Li Mo also understood that the Child Ghost Heads were indeed one reason rogue cultivators had gathered in the Secret Realm, but the main reason was still the greed of human nature.
One could see it from the winds blowing through the Black Market: surgeries to transplant eyeballs had already begun to rise. The Child Ghost Heads had merely made the flames burn even hotter.
After Li Mo fled, more than a dozen cultivators gathered before the entrance of the cave dwelling he had left behind. Their clothing revealed that they all belonged to the Viper Society of the Black Market.
The Viper Society's leader was named Xu Guangcheng. He stood amid the crowd, while the cultivators around him remained silent before him, not daring to make a sound.
Xu Guangcheng was barely human in shape. His most obvious features were the snake scales covering his skin and his boneless-looking legs.
A Child Ghost Head could also be seen beneath his armpit, showing that he had likewise refined Li Mo's artifact.
Scarlet flesh protruded from Xu Guangcheng's mouth as he toyed with the newly excavated Low-grade Spirit Material. Foul-smelling saliva dripped out carelessly.
The Viper Society had never intended to interfere with the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.
Yet under the lure of profit, Xu Guangcheng could no longer restrain himself from entering the fray. He had transferred over half the cultivators guarding the Black Market.
However, since most Mine Caves were occupied by various factions, the Viper Society could only choose the relatively more dangerous abandoned Mine Caves.
"What is the situation?"
"Reporting to the leader, there was a Mad Daoist in the cave... cultivating in seclusion here. He seemed to notice our arrival and left immediately."
"Cultivating in seclusion?"
Mockery appeared at the corner of Xu Guangcheng's mouth. Who would cultivate in seclusion in a Secret Realm fraught with danger on every side? Was he tired of living too long?
Yet judging by the furnishings in the cave dwelling, it was probably true.
The cave dwelling had been hastily excavated. Dry grass covered the ground, while a two-meter-deep pit lay at its center, seemingly the result of a backlash from practicing a Spell.
Xu Guangcheng stretched lazily and said casually, "Listen. Find his trail as soon as possible, dead or alive."
The cultivators repeatedly acknowledged his order, though they could not help exchanging looks. Ghosts knew what dangers lurked in the mine cave.
After speaking, a trace of venomous resentment flashed through Xu Guangcheng's eyes.
He wiped the blood from his palm. Had he discovered the Ghost Head artifact's function sooner, the Viper Society would not have needed to come to the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm at all. They could have made a fortune simply by selling artifacts.
Xu Guangcheng had long since killed the cultivators who had lined their own pockets, and their corpses hung at the cave entrance.
He did not care much about Li Mo. What threat could a rat possibly pose? Eight times out of ten, he was a rogue cultivator driven mad by the bizarre Secret Realm.
Not worth mentioning.
Xu Guangcheng did not know that Li Mo was watching his every move through a Child Ghost Head.
In Li Mo's eyes, the Viper Society was a Chess Piece that could be discarded at any time. Once they entered the abandoned mine cave, their fate was no longer theirs to decide.
Li Mo found a secluded corner and had the Ghost Tiger excavate a new cave dwelling.
This cave dwelling was opened downward into the earth. As long as the entrance was sealed, no cultivator would notice it at all, making it even more concealed.
Li Mo attached his consciousness to the Ghost Tiger and used it to communicate with the Mother Ghost Head.
He noticed that a total of five cultivators within Corpse Mountain had refined Child Ghost Heads. Three of them were controlled by Black Market forces and had not hurried deeper inside.
Meanwhile, two rogue cultivators had already ventured two thousand meters into Corpse Mountain.
It was foreseeable that Corpse Mountain's speed of decomposition and decay would greatly increase. Vast swollen wounds had already appeared across its surface.
Li Mo felt somewhat regretful.
His primary target was the thing causing the Book of Fortune to stir, but if he focused his energy on excavating Spiritual Herbs, the Spiritual Herbs he obtained would likely be enough to pile into a mountain.
Li Mo glanced toward where the Viper Society cultivators had gathered. He could hear the crisp clanging of tools striking the rock wall, showing that they had begun digging.
"That is fine, really. Isn't there still the Viper Society?"
"They are free labor, after all."
