Chapter 1271

Foundation Establishment—

It was as if a long, ten-thousand-li journey, through tedious and agonizing pursuit, had finally glimpsed dawn.

Mo Hua couldn't help clenching Bai Xi's jade-white hand.

"Finally—"

"I'm going to begin crafting my own primal array, forging my own Jin Dan—"

Mo Hua's expression was resolute, his gaze firm.

Then he looked around.

The arrays he had previously laid out, like a celestial net, remained intact, and the surroundings were utterly silent.

Yet when Mo Hua's spiritual sense probed beyond the sealed chamber, his expression flickered with slight surprise.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, did not rise hastily, but first sat in meditation to harmonize body and mind, steadying his spirit, before ending his seclusion, pushing open the door, and stepping out.

Outside the door, Lord Lugu, Seeing Dan Zhu, and others stood with cold, stern faces, forming a human wall, guarding the entire Lord Wuzhu sealed chamber.

Opposite Lord Lugu and Seeing Dan Zhu stood another group.

Leading them was Lord Yan Zhu, the Black Elder, and several other elders and high-ranking members of the Yan Wing tribe.

Lord Qing Zhu also stood among them, but his expression was distant.

The two sides faced off, the atmosphere not quite tense with drawn swords, yet clearly surging with hidden currents.

This tense atmosphere had lasted for a long time.

Only when Mo Hua emerged from seclusion and opened the door did everyone startle, their expressions shifting variously.

Lord Yan Zhu and the others' expressions flickered.

Lord Lugu stared at Lord Yan Zhu across from him, sneering.

Seeing Dan Zhu's eyes lit up—he visibly exhaled in relief, murmuring, "Mr., you've emerged from seclusion."

Mo Hua gave a slight nod and asked, "What happened?"

Seeing Dan Zhu glanced at Lord Yan Zhu and the others, his expression growing colder, "They tried to disturb your seclusion."

Lord Yan Zhu maintained a calm expression, "There are urgent matters of great importance requiring the Lord Wuzhu's personal judgment—I dared to intrude—"

Lord Yan Zhu spoke, glancing at Seeing Dan Zhu and Lord Lugu, "Yet these people responded with hostility, blocking me from entering—"

"I feared you were plotting to harm the Lord Wuzhu, and in my haste, I summoned elders from other tribes to confirm the Lord Wuzhu's safety—"

Seeing Dan Zhu grew angry, "You're twisting the truth."

Lord Yan Zhu had thick skin and remained unmoved; he didn't argue with Seeing Dan Zhu, but instead fixed his gaze with sincere earnestness.

As if everything he had just said were true—that he truly acted solely out of concern for Mo Hua's safety.

Seeing Dan Zhu was about to speak again.

But Mo Hua said calmly, "Enough. Since it's a misunderstanding, let it go. But—"

Mo Hua paused briefly, glanced at Lord Yan Zhu, and his gentle gaze gradually deepened, "—it will not happen again."

Lord Yan Zhu's face remained respectful, but inwardly, his respect began to fade.

He was a late-stage Jin Dan cultivator, born into the Wang Ting, a high shaman of the Divine Path, accustomed to high status; he could feign submission for a moment, but true inner submission was clearly not so easy.

The intimidation on the altar had been strong enough, but once time passed and his injuries healed, the memory faded, and the "self-respect" of being a Wang Ting Wuzhu returned, along with a touch more ambition.

He even felt a secret humiliation for submitting to Mo Hua.

He harbored resentment for Mo Hua "taking" his Divine Path relic.

Learning that Mo Hua had entered seclusion and not been seen for ten full days, with no one overseeing the Divine Path, Lord Yan Zhu began to stir restlessly.

Any danger could arise upon the Divine Path.

Yet he hadn't expected Mo Hua to emerge safely—

Lord Yan Zhu felt a pang of regret, but it didn't matter much, for he had merely entertained a slight "mischievous thought," nothing amounting to betrayal.

"Yes, Lord Wuzhu—"

Lord Yan Zhu readily agreed.

Yet just then, Lord Yan Zhu suddenly sensed something amiss; he raised his head slightly and met Mo Hua's gaze, as if colliding into a deep abyss.

Wrong!

Lord Yan Zhu's heart jolted instantly.

He had merely been in seclusion for ten days—how could his spiritual sense suddenly become like this?

