[Simulation] [Bloody]

Spring passed, winter arrived.

The passage of time was silent. In a world where even mortals could attain eternal life, the cycle of the four seasons stirred not a single ripple.

Even though Smelting Town inevitably saw increased casualties due to rampant aberrant beasts, it could not shake the foundations of its power.

Cultivators busied themselves hunting down aberrant beasts, earning spirit stones to exchange for resources.

Only Li Mo remained unmoved, staying obediently in his inner room, repeating the monotonous practice of cultivation, preparing to break through to Childhood Stage Layer 2.

Some cultivators outside believed Li Mo's disappearance was due to fear of aberrant beasts, or thought he had already died in some corner of Smelting Town.

Only Jin Li, who occasionally interacted with him, understood how firm Li Mo's Dao heart truly was.

Profit, desire, fame, reputation—these were but external things. At barely over ten years old, to focus all one's mind on seated meditation and cultivation was something few could achieve.

Li Mo was not as pure as Jin Li imagined.

But he was indeed very interested in cultivation, especially since the "Book of Fortune" on the mountain's cloud ladder was already laid before him—there was no reason to slack off.

The inner room was a mess, filled with all kinds of mixed spiritual energy.

Li Mo sat cross-legged on a cushion, holding a mid-grade spirit stone in both hands, absorbing the variant spiritual energy within it as his cultivation base slowly grew.

As the mid-grade spirit stone dried up, fine cracks spread across its crystalline surface.

Crack, crack, crack...

With a crisp sound, the mid-grade spirit stone completely turned to powder. The lingering spiritual energy swept through the room, causing light and shadow to shift.

Li Mo let out a long breath.

He couldn't help but stretch. The crimson fox tattoo on his left arm faintly glowed, actively absorbing the fire-element spiritual energy in the room.

The crimson fox tattoo could nourish itself through fire-element spiritual energy, but as a secondary tattoo drawn with ordinary beast blood, its efficiency in autonomously absorbing spiritual energy was appallingly slow.

Li Mo pried twelve low-grade spirit stones from his chest and put them back into his storage bag.

After Li Mo had imprinted two pages of skin, his Leakless Body had strengthened, allowing him to smoothly generate complete low-grade spirit stones.

He had been absorbing mid-grade spirit stones in one go, then using his multi-layered dantian to filter out the misty spiritual energy, which caused some loss in the low-grade spirit stones he formed.

Li Mo's expression turned dazed as he realized more than three years had passed since he went into seclusion.

He turned his mind's eye to his middle dantian. The miasma spiritual power inside was nearly overflowing. The eightfold protective layer created by his divine ability firmly locked it in place, compressing it continuously.

Childhood Stage Layer 1 was a process of laying the foundation.

Li Mo possessed a multi-layered dantian. The purity of his spiritual power far exceeded that of others at the same realm, which also meant the spiritual energy needed to break through was five times the normal amount.

Otherwise, with the talent granted by his divine ability, he wouldn't have failed to advance even after three years.

But Li Mo had also calculated that once he began the spiritual root transformation of his five organs, the advantage of his immense spiritual power would become apparent.

After all, spiritual root transformation was essentially using one's own spiritual power to erode the five organs.

Li Mo rummaged through his storage bag. Seven mid-grade spirit stones had been completely used up, and he still had one hundred and seventy-five low-grade spirit stones.

According to Li Mo's estimate, the next stage of cultivation would be a slow, grinding process. He was not far from Childhood Stage Layer 2.

He had once considered exchanging spirit stones for other spirit stones, but low-grade spirit stones contained too little misty spiritual energy, and few were willing to part with mid-grade ones.

Li Mo stretched his muscles and bones.

He was now over 1.7 meters tall. The clothes and pants from three years ago clearly no longer fit.

He coiled his long hair behind his head with a Daoist hairpin. Though his appearance remained ordinary, no one could connect him to the farm child he once was.

