Song Zongwu quickly stopped Ren Qing upon seeing this, and reminded him: "This lung is only hard on the surface, but the inside has already turned into wine. If it breaks by accident, it could lead to death."
Ren Qing asked doubtfully: "If it is only an organ aberration, then why not treat it?"
Li Tiangang explained gravely: "Her condition cannot be separated from the Marshlands. When I set out, I plan to bring her along. Perhaps relying on the fragrance of wine, we may gain something."
"For now, I dare not remove the lung, to avoid accidents. I will find an opportunity to replace it with a new lung later."
Perhaps because of the approaching departure, his tone had become somewhat hurried. Song Zongwu also noticed the strangeness in Li Tiangang's demeanor.
After all, leaving Xiangxiang and facing an unknown eerie region, even at the Yin Runner realm, one could not avoid emotional fluctuations.
"I will be careful."
Ren Qing nodded.
He once again extended his palm, though his movements became gentler.
Song Zongwu and the other did not continue to stop him. If Ren Qing could find any clues, it would add a bit more assurance.
When Ren Qing's palm touched the lung, a chill spread up.
A flow of information surged.
[Wine Cup]
[Condensed by the Wine God Technique. Drinking it can resolve all worldly fire poisons.]
[Wine God Technique]
[Created by the Meat and Wine Taoist, it requires using men, women, the old, and the young as ingredients to brew thirty-six kinds of wine, which must be drunk together in order to be cultivated.]
Ren Qing's pupils dilated.
If not for the fact that after advancing to Lord of Absolute Darkness his eyes were always squinted, Song Zongwu and the other might have noticed his abrupt astonishment.
Could the Marshlands be a forbidden zone formed from the Supernatural Remnant of the Wine God Technique?
Ren Qing immediately rejected this guess. Even a forbidden zone at the Yang God realm could not affect the outside world, and could not have formed the Ze Sand.
Perhaps it was related to Jingzhou?
He recalled the Blood Moon in the sky mentioned by the remnant soul of Heavenly Daozi, and also thought of the Heavenly Dao Worm parasitizing on cultivators. His head faintly throbbed.
Li Tiangang hurriedly asked: "Ren Qing, did you discover anything?"
Ren Qing came back to himself and shook his head: "Nothing. I only felt that the aberration of the Marshlands seems like it is turning people into food."
"It may be related to certain things inside the Marshlands."
Li Tiangang's gaze swept toward the Marshlands as he continued: "That is exactly what I want to confirm, whether there are mortals in the depths of the desert."
He fed the woman a few mouthfuls of wine, then sealed her into a sheet of paper.
"I plan to set out as soon as possible. Anyway, as long as it is within the range covered by Avici Hell, I can return to the Restraint Officers' Hall at any time for supplies."
Ren Qing recalled the four Restraint Officers brought by Li Tiangang, all of them mastered techniques related to earth and stone.
As long as they were given time, they were enough to build a fortress, even a town.
It could be seen that the Restraint Officers' Hall sending Li Tiangang was definitely not only to investigate the situation. Likely, they wanted to incorporate the range covered by Avici Hell into Xiangxiang.
Ren Qing even suspected that the expansion of Avici Hell's territory should have been caused by certain methods employed by Great Dream True Person.
He felt some conflict in his heart, should he apply to go along?
Song Zongwu suddenly asked: "This time when you go, you probably won't return within a short period, right? Better to prepare sufficiently before speaking further."
"Don't worry. Being able to return to Avici Hell is enough."
Ren Qing knew that the Marshlands could not be avoided. But if Li Tiangang was only going to establish a camp for subsequent Restraint Officers to settle...
Then it would be better to set out a step later.
He did not intend to let go of the clue of the Wine God Technique. The piles of Ze Sand were likewise resources, not to mention other opportunities.
Ren Qing also had sufficient means of protecting himself. The Sand Man was already about to transform into Ze Sand, and in the face of danger could even temporarily merge into the desert.
