Chapter 489: Chapter 5: The Unaware Sub-Device Sect on the Brink of Annihilation
"Amitabha Buddha..."
The resonant chant of the Buddhist Sect echoed, deafening Li Mo.
Traces of the past were evident everywhere at the port—unchanging exhaust fumes, dazzlingly bright lights, the crowded and chaotic throngs of people...
Yet, at the same time, indescribable changes had taken place within the port.
A towering metal Buddha figure, standing four or five hundred meters tall, loomed over the port’s peak. Its limbs suspended, it posed with a single flower-picking gesture, its compassionate visage gazing down upon all beings.
What shocked Li Mo the most was that the metal Buddha exuded an undeniable aura unique to Artifact Cultivation. Within its hollow abdomen, a faintly visible melting furnace materialized.
The face of the metal Buddha felt vaguely familiar.
"Fire Flame True Monarch from Burning Sand Land’s Nascent Soul Great Power?"
Li Mo had had little interaction with Fire Flame True Monarch. From his understanding, the latter was purely focused on Artifact Cultivation but was later reconstructed during the Ascension Conference.
All these abnormalities pointed directly at the mastermind behind the scenes.
The Sub-Device Sect lived in isolation, its mountain gate devoid of mortals. Even after repeated upheavals, impacts on the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater had been minimal.
"Damn it, the mastermind must’ve infiltrated the Sub-Device Sect decades ago."
Li Mo surveyed his surroundings. Not only had Fire Flame True Monarch transformed into the likeness of a Buddha, but Artifact Cultivators walking through the streets and alleys were also dressed like monks.
Their skin, metallic in sheen and texture, lacked hair entirely. From the scars on their scalps, heavy smoke billowed, engineered specifically for cooling.
Their floating limbs transformed into Buddhist tools.
The sound of wooden fish striking echoed endlessly.
"Among the masterminds is the remnant of the Buddhist Sect. San Sheng is likely inside the Sub-Device Sect, and they’ve already distorted public perception of it."
Li Mo realized that as the Buddha Power’s erosion of Artifact Cultivators intensified, their flesh and bones were undergoing a gradual transformation into metal, their consciousness progressively slipping away.
Eventually, they would degrade into human-shaped artifacts.
The corrosion brought by Buddha Power was insidious and subtle, possibly requiring four to five hundred years to manifest fully. The outcome, however, was clear: the masterminds didn’t intend for the Sub-Device Sect to survive.
Li Mo discreetly reached out to Tian Changwen, probing him about the current state of the Heart Beast Sect.
Fortunately, after shifting its focus to the True Void Hometown, the Heart Beast Sect had hardly paid attention to the port’s commerce, due to its limited resources.
Indeed, a cooperative presence of Artifact Cultivators existed within the True Void Hometown.
Yet back then, both factions’ higher-ups had deliberately concealed information about the True Void Hometown. Artifact Cultivators sent inside had never left the small world, and none displayed signs of becoming Buddhist Practitioners.
Using the Lifeless Divine Statue within the Heart Beast Sect’s mountain gate, Li Mo repeatedly performed checks, confirming the Heart Beast Sect had momentarily escaped the mastermind’s radar.
"Ridiculous—do they really think the Sub-Device Sect is just meat on the chopping block?"
Li Mo snorted coldly, then strode toward the outskirts of stove land.
If San Sheng lacked the capacity, the Heart Beast Sect would have surely noticed the abnormalities at the port. He wouldn’t have been kept in such ignorance.
However, Li Mo also uncovered limitations in the distorted cognition strategy.
San Sheng couldn’t achieve his goals instantly; he had to infiltrate one step at a time, requiring considerable time and a massive resource investment.
"The Sub-Device Sect has only one Divine Separation cultivator, the Mother Furnace, without any Externalized Dharma Body. Void Refining cultivators shouldn’t need to remain stationed at the Sub-Device Sect."
Li Mo squinted his eyes.
He wasn’t overly anxious, pondering countermeasures within his heart.
After all, he still possessed three Externalized Dharma Bodies: his Buddha Demon Body and Symbiotic Dharma Body had reached the Heavenly Palace Stage. Even if facing San Sheng again, he wouldn’t suffer as miserably as before.
