Amidst the festive atmosphere of the New Year, Mo Hua turned thirteen.
He had grown a bit taller, but not much, still looking like a small cultivator.
Mo Hua's thoughts were mostly focused on daily array formations and cultivation.
He had already perfected the sixth layer of Qi refinement. Soon, he would touch the bottleneck of his cultivation, facing the threshold of the mid-stage of Qi refinement.
Once he broke through this bottleneck, he would become a late-stage Qi refinement cultivator.
In the late-stage of Qi refinement, the Foundation Building stage would be closer.
The cultivation world was vast, with countless cultivators. The Qi refinement stage was only the beginning, and achieving Foundation Building was the first step in changing one's destiny in cultivation.
On this day, Mo Hua woke up at the Rabbit hour and began his usual cultivation.
Suddenly, his Qi sea trembled, and spiritual energy circulated rapidly.
Mo Hua's spirits lifted. He took out spirit stones and began cultivating in tranquility. These spirit stones were refined by Mo Hua, forming pure spiritual energy that converged into his Qi sea until it overflowed.
Then, he encountered the same bottleneck as when he first broke through.
The overflowing spiritual energy flowed along his meridians, converging towards his Baihui acupoint. When it reached there, it seeped into his sea of consciousness like threads, weaving freely and forming a spiritual curtain.
This spiritual curtain was the array formation and the bottleneck needed to break through when practicing the Heavenly Expansion Technique cultivation technique.
Mo Hua felt both anticipation and anxiety in his heart. He calmed his mind and began to comprehend the array formation.
After a moment, he sighed in relief.
There were hundreds of array patterns on these array formations, chaotic and complex. If it weren't for an array master, one would be completely clueless.
However, Mo Hua carefully observed and found that most of the array patterns, although rare and constantly changing, still fell within the category of the Five Elements array patterns, which he could recognize.
As long as he could recognize them, he could find a way to solve them.
Mo Hua recalled the basic principles of array breaking, using the principles of the Five Elements' generation and control, and the rules of spiritual energy's positive and negative flow, and began to unravel them one by one.
Half a day later, Mo Hua had unraveled more than ten array patterns.
Mo Hua was delighted.
The process of breaking the arrays was smoother than he had expected.
Thanks to Mr. Zhuang's teachings and Mo Hua's continuous practice day and night, including his insight and application of the First Grade array formations, Mo Hua's current level of array formations, including his experience, was already considered outstanding among First Grade array masters.
With his current proficiency in array formations, Mo Hua could now independently decipher these array formations.
On the array formations, spiritual energy threads were intertwined, array patterns densely spread, and constantly circulating.
What would leave ordinary cultivators at a loss and make ordinary array masters change color with fear, to Mo Hua's eyes, was already clear and straightforward, no longer a difficult problem.
All the efforts previously spent on array formations were worthwhile.
It's just that there were too many array formations, so unraveling them would take some time.
In this way, Mo Hua neglected sleep and food, day and night, dedicated himself to disabling array formations.
Sometimes he could space out even while eating or walking, frowning suddenly, sometimes enlightened, sometimes lost in thought, and sometimes his eyes brightened.
Seeing this, the cultivators around him knew that Mo Hua must be comprehending some difficult problem, so they quietly let him be, without disturbing him.
Finally, a month later, Mo Hua unraveled all the array formations.
The spiritual curtain dispersed negligently, the array formations instantly unraveled, and the thread-like spiritual energy gradually dissipated, finally merging into Mo Hua's sea of consciousness.
Mo Hua's sea of consciousness expanded, his divine sense deepened, and his spiritual energy became more abundant.
He finally broke through the bottleneck and became a cultivator of the seventh layer of Qi refinement.
The seventh layer of Qi refinement marked the late stage of Qi refinement!
Mo Hua was overjoyed. His cultivation had taken a critical step forward again. Now, as long as he steadily progressed step by step, he would move closer towards Foundation Building.
The ones happiest about Mo Hua reaching the late stage of Qi refinement were naturally Liu Ruhua and Mo Shan.
Following custom, they hosted a banquet for their neighbors and some close cultivator friends.
Mo Hua also received many gifts, including those from Elder Yu, Master Chen, Mr. Feng, Monster Hunters, Master Luo, and other array masters.
After the lively banquet, Mo Hua settled his mind and considered what to do next.
In cultivation, diligence and perseverance were crucial, focusing on gradual progress like water wearing away stone. There were no shortcuts to take, nothing more to say.
In Dao techniques, Mo Hua wanted to learn one or two more spells for occasional needs.
Now in the late stage of Qi refinement, while his strength had increased, the dangers he faced could also be greater. Having a few more spells would be essential.
However, Mo Hua was unsure whom to learn from at the moment.
Learning on his own, there were no suitable spell books available.
It wasn't ideal to ask Elder Kui again since he had already been generously taught by him before. Mo Hua couldn't keep going back to ask Elder Kui for more.
When it came time to figure things out, he had to figure them out on his own.
However, this wasn't urgent. He could take his time.
What made Mo Hua hesitate was actually array formations.
He had already reached the level of a First Grade array master, even learning the more difficult First Grade complex formations. However, he was still far from Foundation Building, unable to become a Second Grade array master naturally.
So, what kind of array formations should he study during this period?
Continue studying complex formations?
Mo Hua was already familiar with general complex formations. The more difficult ones were only problematic because of their high intensity, requiring stronger divine sense than Mo Hua currently possessed, so he couldn't study them yet.
But Mo Hua had already mastered the principles of complex formations, especially those related to the Five Elements. Continuing to study them would only expand the breadth of his knowledge, not deepen it further.
Mo Hua found studying them a bit boring.
Should he then study grand formations?
Mo Hua's understanding of grand formations was still superficial. He knew they were large-scale complex formations, but he knew little else about them.
Moreover, even if he wanted to study grand formations, Mo Hua could only practice them on the stele in his sea of consciousness; he couldn't actually set them up.
This was because grand formations required immense resources: large-scale array media, massive amounts of spirit stones, and numerous personnel. These were things Mo Hua couldn't manage.
Besides this, Mo Hua also had one more point of confusion—divine sense.
Mo Hua's divine sense was already quite strong, stronger than most cultivators at the late stage of Qi refinement and even many First Grade array masters.
But compared to cultivators at the Foundation Building stage, Mo Hua still lacked a lot.
Mo Hua's divine sense was still growing. Using steles would enhance his divine sense, practicing array formations would refine it, and breaking through realms in the future would further increase it.
Could there come a day when his divine sense, not yet at Foundation Building, could rival that of cultivators at the Foundation Building stage?
Where exactly was the boundary between Qi refinement and Foundation Building divine sense?
This exceeded Mo Hua's current understanding, so he went to visit Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang saw Mo Hua, calm on the surface but sighed inwardly:
"This child's divine sense has grown stronger again..."
He didn't know how to teach him anymore.
Mo Hua respectfully bowed to Mr. Zhuang and asked, "Sir, should I continue studying complex formations?"
"Continue studying as usual."
"Understood."
Mo Hua felt that studying complex formations was somewhat boring, but he didn't dare to voice it.
Mr. Zhuang asked, "What were the array formations in your sea of consciousness this time?"
Mo Hua thought for a moment and replied, "They were still Five Elements array patterns, but the grade of the array formations was higher, mostly First Grade array methods, and some complex formations."
Mr. Zhuang fell silent for a moment and sighed, "In that case, it will be very difficult for you to reach Foundation Building."
(End of the Chapter)