Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 1117: Nurturing the Slaughter Qi

As the scar-faced bandit chieftain had his head blown apart by Mo Hua's Fireball Spell, the entire bandit stronghold in this remote corner of the Jizhou Realm was completely and thoroughly wiped out.

Mo Hua flung a few more fireballs in all directions.

Deep and searing flames soared into the air, quickly spreading to engulf the entire stronghold—over a hundred corpses and all the accumulated sins burned to ash.

The firelight surged into the night sky, standing out vividly against the darkness.

A charred and putrid stench drifted down the mountain with the wind.

At the foot of the Jiejie Mountains, in a small mountain village—

The poor, itinerant cultivators who had been sleeping fitfully in fear awoke to the faint smell of rot. When they looked up, they saw the blood-red glow of fire on the horizon. Their expressions were shocked and fearful.

"Have the bandits come again?!"

"Quick, grab the children!"

"Women, into the cellars!"

"Men, follow me!"

The village erupted into a frantic uproar. After much panic and chaos, they realized that although the firelight still glowed in the distance, nothing seemed amiss around the village.

"The bandits… didn't come?"

Someone stared in confusion.

They looked at each other, puzzled. Then someone murmured in disbelief:

"Could it be... the bandits… were killed?"

They exchanged uncertain glances.

Many wanted to go up the mountain to check, but fear of the vicious bandits held them back. Their hearts were uneasy.

Three days later, a hunter who frequently roamed the mountains—bold and brash—sneaked up the slope. Half a day later, he returned, trembling all over with excitement, gesturing wildly:

"Dead!"

"They're all dead!"

"Ten or so corpses on the road, burned beyond recognition, not a single whole body left."

"The entire stronghold was reduced to ash—those beasts, all wiped out! Vultures are pecking at their charred flesh."

"The whole mountain is finally at peace..."

The gathered loose cultivators were overjoyed. But soon, murmurs of suspicion arose:

"The chieftain of that bandit den was a Foundation Establishment cultivator—slaughtered without mercy. Usually, with a flick of his hand, he could bathe an area in blood. Who could have killed him? Who had that kind of strength?"

"Not to mention, that stronghold held over a hundred bandit cultivators, all evil to the core. And they all died in a single night? Could this be divine retribution—something only a true immortal could do?"

Just then, a gaunt old man in the crowd trembled and cried out:

"It was... it must have been the Immortal Child, my lord!"

"We prayed for his blessing, wished him longevity. The Immortal Child truly answered us! In one night, he wiped out all the bandits, brought justice to the land, and restored peace!"

The old man knelt shakily and began to chant devoutly:

"May the Immortal Child's blessings last forever, may his life be as eternal as the heavens, full of mercy and compassion, saving all from suffering..."

With a "miracle" before them, more people began to believe.

Just like the old man, they knelt on the ground, worshipping the heavens, praying to the Immortal Child for protection...

At this very moment, the so-called Immortal Child who received their prayers was in torment.

Fifty li away, in a remote cave in the desolate mountains—

Rough and simple array formations were set up all around.

Mo Hua sat within, lips pale, the center of his brow pitch-black. The 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi around him had almost taken solid form, turning into a gray mist that dripped down his body, causing the surrounding plants to yellow and wither in patches.

Mo Hua's mind was also being tortured by killing intent.

From the void, the villagers' prayers trickled into Mo Hua's fate, like a gentle stream—but they were completely unable to resist the deep and oceanic murderous karma.

This time, Mo Hua had slaughtered over a hundred bandits.

The backlash of the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi was far stronger than anything he'd faced before.

Eyes shut tightly, Mo Hua faintly saw scenes of the Heaven-Blood Sacrifice Formation—its deathly stillness in black and white. Those demonic cultivators annihilated by the crushing force of the formation were now manifesting as twisted, ghostly faces, screaming and roaring at him.

