"Sacrificial Festival..."

The Heart Beast Sect likely held the Sacrificial Festival twice.

The first Sacrificial Festival caused Tian Chenzi to ascend to the Immortal Realm.

According to Li Mo's speculation, the timing of the first Sacrificial Festival occurred during the mid-period of the Chaos of Heaven and Earth, not long after Chen Tiangang's Feather Transformation ascension, but it was certainly earlier than the Buddhist Sect's Mist Ascension.

The second Sacrificial Festival was performed by the surviving disciples, calling for Tian Chenzi to descend from the Immortal Realm.

Li Mo recalled the anomaly surrounding Tian Chenzi's descension remnants in later generations, indeed revealing an ineffable presence.

The altar at the Grave Mound Sword Tomb seemed like it was calling for the arrival of Immortal Gods through the Sacrificial Festival.

"Could the altar summon some damned thing as well?"

If not for the Void Refining Stage Elders nearby, Li Mo would've already seized the chance to flee, even if the reward was a million tenants, he couldn't risk his life.

The altar was piled high with flesh and blood, with the broken bodies of mortals kneeling beside it, their Spiritual Wisdom long consumed by madness.

"Truly wicked."

After briefly scanning the altar, Li Mo shifted his focus back to clearing out the deceitful objects.

The tenants of the Corpse Mountain Mini World had unknowingly surpassed nine hundred thousand, filling the mountains with an endless number of grave mounds.

The Spirit Root Worms surged to two hundred Spirit Patterns, advancing towards three hundred with unparalleled momentum.

Unexpectedly, after the Buddha Demon Body had devoured tens of thousands of heads, the Five Qi Period's progress subtly accelerated.

"Heh heh heh, with another million tenants from the Corpse Mountain, the Buddha Demon Body might achieve Void Refining Stage within a century."

Li Mo's eyes were brimming with eagerness.

However, he didn't continue maintaining the nearly nine thousand lifebound flying swords but intentionally handed over some Sword Ghosts for other Sword Cultivators to handle.

The lifebound flying swords appeared intact on the surface, but their cores had already begun to decay.

"Keeping numerous lifebound flying swords out for extended periods severely limits the growth of the Symbiotic Dharma Body, and Dragon Transformation of the swords requires sufficient time."

Recognizing the Symbiotic Dharma Body's singular flaw as taboo, Li Mo had no desire to expose it. Reducing the number of flying swords allowed for easier adjustments.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan had already fulfilled his objective at the Grave Mound Sword Tomb and hadn't objected to Li Mo's opportunistic behavior.

Naturally, the corpses still remained in Li Mo's possession.

Even Lian Changyi had been defeated; which Sword Cultivator would dare contest the corpses of the Sword Ghosts?

As the tenants of Corpse Mountain reached one million one hundred thousand, the number of Cocoon Swords sharply diminished, leaving the city inundated with futile Little Night Wanders.

Seeing this, Li Mo conserved his energy and began selecting Sword Ghosts with Taoist Bodies among them.

The remaining Sword Ghosts would either be gradually worn down with a Sword Array or handed over to fellow cultivators to confront.

After a half-month of dormancy, Chang Yi had become active again, fighting Sword Ghosts outside using Middle Lower Sword Intent.

Attempting to stabilize his Tao Heart.

The practice proved effective; his techniques with Sword Qi considerably improved.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he worked, he could not surpass the speed of Li Mo's progress, who had mastered multiple types of Sword Intent in just over a dozen days.

Li Mo himself had stopped paying attention to the sword marks on the surface of his Symbiotic Dharma Body.

He discovered that when a spirit attribute possessed Superior Sword Intent, comprehending Middle Lower Sword Intent became nearly effortless.

The Four Tao Body elevated natural talent; Li Mo's extraordinary comprehension rendered the Bodhi Fruit nearly useless, occasionally feeding it to the Tattooed Beast.

"It's coming..."

Lu Yuan's voice echoed, and all the Sword Cultivators simultaneously retracted their Sword Intent.

The scent of blood suffused the air.

The altar erupted with mortals' fractured and fanatical chanting, voices steeped in fervor.

