Outer Sect Grand Competition?

Taking advantage of his free time, Li Mo began tirelessly copying paintings of foxes, seeking only to ensure nothing could go wrong when he drew the tattoo.

During that time, cultivators retreated one after another to the area around the storeroom.

As though by prior agreement, they all chose silence. Every room extinguished its lamps as well, doing their utmost to hide themselves in the darkness.

Perhaps because the Calligraphy and Painting Hall had too many apprentices and menial workers, the cultivators did not approach.

Li Mo swallowed. Clearly, the Pawnshop's arrangements had reached their final stage; all that remained was to wait for the fish to bite.

He had no time to worry about the storeroom and focused all his energy on Paint Green Clothes.

At present, Li Mo only had one bottle of Fox Blood. Though it was enough for two attempts, the tattoo had to be completed in one go, or it would affect the spell's potential.

He stayed inside, glancing nervously toward the storeroom from time to time. Yet once he immersed himself in painting, all his negative emotions were swept away.

The first day passed.

The storeroom remained brightly lit day and night. The entire Pawnshop seemed to have fallen into stagnation, and even the number of guards was dwindling.

Li Mo's movements as he copied the paintings grew increasingly proficient.

He no longer paid attention to the abnormalities outside. His consciousness seemed to enter a mountain forest, becoming a fox searching for food as it traveled through desolate countryside and wilderness.

The foxes on the xuan paper became more spirited at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When Li Mo came back to himself, the ink in the inkstone had nearly run dry. A thick stack of fox paintings lay atop the desk, giving off the fragrance of ink.

The second layer of Human Skin had also finished growing.

No difference could be seen in Li Mo's appearance, but in a sense, his bodily structure had become completely unlike that of an ordinary person.

He looked at his palm. Then his flesh wriggled as though countless tiny insects were crawling beneath it, and his skin swiftly turned pale and lustrous as jade.

Li Mo could actually use the Book of Fortune to switch the inner and outer order of the old and new Human Skins.

After turning the new skin outward, he seemed to have undergone a complete transformation. The scars left behind in the past vanished, and his appearance changed considerably.

Especially his facial features. Since the new skin had been nurtured by the Leakless Body, it gave him an innate air of ethereal detachment.

Anyone not especially familiar with him might not recognize Li Mo at all.

At this point, four of the Book of Fortune's nine pages had been consumed. No matter how he looked at it, the remaining five pages were insufficient. He could only wait until the crisis had passed before seeking a way to increase the number of pages.

Just as Li Mo was about to take out the Fox Blood, he suddenly heard a deer cry that soared into the clouds. Its source clearly came from the Inner City.

Responses came from the forest at the foot of the mountain.

Elk after elk emerged from the dense woods, standing motionless at the edge and gazing at Smelting Town with strange, unfathomable eyes.

Smelting Town remained unmoved, as though it had anticipated what was about to happen. Only the storeroom's defenses had clearly become even stricter.

Li Mo immediately began studying Paint Green Clothes.

According to Paint Green Clothes, there were seven locations on the human body where tattoos could be drawn. The "primary position" was the chest, where the Middle Dantian lay.

The "secondary positions" were the two shoulders on the back, while the limbs were the "auxiliary positions."

Paint Green Clothes of the Childhood Stage mainly involved Beast Head Tattoos at the auxiliary positions, requiring only ordinary Beast Blood as material.

Li Mo did not possess the Coming-of-Age Stage content of Paint Green Clothes, but the spell did mention the secondary positions. The process should be more than ten times as cumbersome.

It would likely involve Demonic Beasts, and the materials required were beyond imagining.

Of course, whether Demonic Beasts still existed seven thousand years later was another matter altogether.

After resting for more than half an hour, Li Mo's Essence, Qi, and Spirit returned to their peak. He then sketched out a draft.

