Chapter 862: Master

"What is this... thing?"

Mo Hua wrinkled his brow, pondered for a moment, and suddenly remembered; he had seen this before. The first time he had "ordered food" at the altar in the blood-colored fishing village, he had perceived this strange, deformed, but very powerful node. At that time, it was his first time ordering food, and he was unsure, afraid of the strong evil energy of this node, so he didn't dare to order it. He didn't expect to encounter it again now.

"Exactly what kind of demon is hiding in the nightmare of this place's node... should I order it or not?"

Mo Hua held his chin, pondering for a moment, feeling a bit undecided. He perceived this node again. His previous perception wasn't deep, but now that his divine way had achieved minor success and he had been "possessed" by the evil fetus, he was considered a rare divine way expert within the second-grade realm. Although his divine way expertise had a very complex composition—half human, half deity, and now even a small part evil god—because of this, his perception of this chaotic and abnormal "demon" was also clearer.

The demon within the node had an evil and mixed aura, seemingly composed of various flesh, creatures, and different demons, all mixed together with some kind of embryo as the core. Its body contained the aura of an evil god, and this aura was very strong, even comparable to the evil fetus to some extent. But at the same time, its body was also full of various filthy flesh, deformed evil thoughts, demon limbs, and even a bit... of an aura of evil change.

Mo Hua wrinkled his brow. Before, he had only felt that this was a "big guy." But he hadn't expected this big guy to be potentially much more powerful than he had anticipated. Looking at it now, being a bit cautious before was correct. If he had rashly provoked this "big guy" at the altar in the small fishing village at that time, with his divine way not yet successful and not having mastered the divine thought turned into sword and the divine way array, he would definitely have been in great danger...

Mo Hua let out a sigh. Indeed, countless dangers were hidden within the divine way. Even if he had enough strength to rival gods, he would still have to be careful in the future. Especially that little lamb child, which had caused him a great loss, he must take it as a warning for the future. As for this big guy, he would just forget about it for now and wait until his strength became stronger later... Mo Hua said silently in his heart.

Moreover, he was using Yu'er as "bait" for ordering food. If the demon was too strong, Yu'er's danger would also be greater. He still needed to be steady. With this thought, Mo Hua suddenly felt some regret again. "In a moment of impulse, I ordered too much food..." This time, he had fallen into a trap, been possessed by the evil fetus, and in a moment of anger, ordered too many demons. These demons would all invade Yu'er's nightmare, and the pressure would all be on Yu'er.

Mo Hua felt a little heartache. "Or, should I cancel some?" He sat on the altar again and communicated with the divine right tree, only to find that ordering food was easy, but canceling was difficult. Changing the already determined nightmare path, reversing cause and effect, involved certain heavenly secrets and would even consume a large amount of divine thought. Mo Hua felt a little foolish.

But he thought about it again and felt that it should still be okay. Although his divine soul had been polluted and the Zhenjing Sword was "sealed," temporarily unable to display its original strength, the demons invading Yu'er's nightmare were all just ordinary ones. Relying on the Daoist power of his nineteen-pattern divine awareness, even without relying on complex divine thought turned into a sword or using the power of his divine soul, it was enough to crush these evil spirits. Ordinary demons were not worthy of him using the Zhenjing Sword.

At that time, fighting while eating, and using the fight to nourish the fight, could also solve the consumption problem. As long as he found some way to protect Yu'er's safety, the problem shouldn't be big. Mo Hua nodded and then prepared to leave the altar.

But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly discovered that there seemed to be something unusual on the altar. Before, he was busy fighting the evil fetus and ordering food, with no distractions or leisure in his heart. At this time, the surroundings quieted down, and the food was also ordered. Mo Hua suddenly noticed that the altar itself was very strange. When he sat on the altar, it seemed that streams of evil desires were supplying him. But these desires were not strong. Mo Hua practiced meditation techniques and often washed away evil thoughts, his Dao heart was clear, so when he encountered desires entangling him, he subconsciously abandoned them.

