Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 43: The Heart Beast Sect? Merely Maggots.

The Iron Cauldron Secret Realm was filled with drifting yellow sand, and the corpses of Deceit Beasts spasmed occasionally, causing shards of stone to roll down from the mountain’s peak.

Figures of cultivators digging into the rock walls could be seen everywhere.

To find top-quality spiritual materials, one needed to venture into the interior of the Corpse Mountain. Thus, Childhood Cultivators with shallow cultivation stayed on the outer surface.

A gust of foul-smelling wind and sand swept past.

Li Mo appeared in the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm, his exposed skin wrapped in the Desert Map, with strips of cloth extending from his shoulder, carrying a Magic Artifact, the Caged Bird.

Unbeknownst to him, his appearance was gradually aligning with the aesthetic of the Heart Beast Black Market.

Li Mo scrutinized the Corpse Mountain. Melt Town Cultivators mixed among the Loose Cultivators, but all were focused on gathering spiritual materials without interacting with each other.

Compared to his previous visit to the Secret Realm, numerous mining tunnels had appeared on the surface of the Corpse Mountain.

The depths of the tunnels were where spiritual materials gathered. The outer surface of the Corpse Mountain was relatively safe, but the gains were insubstantial.

During his retreat, Li Mo had been continuously investigating news about the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.

He had heard many rumors and was able to glean some truth from them. It seemed the primary danger inside the mining tunnels came from "Mud Sculptures."

The three warnings summarized by the cultivators were the most widely spread on the black market.

[There are no temples inside the mining tunnels]

[Do not look back if you see a mud sculpture—keep your gaze fixed on it and retreat]

[Once you find spiritual materials, you must excavate them quickly]

Li Mo quietly performed Hui Qingyi, and at once, the Ghost Tiger detached from his right arm, hiding in the shadows formed by the rock walls.

The Ghost Tiger was responsible for vigilance; it would immediately alert him if any cultivators approached.

Sustaining the Ghost Tiger through Blood and Flesh Spiritual Power did not affect Li Mo’s current condition in the slightest.

Li Mo completed the Salamander Beast Head process with natural ease.

The Salamander’s essence represented "Life," and the Beast Head Tattoo radiated the vitality of all things awakening.

The Salamander appeared in a greenish-blue hue, with coral-like pink fleshy horns atop its head. Compared to other Tattooed Beasts, it was undeniably cute.

Li Mo summoned the Salamander, bringing forth a palm-sized Tattooed Beast into his hand.

The Salamander sensed the truth and falsehood of the Corpse Mountain, quickly arriving at the conclusion that the mountain was utterly lifeless, and then gently rubbed its fleshy horns against his palm.

Though it was useless for combat, once exposed to the external world, it enveloped Li Mo in a faint vitality, accelerating the recovery of his injuries and aiding in identifying natural life forces.

Li Mo was quite satisfied with the Salamander.

The auxiliary position of Hui Qingyi used Beast Blood to draw the tattoo, which required prolonged nourishment. Its growth potential was what made Tattooed Beasts unique.

Li Mo strived for maximum realism in the Beast Head Tattoo, transplanting teeth and eyeballs to ensure the tattoo was polished to perfection.

For the Kun Whale, however, since its main body was massive, the transplanted eyeballs had to come from juvenile beasts. Fortunately, the Treasure Pavilion had stocks, and the process went smoothly.

After the Simulation process, the Beast Head Tattoo became immensely lifelike, significantly enhancing the Tattooed Beast’s efficiency in absorbing external Spiritual Energy.

Li Mo glanced at the Creation Book, and a strange sensation surged within him.

He grew increasingly certain that the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm held the means to add pages to the book, perhaps within the Corpse Mountain’s interior.

Li Mo headed toward an isolated mining tunnel.

But before he could take several steps, the quaking of the Corpse Mountain intensified, and countless pustules surfaced on its exterior, swelling visibly to the naked eye.

"Fake Beast!!!"

A cultivator cried out in shock, hastily consuming an elixir to suppress the metal poison, and soon vanished from the Iron Cauldron Secret Realm.

Li Mo was also aware of the Corpse Mountain’s ability to spawn Fake Beasts.

Fake Beasts were likewise sources of spiritual materials.

