The Quest for Immortality - Chapter 1128 (Patreon)

Chapter 1128: Make a Calculation

Mo Hua sank into thought.

Ordinary Causality Techniques concern the success or failure of a single matter, or the life and fate of a single person—small in scope.

But if the matter is weighty enough, involving many people and a strong force of causality, then it becomes a great causality.

And when it touches upon the rise and fall of an entire province, even the fortune of all living things under heaven—an even grander scope of causality—that is what people call the “Heavenly Mechanism.”

People often speak of “Heavenly Mechanism and causality” in one breath, but there are in fact many differences between them.

If one has not studied causality carefully, it’s truly hard to make sense of it.

Most people’s causality never rises beyond personal fortune and misfortune; it never reaches the level of the Heavenly Mechanism.

That is the division from the perspective of the greater pattern.

Beyond that, at the level of underlying structure, the power of causality is also peculiar.

As Mo Hua had anticipated, the so-called “power of causality” is not purely a cultivation power on the plane of Divine Sense—

Such as will-force, eerie force, evil thoughts, or Divine Sense itself.

Nor is it purely a cultivation power on the “real” plane—

Such as bodily strength, spiritual power, or flesh and blood.

Based on Mo Hua’s grasp of the Heavenly Mechanism thus far and his instinctive intuition, causality is more like a Great Dao power where Divine Sense and the real intertwine.

Part of it is formed from the real, using reality as the medium; part of it lies in the guidance of Divine Sense, using Divine Sense as the bridge.

It is a state where “substance” and “void” coexist.

Causality stands above ordinary objective forces—mysterious upon mysterious.

Yet because it possesses a “substantial” component, it is not purely “mysticism,” nor purely “theology of the divine path.”

It is more like…

Mo Hua furrowed his brows, pondering in detail.

“Like seeking the laws of causality from objective existence, then, by means of Divine-Sense methods, grasping those laws of causality so as to reverse objective existence.”

“From substance into void, then using the void to turn back into substance, until void and substance become one…”

These were insights about the laws of causality he had sparked while contemplating the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination, built atop foundational techniques of causality.

This “insight” was somewhat abstruse.

Mo Hua only dimly felt that it ought to be so.

But as for the precise rule-logic and its manifestations across the myriad things of the world, he was not very clear.

After all, he had only just begun to learn—only just entered the door. He would still need to study more, see more, practice more, uniting knowledge with action, to gain deeper comprehension.

Only then would his Causality Technique grow stronger.

Comprehending the Dao is only the foundation.

Walking the Dao is the essence.

To comprehend the Dao but not walk it is the same as not having comprehended it.

“Then how, exactly, should one use this Causality Technique in practice?”

The Heavenly Mechanism and causality define the grand pattern.

The transformation between void and substance is the underlying logic.

But what of the concrete applications on the level of “technique”?

Mo Hua fell into contemplation, then unfolded the charts of the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination, carefully rereading several essential passages and hexagram images.

The demon-bone divination was verbose in script and tangled in hexagrams.

Yet the core “Technique” behind it still relied on causality.

Stripping away the surface layer of “technique,” the inner causal principles, as Mo Hua roughly summarized them, could be divided into three types.

Tracing the cause: using certain known “effects” to peer into the past.

Projecting the effect: using certain known “causes” to divine the future.

And the general “calculation”: using certain causal relationships to calculate the current time and place, and the auspicious or inauspicious state, of a given person, matter, or thing.

These three divinatory approaches differ in form, but in essence they all apply the same class of causal laws, so they are not strictly separated.

Beyond methods, causal divination also requires specific media and consumes large amounts of Divine Sense.

If the causality being divined is great, one must even set up an altar and prepare rituals.

These are merely surface-level questions of “technique.”

Deeper applications of “causality” are likewise many and varied.

Causality is not as simple as it looks.

Nor is it like a spell—learn it and you can surely use it, and it will surely have force.

There are far too many variables involved.

The same Causality Technique, used by different people, yields different outcomes.

Using the same Causality Technique on different people also results in different fortunes.

For example, “Mister Wu” could use the same demon-bone divination to calculate others without issue, but the moment he calculated Mo Hua, he died.

At times, the strength of one’s Causality Technique also has no necessary relation to one’s personal fortune.

Ordinarily, if a person does not understand causality and cannot calculate his own fortune, he will likely fall into a dire situation and die.

If he is proficient in causality and can know fortune and misfortune, seeking benefit and avoiding harm, naturally he will live longer.

