The giant corpse Buddha struggled forward through the Corpse-Odor swamp, while several corpse beasts drawn by the commotion on the shore stared at it with burning eyes.
However, because they feared the corpse water, the corpse beasts did not choose to step into the swamp's range.
They let out threatening roars, then left the swamp without even turning their heads, not daring to linger around for long at all.
Several corpses floated on the surface of the swamp, but most had already been corroded by more than half, leaving only hard bones drifting along with the water.
The ghost shadow was engraving Moon Patterns onto the giant corpse Buddha's skin, and it silently came into contact with the bones.
The information flow surged.
[Corpse-Transformed Bones]
[Formed from erosion by corpse qi. After consumption, it can cause the body to undergo corpse transformation and reduce lifespan.]
In Ren Qing's view, the outer perimeter of the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone was like a radiation field. To approach the center, one had to adapt to the strange and inexplicable ecology.
There were countless colossal entities heading toward the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone. Those unable to adapt became corpses, while those slightly better off became mindless corpse beasts, but also lost the possibility of further advancement.
Although Ren Qing had not yet seen any colossal entity that successfully adapted to corpse qi, it did not mean such a thing truly did not exist.
After all, any colossal entity that could step into Corpse-Odor Hills had, in life, been at the Yang Spirit Realm, with adaptability far exceeding that of ordinary beasts.
In fact, the reason the giant corpse Buddha could reach this place was not because it had adapted to the environment.
The main reason was the thousands of cultivators from the Restraint Officers' Hall, who continuously perfected its body, allowing it to resist the harsh environment.
If it were allowed to continuously experience flesh collapse within Corpse-Odor Hills, it might truly become a certain form of "corpse beast."
At this thought, Ren Qing could not help but narrow his eyes.
In this world, he had not come into contact with any corpse-refining methods, but in his previous life, he had seen quite a few in Lin Zhengying's films.
Why did Ren Qing feel that the process of heading toward the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone was essentially refining corpses?
As the colossal entities drew closer to the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, they would be eroded by corpse qi and transform into another kind of strange entity, namely so-called "zombies."
However, beings like the cocoon people made Ren Qing somewhat unable to figure things out. It always felt like they did not meet the conditions for corpse refining.
Ren Qing let out a sigh.
Clearly, the aberration of the giant corpse Buddha had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was avoiding erosion by corpse qi, but the drawback was missing out on corpse refining.
He could now only walk this path to the end. After all, before gaining control of the brain, the actions of the giant corpse Buddha were completely uncontrollable. Wanting it to stop was definitely unrealistic.
The entire body of the giant corpse Buddha crackled as it was corroded by corpse water, the severity evident.
The Buddha qi seemed to sense the danger from the outside and, contrary to its usual silence, actively helped the giant corpse Buddha recover from its injuries.
Ren Qing did not intend to waste the best opportunity to refine the giant corpse Buddha, and he used the Six Diseases Method to stimulate the Hypertrophic Heart Disease Seed to proliferate wildly.
The aberration of the heart was slowly taking shape.
Ren Qing occasionally used Spirit Division to take care of the skin and bones, which were already close to fully covering the body.
At the same time, the Restraint Officers' Hall also sensed the threat from the swamp and temporarily abandoned nourishing various parts, focusing entirely on protecting the stomach and intestines.
Although the giant corpse Buddha stood over a thousand meters tall, relying on the Skin Refiner's ability, it could barely resist the corrosion of the corpse water.
However, the corpse qi permeating the swamp could not be avoided and was seeping into the body through the mouth and nose.
The corpse qi gathered in the stomach along the esophagus. Even if the Restraint Officers' Hall sealed off the stomach and intestines, they still could not prevent the corpse qi from forming acid clouds above.
Li Tiangang tried many methods, but all failed to expel the continuous acid clouds, so he moved the temporary camp into the intestines.
The intestines became increasingly cramped, and all the cultivators stood on high alert.
What gave Li Tiangang the biggest headache was that as the giant corpse Buddha reached the deeper parts of the swamp, the concentration of the acid clouds clearly increased.
The Restraint Officers' Hall could not all retreat into the intestines, so they left five hundred effective forces in the stomach to prevent accidents.
All magical artifacts were simply used to cover the Buddha Forest, while the height of this area was increased, turning it into a low hill.
Chen Haoyu used the ability of the Elephant-Footed One to transform into a giant elephant, trampling the soil of the hill.
The other cultivators busied themselves, not relying on Ren Qing's presence with any fluke mentality. In the face of sudden terror, individuals indeed appeared insignificant.
The scene even gave the illusion that the end of the world was approaching.
Drip...
Daoist Yuhua stood at the base of the Buddha Forest hill. After joining the Restraint Officers' Hall, due to having no hands or feet, he still could not participate in most tasks.
He could only continue transporting sand and stones to fill and raise the height of the hill.
A faint green raindrop fell onto Daoist Yuhua's forehead, and white smoke immediately rose from the surface of his skin, carrying an unpleasant sour stench.
Daoist Yuhua's face twisted.
