Chapter 219: Chapter 79: Promotion to the Nascent Crying Stage
Boom, boom, boom.
The tremors grew increasingly intense.
Unknowingly, Taiyin Law Heaven had already delved a hundred miles underground, arriving near the edges of Zone Ten, where the vibrations became visibly apparent.
At first, only the Salamander could sense something, but soon even Li Mo noticed it, feeling an increasing dread toward the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater.
Rather than a natural phenomenon, it seemed more like the Mother Furnace writhing and trembling in pain.
Li Mo’s expression shifted unpredictably; if not for the purpose of completing the Phosphor Special Page, he truly didn’t want to approach the vicinity of the Eleventh District.
"Don’t overthink it. Focus on cultivation."
He sighed, concentrating his attention on the Circulation Cycle within his body.
Taiyin Law Heaven’s speed slowed drastically, inching closer to the source. Even if it wasted time, it didn’t matter—there were no pressing matters at the moment.
Li Mo split his Divine Sense to observe the surrounding rock walls, noticing that their texture seemed to be turning damp.
How should one describe it? They appeared more and more like flesh and blood.
Veins and blood vessels could even be seen interwoven within, and occasionally there were fragments of shattered bone residue, exuding a sharp, nauseating stench of blood.
It was as if Taiyin Law Heaven was traversing through the colossal body of some creature.
However, the resources became increasingly plentiful.
Traces of Low Grade Spirit Stones could be seen everywhere, and Mid-grade Spirit Stones were not rare either. They were often accompanied by spiritual materials growing alongside them.
For a Core Formation Artifact Refiner, opportunities abounded.
However, Li Mo remained unimpressed. With a Low Grade Magical Treasure at his disposal, the spiritual materials it grew daily numbered in the hundreds.
Even though some materials were consumed by beasts, their value remained significant.
Li Mo only bothered to extend the limbs of the Spider Demon’s Multiple-Armed Spine to gather resources when encountering rare spiritual materials not found within the Corpse Mountain.
Upon seeing the flesh-like rock walls, he was both inwardly alarmed and validated in his suspicions.
The Mother Furnace’s body was even more massive than he’d imagined. It was possible that the Sub-Device Sect was established within the body of the Mother Furnace, and the depth of the Eleventh District was likely at its very core.
Li Mo strongly suspected that under the stimulus of the phosphorescent glow, the Mother Furnace was still relentlessly growing.
The structure of the Mother Furnace resembled the massive statue within Doushuai Temple, likely formed by countless ancient Sub-Device Sect disciples.
Seeing this, Li Mo completely gave up on the idea of heading to the Eleventh District after advancing to the Nascent Crying Stage.
Even though the Eleventh District’s resources were several times richer and its spiritual energy extraordinarily dense, it wasn’t worth risking his life.
Li Mo decided it was better to stay put in Zone Ten, quietly cultivate in seclusion, and wait out the two-hundred-year term for the Inner Sect before returning directly to the port.
Once at the port, whether using the Golden Cicada Shell technique or adapting as the situation required, it would all be more convenient.
The only solace Li Mo found was that completing the Phosphor Special Page was indeed accelerating, though its progress was far slower than other known special pages.
However, considering the possibility that the phosphorescent glow was tied to the Immortal Realm, this seemed reasonable.
Li Mo had a premonition that the role of the Phosphor Special Page would likely far exceed that of the Raiding Page. Missing this opportunity would make nurturing the Phosphor Special Page nearly impossible.
While practicing Qi Cultivation in meditation, Li Mo began attempting to replicate the Spirit Patterns he’d recalled, starting with the simplest Blood Flesh Spirit Pattern.
It felt as though he had returned to his days apprenticing at the pawn shop.
However, the difficulty of Spirit Patterns could not be equated to mere drawing.
Even with Divine Sense, Li Mo spent several years mimicking his memories, yet he barely scratched the surface of the Blood Flesh Spirit Pattern.
Little did he know.
Mastering Spirit Patterns was equivalent to having one foot in the realm of Magical Treasure Artifact Refiners, which the Cultivation World recognized as something reachable only at the Divine Separation Stage.
Li Mo, a mere Core Formation cultivator, was leaping two major cultivation realms to attempt Spirit Pattern inscription. His artifact refinement talent surpassed even that of individuals with the Five Dao Body.
