The main force of Can Gu’s army was formidable. Although they had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Wu Jiu tribe, their remaining power was still immense. There were sixty thousand Man Xiu, thirty thousand Man Bing, and over two hundred and fifty Yuangu heavy armored soldiers left behind by the ancestor Shu Gu. This was more than the heavy armored soldiers in Lu Gu’s main force, indicating Can Gu’s high status within the Shu Gu tribe.

Besides that, the biggest problem was the mannu. Due to the famine, Lu Gu had lost his territory, and most of his mannu had scattered. So, he only roamed with his demon-subordinate manbing. But Can Gu was different; his tribal structure was relatively complete, and he possessed a large number of mannu, as was typical for a main force—a total of over two hundred thousand mannu.

These mannu might not be strong in combat, but their sheer numbers meant they were often used as “cannon fodder” in battles, sent to their deaths at the front lines to serve as “human shields” to absorb enemy attacks. When alive, they were labor for the tribe. In war, they were cannon fodder. Dying in battle also saved food. In a sense, they were utilized to their fullest “potential.” Therefore, the vast number of mannu, often overlooked, were actually the foundation of the entire Great Wilderness.

This battle was not impossible to fight, nor impossible to win. But once it began, it would mean a large-scale “slaughter” of the mannu. Many mannu would die, and the other Man Xiu and Man Bing of the Shu Gu tribe would not be spared; there would also be many casualties. Mo Hua’s side would also suffer significant troop losses. This was not what Mo Hua wanted to see. Although on the battlefield, swords had no eyes, and it was a matter of life and death, the Great Wilderness was not just a simple war; it was a chessboard. Mo Hua had to find a way to “transform” everyone into his chess pieces as much as possible. Therefore, too many casualties meant losing a large number of chess pieces. Even if he won, he would still lose.

The only way was to capture the king first, to deal with Can Gu. Either kill him or make him retreat, and the rest of the Shu Gu tribe would be easy to handle. However, this was easier said than done, and extremely difficult on the front lines. Mo Hua locked himself in a small dark room, concentrating on his calculations. During this time, there were constant minor skirmishes on the march, and Mo Hua’s ability to deduce strategies using the “Heaven, Earth, and Man” tri-talent formation became increasingly proficient. And with his spiritual sense enhanced and foundation strengthened, his computing power also increased.

But even so, Mo Hua calculated for a long time, exhausting his spiritual sense, yet still found no clue. This was a battle involving nearly one hundred thousand Man Bing, a scale completely incomparable to previous battles, and far exceeding the upper limit of Mo Hua’s deduction abilities. His Guisuan split-line processing simply could not solve such complex troop line problems. Mo Hua rested his chin on his hand, pondering for a long time, still without a breakthrough.

However, the current situation was crucial, concerning the lives of a large number of mannu, the survival of elite forces, and his subsequent plans for the Shu Gu tribe. Mo Hua frowned deeply. At this moment, he suddenly couldn’t help but think: “What would Shibo do if it were him?”

Shibo’s computing power was definitely stronger than his. He could manipulate things in the Great Wilderness, and perhaps not just the Great Wilderness—in Tongxian City, in Ganxue Prefecture, in various places across the Nine Prefectures, he might be simultaneously manipulating things. Such a large number of “split lines” required incredibly terrifying computing power. Mo Hua didn’t know if Shibo was pursuing the path of “spiritual sense enlightenment,” but Shibo’s spiritual sense was undoubtedly very strong. Mo Hua’s own spiritual sense was also quite extraordinary. In the realm of spiritual sense, he would not belittle himself. Even if Shibo’s spiritual sense was stronger than his in the same realm, it couldn’t be so overwhelmingly strong as to create a “cliff-like” lead. Such multi-line manipulation, especially involving battlefields with tens or even hundreds of thousands of Man Bing, would probably make him feel his scalp tingle even if he advanced to Yuhua in the future, rendering him completely unable to control it. And Shibo, he was only Yuhua. How did he manage such a vast and complex Guisuan that spanned across great prefectures, traversed territories, infiltrated various forces, and involved so many cultivators?

Mo Hua recalled Shibo’s actions, and in a flash of lightning, suddenly realized a problem: he might have been overthinking the problem. Or rather, his Guisuan split lines were too “clumsy.” He had truly thought before that the algorithm for Guidao split lines required calculating one person at a time, but this idea was fundamentally wrong. Dozens or hundreds of battles might be manageable with some splitting. But what about wars involving tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions and tens of millions? The number of people in the cultivation world was countless. No one could split so many spiritual sense lines.

