Chapter Summaries

Mo Hua claimed to be a Void Gate disciple and produced a Sect Jade Pass that left True Person Zhuge unable to verify his identity. Zhuge protected Mo Hua from the Hua Family for now, then brought the pass to two Celestial Authority Pavilion chiefs, who were stunned by its contents.

• Mo Hua claimed the Void Gate had risen to prominence after he joined, and the gathered nobles and True Persons threatened to torture him for his outrageous claims.
• Mo Hua retrieved his Sect Jade Pass from his Storage Bag, and True Person Zhuge examined it but said he needed to verify its authenticity.
• True Person Zhuge gave Mo Hua an Eight Trigrams Plaque to protect him and warned True Person Hua to keep him alive until his identity was confirmed.
• After leaving the Hua Family, True Person Zhuge told two Celestial Authority Pavilion chiefs that the captured Wilderness Divine Shaman claimed to be from Void Gate and showed them the Jade Referral.
• The two chiefs examined the densely packed signatures on the Jade Referral and reacted with alarm.

The Seven Pavilions chiefs discovered that Mo Hua’s Jade Referral and records were sealed, and True Person Zhuge wrote to Elder Xun to investigate. Elder Xun learned Mo Hua was alive but trapped in the Great Wilderness, then struggled to find a safe way to help him.

• The Chiefs of Heavenly Pivot Pavilion and Celestial Authority Pavilion examined Mo Hua’s Jade Referral, found the signatures of sect leaders and old ancestors, and discovered his identity and competition records were sealed.
• True Person Zhuge and the two chiefs linked the sealed records to the Wild Heaven Blood Sacrifice and decided Zhuge should write to Elder Xun.
• True Person Zhuge sent Elder Xun a letter through the Zhuge Family’s channels, reporting Mo Hua’s whereabouts.
• Elder Xun learned Mo Hua was alive but a prisoner beneath the steps in the Great Wilderness, and considered sending sect cultivators to retrieve him.
• Elder Xun worried that a direct intervention could endanger Mo Hua, then sent True Person Zhuge a drawing and a long set of instructions and teachings.

True Person Zhuge and the pavilion chiefs interpreted Elder Xun’s drawing as a warning to treat Mo Hua as someone of extraordinary importance to Void Gate. True Person Zhuge retrieved Mo Hua from the Hua Family, and the chapter ended with powerful figures learning and remembering Mo Hua’s name.

• True Person Zhuge and the pavilion chiefs read Elder Xun’s admonitions about his cultivation, then found a drawing of an incense burner and a Void Gate memorial tablet in the Jade Slip.
• True Person Zhuge and the chiefs concluded that Elder Xun was hinting at Mo Hua’s exceptional connection to Void Gate and decided they had to bring him back safely.
• True Person Zhuge went to the Hua Family and claimed Mo Hua had a small bond with Void Gate, while True Person Hua inspected the Jade Pass and questioned Mo Hua’s presence in the Wilderness.
• Mo Hua blamed True Person Hua for capturing him and suggested the Hua Family had tried to frame Void Gate, prompting True Person Zhuge and the assembled guests to doubt the Hua Family.
• True Person Zhuge declared that Mo Hua was a Void Gate disciple and took him away after True Person Hua relented.
• True Person Hua asked Mo Hua’s name, and Mo Hua said it was Mo Hua, a name the assembled nobles and hidden figures remembered.

Mo Hua met Directors Huangfu and Shangguan in the Dao Court’s Privy Chamber, where their connections to people he knew revealed how unusual his background seemed. After Mo Hua described the Hua Family’s experiments and the mysterious Golden Needle in his Sea of Consciousness, True Person Zhuge warned him to keep the matter secret and promised to investigate; Mo Hua went to rest, resolved to attempt Golden Core Formation again.

• True Person Zhuge introduced Mo Hua to Directors Huangfu and Shangguan, who became impressed by his praise and surprised by his connections to the Shangguan and Gu Families.
• Mo Hua explained that leaders from Void Gate, Ta'a, and Chongxu had signed his Jade Referral, while insisting he was an independent cultivator and saying Elder Xun had personally taught him Array Techniques.
• Mo Hua told True Person Zhuge and the Directors that True Person Hua had pierced his Sea of Consciousness with a mysterious Golden Needle and that the Hua Family had researched slicing apart demon beasts and corpses.
• Chief Huangfu and True Person Zhuge warned Mo Hua not to repeat his accusations against the Hua Family, since speaking without evidence could endanger him and others.
• True Person Zhuge said he would investigate the Golden Needle, then arranged a guest room where Mo Hua rested and planned to try Golden Core Formation again.

