The road is vague

Chapter 315 The mastermind behind the scenes
Li Mo already knew that after advancing to the Golden Core stage, the essential improvement of a cultivator was a change in their soul.

The manifestations of the transformation of the soul are, on the surface, a significant increase in lifespan, the ability to control magical artifacts, and the ability to further enhance the soul with the help of one's natal magical artifact.

But the more fundamental change lies in the understanding of the order of heaven and earth.

A cool breeze from the main peak of the towering mountain constantly caressed Li Mo's face, brushing aside the strands of hair on his forehead.

He stared blankly into the distance.

Having experienced the upheaval in Bai'an City, he has now truly understood the difference between immortals and mortals. At the same time, his own magical power, divine sense, and blood energy are all at their peak, giving him a profound foundation that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators can hardly match. With all the preparations he has made, he can almost be said to be on the verge of advancing to the Golden Core stage.

However, just as Sima Fu once said, his heart was never at peace.

Bai'an City was the place where he held onto his childhood heroic beliefs, and the place where he lived for ten years.

There lay his hopes for a better future, his familiar neighbors, and friends with whom he had struggled. It was the small town that he and Jiang Feiyan had desperately tried to save, but now, because of his choice, it had become history in a short time, and the people were living in misery.

If he doesn't avenge this grudge, he will inevitably encounter inner demons when he advances to the Golden Core stage.

The forms of inner demons can be varied. According to Sima Fu's analysis, in Li Mo's case, inner demons generally would not seriously hinder his advancement, but they would subtly influence his character. That is why he forcibly stopped Li Mo in the first place.

At this time.

Several monks who had traveled from afar arrived at the teahouse.

"Tsk tsk, the Mountain-Crushing Giant Ape is actually hiding in Corpse King Mountain to recuperate. No wonder we searched the entire Southern Barbarian Land before and couldn't find this guy. But this time Corpse King Mountain is surrounded by a large army. This late-stage Transformation Demon King is doomed!"

"This is a great demon king in the late stage of transformation. Even if he suffered severe injuries back then, after years of dormancy and recuperation, he is by no means a Nascent Soul cultivator who can match him. These days, the army has surrounded Corpse King Mountain but has not attacked. Could it be that General Chen Youyou is about to make a move again?"

This female cultivator, who is famous throughout the Qian Kingdom, has now become the subject of discussion among many lower-level cultivators.

After entering the teahouse, the group sat not far from Li Mo, and their undisguised conversation immediately attracted Li Mo's attention.

His gaze shifted from the distant snow-capped mountains to the group of people. After secretly activating his spiritual eye, he discovered that they were all only at the Qi Refining stage.

"General Chen is in the central command tent at Jianmen Mountain, leading the war in the Southern Barbarian lands and playing a role in stabilizing the morale of the troops. Naturally, he will not set off easily. However, the person in charge of besieging Corpse King Mountain is no ordinary person. Have you ever heard of the Commander of the Pacification Division?"

"Could it be that legendary shaman who came from the Kheshig grasslands two hundred years ago?"

"It's this person!"

"The Qiexue Grassland is located west of the Qian Kingdom. Historically, it has been annexed by the Xia Kingdom multiple times and has also become independent several times. This grassland shaman, because his tribe received the culture of the Great Qian Kingdom from childhood, led his entire tribe to join the Great Qian Kingdom after he advanced to the Nascent Soul stage. Therefore, he was deeply trusted by the Holy Emperor..."

After learning that the Minister of the Pacification Bureau, Lord Jin, had such a background, Li Mo couldn't help but marvel at it.

However, these people are only at the Qi Refining stage, so their words cannot be entirely trusted.

Just as Li Mo was about to treat their conversation as casual chatter, one of them suddenly revealed a mysterious expression and lowered his voice, seemingly wanting to show off.

"I heard that the imperial court has conscripted a large army because an extraordinary treasure has been discovered deep within Corpse King Mountain..."

Just as Li Mo was listening intently, his eyelids suddenly twitched.

When he slowly turned his head, he saw a thin old man sitting next to him, with his legs crossed, holding a cup of hot tea and leisurely enjoying it.

After more than half a year, this king of assassins has actually shown up on his own initiative!

It's clear he's in a pretty good mood.

"grown ups?"

Li Mo was briefly stunned.

The other party's sudden appearance puzzled him. The teahouse was huge and quite lively, but no one seemed to notice him, as if he was supposed to be drinking tea there all along.

