Chapter Summaries

Mo Hua learned that the Shugu Tribe’s attacks and human sacrifices had grown out of a spreading Famine Disaster and corrupted its Barbarian God. He led Danzhu’s group to the Shugu secret branch to rescue captives, where they encountered a Bifang Tribe youth who insulted Danzhu and Mo Hua.

• Mo Hua interrogated Tie Shugu, who explained that famine had driven the Shugu Tribe to eat captives and that their corrupted faith had gradually transformed their Barbarian God into an Evil God.
• Mo Hua warned Danzhu, Chi Feng, and the elders that the famine might spread to the Danque Tribe, and Danzhu decided to alert his father while Mo Hua kept Tie Shugu alive to guide them to the captives.
• Tie Shugu led Mo Hua and Danzhu’s party to a Shugu secret branch, which they found under attack by several tribes.
• Danzhu led his group into the battle to search for Danque captives while avoiding clashes with other tribes, including the hostile Bifang Tribe.
• A black-clad Bifang youth approached Danzhu, mocked him, and insulted Mo Hua after Danzhu addressed him as Sir.

Mo Hua and the Danque Tribe confronted Bi Jie as both tribes attacked the Shugu Secret Tribe, and Mo Hua warned Danzhu that Bi Jie intended to kill him. After searching in vain for the abducted tribespeople, they reached a guarded Stone Hall where Bi Jie had just slaughtered the Shugu defenders.

• Bi Jie threatened Mo Hua, but Chi Feng protected him and refused to hand him over; Danzhu agreed to keep the Danque Tribe out of the Bifang Tribe’s fight for territory while they rescued captives.
• Away from the Danque Tribe, Bi Jie ordered his Golden Core elders to seize an opportunity to assassinate Danzhu, arguing that Danzhu’s talent made him a future threat.
• Mo Hua urged Danzhu and his companions to watch for Bi Jie’s attack and kill him if a chance arose, and they agreed to stay alert while continuing the rescue mission.
• The Danque Tribe searched the Shugu Secret Tribe’s valley but found no captives, then reached an enormous Stone Hall alongside the Bifang Tribe.
• Bi Jie led the slaughter of the Shugu defenders at the Stone Hall, then confronted Danzhu and the Danque Tribe, calling them wraiths that would not go away.

Mo Hua and the Danque Tribe faced Bi Jie outside the Shugu Secret Tribe’s Stone Hall, where a hidden evil killed the Bifang scouts and left both tribes wary. With the deadlock unresolved, Mo Hua declared that he would enter the hall to confront the evil, presenting his decision as a Shaman’s duty.

• Elder Bashan insulted Bi Jie at Mo Hua’s prompting, but a Bifang elder stopped Bi Jie from charging into the apparent gap in the Danque formation.
• Bifang Witch Cultivators opened the Stone Hall with an array, and Mo Hua sensed an Evil God’s presence inside.
• Bi Jie sent Elder Cang, Elder Zhuo, and twenty Bifang soldiers into the hall while the rest of his force guarded the entrance.
• Elder Cang returned horribly wounded, reported that everyone inside had died and that the hall held a great evil, then died outside the entrance.
• Mo Hua considered killing Bi Jie, but Bi Jie sensed the threat and ordered the Bifang soldiers to form a protective ring around him.
• When Bi Jie offered to let the Danque Tribe enter the hall, Mo Hua stopped them and volunteered to confront the evil as a Shaman.

Mo Hua entered the Shugu Stone Hall with Tie Shugu to summon the Barbarian God and investigate the Evil Thought within. After the God’s Blood Mist pulled them into its domain, Mo Hua confronted the deity and appeared to behead it, leaving Tie Shugu stunned.

• Mo Hua declared that he would enter the Stone Hall to save the trapped tribesmen and forced the injured Tie Shugu to accompany him.
• Inside the hall, Mo Hua examined the Barbarian God Statue and found Bifang Tribe cultivators dead after falling into a hunger-driven madness.
• Mo Hua made Tie Shugu light a bonfire and perform the Shugu Tribe’s sacrificial dance, drawing down the Barbarian God’s Blood Mist.
• The Blood Mist overwhelmed Tie Shugu, and he awoke restored in what he believed was the Barbarian God’s domain, where Mo Hua appeared as a child.
• Mo Hua challenged the Barbarian God for having only fallen halfway, then stood atop its severed skull with a Golden Sword dripping with black divine blood.

