Chapter 1272: Divine Shaman

Chapter 1271: Divine Shaman

In the deepest part of Vermilion Bird Mountain lay the ancient Vermilion Bird Divine Altar.

It was here that the battle of divine descent against the Wujiao Tribe had taken place.

Millions of barbarian soldiers, countless commanders and generals, and even dozens of late-stage Golden Core great chieftains and great generals had fought here in brutal, life-sacrificing combat.

Innumerable barbarian warriors shed their blood and died for their faith.

During that slaughter, the ancient mountain range was pierced through, countless peaks were flattened, and the land was left in utter ruin.

But now, the entire altar had been completely restored.

A tall city wall encircled the outer perimeter, densely inscribed with formations that formed a great Formation Wall.

As for the bodies of those who had fallen here, all had been collected and reburied in the Great Wilderness. Their flesh and blood nourished the land.

All of this was done under Mo Hua’s orders.

At this moment, Mo Hua stood before the Divine Altar.

The majestic Sacred Beast, Big Tiger, guarded Mo Hua on both sides.

Tie Shugu bowed behind Mo Hua and spoke in a tone of deep reverence:

“Lord Shaman, according to your instructions, everything has been prepared. The great chieftains of all tribes, the Grand Elders, and the generals of the main tribes have all been informed. Seven days from now, the Vermilion Bird Mountain Divine Worship Ceremony will officially commence. All tribe leaders who do not attend in person will be regarded as plotting rebellion.”

“Good,” Mo Hua nodded slightly. “You may leave.”

“Yes.” Tie Shugu saluted respectfully and withdrew.

Mo Hua watched Tie Shugu’s departing figure, his gaze deep. Then he turned away and walked step by step toward the altar.

The towering Big Tiger followed closely behind.

Mo Hua crossed the altar plaza and ascended the steps to the highest point of the altar.

At the summit, blazing Vermilion Bird flames swirled, burning away the Divine-Sense of all ordinary cultivators—yet unable to harm Mo Hua in the slightest.

Big Tiger felt rather uncomfortable from the heat, but with Mo Hua’s protection, it wasn’t too severe.

On the altar stood the Vermilion Bird statue holding the golden ring.

Beneath it rested an ancient divine throne—solemn and untouchable.

At the base of the golden tree where the Vermilion Bird resided, the golden plate used to ignite the Vermilion Bird flames and summon the descent of a deity looked exactly the same as before.

Mo Hua had once placed the Wujiao Tribe’s Divine Token, the Dead-Eye, there, summoning the Great Vulture God—whom he then proceeded to “eat.”

Now, staring at this golden plate, influenced by the “Taotie,” Mo Hua suddenly felt a surge of hunger he could hardly restrain.

He wanted to place the divine tokens of Flame Shaman and Azure Shaman on it as well, to see if he could summon the Luminous-Flame god and the Qingqiu god—and eat them too.

If he did that, wouldn’t his Divine-Sense become even stronger?

Greed stirred, and Mo Hua felt impulsive.

It took great effort for him to suppress this desire.

He did not know the origins of the Luminous-Flame god or the Qingqiu god, nor how powerful these two “Great Gods” were. Since they were deities worshipped by the Royal Court, they were unlikely to be weak.

If he summoned them and failed to defeat them, that would be a disaster.

The situation in the Great Wilderness was extremely fragile now; it could not withstand more turmoil. Better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Moreover, he had just broken through, and his Divine-Sense realm had yet to stabilize. It was unwise to harbor thoughts of “eating” again.

Forcing down the Taotie-like urge to devour deities, Mo Hua turned away from the golden plate and looked instead toward the ancient divine throne beneath the Vermilion Bird statue.

That day, Flame Shaman had merely glanced at this throne, felt greed, and nearly had his courage crushed by the will of the Divine Dao.

But now, Mo Hua looked upon the throne with calm expression.

In the unseen depths, that divine will descended again, attempting to instill fear. Yet this will couldn’t shake Mo Hua at all.

Not only that—Mo Hua walked directly toward the throne, head-on against this pressure.

The ancient consciousness seemed enraged at his disrespect, and the pressure condensed into near-tangible force, enough to crush any ordinary cultivator’s Sea of Consciousness into dust.

But before Mo Hua, this ancient will only made him slightly furrow his brows. It could not stop him from approaching the throne.

When Mo Hua finally stood before the throne, a terrifying roar sounded beside his ear, as if an ancient god were descending divine punishment upon him.

A violent Divine-Sense stabbed straight into Mo Hua’s Sea of Consciousness.

Even he felt a strange pain, as though his mind were being torn apart.

Mo Hua closed his eyes, drawing his Divine-Sense inward. He activated the Pixiu Horn, the Dragon-Soul Body, the Pure-Gold Dao-Transformed Body, and condensed the Sword Manifestation of Divine-Sense, resisting for a long time before he finally dispelled that ancient divine will.

When he reopened his eyes, the scene before him had become hazy.

As if time were flowing backward.

He seemed to see ancient barbarian ancestors worshipping around the altar.

