Chapter 1290: Bone Carving Stripping

Inside the main hall of the Hua family stronghold.

Looking at the dense array of "bone carving" secret techniques before him—originating from different mountain realms, different tribes, and different eras of the wilderness—Mo Hua's gaze narrowed slightly.

He flipped through these bone carving methods one by one, and after careful comparison, he did not find anything particularly unusual.

In the Great Wilderness, "bone carving" is used to engrave arrays.

According to the traditions of the Great Wilderness, the common practice is to engrave the "sacred patterns" of the wilderness onto the bones of demonic beasts to unleash the killing power of the Four Symbols Array.

The array eye of the Desolate Heaven Blood Sacrifice Array, primarily built by Mr. Tu, was exactly like this.

It involved engraving blood sacrifice array patterns onto the bones of a massive, ancient demonic beast to stimulate the array's efficacy.

Mo Hua was very familiar with this, as he was the one who had drawn the blood sacrifice array eye for Mr. Tu back then.

Besides using demonic bones as a medium, some tribal "bone carving" secret techniques involve drawing various demonic patterns onto "human bones."

Mo Hua was even more familiar with this method.

His Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Skeleton Array involved drawing the Taotie Absolute Array onto his own skeleton.

It could be said that whether it was demonic bone carving or human bone carving, currently in the entire wilderness, no one understood it better than Mo Hua.

Yet even so, Mo Hua did not quite understand the Hua family's intention in collecting these "bone carving" secret techniques.

The only strange thing was that the Hua family had left almost all the Great Wilderness demonic bone carvings untouched.

But they had screened out all the "human bone" carvings, seemingly having examined them carefully; some key inherited texts were even marked, indicating they had put in quite a bit of effort.

"Human bone carving..."

Mo Hua initially thought the Hua family had the same plan as him: to engrave arrays or other secret patterns onto the bones within a human body, either to cultivate a life-bound array or to match other human bone carving inheritances.

But after studying these bone slips carefully for a while, Mo Hua realized something was wrong.

The Hua family did not seem to want to engrave anything onto human bones.

On the contrary, the Hua family's study of the Great Wilderness bone carving method had a purpose completely opposite to his own; they seemed to be...

Wanting to strip human bones, along with some meridians, completely out of the human body?

"Stripping human bones... from the human body?"

Mo Hua frowned, his heart feeling heavy. He vaguely felt that this might be the clue to some great karma involving the Hua family, but he couldn't think of the specific thread for the moment.

He could only gather all these bone carving secret techniques and study them slowly when he had time later.

At this time, Lu Gu also returned to report to Mo Hua.

"My lord Divine Invoker, everything has been counted. This stronghold contains a large amount of Grain Grain Grain Bigu Pills, approximately ten million bottles. Besides that, there are quite a few tribal inheritances, savage armor, beast bones, and even some combat supplies... There are also 1.06 million spirit stones..."

Mo Hua's gaze sank slightly.

Supplies like Grain Grain Grain Bigu Pills, savage armor, and beast bones were within his expectations.

But over a million spirit stones were a bit low.

After all, this was a major Hua family stronghold; having only a million-plus spirit stones after being looted was truly hard to justify.

Moreover, Mo Hua couldn't fully "greedily take" these spirit stones.

As a Divine Invoker, he had to invest at least half of the spirit stones into the construction of the Great Wilderness Array and the savage troops.

This was only because he was on the verge of Core Formation and had to consume a large amount of spirit stones, which forced him to deduct half.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have greedily taken a single one of these spirit stones.

Ever since he began studying heavenly secrets and came into contact with causal arts, Mo Hua knew that many interest exchanges in this world involved karma.

Spirit stones could not be owed casually.

Benefits could not be taken casually either.

Otherwise, one would incur karmic debt.

It was fine when things were normal, but if the Heavenly Dao changed and suddenly demanded repayment of karma, it could very likely lead to a major disaster.

Elder You was a cautionary tale.

