Chapter 1294: Core Grade

Chapter 1293: Core Grade

From the 1st year of the Divine-Shaman’s Era, only five years had passed, yet under the spread of famine, the Great Wilderness had already been unified.

This was unprecedented in the history of the Great Wilderness.

The title “Divine-Shaman” left a bold and indelible mark upon both the Desolate Barbaric Wilderness and the Great Wilderness, becoming an achievement that could never be erased.

And after unification, Mo Hua’s personal power and prestige reached their peak.

With the acting proxy of the Divine-Lord, the faith he controlled, and the unsealed “Divine Punishment” power granted by the Great Void God-Slaying Sword Manifestation of Divine-Sense, all divine and secular authority within the famine-stricken Wilderness fell squarely into Mo Hua’s hands.

Mo Hua became the undisputed supreme figure of the Wilderness.

He was a “god” in faith, and a “king” in the mortal world.

Holding absolute authority, Mo Hua began promoting full-scale reforms throughout the Wilderness.

All barbarian slaves across the land were liberated and placed under the “Divine Slave Tribe.”

From this day on, no tribe or individual in the Wilderness was permitted to privately keep “barbarian slaves.”

Humans could only be slaves of the divine—followers of faith—and no longer slaves of any force, nor of any “person.”

Using faith in the Divine-Lord, Mo Hua subtly rewrote the concept within their Divine-Sense, temporarily suppressing internal contradictions and severing the ties between slaves and their former tribes.

The long-standing slave system of the Wilderness was, for the most part, effectively abolished.

Countless slaves were freed and transformed into divine servants, meaning a vast amount of manpower was now liberated.

These divine slaves held the deepest faith and gratitude toward the Divine-Lord, toward Mo Hua, the Divine-Shaman.

With this, Mo Hua rapidly advanced the construction of the Profound-Earth Grand Formation.

Across the entire Wilderness, mountains and valleys alike were filled with divine slaves building the Wilderness, and formation-cultivators inscribing sacred runes according to Mo Hua’s will.

The Profound-Earth Grand Formation spread across the land; famine was somewhat contained; the dead qi in the skies began to thin.

Near the formation, vegetation began to grow, and crops such as millet and grain were planted one after another.

The barren land of the Wilderness began to show signs of life, gradually gaining a new atmosphere.

At the same time, Mo Hua promoted widespread reform of faith throughout the Wilderness, placing the faith in the Divine-Lord above secular power.

Divine authority replaced the authority of tribal chiefs.

He integrated virtues such as fairness, righteousness, ethics, morality, fellowship, harmony, and selflessness into the doctrine of faith.

Through divine war and unified belief in the Divine-Lord, the Wilderness—once savage and unruly—underwent complete “civilization.”

The once brutal people now possessed a measure of faith and moral conscience, growing hearts that sought fairness and righteousness.

Afterward, Mo Hua established educational divisions.

All young barbarian cultivators were required to study there.

Their first lessons were not cultivation techniques or tribal inheritances, but basic moral teachings—understanding human ethics and forming a heart that sought the Dao.

Children are the future.

Thus, from top to bottom, from the elderly to the young, Mo Hua reconstructed the foundation of faith and reshaped the “Dao-heart” of the entire Wilderness.

Though frail and newly budding, this Dao-heart truly took root under Mo Hua’s influence—sprouting and growing across the land…

…

In the following period, Mo Hua issued a series of reforms that gradually revitalized the entire Wilderness.

But simultaneously, rebellions erupted everywhere.

Some opposed Mo Hua’s policies, some feared punishment for their crimes, some were furious at having too many interests stripped away, and some—once accomplished heroes—had indulged in luxury and been punished by Mo Hua, giving rise to resentment…

Among these were remnants of former rebel tribes: the old chief of the Wujiao Tribe, the young master Bi Jie of the Bifang Tribe, the son of the former Gao-Tu Tribe chief, the young master of the Wailing Ghost Tribe… and so on.

