At the time, in order to help Fleshly Tathagata ascend to the Heavenly Aberration realm, Ren Qing transformed more than ten thousand Strange Artifacts into Insect Buddhas, using them to absorb an enormous amount of Buddhist aura.
As a result, the number of Strange Artifacts stored by the Restraint Officers' Hall was reduced by nearly half.
It had to be known that the Restraint Officers' Hall already had more than ten thousand artifact refiners. Every day, merely refining Strange Womb Artifacts consumed nearly a thousand Strange Artifacts.
Losing more than ten thousand Strange Artifacts was indeed painful.
Even though the Insect Buddhas could eventually be converted back into Strange Artifacts, Ren Qing still intended to use them to secretly control Small Buddha Heaven, so recovering the cost would be impossible in the short term.
That was why Ren Qing had Han Li go to the Surface Layer World to collect Gu, while also meeting Gu Immortal and using the Human-Insects to replenish the Stomach World.
Unexpectedly, Han Li and the others were indeed highly efficient at capturing Gu.
Gu Immortal moved most of the Human-Insects into safe underground caves, taking only a hundred or so Human-Insects with him to search for traces of Gu in the Surface Layer World.
Han Li noticed that Gu were mainly concentrated in humid places such as rainforests, streams, and rivers.
Once they determined their habitats, they devoted all their energy to capturing Gu, almost never sleeping. Whenever they became exhausted, they used pills to keep themselves alert.
Gu Immortal had learned the workings of Dream City through indirect probing of Han Li.
There were not many channels for obtaining Blood Crystals on a large scale, and most were controlled by the six major branches, making the Gu of Jingzhou exceedingly precious.
Gu Immortal moved through the lush forest, constantly making strange sounds with his mouth.
After a moment, a Golden-Winged Butterfly Gu the size of a palm landed on a nearby branch. It had clearly been drawn over by Gu Immortal's voice.
Gu Immortal calmly edged closer, releasing a net-shaped artifact to cover one side before transforming his right arm into an elephant leg and smashing it toward the Gu.
The Golden-Winged Butterfly Gu fled in panic, but the artifact net seized the opportunity to trap it. No matter how violently the Gu struggled, the artifact held it firmly.
The artifact had been specially refined by Xiao San'er at Han Li's request, and was capable of suppressing the activity of Strange Artifacts.
Gu Immortal's face filled with delight. He reached out and seized the Golden-Winged Butterfly Gu, then communicated with Dream City through his consciousness and entered the bustling dreamscape.
He went straight to the Great Dream Pavilion and exchanged the Gu directly for a substantial amount of Blood Crystals.
It was merely a Strange Artifact at the Ghost Envoy realm, yet its price was comparable to a Strange Womb Artifact at the Half-Corpse realm.
Gu Immortal took a deep breath, returning his consciousness to his body. He prepared to continue capturing Gu, for the Blood Crystals he already had were far from enough.
After all, once he went to the Immortal Realm Han Li had mentioned, the Gu parasitizing his body would transform into Strange Artifacts, forcing him to cultivate Gu techniques all over again.
If he could not gather enough Blood Crystals to support himself until reaching the Yin Difference realm, he would find it extremely difficult to survive in the Immortal Realm, and becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao would remain nothing but a pipe dream.
Gu Immortal forcibly suppressed his distracting thoughts and surveyed his surroundings with burning eyes.
"Jingzhou really is a treasure vault."
"Unfortunately, Han Li said that immortals would soon send Heavenly Court cultivators down here one after another. I have to hurry and earn Blood Crystals."
Gu Immortal locked onto another Gu and silently approached it.
Just then, the jade token hanging from Gu Immortal's waist began to flash. This was a warning from Han Li, indicating that danger was nearby.
Unwillingly, he gritted his teeth and let out a sharp whistle, calling the Human-Insects scattered throughout the area back to him. He then hurried toward the underground cave.
Not long after Gu Immortal withdrew, more than a dozen rogue cultivators who hunted Human-Insects appeared.
