Chapter 1544: Fate Pattern

Chapter 1544: Fate Pattern

It was complex, ferocious, chaotic?

What was this thing...

Gu Changhuai’s brow gradually furrowed. “What you’re describing... is this something that exists in this world?”

Mo Hua shook his head, a contemplative look on his face:

“It seems... it’s something within my fate...”

He knew with clarity that his Fate Pattern was different from that of ordinary people.

Just now, he had also faintly sensed that deep within the Thousand Spider Ancient Forest, there was something very evil that shared an origin with him, stirring restlessly.

At the same time, something within his own Fate Pattern was also in constant agitation.

To the point that Mo Hua’s mind and spirit felt somewhat unsettled.

But before long, this evil disturbance gradually subsided.

He wasn’t entirely clear on the process, but it seemed somewhat brutal, accompanied by a unfamiliar aura of divinity.

Mo Hua wasn’t certain what had actually happened, he only had a faint feeling that another “self” was about to be born.

But this feeling was very vague, and the cause and effect were shrouded in primordial chaos.

He wanted to divine it, but for the moment, he didn’t even know where to begin.

A physician cannot heal himself; a diviner cannot divine for himself.

Certain things within one’s own fate, once one grows accustomed to them, are the easiest to overlook.

Being situated within one’s own fate, one cannot objectively observe the direction of one’s own fate or the state of one’s Fate Pattern.

This was a common matter, those who could see the fates of others were already few and far between.

And those who could see their own fate were even rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

That a person cannot see their own fate, this is the norm.

But this feeling was not a good one.

It gave Mo Hua a sense that his own Fate Pattern was something he could not observe, could not control, and even felt somewhat like it was running wild out of control.

A Fate Pattern should be related to Cause-and-Effect, and perhaps also to Divine-Sense.

But the relationship between the three was interwoven in light and shadow, intricate and complex, even Mo Hua himself was still somewhat confused.

Though his Divine-Sense was powerful and his killing arts were fierce, many of the hidden secrets of the Divine Dao were things he knew only by their surface, not by their underlying principles.

Just as the gods of heaven and earth could wield Divine Power, yet could not truly fathom the principles behind their own Divine Power.

Because Divine Power was the innate instinct of the gods.

Things one is born knowing, like breathing, once one grows accustomed to them, one naturally doesn’t know how to think about them or study them.

Mo Hua was originally human, but through Dao-Transformed Divine Sense, having devoured vast amounts of Divine Marrow and fused with immense Divine Nature, he was often like a god—powerful in a way that came naturally.

But conversely, he also suffered from the same shortcomings as the gods.

Gods cannot know themselves, examine themselves, or perceive themselves.

Many exquisite concepts of the Divine Dao, the circulation of Divine Power, he couldn’t perceive them with great clarity either, because on an instinctual level, these things were all one integrated whole, and thus there was no way to distinguish them.

A Fate Pattern was the same, things one is born with are often the hardest to perceive on one’s own.

This definitely wouldn’t do...

Especially now that his Divine-Sense was powerful and his mastery of cause and effect had reached a certain level.

Moreover, as time had passed and the Heavenly Secrets had undergone drastic changes, the various heresies within his Fate Pattern had long since been incubating for a period, producing certain mutations that even he himself had not noticed...

Mo Hua could no longer quite tell what state his own Fate Pattern was in now.

Those Karmic Dao-Sin Abominations from his past experiences... what exactly had they hatched during the times he hadn’t been paying attention...

At times like this, he had to go and learn more exquisite and subtle knowledge of the Divine Dao.

Perhaps he could find some knowledge or techniques worth borrowing, and gain some inspiration regarding the Divine Dao...

Mo Hua’s thoughts churned continuously as he nodded slightly.

Gu Changhuai stood to the side, watching Mo Hua suddenly sink into deep contemplation mid-sentence, as still as a stone statue. He would ponder for a long while without moving, occasionally muttering unintelligible words that no one could understand.

Gu Changhuai sighed inwardly.

But Gu Changhuai was also used to this by now.

Back when he was at Foundation Establishment, Mo Hua had been like this, somewhat eccentric and absent-minded.

Now that he had reached Golden Core, the symptoms had naturally intensified.

He didn’t make a sound to disturb him. Only when Mo Hua’s eyes flickered slightly, seemingly pulling himself out of his focused state, did Gu Changhuai ask:

“Figured it out?”

Mo Hua shook his head. “Not yet...”

He only had some initial ideas.

