Chapter 1212: The Heart of the Taotie

Chapter 1211: The Heart of the Taotie

Mo Hua’s heart was shaken by this vast system of laws, unable to calm for a long time.

The Law of the Taotie was the prerequisite for Dragon Transformation.

First comes the Taotie “devouring” demons, then comes the Ten-Thousand-Demons Transforming into Dragon.

First comes the Taotie devouring the demon runes, then comes the Four-Symbols Azure Dragon Formation Diagram…

But why?

Mo Hua furrowed his brows, feeling there were still too many perplexing patterns within these laws.

Taotie… eating formations?

Could this really be true?

The Taotie was a ferocious beast—why would it eat formations?

“Is it because…the Taotie is a Ferocious Law-Beast, able to devour everything between heaven and earth, so naturally it can also devour ‘laws’? And since the manifestation of laws is formations, then devouring formations is essentially devouring laws?”

“Or perhaps, the Taotie isn’t simply ‘eating’ laws.”

“It’s merely following instinct, devouring flesh and blood. But all living beings under heaven, even humans, are born of heaven and earth’s will, carrying a portion of law within them. Once swallowed by the Taotie, their flesh is refined, and naturally their laws are ‘digested’ as well. Wouldn’t that also be equivalent to devouring laws?”

Whatever the true inner principle, at the very least, devouring laws—devouring formations—was something Mo Hua felt could still be explained.

Devour formations, digest them, and produce “residual runes”…

But what exactly were these “residual runes”?

Surely not…the Taotie’s “excrement”?

Mo Hua’s face twisted with distaste, but after some thought, he realized that wasn’t quite right.

For divine beasts or heaven-and-earth ferocious beasts, did such a thing as “excrement” truly exist?

If the Taotie swallowed formation-runes imbued with law, then even if what it expelled was “excrement,” it would be the excrement of the Dao and laws themselves.

Such things would be far more precious than most treasures of gold or jade in all the world.

The only question was—why were these “residual runes” expelled by the Taotie?

Was it because these runes were merely “dregs” of law, defective remnants?

Or simply because, on the level of the Dao, they were rejected by the Taotie, and so expelled?

Or perhaps the opposite: after being digested by the Taotie, they were fully “assimilated,” and thus could no longer be absorbed further—so they were pushed out?

Or was this “excretion” of laws completely random? Purely a matter of fate?

Each of these conjectures seemed possible.

Mo Hua couldn’t be certain which was correct.

After all, he was human, not Taotie. He had never “eaten” laws, nor “expelled” laws, nor even witnessed with his own eyes the Taotie’s devouring of laws. Without firsthand sight or experience, how could he possibly understand?

So Mo Hua set this question aside for now, continuing his contemplation.

The Taotie devoured laws, ate formations, digested them, and then expelled “residual runes”…

These “residual runes” clung to bones or ancient remains, later collected by Great Wilderness cultivators of antiquity, who pieced them together again, fusing them into certain formations—though seemingly “grotesque,” they were nonetheless immensely powerful Four Symbols beast-rune arrays.

And were these formations the very sacred-rune inheritance system of the Great Wilderness ancestors?

Wasn’t the Abyssal-Bone Heavy Armor of the Shugu Tribe the same?

Didn’t Mister Tu’s attempt at the Ten-Thousand-Demons Transforming into Dragon also follow this lineage of laws?

In short, wasn’t this the Law of Dragon Transformation in the Great Wilderness?

The ancient formation masters of the Great Wilderness had even truly pieced together a “dragon” out of these “residual runes”?

Mo Hua’s heart trembled secretly, though he still couldn’t fully understand one thing.

Why must the demons be devoured by the Taotie first, decomposed into “residual runes,” before they could be pieced together into a dragon, or into the myriad totemic beast-runes of the Great Wilderness?

Could it not be done without the Taotie devouring them?

Mo Hua pondered, and concluded it was not possible.

For myriad demons, beasts, and creatures, though all were born under heaven’s will, each carried individuality and was fundamentally different.

Different species cannot breed together.

Naturally, their Dao and laws were also vastly different.

It was the same with various demons and beasts.

Without being devoured once by the Taotie, their flesh and laws, and the formation-runes condensed from those laws, could not be mutually transformed nor fused as one.

