The next day, Mo Hua woke up with an incessant headache.
He focused his divine sense into his sea of consciousness, only to find that there were more cracks within the divine sense there. Each time he activated it, it brought a slight stinging pain.
Mo Hua pondered for a moment, then suddenly was dumbfounded.
“This is… a shared side effect of Heavenly Mechanism Strange Calculation and Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation?”
Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation sees through the essence, emphasizing core depth.
Heavenly Mechanism Strange Calculation divides strange shadows, emphasizing multiple breadth.
Using these two supreme divine sense algorithms together would place a great load on the sea of consciousness, thereby causing divine sense to tear and collapse…
Now, the cracks in his divine sense were exactly that sign…
Mo Hua furrowed his brow.
His divine sense quality had changed, originally being deeper and tougher than that of a general cultivator. Also, he hadn’t used Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation together much, so at this time, although there was stinging pain, it wasn’t serious.
But if he always used them like this…
Unless his divine sense was like that of the sheep horn official’s “head bone,” completely transformed from ethereal to real, incomparably hard, he definitely wouldn’t be able to bear the powerful shared load of Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation.
Otherwise, sooner or later, his divine sense would be torn apart by the two algorithms, thus completely fragmenting…
Mo Hua took a cold breath.
“It’s over, they can’t be used together…”
No wonder his master learned one of these Heavenly Mechanism algorithms, and his uncle-master learned the other…
With his master’s talent, and his uncle-master’s mind, neither could learn both.
His talent was inferior to his master’s, and his mind was inferior to his uncle-master’s. To be able to learn both was already a huge gain…
Now he still wanted to use both together, which was indeed a bit of wishful thinking…
Thinking of this, Mo Hua’s mood became a bit more balanced.
Be content with what you have, and stop when you see good.
Turning back after hitting a wall is also a kind of “wisdom”…
Mo Hua nodded.
Now that his divine sense was stinging with pain, he couldn’t continue learning.
Afterwards, Mo Hua rested for several days, neither painting arrays nor reading array books. He also didn’t use his divine sense much, waiting for it to recover. Only when operating it no longer caused stinging pain did he continue researching the Beacon Fire Yuan Magnetic Array…
Just as he had calculated before.
The most important and core part of the Beacon Fire Yuan Magnetic Array is the weak thunder flow with magnetic spiritual power produced between the fixed-style and unfixed-style Yuan Magnetic array patterns.
These thunder flows are extremely obscure and difficult to perceive.
They are both like spiritual power and like array patterns, intermediate between the two, a kind of subtle “secondary thunder flow.”
If one wants to “cheat” and crack the Yuan Magnetic Array, one must master these “secondary thunder flows,” or what could be called “secondary thunder patterns.”
These true secondary thunder patterns are the “agreement,” the rule itself, the bridge between the fixed style and unfixed style.
Mo Hua simulated the Yuan Magnetic Array again, then released his divine sense to perceive.
However, he found that without the amplification of Strange Calculation and Derive Calculation, with his own divine thought power, he simply couldn’t perceive the secondary thunder patterns…
Mo Hua again exerted great effort, his divine sense perceiving until it was numb, yet still with no sign at all.
If he couldn’t perceive it, he couldn’t learn it…
Mo Hua furrowed his brow again.
Being content with what he had didn’t seem to work much.
If he was content with what he had, there would be no way to progress…
The objective situation forced him to be “greedy”…
Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation, he had to use both, and they had to be used together.
Otherwise, how could he glimpse the “secondary thunder flows,” research the mysteries of the Beacon Fire Yuan Magnetic Array, and decipher the secret of the “transmission order”?
But using them together would tear his divine sense…
Simultaneously driving Strange Calculation and Derive Calculation, this load was too heavy.
Occasionally using it once was fine, but using it for a long time, his sea of consciousness would definitely collapse.
Mo Hua lay on the bed, his arm under his head, his brow furrowed, his eyes gazing at the plain and ancient roof, blinking slowly.
At the same time, his head was constantly turning, listing all the means he could use one by one. Finally, he suddenly startled, and his heart suddenly realized:
The Dao Stele!
The Dao Stele could trace back divine sense!
When he painted arrays on the Dao Stele, the consumed divine sense could be traced back.