Mo Hua himself was now a Divine Invoker, seeking welfare for the Great Wilderness, and his current cultivation realm also concerned the future of the Great Wilderness. Therefore, his "greedily taking" half the spirit stones to refine his life-bound array wasn't considered excessive, but he couldn't take any more.

"Half, only over 500,000 spirit stones..."

Mo Hua was not very satisfied with this number.

But after thinking about it, it was reasonable.

The Hua family came to the Great Wilderness to earn spirit stones with Grain Grain Grain Bigu Pills; they themselves wouldn't bring a large amount of spirit stones into the Great Wilderness.

This meant that these spirit stones in the Hua family stronghold were likely all "looted" by them from the Great Wilderness.

And the Great Wilderness was already barren of spirit stones.

Therefore, having over a million at this stronghold was already not a small amount.

Mo Hua only kept 500,000 spirit stones, and handed over the remaining spirit stones and supplies to Lu Gu and Dan Zhu, letting them continue to push the construction and operation of the Thick Earth Array, the Divine Invoker army, and the Divine Slave Department.

Afterward, Mo Hua took the time to refine all 500,000 spirit stones.

Of course, a large portion of them were eaten by him like "snacks."

But after eating 500,000 spirit stones, Mo Hua's mood was somewhat heavy.

Because he didn't feel that his Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Skeleton Array had made any significant progress.

To date, he had cumulatively swallowed over a million spirit stones, but these million-plus spirit stones hadn't even "filled" the Taotie patterns on the first meridian, the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.

And the Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Skeleton Array had a full twelve main meridians.

These twelve main meridians would certainly become harder to feed as he went on, requiring more spirit stones.

If he really wanted to "feed them full," he feared it would take until the year of the monkey.

Even Mo Hua, whose divinity was full and whose emotions were cold and difficult to fluctuate, felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart.

He only felt that two black holes had appeared on his body.

One was the Heavenly Derivation Art, a black hole for spiritual sense.

The other was this Taotie array, a black hole for spirit stones.

These two black holes were on his path of cultivation, and had even merged with the Great Dao he cultivated.

Mo Hua sighed softly.

"It lives up to the name... 'Taotie' Spirit Skeleton Array..."

Since it was named "Taotie" and even operated according to the Taotie laws, Mo Hua should have been mentally prepared long ago.

The appetite of a Taotie is infinite.

This also meant that it was almost impossible to truly let the twelve main meridians of the Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Skeleton Array all be "fed" full.

At least in this Great Wilderness where spirit stones were scarce, it was impossible.

Mo Hua could also, like the Hua family, use the supreme authority of a "Divine Invoker" to carry out extreme "exploitation," looting all the spirit stones in the wilderness and using them for himself to form this Jin Dan.

The Way of Man is to diminish the surplus to supplement the deficiency.

This might also be the Way of the "Taotie."

But this was not Mo Hua's Way.

Even if he had now stepped onto the path of a god, in a sense, looking at the common people of the world, and even looking at himself, they were all "straw dogs."

But this act of exploiting the world, seizing the benefits of the world for his own private use, still violated his original "Dao Heart," and he was unwilling to do so.

Moreover, once he really did this and squeezed dry the spirit stone resources of the Great Wilderness.

Then under the great disaster, all his layouts in the wilderness would be destroyed, and all the tribes in the wilderness would be plunged into misery.

The foundation of his Dao attainment would also completely cease to exist.

Mo Hua considered for a long time and finally decided that he could only lower his "desires" to the maximum extent and suppress the instinct of the "Taotie."

He could only nourish one main meridian first.

Not only could he not afford it in terms of spirit stone resources.

He couldn't afford it in terms of time either. If he really waited until he nourished all twelve main meridians, he might have already been buried.

Therefore, he could only finish nourishing the first main meridian, the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, in the twelve main meridian life-bound spirit skeleton, and then proceed to form the Jin Dan.

As for the remaining eleven, he could only wait until after forming the Jin Dan to do it slowly.

