Chapter 781 – Laws
"You… What are you trying to do?"
The Sword Bone's voice trembled slightly.
"Nothing much, just need a little help from you," Mo Hua replied with a sunny smile.
Looking at Mo Hua's warm and friendly expression, the Sword Bone somehow felt a chill creeping out from the bottom of its heart.
Then, before it could even refuse—which, let's be honest, it didn't really have the right to—Mo Hua had already pulled out his brush, dipped it in spiritual ink, and began inscribing the Divine Lock Array on the white bone demon sword.
The moment the first stroke landed…
The sword's aura dimmed slightly.
Inside the broken blade, the Sword Bone suddenly felt as if a heavy chain had locked its blood pool in place—completely sealed.
The Sword Bone was terrified.
"Little Ancestor, please don't—!"
But Mo Hua ignored it, continuing to draw stroke after stroke.
Each line he added was like another heavy chain, binding the demon blade tighter.
The Sword Bone was growing more and more suffocated.
Eventually—who knows how much time passed—Mo Hua finished inscribing the entire Divine Lock Array onto the demon sword.
"All done!"
Mo Hua held up the broken bone sword and admired the formation he'd just drawn, looking extremely satisfied.
Then he said, "Sword Bone, try breaking out of it."
He wanted to see if this sword spirit, relying solely on its own demonic power, could break the sealing effect of his newly inscribed Divine Lock Array.
But after waiting a while… there was no response.
Mo Hua blinked. "Huh? What's going on?"
Had the Sword Bone been completely suppressed? Obliterated?
Mo Hua rubbed one of the array lines with his finger, slightly weakening the seal. As soon as it loosened a bit, a faint voice echoed from the blade:
"…I'm sealed…"
"…I can't send voice transmissions…"
"Oh." Mo Hua nodded in realization.
He lightly erased another line. "What about now?"
"A bit better…"
The Sword Bone's voice was still very faint, but at least it could be heard now.
Mo Hua said, "Try breaking out of the 'seal.' Let's see what happens."
The Sword Bone hesitated.
It was afraid Mo Hua was just toying with it.
If it really did break out, there was no telling whether this petty little ancestor would hold a grudge and make it suffer even more.
Mo Hua frowned and banged the sword against the ground. "I said break the damn seal! Do it!"
"Yes, yes…"
The Sword Bone had no choice but to muster up its full strength and slash its bone sword energy toward the Divine Lock Array composed of divine will.
After a few strikes, the runes didn't budge.
The Sword Bone gasped in amazement. "Your array… it's so strong! My bone sword aura can't even scratch it!"
Mo Hua narrowed his eyes.
He could tell this thing was holding back.
"Cut the flattery. If you pull your punches again, don't blame me for being impolite."
The Sword Bone felt bitter.
After all, Mo Hua knew exactly how strong it was.
Maybe it was trash compared to Mo Hua, but it wasn't this trashy.
There was no fooling this little ancestor…
With no choice, the Sword Bone reluctantly expanded its form. The bone blade twisted and stretched into its complete sword demon form, no longer daring to hold back. It went all out, slashing at the seal over the blood pool with fierce, pale-white sword energy laced with demonic intent.
The golden seal lines remained still and unmoved.
But Mo Hua frowned slightly.
On the surface, the array wasn't breaking… but he could sense that the sealing force was being gradually eroded.
Each sword strike, laced with demonic thought, shaved away a sliver of divine will anchoring the seal.
Though minuscule—like an ant gnawing at a dam—it was definitely eroding it.
A thousand-mile dam can collapse from a single ant hole…
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the seal completely failed.
Above the blood pool, the sword aura raged.
The Sword Bone kept slashing until it was exhausted, eventually retreating from its demonized state and panting heavily.
Mo Hua said, "Rest a bit. Then keep hacking."
The Sword Bone mustered some courage, about to protest—but one glance at Mo Hua's deep, unreadable eyes reminded it of this little ancestor's terrifying nature. That courage instantly deflated.
"Yes, yes…"
And so, after a short rest, it turned back into its sword demon form and resumed slashing away at the Divine Lock Array.
This time, it imagined every rune was Mo Hua himself.
Which gave it extra motivation.
"Cut you to pieces! Cut you to pieces! One day, I'll slice you a thousand times over!"
The Sword Bone cursed bitterly in its heart.
