The main soul consciousness returned to the main body. As soon as Ren Qing opened his eyes, he saw the sealed rock wall.
He had not chosen to enter seclusion on the Ghost Ship. Instead he deliberately dug a cave to hide in, the advantage being that he did not need to maintain the Disaster Elimination Method.
Now it seemed very wise, after all Cishi was directly above his head.
Judging by the frequency with which corpses were discarded, people likely came to the Bottomless Pit often. It was inevitable that some high-realm cultivators were mixed among them.
Ren Qing had the ghost shadow drill out of the cave and attach to the rock wall's surface so he could react in time if something unexpected occurred. Then he began examining the Resurrection Technique.
He had expectations for the Resurrection Technique. The advancement of The Taotie Method or the No-Eye Method to Yang God realm depended entirely on using the Resurrection Technique to complete the fifth primary-secondary technique.
Ren Qing felt that five primary-secondary techniques suited him best.
Too many techniques would increase the difficulty of future advancement, but too few would reduce the potential of divine powers and might even affect the Yang God realm Ascension Method.
He closed his eyes and looked into his mind, scanning the mutation tree of the Resurrection Technique.
The Resurrection Technique's mutation tree looked like vegetation of the underworld Yellow Springs. The leaves of the sprouts resembled hanging corpses, giving an inexplicably eerie feeling.
Ren Qing glanced at his own lifespan and sighed helplessly.
Lifespan: four hundred seventy-five years
When he advanced to Multitude Yang Immortal, he had almost exhausted his lifespan, leaving just over a hundred years.
But now more than half a year had passed. Through various methods of extending lifespan, Ren Qing had accumulated less than five hundred years in total.
If the Restraint Officers' Hall were still in Xiangxiang, Shuize, and Jingzhou, his lifespan would at least have doubled.
Facts proved that the prosperity of the Restraint Officers' Hall was directly related to Ren Qing's efficiency in extending lifespan.
At present, most of the Restraint Officers' Hall's active forces were trapped in the Longevity Restricted Zone, while a small portion were trapped in Eternal Space Prison. Without the Dream Market connecting them, how could the lifespan extension efficiency be high.
Ren Qing sighed several more times.
There were too many troubles to handle. He could only hope that Cishi would not be too dangerous and would give him enough time to sort everything out.
"First advance the Resurrection Technique to Yin Difference realm."
He summoned the information flow.
[Reviver: resurrection for one hundred days]
[Reborn One: reversal of life and death]
[Reincarnator: three lives as livestock]
Ren Qing stared at the content displayed by the information flow for a long time. His expression became somewhat lost, his eyes filled with both shock and joy.
Judging from the literal meaning, "Reviver" should be an ability that resurrects living beings, though there must certainly be drawbacks.
"Resurrection for one hundred days... perhaps it means resurrecting for one hundred days?"
Ren Qing could not understand clearly, but since it was a Restraint Officer method, it must obey equivalent exchange. No matter what method was used to resurrect someone, the caster would have to pay a certain price.
At the very least it would consume lifespan, and the resurrected being might already be an aberrant entity.
Ren Qing first eliminated Reviver.
However, if he could confirm that Reviver could resurrect himself, then regardless of the cost he would choose it without hesitation.
The literal meaning of "Reborn One" was somewhat mysterious.
Reborn One might involve the transformation between the life and death states of the body, freely switching between corpse and living person. The more he looked at it, the more suitable it seemed for the Dead Man's Sutra rather than The Taotie Method or the No-Eye Method.
This was exactly where Ren Qing hesitated. If he chose Reborn One, he might have to find another technique to patch together for The Taotie Method and No-Eye Method.
His gaze turned to Reincarnator.
"Reincarnator" was easiest to understand, likely similar to the life-death reincarnation of Buddhist techniques.
After a Buddha Son mastered Buddhist techniques and a Buddha diagram appeared behind them, regardless of cultivation level they could live through ten lifetimes.
Reincarnator allowed three lives.
Ren Qing logically should consider choosing Reincarnator. This mutation route was more suited for survival, but seeing "three lives as livestock" inevitably made him hesitate.
According to Ren Qing's observations, souls simply did not reincarnate. Yet according to Buddhist doctrine, after death living beings enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation based on karma.
Among the Six Paths are the Human Path and the Animal Path. Once falling into the Animal Path, one is reborn as a mindless beast and dies after suffering hardships.
Daoist records contained similar statements.
Ren Qing felt somewhat conflicted. Although Reincarnator seemed somewhat useless, it did provide two extra lives, something other cultivators would desperately seek.
As for reincarnating as livestock, if after reaching higher realms the Resurrection Technique allowed reincarnating as a human again, abandoning it would be a pity.
If Ren Qing had not mastered the Resurrection Technique through the information flow and thus lacked specific cultivation details, he would certainly find a few volunteers to cultivate it and determine the advantages and disadvantages of each mutation route.
"Wait..."
Ren Qing suddenly slapped his forehead. His main soul consciousness descended into the Longevity Restricted Zone once again.
This time he was not going for the Longevity Tree but to check whether the remaining texts of Wei'an Town recorded anything about the Resurrection Technique.
He first asked Xu Sanliang, who immediately told him that such texts were actually held by the clan elders.
Ren Qing hurried to a courtyard in the corner of the town where an elderly man in his seventies or eighties lived.
Seeing that the visitor was Ren Qing, the old man did not stop him and handed over all the texts.
After experiencing the destruction of Wei'an Town by immortals, he had long lost all spirit; one foot was already in the coffin.
Ren Qing did not stand on ceremony. He took the texts and left.
