Ren Qing knew of an old anecdote from his previous life called "Two Peaches Slay Three Warriors."
It referred to giving two peaches to three warriors, who fought over them and died as a result.
The "Immortal Positions" in his hands were essentially "peaches" meant to make others kill for him. As long as he released word of the Immortal Positions, he could influence the various factions.
Since Ren Qing intended to mobilize the pieces in Wuming's hands, he had to release the clues about the Old Man Under the Moon bit by bit, making Wuming place his pieces according to Ren Qing's strategy.
He was confident that even if Wuming knew the Old Man Under the Moon was bait, he would still take it.
After all, the Old Man Under the Moon was simply too well suited to the Disaster-Dispelling Method. Even if the Old Man Under the Moon's potential was inferior to that of the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal and Taiyin Star Lord, the foremost requirement for refining an Immortal Position was compatibility with oneself.
If Ren Qing could truly control the situation in this world.
Let alone the two Immortal Positions in the Buddhist Realm, even the Immortal Position of the Rain-Assisting Heavenly Lord would require little effort from the Restraint Officers' Hall.
They could simply cooperate and reap the benefits as the third party.
After thinking for a moment, Ren Qing began modifying the Minor Heavenly Court.
Regardless of day or night, large numbers of cultivators were constantly searching for clues within the Minor Heavenly Court. They could almost always make some discovery every few days.
The gradually revealed "ancient secrets" left them deeply shaken.
There were fragments of statues of immortals and gods, murals recording the history of the Heavenly Court, and so on. The ruins seemed to conceal earth-shattering secrets.
Unfortunately, clearing the ruins consumed soul essence, meaning that even cultivators of the Heavenly Aberration Realm could not remain in the Minor Heavenly Court for long.
Nearly a thousand people had spent more than a year working, yet they had only cleared one-fifth of the Minor Heavenly Court's area, and that was merely the palace structures around the outer perimeter.
At the beginning, more than ten thousand Wind Void People had cooperated with them, but later, because the Wind Void People had accidentally fallen into the Buddhist Realm, their efficiency became even lower.
Ren Qing had also tried sending his bacterial soul into the Bottomless Pit within the Buddhist Realm.
Unfortunately, the Bottomless Pit was far too vast. Moreover, Ren Qing could sense that Feng Ye was unharmed, so he did not conduct a large-scale search.
He planned to look for the Wind Void People again once the Black Goat Dharma Robes could be mass-produced.
Ren Qing swept his gaze across the Minor Heavenly Court. Without a sound, in a corner of the Thunder Department's palace complex, a statue of an immortal god split into Four Divisions was formed. Its name was the "Rain-Assisting Heavenly Lord."
The statue of the Old Man Under the Moon was placed separately in an unused palace. It did not belong to any Immortal Department of the Heavenly Court. The Old Man Under the Moon, who governed marital destiny, stood independently outside it.
Ren Qing's modifications to the Minor Heavenly Court caused the sleeping Matchmaking Immortal to stir faintly.
He could not help frowning deeply when he saw the Matchmaking Immortal.
Moving the Matchmaking Immortal was simply too troublesome. The slightest mistake could alert the outside world and even draw attacks from certain Turbid Immortals.
Fortunately, the Buddhist Realm had only just covered the Endless Forest. The area of darkness had shrunk considerably during the preceding period, so for the time being, it could not threaten the Matchmaking Immortal in the Dragon Blood Sea Region.
However, leaving the Matchmaking Immortal in the Dragon Blood Sea Region was certainly not a long-term solution.
"Let's deal with it as soon as possible. The dragon-type giant beasts should be strong enough to bear the Matchmaking Immortal's body."
With a thought from Ren Qing, the Dragon Blood Sea Region immediately became turbulent. One Flood Serpent giant beast after another, each a thousand meters long, dove into the deep sea.
He then cast the Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth. Even though the two places were separated by tens of thousands of miles.
The Kunpeng had still been swimming leisurely in the Sea of Wine in the Stomach World a moment ago. In the next instant, it left the Stomach World and arrived in the Dragon Blood Sea Region of the outside world.
As a jailer, it had reached the Yin Difference Realm through cultivation, but it had not undergone three Strange Transformations, so its strength was far inferior to that of ordinary cultivators.
