Chapter 226: Chapter 86: Ascension Conference
As Luo Chen Daoist, the Daoist of the Nine Districts Taoist Sky Sun Furnace, before being promoted to the Inner Sect, his status within the Taoist inheritance was second only to Nascent Soul Great Powers.
But ever since participating in the Golden Cauldron Sect, falling alongside Qian Zu Master and becoming part of the Great Mother...
The disparity of Luo Chen Daoist’s fate was as vast as heaven and earth, reduced within Zone Eleven’s Illusion Realm to an outer disciple no more ordinary.
Moreover, due to phosphorescent erosion, his bodily features underwent significant changes.
The skin of Luo Chen Daoist was covered in pustules, and the deformity of his crooked spine forced him to hunch his back just to walk.
Within the Illusion Realm, the other Taoists were manifestations of the consciousnesses of ancient Child Device Sect disciples.
Having never endured the upheaval of heaven and earth, their appearances remained normal, making Luo Chen Daoist a distinct anomaly among the outer sect.
The Taoists looked at Luo Chen Daoist with disdain, unanimously choosing to avoid him.
They couldn’t understand why the sect elders tolerated Luo Chen Daoist, whose stench of rotting flesh could be smelled from a hundred meters away.
"Heh heh heh heh."
Luo Chen Daoist let out a simple-minded laugh, deliberately walking in the shadows of the wall corners, his figure carefully wrapped under a thick Magic Robe.
His temperament had grown timid and overly cautious, reacting with a start at the slightest sound.
Even when the Mountain Patrol Taoists cursed him, Luo Chen Daoist never showed anger, instead muttering incomprehensible words to himself.
It was evident that Luo Chen Daoist was wholly despised within the mountain gate, hated by both gods and ghosts.
Even his work was the least remarkable in the outer sect—managing the Medicine Garden of Dan Ding Pavilion.
In ancient times, the Child Device Sect specialized in Artifact Refining, and its alchemy branch was exceedingly obscure.
Dan Ding Pavilion, situated in the remote back mountain of the outer sect, was rarely visited for alchemy, with only a dozen odd-job workers accompanying the empty halls.
Luo Chen Daoist carefully hurried along, quickly reaching the entrance of Dan Ding Pavilion.
The moment he stepped over the threshold, the simple-mindedness faded from his face, replaced by an unsettling malice as maggots churned in and out of his nostrils.
The odd-job workers dared not make eye contact with Luo Chen Daoist, nor did they dare approach the Medicine Garden under his care.
"Damn it! Damn it!!"
Through clenched teeth, Luo Chen Daoist hissed these words, seemingly venting pent-up rage as his eyes swept over the workers cleaning the courtyard.
Bam.
A worker, carrying porcelain, accidentally stumbled in nervousness, causing the bottle to shatter on the ground, instantly drawing Luo Chen Daoist’s vicious glare.
"Luo Chen Upper Immortal, the disciple was wrong!"
Pale-faced, the worker immediately dropped to his knees, begging imploringly, "Immortal Master, the disciple didn’t do it on purpose—the item was just too heavy..."
"Each of you thinks you’ll overturn the heavens, as though Dan Ding Pavilion is free to come to and leave from as you please? If you don’t rein yourselves in, don’t blame me for bloodying my hands."
Luo Chen Daoist’s chest heaved with heavy breaths, his skin writhing uncontrollably and pores emanating an imperceptible phosphorescence.
The workers dared not lift their heads, their fear choking even their breath into uneven gasps.
Soon, a bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the courtyard.
Blood splattered everywhere.
Luo Chen Daoist had ripped off the worker’s arm on the spot, then strode towards the Medicine Garden in the corner of Dan Ding Pavilion with apparent relish.
"It hurts..."
The worker clutched the severed limb, wailing incessantly—but his cries abruptly ceased not long after.
At the point of severance, flesh buds burgeoned forth, regrowing a new arm within mere moments, even repairing the torn Daoist robe.
