The Quest for Immortality

Mo Hua took out the map of the wilderness surrounding South Yue City.

It was called a map, but it was crudely made, the lines were simple, and it only roughly outlined some mountain terrains; nothing else was included.

This wilderness was rarely visited, so there was no detailed map available.

The one Mo Hua held was previously obtained from Situ Fang. It was a map of the mountainous terrain recorded by the Taoist Court Official of South Yue City.

Mo Hua recalled the trajectory of the light spots on the Compass Disk and traced Zhang Quan’s path on the map.

Zhang Quan’s movements seemed chaotic, but all his routes were concentrated within the forest between two peaks to the east of the wilderness.

He came here to return to his lair.

Therefore, the place where he refined and hid the corpses had to be nearby.

And to avoid being tracked, he would certainly not linger near his lair.

So the location of his lair was probably to the west of where he lingered.

The two places were separated by a large mountain and faced each other from a distance.

Mo Hua shared his deductions.

Bai Zisheng asked doubtfully,

”How do you know this?”

Mo Hua said, ”I am a Monster Hunter. I often track Monster Beasts in the mountains; this is the basics for a Monster Hunter.”

”But Zhang Quan is not a Monster Beast.”

”Close enough. Anyway, he can hardly be considered human anymore, I suspect his habits are very similar to those of Monster Beasts.”

Bai Zisheng nodded, then asked,

”What if you guessed wrong?”

”If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. It doesn’t really affect anything,” Mo Hua said indifferently.

Bai Zisheng sighed, ”Alright then...”

After all, they needed to search, and having a direction was better than having none.

Putting aside Zhang Quan for the moment, Mo Hua and the other two crossed over a mountain range to the west of the wilderness to look for Zhang Quan’s hiding place.

Mo Hua was not worried about Zhang Quan.

After all, with the Compass Disk, Zhang Quan couldn’t escape from his grasp. He could be left to his own devices, letting him play a game of hide-and-seek with himself.

And as long as they found Zhang Quan’s hiding place, they could even turn the situation around and lie in wait to catch him.

To the west of the South Yue wilderness, there was nothing special.

It was still the same withered grass, low trees, dry rocks, and steep mountains.

The three searched together for a while, then split up to continue the search, but still came up empty-handed.

At least on the surface, there was only barren grass and rocky hills.

Further out, there were more continuous wilderness hills, but the distance was much greater, and with such a wide range, it was not easy to search.

Bai Zisheng questioned doubtfully, ”There’s nothing?”

Mo Hua shook his head, ”Not necessarily, we’ve only searched once.”

A Monster Hunter won’t just search the mountains once.

The first time is just to get a rough look at the terrain, to have an overall impression of the land in the Sea of Consciousness. Then, by comparing it with the map, one would have a clearer sense of the paths.

Afterward, based on experience, one would choose a route and search carefully.

Mo Hua recalled the terrain and speculated which places could be used for Corpse Refinement or as hiding spots, which locations had special terrain, and which places had a suspicious aura...

He then took out a pen and marked a route on the map before continuing the search.

This time, Mo Hua searched very meticulously.

At every place, he would sit cross-legged, release his Divine Sense, and sense the sparse flow of Spiritual Energy between heaven and earth, as well as the circulation of various auras in the mountains.

At the same time, he had to calculate in his mind to see if there were any traces of a Formation.

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi protected him from any Cultivator or Monster Beast that might attempt an ambush.

After Mo Hua finished searching, he opened his eyes and got up to move to the next location, searching one place after another.

This kind of search was rather tedious.

What’s more, Calculation consumed a lot of Divine Sense.

Luckily, Mo Hua was patient enough, his Divine Sense was strong, and he had mastered the Meditation Technique, so his Divine Sense recovered quickly.

Stop and go, Mo Hua suddenly uttered a ”huh” next to a cluster of bald rocks.

Bai Zisheng’s eyes lit up, ”Did you find it?”

