Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 938: Burial

"Master Gu, how can you tell?"

Master Gu pinched a bit of the stone debris, examined it carefully, then nodded.

"These crushed stones are partly new and partly old, with traces of decay. And these chisel marks... I know them all too well. Our Refining Workshop has crafted many of the spirit tools used by local miners around Lone Mountain. A proper miner's pickaxe would never leave marks like these."

"These marks… were left by spirit tools used for tomb-robbing."

He paused, then added,

"Back when I was studying refining, I had a few friends in the craft. We drank together often. Once, over drinks, they accidentally let slip that they'd refined tools for grave robbers."

Mo Hua's expression turned strange.

"The Dao Court didn't go after them?"

Master Gu gave a bitter smile.

"They couldn't. It's a gray trade. Many refiners struggle to make ends meet—if they don't take on some 'side jobs,' they can't afford cultivation or improve their craft."

"Normally, the Dao Court won't investigate such things unless there's a huge scandal. Otherwise, they don't bother tracing it back to the refiners."

"And even if you wanted to stay clean… those grave robbers are ruthless outlaws. Once they've set their eyes on you, cooperating might be the safest option. They keep quiet, you keep quiet, and no one gets caught."

"If you refuse, they'll threaten you, find leverage, even go after your family or Dao companions."

"Most refiners choose the path of least resistance—especially if spirit stones are involved. Hard to turn that down..."

Mo Hua nodded, expressing understanding.

Though people should have a sense of right and wrong—survival always came first.

And survival often meant being powerless to choose.

After all, he himself had once been coerced by Lu Chengyun into refining a Corpse King.

Master Gu glanced at Mo Hua. Seeing that he didn't judge, he finally sighed in relief.

"Those friends of mine… they didn't have a choice either. They only spoke of it while drunk. I pressed for details and gradually understood some of the trade's secrets."

He pointed at the markings on the ground.

"These chisel marks have an ancient shape—like a crane's beak or crescent moon. Others might not recognize them, but any insider would know at a glance—they're tools meant for grave robbing."

Mo Hua nodded thoughtfully.

"Grave robbing..."

From what he knew, the cultivation world did have funeral customs—and many varieties at that:

Water burials, fire burials, wooden coffins, and soil burials.

Outside of remote barbaric lands, where customs were strange, most cultivators were still buried in the earth—returning to the soil as peace.

And burial itself had deep traditions.

Mo Hua recalled that, long ago in Nanyue City, his master had once spoken about cultivator funerals and the theory of Yin and Yang residences in formation arts.

And in the Great Void Sect, he had a junior named Xie Ling, hailing from Genzhou.

Genzhou was mountainous, its ridges coiling like dragons, said to gather the essence of heaven and earth, sun and moon—and also home to countless ancient tombs.

The Xie family, Xie Ling's clan, was a renowned Genzhou family known for its geomantic arts: surveying earth and qi veins, determining death and burial grounds, mastering Yin-Yang formations.

They specialized in sensing qi, hiding among mountains, sealing evil spirits, tracing celestial energy, borrowing mountain shapes to hide the dead, predicting corpse mutations, and driving off phantoms…

But this knowledge ran deep.

Mo Hua, despite his adventurous life over the past twenty years, had encountered very few tombs. His understanding of funerary rites was limited.

Tongxian City was poor—there weren't many grand tombs to begin with.

"Do all cultivators get buried after death?" Mo Hua asked.

Master Gu, a Golden Core cultivator of the Gu Clan, had traveled far in his youth to study artifact forging. He'd endured hardship and seen much—surely more than Mo Hua.

Master Gu replied:

"Generally, yes. One is born beneath the heavens and earth—living upright, and in death, returned to the soil."

"But the poor, who have no one… for them, it doesn't matter. In life, they had no place to stand; in death, no land to lie in."

"Those without descendants—it's the same. No children, no tomb; no incense, no rites. Death is the end."

"Those who die by accident, corpses left to rot in the wild or devoured by beasts—no talk of burials there either."

"But most of these are rogue cultivators. It's different for clan-based ones."

"Once there's a family, even a small one, there will be ancestral halls, family tombs. Funerals become important."

"The larger the family, the more elaborate the burial—the stricter the customs. Many clan cultivators see being buried in the ancestral tomb as an honor."

