After Ren Qing finished speaking with Li Tiangang, he planned to find an inn and enter closed-door cultivation.
He casually glanced at the courtyard that had been reduced to ruins, only to discover that reconstruction had already begun, and that the bricks and tiles being used were all magic artifacts.
It was clear that this was Xiao San'er's handiwork, he had truly put his heart into it.
Ren Qing casually checked into a nearby inn, then sat cross-legged and began meditating.
If the aura of Yang God Realm techniques were to leak even slightly, the surrounding streets would suffer, and casualties among Restraint Officers would also trigger a chain reaction.
While he was immersed in cultivation, Wuwei City was thrown into great commotion.
At the notice board of the Dream Market, all kinds of tasks for refining magic artifacts were stacked thickly, and the rewards were even more generous than those for going out on patrol.
Seeing that Rabbit-Toad cultivators were showing signs of descending, the Restraint Officers' Hall naturally dared not be stingy, throwing out resources as if money were no object.
When Ren Qing opened his eyes again, several days had already passed. While continuing his closed-door cultivation, he also distractedly planned matters related to refining the city into an aberrant fetus artifact.
The aberrant fetus artifact refining method was not actually a particularly high-threshold technique. Now that there was the artifact spirit method, making the artifact itself sentient was not difficult.
The main problem lay in the fact that Wuwei City was pieced together from countless brick magic artifacts, while an aberrant fetus artifact required forming an integrated whole fused with the aberrant fetus.
After pondering for a long time, Ren Qing ultimately gave Li Tiangang a suggestion.
Have the Restraint Officers' Hall refine the city walls and the ground separately, then later fuse them with the same aberrant fetus, thereby forming a certain degree of connection.
Before refining, it was necessary to use a material called Living Bone Powder, which was produced by Bone Armor Technique Living Bone Bearers.
Demonic cultivators would smear the Living Bone Powder into the seams between each brick, and with stimulation from fresh blood, the bricks could then fuse together.
As for the insect molts underground, those were rather troublesome, and they could only see whether they could be refined separately.
The execution efficiency of the Restraint Officers' Hall was extremely clean and decisive. After confirming the refining method, the very next day several thousand cultivators were moving through all parts of the city.
Materials were piled up near the city walls, and the aura of techniques spread through the air.
Seeing that artifact refining had already entered the right track, Ren Qing shifted his attention to Eternal Shackles.
The ghost shadow beneath his feet began to writhe.
The massive dragon-worm head drilled out from within the ghost shadow. One could faintly discern traces of human facial features, though its intelligence was rather dull.
Ever since the Heavenly Dao Worm reached the Nascent Soul stage, it had already been able to remain in the outside world for extended periods.
Ren Qing drew the ghost shadow, together with the Heavenly Dao Worm, into Eternal Shackles.
Immediately afterward, the Heavenly Dao Worm proactively separated from the ghost shadow. It seemed to sense something, stiffly crawling toward the Immortal Market, instantly producing quite a bit of noise.
Ren Qing cast dream techniques, causing the cultivators on the Dream Market streets to freeze in place one after another, as if immersed in deep sleep.
The Heavenly Dao Worm arrived at the well in the Immortal Market where Nether Yuan was stored and plunged straight in without hesitation, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the water.
Over these years, the Immortal Market had stored quite a bit of Nether Yuan. Now it was gradually being absorbed by the Heavenly Dao Worm, causing its cultivation to slowly rise.
After the Heavenly Dao Worm finished digesting everything, it would probably reach cultivation close to late Nascent Soul stage, but unfortunately it was still far from the Spirit Division stage.
If it were a few days earlier, Ren Qing would still have had the patience to wait several more years for the Heavenly Dao Worm to advance, but given the current situation in Jingzhou, he had to break through as soon as possible.
He dragged the White Bone Great Sage into the deepest underground of Eternal Shackles, near the flesh melting furnace, allowing the high temperature to act upon its body.
The ghost shadow surged toward the White Bone Great Sage, slowly stripping away the demonic qi within the aberrant anomaly's body, while simultaneously refining a magic artifact in the direction that could contain Nether Yuan.
Even though the White Bone Great Sage was buried deep underground, piercing screams could still be heard.
Ren Qing watched for a moment, then no longer paid attention.
Even he had to admit that the ghost shadow's artifact refining methods were indeed simple and brutal.
