Chapter 682: Evil God
After returning to the sect, Mo Hua immediately sent a message to Gu Changhuai:
"Uncle Gu, you need to keep an eye on Guo Jianglong. Someone's going to meddle with him."
Gu Changhuai replied quickly: "How do you know that?"
Mo Hua: "I heard it…"
Gu Changhuai: "Heard from whom?"
Mo Hua hesitated for a moment, then asked: "If I tell you… will you believe me?"
There was a clear pause from Gu Changhuai's side. Then he replied: "Say it."
"It was a disciple of the Broken Gold Sect. They called him 'Young Master Jin,'" Mo Hua said.
"Young Master Jin?"
"Yeah."
Mo Hua continued: "He told Guo Jianglong to go to the Dao Prison first, then fake his death while inside. After that, he'd change his identity and come out again…"
Gu Changhuai went silent, his gaze turning cold and sharp.
This kind of body-switching trickery was a serious offense—not just against the law, but a direct violation of the Dao Court's core principles.
In some remote regions, local Dao Courts might be corrupt or brazen enough to try such things, but here—this was the Qianxue Prefecture, and a Fifth-Rank Dao Court.
Gu Changhuai found it hard to believe.
But Mo Hua—though his methods were strange and unpredictable—wasn't someone who would speak so lightly about something like this.
Mo Hua added: "That's why I sent Guo Jianglong into the Dao Prison. Keep watch—maybe you'll catch the mole in the Dao Court."
Gu Changhuai was a little surprised. After a long pause, he finally replied: "…Alright."
Mo Hua then asked: "What about the Broken Gold Sect? Can the Dao Court investigate them?"
Gu Changhuai responded: "No. Matters inside major sects are beyond the Dao Court's reach—unless there's clear evidence that a disciple has broken the Dao Laws and committed serious crimes. Without that, we can't investigate them, let alone arrest anyone."
Mo Hua looked disappointed.
Gu Changhuai then asked: "Did you dig something else up?"
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then decided not to hide it: "I suspect the black-cloaked traffickers in Qian Prefecture are actually sect disciples. And that 'Young Master Jin' from the Broken Gold Sect… might be one of them."
Gu Changhuai fell into silence again, then slowly said: "This… you should stay out of it."
Mo Hua was stunned. Something felt off. "Uncle Gu… you already knew?"
Gu Changhuai didn't answer.
That silence said it all.
Mo Hua had suspected something earlier too—if these black-cloaked traffickers were so deeply rooted, how could the Dao Court be completely unaware?
He quickly asked: "Uncle Gu, how much do you know?"
No reply.
Mo Hua sent another message, then another:
"Uncle Gu."
"Are you there?"
"Uncle Gu, answer me."
Eventually, Gu Changhuai caved. He sighed deeply and said: "You know about Yu'er being kidnapped, right?"
"Yeah," Mo Hua nodded. How could he not?
Gu Changhuai said: "That day, you… by coincidence, took Yu'er away. Soon after, some black-cloaked people came to the restaurant."
"They were the ones 'picking up the goods.'"
"The Dao Court attacked them. Their leader escaped, but the rest were caught… and without exception, they all died."
"Their bodies were destroyed by demonic energy, meridians and spiritual roots corroded—what remained was nothing but a lump of black, foul-smelling rotten flesh…"
"And this wasn't an isolated incident."
"Long ago, there were reports of high-grade spirit root heirs from noble families going missing. When the Dao Court investigated and caught black-cloaked traffickers… they all died the same way—consumed by demonic energy before they could be questioned."
"So we suspect…" Gu Changhuai clenched his teeth: "…That many noble scions have already fallen to demonic cultivation—joined demonic cults—but still walk among us wearing human faces, hiding their auras…"
Mo Hua's brows furrowed tightly. "Can't you track them down?"
Gu Changhuai sighed. "We can't. And even if we could, we're not allowed to."
"The sects hold too much power. Most of them fiercely protect their own. And behind them are even bigger noble clans…"
"As a Fifth-Rank Dao Court in Qian Prefecture, we simply don't have the authority to interfere with these massive powers and investigate such sensitive matters…"
"After all, if a disciple falls to demonic cultivation, it's a massive scandal—for both the clan and the sect. In serious cases, the Dao Court's Heavenly Authority Pavilion might even forcibly demote them in rank…"
"…I see," Mo Hua nodded.
