Li Mo trudged under the blistering sun.
With the aid of his photographic memory, he could multitask—cultivating while also absorbing foreign auras from the surroundings and conducting his Circulation Cycle.
After distancing himself from Rong Town, the number of travelers on the official road gradually diminished.
Li Mo cautiously observed his surroundings, repeatedly ensuring that no one was following him.
Passing by a shaded patch of greenery, his exposed skin began to writhe slightly, and his once-ordinary appearance transformed into one of delicate, otherworldly refinement.
After swapping between his old and new layers of human skin, even the Beast Head Tattoo vanished entirely.
Li Mo attempted to communicate with the Tattooed Beast and found that Hui Qingyi's technique was unaffected. On the contrary, his Leakless Body enabled him to lock in the Spell's aura.
Glancing back toward Rong Town, the ever-present sense of danger seemed to ease slightly.
Rong Town still rested amidst the encircling mountains. It appeared even more bustling than four years prior, but in truth, hidden undercurrents hinted at countless lurking dangers.
Li Mo muttered it to himself several times as he quickly turned onto a mountain path branching off from the official road.
From beginning to end, he had never mentioned the matter of the Child Device to anyone, nor had he attempted to investigate Multiple Limb Syndrome in the days leading up to his departure.
After all, as a cultivator still in the realm of childhood, even if he had demonstrated some potential, he held no voice in a cesspool as dangerous as Rong Town.
Li Mo had no way to prove the existence of the Child Device. Revealing any information would only lead to certain doom.
Moreover, he had a premonition: if Multiple Limb Syndrome was indeed man-made, then the upper echelons of Rong Town—and perhaps a shopkeeper—must surely be involved.
No matter whether the syndrome turned out to be a false alarm, temporarily leaving Rong Town and lying low was the safest option, allowing him to wait quietly for events to unfold.
A net cast into the lake would eventually surface, and when it rose above the water, that would signify the moment to draw it in.
Li Mo shook his head with a wry smile. Overthinking was pointless. For now, he would focus on completing his mission in River God Village before heading to the black market.
He retrieved a spiritual tablet and pressed it to his forehead, allowing information about River God Village to surge into his mind.
River God Village was two mountain peaks away from Niu Village and was said to be plagued by Deceit Beasts of the tiger variety.
Over the years, several cultivators had gone to investigate River God Village, but each time they only managed to slay some Fake Beasts to complete their task, while the true Deceit Beasts remained elusive.
Fake Beasts were mortals afflicted with the Death Disease, nurtured by a Deceit Beast's aura—similar to the human-faced deer Li Mo had once slain.
Li Mo accepted the task of investigating River God Village since it was conveniently on the way to Niu Village, and it posed no apparent danger. Those who had undertaken the task before were not high-level cultivators.
On the other hand, he was particularly interested in Deceit Beasts of the tiger variety.
Performing Blood Drenching with Deceit Beast Blood indeed risked causing the Beast Head Tattoo to spiral out of control, but with his Leakless Body, he might be able to mitigate the downsides.
However, there was something peculiar: if Fake Beasts occasionally appeared in River God Village, why hadn't the cultivators who had taken this task before returned to do it again?
Wasn't this essentially free Spirit Stones?
As he pondered this, Li Mo followed the mountain trail to the edge of the forest.
He paused the Circulation Cycle of spiritual power in his meridians and reined in his aura as much as possible, focusing his dual-purpose attention on Spirit Root Transformation within his heart.
At this point, Li Mo's heart had already mutated.
But his heart didn't resemble the waxy texture of ordinary Smog Corpse Spirit Roots; instead, it exhibited the grey-brown luster of stone.
At the same time, the Green Blood and Red Heart technique, influenced by the Spirit Root Transformation, had caused his viscous, syrup-like blood to accumulate grains of micro dust.
Li Mo's body subtly evolved, his physical strength already increased by more than fifty percent.
The most astonishing change was his weight.
