The Quest for Immortality

Junior Brother asked everyone to take care of him, so just do so.

What’s more, the Tai’a Sect and the Taixu Sect already share a connection. Friendly exchanges between disciples are not a bad thing, and they don’t reject it either.

The Taixu Sect disciples cupped their hands and said:

”Greetings, Brother Ouyang.”

Between sects, the hierarchy of seniority among disciples is first determined by their cohort year.

Those in a higher cohort are Senior Brother or Senior Sister; those in a lower cohort are Junior Brother or Junior Sister.

If they’re from the same cohort, it’s usually determined by age.

The older one takes the title of Senior Brother or Senior Sister; otherwise, the dynamic is up to context.

Ouyang Mu, being thin and young-looking, naturally came to be called ”Junior Brother.”

Ouyang Mu’s dark, expressionless face flared red all of a sudden, and he stammered:

”H-hello... everyone.”

He had never been stared at by so many people at once before.

Nor had he ever been addressed as ”Junior Brother” by so many at the same time; for a moment, he felt completely flustered.

Mo Hua then said, ”In the future, if your spiritual artifacts get damaged and need repairs, you can find Junior Brother Ouyang.”

”Understood!”

The Taixu Sect disciples answered in unison.

Their spiritual artifacts were typically either inherited or custom-made, purchased from the Gu Family Store in Taixu City under the recommendation of Junior Brother.

But when these artifacts broke, repairing them was a hassle.

Especially spiritual swords, their repairs were costly and intricate.

Having a professional Sword-Casting Master to handle repairs would be ideal.

Letting Little Wood make an appearance was essentially an initiation of sorts; Mo Hua’s intentions had been partially achieved. With a wave of his hand, he said:

”It’s getting late; let’s go hunt some monsters.”

”Yes, Junior Brother.”

Some disciples dispersed.

Others, who had matters to discuss with Mo Hua, approached him in small groups and asked:

”Junior Brother, about the Monster Hunting Formation you taught yesterday, I’m still not very proficient with it. Isn’t it activated using Divine Sense?”

”Is my Divine Sense too weak? I can’t seem to control it...”

”Junior Brother, can you free up some time to tell me how to kill a Black Bear Demon...?”

”I want to forge a pair of Meteor Hammers, using bear claws as the hammerheads.”

”Junior Brother, is there a Taoist Robe that can counter Earth-series demonic power, or any custom-made artifact for armor-breaking? I asked the Gu Family Store, but they had no answers...”

”Junior Brother, later we plan to kill a Burmese Python. Its blood is quite rare. Should we save some for you...?”

...

Mo Hua patiently answered each query.

Having received satisfactory replies, the disciples went their separate ways.

On the side, Ouyang Mu watched, inwardly astonished.

Only now did he realize that Brother Mo’s status within the Taixu Sect was far higher than he had imagined.

Even his elder brother, with remarkable talent, exceptional temperament, and prominent prestige among his cohort within the Tai’a Sect, couldn’t match such influence...

Ouyang Mu glanced at Mo Hua, whose gaze remained clear and unpretentious, his demeanor relaxed, like a simple and innocent youth. For a moment, Ouyang was slightly lost in thought.

”What’s the matter?” Mo Hua asked.

Ouyang Mu smiled faintly, ”Oh, nothing...”

...

In the days that followed, Ouyang Mu became even more diligent and conscientious.

The spirit sword in Mo Hua’s hands underwent several optimizations under Ouyang Mu’s suggestions.

With each optimization, its power grew.

However, over time, the quality of the spirit sword reached its limit.

The power of Mo Hua’s Sword Control also hit a bottleneck.

”Brother Mo, utilizing materials from a Primary Rank, First Grade monster to stabilize the sword array under specific conditions can only enhance this much power for now,” Ouyang Mu said.

”If you want to improve further, you’ll need materials from at least a Middle Stage, Second Grade monster.”

”But these materials are difficult to smelt, and with my current cultivation level, I’m not capable of utilizing them properly...”

”Alternatively, there’s the sword array itself...”

From their interactions, Ouyang Mu had come to understand the principle behind Mo Hua’s Sword Control. He found it both clever and a little ”unfair.”

Yet, he couldn’t deny that this method of Sword Control, especially in the hands of the unpredictable Brother Mo, was terrifying in its potency.

Ouyang Mu remarked, ”The power of this Sword Control fundamentally hinges on the strength of the sword array. The stronger the sword array, the more powerful the Sword Control.”

”By the way, Brother Mo,” Ouyang Mu asked suddenly, ”Is your family’s sword array limited to the Gold-series Sword Array?”