"You killed me…"

"Give me back my life…"

"With all this blood on your hands, what's the point of living…"

"Your sins are too great—why aren't you dead?"

"You killed everyone…"

"Kill…"

Countless shrill and chaotic voices filled his mind. Any ordinary cultivator would've suffered splitting headaches, gone mad, and been consumed by bloodlust.

But Mo Hua had cultivated divine sense and clarified his Dao heart. He had strong resistance to the howling "vengeful spirits" born of karmic cause and effect.

What's more, these demonic beasts deserved to die—Mo Hua had no guilt over killing them.

Even if he were to slaughter them again, he would not hesitate.

But the issue was—he had killed too many. The resulting 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi was overwhelming.

As someone who used divine sense to walk the path of Dao, half a step into the Divine Realm, Mo Hua could ignore the wailing souls.

But the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi could not be overlooked.

Even true gods, though capable of suppressing spirits, dared not take 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi lightly.

If too deeply corroded by it, even righteous gods could have their essence tainted, falling into roles as "Slaughter Gods," "Fierce Gods," or even "Evil Gods."

The more intense the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi became, the darker Mo Hua's brow grew, and the more his mind was clouded by murderous thoughts.

A voice began to echo from within.

This voice sounded just like him—only colder, crueler:

"Mortals are ignorant and selfish, lacking equality and the heart to seek the Dao. They live only for pleasure, leeching off one another, throwing the heavenly order into chaos, obscuring immortal destiny..."

"Such fools… all deserve death. All must die..."

These words eerily aligned with part of Mo Hua's own heart, stirring faint apocalyptic thoughts.

Mo Hua furrowed his brows. He knew—he had no choice now.

He steadied his breath and took out the Water Prison Forbidden Box, visualizing the Water Prison Diagram within. Following the orthodox cultivation method of the Water Dao Sect, he began to guide the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi into his divine sense, imprinting it into his inner visualization, merging it with his soul, and fusing it with the Sevenfold Soul Sword Prison.

The Water Dao Sect's Sevenfold Blood Prison Eye was traditionally cultivated by enhancing its power through 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi.

Until now, Mo Hua hadn't practiced with 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi, using only the eye's techniques to unleash the Great Void Spirit-Staggering Sword.

The Blood Prison Eye formed the shape; the Spirit-Staggering Sword gave it substance.

But now, the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi in his body was too turbulent to suppress.

He had no choice but to guide it into his soul, following the methods once devised by his sect's forebears for cultivating this eye technique.

Mo Hua, who always tread unconventional paths, was now forced by 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi to walk the Water Dao Sect's orthodox path.

But that alone wasn't enough.

He had drawn the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi of karmic origin into his soul.

Yet the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi on his body still lingered externally.

So, Mo Hua brought out a second manual:

The True Art of Demonic Fiend Transformation.

This demonic cultivation art had been sealed in his storage for ten years.

He had never planned to cultivate it.

But now, he had no other choice. He had to use this demonic method to forcibly transform the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi—dissolving the rampant and near-solidified aura threatening to consume him.

The principles of the True Art of Demonic Fiend Transformation flowed through his mind.

Streams of 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi were drawn out, gathered in his sea of consciousness, then stirred by spiritual energy, cycling through his meridians in a minor circuit.

Eventually, the 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi began to merge with his spiritual energy, settling deep in his qi sea—completing the initial stage of "fiend transformation."

Mo Hua's spiritual power now carried a dangerous fiendish edge.

And so, Mo Hua began dual-cultivating the Water Dao Sect's Sevenfold Blood Prison Eye and the Demon Fiend Sect's True Art of Demonic Fiend Transformation.

The overflowing 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi within his fate was split in two:

One portion—fused into his divine soul, hidden within his eyes.

The other—blended into his spiritual energy, sunk into his sea of consciousness.

The backlash of 屠氣 (Túqì) – Slaughter Qi… was finally beginning to dissipate.

The backlash of the baleful energy was also being gradually dissolved by Mo Hua.

