“Forming the Golden Core…”

It was like an arduous journey of thousands of miles, a dry and tormenting quest, and finally, a glimmer of dawn appeared.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but clench his fair, jade-like palm.

“Finally…”

“I’m going to start refining my own innate formation and shaping my Golden Core!”

Mo Hua’s expression was resolute, his gaze firm.

He then looked around.

The formations he had previously set up, like an inescapable net, were still there, and the surroundings were quiet.

However, when Mo Hua’s spiritual sense probed outside the secret chamber, his expression showed a slight surprise.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment. He didn’t rashly get up but first spent some time meditating to coordinate his mind and body and calm his spirit. Only then did he end his seclusion, push open the door, and walk out.

Outside the door, Lu Gu, Dan Zhu, and others stood with stern faces, forming a “human wall” in a defensive formation, protecting the entire Wuzhu’s secret chamber.

Opposite Lu Gu and Dan Zhu was another group of people.

Leading them were Yan Zhu, the black-robed elder, and several other high-ranking elders from tribes like the Yan Wing.

Qing Zhu also stood among the crowd, though his expression was indifferent.

The two sides faced each other. While the atmosphere wasn’t exactly hostile, it was clear that undercurrents were at play.

This tense atmosphere lasted for a long time.

It wasn’t until Mo Hua emerged from seclusion and pushed open the door that everyone was startled, their expressions varying.

Yan Zhu and the others’ expressions flickered.

Lu Gu looked at Yan Zhu opposite him with a cold sneer.

Dan Zhu’s eyes lit up, clearly relieved, and he whispered, “Sir, you have emerged from seclusion.”

Mo Hua nodded slightly and asked, “What happened?”

Dan Zhu glanced at Yan Zhu and the others, his expression chilling slightly. “They wanted to disturb your seclusion.”

Yan Zhu said calmly, “There are some urgent matters of great importance that require the Wuzhu’s personal decision. That’s why I took the liberty to disturb you…”

As Yan Zhu spoke, he looked at Dan Zhu and Lu Gu and said indifferently, “But these people were rude and blocked me from entering.”

“I thought you were plotting to harm the Wuzhu, so in my haste, I called other tribal elders to confirm the Wuzhu’s safety.”

Dan Zhu was somewhat indignant. “You’re twisting words.”

Yan Zhu had a thick skin and an unperturbed mind. Instead of arguing with Dan Zhu, he looked sincere.

It was as if everything he had just said was true, and he was genuinely concerned for Mo Hua’s safety.

Dan Zhu was about to say more.

But Mo Hua said faintly, “Never mind, if it’s a misunderstanding, then let it be. But…”

Mo Hua paused slightly, looked at Yan Zhu, and his gentle gaze gradually deepened. “Don’t let it happen again.”

Yan Zhu’s face showed respect, but in his heart, that respect gradually faded.

After all, he was in the late Golden Core stage, and having come from the royal court, he was a High Shaman of the divine path, accustomed to a revered status. He could submit temporarily, but to truly make him submit in his heart was clearly not so easy.

The deterrent on the divine altar was strong enough then, but as time passed, his injuries healed, memories faded, and the “self-esteem” of a royal court shaman returned, and his “ambition” grew a little.

He even felt a hidden humiliation for submitting to Mo Hua.

He harbored resentment because Mo Hua “snatched” his divine artifact.

Upon learning that Mo Hua had entered seclusion and hadn’t been seen for ten days, with no one presiding over the divine path, Yan Zhu began to stir restlessly.

On the divine path, any danger could occur.

He just hadn’t expected Mo Hua to emerge safely from seclusion.

Yan Zhu felt a bit regretful, but it didn’t matter much, because he had only harbored a little “misguided thought,” not an act of betrayal.

“Yes, Wuzhu Daren,” Yan Zhu readily agreed.

But at that very moment, Yan Zhu suddenly felt something was amiss. He looked up slightly, met Mo Hua’s gaze, and it felt as if he had plunged into a deep abyss.

No!

Yan Zhu’s heart instantly skipped a beat.

He had only been in seclusion for ten days, but his spiritual sense—how could it suddenly become like this?

It wasn’t just Yan Zhu; even the black-robed elder and Qing Zhu, who stood nearby, suddenly turned pale.

When Mo Hua first emerged, they hadn’t noticed, but now Mo Hua’s gaze carried a hint of severity, and as his spiritual sense spread, his aura instantly changed.

