Ren Qing's gaze first fell upon the aberrant transformation tree of the Storyteller.
The Storyteller's first aberrant transformation had already been completed. At the time, in order to be safe, the aberrant transformation branch ability chosen was "No-Thought".
[No-Thought: Those without thoughts are innately resistant to soul possession and parasitic takeover.]
As for the other two aberrant transformation branches, they were intended as much as possible to assist the Storyteller, reducing the drawbacks of parasitism after Ren Qing cast techniques.
Ren Qing swept his gaze across the various aberrant transformation branches and discovered that many tender buds had appeared on the aberrant tree again, though of course some buds had also disappeared.
This indicated that aberrant transformation branches were not fixed, but would change with the completion of each aberrant transformation.
[Rebirth: As the duration of parasitism accumulates, the host's body and soul will increasingly draw closer to the caster, eventually becoming indistinguishable.]
If Ren Qing were to choose the Rebirth aberrant transformation, then after he parasitized someone's body, the host would gradually become a second version of himself.
Just thinking about it was somewhat eerie, equivalent to putting on a layer of similar human skin.
[Birth: After parasitizing a female host's body, following a thousand days of gestation, the caster will ultimately be produced.]
[Fostering: When possessing a host, aberrant entities can be temporarily parasitized within the host, granting the host part of the caster's cultivation.]
Birth seemed to seize the initiative, but in reality it abandoned the Storyteller's greatest advantage, namely hiding within all things with an intangible body.
Moreover, if aberrant entities could influence the host, it might even be possible to achieve a similar effect.
However, judging from the aberrant transformation branches, the Storyteller was even more bizarre than ordinary techniques, to the point that it made Ren Qing's hair stand on end.
After hesitating for a long time, Ren Qing determined the second aberrant transformation ability as "Fostering".
He was gambling that after completing the second aberrant transformation, the newly appearing aberrant ability could cooperate with Fostering, enriching the methods of the technique.
Moreover, being able to enhance the survival ability of the possessed target was also good.
If Ren Qing possessed another due to severe injuries and wanted to recover through that, then strengthening the host's strength would be very necessary.
He continued to look at the aberrant tree, and soon noticed many tender buds appearing at the top, all closely related to the Fostering aberrant transformation.
[Twin Birth: When possessing a host, the number of aberrant entities that Fostering can parasitize within the host increases.]
[No-Difference: Aberrant entities will gradually cause aberration of body and soul, but the host's subconscious will not suspect the problems arising within themselves.]
The abilities of these aberrant branches could barely be considered somewhat useful, but at the same time they revealed a sense of strangeness, making it difficult for him to decide immediately.
Ren Qing skipped over one aberrant branch after another, then locked onto a certain tender bud.
[Planting Demons: When possessing a host, one can control the parasitized aberrant entities to strengthen the host's body, but this will additionally consume the host's lifespan.]
Among the Storyteller's aberrant branches, there were very few that could affect the host. He immediately spent fifty years of lifespan to complete the Planting Demons aberrant transformation.
The drawback of the Storyteller was using humans as prisons. If Ren Qing cast this technique, he might very well be trapped within the host's body.
Moments later, the Storyteller's aberrant entity completed its molting, reaching a threefold aberrant transformation close to the Ghost Envoy realm's perfection.
Now only the Six Afflictions Method remained.
As for the Mirror Immortal, the aberrant transformation branches Ren Qing chose were all focused on concealment, in order to better bring out the effect of the Disaster Dispelling Method.
The first aberrant transformation was called "Glazed".
[Glazed: The body can transform into a colorless, transparent glazed body.]
Ren Qing had tried maintaining the glazed body. When remaining motionless, it was indeed extremely difficult to detect, completely indistinguishable to the naked eye.
But this was limited only to a stationary state. When moving, it instead became more conspicuous, since changes in light would affect the glazed body.
The Mirror Immortal's second aberrant transformation was called "Phantom Body".
[Phantom Body: Temporarily creates an illusion similar to the original body.]
The illusionary clone formed by the Phantom Body aberrant transformation was not merely similar, it possessed flesh and bones, a "puppet".
However, even its flesh and bones were composed of illusion, capable of achieving a state before dissipating.
Aside from being unable to speak, the Phantom Body's eyes and movements were almost identical, and it would even twitch like a real corpse shortly after death.
