Chapter 1263: The Great Vulture Deity
Chapter 1262: The Great Vulture Deity
Inside the Shaman’s secret chamber, all was solemn and still. Wisps of smoke curled lazily from the incense burner, veiling the air in quiet reverence.
Mo Hua sat cross-legged at the center. All around him—the walls, the vast floor—were layered with complex formations of his own design.
They intertwined like a spider’s web, dense and intricate, guarding him at the core, isolating all probing eyes and schemes.
Outside the chamber, Lu-Gu, Dan-Zhu, Chi-Feng, and other Golden Core cultivators Mo Hua trusted most in the Great Wilderness stood guard with squads of Abyssal-Bone heavy-armored barbarian soldiers.
Without Mo Hua’s direct command, no one was allowed to enter. No one was permitted to disturb his seclusion.
It was a death order.
His tone had been so severe that he even invoked the title of “Divine-Lord” to terrify any would-be troublemakers.
Because this “meal” was different.
It was the key to whether he could step into the Golden Core realm… whether he could advance further on the path of Divine-Sense.
Mo Hua closed his eyes in meditation.
The chamber was deathly silent.
Yet within his Sea of Consciousness, Mo Hua had already begun his great feast.
The Great Vulture Deity was one of the ancient deities of the Great Wilderness. Though his battle strength seemed unimpressive, the scope of his Divine Dao was vast.
Besides, Great Vulture Deity’s divine abilities were by no means weak—it was merely that Mo Hua’s means were too overwhelming.
At this moment, the purifying Molten Fire Formation hissed and crackled on the ground.
Mo Hua sat with legs folded, holding in his hand a small golden sword forged of pure Divine-Sense. With it, he sliced away portions of the Great Vulture Deity’s black divine sense manifestation—piece by piece—and roasted them over the fire.
When the darkness faded and the Divine Thought turned pale white—perfectly cooked—Mo Hua opened his mouth wide and went “Awoo!” before swallowing the roasted Divine Thought whole.
And so, he roasted while he ate.
Before long, his once-tense face eased into one of quiet satisfaction.
It had been so long since he’d tasted such rich and fatty “Divine Thought.”
He couldn’t even remember when his last proper meal had been.
But as Mo Hua leisurely enjoyed his “grilled god,” a faint thread of Divine Thought—like a sliver of flesh—silently slipped away from the Great Vulture Deity’s body.
It drifted into a corner of Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness, condensing slowly, then began to rot from within, seeping black mist. From it grew a patch of decaying flesh and a near-transparent black feather that flickered faintly in and out of sight.
The sliver then began to take root—like a strand of fallen hair no one noticed, or like a small blade of grass growing parasitically within the cracks of a cliffside.
Yet no matter how it burrowed, it could not penetrate.
This Sea of Consciousness was impossibly solid.
Even with Great Vulture Deity’s divine cultivation, he couldn’t carve out the slightest crack to anchor himself.
This Sea of Consciousness… was too strong.
It didn’t feel like something a mere mortal—or even a being of flesh and blood—could possess.
The Great Vulture Deity grew frustrated but didn’t give up. The black line of deathly energy kept drilling desperately toward the sea’s walls…
Until a crisp voice sounded:
“How about… you stop now?”
The black feather-like thread trembled—like a thief caught mid-act—utterly still.
The Great Vulture Deity wasn’t even sure if that brat was talking to him, and he dared not respond.
Mo Hua, still munching on “divine meat,” mumbled lazily:
“Come out already. You’re squirming in my Sea of Consciousness—don’t you know that tickles?”
Tickles?
The black thread twitched again, uncertain whether in fury or humiliation.
Then, a surge of black light burst forth as the power of death and decay unsealed itself. From the thread, flesh, bones, and feathers re-formed—until a hawk-bodied youth cloaked in vulture plumage stood there, pale as snow, handsome yet grim, with eyes sharp and venomous.
He glared furiously at Mo Hua.
Mo Hua turned his head mid-bite, mildly surprised.
“So this is your divine incarnation?”
Gods had many incarnations.
Their true forms in full battle might, and their human-like forms when walking among mortals.
His old friend, Lord Huang Shàngjūn of the mountains, was just like that. His human guise a desolate, dispirited mountain deity of a shabby shrine, while his true divine form was a towering, majestic golden beast.
Ordinary deities rarely showed their true forms unless in life-and-death battle, for divine faith came from mortals; and mortals worshiped what was like themselves.
Thus, divinity always carried a trace of humanity.
Mo Hua had learned all this firsthand—after all, he’d personally been a god for a while. Those who hadn’t wouldn’t understand.
The Great Wujiao Vulture Deity—half-man, half-vulture—glared coldly and rasped: “What… are you?”
