The place where the giant corpse Buddha had stopped was no longer merely White Bone Mountain hills.
One could see dried-up riverbeds on the ground, as well as bare withered vines and ancient trees. It was evident that this place had once possessed an ecosystem of flora and fauna.
All the traces indicated that several hundred years ago, something seemed to have happened within Dead Man's Forbidden Zone.
Ren Qing did not understand the reason, but it definitely involved the creator of the Calamity Elimination Method, along with the contemporary Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
He vaguely had a premonition that he would likely come into contact with other factions.
As a frog at the bottom of a well, Ren Qing very much wanted to understand the distribution of powers within this world, and what roles Buddhism and Daoism actually played.
Could the Restraint Officer Method truly achieve immortality?
Could Earth Immortals really obtain eternal life?
Ren Qing had far too many doubts in his heart, but he also understood his own strength. Even after advancing to Heavenly Aberration realm, he would still need to proceed cautiously.
He flashed several times and arrived at the giant corpse Buddha's primary brain, preparing to refine it.
This time, Ren Qing's methods were comparatively crude. He directly used the Brain Paralysis Disease Seed together with Dragon Roar Within the Casket in tandem, seeking only complete control.
The Brain Paralysis Disease Seed could make the soul nurtured by the giant corpse Buddha devoid of intelligence, while Dragon Roar Within the Casket made the brain become subordinate to Ren Qing.
The secondary brain shared part of the primary brain's functions, so the primary brain no longer needed intelligence.
All the cultivators could sense that the giant corpse Buddha seemed to be undergoing some sort of transformation, but only Li Tiangang discerned part of the clues.
His breathing became rapid, and the speed of his heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
After all, it involved a Dharma artifact connected to an Earth Immortal. In the past, he would not even have dared imagine it.
Li Tiangang forcefully suppressed the distracting thoughts in his heart and instructed the cultivators to continue maintaining patrols of all the organs, especially the most important stomach and intestines.
At the same time, Jiang Feng stood at the center of an open area, looking at the images displayed on the stomach wall.
Because the giant corpse Buddha simultaneously possessed Double Pupils User, Hundred-Eyes User, Insect-Eyes User, and Blood Chaser, the images were split into many portions.
Without mastering pupil techniques, merely staring for a moment would cause dizziness and vertigo.
Jiang Feng could at most endure for four hours before feeling swelling pain in both eyes, forcing him to switch with other cultivators to monitor movements in the outside world.
Fortunately, this task not only offered generous rewards, but also indirectly helped cultivate techniques.
After the giant corpse Buddha stopped in place, vigilance became the highest priority. There were even Dharma artifacts floating outside the navel cave.
Jiang Feng's sclera faintly reddened. The cultivator replacing him was already on the way, and he could not help but let out a long breath.
He had just prepared to rest briefly when he suddenly frowned, his expression turning serious.
"How... why does something seem wrong."
Jiang Feng dug out his eyeballs and pressed them into his palms, then accelerated the regeneration of his eyes by consuming medicinal pills. Soon, he possessed more than ten pairs of eyes.
The "Curse Eye Method" that he primarily cultivated was pushed to its limit, carefully observing the stomach wall in meticulous detail.
Jiang Feng discovered that the giant corpse Buddha's other eye pupils had not noticed anything abnormal. Only within the image displayed by Blood Chaser were there traces of living beings approaching.
He was startled and hurriedly used an avian Strange Beast to notify Li Tiangang and Ren Qing.
Li Tiangang came to the stomach area. After repeated confirmation, it was verified that the target was eighty li away, and was clearly coming for the giant corpse Buddha.
He did not panic, mainly because of the confidence brought by the giant corpse Buddha.
Li Tiangang briefly exchanged words with Ren Qing, then quickly issued various tasks, setting the Restraint Officers' Hall, this war machine, into operation.