But of course, it made sure to bury that rebellious thought deep, deep down, not daring to show a single trace of it.
Because it knew—
If Mo Hua ever sensed it, the one getting sliced a thousand times would definitely be itself.
So it continued the cycle—hack, rest, repeat.
Who knows how long it went on.
Suddenly, there was a faint "zzzt"—a hairline crack appeared in the chain of divine will.
The Sword Bone paused, then was overjoyed.
Mo Hua's brow furrowed even tighter.
With the first crack, the Sword Bone went at it with renewed fury.
Soon, one of the rune chains shattered completely, and the sealing force faded entirely.
The Divine Lock Array was interconnected. Now that one part had failed, the rest weakened substantially.
"Cut you! Cut you!"
The Sword Bone whispered gleefully in its heart.
A few more strikes later, the divine chains collapsed, and the sealing force vanished without a trace.
The Sword Bone straightened up proudly, finally feeling some dignity return to its spine.
It glanced at Mo Hua with a smug little smirk. "Looks like your array isn't all that…"
Mo Hua stared at it in silence.
The Sword Bone immediately jolted.
Big mistake.
It had let down its guard for just one second and said something so arrogantly suicidal.
It quickly rubbed its non-existent cold sweat from its forehead and gave an awkward chuckle:
"I mean—your formation is truly unfathomable. Me breaking through it was just… luck, pure luck…"
But Mo Hua wasn't even looking at it anymore.
He was deep in thought, frowning to himself.
The Sword Bone let out a silent sigh of relief… but still grumbled internally:
"You're the one who told me to break the formation. I break it, and you're still unhappy?"
"This little ancestor's moods are impossible to predict…"
Then it had another thought:
"Though that formation looked insanely strong—the divine will was dense to the point of being scary. It didn't even feel like human divine sense…"
"But that kind of strength—too rigid, too absolute. Like a stone dam—hard, but water will wear it down drop by drop. Eventually, it'll break…"
Mo Hua had realized this too.
On the surface, his divine sense was powerful—refined to the extreme through the Divine Dao formation—but it was static, dead.
It was a fixed amount, lacking adaptability.
It simply couldn't withstand long-term erosion by demonic forces.
If even a lowly sword demon could break the seal…
Even less could it hope to seal a colossal evil god.
The Divine Lock Array he had just drawn possessed only the form of a seal—but not its substance.
"But then… what is the substance of a seal?"
Was it some special Law of the Heavenly Dao?
Something akin to:
the spirit-disintegrating effect of the Reverse Spirit Array,
the earthy Dao resonance of the Thick Earth Array,
the energy manipulation of the Spirit Pivot Array,
or the fusion of divine will and spiritual power in the Five Elements Extinction Array?
What was the law that governed true sealing?
Mo Hua was confused.
No one had ever taught him this. No one had even hinted at it. How could he possibly figure it out on his own in a short amount of time?
How could he truly comprehend it?
Mo Hua sighed, his head aching.
As expected, array formations were boundless and profound. Even with his talent, there were moments when it all felt like a fog, leaving him completely lost.
After pondering a while, he decided to head to the Dao Monument to practice and see if he could find new insight.
But… it wasn't time yet.
So, Mo Hua pulled out his Great Void Token and sent a message to Elder Xun, reporting all the intelligence he had gathered so far.
This included internal structural details of Ten Thousand Demon Valley, and the identities of several Broken Gold Sect disciples—Jin Gui, Jin Yicai, and Jin Yixuan.
Naturally, he left out anything regarding Mr. Tu and the evil god, since the karma involved ran too deep and would be difficult to explain.
Elder Xun Ziyou's expression was equally grim upon receiving the message.
Standing beside him, Shangguan Xuan couldn't help but scoff bitterly:
"Well, well… the Broken Gold Sect sure has some nerve!"
Xun Ziyou remained silent. After a long pause, he sighed:
"Let's not make this public yet."
Shangguan Xuan frowned. Then he spoke slowly:
"If you find one cockroach in a room, it usually means…"
Xun Ziyou nodded grimly.
Shangguan Xuan added, face solemn:
"It could mean there's an infestation…"
Xun Ziyou sighed deeply again, raising his gaze to the skies above Qianxue Prefecture, remembering the words of the patriarch. Suddenly, a sharp thought struck him:
"Three feet of ice does not form in a single day…"
"Perhaps… the trouble began long, long ago."
