Ren Qing climbed upward while observing the traces on the surface of the rock wall.
From this he confirmed that the Buddha corpses leaving the Bottomless Pit had likely already separated from their host corpses, somewhat like adult insects emerging after breaking out of cocoons.
"Could it be that Cishi is deliberately breeding aberrant entities similar to Buddhas?"
Ren Qing shook his head. It seemed the Bottomless Pit was definitely more than a mass grave for Cishi; it likely held some special significance.
Whooo whooo whooo...
A gale roared as several fresh corpses swept past above his head.
From the corpses he could clearly sense faint Buddhist qi mixed within them, which was ultimately absorbed by the Buddhist dream seed at his brow.
Ren Qing's expression showed slight surprise. After the Resurrection Technique he mastered reached Yin Difference realm, he could vaguely see through part of the essence of Buddhist qi.
The outward appearance of Buddhist qi resembled glazed seven-colored light capable of guiding evil people toward goodness. It seemed even more like a proper technique than the Restraint Officer method.
But its core was mixed with a stench of decay.
Ren Qing's eyes stung slightly. It was as if he saw endless resentment within the Buddhist qi, countless remnant souls screaming in heart-rending agony.
The Primordial Fetal Membrane instinctively resisted the erosion of Buddhist qi, and the faint stabbing pain in his skin immediately brought him back to his senses.
Fear arose in Ren Qing's heart.
As expected of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. It was far beyond comparison with the Sitting-Deer Arhat, and had almost made him fall into the trap again.
It was hard to imagine ordinary people living in an environment filled with Buddhist qi.
Would they... still be human?
Ren Qing placed the Fetal Flesh close to his body in his robes and accelerated toward the surface.
As he got closer to the light at the exit of the Bottomless Pit, the increasingly dense Buddhist qi rushed toward him, yet there was also a scent of incense.
Ren Qing was already very close to the surface. He did not hurry to leave the Bottomless Pit, instead pushing the Heavy Child to its limit to look outward.
What entered his eyes was not the hell on earth he imagined, but a town.
The streets bustled with traffic. The Bottomless Pit was like a river crossing the town, and the walking residents paid it no attention at all.
The bricks of the entire town resembled glazed glass. Every few dozen meters there were simple altars with statues of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva placed upon them.
There were also quite a few temples, yet all of them worshipped the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
Incense stands at their entrances emitted smoke that drifted through the air above the town, making the place appear almost like a celestial realm.
It was hard to imagine that not long ago Buddha corpses had crawled out of the Bottomless Pit.
Ren Qing noticed that the appearance of the people of Cishi was very strange. Most had pale faces, full foreheads, and large fleshy ears.
They looked like the Buddha statues sitting in temples, giving him a strong sense of Buddhist nature.
Ren Qing tried letting the ghost shadow touch the outside world and discovered that although the Buddhist qi in the air was extremely dense, it was still within a tolerable range.
He glanced at the deep darkness below, faintly hearing roars.
Ren Qing exerted strength with both arms and climbed out of the Bottomless Pit. The dazzling sunlight carried lingering warmth, as if pulling him from hell back to the human world.
The Buddhist dream seed slowly absorbed Buddhist qi, causing a "卍" symbol to appear at his brow.
Because of the blessing of the Disaster Elimination Method, Ren Qing's presence was like a drop of water entering the sea, not causing the slightest ripple.
He now truly understood its effect. Once the Disaster Elimination Method advanced to Yang God realm, he would likely be able to pass through countless flowers without a single leaf touching him.
Ren Qing looked around, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He scanned several hundred civilians on the street and did not see a single woman. Every person was a male shaped like a Buddha.
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, protect us."
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, protect us."
Ren Qing's attention was drawn to an ascetic monk on the street.
The ascetic monk appeared at least seventy or eighty years old. His aged body knelt once every three steps, devoutly cultivating in the city.
If Ren Qing had not discovered the tens of thousands of corpses within the Bottomless Pit, he might truly have believed the Buddhist monks of Cishi were vegetarian.
He randomly found a secluded corner and changed into a similar monk's robe, then began wandering through the city without restraint.
The town was called "Heaven Above Heaven." Everywhere was filled with Buddhist elements, and everyone seemed like the most devout monk.
However, after walking around, Ren Qing still had not seen any women.
But there were children in the town, meaning Heaven Above Heaven was not without reproduction. There must be some hidden secret.
Seeing this, Ren Qing quietly had the ghost shadow touch the body of the ascetic monk.
The information flow surged.
[Age: three]
[Lifespan: one thousand three hundred fifty years]
[Technique: Maitreya White Bone Sutra]
Created by the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. Cultivation requires daily consumption of gold essence until the body transforms into an Indestructible Golden Body, at which point it is completed.
Ren Qing was stunned for several breaths, almost losing control of the Disaster Elimination Method. He repeatedly canceled and summoned the information flow again, yet it still showed the same result.
Even if the age and lifespan were reversed, he would not have been so shocked.
But looking at the ascetic monk's weathered face and wrinkled skin, it was impossible for him to be only three years old.
Why did his lifespan reach over a thousand years?
As for the style of the Maitreya White Bone Sutra, although bizarre, it was normal within this world.
Ren Qing took a deep breath and approached the ascetic monk Huiwu. The Heavy Child in his eyes was pushed to the limit, yet he could not detect the slightest abnormality.
