This was Mo Hua’s first encounter with such a “living,” sentient formation, as if it had come alive.

Before this, he had only seen his Martial Uncle’s formations achieve similar effects.

However, his Martial Uncle’s *guiwen* (诡纹) self-replicated, evolved, and even parasitized.

Unlike the *taotie wen* (饕餮纹) he himself drew, which could “eat” other formations like a monster.

Even Mo Hua himself felt a strange sense of “eeriness.”

He wondered what kind of “Formation Master” he would become if he continued to learn in this manner.

But now was not the time to dwell on such thoughts.

If there was a formation, he would learn it; if there was a formation principle, he would comprehend it.

This was also the demand of Mo Hua’s inner thirst for knowledge, his greedy desire to tirelessly seek the great Dao of Heaven and Earth and its laws.

The “Heart of Taotie” was gradually imprinted into Mo Hua’s soul.

Mo Hua continued to activate the “Taotie Tunhua Zhen” (饕餮吞化阵) to “eat” the “Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen” (渊骨化龙阵).

The *taotie wen* in the Taotie Tunhua Zhen, like a monster, extended tentacle-like formation patterns, transforming into an abyss-like maw to swallow the Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen.

The intrinsic Taotie laws domineeringly circulated.

The Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen resisted.

This was a battle between formations, an invasion of laws.

The twenty-three-patterned ultimate formation, imbued with Taotie laws of swallowing and transformation, was clearly stronger, both in terms of formation grade and intrinsic laws.

The twenty-patterned Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen was at a distinct disadvantage and was quickly engulfed, “chewed,” and “assimilated.”

When the dark *taotie wen* receded, the Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen became “fragmented,” as if it had been “chewed” by a ferocious beast formation, its bones broken, leaving only scattered “residual patterns.”

Mo Hua looked on, feeling both “cruel” and wondrous. These fragmented “residual patterns” indeed possessed a certain “uniformity.”

This uniformity was a part of the Taotie’s laws of devouring and assimilation.

These laws, as the Taotie “chewed,” permeated the residual patterns, looking like the “saliva” of the Taotie eating.

Mo Hua examined these residual patterns, frowning slightly.

What he found strange was that after the Taotie Tunhua Zhen “ate” the Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen, the remaining residual patterns were relatively complete.

In his expectation, when the Taotie ate a formation, it would surely digest a part and then expel what it couldn’t digest.

That would be truly “eating.”

But the current situation was more like the Taotie chewing the formation, which served as “food,” until it was macerated, its saliva sticking to it, and then “spitting” it back out exactly as it was.

This wasn’t like “eating”; it was more like the “disintegration” of the Four Symbols demon patterns formation.

More vividly, it was “swallowing and disassembling.”

After swallowing, it directly disassembled the original formation.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, thinking there were two possibilities.

“One possibility is that this formation only contains a part of the Taotie’s power, so it can only swallow and disassemble, but not ‘transform.’”

“Another possibility is that my comprehension of this Taotie law is not deep enough, and my mastery of the Taotie Tunhua Zhen is insufficient, so the formation I activate at this stage can only chew and cannot truly ‘eat’ it.”

Mo Hua couldn’t determine which possibility was correct.

The Taotie formation was different from ordinary ultimate formations.

The ultimate formations Mo Hua had previously learned mostly contained single laws. The Dao韵 (Dao Yun) involved was also specific and unique.

But the Taotie was a ferocious beast of Heaven and Earth, devouring all things, even the laws of Heaven and Earth.

The laws contained within it were highly unlikely to be a single law.

Instead, it was probably an entire, self-consistent “law chain” formed within its body after constantly devouring and refining since its birth.

Therefore, ultimate formations possessing “Taotie power” came in so many varieties.

Different Taotie ultimate formations had different logic and manifestations, and even their purposes seemed completely different.

Mo Hua had only vaguely guessed this before.

Now that he had comprehended the Taotie Tunhua law and possessed the “Heart of Taotie,” in a sense, he also had the Taotie’s instincts.

