Chapter Summaries

Mo Hua interrogated Wang Lai and uncovered his decades-long scheme of murdering Mine Cultivators and selling their corpses. As an unknown menace awakened in the mine shaft, Mo Hua led the group to safety, where he sensed the Mine Mountain’s sinister aura growing stronger.

• Wang Lai confessed that a masked grey-clothed cultivator paid him to kill people and sell their corpses, then persuaded him to target Mine Cultivators and exploit their families for compensation.
• Wang Lai admitted that he had killed the five Mine Cultivators who disappeared earlier, but said their corpses vanished from the mine shaft after he hid them.
• Mo Hua sensed a dangerous presence awakening in the mine shaft and ordered everyone to flee, bringing Wang Lai along because he was still useful.
• Mo Hua and the others escaped the mine shaft before an inhuman roar sounded, then reached the edge of the Mine Mountain.
• Mo Hua sensed a terrifying aura and the Absolute Array’s unnatural presence intensifying within the Mine Mountain.

Mo Hua returned to the Lu Family Mine Mountain to investigate the missing hooligans and found their blood traces leading to a sealed mine tunnel reinforced with warning arrays. He and the Bai siblings decided to investigate the gray-robed cultivator who had hired Wang Lai, while Mo Hua remained worried about Instructor Yan’s disappearance.

• Mo Hua handed Wang Lai over to Situ Fang and told her about his crimes and accomplices.
• Mo Hua returned to the mine alone and found that the hooligans had vanished, with traces leading to a hidden tunnel behind a reinforced array.
• Mo Hua chose not to undo the array, fearing it might alert the Lu Family, and concluded that the gray-robed cultivator was their next lead.
• Mo Hua told Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi that he feared Wang Lai’s group might have harmed Instructor Yan.
• Bai Zisheng asked whether investigating the gray-robed cultivator meant going to the brothel where Wang Lai had met him.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings tried to enter Hundred Flowers Pavilion to investigate the gray-robed cultivator, but its Dust-Revealing Arrays and a Foundation Establishment cultivator kept them out. While seeking clues from Elder Su, Mo Hua met Lu Chengyun, learned more about the Lu family, and finally admitted his purpose to Elder Su.

• Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi went to Hundred Flowers Pavilion at night, but Mo Hua found a Dust-Revealing Array and the group withdrew rather than risk detection.
• After several days without progress, Mo Hua questioned Elder Su indirectly about Jinhua Street and learned that he was expecting Lu Chengyun.
• Lu Chengyun invited Mo Hua to discuss arrays, offered him a genealogy featuring marriageable Lu family women, and asked whether Mo Hua used a Spirit Artifact to conceal his aura.
• Elder Su warned Mo Hua that the Lu Family was full of trouble, then confronted him about his probing questions.
• Mo Hua told Elder Su that he wanted to go to a brothel, causing Elder Su to spray tea.

Mo Hua persuaded Elder Su to take him and the Bai siblings to Hundred Flowers Pavilion to seek clues about Mr. Yan and the gray-robed cultivator. They arrived in disguise, and Elder Su arranged a private seat and asked the pavilion to bring suitable girls for questioning.

• Mo Hua told Elder Su he needed to visit a brothel for proper business, and Elder Su agreed to take him and the Bai siblings to Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
• Mo Hua pointed out a flaw in Elder Su's formation, impressing Elder Su with how accurately he had noticed it.
• Three nights later, Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi followed Elder Su to Jinhua Street dressed as bookboys.
• Elder Su led them past several brothels, where women greeted him familiarly and embarrassed him in front of the children.
• At Hundred Flowers Pavilion, Elder Su paid for refreshments and settled the group in a private seat.
• Elder Su asked the pavilion to bring young, properly mannered girls with light makeup, while Mo Hua watched him with admiration.

Mo Hua questioned the female cultivators at Hundred Flowers Pavilion about a missing Array Master and a cold, corpse-smelling cultivator. Qing Lan revealed that the gray-robed regular’s previous companions had all died, and she feared she would be next.