Suddenly, Taiyin Law Heaven came to an abrupt halt.
Li Mo’s eyes snapped open, and a pungent stench beyond description permeated the cave.
Looking toward the entrance, he saw a wall of white bone blocking the way between Zone Ten and the Eleventh District. Its surface was riddled with cracks, stretching endlessly into the distance.
Li Mo extended his Divine Sense, noticing faint hints of the phosphorescent glow within the Bone Wall, with viscous liquid oozing from the cracks.
"Brain Marrow Liquid?"
If that were true, did it mean that everything beneath the Eleventh District was the brain of the Mother Furnace?
Li Mo had previously inquired about this from Mu Daoist, who had not detected even a trace of phosphorescent glow in the Eleventh District. Perhaps the Mother Furnace was interfering with Artifact Cultivators’ Five Senses.
Upon closer inspection.
Li Mo discovered that the Bone Wall was not a unified whole but pieced together from countless human skulls, each comparable in size to an average adult.
The skulls’ hues allowed him to distinguish that they came from people of all ages and genders.
The fusion of the skulls was imperfect. If not for the adhesive properties of the phosphorescent glow, the Bone Wall risked collapsing at any moment.
The source of the Phosphor Page seemed to be in the Eleventh District.
Judging by the current pace of completing the Phosphor Special Page, Li Mo estimated it would take at least fifty years for the page to fully form—much longer than anticipated.
"Fifty years..."
Li Mo sighed. Still, secluded cultivation was the same no matter where it happened.
The Bone Wall area was unlikely to be disturbed, and his safety could be ensured as long as he remained mindful of the Mother Furnace’s anomalies.
Before settling into seclusion, Li Mo stepped out of Taiyin Law Heaven.
He intended to gather some blood and bone samples from the Bone Wall to see if he could use the End-of-the-World Dao Seed to extract any valuable information—there might be great use for it.
At first, Li Mo didn’t pay much attention.
But as he approached within half a meter of the Bone Wall, his expression suddenly turned peculiar.
Within his mind, the Creation Book reacted, particularly the two newly formed Raiding Pages.
As if realizing something, Li Mo hurriedly opened the Creation Book and saw various blurry, shadowy images of organs surfacing on the Raiding Pages.
"This..."
His mouth hung open, and the corner of his eye twitched uncontrollably.
The shadows in the Creation Book indicated that imprintable targets were nearby—seven or eight Innate and Acquired Dao Bodies scattered across the area.
Li Mo focused his consciousness on the Creation Book, vaguely sensing their locations—just behind the Bone Wall, in the Eleventh District.
The range of the Creation Book’s senses expanded as his cultivation realm grew stronger.
But to imprint Dao Body organs, Li Mo needed direct contact with the targets. Unless he crossed into the Eleventh District, he could only look on helplessly.
The Creation Book indirectly confirmed one fact.
The Mother Furnace, as Li Mo had suspected, was constructed from countless Artifact Refiners through the phosphorescent glow—an unspeakable amalgamation of rotting flesh.
The Eleventh District was essentially the Mother Furnace’s inner sanctum, resembling a Chaotic Burial Mound filled with countless corpses.
These corpses coexisted symbiotically with the Mother Furnace, retaining traces of life. Through the Raiding Page, it was entirely feasible to seize Dao Bodies from them.
Li Mo pressed his fingers to his temples in frustration.
He had just resolved to stay long-term in Zone Ten, only to discover that the Eleventh District was overflowing with all sorts of Dao Bodies, possibly including countless top-quality Dao Bodies reincarnated from Immortals.
"Chen Tiangang’s Three Thousand Mysterious Gates of Daytime Ascension Great Method requires three thousand Dao Bodies. The number of Dao Bodies in the crater depths far exceeds that."
"Forget it. I’ll reconsider when the two-hundred-year term is nearing its end."
Li Mo approached the Bone Wall and used a Liu Li jar to collect some Brain Marrow Liquid.
However, as soon as the Brain Marrow Liquid left the phosphorescent glow, it turned rotten and lifeless, degrading from a crystalline, semi-transparent gelatinous state into a grayish-black, lifeless sludge.
Maggots hatched within moments.
