Chapter 242: Chapter 8: The Prostrate Demon Cultivator
The sound of something cutting through the air came from outside Qing Town.
Figures disappeared into the dense fog, seemingly loose cultivators from the Sword Tongue Sect, with their arrival at Qing Town clearly implying their intent to join the No-Life Sect.
Li Mo had initially assumed that the Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators were screening disciples from among the scholars.
Unexpectedly, the reality was even more extravagant than he’d imagined—turns out the No-Life Sect was using the Sword Tongue Sect’s village exams as their entry trials.
To operate so brazenly, there was only one plausible explanation.
The Sword Tongue Sect must be riddled with internal traitors—not just Elder Han Feng—but likely infiltrated to the core, with Demon Cultivators walking freely within its ranks.
On reflection, it made sense. The Sword Cultivation system relied entirely on nurturing one’s Lifebound Flying Sword. Even after forming a Nascent Soul, the primary beneficiary was always the Sword Spirit.
Furthermore, above the Sword Tongue Sect loomed another immense force—the Heavenly Sword Sect.
How could Sword Cultivators be content with this? Such grievances provided the No-Life Sect a perfect opportunity to exploit Sword Tongue’s weaknesses. Moreover, the No-Life Sect likely dwarfed the Sword Tongue Sect in scale.
"Hm?"
Li Mo’s brow furrowed.
He spotted a Puppet Centipede crawling along the corner of the wall, seemingly searching for his aura—undoubtedly sent by Elder Han Feng.
Li Mo ignored it, and moments later the Puppet Centipede lost its vitality.
"Heh, I’m not jumping into your fire pit."
Elder Han Feng’s intentions were clear—he wanted Li Mo to join in as well. But unfortunately for him, Li Mo had never considered joining the No-Life Sect; instead, he planned to profit from the situation by covertly stealing the Demon Sect’s cultivation techniques.
"Four slots in total, with at least twenty cultivators competing. Quite the spectacle."
Casually concealed in the shadows, Li Mo continued to observe the formation process of Lifebound Flying Swords.
The cultivators held their positions, subtly monitoring events, likely waiting for the Lifebound Flying Swords to undergo their transformations. From the testing grounds came faint, gut-wrenching screams.
As the Sword Spirit fully merged into the scholars’ tongues, it unmistakably revealed its unique magical artifact aura.
A constant Sword Sound reverberated.
The Lifebound Flying Sword belonging to the Dual Dao Body had almost reached the level of a mid-grade magical artifact.
Freshly-born Lifebound Flying Swords are inherently fragile, capable only of slowly writhing along their blade-like bodies.
The Lifebound Flying Sword completely turned the scholars into husks.
The scholars’ figures became emaciated, with barely enough strength left to blink their eyes. Their translucent skin revealed exposed bones and internal organs.
Their surviving life force hung by a thread, sustained solely by the Lifebound Flying Swords. And their expressions reflected a resigned relief.
Even if their Three Souls and Seven Spirits were insignificant, having both body and soul simultaneously drained left them resembling corpses from the Chaotic Burial Mound.
Nearby cultivators seemed to recall their own harrowing experiences, their breaths growing heavy.
"Clack, clack, clack..."
The scholars’ jaws trembled, as they watched helplessly while the Lifebound Flying Swords crawled into their mouths.
For Sword Cultivators in the Qi Cultivation stage, scholars of the Sword Tongue Sect were but servant disciples, spending their days feeding their Lifebound Flying Swords to receive meager nourishment and rebuild their shattered foundations.
The Lifebound Flying Swords nestled in their stomachs, simultaneously sustaining life and replacing the function of Spirit Roots.
Li Mo wandered among the four testing grounds like a specter haunting the examination hall, using the opportunity of the village exam to carefully observe various Dao Bodies.
The aura within the examination hall was now a chaotic mix, filled with a diverse crowd exceeding hundreds, giving Li Mo confidence that the Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators would not detect his presence.
"Sigh..."
Though Li Mo had gained much from his observations, regret still crept onto his face.
While he now had a rough concept for Dao Body fusion, he knew that discovering the correct path might require thousands upon thousands of experiments.
