Chapter Summaries

Lugu followed Mo Hua’s plan to lure Cangu into an ambush, wound him, and drive him from the battlefield, allowing Lugu to absorb much of Cangu’s forces. Mo Hua then laid out a scheme to overthrow the Great Chieftain and make Lugu his successor, leaving Lugu chilled by Mo Hua’s ruthlessness.

• Lugu feigned defeat and lured Cangu to Falling Rock Mountain, where he and Mo Hua’s staged appearance of Bone Slaughter trapped Cangu and cost him an arm before he escaped.
• Lugu stopped pursuing Cangu and persuaded most of the defeated soldiers to surrender, while Mo Hua offered the surrendered Barbarian Slaves a chance to become servants of the God Lord.
• Mo Hua’s influence grew as Lugu’s forces absorbed much of Cangu’s tribe, but Lugu worried that his Shugu soldiers would refuse to attack their Great Chieftain.
• Mo Hua advised Lugu to claim he was marching to punish Cangu and rescue the Great Chieftain, then kill the Great Chieftain and Cangu and take power.
• Lugu considered Mo Hua’s proposed schemes and silently concluded that Mo Hua was a demon.

Mo Hua’s schemes helped Lugu rally the Shugu soldiers against Cangu and the Great Chieftain, and Lugu defeated the aging ruler without killing him. After the Great Chieftain fled toward the White Bone Mausoleum, Mo Hua agreed to accompany Lugu there.

• Lugu accused Cangu of murdering Bone Slaughter and led his army to confront the Great Chieftain, with Mo Hua guiding events from behind.
• Lugu framed the campaign as a purge of traitors, causing many of the Great Chieftain’s soldiers to stand aside as his forces attacked.
• Cangu fought Lugu, lost his bone prosthetic arm, and fled as Lugu pursued him.
• Lugu defeated the Great Chieftain but deliberately let him escape, then settled the battlefield.
• Lugu guessed that the Great Chieftain had fled to the White Bone Mausoleum, and Mo Hua agreed to go there with him.

Lugu lured Mo Hua and his allies into a trap at the White Bone Mausoleum, intending to have the Shugu ancestors curse Mo Hua to death. As the ancient ancestor emerged from its coffin, Mo Hua was swallowed by bone claws and purple mist, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Lugu killed the Shugu Great Chieftain and carried his heart to the ancestral Bone Tomb to offer it to the ancestors.
• Tie Shugu performed a sacrificial dance, offered his life, and began awakening the Shugu ancestors.
• Lugu ambushed Mo Hua, wounded Chi Feng, and used his allies and soldiers to keep Danzhu and the others from intervening.
• Lugu revealed that he planned to use the ancestors' curse to erase Mo Hua, whom he blamed for keeping his elder brother from resting in peace.
• Bone claws trapped Mo Hua as the altar filled with purple mist, and a decayed ancestor crawled from an ancient coffin to see who had summoned it.

Shugu Ancestor was awakened by Tie Shugu to curse Mo Hua, but Mo Hua’s Thought Body crossed the causality lines and overpowered it. Mo Hua questioned the ancestor about the Shugu Tribe’s buried cultivators and the possibility of reviving someone whose life and causal ties had been preserved, leaving Shugu Ancestor horrified by what Mo Hua might be planning.

• Shugu Ancestor awakened after Tie Shugu offered his life and a Blood Curse contract targeting a man called Mr. Wu.
• Shugu Ancestor identified Mo Hua through the contract’s clues and tried to curse him, but found an overwhelming number of Death Lines already attached to his Fate.
• Mo Hua crawled into the White Bone Main Hall along the Causality Lines, tore off Shugu Ancestor’s arm, and then agreed to talk.
• Mo Hua questioned Shugu Ancestor about the Great Wilderness’s cultivation limits and learned that Fourth-Grade Feather Transformation ancestors were buried in the White Bone Mausoleum or Royal Court lands.
• Shugu Ancestor explained that it could not truly return to life because its body had decayed and the Heavenly Dao would punish anyone who cheated death.
• Mo Hua asked whether someone whose causal ties, life force, and intact body had been preserved could be revived by deceiving the Heavenly Dao, and Shugu Ancestor realized the question might concern a real person.

Mo Hua questioned Shugu Ancestor about escaping death and learned how the Heavenly Dao registered life and how the Shugu Tribe survived as unregistered dead. Shugu Ancestor then explained that causal arts manipulated Causality Lines, ending with the principle of Causality Transference.

