Chapter 433: Chapter 58 Do you know the meaning of Spring Outing?
"Taiyang."
Li Mo opened his eyes, the Blood Soul released itself, and his right hand directly drew the Illusion Fish Sword from his waist, unleashing an endless cascade of light.
"Do you... know the Luan Chuan Immortal?"
He directly forced Luan Chuan into a corner. The Sword Ghost cocked its head with a crooked smile, staring intently at Li Mo.
Li Mo frowned. The aura of the Sword Ghost before him was indeed of a Big Night Wander but carried an inexplicable strangeness.
In truth, he had already awakened half a day earlier. He had noticed Luan Chuan’s surreptitious movements to leave the depths of the Copper Mirror and had conveniently concealed his own presence.
With Li Mo’s current body refinement strength, only entering a state of feigned slumber could completely prevent the leakage of his vital essence, so he simply let Ye Zhuo Daoist carry him while moving.
"Do you... know the Luan Chuan Immortal?" Luan Chuan kept repeating.
Li Mo flicked his Illusion Fish Sword, and the Sun Sword Intent blazed brilliantly.
"Ye Zhuo, seal the entry and exit points. Perfect timing—I’ve long wanted to face it."
Ye Zhuo Daoist’s delight was written all over his face. He immediately retracted the Black Coffin with the Blood Soul.
Leaning against the wall, he applied Spirit Talismans. Although the tavern’s main hall appeared to have transformed into a storeroom, one could still trace the arrangement of the original hall’s furniture.
"Does the Big Night Wander’s taboo include Illusion Techniques?"
Ye Zhuo Daoist closed his eyes tightly to block out his vision, groping to find the location of the doors and windows.
"Done, the entry and exit points have all been sealed with Locking Spirit Talismans."
Li Mo glanced at the wall and couldn’t help but sarcastically remark, "Did you barter those Spirit Talismans from Yang Niu? They’re decent-level, at the Divine Separation Stage, but your technique for controlling them is too crude."
"Someday, I’ll teach you a method: the Five Internal Organs and Six Hollow Organs Essence Blood Storage Talisman Technique."
Li Mo launched himself powerfully, vanishing instantly from where he stood.
The Illusion Fish Sword, imbued with Sun Sword Intent, came crashing down heavily from Luan Chuan’s right flank, the Sun Sword Qi causing the entire hall to blaze as brightly as midday.
Luan Chuan agilely dodged, while Li Mo, with a light touch of his toe on the eaves, closed the distance again.
Li Mo used very little Spiritual Power, relying solely on the strength of his refined body. After all, facing a Big Night Wander, quick victories were unrealistic—it necessitated a slow, calculated strategy akin to boiling a frog in warm water.
"As I was saying, Luan Chuan Immortal traveled eight hundred miles to Beiliang Mountain, engaging in eighty-one sword clashes with the Evil Man behind the bandits."
"Who would’ve thought that the Evil Man actually had two senior brothers?"
The storyteller poked his head out, continuing his incessant ramblings: "In the face of such formidable enemies, Luan Chuan Immortal remained fearless. He unleashed a Moving Mountain Skill, making the Evil Man appear as though he was carrying a colossal boulder on his shoulders."
"Ugh."
Ye Zhuo Daoist bent his knees. Even though he had activated most of his Spiritual Power to resist the sudden taboos, he still found himself struggling to move.
He looked at Li Mo and saw that his Spiritual Power remained faintly discernible. The speed of his sword strikes quickened as he carved a gaping wound into Luan Chuan’s back.
"What kind of body refinement strength is this? The Big Night Wander’s taboos don’t even faze you?"
"Keh keh keh, I doubt it even resembles a Big Night Wander..."
Li Mo laughed eerily and spat out his Lifebound Flying Sword. With eight arms and eight swords, he forced Luan Chuan into complete retreat.
Black hair shed by Luan Chuan seemed to gain a life of their own, attempting to entangle Li Mo. But Sword Qi surged out from every pore of Li Mo’s body, incinerating the hair into ash.
"Pathetic."
Ye Zhuo Daoist felt his scalp tingling. He had never witnessed Li Mo undergoing body refinement, yet Li Mo’s physical strength had quietly skyrocketed.
At the same time, he noticed the tavern seemed untouched by the mysterious Tomb-Sweeping Festival taboos, making the danger less terrifying than imagined.
The Little Night Wander from the Coffin Shop had easily incapacitated Taishan Yan at the Five Qi Period level, yet the tavern’s Sword Ghost still didn’t seem to possess any distinctive threat.
