“Is Yan Jiaoxi in Xing Shi Zhai painting array formations?”

Mo Hua’s little face was full of worry.

Yan Jiaoxi wouldn’t have turned bad, would he?

He wanted to find out for sure, so he released his divine sense, wanting to see if there was anyone inside Xing Shi Zhai painting array formations.

His vast divine sense spread out, and the outline of Xing Shi Zhai dissolved.

Amidst the virtual white, pale blue, pale white, black, and gray qi entangled and presented themselves.

This was the original form of spiritual qi beneath the surface of this world.

Or rather, just a deeper layer of the surface form.

Mo Hua held his breath and focused, searching room by room, checking each cultivator one by one.

After a cup of tea’s time, he finally made a discovery.

Inside a quiet and narrow room, a cultivator lived alone. He was at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, just sitting at the table, concentrating on painting array formations.

His brush tip drew out one neat array pattern after another, and the array formation beneath the brush also gradually appeared.

It seemed to be a set of Spirit Gathering Array.

While Mo Hua was spying on him with his divine sense, he seemed to sense something. He paused his brush, raised his head and looked around, his eyes revealing a blankness.

“Someone?”

“No, this is Xing Shi Zhai, it’s impossible for an outsider to be here…”

“But…”

He frowned tightly.

He had indeed detected a trace of aura just now.

This trace of aura was very familiar, like an old friend, but when he carefully distinguished it, it was faintly without a trace again.

“An illusion, right…”

He shook his head, seeming to think of something. He sighed slightly before continuing to paint the array formation.

Mo Hua opened his eyes.

It was Yan Jiaoxi’s aura!

He thought for a moment, then hid his figure, displayed his movement technique, stealthily jumped onto the roof of a room, lay down, and peeked out his little head, looking into the room.

Inside the narrow room, the layout was simple, with only a bed, a table, and a chair.

Besides that, there were all sorts of array books and diagrams, as well as brushes, ink, and other sundries related to array formations.

Someone was painting array formations inside the room. His clothes were simple, and his posture was upright.

His face was serious, with some tiredness, but his gaze was firm.

It was the familiar Yan Jiaoxi!

Mo Hua’s heart was slightly excited.

Since Yan Jiaoxi left Tong Xian City, Mo Hua hadn’t seen him.

Yan Jiaoxi had the grace of array formation enlightenment towards him, and Mo Hua would occasionally worry about him.

He didn’t know how Yan Jiaoxi was doing, whether his Dao path was smooth, if he had made progress in array formations, or if he had found a Dao companion…

Later, when he arrived at Nan Yue City and heard that Yan Jiaoxi had disappeared in the mine, Mo Hua was always a little worried.

At this moment, seeing Yan Jiaoxi safe and sound, Mo Hua also breathed a sigh of relief.

Mo Hua thought about it and didn’t rush to meet Yan Jiaoxi. Instead, he decided to observe for a while first to see what Yan Jiaoxi was doing exactly.

Time passed and things changed, and people’s hearts were easily swayed.

Mo Hua wasn’t sure if the current Yan Jiaoxi was still the same as the original Yan Jiaoxi.

Was he really helping Xing Shi Zhai do bad things?

Mo Hua calmed his heart, his little face tense, and secretly observed.

Yan Jiaoxi was still painting array formations. He was serious and meticulous, completely unaware that he was being “secretly watched” by his former student.

After finishing the array formation, Yan Jiaoxi looked at an array book for a while, flipped through some array diagrams, and made some notes.

Mo Hua nodded slightly. Yan Jiaoxi had taught him like this initially.

To learn array formations, you had to be diligent.

The more you looked, the more you learned, and the more you thought, the more you remembered.

Yan Jiaoxi looked at the array book for a while, but not long after, he was disturbed by someone.

A corpse cultivator, dressed all in gray, with a pale face, knocked on Yan Jiaoxi’s door.

“Mister Yan.”

Yan Jiaoxi frowned, his face showing displeasure. He didn’t like being disturbed while studying array formations, but he still stood up, opened the door, and said in an indifferent tone:

“What is it?”

The corpse cultivator said: “The array formation on the west side of the Zhai is broken…”

Mo Hua knew this because he had deliberately messed it up just now!

Yan Jiaoxi frowned, “Broken?”

The corpse cultivator cupped his hands and said: “Please, Mister Yan, go and take a look.”

The corpse cultivator said “please”, but his expression was cold and lacked the attitude of “please”. It seemed he also didn’t allow Yan Jiaoxi to refuse.

Yan Jiaoxi nodded, “Wait a moment.”

Then he entered the room, found several brushes, picked up several bottles of ink, and then flipped out a sheet of array diagram, putting them all into his storage bag. Then he said to that corpse cultivator:

“Let’s go.”

The corpse cultivator led Yan Jiaoxi out the door.

Before leaving, Yan Jiaoxi locked the room and opened the array formation.

It seemed he didn’t want others to enter this room.

But as long as it was an array formation, it couldn’t defend against Mo Hua.

After Yan Jiaoxi left, Mo Hua quietly undid the array formation on the roof, lightly and quietly fell into the room.

He didn’t touch anything to flip, but just roughly scanned with his eyes, judging what array formations Yan Jiaoxi had been painting based on the aura of the array formations and the types of array patterns.

Most of the array formations in the room were Five Elements array formations.

Mo Hua was very familiar with Five Elements array formations, so he could roughly see them at a glance.

They were regular and serious array formations, not evil arrays.

Besides, there were still a few rare array formations, which weren’t considered difficult.

