The yin-laden Weian Town sat in a dead angle of the mountain ridge, not only blocking most of the daily morning sun, but also making the land unsuitable for cultivation.
At first glance, large swathes of rice were planted outside the town, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that the formed grain ears were only the size of sesame seeds.
This was clearly caused by a lack of soil nutrients and insufficient sunlight.
Yet the townsfolk had never considered relocating, for reasons unknown continuing to hold fast beneath the mountain ridge.
More than a dozen farming households tended the fields, and one could also see sturdy, broad-waisted strongmen nearby, clearly valuing grain more than their own lives.
All of the farmers possessed traits different from ordinary people, some had deformed limbs, others had facial features growing where they should not.
Hearing the sound of footsteps, they all raised wary gazes.
They saw an old man and a young woman walking out of the town. The farmers' expressions relaxed, and some even greeted them.
The elder was named Wang Qi. His skin was covered in sores, and his clothing was rather plain, but he was a well-known "hole digger" within dozens of surrounding villages.
So-called hole diggers referred to a common trade dealing with rodent infestations, able to identify rat nests through various traces, then drive them out using poison, fire, smoke, and similar methods.
Following behind Wang Qi was his granddaughter, Wang Ling.
Wang Ling was at most in her early twenties, with an unremarkable appearance, and she also suffered from hysteria, so she had not married even now.
"Ling'er, don't go any farther. Do you not know about the mountain fire some days ago? It nearly burned through the entire range."
Wang Ling pulled a crude two-meter wooden cart with her right hand, muttering to herself incessantly. "Grandpa, I found my little brother. I found my little brother. He's still alive..."
Wang Qi fell silent, not knowing how to refute his granddaughter, so he followed Wang Ling wordlessly, sighing continuously.
Ten years ago, Weian Town had suffered a famine. At the time, several thousand people died, the scene as horrifying as hell on earth.
In a famine, many things go against human ethics, beyond imagination.
Wang Ling's younger brother, Wang Shanlu, had died because of this. When people were on the verge of starvation, whoever died first would have their corpse divided among the remaining family members.
Wang Ling ate Wang Shanlu's flesh, and from that point on, she went mad.
"Grandpa, Grandpa, we're almost there..."
Wang Qi's thoughts were interrupted by his granddaughter's cries. He hurried toward a tree hollow at the edge of the forest, thinking of how to comfort Wang Ling.
"My little brother is here."
As a result, Wang Ling's frail body dragged a skin-and-bones man out of the tree hollow, staring blankly at Wang Qi with a foolish smile.
Wang Qi's eyes felt sore. During the famine, Wang Shanlu had indeed looked just like this, so thin that even wild dogs could not be bothered with him.
But Wang Qi knew this man was not Wang Shanlu.
The man most likely came from some nearby village, fleeing to Weian Town because of the mountain fire, and seemed to have fainted from starvation.
"Grandpa, Grandpa, let's go home."
Under Wang Ling's anxious urging, Wang Qi found himself in a dilemma.
The rules of Weian Town forbade outsiders from entering. With the old face he had built up over many years, he could barely make an exception, but...
There was the fear of malignant ghost ailments, or disciples of some immortal sects.
Wang Qi said softly, "Ling'er, once your little brother wakes up, he will naturally return home."
"No, no, his forehead is bleeding, he's going to die, he's going to die!!!"
Wang Ling grew frantic, her face twisting as she grabbed Wang Qi's arm hard enough to hurt.
Wang Qi froze for a moment, then hurried over to check the man's condition. His expression immediately became complex, and he shook his head with a bitter smile.
The man's forehead and eye sockets bulged with blue veins, his temples protruding as well, clearly heat toxin had entered his brain.
With heat toxin entering the brain to such a severe degree, there was a high chance he would become an idiot.
Wang Qi muttered to himself, "Raising one is raising, raising two is also raising. The silver I earn digging holes should be enough."
He looked at Wang Ling. If it could ease his granddaughter's hysteria somewhat, that would be good. If, in the future, old and weak, they were still unable to support themselves, he would simply take the two of them and leave together.
"Let me do it. Shanlu needs some food to moisten his stomach."
Wang Qi mixed the dry rations he carried with clean water and fed them to the man. Wang Ling watched seriously from the side, not daring to interrupt.
They had no idea that the shadows within the tree hollow were writhing like living things.
Fortunately, neither of them harbored malice; otherwise, they would have shared the same fate as the beasts that previously intruded, all swallowed into the ghost shadow's belly.
After all the rations were fed to the man, Wang Qi saw that his breathing had stabilized, then lifted him and placed him on the cart Wang Ling had prepared.
Strangely enough, Wang Qi felt that although the man was already thin enough for his ribs to stand out, his weight was heavier than that of an ordinary person.
"Ling'er, let's go. We're going home."
Wang Ling nodded cheerfully, and the two followed the path back toward the town.
As soon as they entered Weian Town, the ghost shadow instinctively tensed, clearly sensing scrutinizing gazes falling upon Ren Qing.
"Old Wang, you should know the town's rules, right?"
An elderly farmer stepped in front of Wang Qi and asked in a deep voice. The other farmers gathered around, and the strongmen even showed faint signs of exerting force with their legs.
"He is my little brother, "
"Don't speak, Ling'er."
"It's like this, Brother Xu."
Cold sweat broke out on Wang Qi's forehead as he hurriedly explained. "This man comes from another village. I saw him a few years ago. Now, because of the mountain fire, heat toxin entered his brain. He's on the verge of death."
"What is it, Old Wang? Want to bring him back to keep your granddaughter company?"
