Chapter 1276: Engraving the Life-Bound Formation
Chapter 1275: Engraving the Life-Bound Formation
Third-Rank Green Marsh Mountain Realm, the main hall of the Gao-Tu Tribe.
Mo Hua sat in a high position, his features like white jade, exquisitely handsome, his pale golden eyes cold and indifferent, seemingly detached from the mortal world.
The heavily injured Gao-Tu general, Gaodu, was forced down by Lu-Gu, kneeling on the ground.
Gaodu, in the late stage of Golden Core, was a general with the proud backbone of a strong cultivator. Now, being pressed down, kneeling before a “Divine-Dao Puppet” who was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, naturally filled him with resentment.
Not to mention, this “Divine-Dao Puppet” looked barely twenty, absurdly young.
Gaodu suddenly raised his head, about to speak harshly, when a wave of oppressive demonic aura made his face change. Turning, he saw beside him an extraordinary tiger demon, its body of white jade interlaced with black patterns, standing silently.
This tiger demon was massive, a domineering “King” character atop its head. Its aura was overwhelming, its demonic energy powerful, yet tinged with sanctity. Its eyes struck like thunder, majestic and awe-inspiring, forcing fear into anyone who looked upon it.
A Third-Rank “King” Demon…
Moreover, it had no chains, no shackles, no sacred runes—no means of restraint at all.
It simply walked freely around the main hall.
Previously, Gaodu had only glimpsed this tiger from afar, assuming it was fake. But now, up close, he could feel the immense pressure of a Third-Rank Golden Core demon beast, and that divine, awe-inspiring presence. Only then did he realize—it really was different…
This King Demon was no mere decoration.
Its bloodline aura was unimaginably powerful.
The great tiger seemed to dislike this “warty toad” Gaodu as well. It extended a fluffy paw and disdainfully swatted Gaodu on the head.
Though its paw appeared fluffy, its skin and bones were as hard as a great hammer.
Gaodu’s head buzzed from the hit, yet he could only keep it bowed, not daring to make a sound.
At that moment, a cold yet authoritative voice came from above:
“Return.”
Hearing Mo Hua call it, the tiger finally released Gaodu, pacing over to lie beside Mo Hua, resting its head near his hand.
Mo Hua reached out and lightly patted the tiger’s head.
Seeing this, Gaodu’s heart sank.
Before this Foundation Establishment “Divine Shaman,” this once unruly and terrifying Third-Rank Tiger Demon was as obedient as a cat.
Only now did Gaodu realize that his previous assumptions might have been completely wrong…
He lowered his head even further, not daring to look at Mo Hua.
At that moment, Mo Hua spoke.
While stroking the big tiger, he said calmly to Gaodu:
“Submit to the Divine Lord, serve me, and I will spare your life.”
Gaodu’s eyes widened, his mind in chaos.
He did not immediately respond but asked the question that had obsessed him most:
“I just want to know… that monster who fought me, who ate Golden Cores… what exactly is it?”
Mo Hua said: “It is an Undying General under the command of the Divine Lord.”
“Undying General…”
Gaodu trembled. Scenes from that brutal day resurfaced—no matter how he attacked, no matter how close he came to killing it, the creature would swallow a Golden Core and “come back to life.” Even now, remembering it made him shiver uncontrollably.
“How is that possible…” Gaodu murmured in disbelief.
“It is a ‘creation’ of the Divine Lord, existing between life and death, and with its undying body, it fights for the Divine Lord across all lands,” Mo Hua said calmly.
Gaodu’s expression trembled, he looked as if he wanted to ask more, but when he lifted his head and caught sight of Mo Hua, he didn’t dare open his mouth again.
He could feel that this “Divine Shaman Lord” was growing increasingly cold, as though patience was running thin. Asking further might anger him.
Sure enough, Mo Hua said indifferently:
“I’ll ask you once more. Are you willing to submit?”
Gaodu bowed his head, hesitating, then gritted his teeth:
“Gaodu… as a general of the Gao-Tu Tribe, loyal to the tribe, loyal to the Great Chief, cannot betray…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Mo Hua said. “From this moment on, you are the Great Chieftain of the Gao-Tu Tribe.”
If he was the Great Chieftain, then naturally he no longer needed to be loyal to some other Great Chieftain
He only needed to be loyal to himself.
