Ren Qing informed the Restraint Officers' Hall about matters concerning the demon cultivators in advance, and later posted notices throughout the entire city in the form of announcements.
The existence of demon cultivators still stirred up waves, and even many Daoist temple disciples developed resistance in their hearts.
Li Tiangang felt somewhat of a headache, and only after discussing with Ren Qing for a long time did they finally settle on a countermeasure.
Ren Qing used the aberration of wild beasts contaminated by demonic qi as an example, likening demon cultivators to patients suffering from severe chronic illnesses, repeatedly emphasizing the dangers of demonic qi.
What he said was indeed reasonable.
Demonic qi could completely and thoroughly twist living beings. At the time, many demon cultivators still retained memories from before, but their dispositions had been entirely lost.
From this, one could see the danger of this world.
Even the Restraint Officer methods similarly affected cultivators' bodies and souls; otherwise, demon cultivator tribes would not have diverged so greatly within such a short period of time.
When the people of Jingzhou reluctantly became willing to accept demon cultivators, Ren Qing could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Very quickly, an escort agency composed of demon cultivators was formally established. Han Li did not dare bring too many demon cultivators into the outside world, only taking four people.
These four demon cultivators did not include Teng Ning, yet among their respective tribes they were already considered outstanding.
They all possessed demon-aberration cultivation equivalent to the Ghost Envoy realm. Although in Jingzhou they were left with only their body enhanced by blessings, they were still not something the Half-Corpse realm could compare to.
Yet an escort agency possessing so many high-realm cultivators could not receive a single job.
Han Li was very helpless about this.
His experience in the jianghu was still too shallow, and he had not accumulated any connections. He had no choice but to lead the escort agency outside the city to see whether they could pick up any leftovers.
However, when demon cultivators were within Jingzhou, where demonic qi was abundant, their bodies would all uncontrollably develop abnormalities.
This showed that the erosion of demonic qi was difficult to completely eliminate. Only when demon cultivators' Restraint Officer methods reached the Half-Corpse realm would it be possible to withstand demonic qi.
Ren Qing had not expected things to take so many twists and turns.
His original goal was to let some demon cultivators integrate into the environment of Wuwei City, and in the end merge the demon market into the dream market.
Once a demon market sold resources produced by Eternal Shackles, the efficiency of life extension would increase quite a bit.
But now it seemed that things were not as simple as imagined.
In the end, Han Li could only take the demon cultivators to do miscellaneous work such as cutting up demon beast corpses. Fortunately, the latter did not mind and honestly stayed in the slaughterhouse.
Seeing that the situation could barely be considered on the right track, Ren Qing could not help but reveal a bitter expression.
Wuwei City had shrunk its hunting range, so demon beast corpses were no longer as plentiful as before, with the daily amount being roughly thirty to forty heads.
After the quota was opened, Huang Ziwan and other Restraint Officers had also thought about going to Wuwei City.
However, after asking Ren Qing and discovering that Jingzhou's profits were continuously decreasing, they gave up on going and stayed in Xiangxiang to explore the south.
Inside the slaughterhouse.
Demon beast corpses over ten meters long were piled into small mountains. The bloody stench attracted dense swarms of flies, as well as several cats sneaking food in the corners.
The demon cultivators held sharp artifacts and cut open the fur, gradually extracting various materials.
Their speed could not be considered fast, mainly because the Restraint Officer methods had not yet been entered, and they were purely relying on brute force to swing the artifacts.
The demon cultivators had already been on the slaughter line for several days. Unknowingly, they had grown accustomed to the pungent stench, and even the wildness in their hearts felt pleasure.
Han Li looked somewhat helpless. There was no way around it, so he could only stay in the slaughterhouse to lend a hand.
His control of flying swords was considered nimble. Even massive arms took at most half an hour, but hard skulls required one or two hours of busy work.
Han Li secretly pondered whether to continue increasing the number of demon cultivators coming to Wuwei City.
