The road is vague

Chapter 300 Evil God Statue
The four of them continued on their journey and unexpectedly arrived near a wild indigenous tribe.

Wan Shun looked astonished.

Just when he thought Li Mo had made a mistake, he saw Li Mo looking at the indigenous tribe with surprise.

"It seems that this is mostly an indigenous tribe that worships the god of Mount Motian."

"kindness?"

Wan Shun gazed at the small tribe in the distance, which, including the elderly and children, numbered no more than a hundred people, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

"You mean these barbarians not only worship the Sky Bear King, but also his direct bloodline?"

"Mostly so."

After receiving Li Mo's affirmative reply, Wan Shun hesitated for a moment, then waved to signal them to continue forward.

Zhang Zhenshan couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"What if these barbarians refuse to cooperate?"

"kill."

Wan Shun acted decisively. Liu Lan and Zhang Zhenshan nodded after a slight frown, having no objections. The four of them then headed towards the tribe, and their appearance quickly caused tension and unease among the tribe's men, women, and children.

The tribal chief, wielding a skull staff, surrounded the four with more than twenty warriors.

He pointed around and chattered on and on, clearly indicating that the area was still uncivilized. The crowd was tense and at odds. After looking around, Wan Shun ignored the simple thatched huts and pointed to a cave.

"We're going to go take a look over there."

The tribal warriors drew their weapons and shouted at the men.

Li Mo's gaze fell on the skull staff in the barbarian chieftain's hand. He immediately recognized that this staff had once been a divine artifact of the believers, but now that the Sky Temple had been destroyed, the artifact had lost its power. So he smiled coldly.

"Looks like we've found the right place. Let's get started."

Wan Shun nodded slightly.

"kill!"

At his command, the four men attacked almost simultaneously. Without the protection of divine power or any special abilities, these barbarians were no different from ordinary mortals. They screamed in agony and were quickly slaughtered by the four men.

“You will be cursed by God.”

The old man spoke slowly and deliberately in the language of the Great Qian Kingdom.

That's when.

A low roar suddenly came from inside the cave, accompanied by an astonishing rumble, and a giant creature more than two zhang tall pounced out, heading straight for the four people.

"Haha, it really has become a spirit!"

Zhang Zhenshan laughed loudly, and his powerful inner force surged out, forming a tiger's roar and a dragon's cry. His momentum was astonishing, and he actually took the initiative to charge towards the gray bear demon, throwing a fierce punch.

The Tiger Roar and Dragon Cry Fist struck out, forcing the originally aggressive Grizzly Bear Spirit to stop in its tracks. Zhang Zhenshan himself was thrown back, landing with the White Crane Spreads Wings technique. He then released his inner force again, using an unknown martial arts move. His astonishing inner force sucked up the nearby pebbles and fallen leaves between his hands, forming a giant ball. He looked quite strained.

While Zhang Zhenshan was dealing with the grizzly bear spirit, Wan Shun and Liu Lan were not idle either.

One flying sword after another flew in all directions amidst Wan Shun's low chanting.

His expression was solemn, clearly indicating that he was setting up the Tai Xuan Sword Formation.

Li Mo had witnessed the bamboo rat spirit Huang Tong display this supernatural skill underground in the Cangyuan Plains of the Southern Barbarians.

Liu Lan then produced a precious mirror and a silver bell.

The silver bell flashed and disappeared, appearing above the grizzly bear's head. It transformed into a seven-foot-tall creature, continuously emitting sound waves, making the grizzly bear spirit, which was being blocked by Zhang Zhenshan, seem somewhat dizzy. This gave Wan Shun time to set up the sword formation.

After paying some attention to Wan Shun and Liu Lan, Li Mo mainly looked at Zhang Zhenshan.

This person's martial arts level has reached the peak of the Innate Realm, even far surpassing the power level of Dou Chi, the founder of the Beishan Sect, which is the limit of mortal strength.