And above all, the most crucial factor was the Huà Clan’s hidden support.

When the Wujiao Tribe was defeated, Elder You sensed danger and fled early. Afterward, no one knew what methods he used or what backing he gained, but his karma grew obscure—so much so that Mo Hua could no longer track him for the time being.

While Mo Hua was reforming the Wilderness and shaping its Dao-heart, the Huà Clan continued to fund rebel forces, stirring up multiple uprisings.

Though the Wilderness was unified, undercurrents surged everywhere, and the threat of division remained.

Mo Hua had no choice but to send out troops to suppress them.

Dan-Zhu handled internal governance and the application of Divine-Shaman reforms; the suppression of rebellion fell to Lu-Gu.

Lu-Gu led the Shugu Tribe warriors in rebellion-quelling campaigns, and flames of war once again spread across the Wilderness.

The enemy hid in shadows while they stood in the light; Lu-Gu faced obstacles at every turn.

With a great clan like the Huà Clan meddling behind the scenes, the battles became extremely arduous.

Two months later, once Mo Hua freed his hands, he personally took the field again as the Divine-Shaman.

This time, he brought two “generals.”

One was the undying giant commander Shi-Gu—his mountainous body of flesh imperishable.

The other bore dragon patterns over his entire form, like a black dragon incarnate—noble in bloodline and physically mighty to the point of being “Golden Core invincible”…

The “Wujiao Young Chieftain.”

In their previous battle, the Young Chieftain’s Divine-Soul had been obliterated by Mo Hua’s Divine-Sense sword; naturally, his body fell into Mo Hua’s possession.

The Wujiao Young Chieftain had been a peerless, formidable figure.

Had there been no war and stable peace, Mo Hua would not have wished to use his body.

But now, with remnants of the Wujiao Tribe and other rebels continually stirring chaos, Mo Hua could no longer afford restraint.

Shi-Gu was a killing machine, terrifying enough to shake any foe.

But the Wujiao Young Chieftain was an even more unstoppable war god—his draconic body unmatched, his might widely known.

Thus, when the dead, once-invincible Wujiao Young Chieftain appeared as a “servant,” obeying Mo Hua’s commands and slaughtering enemies before him, the blow to rebel morale was devastating.

A single glance at those dragon patterns was enough to cow the battlefield.

No one dared face him.

And behind him stood Mo Hua—the dreadful Divine-Shaman wielding terrifying “Divine Punishment.”

Just one cold look from Mo Hua made Golden Core rebel generals tremble in soul and body, their will to fight collapsing instantly.

They could only flee. To stay meant death.

Wherever Mo Hua appeared, rebel forces scattered in panic, collapsing without battle.

In under a month, Mo Hua crushed the rebels like snapping dead branches, quelling the Wilderness uprisings.

Afterward, the Wilderness enjoyed a brief peace.

Once the suppressions ended, Mo Hua returned to the Vermilion Bird Mountain Realm.

A month later, after preliminary preparations, he was ready to form his Golden Core.

…

14th year of the Great Wilderness New Calendar. 6th year of the Divine-Shaman’s Era. Spring.

3rd-grade Vermilion Bird Mountain Realm, Grand Hall of the Divine-Shaman.

Mo Hua sat alone, contemplating matters of core formation.

The Wood-White-Gold-Jade bones were already been forged.

The Yin-Wood Rejuvenation Formation, though strange in ways hard to describe, was running normally, nourishing Mo Hua’s vitality.

After continuous effort over these days, the Taotie Twelve-Meridian-Spiritual-Skeleton Formation had, at the cost of millions of spirit stones, finally produced its first properly nurtured spiritual skeleton:

The Hand-Tai-Yin Lung Meridian.

He had attempted the next meridian, but at this stage he simply could not feed them.

With the current spirit-stone reserves of the Barbarian Wilderness, it was utterly impossible to nurture even one more Taotie spiritual skeleton.

If he invoked the name of the Divine-Shaman to openly carry out “exploitation,” seizing vast resources, then yes—he could probably raise another one or two Taotie meridians.