Ren Qing only needed to tell the ghost shadow the requirements of the finished artifact, and the latter would then utilize several thousand kinds of materials in combination to refine it.
The White Bone Great Sage's true body was a gigantic turtle covered in tentacles.
The ghost shadow began refining from the White Bone Great Sage's tentacles. If the refined result was unsatisfactory, it would forcibly sever the tentacles and start over.
Although aberrant anomalies were not considered living beings, and the White Bone Great Sage did not even possess intelligence, Ren Qing felt that he himself could not reach the ghost shadow's level.
Just observing for a short while made his scalp tingle.
Ren Qing stopped paying attention to the refining process, then swept his gaze across the various Dream Markets, finally settling on the comparatively quiet Demon Market.
The first thing he noticed was Han Li, who was meditating with eyes closed. The other party had already begun cultivating the Blood Fungus Record, though he was still in the exploratory stage.
In truth, Han Li's aptitude was not particularly outstanding, but his Dao-seeking mindset was extremely firm, and his cultivation planning could be described as proceeding step by step with solid footing.
Ren Qing was optimistic that Han Li could reach the Yin Enforcer Realm, or even the Yang God Realm.
Next, he noticed the two demonic beasts, Hu Wen and Zhang Yi.
The Heavenly Demon aura within their bodies had completely dissipated, and no traces of black goat remained on their appearance, showing that they had recovered their lives.
However, their body and soul showed some loss of control in their aberrant transformations.
Hu Wen cultivated the Headless One of the Five Viscera Gods. After his head disappeared, his face grew on his chest and abdomen. Now even his fox fur had shed away, and each of his arms had grown an extra mouth.
Zhang Yi's entire body was covered in eyes, dense enough to make one's scalp crawl.
The Hundred-Eyed One was called the Hundred-Eyed One precisely because the number of eyes could not exceed one hundred; otherwise, the aberrant object within the body would be difficult to suppress.
This tiger demon's eyes were far more than a hundred, by rough estimation, they were close to two hundred.
With this level of loss of control in aberrant transformation, an ordinary cultivator would have gone mad long ago and been locked into the Stomach within the Stomach, yet they were still living just fine.
After confirming there were no major issues, Ren Qing released the two demonic beasts from Eternal Shackles.
They had stayed in the Demon Market for several days, undergoing prolonged tempering. Their consciousness was already blurred, and only after a long while did they gradually regain awareness.
"Demon Immortal..."
Upon seeing Ren Qing, the two demonic beasts immediately knelt to the ground. Memories from before losing consciousness flooded their minds, they had never expected to receive salvation from the demon immortal.
Ren Qing looked them over and said with a complicated expression, "Your lives are not in danger, but hidden troubles remain. Remember to always leave some strength in reserve when using immortal techniques, otherwise it is easy to suffer deviation and fall into demonic madness."
"We will remember, disciples."
The more he looked at demonic beast physiques, the more absurd they seemed.
Demonic beasts had an extraordinarily strong tolerance for aberrant transformations caused by loss of control of aberrant objects, showing that they were naturally suited to walking shortcuts.
For ordinary cultivators to rely on devouring aberrant objects to advance to the Ghost Envoy Realm, even with resources like aberrant dust prepared, fewer than one in a hundred would succeed.
Among demonic beasts, perhaps one in fifty could advance smoothly, and with a Yin Enforcer Realm cultivator guarding them, the probability could be increased even further.
However, this strong resistance to aberration among demonic beasts had both advantages and disadvantages. Once aberrant traces accumulated excessively, it would lead to being unable to concurrently cultivate other techniques.
"Help me collect information related to demon immortal altars. If you encounter danger, return here immediately."
Ren Qing was still somewhat uneasy, so he simply went to the Great Dream Guidao and took out the Ghost Envoy Realm aberrant objects of the Hundred-Eyed One and the Headless One.
"This descent of the immortal will surely bring a calamity capable of annihilation upon the demonic beasts. Gather more fellow cultivators and weather the hardship together."
Hu Wen and the other demonic beast could not help but ponder what use the demon immortal's admonition might have.
After pausing for a few breaths, Ren Qing continued, "This seat grants you an opportunity, lest you die from lacking methods to protect the Dao."
