Threshold

Mo Hua chatted with An Xiaopang for a while longer. Zhang Lan then found him and said he was leaving, asking if Mo Hua wanted to go with him.

Mo Hua bid farewell to An Xiaopang, who seemed reluctant. Mo Hua suggested he take some time to think about what he wanted to do.

Ultimately, one must rely on oneself.

An Xiaopang solemnly nodded.

Mo Hua and his group left the An family. Zhang Lan and Situ Fang, however, did not return home. Instead, they followed Mo Hua all the way to Mo Hua's family restaurant, where they spent quite a few spirit stones to buy meat and wine, intending to take them back to eat.

Mo Hua found their behavior quite puzzling.

They used spirit stones to treat Mo Hua to spiritual cuisine, didn't eat it themselves, and then went to Mo Hua's house to buy meat with spirit stones again!

Mo Hua didn't know what to say.

But since they had plenty of spirit stones, he let them be.

Zhang Lan didn't like spiritual cuisine, while Situ Fang had tasted the beef Mo Hua brought from the mountains before and couldn't forget it.

They each bought a few catties of demon meat and bid farewell to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua remembered there was still spiritual cuisine from the Spiritual Cuisine Tower in his storage pouch.

Chicken, duck, fish, and much more.

Mo Hua taught his mother how to prepare it.

Liu Ruhua shared some with Mrs. Meng, Aunt Jiang, and other neighbors, keeping some for herself, and cooked it again in the evening for Mo Hua to taste.

Mo Hua nodded in approval after tasting it, feeling that the flavor was just right.

In the following days, Mo Hua continued to practice drawing formation arrays as usual.

One morning, while meditating and practicing cultivation, Mo Hua felt his meridians trembling.

Mo Hua immediately took out more spirit stones and focused on absorbing them for cultivation.

After an unknown amount of time, he made a breakthrough in his cultivation.

Mo Hua's emotions were complex and difficult to express.

He had exerted great effort to break through, but success was not guaranteed. Yet, when he focused single-mindedly on cultivation, he unexpectedly made the breakthrough.

Indeed, cultivation was about gradual accumulation, a matter of reaching the right conditions.

But at last, he had reached the sixth level of Qi Refinement!

Mo Hua was spiritually uplifted.

He felt that the intensity of his spiritual consciousness had advanced, and he seemed to have unknowingly unlocked the restrictions that had hindered its growth.

Mo Hua lifted the covers, and there were rows of storage pouches by the bed, filled with jade bottles containing demon blood!

Densely packed, there were over a thousand bottles!

Mo Hua intended to use these over a thousand bottles of demon blood to comprehend the nine formation runes and cross the threshold of becoming a first-rate formation master!

Mo Hua opened the "Thousand Formation Catalog" and found a formation.

The First-Rank Golden Armor Formation!

This was what Mo Hua wanted to learn, the first formation containing nine formation runes.

Mo Hua had long memorized the formation runes by heart, but previously, his spiritual consciousness had been insufficient to draw them.

Now that Mo Hua had become a sixth-level Qi Refinement cultivator, his spiritual consciousness had strengthened considerably, and he could attempt to draw the nine formation runes.

Mo Hua calmly spread out the paper, prepared the spiritual ink, dipped his brush in ink, and began to draw the First-Rank Golden Armor Formation.

The first eight formation runes were drawn with ease by Mo Hua, without much hindrance. However, when it came to the ninth formation rune, Mo Hua began to feel that his spiritual consciousness was not sufficient.

"This can't be..."

Mo Hua was dumbfounded. As his spiritual consciousness was nearly depleted, he had only managed to draw eight and a half formation runes.

"Why is there such a big difference?"

Mo Hua put down his brush, propped his chin on his hand, and began to ponder.

According to reason, with his realm advancement, his spiritual consciousness should have correspondingly strengthened a lot. So why was he still only able to draw half a formation rune more?

He had originally thought that even if he couldn't directly draw out the nine formation runes, he could at least roughly sketch it out and practice a few more times over time to approximate it.

