Chapter 488: Chapter 4 The Truth Behind the Demon Race’s Annihilation
Hundreds of thousands of corpses were crammed together like sardines, continually struggling outward, creating an eerily grotesque scene.
One by one, the loose cultivators dove along the iron chains, resembling bait on a fishing line.
Li Mo couldn’t help but fall into a daze—Bishui Dragon Pond was absurd beyond belief, and it clearly showed the aftermath of the upheaval between heaven and earth continuing to ferment.
"If I can clarify the cause and effect, I should be able to determine most of the reasons for the upheaval."
His Lifebound Flying Sword took notice that as loose cultivators approached within a hundred meters of Bishui Dragon Pond, the corpses desperately swam toward them; however, their bodies were stuck together and couldn’t stray far from the palace surrounding the pond.
The so-called Dragon Claw Coral turned out to be transformed from the hands of the corpses.
The loose cultivators continued probing deeper into the sea, descending to an appropriate depth, where sporadic corpses barely managed to touch their bodies.
This was because the corpses could only move their hands, and their flesh, bones, and organs were incredibly fragile.
Once a corpse grabbed onto a loose cultivator, the latter immediately climbed toward the surface, tearing off the corpse’s hardened hands.
If a loose cultivator was slightly careless and became entangled by multiple corpses, they wouldn’t be able to release spiritual power deep underwater and would meet their doom.
"But is this thing... truly dead or alive?"
Li Mo clicked his tongue in secret.
The corpses exhibited signs of lingering spiritual wisdom, with their ferocious expressions filled with the despair of being trapped in Dragon Pond for thousands of years.
"Go."
Li Mo summoned his Lifebound Flying Sword, a water-element blade that easily merged into the seawater.
A hundred Flood Dragons squeezed into the various palace halls, weaving through suffocating mountains of corpses, revealing twisted and distorted faces.
Li Mo noticed the corpses were still moving their mouths incessantly, seemingly murmuring something.
Thump, thump, thump.
Meanwhile, the sound of knocking came from outside his chamber.
"Come in."
Li Mo watched as the wooden door slowly opened, and the shopkeeper cautiously entered, carrying dozens of dust-covered books before placing them on the wooden table.
"Senior, I’ve brought all the Tide People’s records regarding the Bin City area, though the accounts are mixed with truths and falsehoods, making them difficult to discern."
"It’s alright." Li Mo raised his hand, and the stack of books shifted to his side.
"You didn’t give the Tide People any trouble, did you?"
The shopkeeper smiled wryly and replied, "How could I? After all, our Four Seas Commerce is an outsider here, and the black market also has many loose cultivators who hail from the Tide People—we wouldn’t skimp on the silver or grain for this."
Seeing Li Mo engrossed in the books, the shopkeeper bowed and quietly exited the room.
"Senior, I’ll leave you to your studies."
The wooden door closed. Li Mo had already finished scanning every book.
"The Dragon King Festival."
He hadn’t anticipated that the ancient coastal Tide People held the Dragon Clan in such reverence, with every household worshiping Dragon King statues.
Various tales of dragons abounded, like "Dragon King Seeking a Son-in-Law," "Three Bow to the Dragon King," and "Dragon King Rain Seeking"...
There were as many as eighteen festivals honoring the Dragon King throughout the year.
"Could the Dragon Clan be orchestrating a grand scheme, using the devotion of the people to delineate territory or possibly cultivate a technique akin to the Ten Directions No-Life Sacrifice Ceremony?"
The Ten Directions No-Life Sacrifice Ceremony could directly absorb the believers’ vitality. As long as it didn’t empty the pond entirely, the Taoist, Demon, and Buddhist factions wouldn’t trouble the Dragon Clan.
In ancient times, the coastal regions were far more prosperous than today, even under the protection of Flood Dragons. Demons and ghosts rarely interfered with the mortals’ lives.
Li Mo cross-referenced the records in the books with memories from his Creation Book.
He speculated that before the upheaval between heaven and earth, the Bin City area likely had a population of seventy to eighty thousand—perhaps all now crammed into Bishui Dragon Pond.