However, in Li Mo's view, its overall strength was only comparable to the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

At most, they have a slight advantage in close-quarters combat.

The reason Wan Shun chose to include this person in the team was probably just to have him buy him time to set up the sword formation.

"The so-called internal energy is indeed a way of applying primordial energy developed by humans in the Dharma-ending Age. However, its efficiency is obviously much lower, far less than refining the essence of the sun and moon. To become a spirit with it is probably as difficult as advancing to the Nascent Soul stage. It is indeed not just a casual saying, but a very close yet distant goal."

However, if a martial artist can truly overcome that bottleneck and cultivate the so-called Golden Core Dao, then it can indeed be said that they have achieved the conditions for cultivating both body and mind. However, compared to cultivators who pursue the Dao lineage from an objective perspective, martial artists pursue their own talents from a subjective perspective.

As the saying goes, there are three thousand great paths, none of which are good or bad; the only right and wrong lies in adapting to the times and making one's own choices.

With a loud shout, Zhang Zhenshan unleashed a giant sphere of debris, formed from immense internal energy, which sent the grizzly bear spirit, who was being intimidated by the silver bell in the air, flying away as if it had suffered a serious injury.

Seeing this, Li Mo couldn't help but marvel inwardly.

This person already possesses the demeanor of a supreme martial arts master.

A martial artist of this caliber might only appear once every hundred years in the entire Muzhou region.

As for those who achieved the Golden Core Dao, Li Mo had never heard of them. He only knew that Fairy Yin, who founded the Southern Heaven Sword Sect among the four great rogue cultivators of Muzhou, was such a person who cultivated both body and mind. She was highly praised by Lu Qi, but she was probably from other prefectures and counties and was arranged by the Pacification Commissioner to establish a sect in the Southern Barbarian Lands.

"Roar!"

However, at that moment, the grizzly bear spirit let out a roar.

Immediately afterward, Li Mo's eyelids twitched slightly, and he saw that the barbarian corpses that they had casually killed earlier were all standing up again.

Their blood churned and their auras changed drastically, transforming them into incredibly strong monsters. Wan Shun, Liu Lan, and Zhang Zhenshan, however, were unfazed by this.

"The Blood Howl technique... it seems this bear demon is a direct descendant of the Sky Bear King."

After Liu Lan finished speaking, the magic mirror shone with spiritual light, and these dolls, which looked like demons, quickly disintegrated and died after being exposed to the light.

Li Mo's face looked a little ugly.

He immediately realized that he had most likely been tricked by the black bear spirit from the Heavenly Realm; it was not a descendant of the Sky-Piercing Bear King at all.

The Sky Bear King is most likely a grizzly bear spirit, not a black bear spirit.

However, what's done is done, and Li Mo's regret is useless now. Fortunately, Wan Shun's Tai Xuan Sword Formation has been set up, with countless sword lights flying around the grizzly bear spirit. Li Mo had experienced the power of the sword formation before; even his matrix puppets couldn't break free. He didn't think the grizzly bear spirit could fight against it.

"Great, Fellow Daoist Wan's sword formation is complete."

Liu Lan smiled with delight, and she and Zhang Zhenshan stopped their attacks at the same time, looking at the grizzly bear spirit inside the sword formation.

As the Grizzly Bear Spirit unleashed its Blood Howl technique, one puppet after another was torn apart by the sword array. In its death throes, it absorbed the surrounding blood and energy, forming a layer of blood-red armor on its body, and its aura increased considerably.

"Oh?"

Li Mo pondered for a moment and asked, "What kind of talent is this?"

After various mountain spirits and water monsters attain enlightenment, their innate talents account for a large part of their strength, which is related to their absorption of the essence of the sun and moon and their enhancement of themselves through vital energy.

"All direct descendants of the Sky Bear King possess the Blood Howl talent. These low-level bear demons can only turn their followers into puppets. I've heard that some Nascent Soul cultivators have hunted bear demons that can even refine black bears into external avatars and then combine them into a two-headed, four-armed monster, which is quite powerful."

