The subsoul collapsed under the influence of the forbidden zone, and the memories returned to the main soul.
Ren Qing thus awoke, his head faintly aching.
That was because the destruction of the subsoul caused the main soul to be implicated and damaged; it would take at least thirty days of rest to recover.
Then Ren Qing noticed that he was actually hanging upside down in mid-air, with several tough threads wrapped around his body, connected to the top.
After trying to exert some force, he found it shouldn't be hard to break free.
Unfortunately, the damage to his soul also indirectly hindered the use of Double Pupils.
Ren Qing could only see a field of darkness around him, vaguely noticing many suspended figures like his own, while dim light shone from below.
He immediately calmed his mind.
Better to first figure out the situation, after all, in a forbidden zone, all sorts of bizarre things could happen.
The shadow flowed into his right palm.
Ren Qing took out over a dozen eyeballs from the Prison Within the Abdomen and fed them into his mouth via the shadow, being extremely cautious not to make a sound.
These eyeballs were called Yin-Yang Eyes and were quite expensive in the Grand Dream Pavilion. By consuming them, one could help heal damage to the soul.
He had specifically prepared them in case the subsoul was harmed.
The pain in Ren Qing's soul quickly vanished.
Double Pupils reactivated, and the darkness in his eyes gradually dissipated.
The place he was in was a large iron cage, likely the one carried by the rice giant earlier. Breaking it open by force would surely cause a stir.
As for the gaps between the bars, perhaps only a child could crawl through.
Since the light in the cage came entirely from the kitchen's fire, it was rather dim, and the top of the cage was completely shrouded in darkness.
He noticed over a dozen humanoid amber blocks hanging nearby.
Inside were corpses of Restraint Officers. But similar to those at the Wuwei Daoist Altar, their bodies were hollowed out.
Besides that, Ren Qing also spotted Huang Ziwang and the others.
They weren't dead, but after entering the forbidden zone, their souls had been interfered with and pulled from their bodies, so they too hung upside-down from the cage's top.
Muyi wasn't among them. She might be one of the few who avoided the forbidden zone.
Ren Qing guessed those amber corpses were Restraint Officers who had previously stumbled into the forbidden zone, perhaps Zhang Mu was among them.
He looked toward the bottom of the cage.
The iron cage wasn't small. Dozens of residents from Annan Town huddled in a corner, and the rest of the space was densely filled with strange insects.
The strange insects were half a person tall, with thick black carapaces covering their entire surface, somewhat resembling blattaria, commonly known as cockroaches.
They wore simple cloth garments, clearly made of rat hide.
These bugmen had wings on their backs and small statures that let them pass freely through the cage bars.
They had already formed a tribal-scale presence inside the cage, constructing many tents from animal skins and using them to host the townsfolk.
Ren Qing furrowed his brows slightly.
Upon observing, he felt it was somewhat absurd.
The bugmen hadn't harmed the townspeople, instead, they offered them the fruits grown on the rats' backs as hospitality.
Ren Qing could faintly hear the voices of the bugmen conversing with the townsfolk.
The bugmen could speak normally, though they weren't very intelligent. They kept calling the townspeople "immortals" and were extremely respectful.
Once the townspeople had ample food, their moods relaxed as well.
They cooperated tacitly with one another, using materials provided by the bugmen to build wooden houses. The atmosphere seemed prosperous.
But this peace was only superficial, clearly the bugmen had ulterior motives.
Still, Ren Qing didn't notice any signs of plantification in those who ate the fruits, suggesting that the food the bugmen offered was relatively safe.
Which only made it feel even more bizarre.
Ren Qing wasn't in a hurry to break free. Besides, his soul was still damaged.
The bugmen felt like ants herding aphids to him, surface-level peace, simply because the townspeople couldn't leave the cage.
Right now, Ren Qing only wanted to recover quickly.
He glanced at the hanging Restraint Officers.
Huang Ziwang and the others were certainly still alive, but due to some unknown ability in the forbidden zone, their souls had been stripped from their bodies.
As long as they didn't act recklessly, they should be fine.
Once Ren Qing's subsoul was reconstituted, he would then leave the cage. Using Huang Ziwang's body might help him locate his own soul.
As for Lu Xiaoyu, she might be able to help too, as long as she wasn't in danger.
Leaving the forbidden zone likely wouldn't happen anytime soon. Ren Qing would definitely need to rest during this period, so cooperation was necessary.
Other Restraint Officers would have to be considered carefully, as they might have more negative side effects.
Suddenly, Ren Qing's expression froze, he had spotted Yu Dachuan among the Restraint Officers.
The latter was still in the form of the Flesh-and-Blood Gourd.
What made Ren Qing envious was the thousands of residual souls sealed within the gourd, including a large number of beast-ghosts.
For Shui Hulu, this might be key to ascending to the Yin Runner realm, or even a stepping stone to the Yang God realm.
If Ghost Shadow absorbed those residual souls, his techniques might be able to undergo their first aberration.
The only question was whether the Aberration Tree could allow selection of a branch when advancing autonomously. Otherwise, it might be a waste of resources.
If the aberration ability turned out to be lackluster, it would be a terrible loss.
Ren Qing suppressed his scattered thoughts, no matter what, he had to try. If successful, it could save him fifty years of lifespan.
