Extremely Bizarre Corpse Mountain

Li Mo put away the spirit materials.

According to the information from the Book of Fortune, the spirit material formed from the heart was called Cracked Rock, which normally could only be produced in the high places of mountain ranges.

Who would have thought that Bizarre Beast Corpses could gestate similar materials in bulk?

Li Mo had suspected that the excavated organs might be Corpse Spirit Roots, but from every angle, there was no trace of Spiritual Root Transformation.

As he pondered, his hands touched the surrounding rock wall, and the blank page once again gave birth to the phantom of an organ.

Li Mo deftly dug into the rock wall, then found a piece of fatty liver, which he directly pulled out from the bloody rock wall.

He didn't rush to peel off the blood vessels, silently counting to himself.

Then, crisp footsteps came from deep within the mine cave, seemingly heading straight for the liver, the speed increasing rapidly, as if impatient.

Patter, patter...

Li Mo licked his lips: "Could the rumors really be true?"

When he completely removed the liver, the commotion vanished without a trace. Whether the source of the sound was truly a Pseudo Bizarre Beast was hard to verify.

Li Mo shook his head slightly and focused his main energy on collecting spirit materials.

While exploring the mine cave, he had already prepared to use Contain Toxin and Digest Poison to return to the Black Market.

Based on the reaction of the blank pages in the Book of Fortune, Li Mo continuously dug out one organ after another.

Even if Low-grade Spirit Materials weren't worth much, they could at least be used to refine magic tools, and he could maximize the value of the materials.

Li Mo noticed.

After the organs inside the rock wall were dug out, the vitality within a dozen meters gradually faded, and the rate of Corpse Mountain's decay began to accelerate.

When the Corpse Mountain completely decomposed, it would signal the end of the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.

"No wonder the stewards and shopkeepers of Smelting Town have no interest in the secret realm—they would never be carrion-eating maggots on a corpse."

Even though the Ziqi Sect had never shown its face from start to finish, traces of them were everywhere. The gap between the two forces was like a chasm.

Li Mo pondered the memories related to the Ziqi Sect, trying to find any clues.

At the same time, his hands didn't stop moving. His Magic Finger served as a digging tool, sending flesh, blood, and rock fragments flying inside the mine cave.

After spending more than ten days in the mine cave, he finally harvested a decent Low-grade Spirit Material called Great Research Jade Marrow, which could grant a magic tool the ability to heal damage on its own when fused.

As he went deeper, the quality of the materials indeed improved. It seemed that in the heart of the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm, there might even be Mid-grade Spirit Materials.

The interior of the mine cave was also exceptionally complex, with multiple forks appearing almost every hundred meters, making it hard to guarantee that no other cultivators were present.

Li Mo stored the Great Research Jade Marrow into his personal Storage Bag.

"Just right for the third refinement of the Desert Diagram."

He casually fed some earthworms and such to the Salamander in the Bird in a Cage.

Although the Bird in a Cage had already formed a simple ecological cycle, it certainly wasn't enough to sustain the Salamander group, so occasional feeding was still necessary.

Only Mid-grade Magic Tools could be stored in the Dantian, so the Bird in a Cage had to be carried around.

Fortunately, the ecology inside the Bird in a Cage wasn't affected by external bumps. Li Mo carrying it with the Desert Diagram just looked a bit odd.

He didn't plan to go deeper. He considered having the Ghost Tiger help explore the mine cave while he carved out a temporary cave dwelling to cultivate the Primordial Acquired Dao Body.

Just then, the Ghost Tiger suddenly issued a warning.

"Woo woo woo..."

The Ghost Tiger caught a whiff of blood. The source seemed to be a cultivator at the second or third layer of the Childhood Stage, staggering out from deeper within.

But he didn't last long before losing his life force.

Li Mo frowned.

He channeled Miasma Spiritual Power into the Desert Diagram, and thick yellow sand spread out, concealing his body in the shadows.

