Ren Qing's expression turned solemn. The auras of the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal and the Taiyin Star Lord had become faint and intermittent. Jingzhou was even more complicated than he had imagined.
He controlled the severed-limbed Flood Serpent as it crawled into Jingzhou's territory, only to find that Ancestral Lineage Derivation could barely detect its whereabouts anymore.
It was as if the severed-limbed Flood Serpent had entered another world. The connection became intermittent.
Interest appeared on Ren Qing's face. The more he observed, the more Jingzhou resembled a forbidden zone, possessing extremely unique laws that had most likely formed under the influence of the Immortal Positions.
He had always wanted to figure out how to use an Immortal Position to construct a forbidden zone, only to discover that the mastermind had already beaten him to it and found the underlying principles.
Back then, Ren Qing had merged a forbidden zone into the stomach region of the Forbidden Corpse through Xiao San'er precisely because he wanted to study the laws governing forbidden zones.
A forbidden zone was completely different from a refined spatial artifact.
Although the Southern Mountain Small World was fairly large, it was like an undeveloped Stomach World, merely a space isolated from the outside world.
A place like the Longevity Forbidden Zone, however, possessed an entire system different from the outside world. Even the cultivation methods practiced within were completely different.
If Ren Qing could create a large forbidden zone through an Immortal Position, then when the War of Enfeoffing Immortals arrived, his chances of success would increase by at least thirty percent.
Now that he was heading to Jingzhou, it seemed necessary to uncover the truth behind the Immortal Positions.
Ren Qing could not help but feel wary.
The mastermind's cultivation should not have reached Earth Immortal, but how had a Heavenly Aberration cultivator turned two True Immortals into part of the rules governing the Jingzhou forbidden zone?
Ren Qing did not rush into Jingzhou. Once he stepped within the range of the Immortal Positions, it would not be easy to leave for some time.
Who knew what conditions existed inside a forbidden zone formed from Immortal Positions?
Perhaps the rules of the forbidden zone would undergo earth-shaking changes every so often, making it increasingly difficult to uncover the secrets of the Immortal Positions.
Of course, as the master of Freedom Heavenly Demon, he could withdraw at any time with ease, so long as dragon descendants still existed outside.
While keeping watch over Jingzhou, Ren Qing also dealt with matters concerning the Dragon Blood Sea.
He halted the expansion of the Dragon Blood ecosystem. Without personally overseeing it, there were too many uncertainties. The ecosystem might suddenly collapse.
Ren Qing separated several hundred bacterial souls from the diseased tree, along with various resources.
The bacterial souls immediately entered Matchmaking Immortal's Mud Pellet Palace, controlling the crimson threads one by one to prevent Matchmaking Immortal from unconsciously summoning cultivators again and exposing the Dragon Blood Sea to other factions.
Besides pacifying Matchmaking Immortal, the bacterial souls also fed it flesh from time to time.
In truth, Matchmaking Immortal's habit of devouring cultivators contributed very little toward healing its Heavenly Dao transformation. It merely satisfied the body's instinctive hunger.
Ren Qing swept his gaze across the sea. After the healthy development of the Dragon Blood ecosystem, many plants had naturally emerged. Even the algae had been tainted with dragon blood.
However, since the Dragon Blood Sea had originally been created through Dragon Roar Within the Casket, its ecosystem remained rather fragile, making this a good opportunity to let it stabilize.
While Ren Qing tended to the Dragon Blood Sea, Jingzhou itself remained unexpectedly calm.
Insect Nest had stopped sending Heavenly Dao insect person cultivators there. They had probably belatedly realized that something was seriously wrong with Jingzhou.
The Insect Nest people were indeed obsessed with the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal, but with multiple Heavenly Aberration Matriarchs overseeing them, they were hardly the type to charge ahead blindly.
It was clear that they had shifted from operating openly to working in the shadows, making their methods even more covert.
Several days earlier, Feng Ye had already led tens of thousands of Wind Hollow People into Jingzhou.
They had endured a long and exhausting journey, and combined with the dangers of the Bottomless Pit, many physically frail tribesmen had died along the way.
