There weren't many books on artifact refinement methods, but they were clearly categorized deliberately, the more recent the era, the more it involved human lives.
The Other Shore Flower was created within the fifty years prior to the sect's destruction.
It represented the most deranged decades of Wuwei Daoist Temple, which was why its refinement involved a massive number of souls.
Moreover, the Other Shore Flower was likely related to the Beast Pen Method.
This indicated that, as the Heavenly Dao Child's lifespan dwindled, and under the influence of cultivating the Beast Pen Method, his actions became increasingly extreme.
Thus was born the Fire Refining Palace, utterly at odds with the rest of the Daoist temple.
The Other Shore Flower was indeed not much different from what Ren Qing had previously encountered, it required the devouring of thousands of souls to fully bloom.
The Restraint Officers' Hall was relatively restrained, using the naturally deceased townsfolk of Annan Town over the years, but the planting efficiency of the Other Shore Flower was not high.
But in Jingzhou...
The Other Shore Flower was also called the Yearly Flower...
Because, in the eyes of the people of Jingzhou, this flower bloomed every year. On the day it did, one only had to approach Jingzhou City to smell its fragrance from afar.
Ren Qing knew that Jingzhou couldn't possibly maintain a stable population.
They didn't have spell techniques like the Summer Grass Formula, which kept the birth rate above ninety percent.
Wuwei Daoist Temple's conduct likely became unrestrained near the death of the Heavenly Dao Child, and the content of the texts increasingly carried the tone of claiming themselves as immortals.
Naturally, the Heavenly Dao Child could no longer spare the mind to manage affairs.
However, the books rarely mentioned Jingzhou's secrets. To figure them out, one would have to go there personally.
What Ren Qing found most absurd was that, later on, the ban on mass refining of artifacts in Wuwei Daoist Temple wasn't due to any disciple's conscience, but complaints from the elders of the sect.
All the elders of Wuwei Daoist Temple were of the Nascent Soul Realm and above, in essence, representing the Heavenly Dao Worm.
It meant even the Heavenly Dao Worms couldn't bear it anymore.
Zhuo Liuzi, the final head of the Fire Refining Palace, was clearly no longer sane when writing the refining methods.
Some of the books were even partially damaged.
However, the refining method of the Other Shore Flower was very complete, its function, though, was rather strange.
It was called "Living Soul".
If an ordinary person ingested an Other Shore Flower, their soul would be completely dissolved in moments, and the flower would vanish without a trace.
But if a cultivator of Golden Core Realm or higher consumed it, the Other Shore Flower would root itself in the stomach.
After thirty-six days, the Other Shore Flower in the stomach would bloom again, and then give birth to a pseudo-soul possessing three hun and six po.
The pseudo-soul was nearly identical to the true soul, possessing the same memories, but its spiritual intelligence was disordered.
Ren Qing suspected that the Blind Daoist had sent his body and pseudo-soul to Xiangxiang in advance, intending to preserve Wuwei Daoist Temple's lineage.
But obviously, that failed.
Normally, Wuwei Daoist Temple disciples would use their true souls to devour the pseudo-soul in an attempt to ascend to the Nascent Soul Realm.
Ren Qing wasn't at all surprised that the refining method of the Other Shore Flower had made its way to Xiangxiang, since the two regions surely had exchanges.
Especially before the Heavenly Dao Child went insane, the Restraint Officers' Hall had tried to help Wuwei Daoist Temple escape the control of the Heavenly Dao Worm.
But the function of the Other Shore Flower, to give birth to a pseudo-soul, was deeply unsettling upon reflection.
Then could the Corpse Hound Soul, Non-Poison, and Foul Lung Spirit in Avici Hell have been pseudo-souls born from the Other Shore Flower, created by some Restraint Officer?
And later drawn into Avici Hell through the Summoning Spirits Art?
What if the Summoning Spirits Art was precisely the Beast Pen Method?
Cultivators who practiced this technique would have their souls inevitably twisted toward the Supreme Heavenly Demon, even without mastering the technique.
If the Other Shore Flower's pseudo-soul originated from such a person's soul, would it then become entangled with the Supreme Heavenly Demon?
In fact, one could see from the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts in Annan Town that Ren Qing's worries weren't groundless, those beast-ghosts had various degrees of demonic transformation.
If, within Avici Hell, the full three hun and seven po were gathered, and thereby attracted the Supreme Heavenly Demon, then the entire Xiangxiang region might fall...
Ren Qing pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache. All his distress stemmed from unequal access to information.
He had no idea what the Restraint Officers' Hall was scheming.
Yet even if the Beast Pen Method was just being used to achieve certain goals, the risks involved were chilling enough.
After much thought, Ren Qing decided to first figure out who within the Restraint Officers' Hall had mastery of the Summoning Spirits Art, so he could prepare accordingly.
Once the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone was dealt with, the Hall would likely attempt spirit summoning.
Ren Qing's main body couldn't help glancing toward the Forbidden Zone.
If Song Zongwu returned safely, many questions could be asked, regardless of the answers, at least there would be clarity.
Hopefully all would go well.
With Song Zongwu's strength at the Yin Runner Realm, suppressing the Forbidden Zone's Ghost Envoy Realm consciousness shouldn't be too difficult. The main issue was locating the core Supernatural Remnant.
Ren Qing continued reading the artifact refinement books.
Two hundred years ago, Wuwei Daoist Temple's refinement methods were still somewhat restrained, even if involving mortals, it only meant using blood and bones.
Compared to the last fifty years, it was like heaven and earth. That era could truly be called the most chaotic.
