Chapter 628 – Injuries
Not long after, another elder in Great Void Sect robes arrived. His robes were embroidered with a pill furnace at the chest—clearly a Pill Master.
When he saw the scorched mess on the ground and the formation marks all over the walls, he couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.
Then he spotted Mo Hua lying unconscious on the floor.
"Don't just stand there—help him first."
The two elders rushed forward to check on Mo Hua's condition, then breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked miserable, and the injuries were serious—but not fatal.
The Pill Master Elder took out a bottle of spiritual liquid, poured it over Mo Hua's wounds, dissolving the residual fire poison, washing away charred blood, and stopping the bleeding.
Then he took out a pill and fed it to Mo Hua.
After that, he placed his palm over Mo Hua's chest and circulated gentle yet pure wood-type spiritual energy to nourish his meridians and heal his injuries…
After a while, Mo Hua's pale face regained a bit of color, and his breathing stabilized.
But his physical body was too frail, so the healing was slow. He wasn't going to wake up anytime soon.
Unless…
The Pill Master Elder studied him again and felt a jolt of shock.
The Dao Technique Elder muttered bitterly, "I swear I didn't teach him…"
His scalp tingled.
The Pill Master Elder pointed to where the spell-testing puppet had been.
Then he glanced sympathetically at the Dao Technique Elder.
"Good luck. Elder Xun is definitely going to come after you for this."
Besides, even if such a spell existed, with Mo Hua's spiritual root quality and his limited qi sea, there's no way he could learn it—let alone use it…
"If it were that easy, I would've told him to practice it ages ago…"
Looking at the unconscious Mo Hua, the Pill Master Elder felt a little sorry for him. Then he turned to scold the Dao Technique Elder:
"Did you at least figure out what spell he was trying to cast?"
"What do you think? Of course it's a spell! What else—an array formation? The question is, which spell?"
The Dao Technique Elder pondered. "Judging by the traces… it seems like… just… a Fireball Technique…"
The Pill Master Elder's face was blank. "Oh wow, amazing… mind teaching me this Fireball Technique too? Let me expand my horizons."
"I'll go refine some medicine to help him replenish his blood and vitality…"
After all, this kid was just a Foundation Establishment beginner, not even a year into the sect.
The Dao Technique Elder could still feel the lingering heat and the warped spiritual energy in the air. His expression grew grim.
"Why on earth would you teach a kid like this some high-level spell?" the Pill Master Elder asked, baffled.
The Dao Technique Elder frowned. "It's not just the spell's power… it's more like…"
He couldn't put it into words.
"It is a spell…"
Even if the effect wasn't much, it was still better than nothing.
"You think I'm buying that?"
"That puppet may have been built to withstand spells from early Foundation Establishment, but it was forged with high defensive specs. Even mid-stage Foundation disciples can't break it, let alone…"
"Fortunately, only a bit of spiritual energy spread out…"
The Pill Master Elder looked relieved, but shook his head:
"His constitution is way too weak…"
"Delicate body, weak constitution—gets hurt easily, takes forever to recover…"
The Pill Master Elder froze slightly. Seeing the other elder didn't seem to be lying, he looked around—and his face changed slightly.
"With such a weak foundation, if he keeps training like this, his body could wither. Rebounding blood energy might damage him further…"
The Pill Master Elder sighed, helpless.
The Dao Technique Elder was also deeply uneasy.
"It's probably enough for now," the Pill Master Elder said, finally relieved.
The Dao Technique Elder gave a wry smile. "You think I don't know that?"
"You're the Dao Technique Elder. You could at least teach him a bit of body-tempering. It's not about achievements—just getting a stronger body so he doesn't take forever to heal…"
"What did it resemble, anyway?"
"Just some shallow imitation—useless in real combat."
The Pill Master Elder's eyelid twitched. "It was blasted to ash…"
"And body-refining methods are tough and aggressive. Not exactly easy to learn."
"Still ends up injured from a scratch or a bump. Might as well invest time into movement techniques—avoid getting hurt in the first place…"
"A couple weeks of rest and nourishing medicine, and he'll be fine. But his hands are hurt. His meridians are damaged. He can't use spiritual power for a while…"
He really couldn't recall ever teaching Mo Hua any high-powered spell.
"I didn't teach him anything…"
The Dao Technique Elder shook his head. He didn't say more. Thinking of Mo Hua's age and cultivation level, he could hardly believe it. He murmured:
"It… shouldn't be possible…"
When Mo Hua woke up, his head was spinning. His hands ached. His meridians felt sluggish and blocked.
