[Will you advance to Clear and Turbid? This will consume ten years of lifespan.]
Clear and Turbid of Heaven and Earth Genesis was equivalent to the Ghost Envoy realm. Ren Qing had originally thought it would be similar to the Half-Corpse realm, with only minor changes.
What he didn't expect was that the moment he advanced, Stomach World began shaking violently.
The cultivators in Wuwei City did not panic too much, because the source of the disturbance was actually the relatively secluded White Bone Land.
White Bone Land was located in the southwestern corner of Stomach World, near the Wine Sea. It was shrouded in damp cold all year round, and anyone who wasn't a zombie would find it difficult to approach.
White Bone Land itself wasn't large, at most a little over ten li in size.
If someone looked down from the sky, they would find White Bone Land exceptionally distinct. Beyond ten li, vegetation covered the land and birds sang everywhere.
In the season of early spring, hibernating animals had already awakened, and life flourished.
A unique mountain deer native to Stomach World, carrying antlers over half a meter long, wandered into White Bone Land without realizing it and turned into a skeleton in the blink of an eye.
The barren soil was grayish-black, and even the sparse vegetation resembled white bones.
One could see rows of coffins placed in the open. As the ground trembled, their lids were pushed open one after another by zombie cultivators.
The zombie cultivators stood there blankly, looking at each other, unsure what to say.
Only then did they discover that the letters delivered by the corpse ghosts clearly instructed them to return to Wuwei City as quickly as possible.
Their expressions changed drastically. They all knew how vast Ren Qing's abilities were, and could easily imagine the danger involved.
They wished they had five legs as they hurriedly ran toward the edge of White Bone Land.
But before they could get far, White Bone Land suddenly began sinking.
Within a short time, it had already dropped a hundred meters, as if falling into a deep well.
Nobody knew how much time passed. The only thing they could see was the light growing increasingly dim.
In the end, even the ground above had sealed shut completely.
No trace of White Bone Land remained, as if it had vanished from existence.
The cavern hidden in darkness continued expanding as ghostly green lights drifted slowly through the air.
At that point, the zombie cultivators noticed that the yin qi had become even denser. It flowed toward them like fledglings returning to their nests, steadily strengthening their physiques.
Anyone capable of becoming a zombie was naturally bold.
Thinking about how this place was under Ren Qing's control, the zombie cultivators simply climbed back into their coffins and resumed their cultivation retreat, or perhaps their slumber.
As for the transformation of Stomach World, Ren Qing saw it more clearly than anyone else.
Clear and Turbid of Heaven and Earth Genesis separated all forms of qi into distinct layers. Because yin qi was heavier, it sank directly underground.
The River of Rebirth and Yellow Springs also changed.
Death qi followed White Bone Land downward, while vitality floated into the sky and mixed with the clouds.
Ren Qing raised an eyebrow.
Why did this feel like the initial formation of a Heavenly Palace and an Underworld?
"Dao follows nature, Dao follows nature..."
**Will you advance to Five Gestations? This will consume two hundred years of lifespan.**
He chose to continue advancing without hesitation.
The earth veins churned, clouds gathered and dispersed endlessly, and finally a beam of clear light shot into the heavens.
Viewed from Wuwei City, the clouds radiated brilliant golden light. As day and night alternated, they gradually transformed into a magnificent sea of stars.
But in Ren Qing's eyes, a crude space was actually hidden within the clouds.
The space was only about a hundred meters across.
It was completely barren, lacking both sun and moon, but it remained illuminated at all times by an eternal sacred flame, maintaining a state of perpetual daylight.
Ren Qing had never expected that the small world he had always wanted to build would naturally come into existence atop the clouds through Heaven and Earth Genesis.
Moreover, the most marvelous aspect of the Heavenly Palace was its ability to merge spiritual objects into itself.
Suppressing the urge to place Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal's insect shell into the Heavenly Palace, Ren Qing decided to wait and see what further changes Heaven and Earth Genesis would bring.
As for White Bone Land, within only a few minutes it had already formed a unique ecosystem.
It truly carried a hint of the Yellow Springs Underworld.
The Yellow Springs Underworld was much larger than the Heavenly Palace, spanning more than a hundred li.