Although Li Mo's appearance remained slightly lean, his weight had soared to 200 pounds without sacrificing any of his agility.
This proved his theories were indeed correct.
Using the Creation Book to imprint his Five Internal Organs, then undergoing Spirit Root Transformation, could maximize the effects of Divine Skills—an undeniably synergistic process.
There were still four blank pages left in the Creation Book, just enough for his liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.
The hoots of monkeys echoed continuously.
As Li Mo delved deeper into the forest, he could hear the restless sounds of various animals, but in two entire days, he hadn't seen a single one.
"A beast that's not a beast."
He recalled the remarks of an elder from Niu Village about the wildlife: sly, like human beings.
Li Mo's expression turned complicated, but he refrained from deliberately searching for wild animals.
Even for seasoned hunters, catching such creatures required months of trap-setting and preparation—far from realistic.
Although curious, Li Mo suppressed the distracting thoughts and pressed onward.
The bright sunlight filtered through the dense canopy of leaves, and amid the forest's shadowy depths, even his sense of time began to blur.
When Li Mo finally noticed a crystal-clear river, he realized River God Village must be nearby.
The Red Fox Tattoo stirred strangely, its rudimentary awareness informing Li Mo that there seemed to be a fresh corpse nearby, no more than two days old.
Guided by the Red Fox's intuition, Li Mo approached the location of the body.
Within just five miles, he found a porcupine carcass slumped under a tree. Due to the forest's high humidity and heat, its fur had already begun to rot.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Mo considered the laws of nature.
Rotting flesh was a prime meal for most omnivores, so by all accounts, the porcupine's body shouldn't have decomposed naturally.
He cautiously crept within a hundred meters of the corpse, confirming there were no signs of spiritual power fluctuations.
The porcupine bore no visible injuries, its fur a dull gray-white. It appeared to have died of natural causes, likely from organ failure due to old age.
In the wild, such cases of animals dying of old age were exceptionally rare.
Li Mo's breathing grew uneven. Years of questions seemed on the verge of resolution, but out of caution, he unleashed Mist Fog Silk Threads.
With a wave of his hand, the misty threads peeled away the porcupine's fur.
A shocking sight unfolded before him.
Underneath the porcupine's hide lay the corpse of a wiry, elderly man. His naked flesh was fused with the animal's fur, and his limbs had degenerated into hooves.
Li Mo used the Creation Book to examine the man's organs, discovering they were largely consistent with those of a regular human.
"A beast that's not a beast..."
No wonder the village elders prohibited women and children from participating in animal slaughter. They must have known all along that these so-called beasts were, in truth, nothing more than humans clad in animal skins.
Li Mo felt his scalp tingle. If the two hundred miles surrounding Rong Town were filled with such "half-beasts," their numbers would be unimaginable.
What could have caused this?
His gaze instinctively turned toward the Creation Book in his mind, where fragmented memories surfaced.
The fragments showed snippets of the past, all of which came from Outer Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect—clearly linked to the porcupine-like elder before him.
Could it be... that Rong Town wasn't truly the Heart Beast Sect's Outer Sect?
The real Outer Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect were the many so-called wild beasts within these two hundred miles, their legacy severed by Rong Town?!!
Yet ancient Skills and Magic held no relevance today. Once these beasts entered the Inner City District, they'd likely become what Manager Tian and others referred to as intelligent Deceit Beasts.
Li Mo found it all absurd.
But perhaps that was the truth. If the Beast Calamity and the Outer Door Competition were related, many questions would indeed find answers.
[Why did an abundance of deer appear at the mountain base after the Moose Monster revealed itself?
Because the deer sought to pass the Outer Door Competition and enter the Inner Sect for inheritance.]
What kind of catastrophe seven millennia ago caused such dramatic changes to spiritual energy, turning disciples of the Heart Beast Sect into these skin-wearing monstrosities?
Li Mo murmured, "It seems Rong Town is either built by thieves or the surviving disciples of the Heart Beast Sect."
The truth was nothing short of spine-chilling.