Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 271: Chapter 270 Cliff Path_1

At night, Mo Hua practiced the Concealment Formation and the Reversed Spirit Formation on the Taoist Stele in his Sea of Consciousness.

He was already familiar with the Concealment Formation, merely reviewing it.

The Reversed Spirit Formation was extremely difficult; a complete one required the Divine Sense of ten patterns, which Mo Hua couldn’t draw yet—it just served as a training tool to hone his Divine Sense.

The next morning, he rose early to perform his routine cultivation for two hours.

After a quick breakfast, he set off for Big Black Mountain, crossing the Outer Mountain to reach the Inner Mountain and then arrived at the cliff edge.

The cliff rose steeply a thousand feet high, wrapped in clouds and mist, its depth unfathomable.

Mo Hua sat cross-legged at the edge of the cliff, closed his eyes and released his Divine Sense downward to probe beneath the cliff.

This time, with a hypothesis in mind, his purpose was more specific and his perception even more careful.

A moment later, Mo Hua opened his eyes, looking puzzled.

Still, he found nothing.

If he was not mistaken, these Sin Cultivators should have used the Concealment Formation to hide, and the most likely place was under the cliff.

But at the moment, the deep-reaching cliff was bottomless.

Within the range of Mo Hua’s Divine Sense, there were neither figures nor other distinctive auras.

This was quite strange.

If it wasn’t beneath the cliff, could it be on the opposite side?

Mo Hua looked towards the opposite mountain.

The opposite side was a deep mountain, with dense clouds and mist, thick miasma, and fiercely unpredictable energy. Moreover, the miasma obscured vision so that the edge of the cliff was invisible.

Being invisible in itself, it seemed there was no need to use formations to hide anything.

“If not under the cliff, and not the opposite side of the cliff, could it be between the cliffs?”

Mo Hua muttered to himself, then his Divine Sense probed the space between the cliffs.

The miasma and filthy qi between the cliffs intermingled, blurring the view temporarily.

As he scrutinized, Mo Hua suddenly opened his eyes wide.

There was really something there!

Mo Hua’s heart skipped a beat. He then closed his eyes again, concentrated his mind, and extended his Divine Sense to its limit, trying to ignore the interference of the miasma and to perceive with all his might.

Amidst the fuzziness, Mo Hua finally spotted a path leading to the opposite cliff.

When he realized what this path was, Mo Hua was shocked.

This was not actually a trail, but a fallen mountain peak!

The peak was sharp, the rocks robust, coming from the opposite side and spanning between the cliffs, forming a natural stone bridge.

A Formation Master had laid down the Concealment Formation on the mountain peak, concealing its figure, combined with the natural miasma between the cliffs to confuse Divine Sense perception.

The mountain peak became an extremely clandestine, unknown path, situated above Thousands miles of Abyss, connecting the cliffs on both sides.

Using the mountain rocks as Formation media, and the mountain’s miasma as a cover, leaving no trace, undetected by gods and spirits.

Mo Hua was stunned.

Suddenly, he thought to himself, “This Formation Master is a master!”

He, too, had just learned the Concealment Formation, but this Formation Master had laid this hidden formation on the mountain rocks long ago, and the level of skill in formations was clearly higher than his own.

Since becoming skilled in formations, aside from the inscrutable Mr. Zhuang, this was the first time Mo Hua had encountered a Formation Master whose attainment in formations surpassed his own.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but be curious—who exactly was this Formation Master?

To set formations for Sin Cultivators, hiding their tracks, could he too be a Sin Cultivator?

Mo Hua felt it was a pity; it was hard enough to learn formations, and yet, to engage in despicable acts of murder and looting for the sake of Sin Cultivators.

What to do next?

Mo Hua frowned.

Now that he had discovered the whereabouts of this group of Sin Cultivators, naturally, he should go and investigate their reality.

But Mo Hua couldn’t possibly venture into danger alone.

After all, no one knew how many Sin Cultivators there were, what their levels of cultivation were like, how depraved they were, or what their intentions were in lurking deep within the mountain.

Mo Hua planned to go back and report this matter to Elder Yu, and also to inform the Taoist Court.

With the help of Monster Hunters and Taoist Court Officials, a large force would be able to take down this group of Sin Cultivators in one stroke.

Having made up his mind, Mo Hua was about to return, but as he turned around, he stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brow again.

This approach also seemed somewhat inappropriate.

