Chapter 20: Formation Success
Mo Hua returned and followed Instructor Yan's guidance, attempting to redraw the runes a few times—and sure enough, it felt like the fog had lifted.
That night, as he entered sleep and practiced on the stone tablet, his comprehension clearly improved.
Things he previously couldn't grasp started to make sense with a few more repetitions.
As long as the fundamental runes were solid, learning variations wasn't too difficult. The real problem was lack of direction. Without a teacher to guide him, Mo Hua wouldn't even think in the right direction, let alone make progress.
After another full day of familiarization, by the evening of the third day, Mo Hua began officially attempting to draw the Earth-Stabilizing Array.
Naturally, the first strokes didn't go smoothly. But after some stumbles, he managed to draw the full array. The only problem—it took a long time.
This four-rune Earth-Stabilizing Array took Mo Hua an hour and a half to complete. And due to the severe drain on his spiritual sense, he had to rest for another full hour afterward.
By the time he finished, it was already midnight.
He carefully checked the array—and as expected, there was a mistake.
Mo Hua sighed.
"One whole night… and only one array. And it's wrong."
With only five days left and ten arrays to draw, time was tight.
"What now…?"
After some thought, Mo Hua decided to skip a few cultivation classes to free up time.
Courses like Cultivation History and Common Knowledge couldn't be skipped—they broadened horizons and deepened understanding.
But classes like Alchemy and Talismans required costly materials—herbs, jade slips, rental fees for pill furnaces. Mo Hua decided to skip a few of those selectively.
"Anyway, it's not like I'll ever get far in those fields. No use burning spirit stones on lost causes."
As for Body Refinement classes—those he ditched entirely.
Cultivators enhanced spiritual power through cultivation techniques and wielded it via Dao arts.
Dao arts came in two types: magical techniques and martial arts.
Magical techniques (法术) use spiritual sense to manipulate power from a distance, while martial arts (武学) enhance physical strength for close combat.
Those who trained magical techniques were called spirit cultivators, while those who refined the body were body cultivators.
During the Qi Refining stage, spirit cultivators were rare and body cultivators more common. Especially in places like Tongxian City, where most cultivators made a living by hunting monsters. Spirit cultivators, being physically frail, weren't suitable for monster hunting—so most loose cultivators followed the body refinement path.
To that end, Tongxian Sect offered a body training course to help disciples build strength early on.
But Mo Hua was physically unfit for it.
He hadn't inherited his father Mo Shan's aptitude for body refinement—instead, he was more like his mother Liu Ruhua: frail from birth, perhaps even more so.
According to Elder Feng, an alchemist from the Apricot Grove Hall:
"A cultivator is born in harmony with the Dao. Their spiritual sense and physical body are meant to be balanced.
But Mo Hua was born with memories of two lifetimes. His spiritual sense was abnormally strong, which caused an imbalance—and the body suffered for it."
What other kids could lift—100-kilogram stone cauldrons—Mo Hua couldn't even budge with all his strength. He was a full head shorter and a whole size smaller than his peers.
Despite being weak, he was quite handsome, with soft features, gentle temperament, red lips, white teeth—at age ten, he looked like a porcelain doll.
Which was... fine. But Mo Hua still believed that a real man should be strong and valiant.
Like his father—tall, striking, exuding authority.
His dream image of himself was in flowing white robes, mastering peerless techniques, spear in hand, unstoppable in battle.
Unfortunately, that version of himself only existed in dreams…
"Oh, wait…"
Mo Hua remembered—he couldn't dream.
Whenever he slept, his spiritual sense automatically entered his consciousness sea.
Originally, the body refinement instructor had strict expectations for Mo Hua. But after seeing Mo Hua fail to budge the stone cauldron—and sprain his arm trying—they became far more lenient.
That's cultivation for you—effort alone doesn't always change the outcome.
The instructor understood this well.
"When Heaven closes a window, maybe it wants you to try a different door—not bash your head against the wall."
So Mo Hua skipped those classes, shut himself in, and focused on drawing arrays.
After five days, when the sect break finally came around, Mo Hua had used all ten sets of materials.
Out of ten arrays, six were successful.
Not only did he avoid losses—he even earned four spirit stones. Mo Hua was satisfied.
On his day off, he visited Youyuan Pavilion on North Street and handed the finished arrays to Fatty Manager.
Fatty Manager glanced at the arrays and remarked,
"Your brother's array foundation is honestly pretty bad. But he learns fast. I can tell just by looking—the quality improves visibly with each one. Except for…"
He pulled out the first array and criticized it thoroughly:
"This one looks like it was drawn by a total rookie. Even the basic runes are sloppy…"
Mo Hua had long grown used to his grumbling—it went in one ear and out the other.
Besides, he was talking about Mo Hua's "big brother," right?
Not Mo Hua himself.
I don't have a big brother.
Ignoring the rant, Mo Hua cut to the point:
"So… can I trade them for spirit stones?"
Fatty Manager rolled his eyes but still counted out four spirit stones and handed them over.
"Tell your brother to do a better job next time."
"Mm-hmm!" Mo Hua accepted the stones with a nod and a grin.
He spent the stones on more pastries—ate two himself, saved two, and gave the rest to Da Hu and his buddies.
The trio was deeply moved by the treat and asked Mo Hua if he wanted to eat meat again. They'd spotted another elder raising a plump, multi-colored duck...
Mo Hua's head throbbed.
"Please, don't steal again. If the sect sends word to your families, your parents'll beat you till your souls reincarnate."
Only then did the three reluctantly abandon the idea.
Mo Hua continued drawing Earth-Stabilizing Arrays for over two months.
With more practice, his mastery deepened.
Where it once took three hours per array—including rest breaks—it now only took an hour and a half.
There were two reasons:
Familiarity breeds speed. The more he understood the rune patterns, the faster he drew them.
Spiritual sense training. Constant practice sharpened his mental energy. His spiritual awareness had noticeably grown stronger.
And spiritual sense was crucial for array work—it was a massive advantage.
His success rate rose to 80–90%, and sometimes he completed all ten arrays without a single failure.
At two spirit stones profit per array, even after deducting daily living expenses, Mo Hua earned a full hundred spirit stones in just two months.
His next goal: save up two hundred and choose a mid-grade cultivation technique from the sect.
Only then would he tell his parents—otherwise, they'd insist on paying the cost themselves, telling him to save his spirit stones for cultivating… or for marrying a Dao partner and buying a cave estate in the future.
(End of Chapter)