Chapter 1338: Demonic Shadow

Chapter 1337: Demonic Shadow

Stepping into the Great Wilderness Royal Court, an ancient aura rushed toward him.

Divine towers stood in dense clusters, sacred runes spread everywhere; magnificent ancient halls were seen at every turn. Grand avenues soared high and stretched in all directions—an indescribably majestic and awe-inspiring sight.

This looked nothing like a low-dimensional, barbaric cultivation civilization.

Even Mo Hua felt shaken at the sight.

He could not help but think that if this Royal Court were at its peak, what kind of overwhelming imperial splendor it must once have possessed…

No sooner had the thought arisen than Mo Hua’s vision suddenly grew hazy. Vaguely, he saw a vast land where divine towers pierced the heavens, ancient halls loomed in solemn grandeur, countless believers knelt on the ground, three thousand barbarian gods bowed toward the sky, the sun blazed overhead, and the Divine-Lord’s Great Dao unified all beneath heaven.

But in the blink of an eye, the divine towers collapsed, the ancient halls weathered into dust, the believers’ faith turned corrupt, the barbarian gods grew ferocious and twisted, and even the Divine-Lord began to degenerate…

Everything withered away.

When Mo Hua focused his gaze again, it was all gone. Amid the shattered towers and ruined halls before him, only Dao soldiers were slaughtering.

The Royal Court’s barbarian troops, clad in barbarian armor, were fighting fiercely against the Dao soldiers.

The Royal Court’s common people, dressed in animal hides, also rose up to resist the Dao soldiers’ massacre.

The entire Royal Court city was engulfed in bloodshed and chaos.

Neither side uttered a single word… only blood feud and killing.

From the Dao Court’s perspective, the Great Wilderness had rebelled; all of the Great Wilderness were traitors who deserved death.

From the barbarian tribes’ perspective, the Dao Court was ruthlessly slaughtering the people of the Great Wilderness, committing unforgivable crimes and likewise deserving death.

Mo Hua found it difficult to tell who was right and who was wrong.

Perhaps from the very beginning, this war had been an “unjust” one, manufactured purely to seize benefit and create slaughter.

And Mo Hua was powerless to change anything.

In matters of this scale—Profound-Hollow-Void scheming behind the scenes, Feathered Ascension cultivators entering battle, millions of Dao soldiers locked in combat, nations falling and entire races being wiped out—Mo Hua, at this moment, simply could not influence how events unfolded.

After all, he was merely “Mo Hua,” not the Desolate wilderness’s “Divine-Shaman.”

Even if he were a Divine-Shaman, he still could not control a game above the fourth rank.

He could only watch as countless people went to their deaths.

Fourth rank…

Scenes of Feathered Ascension cultivators soaring into the sky, the true qi of the Great Cycle transforming into world-shaking Dao arts of slaughter, surfaced again in his mind. Mo Hua could not help but think:

“If I became a Feathered Ascension cultivator—able to step into the heavens, with Divine-Sense reaching across the land—would the situation now be different? Would the fates of those who died in this war also be changed…”

Standing atop the city wall and gazing at the field of carnage below, Mo Hua frowned, lost in thought, when someone suddenly patted his shoulder.

Bai Zisheng said, “What are you thinking about? Hurry into the inner Royal Court, find the Dragon Pool, and form your core first.”

Mo Hua was startled. “Right… I need to form my core first…”

Bai Zisheng flicked his long spear, knocking several barbarian soldiers flying, and said to Mo Hua, “The situation is too chaotic. The sooner you form your core, the better. If you delay, who knows what other changes might occur…”

Mo Hua nodded. “Alright.”

Without further hesitation, the two leapt onto the rooftops of the palaces along the way, activated their movement techniques, and fled together toward the depths of the Royal Court.

The Royal Court had completely fallen into chaos, killing was happening everywhere.

As the Dao soldiers invaded, slaughter spread like a “plague,” from the outer city all the way toward the inner Royal Court.

Mo Hua did not know exactly where the Dragon Pool was, but generally speaking, such a secret place could only be built deep within the Royal Court.

He and Bai Zisheng could only follow the flow of people toward the inner court of the Royal Court city.

