"Whether it is Chen Tiangang or Jiang Tianche, ascending to the Immortal Realm is an undeniable fact."
Li Mo narrowed his eyes. In his impression, the conditions for ascension in the ancient Cultivation World were incredibly harsh; one had to complete the Nine Realms of Immortality to even touch upon it.
From the Creation Book, he glimpsed that the Ninth Realm seemed to be called the Transcendance Tribulation Stage.
One needed to use their body and soul to withstand the residual might of the Heavenly Dao, thus earning the qualification to cleanse away the mundane and transform from a Mortal Body into an Immortal, setting foot on the Ascension Ladder.
Yet, for reasons unknown to Li Mo, after the great upheaval of heaven and earth seven thousand years ago, achieving immortality seemed to have become absurdly easy.
Tian Chenzi, who was at most at the Nascent Soul Stage, ascended merely through a Sacrificial Festival ritual.
As for Jiang Tianche, after transforming into the Great Mother Furnace, it was unclear whether he even advanced to the Divine Separation Stage, yet he repeatedly reopened the Ascension Ladder through the Ascension Conference.
It felt as though not only had the Cultivation World gone mad, even the Heavenly Dao had lost its mind.
The chaos at the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater grew more intense. With the Ascension Conference within the Illusion Realm reaching its climax, it drew the attention of countless cultivators.
Shops one after another shut their doors tightly, yet the streets were filled with figures.
After giving a few instructions to Han Cai and the others, Li Mo returned to the seclusion room of the Four Seas Refining Shop. Without hesitation, he activated the Nearby Array inside.
Although the Ascension Conference intrigued him greatly, if he missed the chance to sever ties with the Sub-Device Sect, he might be stuck in the sect forever.
Should the Sub-Device Sect successfully suppress the thousand-year calamity, it would become exceedingly difficult for him to slip away unnoticed.
"I won’t go back on my word. If I ever gain the strength to resolve the Sub-Device Sect’s troubles, I definitely will not stand idly by."
Li Mo shook his head slightly.
His most pressing concern now was to dual-cultivate a quick-advancement Demon Sect Skill, using a Demonic Nascent Soul to help his two Flawless Golden Cores ascend smoothly.
If he relied on painstaking effort to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage, it would likely take over five hundred years.
Perhaps for others, possessing the lifespan of immortality, spending five hundred years to break the Golden Core and form a Nascent Soul would not be a big deal.
But Li Mo was deeply unwilling.
Wasting five hundred years would mean facing the Uncertainty Period Death Disease with merely Core Formation Stage cultivation.
Though he might likely overcome it, his foundation would inevitably be damaged, leading to a vicious cycle, with each subsequent Death Disease growing more difficult to withstand.
Li Mo cast a glance at the deep darkness. Fortunately, he had made preparations.
He had planted Gu Worms in various places within the Sub-Device Sect to monitor the developments of the Ascension Conference and probe into the truth behind the upheaval of heaven and earth.
"No matter what, I must quickly escape the range of the Mother Furnace’s control."
Li Mo urged the Nearby Array. Rich spiritual energy filled the seclusion room, and the mysterious patterns exuded an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Han Cai and the others noticed the anomaly and understood that Li Mo was preparing to shed his Golden Cicada Shell. They took the initiative to activate the protective arrays of the shop to help conceal his aura.
Moments later, the figure within the Nearby Array disappeared.
Li Mo had already been transported to the Heart Beast Sect.
However, even though the array was named "Nearby," it did not instantly bring him to his destination.
When he regained consciousness, more than ten days had passed. Surveying his surroundings, he was now in the thriving Heart Beast Sect, where the number of disciples had surpassed ten thousand.
The Heart Beast Sect had grown tremendously in scale, with various buildings erected across the mountains. Birds and beasts were raised amidst the grass and woods to produce spiritual materials.
Tian Changwen seemed to have sensed the fluctuations of the array and hurried towards the Inner Sect.
Li Mo did not greet him. Instead, he summoned the Blood Sea and soared into the clouds, swiftly heading in the opposite direction of Duozhi Mountain.
Though he had left the Sub-Device Sect with the support of figures like Old Earth True Monarch, his actions were still considered treasonous by name. Contacting Tian Changwen would only bring unnecessary trouble to the Heart Beast Sect.
Tian Changwen, seeing this, likely guessed most of the situation. After deliberately covering the traces of the array, he chose to personally hold the line at the Inner Sect.
