After dealing with the matter of the crime cultivator, Mo Hua devoted his time to studying two spells.
One was the Concealment Technique, and the other was the Water Prison Technique.
In the Mo family's courtyard.
Because the restaurant was quieter, Liu Ruhua had time to sit in the courtyard and sew clothes for Mo Hua.
Mo Hua, on the other hand, was learning the Concealment Technique nearby.
After a while, Mo Hua asked, "Mother, can you see me?"
He didn't know what the Concealment Technique looked like when successfully learned, so he wanted his mother to help him check.
Liu Ruhua found it amusing, and while sewing, she looked up and said, "I can see you."
"What about now?"
"And now?"
"I can."
...
"And now, can you see me?"
Liu Ruhua looked up, her expression surprised, and exclaimed:
"Hua'er, I can't see you!"
Mo Hua was delighted, but then realized something was wrong. His mother was looking at him while saying she couldn't see him.
He looked down and could still clearly see his body and the clothes he was wearing.
Mo Hua was a bit exasperated and said, "Mother..."
Liu Ruhua laughed, her eyes filled with laughter, "You keep practicing, Mother won't tease you anymore."
Mo Hua sighed, a bit helpless but also happy to see his mother so joyful.
After that, he tried the Concealment Technique several more times, but to no avail.
Mo Hua then took out the book on the Concealment Technique and reviewed it, carefully recalling the key points and the meridians for spiritual power circulation before trying the Concealment Technique again.
Spiritual power flowed out from the sea of Qi, through the meridians, covering his skin and clothes.
Mo Hua's figure gradually began to change.
Liu Ruhua watched, her expression showing genuine surprise this time.
Mo Hua asked, "Mother, can you still see me?"
Liu Ruhua frowned, "It seems like I can see you, but also like I can't..."
"What does that mean?"
Mo Hua didn't understand. He raised his hands and saw that his arms had turned a faint blue, semi-transparent appearance.
They looked like they were made of water.
It could be considered invisibility, but not complete invisibility.
Mo Hua thought about it and understood.
The key to the Concealment Technique lay in the spiritual root.
A single-element water spiritual root was suitable for learning the Concealment Technique and could fully utilize its effects.
Mo Hua had small five-element spiritual roots, including water, but it was not pure, so he could learn the Concealment Technique, but the effect was poor. His form turned into flowing water but could not be completely hidden.
Mo Hua was somewhat disappointed.
Liu Ruhua thought for a moment, her eyes brightening, "If you hide in the water, others won't be able to see you."
That seemed logical, but there weren't many places with water near Dahei Mountain...
Mo Hua sighed, "I'll think of another way."
For now, the Concealment Technique wasn't very useful.
Since the Concealment Technique wasn't very effective, Mo Hua decided to learn another spell—the Water Prison Technique.
The Water Prison Technique wasn't powerful, and it could even be considered dispensable.
However, this spell was originally meant to trap enemies, so its power didn't matter much.
When the Water Prison Technique was cast, spiritual power would transform into water chains, temporarily binding the enemy cultivator, preventing them from escaping.
The binding time was usually around three breaths. If used on lower-level cultivators, it could bind them longer; if used on higher-level cultivators, it would only bind them for one or two breaths.
It seemed not very useful, but in life-and-death battles or during desperate pursuits, this obscure spell could be crucial.
The difficulty of the Water Prison Technique lay in its complexity and precision.
Casting the Water Prison Technique required complex spiritual power circulation and many acupoint nodes, making it hard to learn.
And because the spiritual power circulation was complex, the casting was slow, making it hard to hit the target.
Especially for many agile cultivators, by the time the spell was completed, they would have already escaped.
Therefore, few spiritual cultivators would spend the effort to learn such a difficult and impractical spell with little power.
But these were not problems for Mo Hua.