In addition, he had the Flesh Furnace that could burn all things, and a sufficient amount of Eerie Dust.
Ren Qing's trump cards faintly countered the Marshlands. His means of survival were absolutely stronger than those of Li Tiangang and the others combined.
Song Zongwu's palm emitted radiance, enveloping Li Tiangang.
"Don't be hasty. In case you encounter a situation where it's inconvenient to open the Restraint Officers' Hall."
In his words, Song Zongwu used a certain technique capable of shaking the heart and spirit.
Li Tiangang let out a long breath.
His style of action was to plan before moving. When faced with the inscrutable situation of the Marshlands, it was indeed easy to cause imbalance of mind.
Li Tiangang calmed down: "We'll wait a few more days. Being cautious is only right."
He left the house and called Yan Feng and the others, investigating the situation around Xiangxiang's outskirts.
Song Zongwu clearly took the opportunity while Li Tiangang was not present to say: "Relying only on the talismans stuck on their faces is likely not enough. Can you refine more comprehensive artifacts?"
At present only Song Zongwu and Great Dream True Person knew that the Great Dream Artifact Workshop was established by Ren Qing, so they intentionally avoided outsiders.
"No problem. These are small matters. I will immediately return to the Ghost Market to refine artifacts."
Hearing this, Ren Qing's mind stirred, and suddenly a thought arose. After bidding farewell to Song Zongwu, he immediately went to the Ghost Market.
He decided to set out a step later.
Wait until the Sand Man's transformation was complete, then safety could be fully assured.
He also needed to obtain as many clues as possible.
Since the opportunity to refine artifacts was before him, Ren Qing naturally had to make good use of it.
Ren Qing went to the Great Dream Pavilion to purchase the corresponding materials, and immediately began refining.
Since the purpose was only to block wind and sand, it merely needed to follow the same principle as the human-skin artifacts, but replaced with whole human skin.
Ren Qing spent several hundred stones of Blood Crystals, buying over a dozen kinds of materials.
He did not choose to refine with two Tombstone Furnaces at once. Mainly, with a new artifact there was no avoiding trial and error, so he could only proceed slowly.
Ren Qing prepared to refine the artifact into the form of a Daoist robe.
He already had a rough design in his mind, but refining required materials to blend with each other, and compatibility had to be considered.
But with the Tombstone Furnace present, refining efficiency greatly increased. Moreover, refining flesh artifacts rarely failed, the main concern was only whether they were ineffective.
Ren Qing began attempting refinement. Human skin was affixed to the surface of the Tombstone Furnace.
Materials were applied in sequence.
The Tombstone Furnace gradually nurtured the artifact, ghost shadows continuously injecting Nether Yuan to sustain it.
After waiting patiently for a while, the artifact had already taken preliminary form.
Ren Qing carefully examined it for a long time, finding it somewhat too fragile. Dissatisfied, he adjusted the materials and refined again.
It took half a day before the materials for the artifact were finalized. The first complete artifact was then nurtured by the Tombstone Furnace.
The artifact resembled a Daoist robe, yet its outer appearance displayed the texture of human skin.
Because among the five people Yan Feng's build was the most robust, his Daoist robe was slightly larger.
Ren Qing took the opportunity to leave a hidden trick in Yan Feng's robe artifact, concealing a wisp of ghost shadow inside, enabling him to observe the situation.
He handed the robes to Great Dream True Person. The Nether Crow carried the artifacts and vanished, flying toward the frontier. It should not take too long.
Ren Qing was not in a hurry to return. He simply completed the accumulated orders in the Great Dream Artifact Workshop.
When he arrived at the frontier, he saw Li Tiangang and the five all wearing the human-skin Daoist robes. With their hoods pulled over their heads, they could block wind and sand.
The five were more or less ready. Li Tiangang had even stored food inside paper.
Ren Qing deliberately sensed Yan Feng through the robe. The ghost shadow immediately fed back partial information.
