Chapter 1281: Straw-Dog Fate Art
Chapter 1280: Straw-Dog Fate Art
That pair of ashen eyes, already filled with startled disbelief, even flickered with a trace of panic and a tangled hint of killing intent.
But that killing intent completely dissolved beneath Mo Hua’s cold and imperious gaze.
“Tie Shù-Gu” slowly straightened his body. His bearing seemed a bit less stiff, a bit more weathered by time, yet his attitude remained as respectful as ever.
He bowed toward the exalted Mo Hua. “Dao—” (TN: Daoist)
“Tie Shù-Gu” corrected himself: “No… I should address you as… Lord Divine-Shaman…”
Mo Hua neither confirmed nor denied it, merely looking down at “Tie Shù-Gu” from above.
“When did the Divine-Shaman first notice me?” Tie Shù-Gu asked.
Mo Hua said calmly, “All truth and falsehood, illusion and reality, cannot be hidden from the Divine-Lord’s eyes.”
Tie Shù-Gu’s expression held a hint of guilt.
Mo Hua asked, “Why are you following me?”
Tie Shù-Gu bowed. “I would not dare hide it. This old one was trapped in the Land of White Bones, unaware of the years above, nor of the situation in the Great Wilderness. So I borrowed this physical body to come up and… take a look.”
Mo Hua said, “Why are you following me?”
It was the same question, yet Tie Shù-Gu understood the meaning behind it was different.
“Our encounter that day in the White-Bone Mausoleum can be regarded as a fated opportunity of the Heavenly Dao. This old one saw that the Divine-Shaman Lord’s might is extraordinary, and that you will surely rise to supreme heights and accomplish great feats. My Shugu Tribe could also be reborn under your rise. So I split off a wisp of remnant soul to secretly follow alongside Tie Shù-Gu, to ‘assist’ you…”
His tone was sincere, his words full of praise.
Mo Hua’s expression remained faint, revealing neither joy nor displeasure.
Tie Shù-Gu kept his head lowered, not daring to speak more. He clearly feared provoking Mo Hua’s displeasure and drawing some inexplicable divine calamity upon himself.
With Mo Hua’s current authority, if he found any excuse to blow up the ancestral tombs of the Shugu Tribe, likely no one would dare object.
After an unknown length of time, Mo Hua finally spoke with a slightly softened tone. “You said… you came to assist me?”
Seeing Mo Hua’s attitude lose some of its earlier chill, Tie Shù-Gu secretly exhaled in relief and cupped his hands.
“Yes. The Shugu Tribe now belongs under the Divine-Shaman’s command.”
“As the tribe’s ancestral predecessor, I naturally must serve the Divine-Shaman, and devote myself to the Divine-Shaman Lord’s great undertaking.”
Mo Hua nodded slightly and asked directly, “The art you practice—is it a causal-karma art?”
Tie Shù-Gu’s gaze sank slightly; he nodded. “Yes.”
Mo Hua’s pale fingers lightly tapped the gold-jade Shaman’s seat, his eyes cold as he considered:
“If someone were to harm me with karma, how should I avoid it?”
Tie Shù-Gu replied, “Among the ancestral causal inheritances of the Shugu Tribe, there are indeed some methods of karmic evasion—such as the Bone-Shift Heart Art, the Bone-Drawing Calamity Art… This old one is moderately versed in them. But forgive my bluntness—these should be of little use to you, Divine-Shaman Lord…”
Mo Hua’s gaze tightened, his expression turning quietly imposing.
Tie Shù-Gu trembled and immediately said, “Every word this old one speaks is the truth. I would not dare deceive the Divine-Shaman Lord.”
Mo Hua’s face chilled. “Then that means… you’re useless.”
Before the words finished, golden light flickered in Mo Hua’s eyes, carrying the glint of terrifying sword-radiance.
Tie Shù-Gu’s face paled in horror. “I’m useful! I have other clues!”
Mo Hua withdrew the divine radiance and said lightly, “Speak.”
After recovering from the fright, Tie Shù-Gu exhaled softly. He pondered for a moment, voice heavy:
“Bone-Shift Heart Art, Bone-Drawing Calamity Art… These are indeed high-grade inheritances of the Shugu Tribe. They divert misfortune, avoid danger, and guide blessing or calamity.”
“This old one spent a lifetime studying them and indeed learned a fair bit. But these methods can only evade ‘ordinary’ karmic danger…”
He glanced at Mo Hua and forced a bitter smile. “To be frank, if these karmic-evasion methods were truly effective, the first thing I would’ve done is avoid the ‘great calamity’ that is you, Divine-Shaman Lord. You wouldn’t have seen me at all, and I never would’ve even entered the White-Bone Mausoleum…”
“If these karmic-causality arts can’t help me avoid the danger that you represent, they certainly can’t help you avoid karma that even you deem ‘dangerous.’”
