Ren Qing's pupils widened. Even after checking with the information flow, it was still merely a Heavenly Dao Insect Dead Egg.
But it was not just one or two Heavenly Dao Insect eggs that were abnormal. In fact, all several hundred thousand of them had been cultivated from infant embryos.
He sent some of the Heavenly Dao Insect eggs to Li Yaoyang's cave dwelling in the Stomach World, asking the latter to investigate what was unusual about them.
Ren Qing then took out several hundred Heavenly Dao Insect eggs and placed them before him before casting Ancestral Lineage Derivation.
After advancing to the Heavenly Aberration realm, he no longer needed to bestow Dragon Blood upon living beings through his own blood. His saliva, produced simply through breathing through his mouth and nose, was enough.
Ren Qing immediately established a master-servant connection with the Heavenly Dao Insect eggs.
The Heavenly Dao Insect eggs began trembling for no apparent reason. Although they were still Dead Eggs, the faint Dragon Blood they had absorbed caused them to briefly revive.
Ren Qing folded his arms across his chest, his expression solemn as he stared intently at the eggs.
Before long, the eggs began to swell, and the embryos inside grew along with them. The deformed flesh gradually disappeared.
What Ren Qing was doing was stripping away the Heavenly Dao Insect bloodline within the eggs, then stimulating the embryos' development to create the illusion of resurrection.
The Heavenly Dao Insect eggs stopped developing once they reached half a meter in size, mainly because the amount of Dragon Blood was too small.
Inside the amber-colored insect eggs, the corpses of seven or eight-year-old children lay curled up. Their appearances made it obvious that they were Heavenly Daozi.
However, Heavenly Daozi had only an empty shell. There was not the slightest sign of a soul forming within them. Their flesh and limbs were twisted to varying degrees, while their skin was covered by a fine layer of Dragon Scales.
"What exactly happened to the Insect Nest?"
The Insect Nest had very likely come into contact with the Wuwei Daoist Temple several hundred years ago. But why had it used the flesh and blood of Heavenly Daozi to cultivate Heavenly Dao insect people?
Could it be because Heavenly Daozi, as the headmaster of the Wuwei Daoist Temple, had the greatest number of parasitic Heavenly Dao Insects and was therefore closer to the concept of becoming one with the human-insects?
Ren Qing was utterly baffled. There was no way to figure out the exact circumstances through speculation alone. At the very least, he would have to come into contact with the Insect Nest Matriarchs before he could know the truth.
After a moment of hesitation, he directly moved the four Matriarchs' cave dwellings into the Stomach World.
Fungus People densely covered every part of the cave dwellings, collecting useful clues without even overlooking the dust inside.
The information obtained by the Fungus People flowed into Ren Qing's mind, while countless bacterial souls analyzed the clues.
From certain traces, he could discern the Insect Nest Matriarchs' habits in their daily lives, but they seemed to have made no attempt to reproduce.
Could it be that the Insect Nest Matriarchs laid their eggs somewhere other than their cave dwellings?
Ren Qing left the entrance of the cave dwelling with his doubts and appeared beside Daoist Taihan.
When Daoist Taihan saw that it was Ren Qing, he hurriedly bowed and said softly, "Immortal Venerable, it should not take much longer for us to finish sorting through all the supplies in the Insect Nest."
"That can wait. There is something I want to ask you."
Ren Qing looked at the busy Insect Vein cultivators. In fact, all the Heavenly Dao insect people were male. He had simply never paid much attention to it before.
Ordinary Heavenly Dao insect people did not participate in reproduction at all.
The main reason was that the Matriarchs all had the appearance of being half female and half maggot, which had led him to assume that the gender of Heavenly Dao insect people underwent a drastic transformation only after they advanced to the Heavenly Aberration realm.
"Taihan, you and Jade Splendor should already be close to the peak of the Spirit Division realm, right?"
"I have already reached the late Spirit Division realm. Jade Splendor is still a little short, but the Insect Vein has extremely abundant resources, so it should not take much longer."
