Ren Qing saw that the sky was about to brighten, and so he left from the Self-Consumption Realm.
With the ghost shadow sitting in guard, Liu Chuan surely would not stir up trouble again, and the residents around the Daoist temple could finally live a few days in peace.
Although for the Gobi people, the Daoist temple no longer recruiting Daoist children was not necessarily a good thing, after all it meant fewer chances to become immortal.
They might even rack their brains to send their children to other Daoist temples.
Ren Qing came onto the street, and the residents of Huang Sand City began to return home one after another, the street instantly becoming deserted.
He hesitated for a moment and then walked toward outside the city, planning to go see the situation at the mass grave.
But Ren Qing had just gotten halfway when he was stopped by a fat Daoist in his early thirties. The other should be an officially-appointed Daoist of the granary, having eaten well and grown fat.
Ren Qing squinted his eyes, and heard the fat Daoist open his mouth and say: "You are... Sha Shanzi, right? What a coincidence today, it's been some time since we met and now we run into each other."
"Indeed it is so."
He pretended to imitate Sha Shanzi's tone of voice, and his appearance was basically always maintained by illusion, so it was not strange to be recognized.
But Ren Qing knew, with his faint presence, the fat Daoist must have come deliberately to find him, absolutely not the so-called chance meeting from the other's mouth.
The fat Daoist mysteriously leaned close to Ren Qing, and said in a low voice: "Daoist friend Sha Shanzi, you haven't come to the Daoist assembly for several months, right?"
"Recently there have been some matters that kept me busy."
Because Sha Shanzi had to bring A Zhuo to become familiar with the work of an officially-appointed Daoist, the last few Huangsha Daoist Assemblies he had chosen to shirk.
The fat Daoist stressed: "Daoist friend, don't miss it, the next Daoist assembly is at the riverside of the Sand River ten days from now."
"Certainly, certainly."
Ren Qing forced a smile, his eyes not smiling, and stared at the fat Daoist's back for several breaths.
He discovered that the fat Daoist's Qi Refining Method had already reached Perfect Circulation.
But both lungs were rather strange, several times larger than ordinary people, and filled with wine vapor, thereby causing his other organs to be overburdened.
Estimated in a few years they would fail.
Sha Shanzi's natural aptitude was probably also limited, otherwise clearly having been the first to come into contact with the Qi Refining Method, how could his realm have stayed hovering at Major Circulation.
Ren Qing guessed that something unusual had happened at the Huangsha Daoist Assembly, and so he drew a divided soul into the Prison Within the Abdomen, startling Sha Shanzi.
A few hours without seeing him, Sha Shanzi looked as though he had aged ten years, his hair scratched into a mess, and his eyes a bit red and swollen.
He was still holding the Wind and Sand Method, not yet having considered whether to cultivate it.
"Im... Immortal, you..."
Sha Shanzi's heart gave a jolt, seeing Ren Qing he guessed it was to force him to cultivate an evil method, and could not help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.
He had just wanted to inquire about details of the Wind and Sand Method, when he heard Ren Qing ask: "Do you know a rather obese Daoist in the Huangsha Daoist Assembly?"
Sha Shanzi was stunned for a moment, and then answered honestly: "This person's name is Tu Qingzi, and my relationship with him is rather ordinary."
"How is his Qi Refining Method cultivation?"
"That I don't know, but the last time I saw him he had not even entered the door, now at most it would be Minor Circulation."
Sha Shanzi scratched his head with a bitter smile, and then discovered Ren Qing's figure had disappeared.
He looked at the Wind and Sand Method in his hand, then at the sand piles not far away, and could not help but let out a long sigh.
Ren Qing continued walking, his expression slightly speechless.
After all, the Qi Refining Method had spread out from Sha Shanzi, yet when asked he knew nothing at all.
With Sha Shanzi's circumstances, relying on the Qi Refining Method alone he could already form a considerable force, why stay in a broken house surpassing corpses.
