Just as Ren Qing was in shock, the phantom of Qingxu Temple disappeared.
Even a Lord of Absolute Darkness at the Yin Runner Realm could not distinguish truth from illusion, could it be that in the Marshlands there really was a Daoist temple of an immortal?
Just as he was dazed.
The cold night descended, and the sand dunes again showed signs of freezing, but fortunately Ren Qing had prepared the sandboat during the day.
The sail moved without wind, and the ghost wolf at the prow seemed to roar.
The sandboat leapt out of the sand's surface.
It continued to sail on the hardened frozen sand, the bottom scraping against the gravel with an ear-piercing sound, but its speed was instead much faster.
Ren Qing did not know what the strange phenomenon appearing in the clouds signified, but since it was formed from the cloud layer, it must be related to the humanoid water mist.
A chill crept up his spine, as if the old Daoist was truly up in the clouds, staring at him.
Ren Qing simply returned to the cabin to rest, using a split-soul to constantly watch the surroundings, lest some uncontrollable danger appear.
After pondering for a long time, he changed his mind, planning to go to the edge covered by Avici Hell, which was still within a safe zone.
If there were living beings in the Marshlands, then the center was the most likely place. Just a distant glance would be enough to confirm it.
As for the temporary camp where Li Tiangang was, there should be no danger for the time being, since the Restraint Officers' Hall was still mainly stationed there.
However, given Li Tiangang's cultivation, even if he did not notice at first that the rock peaks' mutation was due to the evaporation of moisture in the body,
But once a second Restraint Officer showed the same symptoms, he would certainly realize it.
Li Tiangang might have already found some clue from it.
When the Restraint Officers' Hall dispatched a Restraint Officer to the Marshlands for the third time, that would mean a major move was coming. It would not be too late to return then.
Ren Qing rubbed his temples, and after calming down, began visualizing the Blindless Method.
It was just right to use this quiet period to try erasing the consciousness of the Lord of Absolute Darkness, thereby gradually grasping the power of the Yin Runner Realm.
The cultivation of Binding the Yin God could not be rushed; it could only be done drip by drip, wearing down stone.
Ren Qing's life thus became regular: in the daytime he spent half the day collecting Ze Sand, in the afternoon refining some orders of Great Dream artifacts.
At night he visualized the Blindless Method, and also observed Qingxu Temple upon Cloud Mountain.
Sometimes he transformed into a Sandman.
The Sandman was extremely agile when traversing the Marshlands, but the erosion of mutation on body and soul was no joke, so he could not maintain it for long.
In the midst of dull monotony, more than half a month passed without him realizing it.
The scenery of Ze Sand had no novelty, no matter how magnificent, seeing it daily bred boredom. But within Qingxu Temple, it was not entirely unchanging.
The old Daoist's sores occasionally healed, yet on the following day more would sprout.
The number of ordinary Daoists increased and decreased, but since they were too far away, their appearances truly could not be seen clearly.
But it was obvious they were collecting something from the sores, and even applying herbs to them.
...
The sandboat gradually approached the edge of Avici Hell.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged inside the cabin, his eyes showing exhaustion.
Cultivating the Blindless Method was by no means easy; one had to keep nerves taut at every moment, especially in such a ghastly place.
Suddenly, the husky let out urgent barks, pacing uneasily in the corridor.
Ren Qing frowned.
He took out the Restraint Officer token to check his current position; there should still be about five days' journey to the edge.
For the husky to be this panicked, it must have sensed something.
Yet the split-soul atop the mast detected nothing unusual, only that the wind and sand were somewhat fiercer.
Ren Qing reached out to pat the dumb dog's head, signaling it to quiet down, then strode toward the deck.
The sandboat, driven by the wind and sand, sped up further, like a wild horse loosed from reins, difficult to restrain.
Only then did Ren Qing see that, straight ahead in the distance, a terrifying sandstorm was forming, as if to devour all that approached.
The sudden appearance of the sandstorm was too strange, as though deliberately isolating the sandboat outside.
Ren Qing hurriedly slowed the boat, while letting the Dream Seed possess him, thereby enhancing the farsight of the Double Pupils.
But alas, he could only see dense wind and sand, while his ears were assaulted by a deafening roar, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Ren Qing gritted his teeth, continuing to sail toward the sandstorm, while letting ghostly shadows cover the entire boat to increase its toughness.
His vision gradually widened, piercing through the wind and sand to glimpse within.
The husky's barks broke with strain; even though it had not stepped onto the deck, it too felt the boat shaking to the extreme.
Ren Qing's pupils suddenly dilated at what he saw.
Gripping the railing with force, for the sandstorm surged skyward, and with the slightest slip he might be flung out.
The boat was already trending out of control, especially the lighter stern, which hovered half a meter above the ground.
Yet Ren Qing did not retreat, for he had finally seen clearly.
At the edge of Avici Hell lay a rocky Gobi, vast shadows shielding this barren deadland.
Scattered houses spread within the shadows, bearing traces of human life.
Boom!!!
The boat was swept up to hover, about to be hurled into the sandstorm, likely to be shredded to pieces along with Ren Qing.
The husky gave up struggling entirely, tongue lolling as it staggered into the sleeping room and peed on the bed.