Gaodu was stunned, disbelieving: “I… Great Chieftain… but… my name isn’t rightful…”
Mo Hua said lightly: “The greatest ‘name’ in the Great Wilderness is the Divine Lord’s ‘name.’ By the Divine Lord’s decree, if I say you are the Great Chieftain, then you are the Great Chieftain.”
Gao Du understood at once and immediately kowtowed three times to Mo Hua.
“Gaodu, Great Chieftain of the Gao-Tu Tribe, pledges to serve the Divine Shaman Lord, to dedicate body and soul, to exhaust myself unto death.”
Mo Hua slightly nodded. “The Divine Lord will bless you. From now on, as the Great Chieftain of the Gao-Tu Tribe, you must remember the Divine Lord’s teachings. Beyond that, the affairs of the Gao-Tu Tribe are yours alone to decide.”
Gaodu kowtowed. “Yes, thank you for your grace, Divine Shaman Lord. From now on, the Gao-Tu Tribe will honor the name of the Divine Lord, obey only the Divine Shaman Lord, and follow your lead.”
Mo Hua nodded. “You may leave.”
Lu-Gu released Gaodu.
Gaodu shot Lu-Gu a resentful glance, then turned to Mo Hua with deep reverence—and to the sacred tiger beside him, its fur being fondly stroked as it lay there meek as a cat despite its innate ferocity and domineering aura.
Bowing, Gaodu withdrew.
After Gaodu left, the main hall held only Mo Hua, Lu-Gu, and a silent great tiger.
The hall was extremely quiet.
Lu-Gu did not leave but stared at Mo Hua, his gaze complex. After hesitating, he slowly spoke:
“Divine Shaman Lord… my brother…”
Mo Hua’s voice was calm, devoid of emotion: “He has received the Divine Lord’s blessing and has embarked upon his ‘fated’ path.”
Lu-Gu remained silent.
Mo Hua looked at him and asked: “Do you… harbor any dissatisfaction?”
Lu-Gu was still silent. After a moment, he shook his head, bowed, and resolutely said:
“If one day I, Lu-Gu, fall on the battlefield, I ask the Divine Shaman Lord to grant me the same blessing—to have my corpse refined into an Undying General. Let me, even after death, stand beside my brother to slay our enemies. Let this decaying body continue to serve the Divine Shaman Lord, to battle across the Great Wilderness, to unify it, and forge an immortal legacy…”
Mo Hua’s eyes showed surprise. After a moment, he nodded slightly, with a trace of complexity:
“I will grant your request.”
Lu-Gu knelt before Mo Hua. “Lu-Gu thanks the Divine Shaman Lord for granting this.”
…
In the following days, Gaodu officially became the Great Chieftain of the Gao-Tu Tribe, serving Mo Hua.
The first thing he did was capture the former Great Chieftain of the Gao-Tu Tribe and decapitate him, presenting the head to Mo Hua as a pledge of loyalty.
The Gao-Tu Tribe can have only one Great Chief.
Gaodu, now the Divine Shaman Lord’s appointed Great Chief, made the former chieftain obsolete, ensuring no dishonor to the Divine Shaman Lord’s authority.
Mo Hua recognized Gaodu’s “loyalty.”
Thereafter, Gaodu led the Gao-Tu Tribe as Mo Hua’s vanguard, subjugating the various tribes in the Green Marsh Mountain Realm, unifying the Third-Rank Green Marsh Mountain Realm.
All barbarian slaves were liberated and incorporated into the Divine Slave Division.
All tribal leaders were also “cleansed” by Mo Hua.
Those who accepted the Divine Lord and submitted to the Divine Shaman could be spared if they vowed to follow the Divine Lord’s teachings.
Those who remained stubborn were punished according to their crimes.
Lesser offenders were demoted to commoners; major offenders were executed immediately.
Thus, the Third-Rank Green Marsh Mountain Realm was conquered and “reformed” by Mo Hua, brought under the unified domain of the Divine Lord.
Then, during the army’s rest following the unification, Mo Hua found a secluded, quiet mountain valley within the Green Marsh Mountain Realm.
Here, he planned to engrave the Twelve-Meridian Taotie-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation upon himself.
…
Green Marsh Mountain Realm, Bone-Miasma Mountain.
Inside a hidden cave in the mountain, Mo Hua sat cross-legged, surrounded by dense formations.
