Ren Qing attached the subsoul to Lu Xiaoyu's body and walked toward the depths of the cave according to a vague guiding force.
It should be not far ahead.
When he saw Lu Xiaoyu, his expression became somewhat complicated.
Lu Xiaoyu's entire body was pieced together from vine plants. Human traits were already minimal, and even her limbs were starting to become immobile.
Ren Qing recalled that his own situation had been the same, which showed that the problem lay in the body.
Lu Xiaoyu could only move her eyeballs. When she noticed Ren Qing walking toward her, her eyes immediately darted around.
Ren Qing touched the wooden body with his hand, and an information stream appeared.
[Rebirth Technique]
[Created by the eunuch Huang Ling. Cultivating it requires using a blood relative's soul as a voluntary guide to generate a gap between one's own soul and body, thereby replacing the brain to achieve success.]
He recalled that he had come across information on this technique in the Secret Pavilion.
The Rebirth Technique was quite sinister. After advancing to the Half-Corpse Realm as a Soul-Swapper, the soul could be transferred into another body.
Of course, the drawbacks were also obvious. After performing the technique to switch bodies, one would be more easily eroded by aberration and greatly lose lifespan.
Thus, Restraint Officers who had mastered the Soul-Swap Garment usually cultivated techniques that could control other people's souls and used soul-snatching as a means to harm enemies.
No wonder the forbidden zone used a method of luring souls...
Wait.
Ren Qing's heart skipped a beat.
He suddenly remembered the technique Wan Qi had displayed, it seemed to be soul manipulation.
After the forbidden zone assimilated Wan Qi's Supernatural Remnant, it would definitely become even more dangerous.
Ren Qing decided to leave as soon as possible. As more Supernatural Remnants were devoured by the Rice Giant, the flaws would grow fewer and fewer.
Lu Xiaoyu saw that he seemed distracted and thought she was beyond saving, so she closed her eyes in despair.
Since cultivating techniques would only end in misfortune, dying in the forbidden zone wasn't such a disgrace.
Ren Qing, feeling the sounds of the Rice Giant cooking from outside, directly punched through Lu Xiaoyu's already plantified body.
"Don't resist."
The subsoul immediately brought Lu Xiaoyu's soul back to the main body. The rescue took only a few breaths, clean and swift.
Just as Lu Xiaoyu was about to speak to express gratitude, she felt a pain in her neck and fainted.
Ren Qing casually stuffed Lu Xiaoyu into the Prison Within the Abdomen, and forcibly put her into a dream, storing her with the other townsfolk.
With Lu Xiaoyu's Half-Corpse cultivation, she might not be much help inside the forbidden zone. It was better for her to lie quietly.
Ren Qing took out Huang Ziwang's body. The subsoul sensed his position, it was awkwardly located.
It would be better to head for the cave entrance rather than go deeper. Crawling along the wall should be a shortcut.
Ren Qing turned and walked away. In the kitchen, he could use Mirror-Faced to conceal his presence anyway.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he felt something was off. The surrounding environment became more and more unfamiliar, and the air slightly murky.
Although the cave branched out in all directions, Ren Qing had left marks at each fork. He shouldn't have gotten lost.
Could it be that the cave was constantly changing its layout?
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes.
He tried moving forward for another stretch and found that whenever he turned back, the cave would show subtle changes.
It was clearly misleading him to go deeper.
From this, it could be seen that the forbidden zone itself was a living being, its instincts would do everything possible to eliminate invading cultivators. The Rice Giant seemed more like a projection of its consciousness.
Ren Qing would not let the forbidden zone have its way.
Since the cave was destructible, there was no need to follow its rules.
The Dragon-Snake Spine drilled out from his palm, acting like a drill on the stone wall. Its sharp bone blades fully extended, emitting a cold gleam.
Clang!!!
He didn't even need to wield the Dragon-Snake Spine by hand, the ghost shadow could do it.
As gravel and dust flew up, a two-meter-wide hole appeared in front of Ren Qing. The temperature rose due to friction.
He closely examined the soil, it was evident that the forbidden zone had already become a small world, though it lacked insects like earthworms.
"Go."
The Dragon-Snake Spine turned into a blur.
The cave expanded in a certain direction, and the generated dirt was stored into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
The noise from Ren Qing's digging wasn't small. Not long after, rustling noises came from the distance, probably from crawling rats.
The ghost shadow crept outward with rising restlessness, and soon there were screams.
Ren Qing found it dull.
He was about to bring the husky to the outside so that he could dig while training.
Suddenly, Ren Qing's thoughts stirred.
He grabbed the Dragon-Snake Spine, and instantly felt vibrations spread from his wrist.
His skin tingled and numbed, Human Skin Book had made slight progress, and the digestion of eyeballs accelerated as well.
Ren Qing twitched the corner of his mouth. The forbidden zone was certainly dangerous, but for him, it seemed to be filled with opportunities.
Though it wouldn't help Human Skin Book reach Ghost Envoy Realm, temporarily improving his survival ability might increase his chances of escape.
Seeing this, Ren Qing applied Ghost Shadow Possession to his arm, increasing the strength of the Dragon-Snake Spine, sending stones flying like rain.
Aside from eating eyeballs, he focused all his energy on digging.
Ren Qing could feel himself getting closer to Huang Ziwang. At the same time, encounters with rats were becoming more frequent.