Ren Qing frowned, and at that moment released the Sandman Supernatural Remnant to merge with his body.
A giant Sandman over twenty meters tall landed on the deck, pressing the boat back to the ground, even burying half its hull into the dunes.
Ren Qing let out a fierce shout.
Four thick sand pillars drilled out, pinning the boat in place, unable to move.
The sandstorm grew more and more violent, with a sense of endless persistence.
Ren Qing showed no fear, wasn't raising a Sandman Supernatural Remnant precisely for such a moment, to contend against heaven's might?
"Split!!!"
His arms thrust out straight, as if opening a door.
Like Moses parting the Red Sea, the sandstorm was forcibly split open with a crack, within which the distant Gobi could be clearly seen.
Though it lasted only half a breath, it was enough for him.
A sand city came into view.
Ren Qing felt absurdity rise in his heart, for within the city stood a heavenly ladder, pieced together entirely from white bones.
Many emaciated mortals were climbing it, carrying stone to the ladder's top, extending its height.
The stone was naturally quarried from the Gobi.
Such actions were digging their own graves, without the Gobi's shelter, how could mortals possibly survive in the Marshlands?
Ren Qing recalled Qingxu Temple above the clouds, could it be they sought immortal fate?
Utterly laughable...
Boom boom boom!!
The Sandman's arms crumbled to powder, its twenty-meter body reduced to ten. It was clear that forcibly driving the Supernatural Remnant was not without cost.
The missing Ze Sand needed replenishment, meaning all his effort in the Marshlands was wasted.
But Ren Qing felt it worthwhile.
Though he could not see the Gobi people's faces, he was certain cultivators existed in the sand city; otherwise, survival was impossible.
And since cultivators were there, the Wine God Technique might well be in the city.
Now many of Ren Qing's problems vanished; he only needed to consider how to cross the sandstorm safely.
He prepared to turn back, using the stored wind in the sail to retreat.
But the storm clung like a bone tumor, dragging the sandboat back, while the four sand pillars, weakened by the Supernatural Remnant's exhaustion, trembled on the verge of collapse.
Pfft!
The sail gave way first, a gaping hole tearing open.
Under the raging storm, the boat tilted ninety degrees upward, about to be torn from the ground and hurled into the sky.
Even amid such peril, Ren Qing remained calm.
Without hesitation, he imprisoned the Sandman Supernatural Remnant into the Prison Within the Abdomen, letting the sandboat spin out of control, lifted into the air.
Inside, everything toppled; the husky's own urine splashed across its face.
Ren Qing clung to the deck with ghost shadows, silently counting, as if awaiting the right moment to escape the storm.
As the boat rose several hundred meters, its planks on the verge of shattering,
Ren Qing raised his right hand toward the sky. Influenced by the Supernatural Remnant, his visage was a skeletal skull, ghastly and terrifying.
"Night falls, extinguish the lamp..."
The sandstorm went utterly dark; even sound vanished.
After several breaths of silence, a violent explosion shattered the stillness, a gap over ten meters wide tearing open on the storm's surface.
A jet-black sandboat broke through, soaring into the sky.
Its hull was covered in dark red, sinister patterns; mouths emerged constantly, even the tattered sail like a twisted human face.
The ghost wolf prow figurehead came alive, crouching at the prow, howling:
"Nightmare Lord... Nightmare Lord... Nightmare Lord..."
So it turned out that the Lord of Absolute Darkness's outstanding ability was not pure darkness, but nightmares of the Nightmare Demon.
Nightmares that could transform things into aberrations.
The sandboat, once aberrated by the nightmare, gained eerie vitality.
Ren Qing had meant to use his Yin Runner Realm cultivation to force through the storm, but the nightmare aberration gave him a surprising boon.
Yet suddenly the Supernatural Remnant inside rioted, forcing him to cancel the technique.
The aberrations vanished from the boat's exterior, though its keel seemed altered.
Boom!!!
When the sandboat crashed heavily onto the dunes, even with quicksand cushioning, the hull still suffered severe damage.
Cracks covered the deck, the mast broke in two, and the ghost wolf figurehead vanished.
Ren Qing himself fared no better.
Parts of his body showed sandification; he gagged, vomiting black water mixed with organ fragments, stinking foully of acid.
One third of his soul was covered with dark red patterns; only by donning the Daoist robe formed by the Dream Seed did he feel slightly better.
Such misery was mainly due to the extreme techniques he used, combined with the instability of his freshly attained Yin Runner Realm.
Tortured between two kinds of mutation, Ren Qing hovered between ecstasy and agony, barely adjusting the rudder toward the temporary camp.
He stuffed a handful of Eerie Dust into his mouth, immediately sitting cross-legged to visualize the technique, lest his body and soul mutate beyond control.
Binding the Yin God was when the Supernatural Remnant was most terrifying, all the more so when casting with full force.
But there was also blessing in misfortune, Ren Qing had taken another step toward mastering the Lord of Absolute Darkness, and the aura of his three Dream Seeds grew ever deeper.
The boat's main body was too shattered, its speed greatly reduced, giving Ren Qing more time to recover from his injuries.
What should have been a journey of days instead took more than a month.