Chapter 282: Chapter 45: Magnetic Explosion! Innate Taoist Body [Tai Ci True Body]
The divine statue of First Senior Sister only remained active for half a breath before returning to tranquility, but rustling sounds emerged from beyond the island.
Thick fog churned.
Li Mo certainly sensed the abnormality, but found no obvious hostility—merely an invasive gaze directed at his breakthrough into the Corpse Infant Stage.
"Could it be Eighth Senior Sister?"
Unable to unravel the mystery, Li Mo redirected his focus to Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant, studying the process of the Nascent Soul nurturing an Innate Taoist Body.
Perhaps due to the complexity of the Taoist Body’s transformation, progress was predictably slow and could take at least half a year.
What was most pressing now was Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant approaching the bottleneck of a breakthrough.
Li Mo could only suppress Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant, trying to delay its promotion to Nascent Soul—lest undue haste lead to hidden flaws.
He felt somewhat helpless.
Originally, Li Mo assumed Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant would be at least twenty years away from breaking into the Corpse Infant Stage, so he hadn’t rushed to prepare the necessary resources for promotion.
But the unexpected came too quickly, leaving Li Mo scrambling.
Just the Taoist Body’s transformation alone required the Nascent Soul to extract vast amounts of Ash Spirit Power with each breath. The stored canned spiritual energy was nowhere near sufficient for such a breakthrough.
What was even more troublesome was that the Artifact Pearl needed to be fused with Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant had yet to condense.
The Artifact Pearl was crucial to the foundation of Nascent Soul’s eventual rise to immortality; even the slightest oversight could create various defects in Pu Dao’s Artifact Infant.
Li Mo secretly activated his Innate Saint skill, allowing his mental realm to enter an absolute state of clarity.
In merely two or three breaths, Li Mo laid out a clear plan of action, then began methodically addressing the situation.
He transmitted his thoughts to Futu Hermit, tasking him with providing the canned spiritual energy.
Li Mo instructed him that if supply fell short, he should immediately contact Old Earth True Monarch to deliver a batch of canned spiritual energy every five days, with each batch sufficing for a Nascent Soul cultivator’s consumption over half a year.
With the support of the Chaotic Burial Furnace, there shouldn’t be any major issues with obtaining canned spiritual energy.
"Unable to gradually nourish the Corpse Infant Stage to perfection, it seems I’ll need to complete the maturation phase quickly without compromising its foundation."
Li Mo pinched the bridge of his nose, his consciousness shifting to the Corpse Mountain Mini World.
At the summit of the main peak stood a scattered dozen tombstones, marking Li Mo’s long-cherished collection of high-potency corpse wines.
Although he himself never drank it, corpse wine grew richer and more fragrant with age. Even if auctioned in the future, these would constitute an invaluable fortune.
Among the tombstones were two containing corpse wines at the Nascent Soul level.
[Fetal Heart Wine] and [Bone-Growth Wine]
Bone-Growth Wine was meant for treating Death Disease, so for now, he set it aside.
Fetal Heart Wine’s potency could accelerate the growth of a Nascent Soul, and not long ago, its lees had just been brewed—it only needed to be converted into corpse wine using his body as the vessel.
"The brewing of corpse wine grows increasingly bizarre. I wonder what it will become at the Divine Separation Stage?"
Li Mo reluctantly retrieved the Fetal Heart Wine Lees.
The lees had an unsettling appearance—a pulsating fungal nest formed from countless fetal hearts, resembling writhing maggots upon closer inspection.
Its shape was downright horrifying, yet it released a hauntingly enticing aroma.
"The mellow richness of fermented grains, combined with the sweetness of ripened fruits and a faint smoky spice from green-yellow woodfire."
Li Mo’s mouth twitched.
He had a hunch that if the finished Fetal Heart Wine were sold, even without its Nascent Soul-enriching effects, it would undoubtedly tempt the masses.
Corpse wine was indeed highly sought after in the Cultivation World.
Primarily because, amidst the current trend for fiery, sharp-flavored teas and wines, corpse wine was the only drink one could savor even while afflicted with Death Disease.
The Heart Beast Sect relied entirely on corpse wine to secure a measure of influence in the black market.
Currently, Futu Hermit’s wine business had expanded across six black markets, secretly founding a commerce organization called Si Hai.
Without exclusive corpse wines, Si Hai Commerce had no means of survival.
Had it not been limited by Li Mo’s production capacity, Si Hai Commerce’s scope would have been even greater.
In the black market, corpse wine was in such high demand that it even lured loose cultivators from other areas, spawning small vendors specializing in reselling corpse wine.
"Ah."
Li Mo let out a heavy sigh and sliced a long wound into his palm. The Fetal Heart Wine Lees wriggled into the wound, greedily absorbing nourishment.
He was slightly surprised, as according to the Creation Book’s feedback,
the Fetal Heart Wine Lees could be imprinted.
If Li Mo were to imprint the Fetal Heart Wine Lees, he could manifest an organ that produced Fetal Heart Wine, and a high chance of awakening a wine-related divine skill.
"That’s just absurd..."
Li Mo naturally wouldn’t waste his blank pages on Fetal Heart Wine Lees—his remaining ten blank pages had to be carefully planned.
As he pondered, the Nourishing Yuan Fruit’s medicinal power flowed into the wound on his palm.
The wound did not close but was entirely consumed by the Fetal Heart Wine Lees, accelerating the process of corpse wine brewing.
Under normal circumstances, the transformation of lees into corpse wine would take at least fifteen years.
With Innate Essence compressing the timeline to two or three minutes, the Fetal Heart Wine Lees promptly sprouted and rooted in the wound, their stems connecting with his blood vessels.
Blood flowed through the vessels under Li Mo’s guidance, traveling to nourish the Fetal Heart Wine Lees.
Li Mo inspected the lees, then brought his palm near the wine jar. As his blood touched the lees, it instantly converted into corpse wine.
The color of the Fetal Heart Wine was amber, pure as an utterly flawless gemstone.
The corpse wine poured into the wine jar in a flood.
Though the Fetal Heart Wine Lees were not plentiful, they still produced over a thousand pounds of Fetal Heart Wine. The quality of the wine rivaled top-grade Nascent Soul-stage elixirs, likely due to the purity of Li Mo’s blood.
The rich aroma of the wine permeated the air, soon spreading across the entire island.
The Tattooed Beasts fell into a drunken stupor, visibly intoxicated, while the Mountain Demon began to act drunkenly, smashing its head against the ground.
Mortals who inhaled even a single breath of the wine’s fragrance would instantly die in blissful intoxication.
"This, truly, is intoxication unto life and dreamlike death."