Ren Qing had just returned to the bottom of the well to enter closed-door cultivation when he sensed that Wuwei City had become extremely noisy.
Li Tiangang directed cultivators to arrange defensive lines around the city walls, and the forbidden zones outside Wuwei City did not completely encircle it, still leaving gaps.
In this way, defending against demonic beast attacks on the city would also be somewhat simpler.
Before long, the sounds of fighting rang out. The demonic beasts tirelessly harassed Wuwei City, showing no intention of fleeing even until death.
Ren Qing's heart was filled with urgency. He used the Ice Crystal Technique to place himself in a state of absolute calm, lest he be affected by negative emotions.
The four-headed Heavenly Dao Insect digested Nether Yuan with full strength, while all his remaining energy was devoted to the altar.
A large number of patterns intertwined in his mind, including content from the Artifact Spirit Method, so complicated that an ordinary person would grow dizzy at a single glance.
Ren Qing immersed himself in exploring the patterns, completely unaware of the changes in the outside world. He only knew that the frequency of demonic beast attacks was intensifying.
Under Song Zongwu's instruction, no one dared to come to the courtyard to disturb him.
With the Artifact Spirit Method as a foundation, the lines gradually became orderly in Ren Qing's eyes, and he even found a trace of the pleasure of unraveling cocoons and drawing out threads.
It took a full half year before he sorted out the steps for arranging the altar.
But in the world of patterns, Ren Qing had only just grasped the surface.
He had originally thought that the cultivation system of the Blood Moon was built upon demonic qi, but he had not expected it to be constructed from patterns.
These patterns were also named by Ren Qing as "moon patterns."
The Blood Moon used moon patterns as the foundation for launching war. It was very likely that even the stratification of Jingzhou was produced by moon patterns, truly wondrous beyond measure.
Ren Qing believed that the Blood Moon itself must be covered in moon patterns; in reality, it was a gigantic magical artifact.
He attempted to arrange an altar within Eternal Shackles. After finding it relatively smooth, he immediately began demonizing the three aberrant anomalies into Heavenly Demons.
Ren Qing knew that the demonic beast attacks on the city were already extremely severe. It could be seen from the speed at which the White Bone Glazed Canopy accumulated Nether Yuan that cultivators had not rested in the slightest.
At this time, the Restraint Officers' Hall had already refined the four walls of Wuwei City into aberrant fetus artifacts and were preparing to integrate aberrant entities. The one Li Tiangang chose was the Devourer of the Taotie Method.
Only the ground within the city was progressing relatively slowly in refinement due to the molted shell.
Until more than half a month later, a faint dragon roar sounded...
This dragon roar had a somewhat strange tone, as if something were stuck in the throat, giving the civilians a hair-raising feeling.
However, Wuwei City was extremely busy, leaving no time to attend to the source of the dragon roar.
Ren Qing climbed out of the dry well as if in another lifetime.
Wrapped around his arm was a strange dragon more than two meters long, radiating dense true essence.
The strange dragon's upper body maintained a human form. Its head possessed the physical characteristics of a horned dragon, a Heavenly Dao Insect, and a human, appearing extremely unnatural.
The information flow displayed:
[Molted Shell Pseudo-Dragon]
[Condensed from Dragon Roar Within the Casket, when buried underground it transforms into a spirit vein; when breaking through the soil it forms a magical artifact, lasting at most three hundred seventy-five years.]
After Ren Qing arrived on the surface, he felt that the city was terrifyingly quiet.
A faint mist of blood drifted through the streets and alleys. Flies were everywhere, and scattered paper money fluttered in the breeze.
Thousands of cultivators sat cross-legged along both sides of the streets restoring their cultivation. Many still bore injuries, while demonic cultivators distributed resources.
Just as Ren Qing was about to check the situation, Song Zongwu landed beside him.
Song Zongwu glanced at the molted shell and did not ask anything. Just by looking at Ren Qing's expression, he already knew that matters were progressing relatively smoothly.
Ren Qing closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered Eternal Shackles.
There was quite a lot of information left by Hu Wen and the other demonic beasts. It was only because he had been busy in closed-door cultivation that he had no time to examine it in detail.
After understanding the situation, he immediately replied, "At present, Heavenly Demon–transformed aberrant anomalies in Jingzhou have almost disappeared. Even if any descend, they are immediately dealt with by the Rabbit-Toad cultivators."
"I am preparing to place the three aberrant anomalies in Jingzhou simultaneously, in order to draw in Heavenly Demons."
Song Zongwu nodded. The current situation was still within controllable bounds, though Xiangxiang had already made preparations for evacuation.
Even True Person Dameng had arrived at Yellow Sand City in the marshlands and could support Wuwei City at any time.
"Ren Qing, since your Taotie Method can suppress aberrant anomalies, you will go outside the city to place them. However, I suggest at least a thousand li away."
After speaking, Song Zongwu walked toward the direction of the city wall, continuing to oversee the outer city district, not asking a single question about the molted shell in Ren Qing's hands.
Ren Qing examined the strangely shaped molted shell. Although he very much wanted to store it in Eternal Shackles, for now he still needed the Nether Yuan it emitted to maintain the cultivation of Daoist temple disciples.
After all, as ordinary civilians were evacuated one after another, manpower in Wuwei City was gradually becoming strained.
Ren Qing looked around, intending to find a place to temporarily store the molted shell. In the end, his attention was drawn to the White Bone Glazed Canopy above the city.
During these days, the white bone glaze had already absorbed a considerable amount of Nether Yuan.
It was only waiting for the four-headed Heavenly Dao Insect to reach Nascent Soul perfection, using the White Bone Glazed Canopy to break through to the Spirit Division realm.