The rogue cultivators cursed as they compared the Human-Insects to rats and vermin. They then unleashed large-scale techniques, turning the surrounding area into a sea of fire.
They hoped to use the smoke and dust to force the Human-Insects out, but it was clearly unrealistic.
Han Li and Gu Immortal had grown increasingly adept at working together, and the Human-Insects were gradually turning the tables.
If Gu Immortal had not wanted to waste time dealing with the rogue cultivators, he could have easily dealt with them by relying on the maze-like network of underground tunnels.
The rogue cultivators ultimately returned empty-handed, completely unaware that the various factions had already set their sights on them.
After all, under Jingzhou's unique rules, Strange Artifacts could all form Gu. It was merely that Human-Insects had special constitutions that made them more suitable for storing Gu.
While Han Li and the other cultivators busied themselves in the Surface Layer World, Tang Sheng waited for the day of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage to approach and diligently cultivated his techniques.
As for Ren Qing, he lay flat in the Dragon Blood Sea Region, planning his next moves.
Relying solely on Han Li to move all the Gu from the Surface Layer World into the Stomach World was certainly impossible. More cultivators had to be dispatched.
However, there were several Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators in the Surface Layer World who were about to ascend.
He planned to wait until the Surface Layer World had been completely emptied before sending the locust-like cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall to sweep up its resources and Gu.
With this thought, Ren Qing began frantically stripping the flesh from both his arms.
Dense dragon limbs swam toward the surface of the sea. They were not only heading toward Jingzhou, but ideally would eventually cover this entire world.
However, prolonged limb regeneration would inevitably cause his blood and qi to become somewhat unstable, so he took the opportunity to recuperate in the Dragon Blood Sea Region.
Moreover, the dragon limbs corresponded to the Divine Ability Death Gives No Birth and provided considerable assistance with resurrection.
Ren Qing simply refused to believe that if he had hundreds of millions of dragon limbs, even Ratnasambhava Buddha could easily kill him.
At the same time, he went over the Stomach World, checking the myriad realms for anything that had been overlooked.
When he noticed that the Strange Artifacts in the mortal world were becoming increasingly numerous, he opened up an independent space in the Heavenly Palace called the "Strange Palace."
The Strange Palace was primarily intended for raising Strange Artifacts. Ghost Wolf and the other jailers were not included.
The jailers actually held a very special status in the mortal world. Many mortals regarded them as mountain and river deities, and there were even ancestral shrines dedicated to offering them incense.
Sealing the Strange Artifacts in the Heavenly Palace had another benefit for Ren Qing: it made it convenient for him to reverse-engineer techniques.
At present, the techniques of the Restraint Officers' Hall had more than doubled compared with when he had first joined. Altogether, there were already nearly a thousand techniques.
Ren Qing simply divided the Great Dream Technique Pavilion into levels, placing ordinary techniques on the lowest level. Any cultivator of the Restraint Officers' Hall could exchange for them.
Techniques belonging exclusively to individual branches were placed on the third level.
The fourth level contained techniques with extremely demanding cultivation requirements, which were also forbidden from circulating on the open market.
That was because these techniques often required using the flesh-and-blood organs of mortals to establish one's foundation, or caused irreversible effects on a cultivator's body and soul.
The top level of the Great Dream Technique Pavilion connected to the Heavenly Palace's Treasure Pavilion. It contained all the core forbidden techniques, such as Disguise Technique and Disaster-Dispelling Method.
Entry required Ren Qing's approval. Ordinary people could not even see the staircase leading to the top level.
Ren Qing also clearly divided the material resources of the Great Dream Pavilion. There were sixteen levels in total, and one could freely travel to any level by communicating with the counters.
The other buildings also had various overlooked flaws, so he gradually modified them toward greater convenience based on the knowledge he had brought from his previous life.
Just as Ren Qing had nearly finished his improvements, the Heavenly Dao of the Stomach World suddenly stirred.
At first, Ren Qing did not react, but he soon noticed that the immortal position associated with Great Dream True Person had suddenly begun to flicker, while the aura it revealed had also become strange.
