Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 315 - 314 Collapse_1

The days that followed were as calm as water. With tireless effort day and night, Mo Hua’s divine sense calculation ability also grew by the day.

Until one day, he suddenly thought of a question:

"Can I try to make the formation collapse?"

Although Mr. Zhuang taught him divine sense calculation, it wasn’t for him to collapse formations, but since he had learned calculation, he had to try it out.

Mo Hua wanted to see what formation collapse was really like.

Even Mr. Zhuang found the power of annihilation, which occurred during formation collapse, unthinkable. Just how strong could it truly be?

The principle of formation collapse wasn’t difficult; the challenging part was learning the Reversed Spirit Formation and Divine Sense Calculation.

Mo Hua had now learned the Reversed Spirit Formation and, though not yet a master of divine sense calculation, he had become much more proficient after so many days of practice, and he had basically acquired the foundation needed to collapse a formation.

Still not completely confident, Mo Hua went back to Mr. Zhuang and cautiously inquired about the precautions of formation collapse.

Mr. Zhuang saw through the motive behind Mo Hua’s questioning at a glance, but he didn’t mind.

Having curiosity is a good thing.

If one had no curiosity about formations, no thirst for knowledge, it would be easy to become numb from the tedium of formations on the long road of Tao cultivation, losing the initial drive to explore the Dao of Formation.

Besides, learning formation collapse wasn’t that easy.

With Mo Hua’s current divine sense, being able to calculate and collapse a first-grade single formation would be impressive.

The power of a first-grade single formation collapse, though not weak, was not overwhelmingly strong either. Even if he made a mistake while experimenting on his own, it was unlikely to pose a threat to his life.

Mr. Zhuang then offered his guidance:

"Formation collapse is built upon the foundation of divine sense calculation."

"First calculate the spiritual power trajectory of the formation, and then base on that trajectory, lay down the Reversed Spirit Formation on the formation pivot."

"When you activate the formation afterward, the spiritual power will circulate through the formation pivot and be successively unraveled by the Reversed Spirit Formation, thereby inducing the great formation dissolution and generating a force close to the origin of the Great Dao, the power of annihilation..."

...

Mr. Zhuang explained everything in great detail.

Mo Hua memorized Mr. Zhuang’s words carefully, then found an opportunity to run into Big Black Mountain to begin experimenting with formation collapse.

The formation he was collapsing was still the Earth Fire Formation of the first-grade.

Although Mo Hua’s divine sense was at Foundation Establishment, he couldn’t calculate too complex of a formation; he had to start with a common first-grade formation method.

Mo Hua set up the Earth Fire Formation, spending some time calculating the spiritual power trajectory. Following the trajectory, he then drew the Reversed Spirit Formation on the formation pivot in sequence.

After a lot of effort, Mo Hua finally got everything prepared.

Everything was ready, except for activating the formation.

Mo Hua placed the spirit stones on the formation and then ran far away.

He didn’t know how powerful the formation collapse would be, so to be safe, it was better to stay far away.

Mo Hua cast a Fireball Technique, precisely shattering the spirit stones, causing spiritual energy to overflow and enter the Earth Fire Formation.

There was a flash of light on the formation, which then disappeared in an instant.

From a distance, Mo Hua only noticed the formation light up briefly before everything went silent.

There was no explosion, no sound, no sign of spiritual power fluctuations; it was as though he had lit a firecracker that failed to go off...

Mo Hua was stunned.

Had the collapse failed?

Or was there an error in the calculation?

Mo Hua couldn’t understand and didn’t dare to rashly approach. After waiting a while longer and seeing no changes, he released his divine sense but could not perceive even a hint of spiritual power circulation. Only then did he approach to check.

With just one glance, Mo Hua furrowed his brows, his confusion deepening.

The formation was gone!

Nothing was left in its place.

Only the stones that had carried the formation had turned into a pile of fine dust, which dispersed with a gust of wind.

"So this is... a success?"

The formation had collapsed, quite completely at that; everything was gone, including the formation media, which had turned to dust.

But is collapse... supposed to be like this?

Uncertain, Mo Hua tried again.

Once more, after setting up the formation and following divine sense calculation, he drew the Reversed Spirit Formation on the formation pivot before activating the formation.

This time, Mo Hua didn’t run far. He observed while releasing his divine sense, focusing intently on the changes occurring during the formation’s collapse.

This time, he finally saw clearly what happened.

The moment the formation was activated, the spiritual power began to flow, starting from the formation pivot, connecting to the formation patterns. But when the spiritual power reached the Reversed Spirit Formation, it was disassembled.

The pale blue spiritual power didn’t become more subtle after disassembly. Instead, it turned into a completely different form of spiritual power, faintly edged with fine streaks of black, emitting an aura of oblivion, dissolving and subsequently annihilating everything it touched.

The process was terrifying to the extreme and yet silent.