Gu Changhuai didn’t press further, instead bringing up the matter at hand. “What do we do next?”

His gaze sharpened as he spoke slowly, “Should we... go kill Lord Qingchou now, to eliminate the threat once and for all?”

Though he wasn’t certain and had no evidence, his intuition told him almost conclusively that Mo Hua definitely had some means of tracking Lord Qingchou.

If he couldn’t catch up to him, he would never have let Lord Qingchou escape.

That was just how Mo Hua was.

Back in the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment, he had been able to stir up storms in the Qianxue Prefecture realm, kill Fire Buddha, slay Water Yama, and match wits with a host of Criminal Cultivators and Demonic Cultivators... the Little Senior Brother of Great Void Sect.

His mind was nearly demonic in its cunning, his Divine-Sense keen, and now he had even reached the Golden Core Realm.

Lord Qingchou might be powerful, but there was absolutely no way he could escape from the palm of Mo Hua’s hand.

Gu Changhuai knew this well.

Mo Hua was briefly stunned. After a moment of thought, he asked:

“This Lord Qingchou... who exactly is he? Was the unrest in the Qingchou Prefecture Realm caused by him?”

Gu Changhuai nodded slightly. “According to the Dao Court Division’s investigation, this Lord Qingchou has been cultivating for over two hundred years. His original name is unknown, his origins unknown. His nickname is ‘Green-Faced Fang.’“

“Rumor has it that he was born with a unique bloodline, but his parents saw him as an aberration and cast him out into the wilderness. He survived by eating the rotting flesh of demonic beasts, and thus his nature became cruel and savage, he views people as ‘food.’“

“Once his cultivation succeeded, he occupied mountains and forests as a bandit chief, becoming a notorious scourge throughout the Qingchou Prefecture Realm.”

“Now the Qingchou Prefecture Realm is in a year of calamity, with the land rotting. Lord Qingchou took advantage of this to recruit followers, rally mobs of rioters, descend from the mountains to plunder, and wreak havoc across the region, sparking the uprising. He is indeed the culprit behind it all, the chief instigator.”

“But...”

Gu Changhuai frowned deeply. “Cultivators in the Great Spirit Field Realm have a hard time cultivating. No one knows how this Green-Faced Fang managed to reach Golden Core, nor how he was able to keep breaking through to the Late Golden Core Stage despite the scarcity of resources...”

“Moreover, he’s extremely difficult to kill. It seems no matter how you kill him, he just won’t die...”

Gu Changhuai’s expression was grave.

Mo Hua thought of those bluish-yellow threads within Lord Qingchou’s body, threads that carried both earth and wood aura and had the power to repair flesh and blood. His eyes flickered subtly.

Mo Hua asked again, “I heard the name ‘Master Wu’ from Lord Qingchou’s mouth. Who exactly is this Master Wu?”

Gu Changhuai said in a low voice, “I’ve also looked into this before. This ‘Master Wu’ is a mysterious Fāngshì and eccentric in the Great Spirit Field Realm, who cultivates an unfathomable and sinister Unorthodox Path. No one dares to provoke him, and any cultivator who has dealt with him is tight-lipped about the matter.”

“Lord Qingchou seems to be on fairly good terms with him. That’s why this riot probably isn’t unrelated to Master Wu either.”

“It’s just that the Dao Court Division can’t get a clear read on his background, so they don’t dare act rashly...”

“Moreover, this Master Wu has been quietly cultivating Dao Arts in the lands around Qingchou for many years. His connections are deeply entrenched. Though he lurks in the shadows, the forces tied to him—while untraceable—appear to be considerable...”

Untraceable forces that are considerable...

Mo Hua’s heart stirred, and he immediately grew interested. Then he recalled how, within the cause and effect realm, he had tricked Master Wu into revealing:

“...This old man inherits the legacy of the Southern Jiāng’s surviving bloodline, studies under True-Person Wugong as my Master, cultivates the Unorthodox Path Myriad Poison Gu School, and worships 《Lady Thousand Spiders》 as my deity...”

True-Person Wugong, since he was called a True-Person, that meant he was a cultivator of the Feathered Ascension Realm.

Having a Master who had achieved Feathered Ascension, and also worshipping a deity called 《Lady Thousand Spiders》...

Mo Hua then thought of that powerful Divine Dao aura he had sensed from deep within the ancient forest earlier.

This 《Lady Thousand Spiders》 seemed able to suppress the backlash of his Fate Pattern. Her Divine Power was probably formidable, and who knew how many years she had lived...

