The Quest for Immortality

His Gold-Cutting Sword Formation remained incomplete, still lacking a good deal, but his Divine Sense had already been depleted.

Moreover, Cheng Mo was nearly at his limit.

Even though he practiced Body Cultivation and had exceptional physical talent, it was impossible to endure such beatings endlessly.

For today, it was best to take a step back.

Mo Hua walked to the edge of the forest and scattered some foul-smelling flesh. Sure enough, within moments, a monster beast resembling a hyena, standing as tall as a man, with its mouth foaming a rancid stench, appeared.

The monster beast let out a roar toward the group, its eyes flashing with savage intent.

Cheng Mo felt a surge of alertness and immediately knew it was time to retreat.

The armor on his body was nearly in tatters, his flesh bore multiple wounds, and if the fight continued, he might truly have reached his breaking point.

Cheng Mo swung his axe, knocking back Song Jian, who wielded the Gold-Cutting Sword, then deliberately said with exasperation:

”This beast is causing trouble; let’s battle another day.”

Song Jian was unwilling to let the matter rest. He sensed that he was only a step away from defeating Cheng Mo. Then, he would be able to trample over Cheng Mo, mock the incompetence of the Taixu Sect, and wash away the humiliation he had suffered before.

But right at the critical moment, Cheng Mo decided to stop fighting, muttering something about battling another day.

Battle another day my ass!

How could Song Jian accept this? He immediately shouted in anger:

”Coward! If you have the guts, don’t run! Let’s determine a winner here and now!”

Cheng Mo sneered coldly, saying, ”Idiot! The monster beast is here—if you don’t run, are you planning to die?”

Without waiting for a reply, he quickly turned and bolted.

Song Jian, fuming with rage, chased after him while cursing:

”You bastard! Coward! If you run, it counts as your loss!”

Cheng Mo, thick-skinned as ever, retorted while fleeing:

”You’re full of shit! According to the rules, I haven’t surrendered nor fallen motionless to the ground. That doesn’t count as a loss. And as for your Sever Gold Sect’s vaunted swordsmanship, it’s nothing impressive. To me, it’s barely tolerable—I can’t even be bothered to dodge it...”

His words were bold, but with his patched-up broken armor and body covered in injuries, they lacked much credibility.

Song Jian cursed repeatedly, calling him ”shameless.”

With the hyena-like beast closing in rapidly, Cheng Mo remarked, ”This time it’s just bad luck. If it weren’t for this meddlesome beast, I guarantee in another twenty rounds, I’d beat you to your knees, calling me ’Grandpa.’”

”If you’ve got the guts, let’s fight again next time.”

Song Jian’s gaze turned dark and cold. Realizing he had no other recourse, he gritted his teeth and said:

”Fine! Next time, I’ll slice you into ribbons!”

Cheng Mo laughed coldly. ”Such bragging.”

Then, with a quick turn, he darted off to the left.

Covered in wounds and reeking of blood, the hyena-like beast didn’t hesitate and instantly gave chase.

Left with no alternatives, Song Jian returned to regroup with the disciples of the Song family within the Sever Gold Sect.

”Young Master, how did it go?” The disciples of the Song family, noticing that Song Jian’s Spiritual Power was greatly depleted, asked in concern.

Song Jian’s face darkened. ”A mere Taixu Sect disciple—not worth mentioning.”

”This time they got lucky. Next time, I’ll definitely cut them down with my sword!”

The disciples chimed in flattering remarks:

”Young Master is heroic and unparalleled!”

Song Jian took a deep breath, his fury clearly not yet spent.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Mo Hua had set up a formation to lay a trap. Together with several others, they joined forces to dispatch the pursuing hyena-like beast.

Cheng Mo slumped onto the ground, waving his hand weakly. ”Junior Brother, I’m done for—it’s no use continuing; I can’t take any more beatings.”

Even if his body was wrought of iron, he couldn’t withstand such a relentless onslaught of Gold-Cutting Sword Qi.

To last two hours was already commendable.

Mo Hua transferred two hundred merit points to him, then patted his shoulder. ”Hang in there; next time I’ll get you upgraded armor—it should make a big difference.”

The Gold-Cutting Sword Formation wasn’t fully calculated yet.

Mo Hua estimated that another two rounds of Cheng Mo being pummeled and they should have enough data.

Mo Hua remarked, ”The next armor will be much tougher.”

Cheng Mo sighed, ”Fine.”

Mo Hua instructed the team to skin the hyena-like beast and collect materials to exchange for merit points.

Half of the points were allocated to Cheng Mo as compensation for ”taking the beatings.”

That made Cheng Mo feel much better.

Upon returning to the sect, Mo Hua wasted no time heading to the Disciple’s Residence. He opened the Formation Paper and delved into the study of the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation.

The formation emitted golden brilliance, its lines sharp and decisive.

However, it was an incomplete sword formation and ranked merely as a second-grade one.

Mo Hua carefully noted its Formation Patterns, attempting several times to recreate them—all unsuccessful without exception.

The sword formation’s patterns on paper had appearance but lacked essence; they couldn’t truly emulate a proper sword formation.

Mo Hua furrowed his brows.

