Inside the cave were webs everywhere, and it also emitted faint true essence. It seemed that this place had already become the nest of the Heavenly Dao insect.
Ren Qing had no intention of making contact. After transforming the Deformity disease type into a pseudo-dragon, he directly controlled it with his consciousness to drill into the skin layer.
The pseudo-dragon disease type moved through the gaps of the skin layer, occasionally stopping to devour some flesh, then soon arrived at the depths of the cave.
Through the pseudo-dragon disease type, Ren Qing could vaguely see the situation inside. The Heavenly Dao insect was crouching within, causing his brows to furrow.
The Heavenly Dao insect hiding inside the Giant Corpse Buddha was completely different from the maggot-like form he remembered.
Ren Qing had come into contact with quite a number of Heavenly Dao insects, even an Earth Immortal Heavenly Dao Insect, but had never seen one with such a bizarre appearance.
The Heavenly Dao insect actually had a humanoid shape overall, but its skin resembled a maggot, and its whole body seemed boneless, crawling by relying on its spine.
What made Ren Qing feel the most absurd was this.
The Heavenly Dao insect was actually wearing a Daoist robe, and from the style of the robe it was obvious that it was specially tailored for a half-human half-insect body.
There was a pattern similar to Taiji on the robe, except the yin side was a human face while the yang side was an insect body.
The Heavenly Dao insect trembled as it curled up in the corner. The muttered words in its mouth could not be understood at all, only that it was extremely terrified.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched.
Why did it feel like... it wasn't a Heavenly Dao insect from Jingzhou.
Judging from the Daoist robe it wore, there was clearly a Dao lineage inheritance, but it did not resemble Wuwei Daoist Temple, nor could it possibly have appeared in Jingzhou afterward.
Perhaps this Heavenly Dao insect had accidentally entered Cishi from some other region. The Heavenly Dao method it cultivated was probably also taught by a Heavenly Dao insect.
Ren Qing immediately realized that the Heavenly Dao insect drilling into the intestines was not plotting anything. It had probably discovered the presence of Restraint Officers' Hall and wanted to seek protection.
With a thought, the Ghost Shadow beneath his feet silently spread outward.
The Heavenly Dao insect took out a flying sword from a magic artifact resembling a storage bag, seemingly intending to try again to break open the intestinal wall's defenses.
At that moment, a huge mouth opened within the shadows and swallowed the Heavenly Dao insect directly into the stomach world.
Ren Qing suppressed the Heavenly Dao insect underground and extracted its memories with countless black ropes.
Unexpectedly, the Heavenly Dao insect truly did not come from Jingzhou but from a region called "Insect Nest," which had also been occupied by Heavenly Dao insects.
However, the parasitic method of Insect Nest was much more straightforward than that of Jingzhou.
Before cultivators even implanted Heavenly Dao insect eggs, their souls were already erased, thereby becoming nutrient sources for the Heavenly Dao insects.
As their realms increased, the hatched Heavenly Dao insects gradually fused with the cultivators, eventually becoming this kind of half-human half-insect anomaly.
From the Heavenly Dao insect's memories Ren Qing obtained a somewhat different Heavenly Dao method, especially regarding realms after the Nascent Soul stage.
However, the memories regarding the Giant Corpse Buddha were very fragmented, as if the soul had been damaged.
Nascent Soul stage: The Heavenly Dao insect becomes more compatible with the cultivator. The body begins adapting to an environment completely without true essence and also nurtures Heavenly Dao insect eggs.
Spirit Division stage: The Heavenly Dao insect can split part of the soul and integrate it into the insect eggs. After hatching, an insect nest forms inside the body.
Ascension stage: The larvae inside the internal insect nest gradually grow up. After their soul consciousness becomes independent, they detach from the original body and form new Heavenly Dao insects.
Although the system of the Insect Nest was safer and the reproduction speed of the species far exceeded the Heavenly Dao insects of Jingzhou, it could not break through to Earth Immortal.