So, he could almost instinctively understand the Taotie’s actions.

He could also roughly confirm that this conjecture was valid.

If so, to truly comprehend “Taotie law,” he would need to master all Taotie-related formations and then construct a self-consistent “Taotie law chain.”

Therefore, it made sense that the Taotie Tunhua Zhen could only “swallow” but not “transform,” and could only “disassemble” but not “assimilate.” The ultimate formation did not contain the complete Taotie power.

What he had comprehended was only one aspect of the Taotie law, not a complete law chain.

At the current stage, his formation could only “swallow and disassemble,” not “swallow and transform.”

Mo Hua felt a bit regretful.

But for now, possessing this “swallowing and disassembling” power was enough.

It was enough for Mo Hua to use it as a prerequisite law to comprehend the mysteries of “dragon transformation.”

The Taotie devours demons, and then myriad demons transform into dragons.

Now, the Taotie formation could “devour” demon formations.

Afterward, he would try to reassemble the formation using the “macerated” and “assimilated” residual patterns after the Taotie’s devouring. In other words, he would first use the Taotie formation to “eat” the “Yuan Gu Zhen” (渊骨阵).

Then, he would use the remnants of the Yuan Gu Zhen to re-derive the Yuan Gu Zhen, thereby comprehending the intrinsic laws of the Yuan Gu Zhen.

The law contained within this process was the law of myriad demons transforming into dragons.

However, this was not true “dragon transformation.”

What the Yuan Gu Zhen transformed into was not true “dragon patterns.”

It was merely an incomparably hard, defensive, unknown, malformed heavy armor demon formation cobbled together from various large bone patterns from the Endless Abyss.

The external formation forms were different, but the intrinsic essence was the same.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua suddenly realized something.

“Incomparably hard,” “used for defense,” “unknown, malformed heavy armor demon beast”…

This sounded a bit like…

Xuanwu (玄武)?

Xuanwu, one of the Four Symbols?

Mo Hua was suddenly startled, and couldn’t help but think.

The “Azure Dragon” of the Great Wilderness was derived from the transformation of myriad demon residual patterns.

What about the other Four Symbols?

White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise…

Could it be that they were all—artificially pieced together from demon beast remnants?

So, the Four Sacred Beasts of the Great Wilderness were all—

“Man-made divine beasts?!”

Mo Hua himself was startled by this “wild idea.”

But the more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

The Azure Dragon formation could be derived from demon patterns, which meant that the Azure Dragon divine beast—at least the Azure Dragon of the Great Wilderness—its intrinsic law logic was refined and transformed from “myriad demons.”

If Azure Dragon could, then why couldn’t Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise?

Vermilion Bird was the transformation of avian demon beasts.

White Tiger was the transformation of feline demon beasts.

Xuanwu was the transformation of tortoise shell and heavy armor demon beasts.

Were these all “artificially transformed”?

Mo Hua took a slight breath of cold air.

He should have thought of this when he saw Teacher Tu’s “Myriad Demon Valley Transforms into Dragon” experiment.

But this conjecture was too “outrageous,” so much so that Mo Hua himself didn’t dare to think in that direction.

But—who had such great ability to create divine beasts?

Could it be…

Mo Hua thought of those eyes again, and the inexplicable tremor of the Dao Tablet, and a chill actually ran through his heart.

The air in the room became colder, carrying a sense of oppression.

After a long time, Mo Hua frowned again.

“Am I overthinking?”

Ever since he began studying laws every day and comprehending the operation of various laws, his mind was filled with such “metaphysical” ideas, mysterious and abstract.

Mo Hua always felt that he must be overthinking.

A little bit of far-fetched association, and he was connecting things based on flimsy evidence.

But was this really overthinking?

Mo Hua fell into contemplation again, then immediately shook his head, no longer thinking about it.

Smart people, whose minds turn too fast, often get stuck in thought once they start.

