Chapter 675

Huang Shanjun faintly felt that Mo Hua, this little child, carried a trace of "Great Dao" clarity, so much so that, for a moment, he didn't seem human at all, but a tiny divine being born of the Dao itself.

But in an instant, that impression shifted.

Mo Hua had just finished eating a lamb leg, his hands greasy, and wiped them on his clothes.

He seemed nothing more than an ordinary, carefree young cultivator.

Half divine nature above the Dao, half human nature beneath it, intertwined.

Huang Shanjun's expression grew dazed.

Mo Hua had no idea what Huang Shanjun was thinking.

As he wiped his hands, he continued pondering Huang Shanjun's words about divine knowledge, finding it immensely beneficial—broadening his horizons and expanding his understanding of the Dao.

Yet this kind of knowledge was profound and complex.

Many details were vague and unclear.

Mo Hua had swallowed it all like a wolf devouring food, and still couldn't fully digest it.

He silently memorized the key points, pondered them for a while, then asked a few scattered, minor questions.

Huang Shanjun was distracted, but answered each one in turn.

Thus, until dusk fell and the afterglow spilled across the sky, Mo Hua prepared to take his leave.

Before departing, Mo Hua handed Huang Shanjun some fruits, spirit meat, and wine, thoughtfully saying:

"The mountains are lonely, devoid of life—keep these offerings for yourself, eat them slowly. I'll come visit again when I have time…"

Huang Shanjun's expression grew complex.

Mo Hua wiped his hands again on his clothes, carefully packed each clean bone back into his storage bag, then rose, leapt down from the altar, and stepped toward the door—when Huang Shanjun called out to him.

"Young friend…"

Huang Shanjun's voice was gentle.

Mo Hua turned back, looking at him in confusion.

Huang Shanjun, wrapped in white mist that curled gently, dwelled within the clay statue of the mountain god, his face blurred and indistinct.

"The Qianzhou border is no place to linger."

"When you've reached Foundation Establishment's late stage in your sect, leave—no matter how many years you delay, don't exceed ten."

"Within ten years… there should still be time…"

Huang Shanjun's voice grew quieter, fading to near inaudibility.

Mo Hua frowned, wanting to ask why—but seeing Huang Shanjun's indifferent gaze and shifting expression, he held his tongue and simply nodded:

"Thank you, Huang Shanjun. I'll remember!"

Huang Shanjun exhaled slightly, bowed slightly, and said:

"I won't see you off—take care on your journey, young friend."

Mo Hua stood at the temple's broken doorway, bowed in return, then turned and left.

Huang Shanjun sat within the clay statue, his gaze calm, watching Mo Hua's small figure recede into the distance, as if bidding farewell to an "old friend."

Old friend?

Huang Shanjun felt dazed.

How many years had it been since he last felt this?

Time flies, circumstances change, life and death turn, the divine path has fallen into decay—where could he possibly have any "old friend"?

The celestial mechanisms shift; merely surviving from now on will be enough…

Huang Shanjun looked up again at the sky, his narrow eyes growing ever more solemn.

"This sky… is growing darker…"

"Too bad—mortals with their fleshly eyes cannot see it…"

"This withered mountain temple, its broken walls and shattered rafters—will it even still shield me from wind and rain?"

A deep sigh echoed from the mountain temple.

…

Mo Hua left Withered Mountain and, en route, stopped by the Gu family in Qingzhou to ask Xu Wanyi about array-mediator refining, greeted Uncle Gu, subtly inquired about the progress of Huo Fotuo's merit reward, then pigged out on a meal before returning to his sect.

Back at the sect, Mo Hua slumped over his desk, pulled out paper and brush, and began organizing the knowledge about the Dao of the Divine that he'd learned from Huang Shanjun.

Arrays are power, spells are power, spiritual sense is power.

Dao knowledge is also a kind of power.

Broad knowledge lets you exploit cognitive gaps to "trap" others.

Lack of knowledge creates cognitive blind spots—then you may be the one "trapped."

Thus, newly acquired Dao knowledge must be firmly memorized, deeply pondered, carefully summarized, and integrated into one's own understanding of the Dao.

Matters concerning the Divine are vast and heterogeneous.