• Mo Hua asked Shugu Ancestor how the dead could return to life, and Shugu Ancestor explained that the Heavenly Dao struck the dead from its register while it lingered as an unregistered resident.
• Shugu Ancestor said Tie Shugu had exchanged his life for Mo Hua’s through a complex Blood Pact, and it refused to reveal the Shugu Tribe’s secret method of surviving death.
• Mo Hua asked whether an unregistered resident could become legitimate beneath the Heavenly Dao, but Shugu Ancestor said it knew no such method.
• Mo Hua pressed Shugu Ancestor to share its knowledge of causality, and Shugu Ancestor explained that causal arts manipulated Causality Lines.
• Shugu Ancestor showed Mo Hua a blood-colored Life Line and explained how breaking such lines could cause death, then listed Causality Divination, Defense, Fate Alteration, Evasion, and Transference.

Mo Hua learned about Causality Transference and asked Shugu Ancestor where he could find its inheritance, while arranging for Tie Shugu to serve him and for the Shugu Tribe to accept his help. As Mo Hua left the White Bone Main Hall, he suspected Shugu Ancestor’s knowledge came from the Great Shaman, while Shugu Ancestor began compelling Tie Shugu to remain loyal to Mo Hua.

• Shugu Ancestor explained several causal arts and warned Mo Hua that a cultivator’s Dao Foundation and inheritance were among their most dangerous causal lines to expose.
• Mo Hua learned that past masters skilled in Causality Transference were buried in the White Bone Mausoleum, but Shugu Ancestor warned that awakening them could reveal Celestial Pivot.
• Shugu Ancestor said the Royal Court of the Great Wilderness might hold an inheritance of Causality Transference, and Mo Hua concealed from him how badly the royal clan had fallen.
• Mo Hua asked Shugu Ancestor to return Tie Shugu’s Life Soul and make the Shugu Tribe’s Golden Cores believe Mo Hua was an ancient shaman who could save their tribe.
• Shugu Ancestor agreed after divining that the Great Wilderness faced a Death Tribulation, and Mo Hua left the White Bone Main Hall suspecting the Great Shaman had supplied Shugu Ancestor’s knowledge.
• After Mo Hua departed, Shugu Ancestor touched Tie Shugu’s brow and ordered him to serve Mo Hua loyally.

Mo Hua emerged from the White Bone Mausoleum alive and declared that the Shugu Tribe must obey him, with Tie Shugu’s resurrection and the ancestor’s command convincing the tribe to kneel. Three days later, Mo Hua persuaded Lugu to submit by promising that his dead brother could still earn lasting glory through service to the God Lord.

• As the Danque and Shugu Tribes fought, Lugu tried to force Danzhu to submit, but Danzhu vowed to avenge his teacher.
• A death curse spread from the White Bone Mausoleum, and Mo Hua emerged unharmed, claiming the Shugu Ancestor had commanded the tribe to obey him.
• Tie Shugu returned from death, swore loyalty to Mo Hua, and confirmed the ancestor’s command, prompting the Shugu Tribe to kneel and Lugu to yield.
• Three days later, Lugu confronted Mo Hua about his elder brother’s corpse, and Mo Hua promised the dead general could still earn great achievements for the God Lord.
• Moved by Mo Hua’s promise, Lugu sincerely swore that he and the Shugu Tribe would serve Mo Hua and fight his enemies.

Mo Hua became the Shugu Tribe’s spiritual authority and discovered its treasury had been depleted to buy Inedia Pills from the Hua Family, worsening the tribe’s food crisis. He arranged for Jin Wutu’s escape, then watched as the fugitive slipped into a secluded valley.

• At Lugu’s ceremony as the new Great Chieftain, Mo Hua handed him the White Bone Scepter and established divine authority over the Shugu Tribe’s eight hundred thousand people.
• Mo Hua searched the Shugu treasury for emergency supplies and found it nearly empty because the previous Great Chieftain had traded away much of its wealth and inheritances for Inedia Pills.
• Mo Hua recognized the Hua Family’s pills and suspected the family was gathering Great Wilderness inheritances for a hidden purpose.
• Mo Hua spared the Treasury Elder and counted nearly one million bottles of Inedia Pills, but judged them insufficient to feed the tribe, especially its many Barbarian Slaves.
• Mo Hua ordered Elder Bachuan to loosen Jin Wutu’s prison security and stage a general amnesty, then Jin Wutu escaped and disguised himself to leave Shugu territory.
• Jin Wutu reached a secluded valley and threatened to kill the Shugu Tribe, unaware that someone watched him from concealment.

