The refining of the Immortal Locking Body proceeded relatively smoothly.
Li Mo set his sights only on Sixty Refinents, so the consumption of top-grade spiritual materials wasn’t excessive; the resources available at Corpse Mountain were more than sufficient.
The tightly shut Heart Beast Temple did not attract too much attention.
Most beast cultivators didn’t even know Li Mo was inside the temple.
After all, the Heart Beast Temple was specifically used to seal Tian Chenzi’s relics and was rarely opened, lest it affect the Mountain Protection Array.
While refining, Li Mo kept an eye on demon cultivator matters through the Breath Fog dispersed across the entire city.
But the results were far from optimistic.
The demon cultivators’ realms were at most at the Thirty Years Old Stage. Yet among the thirteen cultivators of the sa level in Rong Town, none could detect even the faintest trace.
Li Mo didn’t think this was a problem with Tian Changwen or the others.
The demon cultivators may possess concealnt techniques superior to the pill cultivators who practice parasitic cultivation; otherwise, Li Mo would have already noticed sothing suspicious.
In the ancient cultivation world, the devil sect was the target everyone sought to eliminate, leading to their lack of fixed mountain gates, instead wandering everywhere, slaughtering mortals, cultivating treasures.
The Heavenly Sword Sect and similar grand immortal sects had encircled and suppressed the devil sect multiple tis before, but the results were diocre, and there were always survivors left to continue their legacy.
After ten thousand years had passed, Li Mo couldn’t imagine the current state of demon cultivators.
"No, if I stay long in Rong Town, the demon cultivators will surely not show themselves. I might as well use retreat to advance once the Immortal Locking Body is refined."
Li Mo’s temporary departure from Rong Town was clearly an open strategy, but the hidden demon cultivators would not easily pass up such an opportunity—they would undoubtedly attempt to escape.
When the ti cos, it’ll be a battle of wits between the two sides.
He didn’t want to waste too much ti on the demon cultivators, as he had already lived over a century, with the Thirty Years Old Death Disease looming close.
Li Mo felt faintly apprehensive, but also couldn’t help but feel so anticipation.
To him, possessing the Primordial Dao Seed represented infinite possibilities. Any cultivation system, no matter how unconventional, would provide noticeable benefits to his divine skills and could further solidify his foundation.
If the demon cultivators saw Rong Town as prey, wasn’t Li Mo the lurking sparrow behind them?
He began intentionally speeding up the refining process for the Immortal Locking Body, directly transplanting twelve temporary arms onto his torso to interface with the Eight-Ard Spine Nerve.
Any beast cultivator who had witnessed the Mountain and Sea Hermit refining artifacts would surely find it familiar, as Li Mo’s style of artifact refining was indeed unrestrained.
The Old Earth True Monarch once secretly comnted on Li Mo with Big Deer Thousand Feet.
"Every action Qing Tian takes exudes unparalleled talent. Just one glance suffices to show it’s impossible to replicate."
The remark implied a notion that techniques are for re diocrity—following instinct suffices for those beyond.
"Hah..."
Li Mo let out a long breath. As the Immortal Locking Body reached Sixty Refinents, he removed all the temporary arms he had transplanted.
The Immortal Locking Body was placed before him, neither stone nor flesh in material, but emanating a strange vitality. Its appearance was identical to Tian Chenzi’s.
Despite being a high-grade magical artifact, the Immortal Locking Body lacked even a trace of the distinct aura of such artifacts.
Li Mo’s palm surged with Mist Fog Spiritual Power. With a slight refinent, he commanded it as easily as his own limb, and the Immortal Locking Body beca even more lifelike.
This was due to the Immortal Locking Body being crafted from the Corpse Mountain’s at Stone Embryo, supplented by portions of Da Ai Mi Tian, which instilled him with a subtle and peculiar sensation.
How to describe it? It was as if the Immortal Locking Body was an organ transford from his own flesh.
Nevertheless, Li Mo did not stop, as simple artifact refinent was obviously insufficient, especially since the Immortal Locking Body needed to long guard Rong Town.
