Chapter 313: Chapter 59 Li Mo Never Loses
"My name is Supreme Qingtian, one of the Thirteen Immortals of the No-Life Sect."
Soon after, countless voices reciting "No-Life Mother" echoed within the True Word Secret Realm, momentarily suppressing the lingering power of the Twenty-four Arhats.
None of the cultivators present, all having lived for centuries, were easily deceived at first sight.
Regardless of who the intruder was, it was evident they were opposed to the Five Hidden Sword. The Praise of the Seven Treasures Scripture being taught to the Five Hidden Sword was likely their doing as well.
The cultivators immediately made a decision, converging toward one another without any prior agreement.
Even though the crowd was divided into three groups due to the Daoist and Demon conflict, finding a means of survival required seizing the fleeting opportunity.
The cultivators schemed amongst themselves, not daring to retrieve their flying swords from within, since regaining full control relied on the flying sword’s connection to their nascent souls.
Thus, for the Five Hidden Sword, the refining of their swords had not yet spiraled entirely out of control.
"Amitabha Buddha."
The Twenty-four Arhats closed their eyes, sitting cross-legged, and lifted their right arms.
Their right arms struck downward.
The murmurs of No-Life Mother were instantly dispersed, the radiant Luminous Pure Land enveloping the secret realm, as tens of thousands of people knelt in prayer.
The secret realm was in utter chaos, indistinguishable factions clashing in turmoil.
Elder Shi Jin’s face was pale as death.
For some reason, even though the refining of swords wasn’t hindered in the slightest, the reaction of the Twenty-four Arhats seemed to accelerate its progression.
Yet, a foreboding unease gripped his heart, his eyes filled with profound despair.
"Who is it really? No-Life Sect? Or perhaps the Four Seas Commerce? Why, why has it come to this? Why—!!!"
Elder Shi Jin grabbed his head with both hands, teetering on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"They’ve arrived."
His divine sense scanned the outside, where rotting pus flowed from the cracks in the ground, and soon after, the explosive Great Sun Spiritual Power manifested in tangible form.
The Twenty-four Arhats observed this, a cryptic smile appearing on their faces. Twirling a flower, they said, "Exemplary benevolence."
The tidal wave of surging Great Sun Spiritual Power continuously assimilated the spiritual energy within the secret realm, cloaking the surrounding buildings in a golden hue wherever it passed.
Clang.
The flying sword Elder Liu Huo had transformed into emitted a sharp sword cry, instinctually maintaining the sword array even after death, while keeping one-third of the swords reserved for guarding against potential threats.
"Who is it really..."
Elder Shi Jin collapsed powerlessly to his knees.
The orchestrator of these events had chosen the timing with exceptional precision—Elder Liu Huo had mutated into a flying sword, leaving only one Nascent Soul cultivator from the Five Hidden Sword still in the secret realm.
If Elder Shi Jin were to perish and his Dao dissipate, the refining of their swords would undoubtedly result in complete failure.
"Wait, I can only wait, only wait."
He muttered hysterically to himself, pulling out the invisible sword blade embedded in his forehead, then cradling it idiotically while laughing maniacally.
From the center of the town, flesh and blood began to gather, forming a massive pillar of flesh covered with grotesque patterns resembling human brain tissue. It pulsed with Great Sun Spiritual Power.
Simultaneously, the bronze giant gate of Five Temples Town began to tremble violently.
Tiny cracks spread across its surface, clearly signifying the instability of the secret realm, prompting numerous disciples of the Five Hidden Sword to commit ritual suicide as sacrifices before the gate.
The entire Five Hidden Sword appeared to have been driven mad.
Li Mo squinted his eyes, keeping an eye on the situation in Five Temples Town through Luo Kai. Nearly 300,000 people from the Five Hidden Sword had already assembled outside the town.
"They’re truly going all out. Even the Devil Sect wouldn’t casually sacrifice tens of thousands of lives."
The secret realm had now reached a delicate balance. Due to the Great Sun Spiritual Power emanating from the flesh pillar, the Twenty-four Arhats refrained from taking action.
If nothing unexpected occurred, the White Bone Sect would likely emerge as the final victor.
Step by step, the developments within the secret realm were all traceable. It was evident the White Bone Sect had been planning this for some time. The Five Hidden Sword was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn.
