The giant corpse Buddha staggered forward among the piles of corpses. Just from its appearance alone, it looked as though its oil had run dry and its flesh could collapse at any moment.
To make the giant corpse Buddha seem more convincing, Ren Qing even went so far as to use disease types.
This time, however, he deliberately used disease types to create negative conditions, such as a coagulation disease type that made wounds difficult to heal, or a cold disease type that caused abnormal body temperature...
With countless illnesses afflicting it, the giant corpse Buddha no longer showed the slightest trace of being an Earth Immortal.
Ren Qing removed as many traces of Buddhism as possible, giving the giant corpse Buddha an entirely different appearance. Its body now looked half-human and half-beast.
As for the cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall, if there was any possibility of exposure, they would simply retreat into the stomach world and hide there for a few days.
Estimating the time required to copy down the Dead Man's Sutra, it probably would not take too long, so the risk should not be too high.
The problem was that Lingxiao Daoist had not returned to the Immortal Gate for over a hundred years, and nobody knew what the situation there was like now.
It was even possible that those Daoist and Buddhist factions from back then had long since vanished like passing clouds and drifting smoke.
The giant corpse Buddha continued its journey for more than ten days. In the distance, the blurry outline of the Immortal Gate could barely be seen. That corpse piercing straight into the heavens truly was shocking.
Its posture was one of kneeling. Its disheveled head hung low, while the opened passageway in its abdomen was surrounded by clouds stained crimson.
Against the backdrop of mountains formed from white bones and corpses, it looked like the end of the world itself.
Even though Ren Qing had seen this scene more than once through memories, he still felt his own insignificance, along with confusion toward the road ahead.
Although the Immortal Gate corpse had long since died, the pressure it emitted was still terrifying.
Even when Ren Qing had faced the blood moon and the Earth Immortal Heavenly Dao Insect, his state of mind had not fluctuated this much. It was clear just how powerful this corpse had been in life.
What exactly existed above Earth Immortals?
Among all the beings Ren Qing had encountered so far, only the true body of the Supreme Heavenly Demon had perhaps already transcended the realm of Earth Immortals.
But the more unknown the Immortal Gate was, the more determined Ren Qing became to obtain the Dead Man's Sutra.
The giant corpse Buddha gradually increased the pace of its steps, while the shadow beneath its feet twisted strangely. That was the Wuying Ghost that had reached the Ghost Envoy realm.
To turn the intangible shadow into a mutated organ, Ren Qing had no idea how much effort he had spent. Fortunately, the Taotie Method was connected to dream spell techniques.
Disease types also possessed characteristics that could shift between the tangible and intangible, which was why they could affect shadows.
The black worm continuously swam within the shadow, only releasing Nether Yuan whenever it surfaced.
The advantage of the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method was that Nether Yuan could be stored within the black worm, so the giant corpse Buddha did not reveal the slightest flaw.
Crack crack crack crack...
The sound of bones shattering rang out.
The secondary brain of the giant corpse Buddha suddenly began shaking without reason. A faint crack split open along its neck, and blood slowly flowed out.
Moments later, the secondary brain actually fell off entirely and floated through the air.
The main brain of the giant corpse Buddha opened its mouth and swallowed the secondary brain whole, ultimately storing it in the central region of the stomach.
Person in a Bottle could allow the primary and secondary brains to separate from one another.
However, only after advancing to the Yin Difference realm would it gain abilities similar to the little person in a bottle, such as absorbing the pain of others to strengthen itself.
Ren Qing's main reason was that the secondary brain was far too eye-catching. Since the artifact spirit made the secondary brain smarter than the main brain, and it was covered in eyeballs, outsiders could easily notice it.
Now that the secondary brain was located inside the stomach, it did not affect the artifact spirit's control over the mutated organs in the slightest.
As for the mutated organs of the giant corpse Buddha, aside from those whose strange creatures the Restraint Officers' Hall lacked in sufficient quantity, all the others had reached the Yin Difference realm.