But this thought remained deeply hidden in Mo Hua’s heart.

Afterward, he held his breath and focused his attention on the formation in front of him.

He continued to derive it according to his own ideas.

On the chaotic formation diagram, Mo Hua re-integrated and “restored” the formation patterns of the “Yuan Gu Jue Zhen” that had been “eaten” by the Taotie, thereby experiencing the law of “dragon transformation.”

Different demon beasts and different demon patterns were originally incompatible.

But when they were eaten by the Taotie and assimilated, their remnants and residual patterns gained a uniformity of law, thus possessing the possibility of integration and “re-creation.”

This might also be one of the “fierce and domineering” aspects of the Taotie law.

It could “eat” anything, “digest” anything it ate, and turn it to its own use.

The twenty-three-patterned ultimate formation, Mo Hua had understood.

Now, conversely, studying the twenty-patterned ultimate formation became much easier.

Moreover, Mo Hua had tried “myriad demons transforming into dragons” many times before. Although he lacked the prerequisite laws and the path was wrong, he had accumulated a lot of experience.

Therefore, not long after, the Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen on the bone technique heavy armor was re-integrated by Mo Hua, with the help of the Taotie’s swallowing and transforming power.

Mo Hua’s comprehension of this ultimate formation also deepened another layer.

Afterward, Mo Hua repeated his trick, letting the Taotie Tunhua Zhen eat the Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen again, then extract the residual patterns, and then re-transform them into a new Yuan Gu Zhen.

He tried this about ten times.

Mo Hua also initially comprehended the law of “dragon transformation.”

At this point, the “Yuan Gu Jue Zhen” on the bone technique heavy armor was considered truly mastered.

Mo Hua also successfully “stolen” the ancient formation inheritance of the Bone Technique Tribe’s ancestors.

Mo Hua was delighted in his heart.

But he hadn’t been happy for long before he realized another problem.

Mo Hua drew the Yuan Gu Jue Zhen he had learned on paper, and then compared it with the original formation diagram of the Bone Technique Tribe’s Yuan Gu Hualong Zhen.

Comparing the two, Mo Hua surprisingly found that they were different.

The formation he had mastered, and the formation of the Bone Technique Tribe’s ancestors, seemed to be the same formation, and the laws were also the same, but the specific formation patterns had many discrepancies.

The “spirit” was the same, but the form was different, only similar.

It was like—a “pirated” formation.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and then realized the reason.

The ancestors of the Bone Technique Tribe “transformed” this “Yuan Gu Zhen” in ancient times, possessing relatively primitive formation patterns.

And he was equivalent to using the Taotie formation to completely “disassemble” their primitive formation patterns and then reassemble them.

The techniques involved must be very different, after all, countless years had passed.

No one knew what method the ancestors of the Bone Technique Tribe used to transform this Yuan Gu Zhen.

Mo Hua also had no way to completely restore their process of transforming the formation.

Mo Hua’s approach was more like—

Smashing an ancient “artifact” to pieces, understanding its intrinsic principles, and then learning to reassemble and repair it himself. The thing he repaired would definitely not be the same as the original.

“Pirated” formations won’t do. Mo Hua frowned, “I have to find a way to completely restore the formation to its original state—”

But Mo Hua thought and thought, yet couldn’t find any method that could restore it 100%.

Unless the ancestors of the Bone Technique Tribe came back to life and personally drew it in front of him.

But that was simply impossible.

“No way to fully restore—”

Mo Hua thought for a moment, then suddenly reacted, “Why must it be fully restored?”

Why must it be exactly the same as the formation drawn by the Bone Technique Tribe’s ancestors?

He wasn’t those stupid Formation Masters who insisted that ancestral laws could not be changed, and that not a single stroke of the formation could be altered.

As long as the intrinsic laws were the same and the functions were the same, wasn’t that enough?

Furthermore, this wasn’t really “piracy.”

The intrinsic core technology was identical; a slight discrepancy in the external formation pattern structure didn’t matter.