Jin Wutu met Elder You at a hidden mountain tea house after helping arrange the Great Chieftain’s death and Lugu’s rise as chieftain. Elder You promised to take Jin Wutu to Dao Province after his mission was complete, then sent him to infiltrate the Wujiu Tribe, while an unexplained signal made Elder You grow wary.

• Jin Wutu passed Elder You’s Clear Blood Tea test, and Elder You checked that he had not been followed.
• Jin Wutu reported that the Great Chieftain was dead, Lugu had become chieftain, and the Shugu Tribe’s foundations had been hollowed out.
• Jin Wutu begged Elder You to take him to Dao Province and confessed that he feared Bone Slaughter might still be alive.
• Elder You promised Jin Wutu a better standing in Dao Province if he helped fulfill the Old Ancestors’ mission during the coming turmoil.
• Jin Wutu accepted Elder You’s Jade Slip and agreed to infiltrate the Wujiu Tribe.
• After Jin Wutu departed, Elder You felt something hidden in his sleeve and looked around with suspicion.

Mo Hua resisted Elder You’s bait, traced the Hua Family merchant’s movements, and led a force to raid a suspected supply stronghold, only to find an ambush and an empty trap. Elder You, alerted to someone’s Causality calculations, began to suspect Mo Hua and wonder about the Shaman’s true identity.

• Elder You left a Jade Slip as bait, hid nearby to watch it, and retrieved it after no one touched it; Mo Hua had watched without giving in to his curiosity.
• Mo Hua concluded Jin Wutu was too valuable to kill and chose to investigate Elder You, using Derivation Calculations to locate a small peak Elder You had frequently visited.
• Mo Hua took Lugu, ten Golden Core cultivators, and a thousand barbarian soldiers to raid the peak, where black-clad Barbarian Tribe cultivators ambushed them with poisoned weapons.
• Lugu routed the attackers, but Mo Hua found the stronghold empty and recognized the peak as a trap; he spotted buried explosive Array Techniques and ordered a retreat, though some soldiers died in the collapse.
• At a separate secret stronghold, Elder You used his Jade Pendant to detect Causality probing and began suspecting Mo Hua, questioning whether the Shaman was more than Lugu’s figurehead.

After Mo Hua abandoned attempts to calculate Elder You, an overlooked scout exposed the Shugu Tribe to an invasion by the Wujiu Tribe. Mo Hua held the mountain pass at terrible cost until the Wujiu army withdrew, leaving him determined to strengthen his forces and avoid another battle with such losses.

• Mo Hua concluded that Elder You and the Hua family were too dangerous to investigate directly, and he set the matter aside for the time being.
• Mo Hua failed to account for a scout whose information leaked, and the Wujiu Tribe's main force launched an attack on the Shugu Tribe.
• Mo Hua evacuated the tribespeople across a mountain valley and ordered his soldiers to defend the narrow pass against the larger-equipped Wujiu army.
• As the battle turned brutal, Mo Hua sent Barbarian Slaves into the fighting with a promise of freedom if they survived, while the Shugu Tribe suffered heavy casualties.
• The Wujiu Tribe failed to break through and withdrew after supply shortages and attacks from other tribes made continuing too costly.
• Mo Hua vowed to make the Wujiu Tribe pay and began reviewing the battle so he could build greater strength and prevent similar losses.

After the Shugu Tribe captured Chi Yan, Mo Hua learned that the Danjue Tribe might be nearby and arranged for Danzhu to reunite with his father. The group reached the Danjue Tribe’s hidden encampment, where Danzhu prepared to face his family and the choice between his ideals and his kin.

• Mo Hua weighed the Shugu Tribe’s devastating losses and spent several days studying the tangled conflicts and dangers across the Great Wilderness.
• The Shugu Tribe captured Chi Yan during a night raid, and Danzhu recognized him as a Barbarian General of the Danjue Tribe.
• Mo Hua deduced that Chi Yan had likely been sent to scout the Shugu Tribe and warned Danzhu that reuniting with his father would force him to choose between his ideals and his family.
• Mo Hua pressured Chi Yan into leading him to the Danjue Great Chieftain, and Danzhu, Chi Feng, Bashan, Bachuan, and others joined the journey.
• Chi Yan led the group through a hidden entrance behind an inverted sandfall, and Danzhu entered the encampment with Mo Hua close behind.

Mo Hua and Danzhu returned to the Danque Tribe, where Mo Hua persuaded Great Chieftain Dan Lie to let the Shugu Tribe join an alliance against the Wujiu Tribe. Dan Lie agreed to let Mo Hua and Lugu attend the Tribal Alliance Meeting, then warned Mo Hua that two Shamans from the Royal Court would also be there.

