Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 446 - 439 Corpse Walking Stronghold_1

Chapter 446: Chapter 439 Corpse Walking Stronghold_1

Mo Hua took out the map of the wilderness surrounding South Yue City.

It was called a map, but it was crudely made, the lines were simple, and it only roughly outlined some mountain terrains; nothing else was included.

This wilderness was rarely visited, so there was no detailed map available.

The one Mo Hua held was previously obtained from Situ Fang. It was a map of the mountainous terrain recorded by the Taoist Court Official of South Yue City.

Mo Hua recalled the trajectory of the light spots on the Compass Disk and traced Zhang Quan’s path on the map.

Zhang Quan’s movements seemed chaotic, but all his routes were concentrated within the forest between two peaks to the east of the wilderness.

He came here to return to his lair.

Therefore, the place where he refined and hid the corpses had to be nearby.

And to avoid being tracked, he would certainly not linger near his lair.

So the location of his lair was probably to the west of where he lingered.

The two places were separated by a large mountain and faced each other from a distance.

Mo Hua shared his deductions.

Bai Zisheng asked doubtfully,

“How do you know this?”

Mo Hua said, “I am a Monster Hunter. I often track Monster Beasts in the mountains; this is the basics for a Monster Hunter.”

“But Zhang Quan is not a Monster Beast.”

“Close enough. Anyway, he can hardly be considered human anymore, I suspect his habits are very similar to those of Monster Beasts.”

Bai Zisheng nodded, then asked,

“What if you guessed wrong?”

“If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. It doesn’t really affect anything,” Mo Hua said indifferently.

Bai Zisheng sighed, “Alright then…”

After all, they needed to

“This is a bit troublesome…”

“What’s wrong?”

Mo Hua thought for a moment and said, “Since it’s a stronghold, it means that there isn’t just one cultivator inside, there should be many of them…”

“Zhang Quan isn’t a loner, he’s likely a leader or at least a householder.”

Bai Zisheng asked, “So what do we do now, storm in and slaughter them all?”

Mo Hua helplessly replied, “Can you kill them all?”

“How would we know without trying?”

Bai Zisheng’s eyes shone excitedly, eager to rush in immediately and eradicate the stronghold.

Bai Zixi silently twisted his arm, which made him behave.

Mo Hua said, “We must take precautions before it happens; we cannot act rashly. I’ll go in first using concealment to check the situation.”

“You’re going in alone?”

“Yes,” Mo Hua nodded, “I’m familiar with this.”

Back then, he had infiltrated Black Mountain Stronghold completely unnoticed, all by himself.

At that time, sneaking into Black Mountain Stronghold was somewhat dangerous.

But now things were different.

Now his Divine Sense was deeper, his Concealment Technique stronger, and his knowledge of formations was far beyond that of an ordinary first-grade Formation Master. He did not fear even Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Although Mo Hua couldn’t defeat a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could hide from them thanks to his skill at concealment.

Bai Zixi disagreed, “We should go together!”

Bai Zisheng nodded in agreement as well.

Mo Hua shook his head and said, “Your ability to conceal isn’t good enough; you would be detected by Foundation Establishment cultivators.”

Bai Zixi was still somewhat worried.

So Mo Hua said, “I’ll go in, and you two stay here as backup. If something goes wrong, I’ll set off fireworks, and you come in to help me.”

Although he said this, it was very unlikely that such a situation would occur.

After some thought, Bai Zixi had no better solution and could only nod in agreement.

Bai Zisheng was a little disappointed and quickly reminded him:

“If there’s trouble, don’t be afraid. Just set off the fireworks, and I, your senior brother, will charge in and slay them… no, I mean protect you!”

Bai Zisheng was still thinking about fighting.

Mo Hua was somewhat exasperated.

Afterward, without saying anything more, Mo Hua concealed his form and quietly sneaked into Corpse Walking Stronghold.

Before entering Corpse Walking Stronghold, he released his Divine Sense to ascertain the positions of several cultivators at the gate, then quietly avoided them and slipped inside.

Then he found a hidden place and pushed his Divine Sense to the limit.

Each time he only released it briefly, then quickly withdrew it.

Like a dragonfly skimming the water, leaving no trace.

After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, he released his Divine Sense again.

After probing with his Divine Sense three or four times without noticing anything unusual, Mo Hua finally let out a slight sigh of relief.

It seemed there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators in Corpse Walking Stronghold.

Or even if there were, their Divine Sense was not strong enough to detect Mo Hua’s surveillance.

Mo Hua felt much more at ease.

He began to scrutinize the layout of Corpse Walking Stronghold and the cultivators within.

The Corpse Walking Stronghold was built against a mountain, its layout simple, with constructed wooden houses and carved out caves.

What wasn’t simple, was the dense Corpse Qi and the numerous deathly auras.

With just a light scan, Mo Hua could detect many coffins.

Most of these coffins were wooden, but there were a few that had an even heavier presence of Corpse Qi, crafted from refined iron and preserved with Evil Formations – iron coffins.

The corpses harbored within were likely the stronger Iron Corpses.

In the entire stronghold, there were more dead people than living ones.

Of the living cultivators, not all of them seemed to be Corpse cultivators.

Those who could control corpses were few, donned in gray robes, with pallid skin.

The rest looked more like bandits.

Mo Hua was surprised by this discovery.

Beyond this, there were the formations.

As expected, there were numerous formations laid out around Corpse Walking Stronghold.

The standards of these formations were mostly below the first grade, ranging from seven to eight Patterns, with the most complex having up to nine Patterns.

After dismantling a few formations and examining them closely, Mo Hua suddenly paused in shock.

He recognized the style of these Formation Patterns.

Neat and meticulous, yet somewhat rigid.

When he was learning about Formation Patterns at Tongxian Gate, it was with such Patterns as the template.

These were…Formation Patterns drawn by Instructor Yan…