12: Chapter 12 discusses how to tame abyssal monsters using melodramatic novels.

Days in the Scripture Pavilion became a bit chaotic because of an extra "book."

The skin book from the abyss was casually named "Xiao Hei" by Li Mo.

Initially, this name provoked a fierce roar from the skin book. It split its abyss-like maw on the cover, roaring its true name as a Great Old One, which was long enough to wrap around the Heavenly River Sword Sect three times.

Then Li Mo expressionlessly picked up the "Blood Refining Demonic Technique" and activated [Evil Qi Control].

"Xiao Hei is a good name. It's catchy and down-to-earth." The single eye on the skin book's cover blinked and it immediately yielded.

The next problem was feeding.

As a living rule-based creature, Xiao Hei didn't eat Spirit Stones or Medicinal Pills; it only devoured "information" and "emotions."

According to it, high-quality Soul memories full of despair, madness, and chaos were best.

"Want to eat human brains?"

Li Mo sat behind the counter, holding tea, his eyes calm.

"Then you'd better starve to death."

"Or I'll throw you into the latrine; there's plenty of information there too."

Xiao Hei's entire book body trembled violently, the skin on the cover wrinkling in fear.

"However, although there are no despairing Souls..."

Li Mo pointed to the mountain of miscellaneous books beside him, which were storybooks and novels he had Utility Disciples collect from the Mortal world.

"But there's plenty of stories full of 'emotions' here."

He casually pulled out a copy of "The Overbearing Prince's Runaway Little Bride (108th Edition)" and threw it to Xiao Hei.

"Eat up. The emotions in here are enough for you to digest for a while."

Xiao Hei disdainfully rubbed against the book with its cover, split open a gap, and with a "slurp," swallowed the contents.

At first, its single eye was full of contempt.

What kind of junk food is this? Low-level Mortal writing, illogical emotional entanglements.

But soon, that eye widened.

The pages began to flip frantically with a rustle, and the entire book body shook violently as if enduring a severe mental shock.

"She flees, he chases, she's trapped..."

"Woman, you're playing with fire..."

A chaotic, twisted, and nonsensical yet Soul-piercing torrent of emotions!

For it, accustomed to the straightforward Laws of the abyss, this kind of melodramatic plot full of logical black holes was an unprecedented mental poison!

Half an hour later.

Xiao Hei closed its cover, and a drop of ink-black tear actually trickled down from its single eye.

"Waaa... so touching... why didn't that Prince explain sooner... he has her in his heart... waaa..."

Li Mo: "..."

Squeak: "..."

The person and the mouse looked at each other, seeing deep speechlessness in each other's eyes.

It seemed the tastes of abyss creatures were indeed unique.

However, the effect was significant.

After finishing the "melodramatic fast food," most of the hostility on Xiao Hei dissipated, and the cold aura that constantly polluted its surroundings was completely retracted.

Now, it looked like an ordinary old book, only occasionally letting out a sob or two about "sadistic love."

While it was immersed in the plot, Li Mo placed his hand on the cover.

[Ding!]

[Deeply reading "Abyssal Records (Living Version)"... Current progress 5%...]

[Detected that the host has successfully tamed the target; reading threshold significantly lowered.]

[Extracted special trait: Sanity Valve (Purple)]

[Trait effect: Can set a "Sanity Threshold" for any target. When the mental shock they suffer exceeds the threshold, the host can choose to force the target into "Memory Fragmenting" or "Falling into Madness".]

"Sanity Valve?"

Li Mo's heart stirred slightly.

This trait had no direct lethality, but it was the rarest divine skill for mental defense.

With it, he would have an absolute trump card when encountering those eerie existences specializing in mental pollution.

Days passed in feeding and reading.

Spring went and summer came; the cicadas chirping outside the pavilion made people restless.

Late one night.

Li Mo was "working overtime" on the second floor as usual, studying how to combine [Sanity Valve] and [Words Follow Law].

Squeak was lying on the windowsill enjoying the cool breeze, while Xiao Hei played dead on the table, protesting that Li Mo had stopped updating "Rebirth of the Di Daughter's Revenge."

Suddenly, Squeak's ears perked up, its fur stood on end, and it issued an urgent warning.

"Squeak! Squeak!" (Someone's here! An expert! Even more powerful than the man in black last time!)

Li Mo's eyes narrowed, and his movements came to an abrupt halt.

[Void Walker] triggered passively; his aura vanished instantly, and his whole person turned into a heavy shadow.

This time, the enemy was different.

Even with [Anti-Reconnaissance Instinct] active, Li Mo actually failed to lock onto their position immediately.

There was no Killing Intent in the air, no Qi fluctuations, and even the flow of the wind hadn't changed.

"A master of stealth."

Li Mo concluded in his heart.

This was definitely not comparable to those brutes from the Overlord Blade Sect. Could Jixia Academy have sent someone again?

Just then, Xiao Hei, who was playing dead on the table, suddenly opened its single eye.

It didn't make a sound, but its eyeball rolled frantically toward the upper left, locking onto a shadow on the beam.

In that shadow hung a palm-sized Puppet spider made entirely of shadows.

A spider silk was silently descending, aimed directly at the book on Li Mo's desk—"General Outline of the Tianhe Sword Sect's Formations (Li Mo's Annotated Edition)."

This recorded all his hard work modifying the Mountain Protection Grand Array; if leaked, the Heavenly River Sword Sect's defenses would be useless.

"Shadow Sect?"

The name flashed through Li Mo's mind.

