The disaster at the Great Sun Sword Tomb had just concluded, and at the same time...

The Heart Beast Sect's Mountain Gate floated mid-air, standing tall.

The Mountain Protection Array, refined over time, now surrounded five towering peaks that formed the Mountain Gate.

A thousand-meter-wide port was constructed around the outer side of each peak.

Countless figures bustled about the ports, with numerous giant beasts hauling cargo. If the items were valuable enough, they'd be transported via the Nearby Array to black markets across the land.

The disciples of the Heart Beast Sect numbered over ten thousand, all specializing in controlling their Lifebound Spirit Beasts.

Buzz.

A hundred-meter-long bat-shaped carrier, stacked with buildings upon its back, soared through the clouds to deliver goods to its affiliated black markets. Even if Loose Cultivators sought to intercept and steal treasures, they couldn't approach unnoticed.

After several centuries of resource integration, the Heart Beast Sect had become what it was today, boasting over twenty Beast Cultivators who had reached the Nascent Soul Stage.

As a newly risen mid-sized Immortal Sect, the Heart Beast Sect naturally attracted significant attention.

Tian Changwen had not altered the sect's external strategy due to its growing scale, instead doubling down on black market operations and even setting up twenty-three hovering sub-peaks around the Mountain Gate.

The sub-peaks housed Cultivation Families and merchants affiliated with the Heart Beast Sect. On the surface, it was an appeasement gesture toward Independent Practitioner Forces. In reality, their goal was to specialize in developing new black markets across the Cultivation World.

The Four Seas Commerce Association, leveraging its backing from two mid-sized sects, had established dominant black markets capable of forming monopolies.

New black markets inevitably encountered man-made calamities.

Independent Practitioner Forces served as expendable lackeys for making enemies, trading minimal profits for the Four Seas Commerce Association to avoid getting entangled in endless troubles.

"A tumultuous season—the Cultivation World's balance is shifting faster than ever."

Tian Changwen stood atop the Heart Beast Sect's highest peak and gazed downward. His rotting body gave off an air of decay, yet his cultivation had been pushed to the Nascent Soul Stage due to sheer resources.

As the apparent Sect Master of the Heart Beast Sect, reaching the Nascent Soul Stage was a necessary milestone.

"Heh heh heh, a tumultuous season? I don't see it!"

Han Cai's resonant voice echoed, as a ten-meter-tall giant spider treaded across the ground, followed closely by tens of thousands of smaller spiders.

Tian Changwen flashed a wry smile.

"Elder Han, that's rare—being already at the Corpse Infant Stage yet sparing me, this near-dead husk, a chat."

"Heh heh heh, I heard Tian Changwen's obsession with Pu Mountain, so I personally went north to take a look."

Tian Changwen's face darkened and he urgently asked, "What did you find at Pu Mountain?"

Han Cai bent down and handed over a memory-transmission Human Brain Spider to Tian Changwen—a spider whose body consisted entirely of an intact human brain.

Tian Changwen unhesitatingly grabbed it and inserted the spider's limbs into his temple.

As the Human Brain Spider wriggled, torrents of unfamiliar memories surged into his mind, and Tian Changwen's expression grew graver by the moment.

Many moments passed.

Tian Changwen removed the spider and muttered, "Elder Han, don't you think Pu Mountain's existence defies all understanding?"

Han Cai's smile faded.

Tian Changwen gestured toward Rong Town below. "Even the refugees from Pu Mountain—three thousand five hundred twenty-six of them—have reached Rong Town."

The town below the Heart Beast Sect originally served to recruit disciples. However, with the rise of the Four Seas Commerce Association, several Mortal families previously associated with Cultivators had migrated there from far-off lands.

Tian Changwen named the town "Rong Town," and its population had quietly surpassed one million.

Among the crowd moving through Rong Town were scattered individuals with abnormally large heads, as though their brains threatened to burst free from their skulls.

"What's your plan for them?"

"I established a village to the southwest and will temporarily resettle them there. If we can discover the source of the mutation, all the better."