He looked around and realized—
He was lying on a soft, clean white bed. The surroundings were neat and elegant. Incense for focus burned faintly, and there was a subtle bitterness of medicinal herbs in the air.
Beside him sat a woman in the long robes of a Great Void Elder—graceful posture, dignified face, yet with a hint of seductive charm.
She gazed at him silently.
Mo Hua blinked in surprise. "Elder… Murong?"
His voice was hoarse and weak, as though fire-aligned spiritual power still lingered in his wounds, making it hard to even speak.
Elder Murong nodded slightly.
"Old Mr. Xun was worried your injuries might worsen, so he sent you to me."
Mo Hua was momentarily stunned—he hadn't known she was a Pill Master.
Murong Elder stepped closer. Her fingers were slender and fair. She gently touched his forehead and spoke softly, her voice like the evening breeze:
"It's nothing serious anymore…"
"But your left hand suffered burns. The meridians are damaged—you can't use spiritual power for the next half month. Your right hand is flesh-wounded. For the next seven days, no writing or brushwork."
"I'll give you a few bottles of pills. Take one morning and night."
"Alright." Mo Hua nodded weakly. "Thank you, Elder Murong…"
She gave him a gentle smile.
—
After that, a few people came to visit Mo Hua.
First was Yu'er.
After hearing Mo Hua was hurt, he stayed at his bedside, eyebrows furrowed, eyes teary—refused to leave no matter what.
Elder Murong had to prepare him a small bed and blanket so he could sleep nearby.
Yu'er was quiet and obedient. When he woke up, the first thing he did was look at Mo Hua.
When Mo Hua finally woke up, Yu'er's eyes sparkled. He was thrilled.
But since Mo Hua needed rest, Yu'er only stayed a while before heading back to the disciples' quarters to do his studies.
Murong Caiyun also came by, bringing pills and some nourishing food.
When she saw Mo Hua was okay, she was relieved. She gently reminded him:
"Be more careful when cultivating spell techniques. Don't hurt yourself again."
Mo Hua nodded obediently.
He also overheard something:
Murong Shijie called Elder Murong "auntie," so clearly—they were related.
Shangguan Xu also visited. Besides medicine, he brought a lot of snacks.
"My aunt asked me to bring these to you…"
"You're still in the Great Void Sect, so it's hard for her to visit. But once you recover, come to the Gu Clan. She'll arrange for a Shangguan Clan Pill Master to help treat your body—so there are no lingering injuries."
Mo Hua nodded gratefully.
"Thank you, Senior Brother Xu… and thank Aunt Wan for me too."
Some other disciples also came to check on their "Little Senior Brother."
Seeing that he was in decent condition, they relaxed—then began chatting noisily around him:
"Mo Hua, we heard you blew yourself up while practicing spell techniques?"
"No way!"
"What spell was it?"
"Don't tell me it was… Fireball?"
"Impossible!"
"Why not?"
"That's all Mo Hua knows—Fireball…"
"If we leave the sect, we're pretending we don't know you."
"Don't tell anyone our Little Senior Brother blew himself up with Fireball!"
Mo Hua shot them a disdainful look.
"What's wrong with Fireball? Once I master it, I'll make you all cry with one!"
"I don't believe it!"
"Big talk! Got any notes for that nonsense?"
"Fireball… seriously?"
…
Mo Hua bickered back and forth with them, and the atmosphere finally lightened.
Mo Hua bantered and bickered with the others, and the room grew lively.
But Elder Murong said calmly,
"This is a pill chamber. He needs quiet recovery. Off to your classes—all of you."
"Yes… Elder."
The disciples who'd been scheming to skip class instantly bowed and shuffled off with drooping heads.
Only Cheng Mo lingered reluctantly. He clutched Mo Hua's arm and whispered:
"Mo Hua, get better soon and come back to teach us array formations…"
Old Mister Xun was way too strict. His lectures were too advanced, and the homework? Absolutely brutal. Cheng Mo just couldn't handle it.
Compared to him, Mo Hua—this "Little Senior Brother"—was a blessing.
Old Mister Xun also came to visit Mo Hua.
His expression was stern, and he didn't say much. He simply told Mo Hua to focus on recovery. But just as he was leaving, he paused and quietly advised:
"Spells and combat… if you're not good at them, it's okay to let them go."
"Your foundation isn't strong. There's no need to force yourself to follow others and train in destructive arts."
"Mastering array formations is enough for you to gain a foothold in the cultivation world. No one will dare to look down on you."
"If you run into trouble—if someone gives you a hard time—just speak up. The sect will back you."
"Don't push yourself too hard trying to learn these violent spells…"
"And don't hurt yourself."