The blackness on Mo Hua's forehead began to fade. The baleful aura surrounding him lost its source and gradually dissipated. Even his pale face slowly regained a trace of color.

Half an hour later, Mo Hua opened his eyes.

In the depths of his eyes, a flash of blood-colored baleful aura flickered—within it was buried the wretched screams of countless cultivators at the moment of death. The weight of bloodshed within was terrifying to behold.

Mo Hua brought two fingers together and pointed again, forming a fireball at his fingertips.

At its core, the fireball was blazing red, but along its edges ran a rim of black—the baleful aura flowed within it.

With a casual flick, Mo Hua launched the fireball at the ground. It exploded on impact, blasting apart earth and stone, charring the grass and trees.

This was the normal power of a fireball spell.

What was abnormal, however, was that the grass and trees not directly hit by the fireball but merely grazed by its baleful aura also began to wither—an atmosphere of death and decay spread across the area.

The good news was: Mo Hua felt that he had grown stronger again.

His current Eye Technique had become the true Seven Soul Blood Prison Eyes.

Even without relying on the Soul-Shocking Sword or overdrawing his divine sense, the mere baleful aura in his eyes carried a powerful deterrent, enough to instill fear in the hearts of others.

Secondly, his fireball technique—now wreathed in a black edge and filled with deathly baleful aura—had grown noticeably more powerful.

The bad news was that both of these techniques only became stronger because of the baleful aura.

Strictly speaking, baleful aura was not a tool commonly used by righteous cultivators.

At this point… he was beginning to look more and more like a demonic cultivator.

Mo Hua found this a little hard to accept.

"Why do I suddenly seem like a demon…" he muttered, furrowing his brow, racking his brain and recalling all manner of things he'd seen or heard to try and distinguish between righteousness and evil.

After a moment, Mo Hua's expression shifted. He suddenly remembered something an Elder of the Water Prison Sect had once told him.

Many of the sect's legacies—and even its ultimate forbidden arts—were related to baleful aura.

Thus, the Water Prison Sect had delved deeply into its study.

According to Elder Yu Canghai of the Water Prison Sect, in this world, just as people can be good or evil, so too can baleful aura be divided.

There is righteous baleful aura and evil baleful aura.

As long as one kills, one will generate baleful aura. To refine it, one must kill.

Killing good people produces evil baleful aura.

Killing evil people produces righteous baleful aura.

Water Prison Sect cultivators had always served in the Dao Court, using torture to punish the guilty, suppressing evildoers with the Dao of Imprisonment, slaying traitors, monsters, and those fallen to devilry. Through slaughter, they cultivated awe-inspiring baleful might and righteous energy, striking fear into the hearts of the wicked. This, they called nurturing righteous baleful aura.

At the time, Mo Hua hadn't thought much of Elder Yu's words.

But now, recalling them, he nodded repeatedly. It made perfect sense.

He remembered Elder Yu also saying:

"Righteous baleful aura is very difficult to cultivate…"

"One who nurtures it must have immense willpower and an unshakable Dao heart…"

"Once you cultivate righteous baleful aura, the souls clinging to you are mostly those who were heinously wicked. Their malice will constantly assault your mind. If your mental defenses crack and you cannot resist them, you will suffer backlash. Your heart will fall into depravity, and the righteous aura will mutate—turning into something far more extreme: evil baleful aura…"

At this point in his thoughts, Mo Hua's heart gave a violent jolt.

He hadn't expected the things Elder Yu said back then would now be applying completely to him.

During the Great Wilderness Blood Sacrifice, he had killed far too many vicious demonic cultivators.

In other words—he had inadvertently cultivated a vast quantity of righteous baleful aura.

Among this righteous aura, there were indeed lingering souls.

These souls had all been exceedingly wicked in life—and their vicious thoughts truly were assaulting his mind.

If he couldn't resist them, he'd suffer backlash and his mind would fall into corruption.

