The cultivation method Xu Sanliang displayed was somewhat similar to Restraint Officer methods, except that it lacked aberrant objects, and might well have originated from the Six Maladies Method.
Ren Qing felt that trying to find the aberrant object core of the Six Maladies Method would probably be unrealistic; obtaining it through technique inheritance would be even better.
After Wang Ling finished feeding Ren Qing dry rations, she hurriedly left again.
Only Xu Sanliang and Ren Qing remained. Since the former had already been exposed, he had no intention of hiding any longer and simply lay down on a huge rock in the corner of the courtyard to rest.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched, but he did not pay him any mind and once again swung his fists.
He practiced Tiger-Subduing Fist at an extremely slow speed. That tiger-like spirit had completely vanished, which could not help but make Xu Sanliang feel disappointed.
"Could it have merely been an inadvertent display of fist wind?"
While Xu Sanliang was lost in thought, he did not notice at all that the ghost shadow had come into contact with him, causing Ren Qing before him to pause for a moment.
[Xu Sanliang]
[Age: Thirty-one]
[Lifespan: Fifty-eight years]
[Disease Type: Pneumothorax Disease Type]
[Body Martial Art: Gale Sword Art (Half-Corpse)]
Pneumothorax was caused by gas entering the chest cavity, leading to air accumulation, usually manifesting as coughing and asthma, and in severe cases could even endanger one's life.
As for so-called body martial arts, they were indeed related to the Six Maladies Method.
The Gale Sword Art was derived from the Six Maladies Method, able to stimulate the growth of one's own disease type, achieving a barely controllable level.
Ren Qing felt a surge of excitement. It seemed that the imagined cultivation of Weian Town was indeed used for growing trees, while body martial arts were the proper methods.
Perhaps the soldiers abolished body martial arts precisely because they feared disease types losing control within the range of Longevity Immortal statues.
Suddenly, he had a bold idea.
Ren Qing had created the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method; even though he had not yet come into contact with body martial arts, he could still sense that the two shared many similarities.
As the realm of body martial arts increased, it would stimulate the growth of disease types within the body.
Were disease types not equivalent to black insects? Once cultivation reached a certain level, disease types might very well molt and transform into aberrant objects of the Six Maladies Method.
At that time, Ren Qing would naturally be able to master the Six Maladies Method.
Moreover, compared to directly upgrading disease types through the information flow, body martial arts involved disease types that could be barely controlled, avoiding situations where disease types went berserk.
However, to confirm this point, Ren Qing still needed to obtain the manuals of body martial arts.
Ren Qing's thoughts raced, and his punching movements became awkward, making Xu Sanliang frown repeatedly, until he finally turned his head away and stopped watching.
Soon after, however, Xu Sanliang noticed that although Ren Qing was weak and powerless, each time he was exhausted, after resting briefly, he could stand up again.
Ren Qing did not overdo it. After practicing for more than half an hour, he completely stopped.
Xu Sanliang hesitated to speak, then remembered that Ren Qing could not speak at all, so he closed his mouth and left the courtyard.
When the sky turned yellowish, Ren Qing finally felt all the gazes upon him disappear.
Not long after, Wang Ling returned home. It was clear she had been doing dirty work, her hair was covered with dust, but her expression looked very happy.
The two casually ate some food and then each went to sleep.
Because Wang Qi was not at home, they could only eat slightly damp dry rations, but it was still better than starving.
Thus, five days passed.
Ren Qing still practiced punching without fail, and his body gained a thin layer of muscle, no longer looking as if he were on the verge of death.
However, his height showed no change. It was not that he had stopped progressing; rather, most of the nutrients were absorbed by his bones, used to transform the insect body, as well as to strengthen the bones through the Hard Bone Disease Type.
There was nothing he could do. At this pace, it would probably take more than half a year to fully make up for the deficit.