Returning to call for reinforcements, although with numbers on their side, a group of people entering the mountain would likely alert the Sin Cultivators and put them on guard.

They were numerous, but what if there were even more Sin Cultivators?

After all, they had been lying dormant for two to three hundred years and had been recruiting evil forces everywhere; their power was probably not small.

If the Sin Cultivators were to take advantage of the terrain and ambush mid-way, then many from the Taoist Court Officers and Monster Hunters would likely perish.

Mo Hua had more than a little rapport with the Taoist Court Officers and an even deeper relationship with the Monster Hunters.

This was something Mo Hua did not want to see.

Moreover, with the true strength of the Sin Cultivators unknown, to act rashly would not yield high chances of victory.

If the Sin Cultivators managed to escape, the chances of rooting them out completely would become virtually impossible.

What’s more, all of this was still just Mo Hua’s speculation at this point.

Although there was a seventy to eighty percent likelihood, it was not something that could be confirmed without seeing it with one’s own eyes.

What if there were no Sin Cultivators behind the cliffs?

What if there was a recluse as great as Mr. Zhuang, or a high-ranking Formation Master with an unsociable temperament?

Amassing a group of Cultivators to go there would undoubtedly be provoking enmity.

Mo Hua felt a bit conflicted.

After much thought, it seemed like the best solution was for him to “venture alone into danger”…

His Divine Sense was strong, enabling him to detect danger early on, and with the Water Passing Step, ordinary Cultivators could not come near him. Moreover, what was most important now was his ability to conceal himself.

He was the only Cultivator among all Monster Hunters in Tongxian City who could conceal himself.

With the help of the Concealment Technique and Concealment Formation, his concealment was stronger than ordinary concealment techniques; even a Foundation Building Cultivator, if careless, might not be able to see through it.

If there was indeed a revered figure on the opposite side, they probably wouldn’t bother with a minor Cultivator like himself.

If the other side truly was inhabited by Sin Cultivators, sneaking over covertly would not stir the grass and startle the snake.

They killed and plundered unnoticed by gods and ghosts, and he would investigate the truth just as invisibly.

Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be in peril.

Once the truth was ascertained, it would naturally be easier to devise a plan.

Mo Hua nodded to himself.

If he took a little risk, fewer Monster Hunters and Taoist Court Officers might die, so it was a risk worth taking.

And it was just about going there cautiously to get a rough idea of the situation on the opposite side, then sneaking back covertly.

The Sin Cultivators on the other side might not all be able to detect him.

After all, his Concealment Technique and Concealment Formation were not learned in vain.

Mo Hua gradually made up his mind:

“First, I’ll use the Concealment Technique to sneak over, probe the situation, and then sneak back.”

This way, he would not alarm the enemy, nor would he take too great a risk.

Mo Hua grabbed a handful of pebbles nearby and found a tree branch, then opened his storage bag and took out a bottle of Spiritual Ink. After sensing with his Divine Sense for a moment, he spilled the Spiritual Ink from the edge of a cliff.

The golden Spiritual Ink poured out with the momentum, and moments later, as if blocked by something, it splattered and condensed into ink patterns in the air.

“There is indeed a path.”

Mo Hua nodded, then carelessly dropped a few more pebbles, ensuring that they too hovered in mid-air, not sinking into the cliff, before he felt reassured.

Mo Hua first activated the Concealment Formation, then stimulated the Concealment Technique to hide his figure before employing the Water Passing Step to lightly jump off the cliff and into the clouds.

Moments later, a slight numbness beneath his feet signaled that he had landed on the invisible stone path.

The Spiritual Ink and pebbles he had scattered earlier were right beside his feet.

Mo Hua let out a sigh of relief.

Knowing there was a path was one thing, but actually jumping off the cliff was still rather terrifying.

Looking down, Mo Hua’s hands and feet turned to jelly, his face paled.

Beneath the cliff was an abyss thousands of feet deep; a fall would surely mean being shattered to pieces.

At that moment, he stood as if suspended in mid-air, atop the abyss.

Mo Hua took a deep breath, telling himself:

“Don’t look down, don’t look down…”

Then, mustering all his courage, he started moving forward, step by step, carefully using the tree branch to test the path ahead.

On a hidden mountain path shrouded in mist between two cliffs, an invisible minor Cultivator was quietly, step by step, making his way to the other side.

For two to three hundred years, the Monster Hunters had not discovered the hidden mountain path, and at this very moment, the Sin Cultivators had not discovered the concealed Mo Hua.