Chapter 251: Chapter 17 I Am Not Myself
The Nine Heavens Burning Fire Elder’s temple was extremely rare and unknown to loose cultivators, so the Futu Hermit could only start by investigating mortal towns.
Mortal towns had merchant guilds with extensive intelligence networks.
However, the information was usually delayed and hard to verify, and it took the Futu Hermit exhaustive inquiries to pinpoint the location of the Burning Fire Elder’s temple.
Apparently, in some southern mountain villages, there were temples dedicated to the Burning Fire Elder, where villagers prayed for the preservation of their granaries.
Seeing how remote the village was, the Futu Hermit refrained from acting rashly.
He faintly sensed that the events entangling Li Mo carried significant implications. After all, the Life Sacrifice Ceremony could be traced back over ten thousand years.
Although historical records perused by the Futu Hermit showed no history of calamities arising from the Life Sacrifice Ceremony, anything that could pique Li Mo’s interest could never be simple.
He shared the clues with Li Mo, and after determining the temple’s rough location, Li Mo quietly set out with Taiyin Law Heaven.
Fortunately, the destination did not require passing through the area governed by any Immortal Sect.
Taiyin Law Heaven’s journey went relatively smoothly, and after just over half a month, it was nearing its target.
Li Mo’s consciousness remained in the True Void Hometown, while his physical body drove swarms of Gu Worms through the mountains, searching for traces of the Burning Fire Elder.
"Life Sacrifice Ceremony, Life Secret Realm."
In fact, throughout ten thousand years, countless secret realms had formed in the cultivation world, whether through high-grade magical artifacts containing internal spaces, or the deaths of Taoist bodies of high-level practitioners...
But few secret realms could persist for long, let alone thousands of years.
Li Mo understood that the Life Secret Realm was inevitably connected to the True Void Hometown; he just couldn’t determine how it would manifest.
He remained silent, staying within the Green Mountain Cave Heaven, while Rushan had started to thrive.
Zhang Guo’s spiritual wisdom was low, but when it came to resource mining, Li Mo barely needed to intervene—likely owing to Zhang Guo’s instincts as spiritual material.
The plant and tree cultivators were not exploiting Rushan without restraint; instead, they tried planting spiritual material seeds, fostering the growth of more peers.
With the assistance of salamanders, it truly seemed as if young sprouts were budding across Rushan.
However, just like how spiritual materials growing on Corpse Mountain tended toward fleshy organs, materials growing on Rushan predominantly exhibited female traits.
Numerous Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators contacted Li Mo, hoping to obtain a few plant and tree cultivators.
Li Mo naturally refused; besides, once plant and tree cultivators left his protection, they would immediately revert to mindless ordinary spiritual materials within a few breaths.
The Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators weren’t offended; it was clear that they had expectations for him during the ceremony.
Li Mo instructed the plant and tree cultivators to send spiritual materials to the mountain’s peak, then used the No-Life God Statue to absorb them into the Corpse Mountain Mini World. He specifically carved out a sub-peak, hoping it might replicate Luo Zu’s unique environment.
While the low-level spiritual materials nurtured by Rushan were largely useless to him at present, they could enrich the ecosystem of the Corpse Mountain Mini World, fostering subtle growth in spirit patterns.
The Corpse Mountain had been maturing into a magical treasure for decades now.
The formation of the two sun-and-moon, five-element spiritual patterns was still less than halfway complete, indicating the slow growth of the magical treasure; it was unknown how long promotion to mid-grade magical treasure would take.
Of course, it was also tied to Li Mo’s cultivation being too low.
Li Mo focused his attention on the Gu Worms, scouring the mountains outside for villages, and soon discovered a few Burning Fire Elder temples.
The temples had been abandoned for years and were used by villagers as a Yizhuang for temporary storage of corpses.
Yet Li Mo could tell that even when the temple was intact, it had been quite rudimentary and rarely attracted incense offerings.
Li Mo chuckled coldly.
The Burning Fire Elder had clearly been utterly wronged by the Stove Lord.
