For the past hundred years, even when the various forces suffered losses, they would never openly show it.
The Yang Spirit realm cultivators all hoped to safely endure three hundred years before the outside world sent reinforcements to Dead Man Land, allowing them to escape this place.
So even if large numbers of subordinates died, the Yang Spirit realm cultivators would still restrain themselves unless they were lunatics like the hyena cultivators.
But now things were completely different. Because zombies continuously appeared from inside the immortal gate, they were forced to divert huge amounts of energy to dealing with them.
If all the factions were evenly matched, it would have been manageable. The problem was that many forces only had a few Yang Spirit realm cultivators left holding things together.
Those factions that had stationed subordinates beside the Corpse Mirror naturally could not allow others to sit back and reap the benefits, so they demanded that the Yang Spirit realm cultivators personally take action.
The Yang Spirit realm cultivators reluctantly agreed and carried out a certain amount of patrols every day.
With the zombie threat still relatively small, and with the gigantic Buddha corpse nearby, the conflicts between the various factions had not completely erupted.
But no matter what, the entire town was filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Yet the ones having the hardest time were not the Yang Spirit realm cultivators acting as lone commanders, but the Insect Nest Daoist Temple, which no longer had a Yang Spirit realm cultivator overseeing it.
Ever since Daoist Taihan had been tricked into joining Restraint Officers' Hall, only several hundred insectfolk cultivators remained behind.
Although most insectfolk had rather low intelligence and lacked the ability to judge situations, there were still several who possessed normal intellect.
The Core Formation stage insectfolk cultivators each led their followers into other factions, taking responsibility for garrisoning the Corpse Mirror and fighting zombies.
Only a few dozen insectfolk of varying ages remained in the Insect Nest Daoist Temple.
Even so, some forces still coveted the Insect Nest Daoist Temple, wanting to satisfy their increasingly uncontrollable hunger with insectfolk flesh.
The once lively temple had become incomparably desolate, as had the surrounding streets.
Zhen Xuzi stood in the open area before the main hall, his expression filled with sighs.
He had never seen the world outside Dead Man Land. Since birth, he had lived within the cramped town and apprenticed under Daoist Taihan.
Relying on fairly decent talent, Zhen Xuzi steadily reached the Foundation Establishment stage over several decades. Among the new generation of temple disciples, he had already been one of the earliest to step into Foundation Establishment.
He originally believed he would peacefully pass a hundred years and welcome the opportunity to head into the outside world.
But who could have imagined that the situation within the town would take such a drastic turn in only half a year, reducing the Insect Nest Daoist Temple to the brink of destruction.
The temple master had mysteriously died at the hands of zombies, while the other martial uncles had each gone their separate ways.
Zhen Xuzi, an insectfolk who had only recently entered Foundation Establishment, had now somehow become the apparent manager of the Insect Nest Daoist Temple, leaving him somewhat at a loss.
His gaze swept over the bottles and jars arranged across the open ground, all filled with Heavenly Dao Insect eggs.
Zhen Xuzi sighed, then ordered the temple disciples to use medicinal catalysts to stimulate the eggs and hatch part of them as quickly as possible.
With the current situation, even if the larvae were raised to maturity, they would only become wedding dresses for other factions. It all seemed meaningless.
But Zhen Xuzi understood that if they could not demonstrate sufficient value, the Insect Nest Daoist Temple would undoubtedly perish even faster.
To ensure the eggs hatched, he directly used the flesh of mindless insectfolk as nourishment.
This immediately sparked dissatisfaction among the Qi Refinement stage insectfolk cultivators, but Zhen Xuzi no longer had the strength to explain himself to them.
The smell of blood spread through the air while the insectfolk corpses emitted waves of foul stench.
Zhen Xuzi turned and walked toward the inner room, preparing to sort through Daoist Taihan's belongings to see whether there were any spiritual materials capable of accelerating hatching.
The room's doors were slightly ajar, while the furniture and decorations made from white bone remained unchanged.