The final third aberrant transformation was "Illusory Reality".
[Illusory Reality: The Phantom Body can cast Mirror Immortal, but cannot use aberrant transformation abilities.]
In this way, the Phantom Body aberrant transformation was extremely suitable for disengaging from battle at critical moments, and using it during combat could also achieve unexpected effects.
Of course, if everyone knew the effect of the Phantom Body aberrant transformation and guarded against it everywhere, then its usefulness would inevitably be greatly reduced.
It was destined to be something that could not be revealed in daily life, and when used, it might concern life and death.
Ren Qing glanced at the information flow of the Disaster Dispelling Method and other techniques, and could not help but gain a few more points of confidence toward the drastic changes about to occur in Jingzhou.
In terms of survival ability, all other Yang Spirit realms combined were not as strong as himself.
[Disaster Dispelling Method (Mirror Immortal, Storyteller)]
[Ghost Belly Conceals the Gate (Ghost Mirror Mutual Generation, Storyteller)]
[Aberrant Transformations: Hunger Resistance, Thirst Resistance, Kill Resistance, No-Thought, Fostering, Planting Demons, Glazed, Phantom Body, Illusory Reality]
Ren Qing stretched lazily. Taking advantage of a lull in closed-door cultivation, he paid some attention to the movements of the Restraint Officers' Hall, and discovered that Li Tiangang was assembling manpower.
Even the war platform "Sand Ship" had already been dispatched to Wuwei City.
It was likely that in the coming days they would head out to seal the aberrant anomalies around the city.
Ren Qing was not worried about the Restraint Officers' Hall overturning, after all Wuwei City had quite a number of Yin Messenger realms, and there was also Song Zongwu of the Yang Spirit realm stationed there.
A thought suddenly arose in his mind.
Ren Qing pondered for a moment, then used a bird-type aberrant beast to write a letter to Li Tiangang.
Mainly, he wanted the Restraint Officers' Hall, while dealing with aberrant anomalies, not to wipe out the demonic beasts completely, and instead hand them over to him afterward.
After all, Eternal Shackles was in need of a large number of living beings to fill it.
Since the demon cultivators had been taken to the outside world, the various tribes were left with only the elderly, the young, and some women, and resource extraction formed by jailers became a problem.
Production could only barely meet the daily consumption of the demon market. If cultivators wanted to purchase in large quantities, it would be difficult to satisfy them.
Ren Qing thought of taking this opportunity to gather some demonic beasts. No matter how wild and untamable they were, throwing them into Eternal Shackles to mine for a few months would smooth out their edges.
Moreover, demonic beasts could not stir up any waves in the stomach world. Put plainly, the demonic qi within their bodies was fundamentally a rootless source.
Once they left Jingzhou, they would quickly turn into mortals.
Li Tiangang's reply was delivered by a bird-type aberrant beast in half a day. On a palm-sized sheet of white paper were written four characters: "So many matters."
Ren Qing chuckled. Li Tiangang's meaning could be considered as having agreed.
He set his mind at ease and continued closed-door cultivation. His gaze first fell upon Dao Dao Dao's aberrant transformation tree, intending to first advance this Heavenly Dao method.
Whether to advance Jar-in-the-Stomach Daoist Grounds, will consume two hundred years of lifespan
Ren Qing confirmed without hesitation.
Immediately afterward, the stomach world shook as mountains and earth moved.
The changes born from Eternal Shackles under Jar-in-the-Stomach Daoist Grounds were far more intense than during Snail-Shell Daoist Grounds, and its area was rapidly expanding.
Wine Lake likewise became broader, even somewhat resembling a small inland sea.
Buzz buzz...
Kunpeng excitedly sprayed out a column of water, leaping out of the lake. Its body of over ten meters slammed heavily onto the lake surface, splashing water everywhere.
The ghost ship was knocked unsteady by the waves. Its prow immediately became ferocious and rushed toward Kunpeng, which hurriedly sank to the bottom.
The Kunpeng tribe had built thatched huts around Wine Lake. Seeing the lake water spreading, they hurriedly packed up and retreated.
Wine Lake Island was also expanding. For the dream market, this incidentally solved the problem of restricted development, bringing only benefits and no harm.