Normally, Mo Hua could almost completely control his spiritual power, releasing and retracting it at will.

His spiritual aura would be very subtle.

But he had just “fed,” consuming a vast amount of psychic energy, almost all the psychic energy that the Great Shaman Wujiu had cultivated over many years. He had also achieved a spiritual breakthrough, from the twenty-three patterns of the early Golden Core stage to twenty-four patterns.

He couldn’t quite control all this spiritual power yet, so a large amount of it was overflowing.

Ordinary cultivators wouldn’t be so sensitive in their perception.

But Yan Zhu and the other two, as shamans, were inherently sensitive to spiritual sense.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood there alone. On the surface, he was one person, but in terms of spiritual perception, he felt like a “Taotie-like” divine monster wearing human skin, breathing in and out of heaven and earth, exerting immense pressure.

That “man-eating” ferocious authority made Yan Zhu and the other two feel weak in the knees.

Yan Zhu, who was looking directly at Mo Hua, was the first to succumb.

Overwhelmed by Mo Hua’s invisible, abyssal beast-like aura, Yan Zhu couldn’t help but feel the urge to submit and kneel.

By the time he realized it, it was too late; he was already kneeling.

When he tried to stand up again, he found his knees had gone soft, completely beyond his own control.

And as Yan Zhu knelt, the black-robed elder also instinctively knelt down.

Qing Zhu, who harbored little resistance towards Mo Hua in his heart, also submissively bent and knelt.

When the three High Shamans knelt, the others, though unclear about the reason, also obediently knelt down.

Lu Gu and the others, seeing Mo Hua’s single gaze intimidate Yan Zhu, secretly admired him and also knelt down.

In an instant, everyone present was kneeling.

Mo Hua waved his hand at the sight and said indifferently, “You may disperse.”

“Yes…”

“Yes, Wuzhu Daren.”

Their voices were respectful, and they withdrew as ordered.

Yan Zhu’s heart felt cold, his lingering fear not yet subsided. He left the Wuzhu’s grand hall and walked for a while before slowly realizing what had happened. He couldn’t help but look at the black-robed elder.

The two exchanged glances, both seeing fear and confusion in each other’s eyes.

“Did he… get stronger?” Yan Zhu whispered, his face trembling.

His cultivation realm remained unchanged, yet his spiritual sense grew stronger and stronger.

Moreover, it wasn’t just an ordinary increase in strength; it seemed as if he had broken through a bottleneck, moving up a significantly large step.

How could this be?

The black-robed elder’s eyes were filled with dread.

Even as a Wuzhu, even when believing in gods, and even when cultivating the path of divine shamanism, he had never seen such an absurd thing.

This completely transcended the scope of “cultivators.”

In itself, could a Physical Foundation realm body truly bear such strong spiritual power?

Yan Zhu and the black-robed elder frowned deeply, lost in thought.

Qing Zhu glanced at them indifferently, said nothing, and turned to leave on his own.

In the Wuzhu’s secret chamber.

Dan Zhu and the others, seeing that Mo Hua was fine, all breathed a sigh of relief. After bowing, they excused themselves and left.

Mo Hua was still contemplating the matter of Yan Zhu and the others.

Yan Zhu and the others still harbored some small intentions. In fact, it wasn’t just Yan Zhu.

Among the other tribes, the middle and lower strata were fine, especially the impoverished commoners; they had suffered and were more willing to believe in the “Divine Lord.”

But the high-ranking chieftains and elders, driven by ambition and self-interest, were momentarily intimidated by his authority but might not genuinely hold long-lasting “faith.”

It was ultimately difficult to change their hearts with just one public display of divine power.

And he, alone, with his cultivation level, found it hard to suppress so many Golden Core experts, especially those powerful High Barbarian Cultivators in the late Golden Core stage who held high positions.

He had to devise a more secure method to thoroughly subdue these high-ranking individuals, rally the people, and firmly grasp divine authority in his own hands.

Among the major tribes of the barren lands, there could only be one voice: the voice of the Divine Lord.

And there could only be one Wuzhu to exercise the Divine Lord’s power.

“This must be done, but… now is not the time.”

Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened, then he took a deep breath. From the Qiankun Ring his master had given him, he took out a white bone fragment he had treasured for a long time.

Etched on the bone fragment was his crucial innate formation:

The Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Formation.