If a magic artifact is distant from its cultivator for too long, the connection between the two will gradually weaken.
Li Mo needed the Immortal Locking Body to substitute himself convincingly. Even if he was situated in the Inner Sect of the Sub-Device Sect, he had to maintain long-range communication with the Immortal Locking Body.
Pressed against the artifact’s brow, his forefinger injected Da Ai Mi Tian into it.
The distinctive trait of Da Ai Mi Tian was its cancer cells, which, being part of Li Mo’s body, could achieve symbiosis with the magical artifact.
The primary material used for the Immortal Locking Body, at Stone Embryo, ensured the cancer cells’ prolonged survival.
The only thing Li Mo regretted was that the grade of Da Ai Mi Tian dropped by two refinents, when it had nearly reached Eighty Refinents.
However, it was still unsuitable for Da Ai Mi Tian to prematurely ascend to Fake Magical Treasure status; Corpse Mountain consud excessive spiritual power, rendering it impractical as a conventional tool.
"Ugh... ugh..."
The Immortal Locking Body let out unconscious murmurs while its cancer cells voraciously infiltrated both its interior and exterior.
Under Li Mo’s watchful gaze, tumors began proliferating across its surface. Its facial features beca distorted and ferocious, while its skeletal joints contorted abnormally.
In a certain sense, the cancer-transford Immortal Locking Body resembled Tian Chenzi more closely upon his arrival.
Li Mo closed his eyes tightly. With Da Ai Mi Tian parasitically inhabiting the Immortal Locking Body, he genuinely felt an illusion of possessing an outer body—like another entity altogether.
But this alone was insufficient.
The Immortal Locking Body could only maintain order and balance; if external forces targeted the artifact, the cancer cells would swiftly deplete.
Whether the Immortal Locking Body’s effect could expand enough depended on the upcoming transformation.
The transformation of the Immortal Locking Body would undoubtedly stir so commotion, which Li Mo had no intention of concealing. This was a good chance to test the demon cultivators, given he held the upper hand in strength and had no need to cower.
Following his thoughts, the Immortal Locking Body slipped into the gaps between the floor tiles.
Li Mo transmitted his thoughts to Tian Changwen, feigning that traces of demon cultivators had been detected in other towns, then disappeared into the sky.
Tian Changwen, understanding Li Mo’s intent, promptly collaborated to pressure the demon cultivators into exposing themselves.
He knew postponing things any further was not an option. If Rong Town remained under lockdown, it would inevitably disrupt the regular operations of various branch shops.
Given its heavy investnt in cultivating nurous children, Rong Town had long been teetering on financial instability.
The strategy seed more like defeating the enemy at high costs while suffering significant losses oneself.
Two days after Li Mo’s departure, Tian Changwen noticed strange phenona emanating from the Heart Beast Temple once again, as suffocating energy leaked from inside.
Fortunately, the Heart Beast Temple’s restrictions hadn’t been lifted, so no one else discovered this.
But Tian Changwen could only watch with his own eyes as blood and flesh-like substance wriggled out from the cracks between the floor tiles, releasing Mist Fog Spiritual Power rarely seen among Rong Town’s beast cultivators before burrowing into the shell of Tian Chenzi’s relic.
Crack... crack...
The unsettling sound of chewing reverberated.
As soone who had refined the shell, Tian Changwen was well aware of the Immortal Locking Body consuming the magical artifact, though there was no impact on the operation of the Mountain Protection Array.
He remained discreetly tolerant of the Immortal Locking Body until he completely lost sense of the shell.
When the Immortal Locking Body replaced the shell, the statue itself beca extraordinarily grotesque. Its face bore an awkward smile, its pose appeared odd, and its body sprouted nurous extra arms of various sizes.
Those arms resembled beast limbs, occasionally squirming.
Its image bore so resemblance to the Thousand-Ard Guanyin that Li Mo once knew in his previous life—but without any trace of compassion, instead exuding an eerie aura.
