Ren Qing looked at the newly-nurtured sub-soul, propping his chin with both hands and thinking for a long time.
This time he was prepared more thoroughly; he intended to bring the ghost-shadow and the Dream Seed along into the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Just as well, after the monstrous Dream Seed turned into the monster-market, the new Dream Seed had not yet absorbed any aura.
With these two plug-ins, the sub-soul's survival ability would increase greatly.
But Ren Qing found himself troubled because of the Ze Immortal Method. In principle, if he didn't cultivate any techniques, he could guarantee that the sub-soul's body would have no pathological changes at all.
Yet he kept feeling that the secrets of the Longevity Forbidden Zone were closely tied to disease.
The problem, however, was how to control the depth of cultivating the Ze Immortal Method.
After hesitating for a moment, Ren Qing decided to still cultivate the Ze Immortal Method to the half-step Three-Corpse-Severing level, which was the Five Qi Facing the Origin of his Food Realm.
It took only half a day for the sub-soul to return to the Ghost Envoy realm.
Ren Qing hid a portion of the ghost-shadow in the sub-soul's shadow, and embedded the Dream Seed above its forehead, making the sub-soul's appearance even more bizarre.
He controlled the sub-soul toward the Longevity Forbidden Zone, and along the way he could already see Restraint Officers riding Weird Beasts, and the scene was even more absurd than imagined.
He didn't know what the Restraint Officers had fed the lizard-type Weird Beasts, causing their bodies to grow over ten meters long, thereby transporting others to Jingzhou.
Regardless of the route back and forth, the lizards' backs were never empty.
The sub-soul arrived outside the Longevity Forbidden Zone. The Restraint Officers guarding it seemed to have been replaced, though they still looked the same, lifeless and dull.
Ren Qing did not rush to enter the restricted zone. Although the flow of time inside and outside was different, he could still barely estimate when night would fall within it.
As long as he ensured the sub-soul could descend its consciousness, the main body could make preparations at any time.
Ren Qing also placed body-strengthening and disease-treating materials inside the ghost-shadow, but unfortunately the ghost-shadow truly couldn't hold much.
The sub-soul dove into the well, and before its eyes appeared an abyssal, extreme darkness.
The Dream Seed suddenly transformed into a Dao-robe, protecting the sub-soul, preventing it from losing consciousness; instead, it was able to clearly perceive itself.
Because the main body severed the connection between primary and secondary souls, it did not sense anything unusual from the sub-soul, and immediately attempted to perform the ghost-shadow's Night Roaming.
Consciousness descended directly onto the sub-soul.
The sub-soul gradually grew flesh and blood. It seemed that the physical body within the Longevity Forbidden Zone did not appear out of thin air, but had a gradual process of being generated.
Ren Qing could feel the sub-soul still being squeezed toward some direction, somewhat similar to the birthing process a baby experiences.
But even though the sub-soul had the cultivation of the Ghost Envoy realm, at most it slightly increased its constitution, it was still firmly within the category of mortals.
Using the Double Pupils formed from the Dream Seed, he looked around; within the infinite darkness, countless tiny points of various colored lights suddenly appeared.
The ghost-shadow instinctively made contact, and the information flow surged.
[Disease-Type: Heart Disease]
[Condensed from the Six-Malady Method; through contact, one may contract various stubborn illnesses.]
"Six-Malady Method?"
Ren Qing recalled the Rabbit-Toad cultivator he had met in Qingxu Temple, the one who had eaten an Elder Daoist of the Six Maladies. That person must have cultivated precisely this method.
He felt that the Supernatural Remnant of the Six-Malady Method inside the Longevity Forbidden Zone was likely of a realm no lower than Yin Runner; otherwise it could not create such deep influence.
The sub-soul's body had already formed more than half. Because it transitioned from illusory to real, the points of disease-types were about to touch Ren Qing.
Seeing this, Ren Qing used the ghost-shadow to block them, and actively examined each disease-type's information.
