Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 113 - 114 I Really Can’t Tell the Difference

Chapter 113: Chapter 114 I Really Can’t Tell the Difference

On the road to the slaughterhouse.

Tang Wu leaned against the wall, smoking his dry pipe, with his battered throat puffing out clouds of smoke and ash.

Ma Weigong suppressed his discomfort. At Tang Wu’s age, the dry tobacco he smoked had to be laced with mild poisons, otherwise the body wouldn’t feel a thing.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

It was rare to see Tang Wu so disheartened, so Ma Weigong softly recounted Li Mo’s exploits.

Tang Wu’s expression grew complicated. Stretching out his rotting, ulcer-covered tongue, he licked his lips. "Innate and Acquired Dual Dao Body, not even thirty years old yet already at Weak Crown Middle Stage, a mid-grade Artifact Refiner, and medical skills only second to Han Cai."

The talents Li Mo displayed—any one of them would be enough to astonish the masses. Combined in a single individual, they seemed almost fantastical.

"Li Mo, Four-Footed Taoist, Mountain and Sea Hermit... tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Tang Wu chuckled bitterly, shaking his head.

He had lost face because of Li Mo, but instead of feeling enraged, he regretted that Li Mo wasn’t part of the Government Office.

No wonder Tian Changwen had placed the Calligraphy and Painting Hall far from the slaughterhouse. If Li Mo were to fall unexpectedly during the Beast Calamity, what a pity that would be.

With Li Mo’s Dual Dao Body talent, he was certain to form a Golden Core within a hundred years.

The future chief of the Beast Cultivators.

Tang Wu closed his eyes, taking a moment to nourish his spirit. The building housing the Government Office he oversaw was none other than the "Prison God Temple," where the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast was kept under the Zhong Kui Statue.

Outside the window, wind and clouds stirred. Before long, they arrived in the town outside the slaughterhouse.

The Government Office had lifted its warning for stationed cultivators, and the town was returning to normal, though corpses could still be seen being transported out of buildings.

The bodies resembled Kou Gang in their manner of death—all killed by sudden assaults without any chance to defend themselves.

The Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast had devoured the hearts of eight people, and perhaps, drawn by the alluring aura Li Mo exuded, it had finally left the slaughterhouse.

In the courtyard, Li Mo examined the town, exceedingly curious about the Inner Sect Beast within the slaughterhouse.

The Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast initially possessed an extremely dull level of spiritual wisdom, but after its abrupt mimicry of a human, its intelligence was unmistakably rising.

If not for its inability to resist the Paoxiao Swallowing Body’s lure, the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast might very well have chosen to escape the Calligraphy and Painting Hall.

"The Strange Beasts... are becoming more and more human?"

The Calligraphy and Painting Hall slowly came to a halt within the heart of the slaughterhouse, only ten meters from the Government Office. It was clear Tian Changwen intended to protect the Calligraphy and Painting Hall.

Countless eyes turned toward the Calligraphy and Painting Hall.

Even though the building had been rebuilt, the sign above its entrance remained unchanged. The stationed cultivators quickly realized that Li Mo was inside.

Their gazes turned fervent. Some could barely repress their urge to approach Li Mo and form a connection.

With the Beast Calamity intensifying, possessing a single mid-grade magical artifact crafted by Li Mo could significantly improve one’s chances of survival.

Rumors circulated that Li Mo’s cousin, Li Zhuang, had narrowly escaped death in the slaughterhouse thanks to a low grade Taoist robe he had worn for protection, evidencing the critical importance of magical artifacts.

Of course, Li Mo wasn’t the only one capable of crafting mid-grade magical artifacts.

But, unlike others, who required lengthy preparations spanning more than half a month and ran considerable risks of failure due to their inadequacy in controlling spiritual power, Li Mo found Artifact Refining as effortless as eating or drinking water.

Many believed Li Mo resorted to the unusual practice of Divine Separation Refining because mid-grade magical artifacts were simply too easy for him; he likely pursued it out of sheer boredom.

Li Mo had long grown accustomed to the prying eyes of others.

