In the brief moment Ren Qing was examining the Kitchen God's information, the flesh all over his body began to churn, and both his body and soul's senses became distorted.
His hearing, touch, smell, taste, and sight all started warping.
He lowered his head to look at his arm. Blood seeped out through the skin, turning into bubbles that floated into the air.
Primordial Heavenly Venerable had appeared for no more than a dozen breaths, yet to Ren Qing's body and soul, it felt as though several years had passed. At any moment, he felt on the verge of losing control.
Ren Qing steadied his mind and continued constructing the Ascension Method according to his original plan. Veins bulged across his forehead as blood slowly trickled down.
The bacterial souls began dissipating uncontrollably one after another, and even the disease trees became exceptionally listless.
Ren Qing felt somewhat helpless. He would probably lose several thousand bacterial souls, and nurturing them again would take considerable time. He could only hope the Ascension Method would turn out as he wished.
With his thoughts pushed to their limit, a new Ascension Method was born in an instant.
[Gate Guardian God]
Created by Ren Qing. Cultivation requires using one's own flesh and bones to create Gate Guardian portraits, fusing one's soul into them, then posting them at the entrances of one hundred households for three years before it can be mastered.
The Gate Guardian God's upper limit allows cultivation to the Earth Immortal realm and cannot be cultivated alongside other techniques.
[Immortal Position: Disaster-Averting Gate Guardian]
Ren Qing erased all memories of the Gate Guardian God without hesitation and comprehended the Ascension Method anew.
The Disaster-Averting Gate Guardian Immortal Position should primarily revolve around the Disaster-Dispelling Method and Longevous Tortoise, perhaps incorporating part of Mirror Immortal as well, but it was still far too ordinary.
Over the following several minutes, he continuously comprehended Ascension Methods, only to discard them because they failed to satisfy him, constantly probing for the core element.
From "Formless and Featureless" to "I Exist Everywhere in the World, Foreseeing Fortune and Disaster to Avoid Danger," he finally determined the core element to be:
"Countless Calamities Pass Like Fleeting Clouds. Cause and Effect Shall Never Touch Me."
Although he sacrificed a great number of bacterial souls in the process, such an opportunity was exceedingly rare.
If Wuming ever learned that Ren Qing was comprehending a new Earth Immortal Ascension Method every few breaths, he would probably ride the Corpse Immortal over to settle the score.
Crack, crack, crack, crack...
Within the endless sea of bubbles, a dark golden vertical eye appeared. Countless twisted human faces covered its surface, as if desperately struggling.
The surrounding waves froze in place. Even the seawater floated into the air, decomposing into countless bubbles under Primordial Heavenly Venerable's influence.
Ren Qing began disappearing from the skin inward, followed by his flesh and finally his bones. Under Primordial Heavenly Venerable's gaze, both body and soul seemed to dissolve into nothingness.
His brows were tightly furrowed. He finally experienced what Wuming had once felt, as though he were being peeled away from this world, with both body and soul doomed to sink forever into the abyss.
He forced himself to remain focused, concentrating entirely on his mind as one Ascension Method after another took shape.
[White Lotus Method, Immortal Position: Unborn Venerable Mother.]
[Heavenly Guardian Chamber, Immortal Position: Holy Mother Primordial Lady.]
[Golden Palace Art, Marshal Gao...]
Nearly every Immortal Position revolved around childbirth, until the Ascension Method known as [Heavenly Demon Tribulation[ finally took shape, causing a ripple to appear on Ren Qing's face.
Ren Qing abruptly opened his eyes. The instant he confirmed the Ascension Method, a wave of nausea spread from his stomach to the depths of his soul.
He could not help retching again, acidic fluid pouring onto the ground.
This time, however, no abnormal phenomena appeared. The sound of the waves still echoed in his ears, while the whispers that had resounded throughout heaven and earth had completely vanished.
His eyes were bloodshot as he gasped for breath and looked around.
Primordial Heavenly Venerable had vanished. All things no longer displayed that state of converging into one, and the dragons praising the Dao Ancestor had all dived back into the sea.
Everything felt like an illusion, yet it still chilled Ren Qing to the bone.
Although neither his body nor soul had undergone aberration, between five and six thousand bacterial souls inside the Mud Pellet Palace had been lost. He truly had the illusion that Primordial Heavenly Venerable had been on the verge of descending.
Ren Qing had the Information Stream protecting him. If an ordinary cultivator encountered Primordial Heavenly Venerable three times, they would have long since become scraps scattered between heaven and earth.
Fortunately, all five techniques had now completed their Ascension Methods.
