Just as the Supernatural Remnant of the Rat Mother was sealed off inside the Prison Within the Abdomen, the surrounding stone walls suddenly began to tremble, mixed with furious roars.
Ren Qing could clearly sense that the disturbance originated from the forbidden zone itself.
At the tunnel's end, the abrupt sound of wind whipping through leaves rang out, and it seemed to be rapidly approaching their position.
Huang Ziwang gulped, dazed and confused by the situation.
Who would've thought that going to Annan Town to complete what seemed like a simple task would result in stumbling into a forbidden zone, now their lives were likely at stake.
"Brother Ren... whoa..."
Ren Qing grabbed the still somewhat drained Huang Ziwang. With the shadow possessing his legs, he sped through the tunnel at high speed.
The Double Pupils in his eyes rotated; even when encountering a bend, he could react instantly.
Huang Ziwang looked back and couldn't help but grow tense.
He noticed that the thing chasing them wasn't some ferocious beast, but a tide of rice husks. This made him feel inexplicably uneasy.
"Brother Ren, what kind of forbidden zone is this...?"
Ren Qing didn't respond as his pace accelerated further.
The rice husks gathered together and then formed a huge face, opening its mouth to bite at the two of them. The aura it emitted was nearly tangible.
"Old Huang, don't go easy on it."
Huang Ziwang nodded, spitting out streams of thick poison from his mouth, corroding a good portion of the rice husks. Unfortunately, while it was effective, it didn't do much overall.
Rice husks were gathering from all directions. As long as the tunnels were connected to the kitchen, the flow was endless.
What was most critical was that heavy footsteps from outside could be heard, no doubt the Rice Giant was gradually approaching the crack at the tunnel's end.
Ren Qing's heart sank. If the consciousness of the forbidden zone pursued them relentlessly, he might have no choice but to abandon the Supernatural Remnant of the Rat Mother.
But the thought left him unwilling.
If he didn't take this opportunity to stir up chaos, and the forbidden zone remained stable, then not to mention obtaining the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, even leaving safely would be a long shot.
He forced himself to calm down and began observing the cave as they ran.
The environment did indeed change with movement, misleading him to go deeper, but the forbidden zone's consciousness seemed somewhat rigid.
Ren Qing quickly picked up on its pattern.
The Dragon-Snake Spine whipped out violently, striking at a weak point in the stone wall. He struck once and immediately disengaged, never greedy.
At the next corner, he whipped the Dragon-Snake Spine again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Soon, dust began to fall from the cave ceiling.
Huang Ziwang held his breath.
He could tell Ren Qing's plan was risky, but since he didn't understand the forbidden zone, he didn't interfere.
When Ren Qing felt the moment was right, he charged straight at a seemingly dead-end wall.
The Dragon-Snake Spine transformed into a drill, sparks flying with a piercing screech. Cracks spread in an instant, and the overburdened tunnel collapsed.
The giant face was buried beneath the rubble. The path was sealed off.
Ren Qing and Huang Ziwang looked dusty and disheveled, trapped in a narrow space. For the time being, they were safe.
"Ugh..."
Huang Ziwang wiped the dirt from his face and awkwardly asked,
"Brother Ren, could you explain what's going on?"
Ren Qing calmly explained the situation inside the forbidden zone and emphasized that he had already found clues to escape alive.
Huang Ziwang didn't have a better plan, so he accepted Ren Qing's strategy.
In the history of the Restraint Officers' Hall, there had been cases of Restraint Officers escaping from forbidden zones, but because the Supernatural Remnants inside each zone differed, the experiences couldn't be applied to others.
After discussing it, the two realized that trying to find an exit in a constantly changing cave was unrealistic. They could only return to the kitchen for now.
Ren Qing already had a vague plan in mind, but to implement it, he had to go to the stove, and incidentally, search for the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique.
"Let's stay here for now and wait for the forbidden zone to ferment further."
Huang Ziwang had just opened his mouth to ask how they would stay when he saw the strange mouth in Ren Qing's palm open.
Air surged out, along with a good amount of food and water.
Ren Qing estimated that with the resources in the Prison Within the Abdomen, even including the townsfolk, sustaining them for one or two months wouldn't be a problem.
He sat cross-legged and began visualizing The Blindless Method, while urging Ghost Shadow to speed up its digestion.
Ren Qing's hasty, temporary retreat into cultivation wasn't only due to the forbidden zone, but also because Ghost Shadow seemed close to undergoing a mutation.
Huang Ziwang looked at Ren Qing immersed in cultivation and couldn't help but feel admiration.
To still be able to remain calm inside a forbidden zone, what a ruthless man.
Despite being over a decade older, Huang Ziwang knew he couldn't achieve that level of focus. Maybe that was why Ren Qing had reached Ghost Envoy Realm so quickly.
Huang Ziwang didn't disturb him, closing his eyes to rest while checking whether any mutations had occurred due to his soul being separated.
After a long time passed, as he was preparing to eat some rations, he suddenly sensed something odd.
The shadow covering the cave began to shift, and its aura grew increasingly unstable, as if on the verge of collapse.
At first, Huang Ziwang thought it was the forbidden zone acting up, but then he realized something.
His gaze turned complex. As someone who had experienced a mutation before, how could he not recognize that Ren Qing's technique was about to undergo a mutation?
Let alone the speed of this advancement.
