Ren Qing refined kasaya artifacts in batches while pondering how to harvest leeks.
If he could obtain lifespan from the tens of thousands of monks within Buddha Within Buddha, let alone raising the Dream Path techniques to the Yang God realm, even No-Birth Immortal and Ascension Ladder could be attempted for breakthrough.
After thinking carefully, following the model of Heaven Above Heaven was definitely unrealistic. It seemed the only option was to perfect a suitable technique for the monks to cultivate.
The technique would ideally also benefit the Giant Corpse Buddha.
Moreover, when the monks cultivated, some kind of resource would need to assist them, allowing Ren Qing to continuously obtain lifespan.
Ren Qing glanced at Li Tiangang and the others who were arranging artifacts within the stomach. Perfecting a technique could not be accomplished overnight, so it was better to first bring the Restraint Officers' Hall to the outside world.
He immersed himself in refining kasaya artifacts.
However, because materials such as Buddha skin and Buddha bones were scarce, he used the flesh of the stomach as the main material for refining the kasaya artifacts.
Ren Qing only took a thin layer of flesh from the surface of the flesh wall to refine them.
Kasaya artifacts refined from the flesh wall not only emitted Buddhist qi but also contained disease types. Thus, after cultivators wore them, their aura became extremely similar to that of the Giant Corpse Buddha.
Of course, this also caused the appearance of the kasaya to be extremely strange, like a piece of moldy flesh.
Ren Qing was not worried in the slightest that the Buddhist qi would react abnormally. He had already thoroughly figured out the habits of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
As long as he did not harm the fundamental structure of the stomach, it would not trigger a violent reaction from the Buddhist qi, and the Buddhist qi would even help engrave Moon Patterns.
With the help of the Tombstone Furnace and the ghost shadow, kasayas were produced in batches.
Ren Qing began selecting the cultivators who would go to the stomach. The first batch would mainly build a temporary camp, and most of them would be demon-kind.
After all, Restraint Officer methods still could not be openly used, so demon-kind with strong bodies were needed.
When Ren Qing released the task, it caused a strong reaction not long afterward.
At this time the stomach world's atmosphere was extremely lively. The noisy sounds within Wuwei City could even be heard several li away.
The town had already been moved to Wine Lake Island. One could see cultivators constantly entering and exiting the dream market, purchasing various supplies.
They half-squinted their eyes, their gazes filled with desire for resources.
Unlike the bustling noise of Wine Lake Island, other regions remained relatively peaceful. Some cultivators were even uninterested in the outside world.
And at the shore of Wine Lake, a rather young monk frowned while looking toward the island.
Beside the monk stood a giant white-furred wolf five to six meters tall. On the wolf's back rode a youth around fifteen or sixteen years old, babbling something unintelligible.
"Benefactor Tian A, how should this Wine Lake be crossed..."
Tang Sheng said with a bitter smile, but then shook his head and said no more.
Although Tian A possessed profound magical power, his intelligence was deficient, making even communication difficult. Moreover, the accent of the Cishi people was slightly different.
Ever since the Cishi people came to the stomach world, they had reestablished a village called "Heaven Above Heaven" in the east, where over a hundred thousand civilians lived.
At present the village was still very simple, but at least grain had already become self-sufficient.
Seeing that the Cishi people were safe and sound, Tang Sheng left a letter and quietly departed, traveling westward in hopes of obtaining the true scriptures of cultivation.
Naturally the journey was full of hardships and dangers. After leaving the village for a hundred li, dangers could be found everywhere, completely different from the situation of Buddha Heart City.
Tang Sheng had never cultivated techniques before, and his body was far from strong.
He relied entirely on covering his aura with animal feces to barely reach the central region of the stomach world. The food he carried had also been exhausted.
Tang Sheng stopped following the main road and simply took a risky route along the river heading westward, but unexpectedly encountered wild beasts drinking water.
If Tian A had not passed by and saved him, Tang Sheng might have already died in the wilderness.
Judging from appearance Tian A seemed not young, but his intelligence was equivalent to that of a four- or five-year-old. Every day he simply rode the husky around wandering for fun.
He had little guard against Tang Sheng and brought him back to the demon-kind tribe.
Most demon-kind actually lived in Wuwei City. The tribe mostly consisted of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, and their bodily mutations were relatively mild.
Tang Sheng only felt that demon-kind were somewhat strange but was not overly shocked. At the same time he learned Tian A's name from the demon-kind.
He originally intended to stay in the demon-kind tribe to learn writing, but the elders there all advised him to go to Wuwei City in the center of Wine Lake. Otherwise it would be very difficult to learn the complicated techniques.
Thus from the elders' descriptions, Tang Sheng understood what Wuwei City was like.
According to rumors, Wuwei City was inhabited by immortal Buddhas who had descended from the upper realm. They had once suppressed tens of thousands of demons in Jingzhou, where demons had run rampant.
Tang Sheng understood that his destination was Wuwei City. Perhaps he could find the true body of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva there.
He could not help recalling the tens of thousands of civilians in Heaven Above Heaven. Although they were living relatively peacefully, disasters might appear at any time.
Only by going to Wuwei City could he obtain the transcendent true scriptures; otherwise self-preservation would be impossible.
Tian A had a good impression of Tang Sheng's kind temperament, so he let the husky give him a ride, which brought them to the edge of Wine Lake.
Tang Sheng stared at the surging lake water. One could even see several-meter-long fish within it, and he felt some hesitation.
