Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 951: The Gold-Seeking Talisman

"What did you say?" Mo Hua looked utterly shocked and confused.

"Hand it over…"

"What?"

"What the hell else could I mean?!" Rat's face was ashen, and blood began to fill his eyes. "Old Man Pi's Gold-Seeking Talisman — it must be on you!"

Mo Hua's heart skipped a beat.

So it was true!

Rat had been after that Gold-Seeking Talisman all along. That earlier attempt to rummage through his storage pouch — it had been to look for that very talisman.

"I seriously don't know what you're talking about…" Mo Hua said, feigning confusion.

But Rat didn't care what he said — his large, callused hand, sharp like a beast's claw, swiped again toward Mo Hua.

Mo Hua had seen that hand crush the skull of a Golden Core cultivator from the Shen Clan. His heart tightened. Without hesitation, he activated Flowing Water Step.

A ripple of water-light wrapped around him, turning his figure fluid like water, narrowly dodging Rat's grasp.

Rat instantly changed tactics — golden qi of the Golden Core Realm gathered between his hands as he lunged forward again.

Mo Hua's face turned grim. He pushed Flowing Water Step to its limit, flashing to the side several times. Then, he pointed his fingers in a reverse gesture — a Fireball Spell shot out and exploded in Rat's face.

But Mo Hua was only at Foundation Establishment.

And Rat was Golden Core.

A second-grade fireball couldn't do much against a Golden Core cultivator.

The fireball exploded, smoke billowing. Moments later, Rat staggered out, holding his face.

His hair was singed, and his face covered in soot — the injury itself was trivial, but it only made him even angrier.

His expression grew more ferocious.

Mo Hua reflexively turned to run, but a glimpse out of the corner of his eye made his pupils constrict—

The fireball had burned a patch of Rat's hair, revealing a bit of his scalp.

It was bleeding.

And amidst the blood and hair, there were three swollen, festering bite marks.

Mo Hua's heart sank.

He had been bitten by a corpse fiend!

After a quick deduction, Mo Hua understood.

Back when the group was scattered in the chaos of the corpse tide, Rat had definitely been bitten on the head — the wound wasn't obvious, and he probably hadn't even realized it himself.

But once bitten, the evil taint would have seeped into him.

That corruption quietly bred dark thoughts in his heart. And now, seeing Mo Hua alone, he could no longer suppress his greed.

But could a single Gold-Seeking Talisman really drive Rat to this extent?

As Rat leapt at him again, Mo Hua shouted:

"You can't kill me! I'm the formation master — without me, no one can navigate or break the formations!"

Rat froze slightly.

Though consumed by greed, he still had some reason left. He knew Mo Hua's status was special — killing him would be unwise… for now.

"I won't kill you... As long as you hand it over, I won't make things difficult for you."

To reassure him, Rat even forced a smile.

But with his narrow, monkey-like face, that malicious grin only made him look more hideous.

"I really don't know what this Gold-Seeking Talisman is. I've never seen it, how can I hand it over to you…" Mo Hua replied "fearfully."

Rat suppressed his craving and rasped:

"The Gold-Seeking Talisman is a talisman crafted from a pangolin's claw, inlaid with gold and silver, with the texture of ancient jade."

"It was Old Man Pi's treasure — he always kept it on him like a precious heirloom. He rarely showed it, but by a stroke of luck, I saw it once…"

"My ancestors have robbed tombs for generations — living by digging up treasures from the earth. He could fool others, but not me…"

"It's an ancient token, only circulated among a very rare bloodline. It's priceless, and most people wouldn't even get the chance to see one."

"And now… this is my opportunity."

"With that talisman, I could connect with the Earth Sect's Shadow Division — I could gain access to the true legacy of the Earth Sect…"

These words were all secrets, buried deep in Rat's heart — ones he'd never intended to speak aloud.

But now, fueled by corruption, his greed was magnified, and he spilled everything without restraint.

"That thing is useless to you. Be good and hand it over…"

Rat tried to speak calmly.

But Mo Hua still looked frightened and shook his head.

"I really… don't know what you're talking about."

Rat's expression darkened.

"You little brat. I tried to be nice, but if you keep acting stupid… I'll dig your damn brain out and search for it myself."

Mo Hua opened his mouth to speak — then suddenly widened his eyes and pointed behind Rat.

"Corpse fiend!"

Rat sneered,

"Kid, you think it's my first day out here? That trick's too old—"

Before he finished, he felt a heavy weight on his shoulder and a wet squelch in his ear.

He turned his head and saw a hideous three-jawed face gnawing on his cheek.

A cold sweat drenched him in an instant.

As the fiend chomped down on his face, Rat quickly channeled power to his hand, grabbed the creature, and snapped its neck, flinging the body away.

