Ren Qing carefully inspected the primary brain before finally relaxing.
He had no intention of using the Forbidden Realm to probe this unknown memory. The methods possessed by existences above the Heavenly Aberration realm were absolutely not something mortals could speculate on.
Even if it was merely an ordinary memory, the danger it posed still could not be underestimated.
Through the Pill Dao Method, Ren Qing realized that memory possession was not impossible, and was even easier than soul possession.
Even he himself, if he used dream techniques to transmit memories, could subtly alter a person's disposition over time without much difficulty.
If another person's memories turned the tables and became dominant, wouldn't that achieve a different form of reincarnation?
The more Ren Qing thought about it, the more he felt that this memory was deeply hidden. Even if it contained the contents of the Dead Man's Sutra, it still was not something he could touch.
He controlled the Longevity Tree to wrap around the primary brain with its roots to avoid accidentally exposing it to the outside world.
While he was at it, Ren Qing also checked on the current situation within the Longevity Forbidden Zone. He learned that physical martial arts had already become universally practiced, and several teams had been organized to search for traces of Longevity Seeds, using them to explore the forbidden zone.
He instructed Muyi to pay attention to the whereabouts of Chen Changsheng's soul.
Ren Qing's consciousness then returned to his body. While secretly letting out a sigh of relief, his gaze turned toward the brain-shaped natal golden core before him.
After all the memories had been stripped away, the natal golden core appeared somewhat listless overall.
If Ren Qing did not know its origins, it would be difficult to imagine that this object actually came from a Yang God realm Pill Dao cultivator.
[Pill Dao Golden Core]
[Condensed from the Pill Dao Method, later corroded by yin energy. After consumption, one can absorb the medicinal properties contained within, accompanied by fleshly corpse transformation.]
Ren Qing could not help feeling tempted. With the medicinal properties accumulated by Daoist Lingxiao over several centuries, this golden core absolutely counted as a supreme tonic.
It was even enough to raise at least one or two Yin Difference realm techniques to the Yang God realm. The exact effect would still require testing the medicinal properties of the natal golden core later.
Ren Qing touched the natal golden core with his hand and could feel the strange objects within his body stirring restlessly, practically yearning to devour it immediately.
However, in the end, he still did not touch the natal golden core.
After all, compared to the five hundred years of lifespan saved and the hidden unknown drawbacks, turning the natal golden core into a magical artifact undoubtedly suited Ren Qing's interests far better.
Moreover, even if it was refined into a magical artifact, that did not mean the medicinal properties of the natal golden core would be lost.
As long as the primary brain of the giant corpse buddha reached the Yin Difference realm, it could replace the natal golden core. At that time, he could reconsider its use.
Or perhaps he could give it to cultivators like Li Tiangang who had reached the peak of the Yin Difference realm, allowing them to use the medicinal properties of the natal golden core to break through to the Yang God realm.
Ren Qing then used the Soul-Splitting Disease Type and the cerebral palsy disease type to alter the structure of the natal golden core, striving to allow it to contain even more memories of the dead.
With prior experience refining the primary brain, he appeared fully confident regarding the natal golden core. One consciousness after another was quickly nurtured into existence.
The primary brain had already reached its limit at just over seventy strands of consciousness, but the natal golden core was far from comparable.
When Ren Qing completed the aberration process, he discovered that it could contain six to seven thousand strands of consciousness. Even if more than half of Restraint Officers' Hall perished, it would still be more than enough.
However, if such a catastrophic situation truly occurred, the potential of Restraint Officers' Hall would also be greatly diminished.
The consciousnesses inside the golden core were independent from one another and were faintly nourished by the medicinal properties, ensuring the memories would remain intact for an extremely long time.
Ren Qing began engraving Moon Patterns onto it, though only basic artifact refinement.
If nothing unexpected happened, the natal golden core should be capable of creating a Yang God realm cultivator someday, so he did not deeply refine it and instead focused on preserving its current state.
After refinement was complete, the natal golden core shrank from over ten meters to the size of a palm.
Ren Qing then brought the natal golden core to the icy island within the stomach world and allowed the artifact to absorb the souls remaining inside the Mud Pellet Palace of the corpses.
He observed the natal golden core and noticed that the memories within remained relatively complete.
