The moment Chen Changsheng's soul fell into the Flesh Furnace, it began howling.
The raging kindling flames burned the Three Souls and Seven Spirits that had already been kneaded into a tangled mass. Although it was filled with indescribable pain, at least it allowed him to save himself.
The Heavenly Dao transformation of Chen Changsheng's soul had already reached roughly seventy percent. Ren Qing suspected that if his own Heavenly Dao Crack ever reached such a degree, it would likely become some twisted and bizarre form as well.
It was very possible that once Heavenly Dao transformation exceeded a certain threshold, it would become irreversible just like Chen Changsheng's.
As Ren Qing digested Chen Changsheng's memories, he searched for secrets regarding the Boqiang Wind God immortal position, hoping to glimpse the actions of the mastermind behind everything.
What he most wanted to understand was the reason the Longevity Forbidden Zone could move.
After all, the number of weird objects stockpiled within the Restraint Officers' Hall had already reached the tens of thousands. It was entirely possible to refine them into a mobile fortress.
Unfortunately, Chen Changsheng's soul had suffered severe damage, and his memories were extremely chaotic.
Ren Qing had to use the bacterial soul again and again to reconstruct them.
He withdrew his gaze and silently considered his next course of action.
First, the Longevity Forbidden Zone was no longer safe.
Continuing to hide within it carried too much risk. Who knew when the mastermind would come to retrieve the immortal position?
Thinking of this, Ren Qing shifted his right foot slightly.
The ghost shadow transformed into a roaming dragon and rapidly traveled underground, entering the area where Wuwei City had been buried.
After Wuwei City dug itself out from underground, the ghost shadow directly swallowed it into the Stomach World.
Ren Qing raised his head toward the sky.
Spores from the sea of clouds drifted down in large numbers.
The pseudo-dragonized Fungus People soon began reproducing wildly in the barren soil.
However, due to the lack of flesh and blood supplements, their efficiency was nowhere near what it had been before.
Being unable to remain in the Longevity Forbidden Zone did not mean he could not control it.
In fact, in Ren Qing's still-forming plans, the Longevity Forbidden Zone was an extremely important piece, one that concerned whether he could participate in the game between Turbid Immortals and Weird Immortals.
As for how to control the Longevity Forbidden Zone, all he needed to do was allow the Fungus People to continue reproducing.
After all, the Fungus People had already been acknowledged by the rules of the forbidden zone.
Through Dragon Roar Within the Casket, Ren Qing could also sense the situation within the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Remotely directing the actions of the Fungus People was naturally no problem.
The Fungus People possessed the abilities of disease seeds.
Even though individuals were not particularly powerful, when backed by massive population numbers, even Yang Spirit cultivators would need to avoid their edge.
By controlling the Fungus People, wasn't he effectively controlling the Longevity Forbidden Zone?
Of course, the issue of food for the Fungus People had to be solved.
After hesitating briefly, Ren Qing took out a heart-like weird object from the Stomach World and allowed the Longevity Forbidden Zone to devour it.
One skeletal hand after another grabbed the weird object and dragged it underground before it could resist.
Immediately afterward, the forbidden zone began to tremble.
Within the hurricane mixed with pathogens, a faint scent of blood appeared out of nowhere, causing unrest among the Fungus People.
Ren Qing vaguely sensed that even the grave mound in the distance reacted to the weird object.
Clearly, even after losing its soul, Chen Changsheng's body still possessed the instinct to devour weird objects, filled with an obsession toward becoming immortal.
Ren Qing glanced at the soul within the Flesh Furnace.
To be more precise, calling it "Boqiang" would be more appropriate.
"Come to think of it, if Boqiang were continuously fed weird objects, could it really create a Turbid Immortal?"
A bitter smile appeared on Ren Qing's face.
The most absurd thing was that he knew the possibility was even higher than imagined.
The existence of Turbid Immortals seemed almost childishly simple.
How difficult was becoming a Weird Immortal?
Even with the information stream, Ren Qing did not dare guarantee absolute success, especially regarding survival after ascension.
Ren Qing stopped dwelling on it.
What he needed to do was move forward one step at a time.
Closing his eyes, he inspected the Stomach World.