Mo Hua felt a warm rush in his heart and nodded quickly.
"I understand. Thank you, sir!"
Old Mister Xun wasn't sure if Mo Hua had really taken it to heart. He gave a small nod and left.
By dusk, the Dao Technique Elder also quietly came to see Mo Hua.
As the one responsible for teaching spells, he felt a degree of responsibility—even if he hadn't directly caused the injury.
Seeing Mo Hua sitting up in bed, his left hand bandaged, his little face still pale but his eyes bright and clear, the elder finally relaxed.
After a few polite words, he hesitated, then leaned in and asked softly:
"Mo Hua… what spell did you use in the Dao Technique Hall?"
Since he both taught and researched spells, he was naturally curious—especially about unfamiliar or unusual ones.
He really wanted to know what spell Mo Hua had used to obliterate a fully functional spell-testing puppet.
Mo Hua blinked, his eyes lighting up.
Since waking, he'd been thinking about the "fusion of spells".
But the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Why had merging two Fireball Techniques—using sheer willpower and divine sense—produced such explosive power?
If he hadn't forcibly reversed the spell's trajectory with his divine sense at the last moment…
He wouldn't just have injured his hands—his life might've been at risk.
Mo Hua simply couldn't figure it out.
It was just two Fireballs. There was no reason such a fusion should create that much power.
Even the aftermath alone had left him severely wounded…
It just didn't make sense.
So when the elder asked, Mo Hua had plenty of questions himself.
After a moment's thought, he replied:
"I felt like a single Fireball wasn't strong enough, so I tried to fuse two together… to increase the power… and then it exploded."
The Dao Technique Elder frowned.
"Ridiculous. Who told you to 'fuse' spells like that?"
"Then how should you fuse spells?" Mo Hua asked earnestly.
"You've misunderstood," the elder shook his head.
"Spell fusion isn't like mixing dough. You don't slap two finished spells together and hope for the best."
"Spell fusion, at its core, is fusion of runic structures—not post-casting, but pre-casting."
"It's a complete, pre-designed fusion spell, which just happens to look like it's combining things when cast."
Mo Hua's eyes widened with sudden clarity.
He remembered how Grandpa Kui had shown him how to cast Fireball—first condensing fire threads, then weaving them into a spell structure.
In truth, it wasn't a fusion of separate Fireball Techniques at all.
It was a completely independent and cohesive spell.
He'd imitated that process, but since he was working it out on his own behind closed doors, he must've… accidentally taken the wrong path.
Yet, despite the detour—the power was astonishing.
So powerful, in fact, that even he hadn't expected it.
But why?
Mo Hua blinked and glanced at the Dao Technique Elder.
The elder caught his look and started feeling uneasy. What kind of strange ideas was this kid cooking up again?
"Elder…" Mo Hua said softly, "What if—just what if—"
"There were two 'twin' cultivators, with identical divine sense, identical spiritual roots, and they each cast exactly the same spell…"
"There's no such thing as 'twin cultivators' like that," the elder cut in.
"I said what if," Mo Hua insisted seriously. "If there were… and their spells collided… would they fuse?"
He looked very curious.
The Dao Technique Elder groaned internally. These were the kinds of students that gave him headaches—the ones with wild ideas and strange, perfectly logical-sounding questions.
The kind that technically made sense, but were exhausting to answer.
He rubbed his temples, then followed Mo Hua's line of thought:
"Even with identical divine sense and spiritual roots, the spells wouldn't necessarily be exactly the same—because casting time differs."
"For a cultivator, time is also a kind of law."
"The time a spell is cast, combined with its spiritual structure, becomes part of its unique signature—though most cultivators ignore this."
"Then… what if the casting time is also exactly the same?" Mo Hua asked.
The elder muttered, "If that's the case, then the two spells would be nearly identical—originating from the same source. And if they collided…"
"Two possibilities."
The elder theorized based on spell principles:
"One, they instantly fuse—creating a massive, combined fireball."
"Or two, they enter a state of mutual attraction and repulsion. They get close, but don't merge—kind of like the Taixu Two Aspects: coexisting in harmony, yet mutually exclusive."
Mo Hua's eyes lit up with admiration.
As expected of the Dao Technique Elder of the Great Void Sect—he could deduce the truth with just theory.
"Then… what if the two Fireballs were in that state—mutually repelling, but not fusing?" Mo Hua asked again.
"Then…" the elder began—but suddenly paused. "Wait. How do you know that!?"
Because I did try it!
And blew myself up doing it!
Mo Hua muttered in his heart.
