Chapter 1266: Divine Slave

Chapter 1265: Divine Slave

In life, Shi-Gu had been the strongest general of the Shugu Tribe.

He died to betrayal by his subordinates, devoured by an Evil God, and perished in famine—a sacrifice to the calamities of the Great Wilderness.

Even in death, his body remained powerful, radiating a terrifying majesty that commanded fear.

Now, that very same body had become a corpse-puppet controlled by Mo Hua through the Minor Spirit-Pivot Absolute Formation.

However, the formation’s grade was far too low, its control too weak. Shi-Gu’s might as an “Undying General” could not be fully unleashed.

And since the Evil God’s corruption was gone, stripped of its hunger for flesh and blood, the corpse no longer had any “energy source” to sustain it—it was but an empty shell.

So, after careful thought, Mo Hua decided to engrave the Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation onto Shi-Gu’s body.

He wanted Shi-Gu, even in death, to become the Divine-Lord’s most loyal “servant”—an undying warlord of the Great Wilderness, earning eternal merit through death itself.

At the same time, Shi-Gu would serve as the perfect “material” for Mo Hua to practice the bone-carving art for Spirit-Skeleton Formations.

To carve a Ferocious-Beast Absolute Formation on the bones of a living being—especially one’s own—was far too dangerous.

Without prior experience or test subjects, even Mo Hua wouldn’t dare to try.

But using another living person as practice would likely result in death—something Mo Hua could not bring himself to do.

Thus, he had to start with a corpse.

And that corpse was Shi-Gu.

Using the body of a great general for training, however, was no easy task.

Shi-Gu had been a late-stage Golden Core barbarian cultivator. Even in death, his flesh and bones retained third-rank high-grade toughness.

His physique in life had far surpassed most barbarian cultivators.

The Minor Spirit-Pivot Formation was simple—it only allowed basic movement control without high-intensity combat.

So painting the formation over the surface of the flesh was enough; even if imperfect, it worked fine.

But the Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Absolute Formation was entirely different.

This formation demanded perfect integration with Shi-Gu’s corpse—flesh, bone, and formation as one.

For this was to become Mo Hua’s future Life-Bound Treasure formation.

When the day came to carve it upon his own bones, it had to merge flawlessly with his meridians and skeleton, fusing with life and essence itself to aid his Golden Core.

Otherwise, even the slightest error could destroy his foundation.

So this trial upon Shi-Gu’s corpse had to be executed with utmost precision.

If problems arose even when testing on a corpse, they would only worsen when performed upon himself. But this step could not be skipped. It was a hurdle he had to cross.

And Mo Hua was fully aware of what he faced.

After a brief silence, he reviewed all his past formation drafts in his mind, then began.

He took out a large collection of spiritual materials—golden dust, copper jade, spiritwood roots, Blood-Melting Stones, and more—all of which he had prepared long ago during his time in the Great Void Sect.

Some had been exchanged through sect merit, others were gifts secretly arranged by Venerable Elder Xun and the Sect Master themselves.

Mo Hua’s Golden Core advancement was something they both cared about deeply. But since Mo Hua’s cultivation path was highly unorthodox; neither could discern what strange Core he intended to form, so they refrained from interfering directly.

Instead, they ensured he had every possible heavenly material and earthly treasure he might need—so he would not waste time searching for them later.

Thus, although Mo Hua’s path to Core Formation had been long, all the necessary materials had been prepared from the very beginning—meticulously gathered by Venerable Elder Xun through karmic calculation and personal experience, sparing no effort.

Mo Hua was deeply grateful—for both the Elder Xun’s care and the sect’s support.

So even now, though deep in the Great Wilderness, with its strange customs and different heritage, he lacked for nothing in terms of spiritual resources.

Even for practice materials, he was well supplied.

Of course, he could not bear to use the truly precious Essence of Wood-White or Marrow of Gold-Jade—materials vital for forging his Wood-White-Gold-Jade bones.

For now, he used lesser substitutes. After all, this was only for practice—and on a corpse, no less.

Shi-Gu’s body was once again dissected.

Following the Bai Clan’s Wood-White-Gold-Jade method, Mo Hua began shaping a thin “Gold-Jade” layer over Shi-Gu’s bones.

His first attempt was rough and uneven, but generally workable.

Once the Gold-Jade layer was formed, Mo Hua used a bone-carving knife to engrave the Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation upon it.

The Minor Spirit-Pivot Formation had only been painted.

