The Rice Giant did not continue cooking. After placing the chicken meat on the stove, it took out a few small dishes of condiments and turned to leave.
Among the condiments was Other Shore Flower.
It was probably just lacking the Supernatural Remnant as the main ingredient. Once another Restraint Officer died, the Rice Giant would likely return.
What puzzled Ren Qing was: why didn't the forbidden zone directly absorb souls, and instead used inducement methods to turn souls into puppets?
He quickly came to a realization.
In fact, all the forbidden zone's abilities stemmed from the Supernatural Remnants it had devoured.
And this method of turning souls into puppets was very likely part of the original technique, not a compulsory effect.
Ren Qing had used exactly this loophole to pass a clue to Song Zongwu.
He didn't know whether the Restraint Officers' Hall had found the location of the forbidden zone yet.
An urgency welled up in Ren Qing's heart. Though once the zone's location was discovered, it would be hard for Restraint Officers to enter by accident again...
But if he couldn't escape by then, things would get tricky if the zone was sealed off...
Ren Qing shook his head and continued visualizing The Taotie Method to accelerate the digestion of eyeballs. At most, in half a day, the main soul would fully recover.
The situation inside the cage was also gradually becoming more complicated.
Under the Bugmen's coaxing, the faction of townsfolk worshipping the Rice Giant had grown stronger, even starting to "eliminate harm and promote good."
They built an altar out of plants and wood, atop which stood a half-person-tall statue of the Rice Giant, and the believers frantically kowtowed.
By the time Ren Qing finished his cultivation, the cage was already lit up by torchlight.
The altar was burning.
Chen Yue's little face was pale as paper. She hid behind the woman, feeling that the people she once knew now seemed as terrifying as beasts.
"The Food Immortal can return us to the human world, can make us immortal..."
The Bugmen coldly hovered mid-air. Compared to the ignorant townsfolk, they looked more like transcendents above, immortals or buddhas.
A-Jiang shouted praises to the Rice Giant, his expression twisted to the extreme, his face swollen and darkened from blood congestion.
In his hand he held a blade ground from white bone, and with a slash at his wrist, blood spurted from the artery.
The altar flame was nourished by the blood, and the red light filled the cage.
Very quickly, more townsfolk chose to cut open their wrists as well. Blood hissed and burned, and the flames grew darker in color.
Black-gray smoke rose.
The Bugmen eagerly flew up to the top of the cage, toward the suspended amber corpses.
On the amber, a grease-like liquid had already condensed, though colorless and odorless, it was hard to detect.
"Ssss... ssss..."
The Bugmen waited patiently, hands ready to catch the dripping liquid.
The moment it touched their palms, the liquid directly solidified into fingernail-sized crystals, with a translucent and lustrous appearance.
They stared at the crystals for a long time.
Then the Bugmen let out sharp, strange cries from their mouths, seemingly conveying some kind of message, even causing the townsfolk to instinctively look up.
The sound echoed above the stove, and movements could be heard within the cave.
Just then, the Bugmen suddenly sensed something wrong.
Ren Qing's position was completely empty, his figure had long vanished.
The Bugmen became alert with each other, and some even descended to the ground, afraid the resurrected Restraint Officer might be hiding among the crowd.
The townsfolk were all on edge.
Chen Yue looked confusedly to her side, not knowing when a man had appeared.
In the blink of an eye, the man vanished again. The iron cage bars were gradually being covered by black shadows, and even the bonfires were going out one after another.
"Mother, it's getting dark..."
"Ah-Yue, close your eyes. You'll fall asleep soon."
Chen Yue clung tightly to the woman and said with firm tone: "The Immortal will come to save us."
"Impossible..."
The woman's eyes, using the remaining torch charcoal, noticed a Bugman raising its sharp arm, slashing fiercely at the townsfolk.
"Next should be salvation."
BOOM!!!
The Dragon-Snake Spine crackling with lightning flashed by.
The stench of scorched flesh spread.
The ghost shadow returned to the body, and the three-meter-tall Ren Qing gave off overwhelming pressure.
The Bugmen were reduced to corpses strewn across the ground.
Ren Qing pinched one of the crystals formed from an amber corpse between his fingers, his expression filled with disbelief.
[Corpse Food]
[Condensed from the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique. First consumption grants slight lifespan increase.]
[Food-Consuming Immortal Technique]
[Created by the Meat and Wine Taoist. The body is stewed with unique medicinal leads for thirty-six hours and then re-implanted into the body to complete cultivation.]
Ren Qing's heart was filled with complex emotions.
After hesitating for a moment, he tossed the Corpse Food into his mouth, and his lifespan increased by a full two hundred days.
Even if only the first consumption had an effect, that didn't mean the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique could only produce Corpse Food.
This was a longevity technique!!
Ren Qing secretly contemplated how to obtain the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique. How could he not be tempted, this represented a shortcut to the Yin Runner Realm.
Many townsfolk stood in place in a daze, appearing utterly bewildered.
In their eyes, Ren Qing, now possessed by ghost shadow, looked like a demon, but still more normal than the Rice Giant.
Chen Yue wanted to step forward, but was tightly held back by the woman.
Ren Qing came back to himself. If he had the chance, he would definitely master the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique.
"I am from the Sanxiang City yamen..."
"...Forget it, why even say that to you all."
Ren Qing opened his right palm.
A suction force appeared out of nowhere and drew all the townsfolk into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
He forcibly placed the townsfolk into dreams, erased their memories of the forbidden zone, and confined them into a cell somewhere.