This formation had been in his Qiankun Ring ever since he extracted it from the back of the human-faced bone evil god statue worshipped by Mister Tu.

Mo Hua would often take it out to look at it. Even though he couldn’t understand or learn it, he couldn’t resist, even if it was just to touch it.

Because this was a second-grade, twenty-four pattern great barren ultimate formation, its difficulty was heaven-defying, and the demands on spiritual sense were equally heaven-defying.

The twenty-four pattern realm of spiritual sense was like a chasm, difficult to reach.

And now, after so many twists and turns, enduring for so long, Mo Hua had finally, here in the barren lands, forcibly “eaten” his way up to the realm of spiritual sense.

He could finally begin to formally comprehend this mysterious and powerful Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation, sealed in the statue of an evil god and named after a ferocious beast.

Mo Hua suppressed the excitement in his heart, calmed his emotions, and immersed his spiritual sense into the white bone fragment.

Ancient, obscure characters of the Great Barren appeared before Mo Hua’s eyes.

When he was in the Tai Xuan Sect, Mo Hua had studied the ancient script of the Great Barren with an inner sect elder who was proficient in ancient cultivation texts, as well as a group of senior brothers and sisters, giving him a foundational understanding.

Now, having entered the Great Barren and mingled as a Wuzhu for so long, he had perused many tribal texts and ancient records.

Mo Hua’s mastery of the ancient script of the Great Barren was already quite high.

These obscure ancient characters, when Mo Hua read them now, felt as easy and natural as breathing.

Moreover, when Mo Hua’s spiritual sense officially reached twenty-four patterns, it seemed to have met a certain standard, seeing through a certain illusion.

Some of the profound principles and patterns of the formation, previously hidden within the illusion and deep within the bone scroll, now revealed themselves one by one.

Mo Hua was finally able to see the complete version of the Great Barren Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation.

The moment this complete version of the Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation came into view, a primordial aura almost instantly enveloped him.

The formation patterns twisted and vibrated like living things, like the eyes of numerous Taotie, gazing at Mo Hua, filling his heart with dread.

This was a bizarre and profound mystery that Mo Hua had not felt before when perusing the bone scroll.

It seemed that only with a twenty-four pattern spiritual sense could one glimpse the true form of this ultimate formation.

“This formation really is like a ‘living little Taotie’…”

“And I am going to engrave this ‘living’ Taotie ultimate formation onto my bones, let it be my innate formation, to help me form the Golden Core…”

Mo Hua was stunned for a long time, and a trace of fear arose in his heart.

It was as if he was attempting to “seal” something unknowable, uncontrollable, and immensely powerful within his own bones, to cultivate it with his very life.

Mo Hua wasn’t sure whether this kind of thing conformed to the norms of cultivation.

But a very strong feeling suddenly arose in his heart, a sense of engaging in “illegal activities” right under the nose of the Heavenly Dao.

However, this feeling disappeared a moment later.

Because Mo Hua had committed too many “crimes” and had become somewhat numb to it.

This “sense of criminality” no longer stimulated him.

Moreover, in order to form the Golden Core and learn this ultimate formation, he had invested too much time and effort, overcome too many difficulties and setbacks, and worked very hard. It was impossible for him to easily give up at the last minute just because it felt a bit perilous.

After all, it was just a formation.

Mo Hua was a formation master, determined to seek the Grand Dao of formations. As long as it was a “formation,” there was nothing to fear.

On the contrary, the more difficult the formation, the more curious he became.

The more dangerous the formation, the more excited he became.

Because the more difficult and dangerous it was, the more it indicated that the formation contained profound Dao principles that ordinary people could not fathom, and had unimaginably powerful and subtle uses.

Mo Hua stopped overthinking and began to concentrate all his attention on studying this Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation, which looked as if it had “come alive.”

This was the most difficult formation Mo Hua had learned to date.

And once he delved into it, time flew by.

Mo Hua was completely immersed, unaware of its passage, and by the time he realized it, three days had already passed.

During these three days, Mo Hua worked day and night, repeatedly pondering, and had gained a preliminary understanding of the Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation.

Outwardly, this Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation looked extremely fierce, its patterns incredibly complex, exuding an ancient sense of malevolence.

But when Mo Hua actually began to learn it, it wasn’t as difficult as he had initially anticipated.

One reason was that his Dao-transformed spiritual sense had reached twenty-four patterns and was already very strong.