However, with its nearly two-thousand-meter body, it was just right for assisting in transporting the Matchmaking Immortal.
Ren Qing had actually spent several months planning the transfer of the Matchmaking Immortal. He had discarded many unreliable ideas before finally finding the safest one.
It could neither travel by sea nor pass through the air. As a True Immortal, it was simply too conspicuous. Even the Heavenly Demon Tribulation could not completely erase its presence. He could only find another route.
Ren Qing planned to dig a tunnel directly to a tributary of the underground river, then send the Matchmaking Immortal along the river channel to the secluded cultivation cave he had excavated.
The underground river should still be relatively safe.
Although traces left behind by Huang Ling could be found everywhere, Ren Qing estimated that the other party had already perished. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the place to remain unattended for so long.
A long, resonant cry rang out across the Dragon Blood Sea Region.
The Kunpeng trembled in fear upon sensing the terrifying aura of the Matchmaking Immortal. Its fins moved incessantly as it slowly swam downward, toward a depth of twenty thousand meters.
No matter how unwilling it was, when facing Ren Qing, it could only obediently carry out his orders.
The other dragon-type giant beasts were even worse. Most had only just reached the Flood Serpent stage, with only some features of true dragons appearing on their bodies.
They simply could not withstand the suffocating pressure of a True Immortal.
The dragons were in the same situation as the Kunpeng. With the Primordial Unity Ancestral Dragon above them, even if they had to die, they had to go willingly. The restrictions imposed by their bloodline were simply there.
Ren Qing's ghost shadow remaining in the Dragon Blood Sea Region transformed into a rope-like form, binding the Matchmaking Immortal's enormous body and fins. He firmly bound this nearly ten-thousand-meter-long axolotl True Immortal.
The ghost shadow immediately let out a tearing sound as though it could no longer bear the weight. It hurriedly grabbed the giant beasts around it and distributed the weight among the dragons and Kunpeng.
Ren Qing was somewhat nervous. Although the Matchmaking Immortal had no soul, it was still a True Immortal.
Any instinctive movement by a True Immortal could cause the world to overturn and the seas to churn. It might even cause the waters of the Dragon Blood Sea Region to flow backward.
His actions were undoubtedly like walking along the edge of a blade. One careless move and everything could go wrong.
Ren Qing could only use the Zhili Technique to soothe the Matchmaking Immortal while probing it little by little. His soul-lost bacterial soul was spread throughout the Matchmaking Immortal's Mud Pellet Palace as well, doing everything possible to keep it in a state of slumber.
The Matchmaking Immortal's water level slowly rose, with the target being twenty thousand meters.
With the cooperation of the Flood Merfolk, cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall had already excavated a cavern extending several thousand meters, using it to lead the Matchmaking Immortal toward the underground river.
"Mm…"
Ren Qing signaled for Kunpeng to stop moving, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.
The Matchmaking Immortal let out a long breath. The force was no less than an earthquake beneath the deep sea, and a vacuum hundreds of meters wide appeared in front of it.
Kunpeng rolled onto its back, falling briefly unconscious while swimming belly-up. It felt as though it had narrowly escaped death.
Several unlucky dragon-type beasts were reduced to pieces by the aftershock.
The region surrounding the Endless Forest shook violently. Yet this was merely the Matchmaking Immortal's instinctive breathing. Its fins had not even reacted in the slightest.
Ren Qing secretly felt fortunate. The Buddhist Realm had been extremely active during this period, so the Matchmaking Immortal had not attracted attention. Otherwise, this would have become another major incident.
The Matchmaking Immortal's movements indirectly affected the stability of the Mud Pellet Palace.
The cultivators also noticed the strange phenomenon emerging within the Minor Heavenly Court.
Lady White Bone looked toward the sky above the Southern Heavenly Gate. Suddenly, an endless river appeared, composed of starlight.
"The Celestial River?"
The elk cultivator beside Lady White Bone muttered to himself.
Elephant Lord also looked extremely excited. He exhaled a stream of hot air from his long trunk and explained, "According to the murals, the Heavenly Court indeed possesses a great river that runs through the Outer Heavens."
