After chatting with Ren Qing for a while, Song Zongwu stood up and headed in the direction of the Forbidden Zone.
He still needed to contact the Restraint Officers' Hall to confirm the matter of eliminating the Forbidden Zone, but that no longer had anything to do with Ren Qing.
Ren Qing and the others escorted the townsfolk to a nearby mountaintop and handed them over to other Restraint Officers; there was no need for them to show their faces.
According to what Song Zongwu said, although quite a few people already knew that Restraint Officers had been trapped in the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, the Restraint Officers' Hall had still imposed a degree of information blockade..
Mainly regarding the list of the deceased and wounded Restraint Officers.
So the three of them had to remain in the mountains for a few days and then pretend to "join" the camp afterward.
From Song Zongwu's mouth, Ren Qing learned that although Muyi had not been drawn into the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, his body had been damaged due to the Other Shore Flower, and he was currently in seclusion.
A new batch of Other Shore Flower was being planted, but the residual soul contained in the rib of the flower field in Annan Town was already running low.
It would be difficult to form a full-scale Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts again.
Ren Qing shook his head and then picked a mountain peak to rest.
He didn't meditate on spells either. Aside from occasionally eating eyeballs to extend his lifespan, his main focus was on organizing his spell system.
[Ghost Envoy Realm Spells]
Taotie Method（Prison Within the Abdomen）
Blindless Method（Twin Nightmare Ghosts）
Divine Leg Sutra（Marching Calamity Wolf）
Immortal in the Mirror（Mirrored Entity Emergence）
Shadow Ghost Technique（Yin Ghost Demon Shadow）
[Half-Corpse Realm Spells]
Human Skin Book（Leather Refiner）
Bone Armor Technique（Spine Bearer）
[Martial Practitioner Realm Spell]
Food-Consuming Immortal Technique
[Nether Sea Breathing Art]
Qi Refinement（Nether Yuan）
[Aberrations]
Taotie Method（Jailer）
Shadow Ghost Technique（Ghost Substitute）
Ren Qing's repertoire of spells was becoming increasingly abundant, but only by compensating for each other's weaknesses could they exert power far beyond the norm.
He also sensed that when ancient cultivators created spells, they must have considered compatibility between them.
For instance, that nameless *** individual,whether it was Disaster-Dispelling Method or Immortal in the Mirror, they were all created to erase one's presence.
Ren Qing felt that the connections between these spells were very likely related to higher realms.
Was it Yang God, or perhaps Heavenly Abomination?
He suppressed these stray thoughts. As long as he advanced Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, the truth would naturally be revealed.
Currently, the only spells that had not reached the Ghost Envoy Realm were Bone Armor Technique and Human Skin Book.
Once he exempted the drawbacks of Heavenly Dao Worm, it wouldn't take long to fully advance them.
As for the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, the lifespan it consumed wasn't much and wouldn't affect the progress of the Heavenly Dao Method.
Ren Qing first checked the aberration paths for Food-Consuming Immortal Technique in the Half-Corpse Realm:
[Fuel-bearer: One's body as fuel]
[Self-Feeder: One's flesh as delicacy]
[Stove-Bearer: Stove eye in the stomach]
Ren Qing immediately noticed Stove-Bearer, this was clearly the aberration path of the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, and must include some kind of lifespan-extending method.
The other two were rather peculiar.
Could Self-Feeder truly mean turning one's own flesh into gourmet food?
Presumably, if someone else consumed it, they'd gain benefits, more suitable for cultivating a faction.
But that could also lead to incidents like the Chen Family Martial Hall's Eight Extremities Leg Technique, where the master was eaten like a spiritual elixir by his disciples.
As for Fuel-bearer, it was clearly a flame-utilizing aberration path, which provided the greatest boost to individual combat strength, but using one's own body as fuel obviously came with flaws.
Both Self-Feeder and Fuel-bearer had high aberration costs, requiring a year and a half of lifespan for exemption.
In contrast, Stove-Bearer only required a single year, a welcome piece of news for Ren Qing.
