Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 173 - 33 Hui Qingyi [Candle Dragon]

Chapter 173: Chapter 33 Hui Qingyi [Candle Dragon]

When Li Mo decided to choose the Candle Dragon as the main Tattooed Beast, he turned the desolate newborn sub-peak of Corpse Mountain into a breeding ground.

The sub-peak was divided into two zones.

Below the mountainside, all kinds of snakes yet to undergo their transformation into Deceit Beasts roamed.

The most common were venomous snakes, while others included pythons and occasionally forest anacondas, each ranging up to tens of meters in length.

Every half day, Li Mo transported abundant prey into the sub-peak, letting the snakes feast, while strong individuals were fed Evergreen Tree Fruit.

To ensure that no Evergreen Tree Fruit was wasted, he deliberately paired it with Corpse Wine.

He aimed to maintain a transformation rate into Deceit Beasts of roughly thirty percent; otherwise, the consumption of Evergreen Tree Fruit would far exceed supply.

The area where the Deceit Beasts resided was at the summit of the sub-peak, a chaotic scene filled with monstrous activity.

Malformed, horrifying snake Deceit Beasts were everywhere, having transcended the limitations of ordinary imagination, making one’s skin crawl.

Some Deceit Beasts were nothing but clumps of viscous, shapeless masses of flesh, surviving solely on their own immense vitality.

Even the relatively better-formed Deceit Beasts bore discernible human traits, such as shedding their scales to reveal a blood-soaked spine.

Li Mo noticed one Deceit Beast, whose body was covered with a dense cluster of limbs.

It resembled a grotesque centipede, and as it crawled across the summit, its peers dared not approach, its aura overwhelmingly terrifying.

Leveraging his mastery over Corpse Mountain, Li Mo ensured no clashes occurred between the Deceit Beasts.

Although it was possible to expedite mutation through mutual devouring, akin to Cultivating Gu, Li Mo had stockpiled thousands of Evergreen Tree Fruits and didn’t need such primitive methods.

As he refined the main Tattoo to near perfection, he continued studying the Deceit Beasts, meticulously recording his observations.

Feeling a surge of intent, blood rain began to drip incessantly over the sub-peak.

The Deceit Beasts greedily raised their heads, consuming the rain with fervor, their bodies undergoing a new round of mutations.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang...

The rain contained Li Mo’s blood, deliberately mixed with healing spiritual materials and ground Evergreen Tree Fruit.

However, perhaps due to his Five Dao Body, Li Mo’s blood was laden with countless impurities, making its absorption by the Deceit Beasts immensely challenging.

After the blood rain ceased, at least a third of the Deceit Beasts dissolved into a slurry of flesh.

Yet, the remaining Deceit Beasts began to exhibit traits associated with the Five Dao Body, such as Mixed Element Dao Body markings across their surfaces or semi-transparent human-like skin formed from scales.

Li Mo’s brows furrowed slightly.

Evergreen Tree Fruits proved uncontrollable; the evolution of snake Deceit Beasts deviated significantly from expectations. To nurture a Deceit Beast aligned with the Candle Dragon would likely require the sacrifice of tens of thousands of snakes.

"This won’t work. I can’t spend decades just breeding Deceit Beasts."

Li Mo felt frustrated; though the corpses of the Deceit Beasts could nourish Corpse Mountain, the quantity of Evergreen Tree Fruits was finite and would eventually run out.

If the main Tattoo remained incomplete, the Life-gathering Beast Body couldn’t fully merge with the Hundred Beasts Blood Body, let alone engrave the Spell Page.

Li Mo hoped to perfect Hui Qingyi and depart for the Mountain Gate promptly.

After all, preparations for a Flawless Core Formation must be made, and the Weak Crown Death Disease would erupt before the Golden Cauldron Sect assembly, leaving no shortage of tasks to address.

"Or perhaps..."

Li Mo squinted, a thought about surgically intervening on the Deceit Beasts arising in his mind.

From one perspective, reconstructive surgery seemed the most reliable method, considering the formidable vitality of the Deceit Beasts.