But the Great Wilderness Royal Court was vast, with countless palaces, and the situation was far more chaotic than they had imagined.

When Mo Hua crossed a long street and stepped onto the stairs inside a palace, the ground suddenly bulged upward.

Mo Hua’s Divine-Sense flared in warning. His gaze flickered, water mist stirred, and his figure vanished.

In the next instant, a rotting hand stretched out from the spot and grabbed at empty air.

That decayed hand had been hidden underground, apparently lying in ambush for passing cultivators.

As Mo Hua passed by, it reached up from beneath the earth, trying to seize him, but failed. The rotten, fleshy palm trembled in fury.

In the next moment, Bai Zisheng stomped down, crushing the entire rotting hand out of shape.

The hand flew into a rage, writhing like a giant worm as it crawled out from underground, revealing its true form.

It was a grotesque corpse, its arm as thick as its torso.

Though Mo Hua was an orthodox cultivator, he was well-versed in corpse refinement. At a glance, he recognized it as one of the demonic corpse breeds: the Long-Armed Worm Corpse.

This type of worm corpse could burrow underground like an insect.

Once a living person passed by, it would extend its arm, drag them underground, and gnaw them to pieces.

Such corpses were the most insidious.

Bai Zisheng sneered and threw a punch. His fist thundered like lightning, blasting the Long-Armed Worm Corpse into minced flesh.

Mo Hua turned his head. His pupils shimmered with a faint golden light, and he saw that beneath the ground, it was like radishes planted one per pit, densely packed with these Long-Armed Worm Corpses.

These worm corpses were dead things, silent and still. Any Dao soldier who passed by would be suddenly seized by a long arm, dragged underground, have their flesh devoured, and die as corpse poison gnawed at their heart.

“Corpse cultivators…”

Mo Hua frowned slightly.

Unwilling to invite unnecessary trouble, he said, “Senior Brother, stay close to me.”

Bai Zisheng nodded and followed behind him.

Mo Hua moved like flowing water, his toes lightly touching the ground as he avoided every corpse pit along the way.

The two pressed forward and entered another palace complex. Before them stretched a long corridor, rooms lining both sides. Red-painted beams, mandarin-duck doors, pink gauze curtains—powdery fragrances drifted through the air, mingled with the sounds of men and women entwined in pleasure.

Mo Hua stopped before one door. The sounds of intimate union reached his ears, and he could not help but glance sideways.

Inside the room, the boudoir was steeped in ambiguity. On the bed, an alluring, naked woman clung to a robust Dao soldier like an octopus, entwined with him to the point of madness.

The scene was seductive, but Mo Hua’s gaze was sharp. At a glance, he saw that the woman was a demonic cultivator, her lips pressed to the man’s as she siphoned away his yang energy.

As Mo Hua saw her, the alluring woman also turned her watery, lust-filled eyes toward him.

Upon seeing Mo Hua’s painting-like face, she froze for a moment. Then the desire in her eyes grew even more hazy. She discarded the man in her arms as worthless trash, her body twisting like a beauty serpent as she rushed toward Mo Hua, red lips parting in temptation:

“What a beautiful young master. You make this concubine burn with desire, why not stay and dual-cultivate with me, and share in the ultimate pleasures of this mortal world…”

Her voice was soft and dripping, and as she spoke, she swayed her graceful waist and pounced toward Mo Hua.

In Mo Hua’s eyes, her beautiful face drew closer and closer… then in the next instant, a long spear pierced straight through her forehead.

That seductive face instantly became a bloody mess, horrifying to behold.

Mo Hua turned his head and looked at Bai Zisheng.

Bai Zisheng flicked his spear, flinging the “beauty serpent” aside, and said coldly, “What trash… daring to come up to my face.”

Mo Hua said, “Let’s go.”

Bai Zisheng nodded.

The two continued onward through the pink corridor. The entire passage was like a demonic boudoir of female cultivators—water sleeves, gauze, and aphrodisiac poisons drifting through the air, luring men into rooms to drain their yang and devour their souls.

Mo Hua avoided most of it.

Those he couldn’t avoid—or any women who dared approach—were run through by Bai Zisheng’s spear.

But other Dao soldiers passing through, if their will faltered even slightly, would be dragged into the boudoirs to enjoy one final moment of bliss before dying beneath the peonies.

