Arrays of Immortality

Chapter 19: Earth Stabilizing Formation

The deposit for the Earth Stabilizing Formation was twenty spirit stones. Mo Hua took ten spirit stones from the ones he had previously earned and handed them over to Steward Pang, receiving the formation diagram and ten sets of paper and ink materials. The deadline was set for twenty days.

After leaving the business hall, Mo Hua stopped by a pastry shop and spent two spirit stones to buy ten colorful pastries, then headed straight back to the sect, where he shared the pastries with Da Hu and his brothers.

The sect's meals weren't great, and the three of them often craved something tasty, but there was nothing special to eat. Mo Hua bought the pastries to satisfy their cravings.

A few days later, in the evening, after finishing his lessons, Mo Hua returned to his dormitory to focus on studying the Earth Stabilizing Formation. Suddenly, there was a knock on his door.

When he opened it, he saw Shuang Hu sneakily standing outside.

Shuang Hu secretly handed Mo Hua an oil-paper bundle and whispered, "This is for you, don't tell anyone."

He quickly glanced around, then, like a thief, ran off.

The dormitory was the living quarters provided by Tongxian Sect for its disciples, with two disciples sharing one room. The room was small, containing two simple wooden beds and a couple of somewhat worn wooden tables—enough for basic living.

There were also more luxurious dormitories within the sect, but those required additional spirit stones.

Mo Hua originally had a roommate, but he had dropped out this year—not because he couldn't afford the tuition, but simply because he found cultivation boring and didn't want to continue. So now Mo Hua lived alone.

Mo Hua closed the door and opened the still-warm oil paper. Inside was a freshly roasted chicken leg. It was the size of a fist, still steaming, slightly burnt on the outside, but giving off an appetizing fragrance, especially since there was a faint spiritual aura on it.

It was spiritual beast meat.

"This... wasn't stolen, was it...?" Mo Hua wondered to himself.

Spiritual beast meat was far beyond the means of Shuang Hu and the others to buy. Given Shuang Hu's suspicious behavior, it seemed clear it had been stolen.

Mo Hua hesitated for a moment but then took a bite. It tasted a bit burnt, but the flavor of the meat came through. It hadn't been cooked all the way through and wasn't seasoned, so the taste was somewhat bland.

The culinary standards in the cultivation world were very specific. If one hadn't specialized in cooking, it was hard to make something really tasty.

The ingredients in the cultivation world were tough to handle. For example, the texture of meats was very tough, and some meats—such as those from herbivorous demon beasts—couldn't be cooked properly without using large amounts of spiritual energy and fire, and they required long cooking times to soften.

Spiritual meat was more delicate, but it still required skill to cook.

Besides meat, vegetables and fruits in the cultivation world also contained some spiritual energy. The mix of this spiritual energy with the food's flavor could create strange tastes if not prepared correctly.

The chicken leg Mo Hua had was simply roasted. It was probably done hastily, fearing someone might find out, which explained why it wasn't very well cooked.

But after more than a month without eating meat, Mo Hua didn't care too much about the taste—he was just happy to have something to eat.

Mo Hua struggled a bit to finish the chicken leg, then used fire to burn the oil paper and tossed the bones into the creek outside, completely destroying the evidence.

Once full, Mo Hua spent some time absorbing the spiritual energy in the meat, then continued to study formations.

Sure enough, a few days later, Mo Hua heard that some Qi Refining disciples had stolen a golden pheasant raised by one of the elders, plucked its feathers, and roasted it to eat.

The elder was furious, caught the disciples, and gave them a severe punishment.

A few days later, Mo Hua saw Da Hu and his brothers, all bruised and with two large lumps on their heads.

They all cultivated on Tongxuan Peak, so when the elder investigated, it didn't take long to find out, and the punishment was inevitable.

However, the injuries were mostly superficial—some bruises and scratches. The elder wouldn't have gone too far in his punishment; it was more of a warning for the other disciples.

Although Da Hu and his brothers looked miserable, they held their heads high and seemed somewhat proud. After all, not every disciple could manage to steal a chicken right under an elder's nose.

When they saw Mo Hua, they pretended not to notice him. Even Xiao Hu gave Mo Hua a sly wink, silently urging him to pretend he didn't recognize them.

Mo Hua couldn't help but laugh. Maybe next time, I'll buy more pastries for them.