Mo Hua began organizing his thoughts on paper, slowly elevating his Dao comprehension.

First, the question of divine thought's existence.

Based on his conversations with the non-human mountain god—his "good friend"—Huang Shanjun, Mo Hua could roughly deduce…

"Divine thought" is a broad umbrella term.

All formless conscious entities in the world may be called "divine thought."

Human spiritual sense, demonic mind, divine will, ghostly thoughts, and other malevolent spirits' evil thoughts—all are fundamentally forms of divine thought.

In Mo Hua's current understanding of the Dao, "spirit" and "form" are one.

Spirit cannot exist apart from form.

Even innate divine beings, embodying the Great Dao's principles and possessing potent, pure divine thought, still require a "statue" or some other vessel to inhabit.

When the flesh inhabited by the evil god is destroyed, it must seek another vessel to parasitize.

Mo Hua thought for a moment…

Just like that black-cloaked leader, whom I obliterated with the Minor Meteor Technique, after his flesh was destroyed.

The evil god's eye on his forehead began to detach from its host and drill toward my own forehead.

Even the evil god behaves this way, let alone other orthodox deities.

Deities and their vessels are one, coexisting and symbiotic.

Based on this, if a deity's sacred statue is destroyed, the worst outcome is the god's annihilation, the Dao's collapse, and the complete destruction of the Great Dao; the lesser outcome is damage to the origin, with severe depletion of primordial energy.

In extreme cases, they are forced to parasitize flesh and transform into evil gods…

But this is merely Mo Hua's current speculation; whether it is true still requires future verification.

Besides deities, the world also contains spirit objects: ghosts and monsters.

Ghosts differ from deities.

Mo Hua rested his chin in his hand, recalling every malevolent ghostly entity he had encountered, verifying them in his mind.

First was the Shanzhai, the green-faced little ghost who transformed into a Daoist acolyte within the Landscape and Daoist Acolyte Painting.

The little ghost was a ghostly thought, parasitizing a landscape contemplation painting.

Ghostly entities possess their own characteristics.

Mo Hua's memory still retained some fragmented fragments.

These fragments surfaced in his mind one by one after he devoured the little ghost's malevolent thoughts…

Deep in the mountains, a young Daoist acolyte studied Yiqi Xiuxian with a Daoist Priest.

The Daoist Priest was reading a strange book; the young acolyte followed along, and as they read, their smiles gradually turned sinister, and both began to desire to eat humans.

The acolyte and the Daoist Priest conspired, deceiving wandering cultivators and began eating them.

As they ate, they lost all human form.

One became a red-faced, fanged demon; the other became a green-faced, fanged little ghost.

Later, a white-robed sword cultivator descended from the clouds and slashed the red-faced demon, transformed from the Daoist Priest.

The green-faced little ghost, transformed from the acolyte, escaped death, fleeing into the painting and being sealed within the Daoist temple…

…

Based on Huang Shanjun's accounts of deities and ghosts, Mo Hua roughly deduced that the book the Daoist Priest and the acolyte read must have been a demonic ghost-cultivation technique.

After learning this technique, they became "ghost cultivators," transforming into fierce ghosts.

What was meant by "eating" humans was actually consuming their spiritual consciousness.

According to Huang Shanjun, if a ghost eats humans, it must first consume its closest kin…

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and thought there might even be one possibility.

The acolyte was, in fact, the Daoist Priest's son.

The Daoist Priest, having cultivated the ghost technique, feared becoming a fierce ghost himself, so he would eat his own son first—thus he showed the demonic ghost-cultivation technique to the young acolyte.

Thus, "father and son become ghosts together," both turning into ghosts to go out and "eat" others.

The Daoist Priest was the father, the red-faced demon.

The acolyte was the son, the green-faced little ghost.

Their bloodlines were connected; they cultivated the same technique, and the ghosts they became were of the same lineage.

Later, when the sword cultivator slew the ghosts, the powerful red-faced demon was killed, yet the far weaker green-faced little ghost escaped alive—this defied logic.

It must have been…

The red-faced demon, transformed from the Daoist Priest, knew he was certain to die, so he sacrificed himself to hold off the strong enemy, allowing his son—the green-faced little ghost transformed from the acolyte—to escape.

