Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 119 - 120: The Years I Spent Channeling Spirits at Black Wind Ridge

Chapter 119: Chapter 120: The Years I Spent Channeling Spirits at Black Wind Ridge

Black Wind Ridge repeatedly witnessed slaughter after slaughter. Although some Deceit Beasts managed to rise above the chaos, becoming increasingly human-like, the majority were reduced to remnants of flesh and blood within the bellies of their kin.

When daylight arrived, Black Wind Ridge presented another scene of desolation, like the sigh of a fox mourning a dead rabbit.

Those Deceit Beasts on the verge of human transformation rarely revealed themselves. It seemed they now possessed a level of Spiritual Wisdom that allowed them to hide within various corners of the town.

Everything in Black Mountain Ridge operated in stark contradiction, yet faintly adhered to some peculiar law.

"Fear the heavens’ fury, fear the earth’s stillness, fear the soul’s unrest..."

A commotion erupted in the West City of Black Wind Ridge. Two Deceit Beasts were actually carrying a pile of flesh and blood as they made their way toward an abandoned temple located on higher ground.

Their expressions were filled with zeal, their mouths muttering a bizarrely intoned Soul Calming Spell.

Nearing the dilapidated temple, the Deceit Beasts became increasingly cautious. Even as their sewn-together human skins tore due to broad movements, they refrained from attempting any repairs.

The temple, long abandoned and riddled with drafts, still stood in a state of disrepair. Yet, atop its altar was a vivid copper statue, lifelike in its design.

Three heads, six arms, eight legs—its humanoid features revealed the Deceit Beasts’ reverence for human transformation.

The Deceit Beasts could not fathom how the statue had mysteriously appeared overnight, but upon incidental contact with it, they discovered it emitted a mesmerizing aura.

Terrified and trembling, they knelt before the statue, kowtowing incessantly.

Calling out the name "Hundred Beasts Immortal Monarch."

At this moment, Li Mo sat within the hollow interior of the statue, his eyes fixed on the pile of Deceit Beast flesh and blood stacked nearby, treasures fit to nourish Corpse Mountain.

He hadn’t anticipated that adding an Evergreen Tree Fruit to the statue would produce such a pronounced allure for the Deceit Beasts and couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.

Standing five meters tall, the statue had its upper half deliberately hollowed out by Li Mo, creating ample space for him to remain in seclusion. It also featured hidden compartments, allowing him to exit whenever necessary.

The lower half of the statue, refined from Sumeru Stone, contained a temporary Mustard Space capable of holding about fifty cubic meters of flesh and blood.

Though a Low-Grade Magic Artifact, the statue’s utility within Black Wind Ridge was boundless.

Li Mo was curious to see how the Deceit Beasts would sacrifice flesh and blood to the statue, so in between his cultivation, he split his focus to observe the happenings inside the temple.

After kneeling for a long time, the Deceit Beasts took out an incense burner and lit incense made from white bones.

Resources in Black Wind Ridge were almost exclusively derived from the remains of their own kind, showing that the area was a completely self-contained small world.

The incense burned steadily.

The Deceit Beasts began splashing the blood and flesh onto the surface of the statue.

To their astonishment, the statue devoured the offering in the blink of an eye, its outer gloss becoming increasingly slick and lustrous.

"Not bad at all."

Li Mo activated his mind, channeling the flesh and blood within the Mustard Space into Corpse Mountain. A torrential rain of flesh and blood cascaded from midair in torrents.

The nutrients within Corpse Mountain increased, and the spiritual materials planted there grew luxuriantly.

The mountain peak trembled slightly, and its height rose by half a meter, indicating that the integration of the Parasol Stone was yielding visible effects.

What excited Li Mo the most was that, in the gap between the two Yin Attribute sub-peaks, a new peak seemed to be forming.

Li Mo swallowed hard.

If not for his desire to keep a low profile, he might have considered orchestrating additional "miracles" to attract even more Deceit Beasts to offer blood sacrifices.

Over the next several days, Deceit Beasts arrived at dawn to offer incense without fail.

Even those fleeing for their lives at night began to take note of the anomalies in the dilapidated temple. When faced with the statue, they instinctively displayed reverence.

