Ren Qing transformed into half-human half-dragon, glancing at the Rabbit-Toad cultivator from the corner of his eye.
He very much wanted to probe with a spell, but at present he had to be prudent to avoid alerting the enemy and affecting the Restraint Officers' Hall's withdrawal from Jingzhou.
Ren Qing's figure once again merged into the clouds.
A trace of a cruel smile appeared at the corner of Xuan Gongyue's mouth, and he muttered in a cold tone, "For some reason, I suddenly feel an inexplicable palpitation..."
He grabbed several demonic beasts and stuffed their heads into his mouth.
As his teeth closed, the demonic beasts' heads suddenly exploded, fresh blood and brain matter immediately splattering out, the delicious taste lingering in his mouth.
Xuan Gongyue stood upright, and the pustules on his neck burst open, purple-red pus flowing out.
The surrounding demonic beasts seemed to smell an extremely delicious scent, crowding close to lick and feed, their own demonic qi surging accordingly.
They swelled at a speed visible to the naked eye, while crazily devouring their own kind.
Moments later, five giant demonic beasts were born, all possessing the realm of Demon King, though their auras were somewhat unstable, clearly forcefully stimulated by external means.
"So truly noisy..."
Xuan Gongyue narrowed his eyes and casually struck, causing one of the Demon Kings to turn into minced flesh, blood, meat, and bone fragments falling like raindrops.
The remaining four Demon Kings did not dare linger and set off toward Wuwei City.
Ren Qing turned his head away, killing intent involuntarily arising in his heart, then covertly left a wisp of ghost shadow not far from the white bone throne, using it to monitor Xuan Gongyue's movements.
He informed Song Zongwu about the four Demon Kings attacking the city. If nothing unexpected occurred, more Yin Difference realm cultivators would join the battlefield this time.
Ren Qing continued shuttling within the clouds, hurrying along the demonic beast tide toward the distance.
He noticed that although these demonic beasts had no intelligence to speak of, they were born knowing to avoid disaster and calamity. After some of their kind died in forbidden zones, their walking routes intentionally or unintentionally avoided those areas.
However, this was also because the forbidden zones had not sealed off Wuwei City.
In the eyes of Song Zongwu and the others, maintaining the current state of Wuwei City was very important. Only after the town had been refined into an aberrant fetus artifact would it be the best time for the Restraint Officers' Hall to withdraw.
Moreover, though the demonic beasts appeared fierce, they could provide large amounts of resources.
If not for the fact that the Restraint Officers' Hall's hard power could not contend against the Blood Moon, they would wish to remain in Jingzhou indefinitely to accumulate foundation.
"Arrived."
After sensing the distance was about right, Ren Qing stopped midair to observe the ground.
There were very few demonic beasts here, only scattered miscellaneous demons. However, the vegetation was extremely lush and emitted faint demonic qi.
He found a relatively secluded valley, surrounded by mountains on three sides, easy to defend and hard to attack.
Ren Qing did not rush to release the aberrant anomalies. His finger touched his brow, and the strange mouth suddenly opened, from which dense demonic qi poured out.
The demonic qi showed a sinking trend, quickly forming mist that spread throughout the valley.
With the help of his control over demonic qi through the demon market, Ren Qing tried to let the plants absorb the demonic qi. Soon rustling sounds came from within the mist.
Heavenly Demon–transformed aberrant anomalies alone were insufficient to cause trouble for the Rabbit-Toad cultivators. There had to be a continuous production of Black Goats.
"Shura Martial God"
However, demonic beasts within thousands of li had already been driven toward Wuwei City, so Ren Qing could only attempt to create some demonic beasts himself.
Demonic qi possessed a special assimilative property, allowing all things to cultivate into demons.
Vegetation quickly grew facial features, roots supporting their bodies to stand, instinctively absorbing the large amount of demonic qi contained in the air.