“So even if I passed them to you, they’d only be trivial tricks, wasting your time and offering no real help…”
“However, there is one inheritance that may be of help to you…” Tie Shù-Gu said slowly.
Mo Hua asked, “What inheritance?”
“You may remember that I once told you… our Shugu Tribe’s ancestors possessed methods of ‘Karmic Transference.’” Tie Shù-Gu said.
Karmic transference…
Mo Hua’s eyes narrowed.
“This Karmic Transference Art is an ancient tribal secret. Even I, in my prime, had no right to even glance at it. After all…”
Tie Shù-Gu sighed softly. “Although I’m now considered an ‘ancestral predecessor’—a title that sounds grand—it’s simply because I’ve been dead for so long. Back then, I was only an upper-ranking member of the tribe, moderately gifted, and trapped at the Golden Core peak. The true secrets were beyond my reach… The most secret of all was this ancient causal transference technique. It was so secret that I didn’t even know its name…”
“So…” Mo Hua said calmly, “You’ve ‘revived’ now, and by borrowing Tie Shù-Gu’s body, returned to the present to seek this secret inheritance you once had no right to see?”
Tie Shù-Gu’s face changed, a mixture of guilt and bitterness. “Lord Divine-Shaman is wise; nothing escapes your notice. As cultivators, the arts we truly devote ourselves to for a lifetime are these techniques. When alive, I could not obtain it; after death, even buried underground, I could not forget. Now, with this opportunity, I naturally cannot resist trying to find it…”
“And?” Mo Hua’s voice was low. “Did you find it?”
Tie Shù-Gu’s expression darkened. “I will not conceal the truth, Lord Divine-Shaman. Borrowing Tie Shù-Gu’s body, I accompanied you in campaigns while secretly using your name and power to gather the remaining Shù-Gu inheritances and some legends of ancient techniques…”
He sighed with some nostalgia. “Time has passed, seas and fields have changed. The Shù-Gu Tribe has experienced many splits and reunifications. Many ancient inheritances have been lost to dust…”
“I searched for a long time. Just when I was about to give up, I finally discovered a clue to the ancient causal transference technique… and even found its name in an ancient forbidden text…”
“This causal transference technique is called…” Tie Shù-Gu’s expression was solemn. “The Great Wilderness Straw-Dog Fate Art!”
Straw-Dog Fate Art…
Mo Hua’s pupils constricted.
“And this fate art was hidden in…” Tie Shù-Gu’s voice grew heavy, “the former Shì-Gu Main Division.”
The Shì-Gu Main Division—once corrupted by the Evil God, devoured by the Great Famine, leaving no living members.
Mo Hua’s brow couldn’t help but furrow slightly.
Those once trivial threads of cause and effect seemed, without him realizing it, to have intertwined once again.
He glanced at Tie Shù-Gu. “So… you didn’t manage to get your hands on this Great Wilderness Straw-Dog Fate Art?”
Tie Shù-Gu smiled bitterly, shaking his head. “Someone got there first. Even before the disaster struck and famine consumed the Shi-Gu Division, this Straw-Dog Fate Art was already gone. It had been seized…”
Mo Hua asked, “Seized by whom?”
Tie Shù-Gu shook his head. “I cannot trace it. There are too many possibilities.”
Mo Hua’s expression darkened slightly.
His instinct first pointed to the Hua Clan.
The Hua Clan, laying plans in the Great Wilderness, absorbs its lifeblood and seizes its inheritances. It would be logical for them to take the Straw-Dog Fate Art.
Whether the Hua Clan knew the extraordinary nature of this fate art and deliberately took it, or if it was merely a incidental acquisition, was another matter.
But there was another possibility…
Mo Hua recalled and immediately realized: besides the Hua Clan, another player was involved in the Shi-Gu Division’s downfall: Mr. Tu!
When the Shi-Gu Division fell, the tribe had already nurtured an evil god.
Raising an evil god involves divine dao methods, highly specialized, impossible for ordinary cultivators to understand. The mastermind behind it is very likely Mr. Tu.
The once-powerful Shi-Gu Main Division collapsed suddenly, but behind it were multiple hidden dangers.
The strongest general, Shi-Gu, also died due to a combined scheme by the original Shùgu chieftain, the Bifang Tribe, the Hua Clan, and Mr. Tu—a fourfold black hand.
For a barbarian general, this was practically a death sentence.
Now it seemed there was more to the story…
The true cause of the Shi-Gu Division’s destruction, and Shi-Gu’s death… was the ancient secret causal inheritance of the Shù-Gu ancestors, the “Great Wilderness Straw-Dog Fate Art”?
And Mr. Tu seized the Shi-Gu Division precisely to steal this Straw-Dog Fate Art, using divine dao methods to infect a barbarian god and hasten the division’s collapse?
This explains some things.