"Hiss..."
Li Mo drew in a sharp breath.
If he hadn’t misjudged, the corpses appeared to be murmuring the Dragon King Festival’s ceremonial blessings—the festival was, in fact, the most grandiose event of the new year.
"So, when the upheaval happened, they were holding the Dragon King Festival, and due to the chaos, everyone perished?"
His Lifebound Flying Sword ventured to the center of the main palace hall, the congregation site of the corpses.
There, a Flood Dragon skeleton came into view.
To be precise, its flesh had deteriorated, replaced by countless corpses, connected to its exposed veins and arteries.
The Flood Dragon skeleton was grotesquely misshapen, and every movement of its body triggered frenzied upheavals in the corpse swarm, deepening the creature’s agony.
ROARRR!!!
The skeleton seemed agitated by the aura of his Lifebound Flying Sword, bearing traces of dragon essence.
A cacophony of roars emerged from the other palace halls.
Loose cultivators among the bait realized the sounds of roaring; whether or not they had acquired Dragon Claw Coral, they instinctively ascended toward the surface.
Li Mo withdrew his Lifebound Flying Sword, calming the Flood Dragon skeleton once more.
"No trace of spiritual wisdom—a mere collection of deceitful objects sealed within the palace halls."
"Bishui True Monarch counts as a deceitful object from the Divine Separation Stage, while the side halls are sealed with Bishui True Monarch’s demon disciples from their lifetime. Infused faintly with dragon blood, they barely reach the Core Formation Stage for deceitful objects."
Li Mo’s expression twisted as the Creation Book bombarded his mind with additional memories.
In those memories...
Countless Tide People roamed the streets and alleys, draped in fish-scale garments. Even children were guided by their parents to join the Dragon King Festival.
"Offer our sincerest devotion; let Hai Shi serve as the palace, and Yao Island become our foothold."
Temple priests dressed as merfolk led the chants, merging crowds of Tide People as they marched toward the town’s Dragon King Temple.
"By decree of the Three Heavenly Orders, we command all spirits, embody the benevolence of the Celestial Mother, to preserve and protect all creatures."
Li Mo scrutinized other details of the town, confirming it was a Dragon King Festival held during the Yihai Year.
As the congregation carried Bishui True Monarch’s statue, they progressed to a sacrificial altar along the coastline.
"May the waters stay calm and never flood the rivers."
Waves fiercely pounded against cliffs; drizzling rain blanketed the city, and shadows of Flood Dragons faintly emerged in the ocean.
Memories culminated in three priests hoisting the heads of cattle, sheep, and pigs.
"We sacrifice to the Dragon King!!!"
"You shall all accompany the Dragon King to the Dragon Palace!!!"
The Tide People’s fervor was unmatched. Their cries reverberated as a deafening chorus, while Bishui True Monarch looked visibly alarmed in the ocean.
The memories abruptly ended, but Li Mo had deciphered the outcome of the Dragon King Festival.
"Word-to-law—it appears the mortals indeed possessed Word-to-law during the upheaval, but what kind of entity granted it to them?"
Under the influence of Word-to-law, tens of thousands of Tide People and Bishui True Monarch were forced into Dragon Pond, morphing into unspeakable deceitful objects.
Li Mo felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.
He seemed to glimpse from the heavens a colossal head capable of swallowing this entire world, gazing indifferently at all beings.
His flesh began to boil, extra limbs sprouting from his spine.
"Could it be that the Heavenly Dao itself is malfunctioning?"
Li Mo forced himself to suppress his scattered thoughts, vanquishing signs of uncontrolled mutation. The aura escaping his body frightened the shopkeeper below into trembling violently.
"Now I understand why the demon race perished without resistance during the upheaval."
The reputation of typical demon creatures was abhorrent—they relished consuming human flesh, often dismembering mortals limb by limb. Demons and ghosts ranked the highest among feared entities.
The Dragon Clan sought to differentiate itself from ordinary demons, but spreading faith left its reputation too widespread.
Overflow leads to downfall.