But at this time, tasting them carefully, these desires were somewhat unusual again. They were glorious and enchanting, greedy, murderous, abusive, angry, deluded, chaotic. They were different from the evil thoughts of evil spirits, but more like the manifestation of various human inner desires. These desires, borrowing some cause and effect, flowed into the altar, supplying Mo Hua. No, accurately speaking, they were supplying the evil god "evil fetus" that had already merged into his Fu Shi soul.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment and suddenly understood. He understood the cause and effect logic of the operation of this Longwang Temple altar. The evil fetus was the owner of Longwang Temple. Everything in this temple was for raising this evil fetus, allowing it to shed its mortal body and transform into a deity, to hatch into a god. The blood pool was the "amniotic fluid" of this evil fetus. The temple guardians and the Wushi were the servants of this evil fetus. The Hongxue Boat was the "rice bowl" of this evil fetus. And the various emotions and desires of the cultivators on the Hongxue Boat—greed, delusion, bewilderment, evil desires, love, hate... all were the "food" of the evil fetus.

Now that the evil fetus had merged into his divine soul, the "food" cooked with various human desires was all supplying his own body. Not only that... Mo Hua experienced it carefully and discovered that what was supplying him was not only desires, but also some things that were obviously more bloody, more cruel, more cold-blooded, containing the cause and effect of sins. It was as if someone was following his "commands" and committing various killings. These killings also condensed into "cause and effect" containing sins, nourishing himself, hatching himself, which was hatching the "evil fetus."

Before, he didn't understand this key point, but now that he had incarnated into the "evil fetus" and experienced it personally, everything became much clearer. "Desires turn into flesh, cause and effect turn into bones." "This is... the Daoist method of raising the evil fetus and transforming it into an evil god." "'Desires' come from the Hongxue Boat, so where do these 'sins' and cause and effect come from?"

Mo Hua frowned, then his mind moved slightly, and his divine thought exited the nightmare, searching around the altar in reality several times. Finally, at the front of the altar, on the offering table, he discovered a strange object. That was a wordless blood stele. The stele was soaked with blood, but there were no words. It seemed that someone had dipped in blood and written something on it. But the words on this stele were not for "people" to see, so after writing, they merged into the stele along with the blood. This was more like a "divine soul" contract. Others couldn't see it, but Mo Hua could. Although it was very blurry, he could still vaguely see words on the seemingly wordless blood stele.

These words were one by one names. Mo Hua looked and looked, and suddenly his heart sank. He quickly took out a jade slip from his storage bag. This jade slip was exactly that list of Old Jiang's. It was also exactly the blood oath list of those sin cultivators headed by Huofo and Shui Yanluo. The names on the two lists were almost identical.

"The root was originally here..." Mo Hua finally understood at this time exactly what this list was used for. This was a "soul contract." Sin cultivators swore blood oaths to form an alliance, leaving their names on the list, which was equivalent to selling their divine souls and offering them to the evil god. In this way, all the sins and killings they committed would be transmitted to the altar through some kind of cause and effect, offered to the evil god, nourishing the evil fetus little by little, making the evil god grow. But these sin cultivators themselves might not know this secret.

Moreover, there was still one point... On the surface, this was just a "list." It was a list of sin cultivators' "alliance," a list of "protection" from the upper layer, and a list of displaying "loyalty" to the Great Wilderness Lord. But they definitely didn't know that this was actually also a "death" list. Because Mo Hua could perceive a trace of divine soul aura from the list on the wordless blood stele, from the names one by one. When signing this list, these sin cultivators had actually already cut off a part of their life soul and offered it to the Great Wilderness Lord. The Great Wilderness Lord controlled their life souls, in other words, also controlled their life and death. Once the sin cultivators betrayed, the Great Wilderness Lord could make them die with a single thought through this "soul contract" list.

"Indeed, those who keep company with evil gods will definitely not have a good end..." "Their own lives are in the hands of others, and they probably don't even know it..." Mo Hua shook his head and sighed.

He still wanted to research more, but suddenly he heard a "rumble" sound. The ground shook, and it seemed that something was impacting the gate of the inner hall. Mo Hua's heart jumped. "Someone broke in?" "No..." Mo Hua then thought, "Is Uncle Gu and the others trying to rescue me?" He was then shocked to realize that he had fought a bad battle, ordered a big meal, and researched the altar for half a day, and he didn't know how much time had passed. Uncle Gu and the others must be waiting anxiously.