Not just Lord Yan Zhu—even the Black Vulture Elder and Lord Qing Zhu beside him turned pale all at once.

When Mo Hua first emerged, they hadn't noticed, but now, with Mo Hua's gaze sharpening and his spiritual sense spreading, his aura changed instantly.

Normally, Mo Hua could fully control his spiritual thoughts, releasing or retracting them at will.

His spiritual aura had always been extremely subtle.

But he had just "fed," devouring vast amounts of spiritual energy, swallowing nearly all the spiritual energy the Great Spirit Vulture had accumulated over decades, and had broken through his spiritual sense, advancing from twenty-three lines of Jin Dan early stage to twenty-four lines.

He could not yet fully control this surge of spiritual sense, so it leaked out profusely.

Ordinary cultivators lacked such acute perception.

But Lord Yan Zhu and the other two, as Wuzhu, were inherently sensitive to spiritual sense.

Now, Mo Hua stood alone there, outwardly a single man, yet his spiritual aura felt like a "Taotie"-like divine monster wrapped in human skin, inhaling and exhaling the heavens and earth, radiating overwhelming pressure.

That cruel, devouring majesty made Lord Yan Zhu and the other two involuntarily feel their legs weaken.

The first to break was Lord Yan Zhu, who stared directly at Mo Hua.

Overwhelmed by Mo Hua's invisible, abyssal-beast aura, Lord Yan Zhu involuntarily felt the urge to kneel and submit.

By the time he realized it, it was too late—he had already knelt.

When he tried to rise again, he found his knees had gone limp, utterly beyond the control of his own will.

And when Lord Yan Zhu knelt, the black-haired elder also knelt down unconsciously.

Lord Qing Zhu, who had never held much resistance toward Mo Hua, obediently bowed and knelt as well.

With the three Upper Shamans kneeling, others, though unaware of the reason, followed suit in unison.

Lord Lugu and the others, seeing Mo Hua's single glance subdue Lord Yan Zhu, secretly admired him and knelt down one by one.

In an instant, everyone in the hall knelt down.

Mo Hua waved his hand and said calmly, "Disperse."

"Yes—"

"Yes, my lord, the Shaman Lord."

The crowd spoke with reverence and withdrew as ordered.

Lord Yan Zhu's heart turned cold, his fear unspent; after leaving the Shaman Lord's hall and walking some distance, he finally began to comprehend, and could not help but glance at the black-eagle elder.

Their eyes met, each seeing the same terror and bewilderment in the other's gaze.

"Did he—become stronger?" Lord Yan Zhu whispered, his face trembling.

His realm remained utterly unchanged, yet his spiritual sense grew ever stronger—

And not just slightly stronger; it seemed he had shattered a bottleneck and ascended to a far greater level.

How could this be?

The black-eagle elder's gaze was filled with dread.

Even a Shaman Lord, even one who reveres the gods, even one who cultivates the Path of Divine Shamanism, had never witnessed such an absurd thing.

This completely transcended the realm of "cultivators."

Could a Foundation Establishment body truly contain such immense spiritual sense?

Lord Yan Zhu and the black-eagle elder frowned deeply, lost in thought.

Lord Qing Zhu glanced at them briefly, said nothing, and turned away on his own.

Inside the Shaman Lord's secret chamber.

Seeing Mo Hua unharmed, Seeing Dan Zhu and the others exhaled in relief, bowed, and took their leave.

Mo Hua was still pondering the matter of Lord Yan Zhu and the others.

Lord Yan Zhu and the rest still harbored hidden intentions. And not just Lord Yan Zhu—

Among the other tribes, the lower and middle strata were fine; especially the impoverished lower classes, who had suffered hardship, were more willing to believe in the "Divine Lord."

But the chieftains and elders at the top, driven by fame and profit, filled with selfish motives, might fear him for now due to his authority, but would not truly hold lasting "faith."

To expect his single display of divine manifestation to change their hearts was ultimately too difficult.

And with his own cultivation level standing as it was, he could hardly suppress so many Jin Dan, especially the numerous late-stage Jin Dan tribal chieftains with great power and influence.

He must devise a more secure method to utterly subdue these elites, gather their hearts, and firmly seize control of divine authority in his own hands.

Among the great tribes of the Wildlands, there can be only one voice: the voice of the Divine Lord.

And there can be only one Shaman Lord to wield the Divine Lord's power.