If he lost control and fell into madness, indiscriminately slaughtering the innocent, his righteous aura would reverse and transform into something even more extreme—evil baleful aura.

Righteous baleful aura, no matter how overwhelming, could still maintain a degree of balance.

But if that overwhelming righteous aura turned into a bottomless pit of evil aura, his fate would collapse in an instant.

He would succumb to demonic possession, become a great demon, sever ties with the Dao, and his path of cultivation would be utterly destroyed…

Mo Hua drew in a sharp breath.

Only now did he realize—unwittingly, he had already stepped onto the Water Prison Sect's path of cultivating righteous baleful aura.

And that path… teetered right on the edge of a cliff. It was extremely narrow, allowing only forward motion—no retreat.

One misstep would plunge him into the abyss, never to recover.

In fact, the blood debt he'd already accrued was so vast and so pure that the righteous aura he had cultivated might be stronger than that of any Water Prison Sect cultivator in history.

Ordinary righteous baleful aura was manageable.

But the quantity he had was simply terrifying.

Should anything go wrong, the resulting consequences could be catastrophic.

Mo Hua sighed deeply, utterly helpless.

"I'm just at the Foundation Establishment stage… do I really have to carry karma this heavy?"

"Not only is neutralizing and transforming this aura extremely difficult…"

"Even cultivating it is like nurturing heavenly lightning—a massive hidden danger. One careless move, and I'll be reduced to ashes."

"Even worse—I can't kill a single good person. If I do, the resulting evil aura from that one wrongful kill will be like a fuse, igniting all my unstable righteous aura at once… and then I'll be damned for eternity…"

But this was the reality he now faced. The bloodshed was already done. The righteous aura surged like a sea—it could no longer be reversed. He could only take it one step at a time…

Mo Hua murmured in his heart:

"From now on, if I can avoid killing, I won't kill."

"As long as I don't kill, I won't stir up karma. The baleful aura will remain dormant… and I'll be safe."

"As long as you don't kill, you won't trigger karmic cause and effect. The state of baleful aura is absolutely safe."

"If you really must kill, then you must ensure the person you kill truly deserves to die. That way, it will only increase your 'righteous baleful aura.' The backlash of baleful aura can then be barely resolved using the Seven-Soul Blood Prison Eyes and the demonic Baleful Conversion Technique—but even so, you can't kill too many at once..."

"As for the innocent, they must never be killed. If you raise evil baleful aura and pollute your righteous one, the consequences would be unimaginable..."

Mo Hua calmed his heart, sorted out his thoughts, and slowly nodded.

"People can be good or evil; baleful aura can be righteous or wicked. Good and evil can change, and so can righteous and wicked..."

As this thought arose, Mo Hua's heart trembled. He suddenly felt like he understood something.

But when he tried to ponder it in detail, it became obscure and elusive—like the horns of a gazelle, hanging without a trace to follow.

He knew this was because his cultivation wasn't high enough, his vision was limited, and his understanding of the Great Dao was still shallow.

Still, Mo Hua wasn't anxious. Insight takes time—it must come step by step.

Through daily accumulation, constant learning, and contemplation, there will eventually come a day when everything clicks, and enlightenment dawns.

Mo Hua stood up, erased all traces of the formation around him, and buried the scorch marks left by the Fireball Technique.

Then he used Mud and Sand Technique to smooth the ground. After confirming no evidence was left behind, he finally departed.

As he walked along the mountain path, Mo Hua remained deep in thought.

At times he thought about raising baleful aura, at times about transforming and converting it. He thought of the Seven-Soul Blood Prison Eyes, the origin of the Baleful Fireball Technique, and then suddenly froze:

"The Blood Prison Eyes are a secret technique of the Water Yama."

"Fire techniques combined with baleful aura and fear—isn't that the signature demonic art of the Fire Buddha...?"

