Chapter 268: Chapter 34 Immortal Body [Corpse Dissolution Immortal Body]
After Si Rui finished speaking, her figure vanished into the thick fog.
Her entire body was covered in flickering pupils, and as her unstable condition persisted, the growth rate of these strange eyes accelerated rapidly.
"Eyes shrouded in darkness, though lit by the Three Luminaries, remain as blind as the unfaithful to the Three Treasures..."
Si Rui muttered cryptic words under her breath, interspersed with maniacal laughter. Leaving the Ancestor Platform was likely for Li Mo’s safety.
Li Mo could see that she was desperately suppressing her mutation—probably the most emotionally stable among the Twelve Immortals.
"With Eighth Senior Sister here, the Ancestor Platform might just be a safe place to linger for a while."
The spiritual energy on the Ancestor Platform was extraordinarily dense, encompassing every attribute. It was more than sufficient, not only for the Nascent Soul Stage but even for Divine Separation Stage cultivation.
"As for the Twelfth Senior Sister..."
Li Mo’s eyes twitched slightly as he gazed at the verdant jade finger towering over a thousand meters high.
No matter the angle, the colossal finger appeared alive. At its severed end, faintly reddish blood and flesh were writhing and squirming.
Since the finger landed on the Ancestor Platform, the speed at which spiritual energy gathered had noticeably increased.
Li Mo pinched the bridge of his nose, processing the fragments of memory fed back by the Creation Book with growing unease.
When he first arrived at Luo Zu, he already learned plenty about the memories of the Twelve Immortals from the Creation Book.
However, the fragmented nature of the memories made extracting useful information difficult.
Bit by bit, Li Mo pieced the memories together and reflected on his repeated encounters with the Twelve Immortals, eventually realizing that two figures were conspicuously absent from the recollections.
The Senior Sister and the Twelfth Senior Sister.
Now having encountered the Twelfth Sister in person, the Creation Book revealed her extraordinary nature.
Twelfth Senior Sister had no name and was born ten thousand years ago on an island in the Endless Star Sea.
Li Mo gleaned a glimpse of the Endless Star Sea’s secrets—knowledge that might prove invaluable in the future.
The ancient cultivation world’s Endless Star Sea was overrun by demon beasts, forcing cultivators to confine themselves to its shallow outer regions.
A multitude of loose cultivators competed for resources across the Star Islands scattered along the sea’s perimeter.
Over two to three thousand years, they formed an alliance known as the "Group of Immortals."
The Group of Immortals was not a sect in the traditional sense. It operated more like a collection of families, each occupying its own island.
Through intermarriage and resource trade, rapid cycles of family rises and falls became the norm.
The alliance consisted of loosely affiliated factions bound together by the rich resources of the Endless Star Sea, growing to the size of a medium-scale Immortal Sect ten thousand years ago.
Twelfth Senior Sister was born into a Core Formation family attached to the Group of Immortals on Liu Shan Island.
She was called "It Corpse" by her clan members.
Nobody knew what kind of constitution she had. At birth, It Corpse lacked the Three Souls and Seven Spirits. However, her body retained a semblance of vitality, growing naturally over time.
A mortal family might have abandoned her, but Liu Shan Island cherished her.
It Corpse possessed a Single Spirit Root—the finest cultivation seed in the ancient cultivation world.
Unwilling to give up on her, the clan tried every means to awaken her soul but failed, even to the point of considering allowing a Core Formation ancestor to seize her body.
However, It Corpse didn’t even have a Mud Pill Palace.
Helpless, Liu Shan Island housed her in their ancestral hall, hoping she would awaken someday.
Until one day, a Taoist child recited an entry-level Qi Cultivation mantra outside the ancestral hall. These seemingly nonsensical incantations reached It Corpse’s ears.
Overnight, she unexpectedly reached the Second Level of Qi Cultivation. Her Middle Dantian instinctively absorbed external spiritual energy, revealing potential far beyond ordinary Single Spirit Root cultivators.
In the final memory fragment, Liu Shan Island made her the Array Eye of their Guard Island Array.
Even while providing constant spiritual energy to the formation, she smoothly advanced to the Core Formation Stage in just about a hundred years.
"Twelfth Senior Sister, It Corpse..."
Li Mo approached the divine statues on the Ancestor Platform, his gaze sweeping over the depictions of the Twelve Immortals.
