After Ren Qing waited for the group of demon beasts to finish discussing the matter of going to the Bottomless Pit, a sudden thought stirred in his mind, and he simply set up a notice board in the demon market.
He posted on it some missions to investigate the Jingzhou environment.
Although Wuwei City had already been sealed off, that did not mean they had to lose sources of information from the outside world. They could completely let demon beasts handle it on their behalf.
The mission rewards were issued as blood crystals or immortal crystals.
He had no intention of establishing a separate currency for the demon market. After all, the main purchasing power consisted of Restraint Officers and dao temple disciples, and having too many currencies would also be troublesome.
Ren Qing patiently closed his eyes and meditated on techniques, but after spending two days he still could not calm his mind, instead becoming increasingly restless.
The temptation coming from the Yang Spirit Realm was simply irresistible.
No cultivator could resist the mental imbalance that appeared when one was about to reach the Yang Spirit Realm. Even most cultivators at the Perfection of the Yin Messenger Realm needed more than ten years to regain a normal state of mind before attempting to break through the bottleneck again.
Compared to Ren Qing's recklessness, ordinary cultivators only had a single chance.
Either like Great Dream True Person, laying out plans for dozens of years and attaining the Dao in a single moment, or like Song Zongwu, taking risks and seeking an opportunity.
Ren Qing simply stopped cultivating, lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and sank into a dream.
Light snoring soon sounded.
When he woke up, several days had already passed. Both body and soul had reached their peak state, and with each breath he only felt true essence autonomously pouring into his pores.
He summoned the information stream.
[Lifespan: nine hundred and fifty-five years]
"It's time to advance to the Yang Spirit Realm."
Ren Qing gazed deeply into the night sky, recalling the process when he first cultivated the Restraint Officer method, during which aberrant objects were gradually born within his body.
Now that he was about to step into the Yang Spirit Realm, it also represented complete control over aberrant objects.
Whether to advance branch This Yin Deity, will consume lifespan one thousand years
After No-Shadow Yin Demon advanced to the Yang Spirit Realm, it was named "This Yin Deity," showing just how terrifying the shadows it governed would be.
He took a deep breath, then threw the wine ore within Eternal Shackles into the flesh-and-blood furnace to be digested, and the previously motionless lifespan surged again.
After Ren Qing exhausted the wine ore, his lifespan reached one thousand and twenty-seven years.
He sat cross-legged in the courtyard, signaling Wu Deceit to completely devour his sense of presence, then placed breath-concealing artifacts around him.
After everything was prepared, Ren Qing finally confirmed in his heart the advancement to the Yang Spirit Realm.
When the breakthrough process began, the ghost shadow at his feet instantly burrowed into his body, spreading throughout flesh, bones, and internal organs.
The Yang Spirit Realm was not merely the transformation of aberrant objects; cultivators themselves also needed to transform.
Although when the ancestor formulated the Restraint Officer method's realms, they mainly referenced body cultivation, it had to be said that there were commonalities within.
When body cultivation reached the Yang Spirit Realm, the disease seeds contained within had already penetrated deep into the marrow, and the Six Afflictions Method aberrant objects formed thereby were intimately connected to the body.
And the Yang Spirit Realm of the Restraint Officer method involved the fusion of aberrant objects with the body.
Ren Qing's entire body began to tremble. He could feel his body gradually approaching This Yin Deity, and the aberrant object was also subsequently tainted with the aura of the main body.
If one could observe Ren Qing's cells from a microscopic perspective, one would discover that his cells had actually undergone subtle shadowization.
Even with the information stream, the process of advancing to the Yang Spirit Realm still lasted several days.
Ren Qing's skin gradually darkened inside and out. This Yin Deity brutally remodeled the main body, causing the other aberrations to tremble and hide in the corners.
"Huff..."
When he completely merged into the shadows, it also meant that the Yang Spirit Realm had been achieved.
Ren Qing slowly restrained his aura, and his body gradually returned to normal, except that the ghost shadow at his feet took on the shape of a dragon.
"Stop fooling around, ghost shadow."
Shadows from all directions rapidly converged on Ren Qing. Unknowingly, the ghost shadow had already covered an area of over a thousand meters.
