Longevity Strange Immortal-Chapter 583 - 17: Conclusion, The Interlocking Chess Game

Chapter 583: Chapter 17: Conclusion, The Interlocking Chess Game

Li Mo focused all his attention, as this concerned the conclusion of a world-shaking transformation. A single misstep could ripple through future generations.

The Gang Wind gathered above the Nine Heavens, following an elusive and profound rhythm.

Compared to arranging arrays with spiritual material, Gang Wind was formless and unpredictable, requiring constant adjustment according to its shifting patterns.

"Truly... eye-opening."

Chunyangzi lay within the Cloud Sea, watching Li Mo create an array with great interest.

Even though he lacked Immortal Eyes, merely observing the operation of the Gang Wind brought him unparalleled delight, as if the Dao itself were unfolding before him.

Boom.

The Nearby Array began to take shape, forming a colossal vortex above the Nine Heavens.

Fortunately, the location was far from human habitation, and the mortal world had entered a perpetual night, so no ordinary folk could perceive the strange phenomena outside the array.

Li Mo furrowed his brows.

"Chunyangzi Senior, there’s a mountain in the northwest corner of Fuxing that’s disrupting the array."

"Where should it be moved?"

Chunyangzi drained his ginger wine in one gulp. Watching Li Mo maneuver mountains and rivers as if on a chessboard sparked a surge of boldness within him, leaving no trace of his aged demeanor.

"Two hundred miles south."

"Alright!"

Chunyangzi slapped the Cloud Sea forcefully, disregarding his unruly white hair. Shaking his head, he murmured, "Year thirty-five of the Small History. The Fuxing Fool, ninety years old, dwells facing the mountain..."

The Creation Book spilled forth its memories. A thousand years ago, a cultivator named Fool earnestly loved a Fuxing mountain and used his Divine Skills to relocate it.

Li Mo blinked in astonishment, and the mountain had already been moved two hundred miles south.

"Chunyangzi Senior, the river outside Guangren City must be redirected northward!"

"Hahaha! Year seven hundred fifty-six of the Small History. Torrential rains fell for three days, blocking Guangren City’s river..."

In the blink of an eye, the river had already shifted courses, allowing the Nearby Array to be refined further. Its phenomena reached toward the Returning Ruins.

A man altered history by reversing time with Word-to-law.

A man used the Creation Book to survey ancient and modern eras, playing chess with destiny.

No one in the world could detect the array’s construction above the Nine Heavens. The actions of the two had transcended the mundane and immortal, engaging in a cosmic game against the Heavenly Dao.

As the slightest change in mountains and rivers could ripple through previous arrangements, constant adjustments were essential.

Li Mo squinted, Xia Dao Palace divided into hundreds of segments, where the Fake Soul Consciousness simulated scenarios to strive for perfection.

Spurt.

Chunyangzi spat fresh blood, though his expression radiated nothing but exhilaration.

He felt he had touched the workings of the Heavenly Dao, akin to a frog accidentally leaping out of a deep well, and carried no regrets in his heart.

"To hear the Dao in the morning, and die in the evening — it is enough."

Chunyangzi’s skin was covered in dark purples, corpse-like blotches appearing on his living body.

"Done!!"

Li Mo roared fiercely.

The lingering disharmony in the Nearby Array dissolved completely, its resulting phenomena gradually receding, leaving behind a thousand-mile-wide colossal array, unfathomable and continually absorbing Spiritual Energy.

Li Mo turned to look at Chunyangzi, who was staring at his own hand in a daze.

Chunyangzi’s expression was momentarily lost, though it lasted only for a breath. Li Mo still caught it, unable to suppress a silent sigh.

Frequent use of Word-to-law had driven Chunyangzi into senile dementia.

His sense of self was fading, as though an adult regressing to infancy, with his consciousness growing evermore blurred.

Chunyangzi smiled and said, "Thank you... Li Mo."

Even remembering Li Mo’s name took him a moment.

Still, Li Mo was convinced Chunyangzi would not forget his mission to conclude the world-shaking transformation; no matter how illness gripped him, it would not affect the outcome.

