The Quest for Immortality

After the unification and the naming of the Wutu Mountain Realm, Mo Hua, this mysterious Shaman lord, became the master of all the tribes within the Wutu Mountain Realm.

The situation in the Wutu Mountain Realm settled down a little.

With his hands finally free, the first thing Mo Hua did was to improve the livelihood of the tribal Barbarian Cultivators.

The wealth and food of most tribes were gathered together and distributed in a unified manner, to ensure that in these chaotic barren years, every Barbarian Cultivator—old, weak, women, and children alike—could have at least one bite of food to maintain basic survival.

Besides this, Mo Hua also divided the Barbarian Cultivators into several Monster Hunting Teams.

Each team was led by a Foundation Establishment Realm Cultivator, who would go up the mountains to hunt Monster Beasts and stockpile meat.

The hunted meat was divided into two categories.

The meat of herbivorous Monster Beasts was given to children and the elderly.

The meat of carnivorous Monster Beasts would only be given to adults in their prime.

Carnivorous Monster Beasts, having devoured human flesh, had blood and flesh saturated with a strong stench, resentment, and Evil Qi.

Eaten in excess, the side effects were severe: it easily caused mental instability, shortened lifespans, and made Cultivation prone to going awry.

Thus, children could no longer eat this type of meat, lest it affect their development.

The elderly, being frail, also could not eat it anymore, or even a slight misflow of Qi would cost them their lives.

The young and strong Barbarian Cultivators, on the other hand, were robust, and as members of the Barbarian Tribes, had been eating this kind of Monster meat for years, developing a certain resistance.

The Monster meat with side effects could only be eaten by them.

In this place called the Great Wilderness, conditions were limited; surviving at all was already fortunate, and there was no way to be too particular.

Mo Hua also improved the methods of cooking Monster meat.

Among the Barbarian Tribes, Artifact Refining techniques were backward, materials scarce, and they simply could not make good stoves.

Mo Hua could only set up several large cauldrons, drawing a Melting Fire Formation at the bottom, along with some Purifying Fire Formations, to a certain extent stripping away Monster Qi, reducing the stench of the meat, preserving its nutrients, and allowing the Barbarian Cultivators to eat with a bit more peace of mind.

He also gathered some spices from nearby.

Though it could not be called especially delicious, it was far better than before.

Aside from meat, Mo Hua also chose a patch of slightly more fertile land in the valley, and with a Thick Earth Formation, communicated with the Earth Dao Meaning to nourish the soil, then laid down some Little Cloud Rain Formations to maintain soil moisture.

On this land, he planted some wild millet and sorghum from the Wutu Mountain Realm.

In this way, if disaster struck and they could not hunt Monster Beasts, they would still have some miscellaneous grain to fill their stomachs and not starve to death.

This land was a preliminary experiment.

Mo Hua issued a strict order that it had to be guarded to the death; whoever dared damage it would be cut down without mercy.

These measures were implemented one by one. Very soon, the livelihood problems of the vast majority of tribal Barbarian Cultivators were improved.

In particular, some children who originally could only starve, and elders left to live or die on their own, now had food to fill their bellies and were naturally deeply grateful.

And some young and strong Barbarian Cultivators were eating more meat than before. Not only that, this meat, after cooking and roasting through Formations, had a weaker stench and better flavor, which made them even more convinced of the Shaman lord.

Livelihood is the foundation of everything.

Benefiting from Mo Hua’s overall planning, governance, and profound mastery of Formations, the entire Wutu Mountain Realm thus underwent a brand-new transformation.

But very soon, conflicts sprouted again.

There was still great disagreement among the various tribes over whether to submit to Mo Hua, this ”Shaman lord.”

These disagreements were not something that could be dispelled in a short time.

Those who were greedy for life and afraid of death, having seen Mo Hua display his divine might, did not dare resist.

Most were muddling along, wavering back and forth.

A few with great ambition, seeing that Mo Hua had accumulated quite a lot of wealth and stockpiled much food, could not resist stealing, and even killing and robbing.

The thieves were from the Wo Tai Tribe.

The ones who killed and robbed were from the Wulu Tribe.

There were also some Barbarian Cultivators who, for no clear reason, secretly defected and fled.

All of these were provocations against Mo Hua, this Shaman lord.

Mo Hua showed no courtesy; with cold-blooded methods, he killed a batch, punished a batch, imprisoned a batch, and even mass-produced a batch of Formation Punishment Boards he had studied for a long time at the Qian Learning State Boundary, making those with rebellious hearts who stole and killed kneel and receive punishment.

The effect was indeed striking.

Intimidated by Mo Hua’s hard-handed methods and the terrifying torment of the Formation punishment tools, the Barbarian Cultivators’ attitude toward Mo Hua began to grow much more respectful.

Although they might not be truly submissive in their hearts, on the surface no Barbarian Cultivator dared openly oppose Mo Hua anymore—including the most brutal Wulu Tribe.

Yet, since they would not oppose Mo Hua, they started turning on each other.

The conflicts between the tribal branches of the Barbarian Tribes were, in fact, very deep.

Their customs differed, their clan rules differed; they had killed one another and robbed one another in the past, bearing blood feuds.

Now that they were gathered together, friction was inevitable.

Even the slightest clash could erupt into conflict.

More importantly, the Barbarian Gods they worshipped in each tribe were different.

Different Barbarian Gods had different doctrines.

Faith in the Barbarian Gods’ doctrines would, over time, cause the Barbarian Cultivators’ Divine Sense to be subtly influenced by the Barbarian Gods and gradually assimilated.

This meant that these Barbarian Cultivators were fundamentally different in the form of their Divine Sense.

Even though the Barbarian Gods they believed in had all already been secretly ”eaten” by Mo Hua.

The imprints within their Divine Sense were not so easily erased.

The divergence in the form of Divine Sense would become an essential rift between them—a conflict that was basically impossible to reconcile.

Thus, after things had barely settled for a short while and they had eaten their fill for a few days, contradictions between the tribes again surfaced endlessly.

Intimidated by Mo Hua’s prestige, it did not develop into fights to the death, but mutual insults and private brawls occurred frequently.

There were even instances of bullying children and violating women; the atmosphere was extremely foul.

Mo Hua could only spend more time consulting with the various tribal Elders, to draw up a stricter set of tribal laws.