Chapter 1279: The Age of Divine Blessing

Afterwards, the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony was officially held.

On Zhū Què Mountain, upon its oldest altar, every tribe within the mountain realm swore allegiance to the Divine Lord, to Mo Hua, the "Lord Wuzhu."

Mid- and low-level barbarian cultivators needed only to pay homage and offer sacrifices to maintain their faith.

But the tribal elites were different.

Whether large or small, the tribal elites possessed higher cultivation, greater strength, and broader influence.

More importantly, they occupied Gao Wei positions, drawing closest to "power."

Power is the thing that breeds greed, desire, and cruelty in the human heart.

A man without power or influence might never harbor the desire to abuse authority or indulge his lusts.

But once he occupies Gao Wei and wields authority, he is naturally corroded by it, his inner self subtly corrupted—even without his own awareness.

This has nothing to do with the individual, but with power itself.

Those who remain true to their original heart and resist the temptation of power, regardless of cultivation, are as rare as phoenix feathers across the entire cultivation world.

Yet precisely such people are often least favored and find it hard to rise to Gao Wei.

Therefore, Mo Hua would not gamble on the hearts of these tribal elites, on whether they would betray their faith or abandon their original heart.

Mo Hua was too lazy to gamble.

Under the great calamity, he needed a unified faith and absolute authority.

Thus, the most important act Mo Hua performed during the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony was to make these tribal elites swear blood oaths before the altar, to the Divine Lord.

Upon the altar stood a massive stone stele.

This stele, commissioned by Mo Hua and forged by Tie Shu Gu, was named the "Lord Wuzhu Stele."

All tribal elites were required to kneel before the stone stele and swear allegiance to the Divine Lord, vowing unwavering faith and unshakable devotion.

They swore to devote their lives to securing the welfare of the people of Da Huang, exhausting themselves until death.

They swore not to seek private gain, not to abuse authority, not to betray.

Afterwards, they had to cut their fingers and write their names upon the "Lord Wuzhu Stele" with their own blood.

As they wrote their names, they had to infuse them with their faith.

Beneath the overwhelming majesty of Mo Hua, the supreme "Lord Wuzhu," who sat upon the divine throne in flesh and blood, commanding the Sacred Beasts to submit and the King Demons to bow.

The Zhū Què Mountain great tribes—Dān Què, Shù Gǔ, Yán Yì, Hóng Luán, Huǒ Yīng, Bì Fāng—and certain chiefs and elders of the Wū Jiāo Tribe who had changed their faith—all complied.

They cut their fingers and left their blood and names upon the Lord Wuzhu Stele, leaving behind a bloodline "mark."

They offered their faith, and in doing so, entrusted a portion of their "spirit soul" to the stele.

After the ceremony ended, all tribal elites felt a faint resonance with the Lord Wuzhu Stele.

They sensed a subtle connection between themselves and the "Divine Lord."

The Divine Lord was watching them, bestowing blessings upon them.

In that moment, all great chiefs, great elders, and barbarian generals were struck with awe, their reverence for the Divine Lord deepening further.

But they did not know that the "Divine Lord" had not only blessed them—he had seized their "life souls," controlling their very lives and deaths.

This was one of the powers of the Da Huang Demon God and the ancient altar:

Controlling the life souls of believers through the blood-oath names inscribed upon the altar.

This method, Mo Hua had learned during his prolonged struggle against the Da Huang Demon God in Qian Xue Province.

In Qian Xue Province, Mr. Tu secretly plotted, bred henchmen, organized sacrifices, and built a vast demonic force.

The core henchmen of the Demon God had to swear blood oaths and pledge loyalty to the Demon God.

Their blood, along with a thread of their life soul, was offered to the Demon God and enshrined upon the altar at Yan Shui River's Dragon King Temple.

Their names were carved onto a list.

Jiang Laoda was the holder of the list.

Huo Fotuo was the leader of the Demon God's sacrificial henchmen.

Shui Yanluo was the Demon God's intermediary to the powerful.

Mr. Tu was the shadowy mastermind, the founder of the Demon God's force, the first Lord Wuzhu of the Da Huang Demon God.

In Qian Xue Province, Mo Hua engaged in prolonged confrontations with these varied figures.

And he had fully "learned" this entire system, applying it to these barbarian tribal elites.

Now, Mo Hua was simultaneously the holder of the "Demon God Sacrifice" list, the leader of the Demon God's henchmen, the intermediary to the powerful, the founder of the Demon God's force, the shadowy mastermind, and the first Lord Wuzhu beneath the Demon God.

He was both "Jiang Laoda," and "Huo Fotuo," and "Shui Yanluo," and simultaneously the barbarian "Mr. Tu."

Indeed, he himself was the "Da Huang Demon God."

Mo Hua held multiple roles, nearly single-handedly constructing a complete divine system in the barbarian lands.

Through divine faith, he unified the mid- and lower levels of the barbarians into tribes.

Through divine rituals, he controlled the life souls of the barbarian elites.

The entire divine force now lay entirely under Mo Hua's control.

