The Minghe Teahouse was located beside the market of Sanxiang City. Because it was situated in a noisy area, while drinking tea emphasized tranquility, its business was actually not very good.
Later, after there were evil anomalies being escorted to the market entrance and executed every few days, the number of customers at the teahouse became even fewer. The common people all felt it was unlucky.
Huang Gou'er busied himself brewing tea for the customers inside the teahouse, his expression slightly unnatural.
At some point, Daoists and monks would occasionally come to the Minghe Teahouse. They usually did not chat, but simply sat there for an entire day.
At first, Huang Gou'er was definitely not used to it. He always suspected that the teahouse might have attracted something evil, but after enough time passed, he slowly accepted it.
After several days continued like this, since they could not find any clues, the various factions stopped pursuing the matter. They only sent one or two people each day to keep watch.
Ren Qing walked through the main hall without caring about anyone else. During his free time, he even exchanged a few words with Nanchengzi before turning around and heading toward the guest rooms upstairs.
As the temple master of Huanglong Temple, Nanchengzi's soul cultivation was at the Yang God Realm, yet he could not see anything unusual about the man before him.
He did not even develop the slightest doubt as to why the Minghe Teahouse had changed owners.
The ability of Heavenly Demon Tribulation was silent and traceless. Any unreasonable event could become reasonable, leaving behind no flaws.
If Ren Qing wished, the various factions would soon be able to completely forget about the Minghe Teahouse.
However, Ren Qing was too lazy to go out and gather information himself, so he deliberately revealed some traces and waited for them to come to him and share what they had seen and heard.
Although Ren Qing could not directly obtain the memories of the ancient cultivators, he had figured out the difficulties currently faced by the various factions from all aspects.
First, the ancient cultivators had indeed cultivated Restraint Officer methods back then, but when their bodies were created, strange objects had not formed at all.
Combined with Jingzhou's current rules, strange objects were difficult to form, causing the techniques to be severed.
Among Jingzhou's ancient cultivators, souls were mainly at the Ghost Envoy Realm, with the Yin Difference Realm being second. Yang God Realm cultivators were extremely rare.
From the situation investigated by Ren Qing through bacterial soul, he still had not discovered a soul at the Heavenly Aberration Realm. It was possible that the methods of the person behind the scenes were limited.
Not long after he returned to the guest room to cultivate, Nanchengzi took out copper coins to pay.
Afterward, Nanchengzi walked out of the teahouse. The surrounding familiar common people treated him with great respect, making Huang Gou'er unable to stop himself from feeling envious.
Huang Gou'er hurriedly leaned against the window and stared at the bustling traffic on the street. His eyes firmly locked onto the highly respected Nanchengzi, and his bent back unconsciously straightened.
Even if techniques no longer existed, there were still many people who wanted to join Daoist temples and Buddhist temples.
Clang clang clang...
The sound of copper gongs rang one after another, and another prison cart was pushed over from afar.
The gathering crowd caused the business of the Minghe Teahouse to improve greatly, but the common people's words contained even more fear toward the evil anomalies.
When the black cloth covering the prison cart was lifted, the human insect struggled desperately to break free from its restraints, but it was still beheaded, dying with its eyes open.
Unlike the human insect from several days ago, this one had both arms mutated.
Nanchengzi pretended to leave, but in reality he took a detour and returned to the market entrance. He watched as the human insect's pale red blood splashed across the ground.
He took out an eyeball-sized magical artifact from a hidden compartment in his sleeve and gripped it in his palm.
Nanchengzi did not have the slightest cultivation on him, and the magical artifact he held was also extremely crude. He used a blood sacrifice method to control the artifact.
Wushan Zi's methods were similar to Nanchengzi's. It could be seen that both were unorthodox evil methods, but currently they could only use such means to cast techniques.
The exterior of the magical artifact resembled a walnut. After releasing a faint glow, it absorbed the human insect's soul into itself, causing Nanchengzi's expression to relax.
Nanchengzi let out a sigh of relief. Seeing that the human insect had not displayed the situation of lacking a soul, he glanced at the teahouse's window from the corner of his eye, then hurriedly left the market.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged inside the guest room. In fact, before the human insect had even died, he had already used Zhili Technique to obtain its memories.
After seeing the magical artifact Nanchengzi used to seize souls, Ren Qing became even more certain that the artifact had been refined using a human brain. The ancient cultivators had already reached a dead end.
After all, using a living human brain as the main material, preferably the brain of an ancient cultivator, meant that to successfully refine one artifact, at least several hundred fellow disciples had to be killed.
Ren Qing closed his eyes and digested the human insect's memories. The situation in Jingzhou became increasingly clear.
The observer sees things clearly.
He could see the details of the struggle between both sides. Currently, Insect Nest held the advantage, and even had a forceful momentum.
The human insect's memories revealed some clues.
The parts of the memories related to Insect Nest were extremely chaotic, but the contents regarding Gu refinement techniques were unusually complete.
From this, it could be seen that Insect Nest's Mother intended to use human insects to transmit information about Gu insects to the ancient cultivators in every city and town.
Of course, in Ren Qing's view, the so-called Gu refinement technique was more like insect body transplantation. It did not resemble a mutually beneficial method at all.
Gu warriors completely relied on Gu insects parasitizing their bodies, forcibly overdrawing their lives in exchange for strength. It seemed as if they were deliberately leading the ancient cultivators astray.
Such a bizarre situation caused high realm ancient cultivators to bury their heads in searching for a possibility of restoring their techniques, while low realm ancient cultivators could only attempt to master Gu refinement techniques.
Ren Qing pondered for a moment, then summoned Li Yaoyang from Stomach World.
