Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 128 - 129: Dare You Drink the Wine I Brewed?

Chapter 128: Chapter 129: Dare You Drink the Wine I Brewed?

Li Mo was fully immersed in his cultivation.

He was well aware that Duozhi Mountain had risen another kilometer over the years, yet the altitude of the Four-legged Taoist Temple was not the area richest in spiritual energy.

But Duozhi Mountain was populated with Puppet Cultivators everywhere. Once Tian Changwen finished refining the Hundred Beasts Blood Body, the flames of the struggle for Taoist inheritance might burn their way here.

Li Mo simply wanted to discreetly rise to the Fake Core Stage and had no intention of getting involved in the petty conflicts between the Puppet Beasts factions.

He silently recited the contents of the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra, accelerating the rotation of the Tao Seed, whose surface patterns became increasingly profound and mysterious.

Before completing several Circulation Cycles, the Corpse Wine Technique was the first to be absorbed by the Tao Seed.

Li Mo’s consciousness glanced toward his Tao Seed and noticed a faintly visible "Wine" character on its surface, confirming the Corpse Wine Technique as an alchemical skill for sure.

The Sparrow Yin Soul expanded visibly to the naked eye.

Previously equivalent to mere microdust, it had now grown to the size of a sesame seed. Its plump body shimmered faintly, resembling a silkworm.

Li Mo grew increasingly intrigued by the Corpse Wine Technique and couldn’t resist poring over the accompanying wine recipes.

The Corpse Wine Technique was a wild and unconventional alchemy method, with its recipes derived entirely through trial and error, leading to exaggerated claims about many medical wines’ effects.

Based on Li Mo’s understanding of spiritual materials, only one recipe appeared relatively credible.

[Corpse Bone Wine]

[Fermmented over three years to form wine; its effects can promote bone growth.]

The ingredients for Corpse Bone Wine were extremely cheap and easily obtainable, with the only Low Grade Spirit Material being White Bone Grass, and even that required only its rootstock.

As for its effects,

the Loose Cultivator who created the Corpse Wine Technique noted that he discovered the wine could promote bone growth only after drinking it for ten years. In smaller quantities, it produced merely a slight tingling in the bones.

That Loose Cultivator had established himself with the Corpse Wine Technique, but preserving the corpses needed for winemaking proved difficult. When he attempted to use his own body to brew wine, its production volume could no longer sustain his workshop, so he sold the recipe instead.

Li Mo harbored some doubts and suspected that Futu Hermit might have drunk Corpse Bone Wine. Perhaps finding it regrettable that such medicinal wine had fallen into obscurity, he had purchased its recipe.

"At least *Prosperity Through Grain* won’t remain neglected any longer."

Li Mo, unable to suppress his curiosity, performed Prosperity Through Grain, channeling the medicinal power of the Nourishing Yuan Fruit into his Tao Seed while his consciousness observed the Sparrow Yin Soul absorbing essence.

The Sparrow Yin Soul became drowsy and bloated, rolling about with its plump, rounded body.

A moment later, a new wine recipe derived from the Corpse Wine Technique surfaced on the Tao Seed, and the Sparrow Yin Soul seemed to awaken as though sobered up.

[Bear Liver Wine]

[Use bear liver as the medicinal base, grind two Bitter Age Roots and an ounce of Broken Mountain Stone into powder, coat the bear liver inside and out, and let it ferment in a corpse belly for a hundred days to create wine. Its effects enhance liver Spirit Root Transformation.]

Li Mo’s expression brightened with delight.

Although Bear Liver Wine was useless to him personally, its aid to liver Spirit Root Transformation would undoubtedly make it a product with some demand at the Mountain and Sea Market.

The only inconvenience was that obtaining wild animal viscera required a journey to Xinji Ridge, two hundred miles from Duozhi Mountain, which drove up its cost disproportionately.

"I still need to establish the ecological system for Corpse Mountain as soon as possible, incorporating livestock farming into the plan. Self-sufficiency is the ultimate key."

Li Mo glanced at the Nourishing Yuan Fruit, calculating that birthing Bear Liver Wine would consume roughly a year’s worth of its medicinal power.

Prosperity Through Grain needed access to appropriate alchemical techniques to evolve. Li Mo wasn’t sure whether a single Corpse Wine Technique could suffice to nurture a medicinal wine for the Weak Crown Stage.

