Chapter Summaries

Mo Hua traveled south with Mr. Zhuang, Old Kui, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi, learning about spells and life beyond Immortal City along the way. After half a year, they reached the Third-Grade Great Lishan State Boundary, where Mo Hua was fourteen and nearing Foundation Establishment.

• Mo Hua saw Dragon Spring Waterfall, and Mr. Zhuang explained that it was named after the Dragon Spring Sword once hidden there.
• Old Kui taught Mo Hua that he could seek both forms of his Fireball Technique, then demonstrated a woven fireball powerful enough to evaporate a vast stretch of river.
• Mo Hua could not yet reproduce Old Kui's technique, but he memorized the demonstration and resolved to keep studying and practicing.
• The group traveled peacefully, sharing meals, chess, and puppet games, while Bai Zisheng and Mo Hua also fought bandits and other hostile cultivators they encountered.
• Mo Hua helped impoverished wandering cultivators with array techniques whenever he could, keeping Mr. Zhuang's words about blessing all living beings in mind.
• After half a year on the road, Mo Hua arrived at the Third-Grade Great Lishan State Boundary at fourteen years old and Ninth-Layer Qi Refining.

Mo Hua reached Ninth-Layer Qi Refining but remained unable to break through the Thirteen-Pattern Peak bottleneck in his Divine Consciousness, and Mr. Zhuang told him he did not need to temper his cultivation like Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi. After arriving in Lishan City, Mo Hua learned how the Five Elements Sect’s pursuit of profit had weakened its array-learning tradition, then discovered that the sect’s renowned inheritance centered on amplifying Five Elements spiritual power.

• Mo Hua reflected on his new Ninth-Layer Qi Refining cultivation and his stalled Divine Consciousness, and Mr. Zhuang advised him not to force a breakthrough to fourteen patterns.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi had to temper their cultivation because of their supreme-grade Spirit Roots and family inheritance, while Mo Hua could simply keep cultivating.
• Mo Hua and his companions arrived in Lishan City, where Mr. Zhuang described how the Five Elements Sect’s expensive Cave Abodes and easy profits had driven away cultivators and eroded its array-learning tradition.
• Mo Hua asked about the Five Elements Sect’s past, and Mr. Zhuang revealed that it had once been a first-rate Array Technique sect known for a complete set of arrays that amplified Five Elements spiritual power.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua that he had to study and learn the First-Rank Thirteen-Pattern Five Elements Absolute Array.

Mr. Zhuang explained the Five Elements Sect’s old bargain with his declining master’s lineage and sent Mo Hua to learn its Five Elements Spirit Array. The group reached the sect, where the Sect Master welcomed Mr. Zhuang as a senior, and Little White smashed the gate’s threshold as they entered.

• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua that his lineage’s founder had traded the Five Elements Sect’s survival for access to its Absolute Array, with the restriction that only Qi Refining disciples could study it for seven days.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that the Five Elements Spirit Array amplified the five elements’ Lingli and urged Mo Hua to learn the surviving First- and Second-Grade arrays.
• Mr. Zhuang, Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, Zi Xi, and Old Kui traveled to the Five Elements Sect the next day.
• Mo Hua presented his Jade Slip and First-Grade Tianshu Ring to the gatekeeping disciples, who reported his arrival to the Sect Master.
• The Five Elements Sect’s Sect Master welcomed Mr. Zhuang as a senior, and Mr. Zhuang learned that three generations had passed since their last meeting.
• When the sect’s threshold blocked the carriage, Mo Hua prompted Little White to trample it apart, and the group entered while the Five Elements Sect’s cultivators watched angrily.

Mr. Zhuang’s group waited in the Five Elements Sect while its leaders stalled over teaching them the Five Elements Spirit Array. As Mo Hua explored the sect with his senior martial brother and junior martial sister, the great elder grew wary of their talents and considered other ways to keep the array secret.

• Sect Leader Liao told Mr. Zhuang that the Five Elements Sect needed time to discuss the ancestral agreement, and Mr. Zhuang agreed to wait.
• The great elder ordered Sect Leader Liao not to teach outsiders the Five Elements Spirit Array and explained that the sect’s reliance on construction had weakened its Array Techniques.
• The great elder recalled that Mr. Zhuang had nearly mastered the Five Elements Spirit Array as a Qi Refining disciple and warned that his senior martial brother and junior martial sister might learn it.
• The great elder and Sect Leader Liao decided to delay Mr. Zhuang’s group and consider other methods if stalling failed.
• Mo Hua toured the Five Elements Sect with his senior martial brother and junior martial sister, while sect disciples gossiped about them and the male disciples grew jealous of the female disciples’ admiration.