At this moment, a demon cultivator who had gone inside a demon beast body to cut out internal organs let out a startled cry, interrupting Han Li's thoughts.
"What's wrong?"
Han Li frowned and recalled the flying sword back into his palm.
He saw the demon cultivator panic and scramble out of the demon beast corpse, his terrified expression seeming as though he had seen something horrifying inside.
The demon cultivator noticed that Han Li had been disturbed and could not help but feel somewhat guilty.
Han Li tensed his muscles and asked in a calm tone, "What's wrong, why so hurried?"
One demon cultivator covered in blood took a few steps forward and explained with an ugly expression, "I didn't even use force and the spleen ruptured..."
The internal organs of demon beasts were the most favored by Restraint Officers. Not only could they be used to cultivate techniques, they could also serve as materials for refining artifacts.
Han Li said with a smile, "It's fine. Just be more careful next time."
"Mm."
The demon cultivator Zhang Yu nodded, saying strangely, "Who would have thought the spleen was hollowed out from inside? I pierced the outer skin with just the tip of the knife, and inside it was all this kind of hair."
Zhang Yu handed the hair in his palm to Han Li for inspection.
Han Li discovered that the hair was pure black, and moreover several meters long, very much resembling the hair of some kind of large mammal.
He suddenly thought of the strange phenomenon he had once seen in the Demon Market on Wine Lake Island.
At that time, the aura emitted by the Demon Market was like strands of upright black hair, and within it there were also more than a dozen figures resembling black goats.
"Don't move. Wait here."
Han Li hurriedly rushed into the demon beast corpse, not caring that his clothes were soaked through with blood, and ran toward the position of the internal organs.
Because the demon cultivators were relatively unfamiliar with handling corpses, it took Han Li a long time to find where the organs were.
The spleen was like a punctured balloon, stuffed full of black hair. As blood slowly flowed, it looked like strands of threadworms.
Han Li instinctively felt his head swell with pain, as if he had returned to the bizarre Demon Market.
He used the needle-shaped artifact to cut across his tongue. Coldness immediately spread throughout his body, distracting thoughts were forcibly suppressed, and his impatient state of mind became calm.
Han Li did not know whether the aberration of the demon beast corpse was caused by the Restraint Officer methods, but it had clearly gone beyond the scope of a normal corpse.
He had no intention of checking the other internal organs. He used a bird-type aberrant beast to transmit information to Ren Qing, then directly walked out of the corpse.
Zhang Yu could not help but ask, "Is it all right?"
Han Li slightly shook his head and asked whether similar situations had been encountered in the previous days. The demon cultivators replied that everything had been relatively smooth before.
While waiting for Ren Qing to arrive, they simply set warning notices at the entrances and exits of the slaughterhouse, to prevent civilians from mistakenly entering.
Han Li's right hand was hidden within his sleeve, pinching a hand seal and ready to retreat at any time.
He continuously observed the demon beast corpse with Double Pupils. Aside from producing turbid qi, it was no different from ordinary demon beast corpses.
"Ah..."
Pain stabbed into Zhang Yu's palm. The black hair actually tried to break free from his control.
At the instant Han Li turned his head, the demon beast corpse suddenly swelled, flesh beginning to collapse, bones dissolving into liquid.
Zhang Yong could not help but release his grip, and the black hair burrowed back into the corpse like swimming snakes.
The demon beast corpse decayed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Against the backdrop of thick smoke and dust, a twisted black shadow gradually revealed itself.
It was a half-man, half-goat monster composed of black hair. Countless filth was absorbed by it, causing its size to swell continuously.
A look of doubt appeared in Han Li's eyes.
He did not sense the bizarre aura of the Demon Market from the monster, and the opponent was extremely unstable, even causing the air to twist along with it.
"Let's go. We withdraw. Leave this place to the Restraint Officers' Hall to handle."
Han Li led the demon cultivators to slowly retreat. The monster wanted to try to follow, but every step it took was extraordinarily difficult.