"Let's go out first..." But when he looked up, he found himself at the very bottom of the blood pool. The blood water inside the blood pool had been drained, and now it was a deep pit, pitch black all around, with no way to walk. "How to get out?" Mo Hua wrinkled his brows. And just as he had this thought, the altar lit up, and it seemed that the array inside was operating in the dark, the mechanism turning, the white bones and stones embedding, and a muffled sound rang out. The huge altar, carrying Mo Hua, slowly rose up, just like carrying its owner.

Mo Hua slightly gasped. "This altar... is listening to me?" "No, not only this altar, but... the entire Longwang Temple?" Mo Hua frowned and pondered. The evil fetus was the owner of Longwang Temple. And now, the evil fetus had merged into his divine soul. The evil fetus is me. I am the evil fetus. In other words, now I am... the owner of Longwang Temple? Mo Hua opened his mouth, infinitely shocked in his heart.

Outside the white bone maze. Numerous cultivators gathered together. There were executives wearing Dao Court Si Dao robes, as well as cultivators from the Gu family and the Xia family who were outside Dao Court Si. They formed teams of ten, setting up arrays, formations, using talismans, spirit tools, and spells, taking turns to bombard the inner core's sheep horn gate. Rumble sounds followed one after another, smoke and dust rose, the ground trembled, and broken stones flew. But no matter what method they tried, they could never break open the gate. Gu Changhuai's heart was anxious, and Xia Diansi was also filled with worry.

Time passed little by little. The ancient sheep horn gate, having endured dozens of attacks, still stood firm, not even a crack opening. The hearts of the crowd also gradually turned cold. Gu Changhuai finally let out a deep sigh and said guiltily, "Notify Tai Xu Gate. Mo Hua, he probably..." Gu Changhuai couldn't continue. He, who always treated people coldly, had an unusually desolate expression at this time. Xia Diansi, on the side, also showed sorrow in her eyes.

The crowd received the command and all stopped their actions, preparing to withdraw. But just at this moment, a muffled "rumble" sound rang out, accompanied by the sound of bones and stones rubbing... Everyone's faces changed slightly. They hurriedly turned their heads and saw that the gate, which had been bombarded countless times by the crowds using all possible methods, arrays, talismans, spells, and spirit tools, but had not opened even once, now slowly opened on its own... A strange, tense aura that made people nervous spread out. It seemed that something was coming out... This gate would never open easily, unless... The hearts of the crowd trembled, and they all faced the enemy as if they were facing a great enemy.

But the powerful and bloody enemy they imagined residing in the depths of the inner hall did not appear. From within the gate crack, a head poked out. It was exactly Mo Hua. He looked left and right, and only then discovered that there was a large crowd of people standing densely outside. At this time, everyone's eyes all "swished" and looked towards Mo Hua. Being "stared" at by so many people, Mo Hua was a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and said shyly, "How, is it so lively..." The crowd's expressions were dull, and their thoughts were somewhat chaotic for a while.

Inside a side hall of Longwang Temple. There were no others around, and Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi examined Mo Hua from head to toe. They discovered that he had no injuries, his spirit was stable, and there were no other abnormalities, and only then did they truly breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, Mo Hua was actually very abnormal now, but they couldn't see it. Xia Diansi looked at Mo Hua deeply again, and suddenly hugged Mo Hua in her arms, patting Mo Hua's back, her voice trembling slightly, saying: "It's good that you're fine..." She didn't know if she was comforting Mo Hua or comforting herself. She was a Diansi and had strong responsibilities. On the surface, Mo Hua was trapped in the inner hall because he was trying to save them. If anything really happened to him, she would regret it for a lifetime.

Mo Hua was a little surprised and also a little moved. Xia Diansi seemed cold on the surface, but her heart was actually very soft. Gu Changhuai also felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted. If Mo Hua had really had some accident, it would be difficult to explain to Tai Xu Gate, to cousin Wan'er, to aunt Gu Hong, and to himself here. "It's good that you're fine..." Gu Changhuai also said silently.