After a moment of hesitation, he began infusing the Sparrow Yin Soul continuously with the medicinal power from the Nourishing Yuan Fruit, testing the divine skill’s current limits.

The Sparrow Yin Soul absorbed essence readily, but when the medicinal power reached five years, it began showing signs of indigestion. By the seventh year, it outright refused to absorb any more essence.

A faint sharp pain throbbed in Li Mo’s mind—symptoms of soul damage.

Having already subjugated the Sparrow Yin Soul and marked it with the Creation Book’s brand, Li Mo couldn’t let it sustain further harm. Whatever other spirits resided in his Mud Pill Palace, the Sparrow Yin Soul was now tied to his very life.

Li Mo promptly ceased his efforts. The Sparrow Yin Soul slumped languidly within the Tao Seed.

[Brain Nourishing Wine]

[Produces wine in five years. Its effects nurture souls, bolster mental vitality, and strengthen marrow.]

"Would anyone actually drink this stuff? And the effects sound so... peculiar."

Li Mo’s lips twitched at the thought, struggling to imagine how Brain Nourishing Wine might taste.

The claims of strengthening the brain and sustaining the soul seemed modestly beneficial, particularly for subduing the Three Spirits during the Weak Crown Stage.

Overall, Brain Nourishing Wine barely qualified as medicinal wine for the Weak Crown Stage.

Still, to truly judge its usefulness, Li Mo would first need to brew a batch, though the five-year fermentation period was undeniably excessive.

He contacted Song Liang via Spirit Talisman, asking him to gather the ingredients for brewing and to organize a team of Dart Masters to hunt animals at Xinji Ridge.

Since Song Liang came from a Biao Bureau, he swiftly arranged for merchants near Xinji Ridge to reduce travel time by half.

Li Mo, meanwhile, stayed busy laying the groundwork for the basic ecological system on Corpse Mountain.

Because Corpse Mountain’s nutrients were too scarce to support tens of thousands of spiritual materials, Li Mo substituted with ordinary plants to avoid unnecessary complications.

First, he scattered seeds of a plant called "Ghost-faced Vine" across various areas of the Yin Attribute Secondary Peak, adding spores of certain fungi to enrich the ecosystem.

To ensure the seeds germinated successfully, he used Evergreen Tree leaves as fertilizer.

With its cold, damp climate and occasional bone-chilling fog, the Yin Attribute Secondary Peak provided the ideal environment for the shade-loving Ghost-faced Vine.

Li Mo painstakingly worked the soil and watered the plants, splitting his focus to monitor the development of the Yin Attribute Secondary Peak.

The Ghost-faced Vine began sprouting roots at the base of the peak, while mushrooms emerged sporadically, their caps poking out of corners. However, the dense Yin Attribute Spiritual Energy higher up proved inhospitable to ordinary plant life.

Li Mo planted fifty-year blooming Iron Thorn Trees on the Wood Element Sub-Peak, pairing them with parasitic Jing Ke Grass.

Although the Wood Element Sub-Peak boasted favorable conditions for plant growth, excess vegetation needed to be prevented, making the slow-growing Iron Thorn Trees an optimal choice.

As for the Earth Element Main Peak, Li Mo noted its sandy, arid terrain and opted to plant the heat-resistant Immortal Fan, a cactus-like plant reminiscent of those from his previous life.

The gradual transformation of Corpse Mountain into a thriving ecosystem required time to prove its lasting vitality.

The fourth peak, barren and lifeless, presented minimal challenges for planting ordinary vegetation, but Li Mo aimed to replicate the fusion process of the Evergreen Tree with Corpse Mountain, granting the fourth peak spiritual properties.

Previously hesitant about which spiritual attribute to assign the fourth peak, Li Mo realized that plant growth could not rely solely on nutrients.

Clearly, imbuing it with the Water Element was the most suitable choice.

However, the current medicinal power of the Nourishing Yuan Fruit fell short of facilitating the peak’s transformation.

Li Mo resolved to wait until ascending to the Late Teenage phase of the Weak Crown Stage, at which point the Nourishing Yuan Fruit would absorb the surplus essence from his breakthrough, boosting its medicinal power by at least a century.

After giving it considerable thought, he decided to prepare a Mid-Grade Magic Artifact for the fourth peak’s integration.