”Family’s sword array?” Mo Hua was momentarily confused.

Ouyang Mu replied, ”Didn’t you say so yourself?”

”Oh, right...”

Mo Hua had almost forgotten.

He had told Little Wood that the ”Gold-Cutting Sword Formation” on his sword was a family-inherited Gold-series Sword Array.

Little Wood, being kind-hearted, had believed him without question.

”Yes, that’s correct; it’s inherited from my family.”

Mo Hua emphasized again, then shook his head and said, ”Our family only passed down this one array; for now, we don’t have any others.”

Whether his family would ”pass down” more in the future depended on what other sects or families might offer to him.

Ouyang Mu felt a bit regretful and said, ”If there were other sword arrays, we could try experimenting with multi-attribute, multi-form spirit swords.”

Mo Hua sighed lightly.

Indeed...

Suddenly, his eyes gleamed as he asked, ”What if we didn’t use a sword array?”

”Not use a sword array?”

”What about other formations, like Killing Formations?” Mo Hua suggested.

Ouyang Mu shook his head, ”That won’t work. Not all formations can be casually embedded into swords.”

”Sword arrays are special. Although I’m not deeply knowledgeable about formations, from a Sword-Casting standpoint, sword arrays have the highest compatibility with sword weapons.”

”Sword weapons can also maximize the power of sword arrays.”

”Other formations have lower adaptability to spirit swords, and the power they can unleash through Sword Control is minimal.”

”If you really want to use them, the formation would have to be converted into a sword array first...”

Mo Hua froze for a moment upon hearing this, then exclaimed in astonishment:

”Converted into a sword array? Formations can also be converted into sword arrays?!”

Ouyang Mu, caught off guard by Mo Hua’s question, suddenly felt uncertain and hesitant.

Knowing that Mo Hua was an esteemed Formation Master, Ouyang became even more cautious in his response:

”I’m not actually sure...”

Ouyang Mu whispered, ”This was something I overheard while chatting with my father and the Chief Elder of our sect. Whether it’s true or not, or if there were any errors, I don’t really know.”

”It’s also possible that I misheard...”

Mo Hua’s eyes narrowed slightly as he sank into deep thought.

Little Wood wasn’t the type to lie.

That statement... might hold some truth.

When he had crafted sword arrays before, Mo Hua hadn’t considered this possibility, but now it struck him:

The sword patterns in the Gold-Cutting Sword Formation of Sever Gold Sect resembled certain variant Gold-series formation patterns.

Sword patterns were variant formation patterns.

Sword arrays were variant formations!

This made perfect sense...

Previously, Mo Hua had been puzzled about why Elder Master Xun’s categorization of formations, spanning from Yin-Yang and Eryi to Three Talents, Four Symbols, Seven Stars, and Eight Trigrams, didn’t include sword arrays.

Sword arrays were a unique category of formations, but clearly, they didn’t fall under any of the traditional classifications from Eryi to Eight Trigrams.

If sword arrays were ”variant” formations, it would all add up.

These variant formations would not conflict with the broader categories of formations but rather intertwine with them.

Theoretically, any formation from Eryi to Eight Trigrams could be converted into a sword array through specific formation pattern variations.

The Earth Fire Formation could be converted into the Earth Fire Sword Array.

The Di Sha Formation could be converted into the Di Sha Sword Array.

...

However, while this sounded simple in theory, researching it in practice would undoubtedly be an immense challenge, fraught with difficulties.

Otherwise, sword arrays wouldn’t remain as the core secret inheritance of sword-dao families.

Based on Mo Hua’s formation expertise, standard pattern transformations to convert formation patterns into ”sword patterns” would surely involve the most profound and complex principles of formations.

”What kind of formation principles would it involve?”

Mo Hua racked his brain, searching for an answer, and suddenly thought of a term:

Formation Flows!

”Sword Dao Formation Flows?”

Formation Flows dealt with the origins of formations, approaching their very essence.

To comprehend the origin of the Great Dao and master a certain ”Sword Dao Formation Flow” might allow one to convert elemental formations into ”sword arrays” through formation pattern transformations.

Mo Hua’s heart trembled.

If this hypothesis proved correct, then...

Mo Hua’s thoughts churned rapidly as he continued his deductions:

If he applied the principles of the Reversed Spirit Formation or Spiritual Power Fusion into a formation, and then, through Sword Dao Formation Flows, conducted formation pattern transformations to convert them into sword arrays...

Wouldn’t that result in...

The Spiritual Power Dissolution Sword Array and the Spiritual Power Convergence Sword Array?!