Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 578 - 12 I, Li Mo, am Honest and Upright

The mortal world was entirely a scene of impending destruction, with spiritual energy becoming faint and elusive, as if the end of Dharma had already arrived.

"It seems only the depths of large sects still retain some remnants of spiritual energy."

Li Mo calculated the time and realized he should set out for Shaoquan Town soon, so as not to miss his meeting with Chunyangzi.

But as soon as he left the Doulu Tripod, thick and overwhelming dark clouds gathered above his head.

Li Mo had been in secluded cultivation for seven hundred years, and due to his restraint in concealing his aura, the once-every-five-hundred-years Small Thunder Tribulation had yet to descend.

In ancient times, cultivators in the Transcendance Tribulation Stage also used various means to evade such lightning tribulations.

Even though it was nothing more than self-deception, the delayed tribulation would inevitably cascade into multiple layers of harsher tribulations later. Not having full assurance, they could only try to stall for as long as possible.

But Li Mo was different—he had purely forgotten about the threat posed by the Small Thunder Tribulation.

"Hurry up—I’m on a tight schedule."

As soon as Li Mo finished his words, the thunder tribulation coalesced instantly, interwoven with purplish-red lightning, before crashing down relentlessly.

The moment the lightning touched his skin, flesh and bones dissolved like butter.

Li Mo’s body became riddled with exposed white bone, yet the Great Wilderness Immortal Body frantically remodeled his physical form, rapidly enhancing his adaptability to the lightning.

"Carrying traces of the Heavenly Dao’s residual echoes? Interesting."

Li Mo held out the Artifact Pill Body in his palm.

The Small Thunder Tribulation consisted of three strikes, and the second strike embodied the Five Elements Thunder Tribulation, which not only destroyed flesh and bone but even sought to uproot the very foundation of existence.

It was no wonder Transcendance Tribulation cultivators feared tribulations so deeply; even upon reaching the Ascending Immortal Realm, the injuries from the Small Thunder Tribulation might still remain unhealed when the once-every-thousand-years Great Thunder Tribulation arrived.

The despair that entailed was imaginable—it would feel preferable to become a carefree Ghost Immortal rather than bear such torment.

Boom.

The Five Elements Thunder crashed down.

The Artifact Pill Body emitted magnetic force, redirecting part of the lightning into the Cosmic Furnace.

Li Mo opened his mouth and directly swallowed the rest of the lightning, causing the Ten Thousand Sword Immortal Bone to creak and crackle with growing sounds.

[Yang Thunder Immortal Bone]

[Five Elements Immortal Bone]

Li Mo glanced at the fifty-six sections of the Ten Thousand Sword Immortal Bone, then fixed his gaze upon the tribulation above. With a powerful thrust of his legs, he leaped into the heart of the lightning.

The Artifact Pill Body rested horizontally among the clouds, crazily absorbing the Small Thunder Tribulation.

The Ten Thousand Sword Immortal Bone continued to expand, and once the tribulation begrudgedly faded away, its count of immortal bones had already reached fifty-nine sections.

After Li Mo descended to the ground, the residual aura of the immortal body finally dissipated.

"Ugh."

Hardly after the Small Thunder Tribulation completed, the Void Realm Tribulation unique to later-generation cultivators began to erupt, causing the Void Realm within the Three Dharma Bodies to collapse and disintegrate.

Li Mo cast a glance at the Three Dharma Bodies and then lost interest.

Given the robust foundation of his Externalized Dharma Body, passing the Void Realm Tribulation was only a matter of time. His Transcendance-stage physical body rendered concern unnecessary.

"Kun Whale, return to me."

The viscous seawater before him churned violently, revealing vast shadows in its depths.

The Endless Star Sea had undergone countless transformations over the mere hundreds of years, now resembling a mix of sludge and oil, emanating a nauseating stench.

A Kun Whale, over a thousand meters long, dove out of the surface, gently nudging Li Mo with its head.

"You’ve worked hard."

Li Mo recalled the Kun Whale, while the Corpse Mountain Mini World had already acquired two major spirit veins, putting it into a state of impending transformative promotion just recently.