Xu Sanliang came to clock in every early morning, occasionally watching Ren Qing's intermittently effective Tiger-Subduing Fist, but most of the time he was smoking old tobacco.
Ren Qing quietly filled his stomach using the ghost shadow, without letting the other party notice at all.
However, his patience was gradually being worn down. After all, his lifespan was decreasing day by day, and he still could not break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage of the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
Fortunately, on the seventh day, Wang Qi finally returned to Weian Town in a bedraggled state.
The sores on Wang Qi's skin had increased. Even after washing repeatedly with clean water, he could not suppress the stench of decay they emitted.
Seeing this, Xu Sanliang frowned and asked, "Old Wang, you really must pay attention to your health."
"Many thanks for the concern. I know my own body well enough…"
Wang Qi bent his back and looked at Ren Qing, who was already able to punch flexibly, and could not help but say with relief, "While my words still carry weight, send Shanlu to the Martial Instruction Hall."
"Sanliang, what do you think?"
"Mm, although Shanlu's disease type hasn't manifested yet, basic martial arts…"
"I don't plan on letting him learn body martial arts. That thing is too aberrant. Shanlu already doesn't have many years to live, cultivating body martial arts would only lead to an earlier death."
Xu Sanliang did not mind Wang Qi's bluntness, but he was surprised at how much Wang Qi cared about Wang Shanlu. Could they truly be related by blood?
After hesitating for a few breaths, Wang Qi said, "Let him follow you to Qingfeng Hall."
"That works. I can look after him."
There was one thing Xu Sanliang did not say: he felt that the ordinary martial arts taught at the Martial Instruction Hall were really not much better than Ren Qing's random practice.
Yet at the same time, he did not want to bury Ren Qing's talent.
"Then many thanks."
Wang Qi then left the courtyard. It was said that after each round of rodent plague extermination, several clan elders would personally help him recuperate.
Xu Sanliang stared at Ren Qing for a long time, planning to take him to the Martial Instruction Hall after some time.
Mainly because Ren Qing was too frail, martial training required lifting heavy objects to temper the body, so it was better to let him nourish his qi and blood first.
But Xu Sanliang did not notice the sharp gleam that flashed in Ren Qing's eyes when he lowered his head.
At this time, dusk was just falling. Ren Qing felt the consciousness of the main soul descend into his body, receive the memories of the split soul, and then leave the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Seeing Wang Ling and Ren Qing preparing to eat the evening meal, Xu Sanliang left the courtyard.
He specifically went to Qingfeng Hall, found the master responsible for teaching martial arts, and informed him of Ren Qing's situation.
The master's name was Xu Fu. Although his status in Qingfeng Hall was not low, and he had taught hundreds, even thousands, of disciples over decades, he still maintained a respectful attitude before Xu Sanliang, who cultivated body martial arts.
Upon hearing that Ren Qing was extremely talented yet physically weak, highly perceptive yet mentally dull, he could not help but stand dumbfounded for several breaths.
In the end, he still agreed.
Based on the rumors he had heard, Xu Fu believed Ren Qing to be a mentally dull person plagued by diseases, and thus considered how to temper his body so that he would not die within Qingfeng Hall.
Little did they know that Ren Qing had already obtained an imagined technique.
The main soul was extremely efficient. It did not take long to pass the imagined technique to the split soul, and even made some optimizations to reduce the difficulty of mastery.
However, the main soul had clearly overthought it. Ren Qing directly called up the information flow.
Taotie Great Stomach Method, created by Ren Qing, one of the Wuwei Dao techniques. Through devouring meat, it enhances digestive ability. When cultivated to great completion, all flesh and blood becomes extremely delicious.
Can consume one day of lifespan to exempt the cost and master it.
The drawbacks of the Taotie Great Stomach Method clearly did not include "delicious flesh," resulting in it costing only one day of lifespan. He did not know whether to feel fortunate.
Ren Qing had no confidence in mastering the imagined technique in a single day, so he simply used the information flow to master it directly.
