CHAPTER 545: CHAPTER 61 I, LI MO, AM MOST REASONABLE

Li Mo headed toward the Golden Armor Sect.

He made no effort to conceal his spiritual power, causing the air around him to crackle violently. His terrifying blood and qi created spiderweb-like cracks across the ground.

Zhou Zhu looked around in astonishment and noticed the other Land Immortals all wearing mocking expressions.

Clearly, Li Mo had singled him out as the weakest among the eight of them, treating him like easy prey. Zhou Zhu’s fury immediately boiled over.

"Good, good, good..."

"I’ve long heard that the Heavenly Sword Sect produced a so-called Taiyi Taoist. Yet now I see how laughably overrated the claims were—your character is utterly worthless."

On the surface, Zhou Zhu appeared to be a pale-faced scholar, but it was evident that with his more-than-ten-thousand-year age, his physical body couldn’t possibly be so immaculate.

He grasped both sides of his scalp and ripped it apart with force.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Zhou Zhu’s wrinkled figure emerged from the flayed skin, accompanied by an overwhelming surge of blood and qi that sent chills down onlookers’ spines.

"Hehehehe, Taiyi Taoist, did you think I’ve wasted ten thousand years idling? My physical body has long been refined to the pinnacle of the Body Integration Realm."

The other disciples of the Golden Armor Sect instinctively distanced themselves from Zhou Zhu.

Li Mo cast a glance over the sect’s disciples, noting that they all seemed fair and delicate-looking. This confirmed, as Qu Ai had mentioned, that Zhou Zhu was indeed a depraved pervert who cultivated dual cultivation techniques by preying on young boys and girls.

While dual cultivation had many variations, the practice of Ye Zhuo Daoist sought harmony between Yin and Yang without outside interference, which, in a sense, was the true path of dual cultivation.

Zhou Zhu stood on the mountaintop like a dried corpse, staring unblinkingly at Li Mo.

"Taiyi, do you truly think of yourself as someone important?"

The other Land Immortals remained silent, which indicated Zhou Zhu was not well-liked among ancient cultivators. Even Xu Yanrui, a female cultivator from Medicine King Valley, looked somewhat gleeful, choosing not to oppose Li Mo for the time being.

At the same time, they all wanted to gauge Li Mo’s true capabilities.

Although none of the Land Immortals underestimated Li Mo, the rumors circulating about him were so exaggerated they bordered on absurdity—that his talent had already surpassed the Twelve Immortals. No one could be sure whether these claims were real or not.

Li Mo arrived at the base of the Golden Armor Sect’s mountain, where Zhou Zhu stood ready.

Zhou Zhu’s muscles were taut, and his body displayed features that were unmistakably both male and female. Even Tai Ci couldn’t help but reveal a trace of contempt.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Zhou Zhu muttered under his breath as muffled booms echoed from within his body.

Li Mo was curious about Zhou Zhu’s mental state. According to the Creation Book, Zhou Zhu had been perfectly normal ten thousand years ago.

Zhou Zhu had reportedly been a handsome scholar before entering the path of cultivation. How had he become this abomination?

Suddenly, Li Mo called out, "Senior Zhou Zhu, I was just joking."

Zhou Zhu froze for an instant.

BANG.

Li Mo vanished from where he stood, unleashing the full power of his physical body. In an instant, he appeared within half a meter of Zhou Zhu and threw a vicious punch.

"You..."

Before Zhou Zhu could react, he was blasted away by Li Mo, a blurred figure hurtling into the mountain’s central plateau.

Dirt flew everywhere, leaving a crater over ten meters deep in the ground.

"Ahhhh!!!"

Zhou Zhu roared furiously. His skull was caved in by Li Mo’s punch, his nasal cavity collapsed into his cranial bones, and his features had warped into a grotesque caricature.

"I swear I will kill you, Taiyi! Even if you survive today, I will hunt you to death!"

Zhou Zhu soared into the sky, his entire body covered in scales of blood and flesh.

"Kekekekeke."

Li Mo let out a sinister laugh. This was his first encounter with such an unstable Body Integration cultivator. Zhou Zhu had not succumbed to deviation, suggesting his Taoist Body could still suppress the effects of the Death Disease.

"Come on, Zhou Zhu. To put it plainly, I just don’t like you."

