Li Mo took advantage of his free time to repeatedly copy paintings of foxes, striving to achieve absolute perfection when creating tattoos.
During this period, cultivators gradually retreated around the warehouse.
They unanimously chose silence, and each building extinguished its lights, attempting to conceal themselves in the darkness.
Perhaps due to the abundance of apprentices and odd-job workers from the Calligraphy and Painting Hall, the cultivators did not come closer.
Li Mo swallowed nervously; it was apparent that the pawn shop's setup had reached its final phase, just waiting for the fish to bite.
He had no time to concern himself with the warehouse, focusing all his energy on Hui Qingyi.
Currently, Li Mo had only one bottle of fox blood, sufficient for two uses; however, the tattoo had to be completed in one breath; otherwise, it would affect the spell's potential.
He stayed inside the room, nervously glancing toward the warehouse every so often. Yet, when his mind became immersed in painting, all negative emotions were completely swept away.
The first day passed.
The warehouse remained brightly lit night and day, the entire pawn shop seemingly frozen in time. Even the number of guards had visibly decreased.
Li Mo's movements copying the fox paintings had grown increasingly proficient.
He no longer paid attention to the anomalies in the outside world, his consciousness seemingly transported to a mountain forest, becoming a fox searching for food, traversing the desolate wilderness.
The fox on the xuan paper was coming alive visibly, with greater vivacity.
When Li Mo returned to his senses, the ink in the inkstone had nearly run dry, and a thick stack of fox paintings lay on the desk, exuding the fragrance of ink.
The second layer of human skin had already finished growing.
Li Mo's exterior showed no difference, but in a certain sense, his body's structure was entirely unlike that of a normal person.
He looked at his palm, and the skin began to squirm as though countless small insects moved within. His complexion quickly became as white and flawless as jade.
Amazingly, through the Creation Book, Li Mo could swap the inner and outer sequence of the old and new layers of human skin.
When he exposed the new skin outward, it was as if he had entirely transformed his appearance—previous scars were gone, and his facial features underwent noticeable changes.
Especially his facial features: because the new skin was nurtured from a leakless body, it naturally carried an ethereal, transcendent aura.
Unless someone knew Li Mo intimately, they wouldn't necessarily recognize him.
By this point, a total of nine pages of the Creation Book had already consumed four pages, leaving just five pages remaining, which clearly wouldn't be enough. He had no choice but to find a way to add more pages after the current crisis was resolved.
Li Mo was preparing to take out the fox blood when a deafening deer cry pierced the air, originating from the Inner City District.
From the forests at the foot of the mountain came a response.
One by one, moose emerged from the dense forests, standing motionlessly at the edge, gazing at Rong Town with an eerie and inexplicable look.
Rong Town remained indifferent, as though expecting the impending events. However, the warehouse's defenses had clearly become more stringent.
Li Mo immediately focused on mastering Hui Qingyi.
According to Hui Qingyi's indications, there were seven locations on the human body suitable for tattoo placement, categorized as follows: the "primary position" at the chest, where the middle dantian is located;
the "secondary positions" on the shoulders at the back; and the "auxiliary positions" on the four limbs.
During the childhood phase, Hui Qingyi mainly involved beast head tattoos at auxiliary positions, which could use ordinary beast blood as material.
Li Mo did not possess Hui Qingyi's instructions for the weak crown phase, but the spell had mentioned details about the secondary positions—the steps were likely ten times more intricate.
This phase might involve demon beasts, requiring materials unimaginable in their complexity.
Of course, whether demon beasts still existed seven thousand years later was another question entirely.
Li Mo rested for half an hour, regaining peak energy, spirit, and vitality. He then began drafting sketches.
Expertly, he laid his brush to paper, and the fox began rapidly emerging within moments, its demeanor possessing an unnervingly keen intelligence, reminiscent of the captivating legends of the Fox Immortal that ensnared souls.
He could vividly showcase the mountain lord's ferocity, akin to "ghosts," or fully display the fox's cunning nature, akin to "demons."
Li Mo continued to adjust the details of the fox head, making the Fox Immortal depicted increasingly lifelike.
When he was finally satisfied, even he felt a chill gazing at the piece—the painting seemed like it had been modeled directly upon a fox demon.
"Tap tap tap…"
The strange sounds from the moose echoed once again, accompanied by commotion near the warehouse.
Li Mo quickly cut a sharp sliver of wood from the wooden table's edge.
He held the wood sliver over the candle flame to char it, crafting a simple charcoal pen. He then used it to outline a fox head on the surface of his skin.
As Li Mo focused intently, faint vibrations arose from the outside world.
Unfazed, Li Mo concentrated on drafting the fox head outline. The charcoal pen traced steadily, the image gradually becoming more complete, resembling a fox's head perched on his arm.
When the outline was completed, he was confident that no additional refinements were necessary.
Li Mo had gone beyond his usual capabilities, forcibly elevating his artistry to another level—his drawings now seemed imbued with "divinity."
The external pressure had undoubtedly contributed to his ability to produce such an exquisite beast head.
Li Mo took out the fox blood and poured it into the cleaned inkstone. He then used the ink-grinding method to ensure the blood was fully released.
He sliced open his middle finger, dripping an equivalent amount of fingertip blood into the mixture.
Li Mo was astonished to see that his blood had stopped being the usual dark red and now shimmered with a crystalline glow.
It seemed the leakless body, while not resolving the drawbacks of the Death Disease, had brought him a constitution infinitely close to an innate Taoist Body.
The beast blood and fingertip blood merged, settling into a vibrant red dye.
Li Mo wasted no time. A mist of smog spiritual energy flowed out of his magic finger, forming the shape of a tattoo needle.
He brought his right hand's magic finger near the inkstone, where the blood was instantly absorbed, continuously nourished by the smog spiritual energy.
Li Mo noticed the spiritual power fusing into every droplet of blood, and he raised his right hand.
The needle-like magic finger touched the charcoal outline on his left arm. His initial movements were a test run, injecting no blood into the skin.
Precision was crucial; he couldn't damage the second layer of new skin.
Once confident, Li Mo began tattooing the fox head. The magic finger rose and fell rhythmically, neither too fast nor too slow, like intricate machinery.
The blood ink spread.
The red fox beast head gradually took shape on his upper arm, its lifelike appearance seemingly ready to leap out of his skin.
After completing the beast head's mouth, the red fox instinctively began to greedily absorb external spiritual energy, albeit only the wandering scorching smoke spiritual energy, far less efficient than his own cultivation.
He finally understood the magic used in later generations by Rong Town.
Whether it was Hui Qingyi, the Soul Chasing Poison Sting, or Ahui's Curse, these spells appeared to bestow beast-like traits upon parts of the body.
In reality, these spells cultivated spirit beasts inside the cultivator's body. The immortal body was just right for the spirit beasts to parasitize.
The spirit beasts created through the cultivator's own means were entirely obedient but subtly consumed their spirit, energy, and vitality.
Before Li Mo could feel pleased, the exterior seemed to tremble from the presence of some colossal entity crawling toward the warehouse. The air became saturated with jade liquid spiritual energy.
The earth shook and mountains quaked.
The Creation Book released brief fragments of memory.
Every fifteen years, the Heart Beast Sect's inner disciples would arrive at the outer sect to conduct trials, selecting some of the outer disciples to ascend to the inner sect.
In ancient times, the Heart Beast Sect referred to this process of trialing outer disciples.
It was known as the [Outer Gate Competition].