"But wait," Mo Hua thought aloud, "don't all major sects strictly forbid disciples from cultivating demonic techniques or bringing demonic tools into the sect?"
"Don't sect gates have measures in place to detect demonic energy?"
"If these disciples had fallen, wouldn't they be exposed immediately—even if they were wearing human skin?"
"So how are they still hiding in plain sight inside the sects?"
"That's the most baffling part…" Gu Changhuai's eyes turned frosty, but with a trace of confusion.
"No one knows how they're doing it. They've clearly fallen—they've done unspeakable things—yet they walk the sects openly, still hailed as clan prodigies…"
Mo Hua suddenly thought of something. His eyes sharpened.
He asked, voice serious: "Uncle Gu… have you ever heard of the Evil God?"
Gu Changhuai was clearly stunned. "Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?"
"Uncle Gu, do you know what the Evil God actually is?"
Gu Changhuai thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Heavenly Demons and Evil Gods… they're ancient calamities from myth. No one really knows what they are."
"Even in cultivation texts, there's very little about them."
"Why do you ask…?"
He paused, then asked in surprise: "…Don't tell me you think all this is related to an Evil God?"
Mo Hua: "Yeah…"
Gu Changhuai took a deep breath, and sighed helplessly: "You haven't been reading some bizarre heretical folklore or strange old tales of immortals and monsters, have you…?"
Imaginative little rascal…
Mo Hua blinked. "No—I'm serious."
Gu Changhuai shook his head: "This is Qian Prefecture—where the Grand Dao thrives. Noble families flourish, sects abound, and powerful cultivators are everywhere."
"How could an Evil God ever gain a foothold here? How would it spread its doctrine?"
Mo Hua: "But… you just said you don't know what an Evil God actually is. So how do you know it can't spread its doctrine?"
Gu Changhuai was stumped.
He thought for a while, then realized—he was falling into a rabbit hole. If he kept debating, he'd only tie himself in knots.
So Gu Changhuai said: "Focus on your cultivation. Solidify your foundation. Prepare for your Core Formation—that's what really matters."
"Stop chasing these wild tales of gods and monsters. They'll only disturb your Dao heart and derail your path."
Mo Hua let out a long sigh.
But if he didn't ponder these divine and ghostly things… he couldn't make any cultivation breakthroughs at all.
If he didn't chew on a few bites of Evil God essence, he might not even break through to mid-stage Foundation Establishment, let alone Core Formation.
Still unwilling to let it go, Mo Hua tried one last time: "But what if… Evil Gods really do exist?"
Gu Changhuai genuinely gave it a try—but the more he thought, the more abstract it became.
The term "Evil God" was simply too alien.
In all his experience and cultivation training, he'd rarely encountered any concrete knowledge of such a being. It was hard to even imagine what an Evil God truly was…
Let alone how it could possibly descend into the vast and complex system of Qian Prefecture's Fifth-Rank territories.
In the end, Mo Hua gave up trying to explain.
He tried putting himself in Uncle Gu's shoes—and yeah, from that perspective, it really was a bit hard to understand.
It was like a child raised deep in the mountains suddenly being told that the sea exists—of course their mind would go blank trying to picture it.
Then Mo Hua suddenly remembered something his master once said:
"Only when your divine sense is strong enough can you see the truth beneath appearances—the hidden reality invisible to others—and glimpse the true nature of all things."
And the Evil God… was probably one of those "invisible" truths.
Ordinary cultivators who don't follow the path of divine sense seemingly can't perceive the gods.
Forget Evil Gods—even a minor, down-on-his-luck mountain god like Lord Huangshan was probably invisible to most cultivators.
So Mo Hua compromised. He told Gu Changhuai: "Yeah, I was just in the library pavilion and found a strange record called The Top Ten Evil Gods of Ancient and Modern Times. It said Evil Gods can control the divine sense of dumb cultivators… and that they eat people."
Gu Changhuai was silent for a moment… then couldn't help but say: "Your Great Void Sect really does have a… unique taste in literature."
Mo Hua didn't say anything more.
Sometimes, being "ignorant" really was a kind of blessing.
His divine sense was too sharp—sometimes, it made it impossible to live blissfully.
Then Mo Hua remembered something else and added: "Uncle Gu, be careful lately—someone's targeting you."
It seemed Young Master Jin and his people had dumped all the blame for the crimes on that list of rogue cultivators… squarely on Uncle Gu. They thought he was the master manipulator behind it all.