Chunyangzi staggered to the center of the Nearby Array and extracted a thread of Dao Rhythm.

Li Mo saw for the first time Dao Rhythm congealed into physical form—it should have been acquired through Chunyangzi’s grand aspirations, serving as a medium to approach the Heavenly Dao.

Chunyangzi muttered like a madman, then signaled Li Mo to activate the Nearby Array.

As the array began operating, the Spiritual Energy within its domain instantly dried up, and the thread of Dao Rhythm serving as the Array Eye disintegrated into ash.

Li Mo glanced at Chunyangzi, but he had already disappeared.

"The formal end of the world-shaking transformation will come on the day Tang Youzhu exhausts his lifespan—roughly a century from now..."

Li Mo ceased maintaining the Nearby Array, allowing the Gang Wind to gradually return to normalcy.

At that moment.

He suddenly sensed an inexplicable danger, as though a gaze had emerged from the Endless Void—indifferent, bone-chilling.

"It’s Him."

Li Mo knew he wouldn’t die at this moment. Opening the Cave God’s Eye, he looked upward.

The Returning Ruins veiled his vision; he could only vaguely glimpse a pair of enormous pupils, each comparable in size to the mortal world.

The unknown entity at the heart of the world-shaking transformation made no move.

To Him, the mortal world was perhaps nothing more than a tiny colony of ants. All living beings were insignificant; ants were ants, after all.

Now over half of the ant colony had collapsed. Even if ants sacrificed themselves to patch the gaps, they could not stave off its eventual ruin.

At most, they could delay the outcome by thousands of years.

To an entity of His level, time was meaningless.

He cast a glance at the mortal world, then paid it no further attention.

Li Mo’s face darkened. After enduring such disdain, he felt stifled, further solidifying his resolve to reverse fate and proudly crush the opponent.

"I’ll win this game, no matter what. There’s no retreat—it’s either your death or mine. Just wait and see."

Li Mo connected to the True Void Hometown, instantly returning to his small world.

Kong Yong had not yet headed to the Ancestor Court, but his mind had already forgotten his encounter with Chunyangzi—a confirmation of the smooth progress in seizing the Heavenly Dao.

"Prepare yourself. It won’t be long before you journey to the Ancestor Court."

Kong Yong nodded, sensing an influx of pure medicinal power into his body. His Spirit Root quickly elevated to the Heavenly Spirit Root level.

Soon after, countless Spider Sword Orbs burrowed into his flesh and bones.

To ensure this idle chess piece wouldn’t be easily lost at the Ancestor Court, Li Mo planned to modify Kong Yong into three complementary Acquired Dao Bodies.

Kong Yong screamed incessantly in pain within the True Void Hometown, as Li Mo’s methods were brutally crude.

Before Kong Yong could recover, a pile of over a hundred dazzling top-grade Magical Treasures appeared before him, all with the potential to be promoted to Spiritual Treasures.

"Pick what you want. Take as many treasures as you can carry."

Li Mo waved his hand nonchalantly, then added a mountain of Corpse Wine, ranging from Nascent Soul Stage to Transcendence Tribulation Stage, overwhelming Kong Yong.

Kong Yong cautiously asked, "These wines..."

"Take them. They’re enough for your cultivation for ten thousand years."

Kong Yong swallowed hard, becoming even more convinced of Li Mo’s Immortal status, suspecting he held considerable power even within the Immortal Realm.

"Millions of Plant and Tree Spirits can alter the Ancestor Court’s harsh environment, but they cannot be used for battle—they can only assist in opening Blessed Land Cave Heaven."

Li Mo retrieved a pre-prepared Small World Treasure.

Within it slumbered millions of Plant and Tree Cultivators, mostly at the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation stages—one-third of the total population of Corpse Mountain Mini World.

He Guo and Zhang Guo were among them, their Void Refining Stage cultivation sufficient to hold the fort.

Li Mo didn’t worry about the Plant and Tree Cultivators posing a threat.

Incense Fire Immortals required a massive number of believers to maintain their strength. If Kong Yong fell into their hands, chances were high he’d be dealt with, leaving the Plant and Tree Cultivators behind to worship them.