Mo Hua and Bai Zixi shared their hidden secrets, then Mo Hua reluctantly learned Bai Zisheng’s flashy spear move. Later, Mo Hua discovered that the Five Elements Sect guarded a Second-Grade Grand Array, and Mr. Zhuang sent him to study its Array Hub while quietly waiting for his plans to be completed.

• Mo Hua asked Bai Zixi why the Five Elements Sect’s female disciples kept giving her gifts, and she told him her bloodline was special but forbidden to discuss.
• Mo Hua told Bai Zixi he had seen Array Patterns within the Tribulation Lightning, and they promised to keep each other’s secrets.
• Bai Zisheng demonstrated his self-created Flying Dragon in the Sky move, and Mo Hua criticized it before learning it to improve his Movement Technique.
• Mo Hua discovered the Five Elements Sect’s Second-Grade Five Elements Mountain-Protecting Grand Array, and Mr. Zhuang explained its connection to the Five Elements Demon-Slaughtering Grand Array.
• Mr. Zhuang asked Mo Hua to deduce the Grand Array’s Array Hub structure, while Old Kui questioned his lack of urgency and Mr. Zhuang said he would wait until his arrangements were complete.

Mo Hua studied the Five Elements Sect’s Second-Grade Mountain-Protecting Grand Array and searched its Array Hub for the Life Gate under Mr. Zhuang’s guidance. When the Five Elements Sect tried to block access to its sect-guarding array, Mr. Zhuang accepted a Dao Discussion Meeting, where Mo Hua alone would compete against the sect’s disciples and invited array geniuses.

• Mo Hua studied the Mountain-Protecting Grand Array, learned its general structure from Mr. Zhuang, and began deriving the Life Gate in a section of its Array Hub.
• Mr. Zhuang demanded that Sect Leader Liao honor the agreement to let his disciples study the Five Elements Absolute Array, and Sect Leader Liao yielded after feeling Mr. Zhuang’s Divine Consciousness pressure.
• The Grand Elder refused to let outsiders learn the array and arranged a Dao Discussion Meeting where Mo Hua would face the Five Elements Sect’s disciples, with array geniuses from across the Great Lishan State Boundary invited to compete.
• Mr. Zhuang accepted the proposed contest, then told Mo Hua that he alone would compete and represent his senior martial brother, senior martial sister, and teacher.

Mr. Zhuang prepared Mo Hua to represent his disciples in a Five Elements Sect array competition, while the sect’s elders recruited outside help and plotted how to keep the Five Elements Spirit Array from being learned. The Dao Discussion Meeting began as Mr. Zhuang arrived with Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi, and the assembled elders were astonished by how young Mo Hua looked.

• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua to compete in First-Grade Array Techniques, recover his master's lost face, and act arrogantly; Mo Hua agreed to serve as the threshold before anyone could challenge Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi.
• In the days before the meeting, Sect Leader Liao and the Five Elements Sect’s elders secretly arranged support while Mr. Zhuang watched their preparations calmly.
• At the Array Repository, the grand elder negotiated with Sect Leader Chu and the Shen Family’s ancestor, offering benefits and access to the First-Grade mountain-protecting array diagram in exchange for help defeating Mr. Zhuang’s disciples.
• Sect Leader Chu and the grand elder planned to use their disciples’ specialties to overcome the visitors, while the Shen Family’s ancestor questioned whether Mr. Zhuang’s disciples were truly worth such precautions.
• Mr. Zhuang entered the Array Repository with Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi, and the three Golden Core elders were stunned to see that the First-Grade Array Master was a child.

At the Five Elements Sect’s Dao Discussion Meeting, Mr. Zhuang challenged the gathered Qi Refining disciples to surpass Mo Hua in any aspect of arrays before they could learn the Five Elements Spirit Array. Mo Hua won the Heavy Water Array contest and then stunned the elders by drawing a Sharp Metal Array almost instantly, leaving them under pressure to choose the next contest.

• Mr. Zhuang dismissed the formalities and challenged every Qi Refining disciple present to outperform Mo Hua before his group would learn the Five Elements Spirit Array.
• Mo Hua accepted a contest against a blue-robed Five Elements Sect disciple to draw the obscure Heavy Water Array within an hour.
• The great elder declared Mo Hua the narrow winner after discovering that he had drawn the Heavy Water Array with exceptional precision.
• The great elder chose brush speed for the next contest, matching Mo Hua against a golden-robed disciple in the Sharp Metal Array.
• Mo Hua finished the Sharp Metal Array in moments, astonishing the Golden Core elders and asking what they would compete in next.

