Ren Qing returned to Wuwei City and discovered that his own courtyard had finally quieted down, at least without so many visitors coming to pay calls.
After reporting the information, Song Zongwu went into closed-door cultivation to stabilize his realm. After all, he had only just reached the Yang Spirit realm, and there were quite a few hidden injuries within his body that needed to be dealt with.
The appearance of a newly advanced Yang Spirit realm expert also stirred waves of regeneration within the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Jingzhou had always had the saying of being a "land that crashes into immortals." The resources it produced could benefit even places as far away as Xiangxiang, let alone Wuwei City.
It was only due to quota restrictions that many Restraint Officers had no qualifications to go.
But after Song Zongwu's advancement, the Restraint Officers' Hall correspondingly lowered the requirements and released more quotas, causing large numbers of Restraint Officers to surge toward Wuwei City.
Ren Qing instead felt that a storm was approaching.
From the increasingly bright waning moon at night, one could tell that drastic changes in Jingzhou were about to reveal themselves. Even the slightest movement would be enough to affect the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Ren Qing could only focus as much as possible on strengthening himself, extending his lifespan through various channels.
The opened Demon Market was almost full every day. Miserable screams echoed within Eternal Shackles, making the Kunpeng at the bottom of Wine Lake feel its hair stand on end.
The integration of winter worm summer grass likewise did not fall behind, but juggling several matters at once inevitably made him feel that his energy was insufficient.
Ren Qing immersed himself in closed-door cultivation and simply handed the affairs of the demon cultivators over to Han Li.
No one knew how many civilians the demon cultivators had harmed back then. To say that the people of Jingzhou had no resistance toward them was unrealistic; it could only be done slowly.
During this period, Wuwei City remained calm. The Restraint Officers' Hall slightly restrained its plundering of resources, mainly conducting carpet-style clearing of nearby demon beasts.
As for the demon beast forces led by Hu Wen, their expansion speed was extremely terrifying.
Ren Qing did not continue to add fuel to the fire, yet almost all demon beasts possessing intelligence began cultivating Restraint Officer techniques to varying degrees.
It was just that the time was far too short. No matter how abundant the resources, it was impossible to create Ghost Envoy realm cultivators, so most were at the Half-Corpse realm.
In comparison, the speed of cultivating the Trance Method was indeed much faster.
Many demon beasts had already grown two horns on their heads, with sparse black hair growing on their skin. Their appearance could be said to be increasingly close to that of the black goat.
Ren Qing's expectations for them were only to muddy the waters after the arrival of Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
Only then would the Restraint Officers' Hall have sufficient time to react, whether to retreat or to seize gains from the flames...
All aspects of development had not deviated from Ren Qing's expectations, except for the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
That gigantic tree formed after the death of the split soul was truly far too strange.
Ren Qing could feel that the giant tree was constantly growing, completely beyond his control.
It was as if the Longevity Forbidden Zone was actively supplying nutrients to the giant tree, and the body-forging cultivation methods contained within were becoming more and more numerous.
At the beginning there were only a few dozen body-forging methods, but now there were already close to two hundred.
Ren Qing felt that either the giant tree could nurture body-forging methods, or the consciousness of the Longevity Forbidden Zone was deliberately creating body-forging methods for them.
The true situation was unknown.
Wei'an Town had already completed reconstruction and had even taken in civilians from surrounding villages within ten li. The population had reached sixty thousand.
Relying on the original farmland yields alone, it would be almost impossible to support sixty thousand people.
But fortunately there were various resources brought by Ren Qing, including rice that matured three times a year, as well as fertilizers used for forced ripening.
Ren Qing's appearance did stir up quite a bit of commotion, but during the battle with the Longevity Species back then, no one had seen his corpse.
He easily integrated into Wei'an Town.
The split soul deliberately expended lifespan and died several times, coupled with encountering Longevity Species twice, adding a large amount of temporary lifespan to the main body.
Ren Qing used this to perfect techniques related to the Taotie Method.
First, Eternal Shackles advanced to Fusion Yin Spirit. The aberrant transformation tree completely suppressed the Wine God Technique and the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, constructing primary and secondary techniques.
