Ren Qing could not help but feel delighted, but when he instinctively looked at the largely escaped Lingbao Heavenly Venerable, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him from head to toe.
Lingbao Heavenly Venerable's formless body was constantly changing. Only that face devoid of facial features remained fixed.
The artifact-refining memories in Ren Qing's mind became increasingly bizarre. There were even methods for refining Restraint Officer cultivators alive into magical artifacts.
He sealed the five senses of his soul and followed the guidance of his body.
After a wave of weightlessness, Ren Qing once again felt the cold touch of stone. What he had just experienced seemed like nothing more than a dream.
With his eyes closed, Ren Qing erased the memories tampered with by Lingbao Heavenly Venerable. Very little of the content was useful to him. Most of it was pure poison.
It was as if Lingbao Heavenly Venerable was dumping garbage directly into other people's souls. For ordinary cultivators, it would likely cause their souls to undergo aberration.
Ren Qing spent more than ten days carefully organizing everything. Only after confirming that nothing remained did he finally relax and summon the information stream.
[Lifespan: One hundred and thirty-four years]
[Techniques: Corpse Fengdu (Sequential Stages)..]
[Strange Object: Indestructible Bone Zombie]
[Divine Ability: Death Gives No Birth]
[Immortal Position: Fengdu Corpse Emperor (Pseudo)]
The word "Pseudo" behind the immortal position was because Ren Qing had not yet attained immortality and enlightenment, so he had not completely mastered the position of Fengdu Corpse Emperor.
[Corpse Fengdu]
[Created by Ren Qing. Cultivation requires a dead body and an Imperishable soul. The cultivator must continuously nourish the body with soul aura for three years. Once the body gives birth to a secondary soul, devour it to complete the technique.]
The upper limit of Corpse Fengdu reaches Earth Immortal and is compatible with other techniques.
If ordinary cultivators attempted to cultivate Corpse Fengdu, their souls would only become riddled with damage.
By the time the body gave birth to a secondary soul, the primary soul would likely be unable to suppress it and might even be devoured by the secondary soul instead. The difficulty of the technique was self-evident.
However, Ren Qing felt that since it involved Fengdu, that was only natural.
In Daoist records, the most famous deity associated with Fengdu was the Fengdu Great Emperor, also known as the Fengdu Northern Yin Great Emperor, Northern Supreme Sovereign, or Northern Yin Son of Heaven. He governed the Underworld and its nether offices.
The Fengdu Great Emperor's duty was to oversee the ghost gods of the Six Heavens beneath Fengdu. He was the incarnation of the Ziwei Great Emperor among the souls of the underworld.
An ancient saying went:
"Formerly, the Northern Pole Ziwei Jade Void Emperor dwelt within the Purple Forbidden Enclosure. He was the master of all phenomena, honored by the myriad stars, the emperor lord of the Golden Immortals of all laws. Above he attended the Golden Palace, below he governed Fengdu."
Within the Daoist system, the Fengdu Great Emperor possessed terrifying authority over the underworld.
Of course, Ren Qing's immortal position was Fengdu Corpse Emperor, not the pure Fengdu Great Emperor. It seemed to be a corpse emperor among zombies.
Corpse Fengdu also possessed its own cultivation realms: the Martial Practitioner realm's Sequential Stages, the Half-Corpse realm's White Register, the Ghost Envoy realm's Director of Fate, the Yin Difference realm's Spirit Administrator, the Yang Spirit realm's Ghost Official, the Heavenly Aberration realm's Heavenly Lord, and the Earth Immortal realm's Supreme Emperor.
Ren Qing's lifespan still was not truly immortal, but after cultivating Corpse Fengdu, he should gradually move closer to Undying and Imperishable.
[Do you wish to advance to White Register? This will consume one year of lifespan.]
Without hesitation, he spent the lifespan.
The Corpse Core within his dantian immediately underwent a change, releasing vast quantities of yin qi to nourish his flesh.
Although he still possessed a zombie body, there was no sign of decay or corruption.