Mo Hua planned to prepare more Great Wilderness Straw Dogs so he could protect himself from causality attacks and attempt Golden Core Formation again as himself. Confined to the Privy Council guest quarters, he learned he was in the former Great Wilderness Sect territory and that the war had continued for nearly ten years, with clan elders and talented disciples now being sent to reinforce the Dao Court’s armies.

• Mo Hua concluded that his failed Golden Core Formation was partly inevitable because his Divine Shaman identity and excessive Divinity threatened to erase his Humanity, and resolved to attempt it next time as Mo Hua.
• Mo Hua worried about the people and reforms he had left behind in the Wilderness, including Danzhu, Big Tiger, and the freed Barbarian Slaves.
• Mo Hua tried to leave the guest quarters to gather wild grass for weaving straw dogs, but Chief Huangfu and Chief Shangguan refused to let him go; Chief Huangfu agreed to have someone bring him grass instead.
• Mo Hua asked Chief Huangfu where he was and learned that they were in the former territory of the Great Wilderness Sect, where the Dao Court and Great Wilderness Royal Court had fought for nearly ten years.
• Chief Huangfu explained that the Dao Court had drafted clan and sect elders, core cultivators, and talented disciples to reinforce its forces, leaving Mo Hua startled by the mention of those disciples.

Mo Hua learned that the war was advancing toward the Great Wilderness Royal Court while he wove straw dogs to reduce the risks of forming his Golden Core. True Person Zhuge identified the Golden Needle in Mo Hua’s mind as a Heart-Pulling Emotion-Inducing Desire-Falling Needle, and concluded that the Hua Family had used it because Mo Hua was the Divine Shaman of the Great Wilderness.

• Chief Huangfu told Mo Hua that the Dao Court and the great clans had driven the Great Wilderness Royal Court’s forces back, though the armies were still several thousand li away.
• Chief Huangfu gathered many kinds of wild grass for Mo Hua, who spent his days weaving Great Wilderness Straw Dog Life Techniques as he sensed people probing his Karma.
• Chief Huangfu, Chief Shangguan, and True Person Zhuge reviewed rumors about Mo Hua’s past, including claims that he had won the Array Dao Champion title twice and excelled at the Sword Discussion Assembly.
• True Person Zhuge searched the Zhuge Family’s records for three days and found that the Golden Needle in Mo Hua’s mind was called the Heart-Pulling Emotion-Inducing Desire-Falling Needle.
• True Person Zhuge explained that the needle severed a person’s Divinity by stirring desire and declared that the Hua Family had used it because Mo Hua was the Divine Shaman of the Great Wilderness.

Mo Hua learned that the golden needle in his head could only be removed by the Hua Family's distant ancestor, leaving him under the clan's influence. The chapter ended when True Person Hua revealed that his next task was to apprehend Bai Zisheng, jolting Mo Hua.

• True Person Zhuge deduced that the Hua Family had used a golden needle to suppress Mo Hua's Divinity, and Mo Hua jokingly claimed he had been the Great Wilderness Divine Shaman.
• True Person Zhuge explained the Joyous Union Sect's fall from cultivating emotion to indulging desire, then found that Mo Hua's clear Dao Heart made the needle's effects mild.
• True Person Zhuge said removing the needle would require risking Mo Hua's Sea of Consciousness, so Mo Hua refused to have his skull opened.
• Mo Hua and True Person Zhuge visited True Person Hua, who said only the Hua Family's ancestor could remove the needle and would have to agree to do so.
• True Person Hua said the Dao Court had assigned him to apprehend Bai Zisheng, and Mo Hua reacted in shock.

Mo Hua learned that Bai Zisheng, his injured Senior Martial Brother, was wanted for leaking military secrets and hiding in the Great Wilderness, and he insisted on joining the Hua Family’s arrest mission. True Person Zhuge finally agreed to take him along, and they prepared to set out the next day.

