Chapter 674: Enlightenment
Chapter 674: Enlightenment
Huang Shankun vaguely felt that there was a hint of enlightenment about the Dao within Mo Hua, this little one. At times, he didn't even seem human, but rather a young deity born with an innate understanding of the Dao.
But in the blink of an eye, this impression changed.
Mo Hua, having just finished devouring the lamb leg, wiped his greasy hands on his clothes like any ordinary, carefree young cultivator.
Half divine, above the Dao, and half human, beneath it, intertwining.
Huang Shankun's expression turned dreamy.
Mo Hua, unaware of Huang Shankun's thoughts, continued to ponder the knowledge the mountain spirit had imparted, feeling greatly benefited by it. Not only had his knowledge expanded, but his perspective on cultivation had also broadened.
However, this type of knowledge was profound and intricate. Many details were vague and ambiguous, making it challenging to comprehend all at once.
Mo Hua, who had hastily devoured this newfound knowledge, struggled to "digest" it all. He quietly committed the key points to memory, mulling them over in his mind before asking a few more scattered questions.
Huang Shankun, his mind somewhat elsewhere, nonetheless answered each one.
And so it continued until the sky gradually darkened, painted with the hues of sunset. It was then that Mo Hua bid farewell.
Before leaving, Mo Hua presented Huang Shankun with more fruits, spiritual meats, and drinks, saying thoughtfully, "It's lonely and desolate in these mountains, with not a soul in sight. Take these offerings and enjoy them slowly. I'll come visit again when I have the time..."
Huang Shankun's expression grew complex.
Mo Hua wiped his hands on his clothes once more, carefully collected the bones he had cleaned, placing them back into his storage bag, and then rose to his feet. Jumping down from the offering table, he started to walk out, but Huang Shankun called out to stop him.
"Little friend..." Huang Shankun's voice was gentle.
Mo Hua turned around, looking at him with curiosity.
Huang Shankun, shrouded in white mist, his figure vague within the mountain spirit's clay statue, spoke with a somewhat indistinct voice.
"Qian Xuezhou is not a place to linger for long."
"Once you reach the late Qi Refining stage in your cultivation at the sect, it would be best to leave. Even if some years pass, do not remain there for more than a decade..."
"Within ten years... it should still be manageable..."
Huang Shankun's voice grew softer, his final words almost inaudible.
Mo Hua furrowed his brows, wanting to ask why, but seeing Huang Shankun's indifferent gaze and fluctuating expression, he refrained from asking. Instead, he nodded and said, "Thank you, Mountain Spirit. I'll keep that in mind."
Huang Shankun breathed a slight sigh of relief and bowed his hands together. "I won't see you out. Take care on your journey, little friend."
Mo Hua stood at the door of the dilapidated temple, returning the bow before turning and leaving.
Huang Shankun remained seated within the clay statue, his gaze peaceful as he watched Mo Hua's small figure disappear into the distance, as if bidding farewell to an old friend.
Old friend? Huang Shankun felt a sense of bewilderment.
When was the last time I had such company?
Time flies, and with it, things change. With the cycle of life and death, the decline of the divine path, where are my old friends now? In the face of heavenly secrets and changing fate, just staying alive is a blessing...
Huang Shankun lifted his gaze to the sky, his slender eyes growing more solemn.
"The sky... it's growing darker..."
"A pity that mortals with their fleshly eyes cannot see..."
"I wonder if this humble temple on this barren mountain can still shelter me from the wind and rain..."
From the depths of the mountain temple came a deep sigh.
...
Mo Hua left the barren mountain and made his way to Qingzhou City to visit the Gu family. He sought out Wan Ayi to inquire about array formation refining and chatted with Uncle Gu, subtly probing for updates on the reward for the Fire Buddha. After freeloading a meal, he finally returned to the sect.
Back at the sect, Mo Hua lay on the table, taking out paper and brush to begin organizing and reflecting on the knowledge he had gained from Huang Shankun regarding the ways of the divine.
Array formations are power. Spells are power. Spiritual sense is power.
Cultivation knowledge is also a form of power.