A younger farmer could not help but joke, but then noticed everyone staring at him and subconsciously retreated several steps.
"Is it your turn to speak?"
Xu Changzhou lowered his head to examine the man, discovering that it was indeed as Wang Qi said. Combined with the words Wang Ling kept muttering, he guessed the cause and course of events.
He had watched Wang Ling grow up, and a trace of pity arose in his heart.
"You bring him back first to recover. I'll go speak with the other clan elders."
Wang Qi's expression lit up with joy. After thanking him, he hurriedly took Wang Ling back home, since the man's condition truly could not be delayed.
Xu Changzhou glanced at the farmer who had interrupted earlier, then turned and walked toward the fields.
The farmer did not understand what was going on. Someone beside him reminded him with schadenfreude, "Which household doesn't have a rat calamity every few years? If you run into serious trouble, it won't be easy to ask Old Wang for help again."
His face turned deathly pale. He opened his mouth, but in the end closed it bitterly.
Because of this incident, the matter of Wang Qi bringing back an outsider spread without effort, quickly circulating among the thirty to forty thousand people of Weian Town.
However, it was suppressed by the various clan elders selected within the town.
When Ren Qing regained consciousness, several days had already passed. He only felt aching all over, his brain seeming as if it might explode at any moment.
He did not examine his surroundings, but first summoned the information stream.
[Lifespan: seventeen days]
[Disease types: Gigantism, Hard Bone, Muscle Increase, Insomnia, Cancer Disease Tree]
"Seventeen days, are you kidding me?"
Ren Qing tried to speak, but was completely unable to make a sound. His vision was also extremely poor, indicating aftereffects of cerebral hemorrhage.
His body was abnormally thin, at most just over 1.6 meters tall, clearly due to malnutrition.
Using the Double Pupils at his brow, Ren Qing surveyed his surroundings, and unexpectedly discovered that he was not in a tree hollow, but inside a dim room.
He then learned of the experiences over the past few days from the ghost shadow, and immediately let out a sigh of relief.
Ren Qing had high hopes for this body. At the very least, he had to obtain either the Longevity Method or the Six Maladies Method; otherwise, it would be far too much of a waste of time.
Gestating the split soul, plus cultivating the Marsh Immortal Method, and then having to reestablish himself upon entering the Longevity Forbidden Zone,
A round trip would consume several months.
"Grandpa, Shanlu woke up."
Wang Ling's voice sounded from outside the room, clearly more lucid than before.
Wang Qi and another hurried inside, opening the window to let the dim sunlight outside disperse the darkness within.
Seeing Ren Qing's vacant gaze and hearing only incoherent sounds from his mouth, Wang Qi understood that heat toxin entering the brain likely left serious aftereffects.
"But it doesn't seem to have affected the body. Why then..."
Wang Qi felt somewhat puzzled. He had already fed Ren Qing quite a bit of dry rations, yet he did not gain flesh, instead, the more he ate, the thinner he became.
He suspected that Ren Qing's original chronic ailment was the cause.
"Ling'er, once Shanlu can move about, you take him to practice some basic martial skills with the clan. It will help strengthen his body."
Wang Ling nodded repeatedly, but then heard Wang Qi say, "Just remember, don't let Shanlu be taken as blood food..."
Wang Ling tilted her head, completely unable to understand the meaning behind Wang Qi's words.
"Forget it. I'll personally go explain it to the clan elders later."
Wang Qi chatted a bit more, but soon left the courtyard due to other matters, leaving only Wang Ling patiently feeding Ren Qing dry rations.
Ren Qing felt somewhat embarrassed, but his limbs truly were weak and powerless.
After Ren Qing finished eating, Wang Ling left the room satisfied, while a strand of the ghost shadow split off and settled into her shadow.
Only then did Ren Qing have the ghost shadow take out food. Relying solely on dry rations could not even fill his stomach, let alone support his various disease types.
Jerky was ground into small pieces by the ghost shadow and stuffed into his mouth.
Ren Qing ate voraciously, his abdomen gradually swelling, yet the hunger remained, clearly his body's deficit was far too severe.
The Muscle Increase disease type, Gigantism disease type, Hard Bone disease type, and Cancer Disease Tree disease type all required massive amounts of nutrition, even beyond what the stomach alone could digest.
Ren Qing closed his eyes to rest, absorbing the Nether Yuan contained within the jade pendant.
But as soon as Nether Yuan formed within the extraordinary meridians, it was absorbed by flesh and bone, producing a tingling sensation throughout his body as waves of heat surged continuously.
This time, when coming to the Longevity Forbidden Zone, Ren Qing had also brought another jade pendant storing Nether Yuan, which should barely be enough to advance to the Golden Core Stage.
At the same time, through Wang Ling, he investigated the situation in Weian Town, attempting to find traces of the Longevity Method or the Six Maladies Method, and discovered many anomalies.
Funerals in the town were relatively frequent, yet there were no graves or mass burial grounds. It was unclear whether this was related to the "blood food" Wang Qi mentioned.
The prisoners from Undying Town back then, without exception, likely included some from Weian Town.
And the Three Immortals of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity should logically have been prevalent, yet there was not a single temple enshrining them. So why had an existence like the Peach Blossom Immortal not intervened?
Ren Qing felt that there must be a cultivation system related to the Six Maladies Method within the town, likely different from the hysteria cultivation of Tree Immortals.
Hysteria cultivation was, in essence, entirely a method for refining complete aberrant objects.
As his thoughts wandered chaotically, Ren Qing gradually grew drowsy. Taking advantage of his body's recovery, the ghost shadow implanted insect roots into his spine.