The vision of the sacred beast, suspended in the sky, slowly dissipated after a long time. The entire mountain, however, seemed to be blessed with auspiciousness, and a sacred aura, mixed with the tiger’s majesty, echoed through the mountains for a long time. Later generations of barbarian people named this mountain “Shenghu Shan,” meaning the mountain where the sacred tiger descended, and worshipped it for generations.

Inside the cave, the large tiger was still eating with grunts. It had successfully broken through and was now a third-rank Jindan stage tiger demon. The formed demon core was contained within its body, and the pure white “bloodline” of the sacred beast had been “spliced” and integrated into its flesh and blood, deeply hidden within its demon marrow, no longer exposed.

However, the large tiger’s appearance had changed significantly. It seemed to have acquired a “new skin,” becoming whiter, purer, and more sacred. The contrast between its black and white stripes also became more distinct. Anyone who saw it would immediately recognize its noble and extraordinary bloodline. At the same time, its physique had grown a size larger, and its presence was stronger.

A cultivator forming a Jindan, with the transformation of their Dao foundation, is an event of great significance. The same applies to demon beasts forming a demon core. Once a true demon core is formed, becoming a third-rank demon beast, its cultivation advances by leaps and bounds, and its bloodline foundation undergoes a complete metamorphosis. In the path of cultivation, it naturally enters a whole new realm.

It is precisely for this reason that forming a demon core is equally difficult for demon beasts. This is a major hurdle in cultivation. Fewer than one in ten peak second-rank demon beasts can successfully form a demon core, undergo the transformation of their Dao foundation, avoid all calamities, and survive completely intact.

But now, the large tiger had successfully crossed this hurdle. Its bloodline had awakened perfectly, its flesh and blood transformed as if cast from bronze and iron, and its fur became tougher and more beautiful. It must be said that its fortune was very profound. Mo Hua couldnin’t help but stroke the white fur on the large tiger’s neck.

The large tiger was also in a good mood. It had suppressed its cultivation for too long, waiting for Mo Hua, and had been constantly wary of a bunch of its peers “eying it covetously” and dangers lurking everywhere. Now, everything was looking up: the demon core was formed, its cultivation had broken through, the secret of its inheritance had been shown to Mo Hua, and Mo Hua was stroking its fur. The large tiger was content, wagging its big tail, and happily grunted, but its mouth did not stop, still grunting and eating. It was too hungry.

Mo Hua smiled as he watched the large tiger eat with relish, but then his gaze fell upon the black and white stripes on the large tiger’s body, and his smile faded a little. Mo Hua’s eyes were deep as he fell into contemplation. The two “heretical” discoveries he had made earlier resurfaced in his mind. “Formations… can create flesh and blood life…” “Sacred beasts… are ‘synthetic beasts’ reshaped by formations and flesh and blood…”

Extending this idea further… Even the “sacred beast bloodlines” present in the demon beasts of the Great Wilderness could be understood as… a kind of secret and ancient “life formation pattern” sealed deep within the demon beast’s bloodline. When a demon beast breaks through its cultivation, undergoes a transformation of its flesh and blood, performing “atavism” or “sacred beast transformation,” these secret “life formation patterns” would emerge from the depths of its bloodline, “recompiling” and integrating with the demon beast’s flesh and blood. Once these life formation patterns successfully recompile, the demon beast would undergo a certain degree of “atavism” or “sanctification,” awakening a certain bloodline and power of the Great Wilderness’s sacred beasts. The stronger the life formation patterns and the more successful the flesh and blood “recompilation,” the more obvious the degree of sanctification. The demon beast could then transform into a “sacred beast” to a greater extent.

This might be the truth about the Great Wilderness’s sacred beasts. On the surface, it appears to be the inheritance of a demon beast’s bloodline, but in essence, it is very likely a “life construction” achieved by utilizing a certain formation. This is not the logic of living flesh and blood or bloodline inheritance. Essentially, it is the logic of formations!