With extensive knowledge, one can exploit differences in understanding and outmaneuver others.
On the other hand, a lack of knowledge can lead to cognitive blind spots, and one may end up being outmaneuvered instead.
Thus, new cultivation knowledge must be firmly remembered, carefully considered, and thoroughly summarized to be turned into one's own and integrated into one's understanding of cultivation.
The topic of the divine was vast and varied.
Mo Hua began to organize his thoughts on paper, gradually enhancing his understanding of cultivation.
First was the question of the existence of divine souls.
Based on his conversation with the non-human mountain spirit, his "good friend" Huang Shankun, Mo Hua could infer that...
"Divine soul" was a broad term.
Any formless consciousness could be referred to as a "divine soul."
The spiritual sense of humans, the demonic thoughts of demons, the will of deities, the ghostly thoughts of ghosts, and the evil thoughts of fiends were all essentially divine souls.
In Mo Hua's understanding of cultivation thus far, the "divine" and the "physical" were inseparable.
The divine could not exist independently of the physical.
Even innate deities, who embodied the principles of the Dao and possessed powerful and pure divine soul energy, required a physical form, such as a statue or another parasitic object.
When the physical body of an evil god is destroyed, it must find another body to inhabit.
Mo Hua thought back...
Like the black-robed leader, whose flesh was destroyed by Mo Hua's small meteor technique.
The evil god's eye on his forehead had tried to escape and take refuge in Mo Hua's forehead.
If evil gods acted this way, it was even more so for other orthodox deities.
The divine and the physical were interconnected and interdependent.
Based on this inference, if the main statue of a deity were to be destroyed, the consequences could be dire. At worst, the deity's source would be damaged, and its vitality severely weakened. In extreme cases, it might even be forced to parasitize flesh and turn into an evil god...
However, this was merely Mo Hua's current speculation. Whether it was true or not remained to be verified in the future when he had the time.
Apart from deities, there were other divine soul beings in the world, such as ghosts.
Ghosts were different from deities.
Mo Hua propped his chin in his hand as he recalled some of the evil ghosts he had encountered thus far, reflecting on them in his mind.
First was the green-faced little ghost in the mountain and river painting from Black Mountain Village, who had transformed into a Taoist boy.
The little ghost was a ghostly thought, a parasitic entity that inhabited a mountain and river landscape painting.
Ghosts had their unique characteristics.
Mo Hua's memory retained some fragmented scenes—snippets that had flashed through his mind after devouring the little ghost's evil thoughts.
In these fragments, a young Taoist boy was studying immortality with a Taoist master deep in the mountains.
The Taoist master was reading a strange book, and as the boy watched, their expressions gradually became sinister, and they developed a craving for human flesh.
The Taoist boy colluded with his master, deceiving traveling cultivators and luring them in to be devoured.
Soon, a sword cultivator clad in white arrived, stepping on the clouds. With a single sword strike, he slew the Taoist priest who had turned into the red-faced evil spirit.
However, the little Taoist boy who had become the blue-faced little demon managed to escape this calamity by fleeing into the painting, only to be sealed away within the Taoist temple...
...
Based on Huang Shankun's tales of gods and ghosts, Mo Hua surmised that the book the Taoist priest and his apprentice were reading was likely a demonic cultivation technique of some sort.
Upon practicing this technique, the two had become "demon cultivators," their bodies transforming into fierce ghosts.
The act of "eating" people probably referred to consuming their spiritual sense.
And according to Huang Shankun, when a ghost eats a person, they start with their closest relatives...
Mo Hua pondered this for a moment, and a possibility occurred to him.
Perhaps this Taoist apprentice was actually the son of the Taoist priest.
Fearing that he would become a vicious ghost after cultivating the demonic technique, the priest might have given his son the same knowledge so that they could become ghosts together and "eat" others as a team.
Thus, a father and son duo of ghosts was formed.
The priest was the father, the red-faced evil ghost.
And the apprentice was the son, the blue-faced little demon.
Connected by blood and cultivating the same technique, the ghosts they became were also inherently linked.