Yet…
Why would Mr. Tu personally intervene to seize this Straw-Dog Fate Art?
This is causal transference…
Did Mr. Tu seek this fate art to… transfer something?
Mo Hua’s heart skipped, his gaze deepening.
Tie Shù-Gu saw Mo Hua silent, immersed in thought, and dared not breathe.
After a while, Mo Hua lifted his eyes and looked at Tie Shù-Gu:
“I’m giving you a task: from now on, you will search for the traces of this ‘Great Wilderness Straw-Dog Fate Art’ on my behalf.”
“This task is of the highest importance. You may use my authority as Lord Divine-Shaman. No tribe or force may obstruct you.”
“If you find it, you remain by my side. If you have concealed any misdeeds from me, I can even overlook it and may even grant you other rewards. If you fail…” Mo Hua’s gaze turned icy, “don’t blame me for digging up old scores.”
Tie Shù-Gu felt a chill in his heart. “Yes. I will devote myself entirely to this task.”
Mo Hua added: “Furthermore, there is another method you must teach me.”
Tie Shù-Gu said, “Speak, Lord Divine-Shaman. If I know it, I will not withhold.”
Mo Hua said, “You will teach me the Shù-Gu Tribe’s ‘curses.’”
Tie Shù-Gu hesitated. “The Shù-Gu ‘curses’ require the bloodline of descendants, dying and being reborn, exchanging vitality for life…”
“I don’t need those,” Mo Hua said. “I only need you to tell me the method by which these ‘curses’ are locked.”
He had no descendants, no bloodline heirs, and he wasn’t dead.
Even in death, there might be no one to bury him, and no one to tend a tomb.
So Tie Shù-Gu’s ‘bloodline curse’ was useless to Mo Hua.
What mattered was the “cause-and-effect lock” within the curse.
To cast a curse, one must first lock the target through cause and effect. Only once the lock is in place does the curse have a target to harm.
It’s like casting a spell: one must lock the target with Divine Sense first. Only then can the spell strike.
Some pursue the most grandest complete, and advanced techniques.
But for Mo Hua, mastering such fundamental, detailed methods of Dao arts to perfection is true strength.
Seeing Mo Hua’s determination, Tie Shù-Gu dared not evade. After a moment of thought, he said:
“Divine Shaman, do you recall the principles of the ‘cause-and-effect line’ I spoke of before?”
Mo Hua nodded slightly.
Tie Shù-Gu said, “All things in the world follow cause and effect.”
“Every cause has an effect, every effect arises from a cause, generating further effects, endlessly repeating—this forms a ‘cause-and-effect line.’”
“All people, events, and objects’ causes and effects are intertwined, forming the objective world’s ‘cause-and-effect state.’”
“All cause-and-effect techniques manipulate these ‘lines.’”
“The cause-and-effect lock is no exception.”
“One simply selects a certain ‘line’ from the countless complex causal lines, and can perform a cause-and-effect lock.”
“The clearer the cause and effect, the easier it is to lock based on the line.”
“The more objective the cause and effect, the more significant the fact, the less likely the line is to break.”
“The more secret the cause and effect, the fewer who know, the more hidden the line, the harder it is for others to detect…”
“These things sound simple, but cause and effect is intangible. Actual operation depends greatly on Divine Sense and insight.”
Tie Shù-Gu drew a bone slip from his sleeve and handed it to Mo Hua:
“These are the first three volumes of the Shù-Gu curse. They cover cause-and-effect line determination, locking the enemy along the line, and methods for locking enemies when casting curses. Specific curses vary by individual, but these foundational methods of locking the enemy are universal. They may provide guidance for you, Divine Shaman .”
Mo Hua accepted the bone slip and nodded. “Good.”
Tie Shù-Gu said respectfully, “I’m glad to be of help, Divine-Shaman Lord.”
Mo Hua waved his hand. “You may go. Begin the investigation I just assigned.”
Tie Shù-Gu bowed, turned to leave, but Mo Hua called him back after a pause, and asked:
“Tie Shù-Gu… are you already dead?”
Tie Shù-Gu understood the meaning behind Mo Hua’s words. He said calmly:
“Divine Lord, in Tie Shù-Gu’s heart, there is only loyalty to you. As long as that loyalty remains, he serves you wholeheartedly. Whether he is dead or alive… what difference does it make?”
Mo Hua was silent for a moment, then nodded. “I understand.”
Tie Shù-Gu bowed. “Divine-Shaman Lord, I shall take my leave.”
After speaking, he turned and left. His steps were light, slightly inconsistent. After a few paces, the aura of ‘ashen decay’ vanished, and his figure became steadfast and devout once more, as if he were the loyal Tie Shù-Gu.
Only when his figure disappeared did Mo Hua, expression cold, withdraw his complex gaze and look at the bone slip of the “Shugu Cursed Arts” in his hand.
(End 0f Chapter)