Chapter 1245: All Black

Lord Lugu's dharma treasure was a great bone saber for slaying demons.

Cangu's dharma treasure was a pair of decapitating crescent moon axes.

The barbarian clan's inheritances were mostly not that complicated—most were body cultivation, tempering the flesh, emphasizing slaughter.

The two late-stage Jin Dan cultivators, each wielding their dharma treasure, fought at close quarters in the valley; between saber and axe, their Jin Dan force condensed into substance, grinding wood and earth to powder, fighting till the sky went dark and the earth went black.

Like two Shi Renxing demon-beasts, slaughtering in all directions.

Lugu's strength was naturally greater than Cangu's, but only by a limited margin, and in a late-stage Jin Dan battle, changes were myriad—Lugu did not have the power to guarantee victory over Cangu either.

After fighting like this for over six hundred exchanges, the entire valley had been battered out of shape, yet neither side could claim victory.

Lugu then recalled Mo Hua's instructions:

"If you can't take him down within six hundred exchanges, stop dragging it out. Feign defeat and lure Cangu to Luoshi Mountain, a hundred li to the north."

Those four words—feign defeat—meant "humiliation" to Lugu.

Out of a great general's pride, he had originally been unwilling to do such a thing.

But having disobeyed Mo Hua's words before and triggered the conflict weighed on his conscience.

And at this moment, he truly could not take Cangu down in a short time. If he disobeyed Mo Hua again, he had no idea what consequences would follow.

Lugu gritted his teeth. While fighting Cangu, he exposed an opening. Cangu seized the chance and chopped an axe into his back, blood streaming down.

Lugu cursed once, turned, and left.

Cangu froze for a moment, sensing something was off, but couldn't pinpoint what.

He knew Lugu well—nothing but brute force, a vain man who weighed victory and face extremely heavily. He would absolutely never resort to the despicable act of "feigning defeat."

Cangu had never imagined that a great general like Lugu could shamelessly feign defeat. So seeing Lugu flee wounded, Cangu only hesitated briefly before rejoicing greatly and shouting:

"Worthless Lugu, defeated underling—don't run!"

Hearing this, Lugu wished he could turn around and fight Cangu to the death, but in the end he held back his fury and fled with his head down.

Lugu endured the jeers without looking back.

Cangu became even more convinced that Lugu had truly slipped up. Without further hesitation, he urged his escape art, eerie Bai Qi swirling around his whole body, and charged after Lugu to kill him.

Lugu said nothing, fleeing single-mindedly.

Before long, the two—one chasing, one fleeing—covered a hundred li and entered Luoshi Mountain.

Luoshi Mountain was narrow and cramped, with jagged broken stones everywhere, gloomy on all sides.

Seeing this, Cangu grew suspicious: "Did Lugu flee here, or did he deliberately lure me here? Could there be an ambush hidden in this place?"

But he himself was late-stage Jin Dan, already a top cultivator in a third-grade mountain realm—what could Lugu use to ambush him?

There were no other late-stage Jin Dan great cultivators in Lugu's camp.

Other ordinary mid-stage Jin Dan cultivators were no match for him either.

Even so, Cangu still felt a few degrees of wariness, dared not pursue deeper, and even felt a few degrees of retreat.

Lugu turned his head, sneered coldly: "Cangu, you trash, if you don't kill me today, one day I will strip your tendons and flay your skin, grind your bones and scatter your ashes."

Hearing this, the retreat in Cangu's heart grew even stronger.

Lugu cursed inwardly, blood still streaming down his back, then reversed his grip on the great demon-slaying bone saber and fought Cangu again.

Every move was vicious, every slash lethal, fighting to the death.

For a moment, Cangu was also pressed down hard by Lugu.

Just at this moment, the ground suddenly bulged in streaks, layer upon layer of mountain-stone arrays exploding open.

Cangu's face changed—he knew he'd walked into an ambush.

But the blast's aftershocks, when they reached him, were neither here nor there. Cangu couldn't help but sneer: "A second-grade holy pattern—who are you trying to kill?"

