The blaze vanished in an instant, and the kitchen returned to its original dimness.
The Rice Husk Giant had been drawn here by the rat Mother Supernatural Remnant, but the insectoids were still transporting corpses to the stove without pause.
Ren Qing and Huang Ziwan quickly moved toward the crevice.
Mirror-Faced and Ghost Shadow proved highly effective, so long as they remained in the shadows, even insectoids brushing past had difficulty detecting them.
But when they reached the edge of the stove, they were stunned in place.
The walls within the crevice had turned into a sticky mass of fungal threads, forming a bizarre face three to four meters in size.
The face protruded outward, its facial features blurry, entirely composed of stacked corpse fragments, and muttering incomprehensible gibberish from its mouth.
Ren Qing found it somewhat familiar and quickly realized it increasingly resembled Yu Dachuan.
Could the Restraint Officer atop the stove be him?
But Yu Dachuan's physical body had clearly been discarded in a corner of the Prison Within the Abdomen after Ghost Shadow finished digesting his remnant soul.
Typically, the body holds the Supernatural Remnant, how could he still cast techniques, turning insectoids into zombies to transport flesh?
As Ren Qing was momentarily dazed, another insectoid delivered a corpse into the mouth of the face.
The face unconsciously devoured the corpse, and the fungal threads on the wall spread further, seemingly in the process of forming a complete head.
Ren Qing and Huang Ziwan hid in a hole along the edge of the crevice, several hundred meters away from Yu Dachuan, but they could still clearly observe the stove.
Huang Ziwan dared not make a sound, only furrowed his brow at the busy insectoids.
A soul-split form emerged from within Ren Qing.
He pushed Double Pupils to the limit, wanting to discern truth from falsehood in Yu Dachuan.
He suspected Yu Dachuan's lingering presence was tied to the technique he practiced, known as "Corpse Body."
[Corpse Body]
[Created by the Corpse Immortal. Requires an infant born of a pregnant woman on a yin year, yin month, and yin day as the medicinal guide, to be consumed in order to be cultivated.]
Further information could not be revealed unless Ren Qing acquired the written manual detailing Corpse Body.
The soul-split silently approached, risking discovery, and soon detected a key detail.
One-third of Yu Dachuan's soul was attached to an unknown Supernatural Remnant, the shape of the Supernatural Remnant resembled a twisted, deformed human face.
Ren Qing instantly realized: Yu Dachuan had evidently mastered two techniques, with Supernatural Remnants attached to both his body and soul.
Bang!
The aura emitted by the Rice Husk Giant was as terrifying as substance.
Yu Dachuan regained a sliver of awareness, and slurred, unclear speech issued from his mouth, as if commanding the insectoids.
The insectoids transported flesh without regard for death, causing the fungal threads on the wall to expand once more.
His head now had visible ears, though the neck remained an empty void.
Only when the Rice Husk Giant approached did Yu Dachuan merge into the wall, leaving only faint residual fungal strands on the surface.
But in Ren Qing's soul-split vision, the portion of Yu Dachuan's soul occupied by the Supernatural Remnant had unknowingly already surpassed half.
The zombie insectoids ceased movement, becoming lifeless corpses.
The Rice Husk Giant slammed its palm down, and the insectoids, along with the corpses, were crushed into pulp, splattering even onto the wall.
Ren Qing held his breath, his gaze tinged with apprehension, Yu Dachuan had evaded the Rice Husk Giant's detection as well.
Even though Yu Dachuan hadn't found them, his goal was very likely to locate his lost physical body within the Forbidden Zone.
Preparation was necessary, they were all on the stove, and a confrontation might be unavoidable.
Huang Ziwan was clearly aware of this too. His abdomen swelled slightly, venom accumulating in his stomach.
The Rice Husk Giant lifted the pot lid and retrieved a steaming bowl of rice.
The rat Mother Supernatural Remnant lay sprawled atop the rice, devouring it ravenously. As its body swelled, it continually split off ratmen.
Seeing this, the Rice Husk Giant stepped away.
However, the ratmen did not leave. They greedily devoured the scattered meat chunks atop the stove, rapidly maturing from pups to adult rats.
Some of the ratmen even transformed into giant rats at the bottom of the food chain.
Ren Qing knew it wouldn't be long before a reproductive machine emerged among them, breeding thousands of ratmen.
That would inevitably affect the ecosystem.
"Hungry..."
Yu Dachuan's voice issued from within the wall, and fungal threads seeped out.
The ratmen immediately sensed danger and fled into the holes in the crevice.
Yu Dachuan awakened. He extended a tongue like a long snake and rolled the meat chunks on the stove into his mouth.
After consuming a large amount of flesh, the face on the wall squirmed, slowly swelling like a balloon.
The head fully formed. Countless blood vessels connected the neck to the wall, suspending it in midair.
"Shui Hulu... I swear I'll kill you..."
Yu Dachuan's voice was filled with murderous intent.
Ren Qing used information flow to check Yu Dachuan's body inside the Prison Within the Abdomen and saw that his lifespan was rapidly draining.
In just a few short minutes, over ten years had already been lost.
Yu Dachuan's forehead bulged, clearly using a technique to search for his body's location.
Moments later,
Yu Dachuan's expression froze in shock. The vast Forbidden Zone couldn't locate the body, had it really been destroyed for some reason?
