Zombie Tiger

Li Mo did not continue dissecting the wild boar's corpse—after all, just seeing the Half-Beast organs revealed by the Book of Fortune was enough to understand that the creature had never cultivated any technique or law in life.

He shook his head in slight confusion. The truth of seven thousand years remained half-hidden, half-revealed; merely contacting the Heart Beast Sect would likely be far from enough to fully investigate it.

Lost in thought, Li Mo walked all the way back to River God Village, but never saw another Half-Beast again.

Clearly, the Half-Beasts were deliberately avoiding danger.

Li Mo suspected that the Half-Beasts had lost their language ability, their Spiritual Intelligence gradually degenerating, their behavior more like instincts passed down through generations.

As for how the Half-Beasts reproduced, that was anyone's guess.

"This world is too insane. Even just the Heart Beast Sect is this bizarre and inexplicable."

A fine rain began to fall sporadically.

The Plum Rain Season in summer was naturally damp, and the mountain slopes, washed by the rain, gave rise to thick fog, narrowing Li Mo's field of vision.

Li Mo sighed. If only the Book of Fortune had a few more blank pages—no matter what, he would have imprinted his five senses onto them.

The divine abilities born from the five senses should be the most practical.

Li Mo took out his Straw Rain Cape and Hat, put them on properly, and continued on his way.

With his cultivation level so low, this was the only option; otherwise, he could have released Spiritual Energy to block the raindrops.

Following the open riverbank, he arrived at a hillside upstream and indeed saw a dilapidated village hidden within the thick fog.

The village was built entirely along the water, with houses propped up on wooden stakes.

The wooden houses were prone to rotting from the dampness, with traces of fungal growth visible everywhere, creaking and groaning whenever a mountain wind blew past.

A cracking sound came from beneath Li Mo's feet.

He looked down. An adult male's leg bone had been casually discarded by the roadside, now hollowed out by insects.

Looking around, human bones were scattered everywhere, enough to piece together at least three or four skeletons, mixed with the remains of some buildings.

A speck of dust condensed at Li Mo's fingertip as he headed toward River God Village.

Though it was called River God Village, it was actually famous for its lion dancers.

Li Mo had heard Father Li mention River God Village a few times.

The Temple Festival, organized by various villages, was held once every five years, and River God Village would perform a Lion Dance to worship the River God at the festival, praying for favorable weather in the coming year.

Li Mo had indeed been to the Temple Festival before—it looked like a very ordinary morning market.

By then, River God Village was no longer present at the festival, and Father Li never said why. He guessed River God Village had already encountered Bizarre Beasts.

The arrival of a stranger immediately drew the attention of many villagers; several dozen people pointed at Li Mo, muttering among themselves about something.

Li Mo noticed a very strange phenomenon. Amid the swirling mist, a faint, rancid odor hung in the air, like the smell of a beast's den.

Within several hundred meters around River God Village, the proportion of Water-attributed Spiritual Energy had reached about thirty percent—this was certainly not normal.

But there was no trace of any Bizarre Beast.

Li Mo silently communicated with the Ghost Tiger Tattoo. The latter was only slightly agitated but could not pinpoint the location of any fellow Bizarre Beasts.

As he walked into River God Village, the fog soaked through his inner clothes. Breathing in the moisture through his mouth and nose, he felt an inexplicable...

Suffocation?

Fortunately, after the Heart Spiritual Root Transformation, the oxygen content in Li Mo's blood was extremely high, so even going without breathing for several hours was no problem.

The villagers gathered around, staring at Li Mo with fearful eyes, while children wept incessantly.

Their faces were smeared with rouge and powder, painted with the makeup of the Waking Lion Dance.

Li Mo channeled his Miasma Spiritual Power into the Beast Head Tattoo, and a sense of wariness arose in his heart. After all, deep in this isolated mountain region, rouge and powder should have been extremely precious items.

He then revealed his Spirit Tablet. The villagers scattered immediately, their shocked expressions not seeming fake.

