The so-called opportunity came from Ren Qing's sudden flash of inspiration.
Because according to the Restraint Officers' Hall's plan, after the fungus tree digested the three souls and seven spirits, it would rely on the rat Mother's ability to give birth to an avatar.
Thus severing its connection to the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
Ren Qing was deeply impressed by the rat Mother's ability, although the avatar inherited the original body's memories, it was in fact the rebirth of a brand-new soul.
If the plan went smoothly, the false soul would gradually dissipate along with the death of the fungus tree's body, or be swallowed by Avici Hell.
Might as well make use of the waste.
As long as Ren Qing contaminated the false soul of the Heavenly Daozi's remnant soul, he could save at least several decades, or even more than a hundred years of time.
The Flesh Furnace needed the Fuel King to preside over it.
If a Yang God Realm false soul were made the Fuel King, it was foreseeable that the Prison Within the Abdomen would undergo an earth-shaking transformation.
Otherwise, at the progress of the Zhong Gourd's soul, who knew how many years it would take before the lamp oil overflowed.
When Li Tiangang heard this, his brow eased, and he could not help but ask: "Ren Qing, the shadow formed by your technique, may I touch it?"
"Of course."
Ren Qing split off part of the ghost shadow for Li Tiangang and the others; as for the Heavenly Dao Worm, it was beneath his feet and would not be let out easily.
Taking advantage of his spare moment while checking the ghost shadow at the Yin Runner Realm, he focused his attention on his spine.
Without hesitation, Ren Qing drove the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed out of his body, then sent it into the ghost shadow, intending to use this to obtain an opportunity.
The Dream Seed could form a dharma robe, and naturally also had the function of accommodating a soul.
Moreover, although the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed was not as closely connected to the false soul as the Heavenly Demon Dream Seed, since even the black goat could awaken the Heavenly Daozi's memories, in theory the chance was indeed not small.
Even if the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed were lost, it was no great matter.
After all, of the three Dream Seeds, the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed was the cheapest.
With the Yellow Spring Immortal Bone, it could be endlessly nurtured, just a waste of some time.
Sun was quite curious about Ren Qing's Heavenly Dao Dream Seed, and could not help but ask: "What kind of magic tool is this? Or is it a technique?"
Ren Qing gave the reason he had long prepared: "It's an ability from a bizarre transformation of the Blindless Method; it can indeed be considered a kind of magic tool. I can use it to control the ghost shadow."
None of the Yin Runner Realm cultivators suspected anything, for at present the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed had only just come into contact with Nether Yuan, and was entirely unrelated to the Heavenly Dao method.
On the contrary, the aura of technique was very strong.
After some calculation, Li Tiangang and the others concluded that Ren Qing's method was the safest, even if something went wrong with the ghost shadow, it could be remedied immediately.
They then had Ren Qing give it a try; as a result, the ghost shadow could easily lift heavy objects, and techniques affecting the soul were almost ineffective.
Once the implementation was decided, the Restraint Officers immediately began preparations.
They chose the position where the camp would need to dock; while reinforcing the walls, they began to withdraw in succession to several hundred meters away.
If the soul summoning went out of control, Sun could take the Restraint Officers and leave the Nether Feather at once.
During this time, the brain tree and the fungus tree's clash gradually entered a white-hot stage, but it seemed that no victor would emerge in the short term.
The black goat was placed on the altar at the center of the camp, leaving only the ghost shadow to guard it.
Song Zongwu stood slightly forward, mainly to remedy matters at once if the ghost shadow failed. He had long since faced the possibility of death with calm.
Time passed slowly; the people of the Restraint Officers' Hall waited patiently.
The black goat's head gradually swelled, and pus flowed from its features; a strange aura spread outward.
The movements of the two giant entities became somewhat hesitant, but soon returned to normal.
Song Zongwu's expression was grave, and he said in a rough breath: "It's coming."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the sound of a baby crying rang out. Many Restraint Officers instinctively took a half-step back, fear in their eyes.
A baby that appeared entirely ordinary crawled out from the black goat's mouth.
Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, the baby grew; in only a few breaths it was about three or four meters tall, breathing out black mist.
The black goat's skin instantly became covered in wrinkles; silver threads appeared in its hair; its chest rose and fell, showing signs of its lifespan running out.
Li Tiangang said in a deep voice: "The Fetal Light Soul..."
If not for Ren Qing's ghost shadow, any Yin Runner Realm remaining in the camp, even if they didn't die, would at least lose several decades of lifespan.
The Fetal Light Soul sat on the ground wailing; the marks of the years spread along the walls, its ability clearly was not limited to lifespan.
Seeing this, Ren Qing immediately had the ghost shadow throw the black goat back.
Sun spread his wings and flew into the air, catching the black goat with his body; the instant it hit the ground, Ren Qing stuffed a piece of corpse-eater into it.
The black goat's state stabilized; the replenishment of two hundred days of lifespan was not much, but it was enough to last until the soul summoning ended.
Li Tiangang directed the Restraint Officers to feed the black goat, then looked at Ren Qing.
Ren Qing dared not be reckless; he tentatively had the ghost shadow wind around the Fetal Light Soul's ankle, and finding nothing happened, slowly dragged it toward the outside of the camp.
Everyone held their breath at the sight; fortunately, the false soul acted entirely on instinct.
The ghost shadow dragged the Fetal Light Soul away from the camp, but soon the ghost shadow showed signs of dissipating, clearly it was having some effect.
Ren Qing sped up, and after reaching seven or eight hundred meters he stopped.
Although short of the planned position, it was enough.
The ghost shadow merged with the Fetal Light Soul's shadow, and the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed tried to attach to the false soul.
