Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 695 – Demons

After entering the back of the village, the group trudged forward in the heavy, deathly silence for several hundred steps until they arrived at a swamp.

Within the mire, stagnant water bubbled up through the mud, reeking of blood and rot. The water was crimson and viscous.

Scattered stone tiles lay embedded atop the swamp, forming a disjointed, broken path leading into the distance.

By stepping on the stones, one could cross the swamp.

Master She didn't utter a word. As if nothing were amiss, he stepped onto the stone path and proceeded ahead.

Mo Hua followed behind—but his eyelid twitched violently.

In Gu An and the others' eyes, this was just a mildly disgusting swamp.

But Mo Hua could see it—floating densely in the air were countless crimson evil blood leeches.

These stone tiles—misstep even once, and an unknown number of leeches would burrow into the sea of consciousness and contaminate one's divine sense.

This was a Swamp of Blood Leeches.

Mo Hua glanced at Master She again.

Master She behaved completely normally, treating this as nothing more than a swamp—yet a trace of hidden malice lurked in his gaze.

"This old bastard might not see the leeches, but he definitely knows this swamp is deadly. He's trying to screw us over with it…"

Mo Hua was not pleased.

Just then, as Master She led the way ahead, a fireball suddenly zipped past his ear—singing off a few strands of his hair.

Startled, Master She whipped his head around, glaring at Mo Hua.

"You brat! What are you doing?!"

Mo Hua snorted coldly and declared, "Something's wrong here!"

Master She's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm. "What's wrong exactly?"

Mo Hua looked around, frowning, unable to explain it clearly. Yet he stubbornly insisted, "I don't know, it just feels wrong!"

Master She's eyes darkened.

"This little bastard… quite sharp…"

He sneered, "Then what now? Should we turn back? Let those two kids rot to death?"

Yu Dahe anxiously looked at Mo Hua.

Mo Hua pretended to contemplate, then replied:

"I'm guessing—it's either the swamp water that's poisonous, or there are some trap formations hidden in these stones…"

"We'll let this old bastard lead the way. We'll step exactly where he steps. Not one tile off."

Master She seethed inside:

"Damn it! This brat's guesses are completely wrong—but his actions are spot-on… That's just ridiculous!"

Master She's face twisted in frustration, but Gu An already had a blade to his throat, forcing him forward.

"Fine, no rush… not yet," Master She muttered internally. With a cold face, he stepped carefully on the stone path, one step at a time.

Mo Hua turned to the Gu family cultivators. "Follow him. I'll cover the rear."

The cultivators didn't fully understand, but in the field, following orders was paramount. So they cautiously trailed after Master She, step by step.

Second to last was Gu Quan—he needed to ensure Mo Hua's safety.

Mo Hua took the rear, watching the group to ensure no one misstepped and allowed blood leeches to invade their consciousness.

He could intervene in time to save them if needed.

"Uncle Gu gave me the secret orders, and even sent Gu family members to help. No matter what, I've got to get everyone back safely," Mo Hua reminded himself silently.

Fortunately, Master She understood the danger of the swamp. He didn't dare try anything and behaved, guiding them properly.

The Gu family cultivators obeyed without hesitation.

Yu Dahe, focused on his children, followed Mo Hua's instructions to the letter.

And with Mo Hua watching their backs, they passed through the swamp of floating blood leeches without incident.

Once across, they continued walking for an unknown distance—until, far in the distance, they finally glimpsed a hazy, blood mist–shrouded temple—grim and solemn.

From the temple surged waves of blood-red light—though far away, it still radiated an intense killing aura and divine pressure.

Between them and the temple lay a vast plaza—once the center of the village. Around the square sat hundreds of identical fishing cottages.

Every house was sealed tight, not a single crack, making it impossible to tell what lay within.

A creeping sense of unease bloomed in everyone's heart.

Master She spoke:

"That temple ahead is the River God Temple. The altar is inside."

"We just need to cross this plaza, place the offerings on the altar, and bow to the River God—asking for divine mercy."

"If the River God is willing, the children's souls will be returned."

"But the River God is the incarnation of a divine lord—lofty and unknowable. Whether grace is granted or not depends on those children's fate…"

Having finished, Master She started forward.

But Mo Hua suddenly said, "Wait." He scanned the area, then asked, "What is this plaza used for?"

Master She replied calmly, "Naturally, it's for preaching the Dao."

Mo Hua's gaze narrowed slightly. "Preaching what Dao?"