As a Heavenly Dao insect-man, his bones were very soft and tough. He was not afraid of blunt force, but was uniquely afraid of corrosive toxins.
A single drop of acid rain almost dissolved Daoist Yuhua's skull, severely damaging his Mud Pellet Palace.
He hurriedly flew upward on his sword toward the mountaintop in panic. Li Tiangang had already gathered the cultivators, making the Buddha Forest extremely chaotic.
A semi-transparent curtain-type magical artifact was erected, protecting the Buddha Forest within.
As soon as Daoist Yuhua entered the range of the artifact, the acid clouds turned into scattered light rain, and the sizzling sounds connected into one continuous noise.
A faint white mist drifted.
The people of the Restraint Officers' Hall stood at the mountain peak, silently watching the stomach.
Within the white mist, the buildings of the temporary camp that had not been moved appeared faintly, making the Xiangxiang people recall the streets and alleys during the rainy season in Xiangxiang.
Even though Xiangxiang had already become an illusion, who would not feel emotions upon seeing familiar scenes.
At the same time, they also felt the difficulty of gaining a foothold in this world. The giant corpse Buddha might be the only opportunity for the Restraint Officers' Hall to reclaim Xiangxiang.
"What are you all standing around for?"
Li Tiangang clapped his hands to remind everyone, then pointed upward for them to look.
They saw that a large amount of white mist was also evaporating from the top of the curtain, even denser than that produced by the corrosion of flesh in the stomach.
When the acid rain came into contact with the magical artifact, although the light it emitted could resist part of it, a sizzling sound still rang out on the surface, indicating that it was definitely covered with corrosion marks of varying sizes.
Xiao San'er cursed a few times and, in his urgency, did not care about overstepping: "All refiners go repair the artifacts, quickly!!!"
A tortoise shell flew out from his sleeve, and he stood on it as he flew toward the curtain.
The refiners came back to their senses and followed in a disheveled manner, quickly using various materials to repair the Moon Patterns.
Li Tiangang pulled out pages one after another and inserted them around the Buddha Forest.
It seemed useless, but once acid rain leaked into the Buddha Forest, he could use his divine ability Embracing Books Hundred Cities to transfer the acid rain away.
The Yin Difference Realm cultivators all took action, protecting the others while collecting and diverting the corpse water to prevent soil loss from the Buddha Forest hill.
The flying sword behind Miss Bai let out an excited hiss, and the blade split open into a mouth filled with sharp teeth, wanting to devour the corpse water.
Seeing this, she remained unconcerned and directly released control over her natal flying sword.
The flying sword immediately became like a runaway horse, flying straight into the acid clouds, absorbing the faint green corpse qi to strengthen itself.
The originally flesh-stitched sword body became covered in corpse spots, emitting a rotten stench, causing the corpse transformation to intensify.
Miss Bai did not care at all, even releasing the sword sheath to collect corpse water, making it impossible to tell that the flying sword was a life-bound artifact.
Unfortunately, compared to the increasingly dense acid clouds, what the flying sword could absorb was far too little, like a drop in the ocean.
Only Li Yaoyang seemed absent-minded, clearly having ended seclusion too hastily, his expression still not recovered from the Insect Nest Method.
The Insect Nest Method was of great significance to him. Although the technique centered on Heavenly Dao insects, it perfectly realized the fusion of humans and insects.
Li Yaoyang had already found the opportunity for Spirit Release from it.
The cultivators were not idle either. Seeing that the curtain was relatively stable, Xiao San'er directed some people to continue refining magical artifacts resistant to corrosion and storage containers for emergencies.
After several curtain-like artifacts were completed, and the acid rain was directed into containers, the danger brought by the acid rain was barely brought under control.
Li Tiangang glanced at the water level in the center of the stomach. A small pond several meters wide had already formed and was still expanding.
To ensure the stability of the artifacts, cultivators had to be assigned to maintain them.
This back and forth consumed a lot of manpower, and Li Tiangang could not help but pinch the bridge of his nose. The production of Maitreya Blood was no longer something he could count on.
Fortunately, the intestines were below the stomach. Before the acid rain corroded through the stomach wall, the intestines and organs were relatively safe.
The refiners in the intestines were still tirelessly nourishing the various organs.
As long as nothing happened in the short term, he believed that as the artifact transformation deepened, they would soon be able to completely isolate the erosion of corpse qi from the outside world.
Ren Qing noticed the abnormality in the stomach and intestines. Fortunately, the Restraint Officers' Hall reacted in time, otherwise the corpse water would have corroded most of the flesh from the inside out.
Using the Taotie Method, he could actually absorb the corpse water into the stomach-contained world, but the giant corpse Buddha being heavily damaged was precisely an opportunity for expansion.
Moreover, the Restraint Officers' Hall handled it well, so Ren Qing felt at ease.
With a thought, his body immediately transformed into a Nightmare Demon, and countless Disease Seeds surged out wildly.
Due to the threat brought by the corpse water, the Buddha qi even actively cooperated with the aberration, making the speed of internal organ artifact transformation unimaginable.
The heart changed from shriveled to full. Even without deliberately using the Planting Demons Scripture, it still beat at a slow frequency.
