The Quest for Immortality

The entire Formation Competition thus ended in this bizarre atmosphere where Mo Hua was bored out of his mind while everyone else was terrified.

From beginning to end, Mo Hua sat in his seat, drawing one Formation after another in utter boredom.

All the Formation questions, no matter their difficulty, under his brush showed not the slightest difference.

He even kept the time he spent Drawing Formation exactly the same.

This was also the only part of this Formation Competition that actually made him use his brain a little.

In the end, and as expected, Mo Hua took first place in Formations.

Moreover, this time he stopped after getting first place. He didn’t pierce through the exam questions, didn’t give the other kids too much pressure, and didn’t make things hard for the examiners.

Utterly considerate and thorough.

After that, Mo Hua did not say much. He merely rose slowly, swept his gaze around the venue, then nodded slightly to the chief examiner and left the stage.

Low-key and restrained.

Of course, that was only what Mo Hua himself thought.

In everyone else’s eyes, this kind of ”indifference” carried a sense of standing above all other geniuses, peerless in talent, yet with all his sharpness hidden within, a natural depth and composure.

So strong it was frightening yet calm, to the point of seeming to have returned to simplicity...

The Formation Competition took its final bow and came to an end.

Mo Hua made the slightest move and ”again” took first place.

The other Formation prodigies, even after exhausting themselves, could not defeat him.

From this point on, Mo Hua became the only Disciple in the history of the Dao Discussion Conference to single-handedly become a double Formation Leader.

A single ”Formation Leader” could no longer measure Mo Hua’s level in Formations.

So he took two.

And only true Qianxue Formation Masters understood the real weight of those ”double Leaders.”

This was not something as simple as two Leaders stacked together; it should be called the ”Leader of Leaders.”

It meant that in Formations, Mo Hua had reached a height his peers could not even hope to approach. His attainments in Formations among all Disciples possessed an almost crushing, absolute dominance.

Only this kind of ”gap” was far too vast. So vast it felt like the contest was between two completely different Realms.

In the eyes of the ordinary audience, this inevitably became somewhat subtle.

It wasn’t that they had never studied Formations. As noble family’s children or Qianxue Cultivators, most of them had grown up in comfort, with deep inheritances. Under such constant exposure, they had all more or less learned a bit of Formations in their early enlightenment.

Only this sort of ”having learned” was, after all, still too superficial.

The more a person knows, the more they know how little they know.

The less they know, the more they feel they know a lot.

Precisely because their study was too shallow, they actually could not quite understand just where Mo Hua’s Formations were so strong.

If this had been earlier, at the Sword Discussion Conference, if Mo Hua had detonated a Formation and killed a few people, they could have watched the spectacle and gotten a direct sense of it.

But now the Formation Competition was just a group of people sitting down, tediously Drawing Formation scrolls, inevitably giving people an illusion of ”I could do that too if I went up there.”

Still, whatever others might say, Mo Hua appeared openly before the public and grandly won yet another Formation Leader title.

Some of the previous gossip aimed at him—things like ”couldn’t withstand temptation and fell into madness,” ”chief behind the Evil Path Blood Sacrifice Array,” ”Demon Path mole”—also faded quite a bit.

As long as one has strength enough, one can shut others’ mouths.

And Mo Hua’s strength, winning double Leaders by his own power, was naturally beyond dispute.

...

The turmoil gradually subsided, the fateful evilness did not act up again, and Elder Master Xun no longer restricted Mo Hua.

Mo Hua finally returned to the Outer Mountain of Taixu Gate, back to the Disciple’s Residence, and mixed together with his Junior Brothers again.

Linghu Xiao, Situ Jian, Cheng Mo and the other Disciples were overjoyed; they even specially held a banquet to wash away the dust and welcome Mo Hua back.

With all conspiracies and dangers dispersed, the days at Taixu Gate suddenly grew tranquil and peaceful.

Yet the happy days did not last long before Mo Hua realized that the time of parting was drawing near.

The ninth year at Taixu Gate was about to approach its end.

In other words, the days these fellow Sect brothers could still live together, cultivate, drink, discuss the Dao, and fool around together were down to less than two months.

Two months later, everyone would be going their separate ways.

Though they had always known this day would come, when it truly arrived, after their initial shock, everyone felt a bit desolate.

A faint sadness hung over the Sect Disciples.

And for Mo Hua, during these two months, the thing he would be doing the most was ”saying goodbye.”

Saying farewell to many who cared for him, liked him, and had looked after him.

And bidding farewell as well to the time and years of the nine years he had lived in Taixu Gate...

Life is like this: when you are together, it just feels plain and ordinary.

Only when the moment of parting truly comes do you startle awake and feel as if something has been quietly taken away.

The meetings and partings, joys and sorrows of life often happen in such unguarded moments.

...

The first person he went to say goodbye to was Zhang Lan.

He was going back to Kan State.

At the foot of Taixu Gate’s mountain.

Mo Hua said a little regretfully, ”I said I’d take you around Taixu Gate, Uncle Zhang, and show you the famous scenic spots at the Qian Learning State Boundary. It’s a pity you have to leave...”

Zhang Lan sighed. ”Can’t be helped. The Chief Elder has serious business. He has to return to the clan, and I can’t possibly keep lingering here. Besides...”

The turmoil at the Qian Learning State Boundary this time had been far too great.

Although the Qianxue Court Tribunal, the various aristocratic families and Sects all wanted to smooth things over, play it down, and cover up this disaster of the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice, lest the Cultivation World turn jittery and panic-stricken.

There is, however, no wall in this world that doesn’t let the wind through.

The Demon Path’s resurgence and the Blood Sacrifice of Qianxue had long since spread.

As for what the Cultivation World of the Nine State would become in the days to come, no one could yet say.