The worker’s face turned vacant, as did the expressions of the others.
After a brief pause, the workers seemed to regain their senses, scrambling to clean up Dan Ding Pavilion—but fear still lingered in their eyes.
"You’re sheltered by the Mother Furnace—any wounds can heal rapidly, and memories wiped clean, so why begrudge me a little blood and flesh?"
Yet the workers’ demeanor made it clear that deep fear lingered in their hearts—the methods of the Mother Furnace were not without flaws.
Luo Chen Daoist carried the severed hand and opened the Medicine Garden’s path.
In the translucent glass enclosure, came into view of a dozen grotesquely distorted plants.
These plants bore human traits—branches resembling arms, leaves akin to human skin, exuding a radiant glow.
"Heh heh heh..."
Luo Chen Daoist laughed maniacally, tossing the severed hand into the air as the plants extended countless tongues to snatch the flesh, greedily consuming it.
Through the absorption of blood and flesh, the plants grew robustly, their hues becoming even more vibrant.
"Zone Eleven is full of lunatics—they’re lunatics, so I must be mad as well..."
Luo Chen Daoist’s mind had evidently shattered entirely, muttering incoherently with no trace of his former identity as the Daoist of the Sky Sun Furnace.
Time passed unknowably, until the voice of a worker called from outside the Medicine Garden.
"Upper... Upper Immortal, Elder Qingfeng is here for alchemy, asking you to hand over a Medicine Man..."
"Alright."
Luo Chen Daoist returned to normal, donning a servile expression as he hastily tidied up, careful not to incur Elder Qingfeng’s displeasure.
Upon hearing his reply, the worker left the Medicine Garden without delay, unwilling to linger.
Luo Chen Daoist surveyed the garden, finally digging up a plant which, astonishingly, had a human body attached to its root.
The human body belonged to the Great Mother, with blood vessels fully fused into the roots.
The Great Mother still clung weakly to life, evidently bound in the Medicine Garden for years, squinting reluctantly under the sunlight of the outside world.
"I..."
Luo Chen Daoist snapped the Great Mother’s neck, phosphorescent-tainted blood spilling out.
The head, along with the plant, was replanted into the garden—given the Great Mother’s specialties, it wouldn’t take long for them to fully recover.
"It’s sufficient—a Medicine Man cultivated for ten years should be enough..."
Carrying the headless body, Luo Chen Daoist headed toward Dan Ding Pavilion’s alchemy chamber.
Little did he know, a beetle had slipped into the Medicine Garden unnoticed, followed by dozens of seemingly ordinary Big Hornets scattered throughout Dan Ding Pavilion.
Li Mo watched through the vision of the Giant Stomach Worm, clicking his tongue in amazement.
Not long ago, he had wondered where the Illusion Realm’s resources came from—now he realized everything relied on the cultivation of the Great Mothers.
Li Mo harbored deep doubts.
The Inner Sect likely housed an even larger Medicine Garden, with far more than the dozen Great Mothers here; their number must have exceeded three hundred.
As he surveyed the Medicine Garden, he noticed many buried Great Mothers in the soil, recognizing quite a few familiar faces.
However, Three Mountains was notably absent.
"Hmm?"
Li Mo spotted Mu Daoist among the array of plants—her condition seemed remarkably stable, with most of her body already transformed into the Great Mother.
It must have been due to Mu Daoist’s Taoist Body, "Three Flowers Gathering at the Top," along with subconscious resistance.
After all, "Three Flowers Gathering at the Top" was a superior Taoist Body, even an Innate Taoist Body, one of the few anomalies within the fleshly fortress.
"Given the Illusion Realm’s time flow, Mu Daoist has been within the mountain gate for over a century—her trail was likely only found recently."
Li Mo exited the Giant Stomach Worm and approached Mu Daoist’s corresponding plant.
Extending a finger toward the plant, cancer cells surged forth, and within mere moments, the plant began to wither.
