Chapter Summaries

Sun Yi recovered fragments of his memory of Mo Hua, then left the Sun Family and vanished. Mr. Zhuang warned his disciples about attacks on Divine Consciousness, and Mo Hua’s cultivation breakthrough brought his Divine Consciousness to Twelve-Pattern.

• Sun Yi used a Demonic Pattern to recall Mo Hua, but repeated memory erasures left him confused before he departed Qianjia Town in Sun Ji’s Daoist Robe and never returned.
• Mr. Zhuang explained several ways Divine Consciousness could be harmed and warned Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi to avoid strange people and unseen dangers.
• Mo Hua asked how to destroy parasitic Divine Thoughts, and Mr. Zhuang promised to teach him once his Divine Consciousness grew stronger.
• Mo Hua practiced the Eleven-Pattern Thick Earth Formation throughout the journey to strengthen his Divine Consciousness.
• Mo Hua advanced to Eighth-Layer Qi Refining, and the resulting increase in Divine Consciousness brought him to Foundation Establishment Twelve-Pattern Divine Consciousness.

Mo Hua reached the eighth level of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment Twelve-Pattern Divine Sense, then asked Mr. Zhuang about learning Absolute Arrays and destroying Divine Thoughts. Mr. Zhuang explained why Absolute Arrays were rare and urged Mo Hua to master as many as he could while he was still at Qi Refining, leaving him to prepare for finding further inheritances himself.

• Mo Hua reflected on his youthful appearance and modest Spirit Root, then noted that his spells and Divine Sense had grown stronger at the eighth level of Qi Refining.
• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang to teach him how to destroy invading Divine Thoughts, but Mr. Zhuang told him to wait until his Divine Sense grew stronger.
• Mo Hua asked whether high-grade Array Masters could easily learn low-grade Absolute Arrays, and Mr. Zhuang explained that practice, insight, time, and comprehension all limited their progress.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that many Absolute Arrays required linked grades and complete inheritances, so a missing grade could prevent an Array Master from learning the later arrays.
• Mr. Zhuang urged Mo Hua to learn as many Absolute Arrays as possible while he was at Qi Refining and told him he would later have to seek out more inheritances himself.

Mo Hua searched for rare Absolute Arrays while worrying that his Divine Consciousness would remain at twelve patterns before Foundation Establishment. Mr. Zhuang explained the history of the Spirit Hidden sects and revealed that Instructor Yan had gone to Nanyue City to pursue the traitor who stole the Spirit Pivot Formation Diagram.

• Mo Hua found two Absolute Arrays during the journey, but neither helped him advance his Divine Consciousness beyond twelve patterns.
• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang about Twelve-Pattern Array Techniques and learned that Mr. Zhuang had met Instructor Yan because of the Spirit Pivot Formation Diagram.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that the Little Spirit Hidden Sect descended from the Great Spirit Hidden Sect, which had been destroyed a thousand years earlier.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua that the Little Spirit Hidden Sect had been destroyed by a traitor who murdered his master and stole the Spirit Pivot Formation Diagram.
• Mo Hua told Mr. Zhuang that Instructor Yan had gone to Nanyue City in the Little Wild State Boundary to find the traitor, who possessed the First-Grade Twelve-Pattern formation diagram.

Mo Hua persuaded Mr. Zhuang to detour to Nanyue City so he could visit Instructor Yan and see the Spirit Pivot Formation. On the road through the Little Wild State Boundary, Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng defeated a gang of bandits who threatened Bai Zixi, while Mr. Zhuang's deeper purpose for traveling remained unclear.

• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang to detour to Nanyue City, and Mr. Zhuang agreed because he wanted to inspect the Spirit Pivot Formation as well.
• Old Kui turned the carriage toward the Little Wild State Boundary, where Mo Hua saw the region's sparse settlements and learned that many cultivators earned their living as miners.
• Mo Hua encountered different kinds of road bandits and sometimes gave a few Spirit Stones to those who seemed desperate.
• A group of organized bandits demanded the carriage and horses and threatened to sell Bai Zixi, angering Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng.
• Bai Zisheng fought the bandits with his spear and fists while Mo Hua knocked them down with Fireball Techniques and Little White kicked one away.
• Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng beat the defeated bandit leaders, and Bai Zixi smiled as the two fellow disciples bickered.