But the Taotie Formation had to be carved; only then could it grant true stability to the formation.

Shi-Gu’s Golden Core bones were too hard to carve directly, but the Gold-Jade coating made the task feasible.

If carved onto a living being, each stroke would cause immense blood loss. To resolve that issue, Mo Hua planned to incorporate the Yin-Wood Rejuvenation Formation later.

But for a corpse, that wasn’t needed.

Shi-Gu’s body was cold; there was no blood, no qi. Carving the rejuvenation array would do nothing.

Moreover, Mo Hua’s current proficiency in internal bone-carving was still limited.

Just carving the Twelve-Meridian-Skeletal Formation was already difficult enough—success uncertain. Adding another formation would be too much.

He’d take one bite at a time. For now, he had to master Gold-Jade Bone Forging, Spirit-Bone Carving, and the precise workings of the Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual-Skeleton Formation.

Mo Hua concentrated fully, methodically inscribing the formation onto Shi Gu’s bones.

The entire process was intricate, eerie, and profoundly deep in principle.

He worked for two full days… and still failed.

There were many reasons: Shi Gu’s bones were too hard, his corpse too cold, the fusion between Gold-Jade and flesh poor, the carving blade unfit, the Taotie runes being too complex, the formation nodes not aligning perfectly with human meridians… and so on.

Mo Hua sighed, but felt no disappointment.

This was never meant to succeed in one go.

Every success is forged from countless failures.

If one could identify, study, and resolve every cause of failure one by one until none remained, success would come naturally.

Success and failure—two sides of the same coin.

Steadying his heart, Mo Hua calmly reviewed his mistakes and began again.

Through repeated trials, he uncovered problems, solved them, and learned.

His understanding of bone forging, carving, and the Taotie Skeletal Absolute Formation deepened, and his technique grew ever more refined.

At the same time, in another direction, his research on corpses, his experience in corpse control, and his ability to modify human meridians and bones with formations also advanced rapidly—beyond his own expectations.

Though, admittedly, such knowledge was… not exactly befitting of a proper cultivator.

Mo Hua himself was quite resistant to this path in his heart and found it unsettling.

But there was no helping it. On the path he had chosen for Core Formation—one of bone-molding, carving, and Spirit-Skeleton Formations—such knowledge would come naturally.

Even if he wished to refuse, he could not.

While Mo Hua was engrossed in his work of modifying Shi-Gu’s corpse—the unification and reorganization of the tribes across the Vermilion Bird Mountain Realm were also steadily progressing.

Under the Divine-Lord’s name, Mo Hua directed Dan-Zhu to take full charge, aided by Lu-Gu, Dan-Lie, and other great chieftains.

Dan-Zhu had a pure and sincere heart. Righteous, kind, and steadfast in his Dao. He had followed Mo Hua the longest and was the only one Mo Hua trusted and valued most among the barbarians of the Great Wilderness.

Now and in the future, Mo Hua hoped Dan-Zhu would grow into a true leader—one who could govern the tribes, bring peace and stability, and give the people a place to live and thrive, with or without Mo Hua’s presence.

However, Dan-Zhu was still only at the early Golden Core stage—his foundation unstable.

Thus, Mo Hua had Lu-Gu and Dan-Lie, with their authority as Grand Chieftains, assist him—so that the tribes’ reformation could proceed smoothly.

Nominally, they all acted in service of the Divine-Lord, following the commands of the Shaman.

Yet it was Dan-Zhu upon whom Mo Hua placed his greatest expectations.

For among all barbarian cultivators, only Dan-Zhu’s heart burned as bright and red as the flames of the Vermilion Bird.

And the goal of Mo Hua’s reforms was simple—to unite through division.

Those who submit shall prosper. Those who oppose—perish.

Striking while the divine prestige of the recent Vermilion Bird Mountain battle still lingered—when the tribes’ faith in the Divine-Lord was at its peak.

Mo Hua seized the moment.

In the name of the Divine-Lord, under the command of the Shaman, he enforced internal restructuring and centralized power among all tribes.

Those loyal received higher ranks and honor.

Those harboring dissent were marginalized and stripped of influence.

And those who rebelled, were executed without mercy.

Power struggles had always been cold and cruel, leaving no room for naïve compassion—for hesitation meant death.

Beyond that, Mo Hua began unifying the tribes’ faiths.

Erasing the old tribal gods outright would be too radical and risk provoking backlash. Instead, he permitted them to retain their traditions—but all were now required to worship the Divine-Lord above all else.

