Ren Qing closed his eyes in meditation. Even after more than half a day had passed, lingering fear still remained in his heart.
After coming into contact with the Heavenly Dao, he realized he was getting closer and closer to the essence of the world. Fear arose within him, but so did a trace of excitement.
Ren Qing recalled that many Daoist factions worshipped the Three Dao Ancestors.
That meant that long ago, they had already discovered that the Heavenly Dao manifested externally as Primordial Heavenly Venerable, Lingbao Heavenly Venerable, and Daode Heavenly Venerable.
As for what it truly was on the inside, Ren Qing could not make sense of it even after witnessing it directly.
"But why was the Heavenly Dao I encountered during the Dream Technique's breakthrough Primordial Heavenly Venerable instead of the other two? Could it be that Primordial Heavenly Venerable governs Ascension Methods?"
Ren Qing frowned deeply before suddenly thinking of a possibility.
Since the Restraint Officer Method originated from the Heavenly Dao, and every Restraint Officer Method had three mutation paths, could those correspond to the Three Dao Ancestors?
And because the Double Pupils path of the No-Eye Method was closer to a certain characteristic of Primordial Heavenly Venerable, that was why he had faced Primordial Heavenly Venerable.
Ren Qing could not understand it. He would probably only be able to figure out what the Three Heavenly Venerables represented after his other techniques advanced to Ascension Ladder.
He closed his eyes and inspected the Ascension Method he had ultimately comprehended.
The contents of the Dream Technique's Ascension Method were even more extensive than Dead Man's Sutra, and far more complicated, making ordinary Restraint Officer Methods incomparable.
Although Ren Qing had been somewhat rushed due to the limited time available, his comprehension had been amplified by the Heavenly Dao to its utmost limit.
Even if the Ascension Method he created was still restricted to the Heavenly Aberration Realm, he could only accept it.
The information stream surged.
[Zhili Technique]
[Created by Ren Qing. Cultivation requires the soul to enter dreams while the body remains sleepless for five years. Once the soul transforms into a Nightmare Demon and the body contains a hundred diseases, it can be cultivated successfully.]
Ren Qing recalled what "Zhili" meant and soon found a clue within memories from his previous life.
An ancient text, Record Pearl, Dream God, stated:
"The Dream God is called Zhili. Call upon it before sleep, and your dreams will be clear and auspicious."
The meaning was that before going to sleep, one would inform the Dream God Zhili and offer a prayer. Then one's dreams would be peaceful and favorable.
The information stream began displaying further details.
The upper limit of the Zhili Technique was Earth Immortal, and it could be cultivated alongside other techniques.
[Immortal Position: Zhili Dream Immortal.]
Ren Qing could not help but burst into laughter.
After decades of bitter cultivation, he had finally seen hope of attaining immortality. No one could possibly remain calm in such a situation.
Of course, there were certainly realms beyond Earth Immortal. Becoming immortal was not the end.
Ren Qing had already done everything possible while comprehending the Ascension Method.
There was no cultivator in existence who could simultaneously master five primary and secondary techniques like he did, while also integrating them completely through the information stream.
Therefore, Ren Qing was certain that the ultimate limit of an Ascension Method was Earth Immortal. After becoming immortal, there absolutely had to be a path leading even higher.
What puzzled him was where the existing True Immortals had come from.
Aside from the tiny possibility of comprehending Ascension Methods through five techniques, there was only one explanation.
Various immortals and buddhas already existed before the Heavenly Dao went mad. That was why Restraint Officer Methods were said to be incapable of surpassing the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
The immortal position of Zhili Dream Immortal should be similar to the Earth Immortal Heavenly Dao Insect's title of Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, as well as the Blood Moon's title of Taiyin Star Lord.
It was a title unique to True Immortals.
From this, it was clear that the diverse Heavenly Dao Methods within Wuwei Daoist Temple had likely all been split from the Ascension Method of Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal.
If one tried to use Heavenly Dao Methods to advance to Earth Immortal, the likely outcome would be becoming nourishment for Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal.
No matter how difficult Restraint Officer Methods were, they still opened a brand-new path to immortality. If one wanted to walk an existing immortal path, one would probably have to wait until the True Immortal occupying that immortal position died.
Zhili Dream Immortal was a True Immortal that had never appeared throughout history. It belonged exclusively to Ren Qing. Immortal positions like Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal had likely changed hands several times.
Ren Qing let out a long breath and carefully examined the contents of the Zhili Technique.
He had only initially grasped the Zhili Technique. To use it to reach Yang Spirit Realm perfection, he first needed to recultivate the Ascension Method.