He muttered quietly to himself.
After speaking with Elder Xun, Mo Hua sat in meditation for a while, then reviewed the Divine Dao arrays again—Divine Gate Array, Divine Mist Array, and Divine Lock Array. When midnight struck, he plunged his consciousness into the sea of awareness.
Within his spiritual sea, the Dao Monument loomed vast and eternal, towering silently.
Mo Hua began by inscribing the Divine Gate, Divine Mist, and Divine Lock Arrays one by one upon it.
Soon, three faint golden formations—formed entirely of divine thought—emerged on the Dao Monument.
Mo Hua stared at them, then shook his head slightly.
"It's not right…"
The flow of divine thought within the arrays felt muddy and unclear.
They had the form, but lacked the spirit.
When drawn on the white bone demon sword to seal the Sword Bone, he hadn't noticed this.
But now, presented on the Dao Monument—imbued with Laws of the Great Dao—the problem was obvious.
The runes glowed faintly.
This meant the monument did not approve.
In other words, his understanding of the Divine Dao Arrays was still superficial. He hadn't truly grasped the essence of the formations.
"But what is the law behind these Divine Dao Arrays?"
Mo Hua frowned and pondered, but even after long, bitter thought, he couldn't reach a conclusion. Frustration crept in.
"Seems that Mr. Tu wasn't lying after all. These Divine Dao Arrays… 'use mortal comprehension to steal the power of the divine.' To grasp the power to seal gods—it's complex and obscure. Not something you can just 'pick up' overnight."
Indeed, Mr. Tu hadn't exaggerated.
Mo Hua offered a silent apology to him in his heart.
Earlier, he had thought his talent was extraordinary—he learned it after just one look. But now, he realized… that was a bit naive. He had underestimated the depth of array masters in this world.
Mo Hua sighed again.
Now what?
He had the array diagrams, and he could draw the runes, but the true meaning—the Laws behind them—were a complete mystery.
He had no clue how to proceed.
The whole situation felt stuck.
Mo Hua frowned—then suddenly remembered something Mr. Tu had said to Jin Yixuan before disappearing:
"Familiarize yourself with the runes and array principles. I'll teach you more later…"
So… when Mr. Tu starts teaching Jin Yixuan later, Mo Hua could just steal-learn it?
Since Mr. Tu could use these Divine Dao Arrays, that meant he understood the Great Dao laws they contained.
If he taught Jin Yixuan, then indirectly… he would also be teaching Mo Hua.
That way, even if Mo Hua couldn't fully comprehend the laws, at least he'd have a direction, and wouldn't be so blindly lost.
"But… will there be enough time?"
Mo Hua had his doubts.
He didn't know how talented Jin Yixuan was with formations.
If the guy was a blockhead who needed ten or fifteen days just to memorize the array runes, then by the time he got to the real stuff… the vegetables would be cold already!
But right now, Mo Hua had no better option.
So he sighed again and simply continued practicing the Divine Dao Arrays on the Dao Monument—hoping that the more he drew them, the more insight he might gain. Perhaps inspiration would strike.
On the Dao Monument, the Divine Dao runes appeared stroke by stroke.
Mo Hua quieted his mind, focused his spirit, and redrew the arrays—over and over.
Draw, erase, draw again…
Time passed quietly.
Mo Hua didn't know how many times he'd repeated it. He had definitely grown more fluent—but in terms of deeper comprehension, he had made zero progress.
"This is so hard…"
Tired, Mo Hua lay down beside the Dao Monument to rest his mind, planning to pick up again afterward.
"No way… if I draw these a hundred, a thousand times and still learn nothing? Impossible."
He closed his eyes, emptied his mind, and calmed his thoughts.
His fatigue slowly faded.
After resting for a while, Mo Hua felt refreshed and was just about to get up and resume drawing when—out of the corner of his eye—he suddenly noticed something.
A black, jagged crack.
His expression froze.
This was a rift in the void.
Ever since Mo Hua's divine sense had reached the peak of Seventeen Runes—on the verge of breaking through to Eighteen—this fissure had suddenly appeared within his sea of consciousness.
Its origins were unknown. Where it came from, what caused it—none of it was clear. But it was undoubtedly mysterious, almost as if carved by the very hand of the Dao itself—as though it had been born specifically to patch a "flaw" within Mo Hua.
Any growth in his divine sense… would be swallowed by it.