In Li Mo’s view, the roles assigned to the No-Life Sect’s immortal deities were crucial: they determined whether their titles could spread. The closer they were to the mundane world, the easier it was for mortals to accept them.
For instance, the Blessed Earth Immortal’s "Land Grain Harvest," the Stove Lord’s "Five Grains Food," the Doumu Primordial Lord’s "Seeking Child Safety"...
The Burning Fire Elder was subordinate to the Stove Lord, with his role and title decided by the latter, making it impossible for him to grow his follower base.
After the temple was destroyed, the Stove Lord didn’t even show the slightest concern.
Li Mo continued extending the range of the Gu Worms. More Worms crept up from the soil as Taiyin Law Heaven became a temporary insect nest.
He patiently waited for an opportunity.
During this time, the Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators had plenty of covert activities amongst themselves. Although they didn’t explicitly mention the ceremony, their secret maneuvers indicated a clear layout.
Li Mo had only recently joined the No-Life Sect and certainly wasn’t qualified to actively intervene.
Nonetheless, he had a premonition that sooner or later, a Nascent Soul Demon Cultivator would invite him to join—but likely at a point very close to the ceremony itself.
In this way, Li Mo would have little time to prepare and no chance to influence the distribution of benefits among the others.
"They want me to exert effort but deny me a hand in the Life Sacrifice Ceremony. Do they really think I’m a pushover? Then I might as well play a big hand."
A glint of killing intent flashed in Li Mo’s eyes, but he quickly refocused on the Gu Worms.
Buzz, buzz, buzz...
It was midsummer, and even in the depths of the mountains, the temperature was nearing forty degrees, while the dense chirping of cicadas echoed continuously.
Li Mo had been cultivating Mountain Mosquito Gu Worms.
The sole advantage of Mountain Mosquito Gu Worms lay in their astonishing reproduction speed—after consuming blood and water, they could lay eggs near a water source overnight, with larvae transforming into adult insects within just three days.
The Gu Worms filled every valley and village in the surrounding mountains, yet no traces had been found.
Li Mo appeared slightly helpless; if the Burning Fire Elder had died, meddling in the Life Sacrifice Ceremony would be far more troublesome, given his limited knowledge of the ceremony’s details.
"Wait a moment."
Li Mo’s eyebrows jumped, and he covertly used divine skill to endow the Mountain Mosquito Gu Worms with a sense of smell, ultimately detecting traces of the Burning Fire Elder through the scent of scorched decay.
A child of about four or five years old, taking advantage of the lack of attention, quietly slipped away from the village towards an isolated rock wall at the foot of the mountain.
The nimble child weaved through the forest and arrived at the front of the cave hidden beneath a crevice in a giant rock.
Using his petite stature, he sneaked into the depths of the cave. Li Mo controlled several bugs to follow the child inside.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Weak coughing sounds echoed, accompanied by the thick stench of burnt flesh in the air.
The child looked worried and quickened his pace as the cave gradually opened wider, revealing faintly crackling sparks of flames.
"Ah Zu, eat something."
The child tossed a steamed bun into the darkness, prompting a curled figure to slowly crawl forward.
"You... shouldn’t... stay here. Leave now, leave now."
The voice was hoarse and feeble, but the figure eventually picked up the steamed bun, exposing a charred and deeply scarred blackened arm.
As the arm touched the steamed bun, the dry food spontaneously combusted, turning to ash within seconds.
"See? Now go."
The child wiped away tears at the corner of his eyes and, while crawling back, resolutely said, "Ah Zu, I’ll try other types of food next time; you’ll get better."
The cave echoed with a long sigh interspersed with coughing sounds.
Moments later, darkness and silence resumed.
Over a hundred Mountain Mosquito Gu Worms gathered, quickly developing humanoid features.
"Burning Fire Elder, is this what you’ve come to accept?"
"Who’s there?!"
The silhouetted figure scrambled out of the darkness, moving with such urgency that his tearing skin didn’t betray the slightest sign of weakness.
