Chapter 1180: Changing Fate

This scene of blood and fire was something Mo Hua did not wish to see.

Mo Hua still hoped Seeing Dan Zhu could have a better future.

In this age, good people are rare. Moreover, Seeing Dan Zhu not only has a kind heart but also extraordinary talent; if he truly lost his goodness and became a cold, ruthless tyrant, it would be a terrible waste.

"It would be best if his fate could be changed—"

Mo Hua silently thought to himself.

Adhering to the principle of "know yourself and know your enemy," in the days that followed, Mo Hua devoted most of his time to learning about the Dan Que tribe.

He used the Dan Que tribe as an example to analyze the history, power structure, internal conflicts, lineage, and military strength of the barbarian great tribes.

The Dan Que tribe was a great tribe of the wilderness.

But in ancestral times, the Dan Que tribe was even more powerful, once reaching the rank of fourth-class, as one of the Wang Hou tribes of the Great Wilderness Wang Ting.

Only later did it split apart.

Now, throughout the Mountain Realm, besides the Dan Que tribe, there were another five or six tribes.

For example, the Hong Luan tribe, the Huo Ying tribe, the Yan Yi tribe, the Bi Fang tribe—all of them, back then, belonged to the same Wang Hou tribe as Dan Que, and even shared bloodlines.

But after the Wang tribe declined, each tribe fell into internal strife and slaughter, eventually fracturing into pieces.

And to become a "Wang Hou" tribe under the Great Wilderness Wang Ting, Mo Hua surmised, required two conditions:

One, being a fourth-class tribe.

The other, worshipping the Four Symbols.

Only tribes that took the Four Symbols—Qing Long, Zhu Que, Bai Hu, and Xuan Wu—as their totems had the qualification to become Wang Hou of the Great Wilderness.

And among them, the strongest should be the Qing Long tribe.

Thus, the Qing Long tribe was the "Imperial Clan" of the Great Wilderness Wang Zu.

But these were merely Mo Hua's preliminary deductions based on existing clues and his understanding of the Great Wilderness.

Whether this was truly the case remained to be verified.

Yet Mo Hua vaguely felt the overall framework of the Great Wilderness Wang Ting should be just as he imagined.

Still, this deduction left him with many puzzling questions.

For instance, the relationship between the divine beasts and the tribes.

When tribes venerate divine beasts, do they regard them as gods, as barbarian deities, or as some kind of special spiritual totem?

Do the divine beasts exist only in the "spiritual" realm, or do they also appear on the level of the "physical" world?

Do the divine beasts possess flesh and blood?

What form does the relationship between divine beasts and humans within the tribes take? Is it one-way worship, mutual dependence, or mutual exploitation?

Also, regarding the demonic beasts of the "tiger" kind.

In Great Wilderness legends, "tiger demons" are variants of the divine beast Bai Hu.

Some tiger demons may carry the bloodline of Bai Hu.

They are variants of the divine beast, hence heterobeasts.

What of the other Four Symbols' heterobeasts?

Do Qing Long, Zhu Que, and Xuan Wu have corresponding bloodline heterobeasts?

Why is it only the tiger demon?

And why does the Great Wilderness Wang Ting treat tiger demons as the mounts of Wang Hou, as symbols of Wang Hou status?

Why do they not use Qing Long heterobeasts, Zhu Que heterobeasts, or Xuan Wu heterobeasts as mounts?

Is there some other reason behind this?

Could the large tiger he had raised since childhood with dried fish really carry the bloodline of Bai Hu?

How did the bloodline of the divine beast Bai Hu survive and flow into these ordinary demonic beasts?

The more Mo Hua pondered these questions, the more perplexed he became.

The cultivation world is vast, its knowledge infinite.

Sometimes, the more one learns, the more one realizes how little one knows.

The answers to these questions likely lie hidden in certain ancient texts preserved in the Dan Que tribe's forbidden zone.

Mo Hua could not suppress his curiosity; he had several times wanted to conceal his presence and sneak directly into the Dan Que tribe's forbidden zone to secretly pore over their treasured ancient books and resolve his doubts.

But he ultimately held back.

The Dan Que tribe was no small tribe; its ancestors were even part of the Wang Ting, with considerable stature—it would never allow him to come and go as he pleased, to go wherever he wished.

What if the forbidden zone still harbored an ancestral elder?

Then Mo Hua's rash intrusion would be tantamount to seeking death.

As for historical secrets, Mo Hua could learn no further.

Beyond this, he had also, through indirect inquiries and covert observation, gathered much other key information.

First, the Sacred Patterns.

The term "Sacred Pattern" was a direct semantic translation from the barbarian script into Dao Court characters.

Sacred Pattern means "Pattern of the Sacred Beast," namely the array patterns of the Four Symbols.

