Ren Qing proceeded deeper underground.
Since there was a hidden passage in the Hidden Treasury Pavilion, there might be some unexpected gains.
At worst, he'd only lose a soul clone if things went wrong.
The hidden passage was filled with steps, clearly dug out by hand, and in many places, there were even marks left by fingernails.
Ren Qing's soul clone was semi-corporeal and could perceive temperature.
There was airflow in the hidden passage, and it wasn't as damp as he had imagined.
He didn't know how long he had walked, but once he reached several hundred meters underground, the surrounding space finally widened.
He discovered that the hidden passage had been deliberately laid out with measures to prevent outsiders from entering.
Many key points on the stone walls were covered with mysterious talismans, probably for the purpose of collapsing the tunnel if necessary.
As for the art of talisman-making, Ren Qing had a superficial understanding from cultivation manuals.
He only knew that Wuwei Daoist Altar's talismans had to use the saliva of the Heavenly Dao Worm as the main ingredient, also called worm spit.
Ren Qing took a few talismans off. Even if the characters had weathered and couldn't be activated anymore, it was still better to be safe than sorry.
He then continued deeper and soon reached the end of the tunnel.
He had expected a relatively crude cave, but surprisingly, there appeared a small shrine, resembling a City God Temple in the mortal world.
Ren Qing pushed open the temple's main door. What met his eyes were a large number of coffins.
Densely packed, numbering over a hundred, though the edges were all sealed shut with rivets, making it impossible to tell whether corpses were stored inside.
Aside from that, at the center of the temple stood a statue of a deity, but its appearance was extremely ordinary, like a commoner from the mundane world.
Ren Qing took a deep breath. His soul clone tried to borrow the main soul's strength and forcibly pulled out the rivets on one of the coffins.
It took quite a bit of time before he managed to open the lid.
Inside the coffin lay a skeleton, with not a trace of flesh left.
Ren Qing's gaze swept over the skeleton. Its unique structure made him study it closely.
The spine curved slightly outward. A normal person should have twenty-four ribs, but it had only six, and they were extremely slender.
However, the spine was quite robust, as if all nutrients had been concentrated there.
He could imagine what the skeleton looked like before death, the abdomen swollen high, like a woman nine months pregnant.
On the back of the coffin lid were engraved words, the brushwork somewhat flowing, yet still carrying a firm, forceful energy.
"Liu Donkey from Liu Family Village. Never cultivated. Attempted to use Restraint Officer method to help him enter the path. Died in the year 2543 of the Heavenly Dao."
The Restraint Officer method likely referred to the cultivation techniques of the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Ren Qing opened another coffin. The corpse inside was nearly identical to Liu Donkey's, also with six slender ribs.
The writing on the coffin lid was slightly faded.
"Wang Sangou from Jingzhou City. Never cultivated. Attempted to use Restraint Officer method to help him enter the path. Died in the year 2511 of the Heavenly Dao."
Not convinced, Ren Qing opened several more coffins. The corpses were all the same, and their identities not much different.
Could it be that after cultivating Wuwei Daoist Altar's entry-level methods, the body's aberration could be passed on through reproduction?
A belly like a drum, wasn't that the perfect physique for the Heavenly Dao Egg to parasitize...
If Jingzhou had completely become a subsidiary of the Heavenly Dao Worm, then given enough time, it might be impossible to find a pure human there anymore.
The cultivators in the tunnel had attempted to help mortals cultivate Restraint Officer methods, but all had failed and were buried here.
Ren Qing turned to look at the statue and couldn't help but mutter, "Just how desperate must one be to revere a mortal as a god..."
A strange sense of solemnity and reverence welled up in his heart.
Ren Qing cupped his hands and bowed to the statue, a gesture to release the souls of those mortal cultivators who died because of the Heavenly Dao Worm.
He then continued opening coffins, trying to find more information from the inscriptions on the lids, and discovered that one-third of the coffins contained only ashes.
"Constable Li from Mubai Town. Never cultivated. Attempted to use Beast Pen method to help him enter the path. Had minor gains. Died in the year 2613 of the Heavenly Dao."
"Beast Pen method..."
"Is that the unique technique from the area marked 'Beast Pen' on the map?"
A thought stirred in Ren Qing's mind.
Since the cultivators in the shrine had been researching the Beast Pen and Restraint Officer methods, there should be copies left here.
He began searching and quickly found something.
Several tattered books were pressed beneath the statue's feet.
Ren Qing placed both hands on the statue, slowly exerting force to lift it, careful not to damage the books.
What should've taken only a few minutes ended up taking him half an hour. Even after retrieving the books, he felt utterly drained.
There were five manuals in total. Judging by the wear, they had been read countless times.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged on the ground. The moment his palm touched the manual, the information stream responded, indicating that the techniques were complete.
Four of the books were Restraint Officer methods, which he casually stored in the Prison Within the Abdomen without examining further.
The final manual was undoubtedly the so-called Beast Pen method.
"Divine Possession Technique"
"Created by the Supreme Heavenly Demon. Cultivation requires..."
Ren Qing stared at the information stream. Suddenly sensing danger, he instinctively looked up, and a sharp pain flared in his neck.
By the time he realized what had happened, his main body woke from the nightmare, drenched in sweat.
In the pitch-black room, the familiar iron door stood before him.
Ren Qing touched his neck. His brain still throbbed faintly.
How could he have expected that his soul clone would mysteriously perish inside the Wuwei Daoist Altar?
It meant there was definitely a malevolent entity in the Hidden Treasury Pavilion.
