Chapter Summaries

Instructor Yan sought a teacher for Mo Hua before leaving and brought him to meet a reclusive, highly accomplished Array Master. Mo Hua climbed the mountain alone to seek the master’s guidance, while Instructor Yan waited below.

• Master Luo refused Instructor Yan’s request, and other Array Masters either rejected Mo Hua or demanded too much in return for teaching him.
• Instructor Yan visited a secluded mountain dwelling and prepared Mo Hua’s exam papers before deciding to seek help from its reclusive resident.
• Mo Hua withdrew from Immortal Gate as its new fees made study unaffordable for poor Rogue Cultivators, and Da Hu and the others withdrew as well.
• Instructor Yan visited Mo Hua and brought him to the mountain, explaining that its resident was an Array Master whose attainments were at least First-Grade.
• Instructor Yan urged Mo Hua to answer truthfully and respectfully, then sent him up the mountain alone to ask the reclusive master to accept him as a disciple.

Mo Hua passed Mr. Zhuang’s test and was accepted as his registered disciple, with lessons set to begin the next morning. Instructor Yan revealed that he had foreseen Mo Hua becoming a remarkable Array Master, urged him to pass on his knowledge, and prepared to leave Immortal City.

• Mo Hua reached Mr. Zhuang’s courtyard after noticing a strange ripple in his divine sense but seeing nothing unusual on the mountain path.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that the path held a Water-Mirror Array that could reveal encounters or glimpse the future, then asked Mo Hua to draw the Water-Fixing Array.
• Mo Hua drew five and a half Array Patterns before exhausting his divine sense, and Mr. Zhuang accepted him as a registered disciple and told him to return the next morning for lessons.
• Instructor Yan told Mo Hua that the path had shown him Mo Hua would become a remarkable Array Master and advised him to share his knowledge with talented cultivators.
• Instructor Yan said he would soon leave Immortal City, and Mo Hua and his instructor exchanged farewells as they went their separate ways.

Mo Hua visited Mr. Zhuang at Zuowang Abode to seek instruction in Array Techniques and learned that his theoretical foundation was weak. Mr. Zhuang gave him Origin of Array Formations to study, and Mo Hua ended the day newly aware of how vast the path ahead was.

• Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua celebrated that Instructor Yan had recommended Mo Hua to an Array Master, and Mo Hua set out for Southeast Mountain after breakfast.
• Mo Hua met Old Kui at Zuowang Abode and spent the morning playing Five Elements Chess with him while Mr. Zhuang dozed by the pond.
• Mo Hua shared lunch with Mr. Zhuang and Old Kui, then answered Mr. Zhuang's questions about his Array Techniques knowledge.
• Mr. Zhuang judged Mo Hua's theoretical foundation too weak and gave him Origin of Array Formations to study before learning how to draw arrays.
• Mo Hua read the tome beneath a tree and learned about array history, grades, schools, and formations, leaving him aware of how far he was from mastering the Dao of arrays.

Mo Hua studied Origin of Array Formations under Mr. Zhuang, while his family’s food gifts brought warmth to Mr. Zhuang and Old Kui’s days. After warning Mo Hua that his potential as an Array Master was limited, Mr. Zhuang agreed to teach him by a different method.

• Mo Hua read Origin of Array Formations at Mr. Zhuang’s Zuowang Abode and asked him questions, while Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua sent food gifts that Mr. Zhuang and Old Kui came to enjoy.
• Mr. Zhuang told Old Kui that his shattered Qi Sea could not be healed and that he preferred simple food because of the feelings behind it; Old Kui said he ate crisp pastries to hear them crunch.
• After Mo Hua nearly finished the book, Mr. Zhuang began teaching him array theory and explained that Mo Hua’s cultivation and lack of early foundations might limit him to becoming a Third-Grade Array Master.
• Mo Hua accepted that he should focus on learning rather than worrying about how far he could advance, and Mr. Zhuang promised to teach him differently the next day.

Mr. Zhuang changed his lessons to practical Array Techniques, and Mo Hua progressed rapidly as his Divine Consciousness grew. Suspecting the unusual growth could attract attention, Mr. Zhuang taught him the Meditation Technique and told him to credit it for his progress.

• Mr. Zhuang shifted Mo Hua's studies toward Qi Refining Array Theory and hands-on practice, and Mo Hua quickly mastered several five- and six-pattern Array Techniques.
• Mr. Zhuang privately regretted that Mo Hua lacked the inheritance of great clans, while Old Kui challenged his praise of favored sons of heaven.
• After a month, Mr. Zhuang discovered Mo Hua's Divine Consciousness had grown enough for him to draw six and a half patterns of a seven-pattern Array Technique.
• Mr. Zhuang asked Mo Hua about Visualization Methods and unusual images, then heard that Mo Hua practiced drawing arrays day and night.
• Mr. Zhuang taught Mo Hua the Meditation Technique and instructed him to say it was the reason his Divine Consciousness grew so quickly.

