Ren Qing took quite a while to barely recover, letting out a long breath.
The aberration of his body had mostly eased, though his soul still bore some dark red patterns, which would likely take slow work over time to wear down.
It took a full half month just to calm the rioting Supernatural Remnant.
Fortunately, a blessing in disguise, Ren Qing had figured out how to grind away the will of the Lord of Absolute Darkness, thus finally stepping onto the proper path of the Yin Runner Realm.
However, the damage to the sandboat was far too severe; repairing it would take no small amount of time, and that was not even counting the Sandman, now just over ten meters tall.
Ren Qing looked down at the ghost shadow under his feet; because it had protected the sandboat, it too had lost more than half its form, though it would be able to recover on its own.
"Eh?"
Suddenly his expression froze, the ghost shadow seemed to be missing a portion of its body. Could it be that the remnant ghost shadows torn apart by the sandstorm were still alive?
Ren Qing shook his head. For now, it was better to repair the hull first.
Otherwise the whole thing could collapse at any time.
He rose and looked around.
The cabin was a complete mess, the furniture shattered into pieces by the impact of the sandstorm.
The walls were covered with all kinds of bite marks, and on the kitchen floor lay a husky starved half to death, already skin and bones.
Ren Qing's mouth twitched; he pulled out some food and stuffed it into the husky's mouth.
The husky devoured it ravenously; after cultivating Imagination Forging Method, it had no other abilities, but its survival capability was maxed out.
Soon it was wobbling its head happily.
Ren Qing's remaining materials were insufficient to repair the sandboat, so he simply returned once to Avici Hell, delivered the Great Dream Forging orders, and purchased enough Bonewood materials.
From this he also learned that the Restraint Officers' Hall had begun summoning a third batch of Restraint Officers, preparing to head for the temporary camp in the Marshlands.
This time led by Song Zongwu, clearly with some action in mind.
As for Xiangxiang's defense, it was handed over to the newly advanced Yin Runner Realm cultivator, Mu Yi. It was said that the frontier was now already covered with vines.
Ren Qing's lips curved faintly into a smile, since it was Restraint Officers he was familiar with, whatever missions came up later would be much more convenient.
Besides Mu Yi, two other Restraint Officers were preparing to advance to the Yin Runner Realm.
They were Bai Bai and Li Yaoyang; Bai Bai was that Miss Bai.
The Restraint Officers' Hall had long accumulated deep reserves, with many having reached perfection at the Ghost Envoy Realm, but due to the risk of advancement, none had dared to attempt it rashly.
Now with Great Dream True Person, a Yang God Realm powerhouse, the Restraint Officers' Hall's accumulated foundation over the years had finally begun to be brought into play.
He guessed that the third batch of Restraint Officers should arrive at the Marshlands camp within two months.
Ren Qing decisively turned the sandboat, planning to head to the temporary camp in a month and a half, to see then what exactly the Restraint Officers' Hall was busy with.
He then left Avici Hell, quietly planning his last bit of free time.
Since the Lord of Absolute Darkness had already gotten on track, there was no need to deliberately accumulate five hundred years of lifespan, and in order to pass through the sandstorm, the strange mutation of the Wind and Sand Method also could not be neglected.
However, Ren Qing considered first using his current lifespan to complete the three strange mutations of the Shadow Ghost Technique.
He had a bold idea.
If the remnant ghost shadow had been flung into the Gobi by the sandstorm and hidden in shadow without dispersing, then could it not probe the situation of the Sand City?
The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
Ren Qing repaired the hull with Bonewood while directing his consciousness toward the mutation tree in his mind, where the buds on the branches flickered with faint light.
After pondering for a while, he did not choose the more extreme mutation branches, but instead the seemingly mediocre [Night Roaming].
[夜游][Night Roaming]: Regardless of the distance of the ghost shadow, it can be controlled at night by the cultivator's soul.
In this way, the ability of [No Shadow] to remain separated for long periods was enhanced, and the means of the Shadow Ghost Technique became even richer.
If Ren Qing attached the ghost shadow to a magic artifact again, at night it could crawl out of the artifact, and even be used to perform Ghost Substitute.
But Night Roaming also had its flaws.
First, it could only be controlled at night, by day the connection to the ghost shadow would be lost. Second, the soul needed to be strong enough.
After Ren Qing expended fifty years of lifespan, the ghost shadow entered into transformation.
Because the ghost shadow was intimately tied to the Heavenly Dao Worm, the transformation was bound to take some time, so he stopped worrying about it.
Ren Qing finished patching the exposed holes in the hull; the temperature immediately dropped, returning once more to its cool state.
He then went down to the bottommost part of the sandboat to inspect the keel.
If the keel was fractured, the sandboat's lifespan would be drastically shortened, and using it to cross the sandstorm would be out of the question.
But as Ren Qing neared the keel, his expression turned strange.
The Lord of Absolute Darkness Supernatural Remnant in his body stirred slightly, and from his nostrils came a faint strange bloody smell.
Ren Qing walked slowly to the center of the hull's bottom and touched the gaps between the planks; immediately his palm was stained with obvious dark red blood.
He pried open the planks, revealing a thick spine, flesh clinging to its surface, occasionally twitching.
So the Lord of Absolute Darkness could actually bestow permanent life to dead matter; this ability might even involve the rumored Nightmare Demon.
At the moment, Ren Qing could not see the purpose of the keel's animation, but at least the sandboat artifact had already shed the limitations of its original materials.