Mo Hua defeated the Great Lishan State Boundary’s array geniuses in contests covering array drawing, dismantling, and derivation. After the stunned elders conceded the contests, Mr. Zhuang declared that they would study the Five Elements Absolute Array the next day.

• The Array Profound Sect sent Chu Xuan to compete with Mo Hua, and Mo Hua won by drawing a genuine First-Grade Ten-Pattern Absolute Array.
• The elders mistook Mo Hua’s achievement for proof that he had inherited the supreme Innate Array Dao from Mr. Zhuang.
• Mo Hua quickly dismantled a Compound Array and defeated the other First-Grade Array Masters who challenged him.
• The Shen Family Old Ancestor sent Shen Wen to compete in derivation, but Mo Hua finished first and won decisively.
• Mr. Zhuang ended the contests and announced that everyone would study the Five Elements Absolute Array the next day.

After Mo Hua defeated the Five Elements Sect at the Dao Discussion Meeting, Mr. Zhuang revealed the secret Immortal Heaven Array School and warned Mo Hua not to learn it, urging him to develop his own understanding of arrays. The next day, they entered the Five Elements Sect’s Array Repository to learn the Five Elements Spirit Array, where the grand elder began explaining a shrine-based visualization method.

• Mr. Zhuang praised Mo Hua for winning the array contests and told him the Five Elements Sect had to honor its agreement to teach him the Five Elements Spirit Array.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that he, Ghost Daoist, and Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi’s mother belonged to a secret sect, and that he was its forty-ninth Sect Master.
• Mr. Zhuang revealed the name and purpose of the Immortal Heaven Array School, but warned Mo Hua that its Karma was too great for him to touch and advised him to study arrays independently.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua that his powerful Divine Consciousness meant he did not need the Immortal Heaven Array School, and Mo Hua accepted his advice to walk his own path.
• The next day, Mr. Zhuang brought Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi to the fourth floor of the Five Elements Sect’s Array Repository.
• The grand elder said the Five Elements Spirit Array was hidden in a Spirit Shrine and that sitting on the Prayer Mats to visualize it would reveal its Array Diagram to those with sufficient comprehension.

Mo Hua failed to perceive the Five Elements Spirit Array through the Five Elements Sect’s Spirit Shrine, while Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi learned parts of the inheritance and agreed to teach him. The chapter ends with the sect’s grand elder believing Mo Hua learned nothing, unaware that the Elder Wood Carving had opened its eyes.

• The grand elder set strict rules for studying the Five Elements Spirit Array, then left Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi alone before the Spirit Shrine.
• Mo Hua saw array patterns appear on the shrine’s Array Disk, but rejected an ancient voice as an illusion and lost sight of the inheritance.
• Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi learned the Fire Spirit Array and the complete Wood Spirit Array, while Mo Hua could not perceive either through the shrine.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that Mo Hua’s powerful Divine Consciousness and clear Dao Heart might have prevented him from seeing the inheritance, and the siblings offered to teach him what they learned.
• Mo Hua studied their array patterns and insights, but he and the siblings could not determine why only the wood and fire arrays had appeared.
• The grand elder checked the incense and concluded that Mo Hua had learned nothing, while the Elder Wood Carving opened its eyes inside the Spirit Shrine.

Mo Hua and the Bai siblings learned the Five Elements Spirit Arrays from the Prayer Mats, but their experiments showed they had not grasped the arrays’ deeper power. Mo Hua deduced that the Spirit Shrine’s true inheritance was hidden in the arrangement of the mats and began mapping its layout to calculate the secret.

• Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi discovered that different Prayer Mats revealed different Five Elements Spirit Arrays, and Bai Zixi quickly learned the Metal Spirit Array.
• Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng learned the remaining arrays while Mo Hua watched, completing their basic knowledge of the Five Elements Spirit Array.
• Mo Hua and the siblings tested the arrays on a Spirit Sword and with spells, but found their effects negligible.
• Mo Hua practiced the Five Elements Spirit Array on the Dao Stele and reasoned that the Spirit Shrine must contain a deeper inheritance beyond its Array Patterns.
• On the third day, Mo Hua deduced that the Prayer Mats’ orientations, rather than the mats themselves, might reveal the Spirit Shrine’s hidden essence.
• Mo Hua sketched the Spirit Shrine and the five Prayer Mats, then began using Divine Sense Derivation to investigate their array relationship.

