Pale Clay Sculpture

Li Mo understood that the Child Ghost Head was indeed one of the reasons rogue cultivators gathered in the secret realm, but the main cause was still human greed.

Judging by the trends in the black market, the surgery for transplanting eyeballs had already risen in popularity; the Child Ghost Head merely fanned the flames.

After Li Mo fled, over a dozen cultivators gathered at the entrance of the abandoned cave dwelling. From their attire, it was clear they all belonged to the Viper Society from the black market.

The Viper Society's leader, Xu Guangcheng, stood among the crowd. The surrounding cultivators remained silent before him, not daring to speak.

Xu Guangcheng barely retained a human form, his most striking features being the snake scales covering his skin and his boneless legs.

Beneath his armpits, Child Ghost Heads were visible, showing that he too had refined Li Mo's artifact.

Xu Guangcheng spat out a bloody tongue, toying with a freshly excavated Low-grade Spirit Material, inadvertently letting foul saliva drip from his mouth.

All along, the Viper Society had no intention of interfering with the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.

But driven by the lure of profit, Xu Guangcheng could no longer hold back and entered the fray, pulling most of the cultivators guarding the black market over.

However, since most mine caves were occupied by various factions, the Viper Society could only choose the relatively more dangerous abandoned mine caves.

"What's the situation?"

"Reporting to the leader, there was a Mad Daoist in the cave... in seclusion here. It seems he sensed our arrival and immediately left."

"Seclusion?"

A sneer curled at the corner of Xu Guangcheng's mouth. Who would go into seclusion in a secret realm fraught with danger? Did they think their life was too long?

Still, judging by the setup inside the cave dwelling, it seemed to be true.

The cave dwelling had been hastily carved out. The ground was covered with dry grass, and in the center was a two-meter-deep pit, likely the aftermath of a backlash from practicing a spell.

Xu Guangcheng stretched lazily and said casually, "Listen up. Find his trail as soon as possible, alive or dead."

The cultivators quickly agreed but couldn't help exchanging uneasy glances. Who knew what dangers lurked in the mine caves?

After speaking, a trace of venom flickered in Xu Guangcheng's eyes.

He wiped the blood from his palm. If he had discovered the function of the Ghost Head artifact earlier, the Viper Society wouldn't have needed to come to the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm at all. They could have made a fortune just by selling the artifacts.

Xu Guangcheng had already killed the cultivator who had been embezzling, hanging the corpse at the cave entrance.

He didn't care much about Li Mo. After all, what threat could a rat pose? Most likely, he was just a rogue cultivator driven mad by the secret realm's horrors.

Beneath notice.

Little did Xu Guangcheng know that Li Mo was watching his every move through the Child Ghost Head.

In Li Mo's eyes, the Viper Society was a chess piece of little consequence. Once they entered the abandoned mine cave, they were no longer their own masters.

Li Mo found a secluded corner and had the Ghost Tiger dig out a new cave dwelling.

This time, the cave was dug deep underground. As long as the entrance was sealed, no cultivator would notice it—far more concealed.

Li Mo projected his consciousness into the Ghost Tiger, using it to communicate with the Mother Ghost Head.

He noticed that five cultivators within the Corpse Mountain had refined Child Ghost Heads. Three of them were controlled by black market forces and hadn't rushed deeper.

The other two rogue cultivators, however, had already penetrated two kilometers into the Corpse Mountain.

It was foreseeable that the Corpse Mountain's decomposition and decay would accelerate dramatically, its surface already swelling with countless wounds.

Li Mo felt a slight regret.

His main goal was the object that had stirred the Book of Fortune, but if he focused all his energy on excavating spirit materials, he could probably pile them into a mountain.

Li Mo glanced toward the direction where the Viper Society cultivators had gathered. He could hear the sharp clang of tools striking the rock wall—they had started digging.

"Actually, it's fine. Isn't the Viper Society here?"

"Free labor, after all."