"At the noble clan level, some high-level cultivators are even required by the Dao Court to be buried after death."

"Required to be buried?" Mo Hua was confused.

"The Dao Court even manages burials after death?"

"Not for most—but for high-ranking cultivators from noble lineages, yes."

"What counts as high-ranking? Golden Core?"

Master Gu shook his head.

"Depends on the prefecture. In small ones, where Golden Core is the peak, then yes. But in larger prefectures, only cultivators at or above the Feathered Ascension Realm get that attention."

Mo Hua frowned slightly.

"Why does the Dao Court care?"

After a moment of thought, Master Gu answered slowly:

"It's said… to revive the world's spiritual energy."

"Revive spiritual energy?" Mo Hua's heart skipped.

Master Gu pointed upward.

"They say that in ancient times, the world was saturated with spiritual qi. Ancient cultivators didn't need spirit stones—they could just sit on a mountain, breathe for a few cycles, and the qi would naturally pour into their meridians."

"But now, times have changed. The land has shifted. Spiritual qi has become incredibly scarce. Cultivators rely on spirit stones dug from mines to progress."

"But spirit stones and spiritual qi are not the same."

"Spiritual qi is a gift of heaven—available to all beings. Spirit stones, however, become private property."

"Spiritual qi flows through the skies and land, shared equally by all. But spirit stones flow upward—concentrating in the hands of the few."

"And mining is inherently unsustainable. If it continues unchecked, the resources will be exhausted."

"So, over ten thousand years ago, a Dao Court ancestor set a rule: cultivators of great power—especially those at the Feathered Ascension level—must undergo corpse dissolution after death."

Mo Hua's pupils contracted.

"Corpse dissolution?"

Images of dismembered corpses flashed through his mind.

Master Gu quickly clarified, seeing his reaction.

"Not literally. 'Corpse dissolution' isn't about tearing the body apart—it's the dissolution of spiritual power."

"Spiritual dissolution?"

"Yes," Master Gu said solemnly.

"Using a specific formation, the mighty spiritual power cultivated in life is broken down into pure spiritual qi—and released back into the world."

His voice grew reverent.

"In life, you draw in qi to grow strong; in death, you return it to the world…" Mo Hua murmured, deeply moved.

That Dao Court ancestor—who declared this rule—must not only have been overwhelmingly powerful, but also far-sighted, with profound compassion for all beings.

Mo Hua frowned.

"Surely the noble clans didn't agree to this?"

"Of course not," Master Gu nodded.

"Cultivators live for the Dao, and their cultivation is their foundation. Hard-earned power—why would they willingly return it after death?"

"They say the Dao Court's corpse dissolution policy sparked a huge uproar. Clans rebelled everywhere."

"But the Dao Court was firm. They even sent the Longxiang Imperial Guard to enforce it—suppressing noble clans across the Nine Provinces, advancing the policy with unstoppable force."

"For a time, war broke out across the land. Some fifth-rank noble clans were wiped out—ancestors executed, titles revoked—because they refused corpse dissolution."

"The chaos lasted nearly a thousand years before things calmed."

"The noble clans finally relented. Corpse dissolution became the norm."

Mo Hua was stunned.

This brief piece of history… concealed heavenly laws, power struggles, Dao Court decrees, and clan rebellions. Countless secret battles, shifting powers, and cultivator deaths… a grand, tragic epic.

"But… does it actually work?" Mo Hua asked.

"The spiritual qi is still so thin, isn't it?"

Master Gu gave a wry smile.

"That's beyond me. Such matters are battles between immortals—I'm just a Golden Core. But… I imagine it helps a little. Right now, the qi is merely thin. Without corpse dissolution, it might've vanished entirely."

He sighed.

"If the day comes when there's not a trace of qi left—no amount of spirit stones will help."

"With no qi, natural spirit creatures will go extinct."

"Blessed lands, celestial mountains—they'll lose their mysticism, becoming ordinary rock and dirt."

"Spirit mines will shrink, spirit stones will become even rarer."

"And for ordinary cultivators… survival will grow increasingly difficult."

"When that day comes… who knows what chaos will follow."

He looked truly worried.

Mo Hua also furrowed his brow, stirred by the conversation.