Later, when the white-robed sword cultivator arrived to slay the ghosts, the powerful red-faced evil ghost was killed, while the seemingly much weaker blue-faced little demon managed to escape. This didn't quite align with common sense.
It seemed more likely that...
The red-faced evil ghost, knowing his demise was certain, chose to hold off the powerful enemy, sacrificing himself to ensure his son, the blue-faced little demon, could escape unscathed.
Even as an evil ghost, he displayed a hint of... human emotion? Mo Hua was taken aback, unsure how to describe this turn of events.
There was one more thing that caught Mo Hua's attention.
The white-robed sword cultivator's ability to slay ghosts with his sword energy...
Could it be that he cultivated a similar technique, transforming his spiritual sense into a sword? Could he possibly be a senior sword cultivator from Tai Xu Gate?
Mo Hua's mouth hung open as he was astonished by his own conjecture.
"It's probably just a coincidence, right...?"
Mo Hua furrowed his brows, thinking it over, and then shook his head.
After all, it was just a guess.
Now that the red-faced evil ghost was dead, the blue-faced little demon had been "eaten" by him, and the identity of the white-robed sword cultivator was vague and difficult to discern, it would be challenging to verify his theory.
However, this didn't matter much.
Mo Hua reconsidered the sequence of events, nodding slightly as he organized the information in his mind.
With the knowledge of divine and ghostly studies, his understanding of the Taoist apprentice who turned into the blue-faced fanged ghost in the Mountain and River Painting became much clearer.
Some of his hazy and unclear experiences from the past were now making more sense as his cultivation journey progressed and his knowledge expanded.
Mo Hua felt a sense of enlightenment, as if his mind was resonating with the truth.
After contemplating the painting, the second malevolent presence he sensed was the ancestor portrait of Zhang Quan, the corpse cultivator from Nan Yue City.
Zhang Quan, connected to his lineage of ancestors, was a "corpse" while alive, and strictly speaking, should be considered a "ghost" after death.
However, the form he manifested after death was that of various "zombies."
But this raised a question: "If ghosts eat people, starting with their closest relatives, why didn't Zhang Quan's ancestral portrait, filled with a whole family of corpse ghosts, eat him first?"
Mo Hua knitted his brows.
Could it be that the reason the Zhang family of corpse cultivators had declined to the point where only Zhang Quan remained was that...
They had been secretly "eaten" by their ancestors? And if Zhang Quan were to be consumed as well, the Zhang family line would come to an end.
Perhaps Zhang Quan's ancestors had the foresight to restrain the corpse ghosts of their lineage, leaving Zhang Quan as the sole survivor to carry on the family name?
Or maybe it had something to do with the uniqueness of the Zhang family's "ancestor portrait"? Perhaps this particular contemplation painting was naturally suited for ghostly beings to inhabit?
Mo Hua was extremely curious about this.
He wanted to find Zhang Quan or the ancestral corpse ghosts of the Zhang family to seek verification, but unfortunately, they had all been "stewed" and then "swallowed" whole.
When Mo Hua "swallowed" them, his spiritual sense was already quite strong.
And since the corpse cultivators' ghostly thoughts had been thoroughly destroyed, he hadn't been able to retrieve much of their remaining memories.
Mo Hua felt a sense of loss about this.
However, the incident with the Zhang family's contemplation painting reminded him of something...
Mo Hua recalled that he still had the blank contemplation painting that was left behind after the Zhang family of corpse ghosts had been "exterminated." It was stored within his storage bag.
And within that painting now resided a new occupant—the strange eye-like Five Elements Source Pattern from the Five Elements Sect.
Mo Hua paused, a chill running down his spine.
Strange eyes...
With its own malevolent will, capable of splitting and parasitizing, imbued with the principles of the Five Elements...
Could this Five Elements Source Pattern possibly be a...
Evil God?!
Mo Hua inhaled sharply, feeling a chill.
Have I been carrying an Evil God with me all this time? he wondered. "Could it be...?"
Ever since he had failed to decipher the Five Elements Array Formation due to the extremely low probability, the Five Elements Array Flow Diagram that sealed the Five Elements Source Pattern had been tossed into his storage bag, forgotten and gathering metaphorical dust.