Even though they were demons, they still possessed a touch of… "human sentiment"?

Mo Hua froze, unsure how to respond…

Another point deeply troubled Mo Hua.

The white-robed sword cultivator slew the ghostly entities…

If he could slay ghosts with sword qi, then this white-robed sword cultivator—did he also cultivate… the method of transforming spiritual consciousness into a sword?

Could he not be… some elder sword cultivator from the Grand Void Gate?

Mo Hua opened his mouth, startled by his own speculation.

"It can't be that coincidental…"

Mo Hua frowned, thought again, then shook his head.

Speculation is merely speculation.

Now the red-faced demon was dead, the green-faced little ghost had been "devoured" by me, and the white-robed sword cultivator's figure was blurred and unidentifiable—hard to verify.

But this doesn't matter much.

Mo Hua reviewed the entire sequence of events once more, nodding slightly.

With knowledge of deity and ghost lore, his understanding of the Landscape and Daoist Acolyte Painting transforming into the green-faced, fanged ghost became far clearer.

Previously vague and unclear experiences, now that his cultivation experience and knowledge had grown, gradually became comprehensible.

Mo Hua faintly felt a sense of intuitive clarity, as if a single spark had ignited full understanding.

After the contemplation painting, the second malevolent entity was the Ancestor Painting of Zhang Quan, the corpse cultivator in Nanyue City.

Zhang Quan, along with his entire Liezulie Sect family, while alive, were "corpses"; after death, strictly speaking, they should be considered "ghosts."

Yet after death, their manifested forms were various "zombies."

But this raises a question:

"If ghosts eat humans, they must first eat their closest kin—then why didn't Zhang Quan's ancestral ghost family devour Zhang Quan first?"

Mo Hua frowned.

Is it because this entire Zhang family of corpse cultivators, whose descendants have dwindled to just Zhang Quan, had their ancestors…

"Stolen and eaten" by them?

Until only Zhang Quan remained.

If Zhang Quan is eaten too, the Zhang lineage will be extinguished.

Did the Zhang family's Laozu then act with "foresight," restraining generations of corpse ghosts in the clan to preserve Zhang Quan as the last heir, continuing the ancestral fire?

Or is it because the Zhang family's "Ancestral Chart" is unusually special?

Is this visualization chart naturally suited for malevolent spirits to inhabit?

Mo Hua was deeply curious.

He very much wanted to find Zhang Quan, or the corpse ghosts formed by the Zhang family's Liezulie Sect ancestors, to verify this—but they had all been "stewed" together and then "swallowed" whole.

By the time they were "swallowed," Mo Hua's spiritual sense was already quite strong.

These corpse cultivators' ghostly thoughts were destroyed so thoroughly that Mo Hua saw very few residual memories.

Mo Hua felt a pang of regret.

But the matter of the Zhang family's visualization chart reminded Mo Hua…

Mo Hua remembered that the blank visualization chart left behind after the Zhang family's corpse ghosts were "exterminated" was still hidden in his Na Zi Ring.

And now, within the chart, there was a new tenant—the Wuxing Sect's strange, eye-like Wuxing Source Pattern…

Mo Hua froze, suddenly chilled to the bone.

Strange eye…

It carries its own malevolent thought, can split and parasitize, and embodies the Five Elements principle…

Could this Wuxing Source Pattern's true form be a…

Demon God?!

Mo Hua drew in a sharp breath.

Am I carrying a Demon God with me?

Mo Hua murmured: "No way…"

Since the probability of deciphering it was too low and he couldn't "draw" a second-rank Five Elements array, the Five Elements Array Flow Chart sealing the Wuxing Source Pattern had been tossed into his Na Zi Ring to gather dust.

But now, thinking back, the secrets contained within this Source Pattern were likely far from simple…

Mo Hua considered retrieving the Five Elements Array Flow Chart to examine it, but after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea.

Ignorance is fearless.

Before, not knowing its true nature, he hadn't taken it seriously.

But now that he knew this Source Pattern was extremely strange—even possibly a "Demon God"—Mo Hua couldn't afford to be careless.