But once they reached the level of miscellaneous demon, they unexpectedly tried to move their roots toward Wuwei City.
Ren Qing frowned and looked toward the waning moon faintly rising on the horizon.
The Blood Moon was certainly a terrifying magical artifact, hanging overhead to invade regions. In comparison, the Heavenly Dao Insect that had lost Wuwei Daoist Temple's support had indeed fallen into inferiority.
Ren Qing knew he could not wait any longer. The higher the cultivation of the vegetation demonic beasts, the deeper the influence they suffered.
He came to the center of the valley, then transformed into human form. The dragon spine drilling out from his tailbone became a hundred meters in size, the dragon head staring fixedly at the ground.
The ghost shadow possessed the dragon spine, turning it from solid to void.
Wild wind howled.
The dragon spine drilled directly deep into the earth, as if to pierce through the entire land.
After reaching several hundred meters, the dragon spine, through the strange mouth connected to Eternal Shackles, spat the Heavenly Demon–transformed aberrant anomaly into the outside world.
The aberrant anomaly's appearance resembled a river clam. Inside the opened shell was a mass of twisted, deformed white flesh, bearing dozens of goat heads.
Baa...
The goat heads emitted strange cries, while spewing dense Heavenly Demon aura.
In merely a few breaths, the originally dark brown soil became moist, gradually mixed with dark red viscous blood.
Ren Qing felt his scalp tingle.
The process of inanimate flesh-transformation was hair-raising.
The vegetation demonic beasts in the valley suddenly stopped moving, their roots once again burrowing into the ground, absorbing the Heavenly Demon aura contained in the soil.
A thousand li away, Xuan Gongyue's breathing became heavy, instinctively turning to look behind him.
"Another Heavenly Demon?"
Xuan Gongyue's pupils could not help but dilate. Due to emotional agitation, the pustules on his exposed skin became darker in color.
However, the distance was too far to determine the specific location.
He prepared to set off to investigate, but the Heavenly Demon aura vanished without a trace, as if it had been an illusion, causing Xuan Gongyue's expression to darken.
Xuan Gongyue raised his head to look at the waning moon, seemingly communicating about something. Moments later he regained calm and sat back upon the white bone throne.
From outside, the valley still appeared filled with demonic qi.
In reality, Heavenly Demon aura had already flooded it. The demonized vegetation began to shed bark, and on the branches appeared half-meter-sized Heavenly Demon eggs.
Ren Qing was also startled by the suddenly out-of-control Heavenly Demon aura.
Fortunately, he had simply refined the aberrant anomaly somewhat, using the method of flesh magical artifacts, allowing the subsequent aura release to be relatively gentle.
Ren Qing had just intended to release the second aberrant anomaly when he sensed several figures heading toward the valley, seemingly searching for the source of the Heavenly Demon aura.
They were not Rabbit-Toad cultivators, but five humanoid demonic beasts who had already defected.
They imitated Rabbit-Toad cultivators, wearing luxurious Daoist robes, chewing on the limbs of their own kind, moon-disk-shaped tattoos engraved on their faces, expressions incomparably fanatical.
Ren Qing smiled coldly. He was just lacking sacrifices for the Supreme Heavenly Demon to feast upon.
Grabbing the dragon spine's tail, he left the valley directly, arriving in a forest over a hundred li away, leaking a trace of faint Heavenly Demon aura.
The demonic beasts believed they had grasped a clue, hearts filled with longing for immortal fortune.
According to their understanding, "Heavenly Demons" were usually fixed in one place, constantly eroding the surrounding environment.
As long as one did not approach, it would not be too dangerous.
After clarifying the Heavenly Demon's specific information and reporting to the demon immortal, they could obtain large amounts of demonic qi, as well as delicious mortal flesh and blood.
The demonic beasts rushed toward the Heavenly Demon aura, all wanting to obtain the greatest merit to curry favor with the demon immortals of the upper realm.
