Wuwei City, after more than half a year of development, had already taken on the feel of a large-scale town, especially with those towering buildings.
The celestial sky artifact enveloped the city walls above, locking the True Yuan inside tightly.
Even if cultivators wanted to enter or leave the city, they had to pass through three or four city gate checkpoints to ensure that no external demonic energy would flood into the city.
According to Li Tiangang, merely expanding the area could indeed accommodate more buildings, but it would reduce the concentration of True Yuan.
Mushroom trees growing from the ground emitted True Yuan, already reaching heights of five to six meters, their appearance like jet-black ink jade.
True Yuan permeated the air, enabling the Taoist temple disciples' cultivation to progress rapidly, though so far no one had broken through to the Nascent Soul stage.
But for the Restraint Officers' Hall, that was sufficient. The Golden Core stage was already equivalent to the Ghost Envoy realm; although their combat strength could not match that of a Restraint Officer's technique, it adequately filled personnel gaps.
However, the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method had many flaws, the most critical being that outside the city was filled with demonic energy, completely lacking any True Yuan. This forced Taoist temple disciples to carry artifacts or spirit crystals for constant supplementation.
Not long ago, Ren Qing had received a commission from Li Tiangang, mainly to resolve the issue of low True Yuan capacity in artifacts.
At the same time, he wanted to try using mushroom trees as material for refining artifacts, to see if they could be brought into the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Ren Qing stepped out from the house. The dam-like city walls blocked most of the sunlight, their surfaces adorned with orb-shaped artifacts that shimmered, like small suns. After looking around, he was astonished.
The changes in Wuwei City were truly rapid; adding to this was his lack of attention, making him feel slightly disconnected.
Boom!! A massive pictorial beast, at least forty to fifty meters, slammed into the city wall, causing fluctuations in the spells, and a large number of cultivators rushed to assist.
The civilians were unbothered; the city walls were solid as metal, and so far no demon beast had broken through, leaving them without worry.
Ren Qing raised an eyebrow. Taking advantage of the relative calm in the Longevity Forbidden Zone, he decided to understand Jingzhou's situation, to avoid being caught unawares.
He soon noticed that his residence stood out within the city; if it weren't for the "Wu Deceit" reducing its presence, it would have been discovered long ago. Ren Qing decided to store the house into the Eternal Prison Manacle.
He planned to move to a new residence while also paying attention to Wuwei City's market, using it to continue improving the Dream Market.
Ren Qing canceled the effects of the disaster-averting spell and walked slowly toward the city center.
The numerous civilians moving through the streets displayed some cultivation, giving the impression that everyone in the city was a cultivator. Each person was extremely busy, making Ren Qing's leisurely demeanor feel out of place.
He also noticed differences in clothing: most wore Taoist robes made from beast hides. These hides were probably inexpensive and not worth selling, so they were simply refined into simple artifacts.
A few years ago in Xiangxiang, one could not even see such a large quantity of artifacts.
As Ren Qing hesitated on where to go first, his right leg was tapped. He turned to see a girl about half a meter tall, dressed like a tomboy, looking at him with a mischievous gaze.
Ren Qing asked: "Girl, what is it?"
The girl pointed to the Restraint Officer token at Ren Qing's waist, saying with dissatisfaction: "You may be an immortal leader of the Restraint Officers' Hall, but you cannot call me like that."
"Cough, cough, cough, my Daoist name is Qingzhu. Immortal leader, you are new to Wuwei City, right? Pay some spirit crystals and I'll guide you."
"Fine, Daoist Qingzhu, help me find an inn." Ren Qing tossed a bag containing spirit crystals to Qingzhu, then gestured for her to lead the way.
Qingzhu picked up the money pouch, glanced at it, and happily said, fearing Ren Qing would take it back: "I have the spirit crystals. Don't back out; a deal is a deal."
"How could I?" Ren Qing shook his head helplessly. As the city's largest middleman for the Wuwei Taoist temple, his stockpile of spirit crystals was enormous, probably impossible to spend entirely.
Qingzhu secured the pouch close to her body and skipped toward the street corner. Ren Qing watched various giant beasts passing by, mostly lizards and horses, though their cultivation aura was weak.
He asked: "These are deceitful beasts, right? Why do they vary so much?"
Qingzhu explained seriously: "I don't know either; they are all raised by escort bureaus. They are expensive, and I haven't handled them before..."
"Escort bureaus?" Qingzhu slowed down, explaining the emerging forces developed in Wuwei City. Cultivators usually went outside the city in groups to eliminate demon beasts.
Because the stomach-world space was limited, they could only carry useful materials. The remaining demon beast corpses were transported by escort bureaus made up of ordinary cultivators.
The escort masters were cultivators whose talent was insufficient to reach the Golden Core stage.
They had not joined the Restraint Officers' Hall, could not access the Dream Market, and their resources lagged far behind temple disciples and Restraint Officers, so their energy focused entirely on breeding deceitful beasts.