• Mo Hua questioned True Person Hua about Bai Zisheng and learned that he was wanted for leaking military secrets after becoming involved with Dan Ling.
• True Person Hua explained that Bai Zisheng was at Foundation Establishment Peak Stage because an old injury had damaged his Dao protection, and that he had evaded powerful pursuers in the Second-Grade Mountain Realms.
• Mo Hua boasted that he could capture Bai Zisheng and asked to join the Hua Family’s mission, but True Person Hua deferred his decision.
• Mo Hua persuaded True Person Zhuge that they should follow the Hua Family, claiming his golden-needle condition made their protection necessary.
• After Mo Hua repeatedly pressed him, True Person Zhuge agreed to take him along, warned him not to act recklessly or provoke the Bai Family, and said they would leave the next day.

Mo Hua traveled with True Person Zhuge and the Hua Family to capture Bai Zisheng, seeing the harsh realities of the war in the Great Wilderness along the way. At the Hua Family estate, Miss Hua recognized Mo Hua from Great Desert City, sat beside him at dinner, and later barged into his room after he ignored her midnight knocking.

• Mo Hua said farewell to Chief Huangfu and Chief Shangguan, then left with True Person Zhuge for the Hua Family encampment.
• True Person Hua assembled a party of more than fifty cultivators to pursue Bai Zisheng, and Mo Hua joined them on the journey.
• Mo Hua saw enslaved Barbarian Tribes and the cruelty of some Nine Provinces clans, leaving him troubled by how little separated them from the Great Wilderness tribes.
• The party stopped at a Hua Family estate, where Mo Hua attended a banquet and Miss Hua recognized him from Great Desert City.
• Miss Hua sat beside Mo Hua and repeatedly questioned him while the banquet guests watched them jealously.
• Miss Hua knocked on Mo Hua's door late at night, then kicked it open when he refused to answer.

Hua Ping secretly warned Mo Hua not to reveal what happened in Great Desert City, then joined the group pursuing Bai Zisheng. After reaching a Mountain Realm military camp, Mo Hua sensed familiar people arguing inside the command tent.

• Hua Ping broke into Mo Hua’s room, took him to a sealed room, and asked him to keep quiet about Great Desert City, especially around her uncle.
• Mo Hua kept Hua Ping’s secret when True Person Zhuge questioned him, and True Person Zhuge warned him to avoid entanglements with the Hua Family.
• True Person Zhuge noticed Mo Hua’s array diagram and was shocked to learn that Mo Hua had gained insight into laws while casually drawing Array Techniques.
• Mo Hua and the others set out the next day with Hua Ping, who said she wanted to help capture Bai Zisheng.
• After Dao Soldiers reported sightings of Bai Zisheng, the group reached a military camp in the Mountain Realm, where Mo Hua recognized familiar auras and voices arguing inside the command tent.

Mo Hua entered the main tent as True Person Hua tried to organize the factions searching for Bai Zisheng, but the disciples’ arguments repeatedly broke out again. When someone recognized Mo Hua, the gathered geniuses turned their attention to him, leaving him helplessly exposed.

• Mo Hua and True Person Zhuge entered the main tent while disciples from Dao Province and Ganxue Prefecture argued over their failures to capture Bai Zisheng.
• True Person Hua silenced the crowd and asked for a report on the search, but the disciples soon resumed blaming one another.
• Mo Hua realized the gathered disciples were powerful heirs whose family and sect connections made it difficult for True Person Hua to discipline them.
• A disciple thought he had seen Mo Hua, and the Ganxue Prefecture geniuses recognized him as the Void Gate cultivator who had disappeared for ten years.
• Hundreds of gathered disciples turned toward Mo Hua as True Person Zhuge, True Person Hua, and Hua Ping reacted with surprise.

Mo Hua reunited with the Ganxue prodigies at the Dao Army camp, where his arrival stirred up the old Slaughter Mo Alliance. As disciples rushed toward him and Song Jian warned him to be careful, Mo Hua joined the operation to capture Bai Zisheng, his Senior Martial Brother.

• Mo Hua silenced the arguing prodigies, and True Person Hua announced that the operation was to apprehend Bai Zisheng.
• The Slaughter Mo Alliance learned Mo Hua had appeared in the Great Wilderness, and many members quit their posts to head for his camp.
• Song Jian visited Mo Hua and warned him that many people were coming for him, while Mo Hua said he had no grudge against Bai Zisheng.
• More Ganxue prodigies arrived, and the search for Bai Zisheng continued.
• After Bai Zisheng was trapped in a remote valley, True Person Hua gathered the forces for an immediate capture, and Mo Hua joined them without revealing his connection to Bai Zisheng.

