So-called "simulation" meant implanting beast fur, teeth, and eyeballs to make the Beast Head Tattoo resemble the real thing as closely as possible.
It sounded easy, but putting it into practice required meticulous control.
"Blood drenching" meant bathing the Beast Head Tattoo in the blood of its own kind. It could also induce metamorphosis, though the effect was not very obvious.
Sinister Beast blood could also be used for blood drenching, but it would increase the Beast Head Tattoo's ferocity. Over time, it would inevitably backlash against Li Mo.
Li Mo left the storeroom. The beast blood he had exchanged for was enough to sustain blood drenching for over half a month, so he would first observe the Beast Head Tattoo's growth.
He could sense the limitations of his cultivation of Paint Green Clothes.
Within two hundred li of Smelting Town, the wild beasts seemed to have undergone some inexplicable mutation. Even cultivators had to hunt in Xinji Ridge.
As a result, materials related to wild beasts were exorbitantly expensive to exchange for.
Li Mo knew there was a black market outside Smelting Town where Rogue Cultivators gathered. Once he advanced to Childhood Stage Layer 2, he would have to make contact with it if necessary.
He left the pawnshop directly and, while it was still early, paid a visit to the Medical Hall.
The streets bustled with people. They appeared lively on the surface, but once dusk fell, the townsfolk immediately rushed home and bolted their doors and windows tight.
After the cultivators' encirclement and suppression, the Sinister Beasts that had survived might lack Spiritual Intelligence, but their instinct for danger made them exceptionally cunning.
When Li Mo arrived at the Medical Hall, he found at least a hundred people in the main hall.
Most of the townsfolk seeking treatment had external wounds caused by the erosion of Death Sickness, but a dozen or so were in somewhat unusual condition.
For some unknown reason, several extra pairs of arms had grown from their bodies.
The arms grew from their joints. The patients could not control them and could only have doctors cut them off. Screams rang out continuously from the consultation room inside.
"True Person, may I ask what brings you to the Medical Hall?"
A clerk stepped forward and used a towel to pat the dust from Li Mo's clothes.
Li Mo did not conceal his Miasma Spiritual Power. Even ordinary people could recognize him at a glance; a cultivator's status was useful anywhere.
"What is wrong with them?"
"Reporting to True Person, it is Polymelia caused by demons. It is a strange occurrence that has appeared recently, though it will not endanger the patients' lives."
Li Mo nodded.
Yet he felt it was not as simple as merely Sinister Beasts. Those arms were like maggots parasitizing flesh, blood, and bone.
"Ask Doctor Han whether he has any basic medical books related to Universal Skill. Tell him it is junior Li Mo asking for help."
At the mention of Doctor Han, the clerk's expression immediately turned hesitant, but in the end he still steeled himself and headed toward the rear courtyard.
While waiting, Li Mo could not help observing the Polymelia patients.
He discovered that their skin was dark gray, their eyes were swollen and bloodshot, and their gums had turned black. They seemed to display signs of Metal Poisoning.
Eternal Life should have eliminated all illnesses. The patients' conditions were somewhat strange.
A moment later, the clerk hurried back to the main hall and respectfully handed a Bone Scroll to Li Mo.
Li Mo had expected to pay some Spirit Stones, but the clerk did not mention payment at all. Evidently, Han Cai did not think much of Universal Skill's medical techniques.
On the way back to his inner room, he casually absorbed the contents of the Bone Scroll.
The medical book recorded nothing but Universal Skill techniques, covering every aspect of skin-and-flesh surgery, though it extended no further than skin and flesh.
That was enough for Li Mo.
Simulation only targeted the skin where the Beast Head Tattoo was located and would not involve flesh, blood, or bone.
As soon as Li Mo returned to his inner room, he opened the fifth page of the Book of Fortune. A dark-red phantom of a heart immediately appeared on the Blank Pages.
The heart imprint succeeded.
"Mm..."
He suddenly clutched his chest. His heartbeat became heavy, as though it were about to draw all the blood from his body.
Li Mo knew that nurturing a Divine Ability required enduring pain.
He simply used Universal Skill, treating his own arm as an experimental template while practicing surgical procedures.
