The lively New Year celebration had ended, and Mo Hua had turned thirteen.
He had grown a bit taller, but not significantly. He still looked like a small cultivator.
Mo Hua's mind was primarily focused on his cultivation, aside from daily practice of array techniques.
He had reached the peak of the sixth layer of Qi Refining and was on the verge of breaking through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining.
Once he broke through, he would become a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
Reaching the late stage of Qi Refining meant he was closer to the Foundation Building stage.
In the vast world of cultivation, where countless cultivators existed, Qi Refining was merely an ant-like existence. Achieving Foundation Building was the first step to changing one's cultivation fate.
Foundation Building laid the foundation of cultivation.
Regardless of one's Dao heart, without building the foundation, everything was mere talk.
Suddenly, his Qi sea trembled, and spiritual power began to flow rapidly.
Mo Hua felt a surge of energy, took out his spirit stones, and focused on cultivating. The spirit stones were refined by Mo Hua, forming pure spiritual power that gathered in his Qi sea until it overflowed.
Then, just like the first time he faced a breakthrough, the overflowing spiritual power traveled up his meridians, converging at the Baihui acupoint. When it reached the Tianmen acupoint, it seeped into the sea of consciousness, weaving a spiritual curtain within it.
This spiritual curtain was the riddle array, the bottleneck that needed to be broken through when practicing the Heavenly Proliferation Technique.
Mo Hua felt both anticipation and apprehension, calming his mind to comprehend the riddle array.
After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief.
The array patterns on the riddle array were numerous and chaotic, but Mo Hua noticed that most of them, though complex and constantly changing, fell within the realm of Five-Element Array patterns, which he recognized.
Recognizing them meant he had a way to solve them.
Recalling the basic principles of breaking arrays, using the interrelations of the Five Elements, the integration and dissolution of array patterns, and the rules of spiritual power flow, Mo Hua began to unravel them one by one.
Half a day passed, and Mo Hua had deciphered over ten array patterns.
He was delighted at the smooth progress.
Thanks to Mr. Zhuang's teachings and Mo Hua's relentless practice, including his understanding and application of first-grade composite arrays, his array techniques were now among the best of first-grade array masters.
He could now rely on his own array skills to solve these riddle arrays.
On the riddle array, spiritual threads were intertwined, and array patterns were densely packed and constantly shifting.
What would baffle ordinary cultivators and alarm even general array masters was now clear and straightforward to Mo Hua.
All the efforts spent on array techniques were worth it.
However, the riddle arrays were numerous, and solving them would take time.
Thus, Mo Hua devoted himself to solving the riddle arrays day and night, often getting lost in thought while eating or walking, sometimes frowning, sometimes realizing, sometimes pondering deeply, and sometimes brightening up.
Other cultivators around him, seeing his state, understood that he was contemplating something difficult and quietly refrained from disturbing him.
Finally, after a month, Mo Hua solved all the riddle arrays.
The spiritual curtain dispersed suddenly, the riddle array unraveled, and the thread-like spiritual power gradually dissipated, finally merging into Mo Hua's sea of consciousness.
Mo Hua's sea of consciousness expanded, his spiritual awareness deepened, and his spiritual power became more profound.
He had broken through the bottleneck and reached the seventh layer of Qi Refining.
The seventh layer of Qi Refining marked the late stage!
Mo Hua was overjoyed. His cultivation had taken a significant step forward. From now on, he needed to proceed steadily and gradually advance toward Foundation Building.
The ones even happier than Mo Hua were Liu Ruhua and Mo Shan.
Following the custom, they invited neighbors and close cultivators for a feast.
Mo Hua received many gifts from Elder Yu, Master Chen, Mr. Feng, Demon Hunters, and array masters like Master Luo.
After the lively banquet, Mo Hua calmed his mind and pondered his next steps.
Consistent cultivation, perseverance, and achieving success through continuous effort were key. There was no shortcut to this, so there was nothing much to discuss.
Regarding Dao techniques, Mo Hua wanted to learn one or two more spells for future needs.
Although he had reached the late stage of Qi Refining and his strength had increased, greater dangers might await him. It was necessary to master more techniques.
However, Mo Hua didn't know whom to learn from for the time being.
He had no suitable spell books himself.
It wasn't appropriate to seek Elder Gui again, as Elder Gui had already taught him the essentials. Mo Hua couldn't keep asking for more.
When it was time to find a way on his own, he had to rely on himself.
There was no rush for this; it could be done slowly.
What puzzled Mo Hua most was the array techniques.
He had already mastered first-grade arrays, and even more challenging first-grade composite arrays. However, his cultivation level was still far from Foundation Building. Without building the foundation, he couldn't become a second-grade array master.
So, what should he learn during this period?
Should he continue with composite arrays?
Mo Hua was already familiar with general composite arrays. More difficult ones required stronger array hubs, which his current spiritual awareness couldn't handle.
Yet, he had already mastered the principles of composite arrays, especially Five-Element array hubs. Further study would only broaden his array knowledge without deeper insights.
Studying further felt somewhat dull to Mo Hua.
Should he learn large arrays then?
Mo Hua had a shallow understanding of large arrays, knowing only that they were large-scale composite arrays.
Moreover, even if he wanted to learn large arrays, he could only practice them in the Dao stele of his sea of consciousness and couldn't draw them in reality.
Large arrays required significant resources, large array mediums, numerous spirit stones, and a lot of manpower, which Mo Hua couldn't manage.
Besides, Mo Hua didn't understand something about spiritual awareness.
His spiritual awareness was already strong, stronger than most ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivators, and even superior to ordinary first-grade array masters.
Yet, compared to Foundation Building spiritual awareness, it was still lacking.
Mo Hua's spiritual awareness was growing. The Dao stele enhanced it, practicing arrays refined it, and future breakthroughs would also increase it.
Could it be that one day, his spiritual awareness would match Foundation Building cultivators even before reaching that stage?
Where was the boundary between Qi Refining and Foundation Building spiritual awareness?
This was beyond Mo Hua's knowledge, so he visited Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang, seeing Mo Hua, remained calm but sighed inwardly, "This child, his spiritual awareness has grown stronger..."
He didn't know how to teach him anymore.
Mo Hua respectfully saluted Mr. Zhuang and asked, "Sir, should I continue learning composite arrays?"
"Continue as usual."
"Oh."
Mo Hua found composite arrays somewhat dull but didn't voice it.
Mr. Zhuang asked, "What was the riddle array in your sea of consciousness like this time?"
Mo Hua thought and said, "Still Five-Element array patterns, but the riddle array was of a higher grade, mostly first-grade arrays with some composite arrays."
Mr. Zhuang was silent for a moment, then sighed, "In that case, reaching Foundation Building will be very difficult for you."