Mo Hua and his companions arrived in Nanyue City, where he searched for Instructor Yan by visiting local array masters. He proved that he was a First-Grade Array Master, earning an array master's respect, but had not yet found Instructor Yan.

• Mo Hua's group entered Nanyue City after paying the gate fee, settled into Nanyue Inn, and arranged the best fodder for Little White.
• Mo Hua explained to Bai Zisheng how he used Divine Consciousness to identify good grass for Little White.
• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang for permission to look for Instructor Yan, and Mr. Zhuang sent Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi with him.
• Mo Hua and the others visited the residences of several renowned array masters, but gatekeepers initially stopped them from entering.
• Mo Hua showed a gatekeeper his Tianshu Ring, and the array master tested Mo Hua's array skills before recognizing him as a First-Grade Array Master.

Mo Hua searched Nanyue City for Instructor Yan, but the local Array Masters had no information about him. After several days without clues, Mo Hua unexpectedly encountered his old acquaintance Situ Fang.

• Mo Hua asked Elder Su about Instructor Yan, but Elder Su had never heard of him and gave Mo Hua a calling card to help him meet other Array Masters.
• Mo Hua visited Nanyue City's notable Array Masters, asked about Instructor Yan, and built goodwill, but found no clues.
• Mo Hua reported the lack of leads to Mr. Zhuang, who told him to keep searching for a few more days.
• Mo Hua spent five or six days searching the city with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi without finding Instructor Yan.
• Mo Hua recognized Situ Fang on the street and called out to her, and Situ Fang was startled to see him.

Mo Hua reunited with Situ Fang in Nanyue City and learned she was struggling with a case involving Mine Cultivators who had gone missing in the tunnels. After Mo Hua advised her on handling the families and suggested questioning them more firmly, Bai Zisheng persuaded him to join the investigation, which Mo Hua sensed might involve tangled Karma.

• Situ Fang met Mo Hua and his companions at a Tea House and explained that she had been assigned to the Dao Court Office in Nanyue City.
• Situ Fang told Mo Hua that Mine Cultivators had gone missing in the Mine Mountains and that she had taken their families’ case despite resistance from the Dao Court Office.
• Mo Hua advised Situ Fang to maintain an impartial, official manner with the families and suggested locking up those who obstructed the investigation.
• After Situ Fang left, Bai Zisheng persuaded Mo Hua to join the investigation into the missing Mine Cultivators.
• Mo Hua grew curious about the case and sensed that it might involve tangled Karma.

Situ Fang and Mo Hua investigated the disappearance of mine cultivators and secretly entered the Lu Family mine mountain to search for them. Mo Hua uncovered a hidden opening in the mine shaft, leaving the group facing whatever lay beyond it.

• Situ Fang learned that the missing mine cultivators had vanished after stealing ore, and she decided to investigate their disappearance and seek compensation for their families if they had died.
• Mo Hua persuaded Situ Fang to let him, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi help search the mine shaft because its Array Techniques might reveal clues.
• Situ Fang brought the group to the Lu Family mine mountain, where they saw the mine cultivators' harsh working conditions and Bai Zisheng silenced a disdainful Lu Family cultivator.
• Mo Hua read the crude Array Techniques in the mine shaft, mapped its layout, and led the group deeper into the tunnels.
• Mo Hua drew Array Patterns on a stone wall, causing it to crumble and reveal a pitch-black opening.

Mo Hua and the others searched a Lu Family mine shaft and found the missing Mine Cultivators dead in a gruesome cave. After ordering the Lu Family cultivator interrogated, Mo Hua focused on the sinister trace of an Absolute Array he had sensed around the corpses.