[Years: Thirty-seven]
[Lifespan: None]
[Technique: Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method (Nascent Soul Stage)]
[Mutated organs:...]
The Yin Difference realm organs were: Black Arm Method right arm, Human Skin Book skin, Divine Foot Scripture legs, The Taotie Method stomach and intestines.
The Ghost Envoy realm organs were: Ice Crystal Technique brain, Person in a Bottle brain, Eyeless Method eyeballs, Insect Eye Technique eyeballs, Blood Hunt Technique eyeballs, Bone Armor Technique skeleton, Vajra Body torso, Beast Heart Ghost left arm, Planting Demons heart, Heart-Burning Method liver, Water Storage Method kidneys, Hundred Intake Method spleen, Lung-Born Sword lungs, Rebirth Technique bladder, Wuying Ghost shadow.
It could be said that the giant corpse Buddha contained the culmination of the techniques of the Restraint Officers' Hall, and the number would continue increasing in the future.
Even Ren Qing could not foresee what level the giant corpse Buddha might eventually reach. As a magical artifact, its potential far exceeded imagination.
He had even become reluctant to refine the giant corpse Buddha into a small world and fuse it into his internal organs. Using it as a mobile war weapon was simply too suitable.
Ren Qing glanced at the Immortal Gate several times, then drove the disease types to affect himself.
The Deformity Disease Type transformed him from head to toe into the appearance of Lingxiao Daoist, even imitating the degree of corpse transformation perfectly.
If placed before cultivators like Fire Dragon Master and the others from the Pill Dao Sect, they probably would not be able to tell real from fake.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged within the stomach region and quietly waited as they approached the Immortal Gate.
The members of the Restraint Officers' Hall no longer needed to remain busy maintaining the mutated organs. Some stayed within the stomach and intestines, while others returned to the stomach world.
Most of them actually missed the days when they had to complete tasks every day.
Task rewards represented resources. Who knew how many cultivators had taken the opportunity to advance to the Ghost Envoy realm. Several had already entered secluded cultivation within the stomach world and could break through to the Yin Difference realm at any moment.
"There's a town..."
Li Tiangang spoke with a frown.
As soon as he said this, the other cultivators all looked toward the patterns on the surface of the stomach wall. Sure enough, they could vaguely make out buildings beneath the feet of the Immortal Gate.
Ren Qing directly connected his consciousness to the main brain of the giant corpse Buddha.
He immediately entered the state of absolute calm caused by the Ice Crystal Technique, while his perspective shifted into the eyeballs covering the surface of the giant corpse Buddha.
He saw houses piled together in vast stretches, all constructed from white bones.
Because the distance was still too great, Ren Qing could not see clearly, but it at least proved that Lingxiao Daoist's memories had been real.
The giant corpse Buddha continued its journey and finally arrived within a hundred li after more than half a month.
The Immortal Gate corpse became even clearer. They could even see blood dripping from its chest and abdomen, along with endless swarms of carrion-eating insects rushing toward it.
These tiny creatures resembled flies and possessed extremely vigorous vitality, though they certainly could not digest the flesh and blood of the Immortal Gate corpse.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. He could already faintly smell blood in the air.
If he himself were forced to remain for hundreds of years in a place without any hope, then no matter how steadfast his Dao heart was, he would probably go mad as well.
The Daoist and Buddhist factions back then had been the same.
The ruined town was stained with blood everywhere. Traces of Daoism and Buddhism had become almost impossible to find, making Ren Qing think of the scene when he had first seen Sand City in the Yellow Marsh.
A considerable number of strange residents moved through the streets of the town, though it was impossible to tell what they were doing.
Ren Qing sensed several gazes falling upon the giant corpse Buddha as it arrived near the Immortal Gate. Those gazes were filled with surprise and confusion.
He climbed out through the nose and mouth of the giant corpse Buddha and sat cross-legged atop its head. While showing weakness to the enemy, he also examined the true state of the town.
The Dead Man's Sutra engraved across the surface of the Immortal Gate corpse entered Ren Qing's sight. As for why it had been carved there, probably nobody could ever understand.