Although the mortals were merely vessels of consciousness, it was nonetheless a reenactment of the catastrophic terror from eight thousand years prior—an unprecedented glimpse into the Chaos of Heaven and Earth.

Li Mo's resolve shifted; his Array for killing deceitful objects shifted into an Illusion Array, directing all Sword Ghosts toward the center of the city, away from the altar.

Only now did they realize that Li Mo's talent wasn't just in cultivation but also in the unmatched complexity of his Array designs—profound far beyond what Divine Separation Stage cultivators could comprehend.

If Ye Zhuo Daoist were present, he'd certainly issue a sardonic laugh.

"Don't bother comparing yourself to Li Mo. The gap in talent is like heaven and earth. Better to feel the despair honestly."

Four mortal elders stepped onto the altar.

Their speech was unusually lucid, chanting ambiguous scriptures, then furiously dancing on the altar in disjointed movements.

Li Mo furrowed his brow.

Fragmented memories from the Creation Book occasionally hinted at something: the events happening at the Grave Mound Sword Tomb mirrored occurrences in Shaquan Town eight thousand years ago.

Compared to the mass death in Wumen City, Shaquan Town appeared to have undergone a gruesome blood sacrifice.

"Wait."

Li Mo mused apprehensively, "Could the two towns be causally linked?"

"Might it have begun when Shaquan Town's residents noticed the Heavenly Sword Sect shutting its gates, prompting them to investigate Wumen City."

"In the end, hundreds of thousands in Wumen City met inexplicable deaths."

"Terrified, Shaquan Town's residents, surrounded by demons and ghostly creatures in the outskirts, were trapped in the city until they all descended into madness."

Li Mo repeatedly confirmed his memories, realizing his speculation was close to reality.

The chanting on the altar intensified.

"Upon this earthen altar, we sacrifice to the heavens. We mortals pledge our gratitude to heaven's favor, to earth's favor, offering ourselves to invite heaven and earth's spirits."

Thump, thump, thump—human-skin drums were struck, and the mortals descended into visceral hysterics.

The flesh atop the altar began to writhe; white bones connected, extending like budding shoots sprouting from the piles of corpses.

Li Mo's heart raced as he forced his expression to remain composed.

What caught his attention was that the white bones had formed into a ladder, thinly wrapped in bloodied flesh, ascending slowly toward the clouds.

"This is indeed the Sacrificial Festival, but are they summoning the descent of Immortal Gods, or are they climbing the Immortal Ladder toward the Immortal Realm...?"

In Li Mo's mind flashed vivid images.

During the real events at Shaquan Town, the scale of the Immortal Ladder far surpassed this altar, constructed of the flesh and blood of at least hundreds of thousands.

"A bunch of lunatics. And mortals—why would they believe that, with crude rituals, they could summon a path to the Immortal Realm? Utterly absurd."

Li Mo revealed a faint trace of frustration in his gaze.

Yet, considering mortals who severed their own heads could ascend to the Immortal Realm, let alone through blood sacrifices, the Chaos of Heaven and Earth defied any conventional logic.

The elders atop the altar continued chanting.

"The sacrificial food, after the rites, must be consumed. It is the residue of the Food of Immortal Gods."

The mortals began ravenously devouring, their missing limbs regenerating, their emaciated forms swelling with vigor, one by one expressing heartfelt gratitude.

Within the Creation Book's fragmented memories, the ancient transformations of mortals were even more terrifying.

Li Mo witnessed it.

Mortals' filth fell away, flowers blossomed beneath their feet, lifting them, their seven orifices exuded divine light and ethereal energy.

"A body like the shadow of clouds, pure and limpid, yet still bearing the semblance of body and mind."

"This is the Heavenly Person."

Li Mo could not mistake this; the Taoist Bodies of these mortals' transformations were clearly Innate Saints—perhaps even closer to the Immortal Body than his own Innate Saint form.

However, the Creation Book's memories stopped abruptly once more.

Craving to uncover the eight-thousand-year-old truth, Li Mo fixated on the altars scattered across the Grave Mound Sword Tomb, his gaze thoughtful.

The elders cried out desperately.

