Lugu was furious.

The other barbarian soldiers of the Shugu main branch were also astonished.

They didn’t know what had happened, why the invincible armor, left by their ancestors and symbolizing the supreme glory of the Shugu tribe, was being worn by their enemies.

And now, these Shugu barbarian soldiers had to fight against powerful enemies wearing their ancestors’ heavy armor?

The morale of the Shugu tribe wavered.

Dan Zhu seized the opportunity, waved his hand, and shouted, “Kill!”

The great battle began.

Dan Zhu led the charge, and the Yuangu heavy armored soldiers of the Danque tribe followed, sweeping in.

The Yuangu heavy armor of the Shugu tribe was indeed very strong. This was evident on the bodies of the Shugu barbarian soldiers.

It was impervious to blades and spears, immune to fire and water, and no force could penetrate the heavy armor.

In front of the nearly “absolute defense” of the Yuangu heavy armor, the Shugu tribe themselves were helpless.

They hadn’t expected that one day, their enemies would wear their own barbarian armor to fight them.

Moreover, the enemies had nearly half again as much Yuangu heavy armor as they did.

The battle had little suspense.

After an hour of fierce fighting, the Shugu tribe was defeated.

General Lugu retreated thirty li with his troops. After setting up camp, his face was ashen.

This was not his first defeat, but it was the most “inconceivable” one.

He had been defeated by his own “ancestors.”

This was a form of defeat he had never imagined in his life.

Lugu’s first reaction was that there must be an insider.

The Danque tribe had bribed an insider from the Shugu main branch and stolen a large batch of Yuangu heavy armor from the Shugu tribe.

But he thought about it again and felt it was impossible.

The amount of Yuangu heavy armor in Dan Zhu’s hands was not a small number.

Such a quantity of ancestral heavy armor, even he himself couldn’t “steal,” nor would he know where to steal it from.

Lugu also checked his subordinates and found no trace of any “insider.”

The matter of ancestral heavy armor was a tribal taboo. Any tribesman who dared to leak secrets would have committed an unforgivable death penalty and would be tortured, their bones ground to powder, and offered as a sacrifice to the ancestors.

No one in the Shugu tribe had the courage to try such a cruel punishment.

Lugu pondered over and over, unable to understand, unable to find any possibility, or any reason.

Why did Dan Zhu have the ancestral heavy armor of his Shugu tribe?

Lugu’s face was extremely grim.

A sharp-minded subordinate whispered, “My lord, could it be… that Dan Zhu and his people made it themselves?”

Lugu’s face was ugly. “They made it themselves? Who made it? The Yuangu sacred patterns have been lost. Besides the old ancestors of the Shugu tribe, who else can make such heavy armor?”

“Are you saying that our Shugu tribe’s ‘old ancestors’ forged the armor for Dan Zhu?”

The subordinate’s face showed fear, and he stammered, afraid to speak.

Lugu’s face was full of anger, which lingered for a long time.

But anger couldn’t solve the problem; the war still had to be fought.

The Shugu tribe, from top to bottom, had to once again face the threat of the ancestral heavy armor they once prided themselves on.

They also had to endure the humiliation of seeing their ancestors’ heavy armor worn by the enemy.

In this battle, the Shugu tribe was defeated again.

Even if General Lugu was a Jindan late-stage cultivator, it was useless.

In the wars of the second-grade mountain realm, there were heavenly dao restrictions, and the disparity between Jindan and Zhuji peak cultivators was not as great as imagined.

Once a Zhuji peak barbarian soldier put on Yuangu heavy armor, constructed with a second-grade twenty-pattern绝阵 (Juézhèn), their combat power in the second-grade mountain realm was almost comparable to a Jindan.

Fifty Zhuji peak barbarian soldiers of the Danque tribe, wearing fifty sets of Yuangu heavy armor engraved with a Juézhèn, were almost equivalent to fifty Jindan.

In some sense, they were even stronger than Jindan.

Because Jindan couldn’t fight without restraint.

Jindan couldn’t break heavy armor either.

But those wearing heavy armor could injure Jindan, and while not necessarily fatal, the cumulative injuries could become serious.

This was a cultivation war, not a solo fight between cultivators.

Accumulating small advantages to overcome the strong was the law of war.

For the next three days, after several battles big and small, the Shugu tribe continued to suffer defeats and had retreated beyond the Wutu Mountain Realm, fifty li away.

Through these battles, Lugu also discovered that the Danque tribe’s heavy armor had a different forging technique from their Shugu tribe’s heavy armor.

The craftsmanship of the Danque tribe’s Yuangu heavy armor was noticeably cruder, the materials used were cheaper, and the forging marks were indeed new, without any traces of age or dust.

