Chapter 260: The Cave
Generally, there are two ways for a cultivator to deal with a formation: one is to destroy it, the other is to dismantle it.
Destroying a formation relies on the cultivator's own cultivation or martial prowess to forcibly break the formation's core, medium, pivot, or pattern.
Dismantling a formation, however, can only be done by a formation master—and only a few formation masters with extensive experience and profound skill can do it.
Dismantling uses the interactions of the formation patterns, the opening and closing of the formation pivots, or the direct and reverse flow of spiritual energy in the formation core to nullify the formation.
At present, Mo Hua only knows one method of dismantling: using the interactions of the formation patterns.
Just now, Mo Hua had spent a long time surveying with his Divine Sense, looking through the stone wall, roughly confirming the formation inside. Inside the wall, it was primarily an Earth-and-Stone Formation of the Five Elements, mixed with some scattered minor formations.
For a criminal cultivator, this formation was already decent.
But in Mo Hua's eyes, it was unimpressive.
He took pen and ink from his storage pouch and began drawing formation patterns on the stone wall.
In practice, there are two ways to dismantle a formation using the interactions of its patterns: from the inside or from the outside.
When dismantling from the inside, one can see the formation patterns, and the patterns drawn to dismantle are on the same side as the formation medium.
Mo Hua usually practiced this method, drawing and dismantling his own formations—so it counts as internal dismantling.
This is comparatively easier.
External dismantling, however, is done through the formation medium without seeing the patterns.
It requires relying on experience and understanding of formations, sensing the positions of the patterns with Divine Sense, and drawing counteracting patterns at corresponding locations to neutralize the formation.
The current situation was exactly such an external dismantling.
Mo Hua had never tried this method before.
Fortunately, the formation on the stone wall wasn't very difficult. With his experience and Divine Sense, he could sense the exact locations of the formation patterns.
All he needed to do next was to draw counteracting patterns—a simple task.
In the time it took to drink two cups of tea, Mo Hua had finished drawing the dismantling patterns on the wall.
These patterns mirrored the original formation structure, but the brushwork was special, containing the principles of mutual interaction, appearing like a mirrored, inverted version of the formation, strange and profound.
Zhang Lan watched in astonishment.
With Mo Hua's final stroke, the dismantling was complete.
The patterns on the stone wall shimmered as spiritual energy seeped inside. The earth and stone rattled as if bark were drying and flaking off, and the entire wall gradually cracked, taking on the gray-brown color of sun-dried stone.
Zhang Lan was inwardly amazed: "It actually worked…"
And seeing Mo Hua handle it with such ease, it was clear he wasn't guessing, he truly had a deep foundation in dismantling formations. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dismantled it in one attempt.
Zhang Lan sighed, realizing he had underestimated Mo Hua's talent in formations.
Now it could no longer be called talent alone—it was real skill.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed that a ten-something-year-old cultivator could already dismantle formations.
Zhang Lan felt deeply impressed.
With the formation dismantled, the stone wall lost its protection.
Someone had to break through it.
Mo Hua glanced at Zhang Lan, who silently replied, "I'm not a body cultivator."
Mo Hua gave him a slightly disdainful look, then called to Mo Shan: "Father."
From a distance, Mo Shan came over. "What is it?"
Mo Hua pointed to the wall. "Father, we need to break this through."
Mo Shan nodded, channeling spiritual energy into his physical strength. One punch shattered the wall, and when the dust settled, the interior was revealed.
It was a large cave, dark and dry.
Inside, it was filled with spirit stones and various spirit items. In the corners were piles of bottles and jars, mostly pills, along with some fine wine.
Mo Hua looked on, slightly shocked, then felt a twinge of discomfort.
The more cultivation supplies, the more cultivators had been robbed, and the more people had died at the hands of these criminal cultivators.
Zhang Lan's expression was serious. He sighed: "No wonder they were so tight-lipped during interrogation. Now that this cave has been discovered, these criminal cultivators are certain to die, even if they hadn't previously committed capital crimes."
A cave full of stolen goods… how many people had they robbed and killed?
"What should we do with all this?" Mo Hua asked.
Zhang Lan thought for a moment: "It's best to classify and record it properly."
He explained further:
"Many missing caravans and cultivators have unknown fates. These items can help identify them, see which caravans were robbed, and which cultivators were killed."
"Families of missing cultivators are still waiting. Alive or dead, at least they deserve an explanation."
He sighed again.
The path of cultivation is perilous. Without sufficient skill, one's life is unpredictable when danger strikes.
Mo Hua nodded.
Zhang Lan looked at him and added, "If you see anything you like, you can take it. You've done a great deed here. The Dao Court will surely reward you, so taking something is only fair."
Mo Hua considered, then shook his head: "No, most of these things belonged to innocents who died unjustly. Let's record them first. Identifying the owners will at least provide their families some closure."
Zhang Lan looked at him with approval.
Mo Hua inspected the cave again, suddenly puzzled:
"It seems like there's nothing here from Kong Sheng's caravan."
"Don't we have those pills?"
Kong Sheng's caravan dealt in pills.
Zhang Lan, saying this, felt a pang of unease: "Something's not right."
He went to a corner, picked up a few jars of pills, uncapped them, and smelled. His brow furrowed:
"These are all old pills. Their aroma is weak. They weren't taken recently."
Since the caravan dealt in pills, they wouldn't sell old ones, and even if they did, it would only be a small portion.
Most pills would be freshly made within six months.
Fresh pills have a strong scent, while older pills' aroma fades.
All the pills in this cave were weak in scent, clearly aged.
This indicated that these criminal cultivators hadn't recently raided any pill caravans.
"Impossible…" Zhang Lan murmured, "did they eat all these pills themselves?"
He thought it over and rejected the idea:
"There are only twenty to thirty of them. Even if they ate pills as food, they couldn't finish them all in such a short time."
Mo Shan pondered: "Before we arrived, there was no smell of blood in this valley."
This meant the criminals hadn't been bringing people into the valley to kill.
According to the bald monk himself, they usually killed on the spot and took the goods.
When Kong Sheng's caravan was attacked, there wasn't much blood—just signs of a struggle, no massacre.
If beasts had eaten them, the scene would have been far bloodier.
For a moment, the three were filled with doubt.
By logic, the bald monk should have robbed the caravan, taken the pills, and killed the cultivators, including Kong Sheng.
But now it seemed that these criminals hadn't touched that caravan at all, so they hadn't killed Kong Sheng.
Then where did the caravan go?
And what about Kong Sheng, was he alive or dead?
(End of this Chapter)