Whether from the perspective of realm, “quality,” or “quantity,” it was already very profound.

The other most important reason was that he had already done so much corresponding research and comprehension of Taotie principles beforehand.

As he had previously discovered, the so-called “Taotie” principle was not a single principle but an entire “chain of principles.”

Different principles were interrelated and distinct, ultimately merging into one to form the Taotie’s essence.

At the same time, it provided “Dao”-level logical support for a series of behaviors of the Taotie, this principle-based ferocious beast, such as survival, hunting, feeding, digestion, and assimilation.

The Taotie, this ferocious beast, was both abstract and concrete.

This issue was quite profound and complex, and it involved comprehending principles.

It was difficult for ordinary cultivators to understand.

For those who didn’t understand, Mo Hua also found it hard to explain further.

And precisely because of this, the series of ultimate formations derived from the “Taotie” principle were also interconnected.

Learning some prerequisite ultimate formations would make learning the Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation twice as effective.

However, if one lacked the prerequisite ultimate formations and the foundational understanding of related principles, and viewed it solely from the perspective of an isolated “single formation,”

Then this twenty-four pattern Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation would truly be like an invisible, unknowable, unfathomable, irrational, incomprehensible, and uncontrollable “Taotie ferocious beast,” completely beyond the recognition of ordinary formation masters. Even if one wanted to learn it, there would be no way to begin.

Local delicacies should be eaten locally.

Local formations should also be learned locally.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua felt somewhat fortunate.

Fortunately, he had come to the Great Barren; otherwise, he truly wouldn’t know where to start learning.

And the purpose of this formation was pretty much as Mo Hua had previously predicted.

This was a “spirit bone” formation, which, as the name suggests, constructs a set of “spiritual power bones” through the formation.

And this formation could store a certain amount of spiritual power through its patterns, sealed within the bones.

It was equivalent to an external “spiritual power container” outside the tendons and bones.

In this way, through the formation, he could solve his problem of increasingly severe spiritual power depletion, which was due to his poor spiritual roots and cultivation method not excelling in spiritual power.

From the current perspective, the purpose of this ultimate formation was just that.

As for whether it had other functions, Mo Hua was currently still unclear.

He would have to truly learn this Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation, engrave it into his bones, and operate it once in practice before he would know.

But even if it only had the “spiritual power storage” function, this innate formation was invaluable to Mo Hua.

After all, besides his identities as a Wuzhu and a formation master, Mo Hua was also a spiritual cultivator who relied on “spells” to make a living.

For a spiritual cultivator, spiritual power was “life.”

Weak spiritual power was the most fatal problem.

And in the entire cultivation world, even in a fifth-grade major state like Qianxue, magical artifacts that could additionally “store” spiritual power outside the Qi Sea were considered top-tier treasures.

Such magical artifacts all required cultivators to nurture them from a young age; their lineage was rare, and their cost was extremely high.

Mo Hua, who came from a rogue cultivator background and missed the best nurturing period, wasn’t even qualified to use them.

Therefore, if he could use the Taotie Spirit Bone Formation as his innate magical artifact to solve the problem of insufficient spiritual power, even if that was all it did, Mo Hua would be very content.

More importantly, as long as he forged an innate magical artifact, even if it was just a雏形 (chúxíng, prototype), it would be considered reaching the peak of the Physical Foundation stage, and he could formally attempt to form his Golden Core.

“Innate formation… forming the Golden Core…”

Mo Hua took a breath, then settled his mind, pouring all his attention into studying the Twelve Meridians Taotie Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation.

Because of his profound understanding of the Taotie principles and a large accumulation of experience, the entire process was unexpectedly smooth.

After only half a month, Mo Hua felt he had gained some enlightenment.

He could even already draw the basic patterns of the Taotie Spirit Bone Formation.

This speed surprised Mo Hua somewhat.

However, Mo Hua was still not very confident whether this Spirit Bone Ultimate Formation could be put into practice or if there would be other issues.

Therefore, he needed to find a “material” to test it first.

He had already prepared this “material” long ago.

In a dark chamber on the lowest level of the Wuzhu’s grand hall, a huge, eerie coffin lay.

Within this coffin was sealed the corpse of a powerful barbarian warrior, as large as a small mountain:

Shi Gu, the great general of the Shu Gu tribe.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood alone before the coffin, his gaze profound.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood alone before the coffin, his gaze profound.