Li Mo deliberately refined a batch of mid-to-lower-grade Magic Artifact Embryos before leaving Duozhi Mountain.
Zhao Zhu had yet to exit seclusion. The erosion caused by the Childhood Death Disease was dire, and whether he could survive depended entirely on the strength of his willpower.
Li Mo had no better solution but had Jin Li look after Zhao Zhu in his stead.
As soon as he stepped onto the official road, he noticed that the traces of carts and horses were sparse, indicating that a long time had passed without the appearance of any large merchant caravans.
Here and there, he could still see skeletons along the way, their death likely caused by wild beasts. On surrounding tree trunks, claw marks were also scattered everywhere.
Li Mo glanced towards the depths of the forest from the corner of his eye. Within, countless wild beasts lurked, staring at him with eerie and inexplicable gazes.
Compared to fifteen years ago, the scale of today’s Outer Door Competition was wholly incomparable.
Li Mo vaguely remembered the Beast Calamity back then. Only the deer herds exhibited strange movements, far from the current scenario where wild beasts within a 200-mile radius seemed ready to act at any moment.
Mortals dared not stray too far from villages and towns, fearing attacks by wild beasts.
Fertile fields had been abandoned, and material supplies no longer circulated between regions. Under normal circumstances, this would affect tens of thousands of households at the very least.
Fortunately, with Immortality at play, mortals’ demand for food was not particularly high.
On his way, Li Mo took a detour back to Niu Village. From a hillside observation point, he confirmed that the village was safe and unharmed, and he let out a sigh of relief.
Located in a remote area, Niu Village had been only lightly affected by the beast tides. Thus, the villagers had simply sealed off all entrances and exits with wooden fences.
Li Mo had no intention of disturbing Niu Village, knowing his presence was unlikely to bode well.
He promptly summoned Breath Fog, sitting cross-legged on a dust-formed mist platform, letting the magical artifact lift him into mid-air to soar through the skies.
"It’s Second Uncle..."
A child exclaimed with wide eyes, seemingly catching a fleeting glimpse of Li Mo’s figure.
Climbing up a tree branch with his companions, he could clearly see from on high a cloud of mist carrying a blurred silhouette speeding away.
The children cried out noisily, provoking reprimands from their elders.
Li Mo’s lips curled faintly upward as he controlled Breath Fog to dive into the clouds. Unconsciously, he reflected on how he had left Niu Village for more than a dozen years.
At the age of twenty-five, if he hadn’t begun his path of cultivation, he figured he would’ve become a father by now.
With fifteen years marking a generation, plus some elderly choosing to self-immolate in their twilight years, perhaps when Li Mo returned to Niu Village again, he’d already belong to the ancestor generation.
"To mortals, I must seem no different from an Immortal," he murmured.
As the speed of Breath Fog surged, a swarm of Poison Bees silently dispersed in all directions, vigilantly monitoring his surroundings.
Li Mo only needed to split his attention towards managing Breath Fog, leaving the rest of his focus available for the Circulation Cycle. Unfortunately, the pace of Spiritual Power growth was far inferior to that on Duozhi Mountain.
To avoid delaying his cultivation during the Weak Crown Period, Li Mo had actually collected several jars of smog spiritual energy for emergencies. However, it wasn’t suitable for use while traveling.
Day and night alternated, and the temperature difference in late autumn reached as much as twenty degrees.
Yet, no cold wind, no matter how piercing, could scatter the Breath Fog enveloping his body.
When Li Mo opened his eyes again, the mountain range where Rong Town was located had already come faintly into view.
The Inner City District was shrouded in mist, its secrets unknown. Who could tell what Rong Town was scheming within the Inner City?
Upon reaching ten miles from Rong Town, Li Mo chose to proceed on foot.
The official road leading to Rong Town was littered with beast corpses in disarray. Beneath their fur-covered bodies lay emaciated human remains.
Evidently, the Half-beasts had recently attempted to storm Rong Town.
Li Mo presented his spiritual tablet, and the soldiers dared not stop him. He entered the familiar Rong Town smoothly, finding that the years had left the cityscape virtually unchanged.
The streets were still bustling, and the oddities outside the city had not affected the everyday life of the common folk.
Li Mo stored away the Desert Map in advance, and without its distinctive features, he attracted no attention from the Rong Town cultivators.
Besides, they were preoccupied with their own affairs, their expressions burdened with intense gravity.
