The island appeared extremely abrupt in the corpse lake, with dark clouds covering the sky above.
Ren Qing's expression was solemn; if nothing unexpected happened, the island should be the entrance to Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, and who knew what dangers lay within.
But why was the surrounding area of the island so desolate?
According to Ren Qing's estimation, among the colossal beings heading toward the forbidden zone, some should be able to adapt to the corpse lake environment, so why was not even a single one visible?
He recalled the tentacles at the bottom of the lake.
It was quite possible that the existence within Dead Man's Forbidden Zone could interfere with the outside world through some method, and the water corpses were merely livestock being raised within it.
Ren Qing could not help but feel fortunate; the giant corpse Buddha still had some distance before reaching the island, at least leaving ample time to make preparations in advance.
He could not help but look around the stomach; the cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall had already expanded to ten thousand people.
Among them were five to six thousand Cishi people; most of their cultivation was above the Martial Practitioner realm, though they could only participate in simple tasks.
The Restraint Officers' Hall still lacked manpower, and had no choice but to begin recruiting elderly and frail demon-kind to fill the gaps.
Ren Qing came to the edge of the stomach, staring at the stomach wall.
At the same time, a faint aura of techniques emanated from his body, as if he were communicating with something, leaving the surrounding cultivators confused.
Li Tiangang had just directed his subordinates to move resources into Dream City when he suddenly noticed Ren Qing's actions and could not help but approach.
He had previously learned from Ren Qing about the purpose of the giant corpse Buddha.
In Li Tiangang's view, if it truly involved a forbidden zone, it instead meant it was not dangerous, since forbidden zones were at most Yang Spirit realm.
While Ren Qing was using the Six Diseases Method, he also took the opportunity to understand recent happenings in the stomach and intestines area, so as to have a clear picture.
He learned that the giant corpse Buddha now required more and more organs to be nourished and refined, and the Restraint Officers' Hall mainly lacked artifact refiners who had mastered Moon Patterns.
By the time the Cishi people grew, it would likely be unrealistic within a few years.
Li Tiangang wanted to reduce the priority of some organs, not needing to spend large amounts of effort daily on nurturing artifacts.
Ren Qing decisively refused upon hearing this; the giant corpse Buddha was the foundation for establishing a foothold in Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, and even after leaving the forbidden zone, it could still shelter the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Li Tiangang frowned slightly; he felt that Ren Qing had been too smooth all along, leading to somewhat idealistic planning.
Cultivating artifact refiners was not something that could be done overnight, and also depended on talent; among a hundred Ghost Envoy realm cultivators, having five or six was already not easy.
"Otherwise, send some cultivators back to the stomach world and use time resources to train..."
Li Tiangang's words abruptly stopped, his gaze turning toward the nearby ground, where the flesh had somehow begun to sink.
Unbeknownst to him, the aberrant disease type was proliferating within the stomach's flesh, arbitrarily transforming the stomach wall and giving rise to abnormalities.
Ren Qing said calmly: "From the stomach to the internal organs area takes at least one or two hours; the spine or skin layer goes without saying."
The terrain inside the giant corpse Buddha was extremely complex; under normal circumstances, Restraint Officers traveled between locations through gaps in flesh and bone.
"Reduce the time wasted on the road..."
Before Ren Qing finished speaking, the sunken ground suddenly gushed out liquefied dark golden aura, forming a pond within moments.
The pond was composed of Buddhist Nether Yuan; the water was pitch black and bottomless, and the air was immediately filled with extremely dense Buddhist Nether Yuan.
Li Tiangang recalled the blood vessels spread throughout the body and suddenly realized Ren Qing's plan.
The two discussed the use of the pond and quickly reached an agreement.
During this time, dozens of cultivators were attracted by the pond, unable to help but feel curious about the method Ren Qing was about to display.
Daoist Yuhua's eyes lit up, and the spiritual root in his spine stirred restlessly.
Although the Buddhist Nether Yuan was unique and difficult for him to absorb, it could more or less increase the speed of cultivating the Insect Nest method.
As expected of the Blessed Virtue Earth Immortal.
Han Li and Li Yaoyang shared the same view; the three discussed the pond's use and all believed it to be a spiritual vein.
But what they did not expect was that the pond was actually used specifically as a transportation waterway.
The ghost shadow beneath Ren Qing's feet opened its mouth, then spat out five Sand Ships, whose hulls crashed heavily onto the water surface, causing splashes.
The Sand Ships had all reached the Ghost Envoy realm in artifact level; due to their connection with the Taotie Method, the space inside the cabins far exceeded imagination.
The sails were painted with patterns representing heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, eyes, spine...
Ren Qing did not bother explaining verbally; with a point of his finger, information about the vascular channels surged into the minds of all cultivators in the Restraint Officers' Hall.
His planning for the giant corpse Buddha made Li Tiangang regard him more highly.
Each Sand Ship would lead to different organ regions and could carry fifty to sixty people, taking only a few minutes for travel.
However, the cultivators were still somewhat unclear about the situation, so they looked at each other and did not rush to board the Sand Ships.
Han Li stepped forward first, followed closely by Daoist Yuhua.
He had just accepted a task in the spleen region and jumped onto the deck without hesitation; then the sail swayed without wind.
Han Li and the other hurried into the cabin, and when the sail retracted, the Sand Ship tilted and dived into the water.
The Sand Ships all possessed artifact spirits; although their intelligence was only at a child's level, executing simple commands was not a problem.
They would follow fixed routes, constantly traveling between the stomach and organs.
