The blazing sun shone high, yet Black Wind Ridge, formed by Inner Sect Beasts, had a division between day and night.
Li Mo noticed a plethora of details.
The butcher with a pig’s head and a human body had visible stitching marks at the junction of human and pig skin on the neck, perpetually oozing blood, with clothes long stained crimson.
The rest of the Deceit Beasts were in the same condition, filling the air with a bloody scent.
"Are you a newcomer Little Demon to Black Wind Ridge? How about some freshly brewed mountain tea?
A vendor with a weasel’s face stopped, putting down the pole on his shoulder, only to accidentally tear half of the human skin off his arm.
The vendor carefully pasted the human skin back on, still inviting Li Mo.
Li Mo squinted his eyes, sizing up the vendor, who kept on babbling: "No need for silver coins, you look like you’ve only recently gained Spiritual Wisdom, more mountain tea can boost your vitality."
The vendor opened a wooden box, filled with dried brains that appeared fluffy and black, indeed resembling tea leaves.
The brains were oiled, emitting a peculiar scent unique to spiritual material.
Li Mo figured the brains likely came from beasts and seemed beneficial for vitality, but the downsides remained unknown.
He waved his hand to refuse and finally managed to send away the weasel vendor.
But before he took a couple of steps, he was blocked by a half-deer selling herbs, who stuffed some herbs to Li Mo without care.
The herbs’ roots were stained with flesh, seemingly cultivated through corpses.
It was evident that all resources in Black Wind Ridge were based on fellow creatures’ corpses, making the Deceit Beasts’ actions akin to feeding livestock.
Li Mo refused various forms of kindness, as grotesque Deceit Beasts forced out awkward smiles, reminiscent of virtuous monks.
He tiredly avoided them, turning into a small alley.
The town was full of similar scenes, with Deceit Beasts devoid of human features receiving star-like attendance.
After consuming spiritual material, the Deceit Beasts’ physique improved yet felt somehow ungrounded.
"Black Wind Ridge..."
Li Mo stood in the shadows, his substantial aura causing several Deceit Beasts to retreat, as poison bees poured out from his mouth and nose, delving into town exploration.
He discovered Black Wind Ridge’s layout was similar to Rong Town, but without a division between inner and outer cities, and the central area’s buildings were generally more elevated.
Li Mo was in the West City but unfortunately found no trace of Han Cai and others.
Walking along the shadows in West City, he noticed that Black Wind Ridge had an abundance of temples, with the revered Immortal God having no name, depicted as a figure with three heads, six arms, and eight legs, with many human attributes.
The temple’s incense offerings were abundant, and the Deceit Beasts coming and going appeared devout.
"The regulations of Black Wind Ridge seem more refined than the Beast Calamities encountered before."
Li Mo glanced up at the sky, noticing that the sun had sunk to the mountain’s foot. Guided by the poison bees, he proceeded to an abandoned temple.
With poison bees as scouts, even though Li Mo’s bear form was huge, he skillfully evaded all Deceit Beasts.
By the time Li Mo reached the ruined temple, most of the light on the horizon had faded.
The time flow within Black Wind Ridge was distinctly faster than the outside. It felt as though two hours had passed in merely half a day.
The remaining sun hung at the mountain’s base. The street remained lively, yet the Deceit Beasts started to keep their distance, and interactions became fewer.
They intentionally dispersed, seemingly awaiting something.
"Deceit Beasts turning benevolent? I don’t believe you."
Though the ruined temple was drafty, its elevated position provided a clear view of West City, unknowingly suffused with a murderous atmosphere.
Li Mo summoned the Ghost Tiger to hide in the shadows, waiting for Black Wind Ridge’s true nature to be unveiled.
Perhaps because the ruined temple was too secluded, along with the fact that Deceit Beasts gathered elsewhere, not even a single Deceit Beast appeared within several kilometers around Li Mo.
Li Mo initially had some concerns but soon grew brazen.
Seeing that the temple’s statue only had a base left, he sat cross-legged on the altar, chewing a Mid-grade Spirit Stone to replenish his Cultivation.
The Dantian was gradually filling, with half the journey of the Weak Crown Middle Stage already completed, attributed to Li Mo’s habit of distracting himself with cultivation whenever free.
As the sun sank low, the remaining light vanished completely.
The once bustling street abruptly fell silent; Black Wind Ridge’s benevolence dissipated into thin air as Deceit Beasts simultaneously made saliva-swallowing motions, their breathing growing heavier.
The night descended, and a single beast’s howl shattered the peace.
The weasel revealed its cunning expression; one moment selling mountain tea, the next exposing its ferocity, tossing away the shoulder pole in an instant.
It tore at its clothes, patched human skin covering its body, with the oozing blood turning dark red, appearing exceedingly bizarre.
The human skin was evidently from different cultivators, who knew how many pieces were related to Hu Wen.
The weasel eagerly pounced on the nearest Deceit Beast, catching it off guard, its viscera immediately clawed out.
Dragging the corpse to the roadside, gnawing its five viscera and six entrails.
Such scenes of Deceit Beasts cannibalizing one another unfolded on Black Wind Ridge’s streets, akin to a primordial revelry, with morality dictated solely by the day’s light.
As the weasel feasted on the corpse, none of the other Deceit Beasts interfered.
Once the five viscera were emptied, the weasel’s expression turned devout, kneeling before the corpse, muttering a strangely intoned Soul Calming Spell.
"Fear the heavens trembling, fear the earth’s tranquility, fear the roaming souls not dispersing, spirits of demon and ghost..."
After reciting the Soul Calming Spell, the weasel used its claws to tear off parts of the corpse’s human skin, the trembling arms revealing inner excitement.