He should have very few chances to come into contact with the Dao Ancestor from this point onward. Otherwise, he could hardly imagine what a fourth encounter with Primordial Heavenly Venerable would be like.
Would the Dao Ancestor descend completely into the mortal world?
Ren Qing shuddered. The more he came into contact with the Dao Ancestor, the more real the Dao Ancestor seemed to become, or perhaps...
He recalled what had happened in Jingzhou. Because of the Blood Moon, all of Jingzhou had been divided into multiple layers of reality.
The demons corrupted by the Blood Moon had crossed from the deeper world into the shallower one by making the common people become aware of their existence.
Ren Qing swallowed.
Surely it couldn't be something like that.
His entire body felt weak as he returned to the sea surface and entered the ghost ship's cabin. Before long, he had fallen fast asleep in the guest room.
Although losing bacterial souls would not damage his foundation, it caused stabbing pain within his main soul, not to mention that several thousand bacterial souls had perished in such a short time.
At the time, all of Ren Qing's attention had been focused on comprehending the Ascension Method, so he had not noticed anything unusual. Only afterward did he feel as though his body and mind had been completely exhausted.
He slept for more than ten days straight. Had Ghost Shadow not alerted him, he might have remained immersed in sleep for over a hundred days.
Ren Qing then opened his eyes. Both body and soul had already returned to their peak condition.
Inside the Mud Pellet Palace, the bacterial trees had once again produced new bacterial souls. Quite a few had already returned to the Ghost Envoy realm, with Yin Difference realm not far off.
As he digested the summarized information transmitted by Ghost Shadow, he learned that something unusual had occurred with the Matchmaking Immortal.
He immediately projected his consciousness into the bacterial souls on the seabed and discovered that the number of fish had increased by one-third.
The number of living beings controlled by the Matchmaking Immortal continued increasing, and they had spread across an even wider area.
Ren Qing's first thought was that the Matchmaking Immortal's soul had awakened, but after examining it, he discovered that Ghost Immortal Office had instead restored the Matchmaking Immortal's body, indirectly allowing the Immortal Position's power to manifest once more.
To him, this was undoubtedly good news. It would allow him to select suitable high-level cultivators to become pieces on his chessboard.
A plan had already begun taking shape in his mind, though the details would have to wait until his various techniques advanced further.
Ren Qing summoned his Information Stream.
[Lifespan: Infinite]
[Techniques: Heaven and Earth Genesis (Return to One)]
[Immortal Body: Myriad Phenomena Return to One (Pseudo)]
[Divine Ability: Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth]
[Immortal Position: Zhenyuan Earth Ancestor (Pseudo)]
[Immortal Office: Heavenly Dao]
[Corpse Fengdu (Heavenly Lord)]
[Immortal Body: Undying Imperial Corpse (Pseudo)]
[Divine Ability: Death Gives No Birth]
[Immortal Position: Fengdu Corpse Emperor (Pseudo)]
[Immortal Office: Ghost Immortal]
[Ancestral Lineage Derivation (Horned Dragon)]
[Aberrant Object: Five Yin Horned Dragonv
[Divine Ability: Dragon Roar Within the Casket]
[Immortal Position: Primordial Unity Ancestral Dragon (Pseudo)]
[Zhili Technique (Knowing Dream)]
[Aberrant Object: Plague Dream Tree]
[Divine Ability: The World Is Like a Dream]
[Immortal Position: Zhili Dream Immortal (Pseudo)]
[Heavenly Demon Tribulation (Ordinary Awareness)]
[Aberrant Object: Wujian Wu Deceit]
[Divine Ability: Walk Among Mortals]
[Immortal Position: Freedom Heavenly Demon (Pseudo)]
[Heavenly Demon Tribulation]
Created by Ren Qing. Cultivation requires spending three months shedding the flesh, eight months removing the tendons and bones, two years burning the internal organs, and five years refining the soul before it can be mastered.
The Heavenly Demon Tribulation's upper limit allows cultivation to the Earth Immortal realm and can be cultivated alongside other techniques.
[Immortal Position: Freedom Heavenly Demon[
Even after already reading the Heavenly Demon Tribulation's information, Ren Qing still could not help murmuring,
"Freedom Heavenly Demon, incarnated into countless forms."
A saying in Buddhism goes: When one cultivates the Dao and the Heavenly Demon manifests, if one's righteous thoughts remain steadfast, one's heart unmoved and unattached to phenomena, then the demon will retreat of its own accord.
A saying in Daoism goes: The Heavenly Demon is what defeats those cultivating in the mountains whenever a single worldly thought arises, preventing them from attaining the True.