The body formed of black hair showed alternating expansion and contraction.
The monster let out a bleat, looking as if it was about to explode.
Han Li glanced at the several large demon beast corpses in the open space of the slaughterhouse, could not help cursing inwardly, then directly urged his flying sword.
After living beings die, a sealed space forms within their bodies, where turbid qi accumulates. A slight misstep can easily cause a chain reaction.
Bang...
The monster exploded. The shockwave swept up dust. After the other demon beast corpses were violently impacted, cracks immediately appeared on the surfaces of their skins.
Turbid qi also began to vent.
Boom boom boom...
Han Li realized he could not escape safely. The black insect directly landed on the wall, planning to use Eternal Shackles to avoid danger.
Ren Qing arrived at the center of the slaughterhouse in an instant.
Because he had gone to check the giant tree in the Longevity Forbidden Zone, his consciousness was not in his physical body, nearly causing the slaughterhouse to be destroyed.
"Release."
Ghost shadows enveloped the area within a hundred meters, completely absorbing the power of the corpse explosions.
The slaughterhouse was in complete disarray, with corpse fragments everywhere, but fortunately no civilians in the surrounding buildings were harmed.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes.
He noticed the monster composed of black goat hair.
Although Ren Qing had taught many demon beasts the Spirit-Entering Technique, he still paid attention to their movements, and each was immersed in cultivation.
Ren Qing had Han Li and the others return to their residences, then picked up a bundle of black hair.
[Heavenly Demon Hair, formed under the influence of heavenly demon aura, can assist the cultivation of related techniques.]
"So it really is related to heavenly demons..."
Ren Qing belatedly raised his head again. The black spots on the surface of the waning moon seemed to have changed, with subtle differences in their distribution.
His expression changed drastically. He then pushed the Disaster-Dispelling Technique to the extreme, using Wu Deceit to completely devour his own sense of existence.
Two dream seeds appeared at Ren Qing's brow, using them to protect his body and soul.
Under his gaze, the waning moon in midair became increasingly complete. Nearby buildings vanished like passing clouds, and all clamor disappeared.
Ren Qing arrived at a deeper layer of Jingzhou, where dense heavenly demon aura rushed toward him.
The black spots on the blood moon were in fact strands of black hair growing out.
The corner of his eye twitched. From such a distance, he could not determine the condition of that "Heavenly Demon Egg," but it was obvious that something had hatched.
"Could it be something I caused?"
In the distance, a massive giant rat aberrant creature passed by. The demonic qi it emitted was no longer pure, mixed with faint heavenly demon aura.
"Heavenly-demonized aberrant creature..."
Using Double Pupils, Ren Qing perceived that within a hundred li, aside from scattered aberrant creatures, there were actually humanoid beings being chased by aberrant creatures.
He had Dragon Spine carry him into the air, and unexpectedly found traces of "Rabbit-Toad cultivators." That aura different from demonic qi could not be mistaken.
Ren Qing's feelings immediately became complicated.
It could now be confirmed that the main responsibility for the upheaval of heavenly demon aura did not lie with the Spirit-Entering Technique.
If Rabbit-Toad cultivators wished to descend to the Waning Moon layer, they first had to go to the Lower Crescent Moon layer, inevitably encountering the Heavenly Demon Egg parasitizing the Wuwei Hall.
What they did to the Heavenly Demon Egg, thereby causing the outbreak.
As for the demon beast corpses in the slaughterhouse, the source might be a heavenly-demonized aberrant creature that descended to the Waning Moon layer, wantonly spreading terror.
Ren Qing helplessly returned to the Waning Moon layer.
The Heavenly Demon Egg should have been a hidden move laid down by Heavenly Daozi before fleeing in those years.
Who knew whether Heavenly Daozi had anticipated that, nearly a hundred years after the blood moon destroyed the Wuwei Daoist Temple, it would end up being entangled by heavenly demon aura.