Thus, a vast, unified divine force, modeled after the "Da Huang Demon God System," was fully established.

At the end of the ceremony, Mo Hua had Seeing Dan Zhu write his name at the very top of the Lord Wuzhu Stele.

Among the crowd of late Jin Dan chieftains and elders, the name "Seeing Dan Zhu" stood first upon the towering Lord Wuzhu Stele.

This clearly showed the Divine Lord's favor toward the young master of the Dan Que Tribe, and the Lord Wuzhu's high expectations and esteem for his "disciple."

Seeing Dan Zhu, inwardly devout, bowed with solemn respect.

He left his name and his blood upon the Lord Wuzhu Stele.

His heart burned as fiercely and purely as Zhu Que blood; his faith was the cleanest and purest among all present.

And he was the only one whom Mo Hua had not bound with a life soul.

Among all tribal elites, Dan Zhu was the only cultivator whose spiritual soul remained intact, whose faith was independent, and who had never been subjected to Mo Hua's "control."

In the flow of all things, the human heart is the most unreliable.

Yet sometimes, the human heart is precisely the most trustworthy.

Some hearts are like duckweed—blown by the wind, shifted by the current.

Others have hearts like Jin Shi—unshaken by wind and rain, sun and frost, hardened further by fire and countless trials, growing ever more brilliant and resilient.

Mo Hua could see Dan Zhu's heart, and therefore he trusted Dan Zhu.

But now, Mo Hua could no longer clearly see his own heart.

He was uncertain what his "heart" would become once he stepped onto the Path of the Divine, wielding boundless divine authority and controlling all life and death.

He faintly feared the transformation of his divinity.

He feared that one day, his divinity would truly extinguish his humanity.

He feared his Divine Path might spiral out of control, even feared he might fall and become a demon god like the Lord of Dahuang.

At that time, his very existence might be a calamity for Dahuang.

Ignorance is fearlessness.

Many things, Mo Hua did not know before, and thus had no fear.

But now, after experiencing so much, Mo Hua had come to know some great terrors—and could no longer avoid fearing them.

Therefore, he had no choice but to leave a backup plan.

Within this Divine Path system, he left behind an autonomous "humanity" capable of repair and "correction"—this humanity was Dan Zhu.

Thus, should his divinity truly falter,

or should he meet with some accident and vanish from Dahuang, Dan Zhu could, relying on his own Dao-heart and faith, maintain the stability of the Divine Path system and lead the people of Dahuang to continue living well…

This was Mo Hua's true hope for Dan Zhu.

…

Time passed; the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony continued, with countless worshippers bowing in reverence.

Mo Hua sat alone upon the lofty Divine Throne, gazing down upon the masses as they prostrated before him.

In his heart, he could not name the emotion.

There was the grandeur of becoming a god, yet also a faint sorrow of humanity's fading detachment.

Thus it remained until the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony ended and all had departed the altar.

Dan Zhu, too, bowed to Mo Hua with reverence and complex emotion before taking his leave.

Mo Hua remained alone upon the Divine Throne, a solitary figure in power and faith.

The great tiger, which had lain on the ground for half the day, seemed to sense the loneliness radiating from Mo Hua's core. Slowly, it rose, walked to Mo Hua's side, and rubbed its furry head against him.

Mo Hua finally returned to himself.

In his indifferent eyes, a complex emotion flickered.

He gently stroked the tiger's head and whispered softly, as if confirming to himself:

"I am the Divine Priest of Dahuang… but I am also…"

"…Mo Hua."

He spoke the words "Mo Hua," but his tone was faint, almost uncertain—as if even he doubted them.

…

After the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony, Mo Hua became the supreme "Divine Priest."

The entire Zhu Que Mountain Realm had now achieved complete, internal and external, top-to-bottom "divine authority" unification.

And this unified, powerful "Divine Path machine" began to operate at full capacity.

The first task was to accelerate the construction of the Hou Tu Great Array.

Mo Hua's Hou Tu Great Array expanded without obstruction across the entire Zhu Que Mountain Realm, covering every domain.

Except for the barbarian soldiers assigned to warfare, nearly all tribal resources and mobile barbarian cultivators were deployed to build the array.

Array components were being constructed in every corner of Zhu Que Mountain.

Following Mo Hua's teaching of "Man follows Earth," the witch cultivators painted arrays infused with the essence of the earth across the entire Zhu Que Mountain Realm.

The famine was blocked outside the mountain realm by the Hou Tu Array.

And under the array's "transformation," the entire Zhu Que Mountain Realm underwent profound internal and external change.

Through the accumulation of vast Hou Tu Absolute Arrays, the Dao-essence of the earth was stirred, further amplified by countless earth and Gen arrays—quantitative changes triggered a qualitative transformation.

The vitality of the earth within the Zhu Que Mountain Realm seeped outward, altering the soil of Dahuang itself.

Once-barren land gradually grew moist and fertile; certain varieties of shu and su crops could now be planted.

These shu and su crops, grown as famine food upon Dahuang's soil, were connected to the Hou Tu Array's aura, nourished by the land, and in turn, returned vitality to the land.

