Chapter 1297

Tie Tie Shugu wove a straw dog in front of Mo Hua.

He used a precious type of human-clothing grass used for sacrifice; the grass leaves were green and slightly golden, the grass shape like clothing, as if it were a person who was well-dressed and "covered in gold and jade."

Tie Tie Shugu stretched out his thin, bony fingers, cut this grass into fine grass threads, and then used an extremely traditional and primitive weaving technique to weave the delicate grass threads together one by one.

The whole process seemed simple, but every single grass thread had to stop at a certain position.

Where to weave to, and where to connect to another grass thread.

Between different grass threads, in what order, in what direction, what kind of knot to tie, and how to weave them together... not a single bit could be wrong.

All the grass threads looked exactly the same.

But in Tie Tie Shugu's hands, everything was different. Each similar grass thread had a completely different position and purpose.

The Great Dao is simple, but also extremely complex.

Just like that, Tie Tie Shugu, who was at the Jin Dan realm—or rather, the Art Bone ancestor—spent a full two hours weaving a "straw dog" that looked simple.

But inside this simple straw dog, it contained thousands of lines formed by human-clothing grass threads.

Tie Tie Shugu offered this straw dog to Mo Hua.

Mo Hua took it, examined it for a moment, and then placed it on the table.

Afterward, he also began to follow Tie Tie Shugu's example, taking human-clothing grass, extracting grass threads, and weaving them one by one.

He was an array master who drew arrays every day, so his fair and slender fingers were exceptionally flexible, and he was also handy at weaving straw dogs.

One grass thread after another was twisted by Mo Hua's fingers and wound together.

At first, Mo Hua's speed was very slow, and he wove very carefully. But gradually, when he became familiar with the weaving technique, he wove faster and faster.

In his eyes, Heavenly Calculation circulated, "replicating" the technique Tie Tie Shugu had just used to weave.

At the same time, a strand of dark gray surged, and Heavenly Strange Calculation also ran in parallel, reconstructing the weaving process of the straw dog.

Mo Hua's hands became faster and faster, almost faster than a blur.

And in his hands, a straw dog was also building its shape bit by bit at an extremely swift and orderly speed...

Tie Tie Shugu's expression was stunned, and for a moment, he even forgot to breathe.

It took Mo Hua only a little over an hour to finish weaving a complete straw dog.

Tie Tie Shugu looked at the two almost identical straw dogs, was stunned for a long time, and then shook his head with a bitter smile, sighing:

"This old man... has learned for most of his life, yet I am not as good as Lord Divine Invoker's moment of comprehension; I am truly ashamed..."

Mo Hua's expression was calm.

Heavenly Calculation plus Heavenly Strange Calculation, spiritual sense Dao-fication, plus his current pure divinity—learning this bit of basic "technique"-level skill was not difficult.

Mo Hua asked: "And then?"

Tie Tie Shugu shook his head: "Nothing else. This is all there is."

Mo Hua's gaze sank slightly.

Tie Tie Shugu said: "What this old man knows is only the weaving method of the straw dog. This kind of straw dog is used to sacrifice to heaven and earth. As for whether it has other causal uses, this old man has not comprehended the inheritance of the ancestors, so I do not know."

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and asked again: "The grass you used to weave the straw dog is called human-clothing grass?"

"Yes," Tie Tie Shugu said, "This grass wears human clothing; when woven into a straw dog, it can serve as a sacrifice for a person. Of course, there is another saying..."

Tie Tie Shugu's gaze narrowed slightly, and he said slowly:

"People are nothing more than 'straw dogs' wearing human skin."

People... are nothing more than straw dogs wearing human skin...

Mo Hua's heart trembled.

He was silent for a moment, then nodded: "I know. You may go first."

Tie Tie Shugu wanted to say something but stopped, but seeing Mo Hua's expression was icy cold, he did not dare to ask too much, only bowing:

"This old man takes his leave. If Lord Divine Invoker has any orders, this old man will not refuse."

Tie Tie Shugu left.

Mo Hua looked at the two straw dogs on the table, lost in thought.

After pondering for a moment, Mo Hua took out the straw dog Mr. Tu had given him and compared them. He found that these straw dogs were not much different in appearance.

But the two straw dogs woven by the Art Bone ancestor and himself were clearly much thinner than the "straw dog" containing the mysteries of the life technique that Mr. Tu had given him.

It did not have that sense of the vicissitudes of time, nor the weight of causality.

This showed that the weaving method of the straw dog might be correct, but this weaving method lacked some deeper causal shaping techniques.

And this causal technique was the core of this straw dog and the key to causal transfer.

"Causal transfer..."

Mo Hua frowned, and then reproduced the weaving method of the straw dog in his mind.

He recalled it over and over again, wanting to see if there were any other unknown clues hidden inside.

After thinking about it forward nearly a hundred times, Mo Hua played it backward in his mind.