The memories contained the joys and sorrows of the Restraint Officers' Hall cultivators during life, as well as their fear at the moment of death and their attachment toward the living.
Ren Qing put away the natal golden core and returned the corpses one by one into specially-made ice coffins.
For now, he had no plans to refine corpses. Either he would wait until leaving the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, or until the natal golden core reached its memory capacity limit.
However, that did not stop Ren Qing from modifying the memories beforehand, preemptively implanting the contents of the Corpse Refinement Method and Year-Year Technique, as well as understandings regarding the techniques.
Once a large batch of zombies was nurtured into existence, they would be able to seamlessly integrate into the system of Restraint Officers' Hall.
At the same time, the aberration refinement of the giant corpse buddha had not stopped either. The Black Arm Method was the first to reach the Ghost Envoy realm.
The Ice Crystal Technique was somewhat slower, mainly because the regeneration of the primary brain had delayed it for some time.
Ren Qing instructed Restraint Officers' Hall to continue nourishing the giant corpse buddha's right arm, while transferring most of the artifact refiners to the leg region.
Although he had no intention of entering the immortal gate, it was still necessary to make sufficient preparations beforehand just in case, especially regarding escape ability.
However, among the techniques in the Great Dream Technique Pavilion, there were actually not many related to the legs.
After thinking it over repeatedly, he ultimately chose the Divine Foot Scripture as the associated technique.
Due to the Blood Dog Gang, the Divine Foot Scripture possessed the greatest number of strange objects. After accumulating for several hundred years, all three aberration paths had strange objects at the Yin Difference realm.
[Divine Foot Scripture]
[Created by Daoist Tiancan. Cultivating this method requires severing both legs at the root during childhood while the bones are still growing, then being confined inside a pickle jar and fed specific medicinal catalysts. If one survives three years, divine feet will grow anew.]
Ren Qing recalled a disease called elephantiasis, caused by lymphatic abnormalities that could swell the legs to over three times their normal size.
Thus, he chose the Elephant Footed One without hesitation.
Unfortunately, the disease tree currently had not collected the elephantiasis disease type, so it could only be obtained from the Longevity Tree, which still required waiting for the fruit to mature.
As for the giant corpse buddha's left arm, considering its movement speed was too slow, he planned to use a rather bizarre technique to complete the aberration.
[Beast Heart Ghost]
[Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. Cultivating this method requires severing the limbs of a child, consuming medicinal catalysts, then hiding within the mating chamber of wild beasts. Once the limbs regrow, the technique is successfully cultivated.]
Back when Restraint Officers' Hall was still in Xiangxiang, there had once been a gang that treated Beast Heart Ghost as its primary cultivation technique.
However, it vanished like a fleeting spark. After only a few years, the gang was exterminated by Restraint Officers' Hall due to taking the wrong side.
Among the aberration paths of Beast Heart Ghost, the "Beast Limbed One" was highly suitable for the giant corpse buddha. Its ability manifested as controlling the limbs to transform into wild beasts.
At the Ghost Envoy realm, "Four Beast Body Control" allowed the limbs to beastify into giant beasts. After advancing to the Yin Difference realm "Blood-Limbed Fierce Beast," the beasts transformed from the limbs could even temporarily separate from the body.
It just so happened that Restraint Officers' Hall possessed strange objects from the Martial Practitioner realm all the way to the Ghost Envoy realm.
Even though the giant corpse buddha could only use its left hand to perform Beast Heart Ghost abilities, that did not mean its power would be any weaker than ordinary cultivators.
After all, Ren Qing possessed the deformity disease type and the Cancer Disease Tree disease type. The aberrations brought by the disease types could push Beast Heart Ghost to its absolute limit.
Once the refinement of Beast Heart Ghost was put on the agenda, Restraint Officers' Hall became busy once more.
Ren Qing placed part of the Pill Dao Method's contents into the Great Dream Technique Pavilion, and very quickly, cultivators skilled in alchemy became interested in the technique.
However, the publicly available Pill Dao Method did not contain specific cultivation methods. It only recorded alchemy techniques for the beginner stage.
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Li Yaoyang was very interested in the Pill Dao Method, so he asked Ren Qing for a complete version.
