Under the stimulation of the secondary personality, the insect martial artists of Xiangxiang immediately cast aside the fear in their hearts, unleashing their combat strength to the fullest.
The civilians who had been timid just moments ago suddenly rushed forward with eerie grins, joining forces to tear the stunned elephant-headed insect martial artists into pieces.
Because Ren Qing had divided Xiangxiang's forces into separate regions, each faction refined different Gu insects, so there was no need to worry about them losing their sanity and slaughtering one another.
As the battle continued, the compatibility between Xiangxiang's insect martial artists and their Gu insects continued to rise, allowing them to display strength far beyond others of the same realm.
It was clearly visible that, as they fought bathed in blood, dragon-like features gradually appeared across their bodies, making them even more fearless of death.
Insect Nest, Wuzhi, and the Elephant Lord all withdrew their insect martial artists at almost the exact same moment.
Their main purpose had been to probe the true strength of the Heavenly Court. Once they discovered that Xiangxiang was a hard nut to crack, they immediately chose to cut their losses.
Ren Qing did not order the insect martial artists to pursue them. The current situation was still one of chess pieces fighting chess pieces. Besides, he still needed the Heavenly Aberration cultivators to scout Jingzhou for him. Who knew what methods the mastermind behind the scenes had laid down?
He even suspected that Jingzhou might possess an inner layer of the world. Otherwise, there was no reason why the immortal position of the Taiyin Star Lord would be completely ineffective.
Ren Qing came back to his senses and focused his attention on the edge of Xiangxiang.
The Heavenly Aberration cultivator whose body was made of slime stood frozen in place.
He had intended to reap great rewards with minimal risk, but he realized that none of the other factions intended to completely offend the Heavenly Court, leaving him in an extremely awkward position.
The slime cultivator was named **Chongshuizi**. He belonged to one of Jingzhou's more remote minor factions, though his cultivation could still be considered above average among Heavenly Aberration cultivators.
Chongshuizi slowly let out a long breath, his expression twisting into something grotesque.
The way he looked at Ren Qing constantly shifted from fear, to resentment, to a trace of barely concealed fury, making him seem mentally unstable.
Inside Chongshuizi's slime-like body floated countless fragments of flesh and bone.
It was obvious that before setting out, to ensure his actions remained undiscovered, he had devoured every insect martial artist belonging to his own village.
Chongshuizi continued deeper into Xiangxiang while muttering, "Dragon King of the Four Seas..."
Because of the peculiar nature of his technique, he was nearly impossible to detect with the naked eye. Light passed straight through his transparent body.
Even if certain techniques scanned over him, they would only detect an extra puddle of water on the ground.
"Dragon King of the Four Seas... I never wanted to become your enemy... but... but this opportunity is right before me. You're... standing in my way..."
Chongshuizi planned to lie dormant in Annan Town, where no Heavenly Aberration cultivator was stationed.
When the other factions attacked Xiangxiang again, he would reveal himself. Once both sides had exhausted each other, taking control of the town would be effortless.
At that thought, his entire body began boiling like scalding water. Every insect and beast that passed nearby was instantly reduced to ashes by the intense heat.
He was still somewhat afraid.
Among all the factions, the Heavenly Court remained the most mysterious and unfathomable. It even possessed two Heavenly Aberration cultivators.
Yet Chongshuizi believed that even Earth Immortals would have difficulty seeing through his disguise. In this world, there was probably...
Boom!!!
A tremendous crash rang out nearby, as though something unimaginably heavy had slammed into the ground. Judging from the sound alone, whatever it was had to be several hundred meters in size.
Chongshuizi's expression darkened as dirt buried him in a miserable state.
Only after everything outside had fallen silent did he cautiously extend part of his flesh to peek outside.
The forest had become complete ruins.
Earth and shattered stone covered everything, while at the center lay a crater nearly a hundred meters deep, filled with drifting dust.
"What happened? Did they discover my trail? Impossible!"
"My technique leaves neither shadow nor trace. As long as I seize this opportunity, no one in the world will ever be able..."
Warm breath washed over the back of Chongshuizi's head.
His entire body trembled, and his already liquefied flesh became as diluted as water.
Turning around, he found an enormous dragon head staring directly at him without blinking.
