Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 166 - 26: Pill Cultivation, One with Each Bite

Chapter 166: Chapter 26: Pill Cultivation, One with Each Bite

The chaos in the Four Seas Refining Shop lasted only a few minutes.

The loose cultivators in the shop hadn’t even caught a clear glimpse of the giant centipede’s form when Li Mo summoned a Ghost Tiger, its shadow twisting and snapping the creature’s neck instantly.

The artifact refining apprentice, still shaken, had no idea that Li Mo was using him as bait for pill cultivators.

Of course, the apprentice wasn’t entirely losing out.

The Ice and Fire Twin Birth Wine he consumed had hardened his bones several times over, aiding in the cultivation of related spells and strengthening his foundation.

Li Mo had just returned to his Seclusion Room.

He was already considering how to kill more pill cultivators and trace their whereabouts.

Sitting cross-legged in the room, he stared at the Bone Forging Pill for a long time.

Then, without hesitation, he tossed the Bone Forging Pill into his mouth. Massive Mist Fog Spiritual Power enveloped the elixir pill, surging into his Multiple Dantians.

The Mist Fog Golden Core reacted with a tremor, beginning to rotate.

Crack... crack... crack...

Cracks spread across the surface of the Bone Forging Pill, its Tao Seed dissipating a large amount of information.

Li Mo immediately realized that the structure of the Bone Forging Pill was akin to a brain—or perhaps a soul—highlighting the eerie arts of pill cultivators.

The maggots within the Bone Forging Pill gradually dissolved and liquefied.

Li Mo absorbed Du Yong’s memories while the Creation Book provided feedback, depicting scenes from the ancient Dan Ghost Sect thousands of years ago.

However, much to his disappointment, the Dan Ghost Sect’s magical arts were fragmented and lacked substantial content, unable to unveil the true depths of pill cultivation.

Li Mo suspected that the Dan Ghost Sect had deliberately tampered with the techniques they passed on to their pill cultivators, preventing their secrets from spreading.

While the details of their arts eluded him, fragments of memory still revealed the hidden horrors of the Dan Ghost Sect.

The cultivation techniques of the outer and inner pill lines of the Dan Ghost Sect completely eradicated humanity and were similar to the practices of the Sub-Device Sect, requiring unique physiques for initiation.

Still, the Dan Ghost Sect lacked an equivalent to a Mother Furnace. Their distinct "Dan Bodies" required the sacrifice of countless mortal lives to forge.

Yet, the success rate of creating a Dan Body was shockingly low.

Behind the sect’s prosperity lay a mountain of horrifying mortal skeletons.

The Outer Elixir Lineage would place living humans into insect pupae or wrap them in the roots and stems of grass and wood.

Through specific medicinal catalysts, they would provoke inhuman transformations, turning bodies and souls into plant or insect forms.

Normally, it took about ten years for the Outer Elixir Lineage to establish a Tao Foundation.

If the process failed, the living subjects would merge with the plant and insect Gu worms, becoming containers for alchemy—what the Dan Ghost Sect referred to as "living sacrifices," their grotesque instruments of evil.

The sect’s alchemy involved channeling fragments of their own flesh and blood into these living sacrifices, conducting mass production of elixirs via spiritual communication.

Without such methods, they couldn’t have supplied more than half the cultivation world with elixirs.

Du Yong’s inheritance was tied to the Bone Forging Pill. Due to the limitations of its magical arts, living sacrifice alchemy could only produce Bone Forging Pills.

Additionally, the memories contained methods for raising various species of medicinal worms.

These medicine worms, also refined from living humans, possessed considerable Spiritual Wisdom, essentially serving as servant disciples within the Dan Ghost Sect. They were responsible for cultivating the sect’s spiritual materials or acting as catalysts for alchemy.

Li Mo could clearly see that the Outer Elixir Lineage held a significantly lower status than the Inner Core Lineage within the Dan Ghost Sect.

The entry requirements for the Inner Core Lineage were far more stringent.

If Li Mo had initially joined the Dan Ghost Sect, he most likely would have ended up in the Outer Elixir Lineage. Perhaps he could have changed its disadvantaged position.

According to Du Yong’s vague memories, the rumored "Six Ding Divine Fire" was necessary for the process, burning from infancy until the body was reduced to vapor.

