Li Mo traveled beneath the blazing sun.
With the aid of the Divine Ability Eidetic Memory, he could cultivate while dividing his attention, continuously absorbing the foreign aura from the outside world and carrying out Circulation Cycles.
After moving away from Smelting Town, the official road gradually grew sparse with travelers.
Li Mo cautiously observed his surroundings, repeatedly confirming that no one was following him.
As he casually passed beneath a patch of shade, the exposed skin on his body began to squirm, and his ordinary features became refined and ethereal.
Once the old and new Human Skin had been switched, even the Beast Head Tattoo vanished without a trace.
Li Mo tried communicating with the Tattooed Beast and found that Paint Green Clothes was unaffected. On the contrary, he could use the Leakless Body to seal away the Spell's aura.
Li Mo glanced back at Smelting Town, and the ever-present sense of impending danger eased somewhat.
Smelting Town remained surrounded by mountains. It looked even more prosperous than four years ago, yet undercurrents already churned beneath the surface, concealing who knew how many dangers.
"Sub-Vessel..."
Li Mo silently repeated the words several times before quickly turning onto a mountain fork off the official road.
From beginning to end, he had never mentioned the Sub-Vessel to anyone, nor had he tried investigating Polymelia during the days before his departure.
A cultivator in the Childhood Stage might have already revealed potential, but in the mixed bag of dragons and fish that was Smelting Town, he had no voice whatsoever.
Li Mo had no way to prove the Sub-Vessel existed. Revealing the information would only lead him to his own destruction.
Besides, he had a feeling that if Polymelia had been caused by human hands, then Shopkeeper Tian was certainly involved among Smelting Town's upper ranks.
Whether Polymelia was merely a false alarm or not, temporarily leaving Smelting Town to avoid the storm was the safest course. He could wait quietly for matters to ferment.
A great net had been cast into the lake. Once it rose to the surface, it would mean the time to draw in the net was near.
Li Mo shook his head with a bitter smile. There was no use overthinking it. He should honestly settle River God Village's assignment first, then head to the Black Market.
He took out his Spirit Tablet and placed it against his brow. Information about River God Village flooded into his mind.
River God Village was only two mountain peaks away from Niu Family Village. It was said that a Tiger Bizarre Beast was causing trouble there.
Over the past few years, cultivators had repeatedly gone to River God Village to investigate. Yet each time, they merely killed a Pseudo Bizarre Beast and called it a day, while the Bizarre Beast itself remained nowhere to be seen.
Pseudo Bizarre Beasts were ordinary people afflicted by Death Sickness, nurtured by a Bizarre Beast's aura. They were similar to the Human-Faced Deer Li Mo had killed before.
Li Mo had accepted River God Village's assignment precisely because he could make a trip to Niu Family Village afterward. Moreover, the assignment did not seem dangerous; the cultivators who had previously gone to River God Village were generally not of high cultivation.
On the other hand, he was very interested in the Tiger Bizarre Beast.
Using Bizarre Beast Blood for a blood drenching would indeed cause the Beast Head Tattoo to lose control, but with the Leakless Body, perhaps he could avoid its drawbacks.
What was strange, however, was that since Pseudo Bizarre Beasts appeared in River God Village from time to time, why had the cultivators who took part in the assignment before not returned?
Wasn't that Spirit Stone being handed over for free?
As Li Mo pondered, he followed a narrow mountain path to the edge of a forest.
He halted the Circulation Cycle of spiritual power within his meridians, reined in his aura as much as possible, and directed the energy he used for two tasks at once toward the Spiritual Root Transformation of his heart.
Li Mo's heart had already undergone mutation.
Yet unlike an ordinary Miasma Corpse Spirit Root, which had a waxy texture, his heart possessed the texture of grayish-brown stone.
At the same time, Azure Blood, Loyal Heart had also been affected by the Spiritual Root Transformation. Within his thick, pulp-like blood were mixed tiny grains of dust.
Li Mo's body was undergoing metamorphosis without him even noticing. His strength alone had increased by more than fifty percent.
The most outrageous thing was his weight.
Li Mo looked somewhat thin, yet his weight had already skyrocketed to two hundred jin, and his agility had not been affected in the slightest.
This showed that his idea had indeed been correct.
