"What exactly is the connection between the Iron Cauldron Sect, Polymelia, and Metal Toxin?"
Li Mo suspected that Metal Toxin permeated the air within the Heart Beast Sect's territory, poisoning everyone without their noticing.
However, with his Leakless Body, Li Mo was relatively much better off.
Li Mo took out his Spirit Tablet to ask Jin Li whether anything unusual had happened in Smelting Town recently. As it turned out, Jin Li was no longer in Smelting Town. Half a month ago, he had followed the yamen to Fu'an Town, where Polymelia had broken out.
Fu'an Town's situation was exceptionally dire.
The Flesh Pillar formed from piled-up limbs was reportedly still growing. Without anyone realizing it, it had already exceeded a thousand meters in size, like a mountain range.
To resolve Fu'an Town's Polymelia, Smelting Town, led by Han Cai, had dispatched nearly a hundred cultivators in a massive show of force.
Li Mo's brows relaxed.
When communicating with Jin Li through transmitted thoughts, he could sense Jin Li's irrepressible fear, yet Jin Li's mental state had improved considerably.
It was as though the effects of Metal Toxin had vanished entirely.
After pondering for a long while, Li Mo put away the Spirit Tablet. Since Metal Toxin could be suppressed with Contain Toxin and Digest Poison, he would watch how the situation developed for now.
He flipped through the manual for the Golden Sand Diagram, and immediately understood what to do.
Li Mo had originally planned to hastily refine the Golden Sand Diagram, then take it to a stall on the Black Market streets to sell, while incidentally investigating the Immortal Cultivation World.
But he suddenly realized that the Golden Sand Diagram was still useful to him at present.
Li Mo took out Iron Sandstone and placed it in a specially made inkstone, grinding it into powder while considering how to lay the strokes upon the Magic Tool Blank.
For a Magic Tool to take shape, Spiritual Herbs needed to be thoroughly fused into it.
A Low-grade Magic Tool Blank could withstand the integration of five Spiritual Herbs with similar properties, while a Mid-grade Magic Tool Blank could hold twenty kinds of Spiritual Herbs.
Under normal circumstances, as the number of Spiritual Herbs contained within a Magic Tool increased, the difficulty of continuing to fuse more would accumulate. Yet the increase in the Magic Tool's power would be far from insignificant.
The Golden Sand Diagram did not have demanding requirements for Spiritual Herbs. Earth-metal Spirit Material would suffice, so Li Mo chose the Earth-element Spirit Material, "Iron Sandstone."
Iron Sandstone was an associated ore eroded by rust Spiritual Qi. Not only was it cheap, it was indeed perfectly suited for refining the Golden Sand Diagram.
As he continued grinding the ink, the Iron Sandstone gradually turned into fine granules.
Li Mo could not help but focus completely. He spread the Beast Hide across the floor, weighed it down with a Town Stone, then calmed himself and began drawing the Golden Sand Diagram.
His magic finger absorbed the iron sand, transforming it across the Beast Hide's surface into an unbroken Quicksand River, revealing an artistic conception of surging waves and roiling tides.
Under the effects of Miasma Spiritual Power, the Spiritual Herbs merged with the Magic Tool Blank, as if the Quicksand River had always been a pattern born upon the Beast Hide.
After the Golden Sand Diagram was refined into a Magic Tool, it became restrained, its outward aura incomparably pure.
As a Low-grade Magic Tool, the Golden Sand Diagram's quality was nearly perfect. There was not the slightest trace of Iron Sandstone having been fused into it.
Li Mo infused it with spiritual power and refined it. A moment later, the Golden Sand Diagram moved as easily as his own arm and fingers.
Whoosh!!
He controlled the Golden Sand Diagram to circle his body, releasing clouds of sand and dust that shrouded the inn room. However, its power was rather limited. Only when sand grains burrowed into flesh and blood could they corrode and injure an enemy.
It was less practical in battle than Universal Skill.
"Return."
Li Mo had another use for it. Like a python, the Golden Sand Diagram wrapped around his neck, turning into bandages that enveloped his head, leaving only his eyes exposed.
Besides filtering the air, it could protect vital areas and conceal his appearance.
Even if it might not work against the Metal Toxin in the air, something was better than nothing. Even if it could only block part of it, that was still better than having nothing at all.
Li Mo repeated the process, refining all the remaining Beast Hide into Golden Sand Diagrams.
However, to avoid attracting attention, he deliberately made mistakes in the Magic Tools he refined afterward. The quality of their Spiritual Herbs was also slightly inferior, and he even left many omissions when fusing them into the Magic Tool Blanks.
Li Mo left the inn and headed straight for the bustling market outside Yi Bao Pavilion.