"It is said to be called the Celestial River, and a million Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals reside within it."
"The Celestial River is a powerful weapon used by the immortals and gods to maintain balance in the mortal world. The Heavenly Soldiers are transformed from battle-hardened soldiers of the mortal realm, while the Heavenly Generals are not true immortals and gods either. They should be Ghost Immortals who cultivated from souls."
Lady White Bone added, "If we can figure out how the Heavenly Court was destroyed, we might be able to find a shortcut to becoming an immortal."
"However…"
She hesitated before saying, "The Dragon King of the Four Seas from the Thunder Department and the Lord of the North Pole Star of the Five Dipper Star Lords have not appeared for a very long time. I am afraid the ruins of the Heavenly Court may be a trap laid by someone else."
"It shouldn't be."
The elk Daoist shook his head. "At most, they are using us to clear the ruins. Don't forget the Ascension Method engraved on the surface of the statues."
"The Ascension Method may be like a chicken rib to those inheritors of the Heavenly Court, but these are immortal arts that point directly toward the Great Dao."
"Indeed."
Elephant Lord forcibly suppressed his concerns. Searching for immortal opportunities in the Heavenly Court could at least guarantee their safety. It was far less dangerous than the multiple layers of Jingzhou.
Just as they were discussing among themselves, a cultivator whose appearance resembled a mole suddenly hurried over from the cracks in the ruins.
"There's another discovery."
"A plaque was found in the palace at the northwest corner. The Azure Ox found it. It is called the 'Abode of the Old Man Under the Moon.' The immortal god involved is the Old Man Under the Moon."
With Ren Qing guiding them, getting them to notice the clues was far too easy.
Ren Qing had hidden a total of seventy-three statue fragments inside the "Abode of the Old Man Under the Moon." Once all of them were found, they could be assembled into an Ascension Method called "Tying the Red Thread," which directly reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
As well as half of a True Immortal Ascension Method, "Man in the Moon."
Tying the Red Thread
Created by Ren Qing, cultivating it required using one's own blood vessels as red threads to bind a married couple together. It could only be completed after half a year.
The upper limit of Tying the Red Thread was the Heavenly Aberration Realm, and it could not be cultivated alongside other techniques.
Man in the Moon
Created by Ren Qing, cultivating it required extracting one's own spinal cord and transplanting it into a married couple. If the two remained together until their hair turned white, both could complete the cultivation.
The upper limit of Man in the Moon was the True Immortal Realm, and it could not be cultivated alongside other techniques.
Immortal Position: Old Man Under the Moon
Both Ascension Methods were reverse-engineered by Ren Qing through the Matchmaking Immortal. After all, the latter's flesh and bones were covered with densely packed varieties of diseases.
The greatest characteristic of the Heavenly Court was that nothing could be brought into the outside world, which meant that it was difficult for cultivators to conceal any discoveries they made.
That was why cultivators such as Lady White Bone openly placed the statues of immortals and gods they found near the Southern Heavenly Gate. Various types of Ascension Method information were engraved on the surfaces of the statues.
The contents of Tying the Red Thread and Man in the Moon would soon spread.
After learning about the Ascension Method of the Old Man Under the Moon, Wuming would certainly try every possible means to determine its source, even if it meant risking his life.
All Ren Qing had to do was guide their attention toward the Buddhist Realm.
Want the Old Man Under the Moon?
Go to the Buddhist Realm.
Want to become an immortal and attain the Dao?
Go to the Buddhist Realm.
Unbeknownst to them, the War of Enfeoffing Immortals had already begun quietly. It was simply still in its earliest stage.
What Ren Qing had to do was hold the Son of Heaven hostage to command the feudal lords, using every seeker of the Dao in this world to fight for an opportunity to become immortal.
He wanted to see what exactly lay behind the Three Dao Ancestors and the Three Buddhas of the Three Ages. Could it be that even Weird Immortals could not escape becoming one with the Heavenly Dao?
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and focused on the situation in the Dragon Blood Sea Region.
The Matchmaking Immortal arrived safely at a depth of twenty thousand meters and hid inside the cavern excavated by the Restraint Officers' Hall, once again sinking into endless slumber.
