Chapter 273: Chapter 39: True Word Sect, 7-Treasure Fake Buddha
Perfected Zao Yao was utterly devout, his body trembling from the intensity of his emotions, as his flesh continuously transformed into human faces on his skin.
But what he hadn’t expected was that the existence at the Divine Separation Stage ignored him entirely.
Instead, it repeated the question again.
"What is your unfulfilled wish?"
Perfected Zao Yao froze in shock, murmuring to himself, "I..."
"Supreme Qingtian, what is your unfulfilled wish?"
The Divine Separation Stage existence pressed on, repeating the question. Perfected Zao Yao’s face turned ashen, his abdomen swelling uncontrollably—a telltale sign of his Nascent Soul destabilizing.
He could hardly believe that he, who had expended the Spiritual Heat Achievement Technique to summon the Divine Separation Stage, had ended up being no more than a stepping stone for Li Mo.
This revealed one undeniable truth.
Li Mo wasn’t bluffing. He really possessed an auction item capable of attracting the fierce competition of Divine Separation Stage cultivators.
All the demon cultivators felt an overwhelming sense of impotence—this Supreme Qingtian, who was a mere newcomer to the Nascent Soul Stage, somehow possessed resources beyond their imagining.
Indeed, he had mastery over heaven, earth, and humanity.
With wealth, companions, magic, and territory all in his grasp, could the No-Life Sect truly be on the verge of birthing its thirteenth Divine Separation Stage cultivator?
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
Perfected Zao Yao staggered to his feet, stumbling toward Li Mo.
Li Mo looked helpless, utterly unprepared for how events had spiraled into this trajectory. The gaze from the Divine Separation Stage made his skin crawl.
He wasn’t sure if the Divine Separation Stage was targeting the fake magical treasure or the Corpse Immortal Finger.
"This junior has no unfulfilled wish,"
Li Mo firmly refused, his Turbid Blood Spiritual Power already poised and ready.
He was prepared to escape White Bone Cave at any moment.
The Divine Separation Stage existence fell silent, its breathing growing increasingly heavy. Fierce winds howled through White Bone Cave, and shops lining the streets started to collapse one after another.
The demon cultivators were gripped by an inexpressible terror, inwardly cursing Li Mo’s audacity.
Li Mo suddenly realized that the Divine Separation Stage presence in White Bone Cave was behaving oddly. Why didn’t it seize his Nascent Soul outright?
Why such needless effort?
This struck him as White Bone Sect unchaining a feral beast from its locked cage and offering it a meal instead.
"In the ancient cultivation world, the Taoist, Buddhist, and demon factions were at least evenly matched."
"The Buddhist sect couldn’t have fallen to such dire straits, could it?"
Li Mo steadied himself, secretly activating Da Ai Mi Tian. The heads within the temple began to swell and sprout densely packed eyes.
His medical skill had reached the point of Tao Body Fusion; manipulating organs via cancer cells was trivial by comparison.
The temple priest temporarily grew a plethora of eyes, so unsettling that none dared to gaze directly.
Li Mo resisted his repulsion, tilting his head upward. Through the overpowering radiance of treasure light, he gazed toward the Divine Separation Stage existence hovering above White Bone Cave.
His pupils dilated.
Li Mo struggled to describe the sight. While the Twelve Immortals of the Divine Separation Stage had mutated to extreme degrees, they at least retained humanoid forms. This presence before him, however, resembled a grotesque entity whose limbs twisted into incomprehensible shapes.
Its appearance was filthy, malevolent, and repugnant, its predominantly silver-white body composed of narrowed tentacles that formed a semblance of a face, though its true visage remained unclear.
From the Creation Book surged fragments of memory, but they did not convey real images.
A monk seemed to patiently speak by Li Mo’s ear: "Leiyin Temple worships the Seven Treasures, which rest beneath Buddha Ancestor’s feet, absorbing blessings for millennia."
"One day, the Seven Treasures awoke, claiming themselves to be Buddhas and founding the True Word Sect."
The memory abruptly ended, and Li Mo discerned that the presence before him was none other than the Silver Buddha—a vile entity that had persisted through the ages.
Li Mo immediately abandoned any thought of using the fake magical treasure.
