CHAPTER 368: CHAPTER 114: PARASITIZE ONESELF

The insatiable craving of the demonic cultivators for the Thirteen Palaces formed a macabre carnival of horrors.

Amidst the alluring aura of mutation, it took but a moment for nearly a hundred people to succumb to the erosion of mutation, degenerating into unspeakable abominations.

Skinny, skeletal arms tore through flesh, birthing grotesque entities one after another.

Once the inherited arts of the Ten Desires Forest led to deviation, the organ furnaces would seize the body, and desperate wails of despair echoed everywhere.

The high-level practitioners remained unmoved.

Their attention was fixed solely on the first twelve palaces, their expressions brimming with greed, paying no heed to the demonic cultivators scrambling for the Thirteenth Palace.

Before long, one after another, the demonic cultivators began climbing the palaces.

The sight of their comrades’ deaths did not instill fear; instead, it fanned the flames of madness within them.

Peals of laughter rang endlessly.

Some sprouted extra arms from their ribs through clone-body flesh proliferation, aiding their ascent, while weak infant cries echoed from their swollen abdomens.

The demonic cultivators no longer held back.

They destroyed not only their cultivation foundations but even consumed their own nascent souls, forcibly extracting nourishment to reverse-feed their clone bodies.

"Yin You..."

Pu Jian’s face emerged on the abdomen of his clone body, his eyes fixed intently on the peak of the palace mountain.

"Yin You, your entire foundation stems from the Moon-shielding Body. You can’t afford this gamble. The backlash from the furnace alone is enough to destroy you."

Pu Jian let out a sinister laugh, deliberately holding back his pace.

He stayed a hundred meters behind, waiting for Yin You to succumb to deviation, seizing the opportunity for the "Innate Immortal Seed" that awaited.

"I will become immortal... Impossible, I *will* become immortal!"

Yin You’s body trembled uncontrollably.

In a way, Pu Jian understood him better than he understood himself. His current state was indeed inching ever closer to becoming an aberration.

Yin You’s obsession with achieving immortality fermented into the fuel of his mutation.

Crack crack crack...

The sound of bones fracturing echoed.

Yin You’s spine began to twist, as the damaged organ furnaces desperately tried to escape his increasingly decaying body.

"You cannot abandon me—help me achieve immortality!"

His spine broke free, transforming into a monstrous creature under the palace’s aura.

The creature, human-faced with a serpent’s body, let out a venomous glare of hatred before pouncing on Yin You, only to succumb to mutation within moments.

Boom.

With a dull explosion, the monstrosity burst into fragments.

"No, don’t leave me..."

Yin You’s remaining organ furnaces began rebelling one after another, further weakening his nascent soul as his clone body rampaged across the palace’s surface.

The Moon-shielding Body was a rare superior Taoist body that exuded an intoxicating aroma capable of ensnaring minds.

It was with this Moon-shielding Body that Yin You had risen from a mere servant disciple. Using ten organ furnaces, he had nearly broken the bounds of the Nascent Soul Stage.

But now his foundation was destroyed, and the Moon-shielding Body was fading away.

Without the Moon-shielding Body, Yin You could no longer control the organ furnaces, and even the rot induced by the Death Disease continued to spread.

He could only prolong his life force with spiritual power.

Of his ten organ furnaces, only one remained. He was certain he could not keep even that, until a faint voice called out weakly from his spine.

"Husband... Husband... Husband..."

Yin You’s expression stirred as memories surfaced of his first organ furnace, his wife from his mortal days, who had not betrayed him even after the Moon-shielding Body faded away.

He laughed bitterly, staking his entire body and soul as his wager.

His clone body swelled over ten meters tall, its form grotesquely deformed yet climbing faster, creating distance from Pu Jian.

"Yin You, you still have strength left?"

Pu Jian’s expression contorted with anger before he, too, began to push himself to the limit.