He quickly walked out the city gate, the guards hiding in the shade to rest, not even paying attention to Ren Qing in his Daoist robe.
Not far outside the city was the mass grave, with hundreds of dried corpses placed.
Not all corpses qualified to be buried here, it must be Daoist children who had died from becoming immortal, so they were generally not old.
Ren Qing seemingly casually swept across, but his narrowed pupils quickly spun, and in a few breaths he had checked all the dried corpses.
He turned his face calmly and returned toward Huang Sand City, a few chuckles escaping his mouth.
The placement of the corpses in the mass grave all conformed to a certain pattern, it was obvious that one was missing, unsurprisingly it was Chaoyangzi himself.
A fine cicada sloughing its shell.
Probably Sha Shanzi obtaining the Qi Refining Method was also deliberately arranged by him.
Ren Qing knew the abnormality of the Huangsha Daoist Assembly was also because of Chaoyangzi, as to what exactly the latter was scheming was unknown.
Wait...
In his mind he recalled the information about the Wine God Technique.
[Wine God Technique]
[Created by the Meat and Wine Taoist, it requires using men, women, old and young as ingredients to cook thirty-six kinds of wines, only in combination with drinking can it be cultivated.]
Ren Qing realized he had fallen into a mistaken way of thinking.
He had assumed that Chaoyangzi had not obtained the complete Wine God Technique, otherwise he should have cultivated it long ago, but he had overlooked the difficulty of mastering the Restraint Officer Method.
Thirty-six kinds of wines...
How to brew wine in this ghost place of Water Marsh, only by a mutation of the lungs to collect wine liquid.
Chaoyangzi setting up the Immortal Ascension Ladder was also to let the government bring in more maggots, but then discovered the Daoist temple's control over this was extremely strict.
So he could only strike obliquely by way of the Huangsha Daoist Assembly.
Ren Qing's heart could not restrain its excitement, the Wine God Technique seemed close at hand.
But the more at such a time, the more he must be cautious.
Moreover he always felt that the Wine God Technique was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
In such a closed environment as Huang Sand City, how could an external technique appear out of nowhere, there must be something hidden within.
Ren Qing returned to the courtyard.
He then did not step out the gate, not past the second door, and took advantage of the Daoist assembly interval to peruse the Water Marsh Method, hoping to seek clues within.
The more Ren Qing read the more his brows furrowed.
To tell the truth, cultivating this method had a hundred ways to die a violent death, after all at the entry one must sacrifice oneself as the beginning.
The Gobi people were like Ouyang Feng practicing the Nine Yin Manual in reverse, a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse and actually succeeding, somewhat unbelievable.
The Ze people ascending to Other-Consumption Realm must devour five unformed pseudo–Ze people, thereby attaining the feature of the Five Qi Facing the Origin.
In theory, by continually teaching the common folk methods of becoming immortal, one could create large numbers of Other-Consumption Realm Ze people, Huang Sand City could not possibly be this stable.
The existence of Qingxu Palace was just very clever.
It could allow Ze people to Ascend to the upper world, not letting their numbers accumulate more and more, leading to the slaughter of mortals to extinction.
If the Wine God Technique was also connected to Qingxu Palace, that was something terrifying to think about.
Could it be that the ulcer Daoist was still alive...
Ren Qing forced himself to calm down.
After all, the Ze people in Qingxu Palace were obviously parasitic on the ulcer Daoist, gaining nourishment by some means.
The ulcer Daoist should already have turned into a corpse, otherwise why raise a swarm of flies.
Ren Qing tended to think that the Ze people in Qingxu Palace did not want to drain the pond to catch the fish, and so created this situation, but he could not help making precautions.
He continued sorting through the Water Marsh Method.
Ren Qing examined the technique materials stored within the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Unfortunately it was unknown what exactly the third stage of the Water Marsh Method was, otherwise he could attempt to perfect it.
For him, as long as the modified technique was acknowledged by the information flow, he could see the flaws after advancement, and then make supplements.