After hesitating momentarily, Li Mo chose not to leave the shadows.
He didn’t believe the White Bone Sect would succeed so easily. After all, the Five Hidden Sword had an enormous entity standing behind them—the Heavenly Sword Sect.
A growing killing intent for the White Bone Sect welled within Li Mo. Just the act of using his false body to fabricate a scapegoat for the No-Life Sect was unforgivable.
"Do they really think I’m an easy target?"
"Don’t assume everything is over. I’ll be watching your every move."
Li Mo let out a cold laugh and quietly released blood sea–transformed specks of micro dust, which floated silently along the streets of the town.
He used the Great Sun Spiritual Power to command the blood sea, and the Luminous Pure Land emitted no resistance against the micro dust.
However, the consumption of spiritual power was extreme. After all, the Great Sun Spiritual Power was only at the Foundation Establishment Stage, whereas the blood sea had already reached the level of a Hundred Refinement Magical Artifact.
Closing his eyes, Li Mo began to absorb Great Sun Spiritual Energy through every pore of his body.
Earlier, his cultivation had been restrained, primarily to avoid drawing the attention of his false body. Now that the false body had transformed into an immobile flesh pillar, there was no longer a need for such concerns.
Li Mo no longer held back. Over fifty percent of the secret realm was now suffused with Great Sun Spiritual Energy, and it would reach seventy percent in no more than half a year.
What does seventy percent signify?
When it came to spiritual energy in storage, the purity level of canned spiritual energy was generally around ninety percent. Even the lower levels of the ports had spiritual energy of seventy percent purity.
"A Blessed Land Cave Heaven... If I can’t form my core in the True Word Secret Realm, I..."
"...would truly regret it for a century."
Li Mo submerged himself entirely in Replenishing God Wine, dull thuds echoing within his skull as his brain struggled to bear the immense spiritual energy.
"Hiss."
The salamander, observing this, plunged its roots into the wine vat, its branches swaying as specks of vitality sprinkled forth.
Supported by the wine’s spiritual nourishment and vitality, Li Mo barely managed to recover his brain’s resilience, leaving the blood sea’s consumption of Great Sun Spiritual Power inconsequential.
Each speck of micro dust became contaminated with cancer cells, invisible to the naked eye.
All the forces within the secret realm were desperately trying to maintain the status quo, economizing their use of spiritual energy to the point where no one could unleash their full power.
Thus, no one noticed the faint, tumor-like micro dust of the blood sea.
Moments later, apart from the Twenty-four Arhats, every individual had come into contact with the dust, allowing the cancer cells to burrow through their pores and seep into their flesh and bones.
The Bing You Taoist furrowed his brow. While facing off against the Four-Armed Arhat, an inexplicable sense of dread welled up within him, as though danger loomed near.
But after a thorough inspection, he found nothing unusual.
After embedding cancer cells into Bing You Taoist’s body, Li Mo deliberately dispelled the remaining micro dust, calculating that only someone at the stage of Nascent Soul Perfection could detect anything amiss.
And that was provided they could maintain clarity of mind within the secret realm.
The cancer cells within the cultivators’ bodies were but a fraction; the majority infiltrated the flesh pillar, consuming its nutrients to propagate and grow.
Li Mo cared little whether the White Bone Sect detected this. He directly commanded Da Ai Mi Tian to absorb nutrients from the flesh pillar, feeding it back to himself.
"Heh heh heh..."
"Your White Bone Sect may claim victory, but I’ll never taste defeat."
With a gesture, Li Mo directed the mass of cancer cells into the White Jade Lotus Throne, which instantly began to mutate.
Though he hadn’t had time to refine the spiritual shrine into a magical artifact, it did not hinder his actions.
The White Jade Lotus Throne unfurled its petals, releasing spiritual energy tenfold, instantly turning the Bottle World into a dazzling golden expanse.
Despite the searing pain of neural strain, Li Mo strained to absorb the spiritual energy like a whale devouring water.
The three nascent souls within him surged with activity, voluntarily aiding in channeling the Great Sun Spiritual Energy. Such a phenomenon would be impossible among other cultivators.
The bottleneck of the Early Stage of Youth showed signs of loosening.
Golden rainfall descended within the Mud Pill Palace, bathing the Three Souls.