Several sheets of array diagrams were placed on the table, with traces of long-term flipping.

These array diagrams were things like Melting Fire Array, Earth Stone Array, etc., array formations that a first-grade array master would frequently use for the grade assessment.

It seemed that Yan Jiaoxi was still working hard to become a first-grade array master.

Looking at the several sheets of array formations painted by Yan Jiaoxi, Mo Hua nodded and preliminarily judged that Yan Jiaoxi already had the level of a first-grade array master.

It was a pity that his scope of involvement wasn’t wide enough.

Once the assessment array formation was a bit obscure and tricky, the difficulty of grading would be very high.

This would depend on a bit of luck, or rather, opportunity.

Besides that, there were no Absolute Arrays, and no evil arrays.

Mo Hua was both a little disappointed and very fortunate.

Disappointed was that there was no clue about the Absolute Array.

Fortunate was that Yan Jiaoxi didn’t master the Absolute Array, and also didn’t aid the evildoers, painting evil arrays for these Xing Shi Zhai corpse cultivators to help them refine and raise corpses.

Mo Hua guessed that Yan Jiaoxi might have just been kidnapped.

Because of his identity as an array master, his life was preserved, and because of his identity as an array master, he was coerced by the corpse cultivators, unwilling to join Xing Shi Zhai, painting some array formations for them to build their camps.

After all, no matter where you went, array masters were rare talents in cultivation.

Someone like Yan Jiaoxi, who was close to the level of a first-grade array master, was even more so.

But this was just his guess. Whether it was like this or not would only be known after asking.

Mo Hua then found a stool, sat in the corner, hid his figure, and quietly waited for Yan Jiaoxi to come back.

Half an hour later, Yan Jiaoxi came back.

That corpse cultivator always sent Yan Jiaoxi to the doorway and didn’t leave until he saw Yan Jiaoxi enter the room.

After Yan Jiaoxi entered the room, he sighed and continued to sit back at the table, beginning to look at the array book.

While looking, Yan Jiaoxi muttered a sentence:

“How did the array formation break?”

Suddenly, his expression became stern, feeling that something was wrong.

An array formation couldn’t just break for no reason.

Then Yan Jiaoxi was shocked, his pupils slightly shrinking.

Someone seemed to have been in his room!

He immediately stood up and swept with his divine sense, but found nothing.

Clearly, the table, chair, books, and diagrams hadn’t been moved, but he just had a feeling, an intuition, that someone had come in and flipped through something.

Who?!

And for what?

Yan Jiaoxi’s brow furrowed tightly, his expression grave.

Just at this moment, a small hand gently patted Yan Jiaoxi’s shoulder.

Yan Jiaoxi’s heart went cold, and his scalp tingled.

Someone in the room?

And this person was standing right behind him at this moment?!

Just as Yan Jiaoxi’s heart was in a panic, he heard a clear voice asking next to his ear:

“Yan Jiaoxi, why are you acting like a thief?”

This voice was a child’s voice, clear and pleasant.

And, very, very familiar…

Yan Jiaoxi suddenly turned around, opened his mouth wide, and only after a long while did he manage to speak:

“Mo… Mo Hua?!”

Mo Hua smiled brightly, “Yan Jiaoxi, long time no see.”

Yan Jiaoxi was completely stunned.

He blinked his eyes, looking at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua was still the same in his memory, exquisite and cute, with clear eyebrows, only a few years older and a little taller.

His eyes were bright and sparkling, and they also carried some profoundness, like deep and lustrous jade stones.

Yan Jiaoxi blinked his eyes again, looked at Mo Hua, and then suddenly said:

“It was a dream…”

As people grew older, they liked to recall the past.

It seemed he was thinking about the matters of Tong Xian City again, and that child Mo Hua…

Yan Jiaoxi’s heart relaxed, his expression quite emotional.

Mo Hua was a little speechless and a little helpless, saying:

“Yan Jiaoxi, it’s me. I’ve come to find you.”

Yan Jiaoxi was slightly startled.

He had just been talking about a dream…

This voice was inevitably too clear.

Mo Hua’s expression was also too vivid.

He focused his gaze, seeming to be able to see Mo Hua’s small face that could be blown away.

Yan Jiaoxi raised his head again and saw that the mountain was dim and gloomy, but the sun was indeed hanging high between the cliffs.

How could one have a dream in broad daylight?

Yan Jiaoxi was startled, then somewhat tremblingly stretched out his hand, gently supported Mo Hua’s shoulder, and said in disbelief:

“Truly… truly Mo Hua?”

Yan Jiaoxi’s voice trembled slightly, and there was a slight wetness at the corners of his eyes.

He didn’t think that in this life, he would actually be able to see his student Mo Hua again…

Mo Hua was also a little moved, nodding and saying:

“It’s me!”

Yan Jiaoxi’s expression suddenly became stern, and he said worriedly again:

“But how did you… how did you get here?”

“I came to find you.”

Yan Jiaoxi was startled, “Find me?”

Mo Hua said: “Not just to find you, but also to find Zhang Quan, to find the zombies, and also… to find a set of array formations.”

Yan Jiaoxi listened in confusion, then thought of something, his gaze shocked:

“You are also looking for… the Ling Shu Array?”

Mo Hua nodded, his heart confirming it.

It seemed the array formation on the zombie’s body was the treasure of the small Ling Yin Sect, an Absolute Array inherited from the great Ling Yin Sect more than a thousand years ago: the Ling Shu Array!

Thank you book friend ChanSO for the reward.

(End of this chapter)