Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 47 The Pale Mud Sculpture

Li Mo also understood that the Child Ghost Head was indeed one of the reasons the loose cultivators gathered in the Secret Realm, but the primary reason was still human greed.

From the trends in the black market, it was evident that the surgery to transplant eyeballs had already gained traction. The Child Ghost Head merely fanned the flames higher.

After Li Mo fled, his abandoned cave mansion attracted a group of over a dozen cultivators, all identifiable as members of the Viper Gang based on their attire.

The leader of the Viper Gang, Xu Guangcheng, stood among the crowd. None of the other cultivators dared to utter a word in his presence, remaining in absolute silence.

Xu Guangcheng hardly resembled a human anymore, with his most distinguishing features being the snake scales covering his skin and his limp, boneless-looking legs.

Beneath his arms, one could still glimpse the Child Ghost Head, indicating that he too had refined Li Mo’s Magic Artifact.

Xu Guangcheng’s mouth dripped crimson as he toyed with freshly unearthed Low Grade Spirit Material, rancid saliva inadvertently seeping out as he grinned maliciously.

For a long time, the Viper Gang had shown no interest in interfering with the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.

But under the temptation of profits, Xu Guangcheng eventually could no longer resist the urge and led his forces into the realm, reallocating over half of the black market cultivators for this venture.

However, since most of the mine tunnels were already occupied by various factions, the Viper Gang had no choice but to target the relatively more dangerous abandoned mines.

"What’s the situation?"

"Reporting to the leader, there’s a Mad Taoist inside the cave... They seemed to be in seclusion, but the moment they sensed our approach, they immediately departed."

"Seclusion?"

Xu Guangcheng sneered at this, his lips curling in mockery. Who would enter seclusion in a peril-laden Secret Realm? Were they that confident in their invincibility?

Still, judging from the arrangement within the cave mansion, it might truly have been the case.

The cave mansion was a hastily carved-out space, with dried hay spread across the ground. At its center was a two-meter-deep pit, likely the aftermath of a magical backlash during training.

Stretching lazily, Xu Guangcheng ordered nonchalantly, "Listen up. Find his trail as soon as possible, dead or alive." freēnovelkiss.com

The crowd of cultivators echoed their unanimous assent, though many exchanged uneasy glances. Who knew what kinds of dangers lurked in the mine tunnels?

After giving his orders, a sinister flash flickered in Xu Guangcheng’s eyes.

Wiping the bloodstains off his palms, he couldn’t help feeling bitter—had he discovered the true potential of the Ghost Head Magic Artifact earlier, there would’ve been no need for the Viper Gang to come to the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm at all. Simply selling Magic Artifacts in the black market would have been immensely profitable.

Xu Guangcheng had already executed the cultivators who were skimming profits from him; their corpses now hung at the cave’s entrance.

As for Li Mo, he hardly cared. After all, what threat could a lone rat pose? Most likely, this was just a loose cultivator who had been terrified into madness by the eerie sights of the Secret Realm.

Nothing worth worrying about.

Xu Guangcheng was entirely unaware that Li Mo was watching his every move through the Child Ghost Head.

In Li Mo’s eyes, the Viper Gang was nothing more than a dispensable chess piece. Once they entered the abandoned mine tunnels, their fate was no longer their own.

Li Mo found a secluded spot and had the Ghost Tiger dig out a new cave mansion for him.

The new cave extended deep underground, with the entrance sealed off to ensure no other cultivators would notice its presence—it would be far more concealed.

Li Mo merged his consciousness with the Ghost Tiger, using it to communicate with the Mother Ghost Head.

He observed that five cultivators in the Corpse Mountain had refined a Child Ghost Head, three of which were controlled by black market factions and hadn’t yet ventured deeper.

In contrast, two loose cultivators had already delved two kilometers into the Corpse Mountain.

It was foreseeable that the rate at which the Corpse Mountain decayed and broke apart would greatly accelerate. Its surface was already riddled with swollen fissures and countless lesions.

Li Mo felt a slight pang of regret.

His primary goal was an object within the Corpse Mountain that had provoked a reaction from the Creation Book. However, if he focused his efforts on mining Spirit Materials instead, the stockpile he could amass would likely be enormous, enough to form a towering heap.

Glancing toward the direction where the Viper Gang cultivators had gathered, Li Mo could hear the crisp sound of tools striking rock walls, indicating that their excavation had begun.

"It doesn’t really matter," he murmured to himself. "After all, the Viper Gang is here."