The Salamander was summoned and landed on Li Mo's right shoulder, curiously looking around.

The Crimson Fox for offense, the Ghost Tiger for stealth, the Salamander for defense, the Kun Whale for escape.

Even though none of the Tattooed Beasts had fully formed yet, the system built around Li Mo was already complete, enough to protect himself at the Childhood Stage.

Li Mo used the Leakless Body to completely suppress his aura, standing like a dead object in a remote corner of the mine cave, waiting for the change to come.

He understood that he would eventually encounter the strangeness within the mine cave, but he wasn't panicked. After all, if Rogue Cultivators from the Black Market could make it out unscathed, there was no reason he, who possessed Contain Toxin and Digest Poison, would fall in the secret realm.

The Ghost Tiger slowly approached the corpse.

But when it reached the target, not only was there no corpse, but not a single drop of blood remained on the ground, as if nothing had ever happened.

The Ghost Tiger paced anxiously on the spot, constantly lowering its head to search for clues.

Li Mo's mind stirred. He activated Paint Green Clothes to communicate with the Ghost Tiger, attempting to split off part of his consciousness and attach it to the latter, sharing its perspective.

Unexpectedly, it went smoothly, and he observed the nearby situation through the Ghost Tiger.

The pitch-black mine cave was empty, with no bloodstains on the ground either.

Li Mo frowned slightly. He soon noticed something different—there was a strange human-shaped indentation on the surface of the rock wall.

The human-shaped depression was roughly two meters deep, assuming a bowing posture, yet its spine was twisted and deformed, as if something heavy had once pressed down on it.

Barring any surprises, the corpse had likely already been devoured by the rock wall.

"How absurd—a Childhood Stage cultivator crushed to death by a heavy object..."

A chill ran through Li Mo. As he retreated toward the mine cave entrance, he studied the human-shaped depression and noticed that its spine was just the right height for carrying a clay sculpture on its back.

The so-called temple from the rumors, and the clay sculpture one must never look back at.

Li Mo murmured, "Never look back... Could it be that once the clay sculpture leaves your sight, it appears behind you and crushes you to death alive?"

If it were merely a Pseudo Bizarre Beast, it would be manageable, but why did the Corpse Mountain feel like an inexplicable threat?

He didn't stop until he had retreated several hundred meters. The Ghost Tiger, having gone too far, automatically returned to his right arm, then crawled back out through his skin.

The stench emanating from the Corpse Mountain's surface grew even more pungent, indicating that as the cultivators mined, the rate of flesh and blood decay was accelerating.

Li Mo found a nearby rock wall and began excavating a temporary cave dwelling.

It wasn't that he had given up exploring the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm—even if only for the Bizarre Beast Blood and the blank pages, he had to take the risk—but there was simply no need to rush at this stage.

By waiting for the Corpse Mountain to gradually dissolve into pus, the secrets would naturally reveal themselves bit by bit.

Besides, he still needed to prepare for the cultivation of the Primordial Acquired Dao Body. This spell required extensive experimentation and would likely take considerable time.

"Speaking of which... could I refine some kind of magic tool that can sense the refiner's condition in real time, indirectly gathering information about the Corpse Mountain?"

Li Mo felt that venturing deep into the mine cave alone was unwise. Instead, he should leverage his strengths and use the other cultivators to achieve his goals.

He sank into deep thought, leaving the task of excavating the cave entirely to the Ghost Tiger.

The Ghost Tiger dared not complain but gnawed fiercely at the rock wall before it. After breaking several teeth, Li Mo, fearing it would waste Flesh and Blood Spiritual Power recklessly, forced it to use only its claws.

Ignoring the Ghost Tiger, Li Mo suddenly recalled that among the Magic Tool Catalogue he had, there was a very peculiar Low-grade Magic Tool that seemed quite suitable.

This showed the importance of collecting Magic Tool Catalogues in daily life, even though most Low-grade Magic Tools were useless and impractical.

The magic tool was called the "Mother-Child Ghost Head."