"Ascension Ladder?"
He hurriedly examined the Mud Pellet Palace of Matchmaking Immortal. One red thread after another belonging to Great Dream True Person was snapping, indicating that hundreds of split souls were gradually merging.
Ren Qing naturally intended to help Great Dream True Person as much as he could.
Among the Yang God realm cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall, Song Zongwu had only just repaired the flaws in his body and soul and should be able to attempt the No-Birth Immortal realm within ten years. Of the remaining Yang God realm cultivators, only Daoist Taihan had barely reached the later stage.
If Great Dream True Person successfully ascended to the Ascension Ladder realm, he would be only one step away from the Heavenly Aberration realm.
Ren Qing needed more Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators to step forward from the Restraint Officers' Hall and prepare for the coming War of Enfeoffing Immortals. By then, the flames of war would surely spread to every corner of this world.
He cast his consciousness into the Heavenly Dao and faintly sensed the existence of Great Dream True Person.
Because of his mutation, Great Dream True Person's primary soul was thirty percent stronger than those of cultivators in the same realm. But after hundreds of split souls merged with one another, the resulting whole directly overwhelmed the primary soul.
Ren Qing's expression became complicated.
No matter how he looked at it, Great Dream True Person's secondary soul looked exactly like Daoist Taisui. Even the aura it revealed was almost identical.
The split soul was translucent, with a speck-like spore floating at its very center.
The spore possessed an extremely powerful corrosive nature. It seemed capable of forcibly transforming any soul that came into contact with it into the unique aura of the Scripture of Taisui, perhaps involving Daoist Taisui, who had been dead for a very long time.
Great Dream True Person had made use of the spore's corrosive nature to refine it into his primary soul, then continuously infected the souls of others, allowing him to possess hundreds or even thousands of split souls.
He should have noticed the mortals affected by Matchmaking Immortal while spreading the spores.
Great Dream True Person intended to use the spores' corrosive nature together with Matchmaking Immortal's subtle control to make a large number of split souls merge with one another.
There was nothing wrong with his plan. The split souls were indeed being compressed together.
But at the same time, the spores were continuously gathering.
Ren Qing's eyelids twitched violently, because the split soul was becoming less and less like Great Dream True Person and instead gradually drawing closer to Daoist Taisui.
As a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator, Ren Qing knew all too well that an expert at Daoist Taisui's level was like a centipede that could still wriggle after death.
The possibility of resurrection was not high, but Great Dream True Person could become a second Daoist Taisui.
If Ren Qing did not stop the fusion of the primary and secondary souls, Great Dream True Person would probably suffer a catastrophic setback.
He immediately used the Zhili Technique, transforming the bacterial souls into Demon Demons before sending them surging along the red threads toward Great Dream True Person's Mud Pellet Palace.
Great Dream True Person mastered all kinds of dream techniques, and his Mud Pellet Palace possessed extremely powerful defenses.
Ren Qing had originally intended to force his way in, but unexpectedly, Great Dream True Person did not resist, allowing the bacterial souls to flood in and completely occupy his Mud Pellet Palace.
Great Dream True Person's Mud Pellet Palace was composed entirely of twisted light and shadow.
A phantom of Daoist Taisui floated in midair, while the primary soul had already been driven into a corner, enduring the erosion of the spores.
Ren Qing acted decisively. After the Zhili Technique reached the Heavenly Aberration realm, it could contend with even Daoist Taisui at his peak, let alone a wandering soul that had been dead for thousands of years.
The bacterial souls clung to Daoist Taisui's body, tearing away the aura of his soul.
Ren Qing then sent it to Great Dream True Person.
Daoist Taisui was originally a split soul, sharing the same origin as the primary soul. As long as the power of the Scripture of Taisui was stripped away, the primary soul could digest the remainder without difficulty.
Great Dream True Person grew stronger at a visible rate, quickly returning to his peak.
When only one-tenth of the split soul remained, he had already touched the edge of the Ascension Ladder realm, and Great Dream True Person consequently regained consciousness.
