Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 75: The 8-Armed Spinal Nerve

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: The 8-Armed Spinal Nerve

Under normal circumstances, a Daoist temple is named after the Daoist who oversees it.

The name "Four-legged True Man" is used by loose cultivators to refer to Li Mo, but it is not considered his formal Daoist title.

Nowadays, many cultivators in Rong Town refer to Li Mo as the "Mountain and Sea Hermit." Even though they do not fully understand the meaning, his prestige is evident.

While cleaning the Daoist temple, Song Liang found the skeleton of Zhou Tianqiong amidst filthy flesh mush. The cause of death was a punch that pierced through his hard skull.

He hung the skull at the entrance of the Hongxing Escort Agency to intimidate loose cultivators.

Although Li Mo has never crossed paths with the other Daoists, in the eyes of the loose cultivators, the Mountain and Sea Hermit has become the foremost figure of the childhood stage.

With Jin Li’s efforts, the area around the artifact refining shop transformed into a small black market.

Loose cultivators set up stalls everywhere, while Jin Li rented out the shop’s private rooms to them for secluded cultivation, profiting handsomely in the process.

Qingming Taoist Temple attempted to establish a market to attract loose cultivators.

However, failing to build any trust with the loose cultivators and lacking an artifact refiner like Li Mo, they could not form an effective supply chain.

Li Mo even selected certain loose cultivators and, under the name of Mountain and Sea Daoist Temple, sent them deep into Duozhi Mountain after coming to agreements with the artifact refining shop.

Yet, what perplexed the other Daoists was why Li Mo left the medicine fields in front of Mountain and Sea Daoist Temple idle, not planting any spiritual materials.

After ten or so days, Li Mo stopped personally handling the affairs of the refining shop, delegating them entirely to Jin Li and Song Liang.

He became a hands-off shopkeeper and enjoyed his leisure.

Li Mo repeated his circulation cycle, striving to purify his Mist Fog Spiritual Power throughout his body. Though progress was minimal, it still contributed significantly to Foundation Establishment.

Occasionally, when his mental realm was unsteady, he would refine mid-to-lower-grade magic artifact embryos.

Whenever loose cultivators heard the sizzling sounds emanating from Mountain and Sea Daoist Temple, they knew the refining shop was about to put up artifact embryos for sale and would queue overnight.

With Li Mo’s trusted reputation, the refining shop never lacked business.

The artifact refining shop began to operate smoothly.

Jin Li made a trip back to Fuxing Town, and after returning to the mountain, headed straight to the inner chamber of Mountain and Sea Daoist Temple.

Li Mo sat cross-legged on a meditation mat, skillfully refining artifact embryos. Even though Jin Li had witnessed this many times, a trace of amazement still flashed in his eyes.

"This level of talent—it’s impossible for him to be stuck at the bottleneck of Foundation Establishment. There’s even a chance of reaching Core Formation."

Li Mo was like a machine, never making the slightest mistake.

Jin Li felt no jealousy toward Li Mo’s induction fate; the disparity was too vast, leaving only admiration and respect.

Once the impurities in the spiritual materials were fully eliminated, Li Mo tossed them out the window.

He closed his eyes to nourish his spirit for a moment, appearing to be restoring his depleted energy, but in reality, he was simply trying not to make artifact refining look overly effortless.

Jin Li patiently waited until Li Mo opened his eyes and then spoke.

"Brother Li, according to your criteria, I’ve selected several types of spiritual materials suitable for planting."

Jin Li laid the spiritual materials before Li Mo. They were all spider limbs, roughly the size of a human arm, still retaining traces of vitality.

Li Mo lifted his gaze to inspect the spiritual materials while listening to Jin Li’s explanation.

The limbs came from four types of Fake Beasts: the "Poison Spider," the "Azure Blue Water Spider," the "Red Crawling Spider," and the "Poisonless Wolf Spider."

Recently, Li Mo had been deliberating over integrating organs into mid-grade magical artifacts, as three organs within the Five Poison Five God Heart Sutra remained vacant.

After much internal debate, he decided to explore the spider legs described in the Multi-legged Soul Spider Spell.

He had spent a significant sum to acquire a mid-grade Magic Device Catalog titled "Eight-Armed Spine Nerve," specifically for refining spider legs.

