Longevity Strange Immortal
Chapter 99: Chess Game! (Request for First Subscription)

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Chess Game! (Request for First Subscription)

The Beast Calamity wreaked havoc.

One after another, the Inner Sect Beasts lurked in the depths of streets and alleyways, sending chills down people’s spines.

Li Mo couldn’t figure out what kind of plan Tian Changwen and Shi Ji were brewing.

Tian Changwen actually demanded that all cultivators remain on standby indoors, allowing the Beast Calamity to ferment unchecked, pushing it ever closer to the brink of chaos.

Li Mo patiently waited for two days, but the news he received still had nothing to do with countering the Beast Calamity—it was merely to deploy cultivators to guard various buildings.

Rooms in the pawn shop were divided up, while the odd job workers were forced into the cellar.

The building Li Mo was assigned to guard turned out to be the familiar Calligraphy and Painting Hall. Not only did it occupy a large area, but its walls had also been reinforced by the pawn shop.

As soon as he stepped out of the inner chamber, he saw numerous cultivators hurrying towards the assigned buildings.

Jin Li had only been back in Rong Town for a few days when he left again in a rush, barely exchanging any words, his face filled with concern over the scale of the Beast Calamity.

Li Mo noticed that the allocation of buildings usually matched the cultivators’ levels. Those in the lower stages of childhood, only the first three layers, were stationed in scattered shops near the pawn shop.

Low-level cultivators were visibly terrified. Being forced to leave the relatively safer pawn shop during the most dangerous moments of the Beast Calamity made their hearts waver.

Even Hu Wen wasn’t spared, although she was assigned an inner chamber to guard.

Through the Poison Bees dispersed throughout the town, Li Mo discovered that Shi Ji’s faction was also moving their cultivators. Only the Medical Hall remained eerily unaffected.

He arrived at the now-empty Calligraphy and Painting Hall. The ground was densely packed with footprints, showing how hurriedly the odd job workers had retreated.

According to Tian Changwen, Li Mo’s activity was restricted to the courtyard of the Calligraphy and Painting Hall.

Li Mo furrowed his brow.

He truly couldn’t grasp Tian Changwen and Shi Ji’s intentions. If they intended to deal with the Inner Sect Beasts, why scatter the cultivators?

Were they creating opportunities for the Inner Sect Beasts to take them down one by one?

The pawn shop was bustling with activity. Most of the cultivators began fortifying the buildings, even though they had no clue what lay ahead.

Li Mo secretly asked Han Cai, but even Han Cai was in the dark.

So Li Mo simply sealed off the inner chamber with wooden planks and ordered the Breath Fog–formed Poison Bees to spread into every corner, preventing any intruders.

After all the work was done, a waning crescent moon hung high in the sky.

Li Mo took a deep breath and looked into the darkness beyond the courtyard. He seemed to glimpse a massive figure, over ten meters tall, passing by the pawn shop.

It was as if Rong Town had already become the hunting ground for the Inner Sect Beasts.

Outside the town, the situation remained relatively stable; soldiers fought tirelessly against waves of incoming Beast Skin People, their corpses piling up at the mountain’s base, attracting swarms of flies.

Li Mo managed to stay calm, but Li Qingfang and her brother were already paralyzed with fear, weighed down by the oppressive shadow of unknown dangers.

Time passed, and amidst the unease of all the cultivators, five days went by.

Li Mo couldn’t help but suspect that perhaps Tian Changwen and Shi Ji wanted to sever ties with their respective factions and chart a new millennium course for the Beast Cultivators and Puppet Cultivators.

He patiently meditated and cultivated, following the daily routine he had on Duozhi Mountain.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

Li Mo opened his eyes. On the seventh day of guarding the Calligraphy and Painting Hall, Rong Town suddenly experienced upheaval. Intense tremors shook every building.

Web-like cracks spread across the ground, as if the very mountains were about to collapse.

However, the disturbances lasted for only half a day before Rong Town returned to silence.

Li Mo summoned the True Word Sect’s Secret Bone to shield his vital areas and cautiously stepped into the courtyard, only to find the exterior of the Calligraphy and Painting Hall enshrouded in thick fog.

He could no longer see the adjacent buildings.

Li Mo’s brow furrowed deeper as he noticed his connection to the Poison Bees weakening significantly, leaving him barely able to sense their rough positions.

Yet what perplexed him most was that the positions of the Poison Bees seemed completely scrambled.

