Bright Fire Formation

Within the Sea of Consciousness, Mo Hua's figure looked just like his physical body outside. He could move as he wished, yet it was not flesh and blood, nor was it even formed from Lingli. It was merely a phantom of divine consciousness.

Mo Hua's phantom held his breath and focused, using his finger as a brush to draw the Array Patterns of the Bright Fire Formation upon the Dao Stele.

Pale-blue lines moved nimbly with Mo Hua's finger, gradually appearing upon the dark black Dao Stele. Thread by thread, they connected from simple to complex, forming mysterious patterns.

After drawing the second Array Pattern, Mo Hua gradually felt an exhaustion and even pain he had never experienced before when he continued onward.

It was as though the Sea of Consciousness had become a dam pierced open by someone, its divine consciousness pouring out without cease like a tide.

The more divine consciousness flowed out, the closer the Sea of Consciousness came to drying up. Like a riverbed exposed after the waters receded, it gradually cracked and dried, pricked by an unnamed pressure, while his scalp faintly tingled as well.

Mo Hua also gradually felt his thoughts grow sluggish, and the third Array Pattern became slower and slower to draw.

Suddenly, a needle-like pain shot out from his Sea of Consciousness. Mo Hua blanked out for a moment and lost his bearings, causing one part of the Array Pattern on the stele to go wrong.

Mo Hua had no choice but to stop, clutching his head as he waited for the pain to slowly subside.

Only after the time it took to drink a cup of tea did Mo Hua recover. After pondering for a moment, he finally understood:

"For cultivators to draw Array Techniques requires an enormous amount of divine consciousness—far more than any other path of cultivation consumes! Far more than I thought!"

"That is why the diagram specifically used red ink to note that those of insufficient cultivation should study it with caution. If one's realm is too low and one's divine consciousness too weak, forcibly copying an Array Technique will excessively consume divine consciousness and may even cause it to run dry..."

The exhaustion of divine consciousness would bring a cultivator intense pain. It could even damage and crack the Sea of Consciousness, and once the cracks became too severe, the Sea of Consciousness would shatter outright, and the cultivator would perish, their Dao vanishing with them.

Instructor had mentioned this during Array Technique class. Mo Hua had not paid much attention while listening, but recalling it now, a chill quietly crept into his heart.

"The Bright Fire Formation requires Qi Refining Level Three, while I'm only at Qi Refining Level Two. My divine consciousness really is a bit lacking..."

Mo Hua lay on the ground within his Sea of Consciousness with both hands wrapped around his head, slowly mulling it over.

"Though I'm short by a little, the gap should not be too great. My divine consciousness has always been a little stronger than others', and I've studied Array Techniques for so long. If I practice a few more times, I may not be unable to draw it."

"If I can't draw it once, then I'll draw it a second time, a third time... Each time my divine consciousness grows a little stronger, each time I draw even one stroke more than before, I'll eventually be able to draw this Array Technique..."

After thinking it through, Mo Hua rose and erased the unfinished Array Patterns from the Dao Stele. His divine consciousness then became full once more.

It was as though he had never drawn an Array Technique at all, yet every stroke from moments ago was etched into Mo Hua's mind.

Mo Hua could not help sighing inwardly.

Good thing he had this Dao Stele. Otherwise, with his divine consciousness nearly depleted, who knew how long he would need to rest before drawing a second time? By the time he learned the Bright Fire Formation, ten days or half a month would probably have passed. And after ten days, the mortgaged Spirit Stones would be deducted clean away.

At that thought, Mo Hua's heart ached. His divine consciousness focused further as he began drawing the Bright Fire Formation for the second time...

In the blank white Sea of Consciousness, the passage of time could not be felt.

Mo Hua drew for a while, stopped for a while, and rested for a while. When he truly could not continue, he would simply erase it and start over from the beginning.

He did not know which attempt it was when he finally drew the complete Bright Fire Formation.

Mo Hua let out a long breath and collapsed onto the ground, feeling like a little salted fish whose divine consciousness had been squeezed dry.

Only after resting for another half cup of tea did Mo Hua have the heart to stand up and admire the first formal Array Technique he had ever drawn—the Bright Fire Formation.

Upon the pitch-black Dao Stele was a complete Array Technique formed from pale-blue lines. Its patterns were rigorous yet elegant, carrying an unknown sense of mystery. As the Array Patterns brightened and dimmed, they seemed to contain rules and power beyond words.