The two raced, one ahead and one behind, risking their very souls in this mad bid for the palace, their sect’s lunacy laid bare.

The Ten Thousand Demon Dao was an expansive sect comprising countless branches of demonic cultivation.

Like a gathering of demons and ghosts, it brimmed with horrors unimaginable to mortals. What the Ten Desires Forest displayed was but the tip of the iceberg.

Compared to the Ten Thousand Demon Dao, other demon sects were child’s play.

"Immortal... Immortal!"

Yin You’s deafening roar echoed, while Pu Jian followed less than half a meter behind.

The two reached the summit of the palace mountain, where a bottomless pit loomed ahead. The "Innate Immortal Seed" seemed just within reach.

It was then—

Pu Jian noticed, stunned, a figure crouched in the corner of the mountain summit.

The figure bore a striking resemblance to a clone body, and its gaze brimmed with mockery as it observed thousands of figures swarming toward the palace.

Were it not for the naked eye, its presence would have gone completely unnoticed.

"Thirteen... Thirteen Immortals?"

Pu Jian’s thoughts raced, and he quickly realized that achieving immortality had been but an illusion all along.

As they killed themselves battling for the palace seat, they had overlooked the most crucial figure: Daoist Qingtian, the unassuming Thirteenth Immortal.

Pu Jian had investigated Daoist Qingtian before.

However, Qingtian rarely appeared in public, and his demonstrated cultivation level in combat was only at the Corpse Infant Stage.

To Pu Jian, Qingtian posed some threat, but not enough to sway the greater situation.

Yet Qingtian had silently taken his seat at the palace’s summit, likely having waited eons to watch them descend into madness.

Pu Jian’s breathing grew ragged before his mind swiftly calmed.

"Thirteen Immortals? The mantle of false authority at best. Ultimately, it will still be me who achieves immortality."

He deliberately slowed his pace, allowing the frenzied Yin You to take the lead, intending to use the latter to test Daoist Qingtian.

Without hesitation, Yin You leaped forward, his face alight with wild joy.

Li Mo shook his head and muttered, "So absurd. Can your Ten Desires Forest’s Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation technique truly ascend to the Divine Separation Stage?"

Pu Jian’s pupils widened.

He noticed a nascent soul behind Li Mo, appearing at some unknown moment.

The nascent soul, draped in opulent Daoist robes, was riddled with oral organs. Ghostly phenomena emerged, as countless head-shaped lanterns hovered in midair.

Pu Jian’s body shook; he had never witnessed anything so horrifying.

Though it was merely at the Nascent Soul Stage, it had already manifested traits of an Externalized Dharma Body, its oppressive aura reminiscent of the Inner Sect’s monsters.

"It’s all fake... everything’s a lie," Pu Jian murmured in disbelief.

"Jieh jieh jieh..."

The head-shaped lanterns cackled incessantly, emitting a devouring force that immobilized Yin You.

Yin You, belatedly realizing his peril—

Was overwhelmed by hundreds of head-shaped lanterns. His severely wounded body and soul couldn’t withstand the onslaught of the Human-headed Nascent Soul Flying Skull Scripture.

Before Pu Jian’s eyes, the head-shaped lanterns consumed Yin You in a single bite.

Yin You was cast into the Corpse Mountain Mini World, suppressed beneath a sub-peak, his consciousness drowning in a boundless sea of regret.

"I... should never have cultivated..."

The demonic cultivators surged forth like moths to a flame, while only Pu Jian retained his sanity, watching his comrades become food for the Thirteenth Immortal’s nascent soul.

Pu Jian, terrified, covertly sought an opportunity to ambush Li Mo.

Li Mo’s indifference made it clear that he held no interest in the rampaging, soul-lost demonic cultivators of the Ten Desires Forest. His focus remained on the Thirteen Palaces.

Fixating on Li Mo’s back, Pu Jian saw no trace of caution in his posture.

One part of him scoffed at the absurdity, while another knew there was no retreat. If he delayed any longer, his own flesh and blood would spiral out of control.