Its expression remained completely emotionless, as though looking at nothing more than a corpse.
Ren Qing still maintained his dragon-headed human form, but he had pushed Ancestral Lineage Derivation to its limit, causing his body to reach a height of seven hundred meters.
Although it was Heaven and Earth Genesis that had advanced into Dao Gives Birth to One, his half-immortal body had already undergone profound changes, naturally inspiring fear in the hearts of mortals.
"Fellow Daoist Dragon King of the Four Seas..."
Chongshuizi hurriedly tried to explain while continuing to dilute his flesh and bones.
He noticed that Ren Qing merely observed him in silence. Assuming his opponent was somewhat wary of him, distracting thoughts once again surfaced uncontrollably.
If I can control the Dragon King of the Four Seas, then won't Xiangxiang become mine?
A faint mist drifted from within his body before vanishing into the air.
The reason Ren Qing had not attacked immediately was because he had discovered that Chongshuizi was actually a Heavenly Aberration cultivator at the Dao Gives Birth to One stage, yet his Ascension Method was not connected to any immortal position.
[Chongshuizi]
[Age: 2,712]
[Lifespan: 5,637 years]
[Technique: Heavy Water Method (Dao Gives Birth to One)]
[Heavy Water Method**]
Created by Chongshuizi. Cultivation requires subjecting the body to steaming, boiling, and freezing for three days each, until it can freely transform between mist, water, and ice.]
Ren Qing observed for a while and discovered that Chongshuizi's body and soul were in an extremely delicate state.
His mutation was on the verge of losing control, yet somehow remained balanced precisely at the critical point of Dao Gives Birth to One.
If Ren Qing could transfer Heavenly Dao corruption, then with only about a hundred years of lifespan's worth, Chongshuizi would immediately lose control of his mutation and suffer cultivation deviation.
Perhaps...
Ren Qing suddenly realized that the Heavenly Aberration Realm itself was the process by which cultivators shed mortality and transformed into immortals.
When he had advanced into the Heavenly Aberration Realm, the information that had appeared in his mind was actually a mysterious inheritance of memories passed down through generations of cultivators.
Those memories only contained the orthodox path of refining immortal positions.
Clearly, later generations had managed to discover a different path.
The immortal bodies connected to Ren Qing's Ascension Methods were all Weird Immortal Bodies, which prevented his body and soul from undergoing excessively violent mutations.
Since Weird Immortal Bodies existed, then naturally Turbid Immortal Bodies also existed.
Simply put, Turbid Immortals represented Heavenly Dao corruption carried to its absolute extreme.
If a Heavenly Aberration cultivator actively pursued mutation, then in a sense, they too were transforming toward an immortal body.
The only problem was that the boundary of Heavenly Dao corruption was almost impossible to control. A single mistake would result in cultivation deviation.
The reason every faction had gathered in Jingzhou was precisely to create techniques capable of producing Turbid Immortal Bodies.
Even advancing a single step farther was considered an unimaginable opportunity.
Of course, this was merely a shortcut.
Without an immortal position, they would never truly become immortals.
Their ultimate fate would only be to become grotesque and deformed monsters.
Ren Qing could not help feeling somewhat speechless.
If the Heavenly Aberration cultivators of this world ever discovered that he possessed no fewer than five immortal positions...
Along with Fengshen Boqiang and the Old Man Under the Moon, the combined wealth of every faction still would not compare to his own.
They would probably stop at nothing until they had ground his bones to dust.
"Dragon King of the Four Seas, I'll withdraw immediately. I have no intention of becoming your enemy."
Chongshuizi slowly burrowed into the earth.
In reality, however, part of his body transformed into mist and remained suspended in the air, clinging to dust particles invisible to the naked eye.
Those particles quietly landed upon Ren Qing's body and slipped through his pores into his flesh.
Chongshuizi was overjoyed.
As long as he could contaminate Ren Qing's blood, he could indirectly control him, perhaps even directly parasitize his body.
"There can never be another cultivator in this world capable of parasitizing a Heavenly Aberration cultivator like I can."
Every one of Chongshuizi's actions fell within Ren Qing's sight.
The instant the dust entered his bloodstream, Dragon Roar Within the Casket transformed it into false dragons.