Daoist Taihan did not understand what Ren Qing meant, but he still answered honestly.
Ren Qing examined Daoist Taihan while continuing, "Taihan, have you ever felt that something about yourself was unusual?"
"Immortal Venerable, no, I haven't."
Daoist Taihan only felt that Ren Qing's gaze was unnervingly penetrating, as though he had no secrets whatsoever before the other man.
Even Heavenly Dao insect people at the Yang God realm were only around two meters tall.
They did indeed have human faces, but their bodies had the appearance of Heavenly Dao Insects. Overall, they were much closer to Heavenly Dao Insects than to humans.
The Matriarchs, however, were over a thousand meters tall. Their lower bodies were insect bodies, while their upper bodies were female. They were almost indistinguishable from the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal in this regard.
The two were simply nothing alike as members of the same species.
Could it be that the Heavenly Dao insect people descended from the Matriarchs were all counterfeit Heavenly Dao insect people cultivated from Heavenly Daozi's blood?
After all, theoretically speaking, if Heavenly Dao insect people underwent a transformation upon breaking through to the Heavenly Aberration realm, signs of it should already have appeared when they were at the Yang God realm.
Ren Qing asked several more questions.
From Daoist Taihan, he learned that for several thousand years, the number of Insect Nest Matriarchs had never increased or decreased. There had always been the same four.
Ren Qing fell into deep thought, while Li Yaoyang had indeed discovered something unusual.
Li Yaoyang noticed that the original Heavenly Dao Insect eggs of the Insect Nest were fundamentally different from the Heavenly Dao Insect eggs nurtured by the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal. The Insect Nest eggs were more like crude copies.
The Matriarchs must have interfered with the Insect Nest eggs to some degree. Otherwise, the Heavenly Dao insect people hatched from them would have been extremely weak.
Only afterward did they conduct large-scale screening of the insect eggs, making them more closely resemble Heavenly Dao Insects.
When Li Yaoyang learned that Ren Qing possessed several hundred thousand Insect Nest eggs, his temples immediately began to throb, and he could not help feeling a headache coming on.
Even if they forcibly used resources to accelerate the development of the Insect Nest eggs, the survival rate would probably still be frighteningly low.
"Brother Ren, the Insect Nest eggs don't look like they were naturally nurtured. They seem more like something generated by a technique."
After hearing Li Yaoyang's opinion, Ren Qing gradually formed a conjecture.
The Matriarchs, as the beings closest to the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, had very likely shared the same lineage thousands of years ago, only choosing to defect from Jingzhou.
They had probably already lost the ability to reproduce, so they used Heavenly Daozi's flesh and blood in an attempt to replicate Heavenly Dao Insect eggs.
They had indeed succeeded, but Heavenly Daozi had only been at the Yang God realm before his death, so the Heavenly Dao insect people probably found it extremely difficult to break through the limitations of the Yang God realm.
Now that the Wuwei Daoist Temple had been destroyed, the survival rate of the Insect Nest eggs should have been declining year by year. If the Matriarchs obtained the immortal position of the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, they could actually solve the problem at its source.
The Insect Nest had never been able to achieve its wish, and the human-insects were probably another alternative experiment.
Although human-insects had relatively short lifespans, Ren Qing had examined them before. At least they were capable of reproduction, and their cultivation potential was fairly decent.
The only unfortunate point was that human-insects still diverged from the path of the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal.
Human-insects implanted insect limbs into themselves and needed secretions from Heavenly Dao Insects to suppress rejection. Acquired rejection could also be suppressed through the art of Gu cultivation.
It was entirely reasonable for the Insect Nest Matriarchs to abandon the human-insects.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and looked toward Jingzhou. The four Matriarchs had brought several million Heavenly Dao insect people and marched out in full force toward the Buddhist Realm. There had to be some reason for it.
The situation in Jingzhou was becoming increasingly complicated. There was no telling what kind of trouble the Insect Nest would cause.
"Taihan."
"Yes."
