Chapter 22 Clues

Instructor Yan left the formation pavilion and returned to Tongming Peak of Tongxianmen.

Instructors of Tongxianmen all have separate rooms on Tongming Peak, three bedrooms and one living room, with a small courtyard, where they can grow some spiritual flowers and herbs, or raise spiritual beasts.

Instructor Yan's room is clean and tidy, with formation diagrams neatly pasted on the walls, and there is no other decoration.

He flipped through the basic formation books, prepared several formation patterns to be taught in the second half of the month, and then began to correct the formation homework submitted by the Qi Refining disciples.

There are nearly a thousand Qi Refining disciples on Tongxuan Peak of Tongxianmen, and he will correct all the formation homework one by one and mark the errors.

This takes a lot of time and patience, but Instructor Yan still does it meticulously.

This is his habit, and it is also in line with the teachings of his master for many years.

His master also corrected the formations of these disciples in the same way, meticulously and patiently.

Yan Jiaoxi's master was a first-class formation master, and he might not be considered a great formation master in the entire cultivation world. But even so, throughout his life, he did his best to teach and pass on the formation that adheres to the laws of heaven.

Now that his master has passed away, he has become a teacher and can also appreciate his master's painstaking efforts.

As the sky gradually darkened, Yan Jiaoxi lit the lamp and continued to correct the formation.

Tongxianmen is still a remote small sect after all, and the cultivation heritage is weak. Among the nearly a thousand disciples, there are only a few who can draw the basic formation patterns in a decent way.

Those who draw better are generally those who have family learning, or have wealthy families who are willing to spend spirit stones to cultivate them, such as the children of cultivators working in the Daoting Division, or the children of the elders of the sect, or the disciples of the cultivation families in the city.

There are very few people who are truly poor and casual cultivators who can draw good formations.

However, no matter what their origins, Yan Jiaoxi treats everyone equally and only looks at the formation.

If the painting is not good but the attitude is serious, more comments will be made to explain; if the painting is not good and the attitude is sloppy, the comments will be more severe, and the name will be recorded by Yan Jiaoxi;

Occasionally, if there is a good painting, Yan Jiaoxi will feel gratified and write a "excellent" next to the formation to show encouragement.

Yan Jiaoxi patiently corrected it, and when he turned to a formation, his eyes lit up.

The brushwork is very skillful, obviously hard work, and there is a bit of method. Even if it is used to draw a formal formation, this formation pattern is qualified.

Yan Jiaoxi looked up at Juanmei and the two words "ink painting" were written. He nodded and then wrote a "excellent" next to the formation.

This "excellent" is written bigger than the other "excellent".

Yan Jiaoxi turned it over and continued to correct it.

While correcting, Yan Jiaoxi turned it back again and found the formation pattern of ink painting, and frowned.

The brushwork of this array pattern is too skillful, and even looks a bit... effortless?

For a cultivator at the second or third level of Qi Refining, being able to draw a complete array pattern is already good enough.

Thinking of meeting Mo Hua in the Formation Pavilion today, Teacher Yan was in deep thought, and suddenly a question popped up:

"Mo Hua, does he have an elder brother?"

"If his elder brother is good at drawing formations, he can draw well too, so he must have family learning. But if I remember correctly, Mo Hua is obviously just a poor casual cultivator. If he has a little family learning of formations, his family background will not be too bad..."

"His elder brother can help the Formation Pavilion draw formations, so he must have a talent for formations in Tongxian Sect. I have been teaching in Tongxian Sect for nearly ten years, and it seems that I have never taught this person..."

"In other sects? It is unlikely. Brothers of the same family usually join the same sect, not to mention that Tongxian Sect is already the largest sect in the city..."

Teacher Yan tapped his fingers on the table and thought, then temporarily suppressed all kinds of thoughts and concentrated on correcting the formations.

The next day, Instructor Yan got up early, found the manager of Tongming Peak, and asked for a list of the disciples' hometowns. He found the column for Mo Hua and saw the following:

Mo Hua: 10 years old, third level of Qi Refining, middle-lower grade five-element spiritual root...