One of the three major assassin organizations in the Cultivation World, the most mysterious intelligence broker, known as "Wherever light reaches, there are the ears of the Shadow Sect."

It seemed his actions in repairing the Mountain Protection Grand Array had attracted the greed of wolves.

"Since you're here, don't leave."

Li Mo remained seated, not even lifting an eyelid.

He extended a finger and lightly tapped on Xiao Hei, who was playing dead on the table.

A Divine Thought was sent over.

"Time to eat."

Xiao Hei, who was originally sad about the hiatus, instantly lit up with a greedy red light in its single eye.

Food?

Is it the high-quality "shadow meal" full of conspiracies, schemes, and voyeuristic desires?

"Hiss—"

A barely audible soft sound.

On the beam, the shadow Puppet that was about to snatch the Formation book suddenly froze.

It "saw" it.

The skin book on the table split open into a giant mouth that occupied the entire cover.

There were no teeth in the mouth, only a slowly rotating darkness that devoured everything.

An absolute terrifying suction originating from the life hierarchy instantly locked down its existence.

"Screech—!!!"

A silent scream exploded on the Soul level. The shadow Puppet tried desperately to cut its connection with its master, but it was too late.

Xiao Hei took a sharp breath.

Like a whale swallowing water.

The shadow Puppet, along with the wisp of the controller's Divine Thought attached to it, was instantly elongated and distorted, finally turning into a puff of black smoke and being swallowed in one gulp by the abyss maw.

"Burp."

Xiao Hei let out a satisfied burp, its single eye on the cover narrowing into a line.

This taste was much more exciting than "The Overbearing Prince"! It was full of darkness, prying, and calculation—the abyss's favorite!

Meanwhile.

Thousands of miles away, in a dark cave.

A black-robed old man sitting cross-legged and casting a spell suddenly opened his eyes wide and let out a shrill scream.

"Ah—!!"

He clutched his head tightly with both hands, and black blood slowly trickled from his seven orifices.

Just now, he felt a large chunk of his Divine Soul being torn and bitten off by some unspeakable, terrifying existence.

Even more terrifyingly, that monster followed the connection of Divine Thought and back-fed him a memory.

A melodramatic plot about "She flees, he chases, she's trapped," and a skin book cover with a wide mouth laughing wildly.

"Monster... insane... there is a great terror in the Heavenly River Sword Sect..."

The old man's eyes were vacant as he muttered to himself, forced into a shutdown by the [Sanity Valve], falling into a brief state of madness.

Inside the Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo shook his head as he watched Xiao Hei, full and satisfied, rolling and frolicking on the table.

This thing's lethality wasn't great, but its insult level was extremely high.

"Spit it out." He tapped the spine of the book.

Xiao Hei wriggled reluctantly and spat out a black paper slip as thin as a cicada's wing from its pages.

A core memory fragment of the shadow Puppet.

Li Mo picked up the slip, and the [Great Reader] System activated.

[Reading memory fragment...]

[Source: Shadow Sect gold-tier scout "Old Ghost Shadow".]

[Mission goal: Steal the repair diagrams of the Heavenly River Sword Sect's grand array, investigate the identity of the "mysterious expert".]

[Employer: ...]

The "Employer" column was blurred, protected by a Restriction.

Li Mo didn't care.

What he cared about was the last piece of information in the memory fragment:

"West of the Cloud Break Mountain Range, three hundred miles away at the 'Netherworld Ghost Market', a batch of ancient 'spirit sealing ink' has recently surfaced, suspected to be related to the secret treasury of the former imperial family..."

spirit sealing ink!

Li Mo's eyes lit up.

Ancient records mentioned that this ink could Seal runes and suppress spirit bodies.

It was just right for performing a "sterilization surgery" on Xiao Hei to prevent it from getting too fat and losing control in the future.

"Netherworld Ghost Market... spirit sealing ink..."

Li Mo tapped his finger on the table, lost in thought.

He had stayed low here for over a decade, never stepping out.

Now, for this troublesome "pet" and for his future path of staying low, it seemed... necessary to go out once.

"Squeak."

Li Mo looked at Squeak, who was gnawing on a Spirit Stone.

"Stop eating and pack your things."

Squeak was stunned, the Spirit Stone in its mouth rolled onto the table, and its little paws gestured: Where to?

Li Mo stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the mountain range in the west silent in the night.

A long-lost sharpness flashed in those eyes that were usually as calm as an ancient well.

"To the Ghost Market, to buy some 'cosmetics' for Xiao Hei."

"Also..."

Li Mo raised his hand and brushed his cheek.

He had used this face in the Sect for over a decade; it was too familiar and inconvenient.

With a thought, the muscles and bones in his face made a subtle soft sound.

[Thousand Illusion Mask] trait activated.

The clean-looking utility youth disappeared.

Replaced by a sallow-faced, cloudy-eyed, middle-aged down-and-out Daoist who looked like he could stop breathing at any moment.

He took out the "heaven-deceiving stone" from his robe and hung it around his neck, completely isolating his own aura.

Finally, he picked up Xiao Hei and, amidst its screams, folded and compressed it, stuffing it into a hidden pocket in his sleeve.

"Remember, from now on."

Li Mo grinned at the down-and-out Daoist in the bronze mirror, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"This humble Daoist's dharma name is Que Yi."

He pushed open the window.

Without making a sound, his figure drifted down quietly, completely merging into the night.

This was the first time in over ten years since he arrived in this world that he truly stepped out of the mountain gate of the Heavenly River Sword Sect.