Chapter 1264: The Twenty-Four Runes
Chapter 1263: The Twenty-Four Runes
“You recognize it?” Mo Hua asked the Great Wujiao Deity.
“It is…” the Great Wujiao Deity’s expression grew complicated—part awe, part disbelief. “…It’s a Sacred Beast of the Great Wilderness.”
Mo Hua frowned slightly.
This Great Wujiao Deity really loved to state the obvious. Who didn’t know that the Pixiu was a Sacred Beast of the Great Wilderness?
Clearly, his hemming and hawing meant he was hiding something.
Mo Hua turned, pointed at Wujiao Deity, and asked the Pixiu, “Do you recognize this feathered bird-man?”
Feathered bird-man…
Wujiao Deity’s face twitched—angry but afraid to retort.
The Pixiu, however, shook its huge head, clearly not knowing what this “bird-man” was supposed to be. But its golden eyes gleamed with excitement and joy. The Pixiu was stingy and possessive—anything that entered its domain, whether Heavenly Demon or Evil God, instantly became its “treasure.”
Now, it had gained another one in such a short time. How could it not be happy?
Divine Beasts, like gods, had lifespans that stretched across ages. Their sense of time was dull and slow. To it, only a few blinks had passed since the last visit.
In fact, it had merely taken a few naps—then suddenly, its “good friend” had come to visit again, bringing gifts.
The Pixiu, though miserly and hoarding by nature, had a big heart and didn’t hold grudges.
It had already forgotten how Mo Hua once punched its big head, and even the little “rivalry” between them.
The Pixiu rubbed its massive head against Mo Hua affectionately, drooling as it eyed Wujiao Deity’s body.
The Wujiao Deity, still frozen in shock, suddenly snapped back to his senses. His heart gave a violent thump—he spun around and tried to flee.
But before he got far, Mo Hua grabbed him, twisted his wings until they snapped, and tossed him before the Pixiu.
Mo Hua said generously: “Here, it’s yours.”
The Pixiu’s bronze-bell eyes lit up with happiness.
It gleefully accepted the gift, though a problem soon arose. Mo Hua had given it so many gifts that it was starting to have trouble keeping them all “suppressed.”
The Pixiu lifted its left paw, revealing the small Faceless Heavenly Demon beneath.
The broken-winged Wujiao caught sight of that faceless, formless being—like a visitor from beyond the realms—and his pupils contracted in horror.
The little Faceless Heavenly Demon, finally seeing daylight again, began to roar and struggle madly.
The silly Pixiu suddenly realized its left paw was already occupied.
So, it slapped the Heavenly Demon back into the ground, then lifted its right paw—only to expose another being beneath it: a True Fetus of an Evil God, radiating vile divine energy.
The moment it appeared, a wave of ancient, malignant aura swept through the hall, making all living beings tremble.
Wujiao Deity had barely recovered from the Heavenly Demon’s sight when this second revelation struck… his face drained of all color.
His trembling finger pointed at the Evil God’s True Fetus. “That… that’s…”
Mo Hua replied calmly: “Probably a divine fetus spawned by your Divine-Lord.”
Wujiao Vulture Deity stared blankly at him, horror on his face.
Who exactly was this “Little Divine-Lord”?
What kind of nightmare creatures was he keeping in this place?!
Mo Hua said lightly, “You’ll be staying here too.”
The Great Wujiao Deity, who had been burning with rage and humiliation, suddenly fell silent.
After a long pause, he looked at Mo Hua, hesitating. “Do I… truly deserve that?”
Do I truly deserve to be imprisoned together with the Heavenly Demon and the True Fetus of an Ancient God?
Mo Hua pondered briefly, then nodded.
“By strength, you don’t deserve it. But since you came early, you can claim a spot first. Later, you’ll even count as a ‘senior.’ From that perspective… yes, you do deserve it.”
The Wujiao Vulture Deity was stunned for a moment, then slowly nodded, feeling that it made sense.
Though he was sealed and suppressed… for some strange reason, a faint pride rose in his chest.
As if being sealed by Mo Hua was an honor… a divine recognition.
Meanwhile, the Evil God’s True Fetus sensed Mo Hua’s aura. Its eyes turned pitch-black, filled with a vicious, murderous hatred, glaring at him as though it could devour his flesh and grind his bones.
Mo Hua was utterly unfazed.
The Pixiu, however, grew indignant. How dare something under its watch glare at its good friend?
With a single slap of its giant paw, it smashed the Evil Fetus flat again.
The fetus struggled uselessly.
Then the Pixiu lifted its left hind paw—seeing it was empty—and howled toward Mo Hua.