Father: Mo Shan, demon hunter; Mother: Liu Ruhua, chef.

Besides his parents, there are no other relatives, and no brothers at all.

Instructor Yan had a vague guess in his mind, but he felt it was unlikely.

In the morning formation class, Instructor Yan announced that a temporary assignment would be added, to draw all the five-element formation patterns that had been learned, and to hand them in three days later.

The disciples present suddenly heard the bad news, and they were all like eggplants hit by frost.

Mo Hua didn't care, he had helped the formation pavilion draw formations, and now it was just a few formation patterns, which didn't take much effort.

But why did Instructor Yan suddenly assign these homework?

This didn't seem like what the instructor would do on a daily basis.

Mo Hua was a little confused.

Then An Xiaopang came to Mo Hua for help.

"Mo Hua, you must help me!!" An Xiaopang almost cried.

Who knows why the teacher suddenly assigned homework? Usually, he would assign homework to test the disciples' formation level every few months.

An Xiaopang was caught off guard. He couldn't draw a single formation pattern, and time was tight, so he could only come to Mo Hua for help.

Mo Hua didn't care. These basic array patterns were no longer difficult for him now.

Mo Hua helped An Xiaopang draw the array, and even charged only a friendly price. There were also several fellow disciples who came from wealthy families but were not good at array formations, and Mo Hua agreed.

Mo Hua had array formations to draw and earned spirit stones, so he didn't have the heart to think about anything else.

Three days later, the array formation homework was handed in. Yan Jiaoshi picked out the array pattern drawn by Mo Hua, looked through it carefully, and then put it into the storage bag, and went to Youyuanzhai to find the fat steward.

The fat steward saw Instructor Yan and was a little wary. "Are you here to have tea with me this time, or to ask me to do something?"

Instructor Yan said, "No tea, no business, just asking you something."

The fat steward breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh, that's fine."

"Do you still have the formation diagram that Mo Hua gave you?"

"Mo Hua?" The fat steward was slightly startled, "Oh, that little brother, there is one, what do you want to do?"

"How many sets do you have?"

"There are several sets of both the Bright Fire Formation and the Solid Earth Formation, I'm keeping them for backup."

The fat steward took out a Bright Fire Formation and a Solid Earth Formation that Mo Hua had handed over before, and handed them to Instructor Yan.

Instructor Yan flipped through them, then took out the formation homework handed in by Mo Hua, and compared them one by one with the several formation patterns on it.

After reading it, Instructor Yan took a deep breath.

The fat steward stretched his neck to look and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Teacher Yan pointed at the array patterns and the array formations at hand and asked:

"Do you think these array patterns and these two array formations were drawn by the same person?"

The fat steward took the array patterns and array formations, frowned and looked at them carefully, nodded and said:

"The brushwork is quite similar. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be drawn by the same person..."

The fat steward thought for a while and suddenly said, "Have you seen Mo Hua's brother?"

"Mo Hua has no brother."

"No brother? Then who drew these array formations?"

Teacher Yan looked at the fat steward with an intriguing look.

The fat steward was stunned for a moment, "You won't say that he drew it himself, right?"

Teacher Yan nodded.

The fat steward was silent for a moment, then sneered,

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Let's not talk about this bright fire array. It's possible that he can draw it. There are four array patterns in this solid earth array. Where does he get so much spiritual consciousness? Does he have two heads and two seas of consciousness?"

The fat steward looked at Yan Jiaoxi suspiciously, and then continued:

"You want to say that you taught a genius who can draw arrays at the third level of Qi Refining? You are not trying to flatter yourself... I have known you for so many years, and you are not such a person!"

Yan Jiaoxi looked at him coldly, pointed at the array in front of him and said: "These array patterns and these two arrays were drawn by the same person, and you said this yourself. These array patterns were drawn by Mo Hua, so who drew these two arrays?"

The fat steward was blocked and couldn't speak.

He stared at the array patterns on the left and the array on the right for a long time, and then murmured: "No way..."