After passing through these “pink boudoirs,” Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng arrived at another palace.

The style shifted abruptly, the ambiguous pink turned directly into a brutal red.

Blood covered the ground. Lamps burned with human fat. A group of cultivators with human bodies and wolf heads clutched severed limbs and gnawed on them.

The floor was littered with the mutilated corpses of Dao soldiers hacked apart by great blades.

Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng’s pupils tightened slightly.

A dog-headed demonic cultivator looked at Mo Hua, tossed aside the half-eaten arm in his mouth, and grinned wide. “Fresh food’s here—nice and tender.”

In the next instant, his dog head was blasted apart by Bai Zisheng’s spear.

Mo Hua shook his head faintly.

The explosion of the dog head sent blood spraying everywhere, igniting the savagery of the other demonic cultivators. One after another, they twisted their faces into ferocious snarls:

“Impudent!”

“Lowly human beasts, you dare resist!”

They transformed into monstrous forms—pigs, dogs, wolves, leopards—and charged at Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng.

Mo Hua’s fingers tapped rapidly. One Water Prison Technique after another descended, immobilizing the demonic cultivators.

Bai Zisheng swept his spear horizontally, slaughtering the demonic and beast cultivators in one fell stroke, blood splattering across the ground.

The stench of blood spread, drawing even more beast cultivators from deeper within the hall.

There was even one powerful beast cultivator whose lower body was human and upper body a tiger. His cultivation was clearly late Golden Core. A vast, fetid sea of blood qi surged around him, demonic aura billowing.

Mo Hua’s gaze sharpened. “Go.”

Bai Zisheng nodded as well.

Seeing the two about to leave, the late–stage Golden Core tiger beast cultivator’s pupils slit upright as he snarled viciously, “You bastards kill my comrades and still think you can leave?”

With a casual wave of his hand, a razor-sharp blood claw tore through the air toward them.

Bai Zisheng leveled his spear and shielded Mo Hua, forcibly taking the blood claw head-on.

The blow was immensely powerful. Bai Zisheng staggered back more than ten steps and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Though his bloodline talent was formidable, he was still only at Foundation Establishment. The gap in cultivation was far too great, and coupled with his previous severe injuries, blocking that strike left him badly hurt.

Across from him, the tiger beast cultivator’s vertical pupils trembled as well.

Though it had been a casual strike without full force, his cultivation was late-stage Golden Core, and he practiced ferocious tiger demonic arts. That single claw should have torn through a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and even an early Golden Core might have been gutted on the spot.

Yet this Foundation Establishment youth had actually endured it?

What kind of monster was this kid?

“Kill him!” the Tiger beast cultivator’s gaze turned savage as he was about to press the advantage and finish Bai Zisheng… when the corner of his eye caught a pair of eyes.

They were noble and cold eyes, golden, black and white interwoven.

Like a lofty god gazing down upon the mortal world.

And within them lurked a murderous aura, vast and chilling as the sea.

The late–stage Golden Core Tiger beast cultivator froze, feeling as though he had fallen into an icy abyss, unable to move at all.

By the time he came back to his senses, the space before him was empty, the two brats were gone without a trace.

The tiger beast cultivator’s pupils shook violently. “This… what kind of freak was that…?”

A dog-headed beast cultivator sidled up and whispered, “Hall Master, should we pursue?”

The tiger beast cultivator’s expression darkened. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Handle the main business first. Fill our bellies, then we’ll chase them down…”

Those two brats must both be killed.

If not, they would become great threats.

“Yes…” A group of beast cultivators resumed slaughtering Dao soldiers—and even some of the Great Wilderness’s barbarian cultivators—eating flesh, drinking blood, and holding a grotesque feast.

…

Elsewhere, atop the beams of the grand hall.

Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng caught their breath.

Bai Zisheng frowned. “Corpse Dao, dual-cultivation, Beast cultivators… these are all vile beasts of the demonic path. How did they end up in the Great Wilderness’s Royal Court?”

Mo Hua’s gaze sank as he shook his head. “The demonic path is like maggots—where there is decay, they infiltrate everywhere. This war between the Great Wilderness Royal Court and the Dao Court may have fallen into the demonic path’s calculations from the very start. They’ve been waiting all along…”

Bai Zisheng nodded slightly.