And in reality, there was no need to split so many spiritual sense lines, no need to care about every person’s thoughts or movements. What should be considered was each group, each level of people. Grouping similar people onto the same line allowed for deductions to control the dynamics of the war with the fewest Guisuan split lines, to the greatest extent possible. This is what Shibo did. In Tongxian City, he didn’t control too many people, only one figure, spreading and instigating others, propagating evil doctrines, thereby cultivating the soil for Daonie. In Lizhou City, Shibo seemingly “infected” and slaughtered so many people, but in the final analysis, its core origin was only one. He himself followed this “origin” of Shibo all the way. Ganxue Prefecture should be the same. Although Mo Hua hadn’t directly seen Shibo, he could roughly guess that Shibo’s shadow was hidden somewhere in the dark, or within someone. It was just that he hadn’t figured out where this “shadow” was hidden yet. And in all these events, Shibo acted secretly and concisely, without fanfare, manipulating so many Gui Nian. Instead, he used “points” to connect “lines” to drive an entire “surface.” With one avatar, he formed a Guisuan line, thereby driving the development of the entire situation.

What he needed to do now was still to learn from Shibo. A scale involving one hundred thousand people actually didn’t require calculating one hundred thousand individuals. Instead, it was about learning to divide these troops into “lines,” and then deducting each line separately. Because on the battlefield, the movements of a type of troop line are unified. Within this troop line, the actions of all Man Bing are generally the same. Learning to divide causal lines would allow for the greatest extent of split-line Guisuan with the least spiritual sense, thereby controlling larger-scale battles.

Upon realizing this, Mo Hua’s mind suddenly cleared, and he gained a deeper understanding. Indeed, he had to learn to discover problems himself and try to overcome them. When he didn’t know how to overcome them, he would think about how someone stronger than him would do it, and then learn from them. Mo Hua didn’t hesitate and immediately began his newly conceived attempt to deduce a hundred-thousand-strong battle with split-line Guisuan.

But as soon as he moved his divine sense, Mo Hua stopped again, his brow gradually furrowing. He realized another problem: using Daoxin Zhongmo might be discovered by Shibo. What about Tianji Guisuan? Tianji Guisuan was also a legacy “taught” to him unconsciously by Shibo, and it was the most top-tier divine sense method. In this world, besides Shibo, only a handful of people knew it, perhaps only he knew it besides Shibo. Would Shibo also detect him using Guisuan? But could he not use it?

Mo Hua thought about it and found that he couldn’t. He could avoid using Daoxin Zhongmo; he could find other ways to “guide” the desires in others’ hearts. But Tianji Guisuan was different. There was no substitute for Tianji Guisuan, and Mo Hua couldn’t create anything else that could compare to it. Without Tianji Guisuan, there were many things he simply couldn’t deduce.

And most importantly, Mo Hua had used Tianji Yansuan and Tianji Guisuan together in practice for a long time, causing a large part of these two divine sense methods to intertwine, even merge, making them indistinguishable. This was an “instinct” formed during long-term deductions. Sometimes, Mo Hua himself couldn’t tell if he was using Tianji Yansuan or Tianji Guisuan. If he sealed Tianji Guisuan, then Tianji Yansuan would also have to be sealed. This was equivalent to cutting off both arms; how could he continue to play chess with Shibo?

Mo Hua frowned and pondered for a long time, still thinking it wouldn’t work. Tianji algorithms simply couldn’t be abandoned. He couldn’t stop using the fundamental methods of Tianji just because he was afraid of being discovered by Shibo. He sighed, only hoping Shibo wouldn’t discover him. At least, his Tianji Guisuan was used in conjunction with Tianji Yansuan, so it might somewhat confuse the heavenly secrets.

“I hope the Tianji Yansuan that Shifu taught me can mask the Guisuan’s methods and prevent Shibo from noticing my little actions,” Mo Hua silently wished in his heart.

Regardless, Mo Hua no longer hesitated to do what had to be done and began to use split-line Guisuan to deduce battles involving a hundred thousand cultivators. He “split” the different types of troops in Can Gu’s army one by one. The cannon fodder mannu, ordinary manbing, elite manjia bing, Yuangu heavy armored soldiers, and so on—each were planned into one or several “troop lines.” Each troop line served as a separate causal line, using Tianji Yansuan to deduce its various actions and changes. Then, all the troop lines were connected, and Tianji Guisuan was used for multi-line composite deduction. This formed a whole, controlling the changes in the entire situation and the turning points of victory and defeat.