"Well, congratulations! It should be in the next few days. The bear king is almost here, having caught a whiff of its presence."

Upon hearing this, Li Mo was initially delighted, but then frowned.

"I wonder how many clones have returned?"

"Of course it's one."

Li Mo frowned even more deeply.

"We already discovered that this bear king has two clones. If only one comes and is killed by you, sir, I wonder if it will alert the other clone of the bear king?"

"Hehe, you little rascal, you've thought of everything."

The old assassin picked up a handful of beans, threw one into his mouth and chewed it, with a smug and triumphant expression.

"Don't worry, I've already taken that one down. Do you think I've been doing nothing all these days? Now you just stay here and wait for the bear king to take the bait. Cooperate with me to kill the bear king. Then I will obey the Holy Emperor's decree and send the other clone on its way as well."

"Yes."

After Li Mo agreed, the old assassin, who had just appeared, mysteriously disappeared again.

From beginning to end, no one in the teahouse noticed anything unusual about the place.

three days later.

Li Mo lay in his rented room, leaning against the armchair, looking at the bamboo slips in his hand.

This was a notebook he obtained from Liu Can's storage bag, which recorded the research of the Heaven-Seizing Sect on the power of space. Although it was only some basic common sense, it still benefited him immensely, making him realize that the research directions were completely different under the different Taoist cultures of the two countries.

Just as he was engrossed in watching, the two-story wooden house suddenly shook.

"kindness?"

Li Mo put away the bamboo slips, leaped up from the armchair, and quickly went to the window to look outside. He saw that the Six Calamities and Six Tribulations Extinction Banner Array that he had set up in the courtyard was shaking violently, and a terrifying spiritual pressure rose into the sky outside the array.

Li Mo's expression immediately changed.

Roar!
With a deafening roar, the massive flag formation instantly crumbled like a candle in the wind, swaying precariously in the storm. Clearly, someone had broken through the flag formation with overwhelming force.

Seeing that the flag formation was in imminent danger, Li Mo immediately activated his spiritual eye, constantly looking around, hoping to get help from the King of Assassins.

"My lord, my lord?"

However, his calls went unanswered.

Boom!

With a tremendous force crashing down, cracks suddenly appeared on the light screen of the flag array interwoven with spiritual light.

At the center of the crack was a huge bear paw print.

Immediately afterward, as Li Mo watched, two enormous, grayish claws reached in from the outside, violently tearing open the spiritual light barrier of the great formation, revealing a brutal and ferocious bear head, like a small building, looking down at Li Mo from above.

The moment the giant bear looked at Li Mo, it revealed an overwhelming hatred.

An apocalyptic, ferocious aura rushed towards him! Li Mo looked up at this monstrous creature, which was comparable to a late-stage Golden Core cultivator; it was something he could not possibly contend with.

As the colossal creature with a ferocious expression opened its mouth again, it unleashed a blood roar towards the formation.

All of a sudden.

Everything within the formation seemed to be shrouded in blood, including Li Mo.

These crimson hues frantically seeped into Li Mo's body, seemingly trying to transform him from the inside out.

The surrounding houses and vegetation quickly burst into flames amidst the bloody light—this was the Sky Bear King's innate supernatural power.

Li Mo felt himself being refined by this blood-red light. He immediately let out a hysterical roar, and his body instantly turned into lightning, breaking out of the broken Six Calamities and Six Tribulations Extinction Array, thus temporarily avoiding the misfortune of being blood-refined.

However, he had only flown dozens of feet away in his lightning form when the Sky Bear King caught up with him.

Its enormous figure floated silently in the air, able to fly freely without any spiritual power. Suddenly, it stretched out its huge bear paw and slammed it hard at Li Mo.

boom!
Although Li Mo barely managed to dodge the thousand-year-old grizzly bear spirit's attack from a distance, it instantly destroyed a three-story building and left a huge palm print several meters in diameter on the ground. Cracks spread rapidly with the shockwave, and nearby hunters and residents were blasted away and stunned on the spot, their fate unknown.

Countless wood chips were swept hundreds of feet away by the shockwave, like sharp arrows.

Other residents further away who noticed the sudden change were stunned. After a brief moment of disbelief, they quickly fled in panic, scattering in all directions.

"Run away!"

"Sky Bear King is back..."

Given the destructive power displayed by this grizzly bear spirit and the scale of this market, it wouldn't take long for the entire market to be destroyed.