Li Mo and the Viper Society had been at odds for some time. After all, artifact refiners were dripping with profit, and there was also the old score with Yin Xue. They had only been held back by the black market's rules.

Seeing that the Ghost Tiger had already carved out the temporary cave dwelling, Li Mo crawled into the tunnel and sealed the entrance with rubble and chunks of bloody flesh.

He placed the Glass Jar in front of him, occasionally adding some Spirit Material Powder inside.

The Dao Seed's growth continued; it would take a few more days to mature.

While maintaining his Circulation Cycle, Li Mo split his attention to monitor the Child Ghost Heads in various locations. The exploration of the Corpse Mountain proceeded steadily.

As it turned out, human greed was endless.

Even knowing that unspeakable horrors lurked deep within the Corpse Mountain, they charged in without looking back, driven solely by the Child Ghost Head.

Li Mo had yet to find any trace of the so-called "Clay Sculpture" rumored in the Heart Beast Black Market.

He tried to search for the Clay Sculpture through the Child Ghost Head's perspective, but for days on end, all he saw were cultivators monotonously digging for ore.

Li Mo eventually anchored his consciousness to a rogue cultivator who had ventured nearly three kilometers deep.

Under the influence of the Metal Toxin, the rogue cultivator's greed was magnified countless times, his mind filled with dreams of Achieving Immortality and Enlightenment.

Li Mo tentatively made the Child Ghost Head blink. Seeing that the rogue cultivator remained completely focused, he boldly turned its neck.

The full view of the mine cave came into sight.

Just as he was about to give up, a pale figure seemed to stand in the distant darkness.

The figure's posture was bizarre, truly unlike an ordinary person, and after a long observation, it remained motionless.

The Child Ghost Head turned its head away, and the moment it turned back, the figure had already advanced several dozen meters, closing to within a hundred meters of the Rogue Cultivator.

Li Mo could vaguely make out that the figure was an ordinary Clay Sculpture made of yellow mud, its surface covered with cracks left by drying.

The Clay Sculpture's face had no features, but its sunken eye sockets appeared exceptionally horrifying.

Li Mo's scalp went numb.

The Rogue Cultivator also noticed the Clay Sculpture, and his expression instantly twisted into sheer terror. His legs trembling, he knelt down and began crawling back along the path he came from.

With the Child Ghost Head fixed on the Clay Sculpture, it indeed remained still.

But every time they passed a fork in the road, the moment the Child Ghost Head lost sight of the Clay Sculpture, it would inexplicably appear in a blind spot.

Without the Child Ghost Head, the Clay Sculpture would likely already be on the Rogue Cultivator's back.

Li Mo checked the other Child Ghost Heads, cautiously scanning his surroundings.

Then he noticed a chilling detail: aside from Xu Guangcheng, every other cultivator had already been targeted by a Clay Sculpture.

The Clay Sculptures were not a single entity; there were likely many of them.

This meant that if a cultivator was entangled by two or more Clay Sculptures at once, even with a Child Ghost Head present, they would still find it hard to escape death.

The safe boundary should be around fifteen hundred meters.

Without Li Mo's warning, the cultivators inside the secret realm would soon catch on, but the factions that had already tasted gains would never back down.

They would certainly come up with countermeasures.

Any Spell that increased the number of eyeballs, or a magical tool similar to the Child Ghost Head, would be in high demand at the Heart Beast Black Market.

For now, Smelting Town's stance was unclear, but at least as things continued to develop, it was exactly what Li Mo hoped for—the murkier the waters, the more opportunities.

Li Mo felt a measure of wariness, so he summoned all the Tattooed Beasts to the outside world.

He maintained only the minimum amount of Flesh and Blood Spiritual Power, making the Tattooed Beasts slightly miniaturized in size, distributed around the cave dwelling to ensure no blind spots.

The transformation of the Dao Seed gradually settled down with time.

Li Mo could no longer see any trace of the Mist-born Carp Swim Bladders; its appearance was now like some kind of aberrant heart, constantly writhing in the water.