Chapter 428: Revised: Chapter 53 Rain Pours Down During Qingming Festival
Li Mo, on his return to the tavern, silently examined the deceitful artifact he had just acquired.
Using the water vat, he ascended to the second layer. Though still within the bounds of the tofu workshop, he could feel the Fire Spirit Hall’s activity was more intense than ever.
Li Mo recalled the Pig Headed Man he encountered on the first layer.
In the past, he would never have doubted it. After all, the Copper Mirror was a Void Realm constructed by Night Patrol Deities at the Void Refining Stage.
Now, learning that the heaven-and-earth upheaval occurred in the Yihai Year, the Year of the Pig, the very existence of the Pig Headed Man seemed to emanate a profound absurdity.
Yihai Year, when viewed as part of a twelve-year cycle, represented an ending.
"Could the transformation in mortal taste be connected to the Year of the Pig? Why does it feel like mortals too are victims of the cosmic upheaval?"
Li Mo felt a faint ache in his head.
The clues he’d uncovered related to the cosmic upheaval pointed toward a vastly different truth.
If mortals had mutated into deceitful objects for certain reasons, cultivators had no reason to blame them. How had these circumstances evolved into large sects viewing mortals with such repulsion?
"Damn it, this feeling of being blinded by a single leaf is infuriating," Li Mo cursed under his breath and decided not to dwell on the upheaval any further.
Ultimately, strength influences perspective. If he truly reached the state of Land Immortal, he would hear about the truth from various sources, even if he didn’t seek it actively.
"Senior Brother, something feels off..."
Ye Zhuo Daoist interrupted Li Mo’s musings in a somber tone and pointed toward the tavern.
The Cave God’s Eye in Li Mo’s forehead rotated, and he noticed that in the short time they’d been out, the tavern’s structure had undergone an unsettling change.
Atop the four-story tavern, a small attic had mysteriously appeared.
The attic perched on the roof of the tavern. Inside, faint candlelight flickered, and scattered fallen leaves danced by the window, making cracking sounds as they were swept by the wild wind.
Suddenly.
A figure—Luan Chuan with her shoulder-length hair—flashed by.
Li Mo noticed that each strand of Luan Chuan’s hair was connected to a surplus skull, and blood splattered across the window paper as she walked.
"Damn it, that sword ghost has already set one foot in the fifth layer of the Copper Mirror."
"Senior Brother, is this good or bad?"
Li Mo glanced at the Three-Life Skull but felt no significant instinctive warning from himself. "Normally, the deeper the sword ghost moves away from the surface, the safer it should be, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s becoming even more troublesome."
"We’ll leave it alone for now. We can’t possibly venture into the fifth layer of the Copper Mirror."
The only solace for Li Mo was that the source of disaster was the Night Patrol Deity, indicating that Luan Chuan was unlikely to escape the level of a Big Night Wander.
As long as it didn’t exceed the Divine Separation Stage, at least they could ensure their own safety.
"Are we really going back to the tavern? Perhaps we should move into Chen’s Tofu Workshop. After all, the sword ghost there has already been dealt with."
Ye Zhuo Daoist seemed somewhat reluctant.
The feeling of a sharp sword hanging close to his neck affected his concentration during cultivation.
"Heh."
Li Mo let out a cold chuckle. "Take a look back at the shop for yourself."
Ye Zhuo Daoist couldn’t help but turn around. What he saw made his blood run cold: countless blood vessels extended out from underground, as the Great Sun Sword Tomb was rebuilding the shop.
The Night Patrol Deity seemed to exert influence over the Great Sun Sword Tomb, and the shop wasn’t part of the tofu workshop.
"Sooner or later, new sword ghosts are bound to move in."
"When we’re inside the shop, we wouldn’t even detect the deeper layers of the Copper Mirror. If sword ghosts quietly take over the tofu workshop, how would we react in time?"
Ye Zhuo Daoist shuddered.
Li Mo pushed the door open and walked into the tavern, taking in the unchanged decor of the main hall.
"Rest assured. Since there are deceitful objects designed to venture into the Copper Mirror, there must be artifacts that let us leave it as well. Once I’m confident, I won’t mind confronting the sword ghosts in the tavern."
"Senior Brother, even if you kill the sword ghosts, wouldn’t it be a wasted effort?"