Hu Wen suddenly felt a twisted fleshy tumor stuffed into his mouth, which then gradually crawled toward his throat and quickly reached his stomach.
The tumor seemed to devour something within his body, and waves of intense pain followed.
To be safe, Ren Qing also fed them some aberrant dust to prevent loss of control, until their realms reached the Ghost Envoy Realm.
If the two demonic beasts proved capable, helping them advance to the Yin Enforcer Realm in the future was not impossible. Even if they wished to cultivate independently, they still had the Netherworld Heavenly Dao Worm Method.
Before they awakened, they were wrapped up by the ghost shadow and then sent outside Wuwei City.
Ren Qing did not place much hope in this idle move, planning to search nearby for groups of demonic beasts whenever he had time.
Once the courtyard reconstruction was completed, he changed locations and entered closed-door cultivation once again.
In his own courtyard, he no longer had to fear accidentally injuring others with leaked aura, and Ren Qing could finally deal with the more than eight hundred years of lifespan extension brought by the Yang God Realm.
He planned to reserve five hundred years for emergencies. If the situation became critical, he would simply use lifespan to advance the Nether Sea Breathing Art.
Three hundred years of lifespan could truly be used in quite a few places.
Ren Qing summoned the information stream and decided to first advance Dao Dao Dao to the Golden Core stage (Ghost Envoy Realm).
Whether to advance to Snail-Shell Daoist Grounds would consume seventy years of lifespan
Dao Dao Dao differed from the Nether Sea Breathing Art. Perhaps when Heavenly Daozi created it, he was already at the Spirit Division stage, resulting in autonomous cultivation being extremely troublesome.
True essence was required to nourish the Mustard-Seed Space within the heart until its area expanded to ten li, only then could it advance to "Snail-Shell Daoist Grounds."
After Ren Qing confirmed, Eternal Shackles shook violently.
At first glance, aside from the area expanding outward by nearly one-fifth, there seemed to be no other changes, but in reality this was not the case.
Most importantly, Ren Qing thereby gained the ability to influence the rules of the stomach world.
Although Eternal Shackles was filled with abundant vegetation and even possessed a rich ecological system, the growth of the vegetation fell below original expectations.
Although kindling fire could indeed stimulate plant growth and continuously generate more vegetation, the nutrients in the soil were limited, causing many trees to grow to no more than half a meter.
What was lacking was the withering and flourishing of vegetation.
Only when plants withered in autumn, nourishing the earth anew, and after the沉淀 of winter, could more vegetation take root and sprout in spring.
Eternal Shackles appeared no different, yet the four seasons had already become distinct.
The Heavenly Dao Worm's new three heads had grown to roughly the same size as the main head. Four heads simultaneously absorbed Nether Yuan, actually showing a whale-devouring momentum.
Whether to advance to Jar-in-the-Stomach Daoist Grounds would consume two hundred years of lifespan
Ren Qing canceled the display of the information stream. After finishing Dao Dao Dao's breakthrough, he looked at his remaining lifespan with slight hesitation.
Either advance Dao Dao Dao to the Yin Enforcer Realm, or complete aberrant transformations of techniques.
At present, among the Six Calamity Methods, only the "Plague-Scattering Lord" of the Six Plagues Method, the "Aberrant Mirror Mutual Generation" of the Mirror Immortal, and the "Storyteller" of the Storyteller had not yet completed aberrant transformation.
He silently pondered that, under circumstances where self-preservation was the priority, the Storyteller and the Mirror Immortal were undoubtedly the best choices...
At that moment, the ghost shadow had already refined the White Bone Great Sage into a magic artifact, much faster than Ren Qing had imagined.
The White Bone Great Sage's fleshy tentacles were nowhere to be seen, and the turtle shell no longer appeared bone-white, instead becoming a semi-transparent gelatinous form.
Ren Qing revealed a satisfied expression. It seemed that the ghost shadow's attainments in artifact refining were already about to surpass his own.
He took out fungal seeds and scattered them inside the turtle shell, then cast Dragon Roar Within the Casket upon it, closing his eyes to intervene in the pseudo-dragon transformation's modification of the artifact.
A moment later, Ren Qing had an additional piece of crystal-clear glazed glass in his hand. Inside were the roots and stems of a fungus tree, likewise semi-transparent.
With this artifact, he could harvest, no, collect, the Nether Yuan of tens of thousands of people.