The evil deity of the Shikugu tribe was a newly born evil deity, one that had been forced to degenerate. Therefore, dealing with it was not particularly difficult. Within his Sea of Consciousness, Mohua summoned the Daobei and, with the crimson red Nirvana Tribulation Lightning, wiped out the will of the Shikugu evil deity.

Although his divine sense was already very strong, his degree of Dao-transformation was also very deep, and the Sword of God-Slaying he wielded was extremely sharp, capable of destroying the physical body of a normal evil deity with full power, he had not yet reached the point where he could completely obliterate an evil deity’s will.

Using tribulation lightning to purify it was safer, more reassuring, and left no lingering worries. There was no need to fear that some evil “seed” had been planted in his divine念.

After the purification, the angry and unwilling念 of the Shikugu evil deity was completely extinguished. What remained was pure divine sense and some light silver divine marrow.

Mohua felt a little regretful. Silver was much inferior to gold. This was not high-grade divine marrow; it was far inferior to that of the Lord of the Great Barrens, or even some of the powerful divine bones of the Lord of the Great Barrens.

However, it was not unexpected. Before its degeneration, the Shikugu evil deity was probably just an ordinary third-grade barbaric god, at most a little stronger than other barbaric gods. The fact that it could truly condense a divine personality and possess silver divine marrow was already an unexpected surprise.

Regardless of its grade, divine marrow was always a good thing. Mohua absorbed all the light silver divine marrow into his stomach, licking up even the slightest residue, wasting not a single drop.

After licking, Mohua smacked his lips, savoring the taste. After all, it had been a long time since he had eaten divine marrow. Of course, the light silver divine marrow didn’t have much taste for the current Mohua; it could only symbolically satisfy his craving.

After eating the divine marrow, Mohua began to eat his “main course.” Although divine marrow was good, it was a “luxury.” And Mohua was on the verge of forming his Golden Core, his stomach very hungry, what he really lacked was a “large and filling” supply of pure *nianli*.

Mohua, in his divine sense state, opened his small mouth wide. The *nianli* of the Shikugu evil deity, like a river pouring in or a whirlwind sweeping through, was all sucked into his mouth. Mohua immediately sat down to refine it. As the pure *nianli* was absorbed by Mohua little by little, his divine sense began to strengthen. The realm of his divine sense also advanced from twenty-three streaks in the early Golden Core stage to twenty-four streaks in the middle Golden Core stage.

For the current Mohua, the growth of his divine sense was extremely difficult. Even if he practiced ultimate formations every day, the refining effect on his divine sense was minimal. But devouring the divine sense of an evil deity, in just a short moment, brought a significant increase to Mohua’s divine sense.

This made Mohua unable to help but sigh, no wonder evil cultivators and demonic cultivators sucked blood, absorbed spiritual energy, ate flesh, and practiced harvesting. Anything cultivated step by step by oneself was extremely slow, but if one plundered from others, it was extremely fast.

Although he wasn’t plundering “people” now, but rather evil tickets and evil deities, in the final analysis, it seemed he was also “borrowing external objects,” seizing external divine *nian*. It didn’t feel as reassuring as when Mohua had previously relied on drawing formations himself to refine his Sea of Consciousness and enhance his divine sense.

If he continued to enhance his *nianli* by eating evil deities and evil creatures, he wondered if there would be problems with his foundation. Would it leave any other unknown hidden dangers? Mohua’s gaze was somewhat solemn, but in his current situation, he had no choice. If he wanted to become stronger, to improve his divine sense, he had to eat, whether he liked it or not.

As the *nianli* was refined, Mohua’s divine sense strengthened, and his divine sense realm also ascended. Finally, when he was nearing the late stage of twenty-three streaks, the *nianli* of the Shikugu evil deity was completely digested. Mohua’s divine sense growth also stopped at the “mid-to-late” stage of twenty-three streaks.

Under normal circumstances, there was no such fine division for the realm of divine sense. Twenty-three streaks meant twenty-three streaks, twenty-four streaks meant twenty-four streaks, with no further division into early, middle, or late stages. But Mohua was different; his divine sense realm far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators. And the difficulty of advancing was even more astonishing. Especially later on, every single streak required immense effort and was fraught with difficulty.

Therefore, he had no choice but to subdivide the advancement of his divine sense streaks into smaller levels for himself, to measure his divine sense level and anchor the strength of his divine sense. For example, early stage, middle stage, late stage, and peak. Early stage meant just entering this streak’s divine sense realm. Peak meant being just a little short of breaking into the next streak.

Currently, Mohua self-perceived that his divine sense realm was roughly between the middle and late stages of twenty-three streaks. Above the middle stage, but not yet fully in the late stage. This progress somewhat exceeded his expectations. A single third-grade evil deity directly raised his divine sense from the early stage of twenty-three streaks to the mid-to-late stage.

