Ren Qing suspected that the Qingfeng Qi Refining Method was not the mainstream technique of Jingzhou cultivators.
After all, the Qingfeng Qi Refining Method was only a modification based on the introductory Heavenly Dao Method, and at a glance, one could see that hidden flaws lay within it.
Daoist Fufeng might still have had a sliver of hope of advancing to the Core Formation Stage, but reaching the Nascent Soul Stage was absolutely impossible, his path forward had long been severed.
He kept attempting to modify the Nether Sea Breathing Art, but his results were meager.
After wasting an entire night, Ren Qing helplessly chose to give up on exploring the technique and instead focused his main energy on constructing the Ghost Market.
He had already figured out the method to transform the Dream Seed into a Ghost Market; it only needed refinement of the details.
If he could establish a Ghost Market in Jingzhou, the efficiency of lifespan extension would greatly increase, and he could also use it to obtain various Heavenly Dao Methods.
In the future, he might even connect the two Ghost Markets to exchange resources.
However, Ren Qing estimated that he would have to wait until all three Dream Techniques advanced to the Merging the Yin God stage, since before that it was difficult for techniques to be fully integrated.
Ren Qing continued his secluded cultivation, believing that Morning Street was temporarily stable.
But only a few days later, dense footsteps suddenly rang out from outside, faintly mixed with the heavy breathing of many people.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes.
Death on Morning Street was actually quite normal, even if people understood the taboos concerning Aberrant Entities, accidents still happened, drawing Them in.
It was said that the old man Chen next door had failed to lock his doors and windows tightly, and the evening wind blew them open.
As a result, his entire family became food for Hu Yi, their intestines used to spell out the words "Hu Yi," as if the Aberrant Entity were implying something.
Ren Qing initially paid no mind to the commotion outside, planning to continue refining his nearly formed Ghost Market, but the sound of coffin-bearing processions arose one after another.
He quickly stepped out of the courtyard.
The number of people on the street had greatly dwindled, and an atmosphere of terror spread around.
Those stalls selling meat had already vanished; the ground was covered with spirit money, evidently showing that several funeral processions had passed.
As Ren Qing stood dazed, another coffin was carried out from Sanmu Alley.
A corpse had already been placed inside, yet the corpse itself was nothing but bare bones, the flesh had been completely stripped away.
The source of the chaos was located in the most remote part of Morning Street.
Seeing this, Ren Qing headed toward the residential area, where he saw people rushing in and out.
They all appeared extremely frightened, covering their mouths and noses with their hands.
Because of the Usurper Dragon, they could not speak aloud, which deepened the eerie atmosphere of Morning Street, turning it into a kind of absurd silent play.
"What's that smell?"
Ren Qing's nose twitched; a foul, unpleasant odor wafted through the alley.
It was a burnt, acrid stench, an ordinary person would feel nauseous upon smelling it, and staying here too long would make one dizzy and faint.
He passed through the narrow alley, turning left and right before stopping his steps.
Hundreds of residents were gathered before a courtyard, seemingly waiting for something.
Using the vision of the Double Pupils, Ren Qing easily noticed the surrounding scene, as well as over a dozen eyes secretly watching from the shadows.
A woman squatting beneath a banyan tree appeared to be preparing to dry clothes, but she actually possessed Core Formation cultivation, and her gaze brimmed with greed.
A child playing with mud in a corner was in fact a dwarf in his thirties, whose cultivation was even stronger than the woman's.
...
Ren Qing hadn't expected the situation to be so complex. While restraining his aura, he looked into the courtyard.
In the open space stood a large iron cauldron, firewood crackling underneath; steam rose from the mouth of the pot, it looked like the kind street vendors used to stew meat.
But the cauldron did not contain pieces of chopped meat; instead, it held a man's corpse.
The corpse's skin was swollen and puffed up, its entire body nearly boiled to mush.
The water bubbles were beginning to boil; clearly, the corpse had been in the cauldron for some time, its flesh was about to fall from the bone.
Of course, if it were only that, it wouldn't have driven the residents of Morning Street to such a state of panic.
The main reason was that on the wall, two blood-written characters read "Yinghu (Infant Fox)."
Ren Qing's expression showed doubt, it didn't feel like the handiwork of an Aberrant Entity, but rather as if some cultivator were deliberately imitating one to commit murder.
He was about to continue observing the courtyard when the sound of coffin bearers echoed again, and the crowd in the alley parted of its own accord.
Four burly men carried a coffin into the courtyard, setting it down at the entrance.
The lid was lifted, and Old Coffin slowly crawled out, his body emitting a foul corpse stench that actually overpowered the smell of cooked meat.
The people did not dare to disturb Old Coffin; judging by their reaction, they seemed to have considerable trust in him.
Ren Qing quietly squeezed into the crowd, standing only a few meters from the courtyard wall.
He did not hide himself, standing openly outside the door, his Double Pupils locked firmly on the boiling corpse.
Old Coffin soon noticed Ren Qing, a look of surprise flashing across his face, he hadn't expected the other to live nearby.
Yet though several days had passed, Ren Qing's cultivation had shown no improvement, his True Yuan remained faint and barely perceptible.
His talent was truly mediocre.
Old Coffin gestured for Ren Qing to stay back; he had once thought the man might be some kind of natural immortal body, but that was unrealistic.
Even spirit roots were scarce, how could a divine physique appear on Morning Street?
Old Coffin turned his gaze to the corpse, carefully examining it.
After a long while, he finally walked out of the courtyard and said, "It is indeed an Aberrant Entity..."
The crowd burst into an uproar; some women even began to weep uncontrollably, every person feeling the shadow of death hanging over them.