After a long pause, he looked at Master Gu and said with admiration,

"Master Gu, you really know a lot."

Master Gu blinked, then chuckled modestly.

"Young Master flatters me. I didn't come up with all this."

"Not you?"

"I was studying abroad back then," Master Gu explained, "and met an old storyteller. During a casual chat, he told me all this."

"A storyteller? Was his cultivation high?" Mo Hua asked curiously.

Master Gu shook his head.

"I was only at Foundation Establishment then—how could I tell? But even if his cultivation wasn't that great, just his insight alone was awe-inspiring."

"Indeed." Mo Hua nodded.

Family tombs, Feathered Ascension corpse dissolution, spiritual qi revival…

These weren't things ordinary cultivators could know.

"That old storyteller…"

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked,

"Master Gu, what would happen if a high-level cultivator didn't undergo corpse dissolution—didn't release their spiritual energy—and was just buried directly?"

Master Gu frowned deeply.

"To be honest, Young Master, I've only heard bits and pieces about that. Not sure how reliable they are."

"I understand. Go on," Mo Hua encouraged.

Master Gu lowered his voice.

"It's said that if a powerful cultivator is buried without corpse dissolution, with all their spiritual energy intact, something might… change."

"Change?" Mo Hua raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Master Gu said.

"Corpse mutations or ghost transformations. If they died while possessed by evil, they might become a Copper Corpse or Flying Corpse. If they held deep resentment, they could turn into a Red-Garbed Wraith."

"And remember—graves are Yin-dwelling places, full of death qi. The corpse and ghost mutations that happen inside tombs are far more terrifying and violent than ordinary corpse cultivators or ghost cultivators of the demonic path…"

Mo Hua's heart turned cold.

Master Gu added quickly,

"Of course, that's just what I've heard. Don't take it too seriously, Young Master."

"Mhm." Mo Hua nodded, quietly committing everything to memory.

These things Master Gu shared were secrets Mo Hua had never heard before—definitely worth remembering and pondering.

In cultivation, insight was sometimes more valuable than cultivation base.

Mo Hua remained silent for a while, thinking. When he snapped out of it, he realized time had passed.

He turned again, looking at the stone debris and chisel marks before him.

"Are there tombs here at Lone Mountain?"

"That's what's strange," Master Gu frowned.

"This is a mining mountain. It's been mined countless times. Who would bury a tomb here? Either these tomb robbers are fools… or they have some real purpose."

"Maybe tomb-robbing is just a cover for another motive?" Mo Hua guessed.

"That's possible…" Master Gu nodded.

Mo Hua rubbed his chin.

"Let's look around. See if there are any other clues. Figure out what these grave robbers are really after."

Master Gu hesitated.

This was Lone Mountain's business. He didn't want to trouble Mo Hua with it.

After all, Young Master Mo was a man with great ambitions—no need to waste time on such trivial things.

Especially since tomb robbers were often ruthless, lawless criminals—he couldn't risk letting Mo Hua get hurt.

But the moment he turned, Mo Hua was already combing the surroundings for clues.

Master Gu sighed inwardly.

With Mo Hua's current status, if he decided to do something, no one could stop him.

All he could do was stay within ten feet of Mo Hua, guarding him while searching the mining area for signs of tomb robbing.

He was also curious—what was this group of tomb robbers really after?

And deep inside, he felt a tinge of vigilance.

Strange things meant danger. This normally peaceful mine now had intruders digging for tombs? Something definitely wasn't right...

The two searched the area, but found very few traces outside the mine. The mine itself was deep and winding, with branching paths—and no further clues.

Master Gu glanced at the sky and said,

"Young Master, we should head back for now."

Mo Hua nodded.

This grave-robbing incident was suspicious, but not worth excessive time.

The priority remained Lone Mountain—and especially the matter of the Shen family.

Still, even if it was minor, it couldn't be ignored entirely.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then said,

"Let's head to the Lone Mountain Dao Court and inform them."

And while he was at it, he could pay a visit to Magistrate Fan Jin of Lone Mountain City.

"Alright," Master Gu agreed.

So the two left Lone Mountain and entered the city. Following the bluestone-paved road, they made their way to the Lone Mountain Dao Court in the northern part of the city.

The compound was fairly large—but dilapidated and old.