I'll wait a while…

When my realm advances further, my spiritual sense grows stronger, or I "consume" more Divine Marrow and my spiritual awareness undergoes another qualitative transformation, I'll take the time to examine this Source Pattern carefully.

Aside from these, Mo Hua's memory held no other "ghosts."

What remained were the "demons" from Yu'er's nightmares.

Mo Hua furrowed his brow.

These "demons" were peculiar—their bodies deformed and monstrous, limbs mixed between human and beast, clearly not "ghosts."

Then were they… malevolent forces of heaven and earth?

Or were they puppets or servants under the control of a Demon God?

Mo Hua wrote the words "demons" on paper, and added notes beside them: "malevolent forces" and "Demon God servants."

This was merely a provisional hypothesis.

I'll correct it later, after seeing more of these "demons" and discerning their true nature.

Mo Hua had roughly distinguished between ghostly thoughts and malevolent forces.

Next came the gods.

Recalling what Huang Shanjun had said about gods, Mo Hua realized he hadn't spoken much—and surely had concealed something.

For instance, the secrets of realm and divine rank.

Aside from wandering gods and mountain gods, what other gods existed?

River gods? Riverbank gods? Earth gods?

Heavenly gods? Ancient gods?

How could gods of profound realm, with colossal divine bodies, dwell within statues?

Where did they reside normally?

Surely they didn't just float in the sky, their divine bodies as vast as mountains, watching humans every day…

And because humans had weak spiritual senses, they couldn't see them?

What specific Dao colors corresponded to the quality of Divine Marrow? Where exactly could one obtain the pure golden, jade-white, and lapis-lazuli-colored Divine Marrow…

…

The more Mo Hua knew, the more he realized how much he didn't know.

This world was truly profound…

Mo Hua shook his head and sighed.

Huang Shanjun hadn't told him these things.

It might be because Huang Shanjun didn't know—or because it knew but deliberately withheld the truth.

Mo Hua couldn't force the issue.

What you don't want done to yourself, don't do to others—there are some things he himself didn't want to tell other people either.

And for now, this knowledge about the divine was about enough to use.

Based on these "divine secrets" and the other information Huang Shanjun had given, Mo Hua began to plan his next steps.

First, there was Divine Sense Sword Transformation.

The Grand Void Divine Sense Sword Transformation True Art!

By all rights, this divine sense sword art should be hidden within the Grand Void Gate.

But Mo Hua had inquired for a long time without finding many leads, so he could only keep it in mind and keep searching later.

Mo Hua couldn't help but let his imagination run.

When he grew up, grew taller, he'd learn from the seniors of the Grand Void Gate, wear an eye-catching white Daoist robe, then ride his sword across the clouds, and whenever he saw evil spirits and monsters, he'd transform his divine sense into a sword was a sword and cut them down with one strike.

Just thinking about it was so dashing…

The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more he felt he absolutely had to learn this divine sense sword transformation!

Next was the Dao of Divine Formations.

Since it was formations, Mo Hua naturally wanted to learn them too.

Moreover, having learned the Heavenly Evolution Art was like boarding a "pirate ship"—in the future he would very likely "offend" evil gods.

Formations of the divine Dao that could restrain gods were clearly also of vital importance.

It was just a pity that Huang Shanjun was a mountain god and didn't understand formations; he'd only heard of such formations but had no idea at all what these so-called divine formations actually were.

Were they one of the categories of Two Aspects and Three Talents, Four Images and Five Elements, Seven Stars and Eight Trigrams formations?

Or were they entirely different from these formations—a completely separate branch of formations?

This too would require him to seek out and comprehend on his own later.

Mo Hua felt a little itch in his heart, and some anticipation as well.

Both the divine sense sword transformation and the Dao of divine formations would have to be found slowly; there was no rushing for now.

The most critical thing at present was still the matter of cultivation.

He needed to find a way to obtain "Divine Marrow," to bring about a further qualitative change in his divine sense, thereby clearing the obstacles to breaking through to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Divine Marrow was exceedingly precious.

Only gods possessed Divine Marrow.

The only god Mo Hua currently knew was Huang Shanjun, but no matter what, he couldn't bring himself to make a move on Huang Shanjun and extract its Divine Marrow.