This meant that if he was lucky and ate a few more, he might indeed break into the twenty-four streaks realm in a short period. In this way, he could truly begin to sculpt the Mu Baijin Jade Bone, refine his natal *Taotie* formation, break through to form his Golden Core, and become a Golden Core cultivator.

Step by step, having experienced so many dangers, this once somewhat distant goal finally gave Mohua a tangible sense of “within reach.” But then, Mohua sighed again. The *nianli* of one evil deity only allowed him to go from the early stage of twenty-three streaks to the mid-to-late stage—it didn’t even allow him to advance by one full streak. The deficit in his divine sense for proving the Dao was simply too exaggerated.

Although this evil deity itself wasn’t particularly strong, and the remaining *nianli* after refining and purifying wasn’t much, Mohua still found it incredible. He recalled his old doubt: Was the *Tianyuan Jue* truly a cultivation method that “humans” could practice? He was only in the Foundation Establishment stage now, and he already had to rely on “eating evil deities” to advance. What about later? What if one day he reached the Golden Core or Eclosion stage, what could he eat then?

What if one day he reached the Void-Glimpsing stage? Could he possibly eat the sky itself? Mohua sighed, feeling the difficulty of the Dao path and a dark future ahead. He shook his head, too lazy to think any further, and directly exited his Sea of Consciousness.

After exiting his Sea of Consciousness, Mohua meditated for a while, adapting to the enhanced coordination of his divine sense with his Sea of Consciousness and his control over his physical body. Only then did Mohua slowly open his eyes. He thought for a moment, then took out the divine Dao formation patterns he had copied from the Shikugu tribe’s idol and carefully observed them.

These divine Dao formation patterns were obscure and esoteric, not within the scope of array Dao that normal array masters could grasp. But Mohua recognized that this was the inheritance of the “Divine Lock Array,” because he had also learned it before. In the Qianxuezhoujie, he had personally learned the Divine Lock Array from the various methods laid out by “Tuzhengsheng.”

Therefore, looking at these Divine Lock Array patterns now, Mohua had a strange sense of familiarity. It was just a pity that the calculating Tuzhengsheng was already dead, and things had changed. Mohua felt a touch of inexplicable melancholy. If it wasn’t Tuzhengsheng, then “who exactly possessed divine Dao formations and used them to imprison the barbaric gods of the Shikugu tribe?”

“Is this person related to Shibo?” “But—Shibo walks the path of Guidao parasitism. Would he truly have ‘living people’ working for him?” “Which ‘living person’ in this world could maintain their sanity after meeting Shibo and still go around drawing formations?” Mohua was somewhat unfathomable. And there was an even more critical question: “What exactly does Shibo want to do?”

This question, in the past, Mohua would not dare to delve into, lest he cross a line and attract Shibo’s attention. But now, Shibo’s footsteps were subtly drawing closer, forcing Mohua to consider this question. What did Shibo want to do? Mohua’s first guess was: cultivating Dao孽. This was what Shibo was doing when Mohua first encountered him in Tongxian City: inviting disaster and trouble, cultivating Dao孽.

Why did Shibo cultivate Dao孽? Was it because Shibo was evil-minded? A twisted sense of humor? Enjoyed manipulating people’s hearts and watching them fall? Ruthless and terrifying, loved disasters and human destruction? On the surface, all these were correct. But Mohua felt that these were merely superficial. At Shibo’s level, he would certainly not possess these so-called worldly views of good and evil.

What Shibo sought was probably “Dao,” otherwise he would not have been titled “Daoren.” A Daoren is a seeker of Dao. Was Shibo cultivating Dao孽 in pursuit of his own “Dao”? Was it the same here in the Great Barrens? Did Shibo also want to cultivate Dao孽 in the Great Barrens? Mohua frowned.

But the problem was, the Great Barrens was a vast territory, and the division of its prefectures was also different. There were no large, continuous “prefectures,” but instead various large and small “mountain realms.” There were too many of these mountain realms. If he were to cultivate Dao孽, how many would he have to cultivate? Moreover, could Dao孽 truly be cultivated in this way?

Even one Dao孽 was already a great catastrophe for heaven and earth, let alone multiple Dao孽. Even if all the people of the Barrens died out, they wouldn’t be able to cultivate so many—Or did Shibo have another method, wanting to cultivate a unique Dao孽 that could span mountain realms and spread widespread disaster? What would this Dao孽 be? And what then, after the Dao孽 was formed?

Did Shibo want to use the Dao孽 of the Great Barrens to prove his “Dao”? And then—Mohua’s heart trembled, and a hypothesis slowly emerged: Is Shibo—going to cultivate *nie* in the Great Barrens, prove his Dao, and enter the Void-Glimpsing stage?

