Chapter 305: Chapter 51 The True Word Secret Realm is Really a Treasure Land
Li Mo waited until most of the Nascent Soul cultivators had entered the Secret Realm before quietly blending into the crowd, his figure vanishing into the bronze giant gate.
This time, the Secret Realm’s opening drew an unprecedented number of cultivators.
Nearly forty at the Nascent Soul Stage participated, with the rest at the Core Formation Stage.
"The Five Hidden Sword likely underestimated the difficulty of the True Word Sect’s sword refinement, or it wouldn’t have poured the entire sect’s resources into it, only to produce so few results."
Among the hundred or so cultivators emerging from the bronze giant gate, only two carried flying swords.
Even so, the Five Hidden Sword remained dissatisfied, eventually turning to ash in Feihong’s scorching flames, as the sword-refinement progress was clearly lagging behind expectations.
"The True Word Sect’s cultivation system originates from the ancient Buddhist sects; refining swords isn’t that easy."
As soon as Li Mo passed through the bronze giant gate, he instantly felt a strange illusion of his body and soul being torn apart.
It was akin to his first journey to the Sub-Device Sect.
He had no sense of how much time had passed.
Gradually, Li Mo’s five senses recovered, and his first instinct was to summon the Ghost Tiger to guard him. However, communicating with his Ancient Sacred Body proved unexpectedly difficult.
Realizing that he was now within the Secret Realm, his muscles tensed instinctively.
Li Mo’s first observation was that he had almost completely lost control over his Three Nascent Souls. In the peculiar environment of the True Word Secret Realm, his Nascent Souls had inexplicably fallen into a deep slumber, rendering his Spiritual Power nearly unusable.
"Weren’t they saying the True Word Secret Realm wasn’t very dangerous?"
What gave Li Mo some relief, however, was that the Magic Artifacts within his body could still be driven by consuming his flesh and blood. With the recovery capabilities of his Innate Five Dao Body, this wasn’t a major issue.
However, without Spiritual Power, their potency would inevitably be reduced.
Li Mo opened his eyes and found himself in a dilapidated chamber.
The décor bore a rich Buddhist ambiance, with paintings of the Buddha adorning the walls and sandalwood incense dangling gently from the eaves.
More than a dozen monk statues stood in the chamber, all lifelike in their postures.
The statues’ appearances were somewhat grotesque, marked by hideously deformed features and additional limbs extending awkwardly from their ribs.
The arms were withered and blackened, with hollow, coral-like structures replacing their flesh and sinew.
"Coral, one of the Seven Treasures of the True Word Sect. Why does it seem less like a crafted sculpture?"
Li Mo approached the statues. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the statues were actually corpses, their deaths caused by sharp weapons piercing their spines.
Before the Heavenly Sword Sect intervened, the True Word Secret Realm was likely a small world that preserved the True Word Sect’s legacy, replete with a functioning civilization.
There were numerous similar Secret Realms, some even exceeding a population of one million.
The True Word Sect had sought refuge in the small world thousands of years ago to eke out an existence, but the Seven Treasures Buddha had fallen into complete madness, trapping them permanently within the Secret Realm.
"Interesting. Could the so-called sword-refinement involve forcibly obliterating the True Word Sect’s legacy, to cultivate a Taoist inheritance unique to the Heavenly Sword Sect?"
Li Mo narrowed his eyes, carefully scrutinizing everything within the chamber.
Knock, knock, knock.
Li Mo lightly tapped on the wall, finding that the structure had been crafted from mid to lower-grade spiritual materials and was far sturdier than a mid-grade magical artifact.
Closing his eyes, Li Mo tried to reach out to his Three Nascent Souls.
The Three Nascent Souls, though dormant, could still barely be communicated with, allowing him to use the Soul-devouring Demon Infant as a conduit to retreat into the True Void Hometown.
Knowing he had an escape route, Li Mo didn’t concern himself too much.
He thoroughly examined the chamber but found that it had already been looted. The only items left were fragments of Buddhist Sutras in damaged tomes.
Li Mo’s gaze fell upon the corpses, and at the urging of his cancerous cells, fissures split open on his palms, reluctantly awakening the Soul-devouring Demon Infant.