After their emotions calmed down, seeing that Mo Hua was safe and that there were no other people around, Gu Changhuai asked with doubt: "Where is that Wushi? He didn't do anything to you, did he? What exactly happened to you inside?" Mo Hua had prepared beforehand, so he said half-truth, half-false: "That Wushi seemed to want to offer me to something, but perhaps my luck was good. When that Wushi was holding the ceremony, somehow, he suddenly died, and I escaped..." Gu Changhuai: "..." After a moment of silence, Gu Changhuai was a little helpless: "Just like that?" Mo Hua nodded, "Just like that." "Suddenly died?" "Yes," Mo Hua said, "Very sudden, just in the blink of an eye." Just killed by me... Gu Changhuai looked at Mo Hua, sighed, "Okay then." Xia Diansi's expression was also a little subtle. She did hope that Mo Hua would have great fortune and turn danger into safety, but she didn't expect it to be this kind of "turning danger into safety." This luck was too heaven-defying... Or, Mo Hua didn't tell the truth? But the matter had reached this point, and the two had no intention of investigating. No matter what, it was good that he was safe and sound.

Mo Hua looked around again and asked, "Where are Senior Brother Feng and Senior Sister Shallow?" Gu Changhuai said, "I originally wanted to send people to send them back to the sect first, but you were alive or dead unknown, and they were unwilling to go back." "I also didn't dare to leave them in the inner hall. This inner hall is full of dangers. If they had any mishap, with Tai Xu Gate, Tai A Gate, and Hundred Flowers Valley added together, it would be even more difficult for me to explain." Gu Changhuai just thought about it, and his head began to ache. "So I let them wait at the door. They should be coming over now."

After a while, Ouyang Feng and Hua Shallow did come over. When they saw Mo Hua, both of their expressions were extremely joyful. Even the always steady Ouyang Feng couldn't help but hug Mo Hua and pat Mo Hua's shoulder. "Junior Brother Mo..." Ouyang Feng was excited, his body trembling slightly. He had ten thousand words but couldn't say them. After calming his emotions for a moment, he let go of Mo Hua, cupped his hands, and said solemnly: "Junior Brother Mo, your great kindness cannot be thanked with words!" "Senior Brother Feng, you're too polite..." Mo Hua hadn't finished speaking when a fragrant wind hit his face, and he was hugged by Hua Shallow beside him. Before, Mo Hua was alive or dead unknown, and Hua Shallow had pretended to be strong. At this time, seeing Mo Hua safe and sound, she couldn't help but shed tears again. "Junior Brother Mo, it's good that you're fine..." She wiped her snot and tears on Mo Hua's body again. Mo Hua could only comfort her in return: "I'm fine, Senior Sister, please rest assured..."

No matter what, this trip to Longwang Temple was considered a scare but no danger. Everyone was safe and sound. The three of them chatted about old times for a while, and then Mo Hua entrusted Gu Changhuai to send Ouyang Feng and Hua Shallow back to the sect first. At parting, Mo Hua secretly instructed the two: "Senior Brother Feng, Senior Sister Shallow, you must remember, don't mention anything about the Hongxue Boat and Longwang Temple to anyone..." "I have also greeted Dao Court Si, and Uncle Gu and Xia Diansi will also keep it a secret and won't say anything about this matter." "The matter of Longwang Temple is still okay. If someone really asks, you can say that you happened to pass by and came with Dao Court Si to save people." "But the Hongxue Boat, you have never been there, and you should never mention it again..." Otherwise, even jumping into the Yellow River wouldn't wash it clean... Mo Hua's gaze was solemn. Ouyang Feng and Hua Shallow's expressions tensed, and they looked at Mo Hua gratefully and all nodded.

After Mo Hua saw off the two, he rode a small boat from the Gu family and left Longwang Temple. And then Mo Hua turned around and went to find Gu Changhuai again. Gu Changhuai saw Mo Hua and was a little surprised, "You're not leaving?" Mo Hua said, "I want to search Longwang Temple again." "Search the temple?" "En." Mo Hua nodded. Taking advantage of everyone being here and Dao Court Si having sufficient manpower, he wanted to search Longwang Temple thoroughly from beginning to end. He always felt that since it was called "Longwang Temple," this temple should be more or less related to "dragon." Moreover, he had now merged with the evil fetus. In some sense, this ancient Longwang Temple was already his. As the owner, he wanted to "inventory" his temple.