Mo Hua had become the "Big Brother," the one leading the group—but in this day and age, being the leader is no easy task.
Especially when the disciples from the Four Sects, Eight Schools, and Twelve Lineages were all the most outstanding talents of their respective sects—high-born, highly gifted, proud and arrogant, each with their own thoughts and ambitions. When gathered together, their hearts were restless and difficult to control.
They were all "enemies" of the Tai Xu Sect, having lost to them in the Sword Debate Tournament.
At the same time, there were also grudges between themselves.
For example, during the Shura War, the Broken Gold Sect ambushed the Lingxiao Sect, causing them heavy losses.
The Water Dao Sect ambushed the Purple Mist Sect, leading to many casualties on their side as well.
The other sects also had various bloody clashes during the chaotic battle.
And their greatest "enemy" was none other than Mo Hua, this so-called "Big Brother."
You could say that the vast majority of the genius disciples here—especially the top-tier ones—had "died" at Mo Hua's hands at least once.
Some people had even "died" more than once.
Now, due to the circumstances, they had no choice but to bow their heads to Mo Hua, but deep down, they were absolutely unwilling.
They may obey outwardly, but not in their hearts.
And the demonic formation they were trapped in constantly stirred up their evil thoughts, hatred, and killing intent.
Right now, Mo Hua's power was too overwhelming for anyone to question him.
But among themselves, disputes and verbal spats were inevitable, with occasional small conflicts flaring up.
The most provocative of them all was Ye Zhiyuan.
Ye Zhiyuan used to be the number one sword-flying genius of the Great Luo Sect. He was handsome and elegant on the outside, but extremely arrogant and foul-mouthed—he'd verbally attack anyone he saw, and had terrible interpersonal relationships.
Now, with all the disciples from the various sects gathered together, his mouth hadn't stopped. One moment he was mocking a sect's sword techniques, the next he was ridiculing another's inheritance—acting as though the Great Luo Sect's sword-flying technique was the strongest under heaven.
His words had provoked everyone, stoking flames of anger and arguments all around.
Even some of the Tai Xu Sect's disciples were affected.
But Ye Zhiyuan's foul mouth, combined with his shamelessness, made it so no one could out-argue him.
Mo Hua then turned to Ye Zhiyuan and asked:
"Ye Zhiyuan, did your father name you that because he knew your sword-flying wouldn't go far, and he hoped it'd fly a little farther?"
That one sentence immediately shut Ye Zhiyuan up.
Just moments ago, he had been insufferably arrogant, but now it was like he had just swallowed a fly—he couldn't say a single word.
Though Ye Zhiyuan fell silent, the crowd remained noisy and restless.
After all, several hundred people gathered together, each with their own agendas—it was impossible to avoid disputes.
Mo Hua coldly said, "Don't blame me for not warning you—this is a demonic formation."
"You'd all best shut your mouths, clear your minds, and focus your thoughts. Stop with the pointless bickering, accusations, and rehashing old grudges."
"Disaster comes from the mouth."
"Reckless words will amplify the evil in your own hearts and stir up hatred in others."
"These are all evil thoughts—karmic fires, seeds of calamity."
"If this goes on, the rifts in your hearts will widen, hatred will grow, killing intent will stir, and your minds will begin to slip. In the end, you'll become bloodthirsty, slaughter-obsessed, and step by step fall into demonhood…"
"Don't think that words are trivial—many times, they are the root of disaster…"
The demonic formation used speech as a lure.
And the corruption of one's Dao Heart could also begin with words.
But these genius disciples knew nothing of such deep and insidious principles.
Mo Hua's tone was extremely serious.
The gathered geniuses from the Four Sects, Eight Schools, and Twelve Lineages all stiffened upon hearing this, realizing the gravity of the situation.
"And one more thing…" Mo Hua warned, "Do not harbor killing intent toward me."
"No matter how well you hide it—I can feel it."
"Killing intent itself isn't the issue, but I'll offer this advice: don't even think about truly trying to kill me. If you do, the only ones who'll die are you."
Mo Hua's calm gaze swept across the crowd.
Many lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
Mo Hua nodded slightly. "And one last thing…"
"Don't think I'm some 'great nice guy,' who's just sentimentally attached to helping you all out of this formation."
"If you listen, and we work together, we'll survive and get out."
"If you don't—then whether you live or die has nothing to do with me."
"In fact, if anyone disobeys and gets corrupted by evil and turns into a demon—don't blame me for showing no mercy…"
"Do you truly want to become demons?"