"If I can seize even a moment..."

Pu Jian ignored his organ furnace’s pleas, forcibly commanding his nascent soul.

The mutative aura surged into the organ furnace, obliterating its spiritual wisdom in an instant.

Pu Jian, concealing himself among the crowd, maneuvered the organ furnace toward Li Mo, who remained utterly serene.

Splurt.

The organ furnace tore through Pu Jian’s clone body, reaching straight for Li Mo.

"Thirteen Immortals, your immortal fate is mine! Hahaha!"

Pu Jian felt he had captured the one chance. Daoist Qingtian had no time to react—unless his mortal body could withstand the strike.

But that was impossible. How could the Thirteenth Immortal have tempered his flesh in such a short time?

Clang.

A dull thud echoed as the organ furnace struck Li Mo’s back, triggering a burst of seven-colored radiance, leaving only a shallow wound.

"Freak..."

Through the organ furnace, Pu Jian came into contact with Li Mo’s blood.

Images of a Corpse Mountain Blood Sea flooded his mind.

Pu Jian’s face twisted with despair, as he recognized that the Thirteenth Immortal before him was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

He pointed at Li Mo before succumbing to Yin You’s fate.

"What’s with everyone acting like they’ve seen a ghost? I’m the most normal one here,"

Li Mo muttered with a hint of sarcasm before lowering his profile to avoid attracting the attention of the high-level practitioners.

If not for confirming through repeated tests that the high-level practitioners only cared about the twelve senior sisters, he would never have risked exposing himself.

The high-level practitioners’ behavior was peculiar.

It seemed as though they had anticipated this all along. Without any conflict over benefits, they patiently awaited the metamorphosis of the Twelve Immortals.

Li Mo shook his head slightly.

"Did the ancient cultivators hide in vessels merely to survive the worldly upheavals?"

He suspected that the high-level practitioners’ real intention was to seize the bodies of the Twelve Immortals.

Now it all depended on Zu Xiuyun’s response.

Li Mo suppressed his wandering thoughts. "Time is running out—I must parasitize the palace quickly."

Invoking the Sunlight Bodhisattva, faint Buddha Light illuminated his path.

From Si Rui Pavilion’s palace, a flood of eerie entities was unleashed, completely overshadowing the effects of the Sunlight Bodhisattva.

"Many thanks, Eighth Senior Sister."

Li Mo bowed in Daoist courtesy before commanding the Ground Lying Demon Infant.

The Ground Lying Demon Infant, carrying the Sunlight Bodhisattva, dove into the palace as veins stretched out to connect with the Sunlight Bodhisattva.

Li Mo squinted slightly.

Instead of using himself, he blocked the Sunlight Bodhisattva’s cultivation of the Buddha Embryo Skill and had the nascent soul discharge a fake Buddha instead.

He intended the fake Buddha to replace the Sunlight Bodhisattva in parasitizing the palace.

The Ground Lying Demon Infant encircled the Sunlight Bodhisattva, laying out an intricate Nearby Array.

When the array was complete, Li Mo withdrew his Dual Nascent Souls, leaving only the fake Buddha to drain the palace’s nourishment while his flying sword grew stronger.

Li Mo connected to the No-Life God Statue, instantly transporting himself thousands of miles to a desolate mountain range.

"Ah, using the palace to push the fake Buddha to the level of the Divine Separation Stage, then having the Sunlight Bodhisattva parasitize the flying sword to cultivate the Buddha Embryo Skill..."

"If not for the Daoist and Demon factions, I wouldn’t have bothered with such a convoluted plan."

The fake Buddha and Sunlight Bodhisattva shared the same origin. This method of parasitization made even Li Mo unsure of what kind of Externalized Dharma Body would emerge.

At the very least, however, the Sunlight Bodhisattva would suffer no loss.

Li Mo even expended a blank page to brand the fake Buddha.