So, suppose he utilized Heavenly Mechanism Strange Calculation and Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation on the Dao Stele to deduce the secondary thunder flows within the Yuan Magnetic Array…
Even if his sea of consciousness ached and his divine sense tore, as long as the deduced array patterns were erased, wouldn’t that mean…
His divine sense could still be traced back and restored to completeness?!
Mo Hua’s heart trembled, and then he immediately sat up.
He felt this idea was a bit absurd, “cheating” a bit excessively, but he also felt that this idea was actually very reasonable.
The Dao Stele seemed to be nothing, yet it also seemed to contain everything.
Transform divine sense into array patterns, reverse array patterns into divine sense.
Divine sense from existence to nothingness, and then from nothingness to existence, existence and nothingness mutually give birth and transform…
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up. He carefully considered this matter. When the time came at midnight, he impatiently entered his sea of consciousness.
In the center of the sea of consciousness.
Ancient and profound, a piece of nothingness, yet seemingly containing ten thousand laws, the Dao Stele stood silently.
Mo Hua first painted a complete Beacon Fire Yuan Magnetic Array containing both fixed-style and unfixed-style array patterns onto the Dao Stele.
Then he activated the array, making the fixed-style and unfixed-style magnetic patterns mutually sense each other.
Mo Hua’s gaze slightly deepened, simultaneously casting Heavenly Mechanism Strange Calculation and Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation.
His gaze was half pitch black, half clear.
Above his divine thought incarnation, he wore an ink robe, but white cracks began to appear on the pure black robe, as if the two-grade algorithms were mutually interwoven and contradictory, endlessly entangled and tearing…
His sea of consciousness trembled, and his divine sense ached.
Mo Hua endured the stinging pain, disregarding it, contemplating the hidden secondary thunder flows within the Yuan Magnetic Array.
This time, within his divine sense perception, the pale blue secondary thunder flows, generated through the Yuan Magnetic sense, finally emerged again.
These thunder flows were weak but profound.
Like the weakest, most initial state of thunder system spiritual power.
As if thunder within “swaddling clothes.”
They were a kind of spiritual power flow, but he could clearly see the traces, silk by silk, as if they were array patterns, seeming to contain a hint of the charm of array pattern evolution…
Mo Hua immediately followed suit, simplifying one “secondary thunder flow” into a “secondary thunder pattern” and painting it onto the Dao Stele.
During this process, the pain intensified.
Mo Hua could only grit his teeth and endure, recording this secondary thunder pattern.
After recording the thunder pattern, Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation suddenly stopped.
His divine sense was exhausted, and his sea of consciousness also bore the load of the Heavenly Mechanism double algorithm, faintly showing signs of cracking.
Mo Hua’s heart was shocked. He immediately erased all the arrays and array patterns on the Dao Stele.
At the moment of erasure, existence and nothingness reversed.
As if everything had never happened, Mo Hua’s divine sense was full again, the cracks in his sea of consciousness disappeared, and the sensation of his divine sense tearing vanished without a trace.
Mo Hua was slightly startled, then his heart was filled with uncontrollable joy.
He had guessed correctly!
The Dao Stele could indeed cheat!
His master and uncle-master, they were both adults, cultivating for several hundred years, so they only chose one between Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation.
While he was still young, and his seniority was also low, he could have everything!
Mo Hua’s face was squinting with a smile. He involuntarily touched the Dao Stele, praising in his heart, “The Dao Stele is so powerful!”
Divine sense was traced back, but experience and cognition remained.
Like this, he could utilize the Dao Stele to “cheat,” simultaneously casting Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation to deduce the Yuan Magnetic Array, perceive the secondary thunder flows, and thereby record the secondary thunder patterns.
Conversely, using the Yuan Magnetic dual array to deduce the secondary thunder patterns was also constantly practicing the fusion of Heavenly Mechanism Derive Calculation and Strange Calculation!
Killing two birds with one stone!
Both comprehending the array and fusing the algorithms!
Mo Hua’s gaze was excited.
Although his divine sense would tear and there would be a bit of pain, considering the results, this bit of pain sensation was bearable.