To be fair, Mo Hua was quite eager to go and meet this 《Lady Thousand Spiders》.

It had been a long time since he had encountered anything resembling a deity.

Any kind of god would do, Mo Hua wasn’t picky.

But after pondering for a moment, and glancing at Gu Changhuai’s pale face, as well as the other Dao Court Division cultivators who were battered and mentally exhausted, Mo Hua ultimately let out a sigh and said:

“Let’s forget it for now...”

The Thousand Spider Ancient Forest was too deep, the paths hard to find, and it was riddled with miasma and Thought Power Gu Poison.

Moreover, with this 《Lady Thousand Spiders》, whose depth of cultivation and Divine Power were unknown, standing guard, it wasn’t wise to barge in recklessly.

If something went wrong and a fight broke out, he himself wasn’t afraid, he could slip away if things looked bad.

But Uncle Gù and the others would very likely be in grave danger.

After all, they had no understanding of the perils of the unorthodox path. On top of that, everyone was wounded, they couldn’t even flee if they tried.

He had gone through great trouble to save these people; he didn’t want them dying deep in the Thousand Spider Forest.

Furthermore, even setting aside Lady Thousand Spiders, Lord Qingchou and Master Wu were neither of them simple.

Their cultivation was both very high, one had a bizarre physical body that couldn’t be killed, and the other practiced unorthodox fāng arts with vicious curse arts.

Now that they had also suffered the backlash of his Fate Pattern, whether they were alive or dead, or might undergo some mutation... charging over recklessly simply wasn’t safe.

Mo Hua shook his head and said, “Even if we chased after them now, we might not be able to kill Lord Qingchou, and it would only alert the snake by striking the grass.”

“Anyway, the monk can run away, but the temple can’t. We’ll run into them again sooner or later, and we can capture them whenever we want.”

“For now, healing our wounds is the priority. Let’s leave the Thousand Spider Forest first...”

Gu Changhuai was somewhat unwilling, but he also knew that Mo Hua’s judgment was probably the right call. All along, listening to Mo Hua had rarely led him astray.

Gu Changhuai let out a sigh and nodded:

“Alright, I’ll follow your lead.”

Mo Hua nodded as well, then turned back to glance at the depths of the Thousand Spider Forest.

His clear gaze seemed to pierce through the ancient forest, reaching all the way to the Thousand Spider Temple at its very heart...

Within Lord Qingchou’s body, there were formation threads resembling a Spiritual-Pivot, a formation technique Mo Hua had never encountered before.

Master Wu was a master of the Unorthodox Path, well-versed in the art of gu, and carried a host of Unorthodox Path Fāng Arts that Mo Hua had never seen.

And then there was the mighty Lady Thousand Spiders.

She, too, was a deity he had never met—unknown in alignment, unknown in affiliation, unknown in Divine Power...

Too many fascinating things, far too many.

There was plenty of time ahead, and his stay in the Great Spirit Field Realm was ample enough.

He could take his time and play.

He would unravel everything thread by thread, and get to the bottom of it all...

A faint glimmer flickered in Mo Hua’s deep gaze, and a barely perceptible smile curled at the corner of his lips. Then he reined in the sharpness in his eyes, turned around, and led Gu Changhuai and the cultivators of the Dao Court Division step by step away from this tangled web, heading out of the Thousand Spider Forest.

...

At the same time, inside the Thousand Spider Temple.

It seemed as though a chilly wind had blown through.

The exhausted Lord Qingchou shivered inexplicably. Master Wu, lying on the ground, was likewise stirred and slowly opened his eyes.

But the moment he opened them, Master Wu felt as though his eyelids were being sliced by knives—pain beyond words—and he could see nothing at all.

At the same time, his head throbbed as if it would split open, his brain feeling as though it had been wrung dry.

And where he could not see, though his flesh and blood were slowly reviving, the ravaged wounds still covered his limbs and body like a peeled hide, a ghastly, harrowing sight.

Master Wu was seized by terror. His throat hoarse, he made garbled, indistinct sounds:

“I... what happened to me?”

“How did I become like this? Who harmed me? Who tore my skin? Gouged out my eyes? Drained my Sea of Consciousness dry?”

“Who? Who?!”

Lord Qingchou was startled at first, but hearing Master Wu’s frantic cries, the dread from before resurfaced in his heart.

He feared that Master Wu had been ‘corrupted’ anew, and would do something inexplicably horrifying.