However, the deeper one ventured into the Corpse Mountain, the more powerful the Fake Beasts encountered. Some mining tunnels even had Childhood-stage Deceit Beasts showing up.

Li Mo paused, staring at a swelling pustule that had grown to about two meters.

As fine cracks spread across its surface, a grotesque Fake Beast emerged from within, its mouth emitting cries akin to those of a baby.

The Fake Beast was unexpectedly humanoid, with unnaturally elongated limbs and a body resembling that of a normal human, exuding an unsettling sense of dissonance.

Li Mo’s brows furrowed slightly.

Deceit Beasts formed when cultivators succumbed to the outbreak of Death Disease. What kind of realm was the Corpse Mountain during its previous life to transform into such an enormous Deceit Beast?

An Established Stage?

As Li Mo pondered, the Fake Beast broke free from the pustule’s constraints, snapping the umbilical cord attached to its abdomen, then charged madly toward the lingering cultivators.

The cultivators present entertained the idea of hunting the Fake Beast. However, wary of being ambushed by others, they grouped up in pairs or trios.

They glanced at Li Mo and quickly identified him from the cloth strips covering his body as the infamous Golden Sand Taoist.

But within a mere instant.

The Fake Beast’s figure vanished, and Li Mo disappeared as well, leaving behind only a nauseating, foul stench in the air.

The cultivators couldn’t help but shudder.

They suddenly recalled how Yin Xue from the Viper Gang had had his neck bitten clean through.

Li Mo had no interest in killing or robbing others. Dragged by the Ghost Tiger, he carried the Fake Beast’s corpse into a deserted mining tunnel.

The rock walls of the tunnel were composed of flesh, though shriveled and blackened, their hardness comparable to stone, seeping dark red blood continuously.

He skillfully dissected the corpse, discovering that the Fake Beast’s internal organs resembled those of ordinary humans, deepening his puzzlement.

Even its crystallized viscera bore an uncanny resemblance to the Corpse Spirit Root.

Li Mo divided the useful spiritual materials into Storage Bags. The Desert Map absorbed the filth covering his body, cleansing him thoroughly, as he prepared to head toward the tunnel’s depths.

But as his palm made contact with the rock wall, his expression turned to shock.

The Creation Book autonomously flipped to a blank page, where a phantom of a malformed organ appeared. However, the organ seemed incomparably fragmented.

Li Mo’s pupils contracted slightly.

His Magic Finger turned into a blade, slicing into the rock wall forcefully, then carefully examining the blood and flesh patterns at the fracture.

Li Mo observed that the texture of the flesh was unnatural, appearing to have been pieced together postnatally, and no trace of Deceit Beast Blood seemed to flow out.

"This feels like..."

He excavated the area with his Magic Finger for a while, and the organ on the blank page became increasingly clear. With a single surge of thought, he could successfully engrave it.

After working for about an hour.

Li Mo extracted a metallic heart from within the rock wall, apparently affected by congenital heart disease, with portions of its tissue abnormally enlarged.

Thump thump thump...

The heart connected to the Corpse Mountain via blood vessels and began rhythmically pulsing as the earthquake occurred.

Li Mo severed the heart’s blood vessels, after which the organ’s metallic state rapidly deteriorated, soon turning into a piece of low-quality spiritual material.

He walked along the tunnel for a while, finally reaching another rock wall, where the Creation Book once again reacted to an organ inside.

"This Deceit Beast’s body is saturated with countless organs. The spiritual materials originate from there."

Deceit Beasts, in essence, were formed from cultivators afflicted by Death Disease. Li Mo had seen moments of dissecting Moose Monsters, whose internal organs were no different from ordinary people.

The formation of Corpse Mountain might be connected to the Sub-Device Sect.

Li Mo slowly walked to the entrance of the tunnel, watching as countless cultivators dug for spiritual materials.

From this distance, he perceived the cultivators on the mountainside as maggots wriggling on a corpse, working earnestly to dissect the decaying flesh.

Li Mo conceived a bold idea.

The Iron Cauldron Secret Realm might simply be a place where the Sub-Device Sect dumped corpses.

They let the Heart Beast Sect process the relatively useless "decaying flesh" until it was sufficiently reduced, only to later reclaim crucial resources and spiritual materials.

The two groups might not necessarily have a hierarchy between them—immortals would never stoop to concern themselves with maggots.