Mo Hua watched the prodigies fail to capture Bai Zisheng, then gathered them around a campfire and questioned why they had fallen short. After they dispersed, the Slaughter Mo Order erupted in outrage over the prodigies eating and talking with Mo Hua.

• True Person Zhuge stopped Mo Hua from joining the fight against Bai Zisheng, and Hua Ping left angrily after Mo Hua teased her about being vain.
• Bai Zisheng fought his way through the prodigies’ encirclement and escaped after a battle that lasted from day to night.
• Mo Hua invited defeated Feng Zichen, Shi Tiangang, Ao Zheng, Song Jian, and other Ganxue prodigies to eat roasted meat with him.
• The gathered prodigies explained that they could not use lethal force against Bai Zisheng and feared the consequences of killing a member of the Ancestral Dragon Bai Family.
• Mo Hua returned to his tent to ponder Bai Zisheng’s situation while members of the Slaughter Mo Order condemned the prodigies for dining with him.

The Slaughter Mo Alliance agreed to conceal its hostility toward Mo Hua and wait for a chance to kill him, while Mo Hua watched the Hua Family trap Bai Zisheng with Illusion Arrays and causality. After Huangfu Wen went to persuade Bai Zisheng, he was found dead, and True Person Hua ordered Bai Zisheng killed.

• The Slaughter Mo Alliance turned its grilled-meat humiliation into a plan to feign civility toward Mo Hua, study his weaknesses, and strike when an opportunity arose.
• The Hua Family used Illusion Arrays and causality to trap Bai Zisheng, prompting Mo Hua to consider how Array Techniques could work with causality.
• True Person Hua proposed persuading Bai Zisheng to surrender, and Huangfu Wen volunteered because he had once fought alongside him.
• Mo Hua followed True Person Zhuge and True Person Hua to a cave, where they found Huangfu Wen dead from a spear wound.
• True Person Hua declared Bai Zisheng guilty of colluding with a demoness and killing a fellow soldier, then ordered the gathered forces to kill him.

After Huangfu Wen was killed, Mo Hua learned that Bai Zisheng’s shattered Life-Bound Longevity Talisman had left him vulnerable to the Hua Family’s schemes. Though True Person Zhuge warned Mo Hua not to interfere, Mo Hua watched the Hua Family and hundreds of prodigies corner and kill his Senior Martial Brother, realizing Bai Zisheng had been their true target all along.

• Huangfu Wen’s death led the Dao Court to issue a kill-on-sight warrant for Bai Zisheng, changing Mo Hua’s mission from arrest to pursuit.
• Mo Hua and True Person Zhuge discussed how Huangfu Wen had died, why the Hua Family might target Bai Zisheng, and how Bai Zisheng’s shattered Life-Bound Longevity Talisman had weakened his standing and protection within the Bai Family.
• True Person Zhuge warned Mo Hua to stay out of the conflict between the Hua and Bai Families, and Mo Hua agreed despite his concern for his Senior Martial Brother.
• The Hua Family trapped Bai Zisheng on a peak in the Second-Grade Little Black Tortoise Mountain Realm and gathered hundreds of prodigies to besiege him.
• Mo Hua watched as the Hua Family and the prodigies killed Bai Zisheng, and he realized that Bai Zisheng had been the Hua Family’s real target from the beginning.

Mo Hua watched the Hua Family’s trapped siege of Bai Zisheng, as clan prodigies took turns challenging him and failed to defeat him. After Xiao Ruohan’s loss, Bai Zisheng awakened his Azure Dragon Body, revealing a powerful bloodline form on the battlefield.

• True Person Hua invited the gathered prodigies to defeat Bai Zisheng so the Hua Family could make others bear responsibility for killing him.
• Lu Sheng and other prodigies challenged Bai Zisheng one after another, but his spear defeated them and gradually wore him down.
• Shi Tiangang fought Bai Zisheng with the Vajra Indestructible Technique but withdrew after Bai Zisheng broke through his defense.
• Mo Hua provoked the Dao Province prodigies with boasts about defeating Bai Zisheng, prompting Xiao Ruohan to step forward.
• Xiao Ruohan fought Bai Zisheng with the Nine Heavenly Sword Styles and lost, after which Bai Zisheng unleashed his Azure Dragon Body.

Bai Zisheng fought through the gathered prodigies, awakened the third stage of Dragon Blood Profound Yellow, and nearly burned away his life and bloodline rather than surrender to True Person Hua. Mo Hua finally revealed himself and stopped Bai Zisheng’s attack by striking him with their childhood spear technique, leaving Bai Zisheng recognizing his long-lost junior brother.

