The Miscellaneous Hall is located on the eastern side of the pawn shop and is specifically responsible for crafting statues, as well as gold, silver, and copper jewelry. It has the highest number of odd job workers.
This is primarily because the raw materials are quite heavy and require a large workforce for transportation.
Normally, the Miscellaneous Hall is bustling day and night, with apprentices mostly being strong and robust young men.
However, for some unknown reason, the Miscellaneous Hall now lies eerily silent. All its buildings are sealed off, except for the apprentices' dormitory, whose doors remain wide open.
Manager Xu Hu of the Miscellaneous Hall stood there, his face ashen, with purple-red abscesses visible on both hands, revealing writhing tiny snakes within.
Under his somber gaze, one strange and grotesque "statue" after another was carried outside.
The statues appeared to have been transformed from living humans. Their skin was unnaturally smooth, resembling that of mud sculptures, adorned in the uniforms of the Miscellaneous Hall.
What shocked Xu Hu the most was the condition of these human statues. Their bodies seemed to have been brutally smashed by heavy objects; the inner bones were twisted beyond recognition, yet their external flesh remained entirely undamaged.
Wu Wanfeng appeared beside Xu Hu, tilting his head as he scrutinized the human statues. Unable to hold back his curiosity, he asked, "Manager Xu, did something from the Inner City escape out here?"
"Not sure."
"What does that thing look like?"
"Not sure."
"Apparently, the Inner City..."
"Wu Wanfeng, don't try to understand too much. You'll attract its gaze."
Xu Hu glanced at Wu Wanfeng briefly before carrying a few human statues, twisting their heads off, and hurling them into the furnace, watching as the bodies burned into ashes.
"Haha, looks like things will quiet down for a while."
Wu Wanfeng chuckled sinisterly, extending his tongue to lick his exposed gums.
"They're not actually dead, are they? Their bones turned into a confinement cage, imprisoning their consciousness within. Fascinating."
Xu Hu paid no heed to Wu Wanfeng. After tallying the surviving few dozen apprentices and odd job workers, he hurriedly left the Miscellaneous Hall.
The bone-chilling wind stirred the thick smoke as the furnace burned continuously for over ten days, finally ceasing, leaving behind several hundred pounds of ashes scattered across the fields.
Snowflakes fell lightly, a sign of an abundant harvest in the coming year.
Li Mo had been in secluded cultivation within his inner chamber the whole time.
He intentionally heightened the concentration of smog spiritual energy in the room, causing his entire body to feel a faint burning sensation, using it to acclimate himself to the smog spiritual energy.
As time passed, Li Mo developed his own unique cultivation method, which fully harnessed the power of three Divine Skills.
First, he relied on his memorization ability to divide his spiritual power into two streams.
The majority of the spiritual power circulated along his meridians. After completing one Circulation Cycle, it returned to the Middle Dantian, where the cycle was repeated.
As the spiritual power entered and exited the Middle Dantian repeatedly, it was inevitably influenced by the multi-layered structure of the Dantian, unknowingly becoming increasingly pure.
The other stream of spiritual power served to guide and absorb stray external spiritual energy.
Finally, the leakless body ensured no accidents occurred, maximizing efficiency.
Li Mo was like a beast in hibernation within a cave, silently digesting the thick reserves accumulated during autumn.
The chirping of insects fell silent, replaced by the tranquil stillness of a muted world.
Villages far from human habitation were festively adorned. Despite the residents' immortality, the allure of earthly smoke and fire couldn't be resisted.
On this day, the ceaseless snowfall finally stopped.
The warming morning sun illuminated the mountains.
The beast hibernating in the inner chamber—Li Mo—awakened by coincidence.
Li Mo stretched lazily. Though his disheveled hair and appearance gave him a scruffy look, the faint aura he now exuded was utterly extraordinary.
The Liu Li jar lay overturned nearby, its spiritual energy long since depleted.