"Good."

Han Cai furrowed his brows tightly, recalling his experiences at Pu Mountain, where the Mortals had nearly ceased resembling humans.

They had transformed into indescribable beings—half-human, half-plant hybrids.

Their lower bodies remained as they were, while grotesque grapevines sprouted out of their necks, bearing shriveled heads hanging from the stems.

What puzzled Han Cai most was the inscrutable nature of Pu Mountain's mutations, which targeted only Mortals, leaving Cultivators unaffected, yet continuously deforming Mortal flesh.

Once fully mutated, Mortals would become mindless Deceitful Objects.

The refugees who had escaped Pu Mountain were Mortals living on its outskirts, but even then, their Spiritual Wisdom had suffered damage.

Tian Changwen sighed deeply. "Have larger sects intervened?"

"Ten Thousand Demon Dao has. According to Li Mo's disciple, the sect seems intrigued by researching Deceitful Objects to develop Cultivation Methods from them."

Tian Changwen remained noncommittal.

The Cultivation World was far from static; Mortals becoming victims of Deceitful Objects was, if anything, a common occurrence.

The fall of Mortal towns rarely drew the attention of major sects.

Pu Mountain had caught Tian Changwen's interest solely because it was situated near one of Four Seas Commerce's black markets.

Moreover, Pu Mountain's transformations were exclusive to Mortals, showed no signs of territorial expansion, and produced Deceitful Objects entirely devoid of offensive traits.

"Strange—truly damn strange."

"Let's leave Pu Mountain for now and head to True Void Hometown together. More spiders are needed to sustain the ecology and ensure the beast herds…"

As the two were conversing, chaos erupted among the Pu Mountain refugees in Rong Town.

All of them began convulsing inexplicably, their anguished screams filling the air, while nearby Mortals fled in terror.

"What's happening?"

Tian Changwen's abdomen opened, releasing a Heart Ape that emerged and assumed a listening stance.

The Beast Cultivators stationed in Rong Town quickly mobilized their Lifebound Spirit Beasts toward the source of the chaos, while constables stepped in to restore order.

The Pu Mountain refugees collapsed heavily to the ground, blood streaming from their noses and mouths.

As the Beast Cultivators approached, the refugees' expressions twisted into utter horror, and the blood looped back, flowing into their noses and mouths as though rewinding.

The refugees opened their mouths, seemingly intending to speak.

With no warning.

They vanished from existence entirely, as if wiped away by a spell.

The Beast Cultivators were momentarily bewildered, but quickly returned to normal, as memories of the Pu Mountain refugees evaporated completely from their minds.

They looked mildly perplexed but couldn't recall why they had rushed to intervene amidst mere Mortal commotion.

Moments ago, Han Cai had been discussing the refugees of Pu Mountain. The next instant, he completely forgot, muttering about logistical issues with the medical hall at the port.

Only Tian Changwen sensed that something wasn't right.

Tian Changwen gently rubbed his forehead, his knitted brows betraying an air of peculiarity.

"Something's off…"

He used Divine Sense to scan his brain repeatedly but detected no abnormalities. It seemed his furrowed brows were an involuntary result of a brief moment of distraction.

"Elder Han, don't you have a vague sense of unease lingering in your thoughts?"

"No. But if you feel the beginnings of Deviation, you should avoid cultivation in the coming days."

"Cultivation?" Tian Changwen spoke in a heavy tone. "I abandoned it long ago. Reaching the Nascent Soul Stage was already an unfortunate stroke of luck. Hoping for the Divine Separation Stage would be absurd."

"Then you…"

"Forget it. It's probably just an occasional whim. Elder Han, let's head to True Void Hometown now; there's no time to delay."

"Alright."

The two headed toward the heart of the Inner Sect, where Beast Cultivators respectfully greeted them along the way.

On an open space in the back mountains, a Nearby Array sat installed, endlessly receiving shipments of spiritual materials and piling up resources to mountainous levels.

"True Void Hometown is truly a money-eating beast," Han Cai mused after years of absence.

