Huang Gou'er's eyes gradually turned red, clearly beginning to fall under the influence, until Ren Qing shrouded him with a spell and he returned to normal.
Once he regained his senses, he slapped his face hard.
He had no idea what had come over him. He had actually wanted to become an immortal and attain the Dao, even though someone as capable as Shopkeeper Ren had no chance to cultivate.
Ren Qing paid no attention to Huang Gou'er's thoughts and instead frowned.
Daoist Tianxu was still some distance away, yet his aura had already spread ahead of him, even affecting ancient cultivators below the Ghost Envoy realm.
Ren Qing found it somewhat similar to the Heavenly Dao, capable of driving others into madness with ease.
More accurately, it resembled a Turbid Immortal. If the Three Dao Ancestors descended, even true immortals and Buddhas would probably be reduced to ashes.
Could it be that Turbid Immortals were closer in nature to chaotic, disordered weird objects, while Weird Immortals were closer to cultivators themselves? That would explain the vast difference between the two.
Ren Qing waited patiently while openly discussing Gu insects with Li Yaoyang.
Li Yaoyang had more or less found a way to counter the Heavenly Dao Insect. It involved pathogenic strains, though it still required repeated experimentation.
He had already posted missions in Dream City. Thousands of cultivators from the Restraint Officers' Hall were conducting nonstop trials, and before long they should have a general direction figured out.
After that, Ren Qing would refine the results himself, and it would probably be completed within about ten days.
Li Yaoyang swallowed nervously before asking in a low voice, "Brother Ren, have you found any clues about an immortal position related to Gu insects?"
"They're here..."
"What's here?"
Heavy footsteps approached from afar, accompanied by the heart-rending cries of commoners, as though a terrible tragedy were unfolding outside the teahouse.
Li Yaoyang immediately sat up straight, instinctively storing away several jars containing his most important Gu insects before looking toward the entrance.
A sedan chair was swaying toward Minghe Tea House.
The sedan had obviously been enlarged. It could easily have held over a thousand jin of cargo, yet it still appeared unbearably cramped.
Through the gaps in the curtains, bloated masses of flesh could be seen bulging outward.
More than a dozen Daoist child attendants carried the sedan. The bones in their shoulders had already collapsed, and blood streamed down their arms.
Even so, they walked forward as though they felt no pain.
"An immortal has descended into the world!"
"Immortal, please accept me as your disciple! I'm willing to become the stepping stone beneath your feet!"
"Immortal! I've already abandoned my wife and children. By severing worldly desire, I'll surely become an immortal!"
Several hundred commoners surrounded the sedan, repeatedly smashing their foreheads against the ground. Even elderly people with white hair and beards did the same.
Ren Qing had only witnessed such a scene once before, in the Heaven Above of Cishi.
However, Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva's methods were far more terrifying than Daoist Tianxu's, completely controlling the soul without leaving any room for resistance.
The Heavenly Demon Tribulation had long since enveloped the teahouse. Naturally, Daoist Tianxu could not escape it, and the aura he emitted was immediately isolated outside.
The Daoist child attendants set the sedan down at the entrance to Minghe Tea House before finally realizing what had happened.
Clutching their injured shoulders, they burst into tears, then crawled away from Daoist Tianxu's sedan as though fleeing from a vicious ghost.
The commoners also regained their senses. Panicking, they fled the marketplace and only dared watch the teahouse from distant streets and alleys while whispering among themselves.
Everyone in the main hall looked uncertain.
They too had been affected by Daoist Tianxu, but with souls far stronger than ordinary people, they managed to withstand it.
"Cultivation... cultivation..."
"Could it be that old Daoist Tianxu cultivated himself out of existence?"
Daoist Heishui spoke coldly, pouring his tea onto the floor as though it were something filthy.
The elderly monk Wutou remained seated steadily in the center of the hall. He was the abbot of Buddha Heart Temple, and his soul had likewise reached the Yang Spirit realm.
"Amitabha. It cannot be spoken. It cannot be spoken."
Crack... crack... crack...