Li Mo and the Viper Society had constantly clashed during this period. Artifact Refiners had plenty of oil water on them, and there was also the old score with Yin Xue. They had merely refrained from erupting because of the Black Market's rules.
Seeing that the Ghost Tiger had excavated the temporary cave dwelling, he crawled into the tunnel and used scattered flesh and blood and rocks to block the entrance.
Li Mo placed the Glass Jar before him and occasionally added some Spirit Material Powder into it.
The Dao Seed continued to grow and was expected to take several more days to take shape.
While maintaining the Circulation Cycle, Li Mo used his Spirit Division to monitor the Child Ghost Heads in various places. The exploration of Corpse Mountain proceeded in an orderly fashion.
The truth proved that human greed had no end.
Even knowing that indescribable horrors lurked in the depths of Corpse Mountain, they still headed in without turning back, relying only on the Child Ghost Heads.
To this day, Li Mo had not discovered the so-called "Clay Sculpture" circulating in the Heart Beast Black Market.
He wanted to search for traces of the Clay Sculpture through the Child Ghost Heads' perspectives, but for several days straight, all he saw was cultivators tediously mining.
Li Mo simply stationed his consciousness within the rogue cultivator who had ventured nearly three thousand meters deep.
Under the influence of the Metal Toxin, the rogue cultivator's greed had been amplified countless times. His mind was filled with beautiful dreams of Achieving Immortality and Enlightenment.
Li Mo tentatively controlled the Child Ghost Head to blink. Seeing that the rogue cultivator remained fully focused, he brazenly turned its neck.
The mine cave's full layout came into view.
Just as he was about to give up, a deathly pale figure seemed to be standing in the darkness ahead.
The figure's posture was strange and truly unlike that of an ordinary person. Even after observing it for a long while, it remained motionless.
The Child Ghost Head turned away, and the instant it turned back, the figure had advanced dozens of meters, coming within a hundred meters of the rogue cultivator.
Li Mo could vaguely see that the figure was a Clay Sculpture made of ordinary yellow mud, its surface covered in cracks left by drying in the wind.
The Clay Sculpture's face had no features, yet its sunken eye sockets appeared exceptionally horrifying.
Li Mo's scalp went numb.
The rogue cultivator also noticed the Clay Sculpture. His expression immediately turned incomparably terrified. His legs trembled as he dropped to his knees and slowly crawled back the way he had come.
With a Child Ghost Head watching the Clay Sculpture, it indeed remained still.
But every time they passed a fork in the path and the Child Ghost Head lost sight of it, the Clay Sculpture would inexplicably appear in a blind spot of its vision.
Without the Child Ghost Head, the Clay Sculpture would likely already have been on the rogue cultivator's back.
Li Mo checked the other Child Ghost Heads and cautiously swept their surroundings.
He then noticed something that became more terrifying the more he thought about it. Aside from Xu Guangcheng, every other cultivator had already been targeted by Clay Sculptures.
There was not merely one Clay Sculpture. There were likely quite a few.
Thus, if a cultivator became entangled by two or more Clay Sculptures at once, then even with a Child Ghost Head, death would still be unavoidable.
The boundary of safety should be around fifteen hundred meters.
There was no need for Li Mo to warn them. The cultivators in the Secret Realm would soon realize it themselves, but how could the various factions that had tasted sweetness possibly stop?
They would certainly devise countermeasures.
Any Spell capable of increasing the number of eyeballs, or artifacts similar to Child Ghost Heads, would be in such demand at the Heart Beast Black Market that supply could never meet it.
Smelting Town's attitude remained unclear for the time being, but at the very least, if things continued developing, it was exactly what Li Mo wanted. The muddier the water, the more opportunities there would be.
Li Mo was somewhat wary, so he summoned all the Tattooed Beasts into the outside world.
He maintained only the minimum amount of Flesh and Blood Spiritual Power, making the Tattooed Beasts slightly miniature as they spread throughout the cave dwelling, ensuring there were no blind spots.
The Dao Seed's metamorphosis also gradually settled into calm with the passage of time.
Li Mo could no longer see any trace of the Mist-born Carp Swim Bladders. It resembled an unusual heart, constantly wriggling in the water.
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