There was potential for further progress in the future.
He was just about to put the planks back when suddenly a thought struck him; he quickly ran up to the deck and opened the strange mouth on his palm.
A huge amount of Ze Sand was drawn into the Prison Within the Abdomen; the Sandman, usually so lazy, suddenly began actively devouring Ze Sand to enlarge itself.
Ren Qing spent several hours feeding the Sandman until full, storing several thousand jin of Ze Sand, before returning again to the hull bottom.
He scattered Ze Sand over the keel, and shrill screams rang out.
It seemed the keel had inherited the properties of Ksitigarbha's rib bones, able to absorb souls, instantly the remnant souls in the Ze Sand were devoured completely.
Crack crack crack...
Strange noises echoed from every part of the sandboat.
Ren Qing quickly got up to check and found that the previously obvious repair marks were gradually sealing tight, leaving no visible flaws.
His face broke into joy, this would save him several months of work.
Ren Qing continued to sprinkle Ze Sand over the keel, but the sandboat's repairs abruptly stopped.
From this he confirmed that the keel could not regenerate injuries like true life, and required sufficient materials for assistance.
And the keel's consumption of souls did not strengthen the hull; it only crudely stored them, to be used as expendables at any time.
But Ren Qing was already quite satisfied.
He began quickly repairing the sandboat, with no need to worry too much, just covering damage with matching materials was enough.
Thus, in only five days the sandboat had been restored to its former state, even the broken masts standing tall once more.
After replacing the cabin's furniture, Ren Qing began exploring more uses of the keel, planning to use it to further perfect the sandboat.
He concocted an iron oil that could strengthen the toughness of wood, coated it on the surface of the sandboat, and soon under the action of the keel it fused together.
The texture of the Bonewood changed, and striking it produced the sound of metal being struck.
Ren Qing saw hope of riding the sandboat through the sandstorm, and began systematically reinforcing different parts of the hull.
As for the sandboat's weight, that was simple, Ren Qing could transform into the Sandman to handle it. But increasing speed was trickier; he could only start with the sails.
He stitched three sails together to increase the total stored wind power.
Next, he made the hull's bottom sharper to reduce friction with the dunes.
While busily transforming the sandboat, Ren Qing also earned another hefty sum through Dream Forging, mainly from selling Daoist robes.
Although the Restraint Officers' Hall gave every Restraint Officer heading to the Marshlands a robe artifact, for safety they would naturally want more spares.
Eerie Dust also gave Ren Qing more lifespan; every time the Flesh Furnace refined it and delivered it to Great Dream True Person, neither blood crystals nor lifespan were deducted in the least.
This gave Ren Qing enough lifespan to complete one mutation of the Wind and Sand Method.
He chose the growth mutation [Sandification], which made the Supernatural Remnant devour and digest Ze Sand much more efficiently.
As a result, in less than half a month, the Sandman had already reached nearly twenty meters.
Song Zongwu began preparing to lead the Restraint Officers to the Marshlands temporary camp, and within ten days at most they would arrive.
Seeing this, Ren Qing turned the sandboat's direction, heading first toward the camp.
But along the journey, the ghost shadow's transformation was complete.
Though outwardly unchanged, it had indeed achieved three strange mutations.
Ren Qing's sense of the missing remnant ghost shadow was vague, and he could not be sure whether it had crossed the sandstorm.
He could only wait for nightfall.
The moment the waning moon rose over the horizon, Ren Qing established contact with the remnant ghost shadow, and could not help but show joy on his face.
It was indeed around the Gobi.
Ren Qing quickly closed his eyes, using "Night Roaming" to control the ghost shadow with his consciousness, hoping to determine the environment.
But the ghost shadow seemed pressed beneath a heavy object, and because the outside temperature was too low, if it poked its head out it would freeze to pieces, able only to barely cling to life.
From the available clues, Ren Qing learned the ghost shadow was in a mass grave, buried among corpses.
Each corpse was emaciated like a mummy, wrapped in grass ropes, their flesh devoid of moisture, and thus naturally free of decay.
Feeling the outside chill, Ren Qing realized that whether day or night, if the ghost shadow tried to move it would certainly dissipate completely.
The main body pressed his temples, feeling a headache.
He simply inspected the corpses' bodily structures and noted that Gobi people and Xiangxiang people were by now fundamentally different.
The Gobi people's skin was thick to resist the cold, and they could endure brief periods in sunlight. Their eyes were covered with a white membrane, shielding against the omnipresent wind and sand.
Their physiques were not much different, but their clothing was simpler, and they had the habit of tying Daoist hairpins.
It seemed the Gobi had an inexplicable obsession with becoming immortals; building that heavenly ladder up to the clouds made it obvious.
Ren Qing found no other clues, and had no choice but to remain inside a corpse.
If a Gobi person came near, the ghost shadow could silently slip into its shadow.
If the Gobi had no cultivation, he could even influence its movements through the shadow, and when the main body came, they could work in concert inside and out.
Ren Qing's consciousness returned to his body; steering the sandboat to within a hundred li of the Restraint Officer camp, he then stored the sandboat inside the Prison Within the Abdomen.
He chose to walk the rest of the way; under the effect of the Human Skin Book, his heat resistance had risen to the point of at least equaling the Gobi.
But before Ren Qing arrived, at the mass grave on the Gobi side, it seemed someone was approaching.