“But why, after being devoured by the Taotie, can they then fuse?”

Another doubt sprouted in Mo Hua’s heart.

Calming himself, relying on his knowledge and insight into laws, he continued to deduce, speculating:

All kinds of demons, beasts, living beings, formation-runes, and heavenly laws—when swallowed impartially by the Taotie, they pass through its belly, undergoing a full cycle, then being digested and broken down.

This was, in fact, a process of “assimilation.”

After being digested by the Taotie, the remaining “demon-runes” naturally carried a trace of the Taotie’s essence, endowed with a certain “unity.” With this unity, the runes condensed from different demon laws could finally fuse into one.

In other words—thus was born the possibility of Dragon Transformation.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but think—wasn’t this the reason his own attempt at the Ten-Thousand-Demons Transforming into Dragon had always failed?

The key was that he lacked a “prerequisite law.”

Without being digested by the Taotie, without the demon-runes being granted unity within laws, these opposing demon-runes could never merge into one, never converge into true “dragon-runes.”

The Taotie devoured demons, digested, decomposed, assimilated, and only then could the remnants be joined as a whole, transforming demons into a dragon.

Mo Hua’s heart quivered with an indescribable shock.

He was struck by the laws of the Great Dao, their internal intricacy, grandeur, and natural formation—the logic of formations born within. His emotions surged, unable to settle for a long time. He deeply felt the obscurity of laws and the profundity of the Dao.

And yet, precisely because of this, there was an indescribable “beauty of Heavenly Principle.”

This beauty of Heavenly Principle lay hidden within formations.

Without exhaustive effort, sleepless contemplation, endless devotion in formations, day and night over countless hours—one could never glimpse the grandeur and magnificence of the Dao and its laws.

Mo Hua remained dazed, shaken for a long while.

But after the deep shock, he suddenly fell into a brief confusion.

The great principle—he had grasped it.

The vast logic of laws—he had glimpsed its threshold.

But what next?

What should he do next? How should he comprehend specifically, how should he apply it?

His master had said before: learning must be applied.

To comprehend the Dao, to understand law—if one did not apply them, then was it not wasted comprehension, wasted learning?

Yet these Taotie-related laws were far too ancient and immense, their interrelations between law and formation, their myriad changes—all too complex.

Mo Hua’s head grew muddled. After pondering for a while, he took out brush and paper to sort things out.

He began with the level of formations.

He reorganized some formations from the beginning.

Their names too, he renamed according to the logic of “laws.”

Rank Two, Twenty Runes: Abyssal-Bone Dragon Transformation Formation.

Rank Two, Twenty-One Runes: Four Symbols Azure Dragon Formation.

Rank Two, Twenty-Three Runes: Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation.

Rank Two, Twenty-Four Runes: Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation.

Without exception, all of these were Absolute Formations.

Among them, the Abyssal-Bone Dragon Transformation Formation and the Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation were the ones Mo Hua had discovered himself.

What they were originally called in the Great Wilderness inheritance, Mo Hua did not know.

But that was unimportant.

Mo Hua, following his own understanding, comprehended the laws, organized the system, and built his own framework of formations.

All laws under heaven, all formations in the vast world of arrays—are for my use.

Whatever names these Great Wilderness formations had in their original inheritance—it did not matter.

Now, whatever I call them, that is their name.

At present, however, Mo Hua had not comprehended the laws within any of these four Absolute Formations.

Thus, he could not yet use even one of them.

If he wished to learn…

Mo Hua decided to start with the first one, seemingly the “simplest”: the Rank Two, Twenty Runes—Abyssal-Bone Dragon Transformation Formation.

To master this Absolute Formation inscribed within the heavy armor of the Shugu Tribe’s ancestors, he must first comprehend the law of “Dragon Transformation.”

But the problem was—the law of Dragon Transformation was beyond his reach.

Because Dragon Transformation…had a prerequisite law.

He first had to comprehend the Taotie’s “Devouring-Assimilation” Law. Only then could he use Dragon Transformation to fuse the remnant runes left behind after the Taotie had devoured and assimilated them.

