Chapter 20: Chapter 20 Formation_1 ``` Mo Hua went back and tried drawing the Formation Patterns several times as Instructor Yan had suggested, and indeed, he felt a sudden sense of enlightenment. That night, as he practiced on the stele before sleep, his comprehension also improved noticeably faster. Some aspects he didn't understand at first became clearer after drawing them several times. As long as he mastered the basic Formation Patterns, learning some of their variations wasn't too difficult. The hard part was the lack of guidance; without it, Mo Hua wouldn't think to explore in that direction and thus found himself mired in fruitless contemplation. After familiarizing himself for one more day, on the evening of the third day after class, Mo Hua started to officially attempt the Solid Earth Formation. The initial attempt at drawing was not smooth, but after some stumbling, he finally managed to complete it, though it took a bit long. For the four-pattern Solid Earth Formation, it took Mo Hua an hour and a half to finish drawing, and due to the excessive consumption of his Divine Sense, he needed to rest for another two hours. By the time Mo Hua had completed the Solid Earth Formation, it was already 1 a.m. After checking it over, unsurprisingly, he found that he had made a mistake. Mo Hua sighed. He had only drawn one Formation all night, and it was wrong. With the goal of completing ten Formations in five days, time was now tight. "What should I do?" After some thought, Mo Hua had no choice but to try and skip some Tao Cultivation classes. Classes on Taoist cultivation history and general knowledge certainly couldn't be skipped, as those could expand one's horizons and cultivation experience. Alchemy and rune making required spending Spirit Stones to buy herbs and rune jade stones, and he would also need to rent alchemy furnaces from the Sect, which made these classes expensive. Therefore, Mo Hua selectively skipped some of them. Anyway, he didn't have much prospect in these Spirit Stone-consuming fields of cultivation. After that, he could skip all the Body Refinement classes. Cultivators develop their Spiritual Power through cultivation techniques and manipulate it with Taoist Skills for attacks. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 There are two major types of Taoist Skills: Spell-based and Martial Arts-based. Spells involve the control of Spiritual Power using Divine Sense to form spells for attacking, while Martial Arts rely on channeling Spiritual Power to unleash the body's potential for close combat. Those who practice spells are known as Spiritual Cultivators, and those who practice Martial Arts are known as Body Cultivators. In the Qi Refinement Realm, there are fewer Spiritual Cultivators and more Body Cultivators. In Tongxian City, most cultivators earn their living by Monster Hunting, and since Spiritual Cultivators are physically weaker and less suited to hunting, most Loose Cultivators opt for the path of Body Cultivation. For this reason, Tongxian Gate specifically opened a Body Refinement course to let disciples fortify their physical bodies early on. But Mo Hua was doomed not to be capable of Body Refinement. He did not inherit his father Mo Shan's talent for Body Refinement; instead, he was like his mother Liu Ruhua, somewhat physically weak from a young age, and his constitution was even frailer than Liu Ruhua's. According to Old Mr. Feng, the Pill Master at Apricot Forest Hall, a Cultivator is born following the Heavenly Dao, where the Divine Sense and the body are relatively balanced. When Mo Hua was born with the memories of two lifetimes, his innate Divine Sense was too strong, leading to an imbalance between the Divine Sense and the body. As a result, Mo Hua was born frail and often ill. He couldn't even budge the hundred-kilogram stone cauldrons that others could lift with ease. Among cultivators of his age, most were a head taller and much more robust than he was. Although Mo Hua was slender, he was blessed with delicate features, a gentle demeanor, red lips, and white teeth, resembling a porcelain doll at the age of ten. This appearance was not bad, but Mo Hua still felt that a real man should be strong and imposing. Like his father, who was tall with a heroic appearance and imposing presence. ``` In Mo Hua's dreams, he should be dressed in a white robe, practicing peerless cultivation techniques, with a spear emerges like a dragon, capable of holding a pass alone against ten thousand enemies. Unfortunately, such scenes could only be seen in dreams. "Oh, right." Mo Hua remembered that after he fell asleep, his Divine Sense would automatically enter his Sea of Consciousness, and he wouldn't be able to dream... The Instructor who taught disciples Body Refinement originally intended to be very strict with Mo Hua, but after Mo Hua tried to move the stone cauldron several times without it budging, and instead twisted his own arm, the Instructor became much more lenient with him. Cultivation was just like that, sometimes effort couldn't solve the problem. The Instructor also had a lot of understanding for Mo Hua. Heavenly Dao closes a window for you, perhaps because it wants you to try another door, not to keep you knocking your head against the wall. Therefore, Mo Hua selectively skipped some of the classes with the time he squeezed out, he locked himself in his room and focused on Drawing Solid Earth Formations. Five days later, on his decadal rest day, Mo Hua finally used up the ten sets of materials, and was successful with six of them. He didn't lose any money and even managed to earn four Spirit Stones, which made Mo Hua quite satisfied. Mo Hua took advantage of the one-day decadal holiday and went to Fated Gathering on North Street to deliver the Solid Earth Formations he had drawn to Fatty Steward. Fatty Steward looked at them and said to Mo Hua, "Your brother's foundation in the Formation Method is really a bit poor, but he learns quite quickly. These several Formations are visibly better than the last, but..." Steward picked up the first Formation again and criticized it, "This Formation is drawn like a beginner, some basic Formation Patterns are also drawn with bumps and stumbles..." Mo Hua was used to Steward's grumbling, in one ear and out the other. What's more, Steward was talking about his brother, what did that have to do with him? He didn't have a brother. Mo Hua went straight to the point, "Can it be exchanged for Spirit Stones?" Steward rolled his eyes at Mo Hua, but still counted out four Spirit Stones for him, "Tell your brother to draw better next time." "Mm-hm," Mo Hua nodded repeatedly after getting the Spirit Stones. Mo Hua used these four Spirit Stones to buy some pastries, eating two pieces himself and leaving two pieces behind, giving the rest to Da'hu and the others. Da'hu and his two friends were deeply moved when they saw so many pastries and asked Mo Hua if he still wanted to eat meat, mentioning that they saw an Elder raising a colorful and plump duck. Mo Hua had a headache and told them not to steal anymore; otherwise, if the Sect notified their parents, they would get a beating when they got home. Only then did Da'hu and his friends reluctantly give up the idea. Afterwards, Mo Hua continued to draw Solid Earth Formation for more than two months. The more he drew, the more mastery he gained. Previously, drawing a Solid Earth Formation, including the time for resting and restoring Divine Sense, took almost two hours, but now it only took one and a half hours. First, because practice makes perfect, the deeper the understanding and mastery of Formation Patterns, the less time needed to draw them. Second, practicing the Formation Method day and night, continuously consuming, recovering, and utilizing Divine Sense, invisibly enhanced the strength of Mo Hua's Divine Sense—his Divine Sense had thickened considerably from before. Having strong Divine Sense was very beneficial for Drawing Formations. The success rate of the Solid Earth Formation had reached eighty to ninety percent, and occasionally he could succeed with all ten sets. He could earn two Spirit Stones for each set of Formation, and in these two months, after deducting his daily expenses, Mo Hua had still earned a total of one hundred Spirit Stones. Mo Hua planned to save up two hundred Spirit Stones and then go to the Sect to select a mid-grade lower-rank Cultivation Technique. He would talk to his parents after making his selection, because otherwise, they would surely say that they would provide the Spirit Stones, and that Mo Hua should keep his Spirit Stones for his own cultivation or for future use such as marrying a Taoist companion or buying a cave residence.