He slowly approached the spirit altar, respectfully lit a stick of incense for Daoist Taihan's memorial tablet, and softly recited a few passages from the Insect Nest scriptures.
Only then did Zhen Xuzi begin searching through the room.
But it was obvious that the martial uncles had already searched the place thoroughly before leaving. Anything valuable had already been taken away.
After wasting several hours, Zhen Xuzi only managed to find a few scrolls.
He could not help opening them, only to discover that the contents were merely common cultivation methods he already knew well, completely useless.
Only the final scroll attracted some of his attention.
The scroll depicted a gigantic Heavenly Dao Insect coiled within a mountain forest. The ink painting, made from ground bone ash, carried a strange aura.
Zhen Xuzi felt as though the gigantic Heavenly Dao Insect might crawl out of the scroll at any moment.
He suddenly recalled how Daoist Taihan had repeatedly muttered the words "Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal" during the days before his death, though he had no idea what they meant.
Zhen Xuzi carefully stored the scroll depicting the gigantic Heavenly Dao Insect close to his body before leaving the room and heading toward the side hall containing the temple's various records.
The records had nothing to do with cultivation arts, but several books documented information regarding the Insect Nest.
Driven by curiosity, he searched for information related to Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal. Combined with Daoist Taihan's strange behavior earlier, he inexplicably felt the two were connected.
Before he realized it, Zhen Xuzi had already spent several hours inside the side hall.
His eyes were bloodshot while his half-human, half-insect body continuously secreted sticky sweat that sizzled upon hitting the floor.
"Found it, Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal..."
Zhen Xuzi looked excited as he ravenously flipped through the records concerning Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal. The more he read, the more shocked his expression became.
As a Foundation Establishment stage insectfolk, he originally lacked the qualifications to enter the side hall, so he naturally knew nothing about the secrets unique to the Insect Nest.
"The Insect Nest actually possesses a True Immortal existence? Then why would Daoist Taihan come to Dead Man Land to guard this bizarre immortal gate?"
Zhen Xuzi's head throbbed faintly as Daoist Taihan's words echoed through his ears.
"Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, he has come..."
"Who?"
The moment that thought appeared, the world spun before Zhen Xuzi's eyes, and he collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
It felt as though he had passed through endless darkness before arriving within an incomparably prosperous city.
Zhen Xuzi saw ships over a hundred meters long sailing through the sky, wildernesses filled with incomparably savage giant beasts, and countless familiar auras.
Within the dreamlike city were ordinary-looking Daoists stepping upon shadow-like Heavenly Dao Insects, as well as Heavenly Dao insectfolk similar to himself...
Zhen Xuzi's gaze seemed to penetrate mountains and earth, seeing the gigantic Heavenly Dao Insect coiled beneath the ground, releasing endless Nether Yuan with every breath.
"Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal..."
He jolted awake from the dream. Only a few breaths had passed, yet his Daoist robe had already been soaked through with sweat.
"Why would I dream about Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal? Was that city the Insect Nest?"
Zhen Xuzi staggered out of the side hall in a daze, his mind still immersed within the overwhelming might brought by Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, unable to extricate itself.
Subconsciously, he looked toward the gigantic Buddha corpse in the distance, only to suddenly feel as though he had been struck by lightning.
For some unknown reason, Zhen Xuzi also sensed the aura of Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal from the gigantic Buddha corpse, immediately leaving him uncertain and shocked.
He recalled Daoist Taihan's abnormal behavior before his death. Could it be that he had also discovered Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal?
Perhaps Daoist Taihan had not even died at all. After all, no intact corpse fragments had been found in the mountain forest where he supposedly fought the zombies.
Zhen Xuzi stared at the gigantic Buddha corpse while the true essence within his body became active.
When people found themselves cornered in desperate situations, they naturally clung to any sign of hope before them, even unrealistic ones.
Besides, Zhen Xuzi had already been influenced by the dream technique and immediately became completely convinced of Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal's existence.