Seven days remained until the next ten-day rest period, and thirteen days had passed since Mo Hua had received the formation materials from Steward Pang. However, his understanding of the Earth Stabilizing Formation was not progressing smoothly.

The formation scripts of the Earth Stabilizing Formation were ones Mo Hua had never encountered before. They were far more complex than the basic earth-element formations taught by the sect, making them harder to grasp.

The Earth Stabilizing Formation consisted of four formation scripts, which also required a higher level of Divine Sense.

For Mo Hua, memorizing the formation scripts wasn't the hard part, but practicing them on the stone tablet consumed much more spiritual energy and was prone to errors.

Sometimes the formation scripts he drew wouldn't form a proper formation, or the ones he drew would be completely ineffective and unable to channel spiritual energy.

Mo Hua spent over ten days trying to figure it out but still had no breakthrough. Sometimes he thought he understood, only to make a mistake as soon as he began drawing.

In the end, he decided to seek advice from Instructor Yan.

One day, after class, Instructor Yan was tidying up the desk while the disciples began to leave in groups.

Mo Hua respectfully approached him with several basic earth-element formation scripts and asked, "Instructor, I don't fully understand these earth-element formation scripts. Could you please give me some guidance?"

Instructor Yan took a look at the scripts Mo Hua handed over and said, "These are basic earth-element formation scripts from the Five Elements system. They are quite standard and should not be too difficult for you. If you can't draw them well, just practice more."

The formations taught by the sect were quite basic, and for Mo Hua, they weren't difficult. But what he wanted to ask about was something else.

Mo Hua pulled out the scripts for the Earth Stabilizing Formation and said, "I occasionally came across these scripts, and I noticed they are a bit different from those in the textbooks. I can't quite figure out what's different, and I often make mistakes when drawing them. Could you help me identify what the problem is?"

Instructor Yan was a little surprised. He took a closer look and said, "Ah, these are altered Five Elements formation scripts. They are different from the standard ones taught by the sect. These aren't commonly used, and they are not standard. Drawing these requires a different technique, and the order of strokes is also different from the standardized formations. The sequence of strokes should be changed like this..."

Instructor Yan then took a piece of paper and, while explaining, quickly sketched a few strokes to demonstrate.

After hearing this, Mo Hua suddenly understood.

Drawing formation scripts was similar to calligraphy in some ways. In addition to the standard formations, there were also more personalized variations, which had slightly different techniques.

These altered formation scripts were numerous and hard to categorize, which is why the sect only taught the standardized formations.

"No wonder they say formations are so profound and complex. There are so many twists and turns, so many hidden pitfalls. If I hadn't asked the instructor, I would never have figured this out," Mo Hua thought to himself, inwardly sighing.

Instructor Yan continued, "To connect these scripts together to form a formation, for example, like this one..."

Mo Hua then took out the diagram for the Earth Stabilizing Formation.

Instructor Yan glanced at it, recognized it immediately, and exclaimed, "Ah, this is the Earth Stabilizing Formation!" He looked at Mo Hua and said, "It's still too early for you to try this; it's not something you can draw at this stage."

"I'm just curious, and I want to understand the details," Mo Hua replied earnestly.

Instructor Yan smiled and said, "That's fine. It's good to learn ahead."

Instructor Yan became more animated. Normally, he only taught basic formation scripts, which could be a bit dull, but now that they were discussing a more advanced formation, he was clearly more enthusiastic.

"Formations are made up of a sequence of formation scripts that are arranged, combined, and connected. Simple formations contain fewer scripts, and the sequences are simpler. The more complex the formation, the more scripts it includes, and the more intricate the order of the scripts, the arrangement of space, and the overall connection. The Earth Stabilizing Formation consists of four scripts, and the scripts must be placed in a fixed order..."

Instructor Yan spoke with great enthusiasm, and Mo Hua listened intently. By the end of the discussion, Instructor Yan seemed reluctant to stop and then warned:

"Formations are vast and profound, and the basic techniques we teach are just that—basic. They don't even count as an introduction. If you want to become a true formation master, the difficulty and the effort required are beyond your imagination."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Also, don't try to jump ahead. Don't blindly attempt to draw formations you can't yet master. It's fine to look at them, but if you actually try to draw them, you'll easily exhaust your Divine Sense. Remember this!"

Mo Hua bowed and said, "I understand, thank you for your guidance!"

(End of Chapter)