Mo Hua killed the corrupted Barbarian God, freed more than five hundred captives, and emerged from the Stone Hall hailed as a Shaman. With the Bifang Tribe weakened by the deaths of two Golden Core cultivators, Danzhu and Chi Feng considered challenging Bi Jie over the Shugu Tribe’s treasury.

• Mo Hua killed and consumed the Barbarian God, while Tie Shugu woke from the Divine Thought illusion and remained afraid of Mo Hua.
• Mo Hua broke open the dungeon cages and freed more than five hundred Barbarian Slaves, including many people from the Danjue Tribe.
• Mo Hua led the captives out of the Stone Hall, claimed Tie Shugu had helped him, and was greeted as a Shaman by the rescued people.
• Mo Hua told Bi Jie that the Bifang Tribe’s people had died inside and that the God Lord had granted him power to destroy the evil thing.
• Bi Jie demanded that the Danque Tribe withdraw and leave the Shugu treasury to the Bifang Tribe, but Mo Hua signaled Danzhu not to agree, and Chi Feng urged him to press their advantage.

Mo Hua used the threat of divine punishment to make Bi Jie withdraw, then discovered Divine Dao array patterns beneath the Shugu Tribe’s cages. In seclusion, he refined the Shugu Barbarian God’s Thought Power and Divine Marrow, bringing his Divine Consciousness close to the Twenty-Three-Pattern realm.

• Mo Hua warned Bi Jie that entering the Stone Hall risked corruption by evil thoughts, and Bi Jie withdrew when his soldiers refused to advance.
• Danzhu and Chi Feng found the Shugu Tribe’s vast stores of Barbarian Armor and materials, but decided to secure and inventory them before attempting to move them.
• Mo Hua suspected the Iron Cages had protected the Barbarian Slaves from evil thoughts, then found Divine Dao array patterns beneath their foundations.
• Mo Hua copied the patterns and entered seclusion in a Stone Chamber, telling Elder Bashan that he needed guidance from the God Lord.
• Mo Hua used the Dao Stele’s Tribulation Lightning to erase the Evil God’s will within the Shugu Barbarian God’s Thought Power, then refined it and raised his Divine Consciousness to the peak of the Twenty-Two-Pattern realm.

After strengthening his Divine Sense, Mo Hua investigated the Shugu Tribe’s structure and learned that its tribes worshipped different Barbarian Gods while believing them to be one. He began planning to conquer the Shugu Tribe and devour its gods, but the Bifang Tribe attacked the Danque Tribe first.

• Mo Hua sensed that his stronger Divine Sense had slightly stabilized his Fate and suppressed its Killing Intent, though he remained wary of Martial Uncle’s power.
• Mo Hua told Bashan he had received the God Lord’s revelation and asked him to bring Tie Shugu for questioning.
• Tie Shugu described the Shugu Tribe’s hierarchy and explained that its tribes worshipped different statues as manifestations of the same Barbarian God.
• Mo Hua concluded that the Shugu Tribe actually worshipped multiple Barbarian Gods and considered conquering the tribe to devour them and strengthen his Divine Thought.
• At night, the Bifang Tribe raided the Danque Tribe, killing five elite soldiers and leaving many others wounded.

After the Bifang Tribe’s poisoned night raid left the Danque Tribe’s wounded bleeding to death, Mo Hua used a Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation to heal them. Watching the formation restore their vitality, he began to suspect its patterns touched on the forces of death and life.

• Elder Bachuan told Mo Hua that Bi Jie and the Bifang Tribe had attacked, while Danzhu and Chi Feng fought them until both sides withdrew at dawn.
• Danzhu and the elders discovered that Blood-Fang Poison was making the wounded bleed without stopping, and they lacked enough medicine to save them.
• Mo Hua remembered the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation, drew several formations in a sealed Stone Chamber, and claimed the God Lord had taught him healing Sacred Patterns.
• The formations replenished the wounded soldiers’ blood and qi, suppressed the poison, and visibly improved their injuries, astonishing Danzhu, Chi Feng, and the others.
• Mo Hua noticed deathly aura fading as vitality returned to the wounded and wondered whether the formation involved the forces of death and life.

Mo Hua discovered that the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation held an abnormal connection between life and death, and he wondered whether it was tied to his master and Elder Ge. As he studied it by treating the Danque Tribe’s wounded, Elder Ge worried over an unseen calamity, while Bi Jie renewed his attacks and Mo Hua realized the fighting could not continue this way.