It Corpse had a delicate and fair appearance. Her pale white skin made it obvious she had never been exposed to sunlight, and her slightly closed eyelids evoked a sense of pity in anyone who saw her.
The Senior Sister held the first position among the Twelve Immortals, her looks not particularly striking.
She appeared to be at least thirty, her face etched with the scars of time, and a deeply contemplative gaze cast toward the horizon.
In any random black market, one could find female Loose Cultivators over a hundred years old who looked very similar.
"Twelfth Senior Sister must be some special kind of Taoist Body. Why does it seem so familiar?"
Li Mo scrutinized the finger closely, comparing it to the Taoist Bodies he observed in the Corpse Mountain Mini World. He abruptly noticed similarities with one of them.
"Cutting All Three Corpses."
To be precise, Twelfth Senior Sister’s Taoist Body was even more complete than the Cutting All Three Corpses technique.
After pondering for a moment, Li Mo recalled a record in the Taoist scriptures—a single phrase that made his pupils involuntarily dilate.
"The Corpse Dissolution Immortal Body, said to ascend by borrowing the body of a corpse for transformation."
"One could even argue it’s an Immortal Body."
The so-called Corpse Dissolution Immortal Body naturally lacked the Three Souls and Seven Spirits at birth. However, once it began cultivation, it instinctively harmonized with the Heavenly Dao Creation.
It faced virtually no bottlenecks and had three times the lifespan of ordinary beings.
Only when the Corpse Dissolution Immortal Body achieved ascension and enlightenment would it birth the Three Souls and Seven Spirits.
Li Mo’s expression grew increasingly intrigued as he activated his Divine Sense to inspect the Corpse Immortal Finger in detail. On a microscopic level, he observed more and more intricacies of its Taoist Body.
He was certain that the Corpse Dissolution Immortal Body was the most complex Taoist Body he had ever encountered.
Far more advanced than an Innate Saint.
Li Mo licked his lips, his face lighting up with excitement as he murmured, "Many thanks, Eighth Senior Sister."
The Corpse Immortal Finger was undoubtedly an invaluable opportunity for him; the large gift Si Rui casually gave him was almost excessive.
Li Mo placed his palm on the Corpse Immortal Finger, which felt like he was touching a piece of warm Agar Jade.
He infused the finger with turbid blood spiritual power. In an instant, an abnormal change occurred in his hand—the surface of the finger showed rotting marks spreading rapidly, and its once translucent nails turned blood-red, dotted with patches of mold.
Li Mo’s turbid blood spiritual power drained away at an accelerated pace, causing the Soul-devouring Demon Infant inside him to screech in panic.
Realizing what was happening, Li Mo hastily withdrew his hand, his face filled with astonishment. He had underestimated the value of the Corpse Immortal Finger, which was on par with the treasures of Corpse Mountain.
The Corpse Immortal Finger could, upon absorbing vast amounts of spiritual power, unleash an attack comparable to the Divine Separation Stage.
Of course, it would only be a single attack.
Li Mo could feel that when the Corpse Immortal Finger accepted the turbid blood spiritual power, it was as though a Death Disease erupted within it, rapidly reducing it to pus.
"No matter what, even if it only blocks a Divine Separation Stage cultivator’s magic for a moment, it’s enough for me to retreat to the True Void Hometown."
"Eighth Senior Sister truly is generous."
Li Mo began considering various applications for the Corpse Immortal Finger, feeling that using it solely for defense during life-threatening moments would be a waste.
Just like how Liu Shan Island had made It Corpse the Array Eye, the Corpse Immortal Finger could also serve as the foundation of a large array without fear of spiritual power corrosion, enabling repeated use.
As a material for Artifact Refining, it could easily undergo the Hundred Refinements process, making the creation of a Magic Treasure almost effortless.
It could even aid Li Mo in his future integration with Taoist Bodies, offering immeasurable benefits. After all, the cultivation world might not witness more than a few Immortal Bodies even across ten thousand years.
Additionally...
Li Mo noticed that the blank page in the Creation Book now displayed the phantom of the Corpse Immortal Finger, signifying that it could be transplanted into his body.
He stared at the finger for a long time, and instead of feeling reckless due to the newfound life-saving artifact, he grew increasingly cautious.
"I absolutely can’t squander Twelfth Senior Sister’s gift. Using it to escape would be such a waste."
