Breakthrough to Childhood Stage Layer 2

The western side of the mountain where Smelting Town sat had always been the poorly managed slums, densely packed with Living Dead eroded by the Death Sickness.

At the same time, because the mountain's back face never saw sunlight year-round, mold and decay were severe.

Just approaching West City, an indescribable stench hit the nose, and faint, pained moans drifted from the street corners.

The people coming and going were gaunt as skeletons, with bare white bone visible on their bodies—the Death Sickness left them powerless to resist.

The only saving grace was that the Yamen in North City wasn't far from the slums, and no small number of patrol soldiers were on duty daily.

Sinister Beasts almost never appeared in West City either; the prey here had barely half an ounce of flesh, their hearts long rotted away under the Death Sickness' erosion.

Though they escaped the calamity of Sinister Beasts, West City remained mired in the aftermath of the Beast Calamity.

On this day, several hundred soldiers cordoned off dozens of houses near the city wall, strictly forbidding anyone from entering or leaving, while cultivators constantly went in to investigate.

Even when Sinister Beasts devoured people, the Yamen had never been this tense.

A peculiar metallic smell hung in the air, mixed with the stench of corpses, making it hard to tell if it came from blood.

Moments later, deformed, grotesque corpses were carried out by the soldiers, drawing fearful gasps from the watching crowd.

The surface of the corpses was covered in dozens of arms, especially the ribcage-open chest and abdomen, which were packed full of limbs.

The Yamen immediately issued a mission, and more and more cultivators entered the cordoned area.

Yet no matter how they searched, they couldn't find any trace of a Sinister Beast, and they barely understood the source of the disaster.

Though chaos was inevitable in Smelting Town after the Beast Calamity, Polymelia didn't seem like an anomaly caused by a Sinister Beast.

It appeared without any warning and only targeted specific people.

Cultivators didn't contract Polymelia, but it spread on a large scale among mortals, leaving the Medical Hall with amputees queued nearly out the door.

Li Mo kept the Spirit Tablet close against his chest, and it stirred from time to time, indicating that Smelting Town had been far from peaceful lately.

He didn't check the Spirit Tablet, focusing instead on breaking through in his cultivation.

Li Mo repeatedly cycled Miasma Spiritual Power through his Circulation Cycle while absorbing external Spiritual Qi, letting his Multi-layered Dantian continue to condense the power.

The Miasma Spiritual Power in his meridians was like an unending river, already threatening to burst its banks, yet it still couldn't break through.

Driven by the spiritual power, his blood—concentrated by Azure Blood, Loyal Heart—also scoured his body, pushing his physique to grow stronger.

Li Mo sucked in a sharp breath.

Fine beads of blood seeped from his skin; both his meridians and blood vessels had reached the limit he could currently endure.

Li Mo gritted his teeth against the pain—having too solid a foundation was also a problem.

The Book of Fortune's divine ability was subtly transforming his innate talent, which would surely benefit him in the long run, but it made his Childhood Stage Layer 1 stretch on endlessly.

Li Mo watched helplessly as his qi, blood, and spiritual power continued to accumulate.

He simply activated Paint Green Clothes, letting the Crimson Fox and Ghost Tiger share his burden, though he limited the spiritual power flowing into the tattoos to half a percent.

The Beast Head Tattoos vanished from his arms, and two Exotic Beasts appeared. Because the spiritual power and qi, blood forming their bodies were sparse, they were only the size of cats or dogs.

Even so, the furniture in the room was sent flying as scorching heat and biting cold intertwined.

The Crimson Fox's fiery red fur was like drifting smoke, its single bright tail swishing.

The Ghost Tiger snorted black mist from its muzzle, its form flickering in and out of sight within the dim room.

The two beasts faced each other.

But they didn't fight; they obediently helped Li Mo bear the spiritual power and qi, blood, even gaining some benefit from it.

