"My cultivation is low; barely reaching this Third Peak, I was outnumbered and forced into a hasty retreat."

Feng Zikang seemed to grasp something, but Mo Li continued his narration, his tone utterly flat, showing no shame in his defeat. It had been the anticipated outcome; the only reason for fleeing was to preserve a useful body, merely to cause a little more trouble for the Thirty-Six Chain formations of Mangcang Mountain.

"I was hunted by a pack of wolves, fleeing desperately, and stumbled into this very cave..."

Mo Li's voice held a faint sigh as he spoke. He gazed downwards, his lower body hidden beneath the earth, making it impossible to see. Whether entering this cave was fortune or disaster, he couldn't judge.

"A'Li, what kind of Mechanostructure Beast is in this cave, and why is it sealed by the 'Great Array for Exhorting the Virtuous to Teach'? What exactly are you..." Mo Fenghuang couldn't help but press, tears welling up.

Mo Li waved a hand, a faint smile touching his lips.

"To think that upon entering the cavern, I would encounter the Mohist Great Array for Exhorting the Virtuous to Teach—it truly is a fortunate coincidence. Fenghuang'er, observe closely, and feel the spirit of our Mohist school within this formation..."

Mozi once said that for the world to be stable, there must be those with strength who rush to save, those with wealth who endeavor to share, and those with virtue who encourage and teach. That is to say, those with power must strive to use their abilities to save people; those with money must share their wealth with others; and the truly virtuous must impart their knowledge and principles to the masses.

The reason this array was so bizarre and unpredictable was that it could not be broken by sheer force, material treasures, or Daoist cultivation. Instead, any form of attack would be absorbed by the formation, making it stronger, thus ensuring the object it guarded remained utterly immovable.

Setting up such an array was no simple feat; even the mountain-protecting array of the Linzi Mohists wasn't extravagant enough to utilize this particular configuration.

Yet, here, in this unknown cave, such a formation had been silently operational for over a thousand years.

"What... what exactly is it..."

The more Mo Fenghuang considered it, the deeper her terror grew. What kind of terrifying Mechanostructure Beast required such a powerful array to contain it?

Mo Li, what has he fused with?

Feng Zikang slowly began to piece things together. Observing the state of the two, it was clear the Mechanostructure Beast in the cave must be extraordinary. It was so significant that Mo Fenghuang, who had initially hoped to control it with her Natal Bamboo Tablet and bring him back to the Mohist school for healing, had lost all confidence. As for Mo Li, he never seemed to have held any hope in the first place.

He too began to feel intensely curious. If it were merely a high-tier Mechanostructure Beast, Mo Li's ability to maintain his sanity until this point suggested a sliver of hope. But judging by Mo Fenghuang's initial tone of questioning, and looking at the array suppressing the creature, it was likely something truly horrifying...

"By taking refuge within the array, those wild wolves naturally could not enter..."

Mo Li, integrated with the Mohist spirit of impartial, selfless love, could move freely in and out of the Great Array for Exhorting the Virtuous to Teach. The demonic entities expended immense effort yet could not penetrate it—a stroke of luck, in a way.

However, shortly after he entered the array, the ground inside began to heave, and suddenly, a Mechanostructure Beast slowly started to rise.

"Wh-what is it?"

Mo Fenghuang's voice trembled as she watched the ground within the formation crack open, Mo Li's body gradually ascending, emanating a pressure that permeated heaven and earth, a sense of absolute supremacy!

"Heavens!"

Mo Fenghuang cried out, nearly fainting!

Mo Li's lower body was entirely gone! His waist and abdomen were firmly attached to a piece of bone as smooth and white as jade!

"This... this is..."

Feng Zikang staggered back several steps. The mere pressure radiating outside the formation was already terrifying, and at this moment, the Mechanostructure Beast had only revealed its spine!

"What in the world is this thing!"

Accompanied by Mo Fenghuang's desperate wail, the Mechanostructure Beast within the array gradually revealed its true form.

It was an immeasurably massive serpent-like monster, headless, its long white bones coiled together, radiating a crystalline, jade-like luminescence. From the front end of its body stretched five colossal claws, sharp and chillingly cold, instilling awe in all who beheld them.

Mo Li's body was welded onto the creature's spine, flesh and bone seamlessly merged, slowly writhing. With every passing moment, a small patch of flesh on the bone melted away, seemingly still in the process of being absorbed.

"I heard that Mohist ancestors once attempted to construct Mechanostructure Beasts using the skeletons of monstrous beasts. I never expected to actually see one..."

Mo Li patted the monster's back, seemingly unconcerned that he was being absorbed and assimilated, destined to vanish from the world.

Feng Zikang was secretly alarmed. He could tell this was more than mere remains of a monstrous beast. Though he didn't understand it, the assembled structure was remarkably strange, likely crafted using peculiar Mohist techniques to achieve such an odd shape. But why would a member of the Mohist school create such an evil Mechanostructure Beast?

Evil!

Feng Zikang didn't need to actively sense it to perceive the intense malevolence emanating from the monster! It was a malevolence that wished to annihilate everything; it hated all living things with grinding teeth. If not for the restraint of the array, it would have already rushed out to crush him and Mo Fenghuang with a single claw.

"Fenghuang'er, you see now, this Mechanostructure Beast is deeply imbued with malevolent karma; the Natal Bamboo Tablet cannot restrain it! The last time I left the cave to confront the White Bone Divine Monarch, I lost control of my senses, and it took every effort to suppress it and bring it back into this array..."

Suppressing a Mechanostructure Beast with a Natal Bamboo Tablet depends on its tier. How could this nameless, mysterious Mechanostructure Beast be fettered by such a flimsy restraint? If it could be contained so easily, why did the ancestor who created it need to trap it within this great formation?

Though Mo Li spoke lightly, Mo Fenghuang burst into tears.

She understood: it was precisely because Mo Li had left the cave to repel the White Bone Divine Monarch and forcefully drag this monster back into the array to save her, that his own flesh must have been eroded away to an unimaginable extent just to achieve the "barely managed" suppression he described!

"Th-then what do we do now?"

Feng Zikang was naturally appalled, a wave of inexplicable frustration washing over him.

"I fear there is no other solution," Mo Li laughed heartily. "Perhaps we just wait here in the array to die? To see Brother Zikang and Fenghuang'er before the end—I am already immensely content!"

If he had left the array and fought desperately back to the Linzi Mohist Sect, perhaps some elders or venerable masters might have found a way to heal him, possibly saving his life.

But if, halfway there, this monstrous Mechanostructure Beast slipped its leash, it would surely result in the slaughter of the world and rivers of blood. As a Mohist, the choice for self-sacrifice without risking the populace was made without hesitation.

"We wait for death."

Mo Li said those three words with a smile.