No, even the sound had been annihilated! That’s why it was so silent...

Mo Hua was greatly shocked in his heart.

This was unlike any form of spiritual power he had ever seen before.

Cultivators typically use spiritual power to drive Taoist skills, forming mysterious forces such as the Five Elements and Three Wonders. If that process is in the positive direction, then the power of annihilation he saw now would be the reverse.

It was a form of spiritual power that existed outside the usual framework of a cultivator’s spiritual power.

It was the Power of Annihilation that approached the source of the Great Dao, as Mr. Zhuang had said...

When Mo Hua first heard this, he understood but did not comprehend fully; now that he had seen it with his own eyes, he could truly appreciate the terror of this Power of Annihilation that was close to the source.

The only problem was, the range of annihilation was too small...

When a Formation explodes, the spiritual power is dispersed outward; when a Formation collapses, the spiritual power concentrates inward.

The Earth Fire Formation in front of him, if its normal explosion was the size of a large watermelon, then its range of annihilation would only be the size of a small hawthorn.

To use this against an enemy, you must tie the enemy to the Formation itself; otherwise, it certainly won’t hurt them.

Even if it did cause injury, injuring an arm or a leg would not be of much significance.

Mo Hua sighed.

No wonder Mr. Zhuang had no hesitation in telling him about this dangerous annihilation method.

With his current Divine Sense, he could only annihilate ordinary First-grade Single Formations.

And just as Mr. Zhuang had said, "Ordinary Single Formations are not worth annihilating because their spiritual power structure is too weak..."

With a weak spiritual power structure, the power produced by the annihilation of spiritual power is indeed special, but the scale is too small to pose much threat.

And Formations with a strong spiritual power structure are at least the more complex Compound Formations.

With his current Divine Sense, he was unable to perform Calculations for Compound Formations.

Mo Hua felt somewhat disappointed as he had initially thought that if the power of Formation Collapse was strong enough, he would have gained a much more lethal trump card.

This way, even if facing a Foundation Building Cultivator, he wouldn’t be helpless.

The Householder of Black Mountain Stronghold and the third Householder still had not been captured to this date. If they were left to roam free, they would undoubtedly become a major hidden danger in the future.

If he could learn to Collapse Formations, he would have some means of dealing with them when he encountered them.

But now it seemed his thoughts were too simplistic.

The power to threaten a Foundation Building Cultivator was not so easily obtained...

Mo Hua sighed again.

Since that was the case, he stopped dwelling on it and calmly practiced Divine Sense Calculation, to increase his understanding of Formations through Calculation.

"One should not be too greedy; it’s good enough to learn Calculations well, and leave Collapse for later," Mo Hua warned himself in his heart.

That was what he had planned to do...

Until two days later, at 1 p.m., when Mo Hua delved into his Sea of Consciousness and practiced Calculations on the Taoist Stele, he suddenly froze.

Mo Hua looked at the Taoist Stele, slowly furrowing his brows.

There were two Spirit Power Trajectory Diagrams on the Taoist Stele after Calculations.

One was what he had just calculated, and the other was one he had calculated before but forgotten to erase.

At that moment, both Spirit Power Trajectory Diagrams coexisted on the Taoist Stele.

A question naturally emerged in Mo Hua’s mind:

"Formation Painting requires ’conception in a single thought’. Is Divine Sense Calculation the same?"

What ’conception in a single thought’ means is that all the Patterns of a Single Formation or the complete Pivot of a Compound Formation need to be drawn out continuously and in one breath by Divine Thought; otherwise, the Formation will not activate.

Mo Hua, with preconceived ideas, always thought Divine Sense Calculation was the same, but now it seemed there was no such requirement for Divine Sense Calculation.

You can perform Calculations for a Formation today and continue tomorrow. As long as what forms in the Sea of Consciousness in the end is a complete Spirit Power Trajectory Diagram, that’s enough.

In other words, for a Compound Formation, you could also carry out Calculations for each Single Formation one by one and then piece them together to form a complete Spirit Power Trajectory of the Compound Formation.

Divine Sense Calculation does not need to be completed in one go.

Mo Hua thought about it and roughly understood.

Because a Formation is an objective flow of spiritual energy, the Spirit Power Trajectory Diagram from Divine Sense Calculation is actually a recognition of the Formation.

Whether or not you manage to perform the Calculation, the Formation exists. It’s just that you might not be able to recognize the essence of the Formation.

With this realization, Mo Hua was completely stunned.

His Taoist Stele could trace back his Divine Sense.

This meant that he could genuinely calculate Formations without limit by using the Taoist Stele.

It also meant that not just Single Formations but even the most complex Compound Formations or Large Formations could be calculated bit by bit, given enough time.

Being able to calculate Compound or Large Formations meant...

He could cause Compound or Great Formation Dissolution, thereby truly possessing the tremendous power to annihilate a Foundation Establishing Cultivator!