So, for over a year, all the painstaking cultivation of his divine sense had essentially gone into feeding this uninvited guest. As a result, his divine sense had not advanced at all.
This rift was the very culprit suppressing the growth of his divine sense.
Previously, every time Mo Hua saw this void rift, he would feel nothing but resentment.
But now… he was stunned.
"It suppressed my divine sense from growing…"
In other words, didn't that mean—it had sealed his divine sense?
In other words… this void rift was a Heavenly Dao-level seal?
The rift clearly contained a kind of Law of the Heavenly Dao.
Which meant—it was a pure, blatant manifestation of the Heavenly Dao's sealing law!
Mo Hua could hardly believe it.
"Searching the world in vain, only to find it was right here all along…"
The very core principle of Divine Dao arrays—the law of sealing—had been branded into his spiritual sea from the beginning, disguised as a "patch" from the Heavenly Dao?
Its entire purpose was to seal his divine sense, to mend his innate flaw?
Mo Hua's jaw dropped. His heart was rocked with realization.
And then, his eyes lit up—his mind began racing:
"If I want to know how a Divine Dao array can seal an evil god, I only need to understand… how this law sealed me!"
If this law could suppress his divine sense—
Then, by comprehending it and fusing it into a Divine Dao array, he too could seal other evil spirits—maybe even godlike beings of terrifying power!
Mo Hua continued pondering:
"But how exactly did this law seal my divine sense?"
In the next instant, a word popped into his mind—
Devouring.
"This law maintains itself by devouring the divine sense of the one being sealed—forming a self-sustaining loop that reinforces and stabilizes the law."
"By the same logic, a Divine Dao array should also devour the target's divine will, using that to maintain the array's effect and ensure the sealing power remains active over time."
"So, the core rule of sealing… is devouring!"
Mo Hua suddenly understood.
"Without a source, even water dries up."
All power in the world obeys this principle. Everything needs a source—whether it's spiritual power, demonic energy, or divine thought.
Regular arrays could be powered with spirit stones.
But divine sense? There was no such "divine stone" to fuel it.
And no array master could endlessly supply their divine sense to maintain a seal.
So for a Divine Dao sealing array to persist, it must find another power source—by devouring the divine will of the very being it seals, creating an internal feedback loop.
The deeper this devouring law ran, the stronger the Divine Dao array—the more unbreakable the seal.
In fact, to some extent, the array and the sealed entity become one.
As long as the evil god lives, the array won't die.
Mo Hua was shaken.
"The laws of the Heavenly Dao truly are profound."
And the ancient array masters who had managed to manifest those laws into real formations… they were truly awe-inspiring.
Mo Hua's expression turned solemn.
"The Dao is infinite. The art of arrays is boundless. And there are always people beyond the people."
"I must not grow arrogant. I must stay humble, keep thinking deeply, keep learning—only then can I one day reach the pinnacle of the array path and comprehend the Dao."
He nodded to himself, silently.
Then, his eyes began to shine.
The law of the Heavenly Dao—it was already right in front of him!
He had thought about comprehending this strange law before, but due to his limited cultivation experience, he hadn't understood what it meant.
Besides, just understanding a law wasn't enough—without a form, without a vessel, it was useless.
Now he finally understood—
Divine Dao array runes were the form;
The sealing law was the spirit.
Combine the two… and the law would gain shape—become something usable.
Mo Hua held his breath and calmed his mind.
He began to draw Divine Dao runes upon the Dao Monument, while simultaneously visualizing the law embodied by the void rift—observing the flow of divine thought within it.
As he compared the two, he sought to merge them.
Let the runes deepen his understanding of the law—
And let the law breathe life into the runes.
He didn't know how long he practiced like this.
Then, at last, his brush halted—he finished the final stroke.
And just like that—as if a dragon's eye had been painted open—the formation came to life.
A dazzling flash of golden light.
Condensed divine thought began to circulate and cycle within it.
"It's done!"
A true Divine Dao array—imbued with the law of sealing—the Divine Lock Array, golden light flowing like chains binding a god, now stood before him!
Mo Hua broke into a radiant smile.
And at that exact moment— In a celestial sect palace, resplendent as jade towers in heaven, a meditating elder suddenly opened his eyes.
A flicker of fear rippled through his heart.
As if… some incomparably profound and sacred secret—one that should not be known by mortals—had just… been lost.
(End of this Chapter)