Before Great Dream True Person could speak, Ren Qing spoke first.
"To put it briefly, Great Dream True Person, you are about to face the Three Dao Ancestors. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the Primordial Heavenly Venerable."
Great Dream True Person gave Ren Qing a deep look. Since Ren Qing knew so much about the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, it meant that he had already ascended to the Heavenly Aberration realm.
He had never expected Ren Qing's talent to be so astonishing. From the Martial Practitioner realm to the Heavenly Aberration realm, he had needed only a little over a hundred years.
Ren Qing transmitted information about the appearance of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable to Great Dream True Person.
Among the cultivators of this world, Ren Qing was probably the only one with such a profound understanding of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable. After all, he had encountered him three times while maintaining a clear consciousness.
Even Ren Qing himself felt a chill run down his spine and an inexplicable prickling of his scalp whenever he examined the deeply buried memories concerning the Primordial Heavenly Venerable.
Great Dream True Person's soul fluctuated violently, clearly affected by the Primordial Heavenly Venerable. The light and shadows surrounding him became increasingly dazzling.
He visualized the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, and only after a long time did he open his eyes.
Great Dream True Person nodded slightly. His entire body radiated indescribable confidence, and all his techniques had become perfectly integrated. There was not the slightest difference from before.
Ren Qing could not help sighing inwardly. As expected of a cultivator capable of creating techniques of his own.
He continued stripping away the split soul, leaving behind the soybean-sized spore while Great Dream True Person devoured the aura of the remaining soul.
"Ren Qing, in about half an hour, I will have to face the Heavenly Dao."
Great Dream True Person spoke with a sigh. "I am somewhat familiar with the Primordial Heavenly Venerable. If my memories are not mistaken, I should have encountered him before. The danger of this journey goes without saying."
"If things truly become impossible, then suppress the breakthrough."
"Ren Qing, I do not possess talent like yours. For me, the chance to ascend to the Ascension Ladder realm comes only once. How could I have a way back?"
Ren Qing was left speechless. Most cultivators' opportunities appeared and vanished in an instant. Thus, even though Jingzhou was incomparably dangerous, Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators such as Lady White Bone had never considered fleeing and giving up.
Great Dream True Person shook his head and said, "However, the environment I am currently in is rather harsh. I should go into your stomach."
"Then what about your body?"
"Because my mutation has run out of control, my body and soul are actually no different from each other anymore. I am afraid that once I reach the Heavenly Aberration realm, they will completely become one."
As he spoke, Great Dream True Person used a technique and gradually transformed into a Demon Demon.
His Demon Demon body was different from Ren Qing's. It appeared even more illusory, composed entirely of dreams, with not even the slightest trace of flesh and blood to be found.
Ren Qing opened the passage leading to the Stomach World, and Great Dream True Person slipped inside.
Great Dream True Person had already been mentally prepared when accepting the immortal position, but he was still shocked by the vastness and reality of the Stomach World.
Towns inhabited by different civilizations stood throughout the continent.
They possessed distinct cultivation systems and even their own unique languages and scripts. Their combined population was at least two or three million.
Great Dream True Person had refined the Human Immortal Office and was already qualified to travel through the Three Realms, so he naturally noticed the Heavenly Palace and the Underworld.
The Restraint Officers' Hall had undergone a complete transformation. Ghost Envoy realm cultivators were everywhere, Yin Difference realm cultivators were no longer rare, and there were even traces of Yang God realm cultivators.
Great Dream True Person was incredulous. He immediately realized that Ren Qing had mastered more than one technique.
He suspected that Ren Qing had already raised several techniques to the Heavenly Aberration realm. Otherwise, even if his stomach and intestines had transformed into a true world, his body could not possibly withstand the burden brought by an entire small world.
"Ren Qing, you have truly made me see you in a new light."
The aura of the techniques radiating from Great Dream True Person gradually subsided.
Compared with him, the crises Ren Qing had encountered were probably unimaginable. Otherwise, how could he have created such a formidable immortal sect's visitor?