He picked up the Liu Li jar, reasoning that since Han Cai hadn't asked for its return, it likely meant the wealthy Miao Shou Inn cared little about it.
The Liu Li jar could only store alien spirit energy, but at least it was still a Magic Artifact.
Unfortunately, his storage bag was too small; the Liu Li jar alone occupied almost half the space.
Li Mo rang the copper bell by the wall, signaling the odd job workers to bring hot water for washing, all the while organizing the results of his first secluded cultivation.
He glanced at his Middle Dantian; the tumor-like Dantian had begun developing waxy granules.
It indicated that the Middle Dantian was being corroded by smog spiritual energy. Even if he dispelled the Yang Yuan Ben Jing, his Dantian could no longer accommodate any other alien spiritual energy.
With Divine Skills fortifying it, the Middle Dantian grew increasingly stable, and a new protective layer was forming—its initial appearance now visible.
Li Mo's cultivation amounted to roughly sixty threads of spiritual power, completing a small portion of the First Level of Puberty.
In his leisure, he had researched combat techniques for the Universal Skillful Hand to better prepare for any peculiar dangers in Rong Town.
Li Mo infused smog spiritual power into his right-hand Magic Finger, where thin yellow mist emerged and transformed into semi-transparent threads.
He tugged hard—the threads formed by spiritual power proved remarkably tenacious, embodying the unique corrosive properties of smog spiritual power.
Li Mo flicked the threads casually.
The threads turned to phantom mist upon touching furniture before reverting to a solid state, slicing off the corner of a wooden table cleanly.
He retracted the smog silk threads, bent his Magic Finger for a power-gathering motion, and saw grains of dust accumulate at his fingertips.
With a simple gesture, the projected dust grains were enough to penetrate flesh and blood. Unfortunately, the technique consumed significant spiritual power, exhausting the Dantian after five uses.
The smog silk threads were better suited for direct combat—they consumed negligible energy if undamaged.
Li Mo had done his best to expand the potential of Universal Skillful Hand but still felt his arsenal of abilities was meager, as he only mastered one auxiliary spell.
While pondering, the odd job workers arrived with a half-human-high wooden tub, filling it with hot water, causing mist to rise in the room.
Li Mo inquired about any incidents at the pawn shop during his months of secluded cultivation.
The odd job workers had limited knowledge. Their restricted movement resulted in most information being hearsay.
Piecing together their accounts, Li Mo discerned that calamity had struck the pawn shop.
Like an isolated island, certain areas within the pawn shop had been sealed off. Even the odd job workers were barred from entering or exiting; their supplies were piled in the hallways, retrieved solely by the Manager.
Li Mo watched the odd job worker's departing figure, with his inner chamber remaining cold and deserted.
He inspected his provisions, finding enough to support him in the inner chamber for up to half a year, aside from lacking the Beast Blood necessary for mastering Hui Qingyi.
Li Mo submerged himself in the hot water, using a towel to scrub his body, revealing skin as delicate as a newborn's beneath the grime.
While touching his chest, he suddenly noticed granules adhering to the surface of his skin.
He pinched one granule, noticing that under external force, the granule transformed from solid into gas, dissipating as faint alien spiritual energy.
Expression bewildered, he quickly understood.
During cultivation, the multi-layered Dantian absorbed impure spiritual energy.
But since Divine Skills have a limit, some impurities were forcibly expelled by the leakless body as foreign objects.
Eventually, these impurities crystallized into spiritual energy granules.
Li Mo examined the spiritual energy crystals and mused uncertainly, "If I had Spirit Stones, acquiring Beast Blood shouldn't be difficult, right?"
"Sigh, forget it. Better to just lay low..."
"Wait!!!"
Li Mo suddenly realized something critical.
If the pawn shop's area lockdown wasn't about protecting those within, but rather about the danger possibly returning inside its perimeter...
Then stubbornly staying in his inner chamber might actually be unwise.
Because the source of the danger could be mobile.