At Tang Wu’s invitation, he lifted the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast and walked toward the slaughterhouse, entering the tightly secured storage house prepared for the Beast Calamity.

Ma Weigong directed the constables to surround the storage house and maintain a tight guard, while he himself stood at the entrance, ready to respond to any emergencies.

The walls of the storage house were inscribed with arrays for cooling and preservation, and the chilling air rushed out to greet them.

Li Mo momentarily froze in awe.

Suspended within the storage house were dozens of artifact cages, specifically designed to contain each Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast. The bleating of goats echoed incessantly.

Dim candlelight cast a faint glow as the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beasts turned their hollow eyes in unison toward Li Mo and his companion, sending a tingling chill up his spine.

Tang Wu took the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast, still bound by the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain, and allowed Li Mo to examine the cages in the storage house, his face tinged with melancholy.

Li Mo noted something unusual.

Every single Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast bore a human face, each uniquely different, with varying degrees of anthropomorphism.

The human faces seemed to belong to cultivators who had once attempted to eliminate the Strange Beasts in the slaughterhouse. Among them, Li Mo even spotted one that bore an uncanny resemblance to Hu Wen.

Li Mo approached the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast that looked the most human.

The creature huddled in the corner, naked and trembling. Apart from the sparse patches of fur on its back, it was indistinguishable from an actual human.

As Li Mo leaned closer to observe it, his movements inadvertently startled the beast.

The Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast opened its eyes wide and eagerly crawled toward Li Mo. The Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain scraped against the ground, its metallic clangs echoing in the air.

Gripping the bars of its cage tightly, as though seeing a savior, it pleaded desperately, "Senior Li! No, Senior Mountain and Sea, do you remember me? We’ve met a few times at the Calligraphy and Painting Hall."

"I am Cheng Qi... Cheng Qi..."

"You..."

Li Mo did recognize Cheng Qi. With his eidetic memory, he quickly recalled the relevant details.

In his recollection, Cheng Qi had a two-finger-long scar at the corner of his eye, and his molars had decayed severely due to the Death Disease.

The beast before him possessed every minute detail of Cheng Qi. Once fully anthropomorphized, it would be impossible to distinguish it from a human.

It even made Li Mo wonder: could there have been a swap between the beasts and the cultivators?

Li Mo turned to Tang Wu, his eyes filled with barely contained dread.

The Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast, now claiming to be Cheng Qi, desperately begged for its life: "They keep saying I transformed from a Strange Beast, but that’s impossible."

It scratched open its own arm with its nails, exposing blood-soaked muscles, the wound healing with the sluggishness of a human rather than the rapid regeneration typical of a Strange Beast.

"Look at me, Mountain and Sea Hermit, I am not a Strange Beast!"

"Save me! Save me!!!"

Other heavily anthropomorphized Black Mountain Goat Strange Beasts joined in, frantically pleading as though the storage house held a group of wrongly condemned cultivators.

Li Mo’s back prickled with cold as he instinctively took several steps back to stand beside Tang Wu.

The soundproofing of some cages muffled their voices, leaving only the sight of their hysterical pleas visible.

"They... they are..."

Tang Wu chewed on his tobacco, saying nothing as he locked the runaway Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast back into its cage. Although its power had advanced to the Weak Crown Period, it had indeed lost the Strange Beast’s regenerative abilities.

"Don’t ask me. I can’t tell. I truly can’t tell..."

After repeatedly ensuring the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain couldn’t be undone, Tang Wu gestured for Li Mo to follow him to a corner of the storage house, far from the cages.

"Those in the cages must be Strange Beasts. No, they are definitely Strange Beasts."

Li Mo held his tongue, allowing Tang Wu to continue, "Do you understand? Whenever a cultivator enters the slaughterhouse, the outside world births a Strange Beast. The two are inextricably linked."

Tang Wu’s face grew grave. "Whenever a cultivator is injured inside the slaughterhouse, as their wounds heal, they initiate the process of beastification, while the external Strange Beasts take on human forms."

