Ren Qing grew increasingly proficient at refining skull artifacts. In just half a day, he had already exhausted all the materials he had accumulated.
Additionally, he specially refined skin-type artifacts used to counter beast-transformation techniques, primarily meant to be sold to fledgling reserve officers.
However, compared to veteran Restraint Officers, there was very limited blood crystal and lifespan to be earned from reserve officers, so the pricing wasn't too high.
Several days passed, and the situation in Sanxiang City grew somewhat chaotic.
Mainly because the arrival of monstrous infants came with almost no warning, and many Restraint Officers had their vision clouded by the aura of the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
The Restraint Officers' Hall divided the farmland on the outskirts into four zones, sending Restraint Officers to be stationed in each. The civilians gradually began to evacuate.
Ren Qing originally thought that when Li Tiangang said "keep watch," he just meant patrolling a designated area, but it turned out he was actually appointed as the stationed Restraint Officer for the western outskirts of the city.
A "stationed Restraint Officer" was usually a top-tier cultivator who had undergone two aberrations, or even a Restraint Officer who had undergone three aberrations, Ren Qing's credentials were a bit thin.
But this also showed that the Restraint Officers' Hall was gradually involving him in core matters.
In his free time, Ren Qing went to inspect the situation and found that the western outskirts were being managed by Zhang Qiu, who handled the Restraint Officers with great ease.
The multiple monstrous infant incursions had all been repelled, with only one case of minor injury.
Seeing this, he resumed playing the hands-off manager, not even showing his face, after all, the role of stationed Restraint Officer was just to make sure nothing went wrong.
During this time, Ren Qing's only trouble came from Old Third, who seemed to want to obtain the complete content of the Blindless Method from him.
Old Third must have developed this desire after being exposed to some spell technique.
He had no qualifications to cultivate the Blood Dog Gang's Divine Leg Sutra.
Aside from the fact that the technique had to be initiated when the bones were still developing, his status in the gang wasn't high enough to acquire a Supernatural Remnant.
In this world, the lifespan limit for ordinary people was fifty years. By age fourteen, the bones were basically set, and it wasn't uncommon for them to already be married with children.
As for the Blindless Method, although Old Third had previously come into contact with it, he was missing one eye. Even Ren Qing wasn't sure whether he'd be able to master it.
After warning Old Third, Ren Qing ignored him.
Being a Restraint Officer may look glamorous, but in truth the risk was too great, there were plenty who died shortly after coming into contact with spell techniques.
The Heavenly Dao Method, Beast Pen Method, Restraint Officer Method, none of them were anything less than a nine-deaths-one-life path.
His refining had exhausted his materials; it was about time to explore Doushuai Palace.
Ren Qing's soul-clone, carrying ghost shadows, entered Wuwei Monastery.
The collapse of the Daoist grounds was growing more severe, some corpses had even been washed out through the gaps in the pond.
Ghosts knew what lay outside the pond.
But as the water level fell, the wall surrounding the pond gradually became exposed. The material looked somewhat like that of an ordinary water vat.
Only the vat's surface was covered in cracks and seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
Seeing this, Ren Qing felt slightly grim. Heavenly Daozi probably wouldn't last much longer, even if his lifespan still showed four years, he might suddenly die within half a year.
Once Heavenly Daozi's soul completely transformed into the Supreme Heavenly Demon, even the remnant soul held by the Restraint Officers' Hall would likely undergo strange changes.
He signaled for the ghost shadow to leap into the pond and swim toward Doushuai Palace.
Because Fire Refining Palace was far from the destination, it took Ren Qing a bit of time, though nothing unexpected occurred.
The exterior of Doushuai Palace didn't appear as out of place as Fire Refining Palace, it looked much like an ordinary Daoist temple.
At the entrance was a dilapidated three-legged bronze cauldron.
Ren Qing examined the bronze cauldron carefully and discovered it was actually a magical artifact.
However, after enduring the fall of Wuwei Monastery, the cauldron was already severely damaged, there was no trace of magical power left.
Ren Qing turned to enter Doushuai Palace but suddenly slapped his forehead as if remembering something and returned to the bronze cauldron.
He placed his palm on the cauldron, and with the sound of metal clashing, over a dozen Dragon-Snake Spines appeared out of thin air.
Using the Prison Within the Abdomen as a relay station, his soul-clone could barely make use of the Dragon-Snake Spine, just enough to store the cauldron.
After all, if you didn't take free resources, someone else would.
It was a pity that the Tombstone Furnace in Fire Refining Palace couldn't be taken by such rough means.
The bronze cauldron was covered by the Dragon-Snake Spines and slowly pulled into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Ren Qing felt the immense weight of the bronze cauldron and couldn't help but show a pleased expression.
It took him more than ten minutes before the cauldron was finally pulled in and crashed onto the floor of the prison cell, the sound thunderous.
Without any hesitation, Ren Qing threw the cauldron into the Flesh Furnace.
There was no point in trying to repair the magical artifact, better to smelt its raw materials, which were still extremely valuable.
The Flesh Furnace roared with vigorous flames.
However, the bell-gourd soul used as fuel wouldn't last much longer, at most another half-month before turning to ashes.
Ren Qing was troubled over where to find a replacement.
As the bronze cauldron melted, large amounts of molten iron pooled inside the Flesh Furnace, and Ren Qing's bones visibly benefited from it.
Especially the Dragon-Snake Spine, he could clearly feel the toughness of his life-bound magical artifact increase.