And the one containing the Taotie’s “Devouring-Assimilation” Law was precisely the Grade Two, Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation he obtained from the Shugu Barbarian God’s head sculpture. Which meant—starting with the Twenty-Rune Abyssal-Bone Formation was impossible.

He had to first learn the Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation, comprehend the Taotie’s Devouring-Assimilation, and only then could he return to learn the Twenty-Rune Abyssal-Bone Formation.

Mo Hua couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

Using a Twenty-Three-Rune law to gate a Twenty-Rune formation.

If he couldn’t master the Twenty-Three-Rune one, he’d never comprehend the Twenty-Rune Absolute Formation.

This damned Great Wilderness—its interwoven, chaotic laws really were absurd to the extreme, beyond all reason…

He had no choice but to set aside the Abyssal-Bone Absolute Formation for now, and turn his attention to the Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation.

Learn the harder one first, then circle back to the easier one.

It sounded ridiculous, but for the moment it was the only way…

“But how does one comprehend a Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation?”

Mo Hua frowned, falling into thought.

On the level of law—the larger logic—he had mostly worked it out.

But the comprehension of such laws was “illusory,” “empty.”

The real problem was at the “practical” level—how to actually merge “Law” with “Formation.”

Only then could he use a formation to put the Taotie’s Devouring-Assimilation Law into practice.

Only then could the Taotie devour, assimilate, and digest formations, extracting remnant runes of unified nature as materials for Dragon Transformation.

But how was he supposed to get the Taotie to devour a formation?

Feed the Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation directly with other Four-Symbols Demon-Pattern Formations?

Would that really work?

Mo Hua frowned, uncertain, and decided to test it himself.

Reality is the manifestation of laws.

If it worked or not, he’d know by trying.

He drew a Four-Symbols Demon Pattern on the spot, but as soon as he finished, he froze.

The Taotie Formation wasn’t a real Taotie beast. It wouldn’t actively eat anything, let alone formations.

How was he supposed to “feed” it?

And even if he did, would it “eat”?

Moreover, without truly comprehending the Taotie Law, he couldn’t activate the Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation.

Even if he fed it demon-patterns—what then?

An unactivated formation was just a dead array…

Mo Hua let out a deep sigh.

In just those few thoughts, problem after problem arose.

Absolute Formations really weren’t meant for mortals to learn…

He could only force himself to patiently solve each issue one by one.

Comprehending a formation was, in itself, a process of constantly discovering obstacles and overcoming them.

Once every obstacle was resolved, the formation could naturally be understood.

So encountering “difficulties” only proved he was already on the path of comprehension.

Mo Hua’s mindset grew more positive.

After long pondering, he gradually found an approach:

“The Taotie Formation I draw myself has only form, no law—it’s dead.”

“But the one inside the Shugu Barbarian God’s head—that should be alive, containing living Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Laws.”

Mo Hua recalled how he once used the laws of life and death to restrain famine, and studied the Taotie power within it. That method could be referenced here as well:

“Use the Four-Symbols Demon Formation to construct a compound array that derives the laws of demon power, and use that to ‘attack’ the Taotie Law.”

“The Taotie’s Law, by instinct, will naturally devour and assimilate other laws…”

“In this way, once the laws begin to operate, I can observe, analyze, and comprehend their transformations through the Heavenly Secret Derivative Algorithm and my Dao-transformed divine sense.”

“The more I observe, the deeper I analyze, the deeper I comprehend. Naturally, I will come to grasp the Taotie’s Devouring-Assimilation Law.”

Step by step, these complex processes grew clear in Mo Hua’s mind.

He had wisely kept the Shugu Tribe’s Barbarian God head sculpture.

Now he had it brought into his room.

From his own Four-Symbols Demon Patterns, he selected some particularly “fat and juicy” ones to construct a compound array.

Then he inscribed these compound demon-patterns onto the Barbarian God’s head.

Using these patterns to “attack” the Taotie Formation.

Like throwing meat buns at a dog.

Sure enough, the Taotie Formation instinctively began devouring the demon-patterns imbued with demon power, bit by bit consuming and assimilating them.

This transformation of law was invisible to the naked eye.

Ordinary cultivators in the real world couldn’t perceive it, and even their divine sense would struggle to detect it.

But within Mo Hua’s nearly “divine” spiritual perception, the traces of these laws were clear.

