Chapter 260 - Cave

Chapter 260: Chapter 259: Cave

Cultivators generally have two methods of dealing with formations: one is breaking the formation, and the other is solving the formation.

Breaking the formation involves cultivators forcibly destroying the formation’s eyes, media, pivots, or patterns by relying on their cultivation or martial arts.

Only a Formation Master can solve a formation, and even then, it is used only by a minority of Formation Masters with a broad experience in formations and high level of attainment.

Using the generative and destructive interplay of the formation patterns, the opening and closing structure of the formation pivot, or the proper or reverse flow of spiritual power within the formation eye to remove the formation is what constitutes solving a formation.

Currently, Mo Hua only knows one technique for solving formations, which is through the generative and destructive relationships among the formation patterns.

Just now, having inspected it with Divine Sense for half a day through the stone wall, Mo Hua approximately determined the formation painted inside. The formation inside the stone wall seems to be mainly the Five Elements Earth and Stone Formation, mixed with other scattered small formations.

For a Sin Cultivator, this formation would already be considered not bad.

But in Mo Hua’s eyes, it was not really impressive.

Mo Hua took out ink and brushes from the storage bag and started to draw formation patterns on the stone wall.

In practice, using the generative and destructive relationships among formation patterns to dissolve a formation can result in two scenarios: solving from within and solving from without.

When solving from within, one can see the patterns, and the patterns drawn to solve the formation are on the same side as the formation media.

What Mo Hua regularly practiced, self-drawing and self-solving, actually falls under solving from within.

This, relatively speaking, is a bit easier.

When solving from without, it is done through the formation media, without the ability to see the formation patterns.

One must rely on their experience with formations and understanding to guess the type of formation, sense the location of the formation patterns with Divine Sense, and at the corresponding location, draw the counteracting patterns that will nullify each other, rendering the formation ineffective.

The current situation belonged to solving from without.

Before this, Mo Hua had never tried to solve a formation this way.

Luckily, the formation painted on the stone wall wasn’t complicated, and with Mo Hua’s experience in formations and the strength of Divine Sense, pinpointing the exact locations of the formation patterns was possible.

The next step was simply to draw the counteracting patterns, which was quite straightforward.

In the time it took to brew two cups of tea, Mo Hua had finished drawing the formation patterns to solve the formation on the stone wall.

These patterns, similar in structure to the formation but with a special brushwork, contained the principles of generation and destruction, resembling a reflection of the formation in a mirror—peculiar and profound.

Zhang Lan watched, clicking his tongue in amazement.

With Mo Hua’s final brush stroke, the solution to the formation was complete.

Patterns on the stone wall flashed with flowing light as spiritual power permeated the interior; then, the earth and stones rustled as if bark dried up and tree patterns fell off. The entire stone wall gradually cracked and showed a weathered tan color.

Zhang Lan was secretly astonished, “It was actually successful…”

Moreover, looking at how Mo Hua handled it with such ease, it was clear this was not a fluke; it was a genuine depth of skill in solving formations that allowed success on the first try.

Zhang Lan sighed. He realized he had underestimated Mo Hua’s talent for formations.

Now, it could no longer be considered just a talent for formations but a solid attainment in them.

If he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, he would never believe that a young cultivator in their teens had already learned to solve formations.

Zhang Lan felt quite emotional in his heart.

With the formation on the stone wall solved, its protection was also lost.

Someone needed to break through the wall.

Mo Hua glanced at Zhang Lan, who quietly said:

“I am not a Body Cultivator.”

Mo Hua looked at him somewhat disdainfully and called out to Mo Shan, “Dad.”

Mo Shan, who was in the distance, came over upon hearing her, “What is it?”

Mo Hua pointed at the stone wall and said, “Dad, this needs to be broken through.”

Mo Shan nodded, his spiritual power invigorated his physical strength, and with one punch, the stone wall was shattered. Once the dust settled, the inside of the wall was revealed.