Through Yuan Si's efforts, there were already dozens of species, though the most popular were still the robust lizards.
"My father is from the Changyuan Escort Bureau. If you want to do odd jobs, you can go to the Changyuan Escort Bureau in the south of the city..." Qingzhu tirelessly introduced the bureau, her voice growing louder.
In her eyes, since Ren Qing was not lacking spirit crystals, he must have decent cultivation, perhaps already perfect Foundation Establishment.
Ren Qing noticed that the operation of the entire Wuwei City was based on demon beasts, which explained the phenomenon of nearly everyone being cultivators.
The Restraint Officers' Hall tacitly accepted this; after all, the future was uncertain, and acquiring resources to strengthen oneself was the truth.
Qingzhu led him to a four-story inn, though the surroundings were ordinary and the air smelled of blood.
She lowered her voice proudly: "This is operated by your Restraint Officers' Hall. Go north a bit and you'll reach the demon beast slaughter area; yes, there is a bit of a smell."
"The lodging price here isn't expensive, and you can eat the freshest demon beast meat." Qingzhu swallowed, hinting for Ren Qing to treat her.
"I see, thank you." Ren Qing ignored the overly mature girl and entered the inn. Qingzhu patted her head and ran off.
The innkeeper, appearing to be in his thirties or forties, had been in Jingzhou for a long time. Lacking confidence to break through the Ghost Envoy stage, he simply ran a business in Wuwei City. Seeing Ren Qing, he quickly came over and wiped the dust from his body.
Ren Qing casually requested a room, planning to eventually buy a private house in the city. The innkeeper kept watching him. The innkeeper felt Ren Qing looked familiar but could not recall him clearly, so he soon gave up trying to remember.
Ren Qing inspected the room and then headed toward the demon beast slaughter area. The closer he got, the stronger the smell of blood, mixed with a foul stench; many civilians covered their noses and mouths.
The demon beast slaughter area was a wide stone platform. In Ren Qing's view, countless demon beast corpses lay before him, most over four meters long; few were under two meters.
However, they were ordinary demon beasts; he saw no beasts transformed from demon cultivators, let alone any exotic deceitful beasts.
Several dozen cultivators rode flying swords, cutting the demon beasts into pieces. Useful materials were given to bird-type deceitful beasts for transport to the Ghost Market.
Ren Qing deliberately reduced his presence and did not interfere. He inspected the internal structure of the demon beasts, noting that the organs were complete, as if having undergone tens of thousands of years of evolution in a short time.
He then noticed some corpses behaving abnormally; the blood flowing from them was pale gold. He quickly approached, touched with his palm, and the information stream surged.
These beast corpses, eroded by demonic energy, had died naturally, but contained faint Buddha energy, causing their three souls and seven spirits to produce mutations.
Ren Qing drew a long dragon-serpent spine, transformed it into a ghost shadow, and pierced it into the Mud Pellet Palace of the corpses, extracting the beast's soul.
The demon beasts had been dead for days; their souls should have dissipated, yet they remained condensed. The information stream showed no abnormalities; the Buddha energy appeared to preserve the souls, allowing their long-term existence. Once the Buddha energy exhausted, the souls would naturally dissipate.
Ren Qing speculated this might be related to Song Zongwu's Buddhism, but after leaving Wuwei, Song Zongwu had vanished without a trace.
He informed Li Tiangang of the demon beast corpses via bird-type deceitful beasts, then headed toward where the insect molts were buried. Since he planned to use mushroom trees to refine artifacts, he decided to use the best materials, specifically the sturdiest ones near the spiritual veins.
Unbeknownst to him, as he left, the demon beast corpses started behaving strangely. Though their abdomens had been cut open, their bodies trembled.
The demon beasts resembled hyenas, but walked upright like humans. After taking a few steps, they fell to the ground and died. The faint Buddha energy disappeared, as if deliberately removed.
A middle-aged Taoist, flying on his sword, landed and inspected the corpses carefully with magic, ultimately finding no clues. He could only attribute the anomalies to the corpses being too fresh.
As time passed, similar corpses increased, some even coming back to life on the road back to Wuwei City. The cultivators were horrified; the revived corpses did not move, only mimicking kneeling positions, as if venerable monks serving Buddha, and then died again with devout expressions.
The Restraint Officers' Hall intervened quickly, transporting the Buddha-energy-infused corpses to the Abhīsa Hell. They found that these demon beasts came from 100 li southwest of Wuwei City, from a place called Glazed Mountain.
The stones were crystal-clear, reflecting sunlight as glazed colors, hence the name.
Glazed Mountain was barren, with only exposed rock and few plants, providing a wide view, ideal for hunting demon beasts.
The Restraint Officers' Hall designated Glazed Mountain as a restricted area, along with the River of Death and the Bottomless Cave.
In just over half a year, the future Jingzhou would become increasingly dangerous, until the day the Rabbit-Toad cultivators arrived.