Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 2560: Chapter 40: Great Wilderness Sect (2)

The local family obviously doesn’t want to reveal the secrets of the sandship to the public, and therefore won’t intentionally correct them.

As a result, many ”facts” in the eyes of the world are often just the ”assumptions” of many outsiders, but in the eyes of insiders, they are hardly worth a chuckle.

”Many things in this world, without seeing them firsthand, cannot lead to correct understanding.”

Mo Hua sighed softly in his heart.

Then he began to reverse engineer the internal structure of the sandship as per usual, analyzing its Formation composition.

The Formation of the sandship is extremely confidential, engraved on the bottom of the sandship, enveloped in layers of wood and iron to prevent others from peeking.

An ordinary Formation Master naturally wouldn’t notice any clues.

But this was not difficult for Mo Hua, who had learned the Heavenly secret Calculation.

Heavenly secret Calculation is a calculation method that is mentioned alongside Gui Tao’s Heavenly secret Tricky Calculation. Despite its obscurity and rarity, people hardly know how profound and terrifying this Calculation Method named ”Heavenly secret” truly is.

Actually, Mo Hua doesn’t quite know either.

He only knows that the Heavenly secret Calculation taught by his master is very formidable, but he only learned a little bit of the basics.

He still only has a partial understanding of the truly profound and formidable aspects of this Calculation Method.

However, even just learning a bit of the ”basics” has been very advantageous for Mo Hua.

It’s at least akin to a divine technique for ”stealing” Formation knowledge.

The sandship sails in the wind and sand.

The core Formation at the bottom of the ship operates, transforming the sand beneath into water and sand, then reversely propelling the sandship forward.

Mo Hua takes advantage of his idle time to lay on the deck, staring blankly at the boundless desert sea while his Divine Sense quietly calculates, deducing the Formation from the spiritual power trajectories scattered outside the Formation and analyzing the types of Formation frameworks and Formation Patterns.

”There are water Patterns and earth Patterns of the Five Elements...”

”And also Eight Trigrams, Gen Patterns...”

”The structure is not complex, but the design is extremely ingenious; utilizing earth to generate sand, affinity with the Sand Sea, using a bit of water Pattern to solidify the surface of the sand, then briefly using a Gen Pattern to form a mountain Formation, carrying the ship’s body...”

”And... a bit of the Xun Formation?”

”Using Xun wind to propel the sandship forward?”

...

The more Mo Hua calculates, the more he finds it exquisite, marveling secretly in his heart.

The Formations used on this sandship, generally speaking, are a mixed use of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams Array.

The framework is not obscure, but the ratio of different Formation Patterns, as well as their operation order, the reaction of Formation Patterns, the impact of Formation Patterns on external objects, and the feedback of everything’s changes to the Formation Patterns... There are many variables, and many considerations.

Just one look from Mo Hua, he knows that this Formation condenses incredibly vast computational power, deep dedication, and great effort.

It is estimated that local Formation Masters have painstakingly researched and refined it over generations.

The goal is to design a Formation that can help ships ”smoothly cross” the Sand Sea.

This Formation is like an ”answer.”

The answer itself is not considered difficult.

But deriving this answer that can solve problems has exhausted the blood, sweat, and tears of countless generations of talented Formation Masters.

Mo Hua feels respect in his heart.

While pondering, suddenly footsteps sounded, and Mo Hua promptly gathered his thoughts, turned his head to see the ship captain with a slightly hunched stature and a face full of weathered look walking over.

The ship captain saw Mo Hua and nodded.

Mo Hua also said: ”Hello, Captain.”

The ship captain seemed to have been keeping watch over the Sand Sea, vigilantly guarding against sand monsters and bandits and felt somewhat fatigued, hence came to the deck to catch some wind.

Coincidentally, Mo Hua was there, so he gazed at the wind and sand, seated beside Mo Hua, and asked:

”How is it? Are you getting used to it?”

Mo Hua nodded, ”It’s fine.”

The ship captain nodded, ”Kid, you are doing well.”

Just as the wind and sand blew through, the ship captain coughed a few times, spitting out all the sand from his mouth.

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked: ”Captain, are there Formations on this ship?”

The ship captain said: ”Naturally, what sandship doesn’t have Formations; without Formations, how could this ship operate?”

Mo Hua then asked: ”Who painted these Formations?”

The ship captain was somewhat puzzled, ”Why are you asking this?”

Mo Hua responded with a sincere face, ”I’m curious, just casually asking.”

The ship captain glanced at Mo Hua, whose skin was bronze, form slender, but eyes were bright and expression congenial, making it difficult to harbor suspicion, then nodded and said:

”These Formations are painted by the Formation Masters associated with the ship service.”

Mo Hua asked: ”Do you know what kind of Formations they painted?”

The ship captain shook his head, ”How would I know? The ship service doesn’t allow us to ask, nor do they permit us to modify them ourselves. Whatever they paint for us is what we use.”

”Moreover, speaking of which, these Formations are entirely ’money-losers’.”

”Money-losers?”

The ship captain sighed, ”These Formations on sandships, just the annual maintenance alone requires quite a few Spirit Stones. If something goes wrong and needs to be repainted, it practically costs a fortune, almost equals a year’s wasted effort.”

”So severe?”

The ship captain nodded, ”You can’t have any opinions, otherwise, if the ship service refuses to paint Formations for you, you lose the qualification for sandship trade, even lose your livelihood.”

Mo Hua furrowed his brow slightly.

If he predicted correctly, these Formations were researched and continually refined by the local Formation Masters over generations, designed to enable cultivators to traverse the Sand Sea and make a living here.

However, what was originally meant to benefit cultivators with the heart’s blood of previous generations of Formation Masters has now been monopolized by family business to exploit low-level cultivators for profit.

Mo Hua’s expression darkened slightly, deep in thought.

Previously, he was solely focused on researching and developing Formations, comprehending the Heavenly Dao, and benefiting all beings.

But now it seems, blindly developing Formations isn’t quite right either. Ultimately, it depends on who the Formations are used for.