The courtyard could not withstand the residual waves from the Yang Spirit Realm and collapsed into ruins amid creaking sounds, causing nearby residents to retreat one after another.
Ren Qing glanced at his own shadow.
Next, he still needed to go into seclusion, mainly to stabilize his realm. Otherwise, the abnormal movements of the ghost shadow could easily destroy half a city district.
The ghost shadow's overall strength had indeed increased tremendously. The specifics would need to be clarified through actual combat to determine the upper limit.
However, the benefits Ren Qing himself obtained were in no way inferior to those of the ghost shadow.
His physique became more suitable for the Shadowless Ghost, the divine ability Dragon Roar Within the Casket received comprehensive enhancement, and the speed of enlightening pseudo-dragons was extremely fast.
Even his blood had faintly undergone some changes...
The information stream surged.
[Lifespan: eight hundred and fifty-nine years]
[Techniques: Shadowless Ghost (Human Skin Book, Bone Armor Technique, Netherworld Method, Dragon-Serpent Spine), This Yin Deity (Ghost God Beneath the Skin, Immortal Within the Bone, Netherworld Immortal Body, Jiaolong Shei Qiu)]
[Divine Ability: Dragon Roar Within the Casket]
The more than eight hundred years of lifespan was because the first technique advanced to the Yang Spirit Realm, causing Ren Qing's body to transform, thereby naturally increasing lifespan.
Ren Qing felt slightly disappointed that the secondary techniques had not followed and reached the Yang Spirit Realm. Immediately afterward, a large amount of memories appeared in his mind.
The memories were hidden measures left behind by certain predecessors of the Restraint Officer method, solely for technique inheritance.
As for why there was no memory inheritance at low realms, it was estimated that in that era, those below the Yin Messenger Realm were probably classified as "mortals."
He quickly digested the memories, which precisely described the realm divisions of the Yang Spirit Realm.
The first was "Multitude Yang Immortal."
Multitude Yang Immortal required all secondary techniques to advance to the Yang Spirit Realm. The more complex the technique system formed, the more difficult it was to break through.
If Ren Qing did not have the information stream, his path forward could basically be considered cut off.
After both primary and secondary techniques reached the Yang Spirit Realm, it would begin to involve aberrant object fusion, that is, the integration and interconnection of all techniques.
This realm was called "No-Birth Immortal."
No-Birth also carried the meaning of death, taken from: "That which is no-birth is not first having birth and then speaking of no-birth; it is originally unborn, thus named no-birth."
In the Yang Spirit Realm, it referred to shared death and shared life, with all aberrant objects merging into one.
At that time, the five primary and secondary techniques would all vanish completely, giving rise to an Ascension Technique belonging solely to Ren Qing, thereby obtaining the heavenly ladder to attaining the Dao.
Therefore, the final realm of the Yang Spirit Realm was "Ascension Ladder."
The memories contained little description of the Ascension Ladder, but it certainly involved risks sufficient to threaten life, requiring extreme caution.
At the end of the immortal ladder was "Heavenly Aberration." At that time, aberrant objects would completely merge into the body, and even after death could influence the world for several thousand years.
Ren Qing was currently only at the initial stage of the Yang Spirit Realm and could not even be considered a Multitude Yang Immortal.
Some techniques have not reached the Yang Spirit Realm, cannot consume lifespan to advance
He could not help but shake his head. Multitude Yang Immortal required a full four secondary techniques to advance to the Yang Spirit Realm. The lifespan required was self-evident.
For every lifespan beyond one thousand years, the efficiency of lifespan extension would decrease. It was estimated that beyond two thousand years, many methods would become useless.
"Deadman Scripture, Deadman Scripture..."
Regardless of whether the rumored Deadman Forbidden Zone truly existed in the extreme north, it would be very necessary to make a trip there in the future. Otherwise, the Heavenly Aberration Realm would be hopeless.
As for what came after, the Earth Immortal, he did not dare think about it at all.
Ren Qing looked somewhat uneasily at several secondary techniques.
Whether to advance branch Primordial Fetal Membrane, will consume lifespan five hundred years
Whether to advance Netherworld Wasted Immortal, will consume lifespan five hundred years
The former was the Human Skin Book, the latter was the Nether Sea Breathing Art.
