The Quest for Immortality
Elder Master Xun understood Mo Hua’s intention, and after pondering for a while, his eyes lit up and he readily agreed.
This is indeed a good opportunity.
Formation cannot be "discussed on paper"; the most important thing is to "apply what you’ve learned".
But within the Sect, opportunities to apply what you’ve learned are few.
Solitary Mountain City is a good opportunity.
At the same time, this is also a matter of benefiting one side, extremely meaningful, and very much in line with the objectives of Taixu Gate.
Elder Master Xun nodded and said, "You handle everything."
Thus, days later, during class time, Mo Hua brought a group of Taixu Gate Junior Brothers to Solitary Mountain for "off-campus formation practice".
This group of Junior Brothers has special talents in the Dao of Formation, and they are also determined to become outstanding Formation Masters in the future.
Though they are well-versed in family learning, they have always been drawing formation on paper. This was almost the first time they actually participated in constructing such a grand Tao Cultivation project, feeling both novel and interesting.
This event was initiated by Mo Hua, this "Junior Brother".
Mo Hua even allocated part of his own merit points, which were so abundant and seemingly endless, as a reward for their formation drawing.
Therefore, all the disciples drew very seriously.
They have deep family learning, being admitted into Taixu Gate, and are all the "best of the best" in their families, formation geniuses. They also learn formation diligently at Taixu Gate, so the formations they drew were both fast and good.
Many disciples secretly competed to see who could draw faster and better.
Everyone was full of fighting spirit.
But soon, they witnessed Mo Hua drawing formation.
In the Sect, drawing one formation after another on paper is already fast when compared to Mo Hua, but here at Solitary Mountain, for such large-scale formation projects requiring immense quantities, they saw Mo Hua’s true "fearsome" abilities.
Mo Hua wielded the brush, his strokes flowing like clouds and water, resembling a dragon and snake in motion. While others were merely drawing a few formation patterns, he already sketched a string of formations.
His technique was perfect, the formation patterns neat and exquisite, as if they were imprinted from the formation diagram without a single mistake.
The formation diagrams were engraved in his heart, extremely practiced, so much so that he didn’t even need a glance.
And it was astonishingly fast. Regardless of the formation, the spiritual ink meandered and within breaths, a formation emerged under Mo Hua’s brush.
A natural air swirled among the formations, stunning and inspiring.
All the disciples were dumbfounded.
Only then did they realize that Junior Brother usually kept a low profile; his ability in formations was far more terrifying than they imagined.
All the Junior Brothers felt a bit dispirited.
However, after feeling dispirited, they instead grew ambitious.
With "Junior Brother" as an example, even if they couldn’t catch up, they couldn’t fall too far behind and risk disapproval from Junior Brother.
All the disciples looked at Mo Hua’s back, becoming focused in earnest, endeavoring to draw their assigned formations as quickly and well as possible.
Mo Hua was exhausted, stopped to catch his breath, intending to encourage everyone, but upon turning around he saw everyone was bursting with energy, diligently drawing formations, which surprised and delighted him.
"They are all promising talents..."
With Mo Hua, this "great genius", leading a group of Taixu Gate "little geniuses", the construction of the entire Solitary Mountain Compound Formation went exceptionally fast.
In less than ten days, the main body of the formation was constructed.
The subsequent small formations could be drawn casually by Mo Hua himself, so he planned to take these Junior Brothers back to Taixu Gate.
Descending from Solitary Mountain and arriving at Solitary Mountain City, the scenery along the way was not particularly pleasant.
Desolate in the mountains, the city in ruins.
By the roadside were shabbily dressed loose cultivators with sallow faces, and orphan bones as thin as sticks, looking like charcoal.
Zheng Fang furrowed his brows, hesitated for a long time, finally slowly opening his mouth to ask Mo Hua:
"Junior Brother, how come these cultivators are so impoverished?"
On their way there, they rode in carriages, and work was carried out in seclusion atop Solitary Mountain, so they hadn’t truly seen the scenic sights of the city.
Other Taixu Gate disciples also looked towards Mo Hua, revealing unease in their eyes.
Mo Hua froze, asking, "Have you never seen these kinds of cultivators before?"
Zheng Fang "hmm"-ed, and the others nodded along.
Mo Hua’s gaze paused slightly before understanding.
Zheng Fang and the others are descendants of aristocratic families. Even if they come from less well-off backgrounds, their families supported them; they were fairly "pampered," associating with other aristocratic children, frequenting places either of great families, great sects, or bustling immortal cities.
They hadn’t seen the truly impoverished.
In big and little immortal cities, there were always some poorer cultivators, dressed plainly, eating simply, couldn’t afford expensive spiritual artifacts, nor had many spirit stones for cultivation.
In their perception, these were already very poor cultivators.
But the real "impoverishment" exceeded their imagination.
Just as the poor can’t imagine the extent of true "wealth".
The rich also can’t imagine how truly "poor" the impoverished can be.
Mo Hua’s mood was somewhat complicated.
Zheng Fang asked, "Junior Brother, are there many poor people like this?"
Mo Hua remained silent for a moment, conservatively stating, "At least half of the cultivators in this world are like this."
Among the remaining half, most fare slightly better, but not by much.
Still worrying about livelihood and suffering for cultivation.
True children of aristocratic families are only a very few.
But the Nine State is vast and there are too many cultivators.