Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 141 - 1: The Stowaway in the Mother Furnace

Chapter 141: Chapter 1: The Stowaway in the Mother Furnace

Boom boom boom...

Duozhi Mountain trembled violently as the chrysanthemum-shaped oral organ split open once again.

The hundred-day deadline vanished in the blink of an eye. Though the Child Device Sect was about to leave the Heart Beast Territory, the scars left behind would linger for years.

Fortunately, the grass and wood had already started adapting to the severely polluted environment.

Figures plunged into the sandstorm, heading toward the summit of Duozhi Mountain.

Li Mo retracted his limbs, blending silently into the Artifact Cultivators as Fuxing Town grew increasingly distant.

Although Han Cai had mentioned the Dan Ghost, Li Mo, armed with Kengjin Punishment and a Primordial Dao Body, saw little reason to pursue something he didn’t fully understand. In the end, he set his sights on the Child Device Sect.

He was somewhat nervous, though the chances of the Child Device Sect detecting any anomalies were slim, given his possession of all their notable traits.

As they approached the mountain summit, Li Mo deliberately fell to the back of the group.

In the ancient Cultivation World, sects would typically use teleportation arrays for disciple travel, but such methods clearly didn’t suit the current situation.

Listening to the chatter of the other disciples, he heard them refer to the summit of Duozhi Mountain as "Gate Path."

Li Mo planned to step onto the Gate Path last. On one hand, this would allow him to observe others’ actions and confirm the reality of the Gate Path. On the other hand, if anything felt off, he could retreat immediately.

During these past hundred days, he had been in seclusion on Duozhi Mountain, though he had subtly probed for information.

Unfortunately, the Artifact Cultivators were highly secretive about discussing the Child Device Sect, yet they spoke frequently of the "Mother Furnace," expressing deep reverence.

This revealed the sect’s rigid hierarchical structure.

The Mother Furnace was above all.

Even the territory they lived in was divided according to the Mother Furnace’s designation.

From tasks like harvesting meat limbs, it was clear that the newcomers possessing Acquired Dao Bodies were of low status within the sect, relegated to thankless and labor-intensive jobs.

Li Mo narrowed his eyes.

"With an Innate Daoist Body, I should be able to find my footing in the Child Device Sect, right?"

He looked up toward the near-at-hand summit of Duozhi Mountain, where metallic dust in the air was dense to the extreme. Other Artifact Cultivators steadily entered the oral organ.

Even ordinary cultivators who had achieved Nascent Soul would find it impossible to survive in such a hostile environment.

When Li Mo reached the summit, he discovered that the sandstorm had been blocked off. Inside the crater-like erosion cave, there was nothing but an unfathomably deep pit.

The pit’s material differed from the rest of Duozhi Mountain, a strange blend of flesh and metal.

The Artifact Cultivators exchanged no words; they unhesitatingly dove into the pit, their silhouettes vanishing in the impenetrable darkness.

A trace of astonishment flickered in Li Mo’s eyes.

He circled the pit for some time, sensing that the Child Device Sect’s methods were overly hasty, appearing to lack any form of identity verification.

Li Mo dared not probe using Breath Fog and, after a moment of hesitation, leaped down the pit.

Upon entering, he felt as though he had returned to the womb—his body and mind became exceptionally comfortable, and his consciousness naturally drifted into a semi-sleeping state.

"What exactly is the Mother Furnace?"

As Li Mo continued descending, the tunnel filled with an inexplicable scent—like tung oil used by blacksmiths to maintain blades, pungent yet carrying a unique metallic aroma.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

Suddenly, Li Mo felt a viscous liquid enveloping him. His breathing remained unaffected, and his body ceased descending.

The liquid attempted to infiltrate his body via his pores but was stopped by his leakless body.

When Li Mo opened his eyes, he realized he was in an enclosed space where all around him were semi-transparent glass-like walls.

His first thought was that the Child Device Sect had discovered his impersonation and was imprisoning him through some means.

However, Li Mo quickly noticed his spiritual power was functioning normally, dispelling his suspicions.