The medicine fields in Duozhi Mountain were incredibly peculiar—they could grow living spiritual materials, including the blood, flesh, and organs of Fake Beasts, which would develop like multi-limbed plants, eventually flowering and bearing fruit.

Li Mo’s gaze landed on the Poisonless Wolf Spider.

The limbs of the Poisonless Wolf Spider closely resembled human hands, with claw-shaped tips and surfaces covered in fine hairs.

"Let’s go with this one. Brother Jin, please take extra care. You may keep thirty percent of the medicine field’s earnings as your share."

Jin Li hesitated before speaking, "The earnings are not a problem. It’s just that I have a question I’m not sure if I should ask."

"Go ahead."

"Are the Poisonless Wolf Spider’s limbs intended for transplantation into yourself?"

"I’m well aware of the risks. It’s merely for refining limb-based magical artifacts. Deliberately transplanting spiritual material limbs indeed carries excessive danger."

Li Mo understood Jin Li’s concerns.

Multi-limb techniques were far from safe. Who knew what hidden flaws lay within?

Looking down from Mountain and Sea Daoist Temple toward the refining shop, Li Mo saw that among the diverse and chaotic crowd of loose cultivators, over eighty percent had limb transplants.

Even Rong Town cultivators couldn’t resist the allure of cheap limb-based spiritual materials.

Li Mo suspected there was a push behind this from Rong Town itself, especially since childhood stage techniques requiring limb transplantation had already appeared on the market.

Rong Town’s current stance was highly ambiguous.

It was apparent they were planning to revoke the array suppressing Duozhi Mountain to maximize resource yields.

"Why would the Sub-Device Sect, which reveres the Human Pig, intentionally spread Multiple Limb Syndrome?"

Li Mo licked his lips.

It seemed that after the recent auction, the rules of development within the Heart Beast Sect’s two-hundred-li radius were veering toward something inexplicably bizarre.

Before leaving, Jin Li whispered, "Regarding the matter of Bai Chao Daoist, I discreetly inquired with familiar cultivators."

"It’s said that Bai Chao Daoist hasn’t appeared for a long time because his body is unwell."

"Forget about that. Help me deliver this mid-grade magical artifact to Qingqiu Daoist." Li Mo tossed a Storage Bag to Jin Li.

Jin Li took his leave in haste, leaving Li Mo to his thoughts.

Li Mo was now eighty percent certain that Bai Chao Daoist was that Inner Sect Disciple. Rong Town had hastily released the induction fate to secure his promotion to Foundation Establishment.

Li Mo dared not probe Bai Chao Daoist Temple. The other two Daoists were equally silent; they likely sensed deeper machinations at play.

Suppressing stray thoughts, Li Mo resumed his secluded cultivation to purify Mist Fog Spiritual Power.

Periodically, Jin Li delivered newly grown Poisonless Wolf Spider limbs from the medicine fields, and Li Mo selected those of the highest quality.

The medicine field’s ability to cultivate spiritual materials was remarkably fast, but its growth rate was slowing, likely due to nutrient depletion.

The Eight-Armed Spine Nerve was a combined magical artifact, with the spine as its core and the eight arms as interchangeable components.

Li Mo retrieved Zhou Tianqiong’s spine. As an acquired Polluted Dao Body, Zhou Tianqiong’s value primarily lay in his bones.

The spine, undoubtedly of excellent quality, was more than suitable for artifact refining.

However, the spine had been tainted by impure spiritual power, making the refinement into an artifact embryo particularly arduous as the impurities needed to be meticulously removed.

With plenty of time on hand, Li Mo used the most conventional method to process the spiritual material.

Transforming the spine from foul-smelling, dirty yellow bone into translucent jade-like material, the impure spiritual power it contained was entirely eradicated.

Refining the Eight-Armed Magical Artifact afterward became much simpler.

Once the Eight-Armed Spine Nerve was completed, refining the core artifact—the spine—enabled the summoning of eight arms from its vertebral joints.

The Multi-legged Soul Spider Spell offered temporary transplantation methods, but Li Mo planned to attempt this only after Foundation Establishment, possibly leveraging it to advance to Universal Skillful Hand.

The only issue was that the subsequent refinement of combined magical artifacts required nine times the spiritual materials. The spine and eight arms needed identical materials.

No wonder the Eight-Armed Spine Nerve Magic Device Catalog attracted no interest—it was truly a labor-intensive and thankless endeavor.