Ever since a considerable number of Insect Buddhas converted to Fleshly Tathagata, temples had fallen one after another.
It had to be known that there were not many Insect Buddhas at the Heavenly Aberration realm in Small Buddha Heaven. They were simply incapable of stopping Ren Qing's expansion. Batch after batch of Insect Buddhas were sent to Jinmen Temple.
After the Insect Buddhas left Jinmen Temple, there was not the slightest abnormality visible on their exteriors. Their cultivation would even advance further, but their state of mind had become completely different.
Without ever leaving his residence, Ren Qing had already taken control of half of Small Buddha Heaven.
On top of that, with the second batch of Insect Buddhas bred in Jinmen Temple, Fleshly Tathagata had now reached a size approaching five thousand meters.
Fleshly Tathagata's exterior was that of a towering mountain piercing the clouds. Its material was like glazed glass, covered in crystalline, translucent vegetation.
Only then did Ren Qing notice that Fleshly Tathagata had awakened a unique divine ability called "Buddha Kingdom in the Palm."
Fleshly Tathagata's Buddha Kingdom in the Palm was mainly manifested through its connections with Ren Qing's various divine abilities.
By casting Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth, Ren Qing could allow the cultivators of Stomach World to possess the Buddha statues of Lingshan, much like Heavenly Demon Possession.
Although the Restraint Officers' Hall cultivators who descended upon Lingshan could not leave the range of Fleshly Tathagata's Buddha Qi, any deaths or injuries they suffered would not affect their true bodies.
Ren Qing looked over the numerous Buddha statues roaming throughout Fleshly Tathagata. Their behavior was impossible to predict, and they should all be mindless puppets.
Nearly ten thousand of them had been nurtured by absorbing the Buddha Qi of Insect Buddhas. No matter how high the cultivation of an Insect Buddha was, they were not true Buddhas in essence.
Ren Qing called them False Buddhas. They could accommodate cultivators of the Yang Spirit realm when they descended.
The Buddha statues transformed from Arhat Fruit Positions could accommodate cultivators of the Heavenly Aberration realm, while those of Bodhisattva Fruit Positions could even accommodate Earth Immortals. This demonstrated Fleshly Tathagata's potential.
Unfortunately, Fleshly Tathagata had yet to completely devour Infinite-Meaning Bodhisattva. Its efficiency at digesting Bodhisattva Buddha Qi was simply too slow.
Ren Qing sorted through the information gathered by bacterial soul from all over Small Buddha Heaven and could faintly sense the undercurrents surging within.
As expected, the Insect Buddhas who had not converted to Fleshly Tathagata were attempting to gather together and attack Jinmen Temple to reclaim control of Small Buddha Heaven.
They thought their plans were flawless, but in reality, everything was within Ren Qing's sight.
Ren Qing did not think the Insect Buddhas could amount to anything, especially since Great Buddha Heaven seemed to be focusing all its efforts on the extraterrestrial demons.
With the Insect Buddhas of Small Buddha Heaven being, at most, newly advanced Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators, they posed no threat to him whatsoever. Most of them would simply be sending themselves to their deaths.
It was just that Ren Qing did not want to spend time keeping watch over the Insect Buddhas' movements. He still had quite a few things to handle, and there was no need to neglect one matter for another.
He simply decided to test Fleshly Tathagata's Buddha Kingdom in the Palm and began casting Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth.
Ren Qing had already issued missions in Stomach World beforehand, naturally leading cultivators from the various branches to compete for them. More than ten thousand people had accepted them.
He selected five thousand Ghost Envoy realm cultivators from among them and then had the cultivators descend into Fleshly Tathagata's False Buddha statues.
One moment, the cultivators were standing ready in Stomach World. The next, they had arrived in the outside world.
Han Li only felt a brief moment of dizziness. Immediately afterward, his body and soul left Stomach World and seemed to enter a sealed, cramped space.
He hurriedly examined himself and noticed that his body had become a glazed statue filled with dense Buddha Qi, yet this did not affect the techniques of his true body.
However, the nature of his techniques had undergone a earth-shaking transformation.
Han Li instinctively cast a technique. His body naturally began transforming into a Stone Giant, while dense Buddha Qi radiated from within.