Ren Qing observed the Heavenly Dao insect. It truly had no malicious intent toward Restraint Officers' Hall and mainly wanted to escape downward through the stomach away from the Giant Corpse Buddha.
He ignored the struggling Heavenly Dao insect and used a technique to make it fall into sleep.
Ren Qing then focused his attention on the pseudo-dragon disease type. He still needed to quickly form the mutated eyeball so that Restraint Officers' Hall would not remain passive everywhere.
He controlled the pseudo-dragon disease type to arrive at the surface of the Giant Corpse Buddha's skin and then reproduce rapidly within a limited area.
At the same time the Ghost Shadow spread outward, drawing complicated Moon Patterns.
The Giant Corpse Buddha's traveling speed slowed, then suddenly stopped in place. A bulge several meters wide formed on its abdomen.
Cold sweat appeared on Ren Qing's forehead. Constructing an eyeball from nothing was obviously extremely difficult, especially an insect eye.
Each time the Deformity disease type was about to lose control, he restrained it in time.
Ren Qing did not know how long he spent using the Six Diseases Method. When the eyeball was finally completed, he even felt somewhat exhausted.
An expressionless eye pupil appeared on the abdomen of the Giant Corpse Buddha. Its crystalline exterior reflected sunlight like an embedded gemstone.
After the mutation finished, it continued moving toward the northern Longevity Forbidden Zone.
However Ren Qing knew that the mutated insect eye was actually still missing the final step, which was connecting to the Giant Corpse Buddha's nerves.
He carefully controlled the insect eye to extend nerves and then contacted the Giant Corpse Buddha's nerves.
The moment the nerves connected, the Giant Corpse Buddha's mouth began chanting scriptures, while the stomach and intestines shook like overturning rivers and seas.
Ren Qing did everything possible to maintain the mutated insect eye from collapsing.
He felt that such a situation occurred because the Giant Corpse Buddha's shallow consciousness had received information produced by the insect eye and was somewhat unable to adapt.
The earthquake continued for more than half an hour before the Giant Corpse Buddha regained rationality.
The insect eye on the Giant Corpse Buddha's abdomen blinked continuously, showing none of the previous dullness.
In this way, even if the insect eye was destroyed by external forces, it could regrow after the Giant Corpse Buddha's injuries healed.
And once the Giant Corpse Buddha possessed full-range vision, even if its limbs were stiff, it could detect danger in advance.
This was only Ren Qing's preliminary modification of the Giant Corpse Buddha. Once various disease types were implanted, it could at least display fifty percent of its strength when alive.
The chances of reaching the Longevity Forbidden Zone would naturally become greater, preventing unexpected destruction halfway.
After hesitating for a moment, Ren Qing took out a ghost embryo of the Insect Eye Technique at the Martial Practitioner realm, then had the Ghost Shadow carry the ghost embryo toward the mutated eyeball.
If the mutated eyeball could fuse with the ghost embryo, it would represent the possibility of going further.
The ghost embryo looked like a mass of flesh covered with insect eyes. Because the consciousness inside had been erased, the aura it emitted appeared somewhat faint.
If it were an artifact refined from materials related to Restraint Officer methods, the ghost embryo would instinctively fuse into the artifact. However toward the mutated eyeball it remained lukewarm.
Ren Qing realized that the compatibility between the ghost embryo and the mutated eyeball was lower than expected. It might also be due to the absence of an artifact spirit.
Seeing this, he activated the Moon Patterns covering the mutated eyeball while using the Six Diseases Method to simulate the aura of the Insect Eye Technique as much as possible.
Only then did the ghost embryo reluctantly drill into the mutated eyeball.
The fusion progress was extremely slow and would take at least half a month.
This was only a Martial Practitioner realm ghost embryo. If he wanted to fuse a Half-Corpse realm one, he would need to use the Deformity disease type to push the insect eye closer toward the Ghost Envoy realm.