From Li Mo’s ribs, twenty-two pairs of arms sprouted, each grasping a Lifebound Flying Sword suffused with the Sword Intent of Life and Death, which surged toward Zhou Zhu in a direct confrontation.

BOOM.

The moment the two clashed, the clouds across a hundred kilometers were obliterated.

Sandstorms swept through the region.

The sheer force of their physical contest stirred a sandstorm across the Northwest, demonstrating how the aftershocks from two Land Immortals could alter the very heavens.

Trading blows in close quarters, they gave a visceral display of body cultivators’ brutal, bone-crushing combat.

"Die! I will forge you into a puppet, use you as the furnace for my promotion to the Mahayana Realm, devour your flesh and blood, and obliterate your soul to ashes..."

Zhou Zhu rambled maliciously, his physical strength almost on par with Li Mo’s.

"Oh? The Golden Armor Sect’s Taoist Inheritance is intriguing."

Though Li Mo hadn’t summoned his Tattooed Beast or used Da Ai Mi Tian, his physical strength was already far beyond others in his realm.

He quickly noted that Zhou Zhu’s external scale armor was a manifestation of his Externalized Dharma Body.

"Stop babbling, I don’t enjoy chatting with the dead."

Li Mo’s sword speed surged.

Under the relentless verbal prodding, the scales on Zhou Zhu’s body thickened further while sharp bone spines sprouted at his joints.

Brief satisfaction flickered in Li Mo’s eyes. Body cultivators truly made the best sword-grinding stones.

Zhou Zhu’s blood and qi, mingled with spiritual power, surged and battered like unending waves. Li Mo’s Great Wilderness Immortal Body instinctively activated the Heavenly Gang Great Method, refining his flesh and bones to an ever-deeper level.

Li Mo hadn’t forgotten the unresolved issue involving Qu Ai.

Feigning weakness, he dodged Zhou Zhu’s attacks while allowing the Ghost Tiger to slowly slip out of his shadow, stealthily making its way toward the Ancestor Court to set up the Nearby Array.

Meanwhile, the scattered cultivators from various factions hiding near the Ancestor Court had no choice but to seek shelter from the shockwaves.

The commotion created by the two combatants was nothing short of apocalyptic. In the Northwest, birds and beasts fled en masse from the Ancestor Court, and ordinary cultivators dared not breathe too heavily.

Tai Ci murmured, "Taiyi’s Immortal Body likely influences his physical form. Even in the Body Integration Realm, I can’t reach such a standard. Perhaps only Ruoshui, another Immortal Seed, can compare."

Xu Ning was secretly astonished. His naked eye could no longer keep up with Li Mo’s movements.

Not long ago, he had felt smug about staying stationed in the Ancestor Court under Tai Ci’s protection. Yet now, his peer Li Mo had become an unimaginable force.

"Give it another thousand years. Even if I ascend to the Void Refining Stage, I will only be able to look up to his brilliance."

BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...

The battle grew increasingly fierce, and upon sensing the Nearby Array’s completion, Li Mo realized it was time to create a spectacle that would divert the attention of all factions.

Clang.

The Sword Intent of Life and Death coiled around his sword blade, as rolling black smoke engulfed the sky.

The spectral aura of the Yellow Springs began to flow, and the terrifying Sword Intent of Life and Death erupted. It was no longer the hesitant effort it had once been.

Li Mo slashed toward Zhou Zhu, who was instantly overwhelmed with an unparalleled sense of oppression.

It felt as if his Five Internal Organs were being carved open, subjected to relentless torment. The only possible release was to relinquish his life to the Sword Intent of Life and Death.

"Ru Dao Sword Intent."

Xu Yanrui expressed her admiration. "Sword cultivators’ mastery of the Dao is beyond ordinary comprehension. The Ru Dao Sword Intent carries faint ripples of the Great Dao itself."

"Indeed. Taiyi’s just over a thousand years old, correct? He might go even further in time. I’ve never seen Dao Rhythm surpassing Ru Dao Sword Intent."

"Barring catastrophes, Taiyi’s advancement to the Transcendance Tribulation Stage is merely a matter of time."

The various Land Immortals whispered among themselves, already accepting the idea of Li Mo observing the Ancestor Court. After all, he had proven himself to be at the forefront of the Body Integration Realm in terms of strength.

If they weren’t mistaken, Li Mo had likely reached the Dao Yan Realm.

Truly, being a Heavenly-Born Immortal Seed bearing an Immortal Body, his path to the Body Integration Realm was one that others could only traverse over the course of millennia.