"I wonder if the phosphorescence is sufficient. Shame the Seven Soul Divine Abilities lack medical skills—otherwise, nurturing with divine abilities would be sublime."
"Could the divine abilities from the Three Souls involve medical skills...?"
Li Mo shook his head, denying the thought. The Seven Soul Divine Abilities were related strictly to miscellaneous cultivation techniques; there was no reason for the Three Souls to awaken a mortal’s medical skill divine ability.
A sudden earthquake rocked the ground.
The scholars jolted awake, only then realizing the surroundings had changed dramatically.
They dragged their withered bodies out of the testing grounds, greeted by dense fog and the eerie outlines of four colossal divine statues looming within.
Sometime unnoticed, the divine statues in the side hall had grown to heights of thirty or forty meters.
Xuanling Damu Heavenly Monarch, Xuanling Five Internal Organs Immortal, Xuanling Dagan Mountain God, and Xuanling Heavenly Dragon.
"Wonderful."
The Xuanling Damu Heavenly Monarch, face etched with a smile, extended his eyeball-covered arm and snatched a scholar into his grasp, removing the scholar’s limbs.
"Wonderful."
The other statues nodded in agreement, and the scholars finally reacted in terror, scrambling to hide within the examination hall—though it was clearly futile.
Each statue claimed three or four scholars, particularly those with Dual Dao Bodies.
Li Mo fixed his gaze on Xuanling Heavenly Dragon.
Had he not identified the Dao Body of Elder Han Feng’s flying sword earlier, who could connect the two identities? The Sword Cultivators and Demon Cultivators were practically separate entities.
Li Mo’s interest in the No-Life Sect’s cultivation techniques grew immensely; having multiple roles across the Cultivation World was advantageous.
What Heart Beast Sect Master, Sub-device Sect Daoist, No-Life Sect Demon Cultivator...
Xuanling Damu Heavenly Monarch spoke, "Retrieve the sword embryos, within two hours."
The unformed Artifact Embryos referred to the scholars, who had yet to even enter Qi Cultivation, lurking in the examination hall like lambs awaiting slaughter.
At his words, various cultivators rushed into the hall, wolf-like in their frenzy, with fierce competition inevitably leading to injury and death within moments.
Still, Li Mo noticed they refrained from reckless actions toward the scholars.
More often, four or five cultivators surrounded a top-quality Lifebound Flying Sword, trying not to harm the scholars, clearly wary of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
"Wu Wei!!!"
A voice filled with gritted teeth reached Li Mo’s ear.
A figure darted through various parts of the examination hall, seemingly searching for him. The figure wielded a black-haired flying sword and appeared deeply obsessed with Wu Wei.
"You remember me, right? Yun Shan, your junior brother! I’ve been searching for you for twenty years—thought you’d hidden somewhere, yet here you are in Qing Town..."
"Crazy bastard."
Li Mo raised a brow, uninterested in Wu Wei’s dramatic vendetta. He picked a secluded corner and settled in to watch the unfolding chaos.
Yun Shan roared furiously, eventually returning to the fray for a slot. His erratic mental state was glaringly apparent.
As the slaughter among cultivators intensified, broken corpses fell steadily.
"Hehehe..."
The Xuanling Five Internal Organs Immortal let out a grotesque laugh, swallowing the corpses whole and crushing them between his gnashing jaws, the sound of shattering bones echoing constantly.
A curious expression crossed Li Mo’s face. Before revealing its aura, the statue could easily pass as a mere clay figure.
He became the fifth passive observer within the examination hall, watching Demon Cultivators tear into each other.
After over an hour, only seven cultivators remained.
Yun Shan had not perished, surviving through sheer cunning, though the sword embryo he selected was significantly inferior, being of mere Acquired Spirit Root quality.
The prolonged fog-bound isolation of Qing Town remained, with Sword Tongue Sect showing no signs of intervention.
The cultivators scattered a ten-meter distance between themselves before unanimously opening their mouths wide—their jaws dislocating, mouths hanging down to their chests.
They forced the sword embryos into their mouths.
Despite their flesh, bones, and skin tearing from the swelling, their eyes burned with fanaticism, their movements entirely unhesitant.
Li Mo’s mouth twitched.
Moments earlier, the sword spirits had crawled out from the scholars’ bodies. Now, the scholars themselves were being devoured.