But that would severely delay the reform of the Great Wilderness’s institutions and the construction of the Profound-Earth Grand Formation.

And besides—if he plundered the Barbarian Wilderness for personal gain, how would he be any different from the Huà Clan?

Mo Hua refused to make excuses for selfishness.

Moreover, from what he could tell, nurturing an additional Taotie meridian wouldn’t bring any fundamental improvement right now.

Thus, he could only use the Hand-Tai-Yin Lung Meridian—just one-twelfth of the Taotie spiritual skeleton—as his life-bound formation for core formation.

Aside from his Life-Bound Formation, everything else was already prepared. Back in the Great Void Sect, Venerable Elder Xun had even prepared most of it for him.

High-quality spirit liquid, a jade pendant to protect the heart-meridian, pills to restore blood-essence and vital-energy, calming sandalwood incense… and so on.

These were all essential items for any Core formation.

Elder Xun arranged it all as though caring for his own grandson.

In fact, he’d never even been this attentive to his actual grandson.

This greatly eased Mo Hua’s concerns.

With these preparations, it was basically enough.

He cultivated the Celestial Evolution Art; its bottleneck lay in Divine-Sense, not in Heavenly materials. That saved quite a lot of trouble.

And Mo Hua had only chosen this “cheap” Celestial Evolution Art because he was… well, broke — it didn’t require any rare heavenly spiritual materials, so he went with the budget option.

In the end, the Celestial Evolution Art did save “money,” but it didn’t save any “Divine-Sense.” It remained an absolute bottomless pit.

Fortunately, Mo Hua had already formed his Divine-Sense Core in advance, breaking through the Celestial Evolution art’s Golden Core bottleneck.

Once he settled the issue of the Life-Formation, he wouldn’t have to struggle much with forming his Golden Core.

There was, however, one key matter in core formation: the issue of “Core Grade.”

For most cultivators—especially the direct-line geniuses of the great sects and clans—this was extremely, extremely important. But for Mo Hua, it was almost irrelevant.

“Core Grade” referred to the grade of the Golden Core that a cultivator formed, as well as its appearance and characteristics.

Core Grade was closely tied to a cultivator’s spiritual root and cultivation method.

Mo Hua understood well that in the current cultivation system, spiritual roots determined the upper limit of what arts you could cultivate.

Whatever grade of spiritual root you had, that determined the highest grade of cultivation method you were allowed to learn.

For example, Mo Hua’s own spiritual root was Intermediate-lower grade, so at best he could only cultivate Intermediate-lower-grade arts. He could still cultivate downward—Inferior-upper-grade, inferior-middle-grade, inferior lower-grade…

But he could not cultivate upward into Intermediate-middle-grade or above, nor could he touch any Superior-grade arts.

This was the restriction set at birth by one’s spiritual root.

A poor spiritual root meant poorer methods, and naturally, one’s cultivation path would be limited.

In the cultivation world—especially in the great clans and major sects—“spiritual-root discrimination” and “cultivation-method discrimination” were rampant.

Mo Hua barely felt this in the Great Void Sect. First, because Venerable Elder Xun promoted equal teaching for all, and the sect’s ethos was upright.

Second, because Mo Hua’s reputation, relationships, and heaven-defying formations made him untouchable.

No one discriminated against him, and no one dared to.

But outside Great Void Sect, across the vast territory of Qianxue State and its many sects, spiritual-root and method discrimination were extremely common. Comparison and hierarchy between disciples were intense.

Poor spiritual root? Naturally lower-class.

Poor cultivation method? Even less face to show.

If even geniuses were judged like this, let alone rogue cultivators.

In the great sects, the admission rate for rogue cultivators dropped lower and lower each generation—they were almost a “dying species.”

Mo Hua had once been confused about this issue.

But after arriving in the Great Wilderness, seeing many tribal inheritances from top to bottom and personally promoting cultivation education, the picture became clearer.