This meant that these heavy armors were likely just forged.

Due to rushing the work, many details were carelessly done.

Lugu was incredulous.

“In this world, is there really someone who can forge the battle armor of my Shugu tribe’s ancestors?!”

“Who is it?!”

“Dan Zhu? Is it Chifeng? Or some armor-forging elder in these small mountain realms, or a legacy left by some tribe?”

“Or… is it that demonic witch doctor with a fair, tender face, wearing human skin?”

Lugu’s gaze was fierce and solemn.

To verify this conjecture, in the subsequent skirmishes, Lugu tried every means to “snatch” a set of Yuangu heavy armor for study.

But this tactic was something Mo Hua had already used up.

The Shugu tribe also lacked Mo Hua’s bizarre array techniques.

Therefore, Lugu tried many times, but he simply couldn’t trap or capture the Danque barbarian soldiers wearing Yuangu heavy armor.

Lugu could only temporarily give up and focus his mind on the battlefield.

The Shugu main branch was not without the strength to fight.

Lugu, as the general of the Shugu main branch, was no ordinary person. He had fought for many years, was experienced, and knew many tactics to restrict heavy armored soldiers.

After a little thought, Lugu decided to engage in barbarian soldier guerrilla warfare and quick lightning strikes to entangle with the Danque tribe.

The Shugu main branch had almost assembled all its forces.

Lugu personally entered the fray, fighting Chifeng and Dan Zhu.

The other Jindan barbarian generals of the Shugu tribe, including the Shugu Wuguai, a total of over ten, also charged forward.

The Shugu tribe used its number of Jindan and troops to compensate for the disadvantage in the quantity of Yuangu heavy armor.

In direct combat, Dan Zhu also couldn’t gain an advantage over Lugu again.

Thus, both sides fought for another ten days, and the situation reached a stalemate again.

The Shugu tribe seemed to have recovered, and Lugu gradually prepared for a long war.

But soon, a scene in one battle almost directly destroyed Lugu’s dao heart.

Dan Zhu was still leading the charge, but behind him in the formation, the Yuangu heavy armored soldiers had, at some point, suddenly increased by fifty.

In total, one hundred sets of second-grade twenty-pattern Yuangu heavy armor!

One hundred Yuangu heavy armored soldiers!

Lugu was both shocked and angry, and then deeply horrified.

In half a month, another fifty sets of Yuangu heavy armor had appeared out of thin air?!

Could this really be… the means of a demon?!

Were ancient demons helping Dan Zhu fight?

Mo Hua’s clean, solemn, spotless, yet unnaturally pure face appeared in Lugu’s mind.

General Lugu, a Jindan late-stage cultivator, also felt a chilling sensation of terror.

One hundred sets of ancestral Yuangu heavy armor, worn by Zhuji peak cultivators in the second-grade mountain realm, were almost equivalent to one hundred Jindan. The pressure was simply too strong.

This force was too outrageous.

Every set of ancestral battle armor was an “inheritance” from the ancestors, incredibly precious.

Now, they were lined up like common cabbages.

Even the Shugu tribe had never fought such a “luxurious” war.

Everyone in the Shugu tribe felt a bit broken, and even their faith began to waver.

They began to doubt whether their ancestors were truly their ancestors.

And Dan Zhu, after receiving Mo Hua’s “barbarian armor support,” also felt an incredible sensation.

But he had long anticipated the miraculous nature of Grand Wizard Mo Hua. So, after silently muttering “Esteemed Sir is brilliant,” he led the heavy armored barbarians to launch a counterattack against the Shugu tribe.

The subsequent battles were without suspense.

The Shugu tribe suffered defeat after defeat.

Although Lugu had rich combat experience, a clever wife cannot cook without rice. With such a vast disparity in barbarian armor and military equipment, he could only retreat further.

After about half a month of fighting, more than half of the Wucha Mountain Realm’s territory was reclaimed by the Danque tribe and the Wutu Alliance.

Lugu retreated to the west of the Wucha Mountain Realm.

Both sides were still stalemated along the “Wufeng Ridge” as the boundary.

The situation was exactly the same as before.

However, previously, Lugu attacked and Dan Zhu defended.

Now, offense and defense were reversed. It was Dan Zhu, supported by Yuangu heavy armored soldiers, who attacked, and Lugu who defended.

Dan Zhu could have continued to attack and could have won, but with Wufeng Ridge separating them, even if he won and conquered the territory, he couldn’t hold it.

Although their heavy armored forces were strong, their numbers were inferior to the Shugu tribe.