Just as he was considering whether to build a wooden boat to cross the river, Tian A suddenly made strange sounds with his mouth, as if calling something.
"Benefactor Tian A."
Splash!
Without wind, waves rose on Wine Lake, and a strong fragrance of wine rushed toward him.
Just smelling the scent made Tang Sheng's face flush slightly red.
He covered his mouth and nose with his hand and then discovered a huge shadow had appeared within Wine Lake, seemingly over ten meters long.
Tang Sheng hurriedly stepped back several paces.
Along his journey to Wuwei City he had encountered some enormous creatures, but none gave the terrifying pressure of the shadow within the lake.
"Benefactor Tian A, run quickly..."
Before Tang Sheng could finish speaking, a massive dark gray fish head emerged from the water. Judging from the whiskers beside its mouth, it was clearly a catfish.
Tian A gestured and explained something to the catfish. After hearing it, the catfish nodded.
The catfish approached the shore and exposed its spine above the water surface, clearly indicating that Tang Sheng should sit on it—it intended to carry him across the lake.
"This..."
Tang Sheng did not know Tian A's special status in the stomach world. Because of his lack of intelligence, he did not need to participate in the affairs of the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Ren Qing had also instructed all jailers to look after Tian A's safety.
The catfish in Wine Lake was a strange beast mutated after devouring Kunpeng blood. Since the Kunpeng was currently at a critical stage of transformation, otherwise Tian A might even summon the dozens-of-meters-long Kunpeng.
"This is where we part, Benefactor Tian A."
Tang Sheng tightly grasped the catfish's dorsal fin while the wine vapor made his head dizzy.
After the catfish crossed Wine Lake, it directly threw him onto the shore. Tang Sheng only woke from his drunken-like state after a long while, his head faintly aching.
He looked around, his gaze locking onto the distant Wuwei City, and hurriedly walked toward it.
Besides that, Tang Sheng also saw a dreamlike marketplace at the center of the island, with over ten thousand figures moving inside.
He noticed that some of the immortal Buddhas in the sky above Wuwei City were wearing kasayas, but the distance was too far to see their appearance clearly.
"As expected of a place where immortal Buddhas gather..."
Tang Sheng's pupils suddenly widened. An immortal Buddha flew past overhead, letting out a sharp screech.
If he had not seen wrongly, it was actually a massive tiger wearing a kasaya, with dense eyeballs covering its fur.
Even the kasaya did not look ordinary, it increasingly resembled something made of flesh and blood.
"It must be a spiritual beast under a Buddha. Do not let it disturb the mind."
Tang Sheng recited the name of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva while continuing toward Wuwei City, then suddenly froze in place.
The entire city was filled with demons and monsters.
He could see elephant-men walking upright, as well as men whose legs were elephant feet. Not a single person looked normal.
Tang Sheng's mind went blank as he unconsciously entered the city.
He discovered a narrow fissure standing in an open area. Through it he could see that behind the fissure was a cavern formed from piled flesh.
Tang Sheng did not know that the fissure led to the stomach of the Giant Corpse Buddha, and more than a dozen cultivators had already used it to travel to the outside world.
He also noticed several thousand miniature monks kneeling around the fissure in worship, faintly chanting the name of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
"Is this place... or is it not... the Western Paradise?"
Deep confusion arose in Tang Sheng's heart.
Wuwei City seemed unrelated to the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, yet everywhere revealed indescribable traces of Buddhism.
He unconsciously walked toward the fissure but was stopped by a cultivator with a human body and ox head.
"Where did this monk come from?"
"You don't even have the slightest cultivation. If you want to go into the Buddha's body, first cultivate some techniques."
"This... Brother Ox."
Upon hearing the word Buddha, Tang Sheng's eyes immediately lit up. He wanted to ask for more information but was driven toward the dream market by the ox-headed cultivator.
The dream market was now completely open to outsiders, provided they were within the Longevity Forbidden Zone or the stomach world.
Even more open than the Great Dream Technique Tower that stored technique books, any outsider stepping in for the first time could choose one Restraint Officer method to cultivate.
Tang Sheng looked at the figures on the streets, some real and some illusory, and stood there with his mouth open in confusion.
He felt as if a voice in his heart was guiding him, and eventually he muddle-headedly walked into the Great Dream Technique Tower.
Over a hundred books were placed on the counter.
Tang Sheng had never imagined he would obtain the true scriptures so easily. For a moment he felt stunned, then picked up a book and began reading the technique within.
The more he read, the more he felt something was wrong with the technique. Cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"It must be that I cannot understand the meaning of the words."
Ren Qing, secretly observing, slightly rotated the pupils of his eyes. Tang Sheng's mind suddenly gained large amounts of explanations of Xiangxiang Jingzhou characters.
Ren Qing directly sealed Tang Sheng inside the Great Dream Technique Tower.
He had been worrying about not having a Cishi person cultivate a Restraint Officer method, to see which technique best matched a physique inclined toward the Indestructible Golden Body.
Using the name of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, Ren Qing made Tang Sheng cultivate within the Great Dream Technique Tower. Naturally Tang Sheng could not refuse and obediently began cultivating.
The techniques Ren Qing showed him all had easy entry conditions and no follow-up for advancing to the Martial Practitioner realm. They were only used to test compatibility with physique.
Looking at Tang Sheng, whose inner heart had been greatly shaken, Ren Qing shook his head and thought:
"It seems I'll have to set up a few trials on his return journey. Otherwise how could he comprehend the profound mysteries of the Restraint Officer methods."