Then he reversed his grip and crushed its head, tearing the gnarled jaws from his flesh.

Dark, rotting flesh and black blood ran down his cheek.

Not daring to delay, Rat quickly pulled out spiritual cleansing fluid, washed the tainted blood, applied powder to the wound, and swallowed a few pills.

By the time he looked up again—

Mo Hua was gone.

Vanished without a trace.

Rage surged inside Rat.

"You little brat…"

The tomb tunnels were pitch-black and labyrinthine, and his spiritual sense couldn't pick up where Mo Hua had gone.

The wound on his cheek throbbed with a blackish-blue hue, but Rat was oblivious.

He only felt one thing:

His desire burning hotter and hotter.

After a moment of thought, Rat pulled out a snuff bottle, held it to his nose, and took a sniff.

A pungent, acrid scent shot up into his brain.

He winced at the pain in his forehead — but at the same time, his nose swelled slightly, his sense of smell growing more acute.

In the faintest traces, he could catch a unique, clean scent — a pure ink fragrance.

It was the scent from Mo Hua's body.

Delicate yet rich, refreshing and soul-soothing — and completely different from any scent he had ever smelled on other cultivators.

That uniqueness made it easy to track.

"Let's see where you run to now…"

Rat dropped low to the ground, his thick hands and feet crawling forward in a twisted posture.

Golden Core power surged, yellow sand swirling around him, and with a loud whoosh — he shot forward like a beast.

The scent led the way.

Rat chased the ink fragrance through the tomb, and within a dozen breaths, he spotted Mo Hua — alone in the tunnel, cautious and sneaky, moving like a thief.

At the same time, Mo Hua also sensed Rat's presence.

In his spiritual sense, a giant rat was barreling toward him through the underground path.

Mo Hua was shocked.

"That damn rat — how is he catching up?!"

That tomb thief shouldn't know formation techniques or how to navigate.

And Mo Hua hadn't been marked with any tracking artifact.

So how the hell was he being followed?!

But now wasn't the time to dwell on it.

Seeing Rat rushing toward him — just a few steps away — Mo Hua didn't hesitate. He activated Flowing Water Step and sprinted.

But Rat's movement technique was bizarre — running low to the ground on all fours, truly like a giant rat.

Several times, Mo Hua almost got caught.

Fortunately, though Rat was fast and tricky, his technique lacked the subtle agility and redirection of Flowing Water Step.

Mo Hua relied on the finesse of his technique to narrowly escape again and again.

At the same time, he marveled in his heart:

"The world is vast and strange — there really are people who learn this kind of bizarre movement art…"

Rat was also secretly shocked:

"He dodged every time… Just what kind of freak is this kid? So young, yet with such flawless movement technique?"

At the same time, Rat grew even more certain:

"The stranger this brat is, the more proof that Old Man Pi's Gold-Seeking Talisman is on him!"

"Gold-Seeking Talisman!!"

His eyes turned blood-red.

He channeled his full Golden Core power, running on all fours like a demon, chasing after Mo Hua.

The pressure on Mo Hua skyrocketed.

But no matter how good Rat's movement art was — he was still inferior to Elder Yi, one of the Eight Great Daoist Elders.

Mo Hua had trained under Elder Yi as a sparring partner.

Even though he now carried shackles that hampered his movement slightly, when it came to maneuvering and dodging, he wasn't at a disadvantage at all.

The chase continued for dozens of rounds — back and forth, twist and turn — until even Rat grew anxious.

"I…"

"Can't catch him…"

A Golden Core cultivator like himself... couldn't catch a mere Foundation Establishment brat?

Right at that moment, whether it was because Mo Hua's spiritual energy couldn't keep up, or the shackles were hindering his movements too much, his foot slipped, and he stumbled mid-step. He fell to the ground and rolled several times before coming to a stop.

Clearly, he no longer had the strength to resist.

"Exhausted already?"

Rat froze for a moment, then finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that made sense…

How could a Foundation Establishment kid possibly outrun a Golden Core? Those fancy footworks just now must have been his last-ditch effort.

Seeing Mo Hua collapsed on the ground, clearly unable to circulate his movement technique again for a while, Rat's eyes lit up. He strode forward and reached out with his bloodstained, brutish hands to grab him.

Mo Hua was still useful — of course, Rat wouldn't kill him just yet. All he needed to do was strip him, search his body, and find the Gold-Seeking Talisman.

But just before those filthy hands could touch Mo Hua, a voice echoed down the tomb passage:

"Who's there?!"

The voice belonged to Lord Hui No. 2.

