The government dispatched a large number of soldiers to collect the giant maggots, and they would only appear at the stalls after being distributed by them.
From this it could be seen just how scarce supplies in Yellow Sand City were.
However, the social structure formed was extremely stable; even though the populace barely had enough to eat, at the very least they would not normally encounter any danger.
Ren Qing searched for a moment in the courtyard but did not discover the traces of Shashanzi and the other two.
The interior of the house was rather messy, and on the table were several Daoist classics written in different handwritings.
He simply withdrew the ghost shadow inside the idol, then sat cross-legged on the beam of the house, quietly waiting for a living person to approach.
Until the sun was three poles high, only then did Shashanzi return to the courtyard, but only him alone, his face carrying a deep sorrow.
He walked into the dim house, his head emitting bursts of white smoke, that was the peculiarity of the Gobi people's physique, able to reduce body temperature without consuming too much water.
Shashanzi picked up a wine jar from the corner, poured out some turbid wine, and drank mouthful by mouthful.
"Azhuo, ah Azhuo, the path to immortality is one from which there is rarely return, yet you insisted on going to Yellow Crane Temple to be that Dao Grasping virgin boy, truly..."
Azhuo, who had originally followed Shashanzi in ferrying corpses, because of his longing for immortality, chose to go to the Daoist temple of the Marsh People.
Shashanzi shook his head.
He did not reveal hatred, showing that the Gobi people toward the Marsh People, who were like immortals, long since could give rise to no resistance.
The wine in Shashanzi's mouth was swallowed down.
He ceaselessly muttered about his past experiences serving at the Daoist temple.
Ren Qing's mind was full of thoughts, at this time it was indeed a good opportunity, for his original plan was precisely to possess an overt identity within Yellow Sand City.
Then to find an opportunity to seize the Water Marsh Method, as well as the Wine God Technique whose whereabouts were unknown.
From the decorations in the house he could tell that Shashanzi, as a Daoist who ferried corpses, should have been rather solitary.
But on the table were several Daoist classics, showing that government-appointed Daoists did have connections among themselves, and through this he could obtain more clues.
Ren Qing could completely take Shashanzi's place; just as Azhuo's whereabouts were unknown, others would not discover anything strange.
He had just intended to jump down from the beam, when he noticed something unusual on Shashanzi.
Originally he had thought that Shashanzi drank out of bitterness in his heart, but did not expect another reason.
Shashanzi swayed as he put the wine jar back in the corner, then lit human-bone sandalwood incense, his left palm pressed on the location of his lower dantian, his right hand pressed on the back of his left.
Shashanzi began sitting in meditation visualization, the aura he emitted gradually thinning.
Seeing this, Ren Qing could not help but raise an eyebrow.
The method revealed by the other party was obviously not one of the three realms of ascending immortality, but rather another kind of extremely crude visualization method, at most created not long ago.
Shashanzi's meditative posture was very standard, of ancient orthodox Daoist tradition; Wuwei Monastery also had records of this aspect, though the specific method had already been lost.
But according to the annotations of Heavenly Daozi, the ancient cultivators should have been far inferior to the Heavenly Dao methods; even if cultivated to the extreme, at most they were only Golden Core or Nascent Soul.
Ren Qing immediately gave rise to interest, his pupils rotating, staring at the circulation of Shashanzi's qi and blood, the result unsurprising.
Shashanzi used wine to stimulate the flow of blood in his body, then with the blood vessels circulated it through the whole body, finally returning it to the lungs.
It was likely inspiration discovered by mortal Daoists from the alienation of the lungs, finally through long years of exploration, creating such a method.
Cultivation was merely to strengthen the body, far inferior even to entry-level Heavenly Dao methods.
Though disappointed, in his heart Ren Qing knew that this crude method just might be related to the Wine God Technique; so long as he traced back the source, there would definitely be further gain.
After transporting the wine-qi into the lungs, Shashanzi opened his eyes and let out a long breath, his expression appearing somewhat dejected.