It seemed the Flesh Furnace wasn't merely for refining materials, subtly, it was also reinforcing Ren Qing's foundation.
He took out the arm of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable and inserted it into the keyhole. The door didn't open with a sound, instead, it simply swung open with a push.
He looked around the room curiously.
Inside Doushuai Palace was cluttered with miscellaneous items, mostly daily necessities.
In the corner were neatly arranged more than a dozen skeletal corpses. They had likely died more than several decades ago.
The bones were covered with some black dust, probably from decayed clothing that had originally been used to bury them.
Inscriptions were carved into the wall:
[Three years after the fall of Wuwei Monastery – Tomb of Qingliuzi]
[Seven years after the fall – Tomb of Yunzhongzi]
[Thirty-three years after the fall – Tomb of Huang Qi]
Most of the dead hadn't survived even ten years, only Huang Qi had lived for thirty-three.
Yet there were only corpses, no Heavenly Dao Worms.
Huang Qi had also cultivated the Nether Sea Breathing Art and was an inner disciple of Wuwei Monastery. It was unclear whether he had become a core disciple in the end.
Ren Qing began to speculate.
Doushuai Palace had likely served as a refuge for surviving disciples during the sect's destruction, but with limited resources, even they couldn't escape death.
A sense of unease arose in Ren Qing's heart.
They'd been trapped inside Doushuai Palace without food. It was entirely possible they'd lived on pills, maybe not even a mouthful of soup left.
Ren Qing walked through the clutter, eyes sweeping the surroundings.
Though Doushuai Palace appeared small on the outside, it actually contained eight entire pill refining rooms, all equipped with various bronze cauldrons.
But the bronze cauldrons that were originally used for refining pills were now piled with white bones.
As he approached one of the pill refining rooms, Ren Qing noticed the medicine bottles on the wooden shelves hadn't been touched, already coated in a thick layer of dust.
He picked up a bottle labeled "Fasting Pills", supposedly to suppress hunger for several days. But the information flow showed something completely different.
[Lifeless Pill]
[Condensed from Heavenly Dao Worms; stimulates larval growth upon consumption.]
Ren Qing's mouth twitched.
He skeptically picked up bottle after bottle of pills, but no matter what the label said, they were all Lifeless Pills.
Then why did the disciples in Doushuai Palace prefer to eat each other rather than take the pills? Why did they die so miserably?
Moreover, the door to Doushuai Palace could be easily pushed open, why did no one think to leave?
Even if the water outside was full of Heavenly Dao Worm larvae, they wouldn't necessarily be trapped inside, right?
Unless it was impossible to leave...
Ren Qing searched all the pill refining rooms. The situation was largely the same.
He tossed the bronze cauldrons into the Flesh Furnace and gave the pills to the Heavenly Dao Worms inside his ghost shadow, no waste.
Still, no clues about the Supreme Heavenly Demon had been found.
Ren Qing returned to the main hall and grabbed one of the corpses, throwing it into the Flesh Furnace. The flames sizzled upon contact.
After a while, the skeleton gradually burned to ashes.
Previously, he had tested this with the bell-gourd corpse and managed to refine only a fingernail-sized bit of corpse food, barely useful.
But this skeleton was different.
The bones slowly melted and turned into translucent, glass-like crystals.
The Fuel King on the bone-white throne became more solid, looked like it could last another seven or eight days.
After several hours, the bones were fully gone, and a crystalline substance dropped into Ren Qing's hand.
[Heavenly Demon Bone]
[Condensed by the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique. Eating it increases soul strength, but causes soul aberration.]
[Can be used to restore the soul but will induce aberration.]
Ren Qing took a deep breath.
All the sins created by the Restraint Officers' Hall... Doushuai Palace was probably not a sanctuary, but a prison where Heavenly Daozi had confined the surviving disciples.
They were clearly tainted by the aura of the Heavenly Demon, trying to restore their souls through consumption, only to fall ever deeper.
Ren Qing rolled the Heavenly Demon Bone between his fingers.
Corpse food only worked once, but the Heavenly Demon Bone could continuously strengthen the soul, clearly superior.
If the aberration problem could be solved, it would be an excellent resource.
Most importantly, it could also extend the time the soul remained usable as fuel.
If the aura of the Heavenly Demon could create the Heavenly Demon Bone, then logically, collecting the remnant souls of monstrous infants could provide a constant supply.
Ren Qing pocketed the Heavenly Demon Bone and quietly tossed the rest of the corpses into the Flesh Furnace.
Then he went in search of pill recipes.
Eventually, he found a hidden compartment in a side room, stuffed with numerous pill formulas.
Upon examining them, Ren Qing couldn't help but sneer, all the formulas without exception involved Heavenly Dao Worms, utter trash.
Under the influence of the Heavenly Dao Worm, Heavenly Daozi had created countless pill recipes, but all were intended to accelerate the growth of Heavenly Dao Worms.
Fasting, life-extension, anti-aging, their effects were really just transformations by the worms. There wasn't a shred of true alchemical function.
Worse still, the recipes stated that the pills contained poison.
Cultivators had been reduced to mere filters for toxins, what a pathetic end.
As Ren Qing flipped through the recipes, his expression suddenly changed.
A few pages were filled with hasty handwriting and dotted with bloodstains, evidence of the writer's terror before death.
"Thirty-two years after the fall of Wuwei Monastery... left by Huang Qi... finally restored the pill formula... there is still hope..."
Ren Qing was slightly surprised, and quickly turned the pages to read more.