Zhun saw that Ren Qing had already completed his advancement, and moreover, had only spent a brief moment doing so.
He couldn't help but feel a few more points of admiration in his heart.
The easier the advancement, the more it proved the solidity of the foundation. Even the Heart Demon Tribulation couldn't shake it in the slightest, his talent was indeed excellent.
He didn't disturb Ren Qing and instead headed toward the right leg region of Ksitigarbha.
Ren Qing closed his eyes and sensed Twin Nightmare Ghosts, his expression becoming increasingly strange.
First was the enhancement of preemptive foresight.
His reaction to this was rather bland. After all, he had already been able to perceive his opponent's flaws; the main issue had been whether his body could keep up with the reaction speed.
Aside from that, the most important aspect of Twin Nightmare Ghosts was its application to the soul.
Ren Qing could strip off a secondary soul from the main soul at any time. Though the strength was far inferior to the main soul, the advantage was that even if it perished, it wouldn't harm the foundation.
It only took around thirty days of nurturing by the main soul to restore it.
Moreover, Twin Nightmare Ghosts fully embodied the meaning of the character "Nightmare", representing an initial involvement with dreams, still that interplay between illusion and reality.
Most living beings would enter dreams at some point. Ren Qing could use the secondary soul to manipulate dreams, and even alter the subconscious.
This ability was complementary to Immortal in the Mirror.
The illusions created by Mirror-Faced would become even closer to reality.
The only flaw was that Twin Nightmare Ghosts could influence dreams, but at present seemed unable to construct them.
The technique had a different focus. Dream construction was likely a specialty of the Butterfly Dream Technique.
Even so, Ren Qing still held onto hope. With the many branches of mutation, it was possible to round out the technique further.
He didn't pay attention to Zhun, who was flitting across the Flesh Plain, and instead closed his eyes to connect with the Mutation Tree.
He saw that the Mutation Tree of The Blindless Method stood parallel with that of The Taotie Method, both with branches full of fresh buds, but the leaves of the former were grayish-white in color.
The next stage under Twin Nightmare Ghosts came into view.
[Lord of Absolute Darkness: Dim and Lightless]
Ren Qing's breathing grew slightly hurried. He could see that once Twin Nightmare Ghosts advanced to the Yin Runner Realm, its dream-related abilities would increase drastically.
"Dim and Lightless" from Lord of Absolute Darkness, literally interpreted, likely meant forcibly dragging all lifeforms within a certain range into a dream.
It was simply unimaginable.
He spent half an hour calming his mind. The road to the Yin Runner Realm was still long. What was most important now was to remain patient.
Ren Qing then checked the other two mutation paths of The Blindless Method.
[Mind Spirit Without Body: Soul Locked as Spirit]
[Hundred-Eyed Illusory Demon: Hundred Souls of the Specter]
One could tell that the One-Eyed Path and the Hundred-Eyed Path both walked the route of the soul, but their emphases were not the same.
Thoughts surged in Ren Qing's mind. He recalled the head wraith he encountered in the Nether Feather.
Come to think of it... this "Mind Spirit Without Body," does it really require abandoning the physical body?
The corner of his mouth twitched. And yet, the bodily changes caused by these techniques were not considered mutations. No matter how talented one was, there was no avoiding it.
He could only offer three seconds of silent mourning for those cultivators walking the One-Eyed Path.
Ren Qing then checked the mutation branches of Twin Nightmare Ghosts one by one and quickly became immersed, eyes opened wide in astonishment.
Many mutations were hard to say whether useful or useless.
The underwhelming ones were things like [Eye in Palm] , which grew a Double Pupils eye in the palm, allowing him to more covertly drag others into illusions.
Or [Hidden Eye] , which made Double Pupils appear as normal eyes, with no visible abnormalities on the surface.
Ren Qing wasn't going to get his priorities backward. If he didn't intend to be human, then fine, but he wouldn't waste a mutation opportunity on something like Hidden Eye.
From within them, he roughly selected more than ten mutation branches that best suited him.