Mo Hua nodded slightly, ”There’s a Formation.”

Bai Zisheng released his Divine Sense and swept around, then said helplessly, ”Where is it?”

He didn’t find anything.

Mo Hua pointed to the group of bald rocks in front of them, ”All these are part of a Formation.”

Bai Zisheng looked at the rocks, which were shiny and bald, massive in size, and numerous. They were piled up together, completely blocking off one side of the mountain.

”What kind of Formation is this?”

Mo Hua shook his head, ”I don’t know. It looks like... some kind of Earth Series Illusion Technique. Just wait...”

After saying that, Mo Hua sat down cross-legged on the ground again.

He closed his eyes in contemplation, focused in thought, and found a tree branch to draw something on the ground.

Half an hour later, Mo Hua opened his eyes and pointed to the pattern on the ground, saying,

”The Formation Patterns are like this.”

Bai Zisheng’s mouth fell open, ”You even figured out the Formation Patterns?”

Mo Hua corrected him, ”It’s ’Calculation,’ not ’guess.’”

”Calculation” made it seem professional, like something a proficient Junior Formation Master should do.

”Guess” seemed too amateurish and hinted at a guesswork.

Bai Zisheng clicked his tongue in wonder and asked,

”Did your master teach you the Divine Sense Calculation?”

Mo Hua nodded.

Bai Zisheng couldn’t help but feel envious.

If one learned Divine Sense Calculation, one could see through Formations.

The Formation Master in this wilderness had used Formations to hide their tracks, but because they had set up Formations, in Mo Hua’s eyes, it was as clear as day.

Even through Calculation, they could deduce the specific Formation Patterns.

It was really shameless...

Bai Zisheng sighed.

What a pity, his Divine Sense was not sufficient, hence he couldn’t learn it.

Of course, even if he could learn it, he probably wouldn’t be able to use it as well as Mo Hua did.

In terms of Formations, his Junior Disciple was always a ”little freak” in his heart...

Suddenly, Mo Hua’s Divine Sense stirred, and he looked at Bai Zisheng with an unfriendly gaze,

”Talking bad about me again?”

Bai Zisheng felt completely helpless, ”I was praising you in my heart...”

Mo Hua snorted, ”Do you think I believe that?”

Bai Zisheng let out a sigh and had no choice but to apologize politely, then quickly changed the subject:

”How do we break this formation?”

Mo Hua replied, ”There’s no need to break it, this is just a decoy.”

After releasing his Divine Sense and peeking through, he said:

”Follow me.”

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi nodded.

Mo Hua walked straight up to a bare rock and then gently reached out, his fingers sinking into the stone.

Mo Hua continued to walk forward, his entire body going directly into the rock.

Bai Zisheng was startled, and Bai Zixi was also slightly taken aback.

This bare rock was merely an illusion, not a real object.

The two exchanged glances and followed Mo Hua inside.

Once inside the rock, all was pitch-black, but Mo Hua seemed to know everything like the back of his hand, leading the way with ease.

After walking for a moment, light appeared before them, revealing a large stone gate.

The gate was gloomy, entwined with a sense of death, and a faint putrid stench lingered at the entrance.

And on the gate, three mottled, crude characters were inscribed:

Corpse Walking Stronghold.

Mo Hua frowned, Corpse Walking Stronghold?

The trio didn’t charge in directly but concealed their forms and found a large rock nearby to squat under, huddled together with their heads close.

”Another stronghold in the mountains...”

”A stronghold in the mountains is naturally a mountain stronghold,” Bai Zixi said.

”Corpse Walking Stronghold... Could this stronghold be used for corpse refinement...?”

”It’s possible.”

”This is a bit troublesome...”

”What’s wrong?”

Mo Hua thought for a moment and said, ”Since it’s a stronghold, it means that there isn’t just one cultivator inside, there should be many of them...”

”Zhang Quan isn’t a loner, he’s likely a leader or at least a householder.”

Bai Zisheng asked, ”So what do we do now, storm in and slaughter them all?”