Now it seemed it wasn't that simple.

Mo Hua furrowed his brow and then meditated, using his meditation technique to recover his spiritual consciousness. Afterward, he attempted several times, but the results were far from ideal.

In the afternoon, he went to Bamboo House to find Master Zhuang.

Master Zhuang looked at Mo Hua complicatedly and asked, "How many formation runes did you try to draw?"

"Nine," Mo Hua replied.

"And your cultivation level?"

"Sixth level..." Mo Hua didn't understand why Master Zhuang was asking this.

Master Zhuang sighed inwardly and said, "Just because of your breakthrough from the fifth to the sixth level of Qi Refinement, what makes you think it can compensate for the gap in spiritual consciousness between drawing eight and nine formation runes?"

"Isn't it just one realm difference?"

"The gap between the eighth and ninth formation runes is similar to the gap between the ninth level of Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment."

Mo Hua smiled awkwardly.

Master Zhuang patiently explained, "Within each major realm, the closer you get to the end, the slower the advancement in cultivation and spiritual consciousness. The gap between realms also widens."

"So is the gap between eight and nine formation runes greater than before?" Mo Hua asked.

Master Zhuang nodded, "Generally speaking, nine formation runes are already the limit for a first-rate formation master."

"The creation of nine formation runes requires a high level of proficiency in your brushwork, memory of formation diagrams, comprehension of formation cores, as well as a strong and controlled spiritual consciousness..."

"From eight to nine formation runes, it may seem like just one step, but the disparity is quite large. Some formation masters spend their whole lives stuck at this step, just one step away from reaching the pinnacle, but that step may elude them for a lifetime."

Master Zhuang sighed with emotion.

Mo Hua became somewhat nervous. Was this threshold something he might spend his entire life trying to overcome?

Master Zhuang saw through Mo Hua's thoughts and tapped his forehead gently. "You're still young. Why worry? Go back calmly and practice drawing formations diligently."

With Master Zhuang's words, Mo Hua felt reassured.

As long as he kept drawing formations diligently, sometimes the simplest method was the best.

Mo Hua nodded.

After bidding farewell, a gentle breeze stirred inside the bamboo room. Old Kui appeared behind Master Zhuang, curious. "How long will it take him to overcome this threshold?"

Master Zhuang replied, "Anywhere from three to four days at the least, to half a month at the most."

Old Kui fell silent, unable to hold back any longer. "You call this a threshold? Three days to half a month? This isn't even a stumbling block..."

Master Zhuang calmly remarked, "The breakthrough in realm has lifted the shackles on his spiritual consciousness. Right now, his spiritual consciousness isn't enough, but give it ten days or so of practicing formations, and his spiritual consciousness will strengthen. Then, these nine formation runes won't be so difficult."

Old Kui was speechless.

Master Zhuang raised an eyebrow. "Nine formation runes are indeed a threshold for other cultivators, but Mo Hua has practiced so many formations that this 'threshold' isn't really anything for him."

Old Kui frowned. "Then why did you say so much earlier?"

Master Zhuang's expression turned playful, and he smiled faintly. "Just teasing him, to keep him from getting too proud."

After returning home, Mo Hua earnestly followed Master Zhuang's advice, calming his mind and diligently practicing formations.

After a while, he felt his spiritual consciousness strengthen, and he was able to add a few more strokes to the Golden Armor Formation runes.

Mo Hua felt inspired and continued drawing.

Every day, his spiritual consciousness grew stronger, and he managed to draw a bit more of the formation runes.

Ten days later, Mo Hua naturally completed the Golden Armor Formation, feeling a sense of accomplishment, like picking a ripe melon—it came naturally and smoothly.

However, Mo Hua furrowed his brow.

It didn't seem as difficult as Master Zhuang had said.

Wasn't there supposed to be a threshold between eight and nine formation runes? Where was this threshold?

Mo Hua carefully recalled but couldn't remember anything that could be considered a threshold.

"What's going on?"

Mo Hua was puzzled, his brow furrowing tighter.

Where was the so-called threshold?

(End of the chapter)