Ren Qing's seclusion had little impact on Wuwei City.
After all, the steps of refining the aberrant fetus artifact were already nearing completion. Fusing the strange object did not require Ren Qing's intervention; even Xiao San could handle it.
Moreover, the demonic beast tide had completely vanished, likewise giving them a chance to catch their breath.
The Martial Practitioner realm The Taotie Method strange object was quickly erased of its consciousness, turning into an aberrant fetus resembling a dead thing, its exterior very much like a stubborn stone.
As soon as Xiao San placed the aberrant fetus in the open ground of Wuwei City, the green bricks split open a crack and swallowed the aberrant fetus into the earth.
After Wuwei City became a Martial Practitioner realm aberrant fetus artifact, the whole gradually turned gray-white, and its hardness increased by at least thirty percent.
According to Li Tiangang's estimate, at most after waiting about half a month, they could continue to integrate the Half-Corpse realm Devourer strange object.
The reason for choosing Devourer rather than a Secondary Stomach like Sand Ship mainly considered Wuwei City's mobility as a magical artifact.
"Genetic Era"
Devourer's Ghost Envoy realm is called "Spirit of the Hill," its appearance resembling a giant boulder with limbs, and its movement speed is not slow.
An aberrant fetus artifact would naturally inherit part of the strange object's abilities.
If nothing unexpected happened, once Wuwei City reached the Ghost Envoy realm, it could rely on this to detach from Jingzhou's range and withdraw in the direction of Xiangxiang.
To ensure that the artifact spirit contained within Wuwei City could grow robustly and fuse higher realm strange objects as soon as possible, Li Tiangang prepared to take an unconventional path.
The Head-in-the-Jar had once created a kind of Blood Refinement Method, which could use a large amount of fresh blood to stimulate the growth of an aberrant fetus artifact's consciousness. Later, because it was too extreme, it was eliminated by Ren Qing's Artifact Spirit Method.
But in extraordinary times, they could only use the Blood Refinement Method to nourish Wuwei City.
Li Tiangang certainly would not use human blood, so he chose demonic beast blood, which was slightly less effective. They had collected quite a lot during the demonic beast siege.
The cultivators cast water-attribute spells, causing continuous blood rain to shroud the city. It somewhat had the flavor of the former Avici Hell.
Some cultivators rode magical artifacts wandering through Wuwei City, pouring buckets of fresh blood into the city's dead corners.
The fresh blood was slowly absorbed by Wuwei City, and its aura correspondingly became stronger.
But it also caused the smell of blood to be extremely pungent. Many cultivators of slightly lower realms felt inexplicable dizziness within the city.
If not for Wuwei City faintly suppressing the aberration of body and soul, many cultivators would inevitably be affected by the bloody smell and fall into madness.
Demonic beasts and demon cultivators were clearly stimulated with their instinctual beastliness in this environment and had to lock themselves inside houses and not go out.
One could hear painful roars from within the houses that could not be suppressed.
The Daoist temple disciples thus changed their view of them somewhat and were no longer as hostile as at the beginning.
Demon cultivators and demonic beasts had both once been eroded by demonic qi and banded together with each other, collectively called "demon-kind" by the other cultivators.
Song Zongwu sat cross-legged atop the city wall, feeling the calm atmosphere within the city, yet an urgency inevitably arose in his heart.
Although he no longer used Buddhist sect spells, his intuition was still influenced by the Buddhist five senses and was extremely sensitive to danger.
The Rabbit-Toad cultivators had not spared Wuwei City. Rather, because of the Heavenly Demon, they chose to accumulate strength in secret and then act afterward.
Song Zongwu's six eyes looked into the distance. Several Heavenly Demon auras were erupting.
Clearly, the situation in the Residual Moon layer was somewhat out of control, at least beyond the Rabbit-Toad cultivators' original expectations. Who could have expected the Black Goats to flood.
Most crucially, Song Zongwu did not sense the three aberrant anomalies arranged by Ren Qing.