But conversely, an ordinary cultivator who knows nothing of causality generally will not peer into great terrors and thus will not invite great calamities.

Whereas a Heavenly-Mechanism cultivator with powerful causality and keen insight may, precisely because his abilities are too strong and his calculations too deep, unintentionally glimpse an existence that should not be glimpsed, thereby drawing down a great terror.

Not learning causality is dangerous.

Learning causality may be even more dangerous.

Moreover, the study of causality is unfathomably deep.

The Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination can only be considered an introductory causal method; it contains only some basic “divination techniques,” and even within the Great Wilderness’s causal system it is likely rather “rudimentary.”

And even within such a “rudimentary” divination, there are already countless subtleties.

If one uses demon bones for divination, then different demon bones must correspond to different divining procedures.

Different procedures must yield different hexagrams.

Different hexagrams must carry different annotations.

Different annotations lead to different interpretations, and the judgments of fortune and calamity will also diverge.

And this is only one branch within the Great Wilderness’s divinatory system.

Within this system, Mister Wu’s little booklet covers only a very small part.

Speaking even more broadly, Mo Hua guessed that within the Great Dao of causality there must be still more and higher laws.

Such as causal insight, attack and defense, grafting, stealing, reversal… and so on.

Just thinking about these is already profoundly abstruse.

And all of this belongs to the “Way of the Heavenly Mechanism and causality.”

Extremely perilous, extremely abstruse, extremely ethereal—and yet exquisitely marvelous.

Mo Hua was deeply moved.

The path of seeking the Dao hides great peril.

The learning of cultivation is vast as the sea.

Many things one does not know until one studies them—then one discovers just how bottomless the labyrinth of methods truly is.

And this learning is the fruit of predecessors who sought the Dao with painstaking effort and passed it down.

Especially for the perilous and arcane Way of causality—if it can form into methods and be transmitted, who knows how much bitter thought and heart’s blood of peerless prodigies through the ages has been condensed within.

If not for these prodigies and mighty ones who researched tirelessly, generation after generation, passing the flame along, who knows how much time and effort and how many detours it would take to learn these Great Dao methods.

In Mo Hua’s heart there was both respect and gratitude.

At the same time, he was filled with anticipation.

“There’s something difficult and formidable to study again…”

His eyes shone, like a bright fire in the night.

…

After that, Mo Hua temporarily shifted the focus of his cultivation from arrays to the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to practice arrays more, but rather that, at present, there truly weren’t any more “hard” arrays for him to learn.

The Reverse Spirit Array is of twenty patterns.

The induction and deduction of the Great Wilderness Azure Dragon Array Diagram is likewise of twenty patterns.

And Mo Hua’s Divine Sense had already reached twenty-one patterns.

A twenty-pattern absolute array was no longer enough to make his Divine Sense “suffer,” and thus temper it; he could only keep them around to practice casually from time to time.

So, until he found a new, harder absolute array, Mo Hua devoted a large portion of his energy to studying the demon-bone divination of the Great Wilderness.

To Mo Hua’s surprise, frequent practice of divination consumed an enormous amount of Divine Sense.

In the fineness and complexity of control over Divine Sense, it might not surpass drawing arrays.

But in sheer “quantity” of consumption, causal divination exceeded it.

Thus, this counted as tempering his Divine Sense from another angle.

When Mo Hua had previously used copper coins for simple “calculations,” he had consumed no small amount of Divine Sense, but with a single copper coin, the form was too simple.

And he would often only calculate once or twice; the attempts were too few, and there was no fixed method to repeatedly polish his Divine Sense and raise his Divine Sense.

Now, by delving into demon-bone divination, he could hone his Divine Sense from another direction—an unexpected delight.

Of course, this was still not the ideal situation.

The ideal would be to use causal arrays to carry out divination.

With “two paths in tandem,” the tempering of Divine Sense would surely be stronger.

Within the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination, there were indeed traces that looked like “array patterns.”

Mo Hua suspected these were arrays used for “divination.”

But what arrays they were, and to what use, he had no idea.

Even in the book on demon-bone divination, only a few strokes of lines were recorded—fragmentary, with neither head nor tail—making it impossible to tell whether they were hexagram lines, demon markings, totems, or array patterns…

So all of this was Mo Hua’s deduction from scattered clues.

Whether causal arrays truly existed, he was not very sure; he would have to verify it later while traveling.

Afterward, beyond studying divination, he also kept an eye on the affairs of the Gray Wolf Sect.