After forming the Jin Dan, he would then spend years and months, paying a large amount of resources and time, to nourish this Taotie Spirit Skeleton into a complete body.

There were simply no conditions or time for it now.

Therefore, it was enough to just feed one full first...

Mo Hua breathed a sigh of relief.

But even feeding one full was not a simple matter in the current Great Wilderness.

The wilderness is the civilian land of the Great Wilderness, a barbaric land, an "uncivilized" land.

It is not a prosperous land like Daozhou or the Ganxue State boundary, where gold flows and jade pours, and spirit stones pave the ground.

Especially in a year of disaster, wanting to get a large amount of spirit stones was almost impossible.

Therefore, Mo Hua could only continue to pluck the wool from Elder You.

He had to find Elder You to "collect debts and interest."

1.8 million spirit stones was a huge debt.

This debt condensed objective causal law karma like steel, with one end tied to Elder You and the other held in Mo Hua's hand.

Mo Hua continued to lock onto Elder You with curse arts and pull the strings of karma, continuing to hunt him down.

Thereafter, in various mountain realms of the endgame, such as the Third-Grade Ghost Crying Mountain Realm, Third-Grade Hundred Insects Mountain Realm, Red Grave Mountain Realm, Withered Sand Mountain Realm, etc., the figure of Elder You, wrapped in a breeze robe, fleeing in panic, appeared one after another.

The corpse-killing bone, like a maggot on the tarsal bone, kept hunting Elder You.

Mo Hua followed behind, and along Elder You's tracks, broke these mountain realms one by one, and cleared the Hua family strongholds in these mountain realms one by one...

The Hua family's foundations hidden in the wilderness, which were almost impossible to be discovered, were now broken by Mo Hua one by one.

The losses in various supplies, manpower, spirit stones, and business were immeasurable.

And their losses were all converted into benefits, flowing into the hands of Mo Hua, the "Divine Invoker" who intended to unify the wilderness.

One part was transformed into the territory and strength for Mo Hua to conquer the Great Wilderness.

The other part was absorbed by the Taotie Spirit Skeleton Array, becoming an aid for his Jin Dan formation.

Several months later.

In an underground secret room of a small mountain realm.

Elder You, who had been fleeing arduously for many days, with bloodshot eyes, was constantly deducing something in front of a very precious Heavenly Secret Disk cast from Nine Hua stone...

His attainment in karma was very shallow.

This was the conclusion given to him by the ancestor.

Those with deep desires have shallow heavenly secrets; Elder You loved spirit stones too much, loved doing business too much, and loved the feeling of "making money" too much.

Therefore, his control over the overall situation of karma would be much inferior.

As a power-holder of a noble family, the ancestor could enter the Dao through the "profit" of harming others for self-interest, but he couldn't; he didn't have that pattern and fortune for the time being.

Therefore, if he wanted to calculate karma, he could only rely on the Heavenly Secret Disk gifted to him by the ancestor.

During these days, while fleeing, Elder You had very clearly realized that he had been "locked onto."

Locked onto by that Divine Invoker.

No, it could even be said... locked "dead."

Elder You didn't understand, very much didn't understand.

He was an elder of the Hua family, carrying heavenly secret treasures, and had the ancestor helping him cover up karma and cut off fate.

It would be one thing if he were "weak."

It was also understandable if the heavenly secret treasures failed.

But what about the ancestor?

How to explain the ancestor?

The ancestor was not an ordinary powerful cultivator; he had a profound realm, unique judgment of heavenly secrets, and merit in karma.

The ancestor was protecting him.

What means, what karma, what art did this Divine Invoker use to deceive the ancestor and lock his karma "dead"?

Was his attainment in karma even above the ancestor's?

No, impossible, absolutely impossible...

Elder You, with red eyes, recalled the past karma in the heavenly secret compass:

"He is only at Foundation Establishment; no matter how strong his heavenly secret attainment is, it can't catch up to the ancestor. Even if he really has a god behind him, and the god personally takes action, the 'Nine Hua Heavenly Secret Sword' cultivated by the ancestor couldn't possibly have no sense at all..."