"Strange Beasts inherit the memories of the cultivators, and the cultivators become bloodthirsty beasts driven by instinct."

Li Mo nodded thoughtfully.

He had personally witnessed a Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast gain human-like injuries across its chest and abdomen, hastening its transformation into a human.

"Senior Tang, can’t cultivators escape the Beast Calamity within the slaughterhouse?"

"Escape? That’s wishful thinking!"

Tang Wu shook his head in resignation. "Once you leave the slaughterhouse, while the Strange Beasts in these cages may vanish, the cultivator’s beastification will only escalate."

"What is the nature of the Strange Beasts in the slaughterhouse?"

"Goats. Mountain Goat Strange Beasts."

"I don’t know the full explanation, but listen carefully: no matter how human they might seem, the things in those cages must never be released."

Li Mo fully agreed with Tang Wu’s perspective. He glanced around. "The Qingfang Taoist also ventured into the slaughterhouse. Which Strange Beast is related to him?"

"None."

"None?" Li Mo repeated, unconvinced.

Tang Wu explained, "Perhaps the Qingfang Taoist’s power far surpasses that of the Mountain Goat Strange Beasts, so no beast emerged in connection to him."

"Let the Qingfang Taoist deal with the Beast Calamity. I believe the situation will improve."

The Government Office dare not kill the beasts in the cages, fearing the impact on the cultivators. The most prudent course was to keep them sealed until the calamity subsided.

The two of them left the suffocating storage house during their conversation.

The Strange Beasts inside continued ramming against their cages.

In their eyes, they were being wrongfully imprisoned, their bodies clearly shedding their mutations, yet the Government Office insisted they were still beasts.

During the transformation from beast to human, they not only inherited the cultivators’ memories and skills but also their emotions, down to the last detail.

"Mountain and Sea Hermit, the entire storage house, yourself included, should be further fortified to prevent any future escapes," Tang Wu sighed heavily.

Any unexpected mishap would surely be Tang Wu’s responsibility.

He hadn’t anticipated that a Strange Beast’s legs would mutate into elephant-like limbs, nor that the guards at the storage house had failed in their duty to replenish the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain’s spiritual energy, thus allowing the beast to escape its constraints.

"Leave it to me. Let me consider how best to restrain the beasts," Li Mo said, feeling fortunate that he didn’t need to personally enter the slaughterhouse.

"Senior Tang, when did Chief An enter the slaughterhouse?"

"About ten or so days ago."

Li Mo recalled that An Gang had once contacted him about the subsequent spiritual materials needed for the True Word Sect’s Secret Bone refinement. Looking back, it was likely an unconscious action by the Black Mountain Goat Strange Beast.

"Senior Tang, do you know how many cultivators have entered the slaughterhouse in total?"

"Three groups, totaling seventy-six people."

Tang Wu suddenly seemed to understand something, "Ah, I see your concern. You’re worried that some Strange Beasts may have blended into the town. But don’t worry; Shopkeeper Tian has temporarily relocated them all to Laurel Bridge."

"Laurel Bridge..."

Li Mo said no more. With the Qingfang Taoist involved, success was almost a certainty.

He bid farewell to Tang Wu and returned to the Calligraphy and Painting Hall, planning to use Qingya Pavilion as inspiration to forge a structure capable of containing iron cages, and he also intended to replace the current cages.

The Government Office would provide the necessary spiritual materials upon request, as Tian Changwen was unlikely to be stingy about it.

In the following days, a steady stream of cultivators visited his door.

Li Mo grew increasingly aware of the stationed cultivators’ desperation for magical artifacts, prompting him to consider reopening the Artifact Refining Shop.

At the same time, he could process and utilize the low grade spiritual materials produced at Corpse Mountain.

Thick-skinned, he approached Tian Changwen about the idea. The latter did not outright agree or refuse, which was taken as tacit approval. Seeing this, the Government Office went along and offered Li Mo a favor by permitting him to engage in private sales of magical artifacts.

Li Mo summoned Jin Li to manage the Artifact Refining Shop, while he proudly adopted the role of a hands-off boss.