Impossible. If the body were dead, the soul would have sensed it...
He screamed in frustration. Due to the backlash from the technique, the head began to collapse, rotten flesh sloughing off in clumps.
Once the head fully disintegrated, it revealed a withered Yu Dachuan.
His body had already undergone complete vegetal transformation, roots sprouting in all directions had embedded into the wall, even producing isolated fungal caps.
What surprised Ren Qing was that Yu Dachuan's soul was no longer further corroded by the Supernatural Remnant, rather, rice shoots had sprouted from the remaining soul.
Ren Qing looked on with a hint of pity.
The puppet seed of the Forbidden Zone had been prepared. No matter what, Yu Dachuan was doomed. No amount of struggle would help.
Yu Dachuan soon fell into slumber from soul exhaustion.
However, before closing his eyes, the remnants of his flesh transformed into several insects, which flew into a hole through the crevice.
It seemed that as long as Yu Dachuan's lifespan wasn't entirely depleted, he would continue collecting flesh, eventually becoming part of the Forbidden Zone's microcosm.
Such was the horror of the Forbidden Zone.
Even if Ren Qing seemed able to find exploitable weaknesses, in truth he could do nothing to shake the Forbidden Zone itself.
So long as he remained trapped inside, he would eventually be swallowed.
The Forbidden Zone was like a sealed box, trapped insects could still live temporarily, but barring an accident, they were fated to die.
Ren Qing had gained some confidence, but it was only in locating a possible exit. Actually escaping was fraught with uncontrollable risk.
He thought carefully about how Yu Dachuan might still be useful, anything that increased his odds, even slightly, was worth considering.
Huang Ziwan guessed Ren Qing's thoughts and said, "Supernatural Remnants should be somewhat repelled by integration into the Forbidden Zone, couldn't we use that to delay things?"
Ren Qing's eyes lit up. He suddenly thought of a possibility, maybe it really would work?
With that, he peeled off a portion of Ghost Shadow to replace Yu Dachuan's shadow, the latter didn't notice at all.
Ren Qing estimated Ghost Shadow could remain detached for about ten hours.
But that alone wasn't enough.
"Let's get up onto the stove. It should be relatively safe for now."
The two climbed up the wall to the stove.
But just as Ren Qing stood up, zombie insectoids flew out of the crevice, beginning a new round of flesh collection.
"No good, I need to check out the insect nest."
Ren Qing thought of Corpse Food.
The insect nest definitely had stockpiles. Even if its first use was the only one that extended life, it was still an immensely valuable material.
Whether given to an ally or sold to Dream Pavilion, it could be put to use.
Most importantly, if Ren Qing wanted Yu Dachuan to delay the Forbidden Zone's consciousness, then he had to help the man survive longer.
"You go, I need to set something up too."
Huang Ziwan pointed to a corner of the stove where there was an unnoticeable depression, just right for accumulating venom.
Ren Qing nodded.
Time was of the essence now. There could be no slackening. If the Forbidden Zone were sealed off by Restraint Officers' Hall, escape would be near impossible.
He climbed nimbly along the wall, arriving at the hole from which the zombie insectoids emerged.
After only a short distance, Ren Qing was overwhelmed by a stench so putrid it far surpassed the scent emitted by the zombie insectoids.
The zombie insectoids kept flying out, and occasionally, some returned with corpses for the nest.
Ren Qing quickened his pace and soon reached the cave's end. There, a mountain of bones was piled in the corner.
Compared to the reproductive machine formed by the rat Mother Supernatural Remnant, the insectoids' reproductive machine was completely immobile, resembling a beehive.
The beehive was roughly ten meters wide, storing tens of thousands of insect eggs. All over its surface were grotesquely protruding human hands and feet.
However, the eggs were black-gray in color, and through their transparent shells, he could see that the insectoids inside were all stillborn, many missing limbs due to incomplete development.
The beehive trembled, and a dozen eggs hatched, producing only zombie insectoids.
The zombie insectoids forcefully tore off limbs from the cave walls and attached them to their bodies like dolls, though their movements became even clumsier as a result.
Truly "replace what's missing."
Some of the insectoids couldn't even fly, they were tossed to the hive to be absorbed, fueling more egg production.
Ren Qing felt a surge of relief.
Supernatural Remnants manifested differently within each Forbidden Zone. The Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone took the form of herbs, this one formed entire populations.
The Supernatural Remnant was simply used for reproduction. So long as one didn't recklessly enter the tunnels, the danger was much reduced.
Even though escaping the Forbidden Zone would inevitably require venturing into the tunnels to locate the exit, it was still better to be prepared than not.
Ren Qing searched around the hive and soon discovered over a dozen pieces of Corpse Food, placed atop the hive.
The eggs at the top were even larger, likely incubating Giant Insectoids.
When he reached out to touch the Corpse Food, the hive's hatching activity clearly intensified.
Ren Qing raised an eyebrow. If large quantities of zombie insectoids emerged, wouldn't Yu Dachuan awaken earlier?
That would be a good thing.
He didn't hesitate to take the Corpse Food and sprinted out of the tunnel.
Ren Qing quickly returned to the stove.
Huang Ziwan, seeing his speed, was about to ask something, when his scalp tingled and he froze in place.
Tens of thousands of zombie insectoids surged from the crevice, like a locust swarm.
"What the hell did you do?!"