Huang Shanjun was a good friend!

Not only would it not do to act against Huang Shanjun, he couldn't make a move on other proper gods either.

This left only one path—filled with taboo and bloodshed…

Hunting evil gods!

Mo Hua sighed softly.

Evil gods were far too powerful.

With his current divine sense power, he certainly wasn't a match for an evil god.

But through his understanding of the divine, Mo Hua had also found some loopholes.

As Huang Shanjun had said:

"Evil gods will split themselves up to spread their teachings…"

"…A great evil god will often split its own divine body into numerous 'Divine Remains' of first grade, second grade, or third grade, scattering them across the various low-grade prefectures of the Nine Provinces, to spread the evil Dao over the widest range, feeding on the depraved desires of men to nourish itself…"

A unified, powerful evil god's "divine body"—he wouldn't dare make a move on that.

But the evil god's "Divine Remains" scattered across the Nine Provinces to spread the teachings were mostly only at the first or second grade realm.

Third grade was out of the question—he definitely couldn't win.

But first or second grade evil god remains should be no match for him.

One should pick the soft persimmons to squeeze.

One should pick the small evil gods to "eat."

Mo Hua nodded.

The golden evil eye parasitically attached to the black-clothed leader that day should have been one of the "Divine Remains" the great evil god Lord of the Wilds had split off to spread its teachings.

As long as he prepared thoroughly, didn't let any news leak, and secretly "ate" one or two of the evil god's Divine Remains, Lord of the Wilds probably wouldn't notice.

After all, Mo Hua had heard that big eyeball say, "The Wilds are endless, with myriad Divine Remains…"

Whether this "myriad" was literal—meaning there really were myriad split-off "Divine Remains"—or figurative, just an exaggeration meant to show how strong the wild god was and how many Divine Remains it had…

Either way, the number of Divine Remains certainly wasn't small.

Eating one or two—He was the dignified lord of the Wilds; it wouldn't even tickle, and He probably wouldn't be petty enough to quibble with him over it.

He just had to keep his actions discreet; best not to let Him know.

There was another problem.

Once one devoured "Divine Marrow," one's divinity would strengthen while one's humanity crumbled; one's original heart would be lost, and one's Dao heart would grow increasingly cold and indifferent.

Mo Hua furrowed his brow.

He didn't want to become a cold, heartless little evil god.

But this problem seemed to have no solution.

He hadn't even asked Huang Shanjun, because Huang Shanjun was a mountain god—a god, not a man—and didn't need to consider the issue of "humanity."

Mo Hua lay on the table, racking his brains.

He went over the Dao-cultivation knowledge related to the divine again and again, carefully recalling and repeatedly pondering.

He didn't know how long had passed when a sudden flash of insight arose in Mo Hua's mind.

He realized he had thought too highly of "divine beings," and had also somewhat overestimated "divinity."

There was no need to regard gods as "gods."

Though divine beings were born upholding the Dao—powerful, formless existences of divine sense—they too were among the myriad beings of heaven and earth, among all living things.

Divine beings bowed to the Great Dao.

Human nature is the Dao; divine nature is also the Dao.

What cultivators seek is the Heavenly Dao.

Since this was so, whether human or god, both were themselves part of the "Great Dao"—not absolute contradictions.

Since both were "the Dao," he could have both!

Upholding human nature, tempering divine nature, human and god as one, merging to align with the Great Dao—an indestructible Dao heart.

This seemed to be the path he himself had to walk!

At this thought, Mo Hua felt as if sweet dew had been poured over his crown, his heart and spirit suddenly clear and bright.

A faint light flashed in his eyes; heavenly mechanisms rose and fell, black and white and pale gold, three colors interwoven, radiant and resplendent.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, it seemed the faint trembling hum of the Dao Stele reached his ears.

Mo Hua felt that upon his divine sense there were pale golden patterns, tracing along the trajectory of the Heaven-Mystery Grand Array, flashing past in an instant.

In the dim unknowing, his understanding of the "Heavenly Dao" seemed to have deepened by another measure; this kind of comprehension was as if it had merged into instinct, carved into his Dao heart…

(End of this chapter)