Just like Bishui True Monarch, who died trapped within Dragon Pond under the surfacing desires of mortals.
Some older horned dragons had no choice but to abandon their "dragon" identity, surviving as half-dragon parasites within Dragon Balls.
The truth behind the demon race’s extinction struck Li Mo as absurd, yet he shuddered at the thought of it occurring to himself.
"Damn it."
"The Supreme Qingtian temple built by the No-Life Sect must be razed to the ground, along with all related records..."
"No wonder the Twelve Immortals spread their titles, replacing themselves with No-Life Demon Cultivators before breaking their links completely through rebirth."
Li Mo silently regretted.
He could have implanted a Lifeless Elixir Field, remaining behind the scenes like the Twelve Immortals, but he had disdained the fake immortals of the No-Life Sect.
Not daring to hesitate, Li Mo immediately contacted Tian Changwen.
He even rushed to craft a batch of Soul-stealing Worms, engraved with words on their backs. Once parasitized, they could erase specific memories.
To eliminate the influence of Supreme Qingtian, steady progress was crucial to avoid detection by the keen-eyed.
Li Mo suddenly realized why the hidden forces investigating the upheaval had grown increasingly drastic in recent decades.
The ability of the San Sheng to erase traces of existence gave them unparalleled freedom from repercussions.
Even if the upheaval’s calamity didn’t discriminate, as long as you’re unknowable, the likelihood of danger diminishes greatly.
"If the upheaval happens again..."
"Over the next thousand years, survival might turn into simply killing anyone who dares to emerge."
Li Mo squinted his eyes, the chill of overwhelming killing intent radiating.
"San Sheng cannot be allowed to live..."
Thousands of thoughts swirled through Li Mo’s mind as he withdrew his Lifebound Flying Sword.
Had he still been blind to the truths behind the upheaval, he might have obsessed over the hundreds of thousands of corpses within Bishui Dragon Pond.
But now... he wouldn’t.
The Tide People’s desires were capricious and strange—if they had wished for Bishui True Monarch to achieve immortality, the Flood Dragon emerging would exceed nightmares, potentially manifesting as a Land Immortal-level deceitful object.
"This world is terrifying, riddled with catastrophes and calamities beyond imagination."
"Perhaps the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater remains the safest refuge; wait, shouldn’t the Sub-Device Sect stay untroubled?"
Li Mo did not linger. Black beetles emerged from his palm, parasitizing the loose cultivators and mortals of Tide Mountain Black Market.
He blurred their memories to make them think that Zhang Zhong and his group received cultivation techniques from dreams sent by the Dragon King.
Though implausible, as long as it pertained to the upheaval, even Land Immortals wouldn’t thoroughly investigate its authenticity.
Once his work was complete, Li Mo rushed toward a Nearby Array.
He paid dozens of High Grade Spirit Stones, and the array emitted dazzling light waves blocked by the surrounding Concealing Breath Array.
Li Mo disappeared entirely.
The cancer cells cleaned up the scene meticulously, even eliminating footprints.
Half a day later, Li Mo had already reached the Chaoran Black Market thousands of miles away.
He meticulously transferred through six black markets before arriving at Shifeng Black Market, home to Duozhi Mountain, where a Ghost Tiger ferried him into the oral organ atop the mountain.
Choosing Duozhi Mountain over the Nearby Array was purely due to the former’s subtler disruptions.
In the mountain’s interior passageways, Li Mo detected a familiar presence—it was undoubtedly from the Mother Furnace.
He deliberately suppressed his Artifact Core Body and spiritual power down to the Core Formation stage.
The Mother Furnace instantly repelled him, transporting Li Mo to a stove land near the port.
He lost track of time.
Li Mo opened his eyes, cautiously exiting the passage resembling a digestive tract.
Multicolored lights flashed around him, industrial fumes clogging his nose.
Upon seeing the bizarre state of the port, he couldn’t suppress a curse: "As expected! Even I think the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater is suitable for isolation—how could the masterminds resist targeting the Sub-Device Sect?"
"But... this is absurd."