But that kind of thing wasn't exactly something he could say out loud, so he deflected with a casual,
"Just a guess…"
Before the Dao Technique Elder could react, Mo Hua quickly followed up:
"So… if that's the case, why do they repel each other?"
Sure enough, the elder continued following Mo Hua's train of thought and began pondering again:
"Because fundamentally, their spell structures are still different."
"The structure of a spell formula is the core framework of a spell—it defines how the spiritual energy is arranged and expressed."
"And spell structures are inherently repulsive to one another."
"Even for the same cultivator casting the same spell multiple times, while the spell formulas may be similar, each instance is still independently formed and distinct."
"It's like refining standardized spiritual tools. The mold is the same, and they look identical, but each tool is still its own unique item."
"So your so-called 'twin' Fireballs may seem identical on the surface—but the internal spell structures are separate and self-contained."
Mo Hua nodded excitedly.
As expected of the Dao Technique Elder—his reasoning lined up exactly with Mo Hua's own deductions!
He, too, had suspected that the repulsion between the Fireballs came from differences in their underlying spell structures.
So he asked again:
"Can these two 'twin' Fireballs be used to create a fused spell?"
The elder shook his head,
"No. Their internal structures repel each other. They simply can't merge."
"Is there a way to make them fuse?"
The elder actually paused and seriously considered it… before still shaking his head.
Mo Hua blinked innocently.
"What if…"
"You use brute force—strong divine sense—to forcibly push the Fireballs into a high-speed collision. Would they fuse then?"
"A collision?" The elder frowned, shaking his head.
"Still no good."
"That's more of a 'convergence' than a true fusion—and it's extremely risky. It destabilizes the spell structure."
"If you use divine sense to forcibly compress them into convergence, the internal structures will collapse, and without the spell's containment, the spiritual energy becomes volatile—leading to an uncontrolled release of power…"
The elder's voice trailed off.
He suddenly froze.
His eyes widened in horror.
He looked at Mo Hua and stammered,
"You didn't…"
You didn't actually cause the spell structure to collapse through forced Fireball collision and create that huge destructive force that vaporized the spell-testing puppet…?
Then he frowned again,
"How did you even…"
How did you do that?
Identical "twin" Fireballs…
Forceful divine sense control…
Intentional convergence…
Could someone in the early Foundation Establishment stage even do that?
Mo Hua said meekly,
"I was just randomly guessing… asking out of curiosity…"
The Dao Technique Elder stared at him silently.
Yeah, right. And I'm the Jade Emperor.
Still, he couldn't help but feel a little awed.
As expected of Old Mister Xun.
Truly had an eye for talent.
The disciple he valued wasn't just skilled in array formations—he could also approach spellcasting from entirely unconventional angles, and analyze it so thoroughly…
That said… since this was Old Mister Xun's favored disciple, he probably shouldn't pry too much into the kid's secrets.
After a long pause, the elder's expression hardened slightly, as if he'd made a decision. Then he began sharing something he normally wouldn't teach—a piece of spellcasting theory:
"Spells are formed by channeling spiritual energy outward—spells are like a spiritual energy 'coat.'"
"But the inner transformation of spiritual energy also contains immense destructive potential."
"Typical spells use spiritual energy to form structured spell formulas—turning them into killing arts."
"But the reverse is also true…"
The elder's gaze sharpened, his tone low:
"By manipulating a spell to disrupt its own formula structure… you can trigger a spiritual mutation—a volatile explosion of uncontrolled energy."
"That kind of internal instability can unleash terrifying destructive power."
Mo Hua's eyes widened in realization.
Isn't this basically… Formation Collapse?
Though the method was different—one applied to array formations, the other to spells—the spiritual energy's transformation was similar: one through collapse, the other through fission.
But in principle, they were the same!
The elder noticed how quickly Mo Hua grasped the concept and was momentarily stunned.
This kid… he's definitely done something like this before.
How is he picking this up so fast?
The elder decided he'd said too much. He gave a polite cough and stood up:
"It's getting late. I'd best be going."
Mo Hua politely replied,
"Take care, Elder."
But there was still one thing that had been bothering him. After hesitating a bit, he couldn't hold back anymore.
"By the way, Elder…"
Mo Hua asked quietly,
"…What's your surname?"
The Dao Technique Elder was struck like thunder from a clear sky. He stood frozen on the spot.
He looked… hurt. Disbelieving. A little angry.
"After all this time—you don't even know my name!?"
Mo Hua looked a bit sheepish.
He couldn't help it—there were so many elders in the sect. Some taught temporarily, others got swapped around. Some he only recognized by face, not name.
He gave an awkward smile.
The elder sighed and finally said,
"My surname is Yi…"
(End of this Chapter)