After occupying territory, there were insufficient troops to garrison it.

If they were dispersed, they would be defeated one by one.

And the Shugu tribe could not retreat any further.

If they retreated again, they would leave the Wucha Mountain Realm and return to the original third-grade Zhuque Mountain Realm.

The third-grade Zhuque Mountain Realm was currently plagued by famine and war. Returning there would mean fighting other third-grade great tribes and facing the threat of famine, which was also a dead end.

So, Lugu could only hold his ground and not retreat.

Mo Hua considered it and did not let Dan Zhu press too hard, lest the Shugu tribe, in desperation, fight to the death with them.

In that case, neither side would benefit.

Moreover, the Shugu tribe holding its ground in the Wucha Mountain Realm was actually a good thing for Mo Hua.

Because in this way, the Shugu tribe became a “buffer zone.”

Any other tribe wishing to attack the Wucha Mountain Realm from the outside, or even invade the Wutu Mountain Realm, would first have to cross the Shugu main branch under Lugu’s command.

The Shugu tribe thus became Mo Hua’s first “line of defense” against external aggression.

It was the meat in the roujiamo.

Thus, with Mo Hua’s tacit approval and Lugu’s reluctant choice, the Shugu main branch and the Danque tribe formed a tripartite standoff with Wufeng Ridge as the boundary.

Mo Hua gave Lugu breathing room.

Lugu also feared the Danque tribe’s heavy armored soldiers and dared not launch a large-scale invasion again.

The tense war situation temporarily eased in this subtle opposition.

But in this atmosphere of détente, Mo Hua did not stop his plan to forge “Yuangu heavy armor” at all.

This battle gave Mo Hua a direct insight into the importance of “barbarian armor” in the tribal wars of the Great Wilderness.

Especially this set of Yuangu heavy armor, passed down by the Shugu tribe’s ancestors.

Under the blessing of the twenty-pattern Juézhèn, one more set of heavy armor could potentially turn a Zhuji peak barbarian soldier into a “Jindan.”

This was almost a “qualitative change” in military strength.

Arrays were the primary productive force in the cultivation world.

Barbarian armor enhanced by arrays would inevitably determine the future of war.

Therefore, Mo Hua invested a great deal of cost into the forging of heavy armor.

Most of the barbarian armor materials previously snatched from the Shugu secret branch were also used to forge this type of Yuangu heavy armor, secretly passed down by the Shugu ancestors.

This matter also caused various thoughts among Dan Zhu and others.

They did not question the forging of heavy armor.

They were just very curious as to why… “Wizard Mo” could forge the ancestral heavy armor of the Shugu tribe?

This was a forging method that had already been lost within the Shugu tribe.

For any tribe, this was an unrepeatable secret.

And Mo Hua seemed to have easily stolen this secret…

What was the relationship between Wizard Mo and the Shugu tribe?

How did he learn the method for forging this heavy armor?

Could it really be that he could learn it just by capturing someone and studying them?

Involving such tribal secrets, no tribal cultivator could be insensitive or unwary.

Even Dan Zhu looked at Mo Hua with a hint of “concern.”

At a tribal council meeting, Chifeng couldn’t help but ask this question directly:

“Wizard Mo, how did you know… the forging method of the Shugu tribe’s ancestral heavy armor?”

Chifeng’s expression was somewhat solemn.

Because Mo Hua, this witch doctor, had become so “powerful” that he found it incomprehensible.

This “power” was not the intuitive kind of power in cultivation, but rather… a very subtle, baffling, and even eerie power.

Knowing heavenly secrets, discerning human hearts, fearless of evil spirits, unafraid of life and death.

Now, even the ancient forging methods of ancestral barbarian armor, sealed in the history of the Great Wilderness, could be “restored.”

Did that not mean that the secrets of other tribes would also be spied upon by him?

The Danque tribe… would not be spared either?

This made Chifeng feel very insecure.

Mo Hua’s answer was also very simple:

“I don’t know.”

Chifeng was stunned for a moment, and everyone else was somewhat taken aback.

Mo Hua then said seriously, “I’ve said it before, my personal realm, cultivation, and witch techniques don’t matter.”

“I am someone ‘blessed’ by the Divine Master. All my means come from the grace of the Divine Master, a manifestation of the Divine Master’s great power…”

“Things I don’t understand, I just ask the Divine Master.”

“Things I can’t solve, I just seek solutions from the Divine Master.”

“The methods I desire, I just pray to the Divine Master for them.”

“As long as my faith in the Divine Master is devout enough, as long as the Divine Master favors me, everything will be bestowed upon me.”

“Devout faith is the source of all my abilities.”

