Outside Undying Town, a prison cart slowly approached, carrying dozens of criminals.
Seeing that the sky had not yet brightened, Jin Chengxiang signaled the soldiers to drive the criminals toward the empty ground, while he took intermittent puffs of dry tobacco.
After the chaos of the past few days, the soldiers more or less held some resentment toward him.
Jin Chengxiang sighed and said, "Stay alert. Undying Town involves too much. Dozens more patients will appear next. Better be careful."
The soldiers responded one after another, and the criminals were then gathered at the open space where the Longevity Immortal bestowed the Dao.
The criminals all appeared extremely terrified. They bore crimes that would normally lead to execution after autumn, yet were inexplicably exiled to this place.
The oppressive atmosphere of Undying Town felt as though man-eating ghosts hid in the dark.
Ren Qing noticed that the security forces had increased considerably. He used the Ghost Shadow to mark their positions to prevent accidents.
After several days of Dao-bestowal, the patients had already suffered heavy casualties without realizing it, even one Heavenly Master dying from the sudden outbreak of his incurable illness.
Yet no one had been able to enter the medical hall.
Occasionally, soldiers would throw some rancid food into the town, barely enough to sustain them.
The patients had no objections, for they were all immersed in cultivating immortal arts.
Ren Qing still had not received the immortal art bestowed by the Longevity Immortal, which caused Gao Liang to urge him repeatedly.
He knew it was because of the limitations of the sub-soul, which could not imagine an immortal art; in truth, letting the descending main-soul consciousness possess it would resolve the issue.
But Ren Qing was not in a hurry. He used the Ghost Shadow to record the bodily changes of the patients.
Although each of them had several years of lifespan remaining, due to the diseases they developed, the daily consumption of lifespan was several times that of an ordinary person.
And the deeper the immortal art was mastered, the faster the lifespan was consumed.
The morning sun outside the house slowly rose from the horizon, and the figure of the Longevity Immortal appeared once again. The patients left their houses one after another and surged toward the open ground.
They did not pay the criminals any attention, gathering instead in their designated spots.
Ren Qing's previous attempts to approach the immortal art had all ended in failure, mainly because as dawn neared, Night Roaming would vanish at any moment.
He was interrupted each time, so this time he simply looked directly at the Longevity Immortal in advance.
The two Heavenly Masters watched Ren Qing with some anger on their faces, but their bodies were too decrepit for them to speak and rebuke him.
Zhou Yi jumped out from the crowd, face flushed with rage, cursing: "With such great disrespect toward the Immortal Venerable, you still think you can receive the Dao?"
Ice crystals gathered in the palm of his hand, he clearly intended to take this chance to kill.
Gao Liang hesitated for a few breaths when he saw this, but did not step forward to stop him. Even he himself now doubted whether Ren Qing could obtain an immortal art.
The other patients looked at Ren Qing with glee in their misfortune, and the Heavenly Masters also watched quietly.
The criminals, however, smelled the scorching stench spreading in the air, and their expressions turned dazed; some even began fist-to-fist brawling among themselves.
Jin Chengxiang raised his arm, ordering the soldiers to shoot the few criminals who had lost control.
He then stared at Ren Qing for a moment, and seeing that the patients had not fallen into serious chaos, planned to ignore the matter.
But at that very moment, all of the patients suddenly looked toward Ren Qing in shock.
The scene became extremely bizarre.
Ren Qing had his eyes closed, like a deity receiving the reverence of the criminals.
A violent wind swept through, blowing away the bamboo hat on his head, revealing the appearance of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and Five Qi Facing the Origin.
Ren Qing's appearance looked strange, yet somehow carried a mysterious charm.
After cultivating Ze Immortal Arts, one naturally carried a faint immortal aura; Heavenly Dao laws were the same, resulting in anomalies in the sub-soul.
He murmured softly, clearly reciting the immortal art of the Longevity Immortal.
Gao Liang's face filled with ecstasy. He raised his hand and released the Iron Armor Incantation, forming a layer of spiritual light around Ren Qing, just in time to block the ice crystal flung out by Zhou Yi.
Zhou Yi stared at the Longevity Immortal statue in shock and uncertainty, for it was emitting a magnificent radiance.
He did not know whether it was related to Ren Qing.
Only after several full minutes did the patients begin their daily morning lesson.
At the instant the main-soul consciousness was about to leave the body, Ren Qing finally finished recording the immortal art. Its contents were all vague and ambiguous characters.
This immortal art was called "Soul-Eating Spell," and had some degree of relation to Ze Immortal Arts.
Just as he wanted to examine it closely, the information stream unexpectedly displayed something.
[Advance to Disease Type , Deformed, will consume one year of lifespan]
The main-soul consciousness returned to the main body, but outside, the information stream refused to acknowledge the Soul-Eating Spell, showing that this technique existed only within the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Ren Qing did not know the situation of his main body. He did not wait for the morning lesson to end and left the open ground immediately.
Gao Liang's expression darkened. He wanted to go forward and stop him, but because he was within the crowd, he lost a few seconds, and the other party had already vanished.
"Cough cough cough cough cough..."
A fit of coughing came from the Heavenly Masters, their skeleton-like bodies faintly visible beneath their black robes.
Gao Liang hurriedly turned with respect, only to hear the two Heavenly Masters discussing matters regarding Ren Qing, their words filled with longing for longevity.
"Tu Bo, since the Longevity Immortal manifested an anomaly, the immortal art bestowed upon this person must be different?"
"Bring him here. We will explore the Great Dao together."