[Choose aberration path "Stove-Bearer"? Will consume one year of lifespan.]
Once Ren Qing confirmed, sweat broke out on his forehead, and a burning sensation surged in his stomach, gradually spreading to his intestines.
Under his astonished gaze, his stomach and intestines began to fuse together.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched. Why did it feel like his stomach was turning into a cooking boiler? Hopefully, it wouldn't interfere with eyeball digestion.
After a dozen breaths or so, the aberration seemed to end.
His stomach had transformed into a flesh-and-blood furnace like a writhing meat lump, squirming in rhythm with his heartbeat, a truly grotesque sight.
Ren Qing closed his eyes and tried to perceive the flesh furnace's function.
He quickly discovered it could fully absorb the nutrients of food without producing any waste, a rather useful ability.
The rest... seemed to be nothing?
Ren Qing was slightly disappointed. It was, after all, a Half-Corpse Realm spell.
His consciousness focused on the flesh furnace. The Prison Within the Abdomen, as a subsidiary Abnormal Stomach, didn't appear to change much.
But just as this thought formed, the Abnormal Stomach suddenly swelled like a balloon.
The flesh furnace and Abnormal Stomach began to merge, fusing together. The Abnormal Stomach looked like a fleshy tumor growing off the meat boiler.
He quickly checked the Prison Within the Abdomen.
On the floor tiles of each cell, a large, closed, blood-filled mouth had appeared.
These mouths connected directly to the flesh furnace.
The flesh furnace was located beneath the Prison Within the Abdomen, the two forming a single, linked digestive system.
Ren Qing froze for a moment before realizing that the spells of the Meat and Wine Taoist really were interconnected, and would become more tightly bound as they advanced.
He summoned the data flow again, but the two spells still appeared separately and had not yet merged into a single one.
Perhaps only when the spells advanced to a higher realm would the connection become apparent.
Ren Qing then took out an eyeball and swallowed it. The lifespan-extending effect remained, and after the furnace replaced his stomach, the rate of lifespan gain had even improved.
He couldn't help but show joy on his face.
Due to the furnace, it was likely that the fifty-year cap on eyeball-based lifespan gain had been broken, a major boon for Ren Qing.
However, he still hadn't found any clues regarding corpse consumption in the Ghost Envoy Realm aberration paths.
He would likely need to truly advance, or even undergo an aberration, before using Food-Consuming Immortal Technique for significant lifespan gain.
[Lifespan for embers: Life as Kindling]
[Food as all things: All things feed on me]
[King of the inner Furnace Kindling: Fuel burns the furnace]
The three aberration paths were completely inscrutable. Even in the Secret Pavilion of the Restraint Officers' Hall, there likely weren't detailed records.
The Stove-Bearer path led to the King of the inner Furnace Kindling, but just going by the name, it was hard to decipher anything.
Ren Qing felt some regret, but it was acceptable, at least he had confirmed that Stove-Bearer was indeed the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone's path.
Now that he had enough lifespan-extending methods, and once he fully controlled the Fire Refining Palace within the Wuwei Daoist Altar, even reaching Yin Runner Realm was possible.
Ren Qing prepared to meditate, his gaze sweeping across the blood-filled mouths in the Prison Within the Abdomen.
He tried feeding one of them a stored eyeball. His lifespan began to increase slowly.
This was convenient, no more need to remove eyeballs manually from the Prison Within the Abdomen; even during combat, he could now digest eyeballs on the fly for healing.
Previously, although the Prison Within the Abdomen could digest food, as a subsidiary Abnormal Stomach, it could not trigger eyeball-based lifespan gain.
Still, if it were only used for digesting food, then Food-Consuming Immortal Technique seemed a little underwhelming.
Ren Qing shifted his consciousness toward a corner of the Prison Within the Abdomen.
In the dimly lit cell, only the walls were intact, there were no bars. Something like a wild beast kept slamming its head into the wall repeatedly.
This space was reserved for imprisoning Supernatural Remnants. There were now five, three from the Martial Practitioner Realm, two from the Half-Corpse Realm.