"Am I already... combining the strengths of both? Have I become the hybrid of the two infamous Dry Academy devils—Fire Buddha and Water Yama?"

And even... surpassed them both?

Mo Hua let out a deep sigh, helplessly shaking his head.

After traveling dozens of miles further, he arrived at the first—and nearly only—small immortal city of the Jizhou region in the Little Realm.

Standing outside the immortal city, watching the bustling crowds, Mo Hua hesitated for a long while before deciding to enter.

He had thought it through. If he continued traveling alone, he might inevitably run into "evil people," and then he'd be tempted to kill them, unable to hold back.

That wouldn't do. He needed to find some people to "protect" himself from falling into further bloodshed.

Mo Hua entered the city, walked around, and eventually arrived at an escort agency.

Inside the escort agency was one of the only early Foundation Establishment cultivators in the entire immortal city.

This Foundation Establishment cultivator was about 120 or 130 years old, with half-white hair, a tall build, and a hearty presence.

He had come to the city for a delivery escort job. On the way back, he also took on freelance bodyguard work for cultivators to earn some extra spirit stones.

Although he was at the Foundation Establishment stage, one realm higher than the average, he still needed to make a living and support a family.

Especially in small places like this, where resources were scarce.

Just cultivating at Foundation Establishment required considerable resources. Daily expenses were tight. He had to find ways to both open new income streams and cut costs—every extra spirit stone mattered.

Even earning just one more was a blessing.

"Senior Luo, I'd like to ask if you could take me along for a bit."

Mo Hua walked up to the Foundation Establishment cultivator and cupped his hands respectfully.

He had already done his homework: this cultivator was surnamed Luo and was the chief escort of the Canglang City Luo Escort Agency.

Coincidentally, Canglang City was also the seat of the Canglang Sect—on the same route he was taking.

Escort Leader Luo was tending to a horse. Upon hearing the request, he glanced at Mo Hua and raised his brows in surprise at Mo Hua's elegant appearance and refined temperament, but was also a bit puzzled:

"I'm a dignified Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet I can't see through this young man's cultivation?"

He asked, "May I know your esteemed name, your background, and where you are heading?"

Mo Hua smiled gently. "My surname is Mo. I've been ordered by my sect to travel and gain experience. I'm heading to Canglang City, but I fear the road is dangerous, so I'd like to request your escort..."

There was nothing particularly wrong with what he said.

Still, Escort Leader Luo seemed hesitant.

So Mo Hua took out ten spirit stones. "I can pay extra."

Escort Leader Luo was momentarily stunned.

The journey to Canglang City was long. The usual escort fee was five spirit stones. Though not much, for your average rogue cultivator—especially the poor ones nearby—it was quite a sum.

Yet Mo Hua immediately offered ten spirit stones.

"Must be some rich young master out traveling, unaware of how hard it is to earn spirit stones..."

Luo thought silently. He studied Mo Hua again and saw his beautiful features and gentle, harmless aura.

"Can't see through his cultivation—probably has some treasure hiding it. But he's so young, his cultivation likely isn't that high. Such a delicate young man traveling alone—it makes sense he'd fear danger on the road..."

A feeling of protectiveness stirred in Escort Leader Luo's heart. He nodded. "Very well, you may travel with us."

Mo Hua smiled and cupped his hands. "Many thanks."

Afterwards, everyone spent half the day preparing. Escort Leader Luo finished arranging matters at the agency, then led the caravan—goods and people together—on the road.

Mo Hua joined them.

With the protection of a Foundation Establishment escort leader, the rest of the journey became much safer.

Even when they encountered bandits who didn't know their place, Mo Hua didn't need to lift a finger. Luo and the escort guards dealt with them easily.

Mo Hua just sipped tea, nibbled snacks, and watched from the sidelines—no need to fight at all.

"Truly, to live well, one must learn to 'slack off.'"

"It's still more comfortable blending in with the crowd…"

That was what Mo Hua thought.

(End of this Chapter)