This sword formation bore some resemblance to an Ultimate Formation. Formation Patterns were merely superficial constructs—understanding the essence of the Ultimate Formation and comprehending its specialized Law were necessary to truly master it.

Reversed Spirit Formation, Thick Earth Formation, Spiritual Pivot Formation, and Five Elements Source Formation—all operated in similar fashion.

Could the sword formation also belong to the category of Ultimate Formations?

Mo Hua mulled over the thought, but it seemed unlikely.

Ultimate Formations were notoriously challenging to learn, and Formation Masters capable of mastering them were extremely rare.

If this sword formation truly matched an Ultimate Formation, then the sword Dao heritage of these aristocratic families would be doomed to extinction sooner or later.

Moreover, the mass production of Spirit Swords would be an impossibility.

Producing Ultimate Formations on a large scale was almost an insurmountable task.

Thus, sword formations could not be compared to Ultimate Formations. The difficulty of the sword formation wouldn’t be that high.

Mo Hua’s brows slightly furrowed once more.

Or perhaps, sword formations had their own unique kind of difficulty?

Based on his understanding of formations and cultivation practices, Mo Hua theorized that the difficulty of a sword formation might act as a threshold to be crossed.

If one managed to cross it, learning the sword formation wouldn’t be hard.

If the threshold couldn’t be crossed, one might never learn it in their lifetime.

This threshold was likely controlled by aristocratic families to monopolize sword formation knowledge and prevent its widespread dissemination.

What, then, could this ”threshold” be?

Mo Hua’s Divine Sense raced.

Putting himself in the shoes of the aristocrats in control of sword formation heritage, if he were tasked with setting up a barrier to entry for sword formations, where would he start?

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, then his eyes lit up.

”Sword Techniques...”

The true core of family heritages was their systematic, interlocking structure.

The tighter the system, the stronger the heritage.

Likewise, the tighter the system, the lower the probability of heritage theft.

Given its association with swords, it’s highly likely that the transmission of sword formations and sword techniques are part of the same system.

One must learn the Gold-Cutting Sword Technique first before studying the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation.

In this way, even if the sword technique were leaked, without the corresponding sword formation, it would be impossible to forge Spirit Swords, and the power of the Gold-Cutting Sword Skill would be severely diminished.

Conversely, if the sword formation were leaked, without mastery of the Gold-Cutting Sword Technique, one couldn’t channel Gold-Cutting Sword Qi, and learning the confidential Gold-Cutting Sword Formation would similarly remain impossible.

By binding the Sword Technique and Sword Formation together, inheriting only one would not mean inheriting the complete knowledge.

To steal the entire transmission of the Sever Gold Sect’s sword heritage would prove immensely difficult.

Unless...

Their luck was unbelievably extraordinary...

Thinking this, Mo Hua’s heart trembled slightly.

He quietly retrieved a jade slip containing the ”Sever Gold Sword Control Jue” from his Storage Ring and glanced again at the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation he’d halfway calculated, momentarily stunned.

Could it be that he was close to completing the set?

The heritage of Sever Gold Sect, especially their Sword Dao transmission, seemed to be mostly in his possession already.

Gold-Cutting Sword Qi, methods of sword forging, Sword Control Techniques, and the core sword formation...

The direct disciples of the Song family within the Sever Gold Sect likely hadn’t learned as much as this Taixu Sect disciple had...

Mo Hua even felt a bit embarrassed.

Still, opportunities must not be squandered.

Since it had landed in his lap, he might as well learn.

Mo Hua began to use the Sword Technique to comprehend the Sword Formation.

He had only learned the Sever Gold Sword Control Jue superficially, and his Gold-Cutting Sword Qi remained very rudimentary.

But for crossing the threshold, it didn’t matter.

Even with mediocre results, once over the barrier, it was sufficient.

Mo Hua’s target was the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation; mastering Gold-Cutting Sword Qi wasn’t necessary to an expert level—it could be passable.

Mo Hua held his breath and focused, channeling Gold-Cutting Sword Qi.

A frail, rudimentary Gold-Cutting Sword Qi slowly seeped into the formation.

The formation emitted sharp brilliance, akin to cutting gold and jade—a sign of its activation.

Mo Hua’s eyes brightened as he continued funneling Gold-Cutting Sword Qi into the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation to activate it, allowing Sword Qi circulation, thus gaining insight into the essence of the formation’s operation...

Or more precisely, the ”Sword Dao” inherent within the formation.

...

Meanwhile, in the Elder’s Residence.

Xun Ziyou knelt before Elder Master Xun and said something he himself could hardly believe:

”Mo Hua... has learned the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation...”

The writing Elder Master Xun froze, lifting his head slowly, his gaze dazed and astonished as he asked:

”How did he learn it?”

Xun Ziyou replied, ”He set a trap, tricked the Song family’s direct lineage disciple from Sever Gold Sect into fighting one-on-one with a disciple from our Taixu Sect.”

”That Song family direct descendent used Gold-Cutting Sword Qi.”

”Mo Hua watched from the side...”

Xun Ziyou sighed, ”And somehow, while watching... he pieced together the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation...”

Elder Master Xun’s expression turned wooden.

Pieced it together just by watching...

Listen to the words coming out of your own mouth...