Chapter 434: Chapter 59 Dragon Ball in Hand
The vibrant weeds grew wildly, covering the entire Fire Spirit Hall in just two days, even spreading to the courtyard walls of some buildings.
The alleyways were filled with pig-headed people, and coffins continued to pour out flesh and organs.
Ever since the Fire Spirit Hall fell into the first layer of the Copper Mirror, shops across the city have become quiet, with only the Coffin Shop on Hexing Road having its doors open.
Although Hexing Road is in the south city like the Beili Riverbank, the former has a much higher population than the latter.
The Beili Riverbank is close to the waterways and is an important port in Wumen City, lined with shops, with numerous ships coming and going daily eight thousand years ago.
Hexing Road, on the other hand, is populated with numerous martial arts halls, and civilians live in narrow and crowded alleys, appearing as a mixed multitude of people.
Once the Sword Ghost loses control, a chain reaction is likely to occur.
In distributing the sword cultivators, Elder San Sheng deliberately selected the outstanding Taishan Yan and Changning of the Five Qi Period to hold the bureau, indirectly showing the danger level of Hexing Road.
As a result, Hexing Road became the first district of the Fire Spirit Hall to fall.
Changning, not only nearing the Heavenly Palace Stage in cultivation, but also possessing superior sword intent, ended up lost deep within the Copper Mirror.
Taishan Yan, on the other hand, was severely injured and hid in the firewood room of the Wanli Escort Agency.
The firewood room was pitch black. Taishan Yan lay motionless, his reddened eyes wide open, seemingly afraid to make the move to close them.
His missing arm and leg had yet to recover, and blood was flowing from the stumps.
In fact, for a cultivator of the Divine Separation Stage, as long as the Externalized Dharma Body is not harmed, they can regrow severed limbs with a few elixirs, indirectly indicating Taishan Yan’s dire condition.
"Ugh..."
Taishan Yan’s eyes were filled with exhaustion, his consciousness in a daze.
"Is it already... Tomb-Sweeping Festival?"
Taishan Yan struggled to get up, seeing the lush vegetation through the window, with the pig-headed people carrying coffins appearing in his view.
He heard the knocking sound from the Coffin Shop next door.
Taishan Yan’s expression gradually softened, and when his heavy eyelids closed, his body unexpectedly floated uncontrollably within the firewood room.
His chest heaved violently.
Taishan Yan abruptly opened his eyes, struggling as if suffocating, with the surrounding air seeming to turn into water, tightly binding him.
"So... they all died from... drowning..."
"Taboo, cannot... rest..."
Taishan Yan’s consciousness faded, his corpse floating in invisible water.
If the mortals by the Beili Riverbank died of "hanging" during the cataclysm, then Hexing Road evidently perished from "drowning."
Yes, drowning inexplicably within houses.
All over Hexing Road, inexplicable corpses could be seen in every house.
The corpses seemed weightless, floating up and down within the houses, and the deeper the Copper Mirror, the more numerous the drowned corpses inside.
It’s hard to imagine what kind of disaster happened eight thousand years ago.
......
Hexing Road’s downfall undoubtedly impacted the Beili Riverbank the most.
Li Mo also, at the first opportunity, observed the spiritual energy veins through the Cave God’s Eye, discovering the death and Dao disappearance of the sword cultivator stationed there.
"Taishan Yan is dead, and Hexing Road is now unattended."
"Hiss..."
Ye Zhuo Daoist gasped.
The two of them were located on the ground floor of a tavern, protected by the trapped sword platform, causing no issue, but if the Sword Ghost on Hexing Road revolted, it would inevitably be affected.
"A road will surely appear when the cart reaches the mountain, I feel that Elder San Sheng has already lost contact, and there should be no compulsory tasks appearing."
Li Mo was quite calm, simultaneously making improvements to the trapped sword platform.
"What a pity, if I could seal a Big Night Wander, I could refine the trapped sword platform into a combined magical artifact, which would make the storage and release much more manageable."