Even just drawing the corpses into his Melting Furnace took him over ten minutes.
"Huff."
Li Mo exhaled deeply. Each small world had its own unique set of rules, and the True Word Secret Realm obviously favored the True Word Sect; for other cultivation systems, only a fraction of their full capabilities could be utilized.
As the corpse disintegrated into ash, his End-of-the-World Dao Seed yielded no harvest for the first time.
The monk corpses seemed to have been entirely depleted of value; their internal organs had all turned to coral, while their crucial brains were completely missing.
Still, Li Mo had hoped to obtain the foundational cultivation technique of the True Word Sect.
The True Word Sect’s techniques, centered on the Mud Pill Palace, certainly intrigued him—provided there were no hidden traps of the Buddhist Sect embedded within them.
Li Mo tossed all the corpses into the Corpse Mountain Mini World.
Seeing new arrivals, the plant and tree cultivators, under Zhang Guo’s directions, began inserting materials into their digestive tracts to brew Corpse Wine.
"A pity these corpses are nutrient-devoid, only suitable for brewing Childhood Corpse Wine."
Li Mo felt a twinge of regret, though it was more a pretense of modesty than genuine disappointment. At present, the market for Corpse Wine had skyrocketed, and there was no shortage of buyers.
Childhood Corpse Wine required less brewing time and yielded higher profits than Nascent Soul Stage Corpse Wine.
Li Mo strolled out of the chamber, noticing an increasing number of monk corpses strewn about, each preserving the positions they had held during their lifetimes.
Golden sunlight streamed through the corridor’s windows, illuminating a lush forest beyond the temple. The scene was idyllic, like a paradise on earth.
"As a small world, the True Word Secret Realm can’t possibly mirror the present world’s environment identically."
As Li Mo set foot on the ground, the shadowed Ghost Tiger scattered and disappeared.
In the absence of Spiritual Power, the Tattooed Beast’s strength was greatly diminished, though it could still handle ordinary Nascent Soul Stage opponents, albeit with limited means.
Li Mo leaped out through a window, basking in the sunlight.
"It’s just as I thought—an Illusion Array."
The temple’s Array was clearly man-made. Judging by its age, it was constructed by the True Word Sect, not the Five Hidden Sword.
Li Mo arrived at the temple gates and kicked down a banyan tree as he passed.
The Array dispersed.
The Illusion Realm faded, revealing jade walls extending for a hundred meters around the temple. It looked as if the area was contained within a jade bottle’s Mustard Space.
Sunlight came from the candle flame at the bottle’s opening.
Li Mo could faintly hear the chanting of Sutras emanating from the bottle’s mouth.
Moments later, the chanting abruptly ceased.
Some of the True Word Sect’s unique spiritual materials were thrown into the bottle’s opening.
Li Mo now understood why most cultivators returned safely from the True Word Secret Realm: as long as they stayed within the jade bottle, waiting in the Mustard Space for handouts, they could leave the secret realm with abundant resources.
"Well played, really well played."
Li Mo began casually wandering through the temple, finding nothing unusual except for the densely packed monk corpses scattered everywhere.
Over three thousand were deposited into the Corpse Mountain Mini World, increasing the number of tombstones in its mountains.
The spiritual patterns on the Corpse Mountain had reached eight, nearing the threshold for promotion to a mid-grade magical treasure. The monk corpses naturally accelerated this progress.
With its duties done, the Ghost Tiger began excavating the temple grounds.
The temple, crafted entirely from spiritual materials, comprised three main halls and eighteen side halls. Even Li Mo was reluctant to waste such resources.
Other Tattooed Beasts soon pitched in to assist the Ghost Tiger.
The temple trembled violently as the excavation began. Li Mo calmly sat cross-legged by the entrance, trying to improve his connection with the Three Nascent Souls.
Initially, he had planned to cultivate within the Secret Realm and promote his Dual Nascent Souls to the Corpse Infant Stage, but the Nascent Souls remained lethargic and uncooperative.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
First, the Kun Whale unleashed torrents of water to soften the soil. Once loosened, the Golden Toad transformed into a massive twenty-meter form, biting into the temple’s foundation.
