Trận hỏi trường sinh

Chapter 1065: The Pixiu (1)

The Pixiu?

"What kind of divine beast is this?" Mo Hua was deeply curious and couldn’t help but ask Master Tu.

"It’s..." Master Tu was about to answer when his heart suddenly pounded violently, forcing him to stop abruptly.

He gave Mo Hua a profound look, shook his head, and said nothing more.

Though he didn’t know why, his intuition warned him that he absolutely must not reveal too much to Mo Hua.

In fact, he already regretted even uttering the two words "Pixiu" to Mo Hua.

Better to say less than more.

"Remember my words—behave yourself," Master Tu said coldly before his body dissolved into a bloody light and vanished in haste, as if he truly had urgent matters to attend to.

In the flesh-and-blood prison, only Mo Hua remained.

Left alone in solitude, Mo Hua patiently flipped through the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice Formation Diagram that Master Tu had left for him, continuously pondering and deducing the structure of the formation. Over and over, he simulated the flow of spiritual energy to deepen his understanding of the formation’s intricacies.

Yet, being unable to physically draw it out left him feeling somewhat unfulfilled.

Moreover, boredom soon crept in.

Suppressing his restlessness, Mo Hua stared at the formation diagram for a while longer, confirming that no cold divine senses were secretly probing him during this time.

Master Tu hadn’t lied—he seemed genuinely preoccupied with his own affairs.

Only then did Mo Hua let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He quickly sat cross-legged, touching the white bone circlet on his head, muttering to himself:

"He’s really ruthless..."

After all, if such a treasure were in his hands, he would never have wasted it on something as trivial as sealing a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Mo Hua shook his head.

The problem now was that this thing had indeed sealed him.

Without breaking this seal, he could do nothing but wait for death.

Only by undoing the seal could he regain his "freedom of movement" and execute his plans.

Mo Hua began attempting to break the seal.

This wasn’t his first attempt—during his idle moments, he had repeatedly tried to dismantle the seal, but without exception, all his efforts had failed.

The divine formation tied to this sacred artifact was far too advanced, far beyond what he could currently "unlock."

Mo Hua speculated that the cultivator who had crafted this sacred artifact must have been a rare genius among the Great Desolate tribes, someone of extraordinary status.

It was even possible that this person had been a "mortal enemy" of the Evil God, single-handedly leading their people to suppress the fallen and depraved deities.

Unfortunately, in the end, mortals could never outlast gods.

No matter how talented a cultivator was, even if they could suppress an Evil God for a lifetime, they could never suppress it forever.

Once such a genius perished, and no worthy successor rose in time, the Evil God would inevitably return.

Worse still, the beings the Evil God couldn’t defeat directly could still be dealt with by corrupting "others."

Sometimes, "people" were the most powerful weapon the Evil God wielded against its foes.

Master Tu was a prime example.

This Great Desolate Sacred Artifact was no different.

Originally a tool used by mortals to suppress the Evil God, it had now been turned against them by the Evil God’s machinations.

Mo Hua sighed faintly.

Then, he pushed these distracting thoughts aside and focused entirely on dismantling the Great Desolate Sacred Artifact.

The sealing power of this artifact was immense.

If Master Tu had simply left the seal untouched, Mo Hua would have been utterly helpless.

But the problem was—Master Tu had repeatedly "unsealed" and "resealed" Mo Hua in his presence, cycling through the process multiple times...

This had given Mo Hua an opportunity to exploit.

The Great Desolate Sacred Artifact was like a locked room.

Mo Hua was the "prisoner" trapped inside.

Normally, a "prisoner" like him would need to "break the walls" by dismantling the formation to escape.

The "key" to this lock was a divine formation pattern—the Divine Lock Formation.

Master Tu had been meticulous, using threads of blood to outline the formation, making it both cryptic and sinister.

Others might not have noticed, but Mo Hua, with his foundation in divine formations and his mastery of Heavenly Secrets Divination, saw through its mysteries at a glance.

After witnessing Master Tu undo the seal several times, Mo Hua gradually deduced the "key" formation pattern used to lock and unlock the sacred artifact.

It was a Divine Lock Formation with a specific sequence.