[Disease-Type: Disability]
[Disease-Type: Delusion]
[Disease-Type: Plague]
[Disease-Type: Blindness]
...
He didn't have much time to hesitate, the body was about to fully complete, so he chose the disease-types that would have the least impact.
[Disease-Type: Frailty]
When Frailty merged into the sub-soul, Ren Qing felt the lines of muscle disappear, his entire body becoming like skin stretched over bones.
Then he fused the second disease-type.
[Disease-Type: Deformity]
Lotus-shaped mouths grew on Ren Qing's forehead and hands, along with five additional human faces, giving off an extremely strange and mysterious feeling.
It was clearly the appearance of the Ze Immortal Method's "Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Five Qi Facing the Origin."
When he tried to contact another disease-type, it no longer had any effect, proving that for a sub-soul of the Ze Immortal Method at the Food Realm, two disease-types were already the limit.
However, Ren Qing remembered that when the sub-soul had perfected the Ze Immortal Method previously, it had stubborn illnesses inside and out, causing it to die directly from sickness.
The sub-soul returned to the ruined temple of Fortune-Prosperity-Longevity; the dust on the three immortal statues had grown thicker, and at some point the roof eaves had split open into a large gap.
Moonlight shone through the opening, landing right on the ferocious face of Fortune-Prosperity-Longevity.
Ren Qing put on his clothes and nearly collapsed to the ground again. Though he was extremely hungry, he had no appetite at all.
He immediately realized that while the negative impact of Deformity was indeed negligible, he had underestimated the inherent drawbacks of being Frail.
Ren Qing took out a piece of ginseng-like lingzhi from the ghost-shadow for boosting qi and blood.
"Frail is frail, but it doesn't mean a disease can't be treated, right?"
Fearing his weakness couldn't handle supplements, he only broke off a fingernail-sized piece of the lingzhi and stuffed it in his mouth. Warm currents immediately surged in his stomach.
Ren Qing's main body had consumed every type of material brought by the ghost-shadow before, and he knew that even mortals could absorb lingzhi, though part of its medicinal power would go to waste.
He intended to help his body absorb the lingzhi through a race-walking motion, but after taking only a few steps he sensed something wrong.
Cold sweat poured out continuously, and his stomach churned violently.
Ren Qing retched toward the corner of the wall; only after the unabsorbable portion of the lingzhi was expelled did the condition ease.
He used the ghost-shadow to check his own information.
[Ren Qing]
[Lifespan: Five years, ten months, three days]
[Disease-Types: Frailty, Deformity]
Ren Qing finally understood, being born frail likely also came with being unable to absorb nutrients, and dietary supplements could even cause various complications.
He took out Peach Wine and drank a sip.
Ren Qing immediately became dizzy and dazed, though it could temporarily suppress the symptoms of Frailty; however, the information flow showed no increase in lifespan.
Enduring the intoxication, he looked around. From the dust, he could tell that since his last visit, several months had already passed within the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
"I'd better hurry to the town, the so-called medical halls should be easy to find."
The ghost-shadow's Night Roaming only worked at night. Although the full moon was currently high in the sky, sunrise was clearly not far off.
Even if the thoughts of the sub-soul weren't much different, if something truly happened, the main-soul's consciousness wouldn't be affected by the negative effects at all.
Ren Qing ate some easily-digested food to replenish strength, then left the temple and followed the mountain path toward the inhabited area.
The benefits of having the ghost-shadow and the Dream Seed also became apparent. Even without night vision, all movements within fifty meters appeared before his eyes.
At this time, fine rain began to fall from the sky.
Ren Qing changed into a bamboo hat and rain cape so as not to catch cold, then took out a short knife for self-defense, and then drank another mouthful of Peach Wine to quicken his pace, striving to find a town or village before daybreak.
Compared to the bird-singing, grass-growing Xiangxiang, the scenery inside the Longevity Forbidden Zone was truly monotonous.