Holding the skin in its hands, it carefully cut away its flesh and sewed them with steel needles, gritting its teeth in pain.
Merely a piece of human skin, but the weasel’s aura surged significantly.
"I’m transforming into a human!!"
The weasel danced with joy, and the surrounding Deceit Beasts, seeing it had completed sewing the human skin, rushed towards it covetously.
The human skin changed hands several times, prompting increasingly mad behavior.
Human Transformation is a creed of Black Wind Ridge, instinctively pursued by Deceit Beasts. The act of gifting spiritual material to peers resembles fattening them up for slaughter.
Some newly born Deceit Beasts lacked human skin, and upon overcoming brief confusion, couldn’t resist joining the bloody frenzy.
A heavily wounded Deceit Beast persevered towards the ruined temple.
Li Mo opened his eyes.
Before the Deceit Beast could react, Ghost Tiger opened its massive jaws and devoured it, promptly returning beside Li Mo with a prideful motion.
Li Mo collected some Deceit Beast Blood and directly absorbed the body into Corpse Mountain.
The Evergreen Tree greedily absorbed the blood, the fruits on its branches rapidly enlarged, covered in vein-like tumors, pulsating like hearts, triggering Deceit Beasts’ cravings.
The rest of the body was instantly absorbed by Corpse Mountain, turned into nutrients.
Li Mo couldn’t help but feel a surge of intent.
In his view, Black Wind Ridge was a Blessed Land Cave Heaven, brimming with resources.
A rough estimate placed at least two to three thousand Deceit Beasts within Black Wind Ridge, continuously supplemented, making it a place that begged for a harvest.
Li Mo licked his lips, closed his eyes, and communicated with the poison bees in the town.
He didn’t rush to take action, first seeking to understand the Deceit Beasts’ reality. Han Cai and the others were likely laying traps for the Mountain Lord Strange Beast.
Li Mo had a hunch that Shi Ji wouldn’t sit idly by.
Putting himself in Shi Ji’s shoes, even without a way out, he would consider implanting Puppet Cultivation among the Beast Calamity.
"To say there are no Puppet Cultivations in a town full of houses like Black Wind Ridge, isn’t that unrealistic."
Li Mo let out a peculiar laugh, intending to deploy a tactic of secretly crossing the enemy, both to assess the effect and to probe the existence of Puppet Cultivation.
With a thought, Ghost Tiger vanished into the night.
Ghost Tiger roamed the nearby streets, primarily ambushing severely injured Deceit Beasts, retreating into shadows if overwhelmed.
The slaughter of Black Wind Ridge lasted until the morning light.
Then the Deceit Beasts seemed to regain their senses, Li Mo even heard faint sobbing sounds, despite all of them being covered in blood.
The Deceit Beasts began cleaning the street, repeatedly washing the gaps in the tiles with well water, putting the bone scraps in coffins to be sent to various temples.
Near the city gate lay an empty area, from which new Deceit Beasts were born.
First, an organ resembling a palace chamber grew, swelling visibly, with various Deceit Beasts emerging dazed.
The organ exhausted, Deceit Beasts stepped and merged into Black Wind Ridge.
Li Mo shook his head with a cold sneer; it’s said that most Inner Sect Beasts were once Melting Town Cultivators, transformed after escaping to the Inner City District before death.
However, the Mountain Lord Strange Beast of Black Wind Ridge was slightly different.
It’s rumored the Mountain Lord Strange Beast dates back two thousand years, possibly always residing in the Inner City District, Li Mo even suspected a connection to the Heart Beast Sect.
After a night of observation, Li Mo understood the power differences among the Deceit Beasts.
A transplant of three parts human skin reached Early Stage of Youth levels; five parts equaled Weak Crown Middle Stage; around seven parts, akin to the Late Teenage stage.
Li Mo hadn’t encountered a Fake Core Stage Deceit Beast, but with Black Wind Ridge’s perpetually cycling slaughter, the existence of Human-shaped Deceitful Beasts seemed plausible.
"In any case, it’s refuge. Let’s restore peak condition first."
Eagerly, Li Mo took Black Wind Ridge as a secluded retreat, plotting on how to handle the Deceit Beasts and harvest Beast Calamity resources.
Days unknowingly passed.
Li Mo, remaining unmoved, exploited the stealth of the poison bees to cover the area around the ruined temple, deciphering the Deceit Beasts’ habits.
In general, the Deceit Beasts of Black Wind Ridge were indeed of dull Spiritual Wisdom, rigidly repeating pre-established patterns regardless of strength.
"Perhaps I can make the Deceit Beasts willingly offer flesh and blood.
Li Mo’s ideas gradually solidified, his eyes gleaming with a trace of brilliance.
To ensure no leakage of aura, he used Spirit Concealing Wood for a simple arrangement, then, using Evergreen Tree Fruit as the primary material, started refining a Magic Artifact.
Li Mo, for the first time, deviated from the Magic Artifact Catalog, yet it wasn’t exactly an original creation, with finished product holding only storage capability.
The Magic Artifact was a statue over five meters, featuring three heads, six arms, and eight legs, with metallic spiritual material mingled with two Evergreen Tree Fruits.
After hesitating for a few moments, Li Mo inscribed the Southern Dipper Crossing People Scripture’s opening on the statue’s face.
The Deceit Beasts of Black Wind Ridge stirred somewhat, as if an innate desire was awakened but vanished before they examined it further.
At the southern city’s edge dangled a colossal Eight-Armed Spider, muttering with a peculiar expression.
"Huh? Could it be that brat Li Mo?
"Never mind, Li Mo’s student still has some sense, unlikely to cause too much trouble, let’s first find those Puppet Cultivation rats."
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om