The manpower Ren Qing had spent to transfer the Matchmaking Immortal far exceeded his expectations.
More than ten thousand cultivators were stationed at the front of the cavern. They wore Dharma Robes made from dragon hide, allowing them to breathe freely underwater.
They continuously excavated toward the underground river. Temporary camps were also set up inside the cavern for rest. The excavated soil was directly transported into the Stomach World for processing, minimizing their contact with the Matchmaking Immortal.
Another group of cultivators was equally busy behind the cavern.
They were responsible for filling in the cavern, trying to ensure that the space inside was not too large. That way, even if the Buddhist Realm covered the area, nothing would go wrong.
The Restraint Officers' Hall had more than thirty thousand cultivators involved in transporting the Matchmaking Immortal, including the logistical personnel. Nearly every branch was involved, and even Human-Insect cultivators participated.
Human-Insect cultivators could not move freely inside a cavern under twenty thousand meters of water pressure. Their main task was to replenish supplies for the temporary camps.
Their appearance was not much different from ordinary mortals, except that their skin was translucent and a Gu insect resembling a cricket was parasitic within their chests.
The Human-Insects had already divided themselves into various tribes.
Among them, Human-Insect cultivators who had refined the Water-Weaving Insect could breathe freely underwater and also possessed the ability to control water currents.
The moment the Water-Weaving Insect parasitized them, their strength was already equivalent to the Half-Corpse Realm. However, their abilities were relatively specialized, and they were extremely dependent on their Gu insects.
Human-Insects could easily master Gu cultivation techniques mainly because of the special nature of their physique.
After all, they were a race cultivated using the Heavenly Dao Insect as a template. They were naturally endowed with an indescribable affinity toward Gu insects, allowing the Gu insects to naturally regard their bodies as nests.
Ren Qing estimated that once Human-Insect cultivators reached the Yin Difference Realm, their Gu insects would develop intelligence. At that point, rebellion might very well occur.
In a certain sense, the Human-Insects created by the Matriarch were indeed closer to the Wuwei Daoist Temple.
He had no intention of interfering with the Human-Insects.
The Restraint Officers' Hall was a faction that embraced countless techniques. If the Human-Insects wanted to eliminate the drawbacks of Gu cultivation, whether they sought help from the Wuwei Daoist Temple or Li Yaoyang, it could easily be resolved.
When Ren Qing carried out this mission, he had already deliberately allowed the Human-Insects to participate.
If they seized the opportunity and produced several cultivators of the Yang God Realm, they might even become a new branch of the Restraint Officers' Hall, bringing life to this stagnant pool.
Ren Qing used the diseases within the cavern to monitor the Matchmaking Immortal through the Spirit Division.
He noticed that Gu Immortal had actually mixed into the crowd. His cultivation had recovered to the verge of the Ghost Envoy Realm, and a Crabman about half a meter long was parasitic on his back.
Clearly, Gu Immortal also understood that the Restraint Officers' Hall intended to support the Human-Insects, so he did not want to sever his connection with them completely.
Blackwater Daoist, who was leading the Human-Insects, was naturally delighted to see this.
Their current strength had not yet reached the point where internal conflict was necessary. An immortal disciple like Gu Immortal who was deliberately seeking to submit would certainly not be rejected.
Of course, Blackwater Daoist had absolutely no idea how ambitious Gu Immortal was.
Ren Qing did not like self-interested people like Gu Immortal, but among the hundreds of thousands of cultivators in the Restraint Officers' Hall, there would inevitably be all kinds of people.
He was extremely attentive to the Matchmaking Immortal. Everyone knew that a True Immortal was not easy to deal with.
There were tens of thousands of cultivators surrounding the Matchmaking Immortal. If the axolotl made even the slightest move, all of them would probably die inside the cavern.
Ren Qing constantly soothed the Matchmaking Immortal, even going so far as to use the Heavenly Demon Tribulation to erase the presence of the cultivators.
With all his energy spent on the Matchmaking Immortal, his attention toward the Heavenly Court naturally decreased.
He only noticed that cultivators such as Lady White Bone had joined forces to explore the Abode of the Old Man Under the Moon. They had no idea that the appearance of the Ascension Method had already disturbed the outside world, which was no longer as peaceful as before.