Li Yaoyang had no idea that Jingzhou was covered by the rules of an immortal position, but after he had only just arrived outside, his expression became extremely strange.
The vast majority of Restraint Officer methods would be suppressed in Jingzhou. Even situations similar to Hu Wen's existed, where strange objects directly turned against their original owners.
Gu God Scripture was different. The natal Gu insect inside Li Yaoyang's body became active.
[Gu God Scripture]
[Created by Li Yaoyang. Cultivation required turning the body into a breeding ground for insects, replacing the brain with Heavenly Dao Insect, replacing the spine with Crabmen, replacing flesh and blood with blood insects, and replacing the shadow with black insects, only then could it be cultivated.]
Li Yaoyang could not help but mutter, "Brother Ren, this is..."
"Do you know about becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao?"
When Li Yaoyang heard this, his breathing immediately became heavier.
No one could resist becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao, especially Li Yaoyang, who did not understand the two immortals of Turbid and Strange. He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Ren Qing patiently explained the details regarding immortal positions. After mentioning that Jingzhou might be hiding an immortal position related to Gu insects, Li Yaoyang instead calmed down.
Li Yaoyang looked at Ren Qing in shock, his heart filled with disbelief.
He knew that when Ren Qing was at the Yang God Realm, he had already done many earth-shattering things. He never expected that not long after advancing to the Heavenly Aberration Realm, Ren Qing would already set his sights on a true immortal.
Li Yaoyang digested the information for a long time before finally replying with a bitter smile, "Brother Ren, tell me. What should we do next?"
"Help me refine a Gu that can control Heavenly Dao Insect."
Ren Qing guessed that Insect Nest Mother's intention should be to transform the people of Jingzhou into insect bodies, completely cutting off the possibility of cultivation advancement.
Once the ancient cultivators researched the crude Gu refinement technique, they would definitely attempt fusion, eventually causing their bodies to gradually become inhuman.
Ren Qing even suspected that the reason Insect Nest had produced human insects within a hundred years was because of some influence from the person behind the scenes.
The person behind the scenes should already have prepared for the loss of the Wind God Boqiang immortal position. The result was that Insect Nest was even more intelligent than imagined, actually breaking away from Jingzhou's arrangement and even attempting to turn the tables.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. As an observer, he had to ensure that both sides possessed equal strength in order to force out their hidden cards and use this to understand the truth.
He thought of how to counter them and controlled the bacterial souls scattered throughout Jingzhou with his consciousness.
Ren Qing secretly organized the chess pieces in his hands and discovered that Insect Nest and the person behind the scenes did not actually possess much of an advantage. After all, he still had a killing weapon named Corpse Immortal.
Ren Qing heavily patted Li Yaoyang's shoulder with his right hand. The latter could only agree and began thinking about how to refine it.
"You should go downstairs to the main hall. We happen to lack an accountant. Don't worry about anyone disturbing you. Just treat it as a nominal position."
"Ah?"
Li Yaoyang did not hear clearly and hesitantly walked into the main hall.
All the tea customers, including Huang Gou'er, looked at Li Yaoyang with surprised expressions. Clearly, none of them recognized his identity.
Among them, a young monk stood up and wanted to approach.
But in that moment of confusion, everything inside the teahouse returned to normal. The people no longer felt unfamiliar with him, and no one knew what had happened.
Huang Gou'er handed the silver he had just collected to Li Yaoyang and asked why he had not seen him that morning, wondering if he was feeling unwell.
Li Yaoyang's expression changed slightly, and he could not help but softly ask, "You recognize me?"
Huang Gou'er said with some concern, "Accountant Li, did you catch a cold? Why don't you go to the medical clinic and see a doctor?"
"That won't be necessary."
He also did not know what divine ability Ren Qing had used. It truly had a bit of the feeling of an immortal among men. No wonder he dared to act against a true immortal.
Li Yaoyang shook his head, then sat behind the counter. He picked up the account book and pretended to read it, but his attention was actually focused entirely on the Gu insects.
At first, he was only constructing ideas, but later, after realizing that no one was paying attention to him, he took out paper and brush and began drawing.
Later on, Li Yaoyang simply took an empty wine jar from the counter and raised the Gu insect inside it.
A faint tea fragrance spread through the air.
The guests drank tea and ate snacks while discussing the recent events in Sanxiang City. Several Daoists and monks nearby sat with their eyes closed, resting.
Inside the Minghe Teahouse, Li Yaoyang fed flesh and blood to the Gu insects. The sound of insects crawling came from the wine jar, making people feel a chill.
Ren Qing naturally was not doing anything good either. He used bacterial souls to continuously collect information about Gu insects.
To ensure efficiency, he even released bacterial souls to possess hundreds of bandits outside the city, unintentionally stirring up the winds and clouds of Jingzhou.
Ren Qing used this to collect the conditions for various Gu insects to advance. He specially selected ten of them and combined them with ordinary methods for refining Gu insects to write a book named "Gu Master".
"Human insects, human insects, as tools specifically used to guide ancient cultivators, do you really have no thoughts of your own?"
He examined the artificially aged Gu Master, then used Dragon Roar Within the Casket.
The cover of Gu Master was covered by scales, and then small limbs and a tail grew out. Its appearance became like an inconspicuous lizard.
Ren Qing threw the book outside the teahouse. Under the effects of Heavenly Demon Tribulation, the book would not be noticed by others for at least five days.
The book entered the stream of people on the street and ran toward the outside of the city in a flash. It soon disappeared without a trace, like a fish entering the sea.
At the market entrance, the dark red bloodstains of the human insect had not yet dried...