There was no time like the present. Mo Hua immediately began painting Yuan Magnetic Arrays one after another, fusing the Strange Path and Derive Path algorithms, deducing the secondary thunder flows, and comprehending the secondary thunder array patterns…
His divine sense tore repeatedly, and was repeatedly restored to completeness.
What Mo Hua didn’t know was…
His divine sense was also being repeatedly traced and gradually toughened in this process.
Step by step, it moved towards the realm of being tempered a thousand times and indestructible.
The essence of Dao, born from existence and nothingness within the Nothingness Dao Stele, was also subtly and profoundly seeping into his divine thought, thread by thread…
This process occurred obscurely yet subtly and silently…
Mo Hua, however, only cared about the array.
Three days later.
Mo Hua still focused wholeheartedly on researching the Yuan Magnetic Array and the secondary thunder patterns.
But after several days of deduction, he discovered another problem:
Using Strange Calculation to amplify Derive Calculation and deduce the Yuan Magnetic Array patterns could indeed perceive the secondary thunder flows and comprehend the “secondary thunder patterns” that contained the fundamental rules of the Yuan Magnetic Array…
However, the secondary thunder patterns were fundamentally impossible to learn…
Mo Hua had recorded many “secondary thunder patterns” in these past few days, but without exception, they were all completely different, fundamentally lacking any unified commonality.
They changed too much, were too subtle, too complex.
There were no rules, no patterns, they couldn’t be memorized, couldn’t be applied, and couldn’t be gathered…
This meant that these “secondary thunder patterns” fundamentally couldn’t be considered “array patterns,” but were closer to concrete “thunder”…
Mo Hua sighed.
No wonder in the general array inheritance of the cultivation world, only fixed-style and unfixed-style array patterns were used to conduct thunder-magnetic sensing and simulate secondary thunder flows to transmit messages and manifest text.
No one truly went to learn “secondary thunder patterns”…
Precisely because the secondary thunder flows are extremely obscure, ordinary cultivators, without algorithmic amplification, simply couldn’t perceive them.
Even if they could perceive them, the secondary thunder patterns themselves were too complex and too subtle, fundamentally impossible to classify as “array patterns.”
Some secondary thunder patterns looked exactly the same, but merely a microscopic difference in the final thunder flow trace would count as two completely different “secondary thunder patterns,” making them extremely difficult to distinguish.
And the number of these “similar yet completely different” “secondary thunder patterns” within the Yuan Magnetic Array was unknown.
Learning them like this was fundamentally impossible.
Mo Hua felt a deep sense of frustration.
After tossing for half a day, he glimpsed the core of the Yuan Magnetic Array, but the result was something even more profound, more complex, and fundamentally impossible to master…
Mo Hua was disheartened for a while, but then he thought again:
If this thing wasn’t difficult, and was everywhere early on, how could it embody the “power” of his array?
Precisely because it was an extremely difficult thing, it had research value!
And precisely because it was difficult, it could embody his extraordinary array attainments!
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, and he was immediately filled with fighting spirit.
“Just a minor secondary thunder pattern…”
He had even learned large arrays and absolute arrays. How could there be a reason why he couldn’t learn a small array pattern?
At most, the array patterns were a bit complex in form, the differences a bit subtle, and the quantity a bit vast.
As long as he put in deep effort, an iron pestle could be ground into a needle.
Paint the array a hundred times, and its meaning will naturally appear.
Mo Hua took out a large jade slip, naming it the “Secondary Thunder Pattern” jade slip.
He decided to record all the manifold, subtle, and multitudinous “secondary thunder patterns” he deduced, one by one, in this jade slip.
Relying on his deep divine sense, keen perception, and powerful memory, he would just memorize them by rote!
If there were a thousand, he would record a thousand; if there were ten thousand, he would record ten thousand…
Mo Hua’s expression was resolute.
He just wouldn’t believe it!
Once he had deduced the Yuan Magnetic Array patterns thousands upon thousands of times and recorded thousands upon thousands of secondary thunder patterns, how could he still fail to summarize some way and master some trick…
Since he couldn’t take a shortcut, he would use the most foolish method!
From then on, Mo Hua continued in this manner, recording the secondary thunder patterns one by one, and whenever he had time, he would take out the jade slip to ponder…
This was a relatively long process.
