Ren Qing observed Heaven Above Heaven from the cave dwelling deep underground.
He discovered that after tens of thousands of people merged into the city, it did not cause the slightest ripple. Each was arranged into corresponding empty houses.
Under the effect of the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, the several hundred thousand people exhibited obvious homogenization, becoming the most devout believers.
They did not need food, because their bodies would imperceptibly absorb Buddhist qi, unknowingly already satisfying their daily consumption.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes, and the four words "Indestructible Golden Body" could not help appearing in his mind.
Originally he had thought the Indestructible Golden Body was a special Buddhist physique. Now it seemed very likely that it referred to a living container used to store Buddhist qi.
The monks filling the city were all being eroded by Buddhist qi, transforming into Indestructible Golden Body, and their lifespan naturally surged because of this.
Ren Qing secretly guessed that the cultivator who possessed the fruition position of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva had already reincarnated, and therefore required a large number of monks to store Buddhist qi, perhaps to absorb it when cultivating again.
However, the layout of Heaven Above Heaven had clearly lasted for several hundred years. How exactly Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva planned things was probably unknown to anyone.
Ren Qing closed his eyes tightly and used his consciousness to communicate with the dream seed attached to the forehead of the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon, thereby exploring the memories in Black Tiger's mind.
Sooner or later he would leave Cishi and head further north, so it was necessary to understand the situation.
If Cishi was too dangerous, Ren Qing could only choose to travel through the Bottomless Pit, but that also contained uncertainty.
Several days passed without notice.
Because of the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon, Black Tiger himself had long lost intelligence and awareness, so he had been able to smoothly enter Heaven Above Heaven.
But under the influence of the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, his soul had inexplicably produced two consciousnesses, respectively childhood and old age.
Black Tiger's original personality had not affected the newly born consciousnesses at all.
Especially old Black Tiger, whose temperament actually matched the Buddhist gate very well, thus by coincidence entering a small temple, "Golden Light Temple".
Black Tiger was given the name Wu'ai, and the childhood and prime-age consciousnesses also benefited, becoming novice monks of the temple responsible for sweeping fallen leaves in the courtyard.
The three time points did not interfere with each other, but at least their identities as monks were not very different.
After Ren Qing finished digesting the memories of Wu'ai, he immediately observed him with great interest and discovered something unusual about prime-age Wu'ai.
Prime-age Wu'ai held a broom. He seemed to be sweeping the ground, but his gaze coldly stared at every monk passing by.
Many monks were somewhat afraid of Wu'ai and chose to detour around him.
Wu'ai's expression was foolish as he constantly muttered Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. He looked harmless to humans and animals, yet at the same time was filled with malice.
Although he had no intelligence, the Buddhist qi had not erased his nature at all.
What kind of person was Black Tiger?
Ren Qing had actually glimpsed some of it from Black Tiger's memories.
Cishi was even a hundred times more dangerous than he had imagined, even comparable to Jingzhou when demonic qi ran rampant, filled everywhere with demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits.
But the farther from Heaven Above Heaven one went, the more ferocious the demons and monsters born.
Ren Qing believed this should be the handiwork of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva. After all, when mortals lived in suffering, their faith in gods and Buddhas would become firm.
Therefore every so often large numbers of refugees headed toward Heaven Above Heaven.
Normally refugees were the most fanatical believers, but inevitably villains who associated with demons and monsters also appeared.
Black Tiger was a purely evil person.
He was born during famine and had almost relied on corpses to fill his stomach.
From childhood to adulthood he had no concept of good and evil. Eating humans had already been carved into his bones. In his view it was nothing unusual.
Even though Black Tiger had already lost intelligence, the instinctive evil thoughts remained buried deep inside, and had even become more terrifying.
"Man at birth, is nature evil?"
Ren Qing turned his attention back to the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon and could not help shaking his head regretfully.
As a crudely made artifact soul, the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon possessed only half a year of lifespan and likewise had no intelligence.
He had originally planned to wait until the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon extended its lifespan and then pull it into the dream market to obtain lifespan.
But the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon seemed unable to transform into Indestructible Golden Body, resulting in the absence of Buddhist qi infusion from Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, and its lifespan could not increase.
It had entered Heaven Above Heaven hidden within Black Tiger's body.
Perhaps in the tacit recognition of the Buddhist qi, the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon was considered a part of Black Tiger's body rather than a complete lifeform.