Perhaps it was a Heavenly Dao Worm that had climbed onto the lotus leaf.
Ren Qing carefully recalled his final moments and eventually narrowed the culprit down to the statue.
But he had touched the statue before, and the information stream hadn't reacted, suggesting it was just an ordinary object, not tied to any cultivator.
His head grew fuzzy, and he fell asleep inside the military tent.
Damage to the soul was more painful than any physical wound, like millions of ants gnawing at one's flesh.
When he finally woke again, who knew how much time had passed.
Ren Qing felt utterly feeble, his eye sockets sunken, lips pale, and strength entirely drained.
He sat cross-legged and began visualizing The Blindless Method, suppressing the injuries to his soul.
Then he opened his eyes, his brows tightly furrowed.
Healing the soul would take around a month. With a malevolent entity in the Hidden Treasury Pavilion, far too many changes could happen in that time.
Unwilling to wait, he opened the iron door and stepped outside.
Just as he was about to draw Non-Poison's attention, Li Fangtan spoke first: "Why don't you leave the Stomach within the Stomach? This place isn't suitable for cultivation."
"It's fine for me. Besides, I only ended up here because I offended a Yin Runner–level cultivator."
Li Fangtan said no more.
He had originally intended to have Ren Qing pass on a letter, but after spending over a decade in the Stomach within the Stomach, he wasn't even sure if his friends and family were still alive.
Ren Qing ignored him and turned his gaze toward the corridor's end.
Non-Poison was walking over. Upon seeing Ren Qing waiting for it, its steps grew noticeably hesitant.
Before Non-Poison could turn around, Ren Qing drew the Great Miao Blade and charged forward.
A flash of cold light erupted.
The blade traced a graceful arc, slicing the skin off Non-Poison's back.
Ren Qing sheathed the Great Miao Blade.
Non-Poison fled in disarray.
Ren Qing paid no mind to the fact that the Bottle Imp was floating behind him. He dug out one of the toad's eyeballs with a small knife and tossed it into his mouth.
The eyeball dissolved into heat in his stomach, circulated through his body, and was absorbed by his soul, it felt as refreshing as drinking ice water on a scorching summer day.
His injured soul was more than halfway recovered, needing only a few more days to fully heal.
He prepared to visualize The Blindless Method and regenerate a new soul clone, when he noticed the flickering Bottle Imp.
Ren Qing said sincerely, "Senior, I suffered a deviation while cultivating and injured my soul, hence this desperate measure."
"..."
The Bottle Imp disappeared into the wall.
Ren Qing returned to his room and began visualizing The Blindless Method without delay. Since there were still some eyeballs left in his stomach, he couldn't let them go to waste.
When he opened his eyes again, his soul injuries were already healed.
He sent his soul clone back into the Wuwei Daoist Altar. Fortunately, it didn't appear in the council hall, but at the entrance of the Hidden Treasury Pavilion.
Otherwise, he would've had to figure out a way to cross the water again.
Ren Qing didn't immediately head for the hidden tunnel, instead pulling out his tools to dig up graves.
The tombs with inscriptions housed fairly normal corpses, Wuwei Daoist Altar's outer disciples.
They had died suddenly after attempting to cultivate the Restraint Officer and Beast Pen methods.
But the unmarked graves held something different, inside lay the corpse of an old man wearing a Daoist robe.
The old man had white hair and a youthful face. His skin was still elastic and had no trace of corpse odor, just lacking in color.
Ren Qing touched him with his palm.
The information stream surged.
[Heavenly Dao Child]
[Age: 1,134]
[Lifespan: 5 years]
[Techniques: Dao Dao Dao (Wuwei Daoist Altar), Divine Possession Technique (Possessing Heavenly Demon), ???]
[???]
Ren Qing froze for several seconds.
Why was the Heavenly Dao Child buried so casually in the Hidden Treasury Pavilion?
After all, every known inner sect technique from the Wuwei Daoist Altar had been created by him.
Ren Qing focused on the techniques the Heavenly Dao Child had mastered, unexpectedly, the Divine Possession Technique turned out to be the Beast Pen method.
"The Divine Possession Technique was created by the Supreme Heavenly Demon. Cultivation requires burning the soul's spiritual flame using the body as fuel, absorbing demon remnants, and abandoning the body to refine the soul to succeed."
Ren Qing was a bit disappointed, as the Divine Possession Technique didn't appear to be anything special, similar methods weren't hard to find.
He suppressed his thoughts and continued digging, choosing only the unmarked graves.
After opening seven or eight coffins in a row, each one contained the Heavenly Dao Child's corpse, all identical in appearance.
As for why there were so many corpses, it was probably related to the Beast Pen method.
Ren Qing finally understood, the entity that killed his soul clone in the Hidden Treasury Pavilion was indeed the Heavenly Dao Child, likely driven mad.
In his youth, the Heavenly Dao Child established the Wuwei Daoist Altar.
In his old age, he attempted to break free from the Heavenly Dao Worm, which now seemed to have led to the sect's destruction.
Whether the Wuwei Daoist Altar's techniques were truly his creations, or just a means for the Heavenly Dao Worm to spread its eggs through his body, remained unclear.
Ren Qing leaned toward the latter.
After hesitating briefly, he decided to retrieve the cultivation manuals from the tunnel. At worst, he'd lose a soul clone and just try again.
Moreover, he felt that since the Heavenly Dao Child hadn't attacked directly, there was still a chance to make use of him.
Cradling one of the Heavenly Dao Child's corpses, Ren Qing walked into the tunnel, on full alert and careful to keep noise to a minimum.