Mr. Zhuang taught Mo Hua the Meditation Method, explaining that it restored Divine Consciousness by clearing the mind and accepting one's thoughts. Mo Hua successfully entered a shallow meditative state, then learned that the Visualization Method could strengthen Divine Consciousness but carried dangerous risks.

• Mr. Zhuang explained that the Meditation Method depended on letting the heart follow nature and not deceiving oneself.
• Mr. Zhuang recounted how his own Meditation Method had improved in youth but later regressed amid life's hardships.
• Mo Hua practiced the method, entered shallow meditation, and quickly recovered some of his spent Divine Consciousness.
• Mo Hua asked about the Visualization Method, and Mr. Zhuang explained how visualization could strengthen Divine Consciousness.
• Mr. Zhuang warned Mo Hua that visualization immersed the mind in another being's Dao and could bring terrifying consequences, then had him practice meditation before sending him home.

Mo Hua advanced his meditation and array studies while his family and friends settled into steadier lives in Immortal City. After more than a month of quiet progress, he arrived at Mr. Zhuang’s place and found several unfamiliar cultivators waiting outside.

• Mo Hua improved his meditation, then told Manager Mo he could no longer draw array techniques for Fate Pavilion while studying under Mr. Zhuang.
• Mo Hua learned that Manager Mo would not explain Instructor Yan’s disappearance until Mo Hua was older.
• Da Hu and the other two trained martial Dao Methods with Mo Shan as they prepared to enter Great Black Mountain as Monster Hunters.
• Liu Ruhua’s eatery prospered, and Jiang Yun began selling pastries and roasted pine nuts there while supporting her household.
• Mo Hua brought pastries and pine nuts to Old Kui, who enjoyed the pine nuts while playing Five Elements Chess.
• After more than a month of steady study, Mo Hua went to Mr. Zhuang’s place and found unfamiliar cultivators outside the door.

Mo Hua continued studying Array Techniques at Mr. Zhuang’s abode while three visitors waited outside its gate for seven days. After learning they were descendants of an old acquaintance whom Mr. Zhuang did not wish to meet, Mo Hua offered to persuade them to leave.

• Mo Hua passed two well-dressed children and a veiled woman waiting outside the gate, then entered the courtyard while they remained unable to open it.
• Mo Hua studied Array Techniques, brought roasted Pine Nuts to Old Kui, and played Five Elements Chess with him when his divine sense was exhausted.
• Mo Hua found the three visitors still waiting outside the gate each day, while the children grew increasingly haggard.
• Mo Hua asked Mr. Zhuang about the visitors, and Mr. Zhuang explained that they were descendants of an old acquaintance and that he did not wish to meet them.
• Mo Hua offered to tell the visitors to return home, and Mr. Zhuang agreed that he could try.

Mo Hua brought food to the veiled woman and two children waiting to see Mr. Zhuang, persuaded them to stop waiting and return another day, and shared a meal with them. After declining a jade pendant and accepting five Spirit Stones for the food, he left the mountain, giving the girl his name.

• Mo Hua told the veiled woman, the boy, and the girl that Mr. Zhuang would not see them and advised them to return another day rather than wait and harm their cultivation.
• Mo Hua opened his food box, and the hungry children and Aunt Xue accepted his offer to eat before leaving.
• The boy asked about the beef, and Mo Hua explained that Wild Ox Monster meat was safe to eat.
• Aunt Xue offered Mo Hua a Clear Heart Jade, but he declined it and accepted only five Spirit Stones as payment for the meal.
• As Mo Hua left, the girl asked his name, and he told her it was Mo Hua.

Mo Hua met the Bai siblings, who kept visiting Mr. Zhuang to ask to study array techniques, while he continued his own training. After Mo Hua learned the Three Talents Array unusually quickly, Mr. Zhuang wondered whether he had encountered some hidden opportunity, and Old Kui urged him to simply ask.

• Mo Hua learned that Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi were siblings from the Bai Family who had come with Aunt Xue to seek Mr. Zhuang as their master.
• Mo Hua continued practicing arrays as Mr. Zhuang resumed his usual routine and did not meet the Bai siblings.
• Mr. Zhuang gave Mo Hua one day to study the Three Talents Array, and Mo Hua practiced it repeatedly before drawing it with several errors caused by insufficient divine sense.
• Mr. Zhuang used Soul-Calming Incense to help Mo Hua recover, then examined his array and realized he had learned it with remarkable speed.
• Old Kui suggested that Mo Hua might have had a fortuitous encounter and told Mr. Zhuang to ask him directly.

