Mo Hua went back and tried drawing the formation patterns several times as instructed by Instructor Yan. Indeed, he felt a sudden enlightenment.
At night, while practicing on the stone tablet before going to bed, he clearly comprehended much faster.
Some parts that were unclear became gradually understood after drawing multiple times.
As long as the basic formation patterns were firmly grasped, learning some variations wasn't too difficult. The challenge was that without guidance, Mo Hua wouldn't think in that direction, leading to fruitless efforts.
After familiarizing himself for another day, on the evening of the third day after class, Mo Hua began to formally draw the Earth Stabilizing Array.
The initial strokes were not smooth, but after some stumbling, he managed to complete it, though it took a long time.
Drawing the four-pattern Earth Stabilizing Array took Mo Hua an hour and a half. After completing it, he had to rest for an hour due to excessive consumption of spiritual energy.
By the time Mo Hua finished the Earth Stabilizing Array, it was already midnight.
Upon checking it, Mo Hua found, as expected, that he had made a mistake.
Mo Hua sighed.
He spent the whole night drawing only one, and it was wrong.
With the goal of completing ten within five days, the time was very tight.
"What should I do?"
After some thought, Mo Hua decided he had no choice but to skip some cultivation classes.
Classes on cultivation history and common knowledge couldn't be skipped, as they could broaden his horizons and improve his cultivation experience.
Alchemy and talisman-making required spending spirit stones to buy herbs and talisman materials, and renting the sect's alchemy furnace, which was expensive. So, Mo Hua selectively skipped some of these classes.
Anyway, in these expensive cultivation fields, he probably wouldn't make much progress in his lifetime.
As for physical training classes, he could skip all of them.
Cultivators refined their spiritual power through techniques and used it to attack through Taoist methods.
Taoist methods are divided into two categories: spells and martial arts.
Spells are controlled by spiritual energy, condensing spiritual power into spells for attack, while martial arts use spiritual power to enhance physical potential for combat.
Those who practice spells are called spiritual cultivators, and those who practice martial arts are called physical cultivators.
During the Qi Refining stage, there are fewer spiritual cultivators and more physical cultivators. Especially in Tongxian City, most cultivators hunt demons for a living. Spiritual cultivators are physically weak and not suitable for hunting demons, so most itinerant cultivators choose the path of physical cultivation.
For this reason, Tongxian Sect specifically opened a physical training course for its disciples to strengthen their bodies in advance.
But Mo Hua was destined not to engage in physical cultivation.
He did not inherit his father Mo Shan's talent for physical cultivation. Instead, like his mother Liu Ruo Hua, he was weak from childhood, even more so than his mother.
According to the alchemist Master Feng from Wondrous Hall, cultivators are born following the way of heaven, with spiritual energy and physical body in relative balance.
Mo Hua was born with memories from two lifetimes, making his spiritual energy inherently strong, resulting in an imbalance between his spiritual energy and physical body. Consequently, from birth, Mo Hua was weak and often sick.
Others could easily lift a hundred-kilogram stone cauldron, but even with all his strength, Mo Hua couldn't move it. Fellow cultivators of the same age were generally taller and stronger than Mo Hua.
Although Mo Hua was thin and weak, his appearance was delicate, with a gentle temperament, red lips, and white teeth, resembling a porcelain doll at the age of ten.
This appearance wasn't bad, but Mo Hua still felt that a man should be strong and imposing.
Like his father, who was tall, handsome, and looked mighty.
In Mo Hua's dreams, he envisioned himself in white robes, mastering peerless techniques, wielding a spear like a dragon, standing invincible.
Unfortunately, this scene could only be seen in his dreams.
"Oh, right."
Mo Hua remembered that after falling asleep, his spiritual energy would automatically enter his sea of consciousness, preventing him from dreaming...
The instructor teaching physical training initially wanted to strictly discipline Mo Hua, but after seeing him fail to move the stone cauldron and injuring his arm, he became more lenient with him.
In cultivation, sometimes effort alone doesn't solve problems.
The instructor understood Mo Hua's situation well.
The way of heaven might close a window for you, intending for you to find another path, not to stubbornly persist.
So, Mo Hua selectively skipped these classes, using the freed-up time to lock himself in his room and focus on drawing the Earth Stabilizing Array.
After five days, Mo Hua finally used up ten sets of materials, successfully completing six out of ten formations.
Not only did he not incur a loss, but he also earned four spirit stones, which Mo Hua found satisfactory.
During the day off of the five-day rest period, Mo Hua went to Destiny Pavilion on North Street to hand over the Earth Stabilizing Arrays to the plump manager.
The manager inspected them and told Mo Hua, "Your brother's foundation in formations is indeed poor, but he learns quickly. These formations visibly improve one after another. However..."
The manager then took the first formation and criticized it, "This formation looks like it was drawn by a novice, even the basic patterns are shaky..."
Mo Hua was used to the manager's complaints, letting them go in one ear and out the other.
Moreover, the manager was talking about his "brother," which had nothing to do with him since he didn't have a brother.
Mo Hua directly asked the main question, "Can I exchange these for spirit stones?"
The manager glared at Mo Hua but still counted out four spirit stones for him, "Tell your brother to do better next time."
"Okay, okay," Mo Hua nodded repeatedly after receiving the spirit stones.
Mo Hua used the four spirit stones to buy pastries, eating two pieces himself and saving two pieces, giving the rest to Da Hu and his friends.
Da Hu and his friends were deeply moved by the pastries and asked Mo Hua if he wanted to eat meat. They mentioned seeing the elder raising a colorful, fat duck.
Mo Hua felt a headache and told them not to steal again, warning that if the sect notified their parents, they'd be in big trouble at home.
Da Hu and his friends reluctantly gave up the idea.
Mo Hua continued drawing Earth Stabilizing Arrays for more than two months.
With more practice, his skills improved significantly.
Previously, drawing an Earth Stabilizing Array, including breaks to restore spiritual energy, took about three hours. Now, it only took an hour and a half.
This improvement was due to proficiency and a deeper understanding of the patterns, which reduced the time needed, and the continuous practice that strengthened Mo Hua's spiritual energy, making it more robust.
A strong spiritual energy significantly benefited formation drawing.
The success rate of the Earth Stabilizing Array reached eighty to ninety percent, occasionally achieving a perfect ten out of ten. Each formation earned two spirit stones, and over the two months, after deducting daily expenses, Mo Hua earned a total of one hundred spirit stones.
Mo Hua planned to save up two hundred spirit stones to choose a mid-grade, lower-tier technique from the sect.
He intended to make his choice before informing his parents, knowing they'd insist on covering the cost, telling him to keep his spirit stones for his cultivation or future needs like finding a Dao companion or buying a residence.
(End of the chapter)