Mo Hua was deeply shocked, as if by a tumultuous wave, unable to calm down for a long time. At this moment, he truly began to understand what “Dao gives birth to all things” meant. Why it is said that formations are the essence of this world. All phenomena are illusory. All phenomena are non-phenomena, their essence is Dao, and Dao uses formations as a medium, and formations as a function…

Mo Hua frowned, then realized another, even more terrifying question. Formations create life, sacred beasts are “synthetic beasts”… So who exactly has the ability to use formations to create flesh and blood life? And who has the ability to synthesize the “sacred beasts” of the Great Wilderness? Mo Hua slowly took a cold breath. On the surface, there were no clues, no traces, but a name rarely mentioned slowly emerged in his mind: “Great Witch Priest!”

These three words had been buried in the history of the Great Wilderness. Up to this point, Mo Hua had delved deep into the wilderness, personally participated in tribal wars, unified the entire Zhuque Mountains under the name of a witch priest, and read countless historical texts of the barbarians. But the words “Great Witch Priest” were rarely mentioned. Only a few very old, dilapidated pieces of parchment, or some worn-out bone slips and steles with barely legible characters, still vaguely bore traces of these three words. But even these were just mentioned in passing.

It was only known that there was such a “Great Witch Priest” in the past history of the Great Wilderness. But what was his specific identity, origin, cultivation realm, what he did, whether he achieved anything, whether he left any words, what position he occupied in the history of the Great Wilderness, how his merits and demerits were evaluated… and so on. All of these remained unknown. It was as if everyone had forgotten, everyone didn’t care. The only “legends” that existed were mostly inferences imagined based on the three words “Great Witch Priest,” without actual evidence.

But Mo Hua was not an ordinary “person”; he cultivated through divine consciousness, was a Half-Step God, and also a highly skilled formation master. He saw many things much deeper than ordinary cultivators. He could sense that many things in the Great Wilderness bore the shadow of the Great Witch Priest.

First, according to the Second Elder of the Demon Sect, the twenty-four-pattern, twelve-meridian Taotie Spirit Skeleton Formation was created by the Great Witch Priest. And the laws of Taotie were a closely related chain of laws. If the Taotie Spirit Skeleton Formation was related to the Great Witch Priest, then the Four Symbols Azure Dragon Formation in Master Tu’s hands, the Taotie Devour Transformation Formation in the T-Bone Tribe’s divine statue, and even the Profound Bone Heavy Armor Grand Formation of the T-Bone ancestors, were all likely to be inextricably linked to the Great Witch Priest…

Furthermore, extending this, throughout the entire Great Wilderness, in various tribes, all ancestors who utilized laws like “devour and transform into dragon” to artificially piece together “Four Symbols Grand Formations” for forging ancestral barbarian armor, might all have the Great Witch Priest’s hand behind them… And besides the Azure Dragon Formation, the Four Symbols Sacred Beast Formations likely also included the Four Symbols White Tiger Formation, the Four Symbols Vermilion Bird Formation, and the Four Symbols Black Tortoise Formation. If the Great Witch Priest could use demon patterns to “derive and piece together” the Azure Dragon Formation, then the other three would seem to be no problem.

Thus, the Great Witch Priest virtually created the entire Great Wilderness’s Four Symbols Sacred Beast Formation system… Even the so-called “Four Sacred Beasts” of the Great Wilderness might have been created by the Great Witch Priest himself, based on the sacred beast formations, by “splicing” the “flesh and blood” of demon beasts with the “bloodline” of divine beasts. And involved in this was a more sophisticated, ancient “life creation formation.” So sophisticated that Mo Hua, with his current formation master mindset, could not comprehend it at all. Mo Hua would not even dare to think in this direction if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, thanks to the big tiger…

All these things were closely related to this “Great Witch Priest.” Almost all the formation inheritances in the entire Great Wilderness were intricately linked to this Great Witch Priest… Yet the name of the Great Witch Priest was not preserved in the history of the Great Wilderness… Thinking about it carefully, Mo Hua couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable chill.