The realms were similar to the progression from False Zombie to Corpse Fiend in Dead Man's Sutra. The Zhili Technique's realms also had alternative names.
They were:
First Dream, Lesser Dream, Great Dream, Clear Dream, Knowing Dream.
Corresponding to:
Martial Practitioner, Half-Corpse, Ghost Envoy, Yin Difference, Yang Spirit.
The Heavenly Aberration Realm of the Zhili Technique was called Dream Wanderer.
The Heavenly Aberration Realm of Dead Man's Sutra was called Death Wanderer.
This was likely one of the reasons Heavenly Aberration Realm cultivators were referred to as Immortal Wanderers by outside factions.
If Ren Qing simplified the Zhili Technique somewhat, it could even become a foundational cultivation method for a faction, equivalent to the Heavenly Dao Methods of Wuwei Daoist Temple.
Ren Qing sensed his Dream Technique.
Not only had it failed to strengthen, it had actually weakened by thirty percent, demonstrating the importance of recultivation.
Uneasily, he summoned the information stream.
[Advance to First Dream? This will consume one year of lifespan.]
The huge weight in Ren Qing's heart finally lifted.
The lifespan cost of the Zhili Technique had not increased, and there were no additional expenditures similar to the three Ghost Mutations.
To recultivate the Zhili Technique all the way to Yang Spirit Realm would likely require just over a thousand years of lifespan.
At present, Ren Qing only had a little over a hundred years of lifespan remaining.
Fortunately, he had previously accumulated a considerable number of wine mines.
The wine mines formed by the Wine God Technique were mediocre in terms of life extension. At most, they could provide about a thousand years, making them perfect for recultivating the Zhili Technique.
As one year of lifespan vanished, a tingling sensation spread throughout his body and soul.
Through his consciousness, he could see dream aura gradually infecting his flesh and bones, while the disease tree within his Mud Pellet Palace became increasingly bizarre.
The bizarre entities from his other techniques did not dare interfere with the Zhili Technique at all, despite it only being at the Martial Practitioner Realm.
Fortunately, the Zhili Technique could be cultivated alongside other techniques, preserving balance among all his cultivation systems.
Ren Qing became strangely surreal.
To the naked eye, he appeared normal, yet he seemed composed of countless points of light in a distorted form.
The mutation of an Ascension Method truly could be controlled freely.
Of course, that only applied to Ren Qing.
The Zhili Technique was a tailor-made Ascension Method. Even close blood relatives could not possess sufficiently similar constitutions.
Compared to the so-called immortal bodies of Heavenly Dao Methods, the bodily transformation created by an Ascension Method truly deserved the title of immortal body.
Advance to Great Dream? This will consume ten years of lifespan.
Without hesitation, Ren Qing continued advancing to the Ghost Envoy Realm.
Large quantities of dreamlike fungi immediately appeared nearby, impossible to tell whether they were real or illusion.
At the same time, the disease tree continued growing, expanding the Mud Pellet Palace several times over.
Several blank disease fruits appeared on its branches at some unknown point.
Just like raising Gu insects, they could be used to cultivate composite diseases from various disease strains.
Dream City also expanded in size.
The cultivators within became astonishingly lifelike.
Advance to Clear Dream? This will consume one hundred years of lifespan.
As Ren Qing advanced the Zhili Technique, he used the Flame Furnace formed by the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique to convert the mountain-like pile of wine mines into lifespan.
Advance to Knowing Dream? This will consume one thousand years of lifespan.
A flush spread across Ren Qing's face.
The intoxication from the wine mines gradually affected him, yet his gaze remained fixed upon the information stream.
When his lifespan surpassed a thousand years, the wine mines within Stomach World had been almost completely exhausted.
Ren Qing immediately advanced the Zhili Technique to Yang Spirit Realm.
The technique's aura instantly leaked outward, affecting the entire gigantic Corpse Buddha.
All cultivators suddenly discovered that colorful fungi had spread across both the interior and exterior of the gigantic Corpse Buddha.
Even their bodies and souls were no exception.
The words "Zhili" appeared in their minds.
However, the effects of the Zhili Technique lasted for only a single breath.
Once Ren Qing restrained the technique, all abnormalities throughout the gigantic Corpse Buddha vanished without a trace.
The disease tree had grown more than ten times larger than before.
The insect forms manifested by disease strains actively crawled toward the blank disease fruits, continuously generating new diseases.
Dream City underwent even more drastic changes.
