Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 568 - 2 A Xiu

The matter of the Exiled Immortal had fermented in Huangde City for some time, but it was limited to the level of mortals and had not attracted the attention of the various Great Sects.

In the ancient Cultivation World, Incense Fire Immortals would only rarely appear, and many stories about immortals were nothing more than idle rumors spread among common folk.

At the same time, Li Mo sensed that Tong Yu was secretly concealing news about him.

Tong Yu had likely received a mental transmission from the Mountain Continent Taoist, instructing him to obscure the existence of the Exiled Immortal as much as possible. After all, people always considered their own interests first, and the Mountain Continent Taoist might not report it to his Sect in the short term.

Li Mo gestured for Kong Yong to fan the flames further, even though it would delay his journey to the Blessed Land Cave Heaven.

However, he had no choice. He had to consider the upheavals of heaven and earth and ensure that his reputation did not spread too widely, lest he become a victim of the Word-to-law phenomenon.

Within a few days, the commotion subsided.

Li Mo was placed in the innermost chamber of Tong Yu’s manor, heavily guarded, where people would come to pay their respects every few days.

He couldn’t be bothered with the old man and focused most of his energy on absorbing Spiritual Energy.

Occasionally, he diverted his attention, primarily to use cancer cells to examine Kong Yong’s body and compare the differences in constitution between ancient times and later generations, carrying out some experiments.

Li Mo discovered that, no matter how poor the Spirit Root talent of ancient humans, all of them, to varying degrees, had an Innate Spirit Root at the base of their spine.

The reason Kong Yong lacked the aptitude for Cultivation was that his Spirit Root could not detect Spiritual Energy.

"I’m not suited to ancient Spiritual Energy. The issue might lie with the Spirit Root. Once I find a solution, I could reach the Tribulation Crossing Stage in mere decades."

Li Mo swallowed a few Bodhi Fruits and continued immersing himself in understanding Spirit Roots.

Tap.

A soft sound of footsteps echoed within the room.

Li Mo divided a part of his consciousness to observe the outside. It turned out not to be the Mountain Continent Taoist, but a little girl who had somehow snuck into the chamber.

The girl appeared to be seven or eight years old but was noticeably smaller due to malnutrition. She timidly stepped into the chamber.

"An immortal, an immortal..."

She murmured to herself as she looked at Li Mo, occasionally hitting her head with her arm.

The girl circled around Li Mo a few times, repeating the same phrases, her demeanor clearly unhinged.

"Soul Loss?"

Li Mo raised an eyebrow. Soul Loss was an ancient and unique affliction, manifested when the Three Souls and Seven Spirits were partially lost due to unforeseen circumstances, causing abnormal behavior.

"Wait, she’s actually reminded me—apart from the differences in Spirit Roots, I still need to restore my own Three Souls and Seven Spirits."

Li Mo had an epiphany, his eyes sweeping over the dazed young girl.

The girl mimicked the adults, kneeling on the ground, muttering her mother’s name, but she could never fully articulate the sequence of events.

"Since you’ve helped me, I shall aid you in return."

With a mere thought, Li Mo sent a cancer cell into the girl’s Mud Pill Palace.

The little girl immediately fell into a deep sleep.

In her dream, an endless Sea of Clouds enveloped the world.

The girl tilted her head, staring excitedly at Li Mo in her dream. "Immortal, immortal..."

"What’s your name?"

"Ah... Qiu..."

Li Mo communicated with the cancer cell, finding the girl’s memories almost defenseless but extremely chaotic, with very few clear episodes.

Only the image of her mother remained the most vivid.

Her mother had been a maid in the manor, impregnated after one of Tong Yu’s grandsons drank too much. This was how Aqiu had been born.

Initially, she had hoped to rise in status because of her child, but Aqiu was born with Soul Loss. Naturally, the mother and child were shunned throughout Tong Mansion.

When Aqiu was five years old, her mother hanged herself.

The young girl was later raised by the cook, who only told her that if she attained immortality, she might have the chance to see her mother again.

"Immortal, huh?"

