The third Householder lifted the meditation cushion he sat on and pointed to the ground, causing the formation patterns on the floor to flash. The stone slab sank, revealing a hidden compartment below.
After hiding the Contemplation Map in the hidden compartment and resealing it with the formation, the third Householder nodded slightly, satisfied with the arrangement.
Going out tonight, if any conflict arose, losing the Contemplation Map could be akin to gouging out his heart, a fate more painful than death.
The bloody pill room, nestled deep within the Black Mountain Stronghold, was a place no one dared to visit on ordinary days.
Even if someone did come, no one would know about the hidden compartment beneath the cushion, let alone that the Contemplation Map was inside it.
In this Black Mountain Stronghold, it was even less likely that anyone could unlock the formation.
Assured in his preparations, the third Householder finally felt completely at ease.
He got up and left, stepping out of the pill room, and before exiting, he also sealed the Blood Formation and closed the Beast Gate.
With the rise of a heavy and grating sound, the Bronze Blood Formation Beast Gate was thoroughly shut.
The pill room plunged into dead silence, with the red hues growing even denser.
While the third Householder left feeling secure, he was unaware that everything he did had been witnessed by Mo Hua from the beam above.
Mo Hua waited a while to ensure that the pill room was empty, and that the third Householder had truly left, then stealthily climbed down from the beam.
Mo Hua first approached the Bronze Beast Gate.
The Beast Gate had been sealed shut, and the formation activated.
Mo Hua had no key—meaning the white skull—and naturally could not open the gate.
Even if he had the key, it wouldn’t open from the inside.
Mo Hua then examined the formation with his divine sense and let out a sigh.
All the patterns drawn on the main gate were Evil Formations, which Mo Hua knew nothing about, much less how to solve them.
“It seems I can’t leave for now…”
Mo Hua sighed again.
Since he couldn’t leave, he might as well take a look at the third Householder’s map.
Mo Hua braced himself and immediately returned to the pill room.
In the pill room, the white bone pill furnace emitted a sinister glow, and a massive pig monster was streaked with blood.
Mo Hua found the position where the third householder contemplated and lifted the meditation cushion there.
Under the cushion, there was nothing.
But with his divine sense, Mo Hua could see the interwoven patterns of the formation.
The tricks of a formation master might deceive an ordinary cultivator, but not Mo Hua, who was also a formation master.
Unless there was a significant gap in their understanding of formations.
The third householder was indeed a foundation building cultivator, but he was also a first-grade formation master.
In terms of formation knowledge, he and Mo Hua were on par; in some areas, he was stronger than Mo Hua, while in others, he was not as skilled as Mo Hua.
Mo Hua checked the formation that the third householder used to seal the hidden compartment.
It was a concealment formation coupled with some compound metal and stone formations.
The concealment formation was for hiding, while the compound metal and stone formations were for reinforcement.
“As long as it’s not an evil formation, that’s good,” Mo Hua murmured to himself.
The third householder probably thought that the evil formation was too conspicuous and not suitable for hiding something, so he used a concealment formation paired with compound formations to obscure and seal the hidden compartment.
After all, near Tongxian City, formation masters capable of creating concealment and compound formations are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
And there were almost none who could unravel these formations.
But Mo Hua was an exception.
When dealing with evil formations, Mo Hua had no solution, but if it was a regular formation, especially a first-grade Five Elements Formation, he could solve it without much effort.
It took Mo Hua only a moment to undo the carefully arranged formations by the third householder, even preserving the integrity of the original formations without any damage to the hidden compartment.
Mo Hua nodded to himself, feeling impressed:
“The solution to the formation that Mr. Zhuang taught me is really useful.”
Otherwise, his infiltration into Black Mountain Stronghold wouldn’t have been so easy.
After unlocking the formations, Mo Hua opened the hidden compartment and carefully extracted the contemplation map within.
The contemplation map was somewhat ancient, the paper looked like both paper and skin, folded together so that the contents could not be seen.
Mo Hua wanted to open it and take a quick look, but suddenly he hesitated.
He remembered what Mr. Zhuang had told him:
“Contemplation maps are extremely rare and harbor dangers; you shouldn’t touch them unless absolutely necessary…”
A chill went through Mo Hua’s heart.
If he were to heed Mr. Zhuang’s words, rashly opening this contemplation map might expose him to unforeseen dangers.