Once the transformation was complete, the Corpse Mountain could also achieve the status of an Immortal Artifact.

Coo-coo, coo-coo...

Strange cries echoed in the surroundings due to the disturbances from the lightning tribulation.

Li Mo looked up to see a colossal entity diving toward the island from the horizon.

The massive figure resembled a woman, though her skin sagged grotesquely as if imitating wings to glide through the air.

"You certainly hold your grudges well."

Li Mo curled his index finger, condensing Qi Blood Sword Intent unstoppably.

Bang.

The fierce winds roared.

Li Mo’s finger shattered, using the finger bone as an arrow that shot forward, raising the temperature across a hundred miles due to the surge of Qi Blood.

The gigantic figure froze mid-air, its skin bulging uncontrollably all over.

Flesh exploded into pulp, and the entity, formidable enough to rival Body Integration-stage beings, exploded into a mass of bloody gore. Li Mo remained emotionless.

"Returning Tide."

Li Mo silently recited in his heart.

The blood and flesh remnants initially scattered like raindrops into the sea suddenly converged back into the air, as if being devoured by some black hole.

When the remains vanished without a trace, the finger bone returned to Li Mo’s right hand.

After digesting the nutrients provided by the colossal entity, his physical body improved slightly, though it was of little significance as it wasn’t a Transcendance-stage deceitful object.

"The cultivation path focusing on the physical body, supplemented by Dharma Bodies, is becoming more unfathomable."

Li Mo’s Transcendance-stage physical body—a single drop of blood was equivalent to a Magic Treasure, with suction force capable of devouring all grass, wood, birds, and beasts within a ten-mile radius.

The Three Dharma Bodies had also reached the Ascending Immortal Realm, albeit constrained by the Heavenly Dao’s rejection.

Coo-coo, coo-coo...

Sudden strange cries echoed again as blood and flesh began proliferating in the clouds.

Li Mo recognized that the colossal figure must have been a mortal’s creation, the Wind Lady, an undying entity destined to be reborn as long as any mortal remembered her existence.

What intrigued Li Mo the most was how the Wind Lady still remembered him after millennia.

During his ascent along the Jianmu, the Wind Lady had attacked him—seems in hindsight she had deliberately targeted him and memorized his aura.

Bang.

He snapped his finger bone again, and the partially formed Wind Lady met another sudden death.

However, she didn’t reappear immediately, likely opting for a location far from him to resurrect, showcasing intelligence comparable to humans.

"Heh."

Li Mo found the current mortal world deeply fascinating.

Under the influence of Word-to-law, it had formed an exceedingly unique ecosystem.

Mortals, without question, stood at the pinnacle of the food chain—their individual strength could rival cultivators, while groups could even reduce True Immortals to mere meals.

Deceitful objects were merely parasites dependent on mortals.

Leaving the Endless Star Sea, Li Mo concealed his presence, heading toward the inland regions. What he saw along the way confirmed his suspicions. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

The birth of deceitful objects was indeed rooted in mortals’ baseless imagination.

Utterly absurd.

The reason later-generation cultivators mutated into deceitful objects likely stemmed from mortals’ belief that "those of evil temperament will turn into demons."

Even Chunyangzi, after ascension into the Heavenly Dao, couldn’t alter these deeply entrenched rules.

"The towns and villages have all but fallen—mortals either succumbed to backlash from Word-to-law and perished, or they ascended to the Upper Realm to plague immortals."

Nonetheless, there were still surviving mortals, often scraping by in solitude.

Some mortals of their own accord drank themselves into oblivion, avoiding any thoughts that could result in danger. Otherwise, even stray emotions could inadvertently create threats.

For instance, a mortal spotting a shadow moving outside their window at night.

Clearly just the silhouette of tree branches, yet their mind would involuntarily leap to imagining ghosts, transforming the shadow into an indescribable deceitful object.

As Li Mo ventured deeper into the inland, the scenery turned increasingly desolate yet awe-inspiring.

He saw trees whose upper halves resembled women, nurturing birds and beasts along the way with their sap; butterflies fluttered about, their scales igniting fiery blazes in every place they touched.