"Perhaps... it’s really possible to completely resolve this Big Night Wander."
Ye Zhuo Daoist’s face lit up with excitement as he repaired the walls damaged by the battle’s aftermath, preventing the tavern from collapsing and releasing the Sword Ghost.
Then, a sudden change erupted in the battle.
After finishing a passage, the storyteller’s head retracted back into Luan Chuan’s body.
The heads representing the other guests all erupted into applause.
"Mr. Zhang narrated that wonderfully! The Luan Chuan Immortal, a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, truly embodies the spirit of wandering the world with a sword. A deserved reward!"
Luan Chuan’s skin flushed red, his body began to swell, and his spine extended outward, forming a long tail.
Whoosh.
With a flick of the tail, Li Mo was sent flying, embedding half his body into the floor as delicate bone spikes pierced into his flesh, a testament to Luan Chuan’s immense strength.
"Luan Chuan... Luan Chuan, is a false reputation so important to you?"
"Immortals wouldn’t chase fame and fortune!!!"
Li Mo’s words infuriated Luan Chuan, prompting Ye Zhuo Daoist to unhesitatingly hurl a gourd, using a Magic Artifact to suppress and disrupt.
Bam.
Li Mo’s leg muscles bulged explosively. The Sun Sword Intent receded, and he then removed his left eye.
Taiyin Star.
His left eye transformed into the image of a moon, hovering midair. The light in the entire room seemed to be seized, as darkness spread outward centered on the Taiyin Star.
Ye Zhuo Daoist felt chills running down his scalp.
He remembered that Li Mo had once mastered a mid-level Yin Attribute Sword Intent, and now, after such a short period of seclusion, it had already advanced to superior Sword Intent?
"Taiyin Sword Intent."
Li Mo murmured, and Luan Chuan’s Five Senses were instantly stripped away.
A trace of resignation flashed through his eyes. If given five more years of seclusion, he was certain he could comprehend a sub-branch of the Taiyin Sword Intent—
Perhaps even the Yin Yang Sword Intent.
On the surface of the Ten Thousand Transformation Sword Infant, the Sun Sword Mark and Taiyin Sword Mark had already intertwined, though the time for proper refinement during seclusion had been too short.
Clang clang clang clang...
The room was pitch black. Ye Zhuo Daoist could feel only the trembling ground and streaks of Sword Qi brushing past him.
"The techniques of Luan Chuan Immortal are leagues above the Evil Man, a single move..."
The storyteller started droning on again, but before he could finish, he let out a tragic scream. Ye Zhuo Daoist felt some severed heads at his feet.
The stench of blood was overpowering.
Ye Zhuo Daoist had thought this ordeal would last for two or three days, but it ended in just one hour.
The darkness faded. Ye Zhuo Daoist surveyed the room, finding two to three hundred severed heads scattered across the hall’s floor, but Luan Chuan was nowhere to be seen.
Li Mo’s injuries healed in the blink of an eye as he stared intently at the staircase with a weighty expression.
"Senior Brother, where is that Sword Ghost?"
"Under your feet."
Ye Zhuo Daoist instinctively looked down, only to see the storyteller’s head lunging at him.
The head bit deeply into Ye Zhuo Daoist’s shoulder, and the two began to merge, as the head attempted to successfully parasitize.
Clang.
A flash of sword light swept by.
Ye Zhuo Daoist endured searing pain, unleashing the gourd to seal the head, but the tavern showed no abnormal reaction after the head was confined inside.
"Senior Brother, could it be that it’s not the tavern’s Big Night Wander?"
"The Sword Ghost we just encountered, in life, was a storyteller. While it wasn’t an ordinary Little Night Wander, its body at least seemed to reach the Big Night Wander level."
The storyteller probably borrowed Luan Chuan’s body; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so troublesome.
Li Mo tossed the storyteller’s corpse into a Melting Furnace, burning it to ash, thereby gaining the Core Formation Stage primary cultivation technique of the Heavenly Sword Sect from ancient times.
"Was the storyteller perhaps a puppet?"
The more Li Mo fought, the more something felt amiss—the Sword Ghost’s taboo absolutely didn’t reach the level of a Big Night Wander; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been unaffected.
He carefully recalled and realized that the Sword Ghost seen by the Cave God’s Eye back then might not have been Luan Chuan either.
