Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 161 - 21: The Reconstruction Surgery of the Five Senses

Chapter 161: Chapter 21: The Reconstruction Surgery of the Five Senses

The business of the Four Seas Refining Shop gradually stabilized, primarily due to the limited production of Magic Artifacts, making it impossible to rival other Artifact Refining shops.

Of course, the Four Seas Refining Shop had its own advantages, chief among them being that the profits were entirely in Li Mo’s hands, unlike the other shops which had to turn over most of their earnings to their Taoist inheritances.

The Chaotic Burial Furnace wasn’t about killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

With the talent Li Mo had demonstrated, advancing to Nascent Soul was merely a matter of time. Once his strength reached a certain level, his reliance on the shop’s revenue would naturally diminish significantly.

It was inconceivable for Li Mo to remain confined to the shop. Eventually, he would definitely hand its management over to the Taoist inheritance.

The Four Seas Refining Shop continued to retain its business of selling spiritual materials, and even the Corpse Wine trade remained active—the aroma of the wine often greeted those passing by its doors.

Li Mo had been raking in a fortune; the Chaotic Burial Furnace would soon open up a new avenue for earning Spirit Stones; and Qingqiu Taoist seamlessly managed the shop.

However, the three artifact cultivators apprenticing at the shop endured endless suffering.

They had initially thought that they would receive teachings from Daoist Qingtian.

Unexpectedly, they found themselves having to follow the commands of Qingqiu Taoist. They wanted to return to the Chaotic Burial Furnace, but their messages sent to the elders of their Taoist inheritance received no reply.

Left with no choice, they obediently refined artifacts, repeating the daily preparation of Low-Grade Meat Limb Magical Artifacts.

Fortunately, during his leisure, Li Mo would occasionally guide them, and their Artifact Refining skills visibly improved.

After half a year of practice, they could barely craft Low-Grade Magic Device Prototypes.

Li Mo was relatively satisfied with this progress.

The difficulty of crafting Beast Head Meat Limbs far surpassed ordinary artifacts. He merely hoped the Chaotic Burial Furnace could grasp the basics, enabling future mass production of "defective" Beast Head Meat Limbs.

The simplified Beast Head Meat Limbs had more pronounced flaws, but their production didn’t require complicated vascular and meridian structures, allowing even ordinary Artifact Refiners to master their creation.

Seeing Qingqiu Taoist’s meticulous arrangements, Li Mo no longer concerned himself with the operations of the Four Seas Refining Shop.

Instead, he remained attentive to the ongoing events tied to the Dan Ghost Sect. However, for half a year, there had been no new developments—nothing peculiar had appeared at the port either.

Li Mo only took note of the Sub-Device Sect’s subtle attitude toward the Dan Ghost Sect.

It seemed that the Sub-Device Sect was aware of the Dan Ghost Sect disciples’ purpose at the port yet chose to let it slide. Subsequent developments, too, ceased to escalate.

Li Mo couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss.

Thus, he specifically instructed Qingqiu Taoist to recruit some Loose Cultivators at the lower levels of the port to act as informants and monitor any strange occurrences in daily life.

Every ten days, Li Mo would review the compiled information, spending the rest of his time focused on closed-door cultivation.

The second cultivation technique was called the Five Senses Concealing Divine Marvelous Scripture.

Stored in the Daoist Collection at Dome Mountain, the technique seemed unremarkable—it was primarily a work-assistive Magic.

The Five Senses Concealing Divine Marvelous Scripture revolved around surgical modification, linking the scattered branches of meridians to the five senses, transforming the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and mouth into Magic Artifact-like states.

Once mastered, the five senses could withstand the corrosive nature of Spiritual Power, and their perception levels would greatly improve—even the Five Internal Organs would benefit, indirectly connecting the Taoist Body’s various elements.

As it’s said: "The liver opens into the eyes, the kidneys into the ears, the spleen into the mouth, the heart into the tongue, and the lungs into the nose."

However, Li Mo focused primarily on modifying his eyes due to their connection to the Cave God’s Eye, using ears, nose, tongue, and mouth as secondary considerations.

Even while dedicating himself to Magic practice, his cultivation did not fall behind in the slightest.

