Immortality Through Array Formations Chapter 2145 - 1010: Shi Tiangang (2)

Shi Tiangang remained completely oblivious to the reality unfolding around him.

Yet the onlookers grasped everything with perfect clarity.

Beyond the sword arena, projected high in the Fan Tian painting, almost every cultivator observing the clash perceived it all distinctly.

Mo Hua wasn't relying on any sophisticated movement skill whatsoever.

Throughout, his footwork stayed as rudimentary as the Flowing Water Step.

That said, he layered the Concealment Technique right over the Flowing Water Step!

Shi Tiangang chased relentlessly, while Mo Hua evaded, and in moments when flight proved impossible, Mo Hua would slip into thickets, crouch behind massive boulders, or weave past towering trunks.

By leveraging the rugged rocks and dense woodland to block lines of sight, he secretly activated the Concealment Technique, fading from view without a trace, then casually looped back to position himself behind Shi Tiangang.

After that, he dropped the concealment, exposed his form once more, and resumed drawing Shi Tiangang deeper into pursuit.

To be fair, this tactic isn't exactly ingenious.

It's merely the straightforward Flowing Water Step combined with the sneaky Concealment Technique.

Those watching from afar picked up on it immediately.

However, Shi Tiangang, immersed in the chaos, acted like a fool with a blindfold, flailing about directionless like a fly without a head, blind to Mo Hua's deceptions.

The audience felt frustration building on his behalf.

"Concealment Technique!"

"How does this Shi Tiangang fail to spot such a basic ploy?"

"Getting spun around by the Concealment Technique like this, what a massive presence, acting every bit the gleaming idiot..."

A good number of cultivators seethed with a mix of worry and irritation.

Irritated by Mo Hua's sly maneuvers, worried over Shi Tiangang's apparent cluelessness.

Still, certain Daoist elders monitoring the fight knitted their brows in thought.

In particular, those elders from different sects who had explored the Concealment Technique, practiced it, and probed its depths, appeared contemplative after brief reflection.

They realized the matter wasn't quite so straightforward.

It wasn't that Shi Tiangang overlooked it; rather, Mo Hua's handling of the Concealment Technique proved far too unorthodox.

Typically, when cultivators trigger the Concealment Technique, be it for slipping into hiding or emerging from it, they need time to cast the spell and undergo a slow fading process.

Mo Hua stood apart in this regard.

His activation of concealment happened at blinding speed, with the fading phase so negligible that in an instant, he vanished entirely.

Furthermore, he always timed his hiding with natural cover from trees and rocks to shield his presence.

His execution of the Concealment Technique left absolutely no hints behind.

Shi Tiangang's failure to pierce the illusion right away was entirely expected.

Without the Fan Tian painting revealing Mo Hua's actions in vivid detail, even a few Daoist Law elders on site might have missed spotting Mo Hua's quirky ploy at first glance.

"This kid's way of wielding spells is genuinely... extraordinary..."

"Hmm, he's sharp-witted, with keen insight, naturally gifted in Taoist Skills."

"It's fortunate his Spiritual Root is weak, his Spiritual Power limited, or else... if he mastered even a couple of advanced Daoist Magics, paired with his outrageous Divine Sense and this spellcasting insight, it would be downright frightening..."

"You're right..."

Many elders exchanged hushed words of quiet awe.

One elder then inquired:

"But this Shi Tiangang, why hasn't he... picked up on the irregularity yet?"

"No matter how craftily the Concealment Technique is deployed, it's still just a Concealment Technique at heart. This young Mo Hua, darting about in hiding, has to leave some clues behind."

"Overlooking it at the start makes sense."

"But after all this cat-and-mouse chasing and still not catching on, it's getting tough to excuse..."

Or could it be that... the body cultivators from the Vajra Sect boast only brute strength, with brains as simple as stone?

Naturally, such notions lingered only in their thoughts; voicing them would stir up trouble.

Vajra Sect body cultivators were hulking brutes with fists like massive pots, not the sort to cross lightly.

Back within the sword arena.

Shi Tiangang's thoughts still hadn't clicked into place.

For there was a detail that most Daoist elders viewing via the Fan Tian painting overlooked in that brief span.

Mo Hua's technique wasn't merely an ordinary Concealment Technique.

It was, in fact, the Minor Five Elements Stealth Skill.

The Minor Five Elements Stealth allowed blending seamlessly into the Five Elements, vanishing amid the natural world.

This had been a signature supreme art of the Five Hidden Sect, among the Qian Learning Hundred Gates.

Yet the Five Hidden Sect had faded long ago, withdrawing from the Qian Learning State Boundary to parts unknown, perhaps even perishing entirely.

Its lone inheritor, the Hidden elder-second, fell to treachery and wound up passing the skill to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua had shattered his schemes, claiming this Stealth Technique as his own.

Thanks to his special gifts, Mo Hua's command of the Minor Five Elements Stealth Skill likely outshone even the sect's original disciples by leagues.

Armed with potent Divine Sense, a Five Elements Spiritual Root, and deep knowledge of Five Elements Formations, he masked his presence through the ambient elements, refining his hiding prowess via countless "daring" escapes from peril.

Shi Tiangang stood no chance of sensing him.

Even a different Initial Golden Core cultivator might struggle to uncover Mo Hua's Stealth Technique.

Had Mo Hua wished purely to flee, he could have hidden outright, leaving Shi Tiangang searching in vain.

The sole reason he revealed himself now and then was to keep Shi Tiangang occupied, luring him onward in the hunt.

This way, Xiaoxiao and her group could more effectively take down the remaining Vajra Sect disciples.

The pair continued their pursuit and evasion through the woods like this.

A few more cycles went by, and Shi Tiangang remained clueless about Mo Hua's concealment, not even suspecting the use of a Concealment Technique.

Nevertheless, he began to feel that something was amiss.

Mo Hua's motions struck him as bizarrely elusive, popping up and vanishing like a specter, one moment in this spot, the next in that.

What's more, his aura would abruptly dissolve.

It scarcely resembled proper movement technique, feeling instead like some kind of "ruse."

And he, Shi Tiangang, was the one getting "played."