Zhou Tianqiong opened his mouth wide, and his teeth and tongue began to show signs of dissolving.
After sensing the deep disdain in Li Mo’s words, he was instantly enraged, and his entire body began to swell in varying degrees.
"Yuqiong Daoist, don’t act rashly. As long as we unite..."
Zhou Tianqiong turned his head, filth seeping from all his facial features, causing his Daoist robe and magical tools to sizzle as his body began to collapse.
"Daoist, don’t kill me!"
Zhou Tianqiong grabbed the heads of two accompanying cultivators, whose brain matter and blood instantly turned into filth, flowing back into his nose and mouth.
Accelerating his wildly surging aura.
The Acquired Dao Body is easily prone to losing control. Even Li Mo, who cultivated the Primordial Postnatal Dao Body, required a leakless body to suppress it.
The Artifact Refining Shop tore through the air and was about to collide with the temple when the Evergreen Tree roots anchored the ground and forcibly stabilized the building.
Li Mo landed heavily in a corner of the courtyard, spiderweb-like cracks extending a hundred meters around him.
Li Mo leaped high into the air, the soft soil beneath him sinking more than half a meter.
Jin Li and the others turned pale with fright, shocked by Li Mo’s extraordinary spell mastery and formidable physique.
"Urgh, urgh, urgh..."
Zhou Tianqiong vomited filth, his legs uncontrollably swelling, and within an instant, his body transformed into a monster over five meters tall.
The temple was named Yuqiong Temple, yet the Daoist overseeing it had become an indescribable mass of filth.
The accompanying cultivators retreated several steps, knowing Zhou Tianqiong’s mental state was dangerously unstable. Once he erupted, he would fight to the death, no matter the cost.
Zhou Tianqiong’s skin split inch by inch as countless crawlers emerged from his body.
"Spewing such nonsense."
Li Mo stood atop the Taoist temple’s roof and lightly tapped his right foot, a crisp and pleasant sound emanating from the tiles before his figure vanished on the spot.
From Zhou Tianqiong’s back, thick, putrid air spewed out, carrying highly corrosive toxins.
The temple was shielded by an array and remained unharmed, but the spiritual materials planted in the medicine field withered en masse. Several cultivators who failed to flee in time were reduced to a pile of white bones dissolving into the filth.
Li Mo appeared directly in front of Zhou Tianqiong, his right leg whipping toward Zhou Tianqiong’s head like a long lash. Yet before he could approach, Zhou Tianqiong’s flesh and bones completely fused with the filth.
A fist over two meters wide swung down. Though Li Mo dodged deftly, the Desert Map revealed small holes perforated by corrosion, showcasing the sheer power of the assault.
Li Mo felt his scalp tingle.
He examined Zhou Tianqiong, who had lost all semblance of human form, thankful that he had not considered cultivating the filthy spiritual energy when selecting his spiritual power.
"All things in this world cannot escape filth; filth is the Dao."
Zhou Tianqiong unleashed a burst of spiritual power, an acrid acid rain blanketing the cliffside. The ground beneath corroded into fist-sized holes.
Jin Li and the other cultivators cast various spells to ward off the acid rain, lest it destroy the Artifact Refining Shop.
Li Mo showed no signs of panic, releasing Breath Fog to envelop himself.
The swarm of poison bees buzzed loudly but effectively resisted the acid rain, even absorbing its toxins to use as fuel to bolster the magical tools.
As Li Mo maneuvered and darted around, he steadily approached Zhou Tianqiong, forming a peculiar gesture with his right hand.
"Here it comes—the Beast Taming Skill of the Four-legged True Man."
Some cultivators recognized Li Mo’s familiar movement, often performed before summoning his spirit beasts. Many suspected it was a prelude spell.
A tiger’s roar echoed as the Ghost Tiger charged through the walls, unafraid of the filth, scattering the acid rain with shockwaves and forming a vacuum zone dozens of meters wide.
The Ghost Tiger, partially tangible and partially ethereal, launched an attack on Zhou Tianqiong.
The Loose Cultivators drew a sharp breath.
Compared to the spirit beasts Li Mo revealed at the auction, the Ghost Tiger had grown exponentially larger, now verging away from the dimensions of a typical beast.
A sigh echoed from Qingming Taoist Temple, a voice of indeterminate gender murmuring, "No wonder he’s called the Four-legged True Man—his four limbs house feral beasts. Truly, what an insidious skill."