Ren Qing rubbed his temples.
As expected, stealing lifespan from the "farm" of an Earth Immortal was not so simple.
He then took out materials that could cause transformation into Indestructible Golden Body, preparing to refine a new Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon and attempt aberration again.
As for the first Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon, Ren Qing did not waste it. Using the demonic qi contained in the dream seed, he was acting upon Black Tiger's heart.
Ren Qing was extremely curious what kind of reaction the Buddhist qi would have once Black Tiger's body parts gradually demonized.
As the erosion of demonic qi intensified, facial features suddenly appeared on the surface of the heart, and the connected blood vessels struggled like arms and legs.
Ren Qing carefully observed Black Tiger. The latter did not notice anything unusual at all. Instead the surrounding Buddhist qi uncontrollably poured into his body.
The Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva was like a ferocious beast guarding territory, circulating throughout the body through the eight extraordinary meridians, trying to find the existence of demonic qi.
Seeing this, Ren Qing quickly used the dream seed to strip away the demonic qi.
The Buddhist qi did not discover the demonic qi, nor did it care about the heart demon that had already become independent of the body. Soon it returned to calm again.
Because the heart demon lacked support from demonic qi, it could not completely finish transformation and still had to rely on Black Tiger to survive.
Ren Qing's brows tightly furrowed, involuntarily shocked by the performance of the Buddhist qi.
First it could be confirmed that the Buddhist qi was not controlled by a cultivator. Otherwise it would not have failed to notice the heart demon and the Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragon.
Then why was the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva so... orderly?
Buddhist qi possessed a unique life, after all it had devoured cultivators of past generations.
Ren Qing had previously encountered the Buddhist qi emitted by Song Zongwu's Sitting-Deer Arhat. The impression it gave him was extreme chaos. Once the Buddhist qi left the body, it would instinctively take refuge in all living beings.
How could it be like the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva, picking and choosing like this.
One must know that Sitting-Deer Arhat was merely an Arhat fruition position. The Buddha Chart had ninety-seven positions, and it had already reached such a terrifying level.
The Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva had devoured the body and soul of seven to eight hundred cultivators, and logically should have been even more chaotic and even harder to control.
While Ren Qing was puzzled, he suddenly noticed the pseudo soul nurtured by the Fuel King.
The evil thoughts emitted by the third pseudo soul had already become faintly perceptible. It seemed the Fuel King was using the effects of Other Shore Flower to make itself more pure.
Wait...
Ren Qing's pupils dilated. He stood up as if struck by lightning, wanting to look toward the mountains outside the city, but the rock wall was far too thick.
He could only use ghost shadow to vaguely sense them. The continuous mountain peaks all had characteristics similar to Buddhas, appearing extremely strange.
If Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva used some method to seal the several hundred Buddhas contained within the Buddhist qi into the mountains, thereby separating from the drawbacks after cultivators of past generations attained fruition.
Each mountain peak that merged with a Buddha corpse would be like the Buddha Chart behind Song Zongwu, sealing the Buddhist cultivators of past generations who had attained fruition.
The more Ren Qing thought about it, the more possible it seemed, but at the same time it strengthened his determination to extend lifespan.
At present the number of Buddha corpses had not yet reached the upper limit. As long as he did not destroy the delicate situation of Heaven Above Heaven, he would not alarm Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, he would first gather enough lifespan to advance Eternal Space Prison.
The breakthrough of the two secondary techniques to Yin Difference realm required four hundred years of lifespan, plus the thousand years of Eternal Space Prison, only one thousand four hundred years.
Each of the several hundred thousand monks had a thousand years of lifespan. Losing a little would certainly not be discovered.
Ren Qing could not help pondering how to extend lifespan efficiently. Once enough lifespan was gathered, he would immediately withdraw and leave this cursed place Cishi.
Suddenly a bold idea appeared in his mind, and its feasibility was extremely high.
Ren Qing closed his eyes to perfect the plan for extending lifespan.
At the same time, as day and night alternated, strange changes appeared on Black Tiger's body. His heart did not weaken even after transforming into old age.
This caused the three consciousnesses of childhood, prime age, and old age to merge together.
Black Tiger had only arrived in Heaven Above Heaven for a few days, yet he had already reached the conditions for seated transformation. Simply put, he could contain more Buddhist qi and become one of the Buddha corpses.