But even with the divine ability of his Leakless Body, Li Mo could not avoid the erosion of the Death Sickness. Corpse spots had already appeared on the side of his cheek, and a touch of snow white had crept into his temples.

Of course, compared to others his age, Li Mo's corpse-like features were nothing.

He suddenly remembered his spirit tablet. Taking it out, he found it contained over a hundred messages, most of them clues about aberrant beast sightings, provided to all cultivators by Smelting Town's government office.

Li Mo pressed the spirit tablet to his forehead, digesting the information.

The number of townsfolk killed by aberrant beasts was countless, their deaths taking all kinds of bizarre forms. Even with his mental preparation, Li Mo found it unsettling.

Of course, there was good news in the spirit tablet as well.

Jin Li informed Li Mo that after learning to read, Li Qingfang and her brother had returned to the Calligraphy and Painting Hall and were now practicing painting techniques.

Li Mo could tell that Jin Li's words carried a hidden meaning.

If Li Mo was willing to speak up, Jin Li would naturally find a way to help Li Qingfang and her brother gain access to cultivation methods.

But Li Mo had no such intention. Whether they could cultivate was entirely up to their own fate.

As one's realm increased, the Death Sickness's destruction of the body grew more terrifying. Not everyone could endure that pain. Many gave up resisting the Death Sickness entirely.

If they failed to cultivate, Li Mo planned to let the two run a small business in Smelting Town.

With the medical hall around, even if a mortal's intestines rotted from the Death Sickness, as long as they were willing to pay some silver, the doctors had ways to patch them up.

What surprised Li Mo was Zhu Zi.

Zhao Zhu, relying on his raw strength, had stood out in the Miscellaneous Hall. In recent years, he had been training under Xu Hu.

Li Mo also learned from the spirit tablet that not long ago, cultivators had hunted beasts at Xinji Ridge. The warehouse had recently received a batch of beast materials, including those from a mountain lord and a fox.

Since the Elk Bizarre Beast appeared, it hasn't only affected Smelting Town—the surrounding towns and villages have also suffered. Now, traveling two hundred li to Xinji Ridge is far too dangerous.

The beast blood needed to draw the Mountain Lord tattoo ended up taking three whole years to wait for.

Li Mo stepped out of the Inner Room for the first time in a while, thinking that once he finished drawing the Mountain Lord tattoo, he could put engraving the heart on the agenda.

As the center of the blood circulation system, engraving the heart would definitely improve his physique, allowing Li Mo to bear the burden of two Tattooed Beasts at once.

Out of caution, he had dragged things out until he was close to a bottleneck.

After all, Childhood Stage Layer 2 involves the Spiritual Root Transformation of the heart. If the heart underwent drastic changes prematurely, it could easily cause unnecessary trouble.

Li Mo looked around. The rebuilt pawnshop had a slightly different layout.

On the paths he walked, there were many unfamiliar young apprentices. Li Mo could tell that Smelting Town was deliberately replenishing its lost population.

Even the conditions for the shop to teach cultivation methods had been lowered accordingly.

Relying on the Spirit Tablet at his waist, Li Mo walked unimpeded into the warehouse. Among the dozen or so cultivators he passed, no one recognized him.

He went straight to the shelf where beast blood was stored. Scattered there were twenty or thirty bottles of beast blood.

Li Mo scanned the origins of the beast blood. Having confirmed that the Mountain Lord tattoo would be drawn on his right arm, the choice of auxiliary tattoos for his legs was difficult—none of the wild beast types there quite fit.

He directly took ten bottles each of Mountain Lord blood and Fox Blood, then picked out two pieces of beast hide in decent condition, along with some beast teeth.

The potential of auxiliary Beast Head Tattoos was limited, but not impossible to compensate for.

According to the Bone Scroll Steward Hu had gifted him, there were two refining methods in the Childhood Stage that could enhance the potential of a Beast Head Tattoo.

Simulation and Bloody.