"Stove Lord, it won’t be long before I die and my Dao fades. Why must you drive me to ruin?"
Gasping for breath, the Burning Fire Elder continued in a softened tone, "I beg you to spare the mortals of the village, please, just spare them..."
"I am not the Stove Lord; we’ve met once before."
Shocked, the Burning Fire Elder tried to recall someone among the True Void Hometown’s demon cultivators—someone he had only met once. The only possibility was the newcomer to the No-Life Sect: Supreme Qingtian.
"What do you want? I pose no threat to you."
The Burning Fire Elder, nearly begging, still carried haunting memories of the temple’s destruction. His entire body began trembling uncontrollably.
"I never intended to harm you; it’s all because of him..."
"Ah!!"
The Burning Fire Elder let out a miserable scream as rotting blood and flesh gushed from his mouth and nose. His vitality dimmed, and his body began to collapse.
Li Mo could see the exaggerated restraints of the True Void Hometown over other demon cultivators.
Even without mentioning it, the unknown corrosion had already claimed half the Burning Fire Elder’s life, illustrating how all demon cultivators were akin to captive birds within the True Void Hometown.
Li Mo resolutely decided to obtain a top-grade Spirit Stone.
Only by imprinting the temple could he escape No-Life Mother and, as an outsider, plot to exploit the True Void Hometown’s resources.
"Burning Fire Elder, do you feel hatred?"
The Burning Fire Elder lay flat on the ground, without answering Li Mo’s question.
"He can arbitrarily decide the lives of hundreds of thousands of mortals, reduce you to a meaningless sacrificial pawn, and you truly accept that?"
"What... what are you planning to do?"
"The Life Sacrifice Ceremony—I want a stake in the Life Sacrifice Ceremony’s gambit."
The Burning Fire Elder burst into laughter. "Hah! Such ambition. But my cultivation is ruined; I have no qualifications to even approach the Life Sacrifice Ceremony."
"Weak Crown Period cultivation—is that enough?"
"You..."
The Burning Fire Elder’s eyes grew wide as he suddenly noticed a maggot slowly wriggling into his mouth before reaching his chest.
The maggot quickly cocooned itself, forming a malformed Middle Dantian within seconds.
The Burning Fire Elder stared in disbelief as the maggot within the cocoon dissolved, creating a turbid blood Spiritual Power he could control.
[Foundation Establishment Bug]
The Foundation Establishment Bug allowed Li Mo to lend Spiritual Power to others, but only up to the Weak Crown Period level, and the recipients had to withstand the power’s corrosive effects.
"Is it enough? You’ll have at most a hundred years, with your Spiritual Power unable to progress further."
"It’s enough, enough."
"There’s still twenty years left—it’s enough time. I will make him pay the price."
The Burning Fire Elder muttered to himself, a venomous hatred flashing in his eyes.
Li Mo nodded. "I can help you relocate the villagers. You know that once the Life Sacrifice Ceremony begins, it’s a fight to the death."
"No need. I’ll personally take my xuansun to a safe place."
"The others all worship the Stove Lord; they can’t break free of the No-Life Sect. You know how terrifying the No-Life Sect is..."
The Burning Fire Elder rambled, like someone on their deathbed, and suddenly seemed to recall something, shouting in a daze.
"Never let your body and soul enter into that ghostly place during the Life Sacrifice Ceremony! Once you’re in, you won’t be yourself anymore—remember that!"
"You must wait for me; you must wait for me."
"Alright."
Li Mo couldn’t understand the meaning behind the Burning Fire Elder’s insane ramblings, nor did he press further—revealing any information about the True Void Hometown would result in the Burning Fire Elder’s instant death.
I won’t be myself?
Yet there were plenty of loose cultivators who had escaped completely unharmed from the Life Secret Realm. What were they?
Li Mo grinned coldly, looking forward to seeing what kind of revelry the so-called Life Sacrifice Ceremony would reveal—and whether he could emerge as the ultimate victor.