Ren Qing's expression remained calm as he issued an order. "Finish dealing with the Insect Nest's resources as quickly as possible. We will return to the Heavenly Palace today."
Daoist Taihan immediately made arrangements. The cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall began thoroughly looting the Insect Nest inside and out, not leaving behind even a blade of grass.
While collecting resources, they also placed talismans at key locations.
The talismans' purpose was to produce violent explosions. Ren Qing naturally could not allow the Restraint Officers' Hall to leave any obvious traces behind in the Insect Nest.
Next, he had to focus his attention on the two immortal positions in Jingzhou. There was no time to deal with anything else.
Ren Qing arrived on the surface of the Insect Nest. After waiting for a moment, the Restraint Officers' Hall cultivators swarmed out of the entrances to the underground tunnels.
He instructed Daoist Taihan to assess the gains of each cultivator. Some Blood Crystals also had to be given as compensation to the cultivators responsible for guarding and maintaining vigilance.
The Insect Vein and Corpse Vein had made an enormous fortune from this operation. Who knew how many cultivators had broken through their bottlenecks?
Ren Qing's thoughts stirred, and the Ghost Shadow covered the mountain. A hundred-meter-wide portal gradually appeared.
Led by Yang God realm cultivators, the masses immediately returned to the Stomach World. The once bustling Insect Nest instantly became deathly silent.
Several hundred thousand human-insects followed behind the group, staring blankly at the portal.
Their breathing quickened. They had never imagined that they would have the opportunity to travel to the Immortal Realm, where, according to legend, they would no longer have to go hungry and could even cultivate techniques that allowed them to become immortals and attain the Dao.
The insect beasts, as an affiliated species, were pulled toward the portal by iron chains.
The human-insects were assigned to the Gu Insect Islands overseas, where they would cultivate Gu arts alongside everyone else.
However, the islands had limited resources. They could only obtain supplies from the Wine Sea, hunting sea beasts and exchanging them in Dream City for the necessities of daily life. Otherwise, it would be impossible to support a population of more than a million.
Ren Qing glanced at the empty Gobi and activated the talismans.
Boom, boom, boom.
Deafening explosions suddenly rang out. The ground violently collapsed toward the center, and the flat Insect Nest instantly became a basin.
Ren Qing did not know whether the Matriarchs could sense what had happened to the Insect Nest. Of course, he estimated that they probably did not care about several hundred thousand human-insects anyway.
Ren Qing cast Heavenly Demon Possession and returned to the familiar Dragon Blood Sea Region.
During his time in the Insect Nest, the Buddhist Realm had expanded once more. The Endless Forest was already forty to fifty percent covered.
The Endless Forest should have been formed from the corpse of a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator. Who knew what kind of negative effects the Buddhist Realm might cause to it?
Ren Qing immediately busied himself with transferring the immortal position, choosing a valley a full fifty thousand li from Jingzhou.
There was a gradually completed map in the Treasure Pavilion of the Stomach World.
The cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall were now exploring unfamiliar regions of this world, causing the map to be completed at an ever-increasing pace. It already covered more than a hundred thousand li.
Ren Qing intended to use the chosen place as a temporary cave dwelling and named it "Ape Mountain."
Ape Mountain was located in a remote area. The only force occupying it consisted of an old and physically declining Yang God realm cultivator. The remaining cultivators did not even have a Yin Difference realm cultivator among them.
Ren Qing transformed into the Ancestral Dragon and plunged headfirst into the boundless ocean.
The waves immediately became turbulent. A several-thousand-meter-long black shadow moved through the depths, frightening the nearby dragons into fleeing in all directions.
Boom.
When the dragon head leaped out of the water, it was already biting two crystal-clear jade stones. They were the magical artifacts used to seal Fengshen Boqiang and Silkworm Mother Insect Immortal.
The dragon claws also held a well-shaped magical artifact. Inside it were the Longevity Forbidden Zone and the two Arhats who had listened to the pseudo-Tathagata's Dharma Assembly.
Because of the special nature of the immortal positions, Ren Qing did not dare to put them into the Stomach World. Heavenly Demon Possession also could not carry the immortal positions tens of thousands of li away.