• Chi Yan led Danzhu and Mo Hua into the Danque Tribe, where Danzhu reunited with his father, Great Chieftain Dan Lie.
• Dan Lie and Dan Bie questioned whether Danzhu had joined the Shugu Tribe and challenged Mo Hua's claims about his role as its Shaman.
• Mo Hua recognized that the Danque Tribe was planning an alliance against the Wujiu Tribe and offered for the Shugu Tribe to join.
• Mo Hua argued that the Danque and Shugu Tribes needed to set aside old grievances, and Dan Lie agreed to let Mo Hua and Lugu attend the Tribal Alliance Meeting.
• Dan Lie warned Mo Hua that two Shamans from the Royal Court would attend the meeting.

Mo Hua attended the Vermilion Bird Mountain Realm alliance meeting as a Shaman, where the Royal Court Shamans Yan Zhu and Qing Zhu challenged his credentials. He denied following the Royal Court’s rules and claimed the God Lord had personally appointed him, leaving the assembled leaders stunned.

• The major tribes gathered in the ruined great hall, where Mo Hua sat beside Lugu in a seat nearly equal to the Great Chieftains.
• Yan Zhu and Qing Zhu arrived, and the tribal leaders greeted the two Royal Court Shamans with respect.
• Yan Zhu questioned Mo Hua about his Shaman rank, Royal Court appointment, and lineage, and Mo Hua admitted he knew none of those details.
• Mo Hua argued that a Shaman should revere the gods’ will rather than human-made rules, and Yan Zhu challenged his claim to the title.
• Mo Hua said the God Lord had personally named him a Shaman and delivered a grand account of his divine mission, astonishing Yan Zhu and the gathered leaders.

Mo Hua faced Yan Zhu’s accusation of impersonating a Shaman, but Yan Zhu’s divine punishment had no effect, and the gathered tribes let Mo Hua remain at the alliance. After the tribes began planning their campaign against the Wujiu Tribe, Dan Lie revealed that the Wujiu invasion might be tied to a planned God Descent.

• Yan Zhu accused Mo Hua of blaspheming the gods, and the Flame Wing Great Chieftain tried to seize him until Lugu intervened.
• Yan Zhu invoked divine punishment against Mo Hua, but Mo Hua remained unharmed, so Yan Zhu claimed he had decided to spare him.
• Qing Zhu urged the gathered chieftains and elders to resume their urgent alliance discussions, and Mo Hua listened without speaking.
• The tribes debated concessions and army arrangements for a campaign against the Wujiu Tribe while Mo Hua observed their rivalries.
• Dan Lie announced that the Wujiu Tribe’s invasion might serve a greater purpose, and Yan Zhu named it the Wujiu God Descent.

Yan Zhu explained that the Wujiu Tribe planned to use its ancient deity and Vermilion Bird Mountain’s Ancient Altar to reshape the mountain realm’s faith, and the tribes formed an alliance to stop the ritual. Afterward, Mo Hua questioned Danzhu about his sister Dan Ling and confirmed Danzhu’s resolve to follow his own Dao Heart, while privately considering whether he could devour the Wujiu Great God.

• Yan Zhu revealed that the Wujiu Tribe intended to perform a God Descent ritual at Vermilion Bird Mountain’s Ancient Altar and warned that the Wujiu Great God could alter every tribe’s faith.
• Yan Zhu nominated Dan Lie as Grand Alliance Leader, and Dan Lie accepted after Yan Zhu and Qing Zhu both sought to take Dan Lie’s daughter, Dan Ling, as a disciple and offer her to the gods.
• The tribal leaders swore to unite against the Wujiu Tribe, destroy its Shaman forces, and prevent the God Descent ritual.
• Mo Hua asked Danzhu about Dan Ling’s beauty, then asked whether Danzhu had considered his future path.
• Danzhu declared that he would stand by his own Dao Heart even if his father and elder brother chose a different path, and Mo Hua approved his resolve.
• Mo Hua privately wondered whether he could devour the Wujiu Great God and reach Twenty-Four-Pattern.

As the Vermilion Bird Mountain Tribal Alliance fought the Wujiu Tribe, Mo Hua used his Array Techniques to support the campaign and gather talented Witch Cultivators. Yan Zhu then explained the Royal Court’s Shaman hierarchy and Zhu Names, prompting Mo Hua to consider how Divine Consciousness, gods, Dao, and laws might connect.