Unease crept over Li Mo. His primary concern was that Tian Changwen might notice his little schemes, prompting him to consider dispersing the Poison Bees scattered across town.

At that moment, new information surged onto his spiritual tablet.

Li Mo quickly checked it, his expression turning puzzled.

Tian Changwen had issued a baffling order, instructing Li Mo to quickly mass-produce defensive Low Grade Magical Artifacts.

Each Low Grade Magical Artifact would be compensated with ten Contribution Points.

But the problem was that Li Mo’s Storage Bag contained only a limited amount of Low Grade Spirit Materials.

For items like Breath Fog and other artifacts that had undergone the Ten Refinements, any further refinement would require Mid-grade Spirit Materials. He had no reason to carry an excessive amount of useless materials with him.

Li Mo hesitated slightly. Before he could make a decision, the Calligraphy and Painting Hall suddenly began to tremble once more.

A mountain breeze blew in, and all the dead leaves in the courtyard simultaneously swirled toward the south, as if some unseen force was acting upon the hall.

Li Mo’s muscles tensed as the Ghost Tiger silently slithered into the shadows.

Moments later, the tremors ceased, and the thick fog in front of the main door slowly dissipated, revealing a dilapidated wooden shack.

It was a firewood shed that only odd job workers frequented.

Li Mo licked his lips.

He clearly remembered that the firewood shed was located in the northwest corner of the pawn shop, far from the Calligraphy and Painting Hall. How had it ended up here?

Standing at the edge of the courtyard, Li Mo’s True Word Sect’s Secret Bone melded with his blood, flesh, and fur.

He scrutinized the ajar wooden door of the shed under the faint glow of a candlelight inside. There was indeed a peculiar smell unique to spiritual materials wafting from the interior.

Extending one elongated arm, Li Mo shattered the wooden door in an instant.

The sight inside the shed unfolded before his eyes: piles upon piles of Low Grade Spirit Materials stacked against the walls, their quantity easily exceeding a thousand at a glance.

It was apparent that Tian Changwen had prepared these for Li Mo to refine Low Grade Magical Artifacts.

To be cautious, Li Mo used the Evergreen Tree’s roots to sweep away all the materials. These should suffice to refine seventy to eighty Low Grade Magical Artifacts.

After the materials were completely removed, yet another abrupt earthquake struck.

Li Mo fixed his gaze on the shed, only to watch it being suddenly dragged into the fog by some invisible force, vanishing instantly before his eyes.

"This is..."

Li Mo wore a complicated expression. The tremors were caused by the movement of buildings. It seemed as though bloodied tendrils were dragging the structures, and Tian Changwen and Shi Ji had rearranged Rong Town’s layout entirely.

He couldn’t help but look up at the indistinguishable skies of day and night.

With each building occupied by individual cultivators, Tian Changwen and Shi Ji could move the structures at will.

If his deductions were correct, Tian Changwen’s Beast Cultivators controlled the eastern district of Rong Town, while Shi Ji’s Puppet Cultivators occupied the western district.

This reshuffling essentially turned the town into a strategic chessboard, didn’t it?

Over a dozen Inner Sect Beasts had now become resources contested by both sides, complicating the chess game with numerous variables. Li Mo’s scalp tingled with unease.

Tian Changwen was on the offensive, while Shi Ji was on the defensive.

If Tian Changwen overcommitted pieces to a particular Inner Sect Beast, and Shi Ji devoted fewer yet held strong, it could lead to Tian Changwen’s forces collapsing entirely.

"Truly an eye-opening spectacle."

The complexity of the chessboard was beyond imagination. Even though the pieces on both sides varied in strength, victory or defeat would remain uncertain until the very end.

Li Mo shook his head helplessly. His role appeared to be that of "supplies," akin to a logistics officer responsible for crafting tools on an ancient battlefield.

In reality, however, he was more of a universal piece.

Able to refine artifacts, practice medical skills, and participate in the eradication of Inner Sect Beasts.

Han Cai’s position in the Medical Hall likely marked him as a neutral piece, a "Medical Soldier," one that wouldn’t directly engage in the conflict but wouldn’t avoid troubles entirely.

Li Mo shared his theory with Han Cai before diving into artifact refining without delay.

He didn’t know what Tian Changwen’s specific requirements were for the Low Grade Magical Artifacts, but since they were to be used by his own faction, they would have to be refined to at least Three Refinements to be reliable.