Mo Hua had strong spiritual awareness, practiced the Heavenly Proliferation Technique, which specialized in spiritual awareness control, and Elder Gui had taught him spiritual awareness locking, so his spells were both fast and accurate.
This Water Prison Technique was just right for him.
And because his spiritual awareness was so strong, Mo Hua learned it with hardly any effort.
Mo Hua wanted to test the effect of the Water Prison Technique, so he casually threw a wild fruit into the air, then locked onto it with his spiritual awareness, and his right hand made a grasping motion. Spiritual power formed into light blue chains, binding the wild fruit in midair.
After a few breaths, the wild fruit fell to the ground.
The effect was decent, but he still needed to test it on some living creatures.
So Mo Hua thought of the fish in Mr. Zhuang's pond.
The next day, Mo Hua got up early, went to Sit and Forget Abode, greeted Mr. Zhuang, and then went to the pond to cast the Water Prison Technique on the swimming fish.
The water plants were green, and the pond water was clear.
The fish swam leisurely at the bottom of the pond, when suddenly a light blue water light appeared, trapping a fish, which struggled left and right but couldn't escape.
The bottom of the pond became chaotic.
The other fish, startled, swam faster and more frantically.
Mo Hua's fingers moved rapidly, one fish after another was bound by the water light.
After playing for a while, Mo Hua got a bit bored and felt it was too easy.
Mo Hua released the fish one by one. The freed fish swam away in panic, and after a while, sensing no danger, they resumed their leisurely swimming, and the pond gradually returned to tranquility.
After troubling the fish in the pond, Mo Hua felt the Water Prison Technique was still not well-practiced, so he went to the big locust tree to find Bai Zisheng.
Under the towering locust tree, Bai Zixi was quietly reading, while Bai Zisheng was still bored.
"I've learned a new spell," Mo Hua whispered to Bai Zisheng.
Bai Zisheng's eyes lit up, then he glanced sneakily at Bai Zixi.
Bai Zixi's eyes didn't leave the page, but she said in a clear voice, "As long as your homework is done."
"I'm just a little bit away, I can finish it in less than half an hour," Bai Zisheng said.
Bai Zixi softly replied, "Hmm."
Bai Zisheng was delighted and said to Mo Hua, "Come, let's spar a bit."
Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng moved aside, not disturbing Bai Zixi's reading.
"What spell did you learn?" Bai Zisheng asked.
"Water Prison Technique."
Bai Zisheng frowned, "Sounds a bit strange, but it doesn't seem particularly powerful."
"This spell can trap enemies, but it has no real power."
"Isn't that kind of boring?" Bai Zisheng lost interest and asked, "So how do we compare?"
Mo Hua said, "You use your movement technique, and I'll use the spell to trap you."
"This doesn't seem like sparring," Bai Zisheng looked at Mo Hua suspiciously, "Isn't it just me getting hit?"
"Purposeful sparring is true sparring. Sparring without a purpose is just fighting," Mo Hua argued, "This trains my spell and also your movement technique."
"Alright, you have a point." Bai Zisheng nodded.
Having something to do was better than nothing, and he also wanted to see the effect of the Water Prison Technique.
Mo Hua marked out a large area of grassland, "In this circle, I'll use the Water Prison Technique on you."
"Okay."
The two began practicing under the big locust tree, one practicing spells, the other practicing movement techniques. Bai Zisheng dodged, while Mo Hua tried to trap him with the Water Prison Technique.
After about an hour, they stopped and sat on the grass to rest.
When casting the Water Prison Technique, the complex spiritual power circulation made it slower than the Fireball Technique.
At first, Mo Hua could trap Bai Zisheng once every three casts. Gradually, he became more proficient, managing to trap him once every two casts.
Bai Zisheng, being a scion of an aristocratic family, had top-notch techniques and methods. For ordinary cultivators, escaping Mo Hua's Water Prison Technique would be almost impossible.
"To be honest, this spell is a bit annoying," Bai Zisheng couldn't help but say.