But now, as he thought about it, the secrets contained within that Source Pattern were probably far from ordinary...
Mo Hua considered retrieving the Five Elements Array Flow Diagram to take a look, but then he dismissed the idea.
Ignorance is bliss.
Before, he hadn't paid much attention to it because he hadn't known the full story.
But now that he was aware of the strange existence of the Source Pattern and suspected it might be an Evil God, he felt it prudent to exercise some caution.
He decided to wait for a while...
Until his cultivation level and spiritual sense improved further, or until he had "consumed" more divine marrow and his spiritual sense underwent another qualitative change. Then he would take the time to carefully examine this Source Pattern.
Aside from these, Mo Hua couldn't recall any other "ghosts" from his memory.
The only other beings that came to mind were the "demons" from Yu'er's nightmares.
Mo Hua furrowed his brows.
These "demons" were rather unique, with their misshapen forms and limbs that combined human and animal features. They didn't seem like typical "ghosts."
Could they be... malevolent entities between heaven and earth? Or were they puppets or servants under the control of an Evil God? Mo Hua wrote the words "demon" and "evil spirit" on the paper, adding the notes "malevolent entity" and "Evil God's servant."
This was just a preliminary guess.
Once he encountered more of these "demons" and understood their true nature, he would correct his assumption if necessary.
Mo Hua had managed to differentiate between ghostly thoughts and malevolent entities.
Next, he turned his attention to deities.
Regarding divine beings, Mo Hua recalled that Huang Shankun hadn't shared a lot of information, and he suspected that some things were being concealed.
For instance, the secrets of cultivation realms and divine tiers.
Aside from wandering gods and mountain gods, what other divine beings existed?
And because humans have weak divine consciousness, they are unable to see these deities?
The quality of divine marrow corresponds to specific colors of the Great Dao. Where can one find the pure golden, jade-white, and glazed divine marrow?
...
The more Mo Hua learned, the more he realized how little he knew.
The world is indeed profound...
Mo Hua shook his head and sighed.
Huang Shankun didn't tell him about these things. Perhaps he didn't know, or perhaps he knew but chose not to say.
Mo Hua couldn't force him. After all, one shouldn't do unto others what one doesn't want others to do unto them. He, too, had some secrets he didn't want to share with others.
For now, the knowledge he gained about the divine was sufficient.
Based on these "divine secrets" and other information Huang Shankun had shared, Mo Hua began to plan his next steps.
First was the Divine Consciousness Sword Manifestation.
The Great Void Divine Consciousness Sword Manifestation!
This divine consciousness sword technique should be hidden within the Great Void Sect.
However, Mo Hua had inquired for a long time without finding many clues, so he could only remain vigilant and continue his search in the future.
Mo Hua couldn't help but daydream.
When he grew older and taller, he would wear the eye-catching white robe of the Great Void Sect like his seniors. Then, he would ride the clouds with his sword, and whenever he encountered evil spirits and demons, he would manifest his divine consciousness into a sword and slay them.
It would be so cool...
The more Mo Hua thought about it, the more determined he became to master this divine consciousness sword technique.
Next was the Divine Array.
Since it was an array, Mo Hua naturally wanted to learn it.
Moreover, having learned the Heaven's Dao Principle, he had already boarded the "pirate ship," and it was likely that he would "offend" evil gods in the future.
A divine array that could restrain deities was obviously of utmost importance.
Unfortunately, Huang Shankun, being a mountain god, didn't understand arrays. He had only heard that such arrays existed but knew nothing more.
Was it a variation of the Two Extremes, Three Powers, Four Symbols, Five Elements, or Eight Trigrams array? Or was it a completely different branch of arrays?
He would have to find out and comprehend it himself.
Mo Hua was curious and eager.
Both the Divine Consciousness Sword Manifestation and the Divine Array would require time and patience to uncover; they couldn't be rushed.
The most critical issue at hand was his cultivation level.
He had to find a way to obtain "divine marrow" to further transform his spiritual sense and clear the obstacles for his Foundation Establishment.