Rat's eyelid twitched. He cursed in his heart:

"Damn it! Of all times to show up — why now?! I had the brat right in my grasp!"

Seeing Hui No. 2 approaching fast, Rat had no choice but to withdraw his hand. He growled at Mo Hua:

"Don't you dare mention what I just said — or I'll gut you myself."

Mo Hua nodded "fearfully."

Moments later, the sound of footsteps approached, and Hui No. 2 and his group emerged from the shadows. When they saw it was just Mo Hua and Rat, they let out a sigh of relief.

Rat was an old associate — they had raided many tombs together. They had a working relationship.

And Mo Hua, despite his inexperience, was still the only formation master in their group — the only one they could rely on for navigation.

Right now, Hui No. 2 definitely didn't want either of these two to run into any accidents.

Especially not Mo Hua.

He looked at the battered Mo Hua and frowned:

"Little brother, are you injured?"

Rat cast a sideways glance at Mo Hua, his eyes full of malice.

Mo Hua stammered:

"I… I was being chased by a corpse fiend and panicked. I tripped and fell."

Hui No. 2's expression grew grave.

"Were you bitten?"

Mo Hua shook his head.

"No."

"Good." Hui No. 2 nodded. "Let's regroup with the others and get out of this passage. We don't want to be surrounded by corpse fiends again."

Mo Hua struggled to his feet and moved closer to Hui No. 2's side.

Rat stared at his back, a cold, dark light flashing in his eyes — clearly, he wasn't willing to give up.

The three of them continued forward, using clues from the terrain and traces of spiritual energy to search for the rest of the group in the tomb corridors.

Aside from Mo Hua, everyone in the party was at Golden Core Realm.

The corpse fiends they'd encountered were only Grade Two. They could injure Golden Core cultivators, but killing one would be nearly impossible.

So, after about half an hour of wandering, the scattered members of the group had all gathered again.

The lineup:

Hui No. 2 and the two other tomb raiders.

Four robed cultivators in black cloaks.

Mo Hua discreetly scanned the group and noticed something:

The only ones who had been bitten by corpse fiends were Hui No. 2… and Rat, the one who'd tried to rob him.

In other words — those two were now "tainted materials."

The others — especially one named Stone — were physically strong body cultivators, with skin like earth and rock. Regular corpse fiend bites couldn't even leave a scratch.

As for the four black-robed cultivators — their cultivation was deep and mysterious. Their cloaks seemed like magical artifacts — they could conceal aura and serve as defense.

Back when the group was scattered and under attack, they weren't injured at all — their cloaks hadn't even been torn.

Mo Hua couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

He still wanted to see what those black-robed guys really looked like…

After regrouping, they had a brief discussion and decided to turn back — this path was clearly a dead end.

The passage was narrow and twisting, impossible to navigate by ordinary means.

So naturally, it was up to Mo Hua to lead the way back.

And because he was the only Foundation Establishment cultivator among them, corpse fiends posed the greatest threat to him. No one wanted their formation master getting bitten and dying of the taint.

So the burly Stone took point — acting like a human shield, blocking attacks in front of Mo Hua.

Hui No. 2 and the cloaked noble flanked him on either side.

The rest stayed behind to guard the rear.

In this formation, the group steadily made their way out of the passage.

They encountered a few stray corpse fiends along the way, but none caused significant trouble.

Mo Hua walked along with the group while pointing out directions.

He was quite safe — yet he still felt a cold chill on his back from time to time, like a pair of venomous eyes watching him.

He didn't even need to guess — it was Rat.

This guy had scarily sharp instincts.

For some reason, he was convinced that Mo Hua had stolen Old Man Pi's Gold-Seeking Talisman, and he was hellbent on getting it back — by any means.

"Earth Sect, Shadow Division, Gold-Seeking Talisman…"

Mo Hua didn't fully understand what this Earth Sect's Shadow Division was, but the Gold-Seeking Talisman — if Old Man Pi treated it like a treasure, and if a grave robber like Rat with a family legacy coveted it this much — then it had to hold some enormous secret.

A secret connected to the Earth Sect.

And within the Earth Sect, one of the sacred relics they worshipped was the Celestial Heaven and Sacred Earth Diagram — specifically, the Sacred Earth Diagram.

There was no way Mo Hua would hand over the talisman.

Up to now, no one had ever successfully robbed him.

Especially not someone like Rat, who had already rummaged through his storage pouch and stolen his spirit stones and items.

Mo Hua remembered everything.

"Can't let him live..." Mo Hua thought silently.

He had no desire to spend the rest of this tomb raid with a malicious Golden Core cultivator constantly eyeing him like prey.

But Rat was at the Golden Core stage — Mo Hua couldn't kill him yet.

And especially not in front of this many people — his teammates included.

