The Quest for Immortality

Xun Ziyou sighed.

Continuing in this manner, he suddenly didn’t know whether he should be concerned about Mo Hua or the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons...

As soon as this thought surfaced, Xun Ziyou paused, shaking his head immediately.

After all, Mo Hua is just a child.

The Valley of Ten Thousand Demons is a true land of evil, extremely perilous.

Inside, who knows how many dangers await Mo Hua...

Xun Ziyou couldn’t figure out the situation inside the valley, so he kept reminding Mo Hua tireless.

”The valley is dangerous, be careful in everything, act low-key, don’t take risks. If you detect danger, tell me immediately...”

”Hmm hmmm.”

Mo Hua nodded in response.

He’s always been very cautious, and he acts discreetly.

Even after tricking that responsible monster cultivator to death, he’d taken good care of the aftermath, ”destroying the corpse,” not leaving a trace behind.

However, as things stand now, the dangers within the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons aren’t quite as Elder Xun thought.

Without the Golden Core, the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons has lost its true ”deadlock.”

The Yuan Magnetic Spiritual Vision Formation has lit up, and any movement nearby is within control.

Now with the Demon Banner in hand, the upper hand is ours!

With the conversation over, Mo Hua continues with his own matters.

He takes out the responsible cultivator’s storage bag, flips through it, and finds that most of it consists of monster cultivator’s items.

Monster Blood bottles, Human Flesh Pills, Demon Skill Sword Control, Demon Transformation Manual, and so on...

He has no interest in the evil objects made of flesh and blood.

It’s the demon skill manuals that he can take a look at.

Mo Hua extracts some cultivation skills and demon transformation manuals, flips through them roughly, gains a general understanding of the monster cultivators, then stops looking.

This kind of thing should be experienced lightly.

Understand some principles of monster cultivators, know the enemy and oneself, that’s enough.

Don’t delve too deeply, lest you get caught up in it, and the demon nature seeds itself, inadvertently falling into the evil path, becoming a great demon someday.

After finishing, Mo Hua stores away the demon technique manuals, then digs out the black Demon Banner that had long caught his eye from the bottom of the storage bag.

The Demon Banner has a black base with blood patterns, a pole made of bone, cold and sticky in his hand, making Mo Hua uncomfortable.

This is a natural repulsion toward sinister items for cultivators who practice Spiritual Power of the Righteous Dao.

Then Mo Hua immediately dismantles the Demon Banner without a second thought.

The Demon Banner is an evil artifact that needs demonic power to be activated.

Mo Hua is a serious cultivator, without demonic power in his body, thus unable to activate the Demon Banner. He can’t use the Demon Banner to ”control” other monster cultivators.

There’s no way around it.

He can’t possibly learn the cultivation skills of monster cultivators just to use the Demon Banner against them.

However, the Demon Banner is still of great use to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua takes out various Artifact Refining tools, dismantling the Demon Banner swiftly.

His artifact refining skills are mediocre, but his skills at dismantling spiritual artifacts are decent.

Mainly because he’s practiced a lot, skill improves through practice.

The dismantled Demon Banner lies scattered across the floor.

Mo Hua fumbles and finds, finally discovering a type of special blood-colored Formation Pattern on the inside of the flag’s surface.

”Four Symbols Formation Pattern...”

Found it!

Moreover, these patterns do not seem like ordinary formation patterns, more like a special...

Mo Hua scrutinized for a moment, frowning slightly, ”...Four Symbols Array Hub?”

Feels a bit odd...

He takes out a sheet of paper, carefully transcribing the formation classified as ”Formation Hub” type from the Demon Banner, and then from memory, copies down the few types of Four Symbols Monster Patterns he had obtained.

These monster patterns include Four Symbols Eagle Pattern copied from the bald Sin Cultivator ”Bald Eagle” at the very beginning.

Also included is Four Symbols Wolf Pattern obtained from the severed arm of a werewolf in the dense forest through Sword Control.

Mo Hua currently combines the Four Symbols Formation he has gathered, quietly cross-references, and gauges the structure of the Formation Pivot in the Demon Banner, carefully making inferences.

Meanwhile, he recalls Elder Master Xun’s sporadic teachings on the Four Symbols Formations and his previous speculations about the Four Symbols Formation, referencing to understand...

Time passes bit by bit.

The logic of the Four Symbols Formation is becoming clearer in Mo Hua’s eyes.

Finally, after much deep contemplation, a sudden flash of insight strikes Mo Hua, and he is enlightened.

He understands what the underlying logic of the Four Symbols Formation truly is...

Formation is the manifestation of the rules of heaven and earth.

Cultivators use formations to control the power of the world.

Five Elements Formation derives its power from the Five Elements. Eight Trigrams Array derives power from trigrams.

The Four Symbols Formation essentially draws on the power of ”Ten Thousand Beasts” of heaven and earth...

From Mo Hua’s learnings at Taixu Gate in the courses on Nine State’s Tao Cultivation history, he understands that in the world between heaven and earth, ”beasts” come in a multitude of varieties.

There are Divine Beasts from ancient legends;

Exotic Beasts of peculiar species;

Spirit Beasts born innately or raised by cultivators;

And monstrous Monster Beasts of brutal ferocity...

...

If Mo Hua’s inference is correct, a pure Four Symbols Formation should rely on orthodox ”Beast Pattern.”

Using beast blood as ink, drawing ”Beast Patterns” on oneself, with one’s flesh as Formation media, meridians as Formation Pivot, and heart pulse as Formation eye, with surging blood Qi providing the formation’s driving force.

Integrating the beast’s power into one’s being, using the body as a formation, thus mastering the power of Ten Thousand Beasts, roaring like wind, strength like Qian Jun.

However, this kind of formation has an obvious problem...

Mo Hua takes a slight cold breath, his sight heavy.

This structure of Four Symbols Formation is almost identical to the methods of ”Evil Formations!”

The difference lies only in the fact that this formation system is rooted in the cultivator’s flesh, committing no atrocities, stained by no evil.

Unlike true Evil Formations, which require killing humans to refine blood as ink, skinning and dismembering as media, and may even borrow telekinesis from evil spirits and ghosts.