Li Mo soon arrived at the densely populated lower-tier region.
The port had expanded tenfold in size, with the number of Loose Cultivators surging to at least seven or eight hundred thousand. However, the majority of them were in the Childhood cultivation stage.
With each breath, cancer cells spread rapidly on the breeze.
The corrosiveness of the exhaust fumes shrouding the port had significantly diminished. Intermixed within, faint traces of Buddha Qi and vibrant phosphorescent lights flickered.
Low-level cultivators maintained the same routines, bustling at the port to secure cultivation resources.
Everywhere, people traded their limbs for resources, some even replacing their body parts with bizarre and ancient artifact limbs.
Li Mo concealed his aura, blending inconspicuously into the crowd at the port.
"The Four Seas Commerce’s shops on the lower level have likely exceeded twenty. The Sub-Device Sect truly trusts the Heart Beast Sect with their business."
Li Mo was keenly aware that the relationship of trust between the Sub-Device Sect and the Heart Beast Sect was primarily rooted in his position as the Daoist shared by both factions.
Of course, once the mastermind fully parasitized the Sub-Device Sect, his reputation would vanish completely, and the port would likely shut down for good.
"A temple? Interesting."
Li Mo stopped mid-stride, his gaze resting on a temple teeming with believers from the Buddhist Sect. The main structure was constructed from metal, and even its incense replaced with some burnable Golden Earth Attribute Spiritual Materials.
"Great Freedom Guanyin Temple."
Li Mo raised an eyebrow. The Bodhisattva Guanyin was among the ancient Buddhas worshipped by the Buddhist Sect, but whether Guanyin truly existed in the Immortal Realm, remained unknown.
He hadn’t expected that after eight thousand years, he would again encounter Guanyin.
Could there be branches of the Buddhist Sect in the Immortal Realm similar to the True Word Sect’s, which failed to ascend?
The novice monk bore obvious characteristics of Artifact Cultivation, with cultivation at the Weak Crown stage. Seeing Li Mo’s incongruous attire, the monk bowed and greeted him courteously.
"Benefactor, I assume you’re a newcomer. Are you familiar with the Great Freedom Guanyin?"
Li Mo didn’t respond. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Fire Flame True Monarch. The novice monk continued with his explanation, "Great Freedom Guanyin manifests in myriad forms. In the mortal world, she bears the title of the Celestial Sovereign who rescues the suffering and distressed. What presides over the port is one of Guanyin Bodhisattva’s avatars."
The novice monk’s flesh appeared pieced together from pebbles, with magma visibly coursing through his veins.
Li Mo was fairly certain this novice monk had once been the Daoist "Fen Mu" from Burning Sand Land. It was unclear how many times he’d been through reconstruction in the melting furnace.
"Round Light Guanyin."
Fire Flame True Monarch appeared to sense Fen Mu muttering about Round Light Guanyin. He pressed his palms together and lightly nodded, casting vibrant Buddha Light to illuminate the temple.
"I see. This humble cultivator greets Round Light Guanyin."
Li Mo politely smiled at Fen Mu.
He then casually pulled out a dozen Low Grade Spirit Stones, tossing them into the donation box at the temple’s entrance before disappearing into the bustling streets.
Fen Mu stared after Li Mo’s retreating figure with a bewildered expression.
For reasons unknown, a sense of familiarity stirred within him. Although Li Mo’s limbs appeared intact, Fen Mu found himself thinking of someone.
"Who is it exactly..."
Fen Mu pressed his temples with a headache. Due to the repeated reconstructions, his memory had become fragmented. Faint images flickered through his mind.
"Qing Tian? Impossible; it should be mistaken identity."
Nearly a thousand years ago, a Daoist of the Sub-Device Sect had disappeared. Although the sect avoided speaking openly about it, most Artifact Cultivators presumed Li Mo had perished in the Ascension Conference.
When Artifact Cultivators died, there was a chance their remains would be rejected by the Mother Furnace, making reconstruction impossible.
Fen Mu shook his head lightly.
The figure from earlier had limbs directly connected to the body with no visible melting furnace aura—likely just a nameless Loose Cultivator resembling someone else.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Fen Mu began to cough violently, the pain in his head worsening.
