Immortality Through Array Formations

But Mo Hua was indifferent, the matters Zhang Lan asked for his assistance with, must be related to the eradication of Black Mountain Stronghold.

As long as he could wipe out Black Mountain Stronghold and slaughter all the evil cultivators inside, he was very willing to help.

Zhang Lan led Mo Hua into the Inner Mountain and came to a desolate peak.

The area around the peak was pockmarked, bearing numerous traces of confrontations between cultivators, though these marks were old, and there were still a few opened mine tunnels on the mountain.

Mo Hua was somewhat surprised.

This peak was actually Nameless Peak.

It was the same one they had contested with the Qian Family over for the small spiritual mine.

The traces of battle surrounding it were left from when Monster Hunters fought with the Qian Family’s cultivators; of course, most of them were from his Earth Fire Formation.

He hadn’t expected that Taoist Soldiers would quietly station here.

Zhang Lan and Mo Hua arrived at the foot of the mountain, and within Mo Hua’s Divine Sense, he could already make out the vague figures in the tunnels of the peak.

The aura of these cultivators was calm and disciplined, they must be the Taoist Soldiers dispatched by the Taoist Court.

Suddenly, Mo Hua’s expression tightened, someone had detected his Divine Sense!

And it was a Foundation Building Cultivator!

At the same time, at a cave entrance halfway up the mountain, a tall, sturdy cultivator with square features and a stern look suddenly appeared.

His expression was solemn, his Divine Sense expanded, and his gaze was fierce with a hint of killing intent.

When he spotted Zhang Lan and Mo Hua at the foot of the mountain, his expression eased slightly, he nodded at Zhang Lan, then turned and entered the cave.

“Established Foundation and still putting on airs…”

Zhang Lan muttered disdainfully under his breath.

Zhang Lan’s voice was very soft, but Mo Hua still heard it and couldn’t help but ask:

“Uncle Zhang, do you know each other?”

“Sort of.” Zhang Lan didn’t want to elaborate and said to Mo Hua, “Let’s go up.”

Mo Hua nodded.

In the bushes and rocks near the mine, there were many Taoist Soldiers wearing standard-issue armor and holding long spears, all on alert.

Mo Hua had already seen these Taoist Soldiers with his Divine Sense, so he wasn’t surprised.

Zhang Lan was even more relaxed, as if he was a regular visitor here.

The soldiers also seemed to know Zhang Lan, saluting him one after another: “Court Leader Zhang!”

A Taoist Soldier stepped forward and led Zhang Lan and Mo Hua into a stone chamber inside the mine.

The stone chamber was spacious, suitable for accommodation and for discussion.

Mo Hua remembered that when they were contesting the spiritual mine with the Qian Family, Elder Yu had stayed in this very chamber, and next to it was a smaller one.

Back then, he had lived in the neighboring cozy little chamber, eating beef every day and drawing Formation Patterns.

But now, this place had been turned into a temporary camp for the Taoist Soldiers.

The layout of this large chamber hadn’t changed, but the furnishings were completely different.

There was a suit of gleaming silver armor and a red-tasseled spear surrounding the periphery, with a large table in the center, a sand table on it and a map on the sand table.

The sand table, on the other hand, resembled the Black Mountain Stronghold.

And standing in front of the sand table was the same imposing, stern Foundation Building Leader.

When the Foundation Building Leader saw Zhang Lan, he nodded as a greeting, then frowned and said,

“Didn’t I ask you to bring a Formation Master? Where is the person?”

Zhang Lan pushed Mo Hua, who was behind him, forward, “Here.”

The Foundation Building Leader paused for a moment, then with his beard blown up, his eyes widened angrily,

“Zhang Lan! Damn it, I’m not smacking you because I’m now at Foundation Building, and beating you would be unsporting. If you keep messing with me, I won’t put up with it anymore!”

Zhang Lan snorted confidently, “You don’t recognize Mount Tai when you see it, open your eyes wide and look—this kid is a bona fide Formation Master. He’s usually very busy, if it weren’t for my face, you might not have been able to invite him at all!”

“Bullshit!”

Leader Yang scolded Zhang Lan, “How much could such a young kid know about formations? You think I know nothing about formation methods?”

Zhang Lan remained unfazed and replied, “Then I’ll just write a letter to my mother, telling her you accused her of ‘spouting nonsense,’ and see if she won’t skin you…”

The eyes of the Foundation Building Cultivator twitched, and he hurriedly said:

“Nonsense, I was scolding you, don’t try to twist my words!”

