Chapter 491 - Little Zombie

Chapter 491: Chapter 477 Little Zombie

Mo Hua intended to deceive Lu Chengyun and Zhang Quan, sneaking into the sacrificial altar of the Corpse Formation. He had to get through two doors.

One was the door to the hall.

The other was that mural within the hall.

The hall’s door was manageable, but the mural posed a significant challenge.

First of all, he didn’t know what exactly were the hand seals and the incantations that Zhang Quan had used.

And Zhang Quan wouldn’t disclose them.

Even if Zhang Quan were to tell him, Mo Hua wasn’t certain that by simply imitating the process, the mural would actually open for him.

That zombie mural, like the Dry Ink Screen of the Corpse Walking Stronghold, must be some sort of door lock type of Spiritual Artifact.

If it was a Spiritual Artifact, then there must be a Formation inside.

This sort of Formation wasn’t a Five Elements Formation and didn’t fall within the scope of Formations that Mo Hua was proficient in.

Even if Mo Hua wanted to solve it, there was nowhere to start.

Even if he could figure it out, Lu Chengyun would certainly know about it.

Just by solving the Expose Dust Formation at the entrance, Lu Chengyun was able to detect it, let alone the secretive door-locking Formation above the zombie mural at the entrance to the altar outside the Corpse Formation.

Forcefully breaking the Formation was out of the question.

The screen within the Corpse Walking Stronghold was smashed by Mo Hua using the Thousand Jun Stick.

But this place was different from the Corpse Walking Stronghold, such a hit-and-run tactic after taking something wouldn’t work here.

Moreover, with the Corpse Mine sealed, he couldn’t escape.

If he smashed the mural and barged into the altar, even if Lu Chengyun were a pig, he would know that Mo Hua harbored ulterior motives and had deceitful plans.

“What should I do?”

Mo Hua found himself in a dilemma.

How could he bypass the mural and enter the Ten Thousand Corpses Sacrificial Altar?

Whenever he had the chance, he pondered this question.

But after a long time, he couldn’t think of any good methods, until one day, when he was behind the mural, he saw Zhang Quan activate a mechanism to close the door of the mural.

Mo Hua was startled.

A mechanism?

This mural has a mechanism?

He previously hadn’t even noticed.

Mo Hua took another few glances and discovered that the mechanism was a simple stone sluice gate, unremarkable and overlooked when not in use by Zhang Quan.

Mo Hua furrowed his brows.

It meant entering from the outside was very difficult.

You need to know the method, form the hand seals, recite the incantations, and open the mural to reveal the gaping mouths of zombies.

But exiting from the inside was very simple, just pull down the sluice gate.

It guarded against outsiders but not from within…

Mo Hua thought about it and felt it made sense.

Those who could enter were either Lu Chengyun or Zhang Quan.

Even for Mo Hua, who was somewhat of an outsider, he was under their surveillance, leaving them with nothing to worry about.

Thus, they only needed to guard against people coming in from outside, not those already inside.

Setting a barrier outside was reasonable.

Setting one inside would be superfluous.

Mo Hua, being a Formation Master, had always focused on complex Formations, neglecting the possibility of such straightforward mechanisms.

This was a case of not seeing what was right under one’s nose.

Mo Hua nodded to himself, silently reminding himself.

He shouldn’t, just because he is a Formation Master, be biased and only focus on Formations.

Complicated problems sometimes have simple solutions.

To get into the Ten Thousand Corpses Sacrificial Altar, someone just had to pull down the sluice gate…

But Mo Hua paused again.

This problem seemed simple, but…

How would he pull the sluice gate?

Who would pull it for him?

He certainly couldn’t expect Lu Chengyun to pull the gate open for him.

Mo Hua thought it over and realized that as a Formation Master, in most cases, he could still only use Formations…

This seemingly simple problem seemed like it could only be solved with a complex Formation.

Over the next several days, Mo Hua continuously looked for opportunities.

Finally, on this day, Lu Chengyun had to step out halfway through drawing his Formation due to some urgent matters.

Mo Hua immediately stood up, keeping a considerable distance from Zhang Quan.

Zhang Quan frowned and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Keeping away from you,” Mo Hua said.

Zhang Quan’s eyes darkened, “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m afraid you’ll harm me,” Mo Hua declared righteously.

Zhang Quan’s resentment toward him was no secret, evident even to a blind man.

Zhang Quan snorted coldly, “I’m not that petty.”

“Well, that’s debatable. Though one may know a person’s face, one cannot know their heart. You look deceitful, and I’m sure you’re even more so on the inside.”

Zhang Quan’s gaze turned icy, “Little devil, you better not provoke me.”

“So what if I do?”

Mo Hua scoffed and then performed the Concealment Technique right before Zhang Quan, gradually disappearing from sight.