He simply entrusted the immortal positions and the forbidden zone to the Ghost Shadow for safekeeping. He then erased his own presence and flew toward his destination.
Ren Qing proceeded cautiously, always keeping five thousand li away from Jingzhou.
However, because of Dingguang Buddha's deterrent power, the forces in the surrounding regions had already withdrawn. There was not even a wild beast to be seen, let alone cultivators.
Even the towns and villages had already been completely abandoned.
Ren Qing almost had the illusion that this world had returned to normal.
But when he reached a point ten thousand li from Jingzhou, he noticed that quite a few forces were harboring ulterior motives, secretly watching Dingguang Buddha.
The various forces were relatively restrained. Their main purpose was merely to monitor the situation at all times.
If the Buddhist Realm continued to develop, there was no telling what kind of disturbance it would eventually create. It might even produce an unexpected change in the situation.
When Ren Qing approached within a hundred li of Ape Mountain, he saw a valley hidden within the forest. It was eerily silent.
There were almost no valuable resources within a thousand li of the area.
As a result, Ape Mountain rarely came into contact with the outside world. Like the Wind Void People of old, it might not encounter another force even once in several centuries.
The valley had an unusual terrain. It extended vertically downward for a thousand meters, existing like a ravine in a corner of the forest and rarely attracting anyone's attention.
If Ren Qing set up some formations, he could easily conceal the valley.
Most importantly, according to the investigating cultivators, there was a fissure inside the valley that connected to an underground river flowing for tens of thousands of li.
The underground river might even have a branch leading toward Jingzhou. If part of it had been covered by the Buddhist Realm, Ren Qing could use it to determine what was happening.
He could continue cultivating the Dragon Blood Sea Region there, helping the Heavenly Dao Crack heal.
Ren Qing withdrew his Ancestral Dragon form and landed atop a mountain beside the valley. Looking toward the dense forest, he could faintly hear the cries of apes.
As its name implied, Ape Mountain was occupied by a group of wild monkeys.
The wild monkeys had developed an unusual cultivation civilization. Unfortunately, they did not understand human speech and were also elusive, so the investigating cultivators had never ventured deeply inside.
When Ren Qing arrived, all the wild monkeys had gathered in a corner of the valley, apparently holding some kind of ceremony. The scene was extremely noisy.
The wild monkeys wore no clothes at all and rarely used tools.
They could not even speak. Their everyday communication relied entirely on gestures with their hands and feet, making it impossible for outsiders to detect their presence.
Ren Qing saw several hundred apes dancing and waving their limbs on the far side of the mountain ridge.
They surrounded an old ape covered in white fur. The latter appeared to be the leader of Ape Mountain, but his lifespan was nearly exhausted.
Ren Qing had no intention of interfering with Ape Mountain and was preparing to head directly toward the underground river.
He discovered that the pond in the valley was connected to the underground river, causing its water to remain warm in winter and cool in summer. Fish corpses were occasionally washed into it.
The ceremony held by the wild monkeys was taking place not far from the pond.
Ren Qing instantly appeared above the pond and bent down, preparing to dive into the water. Suddenly, he heard the Yang God realm old ape roar.
"Huh?"
His eyes flickered slightly as he suddenly noticed Ape Mountain's cultivation system.
A blood-red aura would emerge from the wild monkeys' dantians, nourishing their fur and increasing their defensive power.
According to the information flow, the technique of Ape Mountain was called the Skin-Nourishing Art, an extremely crude technique that even struggled to reach the Yang God realm.
Skin-Nourishing Art
Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. To cultivate it, one must hold one or two pieces of heart flesh beneath the tongue until the heart flesh rots, at which point the technique can be successfully cultivated.
A Yang God realm cultivator who had mastered the Skin-Nourishing Art would probably not even be able to defeat an ordinary Yin Difference realm cultivator.
What caught Ren Qing's attention was that the Skin-Nourishing Art had actually been created by Huang Ling. This person had appeared several times among the techniques of the Restraint Officers' Hall.
