Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 597 - 31: Slaying Yama with 100,000 Banners
Unlike the complex terrain of the mortal world, the Immortal Realm resembles mountain ranges, with an elevation of 173,000 meters. The higher one ascends, the more abundant the Immortal Spirit Energy becomes.
The six Immortal Ancestors resided year-round atop the mountains, often engaging in discourse on the Dao, accompanied by hundreds of offerings from Daluo Golden Immortals.
Additionally, there were one hundred thousand immortals scattered throughout the Immortal Mountain.
At its peak, the Immortal Realm’s population once exceeded half a million.
Eventually, everything—everything—was obliterated by the Master of Time amidst the cataclysmic upheavals of heaven and earth, leaving the order of the Immortal Realm completely devastated.
The Immortal Realm no longer boasted its once-lush landscapes brimming with spiritual materials.
The palaces of Daluo Golden Immortals have crumbled into ruins; the Immortal Spirit Energy has dimmed, and occasionally one might come across the thousand-meter-long corpses of immortals.
After the first upheaval of heaven and earth, the mortal world had Chunyangzi maintaining the Heavenly Dao.
Though the Spiritual Energy there was murky, cultivation remained feasible.
The situation in the Immortal Realm, however, was ten thousand times worse.
Of the Six Immortal Ancestors, the Three Taoist Ancestors lost control and mutated, vanishing into the Endless Void; of the two Buddha Ancestors, one perished while the other sustained injuries, disappearing thereafter; the Demon Ancestor ceased to concern himself with the calamities of the Immortal Realm.
The Immortal Spirit Energy in the Immortal Realm gradually thinned, signaling the impending arrival of the End of Dharma era.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Li Mo, draped in a thick Daoist robe, trudged through the vast desert. Golden-hued sandstorms struck his body with sharp, crackling sounds.
His injuries had yet to heal, leaving behind bloodstained footprints wherever he treaded.
His aura radiated extreme decay, his foundation riddled with irreparable flaws. The Three Dharma Bodies lay dormant due to severe damages, and his soul had grown dim and lifeless.
"Westward... countless miles... where is the Bodhi Tree where the Buddha Ancestor attained enlightenment..."
Li Mo, emaciated to the bone, showed no concern in his expression.
He found himself in the Buddhist Sect’s territory on the western side of the Immortal Mountain, which had fully deteriorated into a desolate wasteland. Decades on this road and still no living beings in sight.
"If I want to seize one of those who fled, completing the fourth stage of the scheme quickly is vital. Tian Changwen and the others are crucial to this."
Using Divine Skills for divination, Li Mo indeed glimpsed the only path of survival.
Whether he could truly grasp it depended not only on his daring gamble but also on the indispensable support of others.
On another note, Zu Xiuyun should already be at the South Heavenly Gate, shouldn’t she?
The Immortal Mountain is divided into three regions, with the Taoist Sect claiming a domain far larger than those of the Buddha and Demon factions combined.
The South Heavenly Gate is the main gate of the Immortal Mountain, its countless stairs leading straight to the Heavenly Court—a former stronghold of Daluo Golden Immortals.
During his journey past the South Heavenly Gate, Li Mo observed the ruins of the Heavenly Court from afar. Though it had become a wasteland, the grandeur it once possessed was still evident.
Scattered everywhere were pavilions and palaces, suspended in mid-air and connected by Immortal Light.
Remnants of top-grade spiritual materials were visible all around; in the era before the upheaval, materials without millennial potency were rarely deemed worthy.
Nearby the South Heavenly Gate floated the skeleton of a green ox—once the mount of Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad, an exotic beast passed down from the ancient wilderness.
But now, the Heavenly Court could only be viewed from a distance.
Inside the Heavenly Court there were surely many surviving immortals in hiding; eighty percent of them were likely mad and many had already mutated into deceitful objects.
Zu Xiuyun and her team faced almost certain death.
"I hope the Magic Technique I taught A Xiu proves useful."
"If I can end the Buddhist Sect within five hundred years, I can make it to the Heavenly Court in time..."
Li Mo coughed violently multiple times, his palm smeared with blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
"Walking into Deviation within the Endless Void is one thing, but outbreaks of the Death Disease every now and then... is another."
"Still, this is also a form of tempering—a tempering that allows the meat body to be reborn."
Li Mo refrained from summoning the Tattooed Beast, letting the sandstorms engulf him. Parts of his skin had been flayed to reveal mangled flesh and exposed white bones.
The Innate Essence had been entirely consumed during divination; the decades’ worth of replenishment was but a drop in the ocean.
His consciousness blurred, but his footsteps continued unrelenting.
Who knew how much time had passed.
Just as his injuries began to stabilize, the Longevity Stage Death Disease abruptly erupted, its Eight Types of Death Illness encroaching on his body and soul, exacerbating the mutations.
Fortunately, Li Mo had endured the Longevity Stage Death Disease once before and did not completely succumb.
He ceased wandering, choosing a sand dune for a temporary retreat to resist the disease.
Facing the Death Disease, Li Mo remained composed, adeptly drinking Corpse Wine to delay its progress, while splitting his focus to monitor Body Cultivator Li Mo’s situation.
Body Cultivator Li Mo’s condition was far better than the first generation Sword Cultivator Li Mo.
After surviving the Longevity Stage Death Disease, he promptly ventured to the Immortal Realm, avoiding death in the Ancestor Court, and had now successfully arrived at the South Heavenly Gate.
Half a year later, Body Cultivator Li Mo unwillingly met his end deep within the Heavenly Court.
Body Cultivator Li Mo had aimed for the Three Clear Ones Hall of the Three Taoist Ancestors, intending to utilize its resources for cultivation and swiftly reach the level of the Daluo Golden Immortal.
But for Body Sanctified cultivators like Body Cultivator Li Mo, they were irresistible delicacies to deceitful objects. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
If Li Mo wasn’t mistaken, a giant hand extended from near the mountain peak—it seemed to belong to the Queen Mother of the West, attacking Body Cultivator Li Mo.
Body Cultivator Li Mo had misjudged the circumstances.
Before the loop of causality was closed, the Master of Time wished for Li Mo to remain alive, allowing causality to continue cycling and generating boundless resources.
But once Body Cultivator Li Mo set foot in the Ancestor Court, the Master of Time’s stance changed entirely.
The Master of Time naturally wouldn’t personally harm his "food," but with a mere thought, the timelines could become perilous.
Li Mo was maintaining his severely injured state deliberately, evading the Master of Time’s attention.
"Mmph."
Li Mo groaned faintly as the Creation Scholar stirred—a fragment of Body Cultivator Li Mo’s soul and remains returned alongside cancer cells, nourishing his mangled body.
Now equipped with the ability to devour alternate timeline versions of himself, he needn’t worry about his damaged foundation anymore.
Even if he lost all cultivation, he could use grave digging to climb back to his peak.
Li Mo benefited in every aspect, especially in the strength of his meat body, which skyrocketed by nearly forty percent. The Innate Essence had recovered to fifty thousand years.
