Compared to the gigantic corpse Buddha about to reach the Corpse-Odor Hills, whether the Cishi people could adapt was not a particularly important matter.
However, Tang Sheng had lived in Dream City for a period of time.
After he came into contact with the Arhats under the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, he discovered that most of them were only frightening in appearance and did not have any hostility toward the Cishi people.
Tang Sheng continuously soothed the panic in the hearts of the other Cishi people.
After a few days passed, the Cishi people finally became accustomed to the life of farming and fertilizing, which in fact was not very different from Heaven Above Heaven.
Tang Sheng, on the other hand, used the connections he accumulated in Dream City to figure out the current situation.
First was the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, whose secular name was Ren Qing, and the world where Heaven Above Heaven was located was actually his stomach.
Tang Sheng did not have too many doubts about Ren Qing's identity.
Of course, he also understood how to assess the situation. In such a situation, who the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva was no longer important, the important thing was to integrate into Restraint Officers' Hall.
From the accents of the cultivators in Restraint Officers' Hall, it could be heard that they likely came from all over, indicating that Ren Qing did not reject outsiders.
But if they could not successfully integrate, they might end up becoming one of the monks inside Buddha Within Buddha.
Just as Tang Sheng was thinking of countermeasures, the intestines and stomach suddenly shook violently, and the gigantic corpse Buddha's advancing steps immediately stopped.
It was not because the gigantic corpse Buddha had been attacked, but rather due to the vibrations of the ground outside.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged at the center of the stomach, with countless nerves connected to his body, allowing him to observe the outside through the Insect Eyes.
The gigantic corpse Buddha had already arrived at the outskirts of the Corpse-Odor Hills. From within came heavy collision sounds mixed with heart-wrenching howls.
Ren Qing could not help narrowing his eyes.
He discovered that within the area filled with corpse stench, the raised ground was not hills at all, but actually the corpses of gigantic beings.
Each corpse was covered with thick moss. Ren Qing could only vaguely make out that some were humanoid while others were beast-shaped.
The source of the corpse stench was unrelated to the corpses, but the piled corpses certainly increased its concentration.
Not to mention ordinary Yang Spirit realm cultivators, even Ren Qing, who possessed various life-saving techniques, did not have confidence in staying within the corpse stench for a long time.
At present, the artifactization of the gigantic corpse Buddha's legs had been completed, but the mutation was still lacking considerably.
If it were an intelligent existence, it would definitely choose to stay a few more days in the Rotting Blood Plain, but the gigantic corpse Buddha had no intelligence.
Bang... bang... bang...
The gigantic corpse Buddha stepped into the area shrouded in corpse stench. Driven by instinct, it covered its entire body with flames.
Ren Qing wanted to speak but stopped, then activated the artifacts throughout the intestines and stomach.
The artifacts protected the most important areas of the intestines and stomach. All the cultivators, including Li Tiangang, felt somewhat puzzled by this.
There was clearly no danger; even as a precaution there was no need to be so cautious...
Boom!!!
The moment the flames came into contact with the corpse qi, a chain reaction occurred. The explosion blasted the gigantic corpse Buddha more than ten meters away, leaving it horribly disfigured.
The intestines and stomach overturned continuously. The cultivators were thrown into disarray, and much vegetation was destroyed as a result.
Fortunately, Ren Qing had activated the artifacts in advance; otherwise the losses would have been even more severe.
Ren Qing did not pay attention to the extremely noisy intestines and stomach. He was actually waiting for the gigantic corpse Buddha to be heavily injured so he could take advantage of the situation.
Buddha Qi was very vigilant toward anything that could threaten the gigantic corpse Buddha, but at the same time it followed mutual benefit.
Ren Qing had also tried to accelerate the mutation of the skin in the past few days, but whenever too many Hardening Disease Seeds were generated, Buddha Qi would react abnormally.
Ren Qing thought of a method: complete the mutation when the gigantic corpse Buddha was severely injured. In this way, his actions would bring more benefit than harm.
Only after Ren Qing completely refined the gigantic corpse Buddha would his authority be able to contend with Buddha Qi, or even turn the situation around.
Nightmare Demon aura erupted.
The cultivators looked at Ren Qing in astonishment, especially Tang Sheng who had come to check the situation, his eyes were filled with unbelievable shock.
More than half of Ren Qing's body transformed into a Nightmare Demon, the twisted light and shadows seeming to devour darkness.
He was still probing Buddha Qi. Seeing that the Buddha Forest did not become restless because of this, he extended his right arm and slowly executed the Taotie Scripture.
Li Tiangang and the other Yin Difference realm cultivators looked at each other.
Back in Jingzhou, Ren Qing's related techniques of the Shadowless Ghost had already advanced to the Yang Spirit realm, and later he displayed the Yang Spirit realm Stomach-Within World.
And now...
This was a third Yang Spirit realm technique?
No wonder Great Dream Immortal and Song Zongwu both believed Ren Qing's talent was extraordinary, even a Heavenly Aberration realm expert might be no more than this.
When the Nightmare Demon aura reached the Yang Spirit realm, countless wriggling maggots appeared in the Nightmare-transformed flesh, these were the manifestation of the Hardening Disease Seed.
Tang Sheng's expression became complicated, and he could not help letting out a long breath.
The flesh on Ren Qing's arm began to collapse, light and shadow scattering and pouring into the gigantic corpse Buddha's flesh until reaching the skin layer.
He released all the thousands of disease seeds contained within the hardening disease fruit, making the mutation of the gigantic corpse Buddha's skin increasingly obvious.
The injuries on the gigantic corpse Buddha's legs recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It could be seen that its bones were rapidly corroded by a metallic sheen, and the surface was covered with faintly visible complex Moon Patterns.