"It’s not that simple. Even with my Three Immortal Body, I’ve made no progress. With your Spirit Root’s inferiority, I fear you’ll never walk the Path of Cultivation."

Li Mo gently tapped the girl’s brow, sending ten Bodhi Fruits into her Mud Pill Palace, where one would be consumed each year. This was enough to restore her soul.

At the same time, he retrieved a Low-Grade Spiritual Object, [Pure Wood Jade], from the Corpse Mountain Mini World and fashioned it into a crude hairpin.

The hairpin tamed the girl’s messy locks, and her sleeping expression became serene, no longer filled with bitterness and resentment.

Generally, as she grew, the girl would gradually let go of her obsessions.

Unless severely provoked, her Spiritual Wisdom should recover quickly.

Li Mo withdrew the cancer cell, having realized that understanding soul restoration now provided a clear path forward. He began deducing a method using his Fake Soul Consciousness.

Before long, the girl rubbed her eyes and woke up.

She felt the wooden hairpin at the back of her head and ecstatically climbed out of the chamber through the window.

As she passed a corner, the plump cook picked her up and sighed helplessly, "Ah Xiu, stop running about. The lord said an immortal has come; you can’t be so reckless."

The cook noticed the girl was no longer talking to herself. "Could it be... her Soul Loss has been cured?"

"Heavens bless Ah Xiu."

As the two walked off into the distance, Li Mo’s expression in the room turned unusually complicated. He carefully recalled Zu Xiuyun’s features and noticed a vague resemblance.

"Aqiu? Ah Xiu?"

"If that really is Zu Xiuyun, wouldn’t I have unknowingly changed my senior martial sister’s fate?"

Li Mo frowned tightly but quickly shook his head. "Ha! It might not necessarily be Zu Xiuyun—my senior martial sister’s obsession with immortality was never so simple."

He occasionally paid attention to Ah Xiu, who gradually behaved like a normal child.

Eventually, Li Mo put it out of his mind, focusing instead on adapting to the environment. Restoring his soul now showed a promising method.

The Mountain Continent Taoist arrived in Huangde City half a month later.

He wore the Daoist robe of the Qingcheng Sect, outwardly looking like a middle-aged swordsman, though his youngest grandson was already over seventy years old.

The Mountain Continent Taoist, surrounded by the entire Tong family, entered the chamber. At first glance, he could sense the divine radiance emitting from Li Mo.

He had assumed it was some lifelike Divine Statue. To his shock, it turned out to be real, something even his Divine Sense couldn’t penetrate.

"Tong Yu, try your best to suppress news of the Exiled Immortal further."

"Understood," Tong Yu replied.

The Mountain Continent Taoist licked his lips, his heart pounding as he saw the divine glow surrounding Li Mo, his face flushing red with desire.

He tried to store Li Mo in his Storage Bag but to no avail.

"No, the Exiled Immortal is the opportunity for me to ascend to the Divine Separation Stage. I can’t let the Qingcheng Sect find out."

Taking a deep breath, the Mountain Continent Taoist decided to remain in Huangde City to meditate and attempt to comprehend the Taoist mysteries revealed by the Exiled Immortal.

"Who discovered the Exiled Immortal?"

Tong Yu, having long dismissed Kong Yong, hurriedly replied, "It was me."

"Good. What do you want?" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"To enter the Tao..."

"Impossible. Your talent is too poor; you won’t achieve it in your lifetime. Choose something else, like a Lifespan Extension Pill?"

Tong Yu hunched his back, his voice hoarse as he asked, "I’m nearly one hundred and twenty years old. Would a Lifespan Extension Pill even work on me?"

The Mountain Continent Taoist remained silent, and Tong Yu said no more.

"Tong Yu, gather the children in the manor. Even common mortals who are friendly to the family will do. I’ll check their Spirit Root talent."

"Once it’s done, clear everyone out of the manor."

The others were overjoyed, but Tong Yu, knowing his time was near, had lost his will to fight.