Sacrificing it to the Silver Buddha would have been wasteful; it would be better to keep it for himself or offer it to his senior sister.
"I seek... marriage!"
Perfected Zao Yao flushed deeply as he blurted out his request, only to be enveloped by suffocating pressure moments later.
"Marriage, marriage, marriage..."
The Silver Buddha murmured the word with faint puzzlement, its tone growing increasingly grotesque before eventually transforming "marriage" into an incomprehensible "Great Purity."
Seemingly affected by the Silver Buddha’s eerie chant, Perfected Zao Yao burst into uncontrollable laughter, though the laughter halted abruptly after just a few moments.
Li Mo diverted his gaze as all the eyes on his head abruptly exploded.
Thankfully, Da Ai Mi Tian had ascended into a magical treasure; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to endure looking directly at the Silver Buddha or glean this critical insight.
For now, the Buddhist sect still remained a mystery.
White Bone Sect had merely stumbled upon the ruins of the True Word Sect, managed to subdue four of the Seven Treasures Buddha, and devised unique methods to feed the fake Buddhas.
No wonder Si Rui feared White Bone Sect so greatly.
Li Mo turned to Perfected Zao Yao, who writhed in unrelenting agony, clutching his head amidst spasms.
Soon, transparent, viscous brain matter flowed out from his nostrils and mouth, his consciousness spiraling into madness as his head slammed furiously against the ground.
The Silver Buddha’s oppressive aura receded slightly, allowing the demon cultivators to catch their breath.
Soon, a strange and inviting scent filled the air, stirring their primal desires and causing them to swallow instinctively.
The source of the scent was Perfected Zao Yao’s head.
As the last of his brain matter was drained from his nasal and oral cavities, the extruded liquid transformed into brain tissue, which promptly volatilized into potent aphrodisiac fumes upon contact with air.
The demon cultivators’ faces glowed with intoxication, their minds simultaneously growing hazy.
"Hahaha!"
Perfected Zao Yao laughed maniacally as he struck his head with his fist, cracking open a long fissure from his nape to his tailbone. Blood, flesh, and bone spread apart.
It formed a human-shaped groove, just large enough to fit another person.
Perfected Zao Yao sat cross-legged, releasing waves of cultivation energy. He seemed to be attempting to master the Spiritual Heat Achievement Technique.
"Truly eerie."
Among those present, only Li Mo and Bone Desolate Taoist remained unaffected—the former because his Taoist Body suppressed desire, and the latter because he was already a skeleton.
Li Mo deduced how White Bone Sect had subjugated the Seven Treasures Buddha.
The Seven Treasures Buddha likely had an affinity for manipulating desire, but against White Bone Demon Cultivators with their six senses cleansed, they had been reduced to captives within their cage.
"Mine. He belongs to me!"
Elder Hua She couldn’t resist his primal urge and dashed toward Perfected Zao Yao, intending to climb into the man’s back.
Aside from Elder Hua She, the remaining demon cultivators displayed similar behavior.
They lashed out at one another, with even Core Formation Demon Cultivators caught in the fray, leaving the auction house dominated by raw, baseless desire.
A Core Formation Demon Cultivator approached Li Mo, only for the latter to unhesitatingly crush him with a slap, sending flesh flying.
Bone Desolate Taoist smirked wryly, his face showing faint amusement as he remarked, "Supreme Qingtian, it seems the Devil Sect needs a change of skies."
Li Mo said nothing in reply. Evidently, White Bone Sect intended to use the digestion of the Seven Treasures Buddha as a prelude to causing havoc within the Devil Sect. Their attempts at currying favor with him were an effort to ally with others in similar straits, like the No-Life Sect.
Bone Desolate Taoist didn’t protest Li Mo’s silence, instead continuing, "With the nearing end of the Enlightenment Conference, do you intend to auction another item and seek the fulfillment of a wish from the Divine Separation Stage?"
"That won’t be necessary."
Li Mo wouldn’t dare put something up for auction again. Anything related to the Buddhist sect was too bizarre, and one careless move could spell disaster for him personally.
"A pity—I had hoped to witness their ascendance above White Bone Cave."
Bone Desolate Taoist spoke cryptically before the Silver Tree began to grow, its countless roots binding his body and dragging him underground.
