Ren Qing knew that he had not seen wrongly; the woman who suddenly appeared was very likely Xiao Ying.
At this moment, Jiang Feng, through the eyeballs he had set up near the watchtower, also discovered the movements of the missing Restraint Officer, and his expression immediately grew grave.
He hurriedly took out the mortise-feather to contact Li Tiangang, then focused mainly on stabilizing the situation.
Ren Qing still remained on the city wall.
Through Xiao Ying he noticed some clues. The other party's bare skin was slightly swollen, her eyes white without pupils, giving the feeling of a corpse that had long been dead.
The wind and sand of the marshlands completely swallowed both, and it was unknown where they had gone.
Ren Qing could not help but sink into thought, gradually recalling many unusual details.
Compared to the natural rotting and swelling of a corpse, Xiao Ying seemed more like someone who had been soaked in water for a long time, her abdomen appearing somewhat shriveled.
But Ren Qing was simply too far away, and with the sandstorm and the Hidden Eye, he could not perceive the details.
He sorted through the fragmented clues he had obtained so far in his mind, but this only made the impression of the marshlands even more enigmatic.
It seemed that he could only seek clues from the Restraint Officer's body; perhaps there would be other gains.
A faint sense of urgency arose in Ren Qing's heart. He must quickly complete the Supernatural Remnant of the Wind and Sand Method, to produce an alienation strong enough to serve as a trump card.
He needed to collect more marsh-sand, to let the sand-man devour.
If he could thereby transform into a hundred-meter-tall sandstorm giant, then even when facing the Yin Runner realm, he would not need to risk casting the Lord of Absolute Darkness.
Ren Qing once again left part of his ghost shadows behind in the camp, to observe subsequent changes and to maintain contact with Jiang Feng.
When the others had not yet noticed, he quietly slipped away from the border outpost and quickly hurried toward the marshlands.
Ren Qing did not go too close, but chose to sit atop the third watchtower.
He let his divided soul leave his body, floating in midair, to keep watch on nearby developments, so that he could respond quickly if uncontrollable danger appeared.
Ren Qing actively visualized the Taotie Method, and the range of the alien mouth's suction grew larger and larger, soon covering several hundred meters around.
Fortunately, looking from the city wall of the outpost toward the watchtower, it was not very obvious, only faintly visible that a tornado was forming. At least half of the sandstorm blowing toward Xiangxiang would be diluted.
Jiang Feng soon received Li Tiangang's message. The latter ordered that only part of the Restraint Officers remain in the camp, and that the rest all go to Avici Hell.
Clearly, the Restraint Officers' Hall was reducing risk, to avoid the occurrence of uncontrollable situations.
Jiang Feng was not surprised at all by Ren Qing's comings and goings like a ghost. After several encounters, he understood very well Ren Qing's willful and unrestrained ways.
Moreover, the ghost shadows had not hidden their traces, which meant there was no great problem.
After arranging the remaining tasks of the few Restraint Officers in the camp, Jiang Feng could not help but cough, with saliva mixed with blood.
He had not expected that in such a short time, his own condition would suddenly worsen so drastically, his lungs burning as if on fire.
Jiang Feng hurried back into his room, closed his eyes, and sat cross-legged to examine his body.
Even while at the watchtower, Ren Qing still paid attention to the camp, and thus controlled a ghost shadow to blend into Jiang Feng's shadow.
Jiang Feng's lungs were somewhat strange, very much like pulmonary edema caused by fluid accumulation.
It should have been some sort of alienation.
After marsh-sand was inhaled into the lungs, it likely produced inexplicable effects.
Ren Qing suspected that the marsh-sand had already fused with the organs, which was why the Double Pupils could not detect any trace.
After a short while, Jiang Feng opened his eyes again, and another bout of coughing came. His breathing grew increasingly rapid, his face devoid of blood.
He forcibly suppressed his distracting thoughts, preparing to go to Avici Hell to seek aid from a Yin Runner realm cultivator.
Just at this moment,
Jiang Feng felt an incomparable thirst. He picked up the teabowl on the wooden table, but as he looked at the fragrant tea, an inexplicable fear arose in his heart.
It was a fear of water.
As if his strength had been drained away, he lay muddle-headed upon the bed to rest.
Ren Qing, however, noticed unusual changes within Jiang Feng's body. He immediately ceased visualizing the Taotie Method and quickly rushed toward the camp.
Jiang Feng's bodily fluids were evaporating at a speed visible to the naked eye, sandification gradually spreading, and his blood already coagulated.
With a few flickering steps, Ren Qing arrived before the house and kicked the door open with one blow.
He poured several pots of tea water into the semi-conscious Jiang Feng. The sandification was immediately alleviated, and even gradually restored into flesh and blood.
Ren Qing noticed that Jiang Feng's stomach could not store excess water, but rather it flowed back into his lungs along the blood vessels, appearing extremely strange.
His lungs again showed a tendency toward pulmonary edema.
He could not help but feel astonished: "How could there be such a bizarre kind of alienation?"
When marsh-sand entered the lungs through mouth and nose, the alienated cultivator would desperately thirst for water, yet his body's instincts would at the same time prevent him.
But if water was not taken in time, the cultivator's flesh would turn into sand, while the remaining bones, upon contact with water, would transform into surging currents.
Although Ren Qing was very curious about what Jiang Feng's lungs would become after he kept drinking water, life was at stake, so he took out Eerie Dust.
After Jiang Feng drank tea mixed with Eerie Dust, the alienation of his lungs slowly came under control.
He then awoke amid violent coughing.
Bloodshot filled Jiang Feng's eyes. Though he could not control his body, his consciousness was still very clear, and he naturally understood the whole sequence of events.
"Many thanks... Brother Ren..."