As death loomed, Tong Yu no longer hesitated. All the manor’s children, including Ah Xiu, were brought before the chamber, but none showed any talent for Cultivation.

Seizing the moment, he distributed his family estate.

The direct lineage received enough wealth to ensure ten generations of prosperity, while the collateral branches could live comfortably as wealthy gentry. Even Ah Xiu inherited several acres of fertile land.

In just half a month, the hundreds of people in Tong Mansion had departed entirely.

Li Mo had no time to pay attention. All he could wield were a few cancer cells or miscellaneous objects retrieved from the Corpse Mountain, but without Spiritual Power, he was severely limited—even reaching into dreams was his maximum capability.

The sole comfort was that the method for soul restoration was now forming the framework of a Cultivation Technique.

All that remained was the slow and methodical refinement of the Fake Soul Consciousness into a genuine soul.

The progress on Spirit Root modification was less apparent.

Through his deductions, Li Mo realized that washing the Spirit Root with massive amounts of Spiritual Energy to stimulate the Great Wilderness Immortal Body’s transformation was the simplest method—so he awaited the Qingcheng Sect’s Blessed Land Cave Heaven.

Li Mo’s connection to the outside world relied entirely on Kong Yong’s occasional returns to Huangde City.

As long as Kong Yong was within a kilometer of the manor, Li Mo could reach him through a cancer cell in his dreams.

Kong Yong performed his duties diligently. Even though he had gained no benefits from the Mountain Continent Taoist, he showed no sign of harboring ulterior motives when dealing with Li Mo.

From all this, Li Mo deduced that the upheaval of heaven and earth was likely still over thirteen hundred years away.

The seasons changed.

Unnoticed, twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

The Mountain Continent Taoist gained nothing from his meditations. His Mental Realm grew increasingly unstable, and in frustration, he tried to break Li Mo’s exterior with his Lifebound Flying Sword.

Alas, not even a scratch appeared.

The lifespan of a cultivator at the Nascent Soul Stage ranged from eight hundred to a thousand years. Though the Mountain Continent Taoist was just over four hundred, seemingly able to afford another century of waiting, Huangde City was a mortal town with exceedingly low Spiritual Energy.

Far from advancing, his Cultivation began to regress, throwing his Tao Heart into disarray.

"Damn it! Damn it!!"

"What Exiled Immortal? I say this is a Heavenly Demon! An Outer Heaven Demon sent to shatter my Tao Heart!!!"

Wracked with alternating hope and despair, the Mountain Continent Taoist teetered on the brink of collapse.

He felt as if he were a demon beast guarding a spiritual material, repeatedly trying to give up, only to rekindle his delusional ambitions.

The Mountain Continent Taoist sensed this entity was a tribulation decreed by fate.

One wrong move, and he would perish, his Tao dissolved.

His bloodshot eyes focused on Li Mo, and suddenly he noticed the Exiled Immortal seemed to blink. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was hallucinating.

"Who awakens first from the grand dream? In this life, I alone know myself."

A spectral figure, bearing some resemblance to Li Mo, slowly emerged from his body. The Mountain Continent Taoist froze, pointing at Li Mo. "You... you, you..."

"Never seen a soul detachment before? Though it’s just the Corpse Dog Soul, the Heavenly Dao’s rejection has significantly diminished. Not bad, not bad."

Li Mo barely managed to activate the Spirit Root Worm, its roots embedding into the Mountain Continent Taoist’s Mud Pill Palace.

"Stop dawdling. Sleep for a while. When you wake, obediently submit to your Sect."

The newly formed Corpse Dog Soul was protected by an Immortal Artifact, shielded from harm when detached. Meanwhile, the Spirit Root Worm rendered the soul invisible.

"After sitting around for decades, it’s time to stroll through Huangde City."

Li Mo stepped into the bustling streets, simultaneously searching for traces of Kong Yong. Such a reliable tool shouldn’t be discarded lightly.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

An old demon cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Stage brushed past him, clutching an earthen jar.

It was none other than the lowly Devil Sect Magic Artifact [Canned Immortal]. Within the jar was someone: Ah Xiu.