Dead Man's Sutra lacks partial content and cannot be mastered through lifespan expenditure.
Unfortunately, it was still incomplete. The missing sections of the Dead Man's Sutra were likely engraved on the skin around the chest and abdomen of the Immortal Gate corpse.
Ren Qing's expression became complicated. There was simply no avoiding contact with the Immortal Gate corpse anymore.
This journey had been for the Dead Man's Sutra from the very beginning. Now that the objective was within reach, there was no possibility of turning back halfway. Even if he had to force himself through it, he still had to copy it down.
Ren Qing continuously observed the town and soon discovered many shocking things.
The town was roughly divided into three regions belonging to different Daoist and Buddhist factions. The Daoist temples and Buddhist monasteries scattered everywhere made this obvious.
The northwest corner should belong to a Buddhist faction. The walls were covered in twisted patterns of lion faces.
The Buddhist monks inside all bore traces of beastification. Their intelligence seemed rather dull, and most of them sat meditating while chanting scriptures.
They were pale and emaciated. Clearly, there was no food in the forbidden zone capable of satisfying hunger, so they relied entirely on corpses hanging in the corners of the temples.
Beside the open space before the gates sat flesh-like jars and containers. Judging from the sealing clay at their mouths, they had existed for many years.
Through the bodies of the jars, Ren Qing noticed half-human, half-lion embryos inside. All of them were asleep and possessed souls.
"Lions..."
He immediately reacted. Among Buddhist figures associated with lions, this should likely be the "Laughing Lion Arhat" among the Eighteen Arhats.
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The Laughing Lion Arhat, also known as the Venerable Luofuduo, had originally been a hunter. After learning Buddhism, he stopped killing and hunting, and lions came to thank him, thus earning the name.
After observing for a while longer, Ren Qing realized the embryos inside the jars were their method of maintaining population.
Whenever a monk died, they would take out an embryo, ensuring the number of monks within the temple remained unchanged for over two hundred years.
The methods used by the other factions were similar.
The Daoists within the southern Daoist temple had flesh that had transformed into vegetation to varying degrees. In particular, a vine grew from the top of their heads.
At the ends of the vines hung flesh fruits resembling internal organs.
There truly were no internal organs within the Daoists' bodies, as though they had stripped themselves of them through fruit-bearing.
Their method of maintaining population was by planting a giant tree behind the temple, where infants would occasionally ripen and fall like fruit.
Within the trunk of the giant tree, a large number of souls had already been stored in advance.
The northeast corner also belonged to a Daoist faction. Ren Qing was very familiar with them: the Heavenly Dao Insects mentioned by Daoist Yuhua, originating from the Insect Nest.
Their method was simple and crude. They most likely directly hatched Heavenly Dao Insect eggs.
Ren Qing glanced at Daoist Yuhua. Because the patterns on the stomach wall were somewhat blurry, the latter had not realized that members of his own race existed within the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone.
In the corners around the Immortal Gate, there were also all sorts of cultivators barely clinging to life. They were likely remnants of the Daoist and Buddhist factions that had entered the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone two hundred years ago.
However, they had failed to withstand the passage of time and the incredibly harsh environment.
Ren Qing frowned tightly. Factions like the Insect Nest and the Laughing Lion Arhat maintained their populations as though they were waiting for some drastic change within the Immortal Gate.
At that moment, the giant corpse Buddha drew their attention.
The numerous cultivators all stared at Ren Qing, believing him to be reinforcements arriving from the outside world.
"We don't need to wait anymore?!"
A crazed voice rang out as an old Daoist rushed out from the giant tree temple. Along the vine atop his head hung not only internal organs, but also a complete skeleton.
"Nothing is ever going to come out of the Immortal Gate. If we keep waiting, this old man will turn into dry bones first..."
The old Daoist suddenly stopped, then shouted in disbelief, "Lingxiao!"
"Didn't you enter the Immortal Gate?"
"Who exactly are you?!"
More than ten figures flew out from within the town, all of them possessing Yang Spirit realm cultivation.