Between the Water Marsh and Xiangxiang there was clearly only half a meter of distance, yet the environment was already worlds apart.
Ren Qing, wearing a Daoist robe, had just stepped into the Water Marsh when he could not help but sharply suck in a breath of cold air.
He only felt waves of heat rushing against him, his throat slightly stinging with each breath, and his sweat was baked dry by the high temperature before it even flowed out.
He prepared to walk a bit further before summoning the sand-boat, and could not help but lift his head to look toward the sky.
The suns on both sides were clearly no different, yet the sunlight became extremely scorching; under the effect of the heat, even the air began to twist.
Whoosh...
Ze Sand shot over like bullets, striking his Daoist robe with crackling sounds.
Ren Qing could not help but harbor suspicion: in such a harsh Water Marsh, could there really be mortals capable of survival? Thinking of it, it was somewhat inconceivable.
He had just been about to use Ghost Shadow to cover his body surface, in order to disperse part of the heat.
But he suddenly discovered the Scapegoat Skin had become somewhat active, clearly the sunlight like blazing flames was able to promote the cultivation of the art.
He was a little speechless about this.
It seemed that the Human Skin Book really did strengthen itself through torment; if Ren Qing did not "cheat," he would probably have to suffer quite a bit.
However, he guessed that the ability of Scapegoat Skin was not only transferring injuries, but could even imperceptibly help a cultivator adapt to the environment.
For example, in the Water Marsh, resistance to high temperature would gradually strengthen.
The gravel beneath Ren Qing's feet was also releasing heat; as Ze Sand slowly flowed, only by continuously moving his feet could he avoid being roasted.
This Water Marsh place was really too strange.
Ren Qing continued forward for another hundred meters, until he had left Xiangxiang behind, then summoned the sand-boat from the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Bang!!!
The ferocious sand-boat tore through the air as it emerged, its whole body like it was clad in bone armor, its prow the vivid and lifelike head of a ghost-wolf.
Ren Qing leapt onto the deck.
But before the sand-boat had even begun sailing, in just a few breaths of time, half the hull had already sunk into the ocean of Ze Sand.
Ren Qing had no time to drink water, and quickly spread the sails open.
Although the sand-boat artifact was refined entirely by his own hand, the materials were after all extraordinary, and operating it was indeed rather complex.
The wild wind struck the sails, and the whole sand-boat gave off creaking sounds.
Ren Qing felt somewhat uncertain, but as the sails absorbed a little of the wind's force, they gradually began to drive the sand-boat northward.
The sand-boat pierced out of the dunes; its speed was not considered fast, but an artifact was no ordinary vessel to compare with. The sails suddenly snapped taut.
Boom!!!
The sand-boat broke through the obstruction of the dunes, as if a pair of giant hands were pushing it from behind.
Most importantly, the surface of the sand-boat had an invisible field, easily blocking the wind and sand outside.
Only the sunlight still blazed; Ren Qing's sweat could not be stopped, flowing ceaselessly from his pores.
Ren Qing was not in a hurry to collect Ze Sand, instead taking out clear water from the Prison Within the Abdomen, and incidentally using the ability of Immortal in the Mirror to cool it down.
As the cool water poured into his throat, it was as if he had come back to life.
It could be seen that if one stayed in the Water Marsh for a long time, even a cultivator's body would still develop problems, perhaps contracting stubborn illnesses like fire-poison.
That "wine gu" formed from the lungs, indeed had some use.
Could it be that the Water Marsh really did have mortals existing, and even forming a certain scale?
At this moment Ren Qing noticed that the sweat evaporated into mist which floated in midair, yet even under the sunlight it did not dissipate.
Earlier, while walking, the wind and sand had been too fierce to notice this.
"The Water Marsh, clearly it is a desert, yet偏偏 it is full of connections with water."
Ren Qing poured some clear water on the deck, which quickly evaporated completely, but it did not form into condensed mist.
He gave rise to a strange thought: could it be that the mist possessed life, only brief as mayflies, born at dawn and dead by dusk?
Ren Qing tried to touch the mist with his hand, but passed straight through.
The strange mouth could not swallow it into the Prison Within the Abdomen, Ghost Shadow was likewise powerless.
Only after trying all sorts of arts did he confirm that the mist existed only in the eyes, the external world could not affect it.
Ren Qing recalled the extra person in the house when Yan Feng was unconscious, and the missing moisture from his body; the two were very likely connected.
At present Yan Feng still had not awakened; Sun's explanation was that the body's aberration had already disappeared, but the consciousness had gone who knew where.
Li Tiangang there should already have reacted to this matter, so in these days no other Restraint Officer had again shown similar aberration.
"Marsh People... Marsh People... just what the hell are these things..."
Ren Qing muttered a few sentences, then took a map from his bosom to examine.
The map was drawn by the Restraint Officers' Hall, and would be gifted when taking a mission, mainly marking the positions of temporary camps.
There were also some notes, such as about the high temperature, and the day-night temperature difference, etc.
For now he did not plan to head to the camps, but to first explore within a hundred li.
Ren Qing put away the map, hesitated a moment, then again used clear water to touch the Ze Sand, but it did not cause water to gush out as in Xiangxiang.
However, faint screaming came from within the Ze Sand, the remnant souls thereby scattering completely.
It was as if the Water Marsh was preventing the Ze Sand from escaping.
So only in Xiangxiang could the remnant souls in the Water Marsh manage to break their bonds, although in the end they would still be utterly destroyed.