Mo Hua understood immediately and tossed Wujiao deity under that paw.
The Pixiu pressed down, pinning him too.
Now, three of its four paws were holding something down.
The big-headed Pixiu looked supremely content, as though it had just fulfilled a sacred mission.
Mo Hua, meanwhile, recalled the Evil God’s True Fetus he had just seen, thoughtful.
He hadn’t visited this thing since arriving in the Great Wilderness—too busy, and wary of stirring the Great Wilderness Lord’s karma.
But strangely, the Evil God’s True Fetus had been unusually quiet—no disturbances, no anomalies.
That in itself was suspicious.
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked,
“Big Head, can I cut off a bit of meat?”
The once-cheerful Pixiu instantly changed expression—anger flaring like a storm. Its face shifted faster than flipping pages.
Yet halfway through its outburst, it faltered. A hint of guilt flickered in its huge eyes.
It seemed to realize—Mo Hua had treated it so well, given it so many gifts—and here it was, throwing a tantrum over a little “cut of meat.” That wasn’t right.
The Pixiu visibly struggled with itself, forcing down its possessive instincts.
It reluctantly raised its right paw, revealing a single exposed arm of the Evil God’s True Fetus—letting Mo Hua take his “cut.”
That was already an act of immense self-restraint.
Mo Hua stepped forward, forming a golden sword of Divine-Sense in his hand. He aimed to slice off a piece of the Evil Fetus for later study.
But the moment the blade touched the arm…
The Pixiu couldn’t hold back a wail, “Awooo!” as if Mo Hua were cutting its own flesh.
It ached with sympathy, but too embarrassed to object, it simply squeezed its eyes shut, turning its big head away like a child refusing to look.
Mo Hua couldn’t help but chuckle. After a sigh, he dispersed the sword.
“Forget it. I won’t need it right now. Next time, maybe.”
The Pixiu froze, then opened its huge eyes, realizing he meant it. Joy instantly flooded its face—it lunged forward, licking Mo Hua repeatedly with its enormous tongue.
Mo Hua could only sigh helplessly.
“Watch over these three,” he instructed. “I’ll come visit again soon.”
“Aw—aw—aw…” The Pixiu nodded eagerly, its big head bobbing up and down.
Mo Hua patted that giant head with a smile, then turned and departed.
After he left, a faint loneliness flickered in the Pixiu’s eyes. But remembering Mo Hua’s promise to return, it felt comforted.
After all, it would only be a few naps’ time.
The Pixiu lay its head down and slowly dozed off again.
While it slept:
Under its left paw, the Faceless Heavenly Demon roared ceaselessly, its expression unknowable.
Under its right paw, the Evil God’s True Fetus glared with murderous rage but dared not act.
And beneath its hind paw, the Great Wujiao Deity lay utterly still—no struggle, no sound.
In fact, there was even a strange tranquility in his face.
After a long time, when all around was dead silent. The Wujiao Deity, pinned beneath the Pixiu, finally opened his eyes, his gaze dark and obscure.
“So that’s how it is…”
He murmured in his heart, “So this… is the only way for me, the true self, to barely preserve the Divine Dao and survive the upcoming Strange Daoist’s Great Heavenly Calamity.”
(TN: The original word used here is: 詭天大劫 – Strange-Heavenly Great Calamity. 詭 (gui) strange; 天 (tiān) heaven; 大 (dà) Great; 劫 (jié) calamity. I added Daoist because someone may mistake “Strange” for strange?)
“To cling to such terrifying beings… the Divine-Lord, the Pixiu, the Heavenly Demon, and that true divine fetus…”
“No wonder…”
He let out a long, weary breath—like a drowning man finally grasping a stalk of straw.
…
Mo Hua left the Pixiu’s sealed divine hall and returned his Divine-Sense Avatar to his Sea of Consciousness.
The hidden danger of the Wujiao Deity was finally resolved. Now, he could peacefully “devour” the vast divine thought power to strengthen his Divine-Sense.
At this moment, his Sea of Consciousness was overflowing with the purest divine thoughts—the essence that Wujiao had cultivated for countless years before willingly shedding them to survive.
Even after witnessing and consuming so many sources of Divine thought, Mo Hua’s heart couldn’t help but race.
Because this amount… was immense. Enough to let him “feast” to his heart’s content.
“If I absorb it all… could I possibly…”
His heart quickened.
Immediately, he took a deep breath, calming himself, keeping his mind clear. He couldn’t let temptation blind him.
The greater the temptation, the more dangerous it became, and the more he had to keep his mind unwavering.
He needed to stay cautious.