Mo Hua derived the hidden Five Elements Riddle Array, opened the Spirit Shrine’s great door, and sent his Divine Consciousness into the shrine. There, he encountered the Twenty-third Generation Preaching Elder of the Five Elements Sect.

• Mo Hua derived a hidden sixth convergence point in the Array Repository and discovered the Riddle Array on the Spirit Shrine’s great door.
• Mo Hua showed Mr. Zhuang the array, and Mr. Zhuang explained that the Five Elements Sect’s ancestors had concealed their inheritance to guard it from future disciples and outsiders.
• Mo Hua spent the night calculating the Riddle Array’s spirit paths, then restored its patterns on the final day of the Five Elements Sect’s deadline.
• The great door opened, and its pull drew Mo Hua’s Divine Consciousness out of his body and into the Spirit Shrine; Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng gave his body pills and waited beside him.
• Mo Hua awoke in the shrine’s Dao Field and met an old man who identified himself as the Twenty-third Generation Preaching Elder of the Five Elements Sect.

Mo Hua exposed the fake Teaching Elder as a Five Elements Imp that had been deceiving cultivators about the Five Elements Spirit Array. He discovered the true array patterns and a mysterious divine thought within the meditation cushion, then learned that an obscure Elder had once said, “Divine sense... transforms into the Dao!”

• The Elder of Transmission agreed to teach Mo Hua the Five Elements Spirit Array, but Mo Hua recognized his explanations as false and blasted him until he revealed himself as a Five Elements Imp.
• The Five Elements Imp admitted it had been placed in the Spirit Shrine to impersonate the Teaching Elder and said it knew nothing about the array’s inheritance.
• Mo Hua discovered that the cushion where the Imp had sat was a Preaching Meditation Cushion and used it to see the true Five Elements Spirit Array patterns carved at the other cushions’ positions.
• Mo Hua derived the correct array patterns and manifested the array, causing a pure divine thought from the cushion to merge into it and produce brilliant five-colored light.
• Mo Hua questioned the Five Elements Imp about where it had heard its teachings, and it recalled an obscure Elder saying, “Divine sense... transforms into the Dao!”

Mo Hua learned how to draw the Five Elements Spirit Array by fusing divine sense with Lingli, then was lured onto a hidden prayer mat and trapped in another dojo. Outside the Spirit Shrine, Mr. Zhuang delayed the Five Elements Sect’s great elder while Old Kui arrived, and Mr. Zhuang realized Mo Hua had uncovered an extraordinary secret.

• Mo Hua inferred that Divine Sense Dao Transformation fused divine sense with Lingli, then successfully drew a glowing Metal Spirit Array.
• The Five Elements Imp tried to bite Mo Hua, was trapped and blasted with fireballs, and offered information about a hidden Inheritance Dojo.
• The Five Elements Imp showed Mo Hua how to flip the prayer mat to reveal the hidden dojo entrance, then suddenly attacked and knocked him into it.
• The Five Elements Imp escaped the Spirit Shrine as the incense burned out, believing Mo Hua would be trapped forever.
• Mr. Zhuang stopped the great elder from entering the Spirit Shrine, and Old Kui’s presence frightened the elder into waiting.
• Mr. Zhuang sensed that Mo Hua had discovered something extraordinary and wondered what secrets the Five Elements Sect’s ancestors had concealed.

Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng discovered that the person who emerged from the Spirit Shrine was the Five Elements Imp impersonating Mo Hua, while the real Mo Hua remained inside and uncovered the Five Elements Sect’s inheritance. Mo Hua realized the inheritance was a method for deriving the Origin of a Five Elements Array School.

• Bai Zixi recognized the impostor Mo Hua and knocked it unconscious, and Bai Zisheng recalled Mo Hua’s warning to do so if anything seemed wrong.
• Bai Zixi decided she and Bai Zisheng should wait outside the Spirit Shrine because Mo Hua had likely discovered its hidden secret, while the grand elder had not yet arrived.
• The Five Elements Imp realized Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness held a terrifying aura and planned to escape using Mo Hua’s body before that power awakened.
• Mo Hua explored the true dojo and found wooden Array Masters recording transformed Five Elements arrays, including techniques beyond his current skill.
• Mo Hua recognized that the dojo’s demonstrations taught a special method for deriving and summarizing variations in Array Patterns, and he began learning it.
• Mo Hua concluded that the method derived the Origin of an Array School and that the Five Elements Sect’s true inheritance was the Five Elements Array School.