Master She's face grew reverent. "The Dao of the Divine Lord."

Mo Hua pressed on. "And what Dao is that?"

Master She suddenly smiled. "Young master, what's this? Are you considering converting to the Divine Lord's faith?"

Gu An's expression turned cold—his blade pressing tighter against Master She's neck, slicing a shallow line of blood.

"Just answer the question. Spare us the nonsense."

Though in pain, Master She's expression twisted into a sneer as he pressed his palms together and chanted:

"Those without faith cannot comprehend the Divine Lord's teachings."

Mo Hua was done listening to this cryptic garbage. "Forget it. Saving lives comes first—let him lead the way."

Master She glanced back with a strange smile, then continued forward.

Gu An's blade remained at his throat.

Everyone followed behind, entering the plaza encircled by those tightly shut fishing huts.

Mo Hua trailed along, deep in thought.

So this "plaza" was the Divine Lord's—or rather, the Great Wilderness Evil God's preaching ground?

If that's the case, then this place had been built long ago.

A representative of the River God must have once lived here, preaching to the villagers.

Perhaps, long ago, the villagers dwelled in the surrounding huts, emerging every morning or evening to gather here and listen to the god's sermons.

Mo Hua could almost see the scenes playing out in his mind's eye.

But in an instant—those peaceful scenes were torn apart.

Suddenly, Mo Hua's heart seized. He frowned deeply.

"No… that's not how they preached…"

He extended his divine sense—and froze.

Looking down, he saw that the stone tiles beneath his feet aligned with some strange pattern.

At the same time, faint traces of a formation's aura seeped from beneath the stones.

The aura was obscure, ancient, bloody, and chilling—an evil formation soaked in human blood, sealed long ago.

"An evil formation…"

He looked up again, scrutinizing the fishing huts encircling them—and at last, spotted it.

The arrangement of the huts was too precise.

So precise that…

Mo Hua's brow furrowed. There was a strange sense of familiarity, like he had seen this pattern before.

One by one, memories of demonic formations flickered through his mind.

And then—it hit him.

A single memory surfaced:

The Ten Thousand Corpses Formation!

Ten Thousand Corpses Formation!

Back in Nanyue City, within the corpse temple of the mining mountain, the Lu Clan's patriarch—Lu Chengyun—had once tried to construct a demonic corpse-refining formation: the Ten Thousand Corpses Formation.

The formation used sinister array patterns to link countless coffins, integrating corpse-refining, corpse-nurturing, and the consolidation of corpse qi—an extremely advanced and evil formation technique.

Mo Hua was quite familiar with this Ten Thousand Corpses Formation.

Lu Chengyun had once threatened him, forcing him to construct the formation core for a layered version of it.

And now, this plaza's layout bore a striking resemblance to that very formation.

Each of these fishing cottages was arranged with such precision that they looked almost like…

Coffins.

A chill ran down Mo Hua's spine.

Just then, he caught a glimpse of Master She clasping his hands together—and in the blink of an eye, while everyone was distracted, he slipped one of his fingers toward his mouth.

Mo Hua's pupils contracted as he shouted:

"You old bastard!"

Hearing this, Gu An—who was guarding Master She—instantly tensed and sensed something was off. Without hesitation, he pushed his blade down, aiming to sever Master She's neck.

The blade sliced halfway through, blood gushing wildly.

But it was too late—Master She had already shoved his pinky into his mouth. With a wince, he bit down hard.

"Puchi!"

A spray of black blood erupted as the pinky was severed.

Master She swallowed the finger whole—like ingesting a demonic pill. His aura surged violently. His body grew larger, muscles swelled grotesquely, his hair blackened and lengthened.

In mere moments, he had transformed into a hideous half-human, half-demon monster.

His demonized hide was hard as iron.

Gu An's blade lodged into his neck—but it couldn't go any deeper. He had no choice but to yank it out with force, carving off a large chunk of flesh.

Where the blade cut, Master She's neck revealed a greenish-black muscle layer and grotesque blood in shades of red and green.

But before long, the bleeding slowed, and his skin began to twitch and regenerate.

Several Gu family cultivators rushed forward to subdue him, blades drawn—but the now-demonic Master She was far more powerful than before. He didn't linger in battle, only engaging briefly before dodging away.

No one could catch him.

Just as he was about to escape, a sudden flash of pale blue light emerged—a watery chain spell formed midair and locked tightly around him, freezing him in place.

A water-type binding technique?!

"Who's ambushing me?!"