Even the rat types had started to vary.
Those elephant-sized rats had become rare. Now the rats were about half a meter tall and had basic humanoid form.
Unlike the rats, the Ratmen's flesh didn't show signs of plantification. No mushrooms grew on their backs, and their intelligence was a bit higher.
They muttered unintelligible words from their mouths.
However, after testing an attack and leaving behind piles of corpses, there was no movement for the next several days.
Apparently, Ratmen formed from Supernatural Remnants still knew how to avoid danger.
Ren Qing sped up his digging again. His body slightly trembled from the recoil, and even his internal organs gradually became uncomfortable.
The destination was just around the corner.
With the sound of rock being struck, the Dragon-Snake Spine finally pierced through the stone wall, reaching a more spacious cave.
Ren Qing wrapped the Dragon-Snake Spine around his body and stuffed more eyeballs into his mouth to maintain his stamina.
He scanned the cave.
Inside was covered in a thick layer of rice husks, giving off a pungent stench, like the sour smell of fermentation.
Ren Qing found a grain of intact rice. This place was likely the granary where the Ratmen stored their food.
But why would Huang Ziwang be in a hellhole like this?
Squeak squeak squeak squeak...
Dozens of Ratmen rushed into the cave, their fur still slick with un-dried mucus.
Ren Qing remained expressionless, put away the Dragon-Snake Spine, and ignored the Ratmen, heading straight toward Huang Ziwang's location.
In his eyes, Ratmen couldn't compare to Bugmen. Even Half-Corpse Realm was a stretch. This should be related to the strength of the originating Supernatural Remnant.
Thus, Ratmen were the lowest on the food chain within the forbidden zone.
Ren Qing's pace didn't slow. As he passed them, the ghost shadow lurking on the ground pulled all the Ratmen into its body for digestion.
The ghost shadow clicked its tongue.
It had no interest in eating the plantified rats, but the Ratmen turned out to taste unexpectedly good.
Ren Qing arrived at a tunnel leading deeper into the rat nest and found mucus stains on the walls. The sour stench intensified.
Squeak squeak squeak...
Another batch of Ratmen swarmed over, their bodies increasingly deformed.
Ren Qing closed his eyes and contemplated Huang Ziwang's precise location. After confirming, he exhaled a breath.
An illusory fire burned out of nowhere, instantly engulfing the entire passage. The Ratmen were reduced to ash with barely a struggle.
When the fire vanished, no traces of burning remained, only dozens of charred corpses.
Then a black shadow possessed Ren Qing's legs.
Boom!!!
Ren Qing vanished in a blur. Even when encountering Ratmen, they were all smashed into bloody chunks on the spot.
Once he located his target, he immediately stopped.
In the tunnel, a squirming mass of flesh was crawling away, it barely showed signs of Ratman features in its limbs and head.
Ratmen kept crawling out from its lower half.
Ren Qing was a bit stunned. No wonder their numbers were so overwhelming, this thing was a mobile reproduction machine.
"Don't kill... don't kill me..."
The meat blob was clearly sentient. Its eyes locked onto Huang Ziwang slung over Ren Qing's shoulder and immediately reacted.
"Don't kill me... I'll give you..."
Its fat trembled all over, seemingly forcing something up its throat.
Ren Qing looked bewildered.
Blegh.
Huang Ziwang was spat out. His body showed few signs of plantification.
The atmosphere became a bit awkward.
Huang Ziwang sat up stiffly, eyes blank. When he noticed Ren Qing, his gaze turned extremely complicated.
"Old Huang, you..."
Ashamed, Huang Ziwang didn't ask for help and directly let his soul return to the main body.
As a Ghost Envoy Realm cultivator, he could barely protect his soul outside the body.
Ren Qing stored the body into the Prison Within the Abdomen, then stepped forward to check on him.
Huang Ziwang lay flat on the ground and said hesitantly: "Brother Ren... thanks."
Ren Qing did his best to hold back his laughter. He wanted to ask what happened, but seeing Huang Ziwang's expression, he wisely kept silent.
During this time, the meat blob had moved forward several meters.
With such a bloated body, even after a few hours, Ren Qing could still catch it.
Before Ren Qing could act, Huang Ziwang couldn't wait to spew a puff of poisonous smoke, instantly enveloping the blob.
A sizzling sound echoed.
Within moments, the meat blob turned into a puddle of pus.
As Ren Qing watched the body dissolve, he noticed multiple plantified Restraint Officer corpses in its stomach, apparently used to provide nutrition for birthing offspring.
But most of their souls had already dispersed.
Then the pus began to boil.
As expected, the Ratman's Supernatural Remnant had been residing in the meat blob and was beginning to revive.
Ren Qing thought for a moment. Then an abnormal mouth opened in his palm and sucked the not-yet-formed Supernatural Remnant into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
From the information stream, he learned the Supernatural Remnant's originating technique was Rat Plague Command. Before death, it had likely reached Half-Corpse Realm as a Mother of Rats.
Huang Ziwang said in shock: "Ren Qing, you..."
Ren Qing didn't rush to explain and turned to run deeper into the rat nest.
In his view, Ratmen were the most crucial link in the forbidden zone's food chain. If the Supernatural Remnant were extracted, the ecosystem would surely suffer.
Even if the ecosystem repaired itself over time, it was enough for him to fish in troubled waters.