He was an ordinary person in every possible sense.
Both legs were somewhat disabled. Because of long-term hunger, his stomach had shrunk to the size of a fist, and his lungs contained congenital illness.
Ren Qing then examined all the nearby civilians one by one. The situation was exactly the same.
A young child showed one year of age in the information flow; a young or middle-aged monk showed two years; an old monk showed three years.
The monks all cultivated strange techniques. The vast majority practiced the Maitreya White Bone Sutra, while a portion practiced the Maitreya Skin-Sutra.
But regardless of the technique, no sign of cultivation could be seen from the outside.
[Maitreya Skin-Sutra]
[Created by the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. Cultivation requires daily consumption of [golden skin until the body transforms into an Indestructible Golden Body, at which point it is completed.]
If Ren Qing were not focused on remaining low-profile, he would have captured several monks and taken them to Eternal Space Prison to extract their memories and investigate.
He used the ghost shadow to examine Huiwu's bones and flesh, and noticed that the soul within the Mud Pellet Palace was as aged as the body.
Aside from that, traces of swallowed metal remained in Huiwu's stomach, proving he had indeed practiced the so-called Maitreya White Bone Sutra.
"Cough cough cough cough..."
Huiwu slowly raised his head, his blurred eyes looking toward Ren Qing.
This was one drawback of the Disaster Elimination Method. When matters related to Ren Qing affected others, it might cause them to perceive his presence.
Huiwu's pupils widened. Suddenly there was a man before him.
The man wore a white monk's robe. His transcendent aura was unlike that of a mortal, and a "卍" symbol appeared at his brow, mysterious and profound.
Faint Buddhist qi flowed into the symbol, causing it to glow.
"This must be the true body of the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, coming to deliver me into Buddhahood."
As soon as this thought arose, Huiwu's mind became extremely pure. The Buddhist qi in the air seemed guided as it surged into his body.
The Buddhist qi destroyed Huiwu's body, quickly driving his vitality toward death.
Ren Qing had just prepared to erase Huiwu's memory using dream techniques, but then realized Huiwu seemed to have misunderstood something.
Huiwu burst into tears, stood up, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began chanting scriptures.
Countless gazes around them turned toward him, filled with undisguised envy, even though Huiwu was about to die completely.
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva..."
"Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva..."
They all stopped walking, joined their palms together, and followed the chanting. Some monks even knelt on the ground as if facing a Buddha.
More and more monks gathered, and the scene even showed signs of losing control.
Ren Qing clicked his tongue and quietly retreated to the side.
Before long, more than a hundred monks emerged from a temple called "Vajra Temple" and began bathing and changing Huiwu's clothes in the street.
His tattered monk's robe was replaced, and every inch of his skin was carefully wiped with clean cotton cloth.
The many monks watching felt no strangeness at all. Instead they considered it an honor, as if witnessing the coming of a Buddha into the world.
When Huiwu was completely tidied up, he no longer resembled an ascetic monk, but rather a respected abbot of a great temple.
"Respectfully send off Great Master Huiwu's nirvana..."
The leading middle-aged monk shouted respectfully.
Then four young, strong monks stepped forward and supported Huiwu, whose consciousness was already blurred, walking toward the Bottomless Pit.
At that moment strange changes appeared throughout Huiwu's body.
His flesh began to dry out, his pupils turned blood red, and metallic-colored blood flowed continuously from his facial features.
When Huiwu arrived beside the Bottomless Pit, his teeth and nails had turned bronze, and the Buddhist qi within him became increasingly dense.
The content shown by the information flow also changed.
[Age: three]
[Lifespan: one day]
[Technique: Maitreya White Bone Sutra]
The more than one thousand years of lifespan had vanished completely, as if some unknown reason had forcibly stripped it from Huiwu's body.
But Ren Qing also confirmed something because of this.
Cishi likely possessed a special lifespan-extending method. Even if it did not extend life by a thousand years, five hundred years would still be extremely tempting for him.
Naturally Ren Qing wanted to obtain the secret of lifespan extension.
However, his first priority was ensuring his own safety, since it involved the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, an existence at least equivalent to an Earth Immortal.
The monks then brought a clay jar. Huiwu was placed inside it, filled with charcoal and firewood, and finally completely sealed with mud.
"A flesh Buddha?"
Ren Qing immediately recalled that in his previous life at Mount Jiuhua there was a monk burial method called seated nirvana, where the corpse was placed into a jar. Once the flesh transformed into dry remains, it became a flesh Buddha.
Movement came from the clay jar, followed by Huiwu's terrified screams.
"I don't want to become a Buddha anymore, I don't want to become a Buddha anymore, Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva save me..."
Unfortunately his voice was drowned out by the deafening chanting of scriptures.
This ritual lasted several hours until Huiwu finally died. Only then did the monks return to calmness.
They opened the clay jar again, leaving only Huiwu's corpse with a twisted expression.
The monks washed the bronze-colored fresh blood staining the jar, but treated the corpse as something ordinary, their expressions carrying slight reverence.
They skillfully used tools to drill holes in the soles of the corpse's feet and the top of its head, then extracted each bone from the body one by one.
The bones emitted a metallic luster. Without seeing their shape, one would think they were made of gold.