Chongshuizi's expression stiffened.
The moment he sensed that part of his body had become disconnected, he immediately transformed his entire body into watery mist, surging toward Ren Qing from every direction.
"Interesting technique."
"It resembles someone I once knew. He used it to parasitize the body of an Earth Immortal."
"So... you're still quite a bit behind."
Ren Qing opened his mouth and spat out a bolt of lightning that instantly transformed into a true dragon, covering Xiangxiang beneath dense storm clouds as thunder roared continuously.
A violent gale swept through the area.
Chongshuizi immediately transformed into water vapor, shooting toward Ren Qing like countless tiny needles.
Ren Qing effortlessly dodged the attack.
Endless bolts of lightning rained down one after another, leaving the surrounding landscape completely devastated, until nothing remained except scorched earth.
To be fair, although Chongshuizi could not compare to Ren Qing, his ability to survive was extraordinary.
He could absorb moisture to recover from injuries and continuously transform between every state of water, making him extremely difficult to hit with techniques.
The other factions showed no intention of interfering.
It was still far too early before the next selection of insect martial artists.
Unless Ren Qing took the initiative to attack them, they were perfectly content to let Chongshuizi live or die on his own.
Besides, Chongshuizi had been the one foolish enough to seek death by entering Xiangxiang.
What interested them more was the true strength of the Dragon King of the Four Seas, what the Heavenly Court actually represented, and what purpose it served in Jingzhou.
If the Heavenly Court truly had connections to immortal gods...
Could it also possess an opportunity to attain immortality?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ren Qing and Chongshuizi remained locked in battle.
In truth, however, Ren Qing completely suppressed Chongshuizi.
The latter merely struggled desperately to escape, only to discover that lightning was virtually everywhere.
What terrified Chongshuizi the most was the secret Ren Qing had deliberately concealed.
"You... impossible..."
Although the techniques displayed by the Dragon King of the Four Seas appeared overwhelmingly powerful, they had not actually reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
That meant they were only at the peak of the Yang Spirit Realm.
Which also meant...
His opponent definitely possessed another technique that had already reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
Was the Heavenly Court's foundation truly this profound?
Or was the Dragon King of the Four Seas simply so monstrously talented that cultivating multiple techniques simultaneously came naturally to him?
Ren Qing disappeared into the clouds, his dragon head over a hundred meters long faintly visible within them.
Since Chongshuizi had already discovered the flaw in Ancestral Lineage Derivation, Ren Qing no longer held back and dived toward the ground.
Blinding light engulfed Xiangxiang.
When the darkness returned, Chongshuizi had already disappeared without a trace.
Lady White Bone lost her usual playful smile.
For a brief instant, she had sensed a flash of death qi, and an exceptionally domineering one at that.
Even her soul twisted involuntarily as she struggled to suppress the shock in her heart.
But when Lady White Bone tried to search again, there was no trace left.
Whether that had truly been one of the Heavenly Court's hidden trump cards, even she could not say.
After Ren Qing departed, Han Li led the cultivators of the various branches in restoring the damaged Dragonblood ecosystem, and vitality quickly returned.
The insect martial artists of Xiangxiang stared wide-eyed at the dragon swimming among the clouds.
Realizing that Ren Qing possessed such terrifying divine abilities, they all knelt to worship him, hoping that the True Immortal would lead them out of their sea of suffering.
The countdown toward the exhaustion of their lifespans had begun once more.
Anyone with eyes could see that a blade hung suspended above their heads.
Meanwhile, among the tide of human insects retreating back to Insect Nest, Gu Immortal remained hidden among them.
He looked back at southern Jingzhou with reluctance before following the human insects underground.
Gu Immortal had already refined every Gu insect he needed.
His cultivation had stabilized at the Yin Difference Realm, and even his second Gu insect was on the verge of advancing.
He possessed the memories of his previous life and knew that he would repeatedly face the depletion of his lifespan.
He had to use these remaining few years to divide the human insects from within.
At the same time, Ren Qing had also attached disease seeds to the giant insect martial artists, stimulating the Gu insects to rebel against the monks' fleshly shells.
Without realizing it, Ren Qing had already begun influencing every faction.