Ren Qing casually inquired about Li Yaoyang's cultivation progress. The latter had already made considerable headway with his Gu Insect Method.
As long as he could master it, with the Heavenly Dao Insect's ability to nourish the body in return, it likely would not take long before he broke through to the peak of the Yin Difference realm.
Ren Qing openly asked for the technique in advance, and Li Yaoyang naturally did not refuse, merely saying they could discuss it after he fully created it.
Li Yaoyang also seemed to realize that Ren Qing intended to give him a helping hand.
"Brother Ren, thank you. I've already found the path I should walk. For me, the Yang God realm is only a matter of time."
Li Yaoyang thanked Ren Qing several times. If not for the various opportunities Ren Qing had gifted him, he might still be stuck at the entrance of the Yin Difference realm.
He might even have already perished back at the Qingxu Palace of the Meat and Wine Taoist.
Ren Qing watched Li Yaoyang leave.
If Li Yaoyang did not need it, then giving it to Li Tiangang might allow the latter to break through his bottleneck.
To Ren Qing, the natal golden core could at most save five hundred years of lifespan, making it not particularly useful.
After all, in merely a month or two, Ren Qing could already rely on Dream City to extend his lifespan by several hundred years or more. Wool came from the sheep's back. The strength of Restraint Officers' Hall was equally related to the efficiency of lifespan extension.
Of course, if he truly encountered a life-threatening situation and only lacked the natal golden core to advance, he would not hesitate to devour it.
Ren Qing stopped thinking about the natal golden core and instead began considering matters regarding the immortal gate.
At the outskirts of the immortal gate, it was highly possible that remnants of the Daoist and Buddhist forces from those years still remained. It was unrealistic for the giant corpse buddha to sneak in unnoticed.
As for infiltrating using the Disaster Elimination Method, Ren Qing still felt somewhat apprehensive when facing the immortal gate corpse that was suspected to be the ghost gate.
Moreover, the giant corpse buddha was Ren Qing's foundation. It was impossible for him to throw away a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed.
"Could I simply claim to be an outsider…"
No. If an unfamiliar force suddenly entered the immortal gate situation, it would definitely make the Daoist and Buddhist factions wary and might even trigger a united assault against him.
Using the identity of the Pill Dao Sect, however, seemed somewhat feasible.
Ren Qing carefully considered whether he could impersonate the Pill Dao Sect.
To put it bluntly, the Pill Dao Sect was merely a casually arranged chess piece. Among the many forces heading to the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, they were utterly insignificant.
Daoist Lingxiao had not approached the immortal gate for over a hundred years. Whether anyone still remembered him was another matter entirely. After so much time had passed, anything could have changed.
Most importantly, Ren Qing possessed Daoist Lingxiao's memories, meaning he could definitely avoid revealing any flaws.
He would not need to remain outside the immortal gate for long. Just a few days would be enough to complete the transcription of the Dead Man's Sutra.
Only the giant corpse buddha was far too conspicuous.
Ren Qing began suppressing the giant corpse buddha's aura, using the death energy of the Rebirth Technique to create extensive signs of rot across its flesh.
The giant corpse buddha's height of nearly two thousand meters also needed to be compressed. Fortunately, with the Bone Armor Technique and the deformity disease type, he could control the bones to a certain extent.
Ren Qing compressed the giant corpse buddha down to around twelve to thirteen hundred meters and gave it the appearance of collapsing flesh and blood, making it impossible to tell that it was an earth immortal corpse.
In reality, as long as the death energy was withdrawn, the giant corpse buddha would quickly recover.
With the pouring in of massive resources and the assistance of the artifact spirit, the Divine Foot Scripture was the first to reach the Yin Difference realm "Earth-Shaking Giant Elephant."
Following that was the "Eternal Prison Shackles" of the stomach region, whose interior area expanded tenfold, while the toughness of the stomach walls far surpassed the ordinary.
Lastly came the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method, whose Nascent Soul stage successfully condensed a black insect.
Ren Qing merged the black insect into the giant corpse buddha's shadow and discovered that he could use it to allow the latter to master the Shadowless Ghost, though it was rather troublesome.
He used the ghost shadow to help the black insect refine the shadow while heading toward the direction of the immortal gate.