A long-lost feeling of fullness surged up, followed by gurgling sounds from his intestines. The speed of gastric acid secretion began to increase.
Ren Qing stuffed meat into his mouth, and a warm current continuously acted upon his entire body.
He could not help but reveal a delighted expression, directly gulping down several mouthfuls of Peach Wine, only to find that the effect of increasing lifespan was almost comparable to that of his main body.
Unfortunately, imagined techniques could not be further upgraded.
Ren Qing then swallowed the corpse food without hesitation. His lifespan immediately increased by one hundred and eighty days, bringing his total lifespan to nearly two hundred days.
The deficit was visibly made up, and the speed of insect body transformation became even faster.
Because he could not sleep anyway due to the Sleepless Disease Type, Ren Qing simply meditated while occasionally eating some meat.
Early the next morning, Xu Sanliang came to the courtyard as usual.
He casually glanced at Ren Qing, then leisurely took out his pipe from his robe. Yet when he went to light it, his pupils suddenly dilated.
Xu Sanliang stood up to size up Ren Qing, his brows tightly furrowed.
With his cultivation, there was no way he could be mistaken. Ren Qing had clearly grown half a palm taller overnight and gained six or seven jin of flesh.
Xu Sanliang muttered in uncertainty, "Could it be that some disease type suddenly manifested? Thinking about it, it's really possible…"
He had encountered it before, disease types causing earth-shaking changes in the body, making the cultivation of body martial arts twice as effective with half the effort.
However, disease types like Ren Qing's had at least never been seen in Weian Town.
Perhaps multiple disease types were influencing each other?
Yet Xu Sanliang could not help but sigh. Even if Wang Shanlu had outstanding talent in body martial arts, for a mentally dull person to understand the content of techniques was simply too difficult.
He sat back down on the huge rock and shook his head, thinking, "Forget it. Just as Old Wang said, body martial arts are too aberrant. It might be that Wang Shanlu would go berserk the moment he starts cultivating."
Still, Xu Sanliang silently shortened the time for taking Ren Qing to Qingfeng Hall from the original ten days to around five.
But soon, he could no longer sit still.
Because in just three short days, Ren Qing's height exceeded one meter eighty, and his muscles had clearly begun to prop up his skeleton.
The Tiger-Subduing Fist he threw directly transformed in spirit from a sick tiger into a prime, ferocious tiger.
Xu Sanliang felt somewhat alarmed, mainly fearing that the disease types on Ren Qing's body would lose control. Fortunately, the other party's aura had not changed.
And while he hesitated, another two days passed without him noticing.
Xu Sanliang was completely numb.
Ren Qing's body length had actually broken past two meters, his entire body covered with well-defined muscles, as if sculpted from marble.
Due to the influence of the insect body, all his teeth had fallen out and turned into shark-like fangs, reflecting a metallic sheen.
Seeing the air tear apart from Ren Qing's punches, the corner of Xu Sanliang's eye could not help but twitch.
He suspected that if he did not use the Gale Sword Art, he would be beaten to death by Ren Qing with a single punch, and at the same time did not know how to report this to the clan elders.
Xu Sanliang wiped the sweat from his forehead and decided that before Wang Qi finished recuperating, he would not disturb the elderly clan elders.
He did not know whether ordinary martial arts still had any meaning for Ren Qing, but clearly, this could no longer be delayed, he had to be taken to Qingfeng Hall as soon as possible.
Wang Ling's attitude was not affected. She was simply more at ease in daily life, and no longer personally fed him at every meal.
In fact, Ren Qing's peak growth period had already ended. He would continue to grow afterward, but it would never reach such an exaggerated degree again.
He felt some regret in his heart. Confucius the Sage had been a fierce man nine chi six cun tall, about two meters two, he was still inferior to a mere scholar.
However, disease types had no upper limit. In theory, they could act upon the body indefinitely.