Mo Hua told Mr. Zhuang that he practiced arrays in his dreams, and Mr. Zhuang warned him to conceal the unusual explanation and taught him how to pass himself off as a genius. Worried that Mo Hua’s progress might attract danger, Mr. Zhuang decided to draw the talented Bai Family siblings into his orbit, and their visit ended with the courtyard gate opening.

• Mo Hua told Mr. Zhuang that he had practiced the Three Talents Array in his dreams, and Mr. Zhuang told him to keep that secret and claim his progress came from talent or the Meditation Technique.
• Mr. Zhuang demonstrated an arrogant bearing for Mo Hua to imitate, and Mo Hua resolved to practice putting on airs.
• After Mo Hua left, Mr. Zhuang told Old Kui that Mo Hua’s quick progress could bring him trouble and considered how to keep him from standing out.
• Mr. Zhuang decided that the Bai Family siblings’ exceptional talent could be hidden within his own circle, and the next morning the gate to Zuowang Abode opened for them.
• Bai Zisheng entered the courtyard with Bai Zixi after Aunt Xue concluded that Mr. Zhuang was willing to receive them.

Aunt Xue delivered Madam’s token and letter to Mr. Zhuang, who accepted Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi as nominal disciples. The siblings then met Mo Hua, whose explanation of his studies and Mr. Zhuang’s teaching left Bai Zisheng with more questions.

• Aunt Xue gave Mr. Zhuang Madam’s token and Jade Slip, and he agreed to take Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi as nominal disciples.
• Mr. Zhuang told the siblings to study Arrays on their own, seek his guidance when needed, and ask Mo Hua if they had questions.
• Aunt Xue and the Bai siblings found Mo Hua studying an introductory manual beneath the Big Locust Tree.
• Bai Zisheng questioned Mo Hua’s choice of book and low cultivation, and Mo Hua defended the value of studying basic Array principles.
• Bai Zisheng asked whether Mr. Zhuang’s Array attainment was truly high, and Aunt Xue stopped him before he could offend Mo Hua further.

Mo Hua studied alongside Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi as Mr. Zhuang’s nominal disciples, benefiting from their questions despite their limited interaction. A month later, while out for the Lotus Festival with Da Hu, Xiao Hu, and Shuang Hu, Mo Hua discovered that the Bai siblings lived in a grand new Cave Abode nearby, and Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi reacted eagerly when they heard he was out for a stroll.

• Mo Hua finished Introduction to Five Elements Arrays, and Aunt Xue told Bai Zisheng that Mo Hua appeared to have an ordinary Small Five Elements Spirit Root and a Rogue Cultivator background.
• The Bai siblings began studying and cultivating with Mo Hua, and Mr. Zhuang’s answers to their questions also helped Mo Hua learn.
• For a month, the three nominal disciples studied together but rarely spoke outside their lessons.
• Da Hu, Xiao Hu, and Shuang Hu invited Mo Hua to see the Lotus Festival, and they found a large new Cave Abode in their neighborhood.
• The Cave Abode’s gates opened, revealing Bai Zisheng, Bai Zixi, and Aunt Xue as its residents.
• Bai Zisheng asked why Mo Hua was there, and both Bai siblings brightened when he said he was out for a stroll.

Mo Hua guided Bai Zisheng, Bai Zixi, and Aunt Xue through Immortal City’s Lotus Festival night market and told them the story of the Lotus Loose Cultivator. The group released lanterns in his memory, while Aunt Xue remained puzzled by how one cultivator could have stopped a beast tide alone.

• Aunt Xue let Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi explore the Lotus Festival with Mo Hua until the hour of Hai.
• Mo Hua’s friends went off to enjoy the night market, leaving him to guide the Bai siblings and Aunt Xue.
• Mo Hua explained that the Lotus Festival honored the Lotus Loose Cultivator, who was said to have died defending Immortal City from a beast tide.
• Bai Zisheng praised the Lotus Loose Cultivator’s sacrifice, and Aunt Xue cautioned him to protect himself for his mother’s sake.
• Mo Hua said the people commemorated the Lotus Loose Cultivator’s compassion rather than his cultivation, and he, Bai Zisheng, Bai Zixi, and Aunt Xue released lanterns into the sky.

After releasing lotus lanterns, Mo Hua and his companions enjoyed Immortal City's festival before heading home. He parted from the Bai Family siblings and walked back with Da Hu and the others, who worried that Bai Zixi's beauty would make him foolish.

• Mo Hua explained the Monster Fighting Play to Bai Zisheng, who eagerly watched the staged cultivators battle a disguised demon beast.
• Mo Hua, the Bai Family siblings, and Aunt Xue explored the festival's performances, toys, and snacks until nightfall, when Aunt Xue gave Mo Hua pastries and Bai Zisheng invited him to Gan Province.
• Mo Hua reunited with Da Hu, Xiao Hu, and Shuang Hu, who gave him toys and a white tiger sugar figurine; he shared Aunt Xue's pastries with them.
• Xiao Hu and the others warned Mo Hua not to spend time with pretty girls, fearing Bai Zixi would make him foolish.
• Mo Hua offered to teach the three boys formations to make them smarter, but Xiao Hu refused, saying he would rather remain an idiot than draw formations.