Rage filled Master She's beast-like eyes as he exerted all his strength, veins bulging, and after just two breaths—he broke free from the water chains.

He tried to flee again, but Gu Quan and the others had already encircled him. Their blades rained down.

Master She was struck multiple times, but his hide was like armor. None of the cuts were deep.

Still not willing to stay and fight, he took the hits, found a gap in the encirclement, and prepared to escape again.

But just then—flash! Another burst of blue light—a freezing chain struck again, interrupting his movement and locking him in place.

"Who?!"

Master She roared in fury.

His yellow-black, beast-like pupils darted around.

He spotted the "little spoiled brat from a noble clan"—Mo Hua—standing calmly at a distance, hands behind his back.

Yu Dahe was far off, cradling the two unconscious children.

Two Gu family cultivators were guarding two black-robed men.

No one seemed to be casting spells.

Master She felt a sudden chill in his heart.

"Is there a hidden expert among the Daoting Division's people?"

His eyes narrowed.

"No—I can't delay this any longer!"

With a bloodshot roar, his demonic aura exploded again. He punched Gu Quan back, clawed two other cultivators aside, and even took a slash from Gu An to the back—just to speed up and try breaking through.

But no matter how fast he moved—

Mo Hua was faster.

His divine sense had locked tightly onto Master She.

From afar, Mo Hua remained calm. His small hands, hidden in his sleeves, twitched slightly—fingers forming a precise sign.

Another Water Prison Technique condensed instantly—chains flared around the demon just as he burst forward—locking him mid-charge.

Master She was yanked back hard, losing balance, and faceplanted into the ground like a dog skidding in the mud.

Mo Hua finally let out a breath of relief.

This demonization… it's very similar to the Fire Buddha's transformation.

But Master She's cultivation and combat strength fell far short. Even with the transformation, he couldn't compensate for his weaknesses.

After all, he was a pill master—likely also an array master—so most of his time had been spent refining pills and studying formations, not tempering his body or cultivating spiritual power.

Even as a demon, he was nowhere near the unstoppable monster Fire Buddha had become.

Master She roared and struggled—shattering the water chains around him with brute force. Slowly, he got back up, blood-red eyes blazing.

But Gu An and the others had already taken the opportunity to fully encircle him.

Master She was furious to the core.

At this point, he knew it clearly: as long as that devious water-type cultivator remained, he had no chance of escaping today.

"I didn't want to go this far…"

His voice was hoarse and inhuman, twisted with a sneer.

"…I even considered leaving your corpses whole. But you all just had to dig your own graves."

Mo Hua sensed something off—his gaze turned icy.

"Kill it!"

Gu An and the others no longer held back—they slashed down with full force.

But Master She moved first.

With a sudden motion, he pulled out a sacrificial dagger and plunged it into his own heart meridian.

The move was so abrupt that Gu An and the others were momentarily stunned.

And in that split second—

Everything changed.

The sacrificial dagger embedded in Master She's chest suddenly acted like a demonic parasite—frenziedly absorbing blood, turning bright red.

At the same time, bizarre array runes on the blade began to glow ominously.

Mo Hua's expression changed drastically.

"Scatter!"

At Mo Hua's shout, Gu An and the others didn't hesitate—they immediately retreated from Master She's side.

Before they could even settle into new positions, Master She's body suddenly exploded, sending a thick cloud of blood mist spraying outward and splattering across the ground.

The blood seeped into the earth and followed the carved grooves in the ground, slithering and coiling on its own, eventually forming a large, blood-red array pattern.

This array pattern looked just like a key, activating the entire formation beneath their feet.

Below the earth, the putrid, bloody aura began to churn violently.

From the surrounding fishing cottages came strange, eerie sounds—like something long buried was now awakening from its slumber.

These noises grew louder and louder, accompanied by strange, jarring cries from… who knows what.

Everyone's faces changed drastically.

Gu An and the rest abandoned Master She without another glance and immediately regrouped around Mo Hua, forming a defensive formation with him at the center.

At the same time, a series of shrill "creeeeak" sounds rang out—

The cottage doors… were opening.

Wet, squelching footsteps echoed from within the dark interiors. One shadowy figure after another appeared in the doorways.

The crowd squinted—and collectively gasped.

Monsters. Twisted, grotesque abominations.

Their bodies were vaguely human, but their feet resembled gills; their hands were claws; their heads were like aquatic demons, and their mouths full of sharp teeth like spirit fish.

