The valley was dotted with numerous caves, both large and small, adding up to around a dozen.
Inside the caves were beds, pills, spiritual artifacts, food, and other various necessities for the cultivators’ daily living and Tao cultivation, indicating that this group of sin cultivators had been hiding here for quite some time.
All the sin cultivators in the valley, those who should be killed were killed, and those who should be captured were captured, not a single one was missed.
What remained was the confiscation of the stolen goods.
This group of sin cultivators had committed murder and plundered many things, a wide array of items, mostly hidden within this valley.
Some less valuable items were not so carefully regarded by the sin cultivators, and were basically strewn everywhere.
The Taoist Court’s cultivators searched each cave one by one, tallying the confiscated goods, recording them, and then placing them in the center of the valley.
There was already quite a pile of items amassed in the valley.
Spiritual artifacts, pills, books, and all sorts of miscellaneous items, everything one could think of.
But it was clear that this was not everything.
Bald Tuo had been robbing Big Black Mountain for so long, it couldn’t just be these items.
“Where are they hidden?”
With a frown, Zhang Lan continued searching the valley, releasing his divine sense while looking for any secret chambers or mechanisms.
Then, he saw Mo Hua standing in front of a rock wall, concentrating hard on something.
Zhang Lan approached and knocked on the rock wall with his hand. The sound was normal, with no abnormalities.
Zhang Lan asked, “Is it hollow?”
Mo Hua nodded his head.
After scanning with his divine sense several times and discovering nothing, to Zhang Lan, it seemed like just an ordinary rock wall. So, he asked, “How did you figure it out?”
“I swept it with my divine sense and could see,” Mo Hua said nonchalantly.
“Alright,” Zhang Lan sighed.
Even though he didn’t want to admit it, he had to acknowledge it.
This kid’s divine sense has already become stronger than his own.
It was a relief that he was not the only one whose divine sense was weaker than Mo Hua’s; among cultivators at the Qi Refining Ninth Level, there were scarcely a few whose divine sense could compare to Mo Hua’s.
“Can we break it open?”
Mo Hua shook his head, “There is a formation inside, and trying to break it forcefully would be very difficult, and we don’t know if there are any traps.”
“Do you have a way?” Zhang Lan asked.
Mo Hua nodded, “I’ll try to break the formation.”
Zhang Lan’s eyelid twitched, “Break the formation?”
“Right, Uncle Zhang, you know about it too?” Mo Hua asked curiously as he glanced at Zhang Lan.
“Of course,” Zhang Lan said, feigning nonchalance, but couldn’t help feeling a tremble inside.
This kid, how did he even know how to break formations?
He had only heard the term “breaking the formation” mentioned in passing by the formation instructor at the Zhang Family’s clan school, and even then, it was vaguely put.
The intricacies of breaking formations were unclear to that instructor as well; he had said that it wasn’t something ordinary formation masters could learn, let alone master.
It was one thing to set up compound formations, and now, breaking formations was coming into play.
Is this really something a first-rate formation master should know?
Zhang Lan coughed and asked cautiously, “This breaking of the formation… it’s not that easy, right? If you can’t break it, never mind, I’ll get someone to smash it open even if it takes some effort.”
Mo Hua scratched his head.
He had just been observing which formation might be used on this rock wall and considering what formation patterns to use to break it.
After watching for a while, he figured out some clues.
Mo Hua said, “It’s fine, let me do it. The formation isn’t complex, it’s probably not first-rate, so it should be easy to break.”
Mo Hua used a rather modest expression.
Formations below the first rate were actually quite easy to break, but one shouldn’t speak too confidently to avoid any mishaps. If he failed to break the formation, it would be rather embarrassing.
“Below first-rate, easy to break…” Zhang Lan sighed.
Alright then, there’s nothing like comparing oneself to make one feel hopeless.
Zhang Lan patted Mo Hua’s shoulder, “We’re counting on you.”