Ren Qing estimated that the metamorphosis of Eternal Shackles would still require some time, and simply shifted his attention to the Six Afflictions Method aberrant tree in his mind, examining the many tender buds on its branches.
The ability of the Scattering Plague Lord was to spread disease. After being transformed into a subsidiary technique of the Dark Nightmare Lord, the type of disease changed.
From ordinary diseases targeting the body, it became dream diseases targeting the soul.
Of course, regardless of the disease, the Scattering Plague Lord's effects were actually formed by techniques, rather than creating pathogens like the Tai Sui Scripture.
That was why Ren Qing felt that the Tai Sui Scripture and the Six Afflictions Method complemented each other, though unfortunately the Tai Sui Scripture caused corpse-transformation of the body and had to be cultivated together with the Dead Man's Sutra.
Ren Qing swept across the various aberrant transformations, and his expression became strange.
He discovered that the aberrant branches of the Six Afflictions Method were nearly half fewer than those of ordinary techniques, and most abilities were related to dreams.
[Layered Dreams: Simultaneously stacks multiple nightmare diseases.]
[Seven Poisons: Uses one's own seven souls to nurture nightmare diseases, using them to cast techniques.]
[Three Poisons: Uses one's own three spirits to nurture diseases, thereby casting techniques.]
Seven Poisons and Three Poisons made Ren Qing's three spirits and seven souls become the medium for casting techniques.
After thinking about it, he decided to forget it. If it were a split soul it would be fine, but using the main soul to nurture diseases would leave too great a hidden danger in the future.
For the first aberrant transformation, Ren Qing chose the relatively conventional "Layered Dreams".
The second aberrant transformation was "Long Dream".
Long Dream: Increases the duration of nightmares and makes consciousness difficult to escape, only external contact can awaken it.
As for the third aberrant transformation, Ren Qing saw an extremely special aberrant branch, likely produced under the influence of dream techniques such as the Eyeless Method.
Nightmare Devourer: Can feed on the pain emitted by nightmares, thereby strengthening itself.
The description of the Nightmare Devourer aberrant transformation was rather vague, but Ren Qing still decided to use it to complete the aberrant transformation.
Ren Qing closed his eyes to sense the Scattering Plague Lord, yet still could not figure out the effect of Nightmare Devourer, when at that moment Eternal Shackles completed its metamorphosis.
After advancing to Jar-in-the-Stomach Daoist Grounds, the area of Eternal Shackles was already equivalent to marshlands, and it had constructed a complete set of the twenty-four solar terms.
Beginning of Spring, Rain Water, Awakening of Insects, Spring Equinox, Clear and Bright, Grain Rain, Beginning of Summer, Lesser Fullness, Grain in Ear, Summer Solstice, Lesser Heat, Greater Heat, Beginning of Autumn, End of Heat, White Dew, Autumn Equinox, Cold Dew, Frost Descent, Beginning of Winter, Lesser Snow, Greater Snow, Winter Solstice, Lesser Cold, Greater Cold.
The flow of time was also more than three times faster than the outside world.
However, the changes to world rules by Dao Dao Dao at the Nascent Soul stage were limited to this. To pull off more flamboyant operations would have to wait until the Spirit Division stage.
Ren Qing's gaze swept over Eternal Shackles, then noticed the Kunpeng and the ghost ship causing a ruckus in Wine Lake, and planned to find a target to test Nightmare Devourer.
The ghost ship was an aberrant fetus artifact. Although it had an artifact spirit, it had no consciousness.
Kunpeng instinctively sensed danger and fled in panic toward the bottom of the lake, but suddenly felt the surroundings sink into endless darkness.
Ren Qing's illusory shadow appeared before it and began merciless terrorization.
After the Nightmare Devourer aberrant transformation absorbed Kunpeng's fear, it gradually generated a unique nightmare-demon aura, which finally surged into Ren Qing's Mud Pellet Palace.
Ren Qing was somewhat surprised.
He discovered that after absorbing the nightmare-demon aura, the dream seed showed signs of metamorphosis.
The effect of the Nightmare Devourer aberrant transformation was actually to nourish dream-type artifacts. Then the soul butterfly was likely also possible, he did not know what changes would occur.
Noise came from within the city. Li Tiangang had already led cultivators to seal the aberrant anomalies.