Bizarre Iron Cauldron Secret Realm

"I see. No wonder they can enter and leave the secret realm freely."

Li Mo walked toward the alley. After sensing the effect of the Metal Toxin, he activated Contain Toxin and Digest Poison, deliberately letting the toxin temporarily spread to his brain.

The moment he tried, an anomaly appeared.

The black market vanished without a trace.

Heaven and earth shifted.

Bright sunlight shone down. Li Mo's eyes, accustomed to the black market shrouded by the formation, struggled to adjust to the light.

"As expected, the Metal Toxin is connected to the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm."

He shielded his eyes with his palm and looked around.

The place he stood in was actually a mountain thousands of meters above sea level—jagged rocks, steep cliffs barren of any vegetation, while the mountain range itself trembled incessantly, making it impossible to stand steady.

He could see scattered figures in the mountains, clearly rogue cultivators from the black market, gathering various spirit materials along the precipices.

One moment Li Mo had been in the bustling Heart Beast Black Market, the next he was suddenly in unfamiliar territory—he couldn't help feeling unsettled.

A flood of memories about the secret realm surged into his mind.

The Book of Fortune became exceptionally active. Such an anomaly had only occurred when Li Mo first activated it.

Li Mo quickly diverted his attention to digest the Book of Fortune's information. Everything indicated that he was inside the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm, and the key to entering and leaving was the hallucinogenic Metal Toxin infecting his brain.

Bang... bang... bang...

Li Mo then noticed that the mountain's true form was a stone turtle bizarre beast nearly a kilometer in size. The earth-shaking tremors were merely spasms from its corpse.

The stone turtle's body was pitted and scarred. All valuable organs had already been removed. The rogue cultivators were just scavenging leftovers, targeting the ores that grew on its dead carapace.

Thick fog surrounded them, with faint outlines of several other corpses visible in the distance.

The sky had no sun, moon, or stars, yet remained perpetually bright.

The Iron Cauldron Secret Realm's features were no different from those seven thousand years ago, but why was the method of entry and exit so strange? Shouldn't the entrances be located in some tomb ruins?

Li Mo felt this place resembled a mass grave for piling up bizarre beast corpses.

The Metal Toxin within the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm was also exceptionally dense. Relying on Contain Toxin and Digest Poison and his Leakless Body, he barely managed to keep the toxin from worsening.

"If the Metal Toxin represents the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm, then what about Polymelia?"

As Li Mo pondered, he didn't notice a figure approaching him from afar.

Yin Xue narrowed his eyes, pinpointing Li Mo's position through the crimson he exhaled. His body slithered bonelessly through the rock crevices.

His expression was greedy, as if Li Mo were already at his mercy.

"I'm rich..."

As Yin Xue's body temperature plummeted, his movements grew quieter, and green-yellow poisonous smoke billowed from his mouth and nose.

The spell he cultivated was called the Snake Belly Jade Blood Heart Sutra. It not only made his nails and teeth highly toxic but also allowed him to sense others' blood energy.

Back in the black market, Yin Xue had noticed Li Mo's peculiarity.

He observed that Li Mo's heartbeat remained within a normal range, indicating he was around fifteen years old.

At the same time, his blood energy was incredibly abundant, far surpassing cultivators of the same realm.

So Yin Xue was certain.

Li Mo definitely had a special constitution and a complete technique inheritance. The resources and spirit stones in his Storage Bag would be enough to fill Yin Xue's coffers to the brim.

Why else would he take out surplus magical artifacts to sell?

"A fat sheep, truly a fat sheep..."

"If I can devour this fat sheep, I might even be able to attempt the Coming-of-Age Stage. Hahaha, when luck comes, nothing can stop it."

Thinking this, a shadow flickered in Yin Xue's eyes.

To hold back Song Liang, he had to promise a portion of the gains to his fellow disciples from the Viper Society. He needed to find a way to monopolize the fat sheep's resources.

