The Quest for Immortality

If he said he didn’t care, that would definitely be a lie.

He was nearly a hundred years older than Dan Zhu, and had watched Dan Zhu grow up from childhood.

Dan Zhu was so kind and handsome; as an elder brother, it was impossible for him not to feel a tender affection.

But if one were to say he felt no wariness, no rejection, that would also be impossible.

No matter how much affection there was, that only belonged to childhood; once Dan Zhu grew up, with such astonishing talent and so beloved by the tribe, Dan Bie could not help but harbor a sense of estrangement.

Some things were simply beyond his control.

Both of these emotions existed within Dan Bie; at times he clearly could not even get a firm grasp on the conflicting tendencies in his own heart.

Only, this kind of ”vacillation” ultimately had a time limit.

When the time came, Dan Bie would likely be forced by circumstances, and have no choice but to make a decision...

In the face of power, the human heart is, in the end, weak.

Mo Hua silently pondered to this point, then suddenly started, and involuntarily associated further, thinking:

Within the Barbaric Wilderness, the Danque Tribe was a large power with a great many people.

The core of a great power is authority.

But the bearer of authority is people.

And the root of people is the heart.

In the final analysis, everything still must be viewed from the perspective of the ”human heart,” with the human heart as the pivot.

The circulation of Heavenly Mechanism Causality in the human world also lies within the ever-changing ”heart” of people.

And the heart of a person is yet one with the spirit.

The heart’s appearances blend into the Divine Soul, and the Divine Soul is lodged in...

Divine Sense?!

Like a bolt from the blue, Mo Hua’s pupils trembled; in that instant he suddenly understood something.

It was as if he had vaguely broken through a certain barrier and linked together all that he had seen and learned in his life—those seemingly separate systems of profound and inexpressible Taoist learning concerning Heavenly secrets, Divine Sense, and the human heart—so that they connected with one another, forming a hazy Great Dao system with Divine Sense as its foundation.

This conceptual vision was far too grand.

Yet precisely because it was too grand, when Mo Hua thought it through carefully, it was as if he had plunged headfirst into a boundless vast sea, leaving him somewhat at a loss.

He had only grasped a faint thread, but could not yet make it concrete.

Mo Hua vaguely suspected that his ”conception” of the Dao was likely correct.

But the problem was that his current Cultivation Realm, his worldly experience, and his grasp of various Daoist cultivation methods were all still too shallow.

The ”depth” of his life was not yet sufficient to carry through his ”Dao.”

His experiences in this world were also not yet enough to serve as the commentary for his Dao.

”I still need to see more, learn more, cultivate more...”

”To come into contact with more objective people and events, to ponder the causality and Laws of the human world, to experience the human heart, to deduce contradictions, to alter the Causality of the living beings of this world, to unite knowledge and action... and in the end penetrate everything and fuse it into my own ’Dao Laws’...”

Many principles, Mo Hua had previously only mulled over in his mind.

But everything that is only thought is illusory.

After entering the Barbaric Wilderness, preaching in person, going through all sorts of events, and seeing the changes in Heavenly secret and the manifestation of Causality and the human heart in ”reality,” only then did Mo Hua gain a clearer understanding of his own path of Dao.

So much so that he also attained a deeper realization regarding ”reality.”

”Knowledge is illusion, action is reality...”

”From knowledge to action is precisely from illusion to reality.”

”When knowledge and action become one, illusion and reality become one.”

”If one only knows but does not act, one can never break through the barrier between ’knowledge and action,’ nor shatter the obstruction between ’illusion and reality’...”

Mo Hua took out a Jade Slip and firmly recorded these insights and realizations.

”Divine Sense, heart, people, momentum, Causality, Heavenly secret...”

”Knowledge and action, illusion and reality...”

These concepts, Mo Hua had only grasped in a rudimentary way for now, but he believed that one day he would fuse all of them together, forge a lineage of his own, pointing straight to the Great Dao.

...

In the days that followed, Mo Hua’s life in the Danque Tribe temporarily settled down.

With the recognition of the Great Chief, Mo Hua, as an esteemed Shaman, naturally received courteous treatment.

The people of the Danque Tribe also showed Mo Hua considerable respect.

Of course, this respect was only on the surface.

These tribespeople merely dared not defy the authority of the Great Chief, and so treated Mo Hua as a Shaman, with the proper courtesies.

But in their hearts, most of them still regarded Mo Hua as nothing more than a ”swaggering, swindling pretty boy.”

Even the Elders and guards under Dan Zhu’s command, in their hearts, deeply suspected that Mo Hua might be a thick-skinned ”big bluffer.”

Only Dan Zhu truly acknowledged Mo Hua from the heart, and genuinely felt that there was something extraordinary about him.

In the days that followed, Mo Hua and Dan Zhu also had many conversations.

But in these conversations, Mo Hua no longer brought up those sharp questions.

Nor did he again mention that the Great Wilderness Barbarian Clan’s annexations were, in essence, mutual enslavement, and that the hierarchical distinctions within the tribe were, in essence, still a form of oppression and exploitation.

Such matters, which are fundamentally self-contradictory—you eat my flesh and then drink my blood—can never lead to the so-called vision of strength and abundance.

Such things only need to be raised once.

It was enough to plant a seed in Dan Zhu’s heart, letting him slowly ponder, slowly accept, slowly digest, so that it could take root and sprout deep within.

Besides that, saying more would be useless.

Thus, in their subsequent interactions, Mo Hua became much more ”gentle,” and what he said was easier to absorb.

When they spoke of matters such as destiny and Causality, the greater situation of the tribe, the livelihood of the people, Formation improvements, and the moral education of human hearts, all of these greatly benefited Dan Zhu.

Of course, except for Cultivation Realm.

After all, Mo Hua was only in Foundation Establishment, whereas Dan Zhu was a genius who had achieved Core Formation at the age of twenty.

To talk of Core Formation in front of a Golden Core was simply making things hard for himself.

Thus, he kept silent on matters of Cultivation.

On the rare occasions when Golden Core was mentioned, Mo Hua would fall silent, only looking at Dan Zhu with an inscrutable expression.

Being looked at like this by Mo Hua, Dan Zhu could not help feeling somewhat ashamed.