Mo Hua found this very reasonable.

Then he couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander:

The Bone Technique Tribe had ancestral heavy armor; surely other large tribes also had them. These tribes’ ancestral heavy armor must also contain ultimate formations.

Did his comprehension of this set of Taotie swallowing and transformation and myriad demons transforming into dragons laws mean that in the future, he could use the same method for any tribe’s ancestral heavy armor ultimate formation?

Infer the formation diagram, devour it with the Taotie formation, and then restore it.

In this way, wouldn’t he be able to “replicate” the ancestral heavy armor of all tribes?

Wear the enemy’s “armor” and fight them with it?

Mo Hua was startled.

Seen this way, wasn’t the Taotie Tunhua Zhen a bit like the “Xiao Wuxiang Gong” (小无相功) on Four Symbols formations?

Devouring other tribes’ Four Symbols ultimate formations and then re-integrating and “replicating” a “pirated” one himself?

Mo Hua paused for a moment, then couldn’t help but feel eager to try it.

He left the secret chamber where he had been in seclusion for a long time. As soon as he exited, he saw Xiao Zhatu.

Xiao Zhatu had been guarding outside with a worried expression. Seeing Mo Hua emerge, his face immediately lit up, saying,

“Sir, your seclusion has ended?!”

Mo Hua nodded and asked, “How are things outside?”

Xiao Zhatu’s face fell again. “Not so good—”

Mo Hua patted his head. “Take me to see.”

“En!”

Xiao Zhatu led Mo Hua to see Dan Zhu and others.

Dan Zhu and the others all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Mo Hua’s seclusion had ended.

With external enemies at hand, Mo Hua himself had been in seclusion, immersed in formation research, oblivious to the passage of time.

Everyone else was worried about this.

Even in the Danque (丹雀) Tribe and the Wutu (乌图) Alliance, many barbarians began to suspect that Shaman Lord might have met with an accident or abandoned them.

Dan Zhu’s suspended heart slowly settled.

He looked up at Mo Hua and was suddenly startled.

He always felt that “Shaman Sir” seemed to have acquired a new kind of aura, an indescribably fierce and greedy quality that made his heart feel a little cold.

“What exactly did Shaman Sir comprehend during his seclusion?”

Mo Hua, on the other hand, subtly adapted to the atmosphere outside, disengaging from his state of formation research and Taotie comprehension, and inquired about the recent situation.

Only then did he realize that nearly two months had passed since he began his seclusion to comprehend formations.

During these two months, Dan Zhu and Chi Feng (赤锋), along with others, had been struggling to hold their ground against the main branch of the Bone Technique Tribe led by Lu Gu (戮骨).

Now, more than half of Wucha Mountain Realm’s territory had fallen.

Their forces had also retreated to the edge of Wucha Mountain Realm.

Lu Gu led a large army, entrenched outside, eyeing them like a tiger.

The situation was extremely grim.

Without Mo Hua’s “prescient” guidance, Dan Zhu was very unaccustomed to it, but under immense pressure during this period, he struggled to hold on. Although he was in a dire situation, he had indeed grown a lot and prevented Wucha Mountain Realm from ultimately falling.

Mo Hua felt relieved.

Indeed, prodigies were prodigies; with a little tempering, they could grow on their own.

Mo Hua felt a sense of “nurturing” pleasure.

“Since things have come to this, let’s retreat first,” Mo Hua thought for a moment and said.

“Retreat?” Dan Zhu was a bit puzzled.

Mo Hua nodded. “Give Wucha Mountain Realm to Lu Gu, retreat to Wutu Mountain Realm first, and then plan gradually.”

Chi Feng frowned. “But—once we retreat, how can we fight back?”

Mo Hua cryptically said, “The Divine Lord has His own instructions.”

Dan Zhu and Chi Feng exchanged glances, both not understanding what “instructions” the Divine Lord could have.

But they still believed in Mo Hua, this miraculous “Shaman Lord.”