The old ape was already on the verge of death. Like a final burst of vitality, he beat his chest with both arms, roaring loudly before gradually becoming weak and feeble.
The wild monkeys revealed greedy expressions and scrambled to approach the old ape.
The old ape stabbed a stone shard into his forehead, endured the pain, and cut through his fur. A foul stench of decay spread from the wound.
The surrounding wild monkeys became extremely frightened and pointed at the old ape while repeatedly backing away.
Trembling, the old ape threw away the stone shard, grabbed both ends of his fur with his hands, and forcefully tore the entire pelt away piece by piece.
He revealed a blood-covered body, while his cultivation rapidly deteriorated before everyone's eyes.
Even though the old ape could barely breathe, he refused to let the monkey group help him shed his skin. He endured the pain until the fur had been completely removed intact.
Ren Qing noticed that the hairless old ape did not have a tail at all.
This meant they had most likely originally been ordinary humans. Because they wore monkey pelts, however, they had ultimately transformed completely into the appearance of apes.
The monkey group then selected a successor for the pelt. It was a strong young monkey whose cultivation was also among the few to have reached the Ghost Envoy realm.
He peeled off his own fur. His screams of agony rang out repeatedly, and in the end he put the old ape's pelt on himself again. His cultivation instantly rose from the Ghost Envoy realm to the level of the Yang God realm.
"As expected of a technique created by Huang Ling. It truly is extraordinarily sinister."
Of the techniques created by Huang Ling that Ren Qing knew of, there were three: the Human Skin Book, Resurrection Art, and Beast Heart Ghost. All of them required one to cultivate through torture.
Human Skin Book
Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. To cultivate this technique, one must completely peel off one's own skin, consume a specific medicinal catalyst to regrow it, and repeat the process seven times before successfully mastering it.
Resurrection Art
Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. Cultivation requires the voluntary souls of blood relatives as a catalyst, creating a gap between one's own soul and body. One then replaces one's brain through that gap to successfully master the technique.
Beast Heart Ghost
Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. To cultivate this technique, one must sever all four limbs of a child, consume a medicinal catalyst, and hide within a beast palace chamber. Only after the limbs regrow can the technique be successfully mastered.
After the young ape put on the old ape's pelt, the wounds automatically healed, while his seventy-year lifespan was reduced to just over five years.
The other wild monkeys began fighting over the young ape's original pelt.
Wild monkeys with lower cultivation would wear pelts belonging to those with higher cultivation, using external objects to break through their own levels. Eventually, only a pelt at the Martial Practitioner realm would remain.
Ren Qing casually picked up the pelt as though nobody else were present and stored it in the Treasure Pavilion.
He felt that Huang Ling's Skin-Nourishing Art was rather interesting. It might be possible to refine a ceremonial robe capable of temporarily increasing one's cultivation.
Given a thousand years, Ape Mountain might very well develop into a peculiar civilization.
The apes would be domesticated into puppets, with their pelts passed down from generation to generation. Sooner or later, intelligence would emerge, forming a strange symbiotic relationship.
Ren Qing cast the Zhili Technique and directly obtained the contents of the technique from the apes' memories. He discovered that it had something remarkably similar to the Human Skin Book.
He handed the pelt to Xiao San'er, leaving the latter to investigate whether it could be refined into a magical artifact.
Since the Skin-Nourishing Art was indeed a shortcut technique, Ren Qing instructed Xiao San'er to avoid leaking its contents as much as possible.
Ren Qing had originally intended to bring the entire monkey group into the Stomach World. However, since Huang Ling was involved, if Ape Mountain was actually the latter's breeding ground, then it truly could not be touched yet. Doing so might alert the enemy.
He only took some of the Martial Practitioner realm apes and settled them in the central mountain range of the Stomach World.
The monkey group happened to be able to gather around the newly born mountain gods, especially Lady White Bone's pseudo-soul. The entire group became extremely active, and their intelligence also grew the fastest.
