The hill where Rong Town was located had a poorly managed west side, an impoverished district teeming with living corpses afflicted by the Death Disease.
Additionally, the back of the hill never received sunlight throughout the year, leading to severe mold infestations.
Approaching the west side of the town, one could smell an indescribable stench, and faint groans of pain echoed from the corners of the streets.
Passersby were emaciated like withered bones, their skeletal remains sometimes visible through their skin, defenseless under the ravages of the Death Disease.
The only relief lay in the proximity of the Government Office on the northern side of the town, with a significant patrol presence from its soldiers on a regular basis.
Even Deceit Beasts rarely appeared on the west side; the prey here had no meat to spare, their hearts long rotted away by the Death Disease.
Though spared from the disaster of Deceit Beasts, the west side remained deeply mired in the aftershocks of the Beast Calamity.
That very day, hundreds of soldiers sealed off dozens of households near the town wall, strictly prohibiting the entry or exit of bystanders while an increasing number of cultivators ventured in to investigate the situation.
Even in instances of man-eating Deceit Beasts, the Government Office had never shown such vigilance.
The air carried a peculiar metallic tang, intermingled with the smell of decaying corpses, making it hard to tell whether the scent came from blood.
Moments later, misshapen and grotesque corpses were carried out by the soldiers, drawing horrified gasps from the onlookers.
The corpses were covered with dozens of arms, especially their ribcages and abdominal cavities, which were entirely filled with arms.
The Government Office immediately issued a mission, and more and more cultivators entered the restricted zone.
No matter how intently they searched, they could find no trace of Deceit Beasts, nor could they fully discern the source of the calamity.
While it's true that chaos inevitably ensues after a Beast Calamity in Rong Town, the Multi-limb Syndrome did not seem to be caused by the Deceit Beasts.
It appeared without warning and targeted specific groups of people.
Cultivators remained immune to Multi-limb Syndrome, while mortals succumbed to its widespread contagion, pushing the Medical Halls to their limits as amputee patients lined up out the doors.
Li Mo kept his spiritual tablet close to his chest, and from time to time he could sense disturbances from it, indicating that Rong Town had been far from peaceful in recent days.
He didn't check the tablet but instead focused on breaking through in his cultivation.
Li Mo repeatedly cycled his Mist Fog Spiritual Power through his Circulation Cycle, simultaneously absorbing external spiritual energy to continue solidifying the spiritual power within his multiple dantians.
The Mist Fog Spiritual Power coursing through his meridians felt like a relentless river on the verge of overflowing its banks, but the breakthrough continued to elude him.
Under the influence of the spiritual power, his blood—concentrated by the Green Blood and Red Heart—scoured his body, gradually strengthening his physique.
Li Mo drew in a sharp breath of air.
Beads of blood seeped through his skin, and both his meridians and blood vessels had reached the limits of what he could currently endure.
Li Mo gritted his teeth against the pain; having such a solid foundation was proving to be as much a hindrance as a boon.
The divine skills from the Creation Book were subtly altering his innate talent, promising long-term benefits but dragging out his First Level of Puberty to what felt like an eternity.
Li Mo watched helplessly as his life force and spiritual power continued to accumulate within him.
In the end, he simply activated Hui Qingyi, summoning the Red Fox and Ghost Tiger tattoos to help shoulder the burden. He restricted the flow of spiritual power into the tattoos to half its potential.
The Beast Head Tattoos on his arms vanished, and the two Exotic Beasts materialized, but with such meager spiritual energy and blood constituting their forms, they were each only the size of a cat or dog.
Even so, the furniture in the room was instantly upended by their presence, with scorching heat and chilling cold intertwining in the air.
The Red Fox's fiery red fur appeared smoky and ash-like as its vibrant tail swished back and forth.
The Ghost Tiger exhaled black mist from its snout, its form flickering menacingly in the dimly-lit room.
The two beasts squared off.
