Chapter 9: Open Flame Formation

In the sea of consciousness, Mo Hua’s form appeared the same as his physical body, capable of moving at will, yet it was not made of flesh and blood, nor even spiritual energy; it was merely a phantom of his divine sense.

Mo Hua’s phantom held its breath and focused, using a finger as a brush to draw the patterns of the Bright Fire Array upon the Dao stele.

Pale blue lines danced flexibly with Mo Hua’s finger, gradually manifesting on the pitch-black Dao stele, strand by strand, connecting from simple to complex into mysterious patterns.

After finishing the second array pattern, as he continued to draw, Mo Hua gradually felt an unprecedented exhaustion and even pain.

His sea of consciousness felt like a dam being chiseled open, with his divine sense flowing outward like a relentless tide.

The more his divine sense drained, the closer his sea of consciousness came to exhaustion. It was like a riverbed left behind by receding waters, gradually cracking, stinging from an unknown pressure, while his scalp felt faintly numb.

Mo Hua also began to feel his thoughts stagnate, and the third array pattern was drawn slower and slower.

Suddenly, a needle-like pain shot from his sea of consciousness. Mo Hua lost focus for a brief moment, his concentration wavered, and a line on the stele went astray.

Mo Hua had to stop, clutching his head, waiting for the pain to slowly subside.

It took a full cup of tea’s time for Mo Hua to recover. After pondering for a moment, he finally understood

"Cultivators drawing arrays require a massive amount of divine sense, far more than any other path of cultivation! And far more than I had imagined!"

"That is why the diagrams specifically note in red ink: 'Those with insufficient cultivation, learn with caution.' If one’s cultivation is lacking and their divine sense is not strong, forcibly attempting to draw arrays will excessively consume divine sense, potentially leading to the exhaustion of the sea of consciousness..."

Exhaustion of the divine sense brings intense pain to a cultivator and can even cause the sea of consciousness to suffer cracks. Once those cracks become too severe, the sea of consciousness will shatter completely, and the cultivator will perish.

This was something the instructor had mentioned in the array class. Mo Hua hadn't paid much attention at the time, but recalling it now, a chill crept into his heart.

"The Bright Fire Array requires the third level of Qi Refining, but I am only at the second level. My divine sense is indeed a bit lacking..."

Mo Hua sat on the floor of his sea of consciousness, clutching his head, and pondered

"Although it is a bit lacking, it shouldn't be by much. My divine sense is already stronger than others, and I have been studying arrays for so long. If I practice a few more times, I might just be able to draw it."

"If I can't draw it once, I'll draw it a second time, a third time... Every time my divine sense strengthens, even if I draw just one more stroke than before, I will eventually be able to complete the array..."

After thinking it through, Mo Hua stood up and wiped away the incomplete patterns on the Dao stele, and his divine sense immediately replenished.

It was as if he had never drawn an array at all, yet every stroke he had just made was etched into his mind.

Mo Hua couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

It was fortunate that he had this Dao stele; otherwise, with his divine sense nearly exhausted, he wouldn't know how long he would have to rest before attempting it again. By the time he learned the Bright Fire Array, ten or fifteen days would likely have passed, and after ten days, the pledged spirit stones would be forfeited.

At the thought of this, Mo Hua felt a pang of distress, which made his divine sense even more focused as he began to draw the Bright Fire Array for the second time...

In the void-white sea of consciousness, the passage of time could not be felt.

Mo Hua drew for a while, stopped for a while, rested for a while; whenever he truly couldn't continue, he would simply wipe it clean and start from the beginning.

He didn't know how many times he had drawn it, but finally, he completed the full Bright Fire Array.

Mo Hua let out a long sigh of relief, collapsing onto the ground, feeling like a small, salted fish whose divine sense had been squeezed dry.

After resting for another half-cup of tea, Mo Hua finally had the energy to stand up and admire the first array he had ever drawn—the Bright Fire Array.