The cultivators’ bellies bloated to nearly two meters in diameter, showing the artifact embryos struggling madly inside, trying desperately to break free from the flesh prison.
The No-Life Sect’s induction ceremony was truly an unusually grotesque feast of humans consuming humans.
"Truly bizarre."
Li Mo raised a brow. He discovered that the spiritual power circulation routes the cultivators employed bore a certain resemblance to the No-Life Body’s meridian structures.
Without a doubt, the No-Life Sect harbored a high-ranking No-Life Mother in its depths.
The sword embryos screamed within their flesh prisons as spiritual power forcibly compressed them, gradually molding them into statues resembling divine beings.
Even the Lifebound Magical Artifacts could not resist.
Li Mo squinted his eyes, the Ghost Tiger’s Shadow Transformation spreading across his form.
He prepared himself and patiently awaited the right moment to strike.
The No-Life Sect was far from unified; previously, even the Taiyi Three-Headed True Monarch had attempted to smuggle his own divine statue into Qing Town.
Li Mo believed that since this village exam required the Blessed Earth Immortal to oversee it personally, no course of action could proceed seamlessly.
If necessary, he would refrain from engaging directly—after all, he now knew which individuals were disguised Demon Cultivators. He had plenty of time for reckoning later.
Lying in the shadows, Li Mo closed his eyes, contemplating Dao Body structures.
Just as he misjudged the situation, presuming the village exam would end smoothly, his nostrils were suddenly filled with a faint charred aroma from a stove fire.
On the mountain path outside Qing Town, a group of citizens carrying wooden poles hurried along, transporting an unusual Stove Lord god statue.
The wooden poles creaked under the weight, and within moments the god statue swelled to fifty meters tall.
Its body was composed entirely of grain and flesh, the grain spikes crowned with ferocious human faces.
"Well, Blessed Earth Immortal, looks like it’s time for Qing Town to change hands."
"Thank you for gracing us, Stove Lord."
Two Nascent Soul auras collided, roaring winds tearing through the air.
The Blessed Earth Immortal expanded to a fifty-meter stature, his skin filled with perforations resembling soil, out of which emerged countless skinned worms bearing human faces.
Aside from Xuanling Heavenly Dragon, the four divine statues under his command moved to follow him.
At the instant they left Qing Town, Li Mo opened his eyes, the Ghost Tiger’s essence returning to his body. Leaping out from the shadows, he sprang into action.
Yun Shan stared fiercely, struggling to rise, clutching his bloated stomach. "Wu Wei!!!"
Li Mo ignored Yun Shan, hurling the Leg Bone Flying Sword from his hand.
Yun Shan stared in disbelief at his chest—the flying sword had pierced his Middle Dantian entirely, leaving him to lament the absurdity of his prior exploits.
"You’re not..."
The Leg Bone Flying Sword swiftly returned to Li Mo as he dragged Yun Shan’s corpse into the Corpse Mountain.
Xuanling Heavenly Dragon frowned. Despite Li Mo’s ruthless efficiency, his exposed cultivation was still merely at the Qi Cultivation stage.
"Wu Wei, someone with your temperament shouldn’t be wasting time in Qing Town. Only by worshiping the No-Life Mother and joining the No-Life Sect..."
Before Xuanling Heavenly Dragon could finish his words, something clicked for him—something was off.
Li Mo showed no signs of stopping. Using rooftops for leverage, he sped up toward the statue’s upper body, his expression chillingly murderous.
"Elder Han Feng, thank you for your favor, but..."
"I’ll be taking your life."
From behind Li Mo sprouted limbs resembling the Spider Demon’s Multiple-Armed Spine, while tumors proliferated wildly under the Da Ai Mi Tian Cancer Transformation.
"How dare you!!!"
Xuanling Heavenly Dragon had yet to react in full.
Li Mo unleashed the Blood Soul’s restraints, exposing his Perfect Core Formation Stage cultivation in an instant, as his limbs pierced Xuanling Heavenly Dragon’s statue.
A swipe of the Blood Soul.
Bound Elder Han Feng’s true body.
Li Mo let out a sinister laugh, disappearing into torrents of blood, engulfing everything in a Scarlet Sea.