Sect Master Zhao liked to put on a righteous front to fool people, but his heart wasn’t bad, and he did handle matters with some measure.

Within the Gray Wolf Sect, he was indeed the most suitable choice for sect master.

He also carried out Mo Hua’s instructions faithfully, and would occasionally pay Mo Hua a visit to report on progress.

In the guest room, Mo Hua and Sect Master Zhao were drinking tea.

Sect Master Zhao, a Golden Core cultivator, treated Mo Hua, still at Foundation Establishment, with warmth, courtesy, and great respect. He said,

“Everything has been done according to Young Master Mo’s orders.”

“Not my ‘orders’…” Mo Hua corrected. “My ‘suggestions.’”

Sect Master Zhao sighed inwardly and nodded. “Yes, everything was done according to your ‘suggestions.’”

“Within the sect, disciples are no longer allowed to worship the wolf idol. They are forbidden to visualize any wolf images, to burn incense and honor the ancestors, or to let ‘wolfishness’ confuse their hearts.”

“Those disciples who committed evil deeds have all been punished.”

“The serious offenders were handed over to the Dao Court Division and thrown into the Dao Prison.”

“Those elders and disciples closely tied to the former sect master have been ‘cleansed’… ‘rectified.’”

“The sect rules have been revised and standardized. No bullying the market, no forced buying and selling, no swallowing and monopolizing…”

“Disciples are no longer allowed to oppress the locals, beat or kill people… violators will be severely punished…”

…

Sect Master Zhao listed matters one by one to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua thought for a moment and asked, “And those gaudy pavilions of wine and debauchery in the inner city?”

Elder Ji had tried to use vulgar beauties and gambling in those buildings to “corrupt” him.

Sect Master Zhao said, “They’ve all been shut down, and the people dismissed…”

Mo Hua said, “Tear the buildings down too. All that flashy nonsense—I don’t like it.”

Sect Master Zhao paused, then sighed. “Very well.”

Whatever Young Master Mo said was as it should be.

“It’s just…” Sect Master Zhao hesitated, unsure whether to speak. After a moment, he sighed and said, “Young Master Mo, such heavy-handed pressure may… be hard to win hearts…”

Mo Hua looked puzzled. “Why do I need to win their hearts?”

Sect Master Zhao was taken aback.

Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened. “Only when dealing with those of kind heart is there a need to win them over.”

“But those with ‘wolfish greed’ fear power rather than cherish virtue. Treating them well is useless. You only need to suppress them with authority and overawe them with might; they’ll wag their tails and beg on their own.”

“I am a genius disciple of a fifth-rank great sect, with the Great Void Sect of Qianxue standing behind me.”

“As long as I occupy the upper seat and hold the power, they naturally can only cling to me and curry favor.”

“As for what they think in their hearts, whether they accept it or not—what has that to do with me?”

Sect Master Zhao’s heart trembled. After a moment, he sighed: “You speak truly, Young Master.”

After that, Sect Master Zhao set down the “rules” as Mo Hua said.

He then found some random pretext and publicly beheaded several elders of the Gray Wolf Sect with heinous crimes upon them, giving everyone the feeling that the Gray Wolf Sect was about to “change heavens”—those who followed would prosper; those who opposed would perish.

As for how former Sect Master Duan of the Golden Core stage had died, though none had seen it with their own eyes, most had some idea.

Coupled with Sect Master Zhao flying Mo Hua’s banner as a “genius of a fifth-rank great sect,”

The cultivators up and down the Gray Wolf Sect naturally felt fear and submitted.

In secret, many elders inquired after Mo Hua’s preferences and sent him gifts.

Mo Hua accepted them all, then confiscated these “stolen goods” for public use in the upcoming construction of Gray Wolf City.

As for the so-called “construction” of Gray Wolf City, it was actually simple.

Give poor cultivators a bite to eat.

Give grassroots rogue cultivators a livelihood.

Such things seem simple, but doing them is hard.

Handing out spirit stones would not work.

Rogues at the bottom who receive spirit stones would mostly be robbed; even if they weren’t, they would quickly squander them.

So Mo Hua “used work for relief,” beginning to build an artifact-refining guildhall and expand the provincial roads, hiring the grassroots rogues.

In this way, the rogues had a bite to eat.

The refining hall and the roads could also be completed on schedule.

And once the refining hall was built and the roads opened, then by gathering the rogues along the way, Gray Wolf City could develop further.

At the end, just as former Sect Master Duan had promised Mo Hua in his lifetime, Gray Wolf City would be linked with Immortal-Passage City—prospering together and watching over each other.