This showed that the Heavenly Demon's forces were not as simple as they appeared on the surface. They had already spread inadvertently and were even sufficient to overturn Jingzhou's situation.
Just as Song Zongwu was deep in thought, distorted light and shadow flickered beside him.
Without turning his head, he knew it was Great Dream True Person. The latter had been in Yellow Sand City within the marshland and had likely also sensed Wuwei City's danger, simply coming to Jingzhou personally.
"Song Zongwu, how much longer is needed?"
"At most two months. However, the Rabbit-Toad cultivators are very likely to jump over the wall in desperation. We must prepare for direct confrontation."
Great Dream True Person said calmly, "Use the forbidden zone to seal off Wuwei City."
"That works as well."
Song Zongwu instructed Li Yaoyang to place the strange objects and marked approximate locations on a crude map.
The strange objects used by Restraint Officers' Hall were all Ghost Envoy realm, so the newly born forbidden zones could easily devour Demon Kings.
However, being in Jingzhou filled with demonic qi, the power of the forbidden zones would certainly decline.
Song Zongwu did not expect the forbidden zones to protect Wuwei City for long. Delaying for a certain time was already sufficient. Perhaps they could seize the opportunity to leave Jingzhou.
The two chatted intermittently, their topics ranging everywhere.
They had just been discussing cultivation insights of the Yang Spirit realm, and in the next moment switched to the southern Endless Forest, or Heavenly Demon aura.
Outsiders could not hear the amount of information mixed within their words.
At this moment, brilliant light burst from Song Zongwu's six eyes as he looked at the White Bone Glazed Canopy above with an incredulous gaze.
Within it was actually a faint aura on the verge of breaking through to the Yang Spirit realm.
Song Zongwu's heart pounded wildly. He could not help glancing at Great Dream True Person, not knowing which cultivator was the source of the aura.
Great Dream True Person said indifferently, "Neither human nor insect nor dragon nor shadow, able to rely on the Heavenly Dao Method to break through the Spirit Division stage, truly not easy."
"Heavenly Dao Method? Who?!"
Song Zongwu did not react at first, but then realized that the White Bone Glazed Canopy was refined by Ren Qing, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
He had sensed that the aura Ren Qing revealed was not right, but no matter how he guessed, he had not expected it to be related to the Yang Spirit realm.
After all, Ren Qing had only recently broken through to Yin Difference realm completion. Moreover, the systems he cultivated were extremely numerous. Aberrant transformation fusion alone was a huge undertaking.
Could it be using the Heavenly Dao Method to draw inferences from one instance?
Then how did Ren Qing avoid the defects of the Heavenly Dao Method? Even Wuwei Daoist Temple for thousands of years could not achieve symbiosis with the Heavenly Dao Insect.
Song Zongwu stared at the White Bone Glazed Canopy with myriad thoughts, worry inevitably appearing on his face.
He feared that Ren Qing, in order to achieve the Yang Spirit realm sooner, might choose a deviant path, thereby wasting such outstanding talent.
The help he could provide was limited. He only hoped Ren Qing would break through smoothly.
Great Dream True Person still maintained distorted light and shadow.
He suddenly said, "Song Zongwu, the Sand Ship over at Xiangxiang is ready. Unless the crisis brought by the Blood Moon is resolved, we must migrate and leave."
"Can Avici Hell be taken away?"
"Very troublesome."
Song Zongwu relaxed. Troublesome did not mean impossible. As the foundation of Restraint Officers' Hall, Avici Hell was still very important.
"According to Restraint Officers' Hall's records, the Ksitigarbha that constitutes Avici Hell is very likely the cultivator who founded Restraint Officers' Hall."
Restraint Officers' Hall obtained Avici Hell five or six hundred years ago. The patriarch disappeared at about the same time. It was indeed possible they were the same person.
If truly so, the patriarch was probably still alive.
After all, only when a cultivator dies does a strange object turn into a forbidden zone. Ksitigarbha should exist in some form, though without a body.