One look made it clear—it had once been prosperous, but now had fallen into ruin.

Inside, there were few staff members.

Lone Mountain City had declined. With no cultivation opportunities, even the Dao Court here had fallen into poverty. It was a bare-bones bureau, barely able to support a skeleton crew.

At the entrance, a sleepy executive officer guarded the gate.

He looked annoyed and lethargic—until he spotted Master Gu, a Golden Core cultivator. Then he immediately stood up and smiled brightly:

"Master Gu! What brings you here today?"

In recent years, the Gu family's refining business had taken off. Their spirit stone contributions to the Dao Court had risen noticeably.

Without that income, low-ranking officers like him would've had a much harder time surviving.

"He's our bread and butter." Of course he'd treat Master Gu with extra respect.

Master Gu asked: "Is Magistrate Fan in?"

"Yes, yes." The officer nodded.

"Could you please inform him? I'd like to invite him for some tea and have a chat."

"Of course. One moment, I'll go inform him right away."

With that, the officer darted off like a rabbit into the inner hall.

In the Inner Hall, within the Magistrate's Office.

Fan Jin was slumped in his chair, wearing a face full of irritation. His mood was terrible.

When he heard rushed footsteps approaching, it only made him more irritable.

The moment the officer entered the room, before he could say a word, Fan Jin snapped and lashed out:

"Didn't I tell you?! Stop bothering me today! Dammit! This gods-forsaken place can't go a single moment without something annoying me—"

The officer, quite used to being scolded, stammered awkwardly,

"N-no, it's just…"

"Just what?"

"It's Master Gu."

"Master Gu?" Fan Jin frowned. "What's he here for?"

"Master Gu said… he wants to invite you for tea, and discuss some matters…" the officer said carefully.

Fan Jin rubbed his temples, clearly annoyed.

"Tell him to come another day… I'm not in the mood today."

"Yes," said the officer, "I'll go tell him that you're in a bad mood and ask him to return another day."

Fan Jin's forehead twitched. His temper flared.

"Are you… brain-dead?! You think that's something you say to someone?! I've told you so many times—why can't you remember a thing!"

"You're supposed to say I'm 'busy with official duties' and invite him to return another day!"

Fan Jin looked utterly defeated.

"They say 'great people come from great lands,' but with a land as wretched as Lone Mountain City, no wonder the people are useless too."

This place was poor and desolate. The clerks he managed couldn't even speak decently.

"O-oh, right…" The officer tried to memorize the phrases "busy with duties" and "come back another day", and started heading for the door.

But Fan Jin frowned and called out,

"Wait—did Master Gu come alone?"

"No," the officer replied. "He brought someone with him… like an assistant."

"Assistant?" Fan Jin frowned, clearly losing interest.

"Forget it then."

The officer turned to leave.

But after just a few steps, Fan Jin froze—his gut told him something felt off.

"Stop!" he shouted.

"This assistant…" Fan Jin asked, "what does he look like?"

The officer thought for a second and described: "Uh… fair-skinned, not too tall, quite handsome."

Before he even finished, Fan Jin—who had been slouched in his chair—sprang up like a startled fish.

"I swear, one of these days you're going to get me killed!" Fan Jin shouted, enraged.

So close! He had nearly missed it!

"Quick! Go invite them in—now!"

The bewildered officer replied with a confused "Yes?", and was just about to turn when Fan Jin called out again.

"Wait…" Fan Jin muttered, pondering. "No need to send anyone— I'll go in person."

"You'll… personally go?" The officer looked stunned.

"Mhm."

Fan Jin pulled out a mirror from who-knows-where. He straightened his robe, adjusted his hairpin, and then—with a dazzlingly radiant smile—strode out of the hall like a completely different person, leaving the officer staring as if he'd seen a ghost.

Fan Jin exited the inner hall and arrived in the front courtyard.

The moment he saw Mo Hua from a distance, his eyes lit up, and the brilliant smile on his face grew even more exaggerated.

"Master Gu! Young Lord Mo! Pardon my poor welcome, truly—my apologies!"

Fan Jin was overflowing with enthusiasm.

Misfortune turns to fortune, and luck finally smiles down— the great benefactor had finally arrived at his doorstep!

(End of this Chapter)