Li Mo looked upon his Three Souls with concern.
The Seven Spirits encased within harbored indescribable, worm-like entities, while the Three Souls reigned above them. Who knew what horrors might lie within them?
For a long time, Li Mo’s divine sense lingered on the Three Souls. Only upon confirming that the Great Sun Spiritual Power had not adversely affected them did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"No, I must not form my nascent soul with Great Sun Spiritual Power until the Three Souls are subdued."
The souls appeared as mud sculptures, encased by a thick, solid outer shell. Li Mo deeply suspected that this outer shell served not to protect the souls, but instead to shield humanity itself. Dealing with the Three Souls required the utmost caution.
He had encountered numerous cultivation systems—Beast Cultivation, Artifact Cultivation, Sword Cultivation, Buddhist Practices...
While the systems differed greatly, they all shared one striking similarity: their treatment of the soul—they either subdued it or nurtured a man-made artifact to replace it.
When the Mud Pill Palace became saturate with Great Sun Spiritual Power, Li Mo realized it could contain no more and began using his skull to cultivate a "Buddha Bone."
The Buddha Bone served a function similar to that of the Artifact Pearl, effectively acting as a proxy for the Three Souls and Seven Spirits.
Layers of bone were worn away from Li Mo’s skull, accumulating as bone powder within his cranium. Faint golden light seeped through his eyes, and eventually, the Buddha Bone took form.
The Buddha Bone resembled a small phalange, its surface inscribed with Buddhist scriptures, exuding an air of profound mystery.
"Quite impressive. The secrets of Buddhist reincarnation must lie within the Buddha Bone."
Li Mo lamented slightly—it was evident that the latter half of the Praise of the Seven Treasures Scripture, which he had completed, was composed of Demon Cultivation Techniques rather than genuine Buddhist practices.
The perfected Nine Nether Buddha Light Illuminating Scripture possessed four distinct qualities, sufficient to be considered top-quality, though it still lacked the core essence of rebirth and reincarnation.
[Nine Nether]: Buddha Spirit Root emits Nine Nether Immortal Energy.
[Assist God]: Spiritual power can nurture Divine Sense, enhancing its strength.
[Great Unity]: Spiritual power can influence living beings to convert, though prolonged influence damages their Mud Pill Palace.
[Chanting]: With an undying nascent soul, it becomes difficult to seize the body.
Li Mo resolved that if given the opportunity to study authentic Buddhist practices in the future, he would extract a cultivation technique directly leading to the Great Dao from a Buddhist practitioner.
The Buddha Bone rested at the center of the Mud Pill Palace, gradually dissolving under the Great Sun Spiritual Power.
Ultimately, it condensed into a Void Pill.
After stabilizing his cultivation base, Li Mo continued to push toward the Late Stage Foundation Establishment, as the concentration of Great Sun Spiritual Energy in the secret realm exceeded eighty percent.
He resembled a tumor parasitizing the flesh pillar, taking full advantage without restraint.
The flesh pillar, which had been growing steadily, suddenly froze in size—slightly over a hundred meters tall—occasionally contorting in pain.
Suddenly, the flesh pillar began to expand exponentially.
"Hmm?"
Li Mo hadn’t anticipated this. Perhaps the White Bone Sect had realized the pillar’s stagnation and were resorting to some means of injecting it with a massive amount of nutrients.
He felt no shame in taking eighty percent of it.
The remaining twenty percent wasn’t spared out of goodwill; he simply lacked the capacity to absorb more.
If Da Ai Mi Tian could rise to the level of a mid-grade magical treasure, it could readily absorb and return whatever the flesh pillar consumed.
As the nutrients provided by the flesh pillar surged, the greatest beneficiary was Li Mo’s Lower Dantian. Nourishing Yuan Fruits and Bodhi Fruits accumulated power at a visible rate.
In mere breaths, the Nourishing Yuan Fruit surpassed four thousand years in potency, an unprecedented surplus for Li Mo.
Even the Bodhi Fruits bore over a hundred fruits.
Retrieving a single Bodhi Fruit, its walnut-like appearance exuded a calming fragrance of serenity, though its exterior seemed unremarkable.
"Here, it’s yours."
Knowing only that the Bodhi Fruit boosted Spiritual Wisdom, Li Mo casually tossed one to Zhang Guo for testing.