However, when the demonic beasts arrived at the source, they saw an unbelievable scene.
A man sat cross-legged atop a mountain peak, yet the shadow at his feet took the form of a dragon, emitting an aura that made their hearts tremble in fear.
Fan Liu, an eagle demon, had once followed a demon immortal and seen a "Heavenly Demon." It certainly did not look like the man; the latter was more like...
He cautiously asked, "This one... could it be a demon immortal?"
The other demonic beasts also became respectful, though their conduct clearly tested him. At the slightest sign of something wrong, they would immediately attack.
Ren Qing said, "Do you know, when an immortal strokes my crown, I bind my hair and receive longevity?"
"Ah?"
Ren Qing instantly disappeared from where he stood, then placed his palms on the foreheads of two demonic beasts. Heavenly Demon aura poured out from Eternal Shackles.
Fan Liu's scalp tingled. In his stunned state, screams rang from his companions' mouths.
But the screams immediately turned into strange goat cries, and their skin gradually aged and peeled away, revealing flesh beneath.
Fan Liu watched helplessly as a bizarre Black Goat crawled out from within the skin.
The Black Goat crazily pounced toward the demonic beasts. Only Fan Liu survived, scrambling away in terror, wanting to escape that indescribable horror.
Ren Qing casually used Heavenly Demon aura to enlighten the two demonic beasts bitten by the Black Goat.
The four Black Goats did not pay attention to Ren Qing, who had lost his sense of presence, nor did they continue slaughtering living beings. Instead, they ran toward the southwest.
Though they had no intelligence, their objective was very clear. They seemed intent on locating aberrant anomalies to Heavenly Demon–transform them, thereby drawing more Black Goats to the Waning Moon Layer.
Fan Liu fled for more than ten li before tremblingly taking out a piece of crushed stone from his bosom, intending to crush it to report the situation to the demon immortal.
At that moment, the shadow beneath his feet wriggled like a living thing.
The shadow spread to Fan Liu's limbs, causing him to freeze in place like a stone statue, only able to watch helplessly as Ren Qing walked toward him.
Ren Qing collected Fan Liu into Eternal Shackles, then flashed several times and vanished without a trace.
After a bout of dizziness, Fan Liu heavily fell into Wine Lake, immediately bound all over by countless black ropes.
Then he fell into an eternal nightmare.
Through scattered memories within the dream, Ren Qing roughly understood the Rabbit-Toad cultivators' purpose. They were indeed using the Waning Moon Layer as a springboard.
Because of Buddhism, the Blood Moon had likely suffered heavy injury and thus urgently wanted to devour the Earth Immortal Heavenly Dao Insect to recover.
He soon returned to the valley.
The ecology within had already undergone earth-shaking changes. Grass, wood, and mountain stones all showed signs of flesh-transformation, and goat cries came from everywhere.
Ren Qing successively buried the remaining two Heavenly Demon–transformed aberrant anomalies underground. The degree of ecological flesh-transformation in the valley became even more exaggerated.
The fruits hanging on the branches resembled womb chambers nurturing life, Black Goats within at the critical point of imminent birth.
Before long, Heavenly Demon aura would completely destroy the ecology.
Ren Qing displayed the Disaster Dispelling Method. Wu Deceit temporarily devoured the valley's sense of presence, and then he transformed into a black dragon and left the place.
He arrived at the location agreed upon with Hu Wen and sat cross-legged on a cliff with closed eyes.
Within a few hours, terrifying Heavenly Demon aura erupted in the distance, though it was not caused by the valley, it should have been the Black Goats causing trouble.
The demonic beast tide clearly stalled.
The Rabbit-Toad cultivators immediately rose to handle the calamity caused by the Black Goats.
But even Ren Qing had underestimated the destructiveness of the Black Goats. Heavenly Demon aura began erupting one after another, chaos spreading.
Primordial Wilderness had not yet arrived, yet the situation was already tilting toward loss of control.