"Sacrifice to the Immortals, expressing devout gratitude for Immortal grace."

"We beseech Immortals to descend!!!"

Li Mo's pupils tightened. Though seemingly focused on the ritual at the Grave Mound Sword Tomb, he was deeply shaken by the slivers of mystery revealed in the Creation Book.

He couldn't even focus on the grave mounds; confirming no immediate danger, he delved into unraveling the tangled threads of insight.

No one noticed Li Mo's distraction, as Void Refining Stage Elders began appearing.

The Immortal Ladder trembled, at its hundred-meter peak enveloped in mist, figures darting within.

Lu Yuan unleashed Sword Qi to suppress the Immortal Ladder, his words cold: "Ignore the Sword Cultivators within the grave mounds; our priority is recruiting disciples."

The Sword Cultivators were taken aback; they hadn't expected that the Grave Mound Sword Tomb indeed harbored disciples.

Chi Baicheng explained, "When Sword Cultivators perish within the Grave Mounds with intact bodies, their remains sink into the depths of the Sword Tomb."

"Though branded as Grave Mound Sword Cultivators, they are mere puppets devoid of Spiritual Wisdom. Nonetheless, they do possess unique Taoist inheritances, although these can only be revealed... through blood sacrifices."

Chi Baicheng's words stopped short, omitting the correlation between blood sacrifices and the Immortal Ladder, an alternate reenactment of the Chaos of Heaven and Earth from eight thousand years ago.

Grave Mound Sword Cultivators lack Spiritual Wisdom and lose control shortly after arriving in the present world.

Becoming one of the countless Sword Ghosts haunting the Heavenly Sword Sect.

"Let thunder come."

The Duke of Thunder called forth an expanse of lightning, roasting the mortals beside the altars into blackened corpses.

"Thunder Constellation disciples take thirty percent, Autumn Frost disciples another thirty percent, the Great Sun claims forty percent."

"Agreed," Lu Yuan somberly replied.

Chi Baicheng nodded, drawing the hearts of charred corpses with his lifebound flying sword, then mixing them with spiritual material powder and placing them into a clay jar.

Specially forged flying swords pierced the jar, then it was affixed with numerous Spirit Talismans.

"Return to the spirits; return to the spirits..."

Chi Baicheng's Spiritual Power drained rapidly, and gales swept across the ground, pulling forth rows of wooden coffins containing corpses.

"Excellent—two thousand eight hundred individuals—enough for supplementing disciples."

The Duke of Thunder laughed heartily as Sword Winds carried nine hundred coffins aloft, awaiting the activation of life force to awaken Spiritual Wisdom.

The bodies retained their memories from Shaquan Town.

Firstly, they would be allocated to the Outer Disciples of the Twenty-Eight Sword Tombs; upon reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, they'd be promoted to the Inner Sect, and during the Divine Separation Stage, they would be informed of their origins.

Even with the Heavenly Sword Sect's abundant resources, achieving Promotion to Divine Separation Stage typically required a thousand years.

Sword Cultivators' contained false memories from their time in the grave mounds, often forgetting the majority, with only a handful succumbing to deviation.

"Let's move; I'm sick of staying in the grave mounds—it's terrifying."

Thunder Constellation performed a spell, intending to destroy all the altars at once.

"No rush."

Lu Yuan intervened, detaching his own head and replacing it with the head of the Yang Niu, his flesh healing instantly.

"I'm going into the depths of the grave mounds to retrieve a few Taoist inheritances."

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Given Yu Xiao's connection to Li Mo, the Duke of Thunder had no reason to refuse.

"Chi Baicheng, what's your decision?" Lu Yuan's tone turned imposing, seeming uneasy from the Yang Niu Head as Sword Intent radiated uncontrollably.

"Fine—just get me a Lamenting Ghost Sword Body inheritance."

Lu Yuan wiped the Yang Niu Head, his form disappearing while his detached head remained suspended mid-air.

Li Mo, having just digested the disconcerting revelations from the Creation Book, willingly released flying swords to guard Lu Yuan's detached head, bowing respectfully.

"Thank you, esteemed seniors."

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