasma formation patterns blended seamlessly together, radiating a brilliant, hazardous, bright-yellow luster.

This signified that Mo Hua had truly mastered this 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》.

He had learned a massive, toxic, lethal weapon capable of annihilating a city or even wiping out an entire prefecture.

Without the slightest exaggeration, such a formation could genuinely slaughter a city...

Mo Hua's thoughts, however, were extremely tangled.

This soil poison formation carried an intensely perilous omen.

Yet he had no leisure to dwell on it right now.

Almost simultaneously, Mo Hua outlined another fiery-red formation draft upon the Dao Stele.

The twenty-three-rune 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》.

This formation, despite possessing the lowest grade among them, had truly turned out to be the hardest to master among the Five Elements poison formations.

Mo Hua stared at the formation patterns, turning the 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》 over in his mind for a long time, yet he still could not discern where the problem lay.

Judging purely by the formation patterns, this fire poison formation should have been the simplest and easiest to understand...

In terms of form, he had grasped it at a glance.

Could the issue lie in the Formation Theory itself?

"Heart-burning..."

Mo Hua softly murmured the words, unable to suppress the doubt rising in his chest:

"What 'heart' does this truly refer to?"

"Is it the physical heart among the five internal organs?"

"The Five Elements correspond to the five internal organs, and among them, the heart belongs to fire. Following the relationship between the Five Elements and the organs, does burning with fire mean incinerating the heart?"

"Transforming fire into poison, coursing through the meridians, seeping into the five internal organs, and incinerating the physical heart?"

Mo Hua attempted to redraw the 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》 patterns according to this interpretation.

Upon the Dao Stele, a blazing red light flashed, and the brilliance of the fire poison formation grew a shade brighter than before.

This indicated that Mo Hua's understanding of the Formation Theory was correct.

However, its luminosity still fell far short compared to the other formations.

This, in turn, meant that while Mo Hua had grasped a portion of the Formation Theory, it was merely superficial; he had not reached its true internal mysteries.

"A mere third-grade, twenty-three-rune formation can be this profound?"

Even Mo Hua found it bizarre.

Yet the Dao Stele never lied, nor did formations; what one understood, one understood, and what one did not, one did not.

Failing to bring it to full fruition meant he had not comprehended it thoroughly.

Mo Hua began to approach the matter from another angle:

"Could there be another layer of Formation Theory to [heart-burning]?"

"The 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》 is a fusion of an earth-ground formation and a soil formation. According to that slender outline on earth-ground formations, earth-ground is Yin and soil is Yang; the 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》 possesses two facets: an inner and an outer, Yin and Yang..."

"Could the same apply to this 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》?"

"Earth is divided into Yin and Yang, so can the heart be divided into the tangible and the intangible?"

"The tangible heart is the physical heart among the five organs."

"The intangible heart is the innate human heart—the mind and spirit."

"So 'heart-burning' actually refers to burning the mind and spirit?"

"Using tangible fire to incinerate an intangible heart?"

Mo Hua tested this line of inquiry, and the result was noticeably better.

The fiery glow of the 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》 grew considerably more intense.

Yet within Mo Hua's mind, a faint haze lingered; he still felt there were many critical subtleties he had not fully grasped.

Because this formation was being simulated within his Sea of Consciousness, existing purely as a construct of Divine-Sense Thought, it could not completely represent an objective, physical formation structure.

There was another question that bewildered Mo Hua even further: the word [heart] itself.

Ordinary cultivators might not be particularly sensitive to this word.

Yet as a cultivator who aimed at Proving the Dao through Divine-Sense and possessed half the body of a deity, Mo Hua found himself deeply perplexed by it.

His intuition told him that this word was exceedingly strange.

Throughout his entire cultivation journey, across all his experiences related to Divine-Sense, the concept of a true [heart] seemed never to have existed.

Most of the time, in notions such as quieting the heart in meditation, the heart-spirit, or putting the heart at ease, the word [heart] seemed to function merely as a pseudo-concept.

It was as if people occasionally used [heart] as a loose metaphor for [spirit] or Divine-Sense.

Yet Mo Hua sensed that the [heart] was not necessarily identical to Divine-Sense, nor was it entirely a false concept.

After all, there truly were many methods concerning Divine-Sense Thought entities that were inextricably tied to the [heart].

For instance, the Water Prison Sect's 《Seven Corporeal Souls Blood Prison Eye Technique》 involved techniques of [heart manifestations].

The 《Heart-Tugging, Emotion-Arousing Golden Needle》 that Ancestor Huá had planted in his Sea of Consciousness seemed to bear an immense connection to the [heart] as well.