This was a location specifically chosen using Heavenly Secret’s derivations, a place that concealed profound mysteries and leaked no cause and effect.
Outside the cave, Dan-Zhu and Lu-Gu stood guard.
The Third-Rank Sacred Beast Big Tiger, along with a group of tiger demons led by the Third-Rank One-Eyed Mystic Tiger, also guarded Mo Hua.
This was a place along the Divine-Shaman’s expedition path, chosen according to fate and law, extremely secretive, untouched by cause and effect, with tight security. Mo Hua had calculated everything meticulously.
Because this was the most critical step in his Core Formation.
He was about to engrave the Twelve-Meridian Taotie-Spiritual-Skeleton Absolute Formation on himself, establishing his Life-Bound Formation.
This was the foundation of Core Formation, the key to reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment, crucial for the success of forming the Core and for his future cultivation.
It was also the result of Mo Hua’s immense effort and trials, painstakingly suffering through long periods of hardship.
Mo Hua had expended tremendous effort in the Great Wilderness, plotting and calculating, preparing for this moment for a long time.
Now, he had finally arrived at this step.
He should have felt excitement.
Yet at this moment, Mo Hua’s emotions were icy and detached.
For his divinity had surpassed his humanity; he could no longer feel emotional fluctuations from his own success or failure.
This had its advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantage was that Mo Hua knew his humanity had grown even thinner.
The advantage was that this detachment and emotional coldness granted him absolute composure.
What he was about to do was extremely “dangerous” and difficult, involving highly precise manipulation and cutting of his own flesh, blood, meridians, and bones.
Any emotional disturbance would affect his mind, interfere with his Divine Sense, and disrupt his control.
Not a trace of emotion could be allowed.
Anticipation, excitement, agitation, tension, anxiety… all were detrimental.
He needed absolute rationality and composure, like a “divine” being.
Mo Hua closed his eyes slightly, cultivating his spirit.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he opened them again. Golden light shimmered in his eyes, divinity radiating solemnly.
He then took out two sealed, tightly-bound glass jade bottles.
Inside were the two most precious heavenly materials for forging Wood-White-Gold-Jade Bones:
The Essence of Wood-White and the Marrow of Gold-Jade.
Just like the Wood-White-Gold-Jade forging method, these were painstakingly obtained for Mo Hua by the Sect Master of the Great Void Sect from the Bai family.
Every drop was invaluable.
The Gold-Jade Marrow would strengthen the bones, making them as hard as gold and jade—essential to using his own skeleton as the medium for the Absolute Formation.
The Essence of Wood-White would be integrated into his blood, transforming it into ink for drawing the formation. This allowed the ink, blood, formation, and bones to merge completely.
Moreover, the “Wood” essence in the Wood-White could harmonize with the Yin-Wood Rejuvenation Formation used to “lock blood,” forming a perfect closed loop.
Wood-White-Gold-Jade Bones, Yin-Wood Rejuvenation Formation, Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Pattern.
All three shared a common underlying logic, bound together, forming Mo Hua’s life-bound formation system.
Mo Hua realized he had overcomplicated things again.
He had taken something simple and made it convoluted.
His original intention was simply to use the Twelve-Meridian Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Formation as his life-bound formation.
But using it alone was impossible for him.
His body couldn’t support the bone-engraved formation.
His already weak vitality essence would drain significantly.
The Taotie Laws would lack sustenance.
He had to solve these problems himself. Piece by piece, he patched everything together, finally creating this “strange contraption”:
A trinity life-bound formation framework:
– Wood-White-Gold-Jade Bones,
– Yin-Wood Rejuvenation Formation,
– Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Formation.
On the surface, the Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Absolute Formation was his life-bound formation.
But to support it, he used two additional crucial “inheritances.”
Mo Hua didn’t know if this might cause other issues.
At this point, there was no turning back.
The arrow had left the bow; on this path to Golden Core, he had no choice but to push forward alone.
But all this cultivation theory was ultimately just a concept.
Turning theory into reality, making the cultivation system tangible, was the hardest part.
And to perfectly construct this system—where bone, blood, and formation fused—Mo Hua had poured almost all his mind and spirit into it.
He had studied the Golden Core methods of the Great Void Sect, entered the Great Wilderness as a Divine Shaman, and reviewed countless tribal records.
