One had to know that ever since garrisoning the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, the area of the rice field had only ever expanded, it had never once shrunk.
Li Tiangang's expression relaxed; such a sign also indicated that Song Zongwu's situation was gradually improving.
He couldn't help but glance at Ren Qing, silently pondering in his heart.
Regardless of whether Song Zongwu could come out of the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, all aspects of Ren Qing's performance showed that his talent was exceptionally outstanding.
Li Tiangang had seen many Restraint Officers with extraordinary talent, but most ended up as dried bones in Avici Hell over time.
Someone like Ren Qing, he had never seen before.
Could someone truly rely on talent alone to break through the prison of the Yin Runner Realm and reach the Yang God Realm?
Ren Qing spent quite a bit of time suppressing the aberration caused by the Ghost Wolf's transformation, then closed his eyes and rested, restoring his condition to full.
Since there might be a chance hidden within the stove eye of the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone, naturally he could not let it slip by.
Ren Qing planned to wait until the flames in the stove eye extinguished before sending his split soul into the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone to try and obtain it.
During this period, Jiang Feng did not command the Restraint Officers to approach the rice field. Instead, he again pulled the camp further back and stationed people at the entrance and exit of the Restraint Officers' Hall.
If Song Zongwu died and the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone ascended to the Yin Runner Realm, then the ensuing trouble would be considerable and required advance preparation.
Time passed, minute by minute, second by second.
The rice field shrank several times, and the rice ears that had grown all withered away.
Ren Qing occasionally checked on the Flesh Furnace.
He always felt that the function of the King of Kindling in the Inner Furnace had another use, it definitely wasn't as simple as increasing the temperature.
When the rice field remained unmoving for nearly half an hour, it was likely that the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone had reached a critical juncture.
"Senior Li Tiangang, I'm going into the Forbidden Zone again to check the situation."
Just as Ren Qing was about to transform into the Ghost Wolf again, Li Tiangang suddenly drew out a sheet of paper with a pattern resembling a doorway drawn on it.
"Can your technique carry items?"
"This paper can be used to open a Restraint Officers' Hall doorway, it makes containing Supernatural Remnants easier."
Ren Qing was stunned for a moment, then took the paper and nodded. "It's worth a try."
Li Tiangang was clearly testing him, perhaps out of curiosity about the Twin Nightmare Ghosts, or even considering the matter of eliminating Forbidden Zones in the future.
Ren Qing didn't conceal much. As long as he demonstrated his value, his status within the Restraint Officers' Hall would naturally rise.
He had the Ghost Shadow store the paper, then attached it to the split soul.
The ability of the Twin Nightmare Ghosts gradually activated, and Ren Qing's perspective drew closer to the Forbidden Zone.
But he clearly felt that trying to carry the Ghost Shadow into the zone with the split soul encountered at least ten times the resistance.
Fortunately, Ren Qing had frequently visualized The Blindless Method, and with the addition of consuming eyeballs, his Twin Nightmare Ghosts had long surpassed their state upon entering the Ghost Envoy Realm.
A moment later, the split soul arrived in the kitchen of the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone.
The first thing he felt was an extreme coldness, even the soul couldn't avoid it, giving him the illusion of freezing solid.
Ren Qing looked around. Cracks spread across the walls, accompanied by dozens of fist imprints; the windows were in utter ruin.
The kitchen was steeped in dead silence.
The massive number of strange entities had vanished, and even the Rice Giant was nowhere to be seen, it was completely beyond reason.
Ren Qing moved toward the stove eye and discovered the flames within had already gone out.
The unease in his heart arose again, but now it was faint and elusive.
And Song Zongwu was sitting cross-legged at the mouth of the stove eye, his entire body already soaked in blood, with blood flowing from all five sense orifices as he breathed.
Wounds covered his body. Two of his arms used for both offense and defense were nearly stripped of flesh.
He had likely blocked all the strange entities in front of the stove eye, causing the fire to lose its fuel and naturally extinguish.
"Senior Song, are you alright?"
Ren Qing quickly approached Song Zongwu and took out some eyeballs from the shadow's body, they could restore strength and heal injuries.
"I'm mostly fine."
Song Zongwu shook his head and said, "But even though I've killed all the strange entities, I still haven't seen the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique Supernatural Remnant."
As he spoke, he grabbed the eyeballs Ren Qing offered and shoved them into his mouth, swallowing them whole in just a few breaths.
Soon after, his wounds began to heal and quickly stopped bleeding.
Ren Qing frowned, unable to stop himself from walking toward the stove eye.
Inside was a mountain of ash, and he could see scattered fragments of bone. Estimating by sight, at least over a hundred thousand fuel bodies had died.
He felt puzzled. The state of the Forbidden Zone now was very strange, as if it had changed simply because the stove eye's fire was extinguished.
But the problem was, unless the core Supernatural Remnant was dealt with, the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone would soon revive, and a new wave of strange entity attacks would begin.
Ren Qing felt a bit of a headache.
The Supernatural Remnant of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique must be within the stove eye, but to lure it out, there might still be some specific requirement.
"Does Senior Song still have the strength?"
"If you can find the Supernatural Remnant, at most a hundred punches..."
Ren Qing hesitated for a moment.
He directly commanded the Prison Within the Abdomen to deal with Zhong Hulu, and tossed the resulting Supernatural Remnant into the Flesh Furnace.
