Ren Qing's expression immediately became solemn. If nothing unexpected happened, another Buddha corpse should be about to climb from the Bottomless Pit to the surface. He calculated the time, and indeed the Buddha corpse was about due to revive.
Ren Qing knew that the Buddha corpse was connected to the secrets of Cishi, and he could use this opportunity to investigate the truth. His heart was full of questions.
Why did the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva maintain such a bizarre situation in Heaven Above Heaven? The several hundred thousand monks trapped in an infinite cycle, were they prisoners confined within it, or was there another purpose?
Ren Qing closed his eyes tightly. In a sense, whether the Buddha corpse revealed the truth or not would also determine whether he would harvest this batch of leeks.
With a thought from his mind, the ghost shadow hidden within Vajra Temple quietly emerged from a corner and moved to the top of the temple's eaves.
Because the outside world was not night, in order to see more clearly Ren Qing also sent the dream seed to the edge of the Bottomless Pit's exit.
The dream seed flickered in and out of existence. After it stopped moving, it merged into the surrounding environment.
By absorbing the nightmare aura produced by the Nightmare Demon aberration, Ren Qing's soul butterflies and dream seed had already begun to show signs of transformation.
Unfortunately there were too few cultivators committing crimes within Eternal Space Prison. Only after mutual exchange with the Longevity Forbidden Zone could there be more evil cultivators used as generators producing nightmare aura.
Ren Qing concealed the traces of his techniques while preparing his main body to flee at any moment.
Bang bang bang bang!
The commotion within the Bottomless Pit grew louder and louder. One could even hear the flesh statue constantly chanting scriptures, causing the entire town to boil with activity.
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, protect us."
Several hundred thousand monks knelt on the ground, kowtowing toward the source of the sound.
Because of the influence of Buddhist qi, their intelligence was no longer like that of normal people. They possessed a strange obsession with becoming Buddhas.
Perhaps they would only awaken at the moment of seated nirvana.
"Welcome the Living Buddha crossing the sea of suffering."
Jueyi, the abbot of Vajra Temple, shouted in a deep voice while directing the monks to transport various implements. His eyes were filled with ecstatic joy toward the Buddha corpse.
The Deluded Skin Temple in the west of the city also made considerable movements.
The remaining several hundred temples were mainly centered around Vajra Temple and Deluded Skin Temple. They moved all kinds of items to the open ground beside the Bottomless Pit.
These included several hundred clay jars, as well as pestles and mortars half a meter wide.
Several thousand monks surrounded the Bottomless Pit so tightly that not even water could pass through. The monks of Deluded Skin Temple and Vajra Temple stood at the central position.
The novice monks stood a hundred meters away, their eyes filled with confusion.
Monks not affiliated with a temple could only kneel far away on both sides of the streets.
The temple monks orderly cleared the open ground, pulling out all the weeds and leveling the soil mixed with cinnabar powder.
It was difficult to imagine that what they were about to welcome was a corpse.
"Heave-ho heave-ho heave-ho"
More than a hundred strong young monks dragged a massive stone lotus throne and transported it from the outskirts of the town to the center of the open ground.
After preparations were complete, they sat cross-legged layer upon layer beside the lotus throne.
Ren Qing glanced at the Buddha corpse climbing upward. He could clearly feel the Buddhist qi rushing toward him, along with a foul stench of decay.
The Buddha corpse arriving at Heaven Above Heaven this time was only slightly over one hundred meters in size. With both arms gripping the rock wall, it struggled toward the surface.
Its entire body was purple-blue like a long-dead corpse. The rotting skin on its back spread across the entire body.
The closer it got to the exit, the more severe the rot became.
The reason the Buddha corpse struggled so much was mainly because the Bottomless Pit restrained it, as if countless arms were tightly grabbing it.
Ren Qing soon noticed that the corpse hosting the Buddha corpse was located on the inner side of the right leg. It was a deformed lump of flesh composed of over a hundred corpses.
The faces on the lump displayed twisted expressions, as if suffering extreme pain.
"Ahhhhh-"
A scream sounded.
The Buddha corpse suddenly had a palm-sized patch of skin torn away by the fierce wind. Dark red blood seeped out, and faintly wriggling maggots could be seen.
The chanting of scriptures became harsh, filled with venomous resentment.
Under Ren Qing's scalp-numbing gaze, all the skin of the Buddha corpse was torn away, and the deformed flesh lump fell off as well.
The Buddha corpse finally reached the surface. Its bloody appearance had none of the dignity of a Buddha, it resembled more a skin-flayed evil ghost from the underworld.
Buddhist qi spread outward.
Every monk present clutched their heads, veins bulging on their necks.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath, attaching the ghost shadow to the body of the Vajra Temple abbot in order to observe the memories within his soul.
The result was that Jueyi's memories were extremely chaotic, as if forcibly mixed together.
At this moment Ren Qing felt a deeply terrifying realization.
Why did the monks of Heaven Above Heaven, whose appearances changed from children to young adults to the elderly, never notice anything strange about themselves?
Ren Qing discovered that it was not that they had lost their intelligence. Rather, no one realized the issue.
The divine ability of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva was extremely unusual.
She had divided the several hundred thousand monks into three states, causing the memories of each state to be independent.
Childhood, adulthood, old age.
Simply put, monks in the childhood stage did not possess the memories of the adult and elderly stages.
In the eyes of the child, their life was perfectly normal, unaware that during the three days that passed, two days were shared by the adult and elderly selves.
As for the true purpose of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, Ren Qing did not know, but the fear in his heart deepened.