Ren Qing was genuinely delighted to receive Great Dream True Person's recognition, but he still reminded him, "The next step, ascending to the Ascension Ladder realm, is the most important of all. After all, it involves the Heavenly Dao."
After taking Great Dream True Person on a tour through the Three Realms, he immediately left the Stomach World and arrived at a secluded corner of the Dragon Blood Sea Region.
Once Great Dream True Person was in the outside world, the momentum of his breakthrough intensified.
He sat cross-legged on the surface of the sea. Then his body suddenly expanded, transforming into a thirty-to-forty-meter mass of twisted light and shadow.
Under Ren Qing's gaze, Great Dream True Person's soul was pulled deep underground.
Ren Qing used the Heavenly Demon Tribulation to protect Great Dream True Person. Facing the Heavenly Dao was something he could only do himself. After all, Ren Qing had encountered the Primordial Heavenly Venerable three times already, and no one knew what might happen the fourth time.
He was also uninterested in why the Primordial Heavenly Venerable existed underground. Curiosity killed the cat.
Ren Qing did not have to wait long. Although facing the Three Dao Ancestors felt like years passing in a single day, in reality only a few breaths had passed.
Just as he was pondering with his Spirit Division, Great Dream True Person's soul had already returned.
Boom.
The sea churned despite the absence of wind. Any living creature that approached Great Dream True Person was transformed into light and devoured by him.
Ren Qing saw that Great Dream True Person was showing signs of losing control to Heavenly Dao transformation, so he immediately used the Zhili Technique to suppress it while observing him.
Great Dream True Person had successfully broken through to the Ascension Ladder realm. However, because he had directly gazed upon the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, his body and soul were transforming toward Heavenly Dao assimilation.
Ren Qing remained completely calm and brought Great Dream True Person into the Stomach World.
The immortal position itself could suppress Heavenly Dao assimilation, and with the assistance of Fleshly Tathagata, Great Dream True Person's body and soul immediately stabilized.
Ren Qing curiously summoned the information stream.
Great Dream True Person
Age: 342
Lifespan: 2,746 years
Technique: Great Dream Method
Great Dream Method
Created by Great Dream True Person. Cultivation requires the body and soul to undergo mutation in synchronization, while external forces are used to gradually merge the body and soul. Once body and soul become one, the technique is complete.
The upper limit of the Great Dream Method is the Heavenly Aberration realm. It cannot be cultivated alongside other techniques.
Ren Qing could sense that the Great Dream Method was probably not far from the Earth Immortal Ascension Method. However, the difference between them was only a hair's breadth, and yet it was already impossible to make up.
At least the Great Dream Method could break through to the Heavenly Aberration realm. In the future, Great Dream True Person could still rely on an immortal position to attempt to seize the opportunity to attain the Dao and become an immortal.
Ren Qing opened up a simple cave dwelling in the Heavenly Palace.
Great Dream True Person's consciousness was still in a hazy state. Once he realized that the cave dwelling was safe, he immediately entered secluded cultivation and began cultivating the Great Dream Method.
Ren Qing returned to the battered Dragon Blood Sea Region and discovered that in merely a few breaths, thousands of dragons had already died as a result.
The greatest damage had been done to the aquatic vegetation. Aquatic plants were dying in large numbers.
Ren Qing hurriedly used his blood to make repairs, preventing the ecosystem from deteriorating.
He was still counting on the Dragon Blood Sea Region as a source from which to expand the ecosystem further into the ocean. He did not want all his efforts to end without result.
Ren Qing was mainly waiting for the Flood Merfolk to grow. Given the current size of their tribe, encountering a crisis could easily result in their entire population being wiped out.
Moreover, ever since Fleshly Tathagata reached the Heavenly Aberration realm, the Dragon Blood Sea Region's assistance in healing the Heavenly Dao Crack had actually become almost negligible.
Unless Ren Qing could cover the oceans of this entire world, the effect would not be significant.
Boom, boom, boom.
The enormous sphere enveloping Jingzhou rose another several meters, resembling a full moon. Its surface was covered in uneven impact craters.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and could not help looking toward Jingzhou.