Because the spells they contained were useless to Ren Qing, and it wasn't worth consuming lifespan to master them, he simply stored them here for emergencies.
Why weren't there any Ghost Envoy Realm Supernatural Remnants?
Because storing those in the Prison Within the Abdomen required him to actively suppress them. It was easier to lock them in Avici Hell.
The ground cracked open into a mouth. A long, spike-lined tongue wrapped around a Martial Practitioner Realm Supernatural Remnant, ignoring its struggles and dragging it into the flesh furnace.
As flames roared inside, the Supernatural Remnant let out a piercing scream. Though it tried several times to escape, it was in vain.
Ren Qing waited for a long time, but the Supernatural Remnant was still somewhat active. Apparently, the furnace's flames couldn't completely digest it in a short time.
His body didn't feel any different, except for a mild burning in his stomach.
Ren Qing monitored the furnace, unknowingly staying in the cave for three days. The temperature in his stomach finally started to drop.
When it had fully cooled, he opened the furnace.
No sound from the Supernatural Remnant remained, only a bit of dust.
Apparently, other than refining Supernatural Remnants, the furnace had no other effects.
Ren Qing took out a portion of the dust. The information stream immediately displayed:
[Ghastly Dust]
[Formed through Food-Consuming Immortal Technique. When applied to mutated flesh, it can suppress aberration, only effective on beast-type aberration.]
His breath quickened. He had thought that lifespan gain from Food-Consuming Immortal Technique required higher realm advancement, but it had emerged even in the Half-Corpse Realm.
It seemed that as long as he placed compatible materials into the furnace, refinement was possible.
But Ren Qing shook his head. The randomness of the furnace was too high, and corpse-based materials only worked the first time.
Using this method to extend lifespan was a supplement at best.
However, this Ghastly Dust was interesting. Using it topically would be wasteful, adding it during artifact refinement would likely produce impressive effects.
Unfortunately, the Supernatural Remnants in his Prison Within the Abdomen were all beast-type spells. Otherwise, he might've easily resolved Huang Ziwan's weapon issue.
It would have to wait until the Heavenly Dao Worm reached Foundation Establishment and birthed a spiritual root. Who knew what effect the Fire Refining Palace or the pill-refining Doushuai Palace might bring?
Ren Qing grabbed another Supernatural Remnant and tossed it into the furnace, storing the Ghastly Dust carefully.
He left the cave and found Huang Ziwan and the others, then headed toward the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone camp, pretending to be Restraint Officers sent for reinforcement.
The camp residents were rather cold toward the three of them, only Jiang Feng had a peculiar expression.
Ren Qing quickly blended in. There was no need for excavations like in the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone, this Forbidden Zone had already been temporarily sealed with spells.
With nothing else to do, he strolled near the rice field and noticed that the stalks had turned slightly gray.
Such symptoms resembled a plant disease called gray rice, but this was the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, abnormalities must never be taken lightly.
Ren Qing quickly reported it to Song Zongwu, who had already noticed.
Song Zongwu's expression turned grim. "We can't wait any longer. In the next two days, I'll take the old Restraint Officers into the Forbidden Zone."
Ren Qing hesitated to speak. Xiangxiang had existed for who knew how many years.
Since it had not been consumed by a Forbidden Zone, there must be people willing to take the risk.
Song Zongwu patted Ren Qing on the shoulder, then turned and sat down at the Forbidden Zone's edge.
Within two days, four elderly Restraint Officers arrived from across Xiangxiang.
They wore outer robes inscribed with anti-soul-extraction enchantments and practiced beast-type spells.
Even if they died, the Forbidden Zone wouldn't spiral further out of control.
Ren Qing handed over five portions of corpse flesh to Song Zongwu and watched as their bodies gradually shrank, disappearing into the rice field.
Ren Qing steadied his mind.
Time passed in a flash.
His lifespan would soon be enough to exempt the cost of the Heavenly Dao Method, yet the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone had already begun to change.