But then, Lord Qingchou saw that although Master Wu’s flesh was mottled and utterly inhuman, he did seem to be a “person” again, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, more or less.

Lord Qingchou said, “Master Wu, calm yourself...”

Master Wu remained frantic: “Who! Who tore my skin, my eyes... who gouged out my eyes?”

Lord Qingchou said helplessly, “Master, you tore your own skin. You gouged out your own eyes...”

Hearing this, Master Wu was first shocked, then furious. “Nonsense! How could I possibly—”

Before he could finish, he recalled certain taboos of the Unorthodox Path, and fear seized him at once. “No, that’s wrong... what... what did I do?”

Lord Qingchou frowned. “You... don’t remember?”

Master Wu said, “What am I supposed to remember?”

Lord Qingchou’s heart churned with suspicion, and his expression shifted slightly. “You... have forgotten everything?”

“Forgotten?” Master Wu seemed dazed, murmuring to himself. “Forgotten... what have I forgotten... I...”

Fragments of lingering memory began to resurface in Master Wu’s mind.

A face—very young, somewhat naive, flawless as white jade, with eyes clear down to the very depths—began to emerge in his thoughts.

At the same time, Master Wu screamed as if he had seen an Evil Ghost. He covered his face, fell to his knees, and pounded his head desperately:

“No... I mustn’t think...”

“I mustn’t think about it. Forget... quickly... forget it all...”

Lord Qingchou, upon seeing the Unorthodox Path master, Master Wu, speak a few normal words before suddenly going mad again, desperately pounding his own head as if trying to dig certain memories out of his skull, felt a chill of dread rise from the depths of his heart.

He hurriedly grabbed hold of Master Wu to stop him from actually smashing his own head to pieces. “Master, calm down...”

Master Wu continued to mutter, “Mustn’t think...”

“Mustn’t recall...”

“Forget it all...”

“Forget...”

Master Wu was drenched in cold sweat, mixed with blood, sticky and viscous.

And it seemed he truly had forgotten certain things, forcibly compelling his mind not to dwell on them, lest he reawaken those terrible memories and be contaminated a second time.

As long as he didn’t recall, there would be no fear, no pain.

Master Wu stood there like a living puppet, dazed and motionless, his thoughts utterly still.

Lord Qingchou dared not disturb him in the slightest.

Who knew how much longer passed before Master Wu gradually shook off his deranged terror, calming somewhat, his nearly withered Divine-Sense slowly trickling back.

Though his body remained covered in wounds, pitiful beyond measure.

Yet Master Wu’s aura was gradually returning to normal.

From a mindless madman, he once again became that sinister, cunning master of the Unorthodox Path.

Seeing this, Lord Qingchou finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. As Master Wu gradually regained his composure, Lord Qingchou could no longer suppress his curiosity and couldn’t help but ask:

“Master... what exactly did you see?”

Those words instantly dragged Master Wu’s memories back, pulling them toward those horrifying visions.

Master Wu’s Sea of Consciousness, which had just settled, nearly twisted out of shape once more.

Rage surged within Master Wu, and he wished he could slaughter Lord Qingchou on the spot, but sensing his Divine Soul in turmoil and his sanity on the verge of collapse, he hastily recited his heart mantra, reining in his mind and refusing to let his thoughts run wild.

Lord Qingchou dared not speak casually again.

After another long while, Master Wu finally returned to normal.

This time, he seemed to have truly and completely escaped from that topsy-turvy terror.

Even his face appeared as if insects had crawled across it, filling in his features and eyes completely—though the result was still somewhat ghastly to behold.

Lord Qingchou still couldn’t hold back, though he was more cautious this time, asking with trepidation:

“Master, this... what exactly is going on?”

“Why did it come to this...”

Master Wu slowly opened his eyes, which were blood-red, his pupils decayed and rotten.

His expression was exceedingly grave. Reflecting on the various inexplicable and terrifying ordeals he had suffered, his heart churned with doubt and fear. After a moment of thought, his voice hoarse and barely concealing his terror, he said:

“I fear... a ‘Taisui’ has passed through this area...”

...

Translator Notes:

In Chinese mythology, the Tai-Sui (太岁) is a star god and the deity of the year. It is a powerful symbol of cosmic authority, and it was considered taboo to disturb its earthly position.

In a xianxia context, it is often used to represent a supreme ancient being, a god-like figure, an ominous creature, or a force of immense power.

(End of Chapter)