It was essentially a dark underground cavern.
However, it was divided into two regions by the Yellow Springs formed from death qi, while yin qi continuously rose through the air.
Blue-glowing mushrooms grew from cracks in the rock walls, barely illuminating the darkness.
With a thought, Ren Qing guided the soul of a cultivator who had died not long ago into the surging waters of the Yellow Springs Underworld.
After drifting and sinking several times, a fleshly body gradually formed around the soul.
Using Dao Dao Dao's ability to alter the rules of Stomach World, Ren Qing added the zombie cultivation system into the Yellow Springs Underworld.
Before long, the soul transformed on its own into a newly born Purple Zombie.
The Purple Zombie had only just been born and still retained memories from before death. Looking utterly confused, it wandered along the Yellow Springs.
Then it spotted an area filled with large numbers of coffins, all belonging to Corpse Vein cultivators.
Like someone who had finally found their organization, the Purple Zombie randomly selected an empty coffin, lay down inside, and joined the unique cultivation retreat practiced by zombie cultivators.
From that point onward, any cultivator who died within Stomach World would have their soul guided into the Yellow Springs Underworld and be reborn as a zombie.
It saved Ren Qing a great deal of trouble and became a unique cycle of reincarnation belonging solely to Stomach World.
Even if it was only the most basic cycle of life and death, it proved that under the effects of Heaven and Earth Genesis, Stomach World had become a genuine world.
**Will you advance to Four Divisions? This will consume one thousand years of lifespan.**
The next stage, Four Divisions of the Yang God realm, required a thousand years of lifespan.
Ren Qing's Heavenly Dao Crack had happened to stall exactly at the halfway recovery point.
He could only wait patiently.
During that period, he continuously improved the Heavenly Palace with Dao Dao Dao.
For the time being, there was only one Heavenly Palace.
Ren Qing had not yet decided whether to use it to house Nether Yuan, so he simply stored various items that couldn't be exposed to the public there.
The Underworld gained additional entrances and exits, though only zombies could pass through them.
Any zombie lying within the Yellow Springs would eventually be carried by the current into the Wine Sea.
Traveling to the Underworld was more troublesome.
One had to reach a certain location at the bottom of the sea where a spring eye emitted death qi. Standing atop it would cause one to be sucked away.
The Restraint Officers' Hall quickly grew accustomed to the changes occurring within Stomach World.
The Underworld was practically a cultivation paradise exclusively for the Corpse Vein.
However, none of the other branches had any objections. In fact, they were quite pleased with the arrangement.
After all, everyone's ultimate destination was eventually to switch to zombie cultivation.
In a sense, all of them would eventually benefit from the abundant yin qi of the Underworld.
As for the Heavenly Palace, nobody could detect its existence.
Even when flying through the clouds on magical artifacts, they were unable to discover the hidden space concealed within.
The Yin Difference realm Heaven and Earth Genesis significantly improved Stomach World, yet it still failed to reveal the special nature of the Zhenyuan Earth Ancestor Immortal Position.
Ren Qing could only place his hopes on the Yang God realm and continued meditating while waiting.
Several months passed in the blink of an eye.
After thoroughly stabilizing Stomach World, he advanced toward the Yang God realm Four Divisions.
This time, there wasn't much disturbance on land.
Instead, the entire Wine Sea became violently turbulent.
Fierce winds howled while lightning intertwined across the sky.
Kunpeng was so frightened that it dove into the deepest parts of the sea and buried itself beneath the sediment.
Tornadoes formed across the Wine Sea.
Countless fish and shrimp fled in the opposite direction, as though the apocalypse were about to descend upon them.
Only a group of long-tailed fish swam around the tornadoes.
Their numbers continued increasing.
Soon the population exceeded a thousand.
Then they fearlessly plunged into the tornadoes, where their bodies were sliced open by coral fragments and stones carried within the storm.
Ren Qing noticed that the long-tailed fish were among the few intelligent lifeforms in the Wine Sea.
Though not particularly powerful physically, they normally occupied the upper levels of the food chain and even hunted large fish in groups.