In the Great Wilderness, spiritual stones are scarce, and the transmission of five-element and eight-trigram arrays is rare; the vast majority of array transmissions are Four Symbol beast-pattern arrays.

Strictly speaking, only divine beast patterns may be called "Sacred Patterns."

But the Great Wilderness's array transmission is backward, monopolized by the Wang Ting or great tribes, and ordinary people do not study arrays, so they blindly revere the Four Symbol arrays.

To them, even ordinary beast patterns and demonic patterns are "Sacred Patterns."

In the eyes of the Great Wilderness barbarians, the foundation of arrays is the pattern; "pattern" is equivalent to "array."

Thus, for most barbarians, the term "Sacred Pattern" is essentially synonymous with "array."

This is due to different regional backgrounds, different cultivation histories, and different method lineages.

In Mo Hua's view, the "Dao" of formations, and their fundamental laws, are largely the same.

But this "Dao" of formations, when practiced and applied under different times, different races, different cultivators, and different environments, gives rise to countless varieties of schools and lineages.

Even the meanings of terms differ accordingly.

The essence is one, yet its external, concrete manifestations vary immensely.

"The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name."

This is the relationship between the "Dao" of formations and the "names" of formations.

A formation master seeking the Great Dao may need to do the opposite: thoroughly comprehend all surface "names," and through these myriad, divergent "manifestations," distill the singular Great Dao of formations.

This understanding is extremely important.

It is a realization impossible to grasp for those who have always remained under the Dao Ting's rule, studying only the Dao Ting's standardized formations.

"Formation is the principle of heaven and earth's natural order—not human-defined 'names,' nor the Dao Ting's prescribed patterns, nor artificially imposed ranks."

Mo Hua suddenly grew distant in thought.

The same words had been spoken to him by Mr. Jie Zhili when he was young.

Back then, Mo Hua had merely memorized them in his heart; now, having left Jiuzhou and seen the Dao traditions of the Great Wilderness, he truly felt them more deeply.

He finally understood that his master's teachings back then were each a pearl, not a single word false.

Formation encompasses all things, yet is constantly shifting and flowing, unbound by any rank, category, or form.

Hence one must study widely, draw from diverse sources, and ultimately integrate them all.

One must not follow others' standards, nor treat others' formation schools as the ultimate standard, but instead walk one's own path, using one's own spiritual awareness to penetrate the surface of all formation patterns and glimpse the essence of formation, shaping one's own "formation school."

What others teach is always theirs.

What one awakens to oneself is truly one's own.

All these principles are contained within Mr. Jie Zhili's past teachings.

They seem merely idle "words," with no practical use.

And indeed, Mr. Jie Zhili never taught Mo Hua the true supreme secret of formation: the "Immortal Heaven Formation School."

Yet Mo Hua instead felt that the seemingly ordinary principles his master taught him were in fact the true "secrets" of formation.

"All things in the world: what exists is used for advantage; what does not exist is used for function."

What seems useful can bring only temporary benefit.

What seems useless, once comprehended, can truly benefit one for life.

"My master truly had profound intentions toward me—"

Mo Hua's expression softened for a long while; a faint ache rose in his heart, and he could not help but feel longing again.

Moments later, he suddenly realized something, and forcibly suppressed his longing deep within, forcing himself not to

think of it anymore.

After a while, once his emotions had calmed, Mo Hua focused his mind and resumed considering the Dan Que tribe's affairs.

"Sacred Glyph—"

Mo Hua had verified it.

The Dan Que tribe indeed possessed a lineage of "Sacred Glyphs," but these lineages were held by certain "Elders-in-Chief."

The Elders-in-Chief were mysterious in identity and rarely appeared; Mo Hua had no access to them.

The highest application of the Dan Que tribe's Sacred Glyphs lies upon a suit of armor.

With this armor, the Dan Que tribe can forge a elite barbarian force unique to them:

the Crimson Feather Troop.

How strong this troop truly is, what its characteristics are—Mo Hua has never seen it, nor does he know.

He only knows that the Crimson Feather Troop was the Dan Que tribe's strongest combat force in history.

Even within the Great Wilderness Wang Ting's army, once filled with mighty warriors, it was among the finest barbarian troops.

A peak second-rank Crimson Feather Troop could even charge head-on and slay Jin Dan experts, revealing its immense power.

But all this Mo Hua heard from idle chatter among Dan Que tribespeople; how much of it was exaggeration, he could not tell.

If he ever got the chance, he truly wished to see with his own eyes the majestic might of the Dan Que tribe's strongest barbarian force, the Crimson Feather Troop.

Furthermore, Mo Hua also studied deeply the Dan Que tribe's power structure.

The leader of the Dan Que tribe is naturally the Great Chief, Seeing Dan Zhu's father, Dan Lie.

He has a massive, imposing physique, appears somewhat lustful, yet possesses great depth of strategy.