"Before you understand the taboos of the Aberrant Entity, do not use iron cauldrons, and do not eat meat, it's best to fill yourselves with dry food..."
Old Coffin's voice was not loud, yet every resident present heard it clearly.
Ren Qing felt doubt.
It was clearly a cultivator who had killed and boiled the body, how could they conclude, based solely on "Yinghu," that it was an Aberrant Entity's doing? That was far too careless.
He noticed that the cultivators secretly observing had become both excited and terrified, hastily leaving the residential area.
The townspeople gradually dispersed in a daze, they still needed to return to their daily work, for they hadn't yet secured their food.
Ren Qing could sense killing intent directed toward the ordinary residents, as if slaughter might erupt at any moment.
Seeing that the cultivators no longer paid attention to this place, Ren Qing did not immediately leave the residential area, instead stepping toward the courtyard.
With Old Coffin's cultivation, he must have noticed the abnormality, since he showed no reaction, he was likely tacitly allowing such incidents to occur.
From the townspeople's attitude toward Old Coffin, Ren Qing could tell that reverence outweighed fear, meaning that Old Coffin did not usually kill innocents without cause.
Old Coffin used the coffin he had just lain in to place the corpse inside; but most of the flesh had already been dissolved, and flies swarmed around.
"Ren Qing, you've come at the right time, help me move the coffin."
His timing was clever, speaking only after the nearby cultivators had all vanished, clearly, he bore no strong hostility toward Ren Qing.
Ren Qing approached Old Coffin's side and asked tentatively, "Old Coffin, isn't it troublesome handling corpses alone? Why not find a helper?"
Old Coffin ignored him, continuing to work earnestly at moving the corpse.
After the entire corpse was packed into the coffin, he finally replied, "Life on Morning Street isn't easy. Do you want to learn coffin-making with me?"
Old Coffin's attitude toward Ren Qing was neither cold nor warm, somewhat peculiar; though not hostile, he clearly had no intention of helping him either.
Ren Qing smiled awkwardly without answering; if he could obtain a technique from Old Coffin, that would be best, if not, he had other means.
Old Coffin shook his head and said, "Your aptitude is too poor, just from your appearance I can tell there's almost no hope for you to ever reach Foundation Establishment..."
As Ren Qing listened to Old Coffin's lengthy lecture, he changed his question: "Old Coffin, does this mean a third Aberrant Entity is about to appear on Morning Street?"
"The killer is not an Aberrant Entity, but it no longer matters. Yinghu is coming..."
"Do you know the origin of the Aberrant Entities?"
Ren Qing shook his head.
He hadn't even seen the true forms of the Aberrant Entities, so how could he possibly guess.
"When you reach the Qi Refining Stage, you will discover that in the sky there is a vast Blood Moon. Stare at it long enough, and you will enter the underworld."
Old Coffin's explanation was rather vague: "And the Aberrant Entities are the demons of the underworld, formed from resentment, almost immortal and indestructible..."
From the clues he already knew, Ren Qing suddenly reached a conclusion in his heart.
"The more people who know the Aberrant Entities' names, the stronger They become, don't They?"
Old Coffin gave Ren Qing a surprised look, faintly admiring him inwardly, yet still replied in an even tone: "Strictly speaking, the more who know of Them, the closer the Aberrant Entities become to... the present Morning Street."
No wonder the Aberrant Entities spread their own names?
Ren Qing's heart turned cold. He had seen many incomparably formidable monsters under the Waning Moon and Waxing Gibbous Moon, they were likely the true bodies of the Aberrant Entities.
Those human-faced spiders hundreds of meters tall, those thousand-meter sky-piercing giants...
If They were to truly descend into the Crescent Moon Layer, it would be a one-sided massacre, and the condition for Their descent was merely the spreading of Their names.
Ren Qing's pupils dilated, and he suddenly understood why mortals dragged into the Crescent Moon Layer would have their relatives' and friends' memories erased by the Blood Moon.
It was precisely to prevent the spread of the names, to stop the living beings of the Crescent Moon Layer from returning to the New Moon Layer.
To the ordinary world, weren't the residents of Morning Street themselves monsters...
Viewed this way, cultivators who sought transcendence through techniques were actually the same as Ren Qing, stowaways from the New Moon Layer.
Ren Qing surmised that the Usurper Dragon and Hu Yi of Morning Street had likely not yet fully descended, and that Their true bodies probably remained within the Waning Moon.
As for Yinghu, it would still take several days before its existence gradually revealed itself.
The Aberrant Entities were confined within Morning Street, as if imprisoned convicts.
Qingyan Town had sealed off Morning Street precisely to prevent the widespread propagation of the Aberrant Entities' names, lest Their true bodies be drawn into the Crescent Moon Layer.
The basic food supplies provided to Morning Street were nothing more than a slow-boiling pot of frogs in warm water.
To prevent the townspeople from growing desperate and spreading the names to Qingyan Town through various channels.
Old Coffin pointed toward the iron cauldron, his smile grotesque as he said, "Do you still think it matters whether it's an Aberrant Entity or not?"
Ren Qing suspected that some cultivators had recklessly contacted the Aberrant Entities, perhaps for some sort of gain, otherwise they wouldn't harm others for profit.
The situation on Morning Street was more complex than he had imagined; outwardly isolated within Qingyan Town, it was actually full of interwoven factions, each harboring hidden motives.
"You're just going to let Yinghu descend like this?"
"It has nothing to do with me anyway. What, should I risk my life to stop it?"
Old Coffin glanced at Ren Qing and said, "Some madmen will use the excuse of 'searching for the spreader' as a reason to kill. Try not to die too miserably."
Ren Qing, however, became intrigued, the Ghost Market would soon have its use.