A deep powerlessness arose in his heart.
Thinking of when he had first obtained the "Qi Refining Method," it was as if he had obtained a treasure, even delusionally thinking to rely on it to return to the Daoist temple, but in the end it was all empty.
He had originally intended to take on a disciple to pass on the position of government-appointed Daoist, but the corpse-ferrying trade could never compare to the allure of attaining immortality.
Just at this time, a low voice resounded out of thin air within the house.
"Truly laughable to the extreme..."
"Who!!"
Shashanzi stood up, carefully moving to the door, his gaze cautiously sweeping across the narrow room.
Stone table and stone chairs, no hidden person found; finally his eyes turned to the three Dao-ancestor statues.
The statues were crudely made, yet about three meters tall; it would not be surprising if someone hid behind them, only who could have been so silent?
Just as Shashanzi was about to leave the house,
The statue of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable suddenly opened its eyes, its expression carrying innate majesty.
Crack crack crack.
From atop the altar the statue slowly stepped down, the pressure it brought extremely terrifying.
Shashanzi's mouth opened wide in disbelief, his mind blank.
Could it be a Marsh Immortal...
In a daze, the statue of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable returned to the altar, but before him there now stood a man like a true immortal descended.
Clearly it was an ordinary appearance, yet his whole body emitted a suffocating aura, though not as horrifying as that of the Marsh People.
Shashanzi determined this person to be a Marsh Immortal, and hurriedly knelt and kowtowed.
"Immortal above, I should not have given rise in my heart to great disrespect, spare me my life..."
After Ren Qing advanced into the Yellow Spring Immortal Bone, when putting on an act he indeed could contend with the Marsh People, only that normally he kept it restrained.
He also did not want to explain anything, extending a finger to point at Shashanzi's brow, the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed entering the other's Niwan Palace.
The Heavenly Dao Dream Seed did not have the corrosive nature of the Heavenly Demon Dream Seed, but so long as it adhered to another's soul, it could cause the other to unconditionally give rise to trust.
It should originate from some unknown effect of the Heavenly Dao Worm upon its host.
Ren Qing spoke and asked: "Do you have the secret manuals of the Qi Refining Method?"
Upon hearing this, though Shashanzi had been frightened to the point of having no strength at all, his body instinctively drew out from under the bed a tattered Human Skin Book.
His mind was in turmoil, unable for the moment to figure out the situation.
Ren Qing received the book; the characters recorded inside were slightly different from those of Xiangxiang, the realms divided into Minor Circulation, Major Circulation, and Full Circulation.
[Qi Refining Method]
[Derived from the Wine God Technique, created by Chaoyangzi who endured bodily alienation; only once wine is merged into the blood can it be cultivated.]
[Cultivating this method can resist part of the Ze Sand alienation, and strengthen the lungs.]
[Can consume three days of lifespan, exempt from cost, grasped.]
Ren Qing curiously asked: "Do you recognize a Daoist called Chaoyangzi?"
Shashanzi was startled, how could someone know of Chaoyangzi: "I recognize him, but a few years ago he already died upon the Ascension Stair."
"I discovered this Qi Refining Method while arranging his corpse."
He could not help but reveal fear; some matters he had clearly prepared to keep buried in his heart for life, but at this time were easily spoken aloud.
Could it be that the Qi Refining Method had drawn the attention of a Marsh Immortal...
Shashanzi thought of how he had already unintentionally spread the Qi Refining Method, immediately his heart despaired in greatest sorrow, fearing it would bring harm to many.
Ren Qing casually consumed lifespan to grasp the Qi Refining Method, merely feeling heat arise in his lungs, but in an instant it was gone.
A faint fragrance of wine drifted out from his mouth.
But in Shashanzi's eyes, it appeared extremely shocking.
Marsh Immortals clearly had no fleshly body, how could they possibly cultivate the Qi Refining Method...
Ren Qing looked at the information flow, reaching Major Circulation required but ten days of lifespan.