Imprinting the five viscera with the Book of Fortune, then undergoing the metamorphosis of Spiritual Root Transformation, could maximize the effects of his Divine Abilities. The two were absolutely mutually beneficial.
The Book of Fortune still had four Blank Pages left, just enough for his liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.
"Ook, ook, ook..."
The cries of apes rang out one after another.
As Li Mo ventured deeper into the forest, he could hear the sounds made by all kinds of wild beasts. Yet over the past two days, he had not seen a single one.
"Beasts that are not beasts."
He recalled the old people of Niu Family Village's assessment of the wild beasts: they were exceedingly clever, like humans.
Li Mo's expression became complicated, but he did not deliberately search for traces of the wild beasts.
Even an experienced old hunter would need one or two months to set traps before it was realistic to catch a wild beast.
Though Li Mo was immensely curious, he still forcibly suppressed his stray thoughts and continued onward.
The bright sunlight was blocked by the branches and leaves of the vegetation. Within the forest's shadows, even his sense of time gradually became blurred.
When Li Mo noticed a crystal-clear river, he knew River God Village was not far away.
"Hmm?"
The Crimson Fox Tattoo reacted strangely. Its rudimentary consciousness informed Li Mo that there seemed to be a fresh corpse nearby, dead for no more than two days.
Guided by the Crimson Fox, Li Mo approached the corpse's location.
Less than five li away, a porcupine corpse lay slanted beneath a tree. Due to the forest's humid heat, its fur had already begun to rot.
Li Mo narrowed his eyes. According to nature's laws of survival—
Rotting flesh was on the menu for most omnivorous animals. Therefore, under normal circumstances, a porcupine corpse could not possibly decompose naturally.
He slowly moved to within a hundred meters of the corpse and confirmed there were no fluctuations of spiritual power.
There were no wounds anywhere on the porcupine's body. Its hairs were grayish-white, as if it had suddenly died after growing old and frail, its organs succumbing to Decay.
In the natural world, a wild beast dying of old age was something scarcely seen once in a hundred years.
Li Mo's breathing quickened slightly. A mystery that had troubled him for years was finally about to reveal its answer, yet to be safe, he still released Miasma Silk Threads.
With a wave of his hand, the Miasma Silk Threads peeled apart the porcupine's hide.
A scene that stunned him entered his sight.
Beneath the porcupine's fur was actually a dead, gaunt old man. His naked skin was joined to the fur, and his limbs had degenerated into animal hooves.
Li Mo examined the old man's organs through the Book of Fortune and found them largely no different from a human's.
"Beasts that are not beasts..."
No wonder the villagers never allowed women or children to take part when slaughtering wild beasts. They themselves knew that these so-called wild beasts were actually living people draped in Beast Hide.
Li Mo's scalp went numb. If the two hundred li surrounding Smelting Town were all filled with "Half-Beasts," then their number was unimaginable.
What on earth had caused this?
He instinctively looked at the Book of Fortune in his mind and found that it indeed contained scattered fragments of memory.
The fragmented scenes in those memories all came from Outer Sect Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect. They had clearly been triggered by the porcupine old man before him.
Perhaps... Smelting Town was not the Heart Beast Sect's Outer Sect at all?
The true Outer Sect Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect were the wild beasts throughout the two hundred li radius. It was only that their inheritance had been severed by Smelting Town?!!
However, the ancient arts and spells were useless in the present day. Once the wild beasts entered the Inner City, they would most likely become the Sinister Beasts with Spiritual Intelligence mentioned by Shopkeeper Tian and the others.
Li Mo found it utterly absurd.
Yet the truth might indeed be this, because if the Beast Calamity was connected to the Outer Sect Grand Competition, many questions could be answered.
After the Elk Bizarre Beast appeared, why had a massive herd of deer emerged at the foot of the mountain?
Because the deer herd wanted to pass the Outer Sect Grand Competition, enter the Inner Sect, and obtain its inheritance.
What kind of calamity had occurred over the course of seven thousand years, causing Spiritual Qi to undergo drastic changes and turning Heart Beast Sect disciples into monsters wearing Beast Hide?
Li Mo muttered, "It seems Smelting Town is either a thief of the Dao, or it was founded by surviving disciples of the Heart Beast Sect."
The truth was truly hair-raising.
Before you continue