• Mo Hua noticed the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation intertwining death qi and vitality, then secretly studied its patterns while the Danque Tribe’s wounded recovered.
• Mo Hua speculated that Elder Ge might have selected the formation as a reward because of its connection to his master, and wondered whether the old chess player he had met was Elder Ge.
• Mo Hua drew six more Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formations and used the Danque Tribe’s wounded to study the array’s transformations between death and life.
• Elder Ge fished and played chess in retirement, then placed a white stone on a board consumed by black and urged someone to learn more and survive the coming tribulation.
• Bi Jie attacked the Shugu Secret Tribe repeatedly with Barbarian Slaves as cannon fodder, but the Danque Tribe’s poisoned soldiers returned to battle after recovering.
• Bi Jie suspected the Shaman was disrupting his plans, while Mo Hua realized the fighting could not continue this way.

Mo Hua tried to divine the Bifang Tribe’s ambushes, but his calculations of Heaven, Earth, and Man yielded no useful predictions, and the Danque Tribe considered abandoning its supplies. While surveying the valley to place warning arrays, Mo Hua sensed that his understanding of Heaven, Earth, Man, and Karma was fundamentally wrong.

• Mo Hua asked Chi Feng about the fighting and learned that the Bifang Tribe’s poison and unpredictable ambushes were wearing down the Danque Tribe.
• Mo Hua used Great Wilderness Demon Bone Divination to predict the Bifang Tribe’s movements, but the divination failed, so he spent two days separately calculating timing, terrain, and human intentions.
• Another Bifang Tribe surprise attack killed two Danque Tribe soldiers and wounded seventeen, prompting Bachuan and Chi Feng to propose abandoning the Barbarian Armor and withdrawing.
• Mo Hua decided to protect the supplies by placing Small Primal Magnetism Arrays and asked Chi Feng for a map of the mountains.
• Mo Hua surveyed the valley with Chi Feng and planned the array placements, then realized his understanding of Heaven, Earth, Man, and Karma was fundamentally mistaken.

Mo Hua corrected his approach to Causality Art by observing the Shugu Valley and its people, then used Divine Consciousness to predict the Bifang Tribe’s next attack. His warning enabled the Danque Tribe to ambush the attackers, while Mo Hua’s reflections brought him closer to forming his own Dao.

• Mo Hua realized Causality Art required knowledge of reality, so he studied the valley’s terrain, the sky, and the Bifang Tribe’s tactics before using Heavenly Calculation to simulate the past and predict their next attack.
• Mo Hua’s Divine Consciousness ran dry during the calculation, triggering black-eyed Killing Intent, but he steadied himself and told Chi Feng that the God Lord had revealed the enemy’s plan.
• Mo Hua described the Bifang Tribe’s attack routes, timing, numbers, leaders, and poisons, and Chi Feng prepared the Danque Tribe to ambush them.
• Near the end of tiger hour, the Bifang Tribe’s vanguard appeared exactly as Mo Hua had predicted, and Chi Feng and Bashan led the Danque Tribe in a surprise attack.
• Danzhu and the others fought the Bifang Tribe elsewhere as the Danque Tribe gained the advantage, while Mo Hua watched from the Stone Hall and reflected on how arts served the Dao.
• Mo Hua connected his understanding of Causality Art with his master’s lessons on Array Techniques and began to perceive the outline of a Dao founded on Divine Consciousness.

Mo Hua’s insight into the Great Dao clarified his path of cultivating arts and using Derivation Calculation, while his predictions helped the Danque Tribe repeatedly defeat Bi Jie. As Bi Jie brought in purchased troops and the battle grew more dangerous, Mo Hua suspected he was pursuing something hidden in the Shugu Secret Tribe besides the Barbarian Armor.

• Mo Hua realized that mastering and merging different arts could let him glimpse the Dao, though his current realm and attainments were insufficient.
• The Danque Tribe’s ambush crushed Bi Jie’s forces, and Elder She urged him to stabilize his army and investigate the apparent leak secretly.
• Elder She suspected that Mo Hua had cured the Shaman Poison and predicted the battle through a secret inheritance, and Bi Jie resolved to kill him at their next encounter.
• The Danque Tribe celebrated its victory as Danzhu and Chi Feng recognized Mo Hua’s role, and Chi Feng followed Mo Hua’s later instructions to thwart Bi Jie’s attacks.
• Bi Jie hired roughly four or five hundred soldiers from nearby tribes, increasing the pressure on the Danque Tribe and straining Mo Hua’s Divine Consciousness.
• Mo Hua suspected Bi Jie was risking so much to obtain something hidden in the Shugu Secret Tribe besides the Barbarian Armor.