So, Dan Zhu and the others retreated again and again, finally withdrawing to Wutu Mountain Realm.

Wutu Mountain Realm was a small mountain realm, with more complex terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Lu Gu had originally intended to pursue and capitalize on his victory, but after several unsuccessful attacks, and with the Bone Technique Tribe’s barbarian soldiers exhausted from prolonged battle, Lu Gu ordered his men to set up camp and recuperate their forces.

Once their forces were strong, they would take Wutu Mountain Realm in one fell swoop, annihilating Dan Zhu and his allies.

At this point, Wucha Mountain Realm was completely swallowed by the Bone Technique Tribe.

The Danque Tribe and the Wutu Alliance, cornered, all wore solemn expressions, and their hearts were shrouded in a dark cloud.

They had nowhere left to retreat. If Lu Gu attacked again, they would have to fight with their backs against the wall.

It was either life or death.

People’s morale was somewhat unstable for a while. Some tribes even harbored thoughts of rebellion.

Mo Hua ordered Jiao Li (角厉) to lead men to execute the defectors to maintain the unity of the tribe and alliance.

People’s hearts were like water, fluctuating. Especially at such times, it was crucial to firm up morale.

And Mo Hua, meanwhile, began to pour great effort into forging heavy armor.

He had the materials for forging, which he had obtained from the secret department of the Bone Technique Tribe.

He had also selected some personnel for forging.

The forging technique was primarily based on the Danque Tribe’s inheritance, with “Jian Gu Tou” (剑骨头), the former sword smith, providing advice.

Mo Hua had already “restored” the core formation for forging the armor.

And all of this was done in secret.

The forging site was completely enclosed, and all blacksmiths and elders were not allowed to leave for half a step.

Mo Hua also didn’t tell anyone what kind of armor he was forging.

Amidst the tempering of iron and fire, bone and formation, time flew by.

A month later, Lu Gu, having recuperated, continued to lead his troops to press forward, intending to kill Dan Zhu and destroy the Wutu Tribe.

Dan Zhu and Chi Feng led their troops to resist.

The two sides engaged in battle, fighting relentlessly.

Dan Zhu and the others struggled to hold on, under immense pressure.

And in this grim situation, one evening three days later, Mo Hua, with some barbarian soldiers, arrived at Dan Zhu’s frontline military camp, pulling a stack of storage boxes.

Dan Zhu and the others were puzzled.

Mo Hua ordered the boxes to be opened.

As the boxes opened, a deep, dark glow flashed, captivating.

In that instant, Dan Zhu and Chi Feng and the others could hardly believe their eyes.

They actually saw—

The Yuan Gu heavy armor passed down by the ancestors of the Bone Technique Tribe?!

And there were fifty sets!

This number was already more than the heavy armor inherited by the main branch of the Bone Technique Tribe, where Lu Gu was.

The air seemed to solidify.

Dan Zhu and the others forgot to breathe. After a long while, they looked at Mo Hua, their voices trembling, “Shaman Sir, this is—”

Mo Hua said solemnly, “This is the divine bestowed barbarian armor.”

He looked at Dan Zhu and the others, his face shining with divine radiance. “Select fifty elites, put on these heavy armors, and go forth to battle Lu Gu tomorrow.”

Dan Zhu took a deep breath and nodded. “Good!”

So, the next day, General Lu Gu, leading the main branch of the Bone Technique Tribe, who was preparing to annihilate Dan Zhu’s forces in one fell swoop, had just met Dan Zhu when he saw behind Dan Zhu fifty sets of fierce and mighty Yuan Gu heavy armor.

In broad daylight, General Lu Gu also thought he had gone blind.

He stared again, carefully examining them.

A sense of incredible absurdity instantly surged into his brain, making his consciousness somewhat fragmented.

Lu Gu finally couldn’t help but curse:

“Go to hell! How could my Bone Technique ancestors’ heavy armor be worn by people of the Danque Tribe?!”