After reattaching his limbs, he struggled to swim toward the glass wall. The liquid’s viscosity made his movements exceptionally laborious.

As Li Mo drew closer to the wall, he was immediately stunned by the scene outside.

"What the hell..."

Thousands of meters tall metallic pillars stood within the dim cave, their material a curious mix of semi-metal and semi-flesh. The pillars appeared to draw nutrients endlessly from the depths of the earth.

These nutrients were supplied to amber containers affixed to the metallic pillars, each containing tens of thousands of Human Pigs, all in a state of dormancy.

The enclosed space where Li Mo resided was also one of these amber containers.

While he was still dumbfounded, the liquid surged, and a massive influx of information about the Child Device Sect entered his mind, directly provided by the Mother Furnace.

It turned out that every disciple of the Child Device Sect was born from the Mother Furnace.

Li Mo referred to these disciples as "Artifact People."

The Mother Furnace helped those Artifact People survive two fatal stages: the Fetal Stage Death Illness and the Childhood Death Disease at age twenty, thereby screening out defective remnants.

When Artifact People reached twenty, they were assigned to various sects based on their individual talents.

Although Li Mo had the physique of an Artifact Person, he was not birthed by the Mother Furnace. Hence, upon entering the sect, he was forcibly reconstructed.

The Mother Furnace’s nature remained a mystery; its spiritual wisdom seemed to operate purely on instinct. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have allowed Li Mo to infiltrate so easily.

Li Mo’s expression was complex.

In a sense, he had acquired legitimate status within the Child Device Sect. His next steps were simply to proceed methodically.

Amid the torrent of memories provided by the Mother Furnace was a basic cultivation technique.

[Child Device Life Protection Heart Sutra]

Li Mo absorbed the Child Device Life Protection Heart Sutra, quickly gaining insight into the sect.

Within the Child Device Sect, all disciples practiced the Heart Sutra during childhood. Only upon reaching Foundation Establishment would they switch to their primary cultivation technique.

Li Mo needed to achieve Qi Cultivation First Level before leaving the Mother Furnace. Otherwise, he would be destroyed along with the Artifact People who didn’t survive the fatal illness.

He was beginning to understand the profound foundation of the great sect.

The Child Device Sect had no mortals. The Mother Furnace directly dictated the birth of new entities, and upon joining the sect, they were already cultivators who had entered Tao.

"Speaking of which, can the Heart Beast Sect truly escape the Child Device Sect’s control?"

Li Mo seriously doubted it. The starting points of the two sects were worlds apart. For the Child Device Sect, childhood was merely the beginning.

Within the Heart Beast Sect, however, many cultivators remained stuck in childhood for their entire lives.

Li Mo chuckled bitterly and shook his head. Thankfully, the focus of this world was cultivation, where individuals could attain unparalleled strength and overcome the gaps between sects in a relatively short time.

Otherwise, no matter how fast the Heart Beast Sect developed, it could never catch up to the Child Device Sect.

Li Mo examined the container and noticed a sealed exit above. Once the Artifact People reached twenty, the tunnel would open.

He observed the Artifact People inside the container, estimating their appearance to indicate they were around fifteen years old.

Li Mo guessed he’d have to live within the Mother Furnace for another five years, during which he could steadily cultivate and avoid suspicion from higher-ranking Artifact Cultivators.

The Multiple Dantians were already close to the Fake Core Stage. With five years, achieving promotion seemed possible.

The only concern was the Weak Crown Period Death Disease at fifty. Li Mo’s timeline would undoubtedly vary from his peers.

Fortunately, the leakless body and Paoxiao Swallowing Body could postpone the onset of the death disease.

Li Mo might experience the Weak Crown Period Death Disease a bit earlier, but nothing overly drastic.

He relaxed his leakless body’s restraint, allowing the liquid to seep in as his flesh, bones, and blood frantically absorbed it, growing sturdier with each passing moment.

"With the Child Device Sect’s resources, more than eighty percent of the Artifact People can enter Tao, right?"