Through this, the Wind Hollow People had mastered Wind God Bo Qiang's Ascension Method, causing their overall strength to rise instead of fall, especially Feng Ye, who had reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
Although Feng Ye had previously possessed Heavenly Aberration cultivation, he had only been able to display thirty to forty percent of its true power. After recultivating through the Ascension Method, he could now overwhelmingly suppress Yang Spirit cultivators.
The most obvious change was that fine scales had grown all over the Wind Hollow People's bodies, wings had sprouted from their ribs, and their mouths increasingly resembled bird beaks.
Even in windless regions, they could still fly using their wings.
More than ten days after the Wind Hollow People entered Jingzhou, the population of the Insect Nest people continued to grow, while the Wind Hollow People showed no change whatsoever.
Every night they tirelessly entered the Little Heavenly Court to worship Wind God Bo Qiang's statue, showing not the slightest trace of fear or confusion.
Why was the Insect Nest population exploding within Jingzhou? Could it be related to the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal?
Apart from them, other factions had also begun interfering in Jingzhou, though they only sent cultivators below the Yang Spirit Realm, and their numbers were very small.
Ren Qing stopped observing from afar. After using Heavenly Demon Tribulation to reduce his presence, he slowly walked toward Jingzhou.
Wind and sand howled across the Marsh Desert, but the temperature was nowhere near as scorching as it had been decades ago. Even the Marsh Desert no longer contained lingering remnant souls.
Meat and Wine Taoist's corpse had been refined into the fake Tathagata of the Little Leiyin Temple, and the traces left behind by this Heavenly Aberration cultivator were gradually disappearing as well.
Ren Qing glanced at the clouds. Qingxu Palace should originally have been located there.
Being forgotten like Wuming was not the most terrifying fate. Far more dreadful was when one's life ended, and time slowly erased every trace that one had ever existed.
Even if no changes occurred in Jingzhou, the marshes would completely disappear within a few decades.
"I will become an immortal..."
A sharp light flashed through Ren Qing's eyes as his desire to attain immortality grew ever stronger.
He shook his head. To ascend and achieve the Dao, he needed to come into contact with more Immortal Positions and use cultivators like Wuming as pathfinders.
A battle between Turbid Immortals and Weird Immortals was inevitable.
Ren Qing gradually quickened his pace. The scorching heat of the desert turned into biting cold winds.
Yellow sand blew toward him, yet the distant Jingzhou was covered in lush trees, and the loud cries of apes echoed from within.
Without any hesitation, Ren Qing stepped directly across the boundary between Jingzhou and the marshlands.
Fine raindrops fell upon his head. Before him stretched a jungle shrouded in dense mist, filled with vigorous life, while insects burrowed through the soil.
"The Awakening of Insects..."
This world had truly gone mad. A distance of only a few meters felt like passing through three different seasons. Inside Jingzhou, it was entirely the early spring of the Awakening of Insects, when all living things stirred from their slumber.
Jingzhou had originally been a landscape where forests and plains intertwined, but now it resembled a tropical rainforest.
Looking around, towering shrubs spread everywhere. Their leaves blocked out the sunlight, and venomous insects filled every corner.
After taking only a few steps, Ren Qing's Daoist robe had already been soaked by the rain, and his skin could feel the chilly air of early spring brought by the Awakening of Insects.
His expression turned puzzled. Why were the rules formed by the forbidden zone created from the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal and Taiyin Star Lord's Immortal Positions so strange?
Ren Qing had imagined countless possibilities: a prehistoric wilderness filled with giant beasts, towering mountain ranges, plains beneath a blood moon...
Neither of the two Immortal Positions had anything to do with water. How had they produced a rainforest?
Ren Qing looked around. His figure flashed in the span of half a breath. When he returned to his original position, his fingers were holding what appeared to be an ordinary stag beetle.
"Don't stag beetles only appear in summer?"
Ren Qing had caught the stag beetle not merely because it was uncommon. The insect itself emitted a faint aura of a cultivation method, though it had not even reached the Martial Practitioner Realm.
He instinctively summoned the Information Stream.
[Stag Beetle Gu: After swallowing it, one gains over ten jin of strength, but the body will undergo mutation and requires three taels of beeswax every day as nourishment.]