• Bai Zisheng defeated Xiao Ruohan, Feng Zichen, Ao Zheng, Yuwen Hua, Shen Cangfeng, and Xuanyuan Jing in succession, awakening Dragon Blood Profound Yellow to overcome Xuanyuan Jing.
• Mo Hua learned from Hua Ping that Bai Zisheng had worked under True Person Hua, whom Mo Hua realized had betrayed and framed him.
• True Person Hua urged Bai Zisheng to surrender, but Bai Zisheng refused and killed the Hua Family Golden Cores who attacked him.
• Mo Hua stepped forward, declared himself Bai Zisheng’s opponent, and charged with Flying Dragon in the Sky.
• Bai Zisheng recognized Mo Hua and suppressed his bloodline power, allowing the spear strike to knock him down as he wept at seeing his junior brother again.

After Mo Hua captured Bai Zisheng, he helped prevent True Person Hua from taking sole custody by persuading True Person Zhuge to escort the prisoner to the Imperial Observatory. Bai Zisheng was temporarily safe, but Mo Hua still worried about the Hua Family’s plans and hoped to speak with his senior martial brother alone.

• Bai Zisheng woke in the military camp, recognized Mo Hua, and realized the Hua Family had bound and treated him while keeping him alive.
• Mo Hua boasted that he had defeated Bai Zisheng, provoking the gathered prodigies, who questioned how his seemingly weak spear strike had worked.
• True Person Hua tried to postpone Bai Zisheng’s interrogation, but True Person Zhuge insisted on taking him into the Imperial Observatory’s custody.
• As Bai Zisheng was escorted away, he threatened Mo Hua, who answered with more boasts.
• The Slaughter Mo Alliance added Mo Hua’s Flying Dragon in the Sky to its canon as a powerful but unknown killing move.
• Mo Hua worried that Bai Zisheng remained in danger from the Hua Family and hoped to meet with him privately.

Mo Hua visited Bai Zisheng in the Imperial Observatory prison, learned how he was confined, and worried that the Hua Family would try to seize or kill him. That night, a Great Wilderness Monster Cavalry force appeared on a distant mountain, led by a powerful Feather Transformation cultivator.

• Mo Hua persuaded True Person Zhuge to let him see Bai Zisheng and memorized the prison route and the method for undoing its Seven Star Array.
• Mo Hua concealed his connection to Bai Zisheng, confirmed that the Nine Trapped Dragon Heavy Locks supposedly required the Hua Family's key, and left without revealing his plans.
• True Person Hua arrived to see Bai Zisheng, but True Person Zhuge warned that his visit could endanger Bai Zisheng and Mo Hua, so True Person Hua turned back.
• True Person Zhuge warned Mo Hua that the Hua Family might secretly act against Bai Zisheng, while Mo Hua privately considered how to rescue and protect his Senior Martial Brother.
• Mo Hua sensed a sudden sinister cold and saw True Person Zhuge watching a Great Wilderness Monster Cavalry force led by a massive Feather Transformation cultivator.

The Great Wilderness Royal Court raided the camp as True Person Zhuge and True Person Hua withdrew to fight a Feather Transformation, leaving Mo Hua to rescue Bai Zisheng from prison. Hua Ping freed Bai Zisheng, and the brothers escaped through the battle while Hua Ping left carrying embroidered shark silk bearing a White Gold Phoenix.

• The Great Wilderness Feather Transformation led the Royal Court Monster Cavalry in a camp raid, and True Person Zhuge and True Person Hua retreated to the Fourth-Grade Mountain Realm to confront him.
• Mo Hua entered the Imperial Observatory prison, disabled its guards and arrays, and opened Bai Zisheng’s cell before black-clad assassins arrived.
• Hua Ping and her men killed four of the assassins, and Hua Ping dismantled Bai Zisheng’s Nine Trapped Dragon Heavy Locks and freed him.
• Mo Hua guided Bai Zisheng out of the prison and through the camp, helping him fight off Monster Cavalry and Dao Court prodigies as the raid spread.
• Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng turned away from the distant battle between Feather Transformations and fought their way through the barbarian troops toward safety.
• Hua Ping escaped the battlefield in a guarded carriage and murmured that the person represented by the White Gold Phoenix on her shark silk should remember her kindness for saving his elder brother.