• Elder Su brought Mo Hua and his companions a group of young female cultivators, and Mo Hua asked whether they had seen a serious-looking Array Master resembling Instructor Yan.
• When the group could not identify Instructor Yan, Mo Hua sent Elder Su away and stopped him from eavesdropping before asking about a cultivator with a cold, rotten smell.
• Mo Hua dismissed the female cultivators but privately kept Qing Lan, who admitted she had seen a gray-robed, face-covering regular at Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
• Qing Lan told Mo Hua that the man had stayed with Yu Lan, who had died, and that the women who had served him before had also died mysteriously.
• Qing Lan feared that she would be the next to die.

Mo Hua learned that Qing Lan was being targeted by a gray-robed cultivator and discovered how the Lu Family’s mines fed the brothels on Jinhua Street. He planned to draw out the cultivator on the fourth and report him to the Dao Court Office, while preparing to take advantage if the arrest failed.

• Qing Lan told Mo Hua that the gray-robed cultivator had targeted her after Sister Yu Lan died, and that the brothel madam had arranged for her to meet a customer.
• Qing Lan explained that her Mine Cultivator parents had sold her to the Brothel before starving to death, and said the Lu Family owned it and many other businesses on Jinhua Street.
• Mo Hua learned that the gray-robed cultivator might be at Foundation Establishment and visited the Brothel on the fourth and fourteenth of each month; he told Qing Lan to hide Elder Su’s Jade Bracelet and said he would return on the fourth.
• Elder Su said that poverty in Mine Mountain drove families to sell their children and sustained the brothels, leaving Mo Hua to consider the problem’s deeper cause.
• Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi discussed capturing the gray-robed cultivator, then decided to report him to the Dao Court Office and rely on Situ Fang for information.

Mo Hua and Situ Fang arranged a secret operation to capture the gray-robed cultivator, using a stolen-bracelet accusation to get inside the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. The operation began when a Foundation Establishment fight erupted upstairs, and Situ Fang led the hidden inspectors into action.

• Mo Hua reported the gray-robed cultivator's crimes to Situ Fang, who decided to bring a Situ Clan Foundation Establishment elder and avoid alerting the possibly compromised Dao Court Office.
• Mo Hua told Situ Fang everything he knew about Qing Lan, and they planned the arrest for the fourth; he also prepared a Sinan Parent-Child Array.
• Mo Hua and Situ Fang entered the Hundred Flowers Pavilion on the fourth, where Mo Hua accused Qing Lan of stealing his Jade Bracelet to force the madam to summon her.
• Qing Lan confirmed the bracelet was still there, and Situ Fang smashed a wine jug to signal the hidden inspectors.
• A Foundation Establishment fight broke out upstairs, so Situ Fang drew her blade and led the inspectors to suppress it while Mo Hua and the Bai siblings protected Qing Lan.

Mo Hua helped Cautious Si pursue the grey-robed corpse buyer by using his powerful divine sense to expose the man’s Earth Evasion Technique. After the man swallowed Corpse Blood Pills and transformed into a corpse-like fighter, he attacked Mo Hua and the others, but Mo Hua vanished before the furious cultivator could find him.

• Situ Fang and the Dao Court inspectors attacked the grey-robed cultivator at Hundred Flowers Pavilion while Cautious Si fought him.
• The grey-robed cultivator used Earth Evasion to disappear, but Mo Hua tracked him with his divine sense and repeatedly revealed his position with Fireball Techniques.
• The grey-robed cultivator swallowed pills from a bronze bottle and transformed into a powerful, corpse-like figure, then struck Cautious Si down.
• The transformed cultivator charged Mo Hua, but Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi fought him on the second floor, piercing and burning his flesh.
• Mo Hua disappeared, leaving the grey-robed cultivator unable to locate him as the Corpse Blood Pill’s power began to run out.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings drove the drug-enhanced gray-clothed cultivator into a secret passage, but its mechanisms sealed the route behind him. After the Dao Court Office took over the investigation and Situ Fang agreed to protect Qing Lan, Mo Hua left Hundred Flowers Pavilion wondering whether the Lu Family and the missing Instructor Yan were connected to the other mysteries.