So this was an Array Technique!

Mo Hua's heart was dazed, as though there was nothing more beautiful in the world than these patterns that contained rules. Even merely looking at them made one unable to stop oneself from becoming immersed within them...

As Mo Hua watched, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

When he had been drawing, the Array Patterns had been pale blue. Yet now, they seemed to be gradually fading, their color dimming and slowly turning light gray.

It was as though... the Dao Stele was telling Mo Hua that he had drawn it wrong...

Mo Hua froze.

"I drew it wrong?"

"No way..."

Mo Hua was somewhat dejected, but he still roused his spirits and carefully examined it stroke by stroke. In the end, he discovered that he truly had drawn it wrong, and in more than one place.

Some Array Patterns had an extra stroke, some connecting angles were wrong, and some fusions between two Fire Patterns were incorrect...

Because he had drawn it incorrectly, his divine consciousness had not been consumed as greatly, allowing him to finish drawing the Bright Fire Formation.

Mo Hua scratched his head. He could only carefully remember each mistake, erase the Array Technique again, and redraw it from the start.

After repeating this many times, Mo Hua could not help feeling dizzy and seeing stars. Beyond the pain in his Sea of Consciousness, he also felt a little numb. Looking at the Array Patterns on the Dao Stele, he saw nothing but wavering double images.

At some unknown moment, in a muddled daze, Mo Hua drew the final stroke.

The Dao Stele seemed to tremble gently. The pale-blue Array Patterns upon it emitted a warm white glow, within which firelight seemed to flicker faintly, like a bright lamp illuminating the night.

The Bright Fire Formation!

Mo Hua could barely contain his excitement. A whole night's exhaustion was swept away.

For the first time in his life, Mo Hua personally felt the ability of a cultivator—the feeling of comprehending something himself, then creating it himself; of using an Array Technique to embody the rules of the Heavenly Dao and command the might of heaven and earth.

Though it was only the tiniest step, only the slightest trace of power, it was the first drop of water that would gather into the great river of the Dao!

Mo Hua was deeply proud. Although the Bright Fire Formation could only be used for illumination and was one of the most common and cheapest Array Techniques in cultivation, this Array Technique had at least illuminated the first stretch of Mo Hua's path of cultivation.

Still unsatisfied, Mo Hua dearly wished to draw it several more times. But he also knew that his frail divine consciousness was already like a candle flame in the wind and could not endure any more torment.

If he continued drawing, his Sea of Consciousness might not run dry, but he would certainly go mad.

After all, although divine consciousness would recover, it was continuously being depleted while drawing Array Techniques, and the process was not particularly pleasant.

This was the first formal Array Technique Mo Hua had drawn, but it would certainly not be the last.

He planned to practice the Bright Fire Formation several times every night. Once he became fully proficient in a few days, he would use the Array Pavilion's materials to draw Array Techniques. After finishing them, he would find the steward to exchange them for Spirit Stones. Ideally, he could gather enough for the sect's tuition, so his father and mother would not have to work so hard.

"Let's stop here for tonight..."

The Bright Fire Formation on the Dao Stele gleamed brilliantly. Mo Hua admired it once more and could not help nodding, then reluctantly swept his hand and erased the Array Technique.

The instant it vanished, his divine consciousness ebbed and surged like tides, the moon waning and waxing; like seawater bursting through a dike and flowing back again, like the sun rising once more after setting. The divine consciousness he had exhausted returned in an instant, filling Mo Hua's Sea of Consciousness!

Mo Hua stood before the Dao Stele, his divine consciousness brimming. At this very moment, he was exactly as he had been several hours earlier, when he had first entered the Sea of Consciousness.

This feeling of divine consciousness going from fullness to depletion, then from depletion back to fullness, remained extraordinarily mysterious no matter how many times he experienced it.

And this time, the experience was deeper than ever before.

Mo Hua looked at the Dao Stele. Its surface was black and profound, seemingly nothing but Void, yet as though it contained everything; seemingly possessing nothing, yet as though it could reveal all things.

Transform divine consciousness into Array Techniques, reverse Array Techniques into divine consciousness; being and nonbeing gave birth to each other, and transformed into each other.

A line from an ancient text surfaced in Mo Hua's mind:

What is there serves for benefit; what is not there serves for use!