• Dan Lie directed the Vermilion Bird Mountain Tribal Alliance’s war against the Wujiu Tribe while Mo Hua worried over the growing Death Omen and focused on Array Techniques.
• Mo Hua became the campaign’s de facto chief Array Master, covertly gaining control over the alliance’s array designs and earning Witch Cultivators’ respect as Mr. Wu.
• Mo Hua studied Witch Cultivators from different tribes and marked promising ones as potential recruits for his future plans.
• Yan Zhu approached Mo Hua unseen and questioned his Sacred Patterns and Shaman status; he concluded Mo Hua was a deeply blessed wild God-Favored One.
• Yan Zhu explained Royal Court recognition, the meaning of a Zhu Name, and how Shaman titles reflected the Dao of a deity.
• Mo Hua connected Yan Zhu’s explanation to his own understanding of Divine Consciousness, gods, Dao, and laws, and suspected the Nine Provinces’ orthodox inheritance had excluded an important part of cultivation.

Mo Hua noticed that divine sense had been removed from the cultivation system, then used the ongoing tribal war to study and secretly collect powerful array techniques. As the conflict with the Wujiu Tribe intensified, he gained access to ancestral armor arrays and observed life-and-death cycles through the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation.

• Yan Zhu tried to recruit Mo Hua into the Royal Court’s orthodox divine lineage and asked him to draw Sacred Patterns for the coming war.
• Qing Zhu warned Yan Zhu against pursuing Dan Ling, and she privately revealed that her pregnancy was her last chance in life.
• Mo Hua improved the Tribal Alliance Meeting’s war arrays, equipping armor, weapons, siege engines, and other defenses while the fighting against the Wujiu Tribe escalated.
• As the tribes entrusted him with high-grade and damaged ancestral Barbarian Armor, Mo Hua used his techniques to deconstruct and reconstruct their arrays, secretly acquiring their inheritance.
• Mo Hua built Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formations to treat wounded soldiers and studied their circulation of life force and death aura to prepare for his own Golden Core Formation.

Mo Hua prepared to use the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation and Wood White Gold Jade Bone to make his dangerous bone-carved Natal Array, while discovering that the Hua Family was secretly acquiring tribal bone-carving methods. After reassuring Little Zhatu about his grandfather and resolving to return to the Wutu Mountain Realm when he could, Mo Hua watched the war reach its final confrontation at Vermilion Bird Mountain.

• Mo Hua planned to combine Wood White Gold Jade Bone, the Wood-Ether Rejuvenation Formation, and the Twelve-Meridian Taotie Spirit Bone Array into his Natal Magic Treasure for Golden Core Formation.
• Mo Hua learned that the Hua Family had covertly traded Inedia Pills for bone-carving methods from multiple tribes and suspected the methods were central to the Hua Family's plans.
• Little Zhatu told Mo Hua he was worried about his grandfather and the Wutu Mountain Realm, and Mo Hua reassured him that Elder Zhamu should be safe.
• Mo Hua resolved to return to the Wutu Mountain Realm and check on Little Zhatu's people and Big Tiger once the Wujiu Tribe conflict was settled.
• After three months of brutal fighting, the Wujiu Tribe broke through the blockade and advanced into the Vermilion Bird Ancient Mountain Range's deepest reaches.
• The Wujiu Tribe launched its final charge before the ancient Altar beneath the red clouds, setting the stage for a decisive battle under threat of the Wujiu Great God's descent.

Mo Hua watched the battle for the Vermilion Bird Altar, where the Wujiu Tribe and Vermilion Bird Mountain alliance raced to claim its divine throne. As the fighting reached the altar, the Wujiu Young Master revealed a terrifying dragon totem hidden beneath his cloak.

• Mo Hua observed the slaughter across Vermilion Bird Mountain as the Wujiu Tribe broke through the alliance’s defenses and uncovered the ancient Vermilion Bird Altar.
• The Vermilion Bird Statue and throne appeared, drawing both armies toward the plaza, where the Vermilion Bird Fire burned the Divine Consciousness of Foundation Establishment soldiers and many Golden Core cultivators.
• Dan Lie ordered the alliance’s Foundation Establishment soldiers to retreat, while the Wujiu Young Master likewise halted his weaker troops and the Golden Cores fought on in the plaza.
• The Wujiu Young Master struck back the late Golden Core Fire Eagle Great Chieftain with one punch and demanded that the alliance leaders submit to him.
• Dan Lie and the other Great Chieftains rejected the Wujiu Young Master’s demand, and both sides clashed as the Vermilion Bird Fire continued to scorch their Divine Consciousness.
• The Wujiu Young Master broke the seal on his black cloak, revealing a fearsome black dragon totem across his body.