Now, synthesizing all of it, he worked tirelessly, almost exhausting his Divine Sense, calculating over and over, until he finally created the most practical “surgical formation” plan for himself.
The foundation of the Wood-White-Gold-Jade Bones had long been prepared.
Since before the Divine Shaman’s War, prior to his personal campaign, he had been continuously consuming gold- and wood-based spiritual materials to nourish his body, preparing for the life-bound formation.
Now, his body had been preliminarily nourished.
His bones already faintly shimmered with the color of gold and jade.
With the aid of Shi-Gu, he had verified the Twelve-Meridian Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Formation.
Now it was truly time for him to “operate” on himself.
In the center of the hidden cave was a complexly constructed formation “surgical bed.”
It was prepared by Mo Hua himself.
He would “operate” on himself, enduring intense pain, his body uncontrollably trembling. The formation would forcibly fix his body in place.
Moreover, enduring the pain while drawing the formation on himself was an enormous difficulty.
He could not entrust this to anyone else.
He had to draw it himself; no one could help him.
Firstly, because the Second-Rank, 24-Rune Twelve-Meridian Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Absolute Formation was, as far as Mo Hua knew, only he could draw as a living person.
Secondly, it required special “bone engraving” techniques.
No one else in the world could carve this absolute formation on him.
Even if such a person existed, Mo Hua could not let them draw it for him.
Because this was his life-bound formation—the foundation of his Golden Core and his future cultivation path.
It was the cultivator’s most confidential, most fundamental secret, not to be shared; unless absolutely necessary, no second party could touch it.
Even Venerable Elder Xun, his master, parents, or close relatives—better not to involve them deeply.
It was not distrust, but the Cause-and-Effect were simply too immense.
A life-bound formation was entwined with his life—his Dao and his fate.
His life could only be held in his own hands.
Handing it to others carried enormous risk and could involve others in his Cause-and-Effect.
Especially Mo Hua, who knew that his fate’s cause and effect was unlike ordinary people’s—full of dangers and crises, like an unfathomable abyss, impossible to fully predict.
If he held his fate, Dao, and life himself, anyone attempting to harm him would only affect him.
But if he told his parents, relatives, friends, or teachers about matters crucial to his cultivation, they would also share the burden of his cause and effect.
Others could harm him through them.
Conversely, he would be harming them.
Especially since his parents were ordinary cultivators.
He only wished for their happiness and safety, not for them to bear his cause and effect and suffer accidents or disasters.
Therefore, some things could only be known by himself.
Some fates could only be held in one’s own hands.
This was not distrust, but a desire not to involve or harm others.
Being “alone” now was actually the best circumstance.
In the entire Great Wilderness, this mysterious Divine-Shaman was a “heaven-sent figure,” a complete “stranger.”
Almost no one truly knew his origins.
Thus, all causality involved in his Golden Core formation remained with him alone, without affecting others.
All formations, methods, causality, and specific processes involved in his Golden Core were known only to him.
From another perspective, the Divine Shaman was the Divine Shaman, and Mo Hua was Mo Hua.
At this moment, it was actually the “Divine Shaman” of the Great Wilderness forging a life-bound formation, preparing for Golden Core formation—not Mo Hua.
Not the disciple of Mister Zhuang, the minor formation master of Tōngxiān City, the Little Senior Brother of the Great Void Sect, the “Little Ancestor” of the three branches, the double leader of Qianxue Formation Arts, or the first in Qianxue Sword Debate—“Mo Hua”…
……
Mo Hua calmed his spirit and swallowed a potion brewed from the Great Wilderness’s “Numbing Spirit Herb.”
The Numbing Spirit Herb numbed sensation, suppressing bodily pain.
Then he removed the Divine Shaman’s sacred robe. His body was fair and slender, yet the bones within radiated a jade-like luster, pure and translucent.
Mo Hua mixed the Essence of Wood-White and Marrow of Gold-Jade, pouring them into a jade vessel.
He then lay on the formation “surgical bed” he had prepared.
Light flowed as the formation activated; the instruments locked him firmly in place, immobile even under extreme pain.
At the same time, the shackles on his hands and feet sprouted fine, sharp spikes, piercing his flesh and embedding into his hands’ three yin and three yang, and feet’s three yin and three yang meridians—a total of twelve principal meridians…