Mother-Child Ghost Head

The Mother-Child Ghost Head is highly unique, a rare combination magic tool.

Because its refinement requires Yin Spirit Materials, in the Ancient Immortal Cultivation World of seven thousand years ago, it would have been an outright Demonic Sect magic tool.

Li Mo acquired it from Yi Bao Pavilion.

Yi Bao Pavilion never sells valuable Magic Tool Catalogues outright; they are usually given away half-price or as gifts. Li Mo obtained it by sheer chance.

Yin Spirit Materials are costly, and the Mother-Child Ghost Head had no buyers. In the end, Li Mo took it along simply because the tool type was uncommon.

A so-called combination magic tool refers to several interrelated tools, controlled by one core tool and assisted by multiple auxiliary tools.

In the memories of the Book of Fortune that Li Mo had digested, the most famous example was the ancient immortal sect "Jiantian Sect." Their method of controlling a hundred swords with qi was a profound form of combination magic tool.

The core of the Mother-Child Ghost Head is the Mother Ghost Head.

It is paired with a variable number of auxiliary Child Ghost Heads. However, even if a Child Ghost Head is taken out on its own, it remains a Low-grade Magic Tool.

After a cultivator refines a Child Ghost Head, the tool parasitizes their body, transforming into a puppet head that significantly enhances hearing and vision.

The Mother Ghost Head restrains the Child Ghost Heads. It can not only forcibly sever the cultivator's connection to the tool but also mislead their Five Senses in turn.

Subsequent refinement can lean toward curses, enabling the silent severing of heads.

Li Mo had no intention of focusing the Mother-Child Ghost Head on ambushing others. Instead, through a Second Refinement, he aimed to let the Mother Ghost Head share the perception of the Child Ghost Heads.

For cultivators inside the secret realm, having an extra nimble head would make it far easier to stay alert to danger, even allowing prolonged direct gaze at so-called "mud statues."

Li Mo immediately set to work refining the tool.

Unfortunately, his own spiritual power was not Yin-attributed. To refine the Artifact Embryo of the Mother-Child Ghost Head, he needed to use the somewhat extreme Blood Refining Technique.

Most Rogue Cultivators know blood refining, mainly because the steps are simple, making the technique widely available.

Just before the cave dwelling was finished, Li Mo took time to return to the Heart Beast Black Market.

He first went to Yi Bao Pavilion to buy an old coffin the size of an infant, along with over a hundred liters of woman's blood for the blood refining.

In the ancient immortal cultivation world, blood refining a Low-grade Magic Tool meant slaughtering at least a village of women and children, inevitably increasing bloodshed.

But in the present day, it was nothing.

After all, once mortals contract the Death Sickness and exceed forty years of age, their internal organs are nearly all rotted. What use is their blood?

They usually sell their blood in advance, and Yi Bao Pavilion had a considerable stock.

After replenishing his resources, Li Mo set out for the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm, burrowed into his cave dwelling, and stopped paying attention to the outside world.

Because several people had gone missing in the Mine Cave, it had been abandoned. With its crisscrossing tunnels, he didn't worry about any cultivator stumbling in.

The cave dwelling was only the size of a guest room, and the entrance required crouching to pass through, ensuring its concealment.

Li Mo took out the coffin, filled it with blood, then soaked the Yin Spirit Material "Ghost Pear" in it, occasionally adding Beast Bones to the coffin.

Ghost Pears only grow on pear trees in mass graves. Their shape resembles a human head, and their flesh carries a lethal poison that kills on contact.

Li Mo discovered one advantage of blood refining.

Although the required materials were somewhat expensive, as long as he followed the steps, the success rate was far beyond what the Basic Artifact Refining Method could match.

The Ghost Pear churned in the blood water, making a sizzling sound.

While monitoring the transformation of the spirit material, Li Mo simply arranged the cave dwelling.

He only spread a layer of dry grass on the ground and lit a candle lamp.

After a moment, just as the Ghost Pear was about to wither, he used the Desert Diagram to fish out the Artifact Embryo.