He spent the entire night reading the texts from beginning to end. The contents were all records of Wei'an Town offering people as sacrifices to select candidates.
For example, in a certain year and month, how many residents were sacrificed to obtain immortal opportunity.
The more Ren Qing read, the more solemn his expression became.
Those who obtained immortal opportunity could live past one hundred fifty years, but after death their corpses became strange, with beasts and insects crawling out.
Thus the Resurrection Technique aberrant object of the Longevity Restricted Zone might also follow the Reincarnator mutation route, which explained why the longevity species did not stiffen after death.
Ren Qing immediately abandoned Reincarnator.
Song Zongwu once casually mentioned to him that the reincarnation of Buddhist techniques occurs after the three souls and seven spirits disperse, leaving only a single undying spark of spirit that eventually enters a fetus in a pregnant woman to reincarnate.
But Reincarnator's rebirth emerged from the original corpse itself, which carried an entirely different meaning.
For Ren Qing, who pursued immortality, the exhaustion of lifespan meant death and the dissipation of Dao. There was no such thing as dying naturally of old age.
But if killed by a powerful enemy, then the ability of Reincarnator would be completely meaningless.
Ren Qing might as well rely on the Bone Armor Technique. Once that technique reached above Yin Difference realm, if he died, his bones would revive into a "White Bone Immortal," allowing him to survive in the world.
"It seems I can only choose Reborn One. If necessary, I'll use it as a secondary technique for Dead Man's Sutra."
Do you choose the Reborn One branch? One year of lifespan will be consumed.
He then silently confirmed. His heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and the vascular-shaped aberrant object attached itself to the surface of his heart.
Ren Qing closed his eyes for a moment and finally understood the ability of Reborn One.
Reborn One did not actually convert between life and death states. Instead it extracted one's vitality, placing the body into a state of false death.
Ren Qing immediately attempted to use it.
His skin became completely pale, his muscles shrank, and his lips turned blue, like a corpse that had just died.
The extracted vitality was stored within the Reborn One aberrant object.
Ren Qing could maintain it for at most five days.
If the pseudo-corpse state lasted too long, corpse spots would appear, flesh would gradually decay, and false death would eventually become true death.
He looked at Reborn One's mutation tree. The Ghost Envoy realm stage was called "Rebirth Pagoda."
Rebirth Pagoda: Life-Storage Pagoda Realm
Ren Qing noticed the description of Rebirth Pagoda and immediately prepared to classify the Resurrection Technique under The Taotie Method. It most likely involved space and thus fit extremely well with the stomach world.
Do you choose the Rebirth Pagoda branch? Ten years of lifespan will be consumed.
He first advanced the Resurrection Technique to Ghost Envoy realm.
His heart began beating rapidly. Inside the left ventricle a space resembling a pagoda formed, slowly absorbing the leaking vitality.
Only then did Ren Qing confirm using the Resurrection Technique as a secondary technique for The Taotie Method.
As for the Dead Man's Sutra, a certain speculation suddenly arose in his mind.
The purpose of the Dead Man's Sutra might not actually be longevity. Instead, after transforming oneself into a zombie drought demon, immortality came along with that physique.
According to folk legends, an ordinary person once accidentally picked up a wordless heavenly book and eventually cultivated into a Ba Immortal, gaining immortality.
Another saying claimed that after cultivating the Dead Man's Sutra, the result was not a Ba Immortal but a terrifying monster called "Hanba," capable of bringing drought across thousands of li.
If that were truly the case, the Dead Man's Sutra likely could not easily integrate secondary techniques.
Even if it were integrated, it should not involve techniques related to bodily vitality, lest the balance between neither life nor death be broken.
This thought came to Ren Qing subconsciously through observing the Buddha corpses.
If large amounts of vitality were injected into a Buddha corpse, the flesh statue would inevitably separate from the corpse and survive independently as another aberrant entity.
But if the vitality of the Buddha corpse were cut off, it would become a true corpse.
Instead, fusing the Resurrection Technique with the stomach world to suppress the defects brought by the Dead Man's Sutra would be safer.
Ren Qing immediately looked at the mutation tree.
The Eternal Space Prison mutation tree sensed his thoughts and proactively wrapped around the Rebirth Pagoda mutation tree.
The stomach world immediately began trembling slightly.
Ren Qing was about to turn his attention to Eternal Space Prison when he suddenly noticed rustling noises coming from the Bottomless Pit.
The ghost shadow also issued a warning.
The movement within the Bottomless Pit grew louder and louder, as if some enormous creature was climbing toward the surface, gravel falling like rain.
Because it was still daytime, Ren Qing's consciousness could not attach to the ghost shadow. He could only judge the situation through the information it transmitted.
A Buddha corpse at least one hundred meters tall was actually climbing up from the depths.
At first Ren Qing thought his breakthrough had caused a disturbance among the Buddha corpses, but after checking several times he found no aura leaking outward.
Bang...
The murmuring of Buddhist scriptures grew increasingly intense. Clearly the Buddha corpse was not far from the cave.
Ren Qing again confirmed the size of the Buddha corpse through the ghost shadow. His heart was filled with disbelief. Could a Buddha corpse around one hundred meters actually move?
The Buddha corpse soon headed toward the surface, its heavy footsteps gradually fading away.
Ren Qing shook his head. Cishi revealed strangeness everywhere. The exact situation was unknown, so he must prepare to retreat at any time.
His stomach began to wriggle on its own.
As soon as Rebirth Pagoda touched Eternal Space Prison, it was swallowed without resistance, causing the stomach world to begin transforming.
The commotion was far greater than when Dao Dao Dao broke through to the Golden Core stage (Ghost Envoy realm).