This was essentially the great clans monopolizing inheritance and building scholarly barriers.

It was an entire system of cultivation-society stratification.

First, spiritual roots were bound to cultivation methods.

Whatever spiritual root you had, that was the only grade of arts you were allowed to learn.

Then, based on spiritual-root heredity, major clans would arrange marriages internally, continuously “breeding” children with Superior-grade roots.

Clans grew stronger; their children’s roots grew better.

Meanwhile, rogue cultivators—mostly Intermediate or Inferior-grade roots—could only marry within that pool, causing their overall aptitude to decline further.

Given enough time, it created: No Superior-grade roots among commoners; no Inferior-grade roots among the great clans.

Even if a Superior-grade cultivation art leaked out, a rogue with Inferior-grade roots couldn’t meet the requirement to learn it.

And the grade of one’s method directly affected the number of circulation cycles and the upper ceiling of one’s cultivation realm.

Add to that the widespread prejudice toward poor roots and low-tier methods…

Inferior-grade spiritual root rogue cultivators would always be trapped marrying among the same Inferior-grade-class circles, inheriting only lower-class traditions.

Spiritual root itself became a caste.

Cultivation methods became a barrier.

Across marriage, birth, spiritual roots, methods, and all kinds of inheritance, the upper and lower strata of the cultivation world naturally formed a system of “segregation.”

This was the issue of roots and methods.

The issue of Core Grade followed the same logic.

Spiritual roots determined the upper limit of one’s cultivation method; the method determined the upper limit of Core Grade.

Mo Hua’s own Intermediate-Lower-grade roots meant his Celestial Evolution Art was also “Intermediate-Lower-grade,” so at best his Golden Core could only reach “Intermediate-Lower grade.”

And that was the most ideal outcome.

Because that was the absolute “upper limit.”

If things went wrong, his Core Grade could slip—forming a Inferior-grade Golden Core wasn’t impossible.

Of course, Mo Hua didn’t think his luck was that bad.

And honestly, he didn’t worry much about this issue.

His spiritual root already fixed the upper limit. There was no breakthrough to hope for.

As long as he avoided dropping into a Inferior-grade core, that was enough—he had no business dreaming of anything more.

Sure, he wanted to form a “Superior-grade” Golden Core, but his aptitude didn’t allow it. It was fundamentally impossible.

In ordinary cultivation, Mo Hua knew he could never keep pace with the true prodigies.

Even the regular talents with simple Superior-lower-grade or Intermediate-upper-grade roots—he couldn’t compete with them.

So in terms of spiritual-power cultivation, he had long since adopted a “just let me pass” mindset.. As long as he could form the core, who cared if the quality was awful?

But just because he didn’t care didn’t mean others didn’t.

Practically every prodigy treated Core Quality and Core Grade with extreme caution—borderline panic.

Especially those with top-tier and superior-tier roots.

The peak geniuses—with the Superior-grade roots cultivating the Superior-grade arts—had to form the Superior-grade Golden Core. Failure was not an option.

If their core slipped even slightly, even by one tier, it was a nightmare for them.

A Superior-upper-grade core and an Superior-middle-grade core were worlds apart.

One was the absolute pinnacle among Golden Cores; the other was merely “mid-tier genius.”

Therefore, these apex prodigies bore immense pressure and even fear during Core Formation.

Not a single grade was allowed to fall!

And geniuses with Superior-lower-grade spirit roots were equally anxious.

Because if Superior-lower dropped one rank, it would fall to Intermediate-upper.

This boundary marked the divide between Superior-grade and Intermediate-grade—a gulf like heaven and earth.

If someone was truly unlucky and slipped… then all the foundation of proudly being a “Superior-grade prodigy” would vanish completely.

This, too, was a dire prospect.

Thus, no prodigy forming their core ever approached the matter of core grade without racking their brains, exhausting every thought, and trembling with anxiety.

Ironically, it was only Mo Hua—with his lousy spiritual root—who didn’t worry nearly as much.