On the other hand, memories of the Ancestor Court in later generations were subtly altered.

While climbing the Jianmu, He Guo and Zhang Guo sensed the presence of similar beings at the Ancestor Court, though this had yet to be verified—they had already traveled to ancient times under the effect of the Heavenly Dao Page.

To prevent Kong Yong from acting recklessly, Li Mo had him swear several Heart Demon Oaths.

After preparations were complete, he awaited the conclusion of the world-shaking transformation, while Kong Yong paced anxiously within the Cave Mansion, his face full of fear.

Everything proceeded according to Li Mo’s plans.

The thirty-sixth year.

At Leiyin Temple, the sound of chanting echoed across the Northwest, and Zu Xiuyun’s aura surged violently, indicating the approaching emergence of No-Life Mother.

Five years later.

The True Void Hometown was suffused with a horrifying aura of deceitful objects.

Li Mo appeared somewhat helpless. Zu Xiuyun had ultimately fallen short, degenerating alongside her senior sisters into nameless deceitful entities.

Kong Yong turned away upon seeing twelve corpses suspended in the True Void Hometown, among them Zu Xiuyun’s form.

"Immortal..."

Li Mo offered no reply, as cancer cells seeped from his mouth and nose. While the Twelve Immortals continued mutating uncontrollably, they fell into a deep sleep in unison.

The Twelve Immortals were sealed separately across various locations in the True Void Hometown.

Li Mo shifted his focus to Leiyin Temple, where tens of thousands of Buddhist Practitioners followed No-Life Mother and vanished from the mortal world under the guidance of the Upper Realm Buddha Ancestor.

The Buddhist Sect’s ascension unsettled the mortal realm’s balance, leaving the remaining factions increasingly frenzied.

"If No-Life Mother secures the Buddha Ancestor’s rebirth opportunity, I can leverage the nine Substitute Dao Pages to completely replace her."

"A single step to ascend to the heavens."

Li Mo’s gaze flickered. No-Life Mother represented a crucial piece in reversing the future. Without touching the Ancestor Immortal, he would lack the qualifications to contend as equals.

He should have gone to the Northwest to gather No-Life Mother’s remnants but hesitated to move immediately, his expression veiled in inscrutable intent.

The chess pieces he had placed in ancient times continued to operate in miraculous ways.

Year seventy-eight.

Kong Yong had just been cultivating when he vanished from the True Void Hometown without warning.

Li Mo sensed the onset of the White Life Period Death Disease. His Three Souls and Seven Spirits grew inexplicably uneasy, prompting the Supreme Heavenly Beings to suppress the chaos.

The benefit was that he seized the opportunity to grasp the True Immortal chance through the disease.

His Three Elixir Fields Spiritual Energy cocooned his Externalized Dharma Body, with Innate Essence nourishing the Spirit Cocoon and stimulating the Dharma Body’s transformation.

Li Mo’s physical form continually devoured the Spiritual Energy of Corpse Mountain Mini World, hinting at jointly transcending mortality with his Dharma Body.

Suppressing the restless energy within, he left the True Void Hometown for the Northwest.

Li Mo, seeming prescient, headed directly to the ruins of Leiyin Temple, pulling out a Storage Bag from within the rubble containing No-Life Mother’s remnants.

The Storage Bag held not only the remnants but also a Jade Scroll recording information.

The Jade Scroll bore marks of the passage of time.

After reviewing its contents, an inexorable sharpness glinted in Li Mo’s eyes—the second critical piece following No-Life Mother’s ascension was now in place.

Returning to the True Void Hometown, Li Mo formally began his attempt at the True Immortal Realm breakthrough.

Year one hundred twelve.

At the Heavenly Sword Sect, an elderly sweeper was on the verge of death.

As Tang Youzhu’s vitality ebbed away, surviving ancient cultivators healed his deafness and muteness, permitting him to witness Chunyangzi seizing the Heavenly Dao.

"The Heavenly Dao can be anything, but it is never human."

Chunyangzi achieved complete mastery over the Heavenly Dao.

The world-shaking transformation concluded, and a disease known as Death swept across the mortal world.