Li Mo squinted. Even though his foundation had reached an unimaginable level, the nourishment from the Mother Furnace still had an effect.

If nurtured by the Mother Furnace since embryonic development, the chances of forming a Dao Body would far exceed the norm.

Li Mo could even sense that the speed at which the Five Elements Void Pill condensed was significantly faster, making promotion to the Fake Pill Stage imminent.

He activated his divine sense and circulated the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra.

Tattooed Beasts released toxins to nourish his five internal organs, while the poisonous spiritual materials from Corpse Mountain were ground into powder and absorbed into his organs.

Though his five organs retained their rocky texture, faint traces of the Five Elements Poison had begun to intertwine within their depths.

According to the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra, once each organ refined a highly toxic Void Pill, the Void Pills could merge to break through the bottleneck.

During his hundred days in the Heart Beast Sect, Li Mo only managed to condense a sliver of poison in his organs.

Upon arriving in the Mother Furnace, his cultivation efficiency increased more than tenfold. The organs began digesting vast quantities of poison, their hues growing more vibrant.

Confirming that his Corpse Spirit Root wouldn’t suffer damage, Li Mo resumed studying the Child Device Life Protection Heart Sutra.

The Artifact Cultivators’ childhood phase also consisted of six layers, bearing similarities to the methods of Beast Cultivators.

At the First Level of Puberty, the focus was on absorbing external spiritual energy into the Melting Furnace, gradually awakening its potential and laying the foundation for cultivation.

From the Second Layer to Sixth Layer of Puberty, spiritual power was used to nourish the five internal organs, completing their metallization process.

The Melting Furnace, as the spiritual root of Artifact Cultivators, significantly de-emphasized the importance of the five organs, making the childhood phase of cultivation notably easier compared to Beast Cultivators.

The Child Device Sect showed a preference for alien spiritual powers dominated by metals, with earth being secondary.

Common types of alien spiritual powers included Molten Rock Spirit Power of the Gold-Fire Attribute; Iron Sand Spirit Power of the Gold-Earth Attribute; and Red Water Spirit Power of the Gold-Water Attribute...

Even Li Mo’s Mist Fog Spiritual Power of the Earth-Water Attribute was considered mainstream.

While the Melting Furnace was a Metal Spirit Root, spiritual power didn’t have to be purely metallic. Minor spirit attributes provided more benefits than drawbacks.

Within the amber liquid of the container, Li Mo could absorb spiritual energy to enter Tao, as the spiritual energy was rich and diverse.

From an Artifact Refiner’s perspective, alien spiritual powers with the Gold-Fire Attribute were ideal due to their efficiency in refining high-temperature spiritual materials.

Li Mo closed his eyes tightly, his consciousness communing with the liquid’s myriad forms of spiritual energy, aiming to select the one most suitable for himself.

It also couldn’t conflict with his Mist Fog Spiritual Power; at the very least, it had to be complementary.

Molten Lava Spirit Energy was too extreme in temperature, likely causing damage to his organs.

Scorching Smoke Spiritual Energy, with elements of gold, fire, and water, was decent but relatively weak, seemingly out of place within the Child Device Sect.

Burning Iron Spirit Qi, also Gold-Fire Attribute, resembled liquefied molten iron but had low compatibility with Mist Fog Spiritual Power.

...

Li Mo felt a headache coming on. He even considered recalibrating his Multiple Dantians to switch to a different spiritual power, which would broaden the Melting Furnace’s options.

"This spiritual energy seems good."

His consciousness locked onto a wisp of energy.

Ash Spirit Qi—a blend of gold, fire, and wood attributes, resembling smoke, mist, and fire all in one. It offered top-tier power and compatibility with countless spells.

Its only drawback was its relative scarcity, but with the Primordial Dao Body, Li Mo could create a cultivation environment tailored to his needs.

What mattered most was that the combination of Ash Spirit Qi and Mist Fog Spiritual Power subtly resonated with the Five Elements Spiritual Attributes.

Li Mo guided a strand of Ash Spirit Qi into the Melting Furnace.