A self-sustaining cycle formed between the array, the land, and the crops, renewing the entire Dahuang mountain realm.

It even altered, to some degree, Dahuang's civilizational ecology.

The Hou Tu Great Array became the first prototype in Dahuang's history of a "civilian" great array capable of reshaping every barbarian cultivator's fate and the entire Dahuang civilization.

…

With the Hou Tu Great Array securing the rear civilian foundation,

the "Divine Priest War" swiftly began.

Through the Divine Lord's teachings and the Divine Priest's bestowal, advanced, secret, and astonishing Four Symbols barbarian armor array patterns and forging methods were disseminated, unified and cast by tribal elders.

Powerful barbarian armor forged powerful barbarian soldiers.

Combined with unified faith and fearless conviction, the "Divine Priest Troops" of Zhu Que's tribes achieved unprecedented combat strength.

Mo Hua, after millennia, launched the largest, most glorious, and most far-reaching Divine Path unification war in Dahuang's history.

Posterity would collectively refer to this very long period of barbarian history, spanning from the War of Divine Invocation to the Great Weirdness Catastrophe, as the "Era of Divine Invocation."

The year when the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony was held and the War of Divine Invocation began was also called the First Year of Divine Invocation.

……

In the 20,042nd year of the Dao Calendar, the 9th year of the New Barbarian Calendar.

First Year of Divine Invocation, autumn.

By the order of Mo Hua, the Divine Invocation Lord, the Zhu Que barbarian troops, bearing the name of the Divine Lord, surged forward like a steel torrent, vast and relentless, marching across the entire barbarian land that had survived the famine.

The barbarian troops under the Divine Invocation Lord split into factions, entering one mountain realm after another, annihilating one enemy group after another, conquering one tribe after another, spreading the Divine Lord's renown across the barbarian lands.

Among them, the most influential was the Slave Tribe.

They had once been barbarian slaves, of lowly status, but after their liberation, they possessed the most steadfast faith, the most fearless courage, and the greatest numbers and power.

They wore uniform red barbarian armor.

The armor was red as blood, red as fire; as far as the eye could see, the mountains and fields blazed crimson.

This was the fire of war, and also the fire of faith.

This vivid red flame of faith began in the east and spread westward; as the Slave Tribe waged war, it expanded ever wider, until it burned across the entire barbarian land…

More and more tribes were ignited by this flame.

Either reborn within the flame, or perished within it.

And amid the burning of this "fire," more and more tribes and mountain realms were incorporated into the "Divine Lord's" domain…

……

This fiery momentum lasted for more than half a year; with strong logistics and troop support, nearly half of the barbarian land, once encircled by famine, fell into the hands of Mo Hua, the Divine Invocation Lord.

But progress thereafter had to be slowed.

For although the Divine Invocation Lord's power was immense, certain "hard bones" still remained within the third-grade mountain realms, too tough to crush in a short time.

These tribes were powerful, their combat strength formidable, their conflicts complex, and deeply entangled with the Dao Court noble houses, especially the Hua family.

They held extreme hostility toward Mo Hua, the Divine Invocation Lord; their faith could not be altered; between them, it was a matter of life and death.

……

In the 20,043rd year of the Dao Calendar, the 10th year of the New Barbarian Calendar, the Second Year of Divine Invocation.

Third-grade Lüyou Mountain Realm.

Mo Hua, in person as the Divine Invocation Lord, led Sheng Hu, and encountered the greatest obstacle since the campaign began.

Gao Tu Tribe.

The Gao Tu Tribe was a third-grade major tribe, surviving on poisons, feeding on toxic herbs, cultivating poison and Gu cultivation methods, dwelling within the Poisonous Gu Marsh.

This Poisonous Gu Marsh stretched boundlessly, teeming with toxins, blocking Mo Hua's path of advance.

The Gao Tu barbarian cultivators hid within the poison marsh, ambushing Mo Hua's Zhu Que barbarian troops, inflicting heavy casualties.

More troubling was the Gao Tu Tribe's general, who cultivated the Hundred Viper Poison Art, concealed within the poison marsh, nearly invulnerable to all.

The Poisonous Gu Marsh was lethally toxic; ordinary living beings dared not even lightly touch it.

Let alone kill the Gao Tu general within the marsh.

Mo Hua's Divine Invocation army was stalled before the poison marsh for days, all of them at a loss.

At night, Mo Hua, the Divine Invocation Lord, entered a tent under strict guard.

Inside the tent stood a massive coffin.

Mo Hua stood before the coffin, then, after a moment, pointed a finger and unsealed the array upon it; the lid opened with a sound.

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened, his eyes glimmering with blue light.

Simultaneously, within the coffin, a massive and ferocious corpse opened its eyes in the darkness.

From its hollow, pitch-black eye sockets flashed a strange, profound blue light.

On its flesh, grotesque blue patterns flickered briefly, followed by a terrifyingly heavy, labored breathing.

As if a revived Taotie, ravenous for "food"…

(End of Chapter)