Still chewing, Mo Hua replied through a full mouth,
“I told you, I’m the Divine-Lord.”
The Great Vulture Deity sneered.
“Don’t think I’ve never seen a Divine-Lord before.”
Mo Hua’s jaw froze mid-chew, eyes widening in surprise, then sparkling with curiosity.
“Wait… you’ve seen the Lord of the Great Wilderness? When? How long ago? What did he look like? Was he ugly? How strong was he? Did he die? Where’d he go?”
Questions flew like crossbow bolts.
The Great Vulture Deity only sneered colder.
“You know nothing, and yet call yourself Divine-Lord?”
Mo Hua waved dismissively.
“Different position. He was the former Divine-Lord. I’m the current one.”
That struck the Great Vulture Deity’s reverse scale.
“To blaspheme the name of the Divine-Lord, courting death!”
His eyes sharpened like blades as divine will flared violently; deathly corruption rekindled across his feathers, filling the chamber with suffocating might.
“Today, I’ll make you pay—”
Thud!
Mo Hua’s fist landed squarely on his face, sending the Great Vulture Deity crashing flat.
“Quit acting like a big bad wolf,” Mo Hua grumbled.
The Great Vulture Deity, dazed, still tried to rise, words forming…
But Mo Hua straddled him, yanked out his wings, and pinned his head to the ground, fists like cauldrons pounding down one after another until the deity’s divine face was swollen beyond recognition.
All the while, Mo Hua scolded between punches:
“Still pretending? Still pretending…?”
The Great Vulture Deity finally broke. Dignity gone, divine pride shattered, he nearly coughed blood from sheer indignation.
The laws of the Great Dao… truly made no sense sometimes.
In this forsaken Desolate wilderness, gods were either pitifully weak—pathetic spirits playing at divinity—or absurdly powerful freaks beyond comprehension, like this little “Demon God” who could literally eat gods.
Could Heaven not give this mountain realm a sense of balance?
Either weak to the point of comedy or strong beyond reason.
For thousands of years since the Divine-Lord vanished, the Great Vulture Deity had enjoyed unrivaled supremacy… until today, when he felt utterly dog-tired of existence.
But being a god meant knowing when to bow and when to rise.
Before mortals—divine majesty.
Before monsters like Mo Hua—humility and submission.
The Great Vulture Deity coughed and said at once: “Young Divine-Lord, this deity… was wrong.”
Mo Hua paused his fist.
“Truly?”
The Great Vulture Deity nodded quickly.
Mo Hua nodded back and let him go… temporarily.
“Good. Now answer me honestly.”
“Yes,” the Great Vulture Deity replied meekly.
Mo Hua asked: “Have you truly seen the Lord of the Great Wilderness?”
The Great Vulture Deity looked at him and said solemnly: “You, Young Divine-Lord… are the Lord of the Great Wilderness.”
Mo Hua’s face darkened.
“Not me, the previous one. Don’t try to bluff me.”
The Wujiao Vulture Deity sighed helplessly.
“I’ve seen him.”
“How long ago?” Mo Hua pressed.
The Great Vulture Deity shook his head. Seeing Mo Hua’s displeased expression, he hurried to add:
“I truly can’t recall. Gods don’t sense time as mortals do. Our awareness fades and rekindles with the ebb of incense and faith. I only know that it was several thousands of years ago when I once stood before the Divine-Lord…”
Mo Hua pressed further: “And what did the Divine-Lord look like?”
The Great Vulture Deity hesitated.
“Unlike us newly born gods, the Divine-Lord was a true Ancient God. His existence spanned countless ages, his origin unfathomably deep, and his incarnations innumerable. His divine form changed endlessly… The one I saw—” he paused, eyes distant, “—had the body of a man, ram’s horns on his head, a face of white bone, and an aura… so terrifying it could suffocate the soul.”
Among the deities of the wilderness, the Great Vulture Deity was one of the few ancient ones remaining.
Yet before the Lord of the Great Wilderness, he had been but a fledgling.
Such was the gulf between gods and mortals in the span of ages.
And the form he described… matched closely the white-boned evil god Mo Hua had seen in the Qianxue Prefecture.
“Then why,” Mo Hua asked curiously, “did the Divine-Lord suddenly vanish from the Great Wilderness’ history?”
He’d long wondered about that.
The Great Vulture Deity frowned deeply, clearly uncertain.
“The Divine-Lord was an Ancient God. Such mysteries are far beyond my reach. But yes… his disappearance was indeed strange.”
“Strange how?” Mo Hua pressed.
The Great Vulture Deity’s tone grew grave.
“I… cannot say for sure…”
Mo Hua lifted his fist again, eyes narrowing.