For example, an artifact called the Blood Wheel required 183 spinal cords, and was refined by consuming large quantities of pregnant women's blood.
He had little interest in such refining methods, not only were they against the natural order, but even if successfully refined, they required Heavenly Dao Worms to function.
Ren Qing sighed.
Then he found books detailing how to control the flesh-based artifacts within the Fire Refining Palace, confirming that he could use them to refine the weapons required by Restraint Officers.
Flesh-based artifacts were specifically made for disciples to refine artifacts. They were called Tombstone Furnaces, mainly because they were made from the corpses of cultivators at or above the Golden Core Realm.
There were seven in total, each representing a previous head of the Fire Refining Palace, with the final one being Zhuo Liuzi's corpse.
The Tombstone Furnaces and Heavenly Dao Worms were one entity. After years of being nurtured by the Worms, the flesh-artifacts had undergone their own transformation.
The seven Tombstone Furnaces corresponded to the realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Division, Ascension, and Earth Immortal.
However, those above the Nascent Soul Realm could control all furnaces, which suggested that so-called high-realm furnaces were merely propaganda to fool disciples.
With his current Foundation Establishment Realm under the Nether Sea Breathing Art, Ren Qing could only control the first two furnaces.
He put away the refinement books, then returned to the main hall before the flesh-based artifacts, gazing at the insect eggs on the ground.
Ren Qing tried attaching the ghost shadow to the insect eggs, injecting Nether Yuan slowly.
But perhaps because there wasn't enough Nether Yuan in the ghost shadow's body, the Heavenly Dao Worm within remained lifeless, showing no reaction for quite some time.
Ren Qing calmed himself and simply sat cross-legged next to the insect eggs to wait.
After three or four hours, the eggs began to tremble slightly. The juvenile Heavenly Dao Worm within started swaying like a fish.
The Heavenly Dao Worm stared at the ghost shadow with its narrow eyes.
Ren Qing couldn't help but feel uneasy. From the cost of exempting his spirit root from the information stream, it was clear that the Heavenly Dao Worm retained a certain degree of intelligence.
It could even speak human words, perhaps it had always been that way.
He worried the juvenile Worm would notice something unusual about the ghost shadow, making it impossible to control the Tombstone Furnace, which would be troublesome.
The Heavenly Dao Worm lazily stared for a while, then stopped moving.
Ren Qing felt disappointed.
He was just about to have the ghost shadow retreat and re-read the refinement books to see if there were other solutions,
Suddenly, the sound of bones clattering came from overhead.
Ren Qing looked up and was stunned. The sound was coming from the outermost Tombstone Furnace, it should be Zhuo Liuzi's corpse.
Each corpse was connected to an insect egg, allowing the Heavenly Dao Worm to control them.
The corpse, like a puppet on strings, had its bones reassembled. The split-open abdomen visibly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Ren Qing's scalp tingled. What had Wuwei Daoist Temple become after its descent into madness? Everything felt like heresy and blasphemy.
He glanced at the ghost shadow, which was still feeding Nether Yuan to the Tombstone Furnace, though the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation was only barely sufficient.
Because the spirit root wasn't inside the ghost shadow, it couldn't store Nether Yuan. Luckily, it could rely on the Heavenly Dao Worm for output.
Ren Qing took out some simple materials, starting with a plain beast hide, and handed it to the eerie Tombstone Furnace.
The Tombstone Furnace reached out to receive it, then pressed the hide to its skin. The two began to fuse, quickly becoming inseparable.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched. Even though he was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by this peculiar refining method.
Every part of the Tombstone Furnace's body could merge with materials, and the Heavenly Dao Worm's stimulation would activate them.
Once activated, normal means could be used to refine them, no extra effort needed.
This Zhuo Liuzi furnace was only at the Qi Refining Realm, incapable of deeper refinement, but for Ren Qing it was more than sufficient.
After all, Restraint Officers didn't rely heavily on artifacts. What mattered most was using artifacts to patch up flaws in spell techniques.
Perhaps this too was a lesson the Restraint Officers' Hall had learned from Wuwei Daoist Temple.
Once the beast hide merged with the furnace's skin, it became as lifelike as in life, one could even see blood vessels wriggling faintly.
Next came the auxiliary materials.
Ren Qing took leftover meat stone, ground it into powder, and sprinkled it on the beast hide.
Meat stone also served to activate materials. In any case, this was just an experiment.
The powder was quickly absorbed, and the beast hide changed.
Its surface became slightly glossy and oily.
Ren Qing then applied some strange dust, evenly smearing it on the beast hide. This time, absorption was slower, it took over ten minutes.
When the artifact finally formed, the Tombstone Furnace shed the beast hide on its own.
The ghost shadow then left the insect egg, and the Tombstone Furnace was once again suspended from the ceiling, its bones fell apart, its chest and abdomen split open.
Ren Qing examined the beast hide in his hand. It still felt warm, like it had just been peeled off a beast.
However, due to material limitations, it was just an ordinary artifact, possibly even inferior to the first one he'd refined.
Ren Qing pressed the hide onto his arm, fusing it with his skin.
His body didn't mutate or lose control, but he could faintly sense the artifact suppressing aberration, though limited to the Half-Corpse Realm.
For someone like Huang Ziwan at the Ghost Envoy Realm, it likely wouldn't work.
Ren Qing removed the artifact.
No matter what, the Tombstone Furnace could indeed easily refine artifacts, and even mass-produce them. It would be perfect for operating Great Dream Forging.
The only trouble was how to move the Tombstone Furnace into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Ren Qing inspected the Fire Refining Palace, the furnaces were practically fused with the temple itself.
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't come up with a good solution.