“What’s the difference between scolding me and scolding my mother?” Zhang Lan argued righteously.

“The difference is huge, at your age, can’t you be more shameless?”

“How am I old? A man at thirty is like a flower in full bloom, I am currently at the prime age of being tall and handsome, with dashing elegance…”

…

Mo Hua was dumbfounded.

These two grown men, bickering like this, were much more childish than he was.

Zhang Lan and the other man argued for a while until they felt parched and sat down for a sip of tea each.

Only then did the Foundation Building Leader realize, arguing with Zhang Lan, a Qi Refinement Cultivator, in front of a child, did indeed come across as rather unseemly.

It was also Zhang Lan’s fault for being so irritating that he had instinctively started arguing with him.

The Foundation Building Leader cleared his throat and pretended as though nothing had happened, and asked Mo Hua in as kind a manner as possible:

“Little brother, are you really a Formation Master?”

But his stern face probably came off too harsh normally, so he didn’t look very friendly, but more like a conniving uncle…

Mo Hua was unsure how to address him, so Zhang Lan offered to the side:

“His last name is Yang, just call him ‘Leader Yang’.”

Mo Hua replied crisply, “Leader Yang, Uncle Zhang is right, I am a Formation Master.”

The Foundation Building Leader nodded, sighing to himself internally.

Zhang Lan, that kid, really was creating trouble, entrusting such an important matter to a child.

Seeing his young age, who knows how long he had studied formations, …

But at this point, he couldn’t afford to be picky anymore, since he didn’t understand formations himself. Not just him, among all the Taoist Soldiers here, fewer than a handful could understand formation patterns.

Leader Yang took another sip of tea and then inquired:

“How far have you studied in formation methods?”

Mo Hua modestly said, “Not very far, just reached first-grade…”

No sooner had he spoken, Leader Yang spewed his mouthful of tea directly onto the sand table and papers in front of him.

Seeing this, Zhang Lan suddenly felt a wave of satisfaction and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, tauntingly saying:

“Look at you acting as if you’ve never seen the world, is it really that surprising to encounter a first-grade Formation Master in his teens?”

Zhang Lan spoke casually, though he could hardly suppress his glee inside.

Leader Yang cursed at Zhang Lan, “Bullshit, where in the Tao Cultivation World are there so many prodigious Formation Masters? A teenager at first-grade? And you just happened to come across one?”

Zhang Lan said indifferently, “If you don’t believe it, then forget about it.”

Leader Yang said, “I don’t believe it. Show me the formation that the kid drew.”

Zhang Lan pointed to a paper in the center of the sand table and said, “There it is.”

What was placed in the center of the sand table was the strategic map of the Black Mountain Stronghold.

Leader Yang stared dumbfounded, then cursed again:

“What a load of nonsense. Didn’t the documents reported to the Taoist Court say that ‘Tongxian City’s Taoist Court’ risked grave dangers, infiltrated deep into enemy territory to gather intelligence on the Black Mountain Stronghold, and painstakingly drew up the map of their formation method? Now how did it become a map drawn by this kid?”

Zhang Lan chuckled, then said to Mo Hua, “Take out that waist token and show it to Leader Yang.”

Mo Hua was momentarily puzzled, but then he realized which waist token Zhang Lan was referring to, and he took out the bronze waist token issued by the Taoist Court from his storage bag.

Leader Yang was stunned upon seeing it.

Zhang Lan proudly stated, “See? A bronze waist token. He is a cultivator from our Taoist Court; his map, isn’t it the same as one drawn by our Taoist Court?”

Leader Yang was left speechless and could only say:

“A bronze waist token is merely an auxiliary position…”

“An auxiliary position still belongs to the Taoist Court.”

Leader Yang frowned, “Well, if the map was drawn by this kid, it should count as a contribution. Why not just write it outright?”

Zhang Lan curled his lips, “Who would believe it if we did? Would you?”

Leader Yang looked at the young Mo Hua, then at the map on the sand table with its rigid strokes, profound complexity, and many first-grade formation methods of the Black Mountain Stronghold, and he sighed silently.

Any cultivator with the slightest bit of common sense in Tao Cultivation would hardly believe it.

Naturally, he wouldn’t believe it either.