Joy arose in his heart. It was clear that after the primary technique advanced to the Yang Spirit Realm, the drawbacks that secondary techniques needed to be exempted from were correspondingly reduced.
With only five hundred years needed, Ren Qing could rely on the Nether Sea Breathing Art to reach the Spirit Division stage, obtain a large amount of lifespan, and perhaps it would be enough for "Multitude Yang Immortal."
Or perhaps elevate the other primary techniques to the Yang Spirit Realm?
The Nether Sea Breathing Art might not even need to consume lifespan. Relying on the Nether Yuan provided by dao temple disciples, there was a chance to break through the bottleneck.
His thoughts ran wild, causing a trace of This Yin Deity's aura to leak out, directly resulting in countless cracks splitting across the ground's bricks.
Seeing that over a hundred cultivators were flying over on artifacts, even Yin Messenger Realm cultivators were alarmed.
Ren Qing rubbed the bridge of his nose with a headache.
After all, the leap from Yin Messenger Realm to Yang Spirit Realm was too great. Even Song Zongwu could not immediately control his body and required a long time to adapt.
Just as he was thinking of leaving the devastated courtyard, he suddenly felt his consciousness stir.
Ren Qing glanced at Eternal Shackles, and when sweeping across the dream market, he discovered several consciousnesses drifting in the demon market like lonely wandering ghosts.
As long as one got close, one could hear them constantly muttering "demon immortal, save me," which was deeply baffling.
"Hu Wen?"
He recognized that headless fox demon. The other party had most likely encountered something in the Bottomless Pit.
"Could it really be a heavenly-demonized aberration?"
Ren Qing extended his hand and pointed at the foreheads of the four demons. The dream-entering ability of the Darkest Nightmare Lord was activated, helping them regain clarity.
Hu Wen belatedly looked around and discovered that he was in the demon market, his expression turning astonished.
Before he could say anything, he felt his consciousness being stripped out of the dream, as if what awaited him was boundless hell.
"Demon Immortal Lord, save me!!!"
Hu Wen cried hoarsely. Zhang Yi and the other demon beasts followed in shouting, clearly filled with despair in their words.
"There is ... in the Bottomless Pit..."
They vanished from the demon market.
The street was only desolate for a few breaths before becoming lively again.
Shouts rang endlessly. What cultivator had the mood to care about the life and death of a few demon beasts? Their main energy was all focused on running newly opened shops.
Ren Qing hesitated for a few breaths, then decided to go to the Bottomless Pit to investigate.
As a Yang Spirit Realm cultivator, his strength was already enough to determine the life and death of tens of thousands of people in Wuwei City. No matter what, he needed to first figure out the situation.
Moreover, Primordial Wilderness transformation had not yet arrived. Ren Qing could walk sideways in the Crescent Moon layer.
The Nether Sea Breathing Art could only be looked at again after returning; whether to consume lifespan was another matter.
He took a deep breath, and while casting techniques, he tried his best to control their release, and used the Disaster-Elimination Method's abilities to erase the Yang Spirit Realm aura.
Immediately afterward, under the dumbfounded gazes of numerous cultivators,
Ren Qing's skin was covered with dense scales. That was Dragon Roar Within the Casket acting on himself, stimulating the shadowized physique.
He directly transformed into a hundred-meter black dragon and burst out through the barrier at the top of Wuwei City.
"Such a divine ability is truly inconceivable. Which Yin Messenger Realm did it come from?"
"Doesn't look like a newly advanced Yin Messenger Realm..."
Amid the crowd's discussions, they quickly identified the black dragon as Ren Qing, the one with the most diverse methods, and the shock in their hearts only increased.
Ren Qing was called the Lord of the Dream Market, famous for his incomparably mysterious dream techniques. How did that get entangled with some kind of dragon-transformation technique?
Song Zongwu sat cross-legged atop the city wall.
He looked at Ren Qing's departing figure and muttered to himself, "This embryonic form of a divine ability? Shouldn't it be the Eyeless Method?"
Could it be that Ren Qing's greatest mastery was not the Eyeless Method?
Truly incomprehensible.