The reason Tian Chenzi’s relic could serve as the Array Eye was due to the immortals’ old bodies, which could continuously draw tal Spiritual Power.
Upon absorbing spiritual power, the Immortal Locking Body’s countless arms extended like roots into the ground, visibly spreading throughout the mountain at astonishing speed.
Tian Changwen sensed a subtle change in the Mountain Protection Array but couldn’t find any evidence to verify it.
Were it another beast cultivator, they would undoubtedly attempt to stop such unforeseen developnts from worsening further.
Yet Li Mo understood Tian Changwen’s gambling nature well; even without explaining the role of the Immortal Locking Body, Tian Changwen wouldn’t damage it.
In fact, Tian Changwen deliberately used the demon cultivators’ turmoil to divert everyone’s attention.
Rong Town beca fraught with undercurrents; constables scurried everywhere, questioning civilians from East City to West City multiple tis.
Even the bustling marketplaces quieted down.
Stalls scattered sparsely here and there, as mories of the Hundred-faced Beast Calamity still lingered vividly in the mortals’ minds—they naturally refused to stir trouble.
A frail and emaciated scholar paced nervously through the streets.
His clothing was in tatters, his sleeves stained with an ambiguous greasy residue, and his mouth held remnants of at stuck between his teeth.
"Where are you from?"
The constable stopped the scholar, who hurriedly responded, "Su Ruolan, living in the west alley of Chaoyang Street. Three in my family, my ancestors..."
"Alright, alright."
The constable impatiently waved his hand, suddenly recalling the infamous Su Ruolan.
Su Ruolan’s family consisted only of his elderly parents, both over a century old. He had always been interested in cultivation, yet after an encounter with so Qi Cultivation technique, he beca utterly mad.
"Scholar Su, why are you out so late? It’s almost evening."
The constable only had a shallow level of cultivation and detected no traces of spiritual power within Su Ruolan, so he released his grip on the latter’s arm.
Su Ruolan retrieved a recently sharpened kitchen knife from his robe, his expression feverish as he replied, "Upper cultivation. I’m heading to buy a knife—once ho, I’ll beco immortal, haha."
"Hurry back then; it’ll be curfew when night falls."
The constable gave Su Ruolan a dubious glance but found nothing noteworthy.
With a creepy laugh, Su Ruolan disappeared into an alleyway, mumbling nonsensical words and soon arriving at his own door.
"It won’t deceive . It won’t, it won’t. I will most definitely beco immortal..."
Repeating his self-questioning and self-answering, he carefully opened the door, allowing a thick and pungent stench of blood to waft out.
Su Ruolan entered the dim house.
Two decayed corpses dangled from the roof beam, one male and one female, sharing a resemblance with Su Ruolan by forty to fifty percent.
"Hehehehe..."
Su Ruolan laughed until tears stread down his face. "You said I would beco immortal. I followed your words; I’ll definitely beco immortal."
From the surrounding hos ca the sounds of windows and doors slamming shut—neighbors were clearly accustod to such scenes.
"Hang both parents for seven days after death. Remove three ounces of liver, mix it with brain scalp bone powder, consu it, then head to the governnt office—to beco immortal within two days."
Su Ruolan’s recitation of such chilling instructions sounded less like immortal techniques and more like the ravings of a lunatic.
And yet, he believed it.
After choking down the immortality elixir, Su Ruolan dragged the corpses of his parents directly toward the governnt office.
He had barely walked a few blocks before a patrolling constable stumbled upon him, the grueso spectacle deeply unsettling.
Su Ruolan was imdiately detained and locked in the dungeon.
Since this only concerned mortals, the governnt’s beast cultivators didn’t intervene, leaving Su Ruolan to be sentenced to public execution at Cai Market in ten days.
His parents’ corpses were unceremoniously cremated without further ado.
In the face of the demon cultivators’ looming threat, nobody paid any heed to a deranged parricidal lunatic.
Even as Su Ruolan endlessly whispered about achieving immortality from within his prison cell, multiple inspections at the governnt office confird no anomalies in him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)