Somehow, Uncle Gu had unknowingly become a massive scapegoat—shouldering a scandal that wasn't even his.
Mo Hua felt a bit guilty.
But Gu Changhuai was unfazed. "Being a Dao Court inspector means always being in someone's crosshairs. More or less blame doesn't matter."
Still, Mo Hua reminded him: "Just be careful, okay…"
"Mm." Gu Changhuai responded calmly.
Mo Hua felt reassured.
Uncle Gu was already swimming in debts and covered in leeches—one more problem wouldn't make a difference. At least it didn't feel like Mo Hua was dragging him into trouble…
After a bit of thought, Gu Changhuai added: "I'll keep an eye on Guo Jianglong. As for Young Master Jin and the Broken Gold Sect… I'll stay alert."
"But you—don't get involved in the sect disciple corruption or the black-cloaked traffickers. That stuff runs deep. Don't sink yourself into it."
He paused, realizing that saying this was useless. Mo Hua was going to do whatever he wanted anyway.
So he said: "Just be careful. If you find any clues, tell me. If something goes wrong, let me know."
"Mmhm!" Mo Hua eagerly agreed.
He wasn't an idiot.
Whether it was black-robed cultivators or demonic noble disciples—this was way beyond what one person could solve. Now that he had a reliable ally, he wasn't about to act alone.
Their conversation ended there.
In the following days, Mo Hua resumed his usual routine—cultivating, practicing arrays, tempering his divine sense.
His cultivation progressed steadily but not quickly.
Since he focused more on speed than solid foundations, he was about average among his peers.
His spiritual power had deepened a lot since first entering Foundation Establishment, but he was still a bit short of breaking through to the mid-stage.
However, the real bottleneck was his divine sense.
It had already far exceeded the early Foundation Establishment stage and was now stuck at the threshold of late-stage divine sense.
Trying to polish it with array drawing was like dripping water onto stone—painfully slow.
And being stuck at sixteen-pattern divine sense meant his array level couldn't rise either.
During this period, Mo Hua could only broaden his array knowledge—learning more formations based on Five Elements and Bagua principles.
But honestly, he was bored of drawing sixteen-pattern formations.
He really wanted to draw seventeen-pattern and above—those high-tier second-grade arrays.
Especially seventeen-pattern Primordial Magnetic Arrays—they must involve even more profound principles and advanced applications.
Mo Hua couldn't wait.
But unless he broke through with his divine sense, it was all just fantasy.
Meanwhile, the demons in Yu'er's nightmares were becoming fewer and fewer.
Yu'er looked healthier every day—and while Mo Hua was genuinely happy for her, he was also mildly mournful.
Because that meant… less "rations" for himself.
"Don't know when I'll finally get to feast again…"
he grumbled in his heart.
If this kept up, he'd have to wait a whole year until his cultivation broke through again, expanding his sea of consciousness and finally cracking the bottleneck in his divine sense.
And then there was the matter of the Evil God…
Other people could ignore it. He couldn't.
These days, Mo Hua had been thinking deeply.
Based on what Lord Huangshan once told him, Mo Hua had come to believe that divine sense advancement had two dimensions:
One was the grade of divine sense
The other was the rank.
Consuming demons and monsters increased the grade—the quantity of divine sense. That was what determined one's divine sense level.
But devouring divine marrow elevated the rank—the quality, the divine authority level.
Ordinary cultivators only experienced grade increases—mere quantitative growth.
But since learning the Celestial Evolution Art, Mo Hua's divine sense had started undergoing qualitative change—like a budding deity, upgrading its rank.
Which meant… if he wanted to reach Divine Sense Dao Attainment, he had to pursue both quality and quantity, both grade and rank.
And just raising the grade was already a pain.
Now he had to raise the rank too.
Mo Hua's head throbbed.
Right now, the only way forward… was to get closer to the Evil God.
Demons were the Evil God's minions.
Divine marrow was hidden in the Evil God's divine corpse.
Both were superfood for divine sense.
But the Evil God was hiding too well…
Even telling Uncle Gu about it was useless—his divine sense was too dull to perceive it.
At the moment, Fire Buddha was dead. The Bìshan Mountain Demon Palace had sunk. The only remaining lead was Guo Jianglong, who had been on the same list as the Fire Buddha.
But Mo Hua couldn't keep tabs on Guo Jianglong himself.
He couldn't leave the sect. Couldn't enter the Dao Prison either. It was all beyond his reach.
This was something he could only entrust to Uncle Gu.