Stimulated by Heaven and Earth Genesis, the long-tailed fish began evolving toward a humanoid form.
Their four fins transformed into arms.
Their tails grew longer and narrower, with bone spurs appearing at the joints.
Distinct facial features emerged upon their heads as well.
Ren Qing had expected them to become the merfolk of mythology.
Instead, they became humanoid beings with fish heads, human bodies, and fish tails.
"Beyond the South Sea dwell merfolk. They live in water like fish, never abandoning weaving and craftsmanship. When they weep, pearls are produced from their eyes."
Although they did not quite resemble true merfolk, Ren Qing still called them the Merfolk Race.
At present, they were the only intelligent species ruling the Wine Sea.
Ren Qing passed down the contents of Wine God Technique to the merfolk.
To allow them to cultivate Wine God Technique, he even created an introductory cultivation method that could be practiced through disease seeds.
[Water-Controlling Heart Sutra]
[Created by Ren Qing. Suitable for the Lung Water Disease Seed. It transforms the internal organs into water-storing organs and grants indirect control over water sources. Upon mastery, it allows entry into Wine God Technique.]
The merfolk were moved to tears by the sudden opportunity.
However, they quickly splintered apart due to disputes over territory.
Ren Qing was somewhat speechless.
As expected, intelligent lifeforms would inevitably engage in internal conflict if no powerful figure stood above them.
He assigned Kunpeng to watch over the merfolk so they wouldn't somehow drive themselves to extinction.
After all, he was counting on them to help the Restraint Officers' Hall strengthen its naval capabilities.
Ren Qing didn't believe that the Yang God realm Heaven and Earth Genesis merely created the merfolk.
He immediately turned his consciousness toward Stomach World for a closer inspection.
He soon discovered that the Heavenly Palace had finally expanded to ten li in size.
Furthermore, he could now split the Heavenly Palace into separate spaces of varying sizes.
Without hesitation, Ren Qing separated out two li of Heavenly Palace.
The moment the insect shell touched the Heavenly Palace, it was absorbed into the barren ground.
Mountains gradually rose from the earth as Nether Yuan spread throughout the area.
Ren Qing didn't stop there.
He also took the several hundred Heavenly Dao Insect eggs he had obtained years ago and buried them underground as secondary spiritual veins.
Whether the Heavenly Dao Insect eggs would hatch didn't concern him much.
Stomach World was entirely under Ren Qing's control.
Even if Heavenly Dao Insects appeared, they could only become subordinate forces of the Restraint Officers' Hall, obediently remaining within the Heavenly Palace and helping produce Nether Yuan.
"Since Nether Yuan is its foundation, let's call it the Heavenly Dao Palace..."
Ren Qing couldn't help murmuring.
As though ordained by fate itself, a plaque that was half real and half illusory appeared above the Heavenly Dao Palace.
Immediately afterward, Ren Qing separated another two li of Heavenly Palace and tossed the Forbidden Realm into it.
The Forbidden Realm contained the Blood Moon, the Longevity Tree, and Avici Hell.
The Longevity Tree contained disease seeds and could assist Body Cultivation Martial Arts.
Avici Hell was aimed at Restraint Officer cultivation methods.
The Blood Moon stabilized one's mental state.
This area was named the Restraint Officer Palace and was specifically intended for cultivating Restraint Officer methods.
However, all the Heavenly Palaces were still in the process of gestation.
It would probably be some time before they could be opened.
Ren Qing had a feeling that when Heaven and Earth Genesis advanced to the Heavenly Aberration realm, Stomach World might undergo a world-shaking qualitative transformation.
Could it be possible to use Dao Dao Dao to appoint gods and immortals and then sweep across the world?
Ren Qing quickly dismissed the unrealistic thought.
No matter how heaven-defying Stomach World became, he himself was still only at the Heavenly Aberration realm.
Not to mention Heavenly Aberration, even achieving Earth Immortalhood remained far from realistic.
Of course, that didn't stop him from temporarily postponing the Ascension Methods of Disaster-Dispelling Method and Wuying Ghost while prioritizing Heaven and Earth Genesis's advancement to the Heavenly Aberration realm.
The sooner Stomach World advanced, the greater the benefits.