Mainly, the number of living beings around the robe, Yan Feng's own physical condition, and his general position could all be vaguely perceived.
After resting a night, Li Tiangang set out toward the Marshlands at dawn.
He took out a sheet of yellowed paper. Once the technique was cast, it grew to several dozen meters in size. The five only needed to sit upon it.
It could even prevent their feet from touching the Ze Sand, guarding against accidents.
Seeing this, Ren Qing had a thought, if he were to go to the Marshlands, he seemed to still lack an artifact for traveling.
Relying only on walking was certainly unrealistic, not to mention the husky.
He secretly pondered the type of artifact to refine, then watched as the figures of Li Tiangang and the others gradually sank into the wind and sand.
Because of the Ze Sand, the ghost shadow inside the robe artifact became somewhat more distant in connection, though fortunately it did not affect Ren Qing.
He found that Li Tiangang's pace was not fast, mainly focused on surveying.
Ren Qing no longer concentrated too much attention. After speaking a word to Song Zongwu, he once again went to Xiangxiang's border to collect Ze Sand.
The Ze Sand was devoured by the Sand Man. Its swollen body occupied the southeast corner of the Prison Within the Abdomen.
It formed into a sand mountain. On the surface there were no signs of life. A few blood vines even grew toward the peak.
Ren Qing ignored the changes of the Sand Man, immersing himself in designing artifacts.
He planned to refine a simple sand boat, to sail across the desert sea, increasing certainty when going to the Marshlands.
But compared to artifacts like skull-human-skin, refining a boat was of course far more troublesome. Ren Qing could not help but smile bitterly.
Every plank of the boat's body had to be refined individually, not to mention large components like the keel, the Tombstone Furnace simply could not handle it.
If Ren Qing were to refine it, it would take more than ten years of accumulated experience. But he did not want to give up, so he could only choose a compromise.
Refine the artifact from a sand boat into a small boat?
Ren Qing looked toward the Wuwei Daoist Altar. If only he could directly refine a Tombstone Furnace.
After all, the pond was floating with a large number of corpses, including giants several dozen meters tall.
But the books on the Tombstone Furnace had long been destroyed as taboos. Only by searching the caves inside the Wuwei Hall might something be found.
He took a deep breath, controlling a ghost shadow to hide under the mountain of the Wuwei Hall, then quietly waited for Heavenly Daozi to go mad elsewhere.
During this time, Ren Qing risked dragging a slightly larger corpse into the Prison Within the Abdomen, causing the larvae of the Heavenly Dao Worm to riot.
But as soon as the cry of the black goat rang out, the pond immediately fell into deathly silence. Evidently, the Heavenly Dao Worm larvae all knew to ward off calamity.
Ren Qing quickly split the ghost shadow into several strands, following the mountain path toward the cave mansions.
The positions of the caves corresponded to the distribution of acupuncture points in the human body.
And since the Fire Refining Palace's techniques were closely related to yang attributes, it was highly likely they corresponded to the heart's Neiguan point, Lingdao point, Shanzhong point, and Geshu point.
The bleating of goats grew more and more intense.
Ren Qing was tense to the extreme. He didn't care what was inside the caves, he simply stuffed everything into the ghost shadows.
Heavenly Daozi quickly noticed the anomaly. His muttering grew louder and louder, meaning he was rapidly approaching the Wuwei Hall.
Ren Qing did not want to lose split souls, so he quickly withdrew from the Wuwei Daoist Altar.
He panted heavily for a long time. The oppressive force brought by the Supreme Heavenly Demon was simply too powerful. Its true body absolutely surpassed the Heavenly Abomination realm.
After advancing to the Yin Runner realm, when contacting Heavenly Daozi, Ren Qing could feel its terror even more clearly.
Fortunately, the Tombstone Furnace was almost emptied. Next, there would be no need to frequently go to the Wuwei Daoist Altar.