And then, there was an even greater conjecture.

"Fāngcùn Mountain..."

(TN: Fāngcùn Mountain (方寸山) = Heart-Mind Mountain / Square-Inch Mountain)

The two characters of [Fangcun] seemed to point directly to the concept of the [heart].

"The Spiritual Terrace of Fangcun Mountain..."

Fangcun Mountain was a hidden, reclusive Unorthodox Path power. Since it took [Fangcun]—the square-inch heart—as its name, could its Dao Lineage be related to the heart?

All these techniques, treasures, and factions connected to Divine-Sense seemed, whether overtly or subtly, linked to this very word...

Yet what truly was this [heart]?

And what momentous significance did this word hold for him?

For a time, Mo Hua found it utterly impossible to fathom.

He wondered if he was overthinking things, reading too much into the word.

Yet with his profound grasp of Heavenly Secrets and his keen Karmic Intuition, he rarely indulged in baseless assumptions.

Within any seemingly inconsequential thought, there might very well dwell a crucial Heavenly Dao Law...

Lost in these thoughts, Mo Hua sank into confusion once more.

Just as he was adrift in bewilderment, his Divine-Sense Thought stirred, detecting a commotion outside his tent. He set aside the fire poison formation for the moment and withdrew his Divine-Sense from the Sea of Consciousness.

In reality, Mo Hua opened his eyes and said calmly, "Enter."

Having received his permission, Great General Chang stepped into the tent shortly after and bowed deeply to Mo Hua.

"Esteemed Master, you..."

Great General Chang's tone held both anxiety and concern. "Esteemed Master, there has been no word from you for four whole days."

Great General Chang had even begun to suspect whether Esteemed Master Mo had met with some misfortune.

Yet he had not dared to disturb him rashly, pacing back and forth outside the tent in hesitation.

Mo Hua was slightly taken aback, realizing he had become so engrossed in the formations that he had lost track of time, and had even momentarily forgotten where he was.

This was Qingchou Prefecture, amidst a bloody famine and raging riots.

Gathering his thoughts, Mo Hua noticed Great General Chang's grim expression and asked, "What happened?"

Great General Chang nodded. "Over the past few days, the Green-Faced faction has resumed raiding our camp. Morning slaughters, midday ambushes—their timing is unpredictable. The Changshan soldiers mounted counterattacks, but we suffered considerable casualties."

Mo Hua asked further, "Did that Unorthodox Path heretic make a move?"

Great General Chang replied, "There were no more invisible attacks like that demonic assault the other day, but recently, an unusual number of demon-insects have appeared around the camp."

"Demon-insects?"

"Small-class insect demon-beasts like mantises, scorpions, and locusts, about a foot long..."

Great General Chang frowned. "These are normally common demon-creatures, but their sudden appearance in swarms right now felt suspicious. I ordered our men to scatter medicinal powder, burn mugwort, and skewer them with pointed spears, keeping them all outside the military camp."

Mo Hua's eyes shifted slightly, and he nodded. "You handled it well."

Great General Chang asked, "Esteemed Master, these are..."

Mo Hua replied, "No need to ask."

Great General Chang said, "Understood..."

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, then asked, "How is the situation inside the camp?"

Great General Chang's face grew solemn. "Relatively stable."

Though his words sounded calm, his expression betrayed that the situation was far from easy.

Mo Hua extended his Divine-Sense, sweeping it across the surrounding military camp.

He saw that the wounded within had increased significantly; the stench of blood had thickened, military provisions were running low, and many soldiers were sallow-faced, reduced to skin and bones.

If this was the state of the military camp within the city, there was no need to speak of the refugees and disaster victims outside.

People were starving to death every single day.

Mo Hua's heart sank. After calculating for a brief moment, he spoke:

"Old General, this Esteemed Master must engage in a Spell Duel against that invisible heretic, a matter fraught with unpredictable peril. Hold your ground for a few more days. During this time, record the species, numbers, and locations of all demon-insects appearing around the camp. As for what comes next, this Esteemed Master has his own methods..."

Hearing this, Great General Chang felt an inexplicable sense of relief. "Yes, I shall obey your every command, Esteemed Master."

After Great General Chang departed, Mo Hua sank his Divine-Sense back into his Sea of Consciousness, continuing to study the 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》 diagram.

He harbored an intuition that this seemingly simple fire poison formation diagram harbored principles far more complex, principles he had yet to fully digest.

However, at this very moment, the horrors of war dragged on, disaster victims were starving, and the Unorthodox Path heretic Wang Liangzi lurked in the shadows like a hungry tiger...