Mo Hua investigated the Shugu Tribe’s unfinished armor and suspected its incomplete array patterns concealed a forbidden secret. After his derivations and divinations led him to the Barbarian God Statue, he discovered a Taotie Pattern carved inside its skull.

• Mo Hua ordered Danzhu and Chi Feng to retreat into the Stone Hall and had the Shugu Tribe’s armor dismantled for inspection.
• Mo Hua found that every suit bore incomplete array patterns and suspected Bi Jie wanted them for a secret armor-forging method involving a dragon or another powerful beast.
• Mo Hua copied the patterns and tried to derive their purpose, but their fragmented forms overwhelmed his Return Derivation.
• Mo Hua used divination and saw himself looking upward inside the Stone Hall, then recognized that he was meant to inspect the Barbarian God Statue.
• Mo Hua climbed onto the statue’s skull, found a hidden crack, and discovered that a Taotie Pattern had been carved inside it.

Mo Hua uncovered a Twenty-Three-Pattern Taotie Absolute Array inside the Shugu Barbarian God Statue, but could not yet comprehend it. As the Danque Tribe continued fighting Bi Jie, a Famine Disaster spread across the land, leaving Mo Hua facing an eerie new crisis.

• Mo Hua ordered Danzhu and the soldiers to sever the Barbarian God Statue's head, then had Danzhu split open its skull and found Taotie Patterns inside.
• Mo Hua copied and restored the patterns into a Second-Grade Twenty-Three-Pattern Taotie Absolute Array, then hid the statue's head in a Secret Chamber when the Bifang Tribe attacked.
• Following Mo Hua's battle plan, Danzhu ambushed Bifang Tribe forces and joined Chi Feng and Bashan in driving Bi Jie to retreat.
• Mo Hua struggled to understand the Taotie Array and questioned its connection to Bi Jie, the Shugu Tribe, and his own path, while the fighting continued.
• Mo Hua went with Danzhu to a cliff and saw vegetation withered, beasts starved, and a desolate aura spreading; he recognized that the Famine Disaster had arrived.

Mo Hua discovered that the famine disaster spread through a vitality-charged aura that drove its victims into uncontrollable hunger, and he led the Danque Tribe out of the affected valley. After escaping the famine, the group defeated a Shugu Branch Tribe ambush and captured its stronghold.

• Mo Hua saw the famine aura approaching and ordered the Danque Tribe to withdraw into the Stone Hall, where he uncovered how it accelerated metabolism and caused victims to devour one another.
• Mo Hua used the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation to stabilize afflicted Danque soldiers, then led the tribe through the famine using his Divine Sense to find a safe route.
• Mo Hua guided the Danque Tribe away from the spreading disaster, treating some afflicted soldiers along the way until they reached safer territory.
• A Shugu Branch Tribe ambushed Mo Hua's group, but Mo Hua anticipated the attack and arranged a counterstrike that routed them.
• Danzhu and Chi Feng killed two Shugu Golden Core cultivators, while Mo Hua spared fleeing soldiers and followed them to their stronghold.
• Danzhu led the Danque Tribe in capturing the Shugu Branch Tribe stronghold at Mo Hua's command.

Mo Hua seized control of the Shugu branch tribe, contained its resistance, and began inspecting the halted Famine Aura while teaching Danzhu how to govern justly. As Danzhu’s resolve grew, Mo Hua turned to the Shugu Divine Temple to confront and consume its Barbarian God, leaving Tie Shugu trembling as something’s head struck the ground.

• Mo Hua had Danzhu execute the remaining Shugu Golden Core cultivator and had Chi Feng kill the tribespeople who continued resisting until the branch tribe submitted.
• Mo Hua left Danzhu and Chi Feng to govern the Shugu branch tribe and inspected the Famine Aura, placing command flags at its boundary for sentries to monitor.
• Mo Hua taught Danzhu practical rules for governing and helping the people, strengthening Danzhu’s resolve to benefit the tribe and the Wilderness.
• Mo Hua prepared to steal and eat the Shugu branch tribe’s Barbarian God, arranging a sacrifice in its Divine Temple and ordering Tie Shugu to perform the ritual dance.
• Tie Shugu’s Divine Consciousness was drawn into an illusory dream, where he heard a head fall to the ground.