Just as Liu Lan was speaking, the grizzly bear spirit trapped by the Tai Xuan Sword Formation had already been completely torn apart by the formation.

After Wan Shun smiled lightly, dozens of flying swords filed in, which he then put into his sleeve. He used his spiritual light to capture a demon core, and a look of joy appeared on his face.

"As previously agreed, I will compensate the three of you with spirit stones."

"no problem!"

After a while.

Liu Lan and Zhang Zhenshan, who had made a good harvest, were about to leave when they noticed that Wan Shun and Li Mo showed no intention of leaving, which surprised them.

Wan Shun looked at the barbarian elders and children whose faces were filled with hatred and fear.

"Wildfire cannot burn it all, the spring breeze brings it back to life; to cut weeds, you must remove them by the roots."

After he murmured in a low voice, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

“We need not care, but the seeds of hatred have been sown. It is hard to guarantee that these barbarians will not harm the people of the Great Qian Kingdom who come here in the future.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Lan and Zhang Zhenshan raised their eyebrows and then, without saying another word, charged towards the remaining barbarian elders and children.

Li Mo headed straight for the cave where the grizzly bear spirit had been hiding.

Upon entering, he discovered that it was a simple mountain temple, and the statue enshrined in the temple was a three-headed, six-armed gray bear spirit, standing majestically on a high platform, exuding an aura of brutality, bloodshed, and evil.

Beneath the statue were more than a dozen human heads, all belonging to people from the Great Qian Kingdom, presented as offerings.

Li Mo stared intently at the statue, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Could it be that the Ice Goddess only killed the Sky Bear King's main body, and that he had two clones?"

"Hehe, you little guy are quite efficient. You found useful clues so quickly. You even have two clones. It seems we'll have to put in quite a bit of effort."

The sudden sound startled Li Mo.

He then realized that it was the king of assassins from the Seventh Day Memorial Organization, observing the area from somewhere and in some way, and he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Senior, what are your instructions for the next steps?"

However, Li Mo's inquiry went unanswered. After sighing, he searched the temple for a while longer and, after confirming that there were no other useful clues, he left the cave thoughtfully.

"If there are two clones, they shouldn't be too far apart, and after the main body dies, there will most likely be some special limitations and weakening, and its strength will definitely not reach the Nascent Soul level..."

After muttering to himself, he found Wan Shun, Liu Lan, and Zhang Zhenshan.

Li Mo was used to the bloody scenes around him and remained unmoved, his heart as hard as stone.

The three men stared grimly at the corpse hanging from the rafters inside a thatched hut. Finally, Liu Lan couldn't help but let out a cold snort.

"Since they actually eat the people of our Great Qian, we can say that we have done a great good deed today."

Wan Shun then looked at Li Mo.

"Has Fellow Daoist Li made any discoveries?"

Li Mo pointed to the corpses.

"Their heads were all used as offerings and displayed inside. It seems that after the death of the Sky-High Bear King, this place gradually evolved into a cult, or rather, this place itself was a cult. The cruel, bloodthirsty, and evil spirit of these barbarian believers, along with the popularity they generated, caused the Sky-High Bear King's abilities to also tend towards cruelty, bloodthirstiness, and evil..."

"That was a good kill!"

Listening to the cultivators' analysis, Zhang Zhenshan was somewhat shocked; this was something that martial arts could never reach.

Li Mo, however, considered another possibility.

Are the top cultivators of the major countries also subtly changing some of their own characteristics by improving the customs of the people, just like the reform of customs in the Great Qian Kingdom and the struggle for immortality in the Lu Kingdom? Behind these changes, they reflect the various transformations of the Qian Yuan Saint King and the Mad Daoist.
Popularity seems to be both highly polluting and highly protective, and it involves certain deep-seated rules and order within the realm of mountains and seas.

(End of this chapter)