Li Mo observed that the proportion of cultivators mastering Multi-limb Techniques in Rong Town, though not as exaggerated as on Duozhi Mountain, was already catching up to the number of Beast Cultivators, forming an underlying rivalry.
The Multi-limb cultivators eyed Li Mo with subtle wariness that was difficult to miss.
Lowering his head, Li Mo notified Hu Wen with his spiritual tablet but did not go to the pawn shop. Instead, he headed straight for the Medical Hall, striding quickly toward its rear courtyard.
Miao Shou Inn was packed with patients, with dozens of cultivators waiting outside.
Most of them were Beast Cultivators, visiting Miao Shou Inn to remove their original spells and transplant additional arms to practice Multi-limb Techniques.
Li Mo frowned slightly and headed directly to the second floor of Miao Shou Inn.
The attendant, not daring to stop Li Mo, greeted him with utmost respect.
The cultivators looked at Li Mo in puzzlement, speculating about his identity. After all, few dared act so brazenly in Miao Shou Inn.
"The Mountain and Sea Hermit?"
Someone murmured, eliciting astonished reactions from other cultivators.
They realized that the man suppressing those of the same realm on Duozhi Mountain—Li Mo—had now returned to Rong Town.
The Mountain and Sea Hermit was considered a singular figure among the new generation of cultivators, excelling in all aspects.
The cultivators exchanged uneasy glances. Those holding quotas for the Multi-limb Mountain Yam Field during the Weak Crown Period had stayed hidden on Duozhi Mountain, avoiding calamities.
Why would Li Mo return to Rong Town?
"My apprentice, Li Mo, you’ve come at the right time! Help this old man with a task," came a voice from the second floor. It was Han Cai, inadvertently confirming their suspicions—this person was indeed the acclaimed Mountain and Sea Hermit.
Li Mo scanned the second floor and found Han Cai handling eight simultaneous surgeries. Even with his Fake Core Stage cultivation, Han Cai was utterly overwhelmed.
Although plagued with questions about the Outer Door Competition, Li Mo didn’t immediately ask Han Cai.
Instead, he approached the bed of one of the transplant operations in the corner. His Magic Finger transformed into a scalpel shape, gleaming with a chilling edge. The cultivator lying on the bed shook his head frantically, exclaiming,
"Doctor Han, there’s no rush! Really, I’m not in a hurry. No need..."
The cultivator was utterly terrified.
The tales of Li Mo’s extraordinary abilities, including possessing the Innate and Postnatal Dual Dao Body and being a once-in-five-hundred-years cultivation prodigy, had spread far and wide. His Artifact Refining prowess was unmatched in Rong Town.
However, no one had heard of Li Mo being skilled in medical arts as well.
Han Cai let out a sinister chuckle, intentionally extending two additional arms to pin the plump cultivator in place. Li Mo, expressionless, leaned over the operating table.
Li Mo raised an eyebrow, then revealed the Eight-Armed Spine Nerve, crudely splitting open the plump cultivator’s ribs three inches deep, inspecting the state of his five internal organs and six viscera.
The plump cultivator screamed in sheer agony, but the pain only lasted for a few seconds.
"Your original spell is the Three Apertures Snake Strength Curse Scripture. To fully remove it, part of your pancreas must be excised. What do you say?"
The plump cultivator was still in a daze when Li Mo had already completed the removal of the Three Apertures Snake Strength Curse Scripture. The following arm transplant proceeded with unparalleled precision and speed.
The second floor of Miao Shou Inn fell silent.
Li Mo began to showcase his fine control over the Eight-Armed Spine Nerve. While he lacked extensive experience in medical techniques, he could always consult Han Cai as needed.
The cultivators awaiting treatment no longer resisted having Li Mo handle their surgeries.
Yet, when they looked at Li Mo, their gazes carried an indescribable complexity. Could innate talent truly create such an unbridgeable gap?
It wasn’t until dusk that Li Mo finished his work.
From the conversations around him, he pieced together Rong Town’s current situation.
The Rong Town stores actually served as branches of the Heart Beast Sect’s lineage. When each respective shopkeeper transitioned to practicing Multi-limb Techniques, their disciples inevitably abandoned their original spells.
Li Mo narrowed his eyes.
He suddenly realized that while Duozhi Mountain seemed to supply endless spiritual materials, it was, in reality, dismantling the very foundation of the Heart Beast Sect.
What a cunning, bloodless strategy by the Sub-Device Sect.