Ren Qing sighed. He had barely explored a possible path, but to completely refine the Giant Corpse Buddha into a ghost embryo artifact, he had to improve his control over the Deformity disease type.
He then prepared to leave the flesh skin layer, glancing at the mountain-like internal organs.
For a Nascent Soul stage Heavenly Dao insect to fear this place so much that it attempted to forcibly escape through the stomach showed how complicated the situation was.
There might even be existences capable of threatening himself. He had to be extremely cautious.
Ren Qing left some Ghost Shadows as sentries and then returned to the stomach and intestines. Seeing that he had returned smoothly, the cultivators could not help sighing in relief.
Li Tiangang asked in a deep voice, "Ren Qing, how did it go?"
"No problem."
Ren Qing nodded and at the same time walked toward the flesh wall on the outer side of the stomach, while Jiang Feng signaled the cultivators to continue farming in the intestines.
Li Yaoyang hurriedly followed behind Ren Qing. He vaguely realized what the latter intended to do.
Ren Qing placed both hands on the surface of the flesh wall and controlled the insect eye with his consciousness to extend nerves toward the stomach, also carrying the Deformity disease type.
Under the gaze of the others, scale-like structures grew on the surface of the flesh wall, and extremely blurry images appeared.
For Ren Qing, projecting what the insect eye saw onto the flesh wall was not easy, so he could only adopt a compromise method.
He imitated the skin of a chameleon, causing the image to gain various colors.
The image on the flesh wall was somewhat distorted but clearly showed mountains and rivers. However it was like being covered by a thick layer of window paper, as if shrouded in mist.
In the eyes of Li Tiangang and the others, such artifact refining methods seemed almost miraculous.
However their attention was soon drawn to the changing images, because the environment where the Giant Corpse Buddha was located was extremely unusual.
In the distance stood volcanoes that were erupting, and the scorching temperature made the flesh of the Giant Corpse Buddha crackle.
Even though the insect eye blinked constantly, the eyeball still showed signs of shriveling.
The volcano suddenly erupted, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ground, causing the Giant Corpse Buddha's steps to become staggering.
The stomach shook violently.
The smoke emerging from the volcanic crater actually transformed into twisted figures that immediately wrapped around the Giant Corpse Buddha, dissolving its flesh.
The image from the insect eye abruptly stopped.
Li Tiangang quickly signaled the cultivators to activate artifacts. Even a land immortal could not endure such high temperatures. If they penetrated into the stomach, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Fortunately the stomach and intestines were covered with Moon Patterns and protected by Buddhist qi, so they could only feel temperatures of about seventy or eighty degrees at most.
Unfortunately the crops planted in the intestines were all turned to ashes.
After a moment, the high temperature caused by the volcano gradually cooled.
The flesh of the Giant Corpse Buddha recovered again, and the insect eye also regrew, causing the image on the stomach's flesh wall to appear once more.
Ren Qing noticed that the smoke surrounding the Giant Corpse Buddha had already solidified into entities, displaying cultivation levels comparable to the Yin Difference realm.
Once the smoke's cultivation rose to the peak Yang God realm, it suddenly dispersed with the wind.
The cultivators looked at one another.
The smoke erupting from the volcano was likely a unique form of life. However its lifespan was only a few minutes. It was born when the volcano erupted and died when the heat cooled.
The myriad worlds were full of wonders. No one knew what had happened to cause the ecology of this world to become so strange.
The other cultivators quickly cleaned up the battered stomach and intestines and prepared to expand toward other organs.
Ren Qing, however, turned his attention to Tang Sheng in the dream market.
He knew that controlling the Giant Corpse Buddha required far more than just the cultivators of Restraint Officers' Hall. He had to quickly create a technique suitable for the people of Cishi.
Moreover the technique could be taught to the monks of Buddha Within Buddha, continuing to harvest them for lifespan.