Zhang Quan was taken aback, then filled with surprise.

What on earth was the boy trying to do?

He looked around several times, but Mo Hua was nowhere to be seen.

Even a sweep with his Divine Sense revealed no trace of Mo Hua.

After a long wait, there was no movement at all.

It seemed that he indeed turned invisible just to avoid him and not to be detected.

Zhang Quan cursed inside:

“This brat is damn cautious, not giving me a chance!”

Zhang Quan gritted his teeth and called out to the surroundings:

“Where are you?”

“Come out!”

“I’ll heed Brother Lu’s words, I won’t make things difficult for you, you can rest assured…”

“Come out now…”

Naturally, Mo Hua paid him no attention.

At this moment within the Corpse Formation, in a secluded corner, the invisible Mo Hua silently opened a coffin.

The Corpse Formation, although only a Compound Formation, originated from the Large Formation of Ten Thousand Corpses and was vast in scale.

Within the Formation, many coffins were placed.

Above the Formation was a lavish sacrificial altar.

Mo Hua was young and small in stature. By concealing his figure and masking his breath, he could hide behind the coffins and the sacrificial altar without Zhang Quan noticing.

Within one of the coffins, there was a small zombie, which Mo Hua had observed for several days and specifically chosen.

This Walking Corpse wasn’t too old; it was probably only about seventeen or eighteen years old and had just been refined by Zhang Quan a few days before. The Spiritual Pivot Formation on its chest was still quite new, its Formation Patterns freshly painted.

A seventeen or eighteen-year-old cultivator…

Who knows whether he died a natural death, was killed by a Corpse Cultivator, or was murdered by the Lu Family.

After death, to be turned into a zombie and be used for evil deeds, a puppet to a tiger’s will.

Mo Hua sighed softly in his heart.

With limited time, Mo Hua stopped dwelling on the matter and began to calm his mind, making some secretive modifications to the Spiritual Pivot Formation located at the heart meridian of the young cadaver.

Within the Spiritual Pivot Formation, there were some unique Formation Patterns.

This was something Mo Hua hadn’t noticed before.

Since the Spiritual Pivot Formations he used to draw were generally of one type.

It wasn’t until he saw a complete Spirit Pivot Formation Chart that he realized, after secret observations of Lu Chengyun painting Formation and several comparisons, that there had been some oversights in his earlier understanding of the Spiritual Pivot Formation.

He hadn’t been aware of some detailed aspects.

This detail was the Formation Patterns.

Different types of Spiritual Pivot Formations, or even within the same type, have a unique Formation Pattern that sets them apart.

Mo Hua had noticed it before but didn’t think deeply about it.

Because this Formation Pattern seemed to have no special meaning.

No matter how it was drawn, it didn’t seem to affect the operation of the Spiritual Pivot Formation.

But after some research over these days and comparisons with most of the Spiritual Pivot Formations in the Formation of Ten Thousand Corpses, Mo Hua gradually understood.

This Formation Pattern was extremely important; it was the Sequential Formation Pattern used for identifying the identity of the Spiritual Pivot Formation.

Similar to a kind of Formation “code”.

The same Spiritual Pivot Formation had the same type of Sequential Formation Pattern, that is, a Formation “code”.

The same type of Sequential Formation Pattern had a similar main body, with only slight differences in the details, such as the addition or reduction of strokes or the changes in orientation, to differentiate the sequence.

Only when the Formation “codes” matched, could the Spiritual Pivot Formation control based on hierarchy.

Walking Corpses, Iron Corpses, and the zombies in the Bronze Corpse Coffins all used the same type of “coding” Formation Pattern, with a layered hierarchy defining their weights, which is why they could be controlled systematically.

The Little Tigers that Mo Hua drew were different, though.

Indeed, Mo Hua had originally copied the Formation from the bodies of Walking Corpses and Iron Corpses.

However, Lu Chengyun was using Evil Formation techniques, whereas Mo Hua, on the other hand, used orthodox Formation methods.

Therefore, their Sequential Formation Patterns were different in an intangible way.

Lu Chengyun could control zombies but not Mo Hua’s Little Tigers.

While Mo Hua could control the Little Tigers, he also couldn’t control the zombies in the Corpse Mine.

Unless… he changed the Sequential Formation Pattern on the zombies.

Changing the Sequential Formation Pattern was like changing the code, essentially changing the authority.

What Mo Hua wanted to change now was the special Sequential Formation Pattern on the young zombie, which was used to differentiate authority and identity.

Mo Hua had only chosen one small Walking Corpse.

The Walking Corpse was not an Iron Corpse.

Within the Corpse Mine, there were numerous Walking Corpses, and there were also many base-level Sequential Formation Patterns in their Spiritual Pivot Formations.