Li Mo spent several days restoring his body to its peak state, and the stinging in his now-calmed meridians and blood vessels returned.

He calmly sorted through his thoughts, then withdrew the spiritual power and qi, blood from the Tattooed Beasts' bodies.

What Li Mo was doing would have been playing with fire seven thousand years ago—if he lost control completely, his meridians and dantian would be severely damaged on the spot.

But in later ages, as long as the meridians and dantian could be repaired, the foundation wouldn't be harmed.

Spiritual Qi surged toward his Middle Dantian, while his blood flow quickened again.

When the Middle Dantian was filled with Miasma Spiritual Power, Li Mo's spirits lifted. He vaguely sensed the bottleneck's existence, just one final step away.

Li Mo's eyes turned red, and the two Tattooed Beasts began to shrink.

Blood seeped from his facial orifices, his skin turned a bruised purple—even at this point, the Leakless Body still firmly locked in the spiritual power.

A tiger's roar and a fox's cry rang out!

Quantity turned into quality. A single strand of Miasma Spiritual Power was like the straw that broke the camel's back; as it merged into the Middle Dantian, all the spiritual power instantly boiled.

A faint haze of Miasma emanated from Li Mo's pores, the Tattooed Beasts crouching at his side.

In just a few breaths, the Middle Dantian expanded more than twofold, and the protective layers of the Multi-layered Dantian increased to ten.

"HAHAHAHAHA..."

Li Mo opened his eyes, his heart surging with exhilaration, as if a fog had been lifted.

He didn't need to control the Miasma Spiritual Power; strands of it naturally clung to his heart, causing the organ to undergo a transformation, gradually evolving toward a spiritual root.

The Corpse Spirit Root of Misty Spiritual Energy—Li Mo had seen one at the Miraculous Hands Medical Hall, its whole form resembling wax.

But he couldn't shake the feeling that his heart was turning toward something like stone, while his blood underwent an indescribable change.

Li Mo tried to use the Universal Skill and found it far more effortless than before.

As for Paint Green Clothes, the Tattooed Beasts had benefited greatly during his breakthrough; after returning to the Beast Head Tattoo, they each digested their gains.

Once the Corpse Spirit Root fully formed later, his Spells would receive further enhancement, and his efficiency in absorbing external Spiritual Energy would increase dramatically.

Li Mo tidied up the thoroughly wrecked room and continued his Circulation Cycle to stabilize his cultivation. By the time he came back to his senses, two days had passed.

He couldn't help but check the Spirit Tablet, only to find that all the messages inside were about "Polymelia."

Especially in the past month, the Yamen had spent a massive amount of effort, digging three feet deep to find the source, only to end up clearing out over a dozen Sinister Beasts hiding in the shadows.

What puzzled Li Mo was that in the ten days leading up to his breakthrough, information about Polymelia had gradually decreased.

He sent a thought-message to Jin Li via the Spirit Tablet, asking about the Polymelia matter.

According to what Jin Li said.

The calamity of Polymelia had already subsided, and the casualties were not severe, but because it hadn't been stopped in time, it nearly alarmed all the shopkeepers.

Li Mo felt something was off.

A disaster among mortals—just vanished without a trace like that?

Li Mo decided to use the excuse of leaving seclusion to meet Jin Li at the teahouse in front of the Pawnshop, to figure out exactly what had happened while he was in closed-door cultivation.

He also had plans to leave the city, intending to learn the exact location of the Black Market from Jin Li.

If Li Mo wanted to obtain the inheritance of techniques and spells in Smelting Town, he had to report to the steward and get permission before applying to the Medical Hall.

Not to mention the absurdly expensive beast resources.

He even held out hope that he might find a way to increase the number of blank pages at the Black Market.

[Let me sigh—Bizarre Immortal Cultivation has somewhat declined. The new book has the boost from the old one, but its performance on the recommendation slots is far worse than the old book's. Sigh.]

[Esteemed Readers, please keep reading.]