The major factions of the Surface Layer World were becoming fewer and fewer. If they could not immediately proceed to the Deeper Layer World, then given how things were developing, they might not even get a share of the leftovers.
Compared with the calm Surface Layer World, the Inner Layer World had fallen completely into madness.
They resorted to every possible means to ascend to the Deeper Layer World, using all kinds of techniques to cultivate Gu.
Since they had no mortals to use as test subjects, they parasitized Gu within their own people. Monsters beyond description could be seen everywhere.
It should not be long before large numbers of "Extraterrestrial Demons" arrived in the Deeper Layer World.
Compared with the low-profile factions such as Lady White Bone's, they would certainly be even more ruthless. The fall of Small Buddha Heaven was entirely predictable.
Ren Qing could join forces with the Buddhas who worshipped Fleshly Tathagata and send several hundred thousand people to the Stomach World, thereby strengthening the foundation of the Restraint Officers' Hall.
For the moment, however, the Deeper Layer World remained calm.
After seeing that there was profit to be made in the Surface Layer World, he posted external missions on the notice board.
External missions naturally carried danger, but the cultivators had followed Ren Qing across countless regions and witnessed all kinds of situations. How could they possibly lack courage?
Soon, more than a thousand people descended into the Surface Layer World.
Once they exchanged the Gu they had harvested for Blood Crystals, the news inevitably spread. Before long, tens of thousands of people would join the mission in search of profit.
Ren Qing had only one requirement: the cultivators had to claim to be members of Heavenly Court.
He was afraid that the cultivators of the Restraint Officers' Hall would be more likely to make a mess than accomplish anything, so he deliberately planted a subconscious suggestion using the Zhili Technique.
In an instant, the Surface Layer World became a complete mess.
Half a day earlier, Gu Immortal had still been secretly battling the rogue cultivators, repeatedly escaping their encirclements and even ambushing and killing several Yin Difference realm cultivators.
But after the arrival of the Restraint Officers' Hall, everything became completely different.
The cultivators were like a pack of jackals that had caught the scent of blood, howling as they pounced on every living creature, expertly processing their prey.
Even ordinary beasts attracted the interest of beast tamers from the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Vegetation could also be sold to the goat demons of the Demon Vein, who would squeeze every last bit of value from it. With the cultivation of spiritual soil, they might even be able to grow expensive fruits.
External missions indeed offered no fixed rewards, but everything a cultivator obtained belonged to them personally, meaning the potential gains were enormous.
"Who are you people?!"
"Heavenly Court. Heavenly Soldiers."
The rogue cultivators were terrified. Immediately afterward, they were surrounded by dozens of zombie cultivators.
They had only just tried to retaliate when finger after finger, stained with corpse poison, pierced directly into their spines. The poison made their bodies difficult to move.
The zombie cultivators worked with clear division of labor, dismantling the rogue cultivators into various resources.
The few remaining small factions drove their artifacts in an attempt to flee, but how could the disciples of the Daoist temples let them have their way? Flying swords pursued them closely.
The Corpse Ghosts were responsible for dealing with Yang God realm cultivators, and the Crabman Artifacts were used to devastating effect.
Han Li remained calm. After greeting a familiar cultivator, he chose to stop.
Gu Immortal had already been frightened pale, because wherever the "Heavenly Soldiers" passed, not a blade of grass remained alive. They even dug three feet into the ground.
If the Human-Insects had not changed into Daoist robes embroidered with the words Heavenly Court beforehand, they would not have escaped the slaughter either.
Carrion-eating vultures soared through the sky, seemingly hoping to find corpses on the desolate land, only to discover that not even a drop of blood remained.
At that moment, a cultivator used plant roots to restrain a vulture, then dragged it into a spatial artifact used for storing living creatures.
The astonishment in Gu Immortal's eyes faded. Then he burst into wild laughter, swinging his elephant leg as he joined the plundering of the Surface Layer World.
"If becoming an immortal means I can't act without restraint, then what's the point of becoming one?!"
Heaven's Court breaks free. The living flee.