Ren Qing felt his flesh perfectly absorb the yin qi, causing his body to transform toward a state neither living nor dead.
Do you wish to advance to Director of Fate? This will consume ten years of lifespan.
His bones then began absorbing yin qi alongside his flesh. Even his internal organs stirred restlessly, while his blood seemed to rejoice.
Just as Ren Qing intended to continue and advance into the Yin Difference realm, he discovered that he lacked sufficient lifespan.
When immortality was only a few steps away yet still beyond reach, Ren Qing naturally felt restless. He hurriedly turned his attention toward the Stomach World.
Ren Qing tossed all kinds of stored longevity-extending materials into the Flesh Furnace and watched his lifespan increase toward the two hundred years required for the Yin Difference realm.
A moment later, much of the impatience in his heart had instead faded.
Ren Qing knew he had inevitably been affected by Corpse Fengdu. The temptation of immortality was simply too great and had nearly caused his state of mind to become unstable.
He forcibly closed the information stream and continued extending his lifespan while paying attention to the situation of the Beast Pen people.
Although Ren Qing felt that ascending the Ascension Ladder had taken only a little over half an hour, several days had actually passed, and the situation of the Beast Pen people had undergone earth-shaking changes.
They had rebuilt their town, and the population had barely reached two hundred.
The flesh-made houses and tools had appeared once again. Though the development seemed unchanged on the surface, subtle differences existed in every aspect.
The Beast Pen people had diverged from their original path. Using the principle by which black goat hides generated flesh, they raised a creature known as a "Flesh Sheep."
The Flesh Sheep resembled skinned goats in appearance but possessed relatively docile temperaments.
The Beast Pen people treated the Flesh Sheep as blood relatives and fed them their own flesh and blood from childhood onward, causing the Flesh Sheep to commonly grow to more than a hundred meters in size.
Ren Qing discovered that whenever a Beast Pen person was injured or nearing the end of their lifespan, they would extract flesh from the Flesh Sheep to strengthen themselves.
The Beast Pen people's lifespans could indeed increase, but they consumed lifespan rapidly in daily life. Every day might cost them several years or more.
Ren Qing noticed that due to their fear of lifespan exhaustion, the Beast Pen people focused their efforts on Flesh Sheep rather than flesh machinery.
He was very curious whether the fate of the Beast Pen people would undergo some kind of change.
After observing for a while, Ren Qing realized that the town's population had not yet reached the point of explosive growth, so he withdrew his consciousness and continued cultivating in seclusion.
Half a day later, his lifespan finally exceeded two hundred years.
Do you wish to advance to Spirit Administrator? This will consume two hundred years of lifespan.
Ren Qing spent all of his remaining lifespan.
Immediately, numb tingling pain spread throughout his body. Even his blood was not exempt.
His brows furrowed. The weakness brought about by lifespan exhaustion was slowly fading, replaced by an almost constant physical state.
As soon as Corpse Fengdu completed its advancement, Ren Qing eagerly summoned the information stream.
[Lifespan: None]
Ren Qing could sense that his current immortality differed from that of his zombie body.
The zombie body's immortality was more like a manifestation of death. Even after surviving for thousands of years, the body would still gradually rot away.
However, Ren Qing also understood that only by cultivating Corpse Fengdu to the Earth Immortal level and fully mastering the immortal position of Fengdu Corpse Emperor could he truly be considered Undying and Imperishable.
He had every reason to suspect that incomplete immortality contained hidden flaws.
[Do you wish to advance to Ghost Official? This will consume one thousand years of lifespan.]
After hesitating repeatedly, Ren Qing silently closed the information stream for Corpse Fengdu and casually selected a Strange Object Jailer from the Stomach World.
[Do you wish to choose the branch Disaster-Devouring Swift Wolf? This will consume two hundred years of lifespan.]
Ghost Wolf appeared somewhat uneasy, but soon discovered a surge of energy emerging within its body, causing it to continuously expand as savage bone armor spread across it.
The Disaster-Devouring Swift Wolf's ability somewhat resembled Longevous Tortoise. It could sense the locations of disasters.