Ren Qing had no intention of stopping. His left hand released a massive amount of Skin-Sense Disease Seeds.
The disease seeds recklessly transformed the gigantic corpse Buddha. Even Buddha Qi assisted the formation of Moon Patterns, though only during the period of severe injury.
Once the gigantic corpse Buddha's injuries recovered to the point of not affecting movement, several thousand Indestructible Golden Bodies began to stir.
Ren Qing quickly withdrew the Taotie Scripture, and the Indestructible Golden Bodies returned to stillness. To outsiders, it appeared as if he controlled Buddha Qi as easily as moving his arm.
Seeing this, Tang Sheng became confused again.
Why were Ren Qing's methods so sinister, yet he could also control Buddhist statues? Could it be that true Buddhist divine abilities were all like this?
He recalled the various techniques in the Great Dream Technique Pavilion. At that time he had only chosen the most ordinary Vajra Body, now it seemed overly cautious.
Roar!!!
The gigantic Buddha corpse roared as it climbed up from the ground. Although its upper body was covered in wounds, its lower body had already fully recovered.
It headed toward the Corpse-Odor Hills, but this time it did not use the Heart-Burning Method.
As soon as the gigantic corpse Buddha came into contact with corpse qi, sizzling sounds came from its entire body. Then its legs emitted fluctuations of the Bone Armor Technique.
Bones drilled out from the joints, covering the body like vines.
Moments later, the area below the chest of the gigantic corpse Buddha was covered with thick bone armor, and the abilities of the Skin Refiner also began adapting to the corrosiveness of the corpse qi.
However, the upper body fared miserably, only a thin layer of flesh remained on the skeleton, while the rest was completely eroded by the corpse qi.
Fortunately, for the gigantic corpse Buddha, the core was the Indestructible Golden Body in the stomach that housed Buddha Qi, not the head which no longer even contained a soul.
The cultivators came back to their senses and, under Li Tiangang's direction, busied themselves with their respective tasks.
Seeing this, Ren Qing helplessly shook his head. Completing only half of the body's refinement was indeed awkward, but the current situation required it.
Just as he was about to handle the mutation of the heart, his brows suddenly furrowed tightly.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Ren Qing actually sensed living beings within the extremely desolate Corpse-Odor Hills, and their number was not small.
He noticed that within the deformed disease fruits on the disease tree, tens of thousands of figures had appeared.
Ren Qing examined the dreams of these figures, and a flood of chaotic images poured into his mind, all scenes of mountains of corpses and seas of bones.
At this moment, the gigantic corpse Buddha passed by a massive corpse.
The corpse immediately trembled, moss gradually falling away, revealing an extremely grotesque appearance resembling a hanging corpse.
Why "hanging", because the positions of its hands and feet were completely reversed, and the head had also been moved to the right shoulder.
This disturbance triggered a chain reaction. Nearby corpses moved as if about to revive, and the entire Corpse-Odor Hills shook violently.
Ren Qing noticed that regardless of beast or humanoid, all corpses had reversed hands and feet.
In life they should have faced Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, but after death their limbs reversed direction, as if trying to escape the area influenced by the forbidden zone.
Moreover, whether human or beast, the corpses had a very obvious characteristic.
How to describe it, it was like the strange beasts formed by consuming the blood of jailers; the corpses seemed to be descendants of certain powerful beings.
Pfft...
A crack opened in the corpse's abdomen, and thousands of living beings crawled out from within, resembling half-human, half-insect worms.
The worm-humans had ferocious faces, boneless bodies, many deformed limbs, and skin covered in viscous fluid. As they moved, greenish blood flowed from their facial features.
They frantically tried to reach the gigantic corpse Buddha, but their flesh gradually dissolved.
The worm-humans collapsed powerlessly to their knees, while more of their kind surged out of the corpse, seemingly trying to enter the gigantic corpse Buddha's body.
When they saw heavily injured worm-humans, they actually took out long blades and directly cut off their heads, carrying them along as they continued forward.
However, even the gigantic corpse Buddha could hardly withstand the corpse qi, let alone ordinary living beings.
The casualties among the worm-humans increased, yet they chose to gather together, forming a several-meter-wide flesh ball and moving quickly by rolling.
Those on the outer layer were quickly corroded away, but companions would remove their heads and send them to the center of the flesh ball.
Under such circumstances, the worm-humans actually managed to approach the gigantic corpse Buddha.
But the legs of the gigantic corpse Buddha were covered in bone armor. The worm-humans frantically climbed upward, trying to enter its intestines and stomach through the navel.
After a few breaths, thousands of worm-humans turned into pus, their despairing screams echoing continuously.
As for the worm-human heads protected in the center, they regrew flesh one after another, turning into smaller worm-humans.
But in the end, they still met the fate of rotting.
Ren Qing's furrowed brows relaxed.
Presumably the worm-humans were beings similar to the Cocoon People. They wanted to go to Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, so they also burrowed into the bodies of gigantic creatures.
But the giant beasts and giants could not withstand the corrosion of the corpse qi, so the worm-humans became trapped inside.
The other living beings sensed by Ren Qing were likely in the same situation, like a group of souls trying to cross the Yellow Springs.
But what puzzled him deeply was that the corpses of these gigantic beings must have had at least Yang Spirit realm cultivation in life, so what was their purpose?
It could not be the same as Buddha Qi, seeking something imprisoned within the forbidden zone, could it?
If that were truly the case...
Ren Qing revealed a bitter smile. Then how many indescribable strange entities did Dead Man's Forbidden Zone contain? Calling it a forbidden zone, "prison" would be more appropriate.