The Restraint Officers' Hall cultivators had witnessed the Blood Moon and Supreme Heavenly Demon. Even if they were about to directly face Heavenly Aberration realm, they would not feel the slightest panic.
The zombies needed even less mention. Year-Year Technique had made them incomparably warlike.
Only the Cishi people appeared somewhat nervous, but under Tang Sheng's leadership, they quickly threw themselves into Li Tiangang's arrangements.
Ren Qing set aside the matter at hand and connected his consciousness to the giant corpse Buddha.
Before his eyes was the giant corpse Buddha's perspective, allowing him to see even more clearly. He could sense that the aura of the approaching entity was extremely strange.
There was no possibility of avoiding it, so he could only make every preparation to engage in battle.
"In that case, let's catch a turtle in a jar."
Ren Qing sat cross-legged atop the primary brain, like a chess player preparing to place a piece, silently evaluating the strength of the pieces he possessed.
Ever since the Restraint Officers' Hall left Jingzhou, they had not faced any major situations. It was about time to temper the cultivators.
The flat piles of corpses continuously bulged upward, as if something underground was rapidly moving.
The bulges approached the giant corpse Buddha's position, but their speed became slower and slower, clearly showing apprehension.
Deep underground, there was a gigantic flesh sphere four to five hundred meters in size.
The surface of the flesh sphere was stuck with building wreckage and fragments of worn Dharma artifacts. Blood occasionally seeped from the gaps.
It abruptly stopped after rolling within ten li of the giant corpse Buddha.
Part of the flesh sphere emerged from the ground, then continuously wriggled, causing twisted faces to appear on its surface.
The faces began discussing among themselves.
"The shell of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva..."
"Xuanchengzi, it's better to be careful. Perhaps another faction has already occupied it first."
Xuanchengzi looked like a middle-aged man, except there was a depression in the center of his forehead, embedded with a yellow-white seed the size of a fingernail.
"Huolongzi, this is the only chance, there's no other possibility, no other possibility..."
Xuanchengzi muttered to himself as his intelligence gradually sank into madness, causing his face to become increasingly ferocious and terrifying.
Huolongzi was not speaking without basis. The giant corpse Buddha's condition was indeed rather strange.
Because of the recarving of Moon Patterns, the giant corpse Buddha had become somewhat unstable, with flesh and skin occasionally showing signs of rotting.
"Awaken the sect master."
Huolongzi nodded. Then his body also surfaced upon the flesh sphere's surface.
He wore a Daoist robe. Although he could not free himself from the flesh sphere's restraints, his hands began forming Daoist seals, causing fluctuations in aura.
The other Daoists followed suit and surfaced upon the flesh sphere, using Daoist seals to communicate with something.
The flesh sphere trembled as a giant face over ten meters in size slowly formed. The opened eyes were filled with exhaustion that could not be suppressed.
"Greetings, Sect Master."
"Greetings, Senior Brother Lingxiao."
"Greetings, Sect Master."
Daoist Lingxiao's face wriggled across the flesh sphere's surface, quickly approaching the other Daoists. Then his hundred-meter body emerged.
He too was bound within the flesh sphere, like a bird trapped within a cage.
"So it truly is the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva..."
Daoist Lingxiao's expression was complicated, making it impossible to tell whether he felt fortunate or not.
Xuanchengzi regained a bit of sanity and impatiently said, "Seize the shell, seize the shell, leave this damned place!"
"What eternal life, what attaining the Dao and becoming immortal, it's all fake..."
As he roared, dark-red pus flowed from his mouth and nose, indicating that irreversible corpse transformation had appeared within his body and was already close to threatening his life.
"Shut up, Xuanchengzi."
Veins bulged on Huolongzi's forehead as the yellow-white seed moved beneath his skin, causing signs of impending cultivation deviation in his aura.
Daoist Lingxiao looked at the endlessly noisy Daoists and revealed a trace of bitterness at the corners of his mouth.