Unknowingly, Yin Xue had already assumed Li Mo's cultivation was easy prey.

As he drew closer to Li Mo, his nostrils seemed to catch the sweet scent of flesh and blood, madness filling his sunken eyes.

Li Mo stood motionless, continuously cross-referencing things within the secret realm.

A foul wind swept by.

Yin Xue could no longer hold back. He opened his gaping maw, poisonous smoke erupting from his mouth, making the rocks beside him sizzle and crack.

"By the way, how long has the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm been open?"

Li Mo seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps asking Yin Xue.

A cold smirk curled at the corner of Yin Xue's mouth. Just a deathbed struggle, trying to stall for time to leave the secret realm—how could it be that easy?

"You brat, just obediently become bones in my stomach."

The Serpent Head swelled rapidly, lunging toward Li Mo, its cracked skin like scales.

Yin Xue was confident his attack couldn't be dodged, but he never expected to bite nothing but air.

Li Mo sidestepped with ease, and a resounding roar came from behind him.

A shadow loomed over Yin Xue.

Yin Xue felt as if sitting on needles, and even though he thought Li Mo was just using some illusion technique, instinct still drove his head to turn and look.

One glance nearly scared the soul out of him.

"What..."

He saw Ghost Tiger leaning in with interest, staring at its prey. Its body, over five meters long, was overwhelmingly imposing, wreathed in thick black smoke, with elongated bone spikes covering its joints.

Yin Xue's face turned pale.

He scrambled to flee in a panic, all trace of luck gone, replaced by an indescribable terror.

"How could such a terrifying existence be in the black market, hiding its strength without a trace..."

"ROAR!!!"

Ghost Tiger's agility was undiminished, shifting seamlessly between solid and ethereal forms. Riding a gust of Yin wind, it caught up to Yin Xue and struck out with a palm.

Yin Xue's right arm snapped with a crack, and he couldn't help but let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"Let's go."

Li Mo glanced at the ridge. Clearly, some Rogue Cultivators from the black market had noticed the commotion and were silently trying to sneak up for easy pickings.

"No, no, don't kill me, I'm from the Viper Society..."

Ghost Tiger didn't understand human speech. It pinned Yin Xue down with its foreleg and bit off his head in one go.

Li Mo glanced at the corpse. Organs could be sold for spirit stones, but a cultivator at Childhood Stage Layer 3 probably wasn't worth much.

He activated Contain Toxin and Digest Poison to suppress the Metal Toxin.

The Iron Cauldron Secret Realm receded like quicksand, darkness enveloping everything again, and the unique damp, cold smell of the Heart Beast Black Market washed over him.

Li Mo walked calmly out of the alley.

On the street, the standoff continued. Song Liang was barely restraining his anger, bound by the black market's rules.

"Yin the Butcher is back. Little brother sure died fast. Why bother going into the secret realm, hahahaha..."

The Viper Society cultivator burst out laughing, drawing the crowd's gaze toward the alley entrance.

But the one who came out wasn't Yin Xue.

Li Mo held the Serpent Head in his hand and tossed it into a corner as if no one was watching.

Yin Xue's face still held despair before death, his eyes seeming to have seen something horrifying beyond belief, and the severed neck bore clear bite marks.

The cultivators shivered. Li Mo's head, wrapped in cloth strips, seemed to hide a beast's head like a Demon's.

"You..."

Song Liang wanted to ask, but saw Li Mo walk straight out of the street.

Li Mo didn't care about the Viper Society. They were made up of Rogue Cultivators at Childhood Stage, and they weren't a solid block either. Yin Xue's death would even benefit some Viper Society cultivators.

After all, resources were limited. One less cultivator to share with meant more for oneself.

Survival of the fittest was the main theme here.

Li Mo's decisive and ruthless actions still managed to intimidate. No one knew what kind of terror lay beneath the cloth strips wrapped around his head.

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