Thinking like this, a strange "sense of familiarity" suddenly arose in Mo Hua's heart; it seemed that in his subconscious, he had seen something similar before...

Mo Hua concentrated his thoughts, and suddenly his pupils shrank.

Weaving forward is "shaping" the "flesh and blood" of the straw dog.

Dismantling backward is "dissecting" the "roots and bones" of the straw dog.

The flesh and blood and roots and bones of the straw dog were all simulated by human-clothing grass threads.

This also seemed to be a kind of "creation," but unlike array creation, it was more like a kind of causal creation.

Using grass and wood as a medium to endow it with a certain life in terms of "causality."

And Mo Hua was also very familiar with this process of reverse "dissecting" the roots and bones of the straw dog.

Because when he carved the Twelve Meridians Taotie Bone Array in his own body, he also dissected his own flesh and blood and roots and bones.

This similarity should not be a coincidence...

"Causal transfer... since it is transfer, that means..."

Mo Hua's gaze narrowed, and he immediately took action, "dissecting" the straw dog he had just woven in reverse.

After dissecting it, some special grass thread knots inside the straw dog were revealed in minute detail.

When Mo Hua was weaving, he followed the Art Bone ancestor's technique, copying the gourd to draw the ladle, without thinking too much, but now that it was dissected, he discovered that these "knots" inside the straw dog all had special meanings.

These dense "knots" were actually acupuncture points, and when connected, they formed a complete set of twelve regular meridians.

This was the human meridian system.

In other words, the inside of the straw dog was woven with the human twelve regular meridians.

Therefore, in the sacrificial customs of the Great Wilderness, the straw dog could replace a "person," and a person, in a certain sense, was also a "straw dog."

Mo Hua took a deep breath, feeling both shocked and a hint of sudden enlightenment in his heart.

He only felt that the various scenes he had seen in the Great Wilderness and the various inheritances he had learned:

Taotie, array techniques, bone carvings, twelve meridians, straw dogs, divine path sacrifices, causality, life, life techniques...

Between these intricate Dao cultivation techniques, they all seemed to have thousands of threads of connection, and even a bit like... one continuous lineage.

"Taotie is related to famine, related to laws, related to array techniques, related to the twelve meridian spiritual remains of humans..."

"And the human twelve meridians are related to straw dogs, related to causality, related to life techniques..."

The Great Dao is vast and all-encompassing; Mo Hua's mind was also in turmoil for a moment, his head a mess, with countless causal details connecting and entangling with each other.

Mo Hua vaguely felt that he seemed to have comprehended something.

But those comprehensions were all entangled in his mind, a chaotic mess, making him unable to sort out a clear logic at all.

Seeing that his thoughts were getting more and more chaotic, his spiritual sense contradictory, and his sea of consciousness also feeling painful, Mo Hua knew that he was a bit "overestimating his capabilities," so he could only temporarily suppress his mind and not consider these complex mysteries too deeply.

He withdrew his mind and concentrated on thinking about the straw dog life technique.

"Causal transfer means that I must transfer my causality onto this straw dog. Let the straw dog bear some disasters for me."

"If the straw dog can bear disasters for me, that means the straw dog is 'me'."

"How can the straw dog be 'me'?"

Mo Hua looked at the inside of the straw dog again: "Twelve regular meridians..."

"Inside the straw dog, imprint my twelve regular meridians exactly as they are."

"In this way, the straw dog and I can be considered to share the same fate."

"But how should these regular meridian paths be drawn on?"

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, examined the ancient straw dog Mr. Tu had given him carefully for a moment, and when his spiritual sense penetrated it, he discovered some reddish-brown knots.

This meant that there had been bloodstains on the knots, and these bloodstains were different from ordinary blood; they should be the essence blood of a cultivator.

Using essence blood to outline the twelve meridians along the meridian knots, thereby making the straw dog share his life and replace his causality.

Mo Hua's gaze was deep. After calculating with his spiritual sense dozens of times and having a train of thought,

he then took out the human-clothing grass again, followed the method Tie Tie Shugu had told him, and wove a new straw dog.

Only this time, when weaving, he followed the path he had calculated beforehand, and at each grass thread knot of the straw dog, he pointed in his essence blood in turn, simulating his own twelve regular meridian paths.

Mo Hua's twelve regular meridians were fused with the Taotie spiritual remains.

Therefore, the meridians inside this straw dog also looked a little bit like the meridians of a "Taotie."

After doing all this, Mo Hua completely sealed this straw dog, letting its grass and wood threads fuse completely with the blood of his own meridians.

After the fusion, a feeling of being blood-related to this "straw dog" indeed arose in Mo Hua's heart.

But Mo Hua was not too happy, because this sense of connection was not that strong.

This meant that his causal binding with this straw dog might not be that deep.

This straw dog might not be able to block disasters for him.

Mo Hua frowned, called Tie Tie Shugu over, and asked Tie Tie Shugu to cast some spells to curse him to death in terms of causality.