It can be nurtured with the heart flesh of a man to evolve into the Strength Gu.
"What the hell?"
Ren Qing examined the Stag Beetle Gu. He had intended to hand it over to Li Yaoyang to study, but the moment he stored it inside the Stomach World, it turned into a puddle of rotten flesh.
The rotten flesh squirmed for several breaths before being digested by the Stomach World.
"A fragment of a Strange Object?"
If it had been a complete Strange Object, Ren Qing could have either transformed it into a Jailer or used the Stomach World to reverse-engineer the cultivation method it contained. Unfortunately, it was only a fragment about one-tenth of the original.
Just as Ren Qing was about to search the surrounding area for similar Gu insects, he suddenly sensed that his own cultivation methods had begun stirring restlessly.
To be precise, the Strange Objects formed from his cultivation methods had begun growing restless.
Inside his Mud Pellet Palace, the Plague Dream Tree grew like an ordinary plant, while the disease fruits hanging from its branches transformed into the appearance of Ginseng Fruit.
Ghost Shadow continuously wriggled beneath his feet, while countless Heavenly Dao Insects swam through the shadows.
As for Wu Deceit, the vessel of Heavenly Demon Tribulation, it drifted before Ren Qing, its body twisting into all kinds of bizarre forms.
Only Corpse Fengdu and Heaven and Earth Genesis, which had both reached the Heavenly Aberration Realm and whose Strange Objects had long fused with Ren Qing into one, remained completely calm.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. Simultaneously activating three cultivation methods, he easily suppressed the Strange Objects, and immediately afterward it was as though nothing had happened.
He could not help looking toward Ghost Shadow. Under the influence of the forbidden zone's unique laws, it emitted an extremely familiar aura.
After a brief examination, Ren Qing realized that Ghost Shadow's aura belonged uniquely to Gu insects, originating from the characteristic of being neither artifact nor insect.
He summoned Ghost Shadow's Information Stream.
[Ancestral Dragon Lineage Derivation Immortal Gu: It can only be controlled by cultivating Ancestral Lineage Derivation and can bestow dragon veins upon living beings.]
"So it really is a Gu insect."
Ren Qing froze briefly before retreating several meters out of Jingzhou's boundaries. The transformation of Ghost Shadow into a Gu insect immediately vanished without a trace.
Could the forbidden zone rules created by the Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal transform Strange Objects into Gu insects?
Something wasn't right...
Ren Qing silently rejected the idea. The Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal was tied to the earth veins, while the Taiyin Star Lord was tied to the moon and stars. Neither should have anything to do with Gu insects.
That meant Jingzhou was certainly more than just the result of two Immortal Positions.
The mastermind had made an enormous move.
While constructing Jingzhou, they had actually introduced a third type of Immortal Position.
A forbidden zone with such intricate rules was impossible even for the mastermind to fully control, making it seem like a desperate gamble.
Was such excessive paranoia really necessary over nothing more than losing Wind God Bo Qiang's Immortal Position?
Still, an Immortal Position related to insects would be another opportunity for the Restraint Officers' Hall. If Li Yaoyang learned of it, he would probably lose his composure.
Ren Qing stepped into Jingzhou while keeping the Strange Objects under tight control. He discovered no obvious drawbacks. At most, the Strange Objects had become more active.
He did not know what consequences would result from the Strange Objects transforming into Gu insects, but with two Heavenly Aberration cultivation methods suppressing both body and soul, there was no reason to retreat to the Dragon Blood Sea.
Ren Qing inspected the Gu transformations of the Plague Dream Tree and the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
[Plague Dream Pestilence Immortal Gu: It can only be controlled by cultivating Zhili Technique and is capable of causing sleeping living beings to contract diseases.]
[Heavenly Demon Possession Immortal Gu: It can only be controlled by cultivating Heavenly Demon Tribulation and can use it to possess another person's body.]
Ren Qing examined the Plague Dream Pestilence Gu. Countless roots emerged from his open palm, forming a miniature vascular flesh tree.
After transforming into Gu insects, the Strange Objects could be removed from the Mud Pellet Palace with ease.
In a sense, this allowed cultivators to wield the power of an Immortal Position far more easily. That was most likely the very reason the mastermind had done this.