Zombie Tiger

Li Mo did not continue dissecting the wild boar's corpse. After all, merely looking at the Half-Beast visceral artifact revealed by the Book of Fortune was enough to determine that the corpse had not cultivated any arts or techniques while alive.

He shook his head faintly in confusion. The truth from seven thousand years ago remained half-hidden and half-revealed; perhaps simply coming into contact with the Heart Beast Sect would make it difficult to investigate it thoroughly.

Countless thoughts ran through Li Mo's mind as he headed toward River God Village, yet he never saw another Half-Beast along the way.

Clearly, the Half-Beasts were deliberately avoiding danger.

Li Mo suspected that the Half-Beasts had already lost their ability to speak. Their Spiritual Intelligence had gradually deteriorated without their awareness, and their behavior resembled inherited habits passed down generation after generation.

As for how the Half-Beasts reproduced and survived, that was impossible to know.

"This world is too insane. The Heart Beast Sect alone is already this strange and unfathomable."

A fine drizzle began to fall.

The Plum Rain Season in summer was damp to begin with. Thick fog rose in the mountains beneath the washing rain, narrowing Li Mo's field of vision.

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

The Divine Abilities born from the five senses should have been the most practical.

Li Mo took out his Straw Rain Cape and Hat. Once he had put them on properly, he continued onward.

With his cultivation not high enough, this was all he could do. Otherwise, he could have released spiritual power to block the raindrops.

Following the open riverbank, he arrived at the hillside upstream. Sure enough, he saw a dilapidated village hidden within the dense fog.

The village had been built entirely alongside the river, its houses propped up on wooden stakes.

Wooden houses easily rotted in the dampness. Fungal growth could be seen everywhere, and whenever a mountain wind blew through, the buildings creaked and groaned.

The sound of bones cracking came from beneath Li Mo's foot.

He looked down and saw an adult man's leg bone carelessly discarded by the roadside, its interior now hollowed out by insects.

Looking around, he found human bones everywhere. At minimum, they could be pieced together into three or four skeletons, mixed among the wreckage of buildings.

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

Though it was called River God Village, what had truly made it famous were the village's lion dancers.

Li Mo had heard Father Li mention River God Village several times.

The Temple Festival, organized by various villages, was held once every five years. During it, River God Village would worship the river god through lion dancing, praying for favorable winds and timely rains in the coming year.

Li Mo had indeed attended the festival. It had looked like nothing more than an ordinary morning market.

By then, River God Village had already vanished from the festival. Father Li had never explained why, but River God Village had probably already encountered a Sinister Beast.

The arrival of a stranger immediately drew the attention of many villagers. Several dozen pointed at Li Mo and whispered among themselves, though he could not tell what they were discussing.

Li Mo noticed something peculiar. Amid the swirling clouds and mist, a faint fishy stench permeated the air, like that of a Beast Nest.

Within several hundred meters around River God Village, Water Spiritual Qi accounted for roughly thirty percent of the spiritual energy. That was certainly not normal.

Yet there was no trace of a Sinister Beast.

Li Mo could not help communicating with the Ghost Tiger Tattoo. It was only slightly restless and had not located any fellow bizarre beasts.

When he entered River God Village, the mist soaked through his inner garments. His mouth and nose drew in the damp air, yet he felt an inexplicable...

Sense of suffocation?

Fortunately, after his Heart Spiritual Root Transformation, the oxygen content in Li Mo's blood was exceptionally high. Even if he did not breathe for several hours, it would not be much of a problem.

The villagers gathered around him, staring at Li Mo with frightened eyes as children cried incessantly.

Their faces were smeared with rouge and powder, painted in the makeup used for Waking Lion Dance performances.

Li Mo poured Miasma Spiritual Power into the Beast Head Tattoo, unable to suppress his vigilance. Deep within these sealed mountains, rouge and powder should have been extremely precious items.

He then displayed his Spirit Tablet. The villagers scattered one after another, their astonished expressions seeming anything but feigned.