"It must be... this Divine Invoker learned some secret, bypassed the ancestor's Heavenly Secret Sword Art, and locked me up without anyone knowing..."

"But... what exactly is this means, and what karma does it involve..."

Elder You recalled his past over and over again, combed through his journey to the Great Wilderness, and even some "deals" that might have been related before, seeking the cause and effect, thinking for a long, long time, but still had no clue.

He didn't know this Divine Invoker at all.

His intersection with this Divine Invoker was only in the Great Wilderness.

Outside the Great Wilderness, he had never had the slightest intersection with this Divine Invoker youth.

He had always done "big deals" that couldn't see the light, and his contacts were all "big villains."

Among all his customers, there was simply no "little cultivator" of this age.

Didn't know him, no karma, no friendship...

Elder You racked his brains but couldn't understand how he had been locked onto.

It couldn't be... owing him a debt, right?

That was even more of a fantasy; Elder You considered himself a high-level "merchant" who never left loose ends when doing business.

Debts owed were either repaid immediately.

Or the "creditor" died, and he didn't need to repay.

Learning to balance accounts was the basic of being a merchant.

Not to mention this Divine Invoker who suddenly popped out; he had never seen him before, nor had he spoken a word to him, so how could he owe him a debt?

"Why... why... why on earth?"

Elder You wished he could scratch his scalp off.

And just as he was scratching his head, the soles of his feet suddenly felt cold, and the ground trembled slightly.

Elder You cursed, "Damn thing, like a life-taking ghost..."

While cursing, he scrambled to put the heavenly secret disk and everything in the secret room into his storage bag.

Then, draped in the breeze light robe, he turned into a clear light and fled immediately.

In less than ten breaths, the ground bulged, the earth and stone cracked, and a corpse's claw stretched out from underground.

The huge and gloomy body of the corpse-killing bone also slowly emerged.

Elder You sensed this cold killing intent, and the fear in his heart had already formed an instinct; he could only flee toward the open space at a faster speed.

But he knew that if things went on like this, it wouldn't be the end.

The Hua family's secret strongholds in the wilderness had almost been "swallowed" by that damn Divine Invoker along his causal line.

Elder You knew that this Divine Invoker was casting a long line to catch a big fish.

He was the "bait" tied to that long line. The Hua family's foundation in the wilderness was the fish he wanted to catch.

He was being played as a chess piece by this Divine Invoker.

Elder You felt angry in his heart, but there was nothing he could do, because when he fled to the Hua family stronghold, there were still people who could block the pursuit of the immortal corpse-killing bone for him.

If he didn't flee into the Hua family stronghold and had no cover, he would definitely fall into the hands of the "Divine Invoker."

Of two evils, choose the lesser.

Elder You definitely chose to protect himself.

But if things went on like this, the Hua family's foundation would almost be eaten up by that Divine Invoker in one breath.

Elder You's gaze was cold, gradually turning into resentment.

"Since it's like this, then it's not up to me..."

"Since you want to kill them all, then I will accompany you to the end..."

Half a month later.

Mo Hua followed the causal line again and found Elder You's hiding place.

He sent out the corpse-killing bone and a group of Jin Dan savage generals to encircle and suppress him again.

But this time, he encountered an unexpected ambush by strong troops.

And Mo Hua also knew the person who ambushed him:

Young Master Wu Jiu.

That Young Master Wu Jiu, who had once failed at the Zhu Que Mountain altar, had now returned after recuperating and annexing many tribes, and the momentum was even greater than before.

And this time, when the two sides met again, it was truly a situation of life and death.

At the same time, Mo Hua also had a premonition in his heart.

The next battle might truly be the final battle to unify the wilderness...

After this battle, destroying the Wu Jiu tribe, he would be the only, supreme "Divine Invoker" who unified the wilderness.

The long-standing tribal disputes in the wilderness could finally... come to an end. ===== CHAPTER 1291 =====