Whether there was one more or one fewer, Lu Chengyun would never notice.

The main reason, of course, was that Lu Chengyun never imagined that there would be another Cultivator capable of learning the Spiritual Pivot Formation.

Let alone make secret modifications to his Formation “code” right under his nose and among the hordes in the Corpse Mine.

Easy for those who know how, impossible for those who don’t.

For Mo Hua, altering a basic Spiritual Pivot Formation Pattern was as easy as flipping his hand.

With a flick of his small hand, a few strokes, Mo Hua had changed the Formation Pattern.

Removing this small zombie from the Spiritual Pivot sequence of the Formation of Ten Thousand Corpses.

Then he added another Formation Pattern.

This Formation Pattern was the one he used on the Little Tigers himself.

Having altered this Formation Pattern, the little zombie now is like a Little Tiger, controlled by the Spiritual Pivot Formation on the Big Tiger that Mo Hua manipulated.

On the surface, it still looks like a zombie.

But within the sequence of the Spiritual Pivot Formation, it’s no longer a “little zombie” but rather a “Little Tiger.”

After finishing the adjustments to the Formation Pattern, Mo Hua returned to his original spot as if nothing had happened, picked up the pen, and continued to draw the Formation eye of the Ten Thousand Corpses Compound Formation.

He was dragging his feet while drawing this Formation eye, delaying it for quite some time.

Finally, it was also close to completion.

Zhang Quan was still calling for Mo Hua to “come out,” but in the blink of an eye, Mo Hua was already back in his place, fully focused on drawing the Formation.

Zhang Quan’s expression tightened, “You’re not running anymore?”

Mo Hua disdainfully said, “Why would I run? You wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me anyway.”

Zhang Quan, annoyed, “Then what were you doing just now…”

Mo Hua said with a smile, “I was a bit bored, just teasing you for fun.”

Then he curled his lip, “Who knew you’d be so dull, like an idiot, completely unable to find me, it’s really no fun.”

Zhang Quan was about to fly into a rage.

Lu Chengyun had already appeared at the doorway.

Zhang Quan had to suppress his anger, just about to badmouth Mo Hua to Lu Chengyun, but then he thought, any words he said against Mo Hua, Lu Chengyun certainly would not believe.

And indeed, it seemed Mo Hua hadn’t really done anything…

Invisible and toying with himself?

Zhang Quan himself found it too embarrassing to say such a thing.

Zhang Quan could only sullenly shut his mouth.

Lu Chengyun, noticing the conflicting expressions of the two, wasn’t surprised, and acted as if nothing had happened.

Yet, within the immense Formation of Ten Thousand Corpses, in a secluded corner, a common coffin contained a small Walking Corpse whose Sequential Formation Pattern had been tampered with.

This was something Lu Chengyun could not possibly know.

That evening, once Mo Hua shook off Lu Chengyun’s Divine Sense surveillance, he concealed his form and quietly went to the hall.

The door to the hall was locked.

Mo Hua released his Divine Sense, and seeing no one around, controlled the Big Tiger with his Divine Sense in secrecy.

The Big Tiger had been left in the corner of the hall by him during the day.

Now, under the guiding of Mo Hua’s Divine Sense, the Big Tiger leaped to the door, pushed open the bolt, and unlocked the door for Mo Hua.

The doors of the hall were quite simple.

Opening them from the inside would not trigger the Formation.

Mo Hua walked through the doorway, then approached the mural.

Next, he controlled the Big Tiger using Divine Sense, and through the Spiritual Pivot Formation on the Big Tiger, activated the Spiritual Pivot Formation on the little zombie.

The Sequential Formation Patterns matched, their “codes” similar.

The Big Tiger could control the little zombie.

This indirect control was even more covert, less likely to be detected by Lu Chengyun.

After a moment, Mo Hua’s Divine Sense stirred.

He could sense the connection with the little zombie’s Formation.

Mo Hua then controlled the little zombie, which pushed the lid off the coffin, slowly climbed out, and walked to the entrance, pulling on a gate switch on the wall.

At the same time, on the mural above, the ink merged chaotically, the layers becoming defined and materializing into a half-human, half-corpse face.

This face appeared majestic yet mean, with a greedy gaze, exuding ferocity and horror.

Its wide-open mouth formed the entrance to the mural.

Mo Hua stared at this face for a moment, silently memorizing it, then his eyes brightened, and he stepped into the midst of the Ten Thousand Corpses Sacrificial Altar.

Inside there was the Ten Thousand Corpses Compound Formation, the Golden Sacrificial Altar, the Bronze Corpse Coffin…

During the day, with people watching, he was restrained.

But coming in at this time of night, unnoticed by gods or ghosts, he could do whatever he wanted.