The changes to Eternal Shackles were mainly reflected in its fusion with secondary techniques.
Wine Lake was no longer limited to a lake, beginning to spread throughout Eternal Shackles via branch rivers, greatly increasing the survival probability of living beings within.
The Flesh Furnace had originally existed independently outside the stomach-world.
Now it was located deep underground within Eternal Shackles, transforming into a sealed lava cavern that maintained terrifying high temperatures year-round.
At its center was the white-bone throne of the Fuel King.
The time flow within Eternal Shackles became slightly faster than the outside world, though far from as exaggerated as the Longevity Forbidden Zone, roughly about twenty percent faster.
The aberrant transformation branches of the Wine God Technique had likewise been completed relying on temporary lifespan.
For the first aberrant transformation, Ren Qing chose "Peach Wine," because this wine could extend lifespan. Now it seemed that the lifespan had indeed not been wasted.
The scope of the second aberrant transformation was very broad.
Such as poisonous wine that spewed venom; medicinal wine that healed injuries; raw wine that regenerated severed limbs; rice wine that increased satiety, and so on.
Ren Qing was almost dazzled by the choices, but quickly made up his mind.
The highest priority of aberrant transformation branches was lifespan extension-related abilities, followed by assisting the primary techniques, that is, forming the stomach-world.
Thus, for the second aberrant transformation branch, Ren Qing ultimately chose the Wine Ore.
Wine Ore: the wine produced by aberrant transformation abilities will form underwater mineral veins, with effects continuously increasing over time through accumulation.
Now the spring eye of Peach Wine had disappeared, and pebble-sized wine stones had indeed appeared at the bottom of the lake.
Ren Qing took a wine stone and placed it in warm water to dissolve it. It immediately transformed into mellow and fragrant Peach Wine. Of course, direct oral consumption had the same effect.
The third aberrant transformation branch was Wine Cloud.
Wine Cloud: clouds formed from water vapor will carry aberrant transformation abilities. The raindrops that fall can be easily absorbed by living beings within the range.
With the Wine Cloud aberrant transformation, not only were the rules of Eternal Shackles more complete, but it could also imperceptibly increase the lifespan of demon cultivators.
Of course, lifespan had an upper limit. No matter how long-lived mortals were, it would only be slightly over a hundred years.
The only thing that made Ren Qing regretful was that the consciousness of external cultivators entering the dream market would not be affected by the lifespan extension of wine rain.
Otherwise, harvesting lifespan would undoubtedly be much smoother, without having to act so cautiously.
This also strengthened Ren Qing's determination to develop demon cultivator tribes, though for now he could only let Han Li guide them in cultivating Restraint Officer techniques.
The demonic aberration techniques mastered by demon cultivators could absorb the heterogenous aura of jailers, but they encountered the same problems as the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
Supplementing cultivation was always a trouble.
As for the aberrant transformation branches of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, Ren Qing was rather cautious.
He always felt that the mental state of the Meat and Wine Daoist in his later years was not very ideal. This technique was somewhat extreme compared to the Taotie Method and the Wine God Technique.
Aberrant transformations like "having intelligence," which would give birth to sentience in the Fuel King within the Flesh Furnace, were abandoned by Ren Qing without a second thought.
The Fuel King was indeed formed from the remnant soul of a Heavenly Daozi, but at the same time it was also a supreme heavenly demon.
Who knew what would happen once the Fuel King became sentient? It would definitely not be worth the loss.
For the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, Ren Qing simply strengthened the technique itself.
The first aberrant transformation ability was called Forge Furnace, functioning similarly to the Tombstone Furnace, giving the Flesh Furnace the effect of artifact refinement.
However, the Tombstone Furnace was suitable for large-scale refinement of artifacts, whereas the Flesh Furnace was more suitable for refining a single artifact and also had a nourishing effect.
The second aberrant transformation ability was called Kindling Sun.
The Kindling Sun aberrant transformation made the kindling-fire sun within Eternal Shackles more real. The light it emitted could promote vegetation growth and maintain ecology.