Li Mo examined the Artifact Embryo. Perhaps because Beast Bones had been added, its poor quality meant at most a Third Refinement.

He didn't have high demands for the Artifact Embryo; being able to perform a Second Refinement was enough.

For the First Refinement of the Mother-Child Ghost Head, the chosen spirit material was ordinary Yin wood, which could enhance the tool's Five Senses. Anything too expensive might draw attention.

As for the Second Refinement, Li Mo didn't plan to refine the Child Ghost Heads—only the Mother Ghost Head was needed. The spirit material was the brain marrow of a Boneless Bird.

He mixed the brain marrow with Bone Powder and evenly injected it into the Mother Ghost Head's interior.

After the Mother Ghost Head completed its Second Refinement, it didn't deviate from expectations. It could indeed share the Five Senses of the Child Ghost Heads. Li Mo let out a long breath.

But as he looked at the lifelike Mother Ghost Head, he couldn't help falling into thought.

Once refined, the Mother Ghost Head needed to parasitize a cultivator's flesh and blood. Within a few days, it would grow from the size of a fist to that of a normal human head.

Li Mo found himself troubled over where to temporarily place the Mother Ghost Head.

"Wait, as long as it's my own flesh and blood, it should work..."

Li Mo raised an eyebrow and cast a subtle glance at the Ghost Tiger. Wasn't the Tattooed Beast made of Flesh and Blood Spiritual Power? Once he canceled Paint Green Clothes, that spiritual power would return to him.

"Ghost Tiger, you're it."

"It won't take long. I just need to figure out the situation at Corpse Mountain."

Before the Ghost Tiger could react, Li Mo directly parasitized the Mother Ghost Head onto its back. But the head that grew wasn't human—it turned out to be a glaring Mountain Lord's Head.

A two-headed Ghost Tiger did indeed have a bit of an Exotic Beast flavor from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

After Li Mo refined the Mother Ghost Head, it formed a connection with the other Child Ghost Heads. On the surface, the Child Ghost Heads appeared to be independent tools.

The Ghost Tiger flicked its tail in discomfort but quickly grew accustomed to the Mother Ghost Head.

Li Mo deliberately made the finished artifacts uneven in quality to avoid anyone recognizing his unique refining style.

Being able to precisely control an artifact's quality within a certain margin of error—there were hardly a handful of Artifact Refiners in the entire Heart Beast Sect who could pull that off.

The refining process went smoothly, though scattering the Child Ghost Heads was a bit troublesome.

Li Mo didn't want to reveal that he had personally refined the Mother-Child Ghost Head, so selling them at a stall was out of the question, and troubling Jiang Xin'an was even less realistic.

He had indeed obtained the Magic Tool Catalogue from Yi Bao Pavilion, but many cultivators must have browsed through it. To be safe, his identity absolutely could not be exposed.

Li Mo agonized for a long time before finally setting his sights on the Viper Society.

As a gang force in the Heart Beast Black Market, a large portion of the Viper Society's income came from squeezing protection money out of low-rank cultivators.

Their main area of activity was south of the black market.

Taking advantage of the moment when Viper Society cultivators were collecting protection money, Li Mo stuffed the Storage Bag containing the Child Ghost Heads into their cloth sack.

The cultivators would later check the amount of protection money, take their own cut, and would definitely discover the dozen or so Child Ghost Heads.

Generally speaking, anyone who came into ill-gotten gains would get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Li Mo didn't mind the loss of Spirit Stones; his only fear was that the cultivators might choose to hand the items over to the Viper Society.

Fortunately, birds of a feather flock together—within half a day, the Child Ghost Heads appeared on the black market. Their selling price was even lower than Li Mo had anticipated, and they were quickly snapped up.

The Child Ghost Heads could help cultivators explore the depths of Corpse Mountain, and even if the hidden trap Li Mo left behind was discovered, the Viper Society would take the blame.

Next came waiting for things to unfold.

Li Mo, meanwhile, took out a large amount of Earth Attribute Spirit Materials and, while running his Circulation Cycle, ground the materials into powder, preparing for the Primordial Acquired Dao Body.