Ren Qing then considered the issue of blood. After all, just the heart's artifact transformation alone did not count as a complete Planting Demons Scripture.
"If corpse water is used to replace blood…"
Ren Qing was somewhat tempted, but thinking of the corrosiveness of corpse water, at the very least all blood vessels would have to be fully aberrated into magical artifacts, so he immediately abandoned this seemingly feasible method.
He followed the original plan and first modified the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
Although the original version of the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method would most likely not cause abnormalities in Buddha qi, since Nether Yuan was essentially cultivated by the giant corpse Buddha itself, only leaving a backdoor of the Nether Sea Breathing Method.
And the giant corpse Buddha possessed instinct, so mastering the circulation of the great cycle was not difficult. Moreover, it could control blood flow through the Planting Demons Scripture.
The direction of Ren Qing's improvement was to modify the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method to be related to Buddhism.
Naturally, he could not make Nether Yuan similar to Buddha qi, but letting it be tainted with the Buddha qi leaking from the Indestructible Golden Body was not a problem.
Ren Qing immersed himself in the technique, losing track of time.
Before he could fully perfect the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method, the skin and bones transformed first. The ghost shadow had already finished drawing the Moon Patterns.
The aura emitted by the magical artifact suddenly converged, then burst forth again.
Half of the giant corpse Buddha's body was soaked in corpse water. After the skin displayed the Skin Refiner's ability, the corrosion marks visibly disappeared.
This showed that the Human Skin Book was adapting to the corrosion of the corpse water.
This was only at the Martial Practitioner Realm. If the skin reached the Ghost Envoy Realm, the giant corpse Buddha could even exert the power of the Yang Spirit Realm.
But for the Restraint Officers' Hall, this was not a good thing.
When the bones turned into metal, the Bone Armor Technique increased the weight several times, causing the giant corpse Buddha to sink several more meters into the swamp.
Even though bone armor covered the entire body, as long as the giant corpse Buddha had a mouth and nose to breathe, it would draw massive amounts of corpse qi into its body.
For a thousand-meter giant corpse Buddha, a few meters was nothing, but for the Restraint Officers' Hall, it meant the mouth and nose were closer to the corpse water.
The already harsh conditions in the stomach suddenly worsened sharply.
The light rain turned into a downpour, and the tarp-like magical artifacts barely used for resistance immediately showed signs of imminent collapse, triggering countless cries of alarm.
The water level gradually rose. The stomach and intestines became a completely enclosed space, and before long, the low ground would be covered by water.
Li Tiangang had no choice but to have the Restraint Officers' Hall drop everything and focus on dealing with the trouble caused by the corpse water.
The intestines were also completely sealed to prevent the corpse water from destroying the vegetation within.
Seeing this, Ren Qing did not intend to ignore the stomach and intestines. He split off attention to control the liver, and blazing high temperatures were released through the Heart-Burning Method.
The original intent of the Heart-Burning Method was for the liver to ignite flames, making the heart feel as if it were being roasted over fire.
But now Ren Qing used the flames of the Heart-Burning Method to treat the stomach as a furnace, burning it, and the giant corpse Buddha's body temperature rose sharply.
The acid water pool in the stomach began to boil, and the temperature of the stomach rose drastically.
The cultivators looked up to see that the stomach had turned into a vast white world. No scene could be seen with the naked eye, as if a giant dragon was exhaling mist.
Before the raindrops could hit the ground, they were already turned into ash under the effect of the heat waves.
Fortunately, the Restraint Officers' Hall had magical artifacts for protection. The temperature in the Buddha Forest was only slightly higher than normal, and cultivators had strong resistance to heat and cold.
However, this only treated the symptoms, not the root.
As long as the giant corpse Buddha did not leave the swamp's range, the acid rain would never end.
Seeing the stomach environment of corrosion plus high temperature, Sen Sheng's expression became somewhat hesitant, then he brought his kind toward the mountainside.
Li Tiangang did not stop Sen Sheng and signaled Han Li to follow, in case the cocoon people overestimated themselves and died under the acid rain and high temperature.
The cocoon people did not go to the outer edge of the artifacts. Instead, after feeling the intense pain from their skin, they sat cross-legged on the spot to cultivate.
Through the Years Passing Method, most of them had already grown more than ten layers of human skin. Combined with the effects of the Human Skin Book, their survivability was maximized.
Even Han Li could not help but envy the cocoon people's exceptional talent.
Once the cocoon people reached the Ghost Envoy Realm, their dozens of tempered layers of human skin would likely be enough to support them walking through the corpse water once.
Of course, focusing on the Human Skin Book made it difficult to also cultivate incompatible offensive techniques.
Li Tiangang shook his head at the spectacular scene. Such methods must have come from Ren Qing.
In this way, the Restraint Officers' Hall was completely trapped in the Buddha Forest. If anything else went wrong, it might lead to further deterioration.
It was unknown whether Ren Qing had found a once-and-for-all solution.
Li Tiangang did not know that Ren Qing was relying on the corrosion of corpse qi to accelerate aberration, even using it to let the giant corpse Buddha master the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.