The Quest for Immortality

The only thing he had was the Big Tiger who ”relied on him for life.”

So whatever he did, he still had to be all the more cautious.

At the very least, he needed to sound out the situation, find out the general state of the Barbarian Gods outside Wutu Mountain before he could make a move.

It would be best if he could get another copy of ”Elder Zamu’s list”; that would make the job twice as easy for half the effort.

This was something that had to be planned for the long term and carefully prepared.

Before everything was ready, what Mo Hua needed to do was sweep Wutu Mountain and the surrounding tribes in the Mountain Realm once more, to see if there were any fish that had slipped through the net.

Thus Mo Hua mapped as he swept, checking for omissions and patching them up, while at the same time making plans to head out and hunt Barbarian Gods.

Time slipped by bit by bit, and Mo Hua’s plan was also gradually advancing.

Whenever he had free time, he would still go see the Big Tiger.

Now, the peak deep within Wutu Mountain that had the most Monster Beasts and was the most perilous had already become the Big Tiger’s ”private domain.”

The few Second Grade Monster Beasts that had once occupied that peak had either been bitten to death by the Big Tiger or had fled at the mere sight of him, not daring to take even half a step over the Thunder Pool.

By now Wutu Mountain was already entirely the Big Tiger’s world.

It had truly become a king of the mountain.

The Big Tiger had also started stockpiling Monster meat, all so that Mo Hua could roast it for him to eat.

It had grown picky now; unless the circumstances really didn’t allow for it, Mo Hua had to roast all Monster meat for it or it simply wouldn’t eat.

Mo Hua also set up a Three Nine Cold Ice Formation in the cave for the Big Tiger.

The Ice System Formation was one of the strange arrays of the Eight Trigrams; its changes were rather complex and the lineage was rare, so not many Cultivators could use it.

Fortunately, at Taixu Gate the Formation section of the Taoist Repository was rich, and when Mo Hua had studied all kinds of Formations under Elder Master Xun, widely reading all manner of works, he had learned some basic ice arrays as well.

This Three Nine Cold Ice Formation was one of them. Though it was not considered profound, it was more than enough.

Whenever the Big Tiger killed a Monster Beast, it would place the Monster Beast’s corpse on the Three Nine Cold Ice Formation to refrigerate and preserve it, preventing the meat from spoiling.

He would wait for Mo Hua to return from hunting Barbarian Gods outside and then have him roast the meat.

When Mo Hua roasted meat, the Big Tiger would widen its eyes and lie to one side watching.

Once Mo Hua was done roasting, the Big Tiger would go ”awooh” and open its huge mouth, letting Mo Hua throw the meat into it; then it would slowly chew, eating it fresh off the fire with a look of pure enjoyment.

...

As for the meat he roasted for the Big Tiger, Mo Hua also set some aside.

He brought these roasted meats to the Wutu Tribe and shared them with Little Zatu.

Zatu was Elder Zamu of the Wutu Tribe’s little grandson, the very child Elder Zamu had planned to offer in sacrifice to the Barbarian God that day.

Zatu, like the other children of the Barbarian Tribes, had a Beast Pattern tattooed on his body.

But he was also different from the other children of the Barbarian Tribes—he was thin and small, and he lacked that fierce, brutish ferocity.

The Wutu Tribe was poor; even though he was the Elder’s grandson, he had not enjoyed much special treatment. Seeing the roasted meat Mo Hua had given him, he was both overjoyed and uneasy, and asked timidly:

”Mr. Witch, c-can I eat this?”

Mo Hua nodded. ”You’ve been injured; you need to nourish your body.”

Although Little Zatu had recovered somewhat, his foundation was weak; his body was still somewhat frail and needed some meat to build it up.

Here among the Barbarian Tribes, under normal circumstances, their diet was mainly ”meat.”

But perhaps because they had experienced war as well as years of famine, now they had no meat to eat either.

Moreover, the ”meat” of the Barbarian Tribes was actually not anything good.

They basically had no cooking methods, used little in the way of spices, and their meat was fishy, stringy, and tough, about as hard to chew as dried ox sinew.

The most troublesome part was that, here in the Great Wilderness, they made no distinction between ”carnivorous Monster Beasts” and ”herbivorous Monster Beasts.”

They treated all Monster Beasts the same and ate them all.

Herbivorous Monster Beasts were not a problem.

But carnivorous Monster Beasts were different. They not only killed people but also fed on them; their flesh would be mixed with human Blood Qi and nutrients, and their Monster Qi was even more intense.

Thus once Cultivators ate the meat of carnivorous Monster Beasts, there would be very strong side effects:

For example, they would become irritable, bloodthirsty, lose their reason, and develop bloody hallucinations.

Their meridians would also be polluted by Monster Qi, shortening their lifespan. Their Cultivation would easily go awry; if they were not careful, they would fall into demonic deviation and become a Fallen Demon.

But here in the Great Wilderness, these things seemed to be not much of a problem instead.

Because the environment was harsh, most Barbarian Cultivators died young anyway, so they did not care whether their lives were short.

And with such limited conditions, having food at all was already good enough; they did not care what kind of meat they were eating.

Some particularly savage tribes even maintained the vile custom of ”eating people”; they truly did eat human flesh.

So eating carnivorous Monster Beasts—this behavior, somewhat akin to ”indirectly eating people,” would even appear quite ”civilized.”

These habits were inherent in the Great Wilderness and had been for thousands of years; Mo Hua could not change them and could only ”respect” them for what they were.

But what he gave Little Zatu was strictly selected meat from herbivorous Monster Beasts.

He used Formation fire to burn away the Monster Qi and refine out the fishiness, then sprinkled spices; it was very clean and tasted very good.

Little Zatu took a bite and immediately widened his eyes. Then he could not bear to eat any more and wanted to put it away, but halfway through, his movements froze.

Mo Hua asked him, ”What’s wrong?”

Little Zatu was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice:

”This meat is so delicious. I wanted to save some for Ada, Ali, and Zhen’er so they could taste it too... but I forgot, they’re already gone, and only I’m left...”

Little Zatu’s expression was blank.

Mo Hua also felt a bit ill at ease inside.

The irreparable pain of partings by life and death, this child had tasted it at such a young age.

Mo Hua shifted the subject and asked, ”Your name is Zatu?”

Little Zatu nodded.