Mo Hua consumed the Shugu Branch Tribe’s Barbarian God and strengthened his Divine Consciousness, then gathered allies and set out to conquer another Shugu stronghold. The expedition reached a branch tribe that worshipped a Barbarian God, and Danzhu ordered the attack.

• Tie Shugu witnessed Mo Hua kill and devour the Shugu Branch Tribe’s Barbarian God, then withdrew from the great hall in fear.
• Mo Hua purified the Barbarian God’s Thought Power with Tribulation Lightning and absorbed it, strengthening his Twenty-Two-Pattern Divine Consciousness without breaking through its bottleneck.
• Mo Hua persuaded Chi Feng to support campaigns for the good of the Danque Tribe and recruited Tie Shugu to guide them to nearby Shugu settlements.
• Mo Hua’s group of roughly three hundred set out, carrying the Shugu branch tribe’s elite soldiers to reduce casualties and prevent unrest back home.
• After three days, the group reached a nearby Shugu branch-tribe stronghold, and Danzhu ordered his forces to attack.

Mo Hua guided Danzhu through a campaign against a Shugu Branch Tribe, using divination to keep him safe until the Six Freaks of Shugu fled and the tribe was conquered. As Mo Hua arranged aid for the impoverished survivors, he realized his persistent unease about Tie Shugu came from never having considered killing him.

• Danzhu and Chi Feng attacked a Shugu Branch Tribe, but Mo Hua called off the assault after spotting the Six Freaks of Shugu and learning about the tribe’s loose structure and origins.
• Danzhu overwhelmed the Six Freaks in battle, and Mo Hua began divining when it was safe for him to attack, defend, or rest.
• Mo Hua’s orders repeatedly thwarted the Six Freaks’ ambushes, and Danzhu’s victories frightened them into abandoning their camp.
• Danzhu occupied the Shugu Branch Tribe, while Mo Hua assigned Tie Shugu to help improve conditions for its impoverished cultivators and slaves.
• Mo Hua realized that he had never even considered killing Tie Shugu, revealing the source of his persistent unease.

Mo Hua suspected Tie Shugu’s strange influence on his judgment, then used a dream to make Tie Shugu mistake him for a Sword Bone Demon and believe the Barbarian God had ordered him to lure Mo Hua to an altar. Tie Shugu committed himself to the plan while Mo Hua secretly watched him, holding a White Bone Broken Sword.

• Mo Hua examined his reluctance to kill Tie Shugu and suspected Tie Shugu might be affecting his Divine Consciousness, but he sent him back to his tent.
• Tie Shugu fell asleep after hearing a gentle voice and dreamed of a golden Barbarian God defeating a Sword Demon.
• Tie Shugu interpreted the dream as proof that Mo Hua was a Sword Bone Demon disguised as a Shaman, and he prayed to divert the killing intent he sensed.
• A faint voice guided Tie Shugu to decide that he should lead Mo Hua to the Barbarian God’s altar so the god could destroy him.
• Tie Shugu embraced his role as the Barbarian God’s loyal believer, unaware that Mo Hua was nearby watching him with a White Bone Broken Sword.

Mo Hua secretly manipulated Tie Shugu’s faith and used him to locate and destroy Shugu Tribe altars, strengthening Mo Hua’s Divine Consciousness. The campaign left the surrounding tribes in worsening chaos, while Tie Shugu resolved to lure Mo Hua to the true Barbarian God so it could kill him.

• Mo Hua planted a self-reinforcing interpretation of divine guidance in Tie Shugu’s mind, convincing him that Mo Hua was a demon threatening the Barbarian God.
• Tie Shugu offered Mo Hua a detailed map of Shugu Tribe settlements, altars, and statues, then claimed he wanted to submit to the Danque Tribe.
• Tie Shugu guided Mo Hua through Shugu settlements, where Mo Hua repeatedly destroyed idols and consumed the power of the false gods, advancing his Divine Thought to the Eighteen-Pattern.
• Mo Hua and the Shaman’s efforts to govern occupied settlements faltered as famine spread, tribes fought and plundered one another, and the surviving Three Shugu Freaks rallied forces against the Shaman.
• Tie Shugu continued entering the Divine Path dreams and kowtowing to the Barbarian God, becoming increasingly convinced that he had to lead Mo Hua to the true god before Mo Hua grew stronger.