This demonstrated that, after thousands of years, the Mother Furnace had become inextricably intertwined with the phosphorescent glow, just as the Sub-Device Sect was inseparable from the Mother Furnace.
"So, is the Great Mother a parasite of the Mother Furnace, or a monstrous entity born to adapt to the phosphorescent glow?"
Li Mo’s expression turned grave as he returned to Taiyin Law Heaven.
A stream of spiritual energy fluctuated within the cave.
Fifty years would be long, but for Li Mo, who was thoroughly accustomed to monotony, it was simply another repetition of day-by-day cultivation.
It was as though the Sub-Device Sect had hit the pause button.
Since Li Mo advanced to the Inner Sect, few disturbances had occurred.
The vibrations underground seemed nothing more than a natural rule of the Mother Furnace.
The rumors about Daoist Qingtian had faded at the port, and some newly initiated Loose Cultivators even doubted the authenticity of the Innate Five Dao Body.
Whenever someone brought up Daoist Qingtian, an elder named Han Cai would always voice rebuttals.
"Huff..."
A sigh echoed from within Taiyin Law Heaven.
In the sixteenth year of Li Mo’s seclusion, his Dual Golden Core finally approached the bottleneck of the Nascent Crying Stage, while Da Ai Mi Tian reached its Hundred Refinements.
Li Mo knew that his overall cultivation realm far surpassed Da Ai Mi Tian, so he had been deliberately neglecting its transformation into a Magic Treasure.
Wails, resembling the cries of infants, began echoing from within his Multiple Dantians.
The Mist Fog Golden Core opened a sinister mouth beneath the eye of his Divine Sense.
The Ash Golden Core followed closely, exhaling thick clouds of smoke.
Li Mo’s brows furrowed as, upon nearing the Nascent Crying Stage bottleneck, both Golden Cores showed signs of losing control, causing him alarm.
He hadn’t wanted to ascend to the Nascent Crying Stage simultaneously with both Golden Cores.
However, due to the Primordial Dao Seed’s perfecting of his Cultivation Techniques, the operational trajectories of the Great Worm Heart God Skill and Supreme Cave God Jade Talisman Map had become intertwined. The progress of the two Golden Cores’ cultivation was nearly identical.
The benefit was their mutual reinforcement; the downside was the high likelihood of simultaneous ascension.
Li Mo made a swift decision, his intent sealing the cave entrance of Taiyin Law Heaven, while the Ghost Tiger shrouded the Magic Artifact to prevent any leakage of spiritual energy.
The cries of the Dual Golden Core grew louder and louder.
Within the Furnace, Li Mo condensed an Artifact Pearl, while his intent guided a soul fragment in the Mud Pill Palace.
Without hesitation, he selected the Stinky Lung Soul, which was connected to his breathing, then directly imprinted it using the blank page of the Creation Book.
The process of merging the Artifact Pearl and the Stinky Lung Soul into the Dual Golden Core was more difficult than expected, at least tenfold.
Li Mo could only proceed with a slow and steady approach, but thanks to the imprinting, the Golden Cores wouldn’t spiral out of control entirely.
For most Artifact Cultivators, the greatest fear during a breakthrough to the Nascent Crying Stage was their Golden Core developing Spiritual Wisdom, which could destabilize their foundation if mishandled.
The cave was silent, leaving only the Ghost Tiger and the Salamander behind.
The two creatures turned their gazes toward the Bone Wall, where cracks emerged, and viscous Brain Marrow Liquid seeped out continuously.
The Ghost Tiger seemed to sense something, becoming unusually tense. It tried dragging Taiyin Law Heaven further from the Bone Wall.
The Salamander didn’t just stand by; its roots transformed into hands and feet gripping the cave floor.
Crack, crack, crack...
The Bone Wall’s fissures widened, and three stiffly moving puppets emerged from within.
The puppets lacked facial features, and their skin bore countless stitching scars, yet they bore six or seven striking similarities to Li Mo, especially in the aura they emitted.
Step by step, they advanced toward Taiyin Law Heaven, their flesh constantly collapsing and regenerating.
The Tattooed Beast treated them like impending threats, as the aura of their Dao Bodies grew increasingly similar to Li Mo’s, exuding distinct Dao Body energy.
The puppets respectively embodied the Leakless Body, the Primordial Dao Body, and the Paoxiao Swallowing Body.