Mo Hua extended his Divine-Sense, carefully examining every trace of Wujiao’s thought energy to ensure there were no hidden tricks.
Fortunately, despite being so weak, the Wujiao Deity still had some sense left.
After several checks, Mo Hua found nothing impure, no lingering karmic threads.
Only then did he relax completely.
His eyes brightened, and opening his mouth wide—he began his grand “feast.”
Now that nothing could interfere, no karma to fear, and no one to interrupt, Mo Hua could finally eat to his heart’s content, unrestrained, unchallenged.
He focused entirely on swallowing and refining the vast amount of Divine thought power.
He devoured faster and faster.
The deep, pure Divine thought energy flooded the Sea of Consciousness like roaring rivers.
Mo Hua’s mouth did not appear large, but it seemed like the gaping maw of a Taotie, a gluttonous beast that could devour the heavens and earth.
The surging power poured backward like a tidal flood, all flowing into his mouth.
Mo Hua’s Divine-Sense grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, growing ever stronger.
His Divine-Sense realm began to climb, from the mid to late stage of the Twenty-Third Rune, until it reached its peak.
Then, he hit a great barrier.
It was as though an invisible “chasm” had appeared between realms; all the divine thought energy he swallowed filled that gap, yet it remained insatiable.
This was the bottleneck of Divine-Sense.
It was also the greatest bottleneck he had encountered since entering the Golden Core Realm.
The Twenty-Third Rune represented the early stage of Golden Core.
The Twenty-Fourth Rune marked the mid stage.
Crossing this bottleneck would require enormous effort, and an ocean of thought power.
But Mo Hua didn’t panic.
Because the Divine-Sense that the Great Wujiao Deity had stripped away was still abundant.
Though Wujiao’s combat strength wasn’t overwhelming, he was nonetheless one of the ancient divine beings of the Great Wilderness, with centuries of accumulated foundation.
And now, all that divine essence belonged to Mo Hua.
He refused to believe that after devouring such a deity, he still couldn’t fill the chasm between the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Runes.
So he continued, focusing all his will on consuming and refining.
Wave after wave of divine thought power was digested, absorbed into his being, refined into his own Divine foundation, steadily raising his Divine-Sense realm.
As Wujiao’s divine thought power diminished, Mo Hua’s Divine-Sense grew stronger.
He ate.
And ate.
And ate.
He no longer knew how much time had passed or how much he had devoured.
Eventually, he became numb—to the point of feeling almost “sick” from overeating—yet he persisted, mechanically forcing himself to continue.
The Celestial Evolution Art he cultivated, the path of Proving the Dao through Divine-Sense he walked, and his near-divine existence—all meant his “gap” between realms was unimaginably vast.
Such a scale of Divine-Sense was beyond ordinary comprehension.
Thus, his cultivation was slow, arduous, and excruciating.
But still, Mo Hua did not give up.
If there was even a sliver of chance to strengthen his Divine-Sense, he seized it.
And fortunately, the Great Wujiao Deity before him was perhaps heaven’s reward for his relentless perseverance.
At last, after who knew how long… while Mo Hua was in a trance-like state of gluttonous absorption, his expression suddenly trembled.
He felt it… the bottleneck had cracked.
Under his unyielding refinement, the “chasm” was filled.
At that moment, a vast surge of power erupted throughout his being.
He sensed his Divine-Sense cross a threshold, becoming far stronger than before.
And it wasn’t just in quantity.
Because this was a breakthrough to the mid-stage golden core realm, Mo Hua felt that his Divine-Sense had undergone a deeper “qualitative transformation.”
The muscles and bones of his divine-sense manifested body were further strengthened, becoming more condensed and solid. The power behind each punch and kick was also stronger than before. The foundation of his entire Divine Dao realm had become more stable than ever.
Now, even if he were to fight the Wujiao Deity again, victory would be much more effortless.
Moreover, with his strengthened Divine-Sense, even the oppressive weight of the ominous “Fate Fiends” within his life destiny felt noticeably lighter.
“Twenty-Four Runes!!”
“My Divine-Sense… has finally reached the Twenty-Fourth Rune…”
Mo Hua stood still for a long moment, stunned, and then a wave of indescribable exhilaration rose from the depths of his heart, flooding his entire being.
The Twenty-Fourth Rune… this was the most crucial milestone of his cultivation so far.
Reaching it meant he could finally practice the Second-Rank Life-Bound Absolute Formation — the Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation.
Once that formation was mastered, the foundation for his next stage would be complete.
“I can finally…”
Mo Hua took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement.
“…step into the Golden Core realm.”
(End of this Chapter)