Under the influence of the Buddhist qi emitted by the Buddha corpse, the memories of the temple monks began to overlap.
All kinds of emotions were amplified several times over.
Their reverence for the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva turned into fanaticism, yet at the same time the fear covering their hearts grew exponentially.
Seven to eight hundred monks went completely insane because of this. Their minds had clearly collapsed, and they stood up and jumped into the Bottomless Pit.
The surviving monks also began muttering to themselves, saying things no one could understand.
The scene quickly became extremely chaotic.
Only the novice monks of the temples, who were farther away from the Buddha corpse, were not affected by the Buddhist qi.
The Buddha corpse calmly sat cross-legged on the lotus throne. The flayed body continued to bleed, the smell of blood rushing into the nose.
After a short time passed, another hundred temple monks died. Only then did the remaining monks stabilize their minds, though their intelligence was clearly gone.
They wandered about like walking corpses, their gazes filled with fanaticism.
The Buddha corpse greedily swept its gaze across the surroundings, seemingly waiting for something.
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva."
Jueyi clasped his hands together and stepped out from the crowd. His unfocused pupils were filled with worship toward the Buddha, even willing to sacrifice himself.
Ren Qing's ghost shadow inside Jueyi's body immediately sensed something strange.
The information flow surged.
[Buddha Soul - formed from a soul eroded by the Buddhist qi of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. After consumption it can keep a corpse from rotting for many years and transform it into an Indestructible Golden Body.]
Ren Qing fell into contemplation.
Buddha skin, Buddha bones, Buddha soul, Buddha corpse, could these truly create a real Buddha?
Jueyi stepped into the hollow of the mortar. Several adult monks raised and lowered pestles more than two meters long, instantly smashing him into minced flesh.
One monk was not enough. Soon several more stepped into the mortar. Flesh and bone fragments splattered everywhere, making the scene extremely horrifying.
Only when the mortar overflowed with flesh did the monks stop.
Then the monks of Deluded Skin Temple took out complete sheets of Buddha skin, while the monks of Vajra Temple took out Buddha bones ground into powder.
Even though their intelligence was gone, their movements were extremely skilled.
Several dozen monks climbed onto the Buddha corpse's feet. First they smeared a layer of Buddha soul flesh, then attached Buddha skin onto the corpse's surface, and finally brushed golden lacquer made from Buddha bone powder.
They were like sculptors creating a Buddha statue, and the Buddha corpse's appearance became increasingly solemn.
The sound of chanting scriptures was deafening.
When every inch of the Buddha corpse's skin turned golden, the monks returned to their original positions, though their numbers were scattered.
The Buddha corpse spoke in a resounding voice:
"Are you willing to go to the Western Paradise?"
He answered his own question:
"This disciple is willing."
After speaking, the Buddha corpse raised its head to look toward the mountains outside the city. Because the movement was too large, blood seeped from the seams of the Buddha skin again.
Step by step it walked toward the outside of the city, ignoring the monks it trampled to death.
The Buddha corpse found a flat mountain peak and sat down with its back against it. Then its flesh and skin began to merge into the mountain, followed by its bones and organs, until it finally disappeared completely.
Ren Qing looked puzzled and transformed the Buddhist dream seed into Heavy Child to gaze toward the mountains.
His brows immediately furrowed tightly.
He saw that the outlines of the mountain peaks resembled Buddhas. Yet the more he looked, the more they resembled clay jars used by monks for seated nirvana.
"The monks constantly experience childhood, adulthood, and old age, forming a small cycle."
"The Buddha corpses undergo seated nirvana inside clay jars, revive in the abyss, and finally return to clay jars, forming a large cycle."
Cishi must have an enormous scheme. It was a scheme laid out over several lifetimes by the cultivator who possessed the fruition position of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
The sound of scripture chanting in the city suddenly stopped. The monks' expressions returned to calm, and they resumed their various activities.
Only beside the lotus throne did several hundred temple monks simultaneously enter seated nirvana.
They carried expectations of becoming Buddhas, as well as relief from suffering, and eagerly climbed into the unused clay jars.
Seeing this, the novice monks sealed the jars. Hundreds of living jar-Buddhas were born, followed by the process of skinning and bone extraction.
Large numbers of corpses were thrown into the Bottomless Pit.
Only corpses retaining remnants of Buddha bones or Buddha skin had the possibility of becoming Buddha corpses. The vast majority were merely food.
Ren Qing looked toward the outside of the city with apprehension.
It seemed that although the Bottomless Pit was filled with unknown dangers, compared to the surface it was undoubtedly far safer.
"This is troublesome. Should I enter the game..."
Ren Qing's face showed deep conflict. The situation in Cishi was clouded and unclear. Although tempting opportunities existed, the risks were indeed enormous.
Cultivators who mastered Buddhist techniques, whether good or evil, would inevitably become extremely twisted in personality after passing through many lifetimes.
"Forget it, I won't think about this for now."
Ren Qing rubbed the bridge of his nose helplessly, then used the ghost shadow to expand the cave within the Bottomless Pit.
His current residence was too close to Heaven Above Heaven and felt somewhat unsafe.
The hardness of the stone walls was far beyond what ordinary Yang God realm cultivators could shake. However, Nether Yuan carried a corrosive effect, so it was not troublesome for the ghost shadow.
He planned to cultivate in seclusion in the Bottomless Pit for a period of time while researching Moon Patterns.
If he could truly refine a flesh puppet similar to a Rabbit-Toad, then he would consider whether to enter the scheme. Otherwise everything was empty talk.
Just stay hidden and survive.