Even if the end result was only an approximation—a Fake Candle Dragon—the successive metamorphoses of the Tattooed Beast would ultimately lead to transformation.

Li Mo immediately began drafting a plan, instructing Qingqiu Taoist to procure related resources.

In ancient times, the Candle Dragon was revered for millennia, its image evolving over time, but Li Mo preferred the form of the human-faced, serpentine-bodied Candle Dragon.

"A human face, serpent body, fiery red, upright eyes directly aligned. Its closing heralds darkness; its opening brings light. It does not eat, sleep, or rest, and wind and rain are its heralds."

"This is Candle Nine Yin; this is the Candle Dragon."

Li Mo silently mused, planning to use black and white eyes as the template for modifying the Deceit Beasts while ensuring they maintained their serpentine shapes.

Soon, Qingqiu Taoist began delivering a steady stream of ocular specimens to the Seclusion Room.

Li Mo wasted no time in deliberating over the modifications, choosing instead to temporarily graft the specimens onto his own forehead, connecting their blood vessels and nerves to those of the Cave God’s Eye.

He used the Cave God’s Eye to assimilate the specimens.

But due to lacking imprints, the ocular specimens were inherently inferior creations, their power far less potent than Li Mo’s own black-and-white eyes. Yet, they sufficed for modifying the Deceit Beasts.

Of course, relying solely on the Cave God’s Eye to assimilate each specimen individually was an inefficient method, and rushing too much risked damaging his foundation.

Eventually, after gathering only about a hundred black-and-white artificial ocular specimens, he ceased his efforts.

Li Mo collected the Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain and Eight-Armed Spine Nerve into Corpse Mountain.

Agonized screams echoed across the mountain range, the expressions of the Deceit Beasts atop the summit became unnaturally fearful, instinctively wanting to flee the place.

Li Mo naturally wouldn’t let them disrupt the ecological balance of Corpse Mountain. The Bone-locking Body Sealing Chain suspended the Deceit Beasts upside down, while the Eight-Armed Spine Nerve excised their surplus organs.

To ensure success, Li Mo reluctantly infused some of the Nourishing Yuan Fruit’s medicinal power.

After eliminating the individuals unfit for his purposes, he began transplanting the ocular specimens.

The Deceit Beasts barely retaining their serpentine form, now bearing human-like eyes, exuded an unsettlingly unnatural aura, appearing grotesquely deformed.

The adaptability of the Deceit Beasts to the transplanted organs varied greatly; within half a year, less than ten of the modified Deceit Beasts remained.

They were merely coexisting with the organs temporarily, their modifications far from a success.

Li Mo experimented on five specimens by feeding them Evergreen Tree Fruit, all of which disintegrated into slurry regardless of being paired with the Nourishing Yuan Fruit’s medicinal power.

Cultivating the Deceit Beasts appeared to hit a dead end, and Li Mo was momentarily without direction.

The Mist Fog Golden Core was approaching the moment to subdue the Fourth Spirit, and the refinement of Ash Spirit Power was nearly perfect—time to return to the Mountain Gate.

Li Mo’s expression betrayed his helplessness.

"No choice but to use ordinary Deceit Beast Blood for the Candle Dragon Tattoo. Persisting further would feel like overthinking the problem."

He pinched his nose in thought, suddenly focusing on the Life-bound Magical Artifact parasitically connected to his heart.

Due to the Life-bound Magical Artifact’s incompleteness, parasitizing the High Grade Magical Artifact seldom lasted even a moment, and it had yet to be tested on Corpse Mountain.

Li Mo had no better options and decided to try his luck.

The Life-bound Magical Artifact slithered along his blood vessels into Corpse Mountain, soon merging with it entirely. A stunning transformation unfolded.

Corpse Mountain underwent an upheaval of mutations.

Blood surged from the soil unexpectedly, as rocks transformed into flesh, sinister ocular structures erupting across the mountain’s surface.

The Earth Element Main Peak opened a massive, hundred-meter-wide blood maw.

Within, the Yin Attribute Spiritual Veins morphed into a tongue, lined with countless teeth that seemed eager to devour the other sub-peaks to satiate its hunger.