The Silver Buddha, for reasons unknown, vanished along with him, signaling the apparent conclusion of the Enlightenment Conference.
The casualties at the auction house mounted; even four Nascent Soul cultivators had perished. Seeing this, Li Mo wasted no time gathering the corpses into his storage bag.
There was no reason to let valuable resources go to waste.
"I’ve succeeded!"
Blood Daoist was the first to burrow into Perfected Zao Yao’s spine, their flesh healing rapidly while a monstrous surge of energy erupted from the latter.
Their two bodies fused in an incomprehensible fashion, achieving a unity of body and soul.
Li Mo pondered for a few moments before releasing a fingernail-sized Gu Worm from his nostrils.
Resembling a maggot, the Gu Worm burrowed into the bloody wound on Perfected Zao Yao’s back, unnoticed as he focused intently on the Spiritual Heat Achievement Technique.
Under normal circumstances, Perfected Zao Yao would have detected the Gu Worm, but his consciousness had succumbed to the endless desires woven by the Silver Buddha.
The other demon cultivators snapped back to their senses.
They instinctively distanced themselves, cautious due to their injuries.
Perfected Zao Yao opened his eyes; his grotesque, warped body was dangerously unstable, though his spiritual power was undeniably surging past the Nascent Soul Stage.
"I am destined to achieve the Divine Separation Stage. I will not remain confined to Nascent Soul,"
he declared, stomping his swollen legs against the ground and sending shockwaves rippling through the auction house.
His tone occasionally shifted to Blood Daoist, suggesting that some external force was forcibly merging the two.
Perfected Zao Yao glared venomously at Li Mo and spat, "I’ll kill you, and with your flesh and blood, witness my ascension to the Divine Separation Stage!"
The demon cultivators hesitated to leave White Bone Cave, unable to turn away from the impending clash.
Both figures hailed from formidable backgrounds, especially the bottomless wealth of Li Mo. If they could seize an opportunity here, it would undoubtedly be a great fortune.
Perfected Zao Yao activated the warped Spiritual Heat Achievement Technique, his chest echoing with the cry of infants as two Nascent Souls crudely merged, causing his flesh and bones to tear apart.
He seemed oblivious to this, leaving trails of pus with every step.
"Sigh."
Li Mo let out a long, weary sigh.
The demon cultivators watched helplessly as Perfected Zao Yao staggered toward Li Mo, who remained motionless, eyes shut in a meditative trance.
Ten thousand believers muttered Supreme Qingtian’s reverent title, a glowing halo flickering faintly into view.
The Brain-Eating Demon hesitated.
Perfected Zao Yao’s insanity meant he couldn’t possibly stop Supreme Qingtian from leaving White Bone Cave. Should the Brain-Eating Demon intervene?
One day, he might have to rely on the No-Life Sect for survival.
Just as the Brain-Eating Demon took a step forward, he saw Perfected Zao Yao frozen in place, his flesh undergoing rapid cancerous transformation.
Masses of tumors sprouted from his skin while the fused Nascent Souls drained his body’s nutrients.
"No, no—my Nascent Soul, my Externalized Dharma Body..."
Perfected Zao Yao’s form began to ossify, trapping Blood Daoist in place. The fused Nascent Souls became the final straw that broke him.
He collapsed before Li Mo, mere inches away, but utterly powerless to retaliate.
Li Mo calmly opened his eyes, a cancerous maw spreading in his palm as the Candle Dragon delivered Perfected Zao Yao’s corpse into it.
The Gu Worm Li Mo had infiltrated into Perfected Zao Yao served not only as a venomous agent but also carried toxins refined from Evergreen Tree and cancer cells.
Li Mo had simply accelerated Perfected Zao Yao’s so-called path to promotion.
Had the Spiritual Heat Achievement Technique worked fully, Perfected Zao Yao might have succeeded—not in reaching Divine Separation Stage but surely progressing toward an Externalized Dharma Body.
"At the Enlightenment Conference, could White Bone Sect truly be spreading True Word Sect techniques to probe shortcuts for ascending to Divine Separation Stage?"
The demon cultivators shuddered in terror—Li Mo’s methods were inscrutable, with hardly any trace of spiritual power.
Unwilling to linger, they fled in all directions.