Ren Qing had just finished when he heard rustling sounds from the kitchen corner again.
Most likely drawn by those Bugmen.
He didn't panic in the slightest, and returned to the top with the Dragon-Snake Spine.
The Flesh-and-Blood Gourd hung nearby, and the ghost shadow was already stirring restlessly.
Ren Qing didn't stop it, the ghost shadow rolled up the Flesh-and-Blood Gourd and swallowed it whole.
Fully digesting the residual souls shouldn't take much time. It felt like the Shadow Ghost Technique was about to undergo its first mutation right here in the forbidden zone.
This showed how rich the opportunity of Hundred Ghosts Night Parade was, enough for a newly advanced Half-Corpse Realm technique to reach Ghost Envoy Realm's first mutation.
No wonder Shui Hulu had risked entering despite being at Yin Runner Realm.
Now all the benefits went to Ren Qing.
Ren Qing picked up Huang Ziwang. The subsoul slowly attached to his body, attempting to use it to sense the location of his soul.
After fully activating Twin Nightmare Ghosts, he could faintly perceive it.
Huang Ziwang's situation didn't seem great, he appeared to be in a relatively enclosed space and slowly heading somewhere.
Ren Qing shook his head helplessly, then transmitted information to Huang Ziwang's soul. He didn't know if it would help.
It looked like he really needed to hurry, or else the old guy might "crash."
Lu Xiaoyu's situation was slightly better, perhaps due to her naturally cautious nature, she had hidden more discreetly.
Ren Qing turned his gaze toward the other Restraint Officers, and only took Zhang Mu from the amber into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
If he took too many, it would definitely draw a response from the Rice Giant.
Not destroying them was already being merciful, it would be up to their own luck.
At that moment, the sound of flapping wings came from outside the cage.
From the gap in the kitchen stove, a huge Bugman squeezed through, flapping its wings as it flew toward the cage.
Its body was over ten meters long, and its face vaguely showed human features.
Ren Qing scrutinized the giant Bugman. It clearly bore traces of a Supernatural Remnant, showing that it had been subtly influenced by the forbidden zone.
"Kill... kill... kill..."
The giant Bugman crashed into the iron cage.
Then it kept muttering from its mouth. With its size, it obviously couldn't fit through the cage and could only use its sharp limbs to try and grab Ren Qing.
Its gaze was locked on the Corpse Food in Ren Qing's hand, and its breathing grew heavier.
Next, tens of thousands of Bugmen poured in from the cracks.
Ren Qing looked up and paused briefly on Wan Qi. It seemed his technique might be useful for scouting.
Just as he was about to take Wan Qi down, the latter began trembling violently, white foam coming from his mouth, and his breath about to cease.
"Such is fate..."
Ren Qing dashed toward the cage bars without hesitation. Just as he was about to crash into them, he turned into black mist and passed through the gap.
With his technique reaching Ghost Envoy Realm, after being possessed by ghost shadow, he could partially transform his body into shadow.
The giant Bugman couldn't care less and lunged at Ren Qing, its aura rivaling the Ghost Envoy Realm.
Whoooosh, whoooosh...
Its twin wings flapped, tearing through the air.
Ren Qing's body dropped rapidly. Using the Dragon-Snake Spine to hook the cage bars, he easily dodged the giant Bugman's attack.
Footsteps from the Rice Giant echoed from afar.
Ren Qing knew he had to end this quickly, so as he fell, he released the Ghost Wolf that had been confined inside the Prison Within the Abdomen for a long time.
As his body began to transform into the wolf form, the ghost shadow instinctively retreated.
Mainly because Ren Qing's body couldn't bear the overlay of two powers, if he got injured because of it, leaving the forbidden zone would be difficult.
BOOM!!!
Wolfified Ren Qing crashed to the ground, forming a deep crater. Saliva dripped from the corners of his cracked mouth, and bloodshot eyes locked onto the giant Bugman.
His heartbeat quickened, and his vision turned crimson.
Ren Qing's legs tensed. Even the gravel beneath his feet slowly rose into the air.
The countless Bugmen froze in midair, not daring to move under instinctive fear.
The giant Bugman reacted a beat late. Even though it sensed the opponent's terror, inertia still carried it toward Ren Qing.
Ren Qing suddenly vanished into a blur, brushing past the giant Bugman as if no one were there, his sharp claws slicing its neck in two.
He dropped to all fours and sprinted toward the nearest cave, leaving behind a cloud of dust raised by the collapsing giant Bugman.
The Rice Giant was already nearing the stove. It glanced toward Ren Qing's direction and seemed to pick up speed.
But Ren Qing still managed to safely enter the cave.
Seeing this, the Rice Giant no longer cared about this slightly larger ant, casually swatted away a mass of pesky bugs, and arrived in front of the cage.
Cooking was about to begin again.
Ren Qing pressed his head against the stone wall, forcibly resealing the Ghost Wolf.
He collapsed on the ground, gasping like he was completely drained.
Luckily, the Wolfification lasted only a few minutes, so not much lifespan was consumed.
Ren Qing changed clothes, then took out Lu Xiaoyu's body.
Her soul seemed to be nearby, finding it shouldn't be hard. The only trouble was the constantly moving Huang Ziwang.
Ren Qing looked at the ghost shadow.
Its efficiency in digesting residual souls was shockingly high. Once he found those two, he should be able to attempt the mutation.