Li Mo silently observed the types of Deceit Beasts while closing himself off to engage in deep cultivation.

On the tenth day after the statue’s completion, a swarm of Deceit Beasts suddenly surged into the temple. After bowing fervently, they began repairing the structure.

Li Mo’s lip twitched. It seemed Black Wind Ridge truly bought into such theatrics.

He continued to observe with a calm demeanor, persistently driving his cultivation toward the Late Teenage stage through monotonous Circulation Cycles.

As for the movements emerging from the external world, Li Mo paid them no mind.

Every few days, he retrieved the Deceit Beast flesh and blood stored within the statue, transferring it back to Corpse Mountain. Gradually, the mountain’s nourishment neared the level of Mid-Grade Spirit Materials.

The most noticeable change was a piece of Low-Grade Spirit Material, Fine Iron Stone, beginning to show signs of transformation.

Repairs to the dilapidated temple took only three days, during which its size expanded several-fold.

Alongside the statue where Li Mo resided, distorted and grotesque murals had been added—like the erratic scrawls of a child, composed of chaotic lines.

When Li Mo next surveyed the temple, he was startled by the intense incense fumes, and the statue’s interior storage of flesh and blood was nearly full.

The temple saw constant traffic from Deceit Beasts, including some whose human skin covered nearly fifty percent of their bodies.

Li Mo immediately began processing the blood and flesh, collecting usable spirit materials and planting them on the Yin Attribute sub-peak...

Corpse Mountain voraciously devoured vast amounts of Deceit Beast flesh and blood, shaking violently as the fourth peak began to emerge.

However, the new peak was utterly barren, with the nourishment rendering the soil inhospitable to even a single blade of grass.

Li Mo estimated it would take the peak completely forming before any phenomena appeared, likely within half a month at the current rate of progress.

Through the sacrifices of his "followers," he had encountered hundreds of diverse Deceit Beasts.

Li Mo couldn’t help but notice that Deceit Beast corpses with a higher proportion of human skin exhibited incredibly thick, aromatic blood, exuding an ineffable medicinal scent.

However, their blood, laden with countless impurities, was unsuitable for crafting Tattooed Beasts.

Li Mo left all this to the Evergreen Tree, whose branches now brimmed with fruits; the remaining Deceit Beasts stared unblinkingly, unable to take their eyes off them.

He plucked one fruit and tossed it to a Deceit Beast, which swallowed it promptly, only to undergo instability, its head splitting open into a chrysanthemum-shaped oral organ.

The Deceit Beast’s original form had been a Mountain Lord, but the Evergreen Tree Fruit had transformed it into something unspeakable.

Li Mo’s face displayed avid interest.

In his mind, the tattoo placement on his right shoulder seemed to materialize into a solid plan, as these types of Deceit Beasts were indeed abundant in Black Wind Ridge.

"Mountain Demon..."

To be exact, Li Mo intended to craft a Monkey Beast Head Tattoo.

The advantages of a Monkey Tattoo Beast were apparent, beginning with its humanoid body structure.

This allowed Li Mo to simulate the route of magical energy flow through the Tattooed Beast, ensuring there were no hidden flaws in his techniques.

Furthermore, Monkeys could assist in Artifact Refining. Their meticulously dexterous hands far surpassed the eight-armed spinal nerves, and given enough Spiritual Wisdom, a Monkey Tattoo Beast could effectively serve as an autonomous craftsman.

Li Mo also had to take into account the need to periodically harvest a batch of Low-Grade Spirit Materials.

Considering his current cultivation level, controlling Corpse Mountain consumed an exorbitant amount of Spiritual Power. It made more sense to use the Tattooed Beast to manage it instead.

Having determined the beast head tattoo to pursue, Li Mo resolved not to waver.

Swarms of Poison Bees buzzed faintly, flitting through the secluded corners, their gazes locked on the Monkey Deceit Beasts, transmitting information back to Li Mo.

Macaques, Lazy Monkeys, Wart Monkeys...

Li Mo suddenly found that having too many potential options wasn’t necessarily a good thing; it felt like every species of monkey had its own unique advantages and disadvantages.

"Forget it, I’ll just cultivate Gu."