"This must be done—but now is not the time—"

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened slightly, then he drew a deep breath and withdrew from his Nanzi Ring, given to him by his master, a white bone fragment he had long cherished.

Upon the bone fragment was carved his most crucial life-array:

The Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit-Bone Array.

Since he had pulled this array from the back of the skull of the human-faced bone demon statue venerated by Master Tu, he had kept it inside his Nanzi Ring.

Whenever he had free time, he would take it out to examine it, though he could not understand it or learn it, he still could not help himself—even just touching it with his fingers was enough.

For this was a second-rank, twenty-four-mark Great Wildland Absolute Array, its difficulty beyond heaven, its spiritual sense demands equally beyond heaven.

The twenty-four-mark spiritual sense realm was like an impassable abyss, impossible to reach.

But now, after so many trials and prolonged suffering, Mo Hua had finally, in the Wildlands, forcibly "eaten" his way up to the spiritual sense realm.

He could finally begin to truly comprehend this mysterious and powerful array—the Taotie Spirit-Bone Absolute Array—sealed within a demon statue and named after a ferocious beast.

Mo Hua suppressed his inner excitement, calmed his emotions, and sank his spiritual sense into the white bone fragment.

One by one, obscure Great Wildland ancient characters floated before Mo Hua's eyes.

At Grand Void Gate, Mo Hua had studied Great Wildland ancient script alongside an elder of the inner sect who specialized in ancient Daoist characters, and with many senior and junior brothers and sisters, gaining a foundation.

Now, having lived in the Wildlands for so long as a Shaman Lord, he had read countless tribal scripts and classics.

Mo Hua's mastery of Great Wildland ancient script was now extremely high.

Reading these obscure ancient characters now felt as natural and effortless as breathing.

Moreover, now that his spiritual sense had truly reached the twenty-four-mark level, it seemed he had met some threshold, piercing through a veil.

Previously hidden array principles and array patterns, buried deep within the bone tablets, now all emerged clearly.

Mo Hua finally saw the complete version of the Great Wildland Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit-Bone Absolute Array.

The moment this complete Spirit-Bone Array came into view, a primordial aura surged toward him in an instant.

The array lines twisted and trembled like living things, as if countless Taotie eyes stared at Mo Hua, filling his heart with dread.

This strange, mysterious sensation he had never felt before while examining the bone tablets.

It seemed only when spiritual sense reached the twenty-four-mark could one glimpse the true face of this Absolute Array.

"This array truly is—as if a living Taotie—"

"And I must carve this living thing—the Taotie Absolute Array—onto my own bones, making it my life-array, aiding me in forming a Jin Dan—"

Mo Hua remained frozen for a long time, and a faint fear stirred within him.

As if he were attempting to seal within his own bones an unknowable, uncontrollable, and terrifying thing, binding it to his life.

Whether such a thing conformed to the norms of cultivation, Mo Hua was not certain.

But suddenly, a strong sensation arose in his heart—the feeling of committing "illegal acts" right under the eyes of Heaven's Dao.

Yet this sensation vanished moments later.

Because Mo Hua had committed "crimes" too often; he had grown numb to it.

This "sense of crime" no longer stirred him.

Moreover, he had spent too much time and effort to achieve Golden Core, to learn this ultimate array—overcoming too many hardships and setbacks, enduring great toil; he could never now, at the brink of success, abandon it simply because it seemed dangerous.

After all, it was merely an array.

Mo Hua was an Array Master, devoted to the Great Dao of arrays; as long as it was an "array," nothing was terrifying.

The more difficult the array, the more curious it made him.

The more dangerous the array, the more excited it made him.

Because the greater the difficulty and danger, the more it proved that this array concealed Great Dao principles beyond ordinary comprehension, with unimaginably powerful applications.

Mo Hua stopped overthinking and began to focus entirely on studying the Twelve Meridians Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array, which seemed to have come "alive."

This was the most difficult array Mo Hua had ever studied.

And as he delved into it, time flew swiftly.

Mo Hua was so immersed that he lost all sense of time; when he finally noticed, three days had passed.

During these three days, Mo Hua labored day and night, repeatedly pondering, and gained a preliminary understanding of the Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array.

Externally, this Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array appeared extremely fearsome, its formation exceedingly complex, radiating an ancient, sinister aura.

But in practice, Mo Hua found it far less difficult than he had anticipated.