Then he couldn’t help but feel a little doubtful. Could this Great Witch Priest really be so powerful? If he could truly achieve such a degree, wouldn’t that mean he had comprehended the complete Taotie law chain; created numerous Taotie grand formation systems, including the twenty-four-pattern, twelve-meridian Taotie Spirit Skeleton Grand Formation; simultaneously “artificially synthesized” the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise “Four Sacred Beasts” of the Great Wilderness, and established a complete system of Four Symbols Sacred Beast Formations for the Great Wilderness… He might even have compiled the bloodlines of the Four Sacred Beasts into ancient “life formation patterns,” hidden within the bodies of different demon beasts in the Great Wilderness, passed down through generations…

Could these things really be accomplished by a “person”? What realm would a person who could do these things be in, and what kind of heaven-shattering fortune would they possess? Perhaps the Dao of Heaven had given him a “cheat”? Mo Hua frowned. He had previously thought that he was already “abnormal” enough in formations. But he didn’t expect to encounter someone so “terrifying” now. No wonder people always say, there are always people stronger than you, and there is always a higher heaven…

Mo Hua sighed deeply, then put away the somewhat desperate “sense of defeat” in his heart and readjusted his mindset. In this world, there are no enemies, only strong individuals. When encountering strong individuals, one must learn diligently. Realizing that others are strong means knowing that one is “weak.” And only by knowing one is “weak” can one learn from others’ strengths. Transforming one’s “weakness” into “strength.” Only in this way can weakness and strength transform each other, give birth to each other endlessly, and continuously become stronger to seek the ultimate “Dao.” This is the constant striving for self-improvement, like the ceaseless movement of the heavens. This was also the truth he personally realized while studying in the “Qianxue” state.

However… even though he said that, Mo Hua still felt as if a great mountain was pressing on his heart, heavy, with an invisible shadow cast over him. And… Mo Hua couldn’t help but think a little more at this moment… Was this twelve-meridian Taotie Spirit Skeleton Grand Formation truly an “unintentional” opportunity he had obtained? Was the Second Elder of the Demon Sect telling him about the Great Wilderness Grand Formations and the Great Witch Priest truly a transaction of “a dying man’s words are good”?

And why did Master Tu choose to activate the Barren Heaven Blood Sacrifice Grand Formation precisely when he was studying in Qianzhou? Why was the secret Taotie Grand Formation hidden in the human-faced, horned, white-boned evil god statue he worshipped, something he himself didn’t know? Who placed this Taotie Grand Formation in the evil god statue? Was it a coincidence that he fished this Taotie Grand Formation out of the evil god statue’s head? And when he was in the chaotic battle on the Daoist Court front line, he was brought to the Great Wilderness by the big tiger with “sacred beast” bloodline. The place he entered the Great Wilderness was the Wutu Mountain Range. Wutu, in the east of the Great Wilderness, symbolizes fire…

These small details, when thought about carefully, were terrifying. A shiver ran down Mo Hua’s spine. Could the game of the Great Wilderness… have always been played by someone else? Had someone always been setting up and making moves around him? It began from the very first time he studied in Qianxue Prefecture. No… Perhaps… it even started when he was a child, when he met the big tiger, which was then only the size of a kitten. The pieces in this game had already begun to fall around him…

At this thought, Mo Hua’s heart trembled, and he looked vigilantly at the big tiger lying on the ground. The big tiger, who was eating meat, sensed the chill and instantly shivered, looking up at Mo Hua. It was still gnawing on the meat, its big eyes clear and bewildered, looking innocent, seemingly unaware why Mo Hua was a little angry. Mo Hua stared blankly at the big tiger’s clear eyes. After a moment, he sighed helplessly, and his expression softened. “This big dummy, only knows how to eat, clearly knows nothing…”