The original sun was merely a phantom formed by the Flesh Furnace, emitting no heat at all, resulting in little difference between day and night temperatures.
For the final third aberrant transformation, there were actually many abilities that increased combat methods, but Ren Qing unhesitatingly chose Residual Ash.
Residual Ash: the ashes produced by the burning of the Flesh Furnace will settle underground, forming unique metal mineral veins.
Ren Qing tried burning materials and discovered that the ores within the mineral veins were indeed quite diverse, only requiring a period of time to settle.
At present, the resources produced by Eternal Shackles were mainly those contributed by jailers.
For example, crystal mountains formed from the Ice Crystal Technique could be mined to extract a type of crystal stone. After grinding it into powder and adding it to artifacts, the artifacts would present a mirror-like luster.
In a certain sense, those wild beasts contaminated with jailer aura could likewise be used as resources.
After handling the related techniques of the Taotie Method, Ren Qing concentrated his efforts on winter worm summer grass.
It took more than a full year. This time, the two complicated techniques were merged, recreating the technique once cultivated by Tai Sui Daojun.
What made Ren Qing laugh and cry was that his haphazard filling in of all sorts of content had inexplicably created a technique.
Blood Fungus Record: created by Ren Qing. Cultivating this method requires fungi to travel throughout the body via the blood. Only when the heart is covered by fungal colonies can it be considered cultivated.
However, Ren Qing's understanding was limited to the Yin Officer realm, so the Blood Fungus Record was incomplete.
When viewed with the information stream, there would be a prompt.
Blood Fungus Record lacks subsequent content, unable to consume lifespan to master
Ren Qing threw the Blood Fungus Record into the Grand Dream Technique Pavilion and marked its drawbacks, hoping that future cultivators could perfect this technique.
The truly merged technique of winter worm summer grass was called the "Tai Sui Sutra."
Tai Sui Sutra: created by Tai Sui Daojun. Cultivating this method requires using one's own body to sow fungi: one plant each in the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose; one plant each in the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys; one plant each in body and soul. Only then can it be cultivated.
[Fungal Body Person: no blood, no bones]
[Fungus-Serving Person: fungus within microcosmic filth]
[Filth-Hiding Body: body stores filth and poison]
After mastering the Tai Sui Sutra, the cultivator's body is used to cultivate a natal fungal strain. Over time, as the natal fungal strain gradually reproduces, flesh, bones, and corpse all undergo corpse-transformation.
Ren Qing gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
He did not know what defects corpse-transformation entailed and did not dare to cultivate rashly.
But it had to be said that corpses were indeed the most suitable environment for fungal growth, and the essence of the Tai Sui Sutra was precisely to turn the body into a corpse.
From Ren Qing's understanding of the information stream, exempting costs would not change the essence of a technique.
Just like the Headless One of the Five Viscera Gods, whose technique essence was discarding the head.
If he wanted to master the Tai Sui Sutra, he either had to find a way to resist corpse-transformation, or simply fight poison with poison, using corpse to treat corpse...
Seen this way, the importance of the Dead Man Sutra was self-evident.
According to legend, cultivating the Dead Man Sutra would make one ageless, unborn, deathless, and indestructible, very likely transforming into a special constitution similar to a zombie.
If Ren Qing could use the Dead Man Sutra to grasp the Longevity Dao Fruit, not to mention the Heavenly Aberration realm, even Earth Immortal would be as easy as reaching into a bag.
He put away the Tai Sui Sutra and glanced at his own information stream.
Lifespan: seven hundred and eighty-six years
Ren Qing could not help muttering, "Demonic qi is becoming more and more dense. I wonder if I can make it in time to advance to the Yang Spirit realm before the Primordial Wilderness transformation?"
The thousand-year lifespan of the Yang Spirit realm seemed not much different, but the more lifespan one had, the less efficient lifespan extension would correspondingly become.
He subconsciously looked toward the waning moon in the sky, pushing his techniques to the extreme.
The waning moon seemed both real and illusory, with specks of black spots appearing on its surface.