The four hardwood poles supporting the sedan let out strained groans before snapping in half.
A heap of rotten flesh squeezed its way out.
Huang Gou'er stood frozen in place before rushing into the kitchen, dry heaving over the slop bucket until he nearly vomited up his stomach.
The expressions of everyone present also became rather unpleasant.
Daoist Tianxu's appearance far exceeded their expectations.
His entire body was a mass of rotten flesh piled together. His facial features had been crushed into one another, while insect-like limbs covered the underside of his body.
He mumbled indistinctly.
"The Great Dao is within reach... the Great Dao is within reach..."
"What kind of evil thing is this? Better let this old Daoist cut off its head and display it to the public."
Daoist Heishui impatiently drew the longsword at his waist, attaching several yellow talismans covered in bloody writing to the blade, causing it to glow faintly.
Liaoque quickly stopped Daoist Heishui and persuaded him, "Fellow Daoist Heishui, why not wait and hear Daoist Tianxu out? He must have gained something."
Daoist Heishui swept his gaze across the room and noticed the greed quietly growing in everyone's eyes, so he sheathed his sword.
Although Daoist Tianxu looked grotesque, he truly emitted the unique aura of cultivated spells. There was a real possibility that he had found the correct cultivation path and merely taken a wrong turn along the way.
The rotten flesh continuously gathered and dispersed, crawling into Minghe Tea House on insect legs before stopping in the empty space at the center of the hall.
Facing such an indescribable creature, everyone exchanged uneasy glances.
After recalling the threat posed by the Insect Nest, they suppressed their urge to flee and stared fixedly at Daoist Tianxu.
Daoist Tianxu began muttering to himself.
Although his words were ordinary enough, the fact that he could still speak coherently proved he retained his intelligence.
Every ancient cultivator present had become extremely radical in pursuit of recultivating their techniques.
Unexpectedly, their states of mind resonated well with Daoist Tianxu's.
Huang Gou'er had nearly fainted from fright, yet the ancient cultivators quickly adapted, proving they were no longer normal themselves.
Ren Qing understood what was truly happening.
Daoist Tianxu had possessed a Gu insect, and even his soul had become part of the insect.
According to the Information Flow, he now belonged to a unique species of Gu insect.
[Human Refinement Gu]
[Consuming the flesh and blood of the Human Refinement Gu causes both body and soul to undergo uncontrollable mutation, gradually assimilating into the Human Refinement Gu. It must be fed one jin of human brains every three days.]
The Human Refinement Gu clearly had no path for advancement, yet judging from the aura it emitted, it had already reached the Ghost Envoy realm and was not far from the Yin Difference realm.
Without anyone noticing, the content of Daoist Tianxu's rambling changed.
"I visualized the statue of Supreme Lord Lao and touched the Heavenly Dao. Through cultivation, one may attain eternal life..."
The ancient cultivators maintained guarded expressions, but an irresistible urge to listen arose within them.
Even Daoist Heishui fell silent.
Almost simultaneously, they drew their weapons.
Regardless of what Daoist Tianxu said or what he looked like, there was no way they would let him off easily.
"Select the remains of those of exceptional quality. They must be free of sores and decay, of appropriate age. Once obtained, one should bathe and purify oneself, fumigate with benzoin incense, cultivate the principal deity, and guard the three vital locations..."
The more Ren Qing listened, the stranger it sounded.
Daoist Tianxu was describing a possession technique for taking over ordinary humans.
It resembled the most superficial aspects of the Heavenly Demon Tribulation.
However, there was no way such a technique could be used to possess a Gu insect.
After he finished reciting the entire passage, more than a dozen ancient cultivators silently waited, wanting to hear whether Daoist Tianxu had anything else to say.
Instead, Daoist Tianxu roared.
"Practice the possession technique, and you can reconstruct the Heavenly Dao!"
"Do you believe me?!"
He looked around frantically.
The gathered ancient cultivators had already risen and were slowly approaching, clearly treating Daoist Tianxu as someone who had suffered cultivation deviation.