Beyond him are the trusted confidants of the chief's direct lineage, as well as each young master and the barbarian cultivation forces under their respective sub-tribes.

Aside from the Great Chief, another major power is the "Elders' Council."

In each branch tribe of the Dan Que, any barbarian cultivator above Jin Dan may become an "Elder."

Among the Elders, those with high status and strong ability may enter the Elders' Council and participate in major tribal decisions.

The main power of the Elders' Council lies in the hands of the "Elders-in-Chief."

Below the Elders-in-Chief are the "Left Elder" and the "Right Elder."

The Left Elder and Right Elder hold equally high status and may be regarded as the Elders-in-Chief's left and right arms.

When the Elders-in-Chief retire, the next Elders-in-Chief will be chosen from among the Left and Right Elders.

Other Elders beyond the Elders-in-Chief, Left Elder, and Right Elder are further divided into "Senior Elders" and "Junior Elders."

Senior Elders must be at least mid-Jin Dan cultivation.

Junior Elders are mostly early-Jin Dan.

Promotion from Junior Elder to Senior Elder is not based solely on cultivation level.

Birth, bloodline, talent, ability, contributions to the tribe—each carries its own rules.

You must also consider the "quota."

If no vacancy exists among the senior elders, junior elders cannot be promoted—they can only wait in line for a spot.

The Elder Council and the Great Chief balance each other: when you grow strong, I grow weak; when I grow strong, you grow weak—there is much deceit and competition over interests.

Though it seems a "barbaric" tribe, the rules of power are intricate, and the gap between senior and junior ranks is stark.

This is the view from "above."

From below, the Danque Tribe maintains a complete "support" system.

Small tribes pay tribute to mid-tier tribes to seek protection.

Outsider tribes pay tribute to the direct-line tribes to seek shelter.

Some tribes, bound only by marriage ties and dependent on the Danque Tribe with no means of self-defense, are shunned and exploited by all other tribes.

They pay tribute everywhere, just to survive and protect themselves.

Often, they don't even know who ultimately receives their tribute.

How much they must "pay" is an endless pit.

Essentially, beyond the bare minimum of food needed to survive, every "surplus" asset is stripped clean.

These "exploitations" include not only food and wealth, but also people.

Especially young, beautiful tribal women.

This is the "bottom."

Of course, beneath the bottom lies "people"—these are the so-called "barbarian slaves."

Barbarian slaves are usually captured prisoners or clan members punished for grave offenses and reduced to "slaves."

The children of barbarian slaves are slaves for life.

Barbarian slaves are, in fact, the most numerous "people" in the Danque Tribe.

Daily, they are pigs and dogs, oxen and horses, servants and laborers; in war, they are foot soldiers and cannon fodder.

Barbarian slaves are not regarded as "people"—no one pays them any heed.

When a barbarian slave dies, it is no different from a pig or dog dying.

Yet these barbarian slaves are, in truth, the vast, "silent," even "invisible" majority of the Danque Tribe—and perhaps all of the Great Wilderness—who are "ignored" and "sacrificed."

They are, in fact, the "foundation" of the entire Great Wilderness structure.

Their labor sustains everything.

The value they create makes the tribes rich and strong.

Yet they are treated like pigs and dogs, cast beneath the bottom.

These seemingly powerful tribes of the Great Wilderness are, at their core, one and the same: a pyramid built from bottom to top, draining blood upward, and from top to bottom, crushing downward.

"Pyramid."

From above, one sees only power struggles that tear apart kinship.

From below, one sees rigid hierarchies, extreme exploitation, bone-deep sucking, brutal livelihoods, barbarian slaves treated as less than human—

All these sharp contradictions.

From different angles, entirely different problems emerge.

Those who feast on meat are vulgar—the upper echelons of the tribe will never see the world through the eyes of the lower classes or the barbarian slaves.

And once someone from below climbs to the top, they too become a "feaster."

Thus, this cycle repeats endlessly, and the contradictions of the Great Wilderness will never vanish.

Mo Hua felt a deep pang.

Indeed, reading ten thousand scrolls and traveling ten thousand miles—

One must travel, wander far and wide, to truly see the nature of one's cultivation and the patterns of all things, to gain deeper insight.

And to change the current state of the Great Danque Tribe, Seeing Dan Zhu—the chief's son, born with a kind heart—is the best choice.

And fortunately, Seeing Dan Zhu met me early.

Otherwise, if civil strife erupted within the Danque Tribe, war broke out, and kin turned against kin—

If Seeing Dan Zhu's heart changed, grew cold and cruel, even Mo Hua might not be able to change anything.

The most fickle thing in this world may be the human heart.

Yet the only thing worth cherishing is precisely the human heart.

Thinking of this, for the next month, Mo Hua subtly guided Seeing Dan Zhu.