"I am a True Man dispatched from the Smelting Town Yamen. I heard there is a Tiger Menace here?"

"Whose family has been killed by the Tiger Menace?"

Li Mo asked several questions in succession, but the villagers remained completely silent.

At that moment, a man over a hundred years old walked out from the crowd. His body was withered to the bone, yet his skin appeared swollen.

"This old one is Village Chief Wang Baoshan. I have been awaiting the True Man's arrival."

Li Mo suddenly realized that none of the villagers before him were living people.

Wang Baoshan had been paralyzed ten years ago, which had caused River God Village's Lion Dance to come to an end, eventually fading out of the Temple Festival due to Bizarre Beasts.

The paralysis of the Death Sickness was something even Han Cai's intervention could not cure, because the bones and flesh had completely rotted, turning into a substance like withered wood.

Wang Baoshan led Li Mo to a dilapidated ancestral hall and said in a nearly pleading tone, "True Man, the Demon will appear at Zi Shi. Please... do not make things difficult for us."

"The True Men who came before all left after exorcising the Demon."

Li Mo asked in confusion, "No accidents happened during that time?"

Wang Baoshan continued muttering neurotically, "True Man, the Demon will appear at Zi Shi. It will appear at Zi Shi..."

Li Mo did not reply. He walked straight into the ancestral hall.

Wang Baoshan's breathing was rapid as he stared at the ancestral hall's doors, his expression one of immense relief.

Li Mo stood in the dim ancestral hall, noticing multiple traces of repairs throughout the room.

The spirit tablets on the altar were covered in dust, clearly showing that no ancestor worship had taken place here for a long time.

Li Mo couldn't help but reveal a mocking expression.

"Illusion."

The moment he found himself in the ancestral hall and the suffocating sensation vanished without a trace, he had already guessed the secret, and a hint of curiosity stirred in his heart.

"Aiding the Tiger in its Cruelty? How interesting."

Li Mo closed his eyes, commanding his brain to abandon its perception of the outside world. He focused his consciousness on the Book of Fortune, using the shallowest sense of touch to perceive the strangeness of River God Village.

As his hands moved, his brain's perception of the outside world gradually cleared.

Li Mo even temporarily sealed the memories of River God Village in his mind. Then, the sound of surging water roared in his ears.

He touched the bone-chilling river water, the water level reaching exactly his waist.

Li Mo opened his eyes. The ancestral hall was completely different now. Half a meter of the room was submerged in river water, and algae grew in the gaps between the floor tiles.

He looked outside the hall. The entire location of River God Village was actually at the bottom of the river.

All the buildings were soaked in water, with only a small pocket of air inside the ancestral hall.

Li Mo waded through the water to the window. The river surface was a full hundred meters above. No wonder the suffocating feeling had surged over him upon entering the village.

As for the villagers, they were a group of pitiful souls killed by the Mountain Lord Bizarre Beast, transformed into bound spirits akin to earthbound ghosts.

When Li Mo had stepped into the thick fog covering River God Village, his perception had already been deceived.

Then, step by step, he was guided into the river.

The unique illusion of a bizarre beast was more troublesome than Li Mo had imagined. It affected not only sight but also the other four senses.

But that was all. Relying on drowning alone couldn't even kill an ordinary person. After the age of twenty, internal organs atrophy, and the need for air is not high.

Not to mention, the illusion had no binding power whatsoever. He could leave River God Village at any time.

If what Wang Baoshan said was true—that a Pseudo Bizarre Beast would be delivered by Zi Shi—then Li Mo could easily kill it and return to report.

Unless, of course, the bound spirits had taken to keeping the Mountain Lord as livestock?

Thanks to the patron who read and watched, thanks to I Am Four Eyes, The Salted Fish Who Paddles, Super Invincible Muscular Fat Cat, Red Dust Like Water and Flowers Wash Tears, AI Learning Machine, 82 Heart Moon, I Ask You D, and Book Friend 20230324111105789 for their tips.