The faces of the geniuses went pale.
Especially the words "become demons" sent a chill down their spines.
Not long ago, they had personally witnessed their own fellow disciples—people they had trained and lived with—suddenly have blood-red eyes, twisted expressions, violent auras… descending into madness, turning bloodthirsty, and even devouring human flesh like beasts…
It shattered everything they thought they knew.
Earlier, when they had been caught up in killing and consumed by evil thoughts, their minds hadn't been clear enough to think about it. But now that they had calmed down and recalled it in detail, they were all horrified, cold sweat running down their backs.
"Possessed by demons" was no joke.
Once they fell, they would be finished.
They'd go from peerless righteous geniuses with limitless futures, to monsters who had killed their own sect mates, eaten human flesh, and become outcasts rejected by their sects, clans, and even their own parents—filthy creatures of the demonic path, forced to hide in darkness.
And it all came down to a single misstep.
At this thought, everyone broke out in a cold sweat.
Someone asked in confusion:
"We were doing just fine… why would we suddenly… get possessed by demons? Is it because of the demonic formation?"
Mo Hua nodded and said: "Partly, yes. It's because of the demonic formation…"
"This formation is powered by human blood as ink, human flesh as the medium, human bones as the pivot. It uses despair, regret, and killing karma to refine demonic energy and keep the formation running."
"Inside this formation, evil desires overflow, and formless evil spirits drift about. Once touched, they will gradually corrupt you…"
"But that's only part of it. The other reason—lies in your Dao Heart."
"Your Dao Heart?"
"But that's only part of it. The other reason is because of the Dao Heart."
"Dao Heart?"
Everyone was stunned, then frowned.
Almost everyone says: a cultivator must possess a firm Dao Heart.
But the so-called "Dao Heart" is merely a vague and illusory concept.
The Dao Heart doesn't strengthen your spiritual roots, doesn't increase your talent, doesn't speed up cultivation, doesn't reduce the resources needed to cultivate, and it's not a criterion for sects to accept disciples.
A great sect won't make an exception and accept you just because you supposedly have a "Dao Heart."
The elders of noble clans won't look at you differently just because you possess one.
If your spiritual roots are poor, no matter how strong your Dao Heart is, your path of cultivation will still be full of hardship.
If your strength is weak, even with a Dao Heart, you'll still be at the mercy of others.
Therefore, the so-called "Dao Heart" holds no real meaning.
The great sects and noble clans don't even include the "Dao Heart" in their evaluations.
The so-called "Dao Heart" is seen as a useless thing.
Before this, they wouldn't say it out loud, but in their hearts, they would scoff at the words "Dao Heart."
But now, having fallen into this great demonic formation by the evil god's scheme, having personally witnessed the surrounding bloodshed, their feelings were completely different...
Mo Hua said, "The Dao Heart is the heart that seeks the Dao."
"If the Dao Heart is not firm, a person becomes controlled by worldly desires—fame, power, wealth, lust."
"These distracting desires accumulate in the depths of the heart."
"Usually it may not matter, but once enticed by external evil, these desires amplify, the Dao Heart becomes obscured or even extinguished, and the cultivator suffers qi deviation and falls into demonic corruption, becoming a 'demonic being.'"
"The weaker the Dao Heart, the faster the fall into demonic corruption."
Mo Hua glanced at the crowd. "The reason you all can still maintain clarity of mind is, first, because you've been lucky not to encounter major evil, and second, because your Dao Hearts, relatively speaking, are a bit stronger than other cultivators'."
"Those with weak Dao Hearts lost all inner defense the moment they came into contact with demonic influence—they were completely corrupted."
A proud disciple trembled, unable to accept it, muttering, "Impossible… We are righteous path cultivators…"
Mo Hua looked at him calmly and asked, "Are you... truly cultivators of the righteous path?"
"Is your heart truly righteous?"
"Do you cultivate to comprehend the heavenly Dao and help the common people? Or is it simply to seize the power of heaven and earth for yourself, to seek fame, power, wealth, and your own eternal life?"
"To enjoy everlasting riches and glory?"
"Are the things you seek... truly 'immortal'?"
"Have you not realized... the demons seek the exact same things?"
Mo Hua then recalled Elder Zheng's teachings and slowly said:
"You may be disciples of the righteous path, but righteousness and demonic ways are two sides of the same coin. The so-called demon is not born of womb or egg, but is self-created."
"The demonic path is born from the righteous path—and thus, from your own Dao Heart…"
...
These words left all the young prodigies of the sects pale and horrified in their hearts.