The more Lady White Bone and the other cultivators learned about the Heavenly Court, the more frightened they became.
They all had one question in their hearts. Just how many fallen immortals and gods were there in the Heavenly Court?
According to the current progress of clearing the ruins, at least thirty immortal gods had already been revealed. Although some of the statues were so badly damaged that even their exact names were unknown.
But if the Heavenly Court were truly restored, the number of immortals and gods might well exceed two hundred, to say nothing of the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals in the Celestial River.
Even an Ascension Method like Tying the Red Thread, which reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm, was an exceedingly rare opportunity for rogue cultivators.
They reluctantly found themselves a far-fetched explanation.
Perhaps the cultivators of the Heavenly Court had already obtained complete inheritances of the immortal gods, so they simply did not care about the damaged Ascension Methods in the ruins.
By the time the condition of the Matchmaking Immortal had finally stabilized, more than a year had unknowingly passed. The changes in this world were even greater than those of the previous fifty years combined.
First, the Buddhist Realm had expanded another five times, and it was now only seven or eight thousand miles from the Beast Pen.
Second, the various factions had completely reversed their attitude toward the Heavenly Court. Any cultivator capable of entering the Heavenly Court was now wanted by them.
After learning of this news from the black markets scattered throughout the region, Ren Qing immediately understood. Wuming had begun exerting his influence.
Without exception, those being hunted were all rogue cultivators, and their strength was below the Heavenly Aberration Realm. Clearly, the targets had been carefully selected.
This meant that some cultivators capable of entering the Heavenly Court had not deliberately concealed their identities.
They had long since been watched by the various factions. However, because of the deterrent power of the Heavenly Court, the factions had initially chosen to turn a blind eye.
The rogue cultivators had relied on the Heavenly Court to act with borrowed authority. Unfortunately, they had failed to anticipate the power of herd mentality.
When the first faction, under Wuming's influence, issued an order targeting the Heavenly Court, the other factions quickly followed suit. They were afraid that the already scarce number of cultivators capable of entering the Heavenly Court would disappear entirely.
Ren Qing looked toward the Heavenly Court. The flow of people inside had indeed decreased somewhat, but this had not changed their determination to pursue the clues in the slightest.
However, the situation was more serious than expected.
Without new people joining, their efficiency in clearing the ruins had fallen drastically. It was obvious that cultivators were continually falling into the hands of the various factions.
Of course, there were benefits as well. Because they were being pressured from outside, even rogue cultivators who did not want to associate themselves with the Heavenly Court were deliberately classified by the outside world as being in the same camp as the remnants of the Heavenly Court.
They simply began calling themselves cultivators of the Heavenly Court, which instead earned them the support of rogue cultivators.
Ren Qing discovered that the palace Lady White Bone was clearing was precisely the main hall he had established, where the statues of the Three Dao Ancestors were placed.
Dozens of cultivators gathered at the Heavenly Court at the same time, staring at each other in bewilderment before the ruins.
They looked at the battered plaque bearing the words "Hall of Morality" and the information revealed on the walls, and could not help feeling deeply uneasy.
Since it was the Hall of Morality, there should logically have been a statue of Daode Heavenly Venerable.
What they had never expected was that as the fragments were pieced together, the appearance of the statue of Daode Heavenly Venerable gradually began to emerge.
The exterior of the statue was covered with goat hooves of various sizes. It was composed entirely of grotesque and terrifying masses of flesh. Mouths opened all over it, extending sucker-like blue-purple tongues.
The technique engraved on its upper body was a Beast Pen Method that had been blurred by repeated slashes from a sharp weapon.
The technique on its lower body was the Nourishing Skin Method modified by Ren Qing. From beginning to end, it described how to use the hide of a Black Goat to make Dharma Robes.
When the cultivators moved the statue of Daode Heavenly Venerable to the vicinity of the Southern Heavenly Gate, something horrifying happened.
One-third of the original statues of the immortal gods suddenly underwent mutations.
Features belonging to Daode Heavenly Venerable appeared all over the statues. They resembled Black Goats one after another, and the cultivators hurriedly moved them back into the Hall of Morality.