Li Mo furrowed his brows tightly.

As the Bone Forging Pill was completely digested, he scoured his memories but found no significant information on the Dan Ghost Sect—not even the general location of their sect.

The ancient memories from the Creation Book offered no practical value.

He had a growing suspicion that the current Dan Ghost Sect resembled an insect nest, filled with countless unspeakable Gu worms.

For the first time, Li Mo encountered a cultivation system that nearly abandoned the human form.

After the Tao Seed absorbed the Bone Forging Pill, the Mist Fog Golden Core became near flawless, resembling a miniature meteor.

The Mist Fog Golden Core bore three cracks.

The smallest of these cracks had shortened by one-tenth, indicating improved quality.

Li Mo secretly nodded in approval.

Only after the Mist Fog Golden Core evolved into a Perfect Golden Core would he truly have a solid Immortal Foundation for attaining immortality and enlightenment.

While waiting for the Tao Seed to stabilize, he resumed studying the Great Miao’s Tumor and Divine Fetus Technique. Both the "Brain Device" and "Bone Artifact" were ruled out as options.

A moment later, the Mist Fog Golden Core ceased its rotation.

The Gu-refining technique, "Giant Swallowing Evil," and the pill-refining skill, "Prosperity Through Grain," underwent a transformation, evidently benefiting the Tao Seed despite the fragmentary cultivation system of the Dan Ghost Sect.

Li Mo first tried Prosperity Through Grain, but the divine skill failed to produce new wine formulas.

Instead, the four previous formulas were reconstructed, significantly improving their medicinal effects but also complicating the spiritual material requirements.

[Bear Liver Wine]

[Using the liver of a bear-type Deceit Beast as the primary catalyst, grind two hundred-year-old Bitter Age Roots and three pounds of Golden Amber Stone into powder. Apply evenly inside and outside the liver, place it in a Corpse Belly for fifty years to brew, and it will enhance cultivation efficiency during childhood.]

The Brain Nourishing Wine increased cultivation efficiency during the Weak Crown Period; the Tongue Moss Wine temporarily boosted comprehension; the Ice and Fire Twin Birth Wine suppressed skeletal mutations.

However, the brewing duration had significantly extended.

Li Mo sighed and refrained from modifying the Chaotic Burial Mound’s wine formula. He decided to wait until completing the forty refinements of the Corpse Mountain. Without sufficient nutrients, the brewing time couldn’t be shortened.

He then shifted his focus to the Giant Swallowing Evil.

Li Mo activated his Primordial Tao Seed with his qi and blood, directing the spell to manifest the Giant Swallowing Evil quickly, which soon birthed a new Gu formula.

[Medicine Seeking Worm]

[Using one’s own flesh and blood as sacrifice, along with three ounces of Bone Powder and one severed finger, an egg of the Medicine Seeking Worm can be grown in the body.]

Li Mo’s expression turned slightly strange. As expected of a Gu formula birthed by a divine skill, it demanded his body as the breeding ground for the Gu worm.

For now, he didn’t delve too deeply into refining Gu worms; his priority was tracking pill cultivators.

Following the instructions for the Medicine Seeking Worm, Li Mo guided his qi and blood to flow through his left leg. Part of the bone inexplicably disappeared.

A finger withered and detached, and his left leg swelled into a bulge.

Moments later, a Water Strider emerged from the bulge, rapidly transforming into a palm-sized metallic dragonfly in mere breaths.

The Medicine Seeking Worm hovered in mid-air, sensing medicinal energies within a radius of ten miles.

Li Mo summoned the Salamander, and his severed finger regenerated visibly, with the consumed qi, blood, and bone so negligible it could be ignored.

He stretched his limbs and channeled a wisp of Bai Shan’s medicinal qi into his palm.

The Medicine Seeking Worm sniffed the qi, immediately eager to leave the Artifact Refining Shop. Bai Shan’s nearest body was only a hundred meters away.

"How smug they all act, as if invincible—bored of living, aren’t they?"

Li Mo sneered coldly, opened the window, and disappeared from the secluded room.

A gale rose spontaneously on the street.

A burly man selling defective Low Grade Magical Artifacts suddenly felt a murderous intent. When he looked up, he saw Li Mo standing before him.

"Qing... Qing Tian..."