Bang!!
The Sand Ship vanished instantly.
Through the window, Han Li saw that the Sand Ship moved at an astonishing speed, waves pushing it toward the destination.
In just a moment, the two had already arrived at the spleen region, after which the Sand Ship returned to the stomach along the return route.
The cultivators no longer hesitated and began traveling to various locations via Sand Ships.
Li Tiangang had just wanted to ask more questions when he saw Ren Qing summon the ghost ship and sink into the water, then disappear into the depths of the complex blood vessels.
He felt that Ren Qing had a strange sense of urgency, as if danger were imminent, yet the current situation seemed unusually calm.
He shook his head and then boarded a Sand Ship to go to the skin layer to set up techniques.
Ren Qing did not plan to continue secluded cultivation; before heading to Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, he intended to elevate all aberrant organs to the Half-Corpse realm first.
In addition, new disease types needed to proliferate.
Most importantly, the Giantization Disease Type, the internal organs and bones could already withstand the body's massive growth, and it was time for the giant corpse Buddha to develop gigantism.
The water corpses he encountered were nearly a thousand meters tall, indicating that in Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, the giant corpse Buddha's size might not have much advantage.
Ren Qing had two choices.
Either go against the grain and use a dwarf disease type to shrink the giant corpse Buddha.
But even if reduced, it could not reach two or three meters, and would instead lose its size advantage; it was better to continue increasing height.
After arriving at the spine region, Ren Qing specifically chose a remote corner with fewer cultivators, carefully observing the segments of vertebrae.
He did not rush to release the Giantization Disease Type; instead, he sat cross-legged beside the spine, waiting for Worm Root to fuse, so that the disease type would not interfere with the breakthrough to the Golden Core stage.
Ren Qing guided the Worm Root with his own dragon spine.
The giant corpse Buddha had already reached the peak of Foundation Establishment; although its cultivation speed was exaggerated, it was based on massive spirit crystals and its terrifying cultivation as an Earth Immortal in life.
Moreover, with the support of the Planting Demons Sutra, each circulation of the giant corpse Buddha produced and absorbed an astonishing amount of Buddhist Nether Yuan; before the Golden Core stage, there were no bottlenecks at all.
Ren Qing stimulated the Worm Root, gradually merging it with the spine, and its appearance underwent a drastic transformation.
The bone-like spine became like a living thing, even showing characteristics of a Heavenly Dao Insect, continuously inhaling and exhaling faint Buddhist Nether Yuan.
Crack crack crack...
Ren Qing immediately opened his eyes; the moment his Nightmare Demon-transformed hand touched the spine, thousands of Giantization Disease Types surged into it.
The sound of bones colliding intensified.
Within moments, the giant corpse Buddha grew more than a hundred meters taller.
The Giantization Disease Type subtly transformed the giant corpse Buddha; Ren Qing estimated that only after reaching two thousand meters would the effect begin to slow.
At the same time, the river formed by Buddhist Nether Yuan above the stomach became increasingly solid, then gathered together, undergoing a transformation from illusion to reality.
Under the astonished gazes of the cultivators, a "sun" appeared.
The Golden Core stage of Heavenly Dao methods originally referred to the cocooning process of the Heavenly Dao Insect, but in the case of the Maitreya Insect Buddha Sutra, what formed was actually a pseudo-insect cocoon.
The Golden Core was empty inside, far inferior in power to Heavenly Dao methods and the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
Ren Qing had only borrowed the shell of the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method; if an actual Heavenly Dao Insect parasitized the giant corpse Buddha, who knew how the Buddhist aura would react.
The light of the Golden Core illuminated the stomach, causing the monks of Buddha Within Buddha to kneel and chant the name of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
Their devotion was so extreme that even the Cishi people felt chills.
Who would chant scriptures while cutting their own flesh and letting blood, intending to use it to sacrifice to Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva?
Seeing the timing was right, Ren Qing then merged the Half-Corpse realm eerie embryo of the Bone Armor Technique into the spine to stabilize the strength of the entire skeleton.
As for the Flesh-Increasing Disease Type, considering that flesh occupied the largest portion of the giant corpse Buddha's body, it could only be planned after full control was achieved.
With the vascular waterways, the Restraint Officers' Hall became orderly.
Before long, the giant corpse Buddha's No-Eye Method and Human Skin Book successively transformed, each integrating Half-Corpse realm eerie embryos.
Next was the spleen's Hundred Intake Method reaching the Half-Corpse realm, with the five viscera and six bowels covered by a thick layer of flesh wall.
The kidney's Water Storage Method followed, with the integrated eerie embryo called "Corrupted Water User," making the stored water even more toxic.
Lastly was the liver's Heart-Burning Method, whose Half-Corpse realm "Tempering Fire User" reduced flame temperature but greatly increased power.
The fire dragons it released now could not be extinguished for a long time once contaminated.
Only the lung's Lung-Born Sword continued nurturing the flying sword, unknowingly having already absorbed a mountain's worth of various ores.
Ren Qing's control over the giant corpse Buddha had reached the extreme; at this time, the island at the center of the corpse lake was only a few days away.
Seeing the timing was right, he prepared to tentatively act on the giant corpse Buddha's brain.
The brain likely contained the soul fragments of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, and Ren Qing did not know whether it would trigger a violent reaction from the Buddhist aura.
But if he could not influence the giant corpse Buddha, going to Dead Man's Forbidden Zone would be too dangerous.
Thus, Ren Qing did not choose drastic measures; after eliminating his sense of presence, he went alone to the sealed skull.