It was a large cave, dark and very dry.

The cave was filled with spirit stones, various types of spiritual artifacts scattered about, and corners stacked with numerous bottles and jars, mostly pills, as well as some fine wine.

Mo Hua looked on, somewhat shocked, then felt a bit uncomfortable inside.

The more Taoist cultivation resources there are here, the more cultivators have been robbed, and the more people that have died at the hands of these sin cultivators.

Zhang Lan’s expression was grave as he sighed, “No wonder no matter how we interrogated those sin cultivators, they all refused to speak. Now that this cave has been discovered, even if they hadn’t previously committed capital crimes, they are now certainly doomed.”

A cave full of stolen goods, how many people have they robbed and killed…

“How should we deal with these things?” Mo Hua asked.

Zhang Lan pondered for a moment before saying, “Still, we should categorize them and register them in the record.”

He then explained:

“There are many missing merchant caravans and cultivators whose whereabouts are unknown. The items here can be used to confirm identities, to know which merchant caravans were robbed by this group of sin cultivators and which cultivators were killed by them.”

“Many of the families of the missing cultivators are still waiting for them to return. Whether alive or dead, at least they deserve an explanation.”

As he said this, Zhang Lan couldn’t help but sigh.

Tao cultivation is fraught with danger. With insufficient cultivation, once one encounters danger, life and death are unpredictable.

Mo Hua heard this and nodded in agreement.

Zhang Lan looked at Mo Hua and added, “If you see anything you like, you can take it first. This time you’ve made great contributions, and the Taoist Court will definitely reward you handsomely. It’s only right for you to take some things.”

Mo Hua thought for a moment but still shook his head, “Forget it, most of these items belong to innocent people who died unfairly. Let’s take them back and register them first. Being able to confirm their identities would at least provide some closure for their families.”

Zhang Lan looked at Mo Hua, nodding with approval.

Mo Hua looked around the cave once more, then suddenly felt something odd:

“It seems that the goods of Kong Sheng’s merchant caravan are not here.”

“Aren’t there those pills?”

Kong Sheng’s caravan dealt in pill trading.

Zhang Lan said that, then suddenly his heart skipped a beat, “No, that’s not right.”

He walked to a corner, picked up several bottles of pills, opened the lids and sniffed them, frowning involuntarily:

“These are old pills, the fragrance is very faint, they are not recently looted.”

Since they traded in pills, it would be impossible to sell old pills, and even if they substituted inferior products for good ones, it could only be a small portion of them.

Most of the pills would have been made within the last six months.

Newly made pills have a strong fragrance, but the scent of old pills gradually fades away.

All the pills in this cave are old with a weak scent.

This means that these sin cultivators have not robbed any pill-trading merchant caravans recently.

“Impossible…” Zhang Lan voiced his confusion, “Could it be that they have consumed all these pills?”

After thinking for a moment, he denied his own guess:

“With twenty or thirty of them, even if they ate pills like rice, they couldn’t have consumed them all in such a short period of time.”

Upon hearing this, Mo Shan pondered for a moment and said, “Before we arrived, there wasn’t much of a bloody smell in this valley.”

This meant that this group of sin cultivators wouldn’t bring people here to kill them.

Furthermore, according to what Bald Tuo himself said, when they killed and robbed people, they usually did it on the spot: they killed people and then looted the goods.

When Kong Sheng’s caravan was robbed, there wasn’t much blood at the scene, just signs of a struggle and no evidence of a massacre.

If they had been eaten by monster beasts, the scene would have been far more bloody.

For a moment, all three felt profound confusion.

Logically, Bald Tuo should have robbed the caravan and taken the pills before killing the caravan’s cultivators right there.

Kong Sheng should have died along with the merchants.

But looking at it now, Bald Tuo and his group didn’t rob that caravan, so naturally, they didn’t kill Kong Sheng either.

So where did that caravan go?

And Kong Sheng, is he dead or not?