Mo Hua helplessly replied, ”Can you kill them all?”

”How would we know without trying?”

Bai Zisheng’s eyes shone excitedly, eager to rush in immediately and eradicate the stronghold.

Bai Zixi silently twisted his arm, which made him behave.

Mo Hua said, ”We must take precautions before it happens; we cannot act rashly. I’ll go in first using concealment to check the situation.”

”You’re going in alone?”

”Yes,” Mo Hua nodded, ”I’m familiar with this.”

Back then, he had infiltrated Black Mountain Stronghold completely unnoticed, all by himself.

At that time, sneaking into Black Mountain Stronghold was somewhat dangerous.

But now things were different.

Now his Divine Sense was deeper, his Concealment Technique stronger, and his knowledge of formations was far beyond that of an ordinary first-grade Formation Master. He did not fear even Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Although Mo Hua couldn’t defeat a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could hide from them thanks to his skill at concealment.

Bai Zixi disagreed, ”We should go together!”

Bai Zisheng nodded in agreement as well.

Mo Hua shook his head and said, ”Your ability to conceal isn’t good enough; you would be detected by Foundation Establishment cultivators.”

Bai Zixi was still somewhat worried.

So Mo Hua said, ”I’ll go in, and you two stay here as backup. If something goes wrong, I’ll set off fireworks, and you come in to help me.”

Although he said this, it was very unlikely that such a situation would occur.

After some thought, Bai Zixi had no better solution and could only nod in agreement.

Bai Zisheng was a little disappointed and quickly reminded him:

”If there’s trouble, don’t be afraid. Just set off the fireworks, and I, your senior brother, will charge in and slay them… no, I mean protect you!”

Bai Zisheng was still thinking about fighting.

Mo Hua was somewhat exasperated.

Afterward, without saying anything more, Mo Hua concealed his form and quietly sneaked into Corpse Walking Stronghold.

Before entering Corpse Walking Stronghold, he released his Divine Sense to ascertain the positions of several cultivators at the gate, then quietly avoided them and slipped inside.

Then he found a hidden place and pushed his Divine Sense to the limit.

Each time he only released it briefly, then quickly withdrew it.

Like a dragonfly skimming the water, leaving no trace.

After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, he released his Divine Sense again.

After probing with his Divine Sense three or four times without noticing anything unusual, Mo Hua finally let out a slight sigh of relief.

It seemed there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators in Corpse Walking Stronghold.

Or even if there were, their Divine Sense was not strong enough to detect Mo Hua’s surveillance.

Mo Hua felt much more at ease.

He began to scrutinize the layout of Corpse Walking Stronghold and the cultivators within.

The Corpse Walking Stronghold was built against a mountain, its layout simple, with constructed wooden houses and carved out caves.

What wasn’t simple, was the dense Corpse Qi and the numerous deathly auras.

With just a light scan, Mo Hua could detect many coffins.

Most of these coffins were wooden, but there were a few that had an even heavier presence of Corpse Qi, crafted from refined iron and preserved with Evil Formations – iron coffins.

The corpses harbored within were likely the stronger Iron Corpses.

In the entire stronghold, there were more dead people than living ones.

Of the living cultivators, not all of them seemed to be Corpse cultivators.

Those who could control corpses were few, donned in gray robes, with pallid skin.

The rest looked more like bandits.

Mo Hua was surprised by this discovery.

Beyond this, there were the formations.

As expected, there were numerous formations laid out around Corpse Walking Stronghold.

The standards of these formations were mostly below the first grade, ranging from seven to eight Patterns, with the most complex having up to nine Patterns.

After dismantling a few formations and examining them closely, Mo Hua suddenly paused in shock.

He recognized the style of these Formation Patterns.

Neat and meticulous, yet somewhat rigid.

When he was learning about Formation Patterns at Tongxian Gate, it was with such Patterns as the template.

These were...Formation Patterns drawn by Instructor Yan...