Li Mo suddenly thought that joining the No-Life Sect as the Thirteenth Immortal wasn’t such a bad idea. At least he’d have twelve Divine Separation Stage Senior Sisters. Even their leftover scraps would bring him great benefits.
"I should prepare a return gift for Eighth Senior Sister. Perhaps I might receive even more next time."
From the looks of it, there weren’t many Senior Sisters among the Twelve Immortals whom he could communicate with normally. Si Rui might well be the only one. In the future, should he face danger in the True Void Hometown, she might save his life.
Li Mo did not immediately store away the Corpse Immortal Finger. For now, he left it in the external world as a Spirit Gathering Array.
Seeing that the Ancestor Platform remained relatively secluded, he withdrew vast resources from the Corpse Mountain Mini World and began preparing in earnest.
Since Li Mo had decided to participate in the Enlightenment Conference, he would inevitably need to bid on certain items.
But the things currently in his possession were rather limited. Corpses brewed into Corpse Wine could easily be linked to Daoist Qingtian by knowledgeable observers.
That left only Fake Magical Treasures...
Even Divine Separation Stage cultivators seldom carried Fake Magical Treasures, making them a hotly contested item among Demon Cultivators and ensuring they’d fetch a good price.
At the same time, Li Mo had to consider his renown. In addition to Fake Magical Treasures, he planned to create a batch of special top-grade magic artifacts.
With only seven or eight years left until the Enlightenment Conference, time was tight.
Li Mo threw himself into his work, choosing the Five Elements Spiritual Patterns for his artifacts. Top-grade Spirit Patterns guaranteed value and had broad appeal.
To prevent his Fake Magical Treasures from being used against him, he decided to build in certain hidden measures.
"Enlightenment Conference, White Bone Sect..."
While refining artifacts, Li Mo’s expression showed faint apprehension.
The White Bone Sect’s ties to the Buddhist Sect remained uncertain, but Si Rui handing over the Corpse Immortal Finger for his protection suggested that the Enlightenment Conference was far from simple.
As one of the Thirteen Immortals attending the conference—and someone who planned to sell Fake Magical Treasures—Li Mo would hardly remain low-profile.
The only way to ensure his safety was to make potential adversaries too wary to act.
"Heh, if worse comes to worst, I can just retreat to the True Void Hometown for a century after the conference. That’ll also let me avoid the Uncertainty Period Death Disease."
Li Mo glanced at the Corpse Immortal Finger out of the corner of his eye, his mind settling with newfound resolve.
As time passed, he focused entirely on refining Fake Magical Treasures. Utilizing the Spider Demon’s Multiple-Armed Spine to its fullest, he worked with dazzling precision.
Five years later, Da Ai Mi Tian successfully transformed into a Magic Treasure.
Li Mo opened his palm, revealing a particle of cancer cell too small to be seen by the naked eye. It radiated a chilling and fearsome aura.
The strength of a single cancer cell hovered near the Weak Crown Period.
Da Ai Mi Tian could spawn billions of them.
Moreover, the cancer cells had become more concealed. The artifact’s mutation, stemming from its lifebound magical treasure, had greatly enhanced its potency. The most critical feature was that the cancer cells could now exist not only in flesh and bones but also fuse with souls.
The cancer cells could even invade Golden Cores or Nascent Souls.
With the Da Ai Mi Tian Magic Treasure in his arsenal, Li Mo’s very constitution began gradually transforming on a subtle level, infusing him with boundless spirit, energy, and essence.
Not only did this boost his artifact-refining efficiency, but it would also support him significantly in the upcoming Enlightenment Conference.
Without a moment’s rest, Li Mo pushed himself to complete his artifacts just in time for the conference.
He wasted no time reclaiming the Corpse Immortal Finger and left the True Void Hometown—he needed the White Bone Incense Burner, which only worked in the physical world.
As Li Mo departed, a mass of pulsating, blood-stained flesh covered in countless eyeballs descended once again.
Si Rui surveyed the now-chaotic scene on the Ancestor Platform without anger, as she noticed the thousand jars of Corpse Wine deliberately left behind by Li Mo.
On a stone tablet, the words were etched: [Eighth Senior Sister, Brightening Wine, Clear Heart and Bright Eyes].
Si Rui’s eyes crinkled with a subtle smile.