Li Mo shook his head faintly without replying.
He possessed a batch of trapped sword platforms that sealed off sword ghosts that had yet to spiral out of control.
If he could refine the trapped sword platforms into fake magical treasures, perhaps he could try to occupy vacant shops and create safe houses not subjected to the Copper Mirror’s intrusion.
Of course, the most suitable spirit pattern for the trapped sword platforms would undoubtedly be the Sword Dao Spirit Pattern.
Unfortunately, the spirit pattern derived from the White Bone Treasure Body fused with the Taiyi Sword Body was somewhat incomplete, making it impossible to inscribe onto Hundred Refinement Magical Artifacts.
"I must find an opportunity to use the Substitute Dao Page to fuse the White Bone Treasure Body with the Absolute Thunder Sword Body. I can’t rely on Void Refining Stage Elders to resolve the disaster of the Great Sun Sword Tomb anytime soon, can I?"
It’s unrealistic. Who knows how many layers the Copper Mirror has?
Li Mo’s expression showed helplessness as he lamented, probably even the true forms of the Night Patrol Deities hadn’t been discovered yet.
He closed his eyes, deep in thought. Seeing this, Ye Zhuo Daoist didn’t dare disturb Li Mo, choosing instead to tend to his own injuries caused by mutation.
Li Mo practiced alchemy divine skills and painfully spent a hundred years’ worth of innate essence to brew wine.
He produced a somewhat lackluster Divine Separation Stage Corpse Wine.
[Sword Nourishing Wine]
[Using two taels of flesh and blood from the Divine Separation Stage as medicine, adding three drops of marrow from the Divine Separation Stage, and parasitizing it within a living being for 240 years, it can transform into a Wine Lees Heart, effective for refining Lifebound Flying Swords.]
Li Mo originally had no desire to brew corpse wine like Sword Washing Wine, as it couldn’t foster the dragon blood transformation of his Lifebound Flying Sword, thus wasting resources.
But for safety’s sake, he had no choice but to resort to calculated trickery.
"I’d like to invite Senior Yang Niu."
The Three-Life Skull opened its mouth wide and angrily shouted, "Yang Niu! Yang Niu!"
Ghostly hands stretched up from the ground, and the familiar ox head appeared in the tavern’s main hall.
Upon seeing Li Mo, Yang Niu hesitated at first, then couldn’t help licking his lips, letting out a drawn-out "moo" as he appeared unable to control his craving for corpse wine.
"Senior Yang Niu, I summoned you naturally to offer you wine in tribute," Li Mo said respectfully.
Ye Zhuo Daoist hesitated to speak, unsure of what Li Mo had planned.
Li Mo first presented an ordinary Sword Washing Wine in tribute. Yang Niu downed it in one gulp, his expression revealing he wasn’t satisfied.
Moo.
Yang Niu snorted heavily from his nose, clearly hooked on the experience of drinking.
"Senior Yang Niu, the quantity of wine is indeed limited, but I’ve recently achieved something new—brewing a special kind of wine."
As soon as the Sword Nourishing Wine was brought out, even though it was sealed, the aroma spread widely.
Not only was Yang Niu tempted, but even Ye Zhuo Daoist’s Lifebound Flying Sword stirred restlessly. However, constrained by Yang Niu’s presence, he dared not act rashly.
Yang Niu’s eyes turned red, and suffocating pressure began to leak from his body.
The effects of the Sword Nourishing Wine were secondary; Li Mo had tested it with the Flying Sword in his sword pouch, and though hundreds of pounds had minimal effect, the allure to Lifebound Flying Swords was undeniable.
Unlike the way he guzzled Sword Washing Wine, Yang Niu treated this wine with caution, sipping it delicately, drinking only a third before swallowing it.
"This wine is merely my humble offering, Senior," said Li Mo as Yang Niu nodded slightly before preparing to leave the tavern.
Li Mo murmured to himself, "The wine production is limited. Perhaps, every forty to fifty days, I can manage a single vat."
Yang Niu’s eyes widened.
The Three-Life Skull bellowed loudly, "Yang Niu can appear once every fifty days to retrieve any spiritual materials. Greedy souls will meet a wretched end!!"
Li Mo was overjoyed. While the interval had only been halved, the implications were entirely different.