Fortunately, in this process, Mo Hua was also constantly practicing arrays, enhancing his divine sense, and fusing algorithms, so he didn’t feel it was difficult. Instead, it was exceptionally fulfilling…
After one month, it was the annual rest of Tai Xu Gate.
The so-called annual rest was the sect’s regulation for two routine holidays each year, once every half a year, each lasting about half a month.
The annual rest was for disciples, especially those with family in other sects, to return to their clans to offer sacrifices to ancestors, report their studies, pay respects, or handle some personal matters.
It was said that some also returned to their clans to get engaged…
Mo Hua couldn’t go home.
Tong Xian City was too far away. He couldn’t go back even if he wanted to. He could only write a letter and entrust the station in Qian State to send it back to Tong Xian City.
In the letter, he talked about his recent situation, saying that everything was good…
The threshold of Qian Dao Sect was too high, and he couldn’t get in, but by chance, he entered Tai Xu Gate, one of the eight major gates in Qian State.
He mentioned that he knew a kind and good-looking aunt from the Shang Guan family, named Wen Ren Wan, and had received much care from her regarding entering the sect…
Within the sect, Elder Xun, who taught arrays, valued him highly, and his array learning was very solid.
The fellow disciples were harmonious and friendly.
Some senior brothers and sisters were also very good to him.
He wasn’t short of spirit stones. There was a lot of wool to shear here in the sect…
Mo Hua rambled on, writing a lot. Finally, after thinking about it, he summarized it in the end:
“Everything is good, no need to worry.”
“When I reach the Gold Core stage, I’ll go home!”
“…Father and mother, you must cultivate well, don’t be lazy, and don’t feel bad about using spirit stones. By the time I go home, you must have built your foundation!”
Mo Hua thought about it and felt that “building foundation” was a bit low, so he raised the requirement a bit:
Foundation establishment middle stage!
After Mo Hua finished writing, he spent some spirit stones and sent the letter out.
Li State was far away, with mountains and rivers distant. He wondered what year and month it would be when this letter arrived.
Mo Hua felt melancholic for a while, then went to the Gu family in Qing State City.
Shang Guan Xu told him that Yu Er was having trouble sleeping again.
Mo Hua licked his lips, then hitched a ride on the Shang Guan family’s carriage and made a trip to the Gu family in Qing State City.
When Wen Ren Wan saw Mo Hua, it was as if she had seen a natural treasure that ward off evil. She was both joyful and relieved.
After asking about his well-being, Wen Ren Wan furrowed her brow and sighed:
“Yu Er isn’t as serious this time as before…”
“He won’t tremble all over, his whole body will be ice cold, he won’t be endlessly afraid, and he won’t dare to sleep…”
“He will just still furrow his brow, feel a headache and tension, and will have nightmares…”
“But Yu Er said that the demons and ghosts in his dreams are much fewer than before…”
Mo Hua nodded and said, “Aunt Wan, please rest assured, there will be even fewer soon…”
Wen Ren Wan’s face showed surprise.
In the evening, Yu Er was still sleeping in bed.
Because Mo Hua was by his side, he slept obediently and soundly.
Mo Hua then sat cross-legged beside him, flipping through an array book.
His divine sense was already very strong, but it was still far from enough.
One reason was to fuse the Heavenly Mechanism algorithms, deduce the Yuan Magnetic Array, and record the secondary thunder patterns.
The Beacon Fire Yuan Magnetic Array was a two-grade sixteen-pattern array.
Using his sixteen-pattern divine sense to deduce the Yuan Magnetic Array, although Mo Hua’s divine sense had undergone a qualitative change and was incomparably tough, it still seemed very strenuous because the double algorithms were too complex and profound.
If his divine sense was a bit stronger, it would be a bit easier.
Also, Huang Shan Jun had said that he must form a divine sense core and reach the twenty-pattern realm before he could cultivate that technique that could chop tangible things and also chop intangible gods, the “Tai Xu Divine Thought Transform Sword True Secret.”
So, the stronger his divine sense, the better.
But the means to enhance divine sense were extremely limited.
Besides diligently researching arrays and tempering his divine sense, Mo Hua could only hope to gain some “extra money” for a toothy sacrifice.