Mo Hua practiced for a long time, replicating its form until he could mimic about seventy to eighty percent of its divine essence.

But seventy to eighty percent was enough to "pick the lock"—at worst, it would just take a few more attempts.

What followed was relatively simpler.

Of course, this "simplicity" was only relative to Mo Hua.

Thanks to the ancient stele, his relentless day-and-night formation practice, and his profound comprehension of formations, Mo Hua’s divine sense could manifest formations within his consciousness.

Ordinary cultivators couldn’t do this.

Other corrupted beings certainly couldn’t either.

Even deities born of heaven and earth, innately endowed with divine powers, couldn’t learn formations.

Thus, the only one who could replicate the "key" from within the seal and manifest the formation pattern to unlock it was likely Mo Hua—this "freak" who was half-human, half-deity, and capable of visualizing formations in his consciousness.

This truly defied conventional cultivation logic.

No matter how imaginative Master Tu was, he could never have anticipated this.

Previously, Mo Hua hadn’t had the chance to test it.

Now that Master Tu was gone, he could finally attempt to break the "seal" without restraint.

Time passed slowly.

Mo Hua remained patient.

After an unknown length of time, a faint click echoed—the Divine Lock Formation dissolved, and the sacred artifact’s seal was finally "pried" open by Mo Hua.

Mo Hua’s face lit up with joy.

Success!

If he could replicate the "key" and unlock it from within, it meant the Great Desolate Sacred Artifact no longer posed a threat to him.

His divine sense could now bypass Master Tu’s "seal" and move freely.

The plans he had long harbored could finally be set into motion.

A smile curled at the corners of Mo Hua’s lips as he took a step forward, bypassing the Divine Lock Formation and breaking through the Great Desolate Sacred Artifact’s seal.

But then, his expression froze, and the smile on his face slowly faded.

"Something’s wrong..."

He had clearly broken the seal, yet he didn’t feel the expected "freedom." Instead, before him stretched an endless corridor of divine locks, with no end in sight.

Mo Hua frowned.

"What’s going on?"

"Didn’t I already break the Great Desolate Sacred Artifact’s seal? Why am I still trapped?"

"Is there another layer of sealing inside this sacred artifact?"

After a moment of contemplation, Mo Hua followed the corridor of divine locks, pressing forward.

The further he went, the greater the pressure became. Even his divine sense-constructed flesh, blood, and bones began to feel vaguely suppressed.

Mo Hua’s expression grew solemn as he reinforced his body with divine marrow to withstand the pressure, stubbornly advancing.

All around him were "walls" built from incredibly profound Divine Lock formation patterns, resembling a "great wall" of divine might stretching endlessly into the distance.

After an immeasurable time, the Divine Lock Formation vanished, and his vision suddenly opened to reveal a majestic and solemn divine hall.

This hall stood like a fortress gate atop the divine wall, guarding the passage in and out with an imposing aura that no evil could breach.

Even Mo Hua felt a twinge of awe.

After hesitating several times, he finally stepped forward and entered the divine hall.

The moment he crossed the threshold, a fierce wind blasted against his face, and a blinding divine radiance enveloped him with boundless majesty.

Mo Hua looked up and saw an enormous golden lantern hanging in the sky.

He blinked a few times before realizing the lantern was also flickering, its depths emitting a golden-jade light, as if it, too, were "blinking."

At that moment, a sharp hiss rang out—a gigantic golden head turned toward him, its lantern-sized eyes glaring down at the tiny Mo Hua.

Man and beast stared at each other, eye to eye.

Before Mo Hua could react, the massive head opened its blood-basin-sized maw and, with lightning speed, chomped down, swallowing him whole.

It chewed a few times, found him too tough to bite, and lazily gave up, swallowing him in one gulp.

Afterward, the "big head" closed its mouth, narrowed its eyes, and lay back down.

The divine hall fell silent once more.

But the peace didn’t last long.

The "big head" soon felt something strange crawling up its throat, reaching its mouth and starting to tug at its tongue and pry its teeth.

The tiny intruder grew even more unruly, unleashing flames, ice, golden slashes, and all manner of scorching attacks.