The Wood Element Sub-Peak’s forest transformed into a sprawling array of skeletal arms.

The white bone arms struggled frantically, as though they were vengeful spirits attempting to escape the mountain’s bindings, with despair-filled screams saturating the air.

The waterfall of the Water Element Sub-Peak froze, its still waters teeming with countless human shadows darting about.

Simultaneously, beasts across the mountain fled to remote corners, desperately avoiding their previously harmless spiritual materials.

Spiritual materials began morphing into humanoid aberrations, though retaining some of their original characteristics.

Li Mo turned his gaze to the Deceit Beasts, noting their profoundly strange state; their tumultuous flesh seemed to stabilize, even taking on a sense of innate compatibility.

"Could it be negative plus negative equals positive? Or is the Deceit Beasts’ mutation simply due to environmental incompatibility?"

Countless thoughts swirled in Li Mo’s mind. Cultivators with overly malign death diseases could turn into unspeakable Deceit Beasts in their later years.

Artifact Cultivation resulted in phosphorescent bodies, transforming into radiant, fleshy suns.

What if—what if death diseases were meant to elevate cultivators to higher-tier entities, only for environmental incompatibility to send them out of control...

Wait, could it be that Deceitful Objects were destined for the Immortal Realm?

Didn’t Tian Chenzi supposedly ascend during his Nascent Soul Stage?

Li Mo dared not speculate further; the parasitism of the High-Grade Magical Artifact rendered the Life-bound Magical Artifact sluggish—he had to act quickly.

He cast Evergreen Tree Fruits directly into the mouths of the modified Deceit Beasts, sparing no effort with the Nourishing Yuan Fruit’s medicinal power. Another violent eruption ensued.

As the Life-bound Magical Artifact exhibited rejection, Li Mo withdrew promptly, ceasing the parasitism.

The mutations of Corpse Mountain reverted to normal. Everything felt like an ephemeral dream, with only several hundred beasts consumed entirely by humanoid spiritual materials.

At the desolate mountain’s summit, only one Deceit Beast remained alive.

A colossal serpent stretched seventy to eighty meters in length, its scales grainy and dotted with clusters of interconnected young snakes burrowing out from its underlayer.

Its malformed head was riddled with tumors, leaving the Deceit Beast lethargic.

Li Mo’s eyes gleamed with delight upon noticing the snake’s black-and-white ocular specimens on either side of its head. The faint flow of ambient Spiritual Energy into these eyes indicated the transplantation’s success.

Without hesitation, he began dissecting the giant serpent Deceit Beast, fearing its untimely death.

Moments later, every organ of the serpent was safely preserved, and not a single drop of its blood was wasted, stored in Liu Li jars.

Li Mo immediately commenced the creation of the Candle Dragon Tattoo.

He had thoroughly grasped the Candle Dragon’s conception, spending the past six months practicing and honing his tattooing skills to the point of mastery.

Compared to the "Demon" of the Red Fox, the "Ghost" of the Ghost Tiger, the "Life" of the Salamander, the "Desolate" of the Kun Whale, the "Sha" of the Golden Toad, and the "Evil" of the Mountain Demon...

The Candle Dragon’s conception was far more distinct.

Its name was "Yin Yang."

The Candle Dragon was, according to lore, the master of day and night, capable of exhaling lightning and storms.

Li Mo gradually entered a trance-like state, his hands moving with increasing speed as instinct took over the Candle Dragon Tattoo’s creation process.

Ten temporary arms were added through transplantation, while nerve and vascular modifications occurred simultaneously.

The tattoo on Li Mo’s chest grew increasingly complete, the Candle Dragon coiled across his skin, its form blending the features of dragon and serpent, its visage a fusion of human and beast, and its eyes bearing one Yin and one Yang.

The moment the tattoo was finished, the Life-gathering Beast Body successfully fused with the Hundred Beasts Blood Body, and the Tattooed Beasts submitted effortlessly to the Candle Dragon’s aura.

Li Mo had transformed Hui Qingyi into an unprecedented pinnacle, surpassing the limits of even its conceptual creator.