Lady White Bone stared blankly at Daode Heavenly Venerable. A hidden memory within her heart gradually surfaced. It seemed that she had seen him before?
"What's wrong?" Elephant Lord asked worriedly.
"I encountered Daode Heavenly Venerable. It should have been during my lifetime…"
Lady White Bone's words made the surrounding cultivators feel as though they were sitting on a bed of needles.
It was as if glimpsing a corner of the truth of the world had brought them not surprise, but a bone-chilling despair.
Lady White Bone said in horror, "Daode Heavenly Venerable… when he comprehended the Heavenly Dao."
The essence of the world was nothing more than a deception. If the end of cultivation was an indescribable entity, then should they continue moving forward at all?
They sank into deep confusion, while their desire to uncover the truth behind the ruins of the Heavenly Court became even stronger. They hoped to find information about becoming immortal and attaining the Dao.
Ren Qing did not tell the Turbid Weirds about the arrival of the Dragon King of the Four Seas in the Heavenly Court.
The information he wanted the cultivators to know was all scattered throughout the Heavenly Court. In the end, the answer to becoming immortal and attaining the Dao would point toward the Immortal Positions within the Buddhist Realm.
Ren Qing continued perfecting his plan, ensuring that every part remained logically consistent.
Because of Wuming's continual moves, this world had become chaotic. At the same time, news of two more Immortal Positions suddenly emerged.
One was the "Donghua Hermit," located within a chain of active volcanoes. The Flame Men there had worshiped it for a thousand years, and legends claimed that it suppressed volcanic eruptions.
After Ren Qing advanced to the Heavenly Aberration Realm, his memory became increasingly extraordinary. He reorganized the memories of his previous life once more, without missing a single word.
When he was young, he had watched television dramas about the Seven Immortals Crossing the Sea. One of Tieguai Li's alternate titles was the Dao-Attaining Hermit. The origin of this Immortal Position was extraordinary. Later, the Queen Mother of the West bestowed upon him the name Donghua Cult Master.
"The Crippled Immortal's surname was Li, though his given name is unknown. He had long suffered from an affliction of the feet. The Queen Mother of the West enlightened him and elevated him to immortality, appointing him Donghua Cult Master and granting him an iron staff."
The other Immortal Position was somewhat special.
Daoist scriptures had recorded that whenever a group of rabbits ran together, the Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine would inevitably chase them toward the Moon Palace. The "Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine" was itself an Immortal Position.
There truly was a rabbit tide flowing like a sea from the east toward Jingzhou.
Some cultivators had tried intercepting them, only to discover that the rabbits could not be killed no matter how many times they were slain, much less allowing them to find the existence of the Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine among them.
"What is there in the moon? The Jade Rabbit pounds medicine."
If Ren Qing had not obtained the Dead Man's Sutra, he would certainly have been interested in the Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine. After all, ancient texts recorded that the Rabbit Immortal's elixir could revive the dead, restore flesh to bare bones, and grant eternal life.
Ren Qing dispatched some cultivators from each faction to investigate the two Immortal Positions.
The Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine should indeed exist. Unfortunately, to obtain the Immortal Position, one had to select a rabbit individually from among the herd.
If the selected rabbit was not the Immortal Position, the cultivator would become a member of the rabbit herd.
The rabbit herd was simply too numerous. Unless one possessed extraordinarily good fortune, even a cultivator of the Heavenly Aberration Realm would only be throwing away their life.
Ren Qing had the cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall monitor the movement of the rabbit herd. If the Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine was truly targeting the Blood Moon formed from Taiyin Star Lord, perhaps this could be used to locate Taiyin Star Lord within the Buddhist Realm.
However, he felt that the appearance of the Rabbit Immortal Who Pounds Medicine indicated that Taiyin Star Lord's situation was not optimistic, even though the Immortal Office of Heaven and Earth Genesis had appeared without warning.
Some cultivators could no longer restrain themselves and went to the Beast Pen to hunt Black Goats.
They were not trying to enter the Buddhist Realm. They had simply realized that the Black Goat Dharma Robes could be used to protect themselves from being corrupted by the aura of the Heavenly Demon.
At the same time, they could verify whether the technique engraved by Daode Heavenly Venerable was genuine.