Ren Qing walked to the edge of the deck, squinting as he looked at the boundless desert, fearing it would not change in the slightest even after hundreds or thousands of years.
After several hours passed, all he saw was still the empty desert, with no change at all.
Ren Qing suddenly felt boredom. Though the Water Marsh everywhere revealed strangeness, to seek clues of the Wine God Technique was certainly not something that could be accomplished in a single day.
Ren Qing's mindset calmed.
He adjusted the rudder's direction, then sat cross-legged at the deck's center.
The strange mouth in his palm opened, Ze Sand gathered in bundles and was swallowed into the Prison Within the Abdomen, and the sand-man's growth was further enhanced.
By now the sand-man was fully twenty meters tall, the piled hill higher and higher; the ghost-wolf and Kunpeng both deliberately stayed far away.
This showed that even though all were aberration out of control, the upper limit of endless sand and techniques like Mountain Deity was clearly higher.
But the sand-man also had shortcomings: its intelligence was clearly lower than that of the ghost-wolf and Kunpeng, giving the impression of being as dull as a boulder.
If a cultivator mastering Wind and Sand Method really acted recklessly as Ren Qing did, before long they would completely lose their wits.
After Ren Qing had collected innumerable Ze Sand, he found that although the sand-man's growth had no limit, he himself quickly reached a saturated state, and had to wait for digestion to finish.
He no longer contemplated The Taotie Method, and after opening his eyes stretched lazily.
In the meantime he had already lost much sweat.
The floating mist formed into human shape, indeed resembling Ren Qing's appearance.
What would happen if the mist completely solidified was unknown, but Ren Qing would not risk aberration; perhaps Yan Feng had fallen unconscious precisely because of this.
He once again tried to touch the mist, saw it was still without reaction, and then entered the cabin.
The cabin's temperature was much lower, mainly because the sand-boat's materials were all yin-attributed, Bonewood could even temporarily contain souls.
Ren Qing had indeed put some effort into furnishing the sand-boat.
Even though he no longer needed rest, he had still prepared a bed, and even the kitchen had a stove for cooking.
Ren Qing brought the husky into the external world, letting it dash about the corridor.
Until the husky charged onto the deck, then immediately let out a wretched cry, and came back down disheveled, no longer daring to run around.
Ren Qing set his split soul atop the mast; with Bonewood's protection it was fine, and could keep watch long-term.
The husky's role was similar; although merely a somewhat stronger beast, its instinct toward disaster was extremely sensitive.
It could just serve to remind him at any time.
Ren Qing checked his body for abnormalities, and found his skin had become much darker.
But his skin's tolerance to high heat had improved somewhat; presumably in only a few months he would adapt to the Water Marsh's heat.
Ren Qing entered the kitchen and began to prepare food.
The various resources in the Prison Within the Abdomen were sufficient for three or four years of consumption, and could always be replenished from Avici Hell, so there was no need to save.
But just as he was steaming rice, strange cracking sounds came from the sand-boat's bottom, and immediately its speed suddenly slowed.
Ren Qing quickly went onto the deck, and a bone-piercing chill rushed against him.
The sun set, the waning moon rose.
The night was far colder than imagined, as if arriving in another world.
Ren Qing knew that deserts were inherently hot by day and cold by night, the Sahara's day-night difference was dozens of degrees, yet he had not expected the Water Marsh to be so exaggerated.
A thick frost formed on the surface of the dunes, directly wedging the sand-boat into the Ze Sand, unable to move unless releasing the wind-force stored in the sails.
Hot and cold alternated; countless vapors seeped from within the dunes, forming vast clouds that veiled the waning moon.
The clouds dispersed extremely fast, lasting only a few breaths.
Ren Qing felt that in the flow of the clouds, there seemed to form vague visions like mountains and rivers, but they vanished in an instant.
He did not know whether it was coincidence, and simply stayed in place.
A night passed in utter silence.
The Water Marsh truly was the graveyard of living beings; not only were there no plants or animals, not even insects could be seen.
When the sun rose, the dunes' ice layer melted, sand and wind rose, and the sand-boat once more began to move involuntarily.
Ren Qing mainly headed northeast.
He continued absorbing Ze Sand, but deliberately had his split soul observe the sweat turning into mist.
It seemed that once the mist became human-shaped, it no longer continued to change.
Ren Qing inwardly pondered and realized that back then Yan Feng had very likely undergone aberration when experiencing day-night alternation.
Under normal circumstances, when mist met cold it ought to turn into ice crystals, but what if it turned into another kind of special life?
The so-called Marsh People?
Ren Qing did not plan to verify this with himself; at noon he left the deck, and soon the mist dispersed.
He quietly waited for the night to arrive.
As the sun slowly sank, once more came the time of alternation between day and moon.
Ren Qing appeared on the deck, three Dream Seeds turning into eye pupils on his forehead, main and secondary souls pushing The Blindless Method to the utmost.
So much so that veins bulged around his eyes, tears slowly flowed under irritation.
He lifted his head to look toward the clouds.
Whether real or illusory, he saw lofty mountains standing in the clouds.
The mountain became more and more bizarre, it was actually an old Daoist of only an upper body, emaciated as firewood, his skin covered with ulcers.
The old Daoist's body was immense, atop his head were several Daoist temples, and dozens of Daoists stepping on clouds scurried about like flies on rotting flesh.
On his forehead, bloody words were carved:
Immortal Abode, Qingxu Temple.