The tavern had dozens of hanging corpses inside, and the number of Sword Ghosts must surely exceed one. The storyteller was merely a supporter of Luan Chuan, who had been fatally affected during the upheaval of the world.
Footsteps approached from the staircase, starting faintly but growing steadily closer.
Ye Zhuo Daoist’s face turned ashen, and he spoke with trembling terror, "Senior Brother Taiyi, the tavern is no place for us to linger. Let’s retreat for now."
"......"
Li Mo didn’t respond but instead brought out the Trapped Sword Platform containing the Turbid Candle.
Without unraveling the secrets of the Tomb-Sweeping Festival taboos, venturing outside would only lead to certain death. Outside the window, the Pig-Headed Men were already marching in great numbers.
The Pig-Headed Men carried coffins, the lids nailed shut with rivets. Yet from the gaps, viscous blood and flesh oozed, dripping into the alleys and streets.
Green weeds sprouted from where it fell, their gaudy colors casting an eerie pall over the town.
"We can’t leave. The Tomb-Sweeping Festival has only just begun."
"The Pig-Headed Men are out on their spring outing."
Li Mo’s gaze turned profound. The current Tomb-Sweeping Festival he was experiencing might well be a replay of cosmic upheavals far beyond the dangers of a Big Night Wander.
Ye Zhuo Daoist shuddered, cursing the Three-Life Elder for having stationed them by the Beili Riverbank.
The hall’s temperature sharply dropped.
Ye Zhuo Daoist heard a soft whisper, its source seemingly from the second floor, yet also right by his ear.
"Esteemed guest, this humble servant has been at this tavern for ten years. May I recommend a few signature dishes?"
"The Beili Riverbank’s wine-drenched marinated perch is quite outstanding. The fish’s stomach is filled with wine mash, fermented for three days until the flesh flakes apart into garlic-like segments."
Ye Zhuo Daoist retched violently, spitting out clumps of wine mash.
His stomach and intestines bloated until they burst, with the mash filling even his blood vessels and meridians, to the point where a single rub at the corner of his eye nearly forced his eyeball out of its socket.
"Senior Brother, save me!!!"
Li Mo remained much calmer, inscribing Sword Dao Spirit Patterns onto the surface of the Trapped Sword Platform with all eight arms simultaneously.
When fractured patterns covered the entire Trapped Sword Platform, the familiar glow of the Turbid Candle flickered, and its Divine Statue swiftly grew to half a meter tall.
The waiter’s voice abruptly cut off.
Ye Zhuo Daoist purged the wine mash from his system, narrowly avoiding grievous harm.
Li Mo’s stomach and intestines contained wine mash as well. Luckily, his Corpse Mountain, though still mid-transformation, absorbed the mash into its small world without issue.
He wasted no time continuing to inscribe Sword Dao Spirit Patterns—it was clear just one Trapped Sword Platform wouldn’t suffice.
Moments later.
The hall was filled with Trapped Sword Platforms, but Li Mo only summoned eight Little Night Wander swords. The Cocoon Sword in the tavern didn’t offer much help.
The Sword Ghosts inside the Trapped Sword Platforms carried their own taboos, but under the influence of their Fake Magical Treasure, the effects remained confined within the hall and didn’t spread beyond.
Ye Zhuo Daoist lay flat, panting heavily.
"The Spirit Patterns I’ve just comprehended ought to keep the ground floor safe for now."
Li Mo added, "Unless a Big Night Wander personally descends to the first floor, those fox-borrowing-tiger’s-might Little Night Wanders won’t dare step inside."
"Good... good, good..."
Ye Zhuo Daoist laughed bitterly, his gaze drifting to the pitch-black staircase.
Figures seemed to be watching them, hesitant to act due to the warding of the Trapped Sword Platforms.
"If we’re fortunate enough to survive the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, I’ll make time to cleanse the tavern. But I still suspect there’s something wrong with Luan Chuan’s true form."
Li Mo approached the foot of the staircase, arms crossed as he assessed it.
"Fortunate? How could we possibly be so fortunate..."
Ye Zhuo Daoist gasped, noticing the coffin borne by a Pig-Headed Man beginning to shake.
Though the lid’s cracks were only as wide as fingertips, countless limbs and organs seemed to gush forth, giving the illusion of imitating the process of childbirth.
"Senior Brother, what is a spring outing?"
"It originates from agrarian sacrifices, as well as appreciating the early spring scenery."
"But in the minds of deceitful objects, what spring outings signify is beyond our understanding."