"Why won't you believe me?!"
Daoist Heishui was the first to draw his sword completely.
The Gu insect in his mouth wriggled as he mocked, "Why waste your breath? Possession techniques obviously exist, but they can't recultivate the Great Dao. Just seize someone's soul directly."
Even though they presented themselves as righteous sects, deep down they were all lunatics.
These ancient cultivators, who might once have been terrestrial immortals, now hacked wildly at Daoist Tianxu with swords like common street thugs.
Daoist Tianxu continued muttering, asking why no one believed him.
The outermost layers of rotten flesh gradually peeled away from his skeleton, revealing a vague humanoid body beneath.
The floor of the teahouse became covered in minced flesh.
The ancient cultivators resembled evil ghosts, their faces twisted with savagery.
Yet once Daoist Tianxu had been injured to a certain extent, his body began regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His flesh seemed inexhaustible.
Ren Qing and Li Yaoyang quietly observed as the ancient cultivators exhausted every method they had, yet still failed to extract his soul.
"Li Yaoyang, do you think his transformation into a Gu insect is related to that possession technique he recited?"
"It's hard to say. That possession technique doesn't even qualify as a Restraint Officer technique. It feels more like a summary of an ancient scripture handed down from antiquity."
Ren Qing watched as the ancient cultivators gradually stopped attacking after realizing they could do nothing to Daoist Tianxu.
He and Li Yaoyang casually walked forward.
Ghost Shadow pierced into Daoist Tianxu's body, while Li Yaoyang released Crabmen Gu insects to parasitize him.
Not long ago, Daoist Tianxu had still been laughing wildly.
Now, before Ren Qing and Li Yaoyang, all he could do was gasp for breath.
The pain had completely shattered his sanity.
The ancient cultivators discussed the situation among themselves, completely failing to notice Ren Qing standing right beside them.
The scene was truly bizarre.
Ren Qing calmly examined Daoist Tianxu.
After a while, he reached a conclusion.
Daoist Tianxu had indeed possessed a Gu insect.
However, the Gu insect had gradually reversed the relationship, making Daoist Tianxu's body and soul more like parasites living inside the insect.
Furthermore, the Gu insect was protected by an immortal position, making it extremely difficult to eliminate through conventional means within Jingzhou.
Ren Qing did not kill Daoist Tianxu.
Instead, he allowed the ancient cultivators to carry him away from the teahouse.
Only then did Huang Gou'er, completely drained, stagger out of the kitchen.
Daoist Tianxu was wrapped in black cloth and hung inside Sanlong Temple.
Clearly, they still wanted to determine whether becoming an immortal was real or not.
The situation in the other towns was much the same.
However, many ancient cultivators suffered cultivation deviation because of it, becoming completely insane and spending all day muttering that possession technique.
The Gu-transformed cultivators hanging throughout the various locations made the overall situation even more confusing.
It was as though the mastermind was trying to use the Gu-transformed cultivators to convey some kind of message, but severe limitations prevented it from being expressed clearly.
Led by Daoist Heishui, the ancient cultivators threw themselves wholeheartedly into Gu refinement.
They began raising Gu insects in large numbers and searching for methods to refine them.
To that end, they even taught the art of Gu refinement to outsiders without hesitation.
The art of Gu refinement spread rapidly, creating thousands upon thousands of Insect Warriors.
Sooner or later, some Insect Warriors would accidentally evolve their own Gu insects.
Even without Ren Qing's guidance, the art of Gu refinement continued developing at an astonishing pace.
However, because their methods were still far too crude, forcefully implanting Gu insects inevitably resulted in rejection.
Eventually, the ancient cultivators discovered a shortcut.
Using Daoist Tianxu's flesh and blood could increase the body's compatibility with Gu insects.
As the day of lifespan exhaustion drew nearer, Jingzhou grew increasingly mad.
Throughout the desolate mountains and wilderness, commoners could be seen everywhere hunting Gu insects.
'Lifespan nearly exhausted. Thirty-two days remaining.'