He straightforwardly spent about a month's lifespan, promoting the Qi Refining Method to Full Circulation, but only his lung capacity increased somewhat, there being not too much other change.
"Hu..."
Ren Qing exhaled a half-meter breath of wine-qi, enveloping the house in white smoke.
Even if Shashanzi were slow to react, he realized that the man before him was not a Marsh Immortal.
But certainly impossible to be a mortal, for right before his eyes, in just a few breaths' time, he had cultivated to Full Circulation.
He looked toward the statue of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, in his heart giving rise to an extremely absurd thought, that this person must be related to the Primordial Heavenly Venerable.
The thought had just arisen in Shashanzi's mind, when under the effect of the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed it was firmly reinforced, his expression also becoming reverent.
Ren Qing, perceiving that Shashanzi's soul was stable, withdrew the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed, and then inquired about matters of Yellow Sand City.
Shashanzi held nothing back.
Within the city there were altogether thirty-two Daoist temples, among them those where Marsh Immortals resided.
Temples like Yellow Crane Temple, such large Daoist temples usually had at least three Marsh Immortals in residence, smaller temples mostly one or two.
Shashanzi had originally been a Daoist of the "Green Snake Temple" in the west of the city, which enshrined a Self-Consumption Realm Marsh Immortal called the Green Snake Immortal.
But the Green Snake Immortal, having failed to advance into the Realm of Consuming Others, chose Ascension.
After Shashanzi left the Green Snake Temple, under government assignment he became a government-appointed Daoist responsible for handling corpses.
He had only known a one-sided view of the three realms of immortality, but only after becoming a government-appointed Daoist did he realize that Daoist acolytes who had not attained immortality would all become withered corpses.
Because of the division of power among the Daoist temples, the government practically no longer governed, at most coming forward to maintain basic order.
Listening to Shashanzi's description of the government, Ren Qing discovered its structure was quite similar to that of Xiangxiang, showing that they shared a common system.
Though he did not know what upheaval had occurred, it could be seen that several thousand years ago, regions still had some connection between them.
The more Shashanzi spoke, the more he seemed to vent the frustrations of his heart.
In Yellow Sand City, aside from the Daoist temples and the government, there was also an assembly formed of government-appointed Daoists, called the "Yellow Sand Dao Assembly."
The government was also aware of the Assembly's existence, and tacitly allowed it.
Mainly because within the government itself there were also not a few government-appointed Daoists.
Government-appointed Daoists were not all like Shashanzi, born from Daoist temples, actually most were produced through the imperial examinations of Yellow Sand City.
Equivalent to officials overseeing various industries.
The Yellow Sand Dao Assembly was more like scholars' poetry gatherings, discussing Daoist classics.
As a government-appointed Daoist not of the examination route, Shashanzi had few connections; it was only with the Qi Refining Method that he was able to push open the doors of the Assembly.
The Qi Refining Method was not considered much of a secret.
Ren Qing felt it somewhat marvelous, in Yellow Sand City, under the rule of the Marsh Immortals, the Yellow Sand Dao Assembly could not possibly give rise to rebellious intent in the short term.
But what about after several hundred years?
Just Chaoyangzi alone had been able to create a crude technique; as the Assembly exchanged and developed, the Qi Refining Method certainly would not stop at the realm of Full Circulation.
Mortals would sooner or later be able to grasp strength not inferior to the Marsh Immortals, provided they did not die prematurely.
Ren Qing pondered to himself.
It seemed possible to transmit the Restraint Officer Method to the Gobi people, thereby laying the foundation for the expansion of the Restraint Officers' Hall, though at present the timing was not quite right.
Wait until the Restraint Officers' Hall found a way to deal with the Marsh People, then speak of it.
Ren Qing decided first to go look at the Daoist temple to which Liu Chuan belonged.
He turned his head and asked: "By the way, what is the use of the Ascension Stair within Yellow Sand City?"