The moment he stepped onto the street, he sensed that the Black Market was somewhat deserted.
Although there were still quite a few cultivators passing through, most were low-level cultivators at the first or second layer of the Childhood Stage.
Moreover, from the faces of several Rogue Cultivators who had not concealed their appearances, Li Mo saw that their symptoms of Metal Poisoning were generally mild. The Rogue Cultivators with severe poisoning had suddenly vanished without explanation.
As Li Mo made his way along, the roadside stalls were sparse and scattered.
Yet the area outside Yi Bao Pavilion remained lively, though low-level cultivators still made up the majority. It seemed that during the months he had spent in seclusion, the Black Market had silently undergone a major purge.
"What the hell..."
As the only Rogue Cultivator market within two hundred li of Smelting Town, any change should have provoked reactions from every side. How could things be so calm?
Li Mo found a secluded corner and imitated the Rogue Cultivators by setting up a stall.
All he needed was to spread a white cloth before him. It seemed there was an unwritten rule in the Black Market that one could not deliberately disrupt a transaction between two parties.
At first, no one paid attention to the Golden Sand Diagrams.
But they soon drew more than a dozen low-level Rogue Cultivators. However, because Li Mo exuded an aura that warned strangers to stay away, they knew their Spirit Stones were insufficient and did not step forward to inquire.
Li Mo appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, but in truth, he was casting a long line to catch a great fish. He was confident that even with flaws, the Golden Sand Diagrams he had refined were still superior in quality to the Magic Tools sold by Yi Bao Pavilion.
Before long.
A number of late Childhood Stage Rogue Cultivators suddenly appeared near Yi Bao Pavilion.
They had clearly come for the Golden Sand Diagrams. Li Mo relaxed when he saw them, for at least it showed that the Rogue Cultivators in the Black Market had not suffered mass casualties.
"Fellow Daoist, I am Song Liang of the Hong Xing Escort Agency. Name your price."
Song Liang's body was already suffering the erosion of Death Sickness. His face was ulcerated and reeked of decay, while centipede-like worms were bred within his wounds.
The exposed skull gleamed with a metallic luster. Metal Toxin had seeped deep into his marrow.
Li Mo narrowed his eyes.
Song Liang's shoes were still stained with metallic mud that did not belong to the Black Market. He had clearly been somewhere else not long ago. Could it have been the Iron Cauldron Sect?
"It looks like merely a first-refinement Low-grade Magic Tool, but its Spiritual Herbs have been thoroughly fused. Completing the Fourth Refinement in the future should not pose much of a problem."
"Fellow Daoist, I'll offer thirty Mid-grade Spirit Stones per Magic Tool. Let's make friends."
Song Liang's breathing was rapid, and the distracting thoughts in his eyes could not be suppressed. The harm caused by Metal Poisoning was obvious, exactly the same as Jin Li's had once been.
After thinking it over, Li Mo found that the offer was already far above the normal market price.
Before he could agree, a cultivator with a snake tail for his lower body moved over. He was likely from the Viper Society of the Heart Beast Black Market, an insignificant little gang that could not stand in the light.
"Yin Xue of the Viper Society. I'll also offer thirty Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Brother Song, why not take a step back?"
Yin Xue reached directly for the Golden Sand Diagrams. Clearly, the thirty Mid-grade Spirit Stones he mentioned meant taking two Magic Tools outright.
Song Liang flew into a rage. Just as he was about to stop Yin Xue, he discovered that Yin Xue was acting as if he faced a great enemy.
"Sixty Mid-grade Spirit Stones for both. Hand them over."
"Alright..."
Song Liang looked at Li Mo with a complicated expression. Behind the strips of cloth covering Li Mo's face were a pair of beast-like pupils.
He hesitated for several breaths, then could not help saying in a low voice, "Fellow Daoist, be careful when entering and leaving the Secret Realm. The Viper Society loves nothing more than murder and robbery."
A strange laugh escaped Yin Xue's mouth, his gaze fixed unwaveringly upon Li Mo. "Escort Chief Song, I see your poisoning runs deep. You will surely head to the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm in the next few days. You should be careful..."
Li Mo raised a brow and quickly grasped the secret of the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm. At the same time, he discovered the greatest advantage of the Divine Ability Contain Toxin and Digest Poison.
He accepted Song Liang's Spirit Stones, then turned and slipped into a nearby alley.
As Li Mo walked, his body inexplicably began to sand away, becoming difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion, as though he were about to vanish into the Black Market.
"Entering the Secret Realm? Courting death."
Greed surfaced on Yin Xue's face. As he pursued Li Mo, he signaled for the others to keep Song Liang under control.
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