Chapter 167: Earth-Stone Array
The next day, Qian Hong met with Elder Yu.
Mo Hua peeked out from the mine tunnel and secretly glanced their way. At one look, he recognized Qian Hong.
Qian Hong was Qian Xing's father. Qian Xing had once been blown up by Mo Hua using a Earthfire Array. Mo Hua knew Qian Xing's face well, and since father and son looked rather similar, recognizing Qian Hong was easy.
Besides, even without seeing their faces, it was not difficult to tell. The Qian Clan only had two Foundation Establishment cultivators, easily identifiable at a glance.
Standing beside Qian Hong was Qian Zhongxuan. Although both were Foundation Establishment cultivators, Qian Hong's bearing was evidently superior.
Qian Zhongxuan's face bore deep nasolabial lines and a stern expression, but his presence was far less imposing than that of Qian Hong, the clan patriarch, who carried the weight of command.
Curious, Mo Hua asked, "Elder, why do you call Qian Hong an 'old turtle'?"
From appearance alone, Qian Hong seemed refined and arrogant, with a noble air.
Elder Yu replied, "You really want to know?"
Mo Hua nodded.
"Alright, just watch later."
Watch? Watch what?
Mo Hua was a little puzzled.
A short while later, the two sides faced off. Elder Yu planted his stance at the cave entrance halfway up the mountain, blade in hand, and began hurling curses straight at Qian Hong and Qian Zhongxuan.
He cursed the two of them from head to toe without missing a spot.
Qian Zhongxuan trembled with rage, while Qian Hong's expression remained perfectly calm, as though he had heard nothing.
When Elder Yu grew tired of yelling, he took a short rest and said to Mo Hua, "Now you understand."
Mo Hua nodded, eyes wide with admiration.
"So he really is an 'old turtle.' That endurance is incredible!"
Despite being berated like that, Qian Hong didn't flinch, didn't speak, not even his eyebrows twitched.
"Put nicely, that's called deep scheming. Put bluntly, it's just shameless thick skin," Elder Yu said coldly.
Mo Hua hesitated before asking, "Elder, wouldn't angering him like this cause trouble?"
Elder Yu snorted. "Makes no difference. Whether we provoke him or not, he'll act the same. That man values profit over kinship. Don't think sparing him will make him merciful."
Mo Hua nodded and then asked, "Are we going to fight them next?"
Elder Yu sighed. "Preferably not. We've fought for too long already. Our side is growing weary, while theirs keeps rotating fresh troops. A direct confrontation now would only disadvantage us. Besides, our food and healing pills are running low."
"Then we're retreating?"
"Correct."
"How are we going to escape? There are too many Qian cultivators outside. It won't be easy." Mo Hua frowned.
"My original plan was to defeat the Qian Clan outright and then transport the spirit ore openly. But now that their numbers swarm like locusts, and that old turtle Qian Hong has personally shown up, that won't work anymore."
Elder Yu continued, "Our only option is to dig a new tunnel and slip away quietly."
Mo Hua blinked. "A new tunnel? Will we have time to dig one?"
Elder Yu exhaled. "Hard to say. We'll need to hold the entrance for as long as we can."
Mo Hua nodded, though he doubted it would be easy.
Indeed, the mine was difficult to defend.
After that, the Qian Clan launched irregular attacks every day, not to gain ground or seek glory, but purely to wear down the demon hunters' morale.
They kept the hunters pinned in place, ensuring they had no chance to act elsewhere.
Elder Yu had to split his forces: some defending the entrance, others mining spirit ore, and still others digging a new escape tunnel.
It was chaos.
Mo Hua was worried as well, but he had no better solution.
One day, Elder Yu came to him, looking rather exasperated. "Mo Hua, is there any formation that could seal off the mine?"
Since holding it seemed impossible, perhaps sealing it entirely would work. If the Qian Clan couldn't enter, they could finish digging their tunnel and leave safely.
"Seal it completely?"
"Leaving just one or two passages is fine."
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "Yes!"
He recalled a formation that could solidify earth and stone to block off openings, something he had read in one of Mister Zhuang's formation manuals.
Elder Yu's eyes brightened. "Can you draw it now?"
Mo Hua shook his head. "Not yet. I haven't learned it."
Elder Yu sighed. "Alright. I'll have everyone hold out a bit longer. Take your time learning… no rush."
In truth, Elder Yu was deeply anxious.
Short-term skirmishes were tolerable, but prolonged fighting against the Qian Clan would become torment. They had supplies and reinforcements; his side had neither.
Still, he did not want to burden Mo Hua with too much pressure. The boy had already done a great deal.
Elder Yu also knew formations were not easy to master. For many formation cultivators, spending ten days or half a month on one array was common. Otherwise, formation masters would not be so rare.
He hesitated for a while.
How long would Mo Hua take to learn it? If it required ten days or more, they might not last that long and would need another plan.
As Elder Yu turned to leave, he could not help but ask quietly, "Mo Hua, I'm not rushing you, but… how long do you think it'll take you to learn this formation?"
Mo Hua considered carefully. "If all goes well, by tomorrow morning. If not, the morning after."
It was not an obscure first-grade formation, and Mo Hua's learning speed had grown quite fast. He could memorize the formation patterns by day and practice within the Dao Stele by night. If one night wasn't enough, two certainly would be.
Elder Yu's mouth twitched.
All that worrying suddenly felt unnecessary. His emotions swung wildly, and he muttered with a complicated look, "Do all formation masters learn this quickly…?"
Mo Hua chuckled. "Probably not all of them."
'Then it must be that this child learns unusually fast…' Elder Yu thought silently, giving Mo Hua a meaningful glance.
In any case, if it could be done by tomorrow or the day after, time would suffice.
He relaxed. "Alright then. Study at your own pace. I won't disturb you." With that, he left in visibly better spirits.
Mo Hua opened the Thousand Arrays Compendium and searched until he found the formation in question. It consisted of nine earthen-pattern runes and was called the First-Grade Earth-Stone Array.
The Earth-Stone Array was a basic earth-element formation capable of fusing soil and rock together to make them far more solid.
The patterns were not complex. After a few readings, Mo Hua grasped the general structure. The night was still early, several hours until midnight.
He could only enter his Sea of Consciousness to practice at the Dao Stele once midnight arrived.
"What should I do now?"
Mo Hua rested his chin in his palm, pondering.
He already knew the patterns by heart; rereading them further would yield little.
So he decided to take out paper and ink to sketch the formation by hand.
Normally, Mo Hua would first practice within the Dao Stele and only draw on paper once proficient, to avoid wasting ink.
But this was hardly the time to worry about saving materials.
He immediately began drawing the First-Grade Earth-Stone Array.
As expected, the first attempt failed.
Mo Hua was slightly disappointed but unconcerned. After all, he had accumulated over a thousand bottles of monster blood, he was not short on spirit ink.
He started again. The second attempt failed as well.
Then the third. Another failure.
Mo Hua took a breath, reviewed his mistakes, calmed himself, and continued. Gradually, his strokes became smoother, and to his surprise, one attempt suddenly succeeded.
He tried channeling spiritual power into the array. The runes lit up faintly with a grayish glow.
"Success?"
Mo Hua was delighted for a moment, then oddly unfulfilled.
He had planned to spend the entire night practicing the Earth-Stone Array, yet before night even arrived, he had already mastered it.
"Then… what should I learn tonight?"
Scratching his head, Mo Hua flipped through the pile of formation scrolls beside him. By chance, his eyes landed on another formation: First-Grade Earth-Wood Composite Formation.
(End of Chapter)