There was no need to demand absolute perfection; as long as it functioned, it would suffice.

Be it formations, magic spells, or even Fāng Arts, none could be crafted to ultimate perfection on the very first try.

A spell created for the first time was merely an embryonic form, bound to contain numerous flaws, and would inevitably require continuous refinement and iteration later on.

At this stage, the top priority was to forge a Fāng Art that belonged exclusively to him.

Mo Hua no longer fixated on the deeper implications of [heart-burning]. Instead, he approached it purely from the material plane: taking the fire of the five internal organs and using fire poison to incinerate the physical heart.

In doing so, though he could not unleash the Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation's full potential, it was more than enough to complete the cycle of the Five Elements poisons.

With this, Mo Hua had mastered all five poison formations covering the Five Elements.

Some formation theories were not yet profoundly comprehended, but they were sufficient for use.

Having learned the five poison formations, it was time to formally begin constructing the new Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art.

Mo Hua discarded the original ritual of the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art and its sinister poison of the five Gu-insects.

Instead, he replaced them with the Geng-Xin metal poison, the bone-clinging wood poison, the frigid Yin-water poison, the heart-burning fire poison, and the earth miasma soil poison.

The art of Gu poisons relied on Gu-insects slaughtering one another to establish supremacy, extracting the single deadliest venom among them.

The Five Elements poisons, however, operated on the exact opposite principle.

Mo Hua utilized the Formation Theory of the Five Elements circulating in an endless, generative cycle as the prerequisite for the poison's existence.

The five categories of Five Elements poisons remained distinctly segregated yet formed a seamless, organic whole. They interacted, resonated with, and generated one another, fusing into unity and flowing without end.

The method of casting remained unchanged.

Mo Hua continued to emulate Master Wu, using his five fingers to embody the five poisons to execute the Five Elements poison curse.

Fittingly, in Dao medicine, the five fingers corresponded precisely to the Five Elements. Thus, everything aligned seamlessly.

Five fingers, Five Elements, five formations, five poisons.

Body, art, form, and law forged into one.

Even by Mo Hua's discerning standards, this was an exceptionally refined Fāng Art.

Following this train of thought, Mo Hua began to channel his Divine Sense Thought Power, manifesting the formations.

One by one, he inscribed the five categories of Five Elements poison formations onto the palm of his Divine Sense Body, linking them through the palm to his five fingers.

Mo Hua's Divine Sense Body still retained the appearance of his younger years, his frame was small, and so were his hands.

As a result, the formations required micro-inscriptions, demanding tremendous patience.

Once inscribed, they required continuous calibration. He had to constantly circulate his Divine Sense Thought Power to activate the formations, converting Formation Power into toxic potency to serve as Curse Power, thereby executing the Fāng Art.

Each of the five categories of Five Elements poison formations had to undergo this calibration process.

After calibrating them individually, he needed to activate the Five Elements simultaneously, testing the relationships of mutual generation and restraint among them.

He needed to verify whether the power of the Five Elements could properly convert into toxic potency, whether the poisons conflicted or harmonized, whether the Curse Power remained balanced in strength, whether the forces of generation and restraint were stable, whether different attributes could coexist, and whether they could circulate through universal interconnection... and countless other factors.

This process encompassed an immense array of theoretical variations in formation craft, paired with exquisite control over his Divine-Sense in practical application.

Ultimately, under Mo Hua's meticulous, razor-sharp mastery, these profound mysteries converged into a single palm, responsive to his will like an extension of his own limb.

Mo Hua opened his eyes again and looked down at his fair, tender palm.

Upon it, the profound and enigmatic formations of five colors, Five Elements, and five poisons bloomed in succession like five blossoms of Heavenly Dao Laws, their radiant colors swirling smoothly.

Formation patterns began to crawl across his five fingers, each shifting in hue:

The thumb glowed bright yellow, belonging to soil, manifesting the 《Earth Miasma Soil Poison Formation》;

The index finger glowed verdant green, belonging to wood, manifesting the 《Bone-Clinging Wood Poison Formation》;

The middle finger glowed bright crimson, belonging to fire, manifesting the 《Heart-Burning Fire Poison Formation》;

The ring finger glowed radiant gold, belonging to metal, manifesting the 《Geng-Xin Metal Poison Formation》;

The little finger glowed deep blue, belonging to water, manifesting the 《Frigid Yin-Water Poison Formation》.

The five fingers split into the formations of five colors, Five Elements, and five poisons. Vibrant and resplendent, they resembled five-colored jade, embodying profound formation principles while exuding an intensely violent toxicity—a sight both breathtakingly gorgeous and utterly terrifying.