Besides, this involved a mole inside the Dao Court—it was their internal matter anyway. He had no authority to intervene.
Guo Jianglong was the baitworm. He was meant to lure out the big fish.
And fishing required patience. No rushing allowed.
You had to wait for the fish to bite—for the big one to take the hook.
So… this was going to take time.
Mo Hua sighed.
Looked like he'd have to stay hungry for a while longer…
"Where in the world… is that Evil God's divine corpse hiding?"
...
While Mo Hua was scheming about the Evil God…
…in a forbidden land, Mister Tu suddenly snapped his eyes open, pupils shrinking sharply.
That eerie, soul-piercing dread was back again…
This time, he was absolutely certain—Someone was recklessly coveting the Divine Lord!
Suddenly, Mister Tu's face cracked, his pupils turned pitch-black and hollow—as if something had parasitized him. From his mouth came a harsh, inhuman screech:
"Find them!"
"No matter who it is—Find them!"
The very next second, Mister Tu fell into terrified obedience, his voice trembling:
"Y-yes… yes…"
"Divine Lord, please quell your wrath…"
"It was all my fault, all my fault. I searched… but couldn't find them…"
"Hundreds of years old… hooked nose… deep laugh lines… sinister gaze, reclusive aura… seems gentle on the surface, but his smile is effeminate and venomous…"
"There are a few like that in the Ganxue Prefecture, but none match completely."
"None of them have the power to disrupt the Divine Lord's great plan…"
Suddenly, a terrifying, inhuman roar burst from Mister Tu's throat, mighty and oppressive.
His face grew even paler.
"Yes…"
"But… too many of the pawns on the list have been lost… The Bìshan Divine Temple's altar has been destroyed… The demonic slaves are nearly wiped out…"
"Too many of the divine cattle traders have died, and with fewer humans and livestock, sacrificial breeding has slowed… The array's progress has also…"
Before he could finish, blood began pouring from his seven orifices.
He collapsed uncontrollably to the ground, limbs twisted in agony.
"Forgive your old servant's slip of tongue…"
Mister Tu croaked through gritted teeth, enduring the pain.
After a long while, as the evil force receded slightly, he shakily climbed back to his knees, bowing devoutly:
"My loyalty to the Divine Lord is eternal and unshakable!"
"One day, the great Divine Lord shall awaken from slumber—
and reign over the Great Wilderness!"
After finishing this solemn declaration, Mister Tu's tense body finally relaxed slightly—
clearly relieved.
Then, with a heavy tone, he continued:
"Someone is interfering with the Divine Lord's plan…"
"All of this… is being manipulated by someone in the shadows."
"The divine fetus has been hidden away by some unknown force. The demons summoned under the Divine Lord's authority… none have returned…"
"Even a Divine Servant has died—and with them, one of the countless Divine Eyes that resided within… has vanished."
"Only now do I realize… I was wrong."
"I underestimated him."
"That person… who's repeatedly defied and blasphemed the Divine Lord, disrupting the grand plan… is no ordinary array master."
"He might be a Divine Array Master who cultivates in the path of godhood… or a terrifying sword cultivator who trains in divine-sense arts."
"If he's just a divine array master, I'm not afraid."
"But if it's divine-sense sword arts…"
A strong look of fear flickered in Mister Tu's eyes.
A forbidden technique, long classified as taboo—the terrifying Divine-Sense-to-Sword Transformation—resurfaced in his mind.
Finally, Mister Tu knelt and bowed before a gruesome idol—a face with human features and twisted ram horns, drenched in blood and layered in bone.
He solemnly vowed: "I will find them…"
"Anyone who dares obstruct the Divine Lord's plan… will end up as dog feed, cast into mountain prisons and hellfire, soul destroyed, never to reincarnate!"
"…Great Void Sect…"
Mister Tu's voice trailed off into an ominous whisper.
After speaking, he did not dare meet the eyes of the horned idol. With eyes lowered and back bowed, he humbly retreated.
Only after leaving the altar did he slowly rise.
He pulled out a human skin and slipped it over himself.
The skin gradually melded into his body, covering his deathly white, wrinkled face—the skin that had been soaked in blood for years, cracked and decayed.
And just like that, Mister Tu became a tall, fair-skinned, elegant-looking middle-aged cultivator.
Gone was the ugliness and servility.
With a gentle, refined smile, he walked calmly out of the eerie forbidden land.
(End of this Chapter)