Immortality Through Array Formations Chapter 2091 Chapter 993: Odds of Victory (2)

The Sect Master of Taixu considered briefly, then spoke:

"This Ouyang Xuan ranks as the top talented and mighty disciple from the Tai'a lineage in this era, yet his personality appears rather poor, and his character tends to be quite stubborn..."

He aimed for Mo Hua to ready his mind beforehand, preventing any potential clashes.

Mo Hua replied: "Sect Master, no need to fret. My own temper is foul too, and I'm pretty stubborn myself. We'll likely get on well."

Taixu Sect Master: "..."

"Truly... no issues?" the Taixu Sect Master asked deliberately.

"None at all," Mo Hua affirmed with a nod, "I actually prefer 'stubborn' folks."

The Taixu Sect Master stayed quiet for quite some time, then let out a sigh: "Fine then..."

With that, the decision was finalized.

By adding Ouyang Xuan from the Tai'a Sect, Mo Hua's group was now fully assembled.

Still, Mo Hua hadn't encountered this "Ouyang Xuan" yet, so he remained unaware of his disposition, cultivation base, or teamwork style, which made planning tricky. This matter would have to wait until they met.

Within the Disciple's Residence, Mo Hua faced a stack of maps.

These maps illustrated diverse landscapes like peaks, streams, marshes, sheer cliffs, ancient remnants, caverns, and more.

Senior Sister Murong had provided all of them to him.

Such landscapes could appear during the Sword Discussion Conference.

Besides, there were assorted strategy layouts, Formation Diagrams, and Spiritual Artifact Forging Diagrams.

These represented combat tactics he had practiced in simulations.

Even with such thorough readiness, Mo Hua couldn't shake off his anxiety.

Sword discussions differ greatly from formation debates.

Formations remain his forte; no matter the foe, he wouldn't feel daunted, particularly against disciples from the Qian Learning State Boundary's sects.

But for sword discussions, he lacked any real battle experience.

Without hands-on fights, just "watching" fell short.

Furthermore, his viewing was limited to one prior event—and that was before the overhaul.

Post-sect reform, the sword discussion rules and setup had shifted.

Back then, Mo Hua concentrated solely on the Formation Competition prep, so he skipped attending live.

He'd only caught wind of alterations through hearsay, never seeing them firsthand.

As a result, his strategies went untested, leaving him doubtful about their success.

The Sword Discussion Conference involved hordes of entrants, varied grounds, shifting setups, and loads of unknowns.

Plus, surrounded by so many elites, even with him and Xiaoxiao, snagging the top spot felt like grasping at the moon.

"This doesn't look promising, perhaps... I ought to divine it?"

Mo Hua paused briefly, pulled out a Copper Coin, performed a quick divination, and furrowed his brow intensely.

Heavenly secret divination tracks from "cause" to "effect."

In the present circumstances, despite his schemes, preparations, and advantages, the "effect" of claiming first in the sword discussion stayed absent.

The gap between this cause and effect stretched enormously.

This signaled that securing first in the sword discussion was an almost hopeless dream.

Mo Hua looked contemplative.

This served as the mark of "Heavenly secret," assessing causal links.

To others, "Heavenly secret" might feel vague and hard to pin down.

Yet the deeper Mo Hua delved, the clearer it became that Heavenly secret's core rested in piling up immense causal chains, with causality forming the root of everything.

Still, owing to Heavenly secret's profound layers and causality's fluid shifts, it typically seems slippery.

But the underlying patterns reveal themselves.

Only by amassing sufficient real "causes" can the hoped-for "effect" emerge in time.

As one versed in "Heavenly secret Divination," "Tricky Divination," and "Back Origin Divination," boasting superior Divine Thought and having proven the Dao via Divine Sense, Mo Hua neared a "Heavenly secret instinct" through ongoing contact with factual realities and causal principles.

This instinct stayed straightforward.

But thanks to Mo Hua's potent Divine Sense and profound grasp of Divine Thought, it resembled an "inborn" perception.

He scarcely required divination or deep probing; a mere reflection showed this route led nowhere.

He yearned to take first in the Formation Competition.

Yet this "effect" drifted far away, high in the clouds.

Mo Hua let out a soft sigh.

"It still won't do..."

"Just how can I claim first in the Formation Competition?"

This puzzle had plagued Mo Hua for days, lingering even during meals or strolls as he mulled it over.

The harder he pondered, the more he sank into a rut.

His personal power remained fairly constrained.

Though Xiaoxiao excelled, he stood alone.

The elite youths from the Four Great Sects made up entire teams.

Without undue pride and viewing it fairly, it was evident that grabbing first in the sword discussion lay beyond his reach.

Unless fortune smiled extraordinarily.

But fortune proves fickle and unreliable.

Beyond the Disciple's Residence, amid a modest thicket, Mo Hua pondered this dilemma while strolling the trail after lessons.

He missed the greeting entirely.

"Junior Brother..."

"Junior Brother?"

Mo Hua jolted awake, realizing Xie Ling was hailing him.

Xie Ling passed him several Jade Slips, "Junior Brother, since you expressed interest in cultivators' 'tombs' and yin residence formations earlier, I collected these for you to review."

"Oh..." Mo Hua murmured distractedly.

Following his trip to the Solitary Mountain City graveyard, he recognized that tomb formations and related lore formed holes in his Dao path.

Despite entering a tomb once, plenty of nuances escaped him still.

Thus, he turned to Xie Ling, from the Gen State's Qiongyin Realm and heir to familial geomancy arts, for guidance and material hunts.

The cultivation realm spans endlessly, yet a cultivator's years are finite, limiting their wisdom and encounters too.