• Mo Hua used Concealment Technique to stall the gray-clothed cultivator until the Corpse Blood Pill's effect faded, then chased him with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi.
• Bai Zixi found the secret passage beneath a bed, where the gray-clothed cultivator had killed Young Master Zhao and fled before the passage sealed itself.
• Mo Hua learned that Bai Zisheng had planted three needles on the gray-clothed cultivator, leaving them a way to track him later.
• Cautious Si and Situ Fang arrived with law-enforcement cultivators, and Situ Fang explained how the Dao Court Office would identify and pursue the fugitive.
• Situ Fang promised to take Qing Lan from Hundred Flowers Pavilion by obtaining her indenture contract, while Mo Hua and the Bai siblings left the wrecked building.
• Mo Hua wondered whether the Lu Family's inaction connected Hundred Flowers Pavilion to Mine Mountain, the Absolute Array, the dead Mine Cultivators, and the missing Instructor Yan.

Mo Hua learned that the gray-robed cultivator was Zhang Quan, a coffin-shop owner suspected of buying Mine Cultivator corpses and using them to make a sinister pill. After tracking Zhang Quan’s Sinan needles to an abandoned Mine Mountain, Mo Hua and the Bai siblings arrived there and sensed a number of sinister auras.

• Mo Hua told Bai Zisheng that his divine sense had stalled at Twelve-Pattern, and Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi ruffled his hair in disbelief at his complaint.
• Mo Hua checked the Sinan Parent Array compass, but it showed no trace of the gray-robed cultivator, so he and the Bai siblings waited, suspecting an escape technique was blocking the connection.
• Situ Fang identified the gray-robed cultivator as Zhang Quan, a Nanyue City coffin-shop owner whose shop had been burned out after he fled.
• Three days later, Mo Hua saw the compass light up and used a map to locate Zhang Quan’s remaining child needles at an abandoned Mine Mountain outside the city.
• Mo Hua and the Bai siblings concealed themselves and reached the Mine Mountain, where Mo Hua sensed several sinister auras.

Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi trapped and cornered the injured Zhang Quan at his hideout in a Mine Mountain. Just as Zhang Quan seemed out of options, he revealed a hidden threat among the rocks: dozens of black coffins began to stir.

• Mo Hua prepared Earth Prison Arrays and planned with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi to prevent Zhang Quan from using pills or escaping underground.
• Mo Hua found Zhang Quan recovering in a mine chamber, set Earth Fire Arrays, and collapsed the mine shaft to force him out.
• Bai Zisheng attacked Zhang Quan as he emerged, while Mo Hua’s Fireball Technique exposed him after he tried to escape with Earth Evasion.
• Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng repeatedly used Earth Prison Arrays to trap Zhang Quan, and Bai Zisheng knocked away the medicine bottle when Zhang Quan tried to take pills.
• Zhang Quan declared that he would kill them all, then rang bells that revealed dozens of black coffins among the rocks, where something began to awaken.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings fought Zhang Quan and the Walking Corpses he controlled on Mine Mountain. After discovering an Absolute Array hidden beneath a Zombie’s skin, Mo Hua ordered Bai Zisheng to help him catch the Zombies.

• Zhang Quan rang his bronze bell and sent dozens of Walking Corpses to attack Mo Hua and the Bai siblings, but Mo Hua dodged while Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng fought them off.
• Bai Zisheng drove Zhang Quan beneath a dilapidated shed, where Zhang Quan summoned a half-step Iron Corpse from an Iron Coffin.
• Bai Zisheng battled the Iron Corpse while the Walking Corpses swarmed him, and he noticed Array Patterns on one of them.
• Mo Hua restrained a Walking Corpse, and Bai Zixi cut through its skin to reveal hidden Blood Patterns forming an Absolute Array.
• Mo Hua recognized the array and told Bai Zisheng to help him catch Zombies, alarming Zhang Quan when he realized Mo Hua was an Array Master.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings fought Zhang Quan and discovered that he used arrays to control and refine Zombies, but Zhang Quan escaped while destroying much of the evidence. Mo Hua suspected Zhang Quan had other Zombie caches and an array expert behind him, while Zhang Quan remained unsure whether Mo Hua could understand the surviving arrays.