By the time his heart completed its metamorphosis, ten days had passed without his noticing.
His heart had doubled in size, and the blood vessels within and around it had become more complex. The imprint had not improved its heartbeat.
However, as blood flowed in and out of his heart, it visibly grew thicker by the day.
The Divine Ability awakened by his heart was called Azure Blood, Loyal Heart.
Azure Blood, Loyal Heart could refine the blood, transforming all the blood in his body into a mercury-like substance. It indirectly affected flesh, blood, and bone, strengthening his physique.
Li Mo understood that with the foundation laid by Azure Blood, Loyal Heart and the Multi-layered Dantian, his path of cultivation would certainly involve far fewer detours.
The only thing he did not know was whether Heart Spiritual Root Transformation would affect Azure Blood, Loyal Heart.
Li Mo took out a sketch of a Tiger Head Tattoo from his Storage Bag. During his closed-door cultivation, he had never relaxed his practice of painting.
Even though his painting skill had reached a bottleneck, he still found time to practice every few days.
This time, Li Mo did not even need charcoal to sketch it. After grinding ink with Tiger Blood, he directly used Magic Finger to draw the outline of a tiger head onto his upper right arm.
The Crimson Fox Tattoo bared its fangs and snarled, as if it sensed the threat posed by the Tiger Head Tattoo.
Li Mo could not be bothered with the Crimson Fox Tattoo. In less than ten minutes, the tiger head was more than halfway complete, and his aura immediately changed.
A suffocating Bestial Nature shrouded the room. If anyone had been present, they would likely have been frightened until their legs went limp beneath them.
The Tiger Head Tattoo absorbed Miasma Spiritual Power, revealing a savage White-Eyed Hanging-Eye Tiger.
Li Mo summoned the Tattooed Tiger Beast.
His body shriveled slightly as haze mist spread over a ten-meter radius. Then he saw a black-and-white Mountain Lord crouching in the shadows, peering out from concealment.
Its dark-golden beast eyes seemed capable of devouring one's soul.
The Crimson Fox leaned toward fire. It autonomously absorbed Fire Element Spiritual Energy from the air to strengthen itself, and its attacks carried scorching high heat.
The Ghost Tiger leaned toward yin. From the moment it was born, Yin Element Spiritual Power poured into it. Its methods were more concealed, allowing it to hide silently in the darkness.
Li Mo examined his physical condition.
Even while supporting two Tattooed Beasts at once, they would probably only occupy thirty percent of his flesh, blood, and spiritual power. It was entirely manageable.
Compared to when he used Paint Green Clothes two years ago, it was undoubtedly much easier.
If he exerted the maximum amount of Flesh and Blood Spiritual Power, the Tattooed Beasts would likely exceed five meters.
Li Mo satisfactorily withdrew the Ghost Tiger, then took beast blood from his Storage Bag.
He poured the beast blood over the tattoos. The Crimson Fox and Ghost Tiger greedily devoured it, and the colors of the tattoos visibly grew deeper.
One bottle of beast blood should be enough for the Tattooed Beasts to digest for several days.
Li Mo did not stop. He immediately planned to try simulation, implanting beast fur across the Beast Head Tattoos' surfaces to enhance their potential.
However, he was not very confident, because simulation required connecting the beast fur to the capillaries.
Li Mo had never expected to accomplish it easily. He tentatively picked up a tiger hair and pierced it beneath his skin, searching for the capillaries.
But when the tiger hair approached a capillary, the Ghost Tiger Tattoo unexpectedly took the initiative to guide it, making the fur-implanting process remarkably smooth.
Li Mo simply spread the Beast Hide across the desk.
Magic finger moved faster and faster, repeating its rise and fall. Tiger hair gradually covered the Beast Head Tattoo, and the Ghost Tiger became increasingly lifelike.
After implanting the tiger hair, Li Mo also finished the beast fur on the Crimson Fox Tattoo. The moment he was done, he fell headlong asleep, his snores rumbling like thunder throughout the room.
The Beast Head Tattoos slowly began to undergo metamorphosis.
The increase in the Spell's power was not obvious for the moment, but the Beast Head Tattoos' speed of absorbing external spiritual energy had increased by at least fifty percent.
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