Ren Qing considered in his mind the possibility of letting Liu Chuan ascend to Other-Consumption Realm.
But very quickly he gave up that thought, whether the ghost shadow would be useful against Other-Consumption Realm Ze people was still a question.
During Ren Qing's research of the Water Marsh Method, every two days he would go to nearby Daoist temples to handle Daoist children's dried corpses, and also use this to observe Liu Chuan.
He gathered the information, and through the ghost shadows of the Restraint Officer camp conveyed it to Song Zongwu.
Although the Restraint Officers' Hall also had clues in this regard, they were far less detailed than Ren Qing's, and immediately they began to take action.
Li Tiangang once again chose to use the Other Shore Flower to create Ze people, preparing to test techniques, but this time even the body was assembled from materials.
In the end the Ze people formed could not even clearly speak complete words, and could not survive long under the sun.
Ascending to Qingxu Palace was even less to be considered.
All kinds of techniques were successively tried on the Ze people, finally determining that poisonous vapor was the simplest way to harm the enemy, but it must be poison in mist form.
Song Zongwu at once planned to bring part of the Restraint Officers back to Xiangxiang, and then transfer the Restraint Officers who had mastered poison-related techniques into the Water Marsh.
This coming and going would probably take half a year.
Ren Qing originally thought Li Tiangang would continue to lay hidden hands on the Ze people, finding a chance to send them into Qingxu Palace, planting a dark chess piece.
Unexpectedly it was given to Li Yaoyang.
Because of failure in advancement, Li Yaoyang's body was collapsing ever more obviously, even if he stabilized his realm, he could not live long.
After he obtained the Ze people, he left the camp and went into seclusion in the desert.
Ren Qing did not think highly of Li Yaoyang, Ze people were far different from gu insects, to want to use them to ascend to Yin Runner Realm was purely wishful thinking.
He no longer paid attention to the situation within the camp.
When the Huangsha Daoist Assembly was approaching, Ren Qing set out toward the southwest corner of the city.
The Daoist assembly's chosen time was very clever.
It was when the sun was about to set and night had not yet arrived, so that the Daoists attending must stay the whole night, unable to leave early.
Ren Qing very quickly saw the so-called Sand River.
In fact the Sand River had nothing to do with water, it was a hill that flowed all year round, like the rivers and mountains recorded in Daoist texts.
The sandy river channel, several meters wide, looked motionless on the surface, yet could easily swallow the lives of Gobi people, and so the place was rather secluded.
Compared with great rivers flowing endlessly, the Sand River indeed had a different kind of grandeur.
Beside the Sand River was a spacious stone house, and behind the gate already gathered more than ten people, all officially-appointed Daoists of Huang Sand City.
The sour stench of wine drifted with the wind.
Ren Qing had arrived early, not expecting that there would be someone even earlier.
They saw Ren Qing's figure, and all came warmly to greet him, including that Tu Qingzi, their words full of flattery.
Ren Qing responded perfunctorily a few times, and then stood in a corner looking at the crowd.
Sure enough, when something is unusual there must be a demon.
The Daoists present each had at least Perfect Circulation cultivation, no wonder they gave off such a dense wine vapor.
Ren Qing saw a pot-bellied Daoist, whose lungs had already turned crystalline like glass, but at the junctions of blood vessels new lungs had grown.
And some Daoists' organs bore traces of transporting wine vapor.
Or the wine vapor integrated into the lungs had been refined.
It seemed Chaoyangzi was still attempting to secretly refine wine, and the Huangsha Daoist Assembly was only a bunch of fake Daoists kept in the dark.
But if dozens of officially-appointed Daoists died or were injured, Chaoyangzi would surely be noticed by the government.
There might even be Daoist temples paying attention.
Could the back road be the Immortal Ascension Ladder?
Truly, all changes return to the same root, the Gobi people had a mad obsession with becoming immortal.
Perhaps it was a point that could be exploited.