"I used the Heavenly Eye to observe. There are definitely living beings inside the shell, most likely remnants of some faction. We must be cautious."
Xuanchengzi immediately stopped speaking, though even more pus seeped from his mouth and nose.
Huolongzi turned toward the Daoist in the corner and asked, "Xuanling, how many surviving disciples remain?"
"Three thousand seven hundred sixty-five."
Xuanchengzi grinned hoarsely and said, "Enough. Three thousand Dao soldiers can swallow a nation, not to mention they were refined through sacrificing tens of thousands of mortals."
He could not help letting out maniacal laughter, then violently dug out the seed in the center of his forehead.
After the seed left his body, Xuanchengzi's body began collapsing uncontrollably. Yet there was not the slightest fear on his face.
He threw the seed into the distance, where it landed among the corpse-covered hills.
Daoist Lingxiao knew there were no choices left. He squeezed out a sentence through clenched teeth: "Kill them all. The weak shall be used for sacrifice."
The Daoists all responded in agreement, then each removed the seeds from their bodies and threw them into distant areas where bones had gathered.
Boom boom boom...
The seeds produced deafening sounds, then flesh vegetation burst forth from the ground.
The flesh vegetation grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, gradually transforming into towering giant trees over ten meters tall, with a fleshy tumor fruit condensing upon the branches.
The fruit, resembling a woman's womb, split open with a crack, and Xuanchengzi slowly stepped out from within, radiating pure malice.
Then came the other Daoists. They all completed the reconstruction of their fleshly bodies through the seeds, their cultivation continuously rising with every breath.
Seeing this, Daoist Lingxiao took out several thousand slightly smaller seeds from his robes and scattered them around the flesh sphere without hesitation.
Vegetation grew as three thousand seven hundred sixty-five Dao soldiers were born.
The Dao soldiers had dull expressions and barely existent souls, yet carried an indescribable baleful aura. They had indeed been refined through sacrificing countless mortals.
Under the erosion of Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, the Dao soldiers began developing corpse transformation, causing their vitality to weaken, though the impact was not significant in the short term.
From this, it was evident that Dao soldiers were essentially expendable puppets.
"Kill them all, kill kill kill..."
Xuanchengzi spat out a Daoist robe that wrapped around his body, then covered himself in white mist as he took five to six hundred Dao soldiers and submerged underground, disappearing without a trace.
Huolongzi followed closely behind, likewise taking Dao soldiers and vanishing from the spot.
The other Daoists all did the same. Very quickly, no human figures remained near the flesh sphere, leaving only the flesh vegetation gradually turning into ash.
Daoist Lingxiao muttered incomprehensible nonsense. The trembling of the flesh sphere became increasingly violent, causing the wreckage attached to its surface to fall away.
Moments later, the flesh sphere revealed its original appearance. It too was a yellow-white seed.
The gigantic seed burrowed into the earth as malformed flesh grew uncontrollably, causing cracks to spread outward like a spiderweb.
Daoist Lingxiao's body split apart into pieces, turning into nutrients absorbed by the seed.
"Only..."
"Only the Alchemy Dao is supreme!"
He felt the seed wrapping around his soul slowly shatter as forgotten memories surged into his mind, his entire life flashing before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
For Alchemy Dao cultivators, once they used "Scatter Beans Into Soldiers" and transformed their golden core, shaped like a seed, into Dao soldiers, there would no longer be any path of retreat. Death meant complete destruction of both body and soul.
Though both were Dao soldiers, Dao soldiers refined through sacrificing tens of thousands of mortals and Dao soldiers formed from Alchemy Dao cultivators shattering their golden cores were in fact not fundamentally different.
[Alchemy Dao Technique]
[Created by Dan Chunzi. Cultivation requires consuming medicinal catalysts refined from infants, thereby forming a Pure Yang Golden Core and integrating one's own soul into the golden core before it can be successfully cultivated.]