Before this, they had never heard anything like this, nor had anyone ever spoken to them in such a way.
Although even now, they might not fully understand what Mo Hua was really saying.
Yet these words were like a branding iron, each sentence deeply seared into their hearts.
The fate of many prodigies was silently and completely rewritten...
Only, at this moment, they did not realize it—not even Mo Hua himself had anticipated it...
...
After finishing his words, Mo Hua said nothing more.
The hundreds of prodigies from the four sects, eight gates, and twelve schools quieted down. Following Mo Hua's advice, they carefully focused their minds, no longer stirring desires, no longer harboring murderous intent, no longer craving to compete, nor engaging in verbal disputes...
Seeing that they had all become "obedient," Mo Hua felt relieved and began considering his next move.
Mo Hua's goal was simple: to save everyone here.
The great formation was still operating, the evil aura deepening, and the demonic forces growing stronger.
He himself was relatively safe—only he had the "privilege" of consuming the demonic forces, and no evil dared to trouble this "Tai Sui" (a great celestial figure).
If any did, they had already been devoured by him.
But others were not so fortunate. If they stayed any longer, once the formation reached its peak, with evil intent as vast as the sea, blood turning to mist, demonic forces falling like rain, even the divine formation would no longer protect them—all would die, including his junior disciples from the Tai Xu Sect.
Even the sect's elite were still mere flesh-and-blood cultivators; the corruption of the evil god was still too deadly for them.
"But how to leave the great formation?"
"Is there anyone 'monitoring' inside this great formation?"
"Is there anyone managing the movements of all of us?"
"Who is controlling the formation, and where are they?"
"Is it that Mr. Tu?"
"But where is Mr. Tu? Why hasn't he appeared until now?"
Mo Hua frowned.
Trapped in the formation with so few clues, he could only rely on his own experience as a former chief "designer" and chief "executor" array master of a first-grade Five Elements Demon-Slaying Formation to deduce:
First, the great formation must be controlled by someone.
The one manipulating it must be an array master—an evil array master.
Mr. Tu should be the primary creator of the great formation.
But the current operator might not be him, as he must have more important matters to attend to.
This was an evil great formation created right under the noses of the grand sects and noble families in Qianxuezhou Realm. Once activated, blood energy would fill the sky, inevitably provoking severe attacks from various forces of Qianxue, including the Dao Court.
Even if Mr. Tu could handle that, he would be stretched thin.
Moreover, Mo Hua didn't need to think hard to know the purpose of this evil formation—it must be related to the resurrection of the Great Wilderness Lord.
To bring about the resurrection of the Great Wilderness Lord certainly involved a massive evil god ritual.
As the "chief array master" of the evil great formation and the "chief sacrificer" of the evil god ritual, Mr. Tu must be extremely busy and unable to oversee everything.
The place where Mo Hua and the others were located definitely wasn't the entirety of the evil great formation.
Since it was an evil great formation, it couldn't be so small. The current scene, including the withered forest and bloody swamp, was probably only a sealed sub-region of the whole evil great formation.
Moreover, this area was truly "sealed." Otherwise, with all the moves they had made, they would have been detected long ago.
The minions of the evil god should have already acted...
This kind of "seal" was probably related to the ritual itself.
The evil god, while "feeding," certainly wouldn't want others to witness it.
But precisely because it was completely sealed, some of the formation runes and structure were very obscure, hard to detect, and difficult to tackle at the moment.
It wasn't easy for them to leave either.
"A bit troublesome…"
Mo Hua calmed his mind and, based on his formation skills, thought step by step:
"The evil phenomena are only surface appearances; the internal logic of the formation doesn't change…"
"The formation inside the great formation can't be completely sealed; there must be some kind of connection between the parts…"
"If this sub-formation is part of the great formation, then there must be a formation node linking it to the main formation node…"
"And this formation node must have a corresponding formation medium."
"The formation medium of the evil great formation should be..." Mo Hua's heart jolted, "the Bone Tablet?"
The Bone Tablets he and Elder Xun Zixian had seen before at Yanluo Mountain?
Mo Hua's eyes lit up.
He sat cross-legged on the ground, releasing his divine sense, carefully calculating, sensing the flow of evil power, probing the nodes of formation flow and the paths carrying evil power. After a while, he stood and walked to a withered forest, pointing at a blood-colored dead tree, telling everyone:
"Cut down the tree, dig up the roots, dig three feet into the ground, find a Bone Tablet..."
The others didn't understand but still did as Mo Hua said.