"Heh, heh..."

Zhou Zhu’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. Despite the increasing thickness of his external scale armor, it offered him no sense of security.

He fought desperately to suppress the discomfort and attempted to summon the Void Realm of the **Yin Yang Demon Realm**, but Li Mo didn’t give him the chance to link with the Externalized Dharma Body.

Planting his feet forcefully, Li Mo closed the distance with Zhou Zhu once again.

"I can’t let you escape into the Void Realm. Where else would I find a fool to draw all this attention?"

Li Mo quickly contacted Qu Ai, who was already prepared. The Nearby Array began to emit faint fluctuations, though it was concealed by the Spirit Root Worms.

Just as the Nearby Array neared activation—

Li Mo triggered Da Ai Mi Tian, his body undergoing uncontrollable mutation, expanding to over two hundred meters, resembling a spider with countless arms stretched outward.

The **Ten Thousand Sword Immortal Bone** merged with the Sword Intent of Life and Death, faintly resonating with the **Purgatory Pure Land**.

Centered on Li Mo’s position, the ground silently became littered with countless white bones, and lotus flowers emitting Buddha Light swiftly sprouted and grew.

Numerous Evil Ghosts swirled around his body, while golden light shot down from the clouds above. Echoes of chanting filled the air as a Buddha appeared, seated and hovering mid-sky.

Normally, the Void Realm cannot manifest in the mortal realm.

Yet, through the Sword Intent of Life and Death, Li Mo flawlessly brought the **Purgatory Pure Land** into existence, with the Buddha Demon Body reinforcing his physical form, albeit at the cost of a forty-percent reduction in power.

Zhou Zhu opened his mouth wide, but no words came out of his throat.

He was utterly baffled. Li Mo clearly possessed a power far greater than his own—why pretend to be weaker, only to try competing in physical strength?

Zhou Zhu failed to realize that on one hand, Li Mo was covering for Qu Ai, while on the other, he was using their fight to temper his own body.

BANG.

Li Mo delivered another strike, the swastika symbol glowing fiercely.

Zhou Zhu barely managed to raise an arm before being swept into Li Mo’s stormlike assault. His attempt to resist was rendered futile as Evil Ghosts and the Buddha joined forces to confuse and convert him.

Zhou Zhu’s Mental Realm was thrown into utter disarray, leaving him completely at the mercy of Li Mo.

"I can’t help but feel like Junior Brother’s foundation grows ever more solid. What is the origin of his Immortal Body?"

Qu Ai entered the Ancestor Court’s vicinity, tossing a jade communication stone to the Ghost Tiger. After glancing briefly in Li Mo’s direction, he disappeared into the Ancestor Court.

Li Mo noticed this and increased the intensity of his attacks.

"Zhou Zhu, oh Zhou Zhu, had you known this would come to pass, why did you act so recklessly in the first place?"

Zhou Zhu’s lips moved faintly. In his moment of wavering consciousness, he began to wonder—had he wronged Li Mo in the past, and was this just retribution?

"Here’s the deal: if you sincerely repent, admit your mistakes right here."

But before Zhou Zhu could utter a word, Li Mo shattered his jawbone with another punch.

The Buddha Demon Body relentlessly corroded Zhou Zhu’s blood and bones, bolstered by cancerous cells that severed his connection with his Externalized Dharma Body.

"Enough. I’ll seal you for a few years and see if you’ve learned your lesson."

The Ghost Tiger had already erased all traces of the Nearby Array, while Li Mo summoned his Artifact Pill Body and forcibly trapped Zhou Zhu within the Cosmic Furnace.

Better to confine a degenerate like Zhou Zhu than to let him harm another innocent.

"Fellow cultivators."

Li Mo reined in his spiritual energy and stood atop an unoccupied peak.

"I am merely interested in observing the Ancestor Court. As for you, including the Golden Armor Sect, you may continue investigating it—I have no desire to interfere."

With that, Li Mo set up an array that enveloped part of the mountaintop, leaving the mid-mountain area accessible to the Golden Armor Sect, presenting the demeanor of someone who had come to the Northwest only to cultivate in seclusion.

Master Huang Shi cursed under his breath. Li Mo had been talking to himself the entire time.

Yet they had no choice but to acquiesce—for Li Mo’s strength was undeniable, and without Tai Ci’s intervention, there was no stopping him.