Inheritance

Shortly after Li Mo swallowed the black powder, he began coughing violently, his chest burning. Yao Ge felt sorry for him and quickly patted his back until Li Mo coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

A cool sensation swept through his chest, and he heard Nie Zuo say, "If that poison is left untreated for a period of time, its aftereffects will worsen, eventually causing suffocation and permanent coma. However, if it is neutralized in advance, it will help alleviate some of the problems and reduce the aftereffects, but of course, it can only reduce them."

"So you left yourself a backup plan from the beginning, betting on both sides." Li Mo nodded. This Nie Zuo seemed to lack social skills, but he wasn't as bad as he appeared.

"It's just a habitual way of keeping a backup plan. Now it's your turn," Nie Zuo said nonchalantly. "Judging from your tone just now, it seems my ritual might fail?"

"Indeed." Li Mo carefully examined the half-finished sacrificial array. This Nie Zuo was indeed a prodigy, so it would be best to subdue him. "When the High Priest taught you that knowledge, it was probably incomplete, so there are many parts that you pieced together yourself."

"So although this method can successfully summon spirits, nine times out of ten they will collapse on their own. Even if they don't collapse, they will immediately rebel. There is only a very small chance of subduing these spirits."

"Your ritual has many flaws. I really don't know how you subdued so many spirits without any problems." Li Mo looked at the strange spirits around Nie Zuo and sincerely admired him as a genius.

The spirit summoning array that Nie Zuo completed himself would have likely caused problems for most other people, but it's astonishing that Nie Zuo has managed to hold on until now.

This so-called spirit manipulation method was something Lu Li figured out on his own in the Shadow Dreamlands. Based on the fact that corpses and remains would generate spirits in a shadowy environment, combined with his previous synthesis of the All Living Beast and some knowledge from the Ten Methods of Seeing Ghosts, after a period of experimentation, he gradually created a complete set of methods to use shadows to stimulate and control spirits.

This includes starting with the selection and examination of the corpse, followed by various methods of treating the corpse, injecting shadow power, preparing various complementary materials, and finally a soul-summoning ritual to awaken the spirit and mark it with its own mark, followed by a series of methods to nourish the soul.

In another world, these would be enough to serve as the signature legacy of a heretical sect, but for Lu Li's true form, they were merely the product of a relatively successful experiment.

Recalling the information conveyed to him by the Black Day, Li Mo immediately put his judgment into practice. "You obtained the complete methods for disposing of corpses, but you made some changes to them to accommodate the later omissions in the ritual."

"But what you didn't learn is this method of examining corpses." Li Mo mobilized the power of shadow and injected it into the wild boar's head. Then, he controlled the shadow power to react with the head, and saw that all parts of the pig's head began to shine with black light, while some parts appeared unusually dark, even surrounded by other colors.

"These dark places will interfere with the formation of spirits. In addition, this boar tusk is also shining with other Aberrant powers. If the ritual is performed together, it will most likely cause the ritual to go awry."

"So let's eliminate these areas first, without affecting the other parts," Li Mo said to Nie Zuo. "You're more skilled at this than I am. Then I'll teach you this detection method, as well as the control methods for the subsequent ritual. Our deal will be complete."

"There's more content later?" Nie Zuo's intuition was astounding, and he looked directly at Li Mo.

"Indeed, there are methods for nurturing and fusing souls, but..." Li Mo looked at Nie Zuo and said with a light smile, "Your price isn't enough, unless you truly submit to me."

"Understood. Give me the front part first. As for the back part, we'll talk about it after you get the High Priest's approval." Nie Zuo stared at Li Mo for a while before nodding and saying.

Li Mo nodded, conjuring Shadow Blade in his hand, and pried out the boar's tusks, saying, "You don't need this, so I'll take it. In return, I'll remind you not to let spirits reside in your body for too long."

Afterwards Li Mo taught Nie Zuo the first half of the Soul-Summoning Method, exchanged a glance with Yao Ge, and left the grove. Walking back along the path, Li Mo's face was grim as he asked in a low voice, "Do you know who poisoned me?"

"I know, but it's useless. Evidence is crucial in this kind of work. Unless you can get Nie Zuo to testify, it won't be of any use," Yao Ge said softly. "Didn't you already have your suspicions? Riftbreaker doesn't have the brains for that, and if you go down, who has the best chance of getting the leadership position?"

"You!" Li Mo stopped and looked at Yao Ge beside him, seemingly speaking seriously. And indeed, Yao Ge had the highest prestige in the order, second only to the High Priest.

"According to the High Priest's prophecy, inheriting the position of leader requires Black Day to appear on one's chest. As a woman, I fear the Black Day will set behind the mountains." Yao Ge covered her mouth and giggled, then approached Li Mo, her breath sweet as she spoke, "So, Great Leader, do you want to set behind the mountains?"

"Cough cough cough." Li Mo quickly stepped back, coughing for a while. This woman was really... formidable in every sense of the word.

"Then it's just Lu Zhu." Li Mo steered the conversation back on track. Now that he thought about it, only Lu Zhu had a chance of inheriting the leadership position. He always had the image of a nice guy, treated the members of the cult like brothers, and his reputation in the cult was about the same as Yao Ge's.

"He had previously suggested that we could perform a lung transplant on you, cutting open your chest to give you a new lung," Yao Ge said, revealing something Li Mo was unaware of. "However, this would inevitably destroy the Black Day in your chest, so we rejected the idea."

"If you can get a lung transplant, then you can naturally get a skin transplant. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Li Mo said with a wry smile. Then he realized that he didn't trust Yao Ge to begin with, and if Yao Ge had said it directly, he would most likely have thought she was trying to sow discord.

"You didn't tell me about those incomplete pieces of knowledge you possessed?" Yao Ge said with a light laugh. "If I had known earlier that you could complete some of the inheritance, you should have shown it sooner. That would have given me more leverage to help you. Fortunately, it's not too late now."

"Then the person who poisoned us should be able to be found out, right?" Li Mo nodded, somewhat understanding. Some things shouldn't be hidden. After all, pretending to be weak to deceive others will most likely turn out to be a real weakling, and pig's head meat is indeed very delicious.

"We can find him, but given Lu Zhu's methods, he'll most likely distance himself from him," Yao Ge said, shaking her head. Then, her eyes lit up as she asked, "What are you planning to do?"

"If someone attacks you underhandedly, you have to get your revenge, right?" Li Mo's eyes narrowed.