At this point, drawing upon the methods of the Five-Ghosts Human-Faced Curse-Slaying Art, Mo Hua had finally created his very first Unorthodox Path Fāng Art.

Yet this Fāng Art of his required no material medium, no gruesome ritual, and none of the traditional Fāng Arts framework. Driven entirely by the strength of his Divine-Sense Thought Power, shaped by the patterns of formation runes, it was, in a sense, closer to a...

"Divine Art."

It was merely that Mo Hua currently possessed no concept of such a term.

He spent another moment admiring his newly forged Five Elements Poison Formation Curse Hand. Deeming it sufficiently prepared, he withdrew from his Sea of Consciousness.

Upon returning to the physical world, Mo Hua released his Divine-Sense, locating Great General Chang. He condensed his Divine-Sense slightly, imparting a touch of pressure onto the general.

The moment Great General Chang sensed Esteemed Master Mo's 'gaze,' his heart leaped, and he rushed to the tent, bowing in wait.

Before long, hearing Esteemed Master Mo say "Enter," Great General Chang respectfully stepped inside.

Looking up, he saw the black-robed Esteemed Master Mo, whose features remained concealed. Though the master's aura appeared slightly drained, his oppressive presence felt far more profound and enigmatic than before.

He wondered if the master had made further breakthroughs along the Unorthodox Path over these past few days.

Great General Chang felt a quiet tremor of awe and said, "Esteemed Master Mo, do you have orders?"

Mo Hua said, "The matter I tasked you with a few days ago..."

Great General Chang produced a sheet of parchment and presented it to Mo Hua, saying:

"The species, numbers, and movement routes of the demon-insects have all been mapped onto this parchment by my men. Please inspect it, Esteemed Master..."

Mo Hua accepted the parchment, gave it a look, and nodded slightly. "Well done."

He then pinched his fingers to calculate, speaking deliberately:

"Three days from now, at the second encampment in the northwest corner, at the third minute of the Ox Hour (1 a.m. – 3 a.m.), during the sentry shift change... leave an opening of one incense stick's time..."

Great General Chang remained mystified as to the reason, but knowing that Esteemed Master Mo's foresight was divine, he asked no further questions and simply said:

"This old soldier shall carry it out to the letter."

Mo Hua asked again, "Has the Left Protector returned?"

The Left Protector was Gu Changhuai. He had left the city days ago to guide the Gu Clan Executive Officers from the Dao Court Division stationed outside back into the city, integrating them into the rioters' camp.

Great General Chang replied, "Reporting to Esteemed Master, he has returned."

Mo Hua nodded. "Good. You may go."

"Yes."

Great General Chang proceeded to arrange everything strictly according to Mo Hua's instructions, without the slightest deviation.

He did not permit even the timing or the minute markers to err by half a breath.

For the next three days, Mo Hua remained within his tent, recuperating his energy and familiarizing himself with the first Unorthodox Path Fāng Art he had ever created.

Time flew by in a flash.

Three days later.

Night fell. When the midnight hour arrived, a sinister wind blew, and just as before, the soil around the Changshan military camp began to squirm.

All manner of demon-insects crawled out from the earth: cockroaches, earth-crawlers, centipedes, millipedes, and more.

Seeing the demon-insects emerge, the guarding soldiers dared not draw close, skewering them one by one using pointed spears tipped with liquid silver.

They fought like this for an entire two-hour watch. As the sinister wind gradually dissipated, the insect corpses sank into the earth, vanishing without a trace, allowing everyone to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Once the disturbance settled, the camp returned to silence, and the soldiers retired to their quarters, the night calm and undisturbed.

Until the third quarter of the Ox Hour (between 2:00 AM and 2:30 AM).

The soil on the ground began to writhe once more. From within crawled an ashen-gray gecko demon-insect, noticeably larger than the rest.

This gecko possessed deformed limbs and seemed laced with deadly venom. Its neck looked as though it were being choked by an invisible rein, and its protruding eyes were chilling to behold.

...

Translator Notes:

The word used for [Heart] is: Xīn ( 心 ) = Heart / Mind / Soul / Spirit.

Fāngcùn (方寸) = Heart-Mind / Square-Inch.

Spiritual Terrace of Fangcun Mountain (灵台方寸山) - a deliberate wordplay here: both ( 灵台 ) and ( 方寸 ) can refer to the [heart/mind], so the phrase evokes an inner spiritual mountain located within one's mind/heart.

(End of Chapter)