Everywhere were banyan trees bearing tumor-like fruits, and the vegetation was gray-black, as if he had entered some bizarre black-and-white film.
After Ren Qing had walked for more than half an hour, the mountain path became muddy.
This indicated that people often passed through here, causing the mountainside to become pitted and uneven, making it easy for water to accumulate. If nothing unexpected happened, he would soon see signs of human habitation.
Ren Qing drank a final mouthful of Peach Wine. A medicine this good could not be revealed to outsiders, lest he die inexplicably at the hands of some old scheming bastard.
He crossed a low hill, and immediately an eerie town appeared in the distance.
Perhaps because the earth and stones were all dark in color, all the buildings appeared gray-black, giving off a deathly, lifeless feeling.
Ren Qing did not find any areas where food was grown; it was likely that the people's sustenance all depended on the "medical hall," losing any autonomy.
There were also no graveyards or mass burial mounds.
He did not think that people who feared infectious disease this much would eat human flesh; he guessed they simply burned bodies with fire to end things once and for all.
Ren Qing naturally did not fear life or death, so he hurried toward the town.
The downhill mountain road was difficult to walk; only when he had exhausted his strength did he arrive at the town entrance, preparing to rest a moment before searching for clues.
At this moment, footsteps came from far to near; judging by the sound, two people should have been approaching.
Ren Qing's back muscles tightened, and his right hand gripped the handle of the short knife.
He forcibly suppressed the restless ghost-shadow; before figuring out the Longevity Forbidden Zone, Ren Qing had no intention of exposing too much.
At worst, he could die, at most it would only waste some time nurturing another sub-soul.
Ren Qing pretended as if he had not noticed, turning to hide from the rain under a banyan tree not far away, eyes fixed on the source of the sound.
The other party walked forward with no hesitation and soon appeared on the deserted street.
Unexpectedly to Ren Qing, the arrival was not two people but only one man, though his appearance looked like one of the underworld's demons and spirits.
The man also seemed to have the "Deformity" disease-type, two strong human feet had grown from his ribs.
He moved using four legs, raising his upper body to look around, like a reversed centaur.
Ren Qing folded his arms across his chest, quietly waiting for the man to approach, while adjusting his breathing in advance to appear calmer.
He could feel that more than one gaze from within the town was aimed in this direction, indicating that this probing was intentional.
"Jie-jie-jie-jie-jie..."
The man let out a strange laugh, his eyes sizing Ren Qing up and down.
Seeing that the bamboo-hat-wearing Ren Qing looked rather ordinary, and did not have the decayed smell of an evil ghost, his expression grew disdainful.
"Here to learn medicine?"
"How laughable..."
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and probed, saying, "Can't I simply be passing through?"
The man smiled angrily: "Jie-jie-jie-jie, in this damned place, who would come except to learn medicine?"
The "medical hall" should be the cultivation force within the restricted zone, but why did it feel overly sinister?
"But, since you've come, you won't be leaving."
Ren Qing did not reply. He swept the surroundings with the corner of his eye, finding no traces of any technique, so why would he not be able to leave?
The man's expression shifted from gloomy to delighted; like a madman his eyes rolled wildly, as if trying to figure out where Ren Qing's calm came from.
"You can't learn medicine, you can't learn medicine..."
His neck emitted the sound of bones knocking together, then extended more than half a meter, thrusting his face directly in front of Ren Qing.
"You're not mad enough, jie-jie-jie-jie."
"Go eat more Longevity Immortal Fruits, then you'll be able to learn medicine. Of course... that's assuming you don't die, jie-jie-jie-jie..."
"Oh."
Ren Qing removed his bamboo hat, revealing the appearance of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Five Qi Facing the Origin, and all five mouths spoke simultaneously.
"Am I mad enough now?"
The man froze for several breaths, then burst into a frenzied, hoarse laugh: "Mad enough, mad enough, aside from me, you're the maddest in Undying Town."