On the pitch-black Dao stele, a complete array with pale blue lines was drawn. The patterns were rigorous and elegant, possessing an unknown sense of mystery. As the lines flickered between light and dark, they seemed to contain indescribable rules and power.

This is an array!

Mo Hua felt dazed; it seemed there was nothing in the world more beautiful than these lines containing rules. Even just looking at them made one involuntarily lose themselves within...

As Mo Hua watched, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

When he was drawing, the lines were pale blue, but now they seemed to be fading, their color dimming and gradually turning a light gray.

It was as if... the Dao stele was telling Mo Hua that he had drawn it wrong...

Mo Hua froze.

"Drawn it wrong?"

"No way..."

Mo Hua felt a bit discouraged, but he pulled himself together and began to check it carefully, stroke by stroke. In the end, he discovered that he had indeed made mistakes, and in more than one place.

Some lines had an extra stroke, some angles of connection were wrong, and the fusion of two fire patterns was incorrect...

Because he had made mistakes, the consumption of divine sense hadn't been as high, which was the only reason he had managed to finish the array.

Mo Hua scratched his head, forced himself to note the errors, wiped the array away, and began to draw it again.

...

After repeating this many times, Mo Hua felt dizzy. Beyond the pain in his sea of consciousness, there was a sense of numbness, and looking at the patterns on the Dao stele, everything was blurred with double images.

He didn't know when it happened, but in a daze, Mo Hua drew the final stroke.

The Dao stele seemed to tremble slightly, and the pale blue lines on it emitted a warm white light. Within the white light, faint flickers of fire seemed to dance, like the light of a candle illuminating the dark night.

Bright Fire Array!

Mo Hua could not hide his excitement; the exhaustion of the night was swept away.

For the first time in his life, Mo Hua had personally experienced the capabilities of a cultivator—the feeling of comprehending something himself, creating it, and using an array to manifest the rules of the Heavenly Dao and grasp the power of heaven and earth.

Although it was only a tiny step, a mere sliver of power, it was the first drop of water that would eventually form the great river of the Dao!

Mo Hua was proud. Although the Bright Fire Array could only be used for lighting and was one of the most common and cheapest arrays in cultivation, at least this array had illuminated the first step of Mo Hua’s path.

Still wanting more, Mo Hua wished he could draw it a few more times, but he knew his fragile divine sense was like a candle in the wind and could not withstand further torment.

If he kept drawing, his sea of consciousness might not be exhausted, but he would certainly go mad.

After all, although divine sense recovers, the process of drawing arrays constantly drains it, and that process is not exactly comfortable.

This was the first time Mo Hua had drawn a formal array, but it certainly wouldn't be the last.

He planned to practice the Bright Fire Array a few times every night. Once he was thoroughly proficient in a few days, he would start using the materials from the Array Pavilion to draw arrays. Once finished, he would exchange them for spirit stones with the steward, hopefully enough to cover the sect's tuition so his parents wouldn't have to work so hard.

"That's enough for tonight..."

The Bright Fire Array on the Dao stele shone brilliantly. Mo Hua admired it once more, nodded involuntarily, and then, with some reluctance, waved his hand to wipe the array away.

The moment it was wiped away, his divine sense surged like the tide—ebbing and flowing, waning and waxing, like a breached dam rushing back, or the sun rising again after setting. That exhausted divine sense instantly rushed back, filling Mo Hua’s sea of consciousness!

Mo Hua stood before the Dao stele, his divine sense full. At this moment, it was exactly as it had been when he first entered his sea of consciousness several hours ago.

This feeling of divine sense going from full to empty, and then from empty back to full, felt incredibly profound no matter how many times he experienced it.

And this time, the realization was deeper than ever before.

Mo Hua looked at the Dao stele. The surface was pitch-black and deep, seemingly a void, yet it appeared to contain everything. It looked like it held nothing, yet it seemed capable of manifesting everything.

Transforming divine sense into an array, reversing an array into divine sense; existence and non-existence generate and transform each other.

A line from an ancient text couldn't help but surface in Mo Hua’s mind

"We use the existence for benefit, but the non-existence for utility!"