"No matter the cost, it's worth it. This concerns Li Mo's opportunity to ascend to the Divine Separation Stage. Besides, the resources from True Void Hometown are extremely precious."

While conversing, the two arrived at the center of the Nearby Array. Disciples worked in orderly fashion to activate the array, unleashing ripples of Spiritual Power.

Boom.

When Tian Changwen opened his eyes again, he was already inside the Medicine Garden of True Void Hometown.

The Medicine Garden had once been Fourth Senior Sister Qingjing's residence, an island of perpetual marshland. Yet, it had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.

Metallic dust swept through the air, faintly revealing the outline of Duozhi Mountain.

Not only Beast Cultivators were present, but also many Artifact Cultivators.

For Artifact Cultivators to leave the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater, they had to rely on external resources from Duozhi Mountain, and Nascent Soul-stage Artifact Cultivators required additional recognition from the Mother Furnace.

"In another two hundred years, the Medicine Garden's yield might finally break even," Han Cai couldn't help but marvel.

A series of light shields formed by magical artifacts divided the Medicine Garden into eighteen sections, each with drastically different ecological environments.

Plateaus, deserts, swamps, hills, forests...

The Nearby Array set up by the Sub-Device Sect ensured that every shield contained highly concentrated smog spiritual energy, nurturing extraordinary herds of beasts.

The beast herds were overwhelmingly bloated, but they all shared one characteristic:

They bore "tumors" on their backs.

The tumors radiated the aura of magical artifacts, constantly siphoning nutrients from the beasts, forcing them into a perpetual state of feeding.

Tian Changwen had long realized that Li Mo had stored countless "cancer cells" inside the Ancestor Master's statue, turning them into his distinct Lifebound Magical Treasure.

Over a century, Tian Changwen successfully extracted these cells and partnered with the Sub-Device Sect to refine them into "Cancer Seeds."

Cancer Seeds, being Blood and Flesh Magical Artifacts, could parasitize beast bodies and grow endlessly.

As beasts reproduced, new juvenile Cancer Seeds would parasitize their offspring. In theory, as the herds multiplied, the nutrients stored within the Cancer Seeds would continue to accumulate.

Drips forming streams, streams merging into rivers, rivers flowing into seas.

When Li Mo managed to retrieve the stored nutrients, the reverse nourishment would enable him to undergo a powerful transformation.

Tian Changwen referred to the beast-rearing practices in True Void Hometown as "Ascension"—the first step toward elevating Li Mo to the rank of Land Immortal.

"Elder Han, we need at least a thousand Shepherd spiders; otherwise, manpower shortages will hinder progress."

Han Cai nodded faintly.

Spiritual Power surged into his Dantian, and his Nascent Soul produced countless Spider Puppets designed for herding, which quickly joined in managing the beast herds.

The commotion caused by the Shepherd spiders wasn't small, but the Cultivators residing in True Void Hometown had long grown accustomed to it.

At that moment.

The ground stirred.

A disembodied arm with facial features emerged.

Big Deer Thousand Feet's voice rang out, "Tian Changwen, have you been able to contact Li Mo recently?"

"No, he's likely embedded within a large sect. With their Mountain Protection Array in place, ordinary methods can't establish communication."

Big Deer Thousand Feet didn't elaborate further, but Tian Changwen detected a hint of worry.

Tian Changwen refrained from asking questions; the relationship between the two sects was still limited to collaboration until Li Mo returned, without venturing into private matters.

He hesitated for a beat and then said, "Big Deer Thousand Feet, I've been plagued with inexplicable heart palpitations, so I plan to establish a permanent base in True Void Hometown to ensure a swift retreat if disaster strikes."

"The Sub-Device Sect has no objection."

Before shrinking back into the ground, Big Deer Thousand Feet softly added, "If you manage to contact Li Mo, remind him that the next millennium draws near."

"Certainly."

As Tian Changwen watched Big Deer Thousand Feet's puppet clone retreat into the earth, he couldn't help but mumble to himself.

"A tumultuous season indeed."

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