Their entire forms were a horrific mishmash—

As if humans, river demons, and spirit fish had been chopped up, blended together, and reassembled into something that defied all categorization.

Mo Hua's pupils shrank.

These things… looked familiar. The half-human, half-demon grotesqueness—the very structure of their existence—was exactly like the "demonic nightmares" that Yu'er had seen in her dreams.

Except—those were just spiritual evil beings.

These… were real, of flesh and blood.

Mo Hua reached out with his spiritual sense, scanning the formation and the surrounding flows of evil energy. A realization dawned.

The evil array beneath the Dao Altar was similar to Lu Chengyun's Ten Thousand Corpses Formation.

But while the Ten Thousand Corpses Formation used coffins to refine corpses, this Dao altar used fishing huts as its formation medium—refining a grotesque hybrid of humans and fish demons into these blood-flesh demon monsters.

On the surface, this was a divine sermon altar.

But in truth, it was a blood-refining formation—using humans as ingredients, fish demons as catalysts, to forge horrifying monsters.

While Mo Hua was piecing this together, the aura of the monsters around them was growing stronger by the second.

Wet, slapping footsteps echoed in all directions like a swarm of merfolk crawling on land.

In the blink of an eye, the entire Dao altar was surrounded by an endless horde of fish-demon hybrids, all grotesquely misshapen.

One Gu family cultivator turned pale and stammered:

"Wh-What are these things…?"

Even Gu An and the others looked grim.

They were Daoting Division cultivators—experienced in dealing with demonic, rogue, and evil cultivators. They'd seen their fair share.

They'd faced corpse puppets, mountain demons, river spirits, and cultivators turned undead or demonic.

But never before had they seen such twisted, malformed creatures, like a patchwork of discarded limbs and flesh assembled into madness.

Each half-human, half-fish demon stared at them with cold, blood-red eyes—glaring at Mo Hua and the rest…

The only living beings left on this altar.

Then—

A sharp, gurgling wail—part cry, part screech—echoed from one of the monsters. And all at once, the swarm of twisted creatures—some with human heads and fish legs, others with human legs and fish heads—charged like mad beasts.

Their demonic aura surged, and killing intent filled the air.

Gu An's expression darkened.

"Protect the young lord!"

The Gu clan cultivators instantly moved to block in front of Mo Hua. Blades flashed, forming a wall of steel as the group clashed with the oncoming fish-demon swarm.

These monsters were grotesque in shape, and while their individual strength wasn't high, they were fiercely relentless.

Cut off their legs—they crawled.

Sever an arm—they bit with their jaws.

Even decapitation didn't stop them—some still squirmed and lunged with spasms of unholy life.

They were disturbingly similar to corpse puppets—injury didn't mean death.

And there were just too many of them. No end in sight.

"This drag-out fight won't work…"

Mo Hua frowned and was just about to use a formation to blast open a path when he saw—a Gu clan cultivator get caught by a fish-demon up close.

The creature, only two palms away, **pursed its lips and sucked—**and actually pulled the cultivator's divine sense right out of his body!

The man screamed in agony.

These things can devour divine sense?!

Mo Hua's heart lurched. He quickly formed a seal and launched a fireball—blasting the creature back—then decisively shouted:

"Fall back! Now!"

The group immediately understood the danger and stopped hesitating. They began a tactical retreat, covering each other's backs.

Gu An and Gu Quan—the strongest among them—held the rear, slashing apart incoming monsters.

Mo Hua filled in the gaps with his spells, using fire and force to push back sneak attackers.

Blades flashed. Spells flew. They fought while retreating.

As they reached the narrow passageway leading out, Mo Hua casually tossed a Groundfire Array disc behind him—it exploded, knocking away some pursuers and kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke.

Using the smoke as cover, Mo Hua used divine sense to guide his brush, inscribing a Grade-Two Sixteen-Rune Earth-Slaying Formation into the ground.

His gaze turned icy cold.

"Explode."

BOOM.

The Earth-Slaying Array detonated—earthforce surged violently, tearing into the monsters like a tidal wave of killing intent. Dozens were shredded in an instant.

The group finally got a breather—they escaped the Dao altar.

Just as they fled, Mo Hua's spiritual sense sharply focused—his eyes pierced through the wall of fish-demons and blood mist…

And saw—amid the smoke—the twisted remains of Master She.

The demonized flesh was peeling off his body—he had shed his skin like a snake.

And with a sinister grin…

He turned and fled toward the River God Temple in the distance.

(End of this Chapter)