Taking advantage of this gap, Lugu urged his demon-slaying bone saber, driving the force on the blade to its utmost, even cloaking it in a layer of blood-colored light.

A superior barbarian saber art: Demon-Breaking Bone Saber.

The might of this slash did not appear very flashy on the surface, but all of its force was contained within the blade edge.

Jin Dan power wrapped around the blade edge.

Quick to raise, quick to strike, quick to kill—such was the superior move of barbarian body cultivation. It sought not flourish, but slaughter.

Cangu's face went white: "Trying to fight to the death?!"

He didn't want to fight Lugu to the death, but in an instant, Lugu's Demon-Breaking Bone saber edge had already cleaved toward him.

Cangu had no choice but to urge his decapitating crescent moon axes and his superior Dao art.

Above the axe dharma treasure floated a pair of blood moons, the surrounding gale-force winds weaving like a net.

The two dharma treasures thus collided head-on in a killing clash. For a moment the ground collapsed, the mountain forest turned to ash, and even the rocks were pulverized.

Yet still neither side could claim victory.

Lugu increased his force bit by bit, and Cangu struck back bit by bit.

Just as both sides' forces churned like a vortex in a deadlock, Cangu suddenly sensed something strange behind him—a creeping chill seeping out.

He didn't dare turn his head, only glanced with the corner of his eye, and saw a giant palm resting on his shoulder.

Cangu was greatly alarmed.

Who was it?!

Who could approach the back of a late-stage Jin Dan great general like him without leaking a single trace of qi, so much so that he only noticed now?!

Cangu tilted his head slightly, glanced back with one eye, and saw a familiar, dignified face.

This face, he had once been very familiar with—indeed, feared.

This man had pressed down on him his whole life.

Only now, that face was icy and lifeless, the eye sockets deep and black, flashing an eerie blue light, looking terrifying and bone-chilling.

"General Shi Gu! You're not dead?!"

Canggu's soul nearly fled his body on the spot. The thought that General Shi Gu was standing right behind him, fingers gripping his shoulder, made his whole body go weak, his courage drain away, and his strength snap.

Across from him, Lugu seized this opening and let out a sharp bark, slashing his blade down in one violent stroke.

Canggu, scared half to death by General Shi Gu, had no strength to resist and could only throw himself aside with all his might.

As the blood-colored blade-light swept past, an arm was hacked clean off.

Canggu let out a beast-like howl of agony. At the same moment, General Shi Gu's enormous, icy palm was already closing around his throat.

Though the grip wasn't especially tight.

Still, in his pain and panic, Canggu felt a nameless terror.

Only now did he understand—this was a kill-trap with no way out.

General Shi Gu hadn't died at all. He had come back for revenge!

The two brothers, Gu and General Shi Gu, had set this snare on purpose, intending to dismember him in this mountain valley!

No! I'm going to die!

Canggu's pupils trembled. A sudden, overwhelming will to live erupted in him, and he immediately activated the White Bone Savage Armor on his body, triggering a self-detonation.

The armor exploded, blasting Gu and General Shi Gu—who was already nothing but a corpse—back.

Seizing the gap, Canggu went mad with desperation and bolted for his life.

He feared being held back by Lugu, and feared even more facing the fiend-god that was General Shi Gu, so he pushed his escape art to its absolute limit, turning into a wisp of white smoke as he fled.

Lugu gave chase after Canggu.

But before leaving, he glanced back at the massive, mountain-silent corpse of his elder brother—saw him standing in the dark night like a demon-god, and saw the eerie streak of blue deep within his brother's pitch-black eye sockets.

A flash of cold light passed through Gu's eyes, but he said nothing. Instead he urged his movement art onward, continuing the pursuit of Canggu.

Long after the two Gus had gone, in the pitch-black dead of night, a bright blue figure gradually emerged.

It was Mo Hua.

Mo Hua glanced at the two Gus—one chasing, one fleeing—mentally calculated the situation, and gave a small nod.

Then he turned his head and looked once at General Shi Gu's corpse.

In the dark of night, General Shi Gu stood before Mo Hua like a small hill, his aura terrifying.

But Mo Hua knew that the "General Shi Gu" before him was nothing but an empty shell.