However, Ghost Wolf could only perceive military disasters, namely wars between living beings, and cultivate by absorbing the murderous aura emitted from battlefields.
Ghost Wolf successfully advanced to the Yin Difference realm before being tossed back into the wolf den by Ren Qing.
Ren Qing noticed no abnormalities in himself, yet at some unknown point, a tiny crack had appeared on the tortoise shell embedded in the roof of his mouth.
He carefully examined it several times and determined it was not caused by external factors.
That could only mean one thing. Before fully mastering the immortal position of Fengdu Corpse Emperor, consuming lifespan indeed carried some inexplicable side effect.
Fortunately, Ren Qing noticed that the crack on the tortoise shell was slowly healing.
After pondering for a few moments, he removed Dream City's lifespan collection rules, greatly reducing the efficiency of lifespan accumulation.
However, the healing speed of the crack remained unchanged.
He could not help but sigh in relief. As long as it was not a worthless form of immortality that merely spent future lifespan in advance, it was still an enormous improvement for him.
[Do you wish to advance to Ghost Official? This will consume one thousand years of lifespan.]
Ren Qing continued advancing Corpse Fengdu into the Yang Spirit realm.
The Corpse Core completely shattered, allowing yin qi to flood every part of his flesh and bones.
The density of his flesh and skeleton increased at a visible rate.
This demonstrated how pure Corpse Fengdu's effects were. Aside from control over yin qi, everything focused entirely on strengthening the body.
Crack crack crack...
Spiderweb-like fractures spread through the rock beneath him.
His overflowing strength was pouring into the ground, indicating that his physique had improved far too quickly.
Ren Qing opened his mouth and exhaled dense yin qi, filling the cave dwelling.
He felt that with a single thought, the bones buried in the surrounding earth could revive, and lingering souls could transform into vengeful spirits.
Although those bones and vengeful spirits would temporarily occupy a portion of his yin qi, once they perished, the yin qi would return to Ren Qing's dantian.
To Ren Qing, it was as if he had gained ownership of all yin qi. No matter how he used it, there would be no consumption whatsoever.
Against any enemy weaker than himself, he could strip away their yin qi at any moment.
Ren Qing could already imagine that after advancing to Earth Immortal, even a Corpse Immortal would likely have no power to resist. Such was the might of the Fengdu Corpse Emperor.
Zhili Dream Immortal governed all dreams and diseases in the world.
The Fengdu Corpse Emperor governed all yin souls, ghosts, and spirits.
Ren Qing possessed five primary and secondary techniques. Once he obtained all their immortal positions, perhaps even beings above Earth Immortal would be unable to do anything against him.
But harsh reality quickly struck him.
The crack on the tortoise shell had already extended several times farther and was deeper than during a major ominous sign, yet the divination result remained auspicious.
Ren Qing guessed that the changes to the tortoise shell were likely related to the Heavenly Aberration realm and perhaps even attaining immortality itself.
As he watched the crack slowly heal, he could not help but summon the information stream for Corpse Fengdu to inspect it.
[Do you wish to advance to the Heavenly Aberration realm? This will consume twenty thousand years of lifespan.]
Ren Qing forcefully suppressed the urge to spend lifespan.
The Yang Spirit realm version of Corpse Fengdu should have a limit to what it could withstand, though he did not know what that limit was.
Twenty thousand years, or perhaps thirty thousand years?
It simply did not feel safe to directly advance into the Heavenly Aberration realm. Once he touched the limits of incomplete immortality, unpredictable changes would likely occur.
To be safe, Ren Qing decided to wait until the crack became somewhat smaller.
In any case, although the Beast Pen was a miserable place, at least it was not particularly dangerous. After all, the deterrence of the Supreme Heavenly Demon was there.
He planned to cultivate honestly within the cave dwelling. Ideally, he would advance all five techniques to the Heavenly Aberration realm before considering himself truly secure.
Ren Qing was very curious about the divisions within the Heavenly Aberration realm. What exactly did the road to immortality look like?
And after attaining immortality, what kind of world would he be able to come into contact with?