Mo Hua studied arrays with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi, who helped him understand the array pivot. As Mo Hua practiced the Three Talents Array, both siblings became transfixed by his drawing.

• Mo Hua continued studying arrays with Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi, while quietly memorizing the other cultivation topics they discussed.
• Bai Zisheng explained the array pivot to Mo Hua in exchange for Mo Hua agreeing to take him to a Monster Fighting Play on the seventh of next month.
• Bai Zisheng described how an array’s spiritual power flowed through its eye, pivot, and patterns, helping Mo Hua understand the concept.
• Mo Hua began practicing the Three Talents Array while Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi read and cultivated nearby.
• Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi both became absorbed in watching Mo Hua draw, and Mo Hua noticed their fixed stares after he finished.

Mo Hua realized he was close to reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining but had never learned a cultivation method, so he discussed his options with Bai Zisheng. After Mo Hua decided to ask his parents, Bai Zisheng offered to look for a suitable method, while Mr. Zhuang quietly took notice of the problem.

• Bai Zisheng questioned Mo Hua about drawing a six-pattern Three Talents Array, then reassured him that his array talent was already respectable.
• Mo Hua felt his qi sea fill and realized he was nearing a breakthrough without having chosen a cultivation method.
• Mo Hua explained that his parents’ methods did not suit him and that, as a Rogue Cultivator, he lacked access to other suitable methods.
• Bai Zisheng explained that cultivation methods could have special effects, then suggested Mo Hua ask Mr. Zhuang, but Mo Hua refused to impose on him.
• Mo Hua decided to ask his parents about a method, while Bai Zisheng offered to search for one the clan would not closely restrict.
• Mr. Zhuang opened his eyes and murmured about Mo Hua needing a cultivation method.

Mo Hua told his parents he needed a cultivation technique as he approached the fourth level of Qi Refining, and Mo Shan planned to ask Senior Han to teach him one. Bai Zisheng brought Mo Hua several Bai Family techniques, but their costly spiritual-material requirements left Mo Hua realizing that his family could not afford the methods great clans cultivated.

• Mo Hua told Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua he was nearing the fourth level of Qi Refining, and Mo Shan offered to ask Senior Han to teach him a reliable family technique.
• Bai Zisheng secretly brought Mo Hua several cultivation-technique Jade Slips, while Bai Zixi explained that Aunt Xue already knew he had taken them.
• Mo Hua accepted the Jade Slips and read about techniques including the Small Five Elements Art and the resource-intensive Water-Wood Spirit Technique.
• Mo Hua asked Bai Zisheng and Bai Zixi about the techniques’ spiritual materials and learned that even seemingly modest requirements cost far more than he could afford.
• Bai Zixi explained how the Bai Family assigned cultivation resources by lineage and talent, and Mo Hua understood the vast disparity between great clans and Rogue Cultivators.

Mr. Zhuang searched for a cultivation art suited to Mo Hua and brought him a collection to choose from. Unable to afford even the cheapest options, Mo Hua found an ancient jade slip for the Heavenly Derivation Art, which seemed to require no natural spiritual objects.

• Bai Zixi offered to have Aunt Xue bring Mo Hua spiritual items, but he thanked her and declined.
• Mr. Zhuang searched through cultivation arts with Old Kui, who rejected one option after another as unsuitable for Mo Hua.
• The next day, Mr. Zhuang gave Mo Hua a carefully selected bundle of cultivation arts and let him choose.
• Mo Hua compared the arts by cost, spiritual-power circuits, attributes, and practical effects, then realized he could not afford even the cheapest ones.
• Mo Hua found the ancient Heavenly Derivation Art and noticed that its description listed no required natural spiritual objects.

Mo Hua weighed the risks of the ancient Heavenly Derivation Art and chose it because its bottleneck in spiritual sense suited his ambition to become an array master. He admitted to Mr. Zhuang that he also could not afford the spiritual objects required by the other cultivation arts.

• Mo Hua studied the Heavenly Derivation Art's unusual conditions and asked Mr. Zhuang about its missing spiritual-object requirements.
• Mr. Zhuang explained that the art was an obscure ancient cultivation art with meager spiritual power and a difficult breakthrough bottleneck in the sea of consciousness.
• Mr. Zhuang said array masters were best suited to the art because their work consumed and developed spiritual sense.
• Mo Hua chose the Heavenly Derivation Art, reasoning that strengthening his spiritual sense through formations would serve both pursuits.
• Mo Hua confessed that he had chosen the art partly because he could not afford the spiritual objects required by the other options.