Mu Daoist struggled, losing her symbiosis with the plant, which accelerated the phosphorescent erosion instead—her transformation into the Great Mother intensified violently.
Her spine split open, seemingly birthing a shadow from within.
"Go."
Cancer cells expanded.
Although Li Mo’s physical body in the Illusion Realm held no cultivation, Da Ai Mi Tian barely protected Mu Daoist’s head, keeping her lucid enough to resist the phosphorescent corruption.
As Li Mo cast Da Ai Mi Tian, his own body grew skeletal.
"Ugh."
Mu Daoist awoke, and Li Mo unhesitatingly severed her head.
The core of "Three Flowers Gathering at the Top" was the head—only by absorbing sufficient Spiritual Energy later could her body fully regenerate.
"It’s me, Qing Tian."
Li Mo grabbed Mu Daoist’s head and returned to the Giant Stomach Worm.
Mu Daoist’s expression was unexplainably odd—not showing gratitude for Li Mo’s help, but revealing an unfathomable complexity instead.
In a strange frenzy, she muttered, "Qing Tian, why do you refuse to become a Great Mother?"
"Mu Daoist, you willingly chose to become a Great Mother?" Li Mo narrowed his eyes, asking in a low voice.
"Hah."
Mu Daoist exhaled deeply and noticed her confined surroundings, seemingly within the abdomen of an insect.
Her thoughts were hazy, organizing her words after a brief pause: "Only by becoming a Great Mother can one escape calamity—only by..."
"Mu Daoist, what did you discover in Zone Eleven?"
Li Mo recalled previous communications with Mu Daoist—she had seemed merely weary at the time, but now her thoughts appeared profoundly distorted.
"I should never have resisted becoming a Great Mother—you have no idea the benefits of merging with the Mother Furnace. We’re ascending! Ascending!"
As she spoke, she seemed to realize something, muttering, "My consciousness has already returned to the Mother Furnace, it’s already returned to the Mother Furnace!!!"
Mu Daoist’s brain liquefied into sludge, leaving nothing but a faintly living head.
Li Mo frowned deeply, hiding the Giant Stomach Worm within the grove, releasing ten Big Hornets into the Medicine Field.
Each Big Hornet injected venom into the plants, causing one Great Mother after another to break free of their constraints, refusing to perish in the Medicine Field.
The Giant Stomach Worm concealed itself within the canopy, the Big Hornets scattering stealthily to obscure their movements.
The clouds above Dan Ding Pavilion shifted into brilliant phosphorescent hues, and the ground began to quake.
The dozen Great Mothers melded together into a twenty-meter monstrosity—an amorphous heap resembling stacked corpses.
Li Mo doubted the Great Mothers could disturb the Illusion Realm’s mechanisms—after all, their source was phosphorescent and couldn’t escape the Mother Furnace.
Roar!
The Great Mother obsessively crawled towards the Inner Sect, though unsurprisingly failed to escape Li Mo’s expectations.
Just as they gained momentum, their flesh began to show signs of collapse.
Li Mo decisively guided the swarm of Big Hornets to disrupt the Mountain Patrol Taoists.
The Giant Stomach Worm quietly slipped into the weak point of the Mountain Protection Array, entering the Inner Sect where the dense fog finally ceased obscuring sight.
The Inner Sect’s layout mirrored Li Mo’s memories entirely, save for the massive platform occupying its center, adorned with countless iron pillars.
At the base of each pillar sat a Taoist in meditative posture.
Li Mo examined the platform’s arrangement, immediately recalling the Sacrificial Festival of the Heart Beast Sect—even the distribution of disciples was eerily similar.
Creation Book surged with memories.
Seven thousand years ago, the Child Device Sect had a similar ritual to the Sacrificial Festival.
When Chen Tiangang amassed Three Thousand Taoist Forms, he convened the Immortal Ascension Conference, seeking ascension to the Immortal Realm.
However, the specific outcome of the Immortal Ascension Conference remained absent from these memories.