In the vast sandbox, there was no visible change, but invisible causes and effects appeared one by one in Mo Hua’s eyes, shifting and flowing. Mo Hua recorded all these changes to use as a basis for deploying troops. After two days of such deductions, Mo Hua had a general plan in mind.

That evening, Mo Hua summoned everyone and, on the large sandbox, explained the entire process of deploying troops, including when, which general would lead how many troops, where they would go, how many enemy forces they would face, and how the victory or defeat would change, in meticulous detail. To everyone, it wasn’t like he was “deploying troops” before the battle; it was more like “reviewing” after the battle. Reviewing a battle that hadn’t even been fought yet was truly astonishing.

Lu Gu was also stunned for a long time. Along the way, there had been no truly large-scale battles, and Mo Hua’s deductions of the situation and fortune were only simple remarks. But now, facing a real major battle, he finally understood what “prescience” and terrifying “divine oracle” meant.

Mo Hua said, “This battle with Can Gu’s army will focus on defense and delay. The most crucial objective is not to annihilate Can Gu’s Man Bing, but to defeat Can Gu himself.”

“The Shu Gu tribe is led by a great general.”

“Once General Can Gu dies or is defeated, his remaining forces will naturally scatter.”

Everyone nodded upon hearing this.

“However,” Mo Hua frowned, “Can Gu’s strength is also very formidable. This battle may not go smoothly. If it drags on and a quick victory cannot be achieved, casualties in other battlefields will inevitably increase gradually.”

Dan Zhu and the others looked solemn. Lu Gu frowned and couldn’t help but say, “If I had known this, I would have struck first during the negotiations that day and killed Can Gu. Then we wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble now.”

Mo Hua looked at Lu Gu and said, “If you had known this, and followed my words, this battle might not even have been necessary.”

Lu Gu was rendered speechless by Mo Hua’s sarcasm.

Mo Hua suddenly thought of something and asked him, “How did your negotiations break down? Did you mention your brother?”

Lu Gu replied, “I did.”

Mo Hua asked, “What did you say?”

Lu Gu shook his head, “I didn’t say much, just a brief mention. Can Gu’s attitude suddenly changed, and after a few more words, we started fighting.”

Mo Hua’s expression became strange. A brief mention, and his attitude changed—normally, it shouldn’t be like that. Could it be that General Can Gu was also involved in the plot to kill Shi Gu, or at least knew about it? Mo Hua looked up at Lu Gu again. If so, then this negotiation was probably doomed to “break down” from the start; Can Gu definitely wouldn’t yield. But why would Can Gu participate in harming Shi Gu? Mo Hua considered it and felt that this wasn’t even an issue. Shi Gu was too strong during his lifetime, so strong that even the Great Chieftain was wary of him. For Can Gu, he was an insurmountable “powerful enemy.”

So, in that case… Mo Hua’s eyes flickered slightly, and he gradually formed a plan in his mind.

Three days later, the battle began. Nearly one hundred thousand Man Bing clashed, filling the mountains and fields with fighting, a magnificent and tragic scene, like surging rivers and winds sweeping away scattered clouds. But Dan Zhu and the others could see from the chaos that, although the overall situation seemed vast and chaotic, it was exactly the same as the troop movements Mo Hua had outlined. Everyone was filled with emotion at Mr. Wu’s profound “divine favor,” being able to receive such detailed “oracles” from the Divine Master.

As the battle continued to unfold, the mannu of Can Gu’s army were led away by the Man Bing of Dan Que’s army, bottlenecked in a narrow valley. The Jindan under Lu Gu’s command led a group of Man Bing to engage Can Gu’s Man Bing in the open mountain wilderness. But since they shared the same origin, and the terrain was open with plenty of room, neither side initially fought to kill. Both sides’ Yuangu heavy armored soldiers were also locked in a struggle. Mo Hua had entrusted all his heavy armored soldiers to A Da Gu, the surrendered heavy armored soldier from the Shu Gu tribe. A total of over three hundred Yuangu heavy armored soldiers under A Da Gu confronted Can Gu’s two hundred heavy armored soldiers. Mo Hua’s heavy forces clearly had the upper hand. However, A Da Gu, obeying Mo Hua’s orders, also refrained from killing, and the two sides remained in a stalemate.

Outside the relatively stable battle, in a valley on the other side, the fierce battle between Lu Gu and Can Gu was intense. Both were great generals, having had past friendships and grievances, and both harbored animosity towards each other. Moreover, the outcome of this battle would largely be determined by the life and death of these two great generals. Therefore, once they began to fight, it was like thunder clashing with fire, an inseparable struggle, and the entire valley was pulverized by the power of their Jindan, with shattered rocks everywhere.