• Situ Fang questioned the Lu Family cultivator, but Bai Zisheng kicked him into the cave, and Mo Hua led the group farther inside.
• Mo Hua sensed a carefully constructed First-Grade Compound Array throughout the shaft and found that its mixed auras blocked his divine sense.
• Mo Hua discovered the Mine Cultivators' mangled remains in a freshly excavated cave, and the others recoiled at the sight.
• Mo Hua reasoned that the bodies had been gnawed or hollowed out rather than eaten by ordinary demon beasts, while Situ Fang awaited the Dao Court Office coroners' examination.
• Mo Hua told the group to interrogate the shaken Lu Family cultivator and recalled sensing a sinister trace of an Absolute Array around the dead Mine Cultivators.

Mo Hua pressured Lu Ming into revealing that the Lu Family Patriarch had ordered secret mine tunnels built and sealed, while the deaths of five Mine Cultivators remained unexplained. Lu Ming also described nighttime Yin Qi and ghostly mining sounds, leaving Mo Hua with a new mystery to investigate.

• Situ Fang questioned a Lu Family cultivator about the tunnel, and Mo Hua bluffed and threatened him until he agreed to talk.
• The Lu Family cultivator tried to flee, but Mo Hua bound him with Water-Form Chains and Bai Zisheng brought him back.
• Lu Ming revealed that the Lu Family Patriarch had ordered the tunnels and their Array Techniques built, then forbade anyone from entering or learning about them.
• Lu Ming said the tunnels were eerie at night, when Yin Qi rose and sounds like someone chiseling echoed through them, and he repeated rumors that dead Mine Cultivators returned as Ghost Cultivators.
• Mo Hua accepted Lu Ming's answers and learned his name, while warning him to stay available if more questions arose.

After helping Situ Fang uncover the Mine Cultivator’s body, Mo Hua suspected the murderer was connected to an evil Absolute Array hidden in Nanyue City. Mr. Zhuang sent Mo Hua and his senior siblings to find a Cave Abode, and their search ended amid the broker’s colorful gossip about the city’s residents.

• Situ Fang promised to secretly tell Mo Hua if the Dao Court Office found clues about the murderer, and Mo Hua warned Lu Ming to keep quiet about what happened at the mine.
• Mo Hua told Mr. Zhuang that the dead Mine Cultivator bore a faint, evil trace of an Absolute Array, and Mr. Zhuang hinted that finding it would reveal the difference between evil and ordinary Absolute Arrays.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi to rent a Cave Abode while they stayed in Nanyue City, asking Mo Hua to consider its spiritual energy, location, arrays, and Five Elements.
• Mo Hua went with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi to a Brokerage, paid a broker to show them Cave Abodes, and listened as the broker described their flaws and rumors about their former occupants.
• The broker warned the group away from a Cave Abode belonging to the Chief Administrator of the Dao Court Office, then recounted how the official’s wife had caught him with his mistress and attacked them both.

Mo Hua inspected Cave Abodes in Nanyue City and chose one with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi, following Mr. Zhuang’s advice about spiritual energy, layout, arrays, and the Five Elements. When Bai Zixi decided to buy it, Mo Hua exposed numerous flaws in its arrays and demanded a sharply reduced price, leaving the broker stunned.

• Mo Hua studied the Cave Abodes’ spiritual energy, positions, arrays, and Five Elements, while the broker mistook him for an array master’s apprentice.
• Mo Hua shortlisted three Cave Abodes, and Bai Zixi chose the one with a courtyard pond, grass, and a large tree; Mr. Zhuang approved the choice.
• Bai Zixi said she would buy the Cave Abode and revealed that Aunt Xue had given her many Spirit Stones.
• The broker offered the Cave Abode for thirty-eight thousand Spirit Stones, but Mo Hua objected to the price.
• Mo Hua pointed out numerous damaged, incorrect, conflicting, and poorly made arrays in the Cave Abode, then demanded a price of twenty thousand Spirit Stones.