Divine marrow was extremely precious.
It could only be found within deities.
Among the deities he knew, there was only Huang Shankun, but no matter what, he couldn't possibly harm Huang Shankun, his good friend, and extract his divine marrow.
Huang Shankun was a good friend!
Not only was Huang Shankun off-limits, but he also couldn't consider harming other righteous deities.
This left only one option—a path filled with taboos and bloodshed.
Hunting evil gods!
Mo Hua sighed softly.
Evil gods were too powerful.
With his current level of divine consciousness, he was no match for them.
However, through his understanding of deities, Mo Hua had also discovered some loopholes.
As Huang Shankun had said:
"Evil gods will propagate and spread their influence..."
"...A powerful evil god will often divide its divine body into numerous first-rate, second-rate, or third-rate 'divine remains,' scattering them across the various low-grade state domains of the Nine Provinces to spread evil with the widest reach, feeding off the desires of humans who fall into depravity..."
He dared not target the unified and powerful divine body of an evil god.
However, the "divine remains" that were spread across the Nine Provinces to propagate their influence were mostly first-rate and second-rate in terms of cultivation.
He could forget about the third-rate ones; they were definitely no match for him.
But he should be able to handle first-rate and second-rate evil god remains.
He had to pick the softest persimmons to pinch.
When it came to evil gods, he had to pick the smallest ones to eat.
Mo Hua nodded.
The golden evil eye that had parasitized the black-robed leader was likely one of the "divine remains" used by the Great Desolation's Master for propagation after dividing its divine body.
As long as he prepared thoroughly, kept a low profile, and secretly "consumed" one or two evil god remains without arousing suspicion, the Great Desolation's Master probably wouldn't notice.
After all, Mo Hua had heard that eye say, "The Great Desolation is infinite, with countless divine remains..."
Whether this "countless" was an exaggeration to emphasize the Great Desolation's strength and the abundance of its divine remains or an actual fact was unclear.
Regardless, the number of divine remains was definitely not small.
Eating one or two wouldn't hurt, and the Great Desolation's Master, in its grandeur, probably wouldn't bother with such trivial matters.
He just had to be discreet and hopefully not draw its attention.
There was another problem, though.
Once he devoured "divine marrow," his divinity would strengthen, but his humanity would crumble, and his initial heart and Dao heart would become colder and more indifferent.
Mo Hua frowned.
He didn't want to become a cold-hearted little evil god.
However, this problem seemed unsolvable.
He didn't even ask Huang Shankun about it because Huang Shankun, being a mountain god, was a deity and not a human. He didn't need to consider the issue of "humanity."
Mo Hua lay on the table, deep in thought.
He carefully recalled the knowledge about deity cultivation, going over it again and again in his mind.
After an unknown amount of time, Mo Hua suddenly felt enlightened.
He realized that he had overestimated the concept of "deity."
One shouldn't view deities as something absolutely sacred.
While they are born from the Great Dao and possess powerful formless consciousness, they are still part of the myriad beings and creatures in the world.
Deities are subject to the Great Dao.
Humanity is the Dao, and divinity is also the Dao.
Cultivators seek the Heavenly Dao.
Since this is the case, whether it's humans or deities, they are both part of the "Heavenly Dao." There is no absolute contradiction between the two.
Since they are both part of the "Dao," why not pursue both?
Embrace humanity, cultivate divinity, merge the two, and become one with the Great Dao, forging an indestructible Dao heart.
This seemed to be the path he should take!
As this realization struck him, Mo Hua felt as though he had gained great enlightenment, and his mind became clear.
A faint light flashed in his eyes, where the three colors of black, white, and pale gold intertwined, shining brilliantly.
In his sea of consciousness, he seemed to hear the faint rumbling of the stele of heaven.
Mo Hua felt a pale golden pattern in his divine consciousness, fleeting along the trajectory of the Mystery Heaven Grand Array.
In that moment, his understanding of the "Heavenly Dao" seemed to deepen, and this realization became ingrained in his Dao heart, as if it had become a part of his instinct...
(End of Chapter)
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