"Consider them free labor."

Li Mo had been in constant conflict with the Viper Gang during this period. The body of an Artifact Refiner was undeniably lucrative, coupled with old debts involving Yin Xue. That said, due to the unspoken rules of the black market, a full-blown conflict had yet to break out.

Seeing that the Ghost Tiger had finished carving the temporary cave mansion, Li Mo slipped into the underground passage, carefully sealing the entrance with scattered flesh and rock fragments.

He placed the Liu Li jar in front of him, occasionally sprinkling powder made from Spirit Materials inside.

The growth of the Tao Seed was still ongoing, estimated to take several more days before it fully formed.

While maintaining his Circulation Cycle cultivation, Li Mo split a portion of his consciousness to observe the various Child Ghost Heads, ensuring the exploration of the Corpse Mountain proceeded methodically.

Time and again, it proved that human greed was boundless.

Even though they knew unspeakable terrors lay hidden deep within the Corpse Mountain, the mere allure of the Child Ghost Head tempted them to march forward without hesitation.

Li Mo had yet to find any sign of the so-called "Mud Sculpture" rumored to circulate through the Heart Beast Black Market.

He tried searching for the Mud Sculpture through the perspectives of the Child Ghost Heads, but after several days of observation, all he found was the dull monotony of cultivators digging for ore.

Li Mo decided instead to anchor his consciousness to a loose cultivator who had journeyed nearly three kilometers deep.

The exposure to Metal Poison in the depths had amplified the cultivator’s greed manyfold, filling their mind with fever dreams of achieving immortality and becoming a Tao.

Li Mo experimentally controlled the Child Ghost Head to blink its eyes. Seeing no reaction from the cultivator, he brazenly rotated its neck.

The entirety of the mine tunnel came into view.

Just as he was about to withdraw his surveillance, a faintly pale figure seemed to be standing in the distant darkness.

The figure’s posture was unnervingly strange, entirely unlike that of an ordinary person. Even after much scrutiny, it remained completely motionless.

The Child Ghost Head turned its head away, but in the instant it turned back, the figure had moved forward several dozen meters, now within a hundred meters of the loose cultivator.

Through a blurry lens, Li Mo made out what appeared to be an ordinary clay Mud Sculpture with cracks across its dried surface.

The Mud Sculpture’s face lacked features, but its sunken eye sockets exuded an inexplicably terrifying aura.

A chill crawled down Li Mo’s spine.

The loose cultivator had also noticed the Mud Sculpture. Their expression morphed into pure terror as they collapsed to their knees, trembling violently and crawling backward toward the path they came from.

The Child Ghost Head kept its gaze fixed on the Mud Sculpture. Sure enough, the Mud Sculpture remained motionless.

However, with every fork in the tunnel, whenever the sculpture momentarily slipped out of sight, it would inexplicably reappear in the blind spots of the field of vision.

Without the presence of the Child Ghost Head, the Mud Sculpture likely would have already closed in on the loose cultivator’s back.

Li Mo checked the other Child Ghost Heads, cautiously scanning the surrounding area.

Soon, he observed something deeply unsettling—aside from Xu Guangcheng, all other cultivators were already being tracked by Mud Sculptures.

The Mud Sculptures were not solitary entities; there seemed to be a significant number of them.

This meant that if a cultivator became entangled with more than two Mud Sculptures simultaneously, even the assistance of a Child Ghost Head would not guarantee their survival.

The safe limit was likely within 1,500 meters of depth.

There was no need for Li Mo to warn them, as the cultivators in the Secret Realm would soon realize this themselves. But after tasting the sweetness of gains, there was no way the factions would simply give up.

They were bound to come up with countermeasures.

Any Spell that could increase the number of eyeballs, or Magic Artifacts similar to the Child Ghost Head, would likely be in high demand in the Heart Beast Black Market.

The stance of Rong Town remained unclear for now, but so far, this trajectory was exactly what Li Mo desired—the murkier the waters, the greater the opportunities.

Feeling mildly uneasy, Li Mo summoned all the Tattooed Beasts to the outside world.

He maintained only the minimum amount of Blood and Flesh Spiritual Power necessary, leaving the Tattooed Beasts small and diminutive as they spread throughout the cave mansion, leaving no blind spots in its defenses.

As time passed, the transformation of the Tao Seed gradually reached a state of calm.

No trace of the Mist-born Carp Bladder could be seen anymore; instead, its form now resembled an otherworldly heart, pulsing and writhing continuously within the water.