The cultivators within Dream City were projections formed from consciousness.
Yet they discovered they could now sense the techniques possessed by their true bodies.
As a result, although they still could not improve their techniques through Dream City, they could now refine artifacts and concoct pills without their real bodies entering Stomach World.
Li Tiangang and the other cultivators were filled with shock.
Who could have imagined that Ren Qing had broken through again?
His talent was so extraordinary that even the Yang Spirit Realm could not hold him back. At this rate, he would likely reach the legendary Heavenly Aberration Realm within a century.
Li Tiangang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Once Chen Changsheng was rescued from the forbidden zone, Ren Qing's presence would ensure stability within the Restraint Officers' Hall.
The only uncertainty was whether Ren Qing would be able to contend against a Chen Changsheng who had spent several hundred years in the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
He knew he might be worrying unnecessarily.
Yet Chen Changsheng had been away from the Restraint Officers' Hall for centuries and knew nothing about its current situation.
Daoist Taihan could not help but sink into fear.
Even if someone told him now that Ren Qing was merely at Yang Spirit Realm, he would never believe it.
When fungi had spread throughout his body and soul, he had genuinely felt that death could strike him at any moment.
Clearly he was the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal who governed earth veins, yet he was also proficient in dreams.
Could the Heavenly Dao Insects be about to produce an existence beyond Earth Immortal?
Ren Qing paid no attention to the commotion within the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Instead, he stared at his hand, which constantly shifted between a solid form and a construct of light and shadow.
The Dream Technique remained at Yang Spirit Realm, yet its strength had undergone a qualitative transformation.
This demonstrated just how much freely controlling a bizarre entity enhanced combat power.
By comparison, the strengthening of the divine ability The World Is Like a Dream was not especially significant.
The effect of The World Is Like a Dream was that any living being within a certain radius of Ren Qing who contracted a disease already possessed by the disease tree would be dragged into a disease fruit while sleeping.
The range had now exceeded a thousand miles.
Its other capabilities were not yet obvious.
However, Ren Qing knew that after the Zhili Technique attained immortality, its abilities would become "Diseases originate from dreams, and dreams throughout the world are under one's control."
One could easily imagine how terrifying The World Is Like a Dream would become then.
Ren Qing summoned his personal information stream.
[Lifespan: 35 years]
[Techniques: Zhili Technique (Knowing Dream), Shadowless Ghost (Human Skin Book, Bone Armor Technique, Netherworld Method, Dragon Serpent Spine), Yin Deity of This World (Primordial Fetal Membrane, Spiritual Marrow Bone Immortal, Netherworld Wasted Immortal, Coiling Dragon Shedding to Python), The Taotie Method (Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, Wine God Technique, Dao Dao Dao, Rebirth Technique), Avici Hell (Great Inception Flame, Stomach Contains Wine Sea, Wuwei Daoist Temple, Reincarnation of Rebirth)...]
[Bizarre Entity: Plague Dream Tree]
[Divine Ability: The World Is Like a Dream, Dragon Roar Within the Casket, Walk Among Mortals, Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth]
[Immortal Position: Zhili Dream Immortal (Pseudo)]
[Disaster Elimination Method (Storyteller, Mirror Immortal, Disguise Technique, Longevous Tortoise), Strange Belly Concealing Door (Lecturing Old Master, Strange Mirror Walker, Hundred Faces in One Lifetime, Knowing Fate in Vain)]
[Dead Man's Sutra (Incomplete)]
The word "Pseudo" after Zhili Dream Immortal signified that he had not yet attained immortality.
After passing the No-Birth Immortal stage where bizarre entities merged, and climbing the Ascension Ladder stage where techniques merged, the next step was the Heavenly Aberration Realm, where one was on the verge of attaining immortality.
Ren Qing was preparing to stabilize his cultivation when, all of a sudden, cracks spread across the tortoise shell on the roof of his mouth.
Over twenty or thirty new cracks appeared.
As his strength increased, the hexagram should logically have drifted away from ominous signs.
Yet the exact opposite had happened.
This indicated that the danger originated from a level above Heavenly Aberration Realm.
He immediately activated Longevous Tortoise.
Fortunately, the hexagram still displayed Ominous and had not deteriorated into Great Ominous.
Ren Qing looked through the gigantic Corpse Buddha toward the layers of earth surrounding Dead Man's Forbidden Zone.
Although everything was shrouded in black mist, more than a dozen streaks of white light representing vitality could still be seen.
He controlled the gigantic Corpse Buddha and dug toward the outside world, following those streaks of white light.