First, his Dao-Transformed Spiritual Awareness had reached twenty-four patterns, making it exceptionally strong.

In terms of realm, "quality," and "quantity," it was already profoundly deep.

Another, more crucial reason was that he had already conducted extensive research and attained deep insight into the Gluttonous principles.

As he had previously discovered, the so-called "Gluttonous" principle was not a single law, but an entire "chain of laws."

Different laws interrelated and distinguished one another, ultimately merging into one to forge the Glutton's essence.

It also provided the Dao-level logical foundation for the Glutton's survival, hunting, feeding, digestion, assimilation, and other behaviors.

The Glutton was both abstract and concrete.

This issue was profound and complex, involving deep understanding of the laws.

Most cultivators could not comprehend it.

For those who could not, Mo Hua could not explain further.

And precisely because of this, the series of Great Wilderness Ultimate Arrays derived from the "Gluttonous" principle were also interconnected.

Learning certain prerequisite ultimate arrays first made learning the Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array twice as effective.

But if one lacked the prerequisite ultimate arrays, and the foundational understanding of the related laws, and viewed it merely as an isolated "single array"—

Then this twenty-four-pattern Twelve Meridians Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array would truly appear as a Gluttonous Beast: invisible, unknowable, unfathomable, incomprehensible, beyond cultivation, uncontrollable—entirely outside the grasp of ordinary Array Masters; even if one wished to learn, one would have no starting point.

Local delicacies must be eaten where they are made.

Local arrays must be learned where they originate.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua felt a pang of relief.

Fortunately, he had come to the Great Wilderness; otherwise, he truly would not have known where to begin.

And the array's function matched Mo Hua's earlier predictions.

This was a "Spirit-Bone" array; as the name implied, it constructed a "spiritual bone structure" through the array.

Through its array patterns, it could store a certain amount of spiritual energy, sealed within the bones.

Effectively, it became an external "spiritual energy container" beyond the flesh and bones.

Thus, through this array, he could resolve his growing spiritual energy deficiency—a problem caused by his poor spiritual roots and his cultivation method's lack of emphasis on spiritual energy.

At present, the sole function of this ultimate array appeared to be this—

Whether it had other uses, Mo Hua did not yet know.

He would only know once he truly mastered the Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array, etched it into his very bones, and activated it once in practice.

But even if it had only the "spiritual energy storage" function, this Life Array was invaluable to Mo Hua.

After all, beyond his identities as Lord Wuzhu and Array Master, Mo Hua was also a Spirit Cultivator who relied on "spells" to survive.

For a Spirit Cultivator, spiritual energy was "life."

Weak spiritual energy was the most fatal flaw.

Throughout the cultivation world—even in Qian Xue, a fifth-rank great state—artifacts capable of storing spiritual energy beyond the dantian were rare and precious treasures.

Such artifacts required cultivators to nurture them from childhood; they were scarce in inheritance and extremely costly to forge.

Mo Hua, a lone cultivator who had missed the optimal nurturing period, had no right to use them.

Therefore, if he could use the Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Array as his Life Array to solve his spiritual energy shortage—even just this one function—he would be more than satisfied.

More importantly, once he forged his Life Array—even in its embryonic form—he would have reached the peak of Foundation Establishment and could officially attempt Golden Core—

"Life Array—Golden Core—"

Mo Hua took a breath, calmed his mind, and devoted all his focus to studying the Twelve Meridians Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array.

Due to his profound understanding of the Gluttonous principles and his accumulated experience, the entire process proceeded surprisingly smoothly.

Just half a month later, Mo Hua felt he had gained some insight.

He could even begin to sketch the array patterns of the Gluttonous Spirit-Bone Array.

This speed surprised even Mo Hua.

But whether this Spirit-Bone Ultimate Array could be practically applied, or whether other problems might arise, he still had little confidence.

Therefore, he needed to find a "material" first, to test it.

He had long since prepared this "material."

In a dark chamber at the lowest level of Lord Wuzhu's hall, a massive, sinister coffin lay placed.

Inside this coffin was sealed the corpse of a barbarian warrior as large as a mountain:

General Shigǔ of the Shugǔ tribe.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood alone before the coffin, his gaze deep and solemn.

>

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter General Shigǔ of the Shugǔ tribe.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood alone before the coffin, his gaze deep and solemn.