The casualties within Wuwei City were not severe.
Only a few zombies had been unlucky enough to have their limbs crushed and broken.
If they had been Zhe People zombies, they would probably have simply dug up replacement bones and swapped them in.
Taking the opportunity, Ren Qing distributed a large quantity of resources to encourage cultivators to attempt breaking through their bottlenecks, especially the numerous Half-Corpse cultivators.
After waiting several days, changes within the Longevity Forbidden Zone gradually became apparent.
Vegetation began growing throughout both the sea of clouds and the land.
The plants looked somewhat bizarre.
Their trunks resembled spinal columns, and although they had no leaves, they quickly produced fleshy tumor-like fruits.
The Fungus People spontaneously harvested the fruits, removed their moisture with fire, cut them into uniform pieces, and transported them into underground fortresses for storage.
A basin of them had even been delivered before Ren Qing.
Clearly, it was an offering from the Fungus People.
Ren Qing picked up one fruit and examined it.
His palm could feel the unique warmth of flesh and blood, and it even squirmed from time to time.
The information stream surged.
Meat Orchid Fruit
Condensed from Flesh Loulan. Consuming it accelerates wound recovery and provides satiety, but creates a preference for human flesh.
[Flesh Loulan]
[Created by the Blood Demon. Cultivation requires implanting peach pits into the third, sixth, and seventh spinal vertebrae until they take root and sprout.]
Although Flesh Loulan appeared sinister, it was actually a very rare support technique.
After mastering Flesh Loulan, plant roots would grow from the cultivator's back, absorbing blood while gradually blooming and bearing fruit.
The fruits came from Flesh Loulan.
Although excessive consumption caused addiction, they truly accelerated healing and could maintain medicinal effects over long periods.
The Restraint Officers' Hall had no shortage of cultivators selling body parts in exchange for blood crystals.
Human flesh was not expensive at the Great Dream Pavilion. Men, women, old people, and children could all be found.
However, ever since alchemy had risen in prominence, fewer and fewer cultivators practiced Flesh Loulan.
Nowadays, even when Meat Orchid Fruits occasionally appeared on the market, they were treated as bonus ingredients for alchemy.
No cultivator would actually stuff them into their mouth.
The Flesh Loulan weird object Ren Qing had integrated into the Longevity Forbidden Zone was only at the Ghost Envoy realm.
Still, it was more than enough to provide food for the Fungus People.
The side effect of craving human flesh was not necessarily a bad thing.
The Fungus People were entirely under his control.
Bloodthirst would make them fearless, willing to charge to their deaths against powerful enemies.
Ren Qing did not stop there.
He took out a second weird object.
This time it was a honeycomb-like rock filled with countless insect eggs.
He watched as the weird object was completely devoured by the Longevity Forbidden Zone and carefully observed the changes.
[Insect Mother Method]
[Created by the Old Insect-Raising Woman. Cultivation requires carrying a seven-month-old fetus and implanting insect eggs into the abdomen until the womb transforms into an Insect Nest.]
The Insect Mother Method was a technique of raising Gu within one's own body.
The aberration branch "Queen Bee" would nurture a queen bee capable of commanding insect swarms.
The weird object Ren Qing integrated into the Longevity Forbidden Zone was precisely a Ghost Envoy realm Queen Bee.
He noticed unrest spreading among many Fungus People tribes.
They even began slaughtering one another, throwing the underground fortresses into chaos.
A moment later, more than a hundred Fungus People Kings were born throughout the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
They possessed strength comparable to Half-Corpse cultivators and even had weak souls.
The pseudo-dragonization traces on the Fungus People Kings were even more obvious.
They had tails growing from their backsides and faint dragon horns on their heads.
By consuming food, they could slowly increase their cultivation.
Their intelligence was roughly equivalent to six- or seven-year-old children, and they could even experience joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
After the Longevity Forbidden Zone devoured the Insect Mother Method, the Fungus People Kings would certainly fight one another.
Yet Ren Qing's control over them became even deeper.
Using Zhili Technique, Ren Qing attached dream aura to the souls of the Fungus People Kings.
It was equivalent to gaining a large number of spies within the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Whether this idle move involving the Longevity Forbidden Zone could ultimately play a role depended on future developments.