“Void-Glimpsing—” Mohua’s expression was solemn. Shibo, with his Eclosion realm cultivation, being conferred the title of “Daoren” by the Demonic Sect, was an unprecedented event in the history of demonic cultivation. And now, after many years of Eclosion cultivation, was Shibo finally planning to break into the Void-Glimpsing stage?

In that case, was the entire Great Barrens a setup by Shibo for his entry into the Void-Glimpsing stage? Rebellion, military disasters, famine, and then using these as opportunities to cultivate Dao孽, allowing himself to glimpse the boundary between reality and illusion, break into the Void-Glimpsing stage, become a true Daoren, and also become an even more terrifying, fully perfected “Guidao Daoren”—Mohua felt a chill run through him. His first subconscious reaction was:

The current Great Barrens was completely Shibo’s “dojo” for cultivating and proving his Dao. Shibo had been planning this for an unknown period. Although it didn’t seem obvious on the surface, here, Shibo truly held the “home advantage.” In such a situation, no one could play games with Shibo. He himself was no exception.

He hadn’t even formed his Golden Core yet, while the terrifying Shibo was already about to break into the Void-Glimpsing stage, becoming even more terrifying—Against Shibo, he had no power to fight back at all. To exaggerate, he didn’t even know what Shibo’s methods were, what kind of scheme he had laid, how he laid it, what goal he wanted to achieve, how to achieve it—these specific plans were completely unknown to him. Let alone engaging in a head-on “confrontation” with Shibo. This was a dead end.

“But can I—really escape?” In this situation, where could he escape to? Moreover, if he escaped, what about Danzhu and the others? Elder Zamu, little Zatu, and the forces he had cultivated, the children he had educated—how many of them would survive the coming catastrophe, in Shibo’s palm? Was he to watch them go to their deaths?

Mohua was silent for a moment, then let out a deep sigh. “Escaping—is not a solution either.” Facing Shibo, neither escaping nor not escaping seemed like an option. For the first time, Mohua deeply realized that in this world, not all problems truly had solutions. Just as the ultimate outcome for a person’s life is “death.” The ultimate state of all things might also be “annihilation.” No one is powerless, and nothing can be salvaged.

Mohua lay on the ground, his eyes fixed on the ceiling of the tent, racking his brains, sleepless through the night, yet still without a single solution. An opponent of the “Daoren” level was undoubtedly “hell-tier” for a small Foundation Establishment cultivator like him. And it was a “hell-tier” Daoren that was disconnected from the normal progression.

It wasn’t until the next day, when the sun rose as usual, that Mohua finally snapped back to reality. After a night of cultivation, although his divine sense had strengthened, he wasn’t particularly happy. Because in front of Shibo, this “strength” was not even considered a hair’s breadth. A cloud of gloom hung over his heart, and even the bright, dazzling sunlight seemed gray to him.

But there was no other way; life still had to go on. Even if tomorrow was the end of the Great Barrens, today he still had to strive to live. This gave Mohua an indescribable sense of detachment. And living today was actually very difficult. Due to the spreading famine, there were too many casualties in the Great Barrens, with wounds everywhere. Their six thousand barbaric soldiers would soon run out of supplies.

If they didn’t consider the issue of supplies soon, they might starve to death before Shibo even made a move. Lugu and Danzhu, along with other Golden Core barbaric cultivators from the Shugu tribe and the Danque tribe, held a meeting to discuss this matter. But the external situation was treacherous, and its changes were unpredictable, completely beyond human control. There was almost no good solution. Even Mohua could only rely on luck.

He used divination for a long time and finally found a path that seemed to have “human presence.” In front of the path, there seemed to be a “crowd” gathered. Mohua led the group along this path for about five days, leaving the barren mountains and entering a desert. The surroundings became even more desolate, and the climate was hotter. Looking as far as the eye could see, there was only red and yellow sand, not a single trace of human habitation, appearing to be a dead end.

For a time, morale was unstable. If Mohua hadn’t had the prestige of a “Wuzhu” and guided them with “oracles,” the barbaric soldiers, suffering from hunger and thirst, would surely have rioted. They continued for another two days, and amidst increasingly severe hunger and thirst, they finally saw a tiny patch of green in the crimson desert.

This seemed to be an oasis in the desert. While famine was rampant outside, this oasis, surprisingly, had many barbaric cultivators gathered, showing a somewhat incongruous vitality. The situation ahead was unclear, so Mohua thought for a moment, then ordered the main barbarian army to set up camp in the distance and rest for now.

He, along with Lugu, Danzhu, and Chifeng, went ahead to scout the oasis. Lugu was tall and had the strongest cultivation. Mohua instructed him to wear coarse barbarian clothes and cover his face with a bamboo hat, so as not to startle others and cause a commotion. Danzhu and Chifeng also changed their appearance. Mohua had the lowest cultivation, only Foundation Establishment, so he pretended to be Danzhu’s follower. Under the cover of night, the group of four slowly walked towards the only oasis in the desert.