During his time away from Duozhi Mountain, the Hongxing Refining Shop had acquired a Mid-Grade Magic Artifact Catalog aligned with the Water Element.

[Infinite Heavy Water Pearl]

An artifact primarily for manipulating waves, though its full potential required cultivators with pure Water Element Spiritual Power, or else its power would be greatly diminished.

Finding his existing materials sufficient, Li Mo began refining the artifact.

Although unfamiliar with the construction of this Mid-Grade Magic Artifact, he completed its ten refinements within just half a month.

In the process, he supplied the Artifact Refining Shop with a batch of Mid and Lower Grade Magical Tools.

The finished Infinite Heavy Water Pearl resembled translucent glass, exuding a serene blue glow as if containing an entire river within it.

Driven by curiosity, Li Mo experimented with the artifact’s insectification, transforming it into a semi-transparent venomous jellyfish that floated harmlessly in air.

"It’s a pity that unleashing the full power of the Infinite Heavy Water Pearl is so challenging. Otherwise, it could become a formidable weapon in aquatic battles, especially when paired with a Kun Whale."

Li Mo found himself enamored with the Infinite Heavy Water Pearl, toying with it in satisfaction.

To ensure the smooth transformation of Corpse Mountain, Li Mo committed himself to refining as many Infinite Heavy Water Pearls as possible.

While the difficulty of Twenty Refinements for Mid-Grade Magic Artifacts couldn’t compare to that of top-grade ones, Li Mo wasn’t entirely confident. Refining the Infinite Heavy Water Pearl provided an opportunity to accumulate relevant refining experience.

Suddenly, a cacophony erupted within the seclusion room, loud enough to be heard even beyond the Daoist Temple.

Even though much of his attention had been on refining, Li Mo maintained consistent progress in his cultivation, letting smog spiritual energy flow unimpeded into his pores.

So preoccupied with multitasking, he hardly noticed the passage of time.

By the time his consciousness cleared up, two years had passed, and his middle dantian had naturally filled with spiritual power.

Looking wistfully at the Infinite Heavy Water Pearl, now seamlessly refined, Li Mo noted it emitted subtle oceanic sounds with every slight shake.

The artifact had reached eighteen refinements—not due to his lack of skill, but because Mid-Grade Magic Artifacts tended to exhaust their potential before reaching the twentieth refinement.

Still, even at eighteen refinements, bringing the Infinite Heavy Water Pearl to the Artifact Refining Shop would attract water-attribute cultivators in the Weak Crown Stage to vie desperately for it, possibly even coming to blows over its unmatched value.

Li Mo felt no regret. An eighteen-refinement Mid-Grade Magic Artifact would suffice for the fourth peak.

Turning his focus to Corpse Mountain, Li Mo observed its three peaks. After several cycles of flourishing and withering, the vegetation had undergone radical changes, becoming increasingly flesh-like.

The transformation was most apparent in the Iron Thorn Trees. Stripping away their thick bark revealed vascular tissue resembling blood vessels beneath, pulsating faintly.

Li Mo contacted Song Liang, who promptly led staff from the Artifact Refining Shop to relocate animal cages into the Four-legged Taoist Temple.

A total of over fifteen hundred animals had been transported to the Mountain and Sea Market a year earlier. Seeing that Li Mo remained in seclusion, Song Liang had temporarily housed them near the market’s butcher shops.

Li Mo quickly sorted the animals into categories and transferred them en masse into Corpse Mountain.

Although the mountain’s ecological system was in its infancy, its adaptability was remarkable. The animals fed on the flesh-like plants, ensuring sufficient sustenance for two thousand beasts.

Li Mo restricted the animals’ activity to the mountain’s base, designating the mountaintop for Deceit Beasts.

Planting spiritual materials related to the Corpse Wine Technique in nutrient-rich areas, Li Mo then selected twenty corpses to brew Brain Nourishing Wine and Bear Liver Wine.

Throughout the brewing process, he couldn’t help but frown.

The raw materials for the wine—sticky, gelatinous brain tissues or stinking bear livers smeared with powdered additives—were utterly appalling.

After placing them within the corpses’ stomachs, the organs merely ballooned slightly, showing no visible signs of fermentation into wine.

In addition, Song Liang managed to procure a multi-limb cultivation technique for the Fake Core Stage. After Li Mo fed it to his Tao Seed, the process of refining the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra proved to be a lengthier endeavor than anticipated.