Tie Tie Shugu's face was flustered, and he hurriedly said he did not dare.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and also realized it was a bit inappropriate.

He knew that his own life destiny was unusual and contained some "dirty things."

If Tie Tie Shugu cursed him to death and triggered the fierce evil in his life destiny, suffering a backlash, then he would be dead for sure.

Mo Hua said: "Use some 'small curses' that do not involve life destiny, do not involve life and death, and only harm the skin and hair to harm me."

Tie Tie Shugu still did not dare, but seeing Mo Hua's appearance, he could not refuse, so he finally dared to use some small techniques that "harmed the skin and hair" to make Mo Hua lose a strand of hair.

When Tie Tie Shugu cast the spell, Mo Hua could sense a strand of very weak causal "malice."

He did not block it, nor did he use causal techniques to defend, but calmly accepted this strand of "malice," bearing this hair-loss curse head-on.

This spell's lethality was very slight; Mo Hua only lost one strand of hair.

And that straw dog was safe and sound, not losing a single grass thread.

This meant that the causal transfer had failed.

He still had not comprehended the true mystery of the Great Wilderness Straw Dog Life Technique.

"There is still a big problem..."

Mo Hua frowned.

In the following days, he locked himself in the Divine Invoker Palace, studying the Great Wilderness Straw Dog Life Technique day and night.

He analyzed the straw dog thread by thread, performed calculations, and deduced the changes in causality within it.

At the same time, he also consumed his essence blood over and over again to weave the straw dogs of the Great Wilderness, in order to ponder the unknown mysteries within.

Throughout the entire life technique process, countless causal errors were excluded by Mo Hua one by one.

But no matter how hard he tried and how he attempted, Mo Hua failed in the end.

The straw dog he wove with his heart's blood could not block any "disaster" for him at all—not even a minor curse as slight as "losing a strand of hair."

Moreover, Mo Hua also realized a very key problem:

That was, during the process of weaving the straw dog, the consumption of his spiritual sense was negligible.

This did not conform to general causal laws.

Drawing array techniques requires consuming a large amount of spiritual sense.

Causal techniques are also a kind of mental technique, and when cast, they also require consuming a large amount of spiritual sense.

The more high-end the causal technique, the more spiritual sense it requires.

The Great Wilderness Straw Dog Life Technique involves causal transfer and is a forbidden technique of the Art Bone Force ancestors; it is a method Mr. Tu painstakingly sought to "escape death" in his Senior Uncle's hands, so its profound and difficult nature goes without saying.

According to general circumstances, practicing this level of life technique would inevitably consume a massive amount of spiritual sense.

But reality did not.

This showed that his method of cultivation still had problems.

This straw dog life technique still had the most critical thing that he had not comprehended.

Just like drawing an "absolute array," if one does not get its charm and only gets its form, the final result will only be some shallow patterns, and without containing a large amount of spiritual sense, it cannot condense into a true absolute array.

This life technique is the same.

But...

Mo Hua studied this straw dog life technique back and forth many times, but still could not figure out what other tricks were in this causal technique that he had not comprehended.

What else should he comprehend?

Mo Hua frowned and pondered. Inside the palace, the atmosphere was very heavy and deathly silent.

The big tiger did not dare to disturb Mo Hua either, lying quietly in the corner, seemingly sensing that the atmosphere was wrong, and did not even dare to breathe loudly.

In front of Mo Hua lay a pile of "straw dogs."

One was the most worn-out and special one, the one Mr. Tu had given him.

Another was the one Tie Tie Shugu had woven.

The rest of the pile, about nearly a hundred, some complete, some with meridians "dissected," and some "dissected" into pieces, were all the ones Mo Hua had woven himself over these days to study.

Mo Hua's face was also very pale.

He just looked at the straw dogs in front of him silently.

Looking and looking, a flash of inspiration struck his heart. Thinking of the four words "Dao, Law, Technique, Vessel," he suddenly thought of a level he had always ignored:

"Vessel."

For a long time, he had been shaping his "Dao Heart," comprehending "laws," and cultivating various array techniques, spells, and the "technique" of causality.

The vessel was just a medium for carrying array techniques and spells.

Mo Hua was poor when he was young and had no savings, so he could not come into contact with any precious material "vessels."

Therefore, Mo Hua had never paid much attention to the concept of the vessel, and usually, he just made do with whatever he had.

But the "Great Wilderness Straw Dog Life Technique" was an extremely profound causal technique, using the "straw dog" as a medium, and even named after the "straw dog," which showed that there were extraordinary mysteries at the level of the "vessel."

"Vessel... human-clothing grass..."

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and said to the big tiger: "Call Tie Tie Shugu over."

This sentence broke the silence of the palace.

The big tiger pricked up its ears, looked up, and saw that Mo Hua, who had been in seclusion for so many days and had become somewhat "autistic," had finally spoken. It finally felt relieved, wagged its tail, and went to call Tie Tie Shugu over.