[Attached Eye] : Attach Double Pupils to objects or living beings, allowing control through it and casting illusions remotely.
[Dream Seed] : Can implant a dream seed into the soul of a living being, forcibly dragging them into a dream when they rest or sleep.
[Illusionless] : Increases the dream's influence on the subconscious and allows influence even when not actively casting the technique.
[Dream Anchor] : Locks the being dragged into a dream within a certain container.
...
Among these, Dream Seed and Dream Anchor clearly worked in tandem. For Prison Within the Abdomen, they were extremely useful, he could drag others into his prison.
It was just a pity that no mutation branch allowed him to construct dreams. Otherwise, he could imitate Great Dream True Person and run a ghost market stall.
Wait a second!!!
Twin Nightmare Ghosts was essentially dream entry. In theory, he could use this to open a shop in the ghost market, even setting up a stall would work.
If he could use it to earn lifespan, then would there even be a need to pursue something like the Summer Grass Formula, which might not even work?!!
The more Ren Qing thought about it, the more he felt this was a real opportunity.
But if he really wanted to carry it out, he'd have to get the Restraint Officers' Hall's approval first.
Ren Qing planned to find Song Zongwu when he had time and discuss it thoroughly. It wouldn't be bad to become a ghost market merchant.
He briefly sorted out his system. Aside from Human Skin Book and Divine Leg Sutra, the other techniques could already work in tandem.
And the Human Skin Book was a life-saving technique. In the future, it should be used to construct a new system, mastering recovery and defense-oriented techniques as support.
As for the Divine Leg Sutra, if nothing unexpected happened, it would become the first prison guard of Prison Within the Abdomen.
Ren Qing had already decided. While normal advancements focused on suppressing the bodily mutations from the techniques, he was going to do the opposite.
He would let Divine Leg Sutra mutate as much as possible. After all, he could strip off the Supernatural Remnant and imprison it.
At that time, his Divine Leg Sutra would become a trump card. Its mutation branches would also focus as much as possible on increasing his combat power.
At that moment, the bird's back trembled slightly.
Zhun's speed slowed a bit as he began guiding the other preparatory souls back.
Zhou Mei's soul gradually returned to her body. In an instant, her whole body began trembling, and blood slowly seeped from her facial features.
She entered an uncontrollable state of bestialization, turning into a half-human half-leopard in the blink of an eye.
Ren Qing had never seen a cultivator advance before, so he couldn't help but activate Double Pupils to stare at her, and soon noticed something was wrong.
Zhou Mei had been utterly defeated by the technique's mutation. Her once-beautiful face had become increasingly hideous and terrifying.
Even so, the Heart Demon Tribulation on her soul was completely unrestrained.
Her fangs protruded, and the sound of bones clashing echoed from her body. Her form rapidly shifted further toward that of a leopard.
Zhun sighed and said: "Even if she advances to the Ghost Envoy Realm, her mutation has already reached the bone, she has no chance of maintaining a human form."
Ren Qing's pupils contracted.
In his eyes, Zhou Mei's strength had been considerable. To self-cultivate to the Half-Corpse Realm at the age of twenty-eight made her an outstanding talent.
And yet even she couldn't advance to the Ghost Envoy Realm safely?
No... she might not even reach the Ghost Envoy Realm at all.
Zhou Mei opened her eyes. The aura she emitted was full of uncontrollable beast nature. Her ribs swelled, and two deformed, useless arms grew out.
Her mutation had completely lost control.
Zhun, seeing this, didn't let her suffer longer. He directly used his wings to fan her into a pile of meat, which fell into the endless Flesh Plain.
"Next one."
In the decades he had managed the Nether Feather, countless cultivators had perished, though a few had luckily survived the Ghost Envoy Realm.
To him, it was no longer even a ripple.
Only now did Ren Qing truly realize, what had seemed like a trivial cheat, the information stream, still required lifespan even to cultivate.
Yet in this world, it was the very foundation of establishing one's Dao.