Once the Fungus People were on the right track, Ren Qing flashed away from the forbidden zone and arrived above the devastated ruins of the outside world.
After Sanxiang City had been removed, a deep pit remained behind.
Since Xiangxiang had recently entered the rainy season, rainwater had accumulated within the pit.
Given enough time, it would likely become a lake.
Ren Qing let out a long sigh.
Looking back now, Xiangxiang's ability to escape unscathed had depended heavily on luck.
He examined the dried-up well before him, his eyes filled with interest.
Even Ren Qing could not see through the disguise of the Longevity Forbidden Zone with the naked eye.
He would only think it was an ordinary dry well.
The entrances and exits of normal forbidden zones were always extremely obvious.
Only the Longevity Forbidden Zone appeared plain and unremarkable while also being capable of moving at will.
After erasing his own presence, he simply sat cross-legged beside the dry well.
Half a month passed.
Chen Changsheng's soul had shrunk to only the size of a fist.
Only then did all traces of Heavenly Dao transformation finally disappear.
Yet this also meant Chen Changsheng was only a step away from complete soul destruction.
Ren Qing felt somewhat helpless.
He then sent the soul into a mountain within the Stomach World and worshiped and nourished Chen Changsheng as a mountain god.
Whether he could be saved would depend on fate.
On the neighboring mountain was also the remnant soul of a Heavenly Dao Child.
Ren Qing began reviewing Chen Changsheng's memories.
His expression gradually became complicated, and he could not help looking toward the dry well that the Longevity Forbidden Zone had become.
The memories were extraordinarily chaotic and disordered.
There was not much useful information.
The memories concerning the founding of the Restraint Officers' Hall were very vague.
Fortunately, the experiences of the last hundred years remained relatively clear.
Unfortunately, by that point he had already undergone Heavenly Dao transformation.
Regardless of whether Chen Changsheng had harbored ulterior motives toward the Restraint Officers' Hall, the memories clearly showed that he had taken risks to save Xiangxiang of his own accord.
As for information about the mastermind, not even a concept of such a person existed in his memories.
This meant Chen Changsheng had been led around by the nose from beginning to end.
Ren Qing repeatedly examined the memories concerning Chen Changsheng moving the forbidden zone.
As a result, he discovered that the Longevity Forbidden Zone seemed attached to a certain flesh-and-blood organ.
The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed.
Especially its ability to contain a forbidden zone.
Ren Qing could not help extending his consciousness into the bottom of the well.
He discovered that the interior was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, resembling an esophagus leading directly into a stomach.
The missing stomach of the Meat and Wine Daoist had finally been found.
The Meat and Wine Daoist likely had not died in the Marshlands at all.
Instead, he had simply been discarded beside the forbidden zone.
Ren Qing guessed that the mastermind probably came from farther north.
After killing the Meat and Wine Daoist and refining his stomach, they traveled toward the remote south.
The dantian had likely been tossed into the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone along the way.
If he wanted to create a movable forbidden zone, he would first need the stomach of a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator of The Taotie Method.
That was the prerequisite.
The problem was where such a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator could be found.
The Taotie Method itself had never spread beyond its original lineage.
As Ren Qing pondered whether there might be a shortcut, he suddenly realized something.
Didn't the Forbidden Corpse effectively possess The Taotie Method?
It was inherently related to Earth Immortals, and The Taotie Method was the Eternal Prison Shackles of the Yin Difference realm.
What if the interior of the Forbidden Corpse were transformed into a forbidden zone...
The moment the thought appeared, he became eager to pursue it.
After integrating the strange womb artifact of The Taotie Method, the Forbidden Corpse's digestive region had indeed expanded considerably.
However, it still could not accommodate over a million cultivators.
Only a forbidden zone could grant the Forbidden Corpse a complete miniature world.
The Forbidden Corpse's potential could also be elevated further by turning the dozens of mutated organs throughout its body into foundation stones for miniature worlds.
Ren Qing signaled the ghost shadow to wrap around the dry well and drag the Longevity Forbidden Zone more than a thousand meters underground.
Other than the mastermind, probably no one would be able to find it.