No matter the state of the Sub-Device Sect, protecting the Nearby Array remained a top priority.
Li Mo, wrapped in the Blood Sea, used his consciousness to connect with the Gu Worms in the Eleventh District. He soon discovered that the Sub-Device Sect seemed to have gained the upper hand.
The Mother Furnace, on the other hand, appeared to be cornered, its decline increasingly apparent.
"Even without achieving the Divine Separation Stage, the Mother Furnace shouldn’t be something mere Nascent Soul Stage cultivators could rival. How could it fall into such a disadvantage so easily?"
The progress of the Ascension Conference was even swifter than Li Mo had imagined.
Just after Li Mo departed via the Nearby Array, the spiritual energy within the Sub-Device Sect suddenly went into chaos, accompanied by a faint sigh echoing from the depths of the Meteorite Crater.
The port trembled in an instant.
Most cultivators were baffled, only realizing that something had shifted within the Sub-Device Sect, as achieving immortality was too distant to comprehend.
Low-level loose cultivators instinctively withdrew towards the stove land.
Artifact cultivators, following the instructions of their Taoist inheritance, chose to remain locked indoors. Order in the lower levels of the port was maintained entirely by faction powers.
Compared to the collective panic above the port, the depths beneath were eerily quiet.
The sound of chanting the Armament Covering Spell had ceased entirely, leaving the darkness with only a deathly silence. Even the phosphorescent lights had entirely disappeared.
All the Human Faces had converged on the Eleventh District, their fleshy surfaces now overlaid with the patterns of arrays, with suspended magic artifact incense burners appearing every half meter.
Top-grade spiritual materials used to suppress deviation crackled within the incense burners.
Six Nascent Soul Great Powers had already started vying with the Mother Furnace for control of the Taoist Body.
They opened their jaws wide, exposing their Nascent Soul heads. Substantial streams of spiritual power surged forth, manifesting a suffocating pressure.
For cultivators, the Nascent Soul was exceptionally fragile before attaining the Divine Separation Stage.
The slightest mishap could damage their foundation.
The actions of these Nascent Soul Great Powers clearly indicated desperation—the culmination of two to three thousand years of planning, where failure was not an option.
A multitude of Human Faces gradually regained their spiritual wisdom, their appearances no longer resembling Chen Tiangang.
They actively aided the Sub-Device Sect in repelling the Mother Furnace’s counterattacks. The longer it went on, the more Human Faces broke free, causing the balance of power to snowball in favor of the Sub-Device Sect.
The prerequisite for the Ascension Conference was three thousand Taoist Forms.
The simplest way for the Sub-Device Sect to disrupt the ritual was to reduce the number of Taoist Forms under the Mother Furnace’s control to below three thousand.
The situation within the Illusion Realm, however, was far more complex.
The Nascent Soul Great Powers had set up numerous measures around the mountain gate, pushing the Illusion Realm closer to collapse.
Figures like Big Deer Thousand Feet floated in mid-air, their eyes reflecting devastation within the mountain gate, accompanied by unprecedented anomalies.
Rivers flowing backward, mountain ranges hovering in the sky, phantom-like grass, trees, birds, and beasts transforming into masses of flesh...
"This is going too smoothly."
Old Earth True Monarch murmured, his expression grave.
Big Deer Thousand Feet added, "Indeed, there’s no sign of any resistance from the Mother Furnace."
Fan Mu remained noncommittal, his gaze fixed on the fierce battle between the Great Mother and the Taoist within the mountain gate.
They expanded their Divine Sense, scrutinizing every detail within the Illusion Realm.
On the Ascension Platform, the fleshy amalgamation continually shed Taoist Forms, indicating that the Human Faces in the outside world were now far below the required three thousand.
What deeply unnerved them, however, was the presence of a strikingly beautiful woman standing nearby.
The woman wore a green Daoist robe, a faint smile gracing her lips as she stared at the fleshy amalgamation. Her eyebrows bore a slight resemblance to Chen Tiangang.
Big Deer Thousand Feet knew that, in every previous Ascension Conference, "Chen Tiangang" would merge with the fleshy amalgamation to unlock the Immortal Ladder.
But in the current situation, with the Taoist Forms reduced to just eight or nine hundred, it was insufficient to sustain the Daytime Ascension Great Method.