A Ghost Envoy Realm Supernatural Remnant was hard to deal with, it began furiously smashing against the Flesh Furnace, and even high temperatures couldn't cause significant injury.
Ren Qing sensed that a Ghost Envoy Realm Supernatural Remnant would need to burn for at least several months.
Meanwhile, Zhong Hulu's soul floated inside the Prison Within the Abdomen, expression blank, already showing signs of dissipating after just a few breaths.
This showed that souls being unable to reincarnate wasn't a lie.
Ren Qing guided the soul into the Flesh Furnace. The flame seemed to be stimulated and surged to several times its previous size.
The Ghost Envoy Realm Supernatural Remnant became agitated, crackling sounds constantly coming from its body.
Zhong Hulu's soul didn't move at all.
A white bone throne slowly rose inside the Flesh Furnace, forcibly fixing the soul upon it.
Smoke rose from the top of its head, like a melting candle.
The soul's appearance had originally resembled Zhong Hulu in life, but now it grew more and more withered, as if gradually drained by the Flesh Furnace.
It probably couldn't hold out much longer.
Ren Qing observed the changes in the Flesh Furnace, hoping to find clues to the location of the core Supernatural Remnant in the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone.
But there was no sign of anything unusual.
Just as he was growing disappointed, it was the Prison Within the Abdomen that started shaking.
On the walls of every cell, a broken old oil lamp appeared, its faint light illuminating the dim space.
The oil lamps flickered in and out.
The lamp oil reflected Zhong Hulu's twisted face.
This wasn't ordinary fire, it was a soul-fueled kindling flame.
Ren Qing's expression grew strange, he still felt utterly confused.
Maybe the flame was too weak, and its mysteries hadn't revealed themselves.
But logically speaking, since the Meat and Wine Taoist made the two techniques closely related, the King of Kindling in the Inner Furnace should assist the Taotie Method.
Just lighting a lamp? That couldn't be all...
He shook his head and used his consciousness to remove the kindling flame from the oil lamp.
The split soul once again returned from the Forbidden Zone, and the Ghost Shadow silently entered the Prison Within the Abdomen, wrapping the flame with its body.
Ren Qing carefully sent the lamp flame back into the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone. The process was simpler than expected.
Li Tiangang was speechless.
He couldn't help pulling out a page from his head, covered in writing. It recorded collected information on The Blindless Method.
The words "Double Pupils" had been heavily crossed out.
Ren Qing's split soul appeared at the stove eye. Suddenly, he felt that under the light of the kindling flame, the surrounding temperature had risen significantly.
As expected of a Yin Runner Realm cultivator, Song Zongwu's flesh had more or less recovered.
Though he didn't understand what Ren Qing was doing, he still opened his mouth and said, "Don't worry about my condition."
"Got it."
Ren Qing prepared to bring the lamp flame into the stove eye, hoping to use a technique of the same origin to locate the core Supernatural Remnant.
But as soon as he got close, something strange happened.
The thick ash suddenly began to gather, an inexplicable and terrifying aura gradually spreading, making one's skin crawl.
Seeing this, Song Zongwu stood up and took a deep breath.
He revealed a wide grin. "Ren Qing, back off, I can already sense the Supernatural Remnant of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique."
The ash finally formed a skin-and-bones corpse. As it took a step out, the kitchen immediately quaked.
Outside, in the rice field, countless cracks spread across the tombstones.
Everything indicated that the Food-Consuming Immortal Forbidden Zone stood at a crossroads, either Song Zongwu would die and this place would become a deathtrap of Xiangxiang, or it would be completely eliminated, cutting off all future disaster.
The corpse stepped out of the stove eye, its eyes greedily locked on the kindling flame in Ren Qing's hand.
Its steps quickened.
But before it had moved more than a few meters, Song Zongwu had already rushed forward, his fist striking hard.
Boom boom boom boom boom...
Even Ren Qing could feel that Song Zongwu was venting the frustration in his heart.
Clearly able to crush the Forbidden Zone's will with ease, yet the Rice Giant's endless regeneration had forced him into a desperate corner.
Song Zongwu's punches grew heavier and faster.
Even Ren Qing's eyes couldn't keep up, only the sounds of impact and the feeble howls of the corpse could be heard.
As the core Supernatural Remnant, the corpse truly exceeded an ordinary Ghost Envoy Realm, but it was no match for the already-wounded Song Zongwu.
Even so, Song Zongwu was clearly pushing himself to his limits.
He could endure without rest for over ten days in the Forbidden Zone while maintaining stamina, something no ordinary person could do.
He took out a bone key from his robe, apparently intending to open the gate to Avici Hell.
Ren Qing immediately threw out the paper Li Tiangang had given him. Song Zongwu caught it and smashed the corpse with his fist.
The paper unfolded on the ground, forming a massive doorway.
Li Tiangang's method was indeed more convenient than the bone key, but since it was formed by technique, it couldn't last long.
The gate began pulling the corpse into it. The surrounding walls showed signs of collapse.
Many Supernatural Remnants followed the corpse and were pulled into the gate one after another.
Song Zongwu nodded slightly at Ren Qing. "I'll go first, you need to leave the Forbidden Zone quickly. This place is about to vanish."
After going all out, Song Zongwu's healed wounds reopened. His chest and abdomen even revealed his still-beating heart.
Ren Qing quickly agreed.
After Song Zongwu walked into the gate, his gaze landed once more on the stove eye.
The unease in his heart grew stronger and stronger.