The two men watched Yang Niu vanish. Ye Zhuo Daoist reacted later, his gaze toward Li Mo now brimming with admiration.
"Ye Zhuo, in the future, you must calculate the time to summon Yang Niu precisely. With this opportunity, we can leverage his appearance roughly every thirty days."
Yang Niu could not appear in areas where sword ghosts rioted, meaning they could use Yang Niu’s presence to verify if the tavern was safe.
Moreover, Yang Niu was rumored to be at the Void Refining Stage—a formidable Day Patrol Deity.
Day Patrol Deities had specific taboos and displayed power based on the Sword Holder’s skills, unlike the Night Patrol Deities with hundreds or even thousands of taboos.
But regardless, a Day Patrol Deity was still a Day Patrol Deity.
The fact that Yang Niu appeared in the tavern almost certainly meant he would exert some deterrent against Luan Chuan.
Li Mo guessed fifty days might be the limit. If they allowed the Day Patrol Deity to keep indulging in Sword Nourishing Wine, it would eventually grow tiresome.
His innate essence hadn’t reached the point where he could squander it freely to nurture wine recipes.
Li Mo handed Ye Zhuo Daoist a hundred-odd barrels of Sword Washing Wine, saying, "When you meet Yang Niu, offer one or two barrels in my name."
"Hehehe, thank you, Senior Brother." Ye Zhuo Daoist chuckled mischievously as he accepted, knowing their resources would increase by at least thirty percent in the future.
He had no intention of using Sword Washing Wine to nourish his Lifebound Flying Sword. Without Sword Dao talent, he saw no need to waste resources pursuing it.
Anyway, reliance on the Lifebound Flying Sword would significantly diminish upon reaching the Heavenly Palace Stage.
The two of them chose not to cultivate in the inner chamber. Instead, they sat cross-legged in the transparent main hall, ready to flee at the first sign of danger.
Li Mo had thought, after resolving the matter at Chen’s Tofu Workshop, he could enjoy a few days of quiet.
Unexpectedly, just half an hour into his meditation, the Three-Life Skull on the rafter began to stir trouble.
Moreover, the Fire Spirit Hall’s sword cultivators all heard the ominous voice from the skull, as if a massive rock had been dropped into a tranquil lake.
The sword cultivators converged, gathering in the courtyard of the shop.
"Where does fresh smoke rise during Qingming? Alas, alas, try visiting Wu Sect but resist ancestral offerings..."
"Something’s weird, something’s weird!!!"
Li Mo and Ye Zhuo Daoist exchanged glances, intending to locate the shop’s point of disturbance but finding the Three-Life Skull fell silent suddenly.
"Qingming?"
Ye Zhuo Daoist’s face flushed with rage at the fragmentary words of the skull.
"Tomb-Sweeping Festival."
Li Mo continued, "Do you know how far away Qingming Festival is?"
Ye Zhuo Daoist opened his mouth slightly but paused when Li Mo interjected, "According to mortal calculations, Qingming Festival is in forty-three days."
"Three-Life Elder is deep within the Copper Mirror, and her ability to relay information is limited. She may be warning us of a major event occurring during Qingming Festival."
Li Mo had been in the first layer of the Copper Mirror twice, noticing during the noodle shop visit that there had been absolutely no Pig Headed Men present.
The Pig Headed Men should serve as harbingers of the Qingming Festival.
"Our time is running out."
"We will split up and investigate shops along the Beili Riverbank connected to the Qingming Festival, then join forces to deal with any sword ghosts in advance."
Li Mo’s tone was brimming with murderous intent, as the Illusion Fish Sword at his waist emitted waves of sword sounds.
"Very well, no time to waste."
Ye Zhuo Daoist didn’t waste time but was immediately stopped by Li Mo as he stood.
"First, recover your injuries. Sharpening the blade won’t delay cutting wood."
Li Mo stared out the window.
If things went smoothly, he might even have surplus time to go into seclusion, absorbing the Twelve Immortals’ Taoist Body traits before confronting the Qingming Festival, which even the Three-Life Elder had deemed necessary to warn about in advance.
"Drizzle falls during Qingming, travelers on the road feel shattered in spirit."
One wonders, how exactly did they endure the Qingming Festival during the Yihai Year?
The danger likely beyond imagination.