The other Tattooed Beasts began wrecking the temple, sending its remains to Li Mo.
Piece by piece, Li Mo transferred the spiritual materials into the Corpse Mountain Mini World, leaving nothing behind in his pursuit of total plunder.
Within the Corpse Mountain Mini World, the spiritual materials quickly revived.
For instance, the Golden Tung Wood that formed the beams sprouted fresh buds moments after entering the Corpse Mountain and would soon grow into saplings.
Even the soil was composed of inferior spiritual materials, which Li Mo diligently collected into the Corpse Mountain Mini World.
"The Buddhist Sect sure was wealthy!"
The existence of the True Word Sect likely dated to the tumultuous millennium surrounding the world’s great transformation.
As a Fake Buddha Sect composed of Buddhist Evil Spirits, they had still amassed immense wealth. The opulence of an authentic Buddhist Sect was beyond imagination.
Could it be just as described in the Sutras?
’When the Buddha presses the earth with a single toe, countless thousands of jeweled worlds instantly arise—magnificent lands adorned with treasures of immeasurable merit.’
"This trip was worth it."
A glimmer of fervor flashed in Li Mo’s eyes. He cared little for sword refinement; the true priority lay in hoarding resources from the Secret Realm.
"Hm?"
The Red Fox suddenly let out a warning cry, making Li Mo turn his head.
As the soil was excavated, an odd white jade Lotus Throne was revealed. It looked simultaneously like jade and flesh, and on closer inspection, resembled a woman’s womb.
"Wait a moment."
"Could this be where the True Word Sect nurtured their monks?"
Having seen the Sub-Device Sect’s Mother Furnace mass-produce Artifact People, Li Mo quickly made the connection and promptly confirmed his suspicions.
Near the white jade Lotus Throne, traces of umbilical blood remained. Before it fell into disuse, it would have produced a baby daily.
The True Word Sect seemed to have used a well-digging method, lowering buckets to retrieve infants.
Infants matured within the jade bottle, and upon mastering the foundational True Word Sect cultivation techniques, left the Mustard Space to enter the real Secret Realm.
"No wonder the True Word Sect, full of men, could survive and reproduce within this small world. In many ways, the True Word Sect resembles the Sub-Device Sect."
Li Mo refrained from tampering with the white jade Lotus Throne, as it was integrated with the jade bottle. Destroying it would cause far too much commotion.
Besides, it was less useful to him than a few monk corpses.
"Let’s head outside and take a look."
The Tattooed Beasts retreated into his skin, leaving only the Ghost Tiger to envelop him.
The shadow crept along the bottle’s surface, climbing upward. Without Spiritual Power, the Ghost Tiger struggled to maintain grip on the smooth exterior.
After nearly half a day, Li Mo finally reached the bottle’s mouth.
The Ghost Tiger rested briefly before cautiously pulling Li Mo through the opening. The scene before him suddenly opened up, and dense spiritual energy surged toward him.
The outside world was a bustling city.
Streets were lined with spiritual shrines every ten meters or so, each enshrining a jade bottle.
In a single glance, Li Mo counted hundreds of spiritual shrines just along his street, most certainly housing other cultivators venturing into the Secret Realm.
"Ugh."
Li Mo noticed that the townsfolk’s heads were partially mutilated, their exposed brain tissues exhibiting the Seven Treasures’ materials. Their limbs were slender like long swords.
He reached out to his Three Nascent Souls, barely managing to send out his Divine Sense for a scan.
Among the thousands of townsfolk, each one housed a Lifebound Flying Sword within their bodies, though the swords were maturing exceedingly slowly.
At the current pace, it would take at least twenty years for any of the swords to fully develop.
Moreover, the flying swords fell far short of the Five Hidden Sword’s expectations. At this rate, centuries might pass before they produced anything satisfactory.
"Heh."
"I see, the White Bone Sect likely severed the white jade Lotus Throne within the jade bottle, halting the birth of new monks. The Five Hidden Sword had no choice but to sacrifice over two hundred thousand people."
"Yet the sword refinement has still ground to a halt."