Under the orders of the Heavenly Masters, the patients began searching for Ren Qing's residence within Undying Town, with Gao Liang acting the most frenzied.
Gao Liang's eyes were bloodshot. He searched day and night to find Ren Qing.
As long as he obtained the immortal art that even the Heavenly Masters desired, he would surely be able to enter the medical hall; the path of longevity felt within reach.
The chaos lasted for more than half a month.
Gao Liang had barely slept at all. His body had lost nearly all its flesh, his movements had become sluggish, and "Ren Qing" was close to becoming an obsession.
When all the other patients had already given up, he still did not stop.
Gao Liang searched the houses over and over again, even skipping morning lessons, muttering incessantly about his desire to attain longevity and the Dao.
He did not know that Ren Qing, cloaked in Ghost Shadow, had openly walked out of Undying Town, with the hysteria vanishing as well.
Ren Qing arrived at the broken temple outside the town and sat cross-legged on the ground.
His main body was completely unable to grasp the Soul-Eating Spell, showing that this technique relied on the unique rules of the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
It might even be related to lifespan extension.
He imitated the patients' method of cultivation, closed his eyes, and began reciting the Soul-Eating Spell. Immediately, he felt abnormalities arising in his meridians.
Although there was some stinging pain, the flow of his blood clearly sped up.
Ren Qing's body became gaunt as a result; no matter how much he ate, he could not make up for it, and his lifespan consumption grew increasingly severe.
He knew this was because of the Body-Weak disease type, which prevented the absorption of nutritional energy from food, cutting off the possibility of cultivating the Soul-Eating Spell normally with this body.
Ren Qing cursed under his breath.
The Body-Weak disease type had felt like it had mild drawbacks at the time, but it turned out to be the most troublesome.
With no other option, he had to use the information stream.
[Advance to Disease Type , Deformed, will consume one year of lifespan]
Besides the Deformed disease type, the Body-Weak type could also advance, but to be safe, choosing the Deformed disease type was more reliable.
After he silently confirmed the choice, his original five-year lifespan instantly dropped by one year, and the hollowness within his body grew worse.
The five human faces he had grown twisted and let out uncontrollable laughter, but under the information stream's exemption of cost, these abnormal organs quieted down again.
But Ren Qing did not feel stronger at all; instead, he grew even weaker.
[Ren Qing]
[Lifespan: 4 years, 9 months, 12 days]
[Disease Types: Body-Weak, Deformed]
The only visible change was that the characters for "Deformed" had slightly darkened.
His information appeared almost unchanged, yet his lower body had lost sensation, and his lifespan was decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Ren Qing's current state should be equivalent to that of a Heavenly Master, and he did not know how he could enter the medical hall.
He took several gulps of Peach Wine, recovering a bit of strength.
He then glanced at the lifespan required to continue advancing the Deformed disease type, and it had become four years, equivalent to most of the sub-soul's life.
He hesitated for a moment, but discovered that he had no choice at all.
Since he could not cultivate on his own, he could only rely on forcibly advancing by consuming lifespan. Ren Qing intended to see what use this immortal art truly had.
[Advance to Disease Type , Deformed, will consume four years of lifespan]
As he drained his lifespan, the Deformed disease type sprouted and germinated within his body, but still lacked a catalyst, seemingly just short of undergoing mutation.
The sub-soul fell into near-death. The meridians across his body burst out like the branches of a plant, but under the information stream's suppression, stopped growing.
Without the information stream, he would likely have turned into a humanoid sapling.
Ren Qing's pupils dilated. His blood had dried up, and the few months of lifespan remaining were insufficient to sustain life.
On the brink of death, he looked once more at the information stream.
[Disease Type: Body-Weak, Deformed Tree Seed]
The sub-soul then completely died, and the corpse decayed into sludge in a short time, while the Ghost Shadow hid the Dream Seed behind the three immortal statues.
Ren Qing's main body opened its eyes, memories flooding in. After walking once through the border of life and death, it took him a long time to calm down.
He stretched lazily, but suddenly sensed something wrong.
Why did his main body also feel that rapid lifespan consumption?
Ren Qing quickly summoned the information stream, and his expression turned shocked, for his lifespan was decreasing at the rate of half a day per minute.
But the lifespan being consumed had appeared out of nowhere, five extra years.
Wait...
Ren Qing's breathing grew heavy. Could the lifespan consumed by the information stream inside the Longevity Forbidden Zone... actually be added onto the main body?
He stared at the lifespan display, watching until the five years had completely drained away, and then the lifespan returned to normal, allowing him to exhale in relief.
This proved that temporary lifespan could indeed be obtained inside the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Ren Qing was overjoyed.
He did not expect to gain hundreds of years; even fifty years of lifespan per attempt was enough, just right for performing aberrations on his techniques.
Of course, he also needed to find a method to extend the lifespan of the sub-soul inside the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Besides relying on the medical hall at the center of Undying Town, he needed another method, or the sub-soul would die far too quickly.
His attention turned toward the mutated tree in his mind.
All he could rely on were the Ghost Shadow and the Dream Seed he had brought into the Longevity Forbidden Zone. He had to find an aberration ability that could break the situation.
But the aberrations of the dream technique were already complete; he could only work from the secondary techniques of the Shadow Ghost Technique-"Human Skin Book" and "Bone Armor Technique."
The aberration branches of secondary techniques would naturally influence the Ghost Shadow.
There were countless aberration branches for techniques, and he had previously skimmed past them roughly.
These two techniques were already close to breakthrough, and touching the mutated tree rashly could loosen the bottleneck and cause them to advance on their own.