Mo Hua haggled for a Cave Abode, renovated its formations, and learned from Mr. Zhuang how spirit veins related to Spirit Mines. The group ended the day sharing tangyuan and teasing Mo Hua about his sly nature.

• Mo Hua bargained the Cave Abode's price down to twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight Spirit Stones, then signed the Spirit Contract because Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng could not.
• Mo Hua rebuilt the Cave Abode's Array Diagram and worked with Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng to install an interconnected First-Grade Compound Array.
• Mo Hua brought Mr. Zhuang to the Cave Abode, and the group shared a vegetarian dinner beneath the courtyard tree.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that spirit veins could become Spirit Mines and that tracking spiritual-energy flows might help Mo Hua deduce where mines lay.
• Bai Zixi compared Mo Hua to a sesame tangyuan, and Mo Hua, Bai Zixi, and Bai Zisheng bickered while Mr. Zhuang watched with a faint smile.

After settling into his Cave Abode, Mo Hua met Nanyue City’s cultivators and learned more about the dangerous Lu Family Mine Mountain. He accepted the Lu Family Patriarch’s invitation but grew more worried about Instructor Yan after Situ Fang uncovered clues about his disappearance and the deaths of five Mine Cultivators.

• Zheng Yu visited Mo Hua, and Elder Su later recognized the tea Zheng Yu had sent and warned Mo Hua to stay out of the complicated affairs surrounding the Lu Family’s Mine Mountain.
• Mo Hua received an invitation from the Lu Family Patriarch, consulted Mr. Zhuang, and visited the Lu Residence, where the Patriarch spoke with him about Array Techniques and sent him home with many gifts.
• Mo Hua remained suspicious of the Lu Family’s unexpected generosity and continued searching for Instructor Yan, asking Situ Fang to help.
• Situ Fang told Mo Hua that a teacher-like man surnamed Yan had rented a house near Mine Mountain years earlier, then gone toward the mountain one evening and never returned.
• Situ Fang also said she had found leads about the five Mine Cultivators who had died horribly.

Mo Hua and Situ Fang investigated the Mine Cultivators’ deaths despite the Dao Court Office’s cover-up, but found the bodies had been cremated and the bereaved families had been left with little support. At the Mass Grave, Mo Hua noticed that the burly men who had once stood with the families were missing.

• Situ Fang told Mo Hua that a coroner had privately revealed the Mine Cultivators were killed before their corpses were eaten, while Diansi Zhao had pressured him to blame demonic beasts.
• Situ Fang decided to keep investigating, and Mo Hua joined her because he hoped to find Instructor Yan and uncover the truth behind the deaths and the sinister Absolute Array.
• Mo Hua and Situ Fang learned that the bodies had already been cremated and returned to the families, apparently on the Chief Administrator’s orders.
• They visited the Mine Cultivators’ poor neighborhood and learned that the families had gone to bury their dead at a Mass Grave.
• At the burial, the families explained that five victims had been cremated together, that only twenty of the Lu Family’s one hundred Spirit Stones had reached them, and that one victim’s wife had remarried.
• Mo Hua noticed that the burly men who had previously supported the families were absent, and his gaze turned cold.

Mo Hua investigated the suspicious men who had demanded compensation for the dead mine cultivators and forced Lu Ming to identify them. He learned they were street thugs who exploited the families and bribed mine overseers for access, leaving him suspicious of what they were doing at the Mine Mountain.

• Mo Hua told Situ Fang his doubts about the men who had vanished after the Lu Family paid compensation, and she drew their portraits.
• Mo Hua captured Lu Ming near the Mine Mountain and questioned him about what he had told the Lu Family patriarch.
• Lu Ming denied knowing the men in the portraits, but Mo Hua caught his lie and pressured him to tell the truth.
• Lu Ming revealed that the three men were street thugs who posed as mine cultivators and took most of the compensation they claimed for victims' families.
• Lu Ming admitted that the thugs paid him to let them enter the Mine Mountain freely and to ignore their activities, prompting Mo Hua to suspect they were hiding something.
• Lu Ming identified the three men as Wang Hu, Tang Huzi, and their scarred leader, Wang Lai, also known as Wang the Rascal.