The Minor Spirit Pivot Array could only provide limited control and extremely feeble actuation.

Apart from leveraging his fearsome reputation in life to "scare people," the General Shi Gu before him had virtually no real combat ability.

"If only he could actually fight—"

Mo Hua gazed at General Shi Gu's corpse, a faint light flickering in his eyes.

On the other side, Gu didn't chase for long, because he truly couldn't catch up.

Canggu was fleeing far too fast, without a shred of hesitation, because he knew that the moment he slowed and got caught between General Shi Gu and Lugu's pincer, death was almost certain.

As for why only Gu was pursuing him while General Shi Gu made no move at all—

In the midst of a life-or-death flight, Canggu had no spare thought for such things. Under the dread General Shi Gu had built up in life, he only wanted to run; he dared not think of anything else.

Lugu also remembered Mo Hua's instruction: "Don't pursue a desperate foe." So after chasing for a while and truly failing to catch up, he turned back.

Because there was still the greater situation to clean up.

In a decisive battle of this scale, once the general Canggu was defeated and fled, his troops could do nothing but collapse.

Many of Canggu's tribal barbarian soldiers scattered and fled, but a good number also stayed behind.

Lugu declared that anyone who surrendered would not be held accountable for past offenses—they would not be killed or punished, nor would they be demoted to barbarian slaves. Besides this, he uttered a string of very "magnanimous and winning-words."

These words, naturally, had been taught to him by Mo Hua once again.

This time, Lugu didn't dare ignore the script and improvise on his own.

And Gu was already a great general of the Shugu Tribe, his fame surpassing even Canggu's. When he spoke thus, the routed soldiers of Canggu's tribe mostly surrendered one after another.

Lugu indeed kept his word. He did not punish them; instead, after reorganizing, he absorbed these barbarian soldiers into his own ranks.

While Lugu reorganized the barbarian soldiers, Mo Hua set about another matter.

He intended to make an initial attempt at liberating the barbarian slaves of the Great Wilderness.

But such a thing could not be rushed; it had to be done step by step. Mo Hua therefore planned to start with the barbarian slaves who had surrendered along with the Shugu Tribe.

In the identity of Lord Wuzhu, he gathered these barbarian slaves together and declared with a solemn face:

"You are sinners. You are slaves."

"Whether you have committed filthy crimes in this life, or carry filthy blood in your veins—"

"You are servants, you are maids. You live at the bottom of the Great Wilderness, never seeing the light of day; whether you live or die, no one cares."

"But now, the Divine Lord has given you a chance at 'rebirth.'"

"You need only convert to the Divine Lord, pledge loyalty to the Divine Lord, and in the wars to come, slay the enemy—or labor diligently for the Divine Lord and earn merit—and the Divine Lord shall pardon your sins and let you become his 'servants.'"

"Once you become the Divine Lord's servants, so long as you have faith in the Divine Lord and act in accordance with his will, then apart from the Divine Lord himself, no one may condemn you. No cultivator of any tribe may wantonly beat or scold you, nor strike you dead."

"Though you are servants, you are the Divine Lord's servants."

"So long as you honor the Divine Lord's name, you may walk openly upon the land of the Great Wilderness—"

These words stirred violent shock among the barbarian slaves.

They had never imagined such a thing could happen, nor ever dreamed that Lord Wuzhu could bestow upon them such grace.

They did not know whether these words were true or false, yet they still knelt on the ground one after another, bowing toward Mo Hua and crying:

"We thank Lord Wuzhu for his grace!"

"We thank the Divine Lord for his forgiveness!"

"Lord Wuzhu is wise and holy!"

"The Divine Lord is eternal!"

The barbarian slaves were numerous, their shouts rising like mountain storms and ocean tides, shaking the very heart of humanity.

Seeing Dan Zhu was deeply moved.

This was the aspiration Mo Hua had long instilled in Yi, and now, this vision had finally unveiled its curtain.

But Lord Lugu, Chifeng, and several Jin Dan of Yi's Shu Gu tribe frowned—they vaguely sensed something amiss in these words about "divine authority," yet could not yet pinpoint what exactly was wrong.