Only, Sect Master Duan had been drawing a pie for Mo Hua.

Whereas Mo Hua truly intended to do it.

…

Before the refining hall of Gray Wolf City, the scene was noisy and bustling. Spiritual machinery towered high, and smiths swarmed to and fro.

Construction of the refining hall was in full swing.

Mo Hua inspected once through, nodded, then found a place to sit and drink tea while leafing through Mister Wu’s manuscripts.

He had largely finished arranging the affairs of Gray Wolf City.

In a few days, he planned to leave.

But before leaving, Mo Hua felt a constant sense of dissonance.

He kept feeling he had unintentionally overlooked something…

The longer he studied the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination and the deeper his understanding of causality grew, the stronger this feeling became.

Yet as to what exactly he had overlooked, he had no clue at all.

Thinking it over, he could only guess it might be related to “Mister Wu.”

Thus, these past few days, on and off, he kept flipping through the manuscripts in Mister Wu’s storage pouch.

As he flipped, Mo Hua suddenly noticed a problem: Strictly speaking, this Mister Wu wasn’t exactly “weak”…

Not merely not “weak”—one could even say… quite formidable?

He had run into Mo Hua and been tricked and killed by the seed-of-demon through causality, so he died without understanding. But his attainment in demon-bone divination was actually not low.

Otherwise, as a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, how could he, by following lines of fate and causality, calculate Mo Hua’s fate-pattern and grope alone for so long within the fog of that fate?

The Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination is a transmission of the Great Wilderness.

Then this Mister Wu must be a man of the Great Wilderness.

Why would he travel thousands of miles to this Gray Wolf City?

“Something isn’t quite right…”

Mo Hua frowned, feeling more and more it was fishy.

“Should I calculate Mister Wu’s causality?”

After careful consideration, Mo Hua shook his head.

Causal divination must also follow certain basic rules.

He did not truly know Mister Wu’s past; in causality, that was not knowing the “cause,” which would be harder to calculate.

Moreover, Mister Wu was already dead—killed by Mo Hua himself.

That was not a good thing; in causality, it should be a bad effect.

In that case, for the killer to calculate the victim’s causality was, to some extent… impolite.

If he really had to calculate, he could—using Mister Wu’s relics as the medium to perform causal deduction.

But the problem was… what to calculate?

Causal divination requires a specific person, matter, or object as the medium and clue of “causality” for the deduction.

The more specific the better; the more detailed the better; the more targeted the better—only then will the causality be more precise.

The vaguer and broader it is, the more factors are entangled, and the less accurate the calculation will be.

Right now Mo Hua knew little about Mister Wu, and he didn’t even know which particular matter he should calculate, which people it involved, or which objects it was connected to.

But he could not just ignore it.

“Then I’ll just calculate at random? Whatever I hit, I hit?”

Mo Hua thought it over and decided to try.

Apart from this, there seemed to be no other way.

A mere Mister Wu—however decent his level in causality—couldn’t possibly bring Mo Hua some earth-shaking danger.

All the more so since he was already dead.

Use him as a practice target first and calculate—then decide.

Without hesitation, Mo Hua returned to his room and performed divination according to the methods recorded in the Great Wilderness Demon-Bone Divination.

Within the sealed and quiet room—

Mo Hua took out a brazier, placed a wolf bone upon it, and seared the bone with green phosphorous demon-flame.

When the flame grew scorching and the wolf bone dried and charred,

Mo Hua threw several of Mister Wu’s “relics” into the brazier, silently chanting the incantation in his heart to trace Mister Wu’s past.

The demon-bone divination began.

A surge of powerful causal ripples swept forth…

Mo Hua’s mighty, golden, near-tangible Divine Sense poured out in an instant.

The laws of causality spun at extreme speed.

The Great Wilderness demon-bone divination seemed to be driven by a “god.”

And in the instant Mo Hua’s Divine Sense moved,

The green flame surged, the wolf bone cracked, and a hexagram congealed.

Suddenly, heaven and earth heaved; the vital energies roiled.

Before Mo Hua’s eyes there faintly appeared a grand chain like a dragon’s spine, locking down a scorching, sun-like conflagration of terrifying causality.

Mo Hua’s pupils tightened violently; his heart lurched. At once he swept his hand and overturned the brazier, shattered the wolf bone with spiritual power, snuffed out the phosphorous flame, then used the Fireball Technique to burn everything to ash—utterly “destroying the evidence.”

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