The beautiful woman softly uttered the word, then stepped into the fleshy amalgamation, causing a withered giant to take shape.
Big Deer Thousand Feet and the others sighed helplessly.
Unless the Mother Furnace was harmed, there was no way to stop the Ascension Conference at its source. They could only watch as the beautiful woman began the process of breaking her chrysalis to become immortal.
The woman’s back split open, emitting an indescribable aura.
On the fleshy surface of the Eleventh District, a hundred-meter-large image of her face appeared.
In the outside world, the Nascent Soul Great Powers spat blood, staring at the beautiful woman in disbelief as the Ascension Conference pressed on.
Murky Immortal Energy spread out.
Within the flesh-melting cave, the crumbling Ascension Ladder gradually became visible.
The Nascent Soul Great Powers could no longer maintain their states, collapsing to the ground in helpless exhaustion. Their Nascent Souls began to wither and decay.
They looked towards the Ascension Ladder with terror.
Though it had not yet fully restored, the Immortal Energy-enveloped void atop it seemed to be birthing some entity that was descending from above.
The Nascent Soul Great Powers all understood that the apex of the Ascension Ladder led to the Immortal Realm; what was appearing now could only be an Immortal.
Li Mo’s consciousness, tethered to a corner-bound Gu Worm, was rattled by the sight, recalling Tian Chenzi’s descent—that undefined, ineffable Immortal.
One after another, heads the size of hundreds of meters emerged from the Ascension Ladder.
Li Mo braced himself as fear surged from deep within his heart, making his body tremble uncontrollably. Even the trajectory of the Blood Sea he flew in wobbled irregularly.
The Immortal bore seven heads in total, spanning all ages and genders, with Jiang Tianche—a head among them at the center—as the first to ascend. The heads tore at each other ferociously.
Jiang Tianche further pushed part of his malformed and hideous infant-like body into the mortal realm, his skin pale and naked.
Waaa... waaa... waaa...
The sound of sobbing echoed through the Eleventh District.
Li Mo was horrified. Jiang Tianche’s actions clearly indicated he was trying to escape the Immortal Realm, even at the cost of his flesh being shredded as he squeezed through the narrow confines of the Ascension Ladder.
The Eleventh District began to collapse, its phosphorescent lights turning unnaturally lively.
Radiant phosphorescence spread from the depths of the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater, extending toward the port and binding every fleshy surface together, presenting a twisted form of haunting beauty.
All of Li Mo’s Gu Worms lost vitality, forcing his consciousness to return to his body.
If Jiang Tianche were to descend, the Sub-Device Sect would undoubtedly be annihilated.
Not daring to gamble further, Big Deer Thousand Feet and the others—realizing the stakes—abandoned their control of the Taoist Forms. The withered giant gradually regained its peak form.
The beautiful woman stepped out from the fleshy wall, her appearance a blend of human, insect, and immortal. As she approached the Ascension Ladder, artifact cultivators within the Crater mysteriously dropped dead one after the other.
Jiang Tianche was dragged back into the Immortal Realm by countless grappling arms, his face marked by utter despair.
When the woman ascended the Immortal Ladder, Jiang Tianche instantly grew an eighth head, while the surrounding Nascent Soul Great Powers all reverted to lumps of flesh.
The Sub-Device Sect’s attempt to disrupt the Ascension Conference resulted in a more devastating loss than ever before.
Almost all Nascent Soul Great Powers perished, ordinary artifact cultivators suffered massive casualties, and only the Great Mother incarnated as Big Deer Thousand Feet emerged from the fleshy walls.
"Hahaha, there’s no escaping it."
Big Deer Thousand Feet’s mental state became erratic, even though he understood that figures like Old Earth True Monarch would eventually be nurtured anew by the Mother Furnace.
He suddenly remembered the sole person with potential to reach the Divine Separation Stage—Li Mo. If the latter wasn’t reincarnated back through the Mother Furnace, there might still be hope in the next millennium.
But if Li Mo were to die even once, advancing to the Divine Separation Stage would be impossible.
This was the Sub-Device Sect’s deepest despair—the Mother Furnace acted like a shackle, akin to the Heavenly Dao itself, making it nearly impossible to forge a Divine Separation Stage cultivator.
Big Deer Thousand Feet merged with the fleshy walls, traversing through the Crater.
"The Inner Sect is gone, the Outer Sect is gone, the port is gone; why is it that the Mother Furnace itself has disappeared?"