Mo Hua knew he might be overthinking. Leaving aside the Great Wilderness for now—there was no doubt that many people’s “calculations” were involved in the events happening here, with intricate causes and effects containing much “deliberate intent.” But events outside the Great Wilderness might not be the same; not everything might be within others’ calculations. Especially his childhood and the big tiger’s affairs, many causes and effects were probably just “coincidences.” Rather than being manipulated by others, it was more like… Mo Hua frowned and thought, feeling it was more like… being drawn and pulled by the powerful gravitational force of a certain “existence,” which then connected the causes and effects. This contained both a certain inevitability and a great deal of偶然性 (accidentalness). It was closely related to his cultivation, Dao path, and various life choices, full of too many variables. It could not be simply explained by “destiny” or “karma.”

Thinking of this, Mo Hua felt a little embarrassed and gently stroked the big tiger’s head, saying, “Eat more.” The big tiger didn’t quite understand, but it didn’t pay much attention either. After a moment of confusion, it buried its head again and continued to eat the meat with grunts. Mo Hua watched the big tiger eat in silence. The big tiger could be carefree, but he could not. He knew that some things might be accidental, but among these accidents, there was indeed an unseen “karma” secretly manipulating the course of events… The game of the Great Wilderness was not only being played by the living, but perhaps… also by a “dead man”…

The big tiger was full and satisfied, its vitality restored, and its cultivation realm stable. Mo Hua also sketched out the changes in the sacred beast bloodline he observed in the big tiger in the form of formation patterns, recording them in a jade slip for future study. He still couldn’t understand these things related to sacred beast bloodlines, but they contained very “terrifying” formation rules, even terrifying to the point of being “unspeakable.” Mo Hua carefully put them away in his storage ring.

Afterward, he sorted out his thoughts and recorded some key points of cause and effect. Feeling that nothing was overlooked, he then walked out of the cave with the big tiger. Outside the cave, Lu Gu and the others had been guarding. When they saw Mo Hua emerge, accompanied by a snow-white, black-striped, third-rank Jindan stage large tiger resembling a “sacred beast,” their expressions were all solemn. Although they knew what had happened, seeing a living, unrestrained Jindan “sacred tiger” wholeheartedly and constantly guarding the Witch Priest大人 (dàrén), still made them feel incredibly astonished. And that third-rank Diao Jing Xuan Hu also looked at Mo Hua with awe. However, this gaze not only contained fear but also an undisguised jealousy and resentment.

Mo Hua noticed the hatred in the tiger demon’s eyes and gave it a faint glance. After a moment, Mo Hua’s thoughts stirred, and he asked, “Do you wish to become a saint?” The fierce eyes of the Diao Jing Xuan Hu trembled slightly. Mo Hua pondered for a moment, his gaze slightly condensed, and said, “Although you are a demon, you have some affinity. If you work for me and serve the Divine Lord, one day, if your merits are complete, I can bestow upon you a ‘great fortune,’ allowing you to shed your mortal form and become a ‘saint,’ attaining the position of a ‘sacred beast’…”

The Diao Jing Xuan Hu was astonished to hear this, and then the ferocity in its eyes gradually faded. It was awed by the divine authority emanating from Mo Hua, and it seemed to sense a certain opportunity. It slowly bowed down, indicating its submission to Mo Hua. And with the Diao Jing Xuan Hu’s submission, the other tiger demons also let out low growls, kneeling before Mo Hua on all fours. Lu Gu’s pupils constricted when he saw the fierce tigers surrender. He immediately knelt on one knee, his expression shaken, and pledged his loyalty, saying, “Witch Priest Daren is sagacious.” The others also knelt on the ground, proclaiming, “Witch Priest Daren, wise and mighty, with boundless sacred power, protects our Great Wilderness.” Amidst the praises of the crowd, Mo Hua’s gaze was calm, and his expression, without him realizing it, deepened with a few more layers of divine solemnity and indifference.

Afterward, Mo Hua personally led the big tiger back to Danque Department. Now that everything was ready, the next matter he had to deal with was the ancient divine throne in Zhuque Mountain.

(End of this chapter)