However, rather than fight, they obediently helped Li Mo endure both the spiritual power and life force, while reaping some benefits from the process.
Over the course of several days, Li Mo brought his body back to its peak state. Just as his meridians and blood vessels settled, the pain returned.
He calmly reorganized his thoughts and then drew back the spiritual power and life force he had poured into the Tattooed Beasts.
What Li Mo was doing would have been considered suicide seven thousand years ago—if he lost control, destruction of his meridians and dantians would have been instantaneous.
However, in modern times, as long as the meridians and dantians could heal, the damage wouldn't compromise one's foundation.
Spiritual energy surged toward his Middle Dantian, while his blood quickened its flow once more.
As the Mist Fog Spiritual Power filled the Middle Dantian, Li Mo felt a rush of excitement. He sensed the bottleneck ahead, with only a final push left to break through.
Li Mo's eyes reddened, and the bodies of the two Tattooed Beasts began to shrink.
Blood seeped from his facial orifices, and his skin turned a sickly blue and purple, yet even at this extreme, his leakless body held the spiritual power securely in place.
The roar of the tiger and the cry of the fox echoed through the room!
The tipping point arrived—quantitative change triggered qualitative transformation. A strand of Mist Fog Spiritual Power, like the straw that broke the camel's back, merged into the Middle Dantian, causing all the stored spiritual power to boil over.
Li Mo exuded a faint Mist Fog from his pores, while the Tattooed Beasts lay prostrate beside him.
In just a few breaths, the Middle Dantian swelled to more than double its original size, while the protective layering of his multi-layered dantians increased to tenfold.
Li Mo opened his eyes, brimming with joy, as if he had just cleared away lingering clouds to glimpse the light.
He no longer needed to consciously manipulate the Mist Fog Spiritual Power; his heart began absorbing strands of the energy naturally, initiating a gradual transformation toward a Spirit Root.
Li Mo had seen the Mist Fog Spiritual Energy's Corpse Spirit Root before at Miao Shou Inn, with its overall candle-like, waxy appearance.
However, he couldn't shake the feeling that his heart was leaning toward something akin to stone, while his blood underwent an indescribable transformation.
Li Mo tested his Universal Skillful Hand technique, finding it more seamless and fluid than ever.
There was no need to mention Hui Qingyi; his Tattooed Beasts had greatly benefited during his breakthrough, and after returning to their Beast Head Tattoos, they began digesting their gains.
Once the Corpse Spirit Root fully formed, his Magic Skills would improve drastically, and the efficiency of absorbing external spiritual energy would soar.
Li Mo tidied up his wrecked room and continued his Circulation Cycle to stabilize his cultivation. When he came back to his senses, two days had already passed.
Unable to resist, he checked his spiritual tablet, only to find it filled with information about the "Multi-limb Syndrome."
In particular, over the last month, the Government Office had poured immense resources into scouring the town for the source of the syndrome, unearthing over a dozen concealed Deceit Beasts in the process.
What puzzled Li Mo, however, was that in the ten days leading up to his breakthrough, reports of Multi-limb Syndrome had gradually declined.
He used the spiritual tablet to send a message to Jin Li, inquiring about the matter.
the threat of Multi-limb Syndrome had been quelled, causing only minor casualties. However, the delayed response came close to alerting the various Shopkeepers.
Li Mo felt a vague unease.
A calamity among mortals had disappeared just like that, inexplicably and without a trace?
He resolved to meet Jin Li under the pretense of leaving seclusion, arranging to meet at the tea house in front of the pawn shop, to clear up what exactly had transpired during his isolation.
At the same time, he was considering leaving the town. He planned to use Jin Li to find the exact location of the black market.
To gain inheritance of Skills and Magic within Rong Town, Li Mo needed permission from the Manager and had to apply through the Medical Hall.
Let alone the exorbitantly expensive beast materials.
He harbored hope that, perhaps on the black market, he could find a way to increase the blank pages of the Creation Book.