Under normal circumstances, cultivators refer to the inner demons they encounter as the Freedom Heavenly Demon. They even attribute mental barriers and uncontrollable desires to the Freedom Heavenly Demon.
According to legend, the Freedom Heavenly Demon can transform into all things, watching over the world at every moment.
The Freedom Heavenly Demon truly suited the Disaster-Dispelling Method perfectly. Ren Qing remembered reading an exorcism scripture that recorded such a tale.
A Heavenly Demon could infiltrate the stomach of a Buddha and disrupt the Buddha's consciousness. Yet when the Buddha tried to search for the Heavenly Demon, it had already vanished without a trace.
Daoism also contains the saying that the demon retreats of its own accord, transforming into Primordial Heavenly Venerable.
Its meaning is that only by overcoming the Heavenly Demon can one truly step onto the path of cultivation.
The Immortal Positions nurtured by the Three Dao Ancestors had become increasingly sinister. Before there was the Supreme Heavenly Demon, which split into countless black goats, and now there was the silent and invisible Freedom Heavenly Demon.
Ren Qing still did not fully understand the Heavenly Demon Tribulation's effects. He would only know after mastering it, and fortunately, the Heavenly Dao Crack contained enough lifespan to advance it all the way to the Yang God realm.
The Heavenly Demon Tribulation's realms were divided into: Ordinary Desire at the Martial Practitioner realm, External Demon at the Half-Corpse realm, Internal Demon at the Ghost Envoy realm, Yin Demon at the Yin Difference realm, Karma Demon at the Yang God realm, and Heavenly Demon at the Heavenly Aberration realm.
Ren Qing immediately began advancing the Heavenly Demon Tribulation. Ghost Shadow first dragged the ghost ship into the deep sea to prevent the breakthrough's aura from becoming too conspicuous.
[Advance to External Demon? This will consume one year of lifespan.]
The Half-Corpse realm breakthrough occurred without the slightest disturbance, yet a vast amount of memories appeared in his mind.
A peculiar expression crossed Ren Qing's face. The Freedom Heavenly Demon truly was an existence that neither died nor vanished. This Ascension Method was indeed incomparably bizarre.
Without the slightest hesitation, he continued advancing it, aiming directly for the Yang God realm's Karma Demon.
[Advance to Internal Demon? This will consume ten years of lifespan.]
[Advance to Yin Demon? This will consume two hundred years of lifespan.]
In only a short moment, Ren Qing advanced the Heavenly Demon Tribulation all the way to the Yang God realm. Not the slightest ripple arose throughout the entire process. As expected of the Freedom Heavenly Demon.
Through advancing the Ascension Method, he finally understood the Heavenly Demon Tribulation.
As long as Ren Qing activated the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, if the target could not withstand the technique, he could erase or replace them through Walk Among Mortals.
The Heavenly Demon Tribulation compensated for Walk Among Mortals' shortcomings, no longer being limited by distance or cultivation level.
After reaching the External Demon realm, Ren Qing could inflict illness and suffering upon his target. Internal Demon caused obsessions hidden deep within the heart to grow. Yin Demon threw desires out of balance. All accumulated malice became Karma Demon, causing body and soul to descend into aberrant loss of control. Heavenly Demon referred to Ren Qing himself as the main body, influencing others after parasitizing them.
The most terrifying aspect of the Heavenly Demon Tribulation was its ability to complement his other techniques.
Ren Qing could employ his other techniques as mediums through which to cast the Heavenly Demon Tribulation.
Dragons containing Dragon Blood, living beings carrying diseases, corpses that were neither living nor dead, even True Immortals and Buddhas who had fused with Immortal Offices could not escape the torment of the Freedom Heavenly Demon.
Anyone targeted by him would have their soul extracted by the Fengdu Corpse Emperor after death.
Once Ren Qing used the Freedom Heavenly Demon to advance into the Earth Immortal realm, every living being in the world could become a vessel for possession. Completely eradicating him would become virtually impossible.
He even suspected that after the Freedom Heavenly Demon reached its ultimate state, anyone who merely knew his name would become a potential target for possession and reincarnation.
The Freedom Heavenly Demon represented every inner demon in existence. Even Immortals and Buddhas would be powerless against it.
Ren Qing forcefully suppressed the excitement within his heart and closed his eyes to stabilize the Heavenly Demon Tribulation. No matter how powerful the Immortal Position was, he had not yet attained immortality.
Among his five Ascension Methods, only Corpse Fengdu and Heaven and Earth Genesis had reached the Heavenly Aberration realm. A journey of a thousand miles had only just begun with the first step.
The sea breeze swept past, carrying its unique salty moisture toward the Endless Forest.