His brush fell with practiced ease. In mere moments, the fox in the painting emerged, carrying an excessively intelligent expression, like a Fox Immortal that bewitched hearts and souls in legends of strange beings and ghosts.

He could lay bare the Mountain Lord's ferocity, making it seem like a "ghost"; or display the fox's cunning to the fullest, making it seem like a "demon."

Li Mo continuously adjusted the details of the fox head, and the Fox Immortal in the painting became ever more lifelike.

Once he was satisfied, even he felt his hair stand on end when staring at the painting, as though it had truly been copied from a Fox Demon.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

The elk's strange cry rang out again, followed by movement from the direction of the storeroom.

Li Mo hurriedly cut a sharp wooden strip from the edge of the wooden table.

He scorched the strip over the candle flame, making a crude charcoal pencil, then traced the outline of the fox head onto the skin of his arm.

Just as Li Mo was fully absorbed, a faint tremor arose outside.

Li Mo did not dare neglect the drawing of the fox head. The charcoal pencil gradually completed the pattern, as though a fox's head were crouching upon his arm.

Once the charcoal pencil had finished its lines, he believed there was nothing more to add.

Li Mo had performed beyond his limits, forcibly raising his painting skill by an entire level and reaching the realm where there seemed to be "spirit" within the painting.

His ability to draw such a Beast Head was, more or less, due to the pressure from outside.

Li Mo took out the Fox Blood and poured it into the cleaned inkstone. Then, using the same method as grinding ink, he did his utmost to let the blood fully release.

He cut open his middle finger and dripped in an equal amount of fingertip blood.

Li Mo was surprised to discover that his blood was no longer dark red. Instead, it was crystal-clear and faintly luminous.

It seemed that although the Leakless Body had not resolved the drawback of Death Sickness, it had brought his physique infinitely close to some kind of Xiantian Dao Body.

After the Beast Blood mixed with the fingertip blood and settled, it resembled vivid red dye.

Li Mo hesitated no longer. Misty Spiritual Energy surged from his magic finger, forming the shape of a tattoo needle.

He brought the magic finger of his right hand close to the inkstone. The blood within was directly absorbed by the magic finger and continuously nourished by the Misty Spiritual Energy.

Noticing spiritual power blending into every drop of blood, Li Mo raised his right hand.

His needle-shaped magic finger touched the charcoal lines on his left arm. This first touch was merely a test, so Li Mo did not inject blood beneath the skin.

He needed precise control over his strength and could not damage the second layer of new skin.

Only after confirming there were no errors did Li Mo begin drawing the fox head. His magic finger rose and fell without pause, neither too quickly nor too slowly, like a machine.

The blood ink spread.

The Crimson Fox Beast Head gradually took shape on his upper arm, so lifelike that it seemed ready to burrow out from beneath his skin.

After Li Mo completed the Beast Head's mouth, the Crimson Fox began greedily absorbing the Spiritual Qi outside. However, it was merely scattered Scorching Smoke Spiritual Energy, so its efficiency was even slower than his own cultivation.

He finally understood the purpose of Smelting Town spells in later generations.

Whether Paint Green Clothes, Soul Chasing Poison Stinger, or A Hui Possession Curse, they appeared on the surface to give parts of the body beastly characteristics.

In truth, these spells raised Spirit Beasts within a cultivator's body, and an Eternal Life body was perfectly suited for Spirit Beast parasitism.

The "Spirit Beasts" created through one's own body would obey the cultivator completely, but would imperceptibly devour Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Before Li Mo could rejoice, some enormous creature outside seemed to be crawling toward the storeroom. The Nectar Spiritual Energy in the air was clearly increasing.

The earth shook and the mountains swayed.

The Book of Fortune surged with several Memory Fragments.

Every fifteen years, Inner Sect Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect would come to the Outer Sect and select some Outer Sect Disciples to advance into the Inner Sect through contests.

In the ancient Heart Beast Sect, the process by which Outer Sect Disciples competed—

was called the Outer Sect Grand Competition.