He led him to ponder questions he had never considered before,

and seemingly by accident, took Seeing Dan Zhu to witness scenes he had never seen.

Especially the barbarian slaves at the very bottom—beaten, cursed, tortured, starving, half-naked, trembling in terror.

These were all things Seeing Dan Zhu had never seen before.

He had been "protected" well since childhood.

Around him were mostly dazzling "nobles"; even when he encountered lower-class barbarian cultivators, they were simple and grateful.

He had never imagined that some people in this world truly lived like "livestock."

And such people had always lived within the Danque Tribe—even always beside him—yet he had never seen them.

Seeing Dan Zhu's "horizon" broadened, and his heart was deeply shaken.

When the poor do not know how rich the rich are, it is called ignorance.

Likewise, when the rich do not know how poor the poor truly are, it is also ignorance.

Under this kind of "real," "cruel" reality, Seeing Dan Zhu's concerns about his personal fate, brotherly bonds, and his father's approval—all these "small self" worries—gradually faded away.

Only after encountering great suffering does great compassion arise.

With great compassion, there is no small self.

Seeing Dan Zhu's heart underwent a subtle change, and his fate began to be reshaped, bit by bit.

Mo Hua could clearly sense that Seeing Dan Zhu

had undergone a transformation in his "Fate Path."

But he felt it still wasn't enough.

Seeing Dan Zhu's realizations remained confined to the level of "knowing."

After all, "knowing" is ultimately "empty."

To transform "empty" into "real," one needs "action"—to put knowing into practice, until emptiness and reality merge, achieving unity of knowing and doing.

Yet Seeing Dan Zhu currently lacks the conditions and ability for "action."

His status is high, but in truth he is merely the "good-luck charm" of the Dan Que tribe, its "symbol," with no capacity for autonomous action.

Not to mention that this "unity of knowing and doing" concerns tribal power shifts and the restructuring of the lower classes.

This is no simple matter.

To achieve it, one must possess formidable power and transcendent strength.

Seeing Dan Zhu currently possesses neither.

He merely has exceptional innate talent, his cultivation far surpassing his peers.

But his territory is small, his loyal followers few, his support insufficient, his authority minimal—he has no voice in the tribe's true matters.

Previously, Seeing Dan Zhu had traveled widely to comfort the elderly and care for children, genuinely from his own heart and goodwill, and he had won much favor.

But Mo Hua knew this "favor" was too cheap, and could not be transformed into true "combat power" or "loyalty."

Even this "favor" was easily destroyed.

From Mo Hua's perspective, no complex schemes were needed—just spread rumors that Young Master Seeing Dan Zhu was "hypocritical," "cruel," "immoral," "secretly plotting rebellion," "enjoyed eating children," and so on—

stoke the flames, let it spread.

Under the weight of collective opinion, Seeing Dan Zhu's reputation would collapse instantly.

In the end, public sentiment is nothing but this: fickle, easily manipulated.

"Favor" without strength as its foundation is ultimately just floating duckweed.

Therefore, Seeing Dan Zhu must cultivate his own power, establish his own foundation.

If he continues as the tribe's "good-luck charm," the consequences will be unimaginable.

In his leisure moments, Mo Hua looked up at the sky, faintly sensing a thread of anxiety in the sky of the Great Wilderness.

He suspected in his heart that this was Heaven's mechanism warning him that some unknown "great change" was brewing—the Great Wilderness's time may be running short.

Mo Hua's computational power was insufficient, his clues too few—he could not fathom what this "great cosmic shift" truly was.

But he also knew that if things continued this slowly, like boiling a frog in warm water, they would all die in the end.

Yet as he had said before, Seeing Dan Zhu was "protected" too well.

For now, Mo Hua had no way to free Seeing Dan Zhu from his restraints and let him achieve glory.

The situation had become stagnant.

And the change occurred ten days later.

On this day, Mo Hua was inside his chamber studying the Four Symbols beast patterns when suddenly a commotion erupted outside; a group of riders rushed urgently into the main tribe.

In recent days, Mo Hua, leveraging his Lord Wuzhu status and Seeing Dan Zhu's name, had grown quite familiar with several elders of the Dan Que tribe.

After a little inquiry, Mo Hua learned what had happened:

A large tribal confederation called Shu Gu had a band of barbarian cultivators who raided and slaughtered a small tribe north of the Dan Que tribe.

The elderly and children were all killed; the young men and women were captured and taken as "barbarian slaves."

This was tantamount to an invasion and humiliation of the Dan Que tribe.

The entire Dan Que tribe was enraged.

Mo Hua frowned, yet a strange unease stirred in his heart.

He felt this incident was somehow the "spark" of a karmic chain.

Someone had ignited this "cause," hoping to bring about a predetermined "effect."

Yet at the same time, Mo Hua keenly realized that in this chaos, his opportunity had arrived.