Ren Qing had originally worried that the Nether Yuan within the White Bone Glazed Canopy would be insufficient. Now he could conveniently treat the molted shell as a powerful charger.
He forcefully tossed it into the air.
The molted shell unwillingly flew toward the White Bone Glazed Canopy, then submerged into it. The source of Nether Yuan thus shifted from underground to overhead.
Within the transparent White Bone Glazed Canopy, an additional swimming black shadow appeared.
The sound of a horn rang out: "Woooo～～～～"
The cultivators had no time at all to attend to the changes above their heads. They gathered toward the city walls, stuffing food into their mouths as they walked.
The calm streets immediately boiled over as cultivators surged in groups toward the three sides of the city walls, especially the main wall at the center.
"The demonic beasts are attacking the city, pay attention to resource allocation..."
"Twenty people per group. When exhausted, withdraw immediately. No delays."
"Demonic cultivators, be ready to treat the wounded at all times. Do not hesitate, do not hesitate!"
Jiang Feng organized the cultivators' defense against the demonic beast assault with a hoarse voice. Immediately afterward, continuous booming impacts sounded.
But just at the start of the siege, wounded were already being transported to the base of the wall.
Ren Qing's expression grew grave. He had not expected Wuwei City's situation to be so severe. Of course, part of the reason was that Song Zongwu had not taken action.
At present, the Rabbit-Toad cultivators' estimation of Wuwei City must be mistaken.
They simply did not consider Wuwei City a threat and treated the siege as a means of disposing of demonic beasts without intelligence.
Demonic beasts with intelligence like Hu Wen were more like resources that the Blood Moon needed to plunder and might ultimately become Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
If Song Zongwu were to act, the presence of a Yang Spirit realm would inevitably intensify the demonic beast siege and might even draw Rabbit-Toad cultivators to personally take action.
Ren Qing flashed several times and arrived atop the city wall. A thick, pungent smell rushed into his nose and mouth.
He raised his eyes.
A giant rhinoceros demonic beast nearly twenty meters long was ramming the city wall. The sturdy wall had already broken its horn.
Blood splattered like waves continuously washing against the wall.
The demonic beast tide stretched as far as the eye could see, interspersed with several giant flesh mountains similar to the rhinoceros demonic beast.
The corpses piled outside the city had already reached several meters high. This was after being cleared after each siege, showing the madness of the demonic beasts.
Densely packed minor demons climbed along the rhinoceros beast's body, using it to leap onto the wall and engage the cultivators in combat.
Such a scene reminded Ren Qing of a movie from his previous life, where orcs attacked a human city with similar grandeur and brutality.
In the blink of an eye, a Restraint Officer was exhausted and died under the encirclement of demonic beasts.
The demonic beasts, whose nature was to eat humans, showed no interest in the corpse and continued to pounce fiercely toward the nearest cultivator.
The corpse twitched, and the aberrant entity within showed signs of revival.
Ren Qing had planned to seal the aberrant entity when a familiar figure darted out beside him, nimbly pressing down the corpse with his arm.
Han Li slit his wrist, and the gushing blood fell onto the corpse's surface.
As pale red fungi bloomed one after another, the corpse entered a state between life and death, and the revival of the aberrant entity abruptly ceased.
Han Li grabbed the corpse and casually threw it toward the inner side of the wall, then silently disappeared into the chaotic crowd of battle.
Ren Qing did not know what to say. Perhaps Han Li's personality was well suited to cultivating the Disaster Dispelling Method, always planning a retreat in advance.
Han Li frowned, feeling as though someone was secretly observing him.
He turned his head to look, but the place where Ren Qing had stood was already empty. He paid it no mind and continued moving through the battlefield.
What Han Li did not notice was that a corner of the clouds in the sky had been torn open.
Ren Qing used Wu Deceit to devour his sense of presence, transformed into a black dragon, and headed in the opposite direction of Wuwei City, scanning the surroundings with his Heavy Pupils.
He felt that the demonic beast tide was so orderly that it was very likely under the control of Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
At the same time, Ren Qing contacted Hu Wen and the other demonic beasts through the demon market, telling them to hurry to a remote corner outside Wuwei City.
That location happened to be a blind spot of the demonic beast tide. He suggested that after placing the aberrant anomalies, he could conveniently bring these demonic beasts back to Wuwei City.
Mainly because Hu Wen and the others had provided considerable help to Ren Qing.
Unfortunately, in the rapidly changing Jingzhou, whether they could seize the opportunity depended on themselves. There was little Ren Qing could do.
There were still many matters within Wuwei City. Spending half a day was already the limit.
Ren Qing flew faster and faster, fearlessly circling the demonic beast tide several times before preparing to head a thousand li away.
But just as he was about to leave the range of the demonic beast tide, he suddenly sensed something wrong.
Within the tide like a swarm of locusts, there was a half-meter gap. The surrounding demonic beasts avoided it, clearly out of fear.
At the gap stood a white bone throne.
A Rabbit-Toad cultivator wearing a purple-gold Daoist robe sat cross-legged upon the white bone throne, occasionally grabbing passing demonic beasts and stuffing them into his mouth.
The Rabbit-Toad cultivator's body was gaunt, his skin covered with wrinkles and pustules. Only his right leg remained incomplete, still recovering from injury.
The aura he emitted was already extremely close to the Yang Spirit realm. On his Daoist robe were embroidered the three characters "Mysterious Palace Moon," clearly some kind of Daoist title.
"So truly dull, so truly dull..."
"This group of turtles doesn't even resist in the slightest. I thought I could watch a good show. So truly dull..."
Mysterious Palace Moon yawned and continued to grab demonic beasts to devour, his broken leg gradually recovering.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. For some reason, even though the Rabbit-Toad cultivator had not yet reached the Yang Spirit realm, he felt an extremely intense sense of threat.