Without hesitation, Li Mo struck. The loose cultivator’s brain had already been hollowed out, sustained by Bai Shan’s medicinal properties, though he was long dead in reality.

"So, Bai Shan. Causing trouble and planning to flee?"

"You..."

The man’s expression drastically changed, but before he could react, Li Mo grasped his head, and a localized Deceit Beastification spread through his flesh.

Li Mo slammed him down with force, leaving a deep crater in the ground.

Bai Shan exhaled medicinal qi, attempting to confuse Li Mo’s mind. Unfortunately, with the Paoxiao Swallowing Body, Li Mo was utterly unaffected.

Whoosh.

The Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain pierced through Bai Shan, whose body twitched violently. His figure grew gaunt while his head swelled several times its size.

The artifact cultivators on the street stared at Li Mo in shock.

"My apologies, fellow cultivators. Qing Tian discovered some Dan Ghost Sect lackeys at the port and decided to eliminate them. I hope you understand."

Li Mo flung the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain, repeatedly striking Bai Shan’s head with his right arm. Each attempt to activate medicinal qi proved futile for Bai Shan.

Bai Shan struggled desperately to break free but felt as though he was sinking into an abyss, his resistance meaningless.

"Y-you..."

He stared at Li Mo in disbelief, astonished that someone merely at the Weak Crown Middle Stage could exert such terrifying pressure, leaving him defenseless.

Li Mo wasted no time, heading straight for another of Bai Shan’s bodies.

With his legs partially Deceit Beastified, he leaped effortlessly into the dense fog and sprinted across rooftops as if walking on flat ground.

Ordinarily, Li Mo wouldn’t dare act so audaciously, but with the alchemy competition ongoing, the Nascent Soul Great Power who typically presided wouldn’t interfere.

In the eyes of others, Li Mo’s actions were the pinnacle of recklessness.

......

Meanwhile, blood-curdling screams echoed from within a teahouse.

The main body of Bai Shan, seated in the teahouse, clutched his head as veins bulged across his forehead. Thick, viscous brain marrow liquid oozed from his nose and mouth.

An herbal scent filled the air.

The tea drinkers froze, their facial features twitching uncontrollably, aware of their loss of bodily autonomy but unable to do anything about it.

"Bai Shan?"

The storyteller’s spine snapped, and Chi Chengzi emerged with a grim expression.

"Daoist Qing Tian... he’s here..."

Bai Shan’s face was filled with fear as medicinal qi erupted chaotically through his Eight Extraordinary Meridians. His swollen flesh distorted grotesquely while his limbs dissolved into a slurry of bloody pulp.

"How did Daoist Qing Tian find you?"

Chi Chengzi’s face twisted with frustration. Aware that the teahouse was no longer safe, he began planning to flee and strategize elsewhere.

Then came a thunderous crash.

The teahouse roof caved in, and Li Mo stood in the gap, holding the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain.

The chain resembled a skewer of candied hawthorns, pierced through a dozen of Bai Shan’s bodies. Blood poured down the walls like a crimson cascade.

Chi Chengzi braced himself for battle.

A pill cultivator exposed out in the open was as good as disqualified from the alchemy competition. Nearby cultivators gathered around the teahouse in increasing numbers.

"Daoist Qing Tian, must you exterminate us all?"

"Surely you’re aware how many pill cultivators are watching, especially that Outer Elixir Fake Core Stage Daoist, who’s only waiting for the chance to strike against you."

Li Mo impaled Bai Shan’s main body and removed his right eye.

A miniature sun floated in the air.

The teahouse filled with light, becoming a beacon in the dense mist, and all eyes from the three-layered port turned to Li Mo in astonishment.

"Fox."

His left arm detached, manifesting a thirty-meter-long Red Fox that tore through the teahouse, devouring the unprepared Chi Chengzi in one gulp.

Chi Chengzi struggled fiercely, vines sprouting from the Red Fox’s orifices.

Li Mo stood atop the fox’s head.

He opened his mouth and exhaled, as Ash Spirit Power surged and broke through to the Late Weak Crown Stage.

The Bone Forging Pill had already proven its worth, and with the Mist Fog Golden Core as his protection, there was no reason for hesitation. What’s more, the port was home turf for the Sub-Device Sect.