As for why, they didn't ask him to explain—if he did, they might not have understood anyway.
Together, the prodigies quickly cut down the tree, burned the roots, and dug three feet down to reveal a Bone Tablet underground.
The earth pulse was stained with blood.
The Bone Tablet was immersed in blood energy, concealed by the earth's evil power, making it impossible for ordinary people to notice.
Mo Hua carefully observed the constantly writhing blood-colored formation runes on the Bone Tablet. After a moment, his heart skipped a beat—he discovered these evil runes were derived from the Four Symbols Demon Runes, and some were even variants of the Four Symbols "Dragon Runes."
This was definitely Mr. Tu's handiwork.
After Mo Hua's recent research on the Dragon Diagram's return and the Four Symbols Demon Runes and Four Symbols Dragon Runes, they had become "old friends" to him. Whether dismantling or tracing origins, it was much easier now.
Mo Hua could not draw the evil formation himself, but judging from rune connections and formation node flows, he had no major problems.
Afterward, Mo Hua kept moving forward while calculating, digging up all the Bone Tablets along the way that carried the formation nodes.
Finally, after unearthing more than a dozen Bone Tablets and understanding the flow of the formation nodes clearly, Mo Hua arrived at the "root" of these Bone Tablets—the node connecting the evil formation nodes.
An unremarkable cave.
After scanning it with his divine sense and confirming it was safe, Mo Hua entered the cave.
The cave was narrow, surrounded by stone walls.
Mo Hua sensed for a moment, found the stone wall on the right side, drew several large "×" marks with his brush, then turned to Ao Zheng and a few others and instructed:
"Dismantle it for me, and keep the noise down."
Ao Zheng was unwilling, but still followed Mo Hua's orders.
He was the second strongest prodigy in the Dragon Cauldron Sect after Ao Zhan. His foundation in Dragon Cauldron Body Refining was extremely solid, with fierce vigor and tremendous strength. The seemingly hard stone wall felt like "tofu" in his hands.
The stone wall was broken apart like this by Ao Zheng and a few others.
As the stone shattered and rubble fell, suddenly a flash of blood-red appeared — a terrifying, massive bloodthirsty maw suddenly lunged toward everyone.
It was the giant mouth of a huge evil spirit.
Ao Zheng saw nothing but felt a bone-chilling coldness surge through him, and he wanted to retreat but didn't know where to go.
At that moment, Mo Hua, who had prepared in advance, pressed his finger to his brow, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes, and his divine sense transformed into a sword that slashed through the air.
A flash of golden light instantly wiped out the evil spirit.
The blood-red faded away, and the bone-deep chill completely vanished. Only then did Ao Zheng slowly turn to look at Mo Hua, still unsure of what had happened but deeply shaken and wide-eyed with shock.
"I'll go in and have a look," Mo Hua said.
Ao Zheng and the others said nothing.
But Linghu Xiao and Situ, among others, were somewhat worried. "Junior Brother, we'll go with you."
Mo Hua shook his head. "Don't worry, it's safer if I go alone. You all stay here and don't move."
After giving these instructions, Mo Hua's figure gradually faded until he disappeared from everyone's sight.
Everyone's expressions grew solemn, their hearts uneasy.
Meanwhile, Mo Hua walked into the passage through the stone wall. Along the way were all kinds of evil spirits—grotesque, ugly, terrifying, and extremely ferocious.
If it were anyone else besides Mo Hua, even a moment here would mean their sea of consciousness would be devoured to nothing by the ravenous evil spirits.
But now the situation was reversed.
Mo Hua deliberately restrained his aura, appearing to be an ordinary, plain, physically weak, harmless, but spiritually rich, pure and sweet young cultivator.
Countless evil spirits salivated wildly over him, recklessly surging forward like madmen to invade his completely undefended sea of consciousness.
But all of them were instantly grabbed by Mo Hua's pure-golden body inside his consciousness, crushed instantly, then refined into pure mental energy, nourishing his divine sense.
In this way, Mo Hua used himself as bait to "fish and enforce the law," all while hiding his presence, steadily moving toward the end of the passage.
After an unknown amount of time, Mo Hua finally reached the passage's end.
The passage's end was sealed by a formation.
Mo Hua silently used his divine sense to subtly dissolve the formation. Then he looked ahead and saw that the passage connected to a grand formation hub hall.
Inside the hall, it was gloomy and blood-soaked, bustling with evil formation masters who held human bone brushes dipped in human blood ink, painting fierce and bloody formations on human skin paper...
(END OF THIS CHAPTER)