And their transformations were being deeply analyzed and deduced by his Heavenly Secret Derivative Algorithm…

The Twenty-Three-Rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation was passively devouring.

Thus its law-force wasn’t especially strong.

But for Mo Hua, it was enough.

As long as he had a single trace of law, he could unravel it strand by strand, gradually comprehending, deepening, verifying his logic of law, and building his own formation system…

Another period of tireless, day-and-night study and comprehension followed.

At last, after exhausting his divine sense dozens of times, he finally simulated within his mind the complete process of the Taotie Law: devouring demon power, digesting demon power, assimilating demon power, and extracting remnant runes.

This law—he had understood.

In that instant, Mo Hua felt a terrifying, heaven-shaking roar erupt in his mind.

The cry of the Taotie.

A sign that the Taotie Law had begun to merge with his soul.

At the same time, a deep hunger surged in his heart.

But this hunger was different from before.

It wasn’t for food or flesh.

It was for the Dao, for laws themselves.

Toward the Dao, toward the principles of heaven and earth, Mo Hua felt an extreme, Dao-heart-deep hunger.

He desperately wanted to seek the Dao, to probe the laws of heaven and earth.

He even wished he could “devour” all the laws of heaven and earth…

This was a kind of “Heart of the Taotie,” an insatiable hunger toward the Great Dao of heaven and earth, toward the laws of all things.

Without attaining the Dao, without knowing heavenly principle, without comprehending myriad laws—never satisfied.

At this moment, Mo Hua felt an extreme emptiness within him, an extreme hunger.

He had an urgent desire to draw close to certain laws.

He even began, subconsciously, to stuff array diagrams into his mouth, wanting to “eat formations” to ease his hunger for “laws.” Luckily, Mo Hua came to his senses and forcibly stopped this act that was hardly “human.”

At the same time, Mo Hua relied on meditation, restraining himself and steadying his heart, to forcibly suppress that inner “hunger.”

When his mood calmed, Mo Hua exhaled a long breath, his brows gradually furrowing again.

He could feel that he had indeed grasped the law of “Taotie.”

This was a good thing.

But the accompanying problem was that this “Taotie” law was simply too fierce, too strong.

To the point that his own soul and temperament, to some degree, had been “assimilated.”

Before, when he saw the Taotie’s manifestation, it aroused hunger for flesh and blood.

Now, it stirred a profound craving for Dao and laws.

For a cultivator, a powerful will to seek the Dao was originally a good thing.

But now this will was too intense, and the inner “hunger” made Mo Hua deeply uncomfortable.

The urge to eat laws, to eat formations… carried a strange and sinister aura.

Mo Hua glanced again at the formations scattered before him, barely restraining the impulse to stuff them into his mouth…

“No matter what, I’ve at least comprehended the law of Taotie Devouring.”

“And I’ve learned the twenty-three-rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation as well.”

“After this, I can start from hard to easy, and in reverse ‘devour’ the Abyssal Bone Dragon-Transformation Formation, to comprehend the mysteries of this ancestral formation of the Shugu Tribe…”

Mo Hua gave a slight nod, then took out paper, testing his hand by drawing a second-grade, twenty-three-rune Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation.

Previously, when he drew these formation runes, it was like a walking corpse—form without spirit.

Now, as he drew them again, the Taotie runes seemed to come alive, emanating a fierce, baleful aura. Each rune opened wide its gaping maw, as if eager to swallow something. Even Mo Hua himself felt a jolt of fear.

Then, beside the Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation, he drew another absolute formation—passed down from the ancestors of the Shugu Tribe, but renamed by Mo Hua—the Abyssal Bone Dragon-Transformation Absolute Formation.

As soon as this absolute formation was completed, a bizarre scene appeared.

The Taotie Devouring-Assimilation Formation actually seemed to become a living Taotie, its body writhing and expanding, spreading outward.

At last, the Taotie runes opened their “giant maw” and forcibly “swallowed” the entire Abyssal Bone Dragon-Transformation Formation.

Though he had somewhat anticipated it, seeing it with his own eyes, Mo Hua still couldn’t conceal the shock in his heart.

The formation was truly… “eating” another formation…

(End of this Chapter)