The Fetal Light Soul, sensing the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed, felt extreme discomfort and tried to shake it off, rolling its body, its cries growing ever louder.
Fortunately, the brain tree was not drawn in; rather, the fungus tree tried to use its roots to inspect the situation, but was so entangled it had no spare power.
Song Zongwu reminded him: "Ren Qing!"
Ren Qing nodded.
His fingernail cut into his palm; the instant blood flowed, he cast Ghost Substitute, and in the distance the Fetal Light Soul's cries stopped abruptly.
Many Restraint Officers showed surprise.
But before they could think, the brain tree's branches in an instant reached toward the Fetal Light Soul.
The fungus tree would not be outdone; the two again began a protracted struggle over the false soul's ownership, mud splattering all around.
Ren Qing, using the few ghost shadows left, controlled the Fetal Light Soul to crawl toward the fungus tree.
The Grand Taishi Giant became a spoiler, creating a mass of mycelium to cover the brain tree; its body then became part of the fungal mist.
Yet even so, the brain tree still had strength to spare, and was about to seize the Fetal Light Soul.
The Restraint Officers, seeing this, prepared to act.
At that moment, the strange phenomenon, as if all weird entities were returning to the Flesh Plain, occurred again; the brain tree inexplicably halted, allowing the fungus tree to take away the Fetal Light Soul with its roots.
Then the fungal mist exploded violently, and in an instant the Grand Taishi spread throughout the entire Nether Feather.
It even extended from the stomach wall's entrance and exit toward Avici Hell.
Restraint Officers at the Ghost Envoy Realm were thrown head over heels; some knocked their heads on rocks and fainted, the turn of events caught them off guard.
Li Tiangang frowned and said: "Perhaps it's a vision produced because Ksitigarbha's soul is about to become whole."
Song Zongwu grabbed several Restraint Officers and threw them onto the Nether Crow's back, intending to retreat toward the camp.
He could not help but ask: "What should we do?"
Li Tiangang said firmly: "Don't worry, only the last soul remains. Force the Weird Infant to gestate it in a short time."
They quickly returned to camp; the fainted Restraint Officers regained consciousness before long.
The camp slowly moved toward the fungus tree.
The last Shuang Soul only needed to be absorbed by the fungus tree, the risk was far from high; the Restraint Officers' Hall's scheme was within reach.
Sun spat out a mass of twisted light from his stomach, which Li Tiangang sealed with paper.
Song Zongwu saw Ren Qing puzzled, and explained: "This is a Dream Pearl; the Great Dream True Person can use it to awaken the land's memories, allowing him to use the rat Mother's ability."
"Where did the Great Dream True Person go?"
Ren Qing felt something was off, mainly the brain tree's several abnormal reactions.
Li Tiangang saw his concern, and comforted him: "For the Great Dream True Person to act requires considerable preparation; perhaps the brain tree was influenced by him."
"Senior Li, may I touch the Dream Pearl?"
Li Tiangang hesitated for a few breaths, then agreed, and released the Dream Pearl.
Ren Qing caught the Dream Pearl in his palm, then called up the information flow to check; sure enough, it differed little from Li Tiangang's description.
[Dream Pearl]
[Condensed from the Butterfly Dream Technique; requires the caster's soul as a guide, causing others' consciousness to be influenced by the dream.]
But his doubts only grew heavier.
Using rest as an excuse, Ren Qing found a place to sit quietly, but in fact connected his consciousness to the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed within the fungus tree.
The Heavenly Dao Dream Seed hid silently within the false soul; as long as it did not actively reveal itself, with the fungus tree's intelligence it was hard to detect.
At this moment, through the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed, Ren Qing suddenly discovered that the soul within the fungus tree was in a half-dream, half-waking state.
Moreover, he could sense traces of technique within it, of the same origin as the Dream Pearl.
But the technique acting on the fungus tree's soul had clearly paid a high price, the caster's soul would be damaged as a result.
Aside from Ren Qing himself, in the Restraint Officers' Hall only the Great Dream True Person mastered dream-related techniques powerful enough to affect the fungus tree.
The brain tree's abnormal behavior was very likely also due to the Great Dream True Person's intervention.
Given that the Great Dream True Person, at Yin Runner Realm perfection, truly could not control the brain tree for long, it was understandable to cast techniques intermittently.
But Ren Qing truly could not understand, since he had already prepared the Dream Pearl in advance, why pay such a high price to cast the technique?
Could the situation be far more complicated than imagined?
Ren Qing opened his eyes and could not help but look up at the sky.
The thick fungal mist was like dark clouds, directly covering the entire Nether Feather.
From between his brows emerged the Heavenly Demon Dream Seed; his primary and secondary souls simultaneously cast Double Pupils, and the calm fungal mist was actually slowly flowing.
It seemed to be converging toward the center of the Nether Feather.
The other Restraint Officers also noticed Ren Qing's strange behavior, and stopped to observe, but could detect nothing unusual.
Until the Shuang Soul within the black goat was gradually gestated.
The fungal mist in the sky became more and more bizarre, beginning to form the outlines of animals or plants, but always returning to calm.
Li Tiangang murmured: "Is it Ksitigarbha's original consciousness?"
Song Zongwu shook his head: "Impossible..."
Yet Ren Qing felt an indescribable familiarity.
He also thought it was not Ksitigarbha's resurrection, there was no trace of a soul felt; the fungal mist's visions seemed to foretell something.
Could it be connected to a Heavenly Abomination Realm cultivator linked to the Grand Taishi?
The thought was absurd, but Ren Qing could see that the fungal mist was by no means flowing of its own accord, it was following the tendency of some external force.