"Spiritual awareness is limited."
Mr. Zhuang's words made Mo Hua inexplicably feel very reasonable.
In that case, Mo Hua stopped worrying. After all, as his realm improved, his spiritual awareness would naturally increase. Everything would fall into place with focused cultivation; there was no need to rush.
For now, the most important thing was to learn more formations.
The bottleneck of the "Celestial Expansion Technique" was the puzzle formations. To solve puzzle formations, one needed to learn complex formations. The "Thousand Formations Catalog" Mr. Zhuang provided had only been partially studied by Mo Hua. With his current experience in formations, it was far from sufficient.
Without solving puzzle formations, he couldn't break through the bottleneck. If the bottleneck wasn't broken, his realm would stagnate. Once his realm stagnated, his path of cultivation would come to an end.
Therefore, apart from regular cultivation, Mo Hua focused all his attention on formations.
At night before sleeping, he practiced formations on the fragments in his sea of consciousness. During the day, he drew formations on paper. Occasionally, when someone's formation malfunctioned, they would come to Mo Hua for help.
Master Chen needed assistance in refining tools, such as repairing furnace tools or adding formations to spiritual tools. Sometimes, Elder Feng would introduce some cultivators to Mo Hua to draw formations for them.
Some would pay Mo Hua with spirit stones as remuneration. Others, with difficult financial situations, could only apologize and offer home-grown vegetables or fruits, or sugar figures and toys they sold in the market.
Mo Hua knew that life as an independent cultivator was not easy, so he accepted the spirit stones symbolically. Occasionally receiving food, drinks, and toys made him quite happy.
Mo Hua's original intention was to learn and apply his skills in practicing formations, so he didn't fuss over these things too much.
This resulted in every time Mo Hua went out, the uncles, aunts, and elderly who had received his help would sneak something to him. It could be wild fruits picked from the mountains, rice cakes steamed at home, bamboo-crafted grasshoppers, sachets for calming, or even rouge and handkerchiefs for female cultivators...
If Mo Hua tried to give them spirit stones, they would refuse adamantly. If he didn't accept, they would be unhappy.
In this way, without spending a single spirit stone, Mo Hua couldn't walk from one end of the street to the other without his storage bag being stuffed full of things. He felt a bit amused and helpless, like a pampered young master who received everything without effort.
After some time like this, Mo Hua discovered a very serious problem:
He didn't have enough spirit stones to buy spiritual ink!
Since Liu Ruhua opened her restaurant, Mo Hua's family situation had improved a lot.
The spirit stones Mo Hua used for daily cultivation were given by his parents. Originally, Mo Hua didn't want to accept them, but Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua insisted. They said Mo Hua was still young and hadn't reached the time to support himself yet.
Mo Hua earned some spirit stones by drawing formations himself. He used these spirit stones to practice formations with ink and occasionally spend one or two spirit stones on some delicious treats.
Overall, Mo Hua's income and expenses of spirit stones were relatively balanced, occasionally having some surplus.
Although the surplus wasn't much...
But as Mo Hua's cultivation improved and his spiritual awareness gradually strengthened, the formations he drew became more complex. Also, due to the effect of the "Celestial Expansion Technique," his control over spiritual awareness became stronger, and he could draw formations faster.
The faster he drew formations, the more formations he drew each day. The more formations he drew, the stronger his spiritual awareness became. With stronger spiritual awareness, he drew even more complex formations. Despite the complexity, Mo Hua still drew formations faster, leading to more and more formations...
Dao Stele, Celestial Expansion Technique, Meditation Technique...
This originally benign cycle led to a vicious result:
Mo Hua's spiritual ink was used like water, and the spirit stones were spent like flowing water.
Until one day, Mo Hua realized that he had run out of spiritual ink and spent all his spirit stones, only then did he realize the severity of the problem.
Mo Hua, who was penniless, felt a bit distressed, "What should I do?"
"Ask parents for some?"
Mo Hua shook his head. He wanted his parents to spend more spirit stones on cultivation so that their cultivation would be higher and their lifespans longer. If he asked, his parents would definitely give him all their spirit stones.
Collect more spirit stones while drawing formations?
Mo Hua also felt it wasn't right. Their neighbors were all independent cultivators, struggling with limited spirit stones. Moreover, he had indirectly benefited from everyone, so taking more spirit stones wouldn't be appropriate.
Mixing spiritual ink on his own?
Mo Hua didn't know the recipe or technique for mixing spiritual ink. Besides, even if he could mix it himself, he would need ingredients, which he didn't have access to.
Mo Hua pondered over this problem for two days but still couldn't find a good solution.
One afternoon, he heard Liu Ruhua frowning and saying, "Xiao Hu was injured while hunting demons on the mountain. It seems he's badly hurt. Take these things for me and see how Xiao Hu is."
Mo Hua's heart skipped a beat and he quickly replied, "Okay, Mother, I'll go right away!"
When Mo Hua arrived at the Meng family's house, Da Hu and Shuang Hu were taking care of Xiao Hu.
Xiao Hu lay on the bed, eyes closed, face pale, with a bloody claw mark on his back from which blood continued to seep.
Upon seeing Mo Hua, Da Hu and Shuang Hu's eyes brightened momentarily, then dimmed again.
It had been two months since Mo Hua last saw Da Hu and the others.
Being a demon hunter wasn't an easy profession. Demons of the same realm were often much stronger than cultivators due to their innate physical talents, fierce bloodlines, sharp reflexes, and agile movements. Moreover, demon beasts either possessed elemental powers or innate toxins, making them extremely formidable opponents.
Once one became a demon hunter, it meant enduring tireless hardships and facing constant life-threatening dangers.
Many powerful demon hunters had been swallowed whole by demon beasts due to a moment of carelessness. Even the strongest demon hunters often had to work in pairs, watching each other's backs without a moment's lapse.
Da Hu and his friends were still novices, just beginning their careers as demon hunters. They had much to learn and consequently faced greater risks.
Although among their peers of independent cultivators, Da Hu and his friends were already outstanding in both cultivation and Dao techniques, once they started hunting demon beasts for real, they would need time to adapt.
For the past two months, they had been on the mountain, familiarizing themselves with the environment, studying demon beasts, and attempting to fight them. During these encounters, they had to be completely focused; any slip could result in injury, and serious ones could even cost them their lives.
A young cultivator of seventeen who had entered the mountains with them panicked when faced with a demon beast, leading to his neck being bitten off, causing fatal blood loss.
Da Hu had told Mo Hua about this before, and Mo Hua now deeply understood the weight behind the title "demon hunter." Now, looking at Xiao Hu, whom he had grown up with, with a bloody wound on his back, Mo Hua felt a pang of sorrow.
"Has Elder Feng come to check on him?"
Mo Hua looked at Xiao Hu's pale face, feeling distressed.
"Elder Feng came and administered herbs on the wound and gave Xiao Hu some pills," Shuang Hu said, his eyes reddened.
"What happened?" Mo Hua couldn't help but ask.
(End of the Chapter)