• Zhang Quan realized Mo Hua was an Array Master and decided to destroy the evidence rather than risk fighting the three cultivators.
• Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi helped Mo Hua capture Walking Corpses, but Zhang Quan used his bronze bell to make the Zombies attack one another and destroy their arrays.
• Mo Hua spotted an array inside Zhang Quan's bell, prompting Bai Zisheng to try to seize it, but Zhang Quan concealed the bell and escaped behind the Iron Corpse.
• Mo Hua argued that Zhang Quan likely had other Zombie caches and that an array expert who might have mastered Evil Absolute Arrays was helping him.
• After finding and discarding another tracking needle, Zhang Quan fled to a new hiding place and worried that Mo Hua might understand the arrays left on the surviving Zombies.

After the battle at Mine Mountain, Mo Hua secretly took two Coffins of Walking Corpses to study their Array Techniques while Situ Fang investigated the case. The Chief Administrator later destroyed all the evidence, but Mo Hua revealed through his thoughts that he had preserved the Coffins.

• Situ Fang told Mo Hua that the Mine Mountain case was serious and suspected the Chief Administrator wanted to suppress it to avoid responsibility.
• Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng secretly transported two Coffins containing Walking Corpses to the Cave Abode and hid them in a protected room.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua to study the Coffins carefully and dispose of them afterward.
• Situ Fang visited Mo Hua the next day and said the Chief Administrator had burned the Zombies, destroyed the Coffins, and erased all the evidence.
• Mo Hua comforted Situ Fang while privately noting that he had kept the Coffins.

After the Dao Court Office destroyed the evidence against Zhang Quan, Mo Hua secretly kept several zombies and examined them with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi. He reconstructed the twelve-pattern Absolute Array embedded in their heart meridians, but suspected it was a Demonic Path corpse-refining array and hesitated to learn it.

• Situ Fang apologized to Mo Hua for failing to protect the zombie evidence, and Mo Hua reassured her that they could keep searching for clues.
• Mo Hua told Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi they would keep the stolen zombies secret from Situ Fang because she was too weak to face Zhang Quan directly.
• Mo Hua layered numerous formations around the coffins before asking Bai Zixi about zombie behavior, Corpse Poison, and corpse-refining methods.
• Mo Hua examined the Corpse Raising Coffins and the formations on the zombies, while Bai Zisheng opened a corpse's chest for him to inspect.
• Mo Hua spent a day comparing the formations and reconstructed a twelve-pattern Absolute Array, then worried that learning it would mean studying a Demonic Path corpse-refining technique.

Mo Hua learned from Mr. Zhuang why evil arrays relied on shortcuts and began studying the Absolute Array through proper principles. After the Dao Stele partly recovered, Mo Hua mastered the array and realized it was incomplete, leading him to suspect its missing portion was in Zhang Quan’s Bronze Bell and that it might be the Little Spirit Hidden Sect’s Spirit Pivot Formation.

• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang whether he could learn the reconstructed array, and Mr. Zhuang explained that evil arrays used human lives and materials as shortcuts when cultivators could not master proper techniques.
• Mr. Zhuang warned Mo Hua to disdain crooked paths, and Mo Hua resolved to study the array’s fundamental principles without its evil methods.
• Mo Hua practiced the Twelve-Pattern Absolute Array for days until the Dao Stele partly recovered and increased his practice speed.
• Mo Hua successfully drew the array but found it incomplete and could not determine its purpose.
• Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng suggested that the array helped Zhang Quan control many Zombies, with its missing portion possibly inside his Bronze Bell.
• Mo Hua suspected the array might be the Little Spirit Hidden Sect’s Spirit Pivot Formation and wondered whether its creator was the sect’s traitor or Instructor Yan.

Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi followed a Sinan Child Needle to Zhang Quan in the Wild Mountains, hoping to uncover his corpse-refining lair and learn more about Instructor Yan's whereabouts. After watching Zhang Quan spend days testing whether he was being followed, Mo Hua concluded the hidden corpse site was nearby and decided they would search for it themselves.

• Mo Hua locked the Walking Corpse in its coffin, then went with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi to the Wild Mountains west of Nanyue City, guided by the Sinan Parent-Child Compass.
• The three found Zhang Quan hiding among shrubs and watched him lay subtle trap arrays near caves and trails as he repeatedly changed routes to check for pursuers.
• Zhang Quan suspected Mo Hua was following him invisibly, though Mo Hua and the others were watching from afar without disturbing his arrays.
• Mo Hua and the Bai siblings realized Zhang Quan's excessive caution suggested he feared someone discovering the place where he refined and hid corpses.
• After Zhang Quan continued wandering through the mountains for three or four days, Mo Hua decided they would search for the corpse nest themselves instead of waiting for him to lead them to it.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings found a hidden Walking Corpse Stronghold concealed by an illusion array, and Mo Hua infiltrated it to scout its defenses and inhabitants. Inside, he discovered that several arrays bore the distinctive patterns of Instructor Yan.

• Mo Hua used Zhang Quan’s movements and the terrain map to identify a likely search area, then found an illusion array hidden among bare rocks.
• Mo Hua calculated the array pattern and led Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi through the illusion to a gate marked Walking Corpse Stronghold.
• Mo Hua persuaded the Bai siblings to wait outside while he concealed himself and entered the stronghold to investigate.
• Mo Hua found many coffins and corpses, a few gray-robed corpse controllers, other cultivators resembling bandits, and several protective arrays.
• Mo Hua recognized the stronghold’s array patterns as ones drawn by Instructor Yan.

Mo Hua secretly found Instructor Yan in Walking Corpse Stronghold and confirmed that he was drawing orthodox arrays rather than helping the Corpse Cultivators make Evil Arrays. After reuniting with Instructor Yan, Mo Hua revealed that he was searching for Zhang Quan, Zombies, and the Spirit Pivot Formation.

• Mo Hua used his Divine Consciousness to find Instructor Yan drawing a Spirit Gathering Array in a secluded room.
• When a Corpse Cultivator summoned Instructor Yan to inspect a broken array, Mo Hua entered the locked room and found only ordinary Five Elements Arrays and materials for First-Grade Array Master assessments.
• Instructor Yan returned, sensed that someone had entered his room, and was startled when Mo Hua appeared behind him.
• Mo Hua told Instructor Yan that he had come to find him, Zhang Quan, Zombies, and an Array Technique.
• Instructor Yan recognized that Mo Hua was searching for the Spirit Pivot Formation, and Mo Hua realized it was the Absolute Array associated with the Zombies.

Mo Hua learned from Instructor Yan that the Spirit Pivot Formation was a nearly impossible Twelve-Pattern technique for controlling Lingli, and that Zhang Quan likely possessed its diagram. After promising to rescue Instructor Yan from the Walking Corpse Stronghold, Mo Hua left him wondering whether the boy might be able to master the legendary formation.

• Instructor Yan explained that the Little Spirit Hidden Sect inherited the profound Spirit Pivot Formation, which no one had comprehended, and that it controlled Lingli on a scale useful for puppets, machinery, and cultivation projects.
• Mo Hua told Instructor Yan that he had already angered Zhang Quan, and the two suspected Zhang Quan kept the Spirit Pivot Formation Diagram and hid its use on his corpses.
• Instructor Yan recounted how he had come to Nanyue City seeking a sect traitor, discovered corpse transport near Mine Mountain, and been captured and forced to draw formations at the Walking Corpse Stronghold.
• Mo Hua promised to return in a few days and rescue Instructor Yan, then reminded him to live for himself and find a Dao companion, repeating advice from Manager Mo.
• Mo Hua vanished using Stealth, and Instructor Yan realized the boy's Divine Consciousness might be strong enough to learn the Spirit Pivot Formation.