He saw countless tribal wars take place around this divine ground.

He saw many Divine Dao beings—some like gods, others like demons or spirits, some like humans—crossing paths upon the altar. They unleashed divine arts, slaughtering one another ceaselessly, each taking turns across the long river of history.

They seemed to be fighting for something—or proving something.

Or perhaps… trying to “please” some existence.

Then, a clear divine cry pierced the heavens. Flames descended from the sky. The Vermilion Bird carried fire as it landed upon the altar.

Its wings spread, and crimson Divine-Sense flames swept across the entire altar like a storm.

All Divine Dao beings upon the altar could not withstand the Vermilion Bird flames—they either died or fled.

At that moment, a colossal ancient divine aura surged from within the throne and clashed with the Vermilion Bird…

The immense Divine Dao pressure distorted time and space.

Then everything dissolved.

The time-reversal vision vanished like bubbles.

When Mo Hua looked again, nothing remained but the Vermilion Bird statue holding the golden ring, and the ancient, empty throne.

The Vermilion Bird was but a lifeless statue.

The ancient Divine Dao will that had descended was also gone.

But Mo Hua showed no joy—only faint melancholy.

Because although the aura of that ancient will was unfamiliar, its essence was extremely familiar to him.

“The Great Wilderness Evil god…”

He had eaten many of the Great Wilderness Evil god’s “divine remains,” even fragments of its true embryo.

Half of his Divine Dao foundation came from devouring the Evil god.

And the Evil god’s true will had been erased by Mo Hua’s tribulation lightning.

So when that ancient Divine Dao will descended just now, Mo Hua couldn’t help feeling a faint sense of… seeing an old acquaintance.

But sadly, that will was “dead.”

The Evil god had likely descended upon this altar in the distant past.

It was even possible that the altar—and the throne—were originally the Evil god’s.

But the Evil god was dead—whether slain, sealed, or lost in cultivation, forever asleep.

Its Divine Dao had fallen silent.

What lingered here were only remnants of its past will—still awe-inspiring, still terrifying enough to kill someone like Flame Shaman from fright.

But to Mo Hua, it was merely the nostalgic breath of a “departed acquaintance.”

As for the truth behind the Evil god’s death…

Mo Hua’s eyes darkened.

The image of the Vermilion Bird descending in crimson flames resurfaced in his mind.

At this moment, he finally had a trace of “evidence” to confirm his suspicion.

This ancient altar in Vermilion Bird Mountain… might not have been a “Vermilion Bird Altar” at all.

Not a place built to worship the Vermilion Bird.

But rather, a place sealed by the Vermilion Bird.

The Vermilion Bird Sacred Beast used its deep-crimson flames to seal an ancient fragment of the Great Wilderness Evil god upon this throne.

The Vermilion Bird was here to suppress the Evil god.

The ancestors of the Great Wilderness worshipped the Vermilion Bird to provide continuous faith, allowing it to eternally suppress the terrifying Evil Dao deity seated here.

—or more precisely, a portion of that deity’s primordial power.

The one responsible was obvious.

Mo Hua’s gaze deepened, and he murmured:

“The Grand Shaman Priest…”

The Grand Shaman Priest created the Vermilion Bird Sacred Beast, and through it sealed the Great Wilderness Evil god’s throne in this mountain realm.

There were four Sacred Beasts in total.

Mo Hua even suspected…

Had the Grand Shaman Priest artificially created the Great Wilderness’s Four Sacred Beasts for the sake of… opposing and suppressing the ancient Great Wilderness Evil god?

Had the Great Wilderness Evil god fallen “silent” only because of the Grand Shaman Priest?

What exactly had the Grand Shaman Priest done to the Evil god?

And in what era had all of this taken place?

Had the hidden history of the Great Wilderness always been the “Divine Dao War Chronicle” between the Grand Shaman Priest and the Great Wilderness Evil god?

Were the many formations and Divine Dao inheritances of the Great Wilderness all born from that war?

Mo Hua’s brows knitted tightly.

The more he explored, the more he uncovered, the more shocking everything became.

And what weighed on him even more…

He increasingly felt that everything he was doing now was exactly what the Grand Shaman Priest had once done.

He was walking step by step along the Grand Shaman Priest’s old path.

But the problem was… while walking the Grand Shaman Priest’s path, he was also walking the path of the “Great Wilderness Divine-Lord”…

The dragon slayer eventually becomes the evil “dragon”.

And the problem was—he seemed to have been both the “dragon slayer” and the “dragon” from the very beginning.

He was the one opposing the Great Wilderness Evil god—

yet at the same time, he was the one eating the Evil god’s “flesh,” step by step approaching the Divine Dao.

Mo Hua let out a quiet sigh and stopped thinking.

Dragonslayer or evil dragon—none of it mattered anymore.

A certain fated path had already been laid before him.

If he wished to survive the Great Wilderness’s grand game, if he wished to save its people and prove his Dao, then he could only accept his destiny with calm resolve.

Even if the long-lost Grand Shaman Priest was watching him from somewhere unseen.