A sudden foreign thought crossed his mind: "If Qing Tian were here, would we no longer endure the torment of eternal cycles?"
"Amitabha Buddha!!!"
Fire Flame True Monarch’s eyes widened as he pointed a finger resembling a Buddhist staff toward the temple.
Fen Mu became dazed, muttering to himself, "Eternal cycles? No, only by devoutly serving Great Freedom Guanyin can one achieve liberation, can one reach Nirvana."
At this moment, believers entered the temple.
"Amitabha Buddha, benefactor, are you familiar with Great Freedom Guanyin?"
Fen Mu opened his eyes and guided the cultivator before him in offering incense and prayers, his stiff expression masking a suppressed despair in his heart.
No one noticed that Fen Mu’s skull had developed numerous fine cracks.
His overheating brain sizzled audibly as Buddha Qi began to entangle the neural tissue.
Fen Mu stepped into the temple’s main hall, kneeling before the Guanyin statues and chanting Buddhist scriptures aloud while striking the wooden fish to calm his mind.
Within the main hall stood three Guanyin Bodhisattva statues.
Each depicted a Thousand-Armed Guanyin, symbolizing the Buddha’s countless manifestations, a central figure from the ancient Buddhist Sect tied to Great Freedom Guanyin.
"San Sheng, another Artifact Cultivator’s memory chaos has appeared at the port."
The central statue abruptly spoke, its voice reverberating through the hall but unnoticed by believers or monks.
The statue on the left, neither sorrowful nor joyous, said indifferently, "Don’t make a fuss. Bodies recreated by the Mother Furnace retain residual memories. Unless I oversee the Outer Heaven Meteorite Crater, this can’t be avoided."
"Amitabha Buddha, does this mean nine cycles of conversion are needed to bring Artifact Cultivators into the fold of Buddha?"
"Karma Seal Mother, that’s your problem, that’s your problem!!!"
San Sheng’s tone grew sharp. Tiny heads fell from the statue’s mouth, causing everyone’s necks to elongate unnaturally.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha."
Karma Seal Mother laughed manically but simultaneously covered her mouth with numerous hands.
Stimulated by the laughter, San Sheng’s statue inexplicably began to transform into flesh, prompting the monks nearby to explode, spraying bloody pulp across the hall.
Their frenzied mental states continued to exacerbate the situation.
"Silence."
The third statue’s consciousness descended, showing no discernible change.
"San Sheng, stand back."
"Who are you, who is San Sheng, and who are they..."
"Stand back!!!"
Boom.
The neck of San Sheng’s statue snapped, its consciousness vanishing entirely, while Karma Seal Mother laughed hysterically as she chewed on her own arms.
Long moments passed before Karma Seal Mother recovered and spat out a pile of mangled flesh.
"Pity. Karma Seal Mother, why did that monk riot?" The third statue sounded resigned but remained patient inquiring.
"Amitabha Buddha."
"The Sub-Device Sect spans ten thousand years, though it once had Tian Chenzi blessed by the Heavenly Dao ascend to the Upper Realm. But its Taoist inheritance has faltered at the Nascent Soul stage, devoid even of Divine Separation cultivators, let alone Void Refining stage practitioners."
Karma Seal Mother extended her hand to grab Fen Mu’s head, twisting with precision to remove the top of his skull.
She consumed his brain in one bite, decisively sending Fen Mu back into reconstruction in the melting furnace. "As long as I merge with the Mother Furnace, Artifact Cultivators’ memories are trivial."
The third statue nodded, "Karma Seal Mother, don’t rush. Wait until after the Ascension Conference."
Both consciousnesses gradually faded away, and the monks cleaned up the chaos within the main hall. Fen Mu’s remains were buried in the backyard.
Unbeknownst to them, tiny specks of cancer cells emerged from the corpse.
Li Mo stood leaned against a wall with closed eyes, as flashbacks of the mastermind’s actions boiled in his mind, on the brink of erasure.
It was only the entangled Spirit Root Worms clutching at his neural tissue that kept his memories intact.
"So, the Sub-Device Sect currently has only one Void Refining practitioner—the Karma Seal Mother, most likely buried deep underground guarding the Mother Furnace."