At this time.

Two streams of spiritual pressure from the Golden Core stage surged into the sky; these were the two Golden Core cultivators responsible for guarding this place.

The two were awakened by the Sky Bear King, and when they saw this clone of the Sky Bear King, they were also very surprised, but they did not think that it was the Sky Bear King.

"What a powerful grizzly bear spirit!"

"Are there still such mountain spirits left in the Sky-Piercing Mountains?"

After a brief hesitation, the two, bound by their duties, summoned their magical weapons and charged forward, only to find that the bear demon was completely disregarding everything and seemed to be doing its utmost to hunt down someone.

However, these two were Golden Core cultivators after all, and the Bear King's avatar, who had come to seek revenge, was quickly entangled by them, and a fierce battle ensued in the air.

Li Mo ran for more than ten miles before stopping, panting.

His face was slightly pale as he turned to look at the scene of a fierce battle taking place at the foot of Mount Motian, above the market.

The grizzly bear spirit, standing a full ten feet tall, was being besieged by two Golden Core cultivators. It was constantly rampaging in anger, and every move it made caused terrible destruction to its surroundings; it was practically a walking disaster.

grunt.

Li Mo swallowed hard, looking around as if searching for something, his face unusually pale.

"Where's the old assassin?"

Logically speaking, it's just a mere clone of the Bear King. Given the reputation of this King of Assassins, once it appears, killing it would be an instantaneous matter. Moreover, it appeared three days ago to signal Li Mo not to leave.

puff!
Sudden.

A dagger pierced through Li Mo's chest.

He looked down at the dagger in his chest, his face filled with disbelief. Intense pain instantly spread throughout his body. He tried to turn around and saw a gaunt face with a blank expression. It was the Grand Elder of the First Seventh Organization, whom he had been eagerly awaiting, the legendary King of Assassins.

"Why……"

Li Mo couldn't understand why the King of Assassins would want to assassinate him.

He was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

His life force was rapidly fading away, and Li Mo's eyes revealed a deep sense of reluctance. He wanted answers, he wanted to return to Qingming Mountain, and he wanted to visit Hua'an Town again, but all he got in return was the old assassin's mockery.

The old assassin suddenly pulled out his dagger, simultaneously removing Li Mo's heart, which he toyed with in his hand as he watched Li Mo's corpse fall.

He felt nothing at all for merely killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"Whether you died in the sect wars or died peacefully at the hands of the Bear King, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. But you just won't die. There's really no other way, so I have to take action myself."

The still-beating heart in my hand shows its abundant vitality.

The old assassin crushed it with a bang and threw it at Li Mo.

“Little guy, blame Zhong Siming if you want. Who told him to take a liking to you? The Touqi Organization shouldn’t be in its current position. No matter who it is, anyone who dares to stand in the way of Touqi will not have a good ending.”

Say it.

The old assassin turned his head and looked at the Sky Bear King's clone, which was being attacked by two Golden Core cultivators.

He licked his lips and chuckled.

"Now that things here are settled, I'd like to borrow your demon cores to present to the Holy Emperor as a birthday gift for his three thousandth birthday, and also to cover up my crimes, hehe."

The King of Assassins vanished instantly, becoming invisible.

After a cup of tea.

Little Squeak and Old Master Dai ran out from Li Mo's sleeve.

The big-eared rat kept sniffing at Li Mo's wound, looking heartbroken, while the Divine Grass Doll kicked the big-eared rat in the butt.

"He still has a heart, he won't die anytime soon. Quickly swallow him into the theft realm and get out of here. I'm going to find that Nirvana Pill!"

Li Mo obtained his vital energy heart by relying on the Misty Pill, thus enabling him to cultivate both his body and spirit.

The Divine Grass Doll naturally remembered that when Li Mo rescued the Rainbow Bird, the Rainbow Bird gave him a Nirvana Pill as a gift.

"Squeak!"

Upon hearing this, the thieving rat's eyes lit up. It quickly opened its mouth, carefully swallowed Li Mo, and then fled with lightning speed.

Simultaneously.

Finally, the old man found the Nirvana Pill in Li Mo's storage ring. He immediately picked up the sacred pill and put it to Li Mo's lips.

"Young man, you must hold on! We are the same kind of people, people who bear a mission. The world of mountains and seas still needs us to change it!"

He then pushed the radiant, holy pill into Li Mo's mouth.

(End of this chapter)