Even if the Divine Dao—preserving the mandate of Heaven and extinguishing human desire—would gradually erode his humanity…

This path… he could only walk it through.

“The Great Wilderness’s Divine Dao is waning, the world is in chaos—monsters, demons, and spirits can all claim godhood…”

“Then today, I too shall become a god of the Great Wilderness… the sovereign of all gods within it…”

Mo Hua’s pupils darkened as he slowly seated himself upon the ancient divine throne.

In that instant, Heaven and Earth trembled.

The ancient Vermilion Bird mountain range welcomed its new master, and the vast earth quaked.

The Vermilion Bird’s blood sealing the throne burned dry.

The will of the Divine Dao began to awaken, golden radiance flooding the skies.

The golden tree atop the divine altar began to grow.

Within the unseen world of the Divine Dao, the laws of the Great Dao flowed.

The golden Tree of Divine Authority once more unfurled toward the heavens like the authority of a god overshadowing the world.

And all authority was gathered into the one flesh-and-blood body seated upon the throne.

Mo Hua’s thin figure sat upon a throne many times his size.

Boundless majesty spread from within him, merging with the divine throne.

The golden divinity in his eyes grew even stronger, suppressing the black of his demonic fate and the white of his human heavenly destiny, taking dominance.

In that moment, he seemed to be the very one enthroned upon the divine altar, ruling the Divine Dao of the Great Wilderness.

The ancient authority lay in his hands.

The golden Trees of Divine Authority swayed gently with his every thought, shedding dazzling light across Heaven and Earth.

Yet without the power of a Divine-Decent ritual to bend the boundary of reality, most barbarian cultivators—mere mortal eyes—could not witness the magnificent spectacle of the divine tree’s bloom.

Only a few like Yan Zhu could vaguely see the golden light at the horizon, along with faint patterns imbued with Divine authority of the gods.

Even these faint traces of the Divine Dao made the High shamans tremble in fear.

When all the spectacle atop the divine altar finally subsided, Mo Hua slowly rose.

The gold retreated into his eyes, the divinity sinking into his being.

Yet the cold aloofness of a being above all grew even more apparent on his face.

Heaven and Earth are unkind; they treat all beings as straw dogs.

The gods are unkind; they treat all mortals as straw dogs.

His divinity had nearly reached its peak.

Only occasionally did a trace of humanity flicker across his expression.

Big Tiger slowly walked over, looking at Mo Hua with both unfamiliarity and concern.

Mo Hua reached out and gently patted Big Tiger’s head, whispering:

“You’re the only one who stays with me…”

From childhood until now, the only one truly bound to him by karmic bond—the only one who knew he was the Mo Hua he had always been, and not some reincarnated Great Wilderness Shaman—was Big Tiger.

Only Big Tiger could remind him that he was Mo Hua…

Big Tiger nuzzled him affectionately, eyes clear and gentle.

……

Seven days later, the Grand Divine ceremony began.

Since the Divine-Lord’s fall into silence, after countless unknown years, this was the first ceremony in the Great Wilderness to worship the “Divine-Lord.”

And it was also the first time in its history that the Great Wilderness held a ceremony for the true Divine-Lord.

Mo Hua, in a mortal body of flesh and blood, sat atop the lofty divine throne.

The sacred white tiger—snow-bright with black divine patterns—lay curled peacefully by his feet.

Below the throne, the third-rank One-Eyed Black Tiger and a host of fierce tiger demons all prostrated themselves with devout reverence.

The sheer impact of this scene needed no explanation.

Yan Zhu and the other Shamans trembled in fear.

The great chieftains, grand elders, and barbarian generals of every major tribes all knelt in turn.

Beyond the plaza, millions of barbarian warriors and witch-cultivators fell to their knees like a storm flattening waves.

Their praises for the Divine-Lord and the Shaman echoed from countless mouths, shaking heaven and earth.

Mo Hua lifted a hand lightly; beneath divine might, all noise ceased.

Heaven and Earth fell silent, the countless cultivators quieting instantly.

Mo Hua’s voice was gentle and firm, yet carried the cold indifference of a god:

“Today’s ceremony honors the Divine-Lord.

May the Divine-Lord bless our Great Wilderness.

May His mighty power protect our people from famine and calamity.”

“From this day forward, the final divine war shall begin.”

“In this war, we shall unify all the barbarian lands.

Let the name of the Divine-Lord spread across Heaven and Earth.”

“Henceforth, those who believe in the Divine-Lord shall live.

Those who do not, shall sink into the endless abyss of suffering, unable to escape from the upcoming calamity”

“And I, by the Divine-Lord’s name, shall wield his authority—as the supreme Shaman beneath the Divine-Lord…”

“From today onward, you may address me as…”

Mo Hua’s gaze carried the majesty of one who ruled over all beings:

“Divine-Shaman!”

In that instant, millions bowed. The people of the Great Wilderness knelt with utmost devotion, their shouts shaking the heavens:

“May the Divine-Lord live as long as Heaven and Earth!”

“May the Divine Shaman shine as bright as sun and moon!”

……