“Besides that, even if I am a ‘waste,’ it doesn’t matter. The Divine Master will bestow all great power upon me.”

“So…”

Mo Hua looked at Chifeng with a solemn expression, “You ask me how I knew the armor-forging method of the Shugu tribe’s ancestors…”

“I can only tell you, I don’t know.”

“It was the Divine Master who let me know, so I know.”

“And I am just a witch doctor, my cultivation is only at the Foundation Establishment stage. What I convey is just the prestige of the Divine Master…”

“Because the Divine Master is omniscient and omnipotent… that is why I know secrets I shouldn’t know, and why I can display ‘miracles’ beyond my ability…”

“All of this is the grace of the Divine Master.”

Mo Hua’s tone revealed an unquestionable majesty and piety.

Chifeng and the others were shaken.

They thus understood the truth they didn’t comprehend and grasped the essence of a witch doctor.

That was “faith.”

As long as there was faith, there was boundless great power.

The almost eerie aura around Mo Hua in their eyes gradually faded.

In its place was a devout, pure cultivator who believed in the Divine Master and could walk in the world on behalf of the Divine Master—an “ordinary” cultivator.

His abilities were not his own.

But merely “bestowed” upon him by the Divine Master.

The apprehension Chifeng and others felt towards Mo Hua gradually dissipated.

After all, in terms of personal ability, without the Divine Master’s blessing, Mo Hua was just an “ordinary person.”

This made Mo Hua’s image subtly more “approachable.”

But this did not in any way diminish the respect Chifeng and others had for Mo Hua.

If a prodigy received the Divine Master’s blessing, it was nothing.

But if an ordinary cultivator, because of firm faith, received the Divine Master’s blessing and possessed various divine powers, that was truly admirable.

This was the “greatness” forged by “ordinary” people through faith.

Not only Dan Zhu, but Chifeng, and all the tribal chiefs and elders, looked at Mo Hua with eyes tinged with admiration.

Even Tie Shugu and Ada Gu, two members of the Shugu tribe, after hearing Mo Hua’s words and looking at his celestial, pure, and solemn face, instantly felt a sense of self-doubt.

As if their tribe’s faith was wrong.

What they worshipped was false.

Only Mo Hua’s faith was right.

Only Mo Hua’s Divine Master was the true god.

The two were momentarily stunned, then immediately came to their senses, shaking their heads in unison to expel this “blasphemous” thought from their minds.

But neither of them realized that a tiny crack had appeared in their deep-seated faith in the Shugu barbarian god.

In the solemn atmosphere, Mo Hua, with a serious expression, sighed helplessly in his heart.

Sure enough, no matter where, the first plank to stick out rots first.

Even as a witch doctor, it was the same.

One must learn to hide one’s sharpness, to feign clumsiness, not to let others know how capable you are, not to make others jealous of you, to let others know that your own abilities are not strong.

At the same time, one must also let others know that you are blessed with great fortune and “divine” blessings.

This way, others will not fear you—because you yourself are an incapable person.

At the same time, others will not dare to harm you—because you have the protection of the divine.

Mo Hua further explored the knack of being a “witch doctor,” gaining deeper insights into how to become a greater “charlatan.”

The matter of the Shugu tribe’s “ancestral heavy armor” was thus passed off by Mo Hua.

Almost everyone believed that this was a method bestowed by the Divine Master upon the Grand Wizard.

Their obedience to the Grand Wizard’s command to forge heavy armor was an act of honoring the Divine Master’s revelation.

In this way, everything made sense.

Human power has its limits, but the Divine Master is omnipotent.

Things that humans cannot do, as long as they are attributed to the name of “god,” everything becomes reasonable.

Aside from forging barbarian armor, Mo Hua also continued to make other preparations under the name of “witch doctor.”

He began to reorganize the tribes, began to retrain the barbarian soldiers, using this free time to accumulate strength.

Mo Hua also began to search among the various tribes for talented barbarian cultivators suitable for learning arrays.

And he made them study arrays day and night.

Mo Hua intended to use these people in the future to resist the famine.

He was too short of talent.

Whether barbarian soldiers, witch cultivators, or barbarian cultivators who could draw arrays, all were rare and valuable.

Mo Hua’s sense of urgency grew stronger and stronger.

He had to quickly establish and continuously expand his influence to do more.

To curb the famine, to seek the source of the Taotie’s power.

To conquer tribes, to consume stronger barbarian gods.

If he could reach twenty-four patterns a little earlier, he might truly be able to cross the threshold of Jindan first.

And as time passed, Mo Hua’s influence gradually solidified, and his military strength grew stronger day by day…