Mo Hua escaped the Five Elements Sect’s Spirit Shrine and confronted the Five Elements Imp in his Sea of Consciousness. He realized the imp had stolen the Five Elements Array School’s Origin, leaving him poised to claim both the inheritance and the imp.

• Mo Hua used the Five Elements Sect’s Derivation Calculation method to escape the Inheritance Dojo, then disintegrated the Spirit Shrine’s arrays and blasted open its doors.
• Mr. Zhuang and Old Kui discussed Mo Hua’s progress while the grand elder remained unaware that anything had gone wrong in the Spirit Shrine.
• Mo Hua found the Five Elements Imp in his Sea of Consciousness and confronted it about trapping him and plotting to escape.
• The Five Elements Imp transformed into a Five Elements Fierce Ghost using the Five Elements Spirit Array, but Mo Hua questioned how a creature ignorant of arrays could manifest it.
• Mo Hua deduced that the imp had stolen the Origin of Five Elements Arrays from the Inheritance Dojo and realized it likely carried the Five Elements Array School within it.

Mo Hua defeated the Five Elements Fierce Ghost by controlling it with the Spirit Pivot Formation, then learned it had damaged the Five Elements Sect’s ancient inheritance. He realized the ghost had been deceived and parasitized by the Five Elements Source Pattern, which appeared on its forehead as it began to transform.

• The Five Elements Fierce Ghost empowered itself with the Five Elements Spirit Array, but Mo Hua trapped it with the Gold Lock Three-Lotus Earth Fire Compound Array.
• When the fierce ghost survived the attack and broke free, Mo Hua secretly placed five Gold Lock Arrays around it and drew the Spirit Pivot Formation on its chest, taking control of its body.
• Mo Hua forced the fierce ghost to injure itself and answer questions, and it revealed that it had destroyed the Five Elements Sect’s Source Pattern in the Inheritance Dojo.
• Mo Hua realized the fierce ghost could not have known the name Source Pattern unless the pattern itself had told it, and suggested it had been parasitized.
• The Five Elements Source Pattern lit up at the fierce ghost’s Heaven Gate, and Mo Hua recognized it as the ancient inheritance derived by the Five Elements Sect.

Mo Hua suppressed the Five Elements Source Pattern in his Sea of Consciousness, captured it with the Dao Stele’s protection, and placed it in Zhang Quan’s blank Ancestor Portrait. The portrait became a Five Elements Array School Diagram, and its sudden aura alarmed the Five Elements Sect’s elders and Mr. Zhuang.

• The Five Elements Source Pattern took control of the Five Elements Fierce Ghost and spread parasitic Array Patterns through Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness.
• Mo Hua used the Five Elements Sect’s derivation method to reverse the spreading patterns and seal them back into the Source Pattern.
• The Fierce Ghost began to crack as a powerful, malicious Divine Thought threatened Mo Hua, but the Dao Stele appeared and suppressed it.
• Mo Hua seized the Source Pattern and decided to store it in Zhang Quan’s blank Ancestor Portrait.
• The Source Pattern entered the portrait, transforming it into a Five Elements Array School Diagram whose aura startled the Sect Masters, elders, and Mr. Zhuang.

Mo Hua secretly learned the Five Elements Spirit Array and escaped the Five Elements Sect’s Spirit Shrine after Mr. Zhuang erased the elders’ memories of what happened. Mr. Zhuang explained the nature of Array Schools and discovered that the Five Elements Source Pattern contained the Five Elements Sect’s accumulated array inheritance, including a rare ancient Absolute Array lineage.

• Mr. Zhuang severed the elders’ memories of the disturbance, then let the grand elder believe Mo Hua had failed to learn the Five Elements Spirit Array.
• Mo Hua, Bai Zisheng, and Bai Zixi left the Spirit Shrine, and Bai Zixi explained that she had knocked Mo Hua unconscious when the Five Elements Imp threatened him.
• Mo Hua admitted to Mr. Zhuang that he had learned the Five Elements Spirit Array and described the Source Pattern and its apparent will.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that Array Schools were methods for understanding array formations, not the Dao itself, and warned Mo Hua against blindly venerating any one school.
• Mr. Zhuang examined the Five Elements Array School Diagram and realized its Source Pattern held thousands of years of the Five Elements Sect’s array inheritance.
• Mr. Zhuang told Mo Hua that reverse Derivation Calculation could dismantle the Source Pattern and recover the sect’s array diagrams, including its ancient Five Elements Spirit Array inheritance.