To ensure the purity of Spiritual Power, he restrained the efficiency with which the Melting Furnace absorbed Spiritual Energy. Currently, it had only been filled one-third of the way to capacity.

Though the chances seemed slim, Li Mo nonetheless hoped to achieve a flawless Ash Golden Core, proceeding with every step extremely methodically.

His gaze shifted to the Multiple Dantians, noticing the Mist Fog Golden Core quietly suspended within.

Li Mo observed carefully, noting that under the influence of the Primordial Dao Seed, even the tiniest of cracks on the Mist Fog Golden Core’s surface showed faint signs of mending—barely perceptible, but there.

If nourished adequately, the Mist Fog Golden Core stood a greater chance of attaining flawlessness than Ash Spirit Power did.

"Whatever happens, happens..."

A flawless Golden Core, a single unified entity of the Mixed Element, represented the ultimate foundation for attaining Immortality and Dao. However, advancing to the Nascent Soul Stage required the breaking of the Golden Core’s bindings—one could only imagine the difficulty of a flawless core.

Li Mo closed his eyes tightly. Once affirmed, he commenced the cultivation of the Five Senses Concealing Divine Marvelous Scripture.

From the Corpse Mountain, he retrieved prepared Blood and Flesh Spiritual Material—a semi-transparent, silvery-white worm known as the "Rainbow Worm."

The Rainbow Worm served as an excellent replacement material for blood vessels and meridians alike.

Li Mo dropped his own blood into the container housing the worms, watching them writhe madly within. From time to time, he added a concoction of the wine mixed with the medicinal power of the Nourishing Yuan Fruit, ensuring their vitality.

Time seemed to blur until some of the Rainbow Worms dissolved into a liquid state.

The remaining worms absorbed his blood, expelling their internal organs, and began resembling blood vessels more closely. Only one in ten Rainbow Worms survived.

Li Mo carefully inspected them, and only when he was sure everything was in order did he nod in satisfaction.

Repeating the cultivation process, he waited until there were enough Rainbow Worms to complete the modifications, then began mapping the intricately spread blood vessels within his head.

A lesser-known aspect of the Five Senses Concealing Divine Marvelous Scripture was the difficulty in refining Rainbow Worms.

Only someone like Li Mo, who could enhance their success rate by forcibly utilizing the medicinal power of the Nourishing Yuan Fruit, would succeed—for every hundred Rainbow Worms, only one might survive otherwise.

"The Sub-Device Sect’s methods for body modification are truly eye-opening."

Li Mo started with his ears, using the Magic Finger to thread a Rainbow Worm into his ear canal and connect it to the corresponding meridians through its extendibility.

A salamander stood nearby, assisting with wound recovery, tilting its head in curiosity.

In moments, the Rainbow Worm had been fully assimilated into his body.

Li Mo remained calm, though the most challenging part was yet to come—connecting the Worm to the micro-vessels was the most intricate and risky task, requiring exceptional precision.

He maintained a cautious attitude but performed with exaggerated movements.

Using both hands alternately, he plunged deeper into the blood and flesh of his ears repeatedly. From time to time, purple bruises appeared on his skin, a testament to how ruthless he was in operating on himself.

Just as the left ear’s surgery finished, a sudden change occurred in the Primordial Dao Seed.

The Primordial Dao Seed altered the Circulation Cycle within the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra, incorporating the meridian branches surrounding his left ear into its flow.

As the Mist Fog Spiritual Power coursed through, Li Mo involuntarily winced in pain.

The blood and flesh of the left ear suffered corrosion from the Mist Fog Spiritual Power, causing blood to seep out. However, the organ also experienced faint nourishment.

In time, his five sensory perceptions would undoubtedly increase significantly.

With the Primordial Dao Seed perfecting the cultivation technique, Li Mo didn’t even need to focus deliberately on nourishment, demonstrating just how well-suited the Five Senses Concealing Divine Marvelous Scripture was for him.

Continuing with the right ear’s modification—with prior experience, it took him just a few breaths to complete.

Though his ears appeared ordinary, their capillaries had been metallized, and faintly, there was now a subtle connection to the kidney.

Li Mo proceeded to modify his mouth and nose, both of which proved less troublesome.

