Chapter 133: Missing
Mo Hua was preparing to officially draw the Compass Mother-and-Child Formation.
He went to see Master Chen, and together they refined a simple compass and a few dozen stone needles.
In the Compass Mother-and-Child Formation, there was only one parent formation, drawn on the compass itself, while there could be many child formations, each drawn on a stone needle.
The child formations were not connected to each other, they only resonated with the parent formation.
So even though there could be dozens of child arrays, they were all, in truth, linked to a single array core, meaning that this was, essentially, just a dual-array formation in disguise.
In other words, the Compass Mother-and-Child Formation was a Composite Formation consisting of two single formations.
After working for half a day, Mo Hua finally completed the drawings.
Then came the time for testing.
Mo Hua entered the Great Black Mountain, set up some traps and formations, and inserted a few stone needles about a dozen zhang away.
He asked Dà Hu, Shuāng Hu, and Xiao Hu to keep watch nearby, while he himself took the compass (the parent formation) and ran far, far away.
After walking for more than half an hour, Mo Hua finally stopped, crouched in a patch of grass, and stared intently at the compass in his hand.
He waited… and waited… and waited some more, until he was nearly dozing off.
Then suddenly, a tiny dot on the compass lit up.
That glowing point corresponded exactly to the location of the stone needle he had planted earlier.
Mo Hua's spirit lifted at once, he jumped up and ran back.
By the time he arrived, the beast had already been slain by Dà Hu and the others, its corpse lying on the ground, blood still warm.
Mo Hua stepped forward, pressed his finger to the beast's heart meridian, and sensed that the demon blood still held vitality, it could still be drawn with Divine-Sense.
So he took out a jade vial, activated his Blood Extraction Technique, and began collecting the blood.
After filling eight or nine bottles, he stopped.
He went to check the stone needle, it was completely intact, unharmed.
Mo Hua couldn't help but smile.
"Mo Hua, all done?"
"Mm, done!"
The three Hu brothers didn't quite understand what he was doing with the compass, but they guessed it had something to do with formations.
They didn't ask—formation arts weren't their thing—but seeing Mo Hua's satisfied expression, they all grinned too.
As usual, they skinned and dismembered the beast, packed it into their Storage Bags, and later that evening, they'd deliver Mo Hua's share of spirit stones to his house.
After waving goodbye, Mo Hua continued wandering the mountain, placing more of the stone needles engraved with the Compass Child Formation.
He mostly planted them along roads and mountain paths where demonic beasts or demon hunters frequently passed, ideal spots for traps or surveillance.
After three or four days, all the needles were set.
Now, the entire outer mountain was effectively under Mo Hua's watch.
Not every rustle of grass could be detected, but any spell duel, demonic beast skirmish, or spiritual power fluctuation would cause the compass to react, and Mo Hua would know immediately.
...
In the following days, he ran all over the outer range, compass in hand, busy but delighted.
Whenever a light dot appeared on the compass, it meant a battle was underway.
Most of the time, it was because of an Earthfire Array explosion, new hunters surrounding a beast.
By the time Mo Hua arrived, the battle was usually ending. He'd wait until the beast drew its last breath, then extract its blood.
Sometimes, it was other hunting squads fighting beasts.
Normally, no hunting squad would allow outsiders to touch their prey.
But Mo Hua was well-known. Very well-known.
Most hunters had either commissioned him for arrays, owed him favors, or wanted to build connections in case they ever needed formation work.
So no one minded if Mo Hua extracted a bit of blood, they couldn't use it anyway.
Other times, the compass detected beasts fighting each other.
Beasts fought for food, territory, or mates, such conflicts caused great surges of demonic energy.
Getting too close was dangerous, so Mo Hua stayed back, using the chance to observe from afar, studying the beasts' habits, power flows, and even how their demon power changed when enraged.
For a Qi-Refining cultivator, Mo Hua's Divine-Sense was already exceptional.
He could observe from a distance, even sense the demonic energy within their meridians, all without being noticed.
And so, day by day, Mo Hua's cultivation grew. He was nearing the sixth-layer bottleneck of the Qi-Refining stage.
His stockpile of demon blood also grew, several hundred bottles now filled his storage.
Feeling fully prepared, Mo Hua planned that once he broke through, he would challenge the rank of Nine-Rune First-Grade Array Master.
After that, he devoted himself entirely to cultivation and array study.
...
A few days later, at dusk, Mo Hua and his mother Liu Ruhua were at home waiting for Mo Shan to return for dinner.
Then, suddenly, a torrential downpour came, lasting nearly half an hour.
When the rain stopped, Mo Shan finally came home, but his face was grave.
He barely touched his meal, packed some dry rations, and prepared to head out again.
Mo Hua couldn't help but ask, "Father, what's wrong?"
Mo Shan hesitated, but then, seeing his son was no longer a frail child but a capable youth who could survive alone in the Great Black Mountain, he answered solemnly:
"Old Zhao is missing."
Mo Hua blinked. "Old Zhao… the medium-built one with thick eyebrows who uses the Mountain-Splitting Palm technique?"
Mo Shan was surprised. "You know him?"
"Mm." Mo Hua nodded.
It was the same man Uncle Yu had called "Old Zhao"—the late-stage Qi-Refining cultivator who'd once helped him.
Mo Shan nodded. "That's right."
"Where did he go missing?"
"In the Great Black Mountain."
"I'll go with you."
Mo Shan started to refuse but reconsidered, finally saying, "All right, stay close to me, and don't get separated."
"Mm."
Liu Ruhua quickly packed them some food and, with a worried face, urged, "Be careful on the road."
Father and son left home, not directly into the mountain, but first to Elder Yu's residence.
Elder Yu's home was more spacious than most, though simply furnished. A number of demon hunters were already gathered inside.
When Elder Yu's gaze swept across them, he noticed Mo Hua beside Mo Shan. Surprise flickered briefly in his eyes, but he still gave Mo Hua a kind smile and a polite nod.
Then, in a grave tone, he said,
"Old Zhao's gone missing. I've already sent Chengyi and his men to search, but there's been no word yet."
"Maybe he just got caught in the storm," one hunter guessed. "Found some shelter for the night, he might come down tomorrow morning."
Elder Yu shook his head. "Old Zhao's wife came earlier, she said her husband hasn't returned."
He went on to explain.
Old Zhao's wife was five or six months pregnant.
Old Zhao had heard from an alchemist that a herb called White Ginseng Root could nourish the body and stabilize pregnancy. He had found one in the mountains and planned to bring it back for her.
But that day, their hunt had gone poorly, the demonic beast was unusually difficult to kill, delaying their descent.
When Old Zhao finally came down, he discovered his Storage Bag had torn, and the White Ginseng Root was gone.
He guessed it must have fallen off during the fight with the beast.
So he told his wife he'd just go back up the mountain to retrieve it, he'd be quick.
But as soon as he entered the mountains, a torrential rain began to pour… and when it stopped... he still hadn't returned.
Normally, it wasn't rare for a demon hunter to spend a night in the mountains.
But Old Zhao's wife suddenly felt a deep, inexplicable panic, an overwhelming dread, as though she would never see her husband again.
She couldn't explain why, only that the feeling was powerful and unshakable.
So, with no other choice, she had come to Elder Yu, begging him to send people to search the mountain.
Elder Yu sighed. "Better safe than sorry. A little hardship for us is nothing, but if Old Zhao truly lost his life, leaving behind a widow and unborn child… how would they survive?"
(End of Chapter)