A thought stirred in Mo Hua’s heart, and he couldn’t help recalling what happened in Li Province.

When the Great Wilderness rebelled and Li Province descended into chaos, corpse cultivators had massacred entire cities.

Later, when he escorted Elder Ji south, that lecherous elder had also died under the techniques of the Joyous-Union Sect.

These Demonic Dao cultivators… perhaps they had made their arrangements long ago.

The only question was whether their appearance in the Royal Court was simply to kill and cultivate their Demonic Dao techniques, or whether—like everyone else—they were here for the Great Wilderness’s “Dragon Pool”…

Mo Hua frowned slightly.

Bai Zisheng suddenly coughed, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Mo Hua looked at him with concern. “Little Senior Brother, are you alright?”

“Mm.” Bai Zisheng wiped the blood from his lips. “Just a minor injury.”

Mo Hua’s eyes turned cold. He firmly etched the appearance of that Tiger beast cultivator into his memory, then handed Bai Zisheng a pill.

Bai Zisheng never took pills given by others… except those from his little junior brother.

He accepted the pill and swallowed it. Afterward, his injuries eased slightly.

Mo Hua also realized that continuing like this wouldn’t work.

This was the Great Wilderness Royal Court, a fourth-rank land. Although both sides’ Feathered Ascension experts were temporarily unable to act, Golden Core cultivators still could.

At this moment, within the Royal Court, the number of Golden Core cultivators from the Dao Court, the great clans, the Royal Court itself, and the Demonic Dao combined was probably countless.

Without the suppression of the Heavenly Dao, no matter how strong his Little Senior Brother was, he couldn’t possibly stand against a crowd of Golden Core cultivators.

Early-stage Golden Core opponents might not frighten him, but mid-stage Golden Core would already be a strain.

As for late-stage Golden Core, Little Senior Brother definitely wouldn’t be a match.

And his own Divine-Sense was at twenty-four patterns.

That meant that any mid-stage Golden Core cultivator with fewer than twenty-four Divine-Sense patterns could be killed in a single thought with the Great Void Divine-Slaying Sword.

The price would be one straw-dog.

But against late-stage Golden Core, he was equally powerless, and could only flee.

At this very moment, within the Great Wilderness Royal Court, there were likely quite a few late-stage Golden Core cultivators, and even Peak-stage Golden Core cultivators.

Without True-Person Zhuge, a Feathered Ascension expert’s protection, any of these major Golden Core cultivators in the Royal Court could threaten both him and his Little Senior Brother.

Especially his Little Senior Brother.

If Mo Hua couldn’t win, he could rely on movement techniques, concealment arts, and strong Divine-Sense to escape.

But his Little Senior Brother was a prime target, if he got surrounded, escaping would be extremely difficult.

After some thought, Mo Hua took out a long robe and handed it to Bai Zisheng. “For concealment. Put it on—we’ll keep a low profile.”

Bai Zisheng took the robe, his heart stirring with sudden nostalgia.

Back when they were wandering the world, he, Zixi, and his little junior brother had done exactly this, draped in concealment robes, tailing suspects and investigating cases together.

So many years had passed. He had long since grown used to fighting alone, bathing in blood and slaughter.

These underhanded, sneaky tactics—so very much his junior brother’s style—he had almost forgotten them.

Bai Zisheng put on the concealment robe. His heart felt warm, and he asked Mo Hua, “What do we do next?”

Mo Hua thought for a moment. “We go find someone.”

“Who?” Bai Zisheng asked.

“Dan-Ling,” Mo Hua said.

Bai Zisheng froze. “Who?”

Mo Hua was speechless. “Didn’t I tell you already? The number-one beauty of the Great Wilderness, the Royal Court’s Divine Maiden, Dan-Ling. Since she’s from the Royal Court, she must know the secrets of the Dragon Pool. If we find her, we might be able to ask out some clues.”

Mo Hua glanced at Bai Zisheng and lowered his voice. “Aren’t there rumors saying you have a thing going on with that Royal Court demoness?”

Bai Zisheng’s face darkened. “What nonsense are you spouting? You’re the one who has a thing going on with that demoness…”