Great Dream True Person added, "Ksitigarbha's body is missing, Avici Hell remains. Possibly cultivated the Beast Pen Method."
"Another Heavenly Demon?"
"It seems leaving is indeed more prudent. Xiangxiang is truly not far from the Beast Pen."
Song Zongwu appeared slightly helpless.
He had originally planned, after Jingzhou ended, to search for Lingshan Temple according to vague memories, but now it seemed unavoidable to postpone.
If Restraint Officers' Hall migrated south, they would inevitably encounter various dangers. The road ahead was truly too unknown.
The two chatted about the Endless Forest. The vegetation within had remained unchanged since ancient times. No matter the alternation of the four seasons, there would not be the slightest withering or flourishing.
Restraint Officers' Hall's exploration of the Endless Forest was only within a hundred li. Going deeper made it very easy to lose one's way; the environment inside was overly strange.
Nearly every tree was identical and would interfere with sense of direction.
While they were chatting about the discoveries of Muyi and others, Wuwei City trembled slightly, and the insect molt within the White Bone Glazed Canopy swam about.
The insect molt became extremely excited, causing the Nether Yuan contained in the air to become much denser. Daoist temple disciples sat cross-legged one after another operating the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
"Really going to advance to the Spirit Division stage?"
Only after sensing the Spirit Division stage aura intensifying did Song Zongwu realize that Ren Qing had unknowingly caught up.
The Nether Yuan stored within the White Bone Glazed Canopy was drained at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect gradually revealed its true form, coiling within the White Bone Glazed Canopy like a true dragon, causing everyone to look sideways.
Ren Qing's attention was completely focused on the Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect, operating the Nether Sea Breathing Art to help it absorb massive amounts of Nether Yuan.
If placed in the Wuwei Daoist Temple of that year, his Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect would completely belong to the kind of adult insect forcibly nurtured with resources.
The difficulty of breaking through was actually much greater.
Ren Qing exerted himself to restrain the aura of the Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect. If it caused damage to the White Bone Glazed Canopy, Wuwei City's defense would develop loopholes.
The Spirit Division stage of the Heavenly Dao Method actually refers to the Heavenly Dao Insect dividing its own soul and integrating into the host's Mud Pellet Palace to parasitize.
Ren Qing's Heavenly Dao Method was somewhat different. First, the soul of the Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect had long been erased by the information flow, leaving only faint consciousness.
In the end, the consciousness differentiated into four strands and drilled into each head.
After the Nether Sea Breathing Art advanced to the Spirit Division stage "Netherworld Wasted Immortal," the aura emitted by the ghost shadow gained a trace of Yellow Springs ghost qi from the underworld.
And Yellow Springs ghost qi had the characteristic of corroding all things, perfectly complementing the ghost shadow.
Of course, most importantly, the Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect could already change hosts to parasitize.
With a thought from Ren Qing, since the Heavenly Dao Insect was part of the ghost shadow, theoretically it could also count as an extension of his own body...
He took the Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect into Eternal Shackles, found a wild wolf and used the Storyteller's ability. The Heavenly Dao Insect immediately disappeared without a trace.
The Heavenly Dao Insect was originally adept at parasitism, far more compatible with the Storyteller than Ren Qing.
The wild wolf shook its head and ran toward the forest, completely unaware that an over one-hundred-meter giant maggot had been added inside its body.
It had just run several dozen meters when its flesh began to aberrate, gradually covered by black dragon scales. Its head split open, and horns grew from the wound.
At the same time, its lifespan greatly decreased, and the wild wolf soon collapsed to the ground.
The Four-Headed Heavenly Dao Insect broke out of the body.
Joy appeared on Ren Qing's face. Just as he wanted to continue testing the Storyteller's ability, he suddenly heard the familiar horn sound again within the city.
The demonic beast tide attacked once more.
The Blood Moon hung in the sky, and some forbidden zones were pulled into the Lower Lunar Arc layer.
Ren Qing looked at the information flow and seized the time to continue seclusion.