Mo Hua was reading a book, but his mind was completely elsewhere.
Night gradually deepened, and the side room was empty.
Suddenly, a gust of yin wind blew, chilling to the bone, descending ominously.
Mo Hua was startled. A slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He looked up and indeed saw that in the void, a causal pattern chain extended out.
Bloody filth and the stench of evil rot spread open.
This scent couldn’t be “smelled,” only “perceived” by divine sense.
Thick black water dripped.
Deformed and strange-shaped demons, soaked in black water like “amniotic fluid,” hatched out, crawling out slowly along the causal chain, inverted from the roof and surroundings.
It was still the same as before…
Some with human bodies and horse faces, others with donkey heads and demon bodies, and also dog bodies with human faces…
They ignored Mo Hua, crawling towards Yu Er on all fours.
Yu Er began to furrow his brow, his small hands and feet moving back and forth, murmuring something in a low voice.
Mo Hua blocked in front of Yu Er.
This group of demons and ghosts was obviously stunned for a moment, then immediately saw that Mo Hua was just a small ghost. Their gazes involuntarily turned blood red, and their expressions became ferocious one by one.
They didn’t know Mo Hua’s “true face.”
Because the demons who knew Mo Hua’s “true face” simply couldn’t get out of Mo Hua’s “slaughterhouse” like sea of consciousness.
And their fate was already sealed from the moment they appeared in front of Mo Hua.
They arrogantly turned into array yin wind and drilled into Mo Hua’s sea of consciousness.
On their ghostly deformed faces, there was still a ferocious smile.
Then they saw a magnificent array, like a volcano erupting with flames, surging with fire.
A group of “stinky fish and rotten shrimp.”
Mo Hua was too lazy to play this time. He directly stood guard and waited, manifesting a two-grade Li Mountain Fire Burial Array in his sea of consciousness in advance.
The demon energy was arrogant, but as soon as it entered his sea of consciousness, it fell into a “hot pot.”
Mo Hua directly activated the Li Mountain Fire Burial Array.
Rugged mountain stones were cast into a prison, and flames galloped, like a fiery hell.
The demons’ gazes were bewildered. Before they knew what had happened, they instantly “passed away” and were “stewed in one pot” by Mo Hua.
On the Li Mountain Fire Burial Array, green smoke curled up.
Mo Hua swallowed it in one gulp, smacked his lips, and still felt it wasn’t enough.
He didn’t eat full…
His divine sense increased a bit, but not too much, far from being able to fill the ravine-like bottleneck of the seventeen-pattern stage.
The most regrettable thing was that this time, there seemed to be no “sheep horn official” in the black water.
It was a pity that he didn’t drink that pale gold “bone marrow”…
However, this was originally just an unexpected joy. It was good to have “extra money.” Mo Hua wasn’t greedy either.
At least his divine sense had truly increased again.
After Mo Hua “ate” and the demons woke up, the demonic evil qi in the side room completely dissipated.
The night was quiet, and the moonlight was auspicious.
Yu Er lay in bed, his brow relaxed, his small face peaceful, sleeping sweetly.
Mo Hua smiled slightly, then suddenly furrowed his brow again, thinking:
Yu Er’s body was covered by a big conspiracy. These demons and ghosts would always turn into nightmares and come to erode Yu Er’s heart.
Now it seemed quieter, but the cause and effect existed. As long as there was an opportunity, they would definitely not give up.
Perhaps, he would even encounter a sheep horn official with pale gold divine marrow.
Perhaps, even a divine thought body of a higher grade than the sheep horn official…
Ultimately, perhaps, there was even an evil god?!
Mo Hua thought about it and felt that an evil god was not too possible.
An evil god was too powerful. If it truly descended, Yu Er’s flesh and sea of consciousness would simply not be able to bear it…
Perhaps it was…
An evil god’s young body, or an embryo?
Wouldn’t an evil god embryo be weaker…
Wouldn’t it be…
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t help licking his lips, his expression expectant, muttering in his heart:
“I wonder what a true evil god tastes like…”
Thanks to book friends Agila_Uy, Leek Past Events, 20240118103203263, Together Cultivate Immortal, Xiang Old Dai, and PYHuang for their rewards.
(End of this chapter)