The Great Vulture Deity panicked.
“It’s not that I refuse to say… it’s just that…”
His expression grew bitter. “There are hidden veils within the Divine Dao. When one cannot even describe them vaguely, it means something unknowable is obscuring the truth, forbidding one from perceiving it. I am merely a tribal god who has grasped a sliver of the Dao, not one of those truly ancient divinities. There are things far beyond my reach…”
Mo Hua frowned slightly. The reasoning sounded plausible.
Sometimes, when heavenly secrets are shrouded, even speaking of them invites calamity.
Before true disasters, even gods might not be safe.
“Then, the Divine-Lord…” Mo Hua stressed the next words, “in your speculation… why might he have disappeared?”
That was a dangerous question.
The Great Vulture Deity pondered for a long while before slowly answering:
“Through these endless years, I have often wondered that myself…”
“The Divine-Lord may have been sealed. His origin bound by some incomprehensibly powerful being.”
“Or perhaps He was gravely wounded by a formidable enemy and fell into a deep slumber…”
“Or maybe… He was erased entirely by some unknowable supreme existence, turning from life into death…”
“Of course, these are only my conjectures.”
“The affairs of the Divine Dao, from the outside, seem ethereal and illusory; from within, perilous beyond measure. Anything could happen…”
Mo Hua nodded and ceased his questioning.
Whether god or man, one only ever sees the world through one’s own eyes.
The Lord of the Great Wilderness… his story could never be simple.
Mo Hua hadn’t expected the Great Vulture Deity to speak the whole truth anyway.
And besides, he still had more pressing matters to handle.
After a moment of thought, Mo Hua said, “Your Divine-sense manifestation contains your origin will, doesn’t it?”
The Great Vulture Deity’s expression changed. “You even know that?”
Mo Hua thought inwardly, Of course I do. I’ve eaten enough gods to know these things.
He said calmly, “You’re going to separate your primordial origin will from your Divine-body, completely. Dust to dust, soil to soil. Divine body and origin will must not mingle in the slightest. If I sense any trace of your origin will remaining, don’t blame me when I erase it myself.”
The Great Vulture Deity’s pupils narrowed, then he gave a faint smile. “You? Erase my primordial origin will? How could you possibly do that?”
Mo Hua asked, “Would you like to find out?”
The Great Vulture Deity was about to retort, Then let’s see, but after thinking it over, he decided… best not.
This was a time for submission, not defiance.
“…Fine.”
He sighed inwardly. “I’ll do as you say.”
The Great Vulture Deity then walked toward his colossal divine-sense manifested divine body, the one Mo Hua had cleaved apart but preserved, and began channeling his origin will.
He extracted all the origin-will within that Divine-Body and drew it back into himself.
The process was excruciating.
The Great Vulture Deity’s heart bled.
He understood exactly what Mo Hua intended.
For a god, Divine-Thought was painfully difficult to cultivate; and once stripped of its origin will, it became pure “essence of divinity”— the most delectable nourishment for an existence like Mo Hua, who consumed gods.
Mo Hua couldn’t help feeling a surge of excitement.
A god’s origin will could indeed be erased by tribulation lightning, but that process would inevitably consume a portion of the Divine Thought itself.
Now, with his twenty-fourth rune imminent, every shred of Divine Thought was invaluable.
So rather than wasting any through divine lightning “purification,” he used verbal “pressure and persuasion” to make the Great Vulture Deity willingly peel his origin will away, leaving behind far more pristine Divine Thought.
Time was short, and the opportunity rare.
Mo Hua had to maximize every resource he could extract.
After forcing the Great Vulture Deity to separate his Divine Thought, Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness instantly swelled with immense divine power, filling him with elated anticipation.
The next question was: How to handle the Great Wujiao Vulture Deity himself.
His Divine Thought was gone, but his godhood and origin will remained.
Release him? Impossible.
Devour him? Not an option either.
After brief consideration, Mo Hua said, “Come with me.”
The Great Vulture Deity was puzzled but dared not resist. He knew full well who held the knife and who lay on the cutting board.
Mo Hua led him through a long passage into a grand hall.
The hall glittered with gold and jade.
At its center sat a mighty divine beast—a majestic, broad-headed creature radiating solemn divine might: a Pixiu.
Mo Hua had brought the Great Vulture Deity into the sanctuary where the sacred relic of the Great Wilderness were sealed.
The Great Vulture Deity was stunned.
Especially when his eyes fell upon the Pixiu.
He pointed, trembling, voice quivering, “T-That sacred Pixiu beast… why is it here?”
“This Pixiu…”
Mo Hua froze.
Could it be… the Great Vulture Deity knew this Pixiu?
And knew its origin?
(End of this Chapter)