He opened his eyes, gazing at the grand expanse within the temple, where numerous Deceit Beasts knelt reverently. Minuscule specks of dust subtly settled onto the shoulders of their bodies.

The Macaque Deceit Beast felt a slight discomfort in its body and instinctively rose to leave the temple.

However, just as it reached the entrance, pitch-black shadows engulfed it, and in the blink of an eye, it was swallowed whole by the Ghost Tiger’s bloodthirsty maw.

In no time, the Ghost Tiger retreated into the statue, delivering the Macaque Deceit Beast to Li Mo for further processing.

Li Mo tentatively transferred the beast into Corpse Mountain, only to discover that beings from Black Wind Ridge, rooted in connection to the Mountain Lord Deceit Beast, could not survive outside its domain. The Macaque Deceit Beast perished not long after arriving at Corpse Mountain.

Its death was marked by unexplained depletion of its flesh and blood, its fur starting to decay first.

Li Mo shook his head helplessly; fortunately, he had anticipated such issues and prepared several extra cage magic tools while refining them for the Government Office, which now proved useful.

He retrieved a cage magic tool two meters in height. Though the space within became cramped, keeping Deceit Beasts elsewhere wasn’t practical.

A Mountain Demon Beast was confined within the cage.

The Mountain Demon Beast froze momentarily before it began ferociously ramming the bars with its head, its flesh tearing apart without pause or restraint.

Li Mo observed the Mountain Demon Beast as the cage cut off all sound.

"Interesting."

He controlled the eight-armed spinal nerves, directly tearing off the human skin grafted onto the Mountain Demon Beast. The beast immediately grew lethargic, its cultivation dropping from Weak Crown Middle Stage to the Third Layer of Puberty.

The human skin wriggled, its vitality diminishing rapidly in a short span.

Li Mo carefully examined the human skin, noting that it would inevitably degrade into a dead material incapable of sustaining life unless attached to flesh.

"The Deceit Beasts in Black Wind Ridge may merely exist to sustain the human skin, perhaps?"

Li Mo placed the skin onto Corpse Mountain, where it adhered to the flesh-like rocky surface and slowly regained a slight semblance of vitality.

Uncertain of the human skin’s purpose, he left it on Corpse Mountain, choosing not to interfere for now.

As the temple flourished, the number of Deceit Beasts confined in the cages grew, surpassing five. Among them was even a half-human-sized Golden Silk Monkey Monster.

However, due to the mutated state of their flesh, the Monkey Deceit Beasts had grotesque, almost morbid appearances, more akin to emaciated invalids teetering between life and death.

Li Mo’s gaze swept over the Deceit Beasts, his palm producing a fruit from the Evergreen Tree. The once-quiet five beasts strained to rise desperately.

He divided the fruit into five portions, and the Deceit Beasts eagerly devoured them.

The aura around them surged, their fur growing anew, and their cultivation rose continuously, seemingly returning to the Weak Crown stage.

Boom! Boom!

The Golden Silk Monkey Monster and Macaque Deceit Beast, both physically weaker, couldn’t withstand the transformative power of the Evergreen Tree Fruit. They exploded into a slurry of flesh, inciting the other beasts to feast greedily.

Li Mo had anticipated this result. Since he intended to cultivate Gu, only the strongest would survive.

To avoid detection, he limited the Ghost Tiger’s activity range within the temple, capturing Monkey Deceit Beasts among those coming to worship the statue.

Li Mo’s Gu-cultivation practices did not stir any disturbance among the Deceit Beasts.

If anything, the temple’s scale expanded further, annexing nearby structures. The atmosphere in Black Wind Ridge grew increasingly strange, with even the streets sporting more and more decorations typically seen at funerals.

Li Mo initially thought it was a coincidence, but the long-inactive Creation Book unexpectedly surged with information about a "Sacrificial Festival."

"Could it be that the Mountain Lord Deceit Beasts were once disciples left behind by the Heart Beast Sect?"

The so-called Sacrificial Festival was actually a traditional Heart Beast Sect ritual dedicated to Tian Chenzi, held every fifteen years.

Typically, it followed the conclusion of the Outer Door Competition.