It was not merely The Taotie Method. All the techniques he possessed had become driven by Buddha Qi.
Han Li was only at the Yin Difference realm, yet through the Buddha statue, he could display the strength of the Yang Spirit realm, while Buddha Qi continued flowing endlessly.
He stared down at Fleshly Tathagata in astonishment. Lingshan was slowly writhing.
The other cultivators also noticed the abnormalities in their techniques. To them, being able to experience the level of the Yang Spirit realm ahead of time would bring indescribable benefits to breaking through their future bottlenecks.
Ren Qing also had Li Yaoyang, a Yang Spirit realm cultivator, come to oversee the overall situation.
Li Yaoyang possessed an Arhat statue. He could barely display the strength of the Heavenly Aberration realm, and it was extremely difficult for ordinary cultivators to control.
He carefully examined his body and soul. When he saw the natal Gu Insect within him radiating Buddha Qi, his eyes filled with profound shock.
How exactly had Brother Ren accomplished this? Had he deciphered Buddhist techniques?
Li Yaoyang vanished in a flash, then appeared atop Fleshly Tathagata. Ren Qing was nearby, sitting with his eyes closed in contemplation.
"Brother Ren, what exactly is going on in Jingzhou?"
"Nothing serious. Some insignificant troublemakers want to attack Jinmen Temple. With all of you guarding Lingshan, I assume you can deal with them easily."
Ren Qing withdrew his gaze, having already abandoned the idea of going to Great Buddha Heaven.
He felt that going to Great Buddha Heaven offered more disadvantages than benefits. There was no need for him to get involved. It would be better to finish arranging the Immortal Position of Taiyin Star Lord and then leave.
No matter how the mastermind tried to deceive him, there was no point in going to Great Buddha Heaven.
For the time being, Ren Qing would watch from the sidelines and first devour all the Insect Buddhas in Small Buddha Heaven. This should allow Fleshly Tathagata to advance further.
Although it was impossible for it to reach the Earth Immortal realm, it should be able to reach the level of Dao Gives Birth to One.
"Brother Li, just treat Lingshan as Wuwei City and build your arrangements around it. Any resources you need can be transferred directly from Dream City."
"As for the attacks on Jinmen Temple from now on, I'll leave them to you. Don't worry too much about anything. If things really become impossible, just withdraw from Jingzhou."
"All right. I understand."
Li Yaoyang nodded, then pointed toward a corner of the city.
"What should we do with those believers? Should we relocate them to Stomach World?"
After the monks were affected by Fleshly Tathagata's Buddha Qi, they mutated into physiques resembling Corpse Buddhas, and their cultivation increased fairly well.
The drawback was simply too great. If they were moved away from Fleshly Tathagata, their Buddha Qi would probably disappear completely before long.
"Have the monks build temples halfway up Lingshan. If the Restraint Officers' Hall has time, have them lend a hand. If they're busy, they can ignore it."
To Fleshly Tathagata, the monks were like oxpeckers on a rhinoceros. They might seem to be of little use, but in reality, they could help regulate its Buddha Qi, allowing it to avoid the trouble of tending to itself.
Li Yaoyang immediately agreed. More than ten thousand monks gradually climbed Lingshan.
The monks were extremely reverent toward the Restraint Officers' Hall cultivators wearing the shells of Buddhas, treating them as the countless divine Buddhas of the Western Buddhist Realm.
They also kowtowed three times with each of nine bows as they climbed Lingshan, afraid that they might thereby offend Lingshan Tathagata.
After Jinmen Temple was completely emptied, Fleshly Tathagata lay without restraint in the center, breathing in and out vast quantities of Buddha Qi.
The cultivators began making preparations for the defense in full swing.
They arranged defensive artifacts throughout various sections of the city walls. Along the official roads within a hundred li, they also concealed numerous scouts using techniques.
Ren Qing confidently left Fleshly Tathagata in the hands of Li Yaoyang and the other cultivators.
He devoted all his attention to the disease strains, wanting to reach the core of Taiyin Star Lord as quickly as possible and use it to implant the Earth Immortal Office.
For this purpose, Ren Qing even used resources to nourish the soil, allowing the disease strains to reproduce more quickly.
Time passed. Before anyone realized it, more than half a year had gone by.