He had already begun considering matters related to welcoming Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal. His eyes filled with uncontrollable fanaticism as he repeatedly kowtowed toward the gigantic Buddha corpse.
In truth, the targets Ren Qing influenced with dream techniques were not limited to Zhen Xuzi alone, but also included the other insectfolk stationed beside the Corpse Mirror.
Since he intended to harvest the various factions like leeks, he naturally needed a new identity.
So he planned to completely establish himself as Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal. At that time, the temple disciples and Heavenly Dao insectfolk would handle contact with the various factions.
Ren Qing had already instructed Restraint Officers' Hall to begin preparations. The alchemists were refining "Revival Pills" day and night, pills containing life force.
How could the cultivators of the various factions know that Dead Man's Forbidden Zone caused flesh to undergo corpse transformation?
After consuming Revival Pills, their bodies would gradually regain living flesh, and their stagnant cultivation would slowly rise once more.
Ren Qing only needed to fabricate a reason claiming that corpse transformation eroded body and soul, and they would continuously purchase Revival Pills.
Once they used Revival Pills to maintain living flesh, then lifespan could naturally be harvested.
"Anyway, none of you can leave Dead Man's Forbidden Zone. What's the point of holding onto lifespan when you're immortal? You might as well exchange it for resources from me."
A strange laugh escaped Ren Qing's mouth. The advancement of the Dream Butterfly Technique into an Ascension Method depended entirely on them.
It would be best if the Calamity Elimination Method could also advance to the Yang Spirit realm during this opportunity. Only then would his survival ability reach the level where even Heavenly Aberration realm beings could not threaten him.
Ren Qing watched the Heavenly Dao insectfolk secretly sculpting statues of Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal before his consciousness returned to the Stomach World and continued deducing cultivation arts.
After Chen Changsheng founded Restraint Officers' Hall, nobody knew what methods he had used to gather tens of thousands of strange objects of every variety.
At first, the strange objects were sealed inside Avici Hell. Later, they were stored within the Great Dream Weird Dao of the dream marketplace. Because many strange objects lacked corresponding cultivation arts, almost nobody paid attention to them.
Using this opportunity, Ren Qing massively supplemented the cultivation arts available to Restraint Officers' Hall.
If possible, he even planned to create introductory martial body techniques for every cultivation art, completely ushering in an era where everyone cultivated.
Furthermore, Ren Qing noticed that many children born from cultivators naturally possessed partial mutation traits inherited from their parents.
Their aptitude for cultivating techniques naturally far surpassed the previous generation.
Ren Qing gradually recalled the clones he had placed inside the mirror world, creating the illusion for the various factions that the immortal gate was about to descend into chaos.
Meanwhile, he himself calmly continued secluded cultivation and even found time to visit Li Tiangang.
As more and more cultivation arts were deduced, several indeed suited Dead Man's Sutra, but he still had not found any that connected with the Calamity Elimination Method.
Ren Qing had already given up hope and planned to find a Restraint Officer technique with similar effects, then use the information stream to perfect it into the cultivation art he wanted.
In his view, the four techniques including the Calamity Elimination Method were already sufficiently comprehensive. The only thing lacking now was a cultivation art capable of foreseeing fortune and disaster.
Ren Qing planned to improve it using a cultivation art called "Attached Turtle Shell."
[Attached Turtle Shell]
[Created by Turtle Immortal. Cultivation requires placing an infant within a hollowed-out turtle shell. Once the turtle shell fuses with the body, the cultivation art is complete.]
According to rumors, after the "Giant Turtle One" branch of Attached Turtle Shell reaches the Yin Difference realm stage "Land Cruiser," it can sense the arrival of natural disasters in advance.
However, the Giant Turtle One branch caused cultivators to mutate into giant turtles, something he disliked.
Ren Qing skillfully separated the contents related to Giant Turtle One and gradually filled in the missing parts while occasionally paying attention to the outside situation.
He was simply waiting for the right moment.