Ren Qing asked Jiang Feng a few questions.
Three days earlier, Jiang Feng had already been unable to resist drinking water frequently, but as he had not noticed anything abnormal, he had not even taken Eerie Dust.
Until the alienation of his lungs suddenly went out of control.
"You should rest more. I will keep a closer watch on the camp; nothing will go wrong."
Ren Qing also gave Jiang Feng several bottles of Eerie Dust, then left the border outpost. The urgent matter was still to quickly collect marsh-sand.
The alienations of the other Restraint Officers in the camp were very weak.
Although due to the special nature of marsh-sand, the lungs could not recover on their own, their Ghost Envoy realm cultivation prevented the alienation from worsening.
Ren Qing used the mortise-feather to inform Li Tiangang of the situation, then once more visualized the Taotie Method to strengthen the alien mouth.
The sand-man devoured great quantities of marsh-sand, and its growth in size was astonishing, within a few days it had reached over ten meters tall.
Ren Qing was not satisfied with this.
He could not help but advance another watchtower; the marsh-sand collected there naturally contained more remnant souls.
The sand-man thereby gradually transformed, the gravel composing its body becoming bone-like, increasingly similar to the marsh-sand itself.
The Restraint Officers in the border camp could all sense something was wrong, especially with Ren Qing's disappearance and Jiang Feng's sudden strange illness.
They guessed it might have been caused by the marsh-sand, and various rumors spread.
However, the alienation of Jiang Feng's lungs was suppressed by the second day, and after he clarified matters publicly, the tense atmosphere somewhat eased.
Before long, Li Tiangang arrived at the border outpost, and moreover brought Song Zongwu with him.
They distributed Eerie Dust to the Restraint Officers, and after ingestion, all alienations vanished.
Li Tiangang placed the Ksitigarbha rib upon an open space within the camp, and the surrounding marsh-sand immediately turned into ordinary dust.
The remnant souls were silently devoured.
Ren Qing understood the intent of the Restraint Officers' Hall in sending two Yin Runner realm cultivators. Clearly, after clarifying the marsh-sand, they were preparing to explore the marshlands.
He also felt some intention in this regard.
After all, so long as he was within the marshlands, if the sand-man spent some time, it could become a desert.
Ren Qing returned to the camp. Li Tiangang had already begun preparations to depart, along with four Ghost Envoy realm cultivators who had undergone at least two strange mutations.
"Brother Ren!"
Yan Feng greeted Ren Qing warmly, drawing glances of awe from the Restraint Officers in the camp.
Many of them had already met Ren Qing during the summoning at Ksitigarbha, and naturally knew more than those Restraint Officers who had only just been promoted from the reserves.
That terrifying ghost wolf was still occasionally recalled.
"Lord Li asked me to tell you to go to the stone house in the southwest corner for a meeting."
"Alright, thank you."
Ren Qing nodded slightly, then walked toward the house where Li Tiangang resided.
From a hundred meters away he could already smell an extremely unusual aroma of liquor, as fiery as flames, even richer than Drunken Life, Dreaming Death.
He pushed open the door and entered. Inside, Li Tiangang and Song Zongwu were standing before the bed, discussing something.
Without turning his head, Song Zongwu already knew who had come. With a smile he said: "Ren Qing, it is thanks to you here at the border outpost. Otherwise, because of this mere sand, not a few would have died."
"Hehe, just good luck."
Ren Qing deliberately sought to indirectly raise the status of the Restraint Officers' Hall, then planned to try to obtain the secret manual of the Butterfly Dream Technique from Great Dream True Person.
If there was a ghost market to extend lifespan, then even the Yang God realm was a future possibility.
As he walked toward the two men, he discovered a topless woman lying upon the bed, her chest and abdomen cut open by sharp instruments.
The woman had not yet died; she had Half-Corpse realm cultivation. Her skin was covered in cactus-like spines, showing that the techniques she had mastered were plant-related.
But her breathing was already extremely faint, and she could die at any moment.
What shocked Ren Qing most was that the woman's lungs had swollen to the size of watermelons, and had a glass-like texture similar to water spirits.
The glass seemed like solidified liquor, with an intensely rich aroma.
Li Tiangang spoke: "Just as well, I wanted you to come take a look."
Ren Qing's expression grew heavy. The aroma of liquor continually stirred up a thirst in the depths of his heart. This sudden craving for alcohol was clearly abnormal.
He forcibly calmed himself, using his primary and secondary souls to observe the woman.
Li Tiangang explained: "This woman's surname is Luo. She came with three reserves before to the border outpost to deliver materials, thereby letting the sand enter her body."
"The other two had already turned into dried bones like Xiao Ying, but because they died within the Restraint Officers' Hall, they were not discovered."
Ren Qing frowned and asked: "Why is she still alive?"
Even Ghost Envoy realm Restraint Officers could not escape infection, so why could a reserve survive?
Song Zongwu said flatly: "Liquor."
Ren Qing repeated softly: "Liquor..."
He murmured to himself: "Could it be that after the lungs were affected by marsh-sand, although the cultivator could not control himself from drinking water, drinking alcohol could suppress the sandification.
"And by continually drinking alcohol, in the end the lungs became like this... how could there be..."
Ren Qing stopped himself in time, almost blurting it out.
He was all too familiar with this kind of method. Imaginary techniques could make a cultivator's flesh delicious; the marshlands, however, turned organs into liquor.
The marshlands bordered Jingzhou; whether the two were related was hard to say.
But the key problem was that beneath Ren Qing's feet was a young Heavenly Dao Worm. Even though it had already become a puppet, it still retained instincts.
And the Heavenly Dao Worm clearly showed no interest in the liquor aroma.
Ren Qing reached out toward the liquor-turned lungs, intending to summon the information flow to examine the situation.