After Wang Lai and his gang retaliated against the families of dead mine cultivators, Mo Hua joined Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi in secretly investigating them. Their surveillance revealed Wang Lai persuading an elderly mine cultivator to steal ore from the Lu Family, a discovery that connected him to the deaths of five miners.

• Situ Fang arrested Wang Lai and his gang, returned their extorted Spirit Stones to the miners’ families, and gave the hooligans only a month in prison and thirty strokes of the paddle.
• After their release, Wang Lai and his gang threatened and injured the families, forcing them to return the Spirit Stones.
• Mo Hua decided to secretly follow Wang Lai and investigate his crimes, and Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi persuaded him to let them join.
• Mo Hua drew Concealment Arrays on Cloaks for the three of them, and they began watching Wang Lai around Jinhua Street.
• Mo Hua saw Wang Lai’s many schemes for earning Spirit Stones and wondered why he had not gone to work in the mine despite being broke.
• Mo Hua later overheard Wang Lai urging an elderly mine cultivator to steal ore from the Lu Family, recalling that five miners had died in the mine shaft after apparently stealing ore.

Wang Lai persuaded Old Yu, Wang Er, and Tang Wu to join a secret ore theft, while Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi followed and suspected he had a darker scheme. At midnight, Wang Lai’s group met the Mine Cultivators beneath the Half-cut Willow Tree, ready to begin.

• Wang Lai convinced Old Yu to join the theft by appealing to his hope of helping his gifted grandson, then privately mocked him after leaving his home.
• Wang Lai recruited Wang Er and Tang Wu with promises of Spirit Stones and help finding wives, and arranged to meet them at midnight by the Half-cut Willow Tree.
• Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi secretly followed Wang Lai, then discussed whether he planned to kill Mine Cultivators and seek compensation from the Lu Family.
• Mo Hua doubted that compensation alone explained Wang Lai’s plan, since the Lu Family required a body before paying, and the three decided to watch what happened next.
• At midnight, Wang Lai’s four thugs met Old Yu, Wang Er, and Tang Wu beneath the Half-cut Willow Tree, and Wang Lai promised to lead them to fortune.

Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi followed Wang Lai’s group into the mine, where Wang Lai revealed he had lured the miners there to kill and sell them. Just as Wang Lai attacked Old Yu, a Fireball Technique struck him, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Mo Hua opened the hidden door’s Iron Lock Array, and Bai Zisheng pushed the heavy door aside so the three could enter the mine.
• Mo Hua led Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi through the mine after Wang Lai’s group, while Wang Er grew suspicious of Wang Lai’s familiarity with the route.
• Wang Er tried to flee after realizing there was no ore, but Wang Lai’s thugs captured and beat him, Tang Wu, and Old Yu.
• Wang Lai admitted he planned to kill the miners and profit from selling them, then ordered his thugs to shackle Wang Er and Tang Wu.
• As Wang Lai raised his knife to kill Old Yu, a crimson Fireball Technique struck and burned Wang Lai’s right arm.

Mo Hua and the others rescued Old Yu and two Mine Cultivators, then captured Wang Lai and forced him to confess to murdering miners. Wang Lai revealed that someone paid Spirit Stones for Mine Cultivators’ corpses, leaving Mo Hua with a new mystery to investigate.

• Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi defeated Wang Lai’s thugs and rescued Old Yu, Wang Er, and Tang Wu.
• Mo Hua identified the group as members of the Dao Court Office and confronted Wang Lai about his crimes.
• After Wang Lai refused to answer questions, Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi beat him until he agreed to cooperate.
• Wang Lai admitted that he lured Mine Cultivators into mine shafts, murdered them, and tried to extort compensation from the Lu Family.
• Mo Hua questioned why Wang Lai had been so careful about how he killed the miners, and Wang Lai confessed that someone paid Spirit Stones for their corpses.