The situation in Small Buddha Heaven became increasingly tense.
Looking only at the exterior of the Insect Buddhas, there was simply no way to tell whether they believed in Lingshan Tathagata, making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe.
They wanted to contact the Bodhisattvas of Great Buddha Heaven, but because of the attacks by the extraterrestrial demons, Great Buddha Heaven had no time to concern itself with Small Buddha Heaven.
Moreover, every aspect of Small Buddha Heaven revealed something strange.
Even if they dispatched people specifically to investigate, they would only discover that the various temples maintained their existing state. All the Insect Buddhas appeared exactly the same, making it impossible to find the source of the rumors.
Great Buddha Heaven was a war of rival powers carving up the territory, while Small Buddha Heaven was a massive game of Werewolf.
Under such circumstances, it became extremely difficult for Small Buddha Heaven to gather enough forces to attack Jinmen Temple. They had to conduct repeated rounds of screening.
This instead gave Li Yaoyang and the other cultivators ample time to prepare.
Ren Qing did not remain idle. The disease strains had already covered the underground area within a hundred li of the surroundings. As their numbers increased explosively, their spread also accelerated.
He could clearly sense that Taiyin Star Lord was not resisting bacterial soul.
Taiyin Star Lord had been forced to become a vessel for numerous Insect Buddhas, and tens of thousands of monks would next come into contact with the Heavenly Dao. Even Turbid Immortal, which had only its instincts remaining, could sense the arrival of danger.
Both Taiyin Star Lord and Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal would probably attempt to save themselves.
The forces that had recently arrived in Surface Layer World already had several individuals who had ascended to Inner Layer World. It would probably not be long before they came to Deeper Layer World.
The number of extraterrestrial demons would certainly continue to increase.
Ren Qing tentatively released a strand of bacterial soul carrying the Immortal Position deep underground.
bacterial soul endured miserable screams coming from all directions, as though Taiyin Star Lord were suffering unimaginable agony.
Ren Qing's expression became puzzled. With Taiyin Star Lord's Earth Immortal cultivation, how could it be in such a sorry state at the hands of the mastermind, completely incapable of fighting back?
Could the mastermind's cultivation be more than merely the Heavenly Aberration realm?
After sensing the hidden danger, he became even less willing to remain in Jingzhou for long and began binding Insect Buddhas even more frantically, allowing Fleshly Tathagata to devour them.
The number of Buddha statues on Fleshly Tathagata was about to exceed twenty thousand, and its movements were no longer as clumsy as before.
However, Ren Qing's short-sighted act of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs naturally further stimulated Small Buddha Heaven.
A few scattered Insect Buddhas attacked Jinmen Temple, wanting to determine the truth about Fleshly Tathagata. Instead, they discovered that the town was practically a fortress.
The Restraint Officers' Hall was far too experienced at defending cities. They had made Jinmen Temple completely impregnable.
After several months of effort, Ren Qing finally had bacterial soul find Taiyin Star Lord's core. It was a Broken Moon Meteor roughly a hundred li in size.
The surface of the Broken Moon Meteor was covered in chains formed from Buddha Qi. Ren Qing was immediately shocked when he saw this.
How could this Buddha Qi have originated from Dipankara Tathagata? The Karmic Fire burning on the surface clearly showed that it was intimately connected to Dipankara Buddha.
Fortunately, the chains did not completely encase the Broken Moon Meteor. Quite a few gaps remained.
Ren Qing instructed bacterial soul to burrow into the Broken Moon Meteor, then implanted the Earth Immortal Office into Taiyin Star Lord's body.
Taiyin Star Lord clearly trembled. Its sleeping consciousness showed signs of recovering, and bacterial soul took the opportunity to obtain various secrets concerning Jingzhou.
He figured out how to use the rules of the Immortal Position to form a restricted zone. As expected, it was closely related to the Buddha Position, with Buddha Qi serving as a buffer for the Immortal Position.
Ren Qing opened his eyes, his expression becoming one of utter astonishment.
"Recreating the Buddhist Heavenly Dao. Are all the Buddhists insane?"
He had no intention of getting involved. Seeing that the Immortal Position had successfully fused with Taiyin Star Lord, he immediately began making preparations to leave Jingzhou as quickly as possible.