Amid this atmosphere, the remnants of Can Gu's tribal power had been largely absorbed by Mo Hua and Lord Lugu.

Gu's military strength was further enhanced.

Mo Hua's influence and power also surged further.

Under the name of Lord Wuzhu, Yi directly or indirectly commanded over three hundred thousand barbarian cultivators.

Mo Hua, in a considerable area, had, in a literal sense, acquired the prestige and momentum of "Lord Wuzhu."

The next step was to launch an expedition against the Shu Gu Grand Chief.

Kill this supreme ruler of the Shu Gu tribe, swallow the remaining forces, and the Shu Gu tribe could then be renamed outright.

But launching an expedition against the Shu Gu Grand Chief presented an irreconcilable contradiction.

Mo Hua's current power structure relied overwhelmingly on Lord Lugu and the barbarian soldiers, cultivators, and slaves of the Shu Gu tribe.

Most of them were from the Shu Gu tribe.

Asking them to fight among themselves, clashing over territory with other Shu Gu factions, might not be too problematic, for internal strife within the tribe was already rampant.

But asking them to attack the Grand Chief—that would be open, blatant "treason."

The Grand Chief was the supreme leader of the Shu Gu tribe, recognized by the Shu Gu Ancestor, the very symbol of the tribe.

"Expedition" against the Grand Chief was no different from rebelling against one's sovereign, from forgetting one's ancestors—it was an unforgivable sin.

Even the most foolish Shu Gu barbarian cultivators understood this clearly.

If these Shu Gu barbarian cultivators learned that the purpose of this campaign was to overthrow the Shu Gu Grand Chief,

the entire force would disintegrate in an instant.

Lord Lugu, consumed by his thirst for vengeance, had no idea what to do, so he approached Mo Hua with a solemn expression.

Mo Hua merely sipped tea calmly and asked Lord Lugu: "Have you heard of 'Clearing the Sovereign's Side'?"

"Clearing the Sovereign's Side?"

Lord Lugu had never heard it before, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Mo Hua said: "Our mission is not to launch an expedition against the Grand Chief—it is to launch an expedition against Can Gu."

"After Can Gu's defeat, he will surely flee with his loyalists to seek refuge with the Grand Chief."

"Blame all the crimes on Can Gu. Say the Grand Chief is old and has been deceived by Can Gu, who harmed your elder brother. Your campaign is to aid the Grand Chief in rooting out the traitor and slaying Can Gu."

"Then, when you lead your troops into the main tribe, kill the Grand Chief and claim that Can Gu murdered him—you are overcome with grief."

"Then kill Can Gu, to avenge the Grand Chief."

"Afterward, I will have someone propose you as the new Grand Chief. After all, you killed Can Gu and avenged the Grand Chief, and no one in the tribe is stronger than you."

"Thus, you avenge your family openly and honorably, and become Grand Chief with legitimacy."

Mo Hua spoke calmly, narrating in a measured and detailed manner.

Lord Lugu stood frozen, unable to comprehend for a long moment.

"But—" Lord Lugu frowned, "what if the Grand Chief simply hands Can Gu over to me and orders me to retreat?"

Mo Hua shook his head. "The Grand Chief isn't foolish—he knows better than anyone that he cannot hand Can Gu over and cut off his own arm."

"But what if he does?" Lord Lugu asked.

Mo Hua said: "Then you win over Can Gu, shift all blame onto the Grand Chief, promise him rewards, and trick Can Gu into joining you to kill the Grand Chief together."

"Can Gu, betrayed by the Grand Chief, will surely harbor rage—he will likely turn against him."

"After killing the Grand Chief, you kill Can Gu too, blame it all on Can Gu—the outcome remains the same."

Mo Hua spoke in a flat tone, as if discussing the weather.

Lord Lugu felt ice run through his veins; he stared blankly at Mo Hua, thinking perhaps only Mo Hua's face was white.

His insides—liver, organs—all were black.

Even the blood flowing in his veins was likely black.

"This man must be a demon—"

Lord Lugu thought silently.

One who could be this evil could hardly be human—