Peaks hovered mid-air in triangular formations; rivers flowed upward ending amongst the clouds...

The mortal world resembled the surreal visions of a delusional patient—utterly bizarre with no semblance of logic—some structures even bore the aesthetic of ink paintings.

Li Mo refrained from interfering with deceitful objects.

Unlike the Endless Star Sea, where mortals were absent and disruptions were relatively harmless, inland disturbances had the potential to draw mortal interference.

Even if mortals didn’t witness the scene firsthand, leftover traces at the location might still have influenced Li Mo.

Li Mo intended to avoid falling into a state of uncontrollable mutation under mortal worship.

"Here we are—Shaoquan Town."

"Hmm?"

From a distance, Li Mo observed Shaoquan Town and was surprised to discover the town had retained its original size, with two to three hundred thousand mortals bustling over their daily lives.

Mortals peddled goods along the streets, while tea houses hosted storytellers recounting fantastical tales of gods and spirits.

"Shouldn’t Shaoquan Town have descended into bloody ritualistic hunts targeting immortals? Why does it seem like there’s no trace of turmoil from Heaven and Earth’s transformations?"

Li Mo meticulously revisited his fragmented memories tied to Shaoquan Town from the Creation Book.

The fragments revealed that during Shaoquan Town’s period of bloody rituals, every household had sealed their doors and windows tightly.

"This indicates Shaoquan Town managed to avoid complete collapse after a brief period of chaos."

Li Mo’s expression grew subtly complex.

He quietly approached the town’s wall, releasing some cancer cells as a test, only for the cells to disintegrate into ashes upon entering.

"A sanctuary?!"

"Someone must have sworn a grand oath within Shaoquan Town, transforming it into a sanctuary immune to Heaven and Earth’s upheaval—even the Heavenly Dao is shut out, rendering cultivators powerless within its bounds."

"Similar sanctuaries likely exist beyond Shaoquan Town as well."

Li Mo recognized that when faced with the catastrophic arrival of Word-to-law, some high-ranking government officials had presumably identified the disaster’s root cause, leveraging their status to seal towns off.

"However, Shaoquan Town only permits entry, restricting exit—still grappling with the pressing issue of resource scarcity."

Scanning the town, Li Mo observed that the government had mobilized the citizens toward agriculture, yet the time required for crops to mature remained a significant hurdle.

At most, three or four months later, Shaoquan Town would likely face a dire shortage of food and water.

"Without essential survival resources, they’ll inevitably seek alternatives. But why they’ve decided to target immortals as their source remains puzzling."

Li Mo refrained from entering the town and instead selected a nearby mountain to quietly observe and wait.

During this period, he devoted his efforts to honing his physical body; lacking True Immortals’ Taoist inheritance, he found himself compelled to devour several Immortal Corpses.

"Damn it..."

A massive eye spanning a thousand meters abruptly appeared in the sky, scanning the mountains and plains without missing a corner.

Li Mo spewed blood from his mouth and nose, his Five Internal Organs rupturing, limbs and head severed, leaving his body sprawled lifelessly on the ground.

Ten days passed.

Li Mo regained consciousness, his flesh reassembling and healing completely.

"What the hell was that thing?"

Through the Creation Book, Li Mo discovered the origins of the massive eye.

"Whose twisted imagination came up with this?! King Yan peering from the Underworld into the mortal realm, punishing those of great wickedness with Five Horses Dismembering Pain."

"I’ve lived an upright life—what qualifies me as an evildoer?"

"Yama’s Eye, a newly birthed abomination."

The calamities kept intensifying, birthing more and more ghostly entities. With Yama’s Eye already rivaling False Immortals, the true body of King Yan would likely possess power on par with True Immortals—and they were undying.

Li Mo entertained thoughts of retreating to the Endless Star Sea but understood that the Desolate Sea wasn’t truly safe—it was merely that even more terrifying ghostly entities had yet to emerge.

Rumors circulated among coastal towns about a demon named [End of All Things] hidden within the Returning Ruins.