"Might as well use him to test how these corpse fiends get triggered... how exactly evil thoughts are stirred... and how higher-realm cultivators exhibit signs of corruption from those thoughts…"

Mo Hua contemplated silently.

But on the surface, his expression remained composed, fully focused on leading the group.

Under his guidance, the group bypassed several traps, slew more than ten corpse fiends, and twisted through countless winding corners until they finally emerged from the forked passage again.

Back at the starting point.

And naturally, they faced the same old dilemma: five paths — which one to take?

Hui No. 2 spoke first:

"The far-right one's a dead end, and we've been through the middle already. Let's try one of the remaining three."

He thought for a moment, then added:

"Let's go with the far-left path."

Mo Hua didn't object, and the rest had no complaints either. So the group headed down the leftmost fork.

But just a few steps in, Mo Hua scanned the surrounding array structure and immediately said:

"Something's not right."

"What's wrong?" Hui No. 2 asked, startled.

"It's the same." Mo Hua replied.

"Same?"

"Mm," Mo Hua nodded, quickly deducing in his mind. "This path, the middle path, and even the other two remaining ones — they're all the same."

"These roads connect to the same forked passage."

"No matter which one we enter, we'll still end up trapped in the maze full of traps and corpse fiends."

"Then… four fake paths, one dead end?" Hui No. 2 frowned.

"Four false paths," Mo Hua corrected, "but the remaining one isn't a dead end."

"My earlier calculations weren't wrong. This is a pseudo-array pattern in an earth formation — four fake, one true. The very first path I led us down was the correct one."

"But…" Hui No. 2's gaze turned serious. "That one clearly looked like a dead end."

Mo Hua shook his head:

"Arrays don't lie. If the deduction says it's a living path, then it is — even if it looks like a dead end."

As he said this, his gaze was calm and his voice steady, exuding a natural, unwavering confidence — the kind only found in truly accomplished formation masters.

Even the eyes of the black-robed young lord narrowed slightly.

And the elderly black-robed cultivator gave Mo Hua a look of surprised approval.

After a moment of thought, Hui No. 2 nodded:

"Alright, let's go back and check it again."

So the group doubled back and, following Mo Hua's guidance, entered the rightmost passage — the first one they had tried.

They followed it to the end, where a stone wall blocked the path.

There was a hole in the wall — blasted open earlier by Hui No. 2's punch. Beyond it was a sheer cliff wall, seemingly bottomless.

At first glance, it did appear to be a dead end.

"If this is really the correct path, there should be an array we can break, right?" Hui No. 2 asked.

Mo Hua shook his head:

"If there were an array, I'd have sensed it. It's precisely because there's no array that it managed to fool everyone."

Hui No. 2 considered that, then nodded.

"Makes sense."

With no array, that left just one option: dig.

So the Golden Core cultivators took turns, each using their own methods to begin excavating the cliff wall.

They dug for a long while with no visible result.

The group began to grow doubtful, but Mo Hua remained certain.

"Keep digging."

The Golden Core cultivators could only follow Mo Hua's instruction and continue.

As they dug deeper, they finally began to notice something unusual.

The mountain wall seemed natural — but it wasn't.

Inside, it was composed of mixed Grade Two and Grade Three stone materials — unnaturally solid. But after digging further, they noticed manmade casting marks.

In other words, this wasn't a natural cliff — but an artificial "false mountain."

If not for the combined effort of six or seven Golden Core cultivators digging deeply, they'd never have noticed.

Several of them exchanged glances, secretly amazed at Mo Hua's mastery of formations and his piercing insight.

After a while, Mo Hua suddenly called out:

"Stop."

"What is it?" Hui No. 2 asked.

"There's an array!" Mo Hua's eyes lit up.

If an array was embedded, they couldn't brute-force it anymore — doing so could cause a backlash, or even a collapse.

Mo Hua took out his ink and brush and began calculating how to break the array.

Only after completing his calculations did he say:

"Continue digging."

A while later, he shouted "Stop!" again, broke another formation, and then allowed them to proceed.

And so it continued — dig, break array, dig again.

No one knew how much time had passed, but finally the wall collapsed, revealing a dark opening.

Everyone's spirits lifted.

Stone went in first, using his tough, body-cultivator flesh to smash the way through. The others followed one after another.

When they finally looked up, they were momentarily stunned.

What stood before them was a massive, gloomy underground palace.

But this palace wasn't sealed — its corridors layered upon each other, forming an open layout visible all the way to the end.

And at the farthest end of the palace…

There lay an enormous pit.

Inside the pit rested a giant coffin, glowing with golden brilliance, forged entirely from bright yellow brass ore.

(End of this Chapter)