Huang Ziwang was already numb from the repeated shocks. What surprised him was that Ren Qing dared to undergo mutation inside a forbidden zone, how reckless.
He quietly moved to a corner.
Ghost Shadow's body swelled to four meters, then returned to calm, over and over.
As the mutation neared, Ren Qing turned his attention to the mutation tree of Shadow Ghost Technique in his mind. He saw tender buds on the branches, about to bloom.
Upon inspection, Ren Qing noticed that the number of mutation branches for Shadow Ghost Technique was far fewer than that of Prison Within the Abdomen, which had so many branches during its mutation that they resembled stars in the sky.
Ren Qing began browsing the mutation branches.
[Choose mutation branch "Yin Ghost"?]
If he chose Yin Ghost, Ghost Shadow would begin to generate a soul, increasing intelligence, but also the risk of going out of control.
The other mutation branches were more specialized.
For example, Ghost Storage, which allowed souls to be stored inside Ghost Shadow; or No Shadow, which allowed Ghost Shadow to leave the body for extended periods; or even Ghost Possession, which let Ghost Shadow control others' bodies.
Ren Qing came to a realization.
Since Ghost Shadow was mutating due to digesting a large number of residual souls, all branches were soul-related.
If he didn't have a mutation tree to select from, the mutation would likely be random among these branches.
To freely choose from all the branches, he'd have to spend lifespan.
Ren Qing had Ghost Shadow hold out a while longer, reviewing the information of each branch, intending to find the one best suited to him.
On the surface, the core of Shadow Ghost Technique was Ghost Shadow possession.
But as Ren Qing became more adept at Jailer, the role of possession would gradually decline.
So coordinating between techniques was key.
His gaze finally settled on a branch called [Ghost Substitute].
Ghost Shadow had maintained the mutation state for quite a while, it was showing signs of losing control. Even Huang Ziwang was starting to feel alarmed.
Seeing this, Ren Qing no longer hesitated.
The mutation caused a transformation in Ghost Shadow from the inside out. Then it returned to being a normal shadow, as if nothing had happened.
Huang Ziwang couldn't help but ask,
"Brother Ren, what was your mutation branch?"
He immediately realized he was out of line and gave an awkward laugh:
"No need to tell me, of course."
"It's fine."
Ren Qing had a strange expression. Ghost Shadow had already silently blended into Huang Ziwang's shadow, yet the latter hadn't noticed at all.
Thinking Ren Qing had picked a rather useless mutation branch, Huang Ziwang felt balanced again and consoled him gleefully:
"Don't feel too bad. After the first mutation, you can slightly influence the next two mutations..."
Ren Qing lightly kicked a stone, which struck Huang Ziwang's shadow. The latter instinctively touched his own cheek.
Ghost Substitute, as the name implied, was a method of replacing another's shadow with Ghost Shadow, and it could exert indirect influence.
If the shadow was injured, so was the body.
Huang Ziwang's expression turned slightly stiff.
He noticed Ren Qing's small trick and looked suspiciously at his shadow. There was something indescribably eerie about this mutation branch.
Ghost Shadow slowly returned to the main body.
Huang Ziwang rubbed his chin and said:
"You can give others an extra weakness, but it's not hard to counter."
"Shine a bright light overhead to shrink the shadow as much as possible, and block attacks with techniques."
"I'll take care to hide Ghost Shadow."
Ren Qing knew Huang Ziwang spoke the truth. As long as the enemy knew the ability of Ghost Substitute, it was hard to use it effectively.
But he also had Human Skin Book.
When shifting his own injuries to Ghost Shadow, and Ghost Shadow had replaced someone else's shadow, Ghost Substitute became rather terrifying.
Ren Qing wasn't yet very proficient. Otherwise, he could probably replace the shadows of at least ten people simultaneously.
If he advanced to Yin Runner Realm, the number of Ghost Substitutes would likely grow exponentially.
Unfortunately, Leather Refiner currently could only transfer flesh wounds. Only after upgrading to Scapegoat Skin would both techniques truly soar.
Ren Qing hesitated for a moment, then forcefully suppressed the idea of advancing Human Skin Book.
After all, mutation was considered a natural progression and didn't cause much disturbance, so doing it in front of Huang Ziwang wasn't an issue.
But breaking through to Ghost Envoy Realm with a technique might take days and nights. If he did it in ten minutes, it would seem too exaggerated.
Moreover, Ren Qing didn't think Ghost Substitute would work on the Rice Giant.
That thing was a conglomerate of forbidden zone consciousness, no body, no soul. Unless its core Supernatural Remnant was sealed, it was truly immortal.
Seeing Ren Qing deep in thought, Huang Ziwang grew smug.
He proudly showed off:
"Actually, mutation relies heavily on luck. Like me, my first mutation gave me a branch that turns my poison into living creatures."
Poison oozed from his skin, forming a lifelike toad.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched. He asked casually:
"By the way, Old Huang, inside that Supernatural Remnant, you still had some strength. Why didn't you try to escape?"
Huang Ziwang blurted out:
"Of course I tried! But the esophagus opening was too tight to crawl through, and the others were..."
Ren Qing patted Huang Ziwang's shoulder, a hint of sympathy in his eyes. Then he sat cross-legged and continued visualizing his technique.
The cave fell back into silence, only occasionally broken by Huang Ziwang's sighs.
Unknowingly, two days passed.
Ren Qing judged the time was about right.
They were now preparing to return to the kitchen to cause trouble.