Li Mo believed that even if the Great Sun Sword Tomb turned into a "Death Tomb," as long as the Heavenly Sword Sect was not destroyed, he could still survive in the world with his means.
If worse comes to worst, he could use the Substitute Dao Page to obtain the True Void Hometown and escape into the No-Life Sect’s small world.
Of course, the Great Sun Sword Tomb was still far from the Death Tomb, and the Heavenly Sword Sect had yet to send support because the situation was still under control.
Ye Zhuo Daoist was speechless, the anxiety in his heart dissipated.
"Yang Niu."
Li Mo said, then the Three-Life Skull responded repetitively beside him.
Although the Fire Spirit Hall was deep within the Copper Mirror, as long as the shop’s environment was stable, they could still summon Yang Niu for resource exchange.
Moo~
The Yang Niu Head gradually took shape.
Li Mo originally intended to keep the mystical artifacts he had for a few more days, but with the situation ever-changing, it was best to quickly procure the Dragon Ball.
"Senior Yang Niu, here’s some wine as a token of respect from this junior."
The Yang Niu Head wrapped its tongue around the corpse wine, nodding excitedly, then its gaze noticed the trapped sword platform with surprise.
"This junior wishes for the Foundation Spiritual Object Dragon Ball."
Li Mo did not take out everything, the white candle had significant use to him.
Yang Niu saw only three mystical artifacts in front of it but was not angry, as Li Mo had previously provided a substantial amount of corpse wine.
It picked two and left the tattered rattle behind.
Moo.
The Yang Niu’s tongue pointed at the trapped sword platform, indicating it wanted an additional fake magical treasure.
"Fake magical treasures are not easy to refine, and the materials are even harder to gather. This junior has only managed to refine a few to ensure safety, now..."
Li Mo was inwardly delighted but outwardly showed hesitation.
Ye Zhuo Daoist’s eyelid twitched violently.
Throughout the Great Sun Sword Tomb, perhaps only Li Mo dared to bargain with Yang Niu, recalling that Li Mo had once said the raw materials for the trapped sword platform were not particularly rare, just troublesome to refine.
After a long hesitation, Yang Niu spewed out two spiritual materials from its stomach, one being the long-coveted Dragon Ball and a piece of damaged dragon scale.
Though not a complete dragon spiritual material, the issue was that dragon species had long vanished in the cultivation world.
Upon receiving the Dragon Ball and dragon scale, Li Mo removed the trapped sword platform that hadn’t sealed the Sword Ghost, watching Yang Niu swallow the fake magical treasure whole.
Yang Niu then vanished into the ground.
Li Mo pondered, considering if the trapped sword platform could assist in pacifying the disaster at the Great Sun Sword Tomb, he might earn more resources.
The resources in Yang Niu’s stomach were beyond the reach of the Four Seas Commerce, especially since he needed the void refining stage cultivation technique inheritance.
"Ye Zhuo, wake me if any changes occur during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival."
"Senior Brother, you..."
Ye Zhuo Daoist hesitated.
Li Mo glanced out the window, storing the Dragon Ball and dragon scale into the sword pouch.
There, they attracted innumerable lifebound flying swords, with the Ten Thousand Transformation Sword Infant also being stirred.
The Dragon Ball remained as dead as a doornail.
Clang.
A poison element Hui Dragon heavily struck the Dragon Ball’s surface, the emitted smoke sizzling as it tried to erode the Dragon Ball’s shell.
"No rush..."
Li Mo reassured the Ten Thousand Transformation Sword Infant, as thousands of Spider Sword Orbs swarmed into the sword pouch.
After the Taiyi Sword Bone advanced to the Yang Thunder Sword Bone, the Spider Sword Orbs noticeably changed, their entire bodies adorned with lightning-shaped patterns.
The speed of the Spider Sword Orbs was extremely fast, with the spider silk replaced by lightning threads.
"Future surgical modifications will have at least a thirty percent improved success rate."