Only the tongue, involving taste buds, posed considerable difficulty; he spent nearly an entire hour finding the proper method before successfully completing the modifications for four of the five senses.

Li Mo saved the eyes for last due to their connection to the Cave God’s Eye.

The transplantation of the meridians wasn’t particularly challenging, but linking them to the Cave God’s Eye proved incredibly intricate, and he still lacked complete assurance.

Taking a deep breath, Li Mo acknowledged that the potential for failure lay predominantly in the Cave God’s Eye’s enigmatic nature—it couldn’t be fully examined even through introspection.

There was no second Cave God’s Eye in existence to compare it with.

After hesitating briefly, he connected the eyes to the meridians first, waiting for several days to allow the eyeballs to be nourished and strengthened before proceeding with the operation.

The Universal Skillful Hand extended a slender Mist Fog Silk Thread, threading it through his blood vessels.

Li Mo guided the thread toward the Cave God’s Eye, simultaneously cutting open the skin around his forehead and subtly adjusting the distribution of blood vessels around the eye sockets.

A faint smoky aura enveloped his face, a sign that the Blood and Flesh Spiritual Material was corroding and evaporating.

The salamander trembled in terror, but Li Mo remained composed, fully aware that even a trace of negative emotion could ruin everything.

If worst came to worst, he resolved to make sacrifices and protect the greater good.

He was willing to abandon his eyes entirely to preserve the Cave God’s Eye, as it was the core organ of the Supreme Cave God Jade Talisman Map.

Li Mo was prepared to bear the cost of failure—it would simply mean re-imprinting his eyes later.

As time passed, the Cave God’s Eye started to wane, and his vision deteriorated to a near-blind state.

Yet a smile crept onto Li Mo’s face—he had ultimately made the right gamble.

Both eyes successfully connected to the Cave God’s Eye. Nourishing Yuan Fruit Medicine Power surged into his head, restoring his injuries almost instantaneously.

"Yaa..."

The salamander expressed its worries, rubbing its tiny head against Li Mo’s leg.

"It’s fine now."

Li Mo reassured the salamander and opened his eyes. The little creature instinctively took several steps back, sensing a profound change in his eyes.

"Ha! A pseudo-Cave God’s Eye—interesting, isn’t it?"

Li Mo’s left eye now had black pupils set against a white background, while his right eye featured white pupils against a black background. Both retained the functions of the Cave God’s Eye: absorbing external Spiritual Energy and expelling internal impurities and waste.

The Cave God’s Eye specialized in Ash Spirit Power, while the black-and-white eyes focused on Mist Fog Spiritual Power. The former significantly outperformed the latter.

To Li Mo’s enthusiasm, the two types of Spiritual Power complemented one another even more harmoniously.

Retracting the salamander, he opened the Creation Book within his mind.

Previously, imprinting the eyes had consumed two blank pages, but following his organ modification, the Creation Book now recognized his eyes as a single unit.

Only one blank page was needed.

Without hesitation, Li Mo imprinted his eyes, feeling a sharp pain ripple through his black-and-white eyes, though his expression remained exhilarated. The path to the Dao was in sight.

Before awakening any Divine Skills, the Cave God’s Eye, enhanced through organ modification, had already vastly improved his vision, making the differences with the black-and-white eyes imperceptible.

Li Mo performed the Kengjin Punishment, removing both his feet to further perfect his tattoo map.

Once the tattoo map completely covered the skin of all four limbs, his vulnerability to being detected by other artifact cultivators would vanish, eliminating his remaining significant concerns.

During Li Mo’s seclusion, the port remained seemingly tranquil.

Yet to the discerning observer, it was apparent that various Taoist inheritances were recalling their most talented disciples back to their mountain gates, as if preparing for some impending catastrophe.

Only the Chaotic Burial Furnace remained unmoved.

It was as though the Old Earth True Monarch deliberately used Li Mo to intimidate the Dan Ghost Sect, leaving them entirely unconcerned about Daoist Qingtian’s safety.

Two years passed in the blink of an eye.

Shortly after Li Mo concluded his cultivation, he received a transmitted message from Elder Zhong.

At the "stove land" beyond the port, several desiccated, eerie corpses had resurfaced. The various Taoist inheritances had appointed Li Mo to handle the matter.