The only exception was Tai Sui Daojun's fungal strain. Even after merging with the Ghost Immortal Office, it remained completely unresponsive.
Ren Qing entered the pond and transformed into a dragon-shaped body of formless shadow, drilling into the source of the water and sensing the turbulent underground river.
After traveling several hundred li along the underground river, the surrounding space gradually became wider and taller.
There were also some strange creatures in the river. They looked like grotesque and terrifying half-fishmen, possessed low intelligence, and relied entirely on instinct to hunt.
Ren Qing checked the information flow of the strange fish, only to discover that they had also mastered the Skin-Nourishing Art.
He became even more certain that this place was Huang Ling's breeding ground. However, after several thousand years, whether Huang Ling was still alive remained a question.
Aside from that, there was nothing wrong with the underground river.
Ren Qing found a grotto to settle in, then began arranging the interior and released a massive number of Fungus People to help manage the environment.
The Fungus People were extraordinarily efficient. They quickly covered the grotto and began planting Dragon Blood Moss.
Ren Qing did not need to do anything himself. Some insects had already begun showing signs of draconic transformation. As the end of the food chain, it would not take long for them to spread the Dragon Blood ecosystem outward.
Ren Qing stood inside the grotto as the surrounding environment continuously changed. Newly cultivated fields appeared in the corners.
The Fungus People needed only a short time to guarantee food self-sufficiency.
To them, a single breath might last as long as a day. In just half a day, the Fungus People tribe could reproduce for several generations.
Ren Qing stored the immortal position in the grotto and established techniques to protect it.
He had just intended to rest while meditating on Heaven and Earth Genesis, preparing to advance to the perfected Heavenly Aberration realm. The Heavenly Dao Crack would be completely healed within a few years.
But then a branch of the underground river collapsed, and the Buddhist Realm began another expansion.
The area added by the Buddhist Realm showed no pattern. More than half a month had already passed since the previous expansion, and Ren Qing had assumed Dingguang Buddha had finally stopped messing around.
The darkness was like a flood, completely drowning the Endless Forest.
If Ren Qing could see the Endless Forest, he would discover vines resembling blood vessels being pulled from the soil, while the trees were joined together, forming the framework of a skeleton.
The Buddhist Realm simultaneously carried the effects of the Heavenly Demon aura, causing flesh to grow from the skeleton.
The skeleton frantically absorbed the darkness, causing the range of the Buddhist Realm to begin shrinking for the first time. The exposed ground was left devastated.
Human-shaped pits could be seen across the ground, as though black goats had been hiding inside them before being driven toward the depths of the Buddhist Realm.
The Endless Forest was not a dead Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator being resurrected. Instead, an enormous black goat was being born.
Ren Qing's scalp went numb. He suspected that the Buddhist Realm's expansion would only end once it reached the Beast Pen. By then, there was no telling what kind of situation would emerge.
He had no way to stop Dingguang Buddha. There was no one in this world willing to sacrifice themselves either. In any case, all his possessions were in the Stomach World, so he could abandon everything and flee at any time.
Ren Qing sensed that Dingguang Buddha's influence on the Nameless One was considerable, especially after the only two Heavenly Aberration realm beings under its control, the Black Crow Matriarch, had fallen into the Buddhist Realm.
His own plans were proceeding methodically. The small Heavenly Court had already attracted several hundred cultivators.
The cultivators cleared immortal and divine statues from the ruins, placing them at the entrance of the Southern Heavenly Gate while actively searching for information about the outside world.
Some of the immortal and divine statues were indeed connected to immortal positions in the outside world. Only by mixing truth and falsehood could they deceive these cultivators, who were several hundred years old.
Ren Qing intentionally guided them in subtle ways, and their exploration of the Buddhist Realm had not stopped either.
But relying solely on bacterial souls, their progress was not even as fast as the Buddhist Realm's expansion, especially because it was impossible to sense direction or time within the darkness.
Ren Qing wanted to figure out how to block the influence brought by the darkness. Otherwise, finding the Taiyin Star Lord trapped deep within Jingzhou would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.