Faith in the Divine-Lord would be placed above all local tribal deities.

In this way, the Divine-Lord became the true “Lord of All Gods” of the Great Wilderness.

No tribal faith was allowed to contradict the worship of the Divine-Lord. Any belief that conflicted with that of the Divine-Lord would be deemed heretical and purged.

And their so-called tribal gods—Mo Hua would personally descend to “devour” them.

Moreover, faith in the Divine-Lord was not merely superstition.

Mo Hua personally drafted a set of doctrines, turning faith into ideals.

They taught that the Divine-Lord protected the Great Wilderness and its people; that no tribe may harm the unity or peace of the land; that all barbarian cultivators, through faith, were equal—at least in the right to live.

Power and rank might differ, but faith in the Divine-Lord was supreme and indivisible.

All who believed, no matter how lowly, were not to be slain or humiliated without cause.

Those of higher status were forbidden to kill, oppress, or defile the common believers. If they did, divine punishment would follow.

Every barbarian had the right to cultivate and study the Dao.

Every barbarian cultivator owed loyalty to their tribe.

Within each tribe, all who worshipped the Divine-Lord were to live in unity and harmony…

Thus, Mo Hua subtly reshaped barbarian savagery—embedding civility, equality, and order within the faith of the divine-lord, and enforced through divine authority.

Most barbarian cultivators were ignorant, violent, greedy, and selfish.

True “enlightenment” could never reach them by reason alone.

But divine law could.

Mo Hua knew it was futile to make them pursue fairness, justice, truth, or goodness.

In their world, the concept of “morality” simply did not exist — no amount of explanation or preaching would make them understand. And by the time they did come to understand, through endless infighting over power and profit, it would already be too late.

The great calamity would have already descended, and all within the Great Wilderness would perish.

Thus, the only viable method was to use faith—a kind of sacred “superstition”—to govern them at the level of Divine-Sense.

To shape their Dao-hearts through belief.

Everything was the Divine-Lord’s command. Everything was the Divine-Lord’s prophecy.

Faith was everything.

The cultivators of the Great Wilderness needed only to obey.

This was almost the only method Mo Hua could conceive of — and the only one he could actually accomplish.

It was also, amidst the ominous portents of Heavenly Dao, the one remaining hope for the Great Wilderness.

At the same time, Mo Hua took the opportunity to fulfill something he had long wanted to do but never had the power to realize:

The liberation of the barbarian slaves.

All barbarian slaves in the Great Wilderness were no longer to belong to any tribe or faction, but instead, to be unified under the name of the Divine-Lord.

They were no longer slaves to men, but slaves to the Divine-Lord.

And all barbarian slaves, gathered together, formed a new great tribe—the Divine Slave Tribe.

Mo Hua hadn’t originally wanted to use that name.

He disliked the word “slave,” and his true intent was to let all barbarian slaves of the Great Wilderness gain freedom.

But in reality, that dream was far too ahead of its time—at least for now, utterly impossible.

In the savage lands, the barbarian slaves indeed lived miserably.

But even more miserable were the slaves without masters.

A masterless slave was, in truth, everyone’s slave.

As “ownerless property,” they could be seized, bullied, humiliated, or killed by any tribe or individual at will.

If all of Mo Hua’s efforts in the Great Wilderness succeeded, the slaves could rise again.

But if he failed, they would immediately revert to their former state… or worse.

Thus, Mo Hua had to prepare a fallback for them, to leave them a master.

Even if everything collapsed and cruelty returned, those slaves could still unite under the name of “Divine Slaves.” No tribe would dare openly contend with the Divine-Lord for ownership of slaves.

The title “Divine Slave” became their final talisman of survival.

Ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel.

To change reality, one must first accept part of it—and then change the rest.

Accept a little more, change a little more.

Only through generations of persistence and effort could reality finally be reshaped into the image of that ideal…

Thus, under the banner of the Divine-Lord, Mo Hua—the Shaman Lord—accomplished the first stage of the Great Wilderness’s slave liberation.

The Divine Slave Tribe soon became the largest, most powerful, widest-spread, and most devout force in the entire Great Wilderness—the one tribe most devoutly faithful to the Divine-Lord, and to Mo Hua himself, the Shaman who had freed them.

For it was Mo Hua, in the name of the Divine-Lord, who had liberated them.

They possessed nothing but their faith.

And precisely because they had nothing — they also possessed fearless courage and an unbreakable will of iron and blood.

(End of this Chapter)