From Zhu Xi Taoist Temple came a soft laugh, accompanied by multiple identical voices in response.
"Shouldn’t the truly frightening one be Li Mo? Neither soft nor hard phases him, whether it be delicacies or poisons."
Li Mo’s gaze darted toward the neighboring temple as the two Daoists openly commented, attempting to ingratiate themselves in case of collateral damage.
Only Bai Chao Taoist Temple remained silent, faint whimpering noises faintly audible from within.
Li Mo harbored deep suspicions toward Bai Chao Daoist, believing their true identity might be that of an Inner Sect disciple disguised as a half-beast moose.
Could the competition for Induction Fate have been hastily organized to aid the Inner Sect disciple with Foundation Establishment?
Otherwise, why would Rong Town suddenly divide itself into four distinct medicine fields?
On the surface, Bai Chao Daoist seemed a mere pushover, but in truth, the connections ran far deeper.
Li Mo sidestepped as Zhou Tianqiong hurled filthy toxins, while the Ghost Tiger sliced off a massive chunk of flesh from Zhou Tianqiong’s back with one swipe of its paw.
Li Mo squinted and smiled, the Ghost Tiger dissolving into black smoke which quickly scattered. Amid the dispersing black mist rang an infant’s cries, and a ten-meter-long shadow began to faintly emerge.
Li Mo’s control over Hui Qingyi had grown increasingly adept. By using external Tattooed Beasts as vessels, he could summon new Tattooed Beasts.
An intensely sinister aura erupted.
The Red Fox lashed its three tails. Though a mere beast, it radiated an inscrutable allure, leaving all cultivators unable to divert their gaze.
Zhou Tianqiong froze in place, letting out a hysterical scream. "Four-legged True Man, you are a Dao Body, an absolute Innate Dao Body!"
"Another Immortal Descendant?! Heavenly Dao, why? You and I are just ants!!"
The Red Fox streaked through the air, its claws tearing Zhou Tianqiong’s body into two halves, yet his immortally enduring vitality continued to sustain his life.
Hatred spread across Zhou Tianqiong’s face as his flesh began to swell again.
Driven by an irrepressible rage, he chose total annihilation, determined to drag everything down with him. His Perfect Puberty Stage filthy spiritual energy compressed relentlessly.
Fragments of stone dislodged from the cliff as more than a dozen Weak Crown Stage practitioners treaded the air.
They looked toward Yuqiong Taoist Temple with interest but saw Li Mo advancing rather than retreating, charging straight into the acid mist released by Zhou Tianqiong.
Han Cai’s expression darkened as he headed toward Yuqiong Taoist Temple’s direction from the rear of Duozhi Mountain.
But he hadn’t taken many steps before sensing something amiss. The explosion he had anticipated failed to occur, and Zhou Tianqiong’s vitality came to an abrupt halt.
Li Mo dismissively crushed Zhou Tianqiong’s brain, intricate patterns on his skin fading away as his Primordial Postnatal Dao Body was suppressed by the leakless body.
Despite the courtyard being filled with filth, Li Mo’s body remained untouched.
Leveraging the assimilation effects of the Primordial Postnatal Dao Body, he forcefully destroyed Zhou Tianqiong’s Eight Extraordinary Meridians and effortlessly thwarted the self-detonation attempt.
Under the gaze of hundreds, Li Mo placed the Artifact Refining Shop beside the Taoist temple.
"From now on, any fellow Daoists interested in Hongxing Refining Shop may send their spiritual materials here. Whether for artifact refining or sale, it matters not."
Han Cai couldn’t hold back his laughter.
From this day forth, Li Mo disregarded the congratulatory chants coming from other temples, turned around, and erased Yuqiong Taoist Temple’s name, replacing it with "Mountain and Sea Taoist Temple."
Inspired by the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it was clear his heart harbored ambitions to dominate primordial strange beasts.
Li Mo still needed to prepare for Foundation Establishment and reopen the medicine fields, leaving no time to handle the shop’s business, which he handed over to Song Liang and the others.
Even Weak Crown Stage practitioners began to harbor thoughts of befriending Li Mo.
After all, Li Mo was adept at artifact refining. Even if his Foundation Establishment attempt failed, his status in Rong Town would rival that of a shop manager—though they still hesitated under Han Cai’s presence.