Li Mo quickly adapted to the Spider Sword Orbs, then controlled the innate essence to nourish the Dragon Ball, with the Ten Thousand Transformation Sword Infant assisting in the procedure.
Extracting the parasite from the Dragon Ball without harming it was foreseeably difficult.
It relied heavily on the miraculous use of innate essence to sustain the Dragon Ball’s dwindling vitality.
Li Mo carved a grain-sized hole on the Dragon Ball’s surface, with a Spider Sword Orb drilling in, methodically excavating bit by bit.
He understood that each breath consumed decades of innate essence, but there could be no margin for error in the procedure, as the Dragon Ball was also a foundation spiritual object for the Beast Infant.
As the Spider Sword Orb burrowed deeper, the parasite within the Dragon Ball gradually became visible.
A worm?
To be precise, it was a true dragon no bigger than a grain.
"What the hell is this?"
The upper half of the true dragon matched exactly the records from the tome, with exaggerated dragon horns on its head, but the lower half was like a maggot, its tail hooked into the Dragon Ball, continuously extracting nutrients.
The Creation Book relayed fragmented memories.
"Horned Dragon."
Li Mo frowned slightly, based on the memories, the parasite was a "Horned Dragon."
A true dragon, after surviving a millennium and enduring the thunder tribulation, could transform into a Horned Dragon, becoming an elder of the dragon kind, exceeding two thousand meters in length.
At the tier of the Horned Dragon, it was nearing ascension.
"The Creation Book cannot be wrong. It seems the dragon clan’s situation is also dire."
The Dragon Ball came from before the great changes in heaven and earth, where some Horned Dragons might have sensed the anomaly, voluntarily degenerating into maggots to parasitize their kin, hoping to avoid the impending cataclysm.
Since dragons have become extinct in later generations, they probably didn’t survive the great upheaval.
Li Mo carefully removed the Horned Dragon, nourishing it with innate essence.
While innate essence couldn’t change the Horned Dragon’s nature as a parasite, the extinguished spiritual wisdom remained unrecovered; it merely allowed the Horned Dragon’s body to grow robust and its aura to intensify.
The Dragon Ball also absorbed the innate essence, with the hole quietly healing over.
Li Mo estimated that at least three thousand years’ worth of innate essence would be required to bring both to a sufficient foundational state, feeling a tinge of pain.
"However, promoting Dual Nascent Soul to Divine Separation Stage should recoup quite a bit."
Li Mo placed the Dragon Ball into the multiple dantians, maintaining the infusion of innate essence, and concurrently allowed the nascent soul to nurture it, facilitating future foundation laying.
"If the Beast Infant Sword Infant advances further, with ten thousand Divine Separation Stage lifebound flying swords, there will be sufficient self-protection without venturing into the deeper layers of the Copper Mirror."
"Senior Brother, they are... planting."
Li Mo immediately opened his eyes, following Ye Zhuo Daoist’s gaze.
They saw pig-headed people standing the coffins upright among the grass and trees, with the coffin lids growing copious flesh and bones, gradually enveloping the coffins.
Under the two’s watchful eyes, the coffins transformed into a row of banyan trees.
While referred to as banyan trees, their resemblance was only superficial, the entire structures composed of blood and bone, with trunks entwined with myriad vein-like vines.
The vines seemed to breathe, madly absorbing nutrients from the coffins.
In just an hour.
The branches of the blood flesh banyan trees were hung with numerous fruits, each bearing indistinct human faces, even Taishan Yan could be seen among them.
"I suspect that the taboo of the Night Patrol Deity does not completely claim one’s life."
"Senior Brother, you mean?"
"Any sword cultivator who dies within the range of the Fire Spirit Hall, their consciousness becomes part of the taboo, forever unable to find release."
Ye Zhuo Daoist shuddered.
Living is not as terrifying as being unable to die.
"Prepare yourself, I think I have roughly figured out the meaning of spring outing, next, many Sword Ghosts within the shops will become agitated."
"Ah?"
After Li Mo finished speaking, he sat cross-legged again, continuing his monotonous cultivation.