"I am a True Person sent by the Smelting Town Yamen. I heard there is a Tiger Menace here?"

"Whose family member was killed by the Tiger Menace?"

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

At that moment, a hundred year old man emerged from the crowd. His body was gaunt enough for the bones to show, yet his flesh was swollen and bloated.

"This old man is the village chief, Wang Baoshan. I have awaited the True Person's arrival."

Li Mo immediately realized that the many villagers before him were not living people.

Wang Baoshan had been paralyzed ten years ago, which had brought River God Village's lion dancing to an end. Later, because of the Sinister Beast, the village had faded from the Temple Festival entirely.

The paralysis from Death Sickness had been beyond even Han Cai's ability to cure, because the bones and flesh had completely decayed into matter resembling withered wood.

Wang Baoshan led Li Mo to a run-down Ancestral Hall and said in an almost pleading tone, "True Person, the demon will appear at Zi Shi. Please... do not make things difficult for us."

"The True Persons who came before all left after eliminating the demon."

Li Mo asked doubtfully, "Nothing unexpected happened during that time?"

Wang Baoshan continued muttering nervously, "True Person, the demon will appear at Zi Shi. It will appear at Zi Shi..."

Li Mo did not respond and walked straight into the Ancestral Hall.

Wang Baoshan's breathing became rapid. As he looked at the Ancestral Hall's doors, his expression was one of immense relief.

Standing in the dim Ancestral Hall, Li Mo noticed many repaired areas throughout the building.

The Spirit Tablets on the altar were covered in dust. One glance was enough to tell that there had been no ancestral worship for a long time.

Li Mo could not help revealing a mocking smile.

"Illusion Art."

The moment he found that the suffocating sensation had instead vanished completely upon entering the Ancestral Hall, he had already guessed the secret, and a hint of curiosity arose in his heart.

"Aid the tiger in its cruelty? Interesting."

Li Mo closed his eyes and controlled his brain to discard its perception of the outside world. His consciousness focused on the Book of Fortune, using the most rudimentary sense of touch to perceive the abnormalities in River God Village.

As his hands moved, his mind's awareness of the outside world gradually emptied.

Li Mo even temporarily sealed away his memories of River God Village. Then, the roar of surging water rang in his ears.

He touched icy river water, its level reaching precisely to his waist.

Li Mo opened his eyes. The Ancestral Hall was now completely different: half a meter of the interior was submerged in river water, and algae filled the cracks between the floor tiles.

He looked outside the Ancestral Hall and discovered that River God Village was actually at the bottom of the river.

Every building was submerged underwater, with only the interior of the Ancestral Hall retaining a slight pocket of air.

Li Mo waded through the river to the window. The river surface was a full hundred meters above him. No wonder a suffocating sensation had overcome him after entering the village.

As for the villagers, they were merely a group of pitiful people killed by the Mountain Lord Bizarre Beast, transformed into Zombie Ghosts like earthbound spirits.

The moment Li Mo entered the thick fog covering River God Village, his senses had already been deceived.

He had then been guided step by step into the river.

The Illusion Art unique to Sinister Beasts was even more troublesome than Li Mo had imagined. It did not merely affect vision; all of the other five senses could be influenced as well.

But that was all it could do. Water alone could not drown even an ordinary person. After reaching twenty years of age, one's internal organs shrank, greatly reducing the need for air.

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

If Wang Baoshan was telling the truth, and a Pseudo Bizarre Beast would deliver itself to him at Zi Shi, Li Mo could easily kill it and return to report completion of the task.

Could Zombie Ghosts really keep the Mountain Lord as livestock?

Thanks to Reading Aaa's alliance leader contribution, and thanks to I Am Four Eyes, Slacking Salted Fish, Super Invincible Muscular fat cat, Mortal World Like Water Washing Tears, AI Learning Machine, 82 Heart Moon, I Ask You D, and Reader 20230324111105789 for their rewards.