He closed his eyes and began to rest, occasionally eating more eyeballs.
Every half-day or so, the bugmen flew to the top to check on the corpses, mainly the amber ones, seemingly looking for something.
Ren Qing kept a close eye on this.
He noticed that the amber would ooze a thick liquid, colorless and odorless. This was likely what the bugmen were after.
The thought was somewhat sorrowful.
After death, a Restraint Officer's Supernatural Remnant would be devoured by the forbidden zone, their soul turned into a puppet, and even their corpse used as food.
Ren Qing shook his head.
He swallowed eyeballs without hesitation, even actively visualizing The Taotie Method, just to accelerate soul recovery.
Ever since being trapped in the Stomach within the Stomach for half a year, Ren Qing had hoarded enough resources to last three or four years, in case of another accident.
Had it not been for the fact that storing the eyeballs too long would reduce their quality, he might've spent every last drop of his blood-crystals.
Ren Qing focused on digesting the eyeballs.
Unknowingly, two days passed.
Suddenly, one of the Restraint Officers began violently flailing his limbs, letting out bestial roars.
This suggested his soul had either become a puppet or was about to die in the forbidden zone, causing the Supernatural Remnant to start separating.
Ren Qing vaguely remembered him, his appearance resembled a chameleon.
The townspeople looked up in terror, seeing only the pitch-black above, as if some terrifying creature lurked in the dark.
Where they had once worn smiles, now their legs gave out beneath them, they had awakened from a sweet dream into a nightmare.
One woman shouted loudly: "A-Yue, A-Yue..."
A little girl of about five or six squatted by the cage bars, staring blankly at the kitchen, her thoughts unknowable.
The woman, having found her, wiped away tears and grabbed Chen Yue's arm, hurrying into a hastily-built house.
Chen Yue lay down and looked out through the gaps. She turned to the woman in confusion and said, "Mother, Uncle A-Jiang said the immortals will come save us. Is that true?"
The woman gave no reply. The roars outside were deafening, and she was entirely consumed by fear, trembling as she clung to Chen Yue.
But the bugmen remained completely unpanicked.
They flew through the air, uttering incoherent murmurs.
Suddenly, Ren Qing seemed to understand their language.
Although they had always called the townspeople "immortals," the strange tones they used now were their actual way of saying "immortal."
The rice giant stepped forward.
Each step seemed to span entire mountains, like the mythical Kuafu chasing the sun.
In the blink of an eye, it arrived at the cage.
Under the overwhelming aura the rice giant exuded, the Supernatural Remnants immediately quieted down.
They used their powers to conceal themselves in the dark, afraid to be discovered, not daring even to make eye contact.
The townspeople looked out through the windows, just beyond stood the rice giant.
It extended its palm, and countless roots spread from its flesh, binding the chameleon Supernatural Remnant, which had no strength to resist.
Ren Qing was now seeing up close how the forbidden zone consumed other Supernatural Remnants.
The chameleon was gradually dragged into its body, the rice composing its form parted, revealing entangled Supernatural Remnants within.
A townsman, near collapse, instinctively dropped to his knees, shouting loudly: "Immortal!!"
"Please save me and take me away!!!"
Moved by his desperation, the others followed suit. They screamed with hoarse voices, heads bowed and foreheads bleeding from kowtowing.
Only Chen Yue still stood dumbly at the window. Even when her mother slapped her palm red, she refused to kneel.
Chen Yue shook her head stubbornly: "Mother, that's not an immortal..."
The woman quickly covered her mouth, eyes filled with fear as she glanced at the rice giant, terrified of drawing its wrath.
But in the rice giant's eyes, the townspeople were smaller than ants, not even worth noticing.
It stepped toward the stove, and the rice it shed drew another swarm of rats.
Ren Qing observed the people in the cage, the atmosphere had changed entirely.
The rice giant opened the pot lid on the stove. Inside was still that bowl of steamed pork, with eyeballs still faintly rotating within.
It placed the chameleon Supernatural Remnant by the bowl. The latter pounced on the food and began devouring it like mad, its belly soon swelling to the limit.
Once all the steamed pork was consumed, the chameleon's flesh began to disintegrate.
Fist-sized chameleon offspring scattered and fled, disappearing into the cracks around the stove.
Ren Qing inhaled sharply.
It seemed that as this forbidden zone continued to consume Supernatural Remnants, the species within grew ever more diverse, like a miniature world of its own.
The rats and bugmen must also have corresponding Supernatural Remnants.
The rice giant did not leave. It walked to the chopping board, then extended an arm into its own body, as if searching for something.
A moment later, it pulled out a whole chicken over a hundred meters tall.
The chicken's flesh was pale white, like it had long been dead.
As if preparing to cook the next dish.
...
A dozen Restraint Officers were stationed in Annan Town to prevent any mishaps.
For a few days, nothing strange occurred.
Then the townspeople suddenly felt parched and feverish. The lines on their chests and bellies grew increasingly hot.
Driven by instinct, they gathered in the poultry pens.
An overwhelming craving filled their hearts.
At first, they still plucked the feathers and cooked the meat, but soon, they began eating raw and bloody.
Among them, Shui Hulu alone consumed over a hundred chickens.
Yet the food vanished from their stomachs, clearly an effect of the forbidden zone.