Ren Qing had originally already felt that the relationship between the demon cultivators and the anomalous entities was not one of mutual benefit, and now, after seeing the Corpse Elephant, he was even more certain of this point.
But although his head was full of sneaky schemes, he still needed to first figure out the situation.
Ren Qing moved through the soil; the lightless environment made him like a tiger that had grown wings.
He was now within a massive karst cave hundreds of meters wide, its floor covered with a yellow-green, viscous swamp which gave off an unbearable stench.
The Corpse Elephant was suspended in midair, countless chains piercing through its body.
Its spine was already more than half exposed; its body surface looked like a mountain currently being mined, with hundreds and thousands of people digging out its flesh.
Beside the mining area were more than a dozen mounds; inside them one could sense multiple powerful demonic auras, and the chains originated from the demon cultivators inside those mounds.
In the open space stood a simple altar, piled from flesh and blood, carved with various moon patterns, obviously related to Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
The mine was not large in scale, after all the Corpse Elephant had only just undergone metamorphosis not long ago.
Relying on the ghost shadow and the "No-Existence," Ren Qing approached the Corpse Elephant without restraint.
He discovered that the common people had already undergone corpsification, and many had even lost their souls entirely.
The Half-Corpses swung their mining picks with stiff movements under the control of a magical implement.
Newly delivered corpses were casually thrown into the mine; due to the demonic qi emitted by the Corpse Elephant, they crawled up in short order.
Ren Qing suddenly somewhat understood why the zombie demon cultivators wanted to corpsify all the common people.
As laborers, Half-Corpses did not need rest nor food; aside from being unable to reproduce, they practically had no drawbacks.
The demon cultivators played the role of corpse-herding Taoists, using gong-like implements to command the Half-Corpses and transport flesh to the altar.
Most flesh was devoured by the demon cultivators inside the mounds; only a small portion would be used as altar material, causing the progress to be extremely slow.
Why did the Corpse Elephant's situation feel so grim, actually pinned down in the depths by demon cultivators, with a bit of the flavor of draining the pond to catch the fish.
Ren Qing revealed a gloating smile.
Relying on the ability of "No-Existence," aside from the pseudo–Yang God–level Corpse Elephant itself, none of the other demon cultivators could detect him.
After all, the upper limit of demon cultivators was the Nascent Soul stage, that is, the Yin Runner realm, and even that was attained by taking shortcuts through anomalous entities.
But he could not allow "No-Existence" to continuously devour his presence for too long, otherwise it would lead to permanent loss of presence.
Ren Qing did not want to be forgotten by the world.
He maintained the dragon-snake ghost shadow form, but shrank his body to just over two or three meters, moving through the shadows between the chains.
The Corpse Elephant vaguely sensed Ren Qing and wondered how a fellow being with such weak cultivation could escape the demon cultivators' control, while at the same time feeling a surge of anger at being ignored.
The ground beneath faintly trembled.
It tried to figure out who had come, but helplessly, its body was locked down; wanting to break free was clearly unrealistic, and instead the wounds bled like rivers.
Fresh blood flowed down its body into the swamp, where several deformed crocodiles seven or eight meters long swam about, their gazes restless and hungry.
The Corpse Elephant tried several times but could only give up, simply closing its eyes and no longer moving.
The sudden disturbance drew the demon cultivators' attention; many walked out from the mounds, their faces full of surprise as they looked at the Corpse Elephant.
Only the Half-Corpses were unmoved, continuing their repetitive mining work.
The demon cultivators did not know that the shadow imperceptible to the naked eye had already reached the Corpse Elephant's back, hiding in a concealed patch of darkness.
The Half-Corpses mined flesh around the spine; the scene was silent and monotonous.
The zombie demon cultivators gathered lazily in a corner; they would occasionally chat a few sentences, but most of the time they were savoring the taste of flesh.
Du Fang checked the condition of each Half-Corpse along a specific route.
He looked only in his early thirties, but counting the years buried in the soil, he was already close to sixty or seventy; after being dug up and transformed into a zombie by demon cultivators, he appeared extremely decayed.
Du Fang was mainly responsible for the meat mine in the northeast corner, with more than a hundred Half-Corpses under him, a considerable force within the Corpse District.
The Corpse Elephant suddenly made a disturbance, causing part of the meat mine to slide from the top and happen to crush two Half-Corpses transporting flesh.
Seeing this, Du Fang hurried over to check; discovering that the Half-Corpses had been smashed into minced meat, his expression grew grim.
The living and dead within the Corpse District had almost all completed corpsification; fewer and fewer new Half-Corpses were produced each day, and each Half-Corpse was exceedingly precious.
"What happened?"
Du Fang examined the surrounding chains; seeing that they could still restrain the Corpse Elephant, he did not care too much.
He casually tore off a Half-Corpse's arm and chewed it in his mouth.
Suddenly, a wave of drowsiness rose in Du Fang's heart; this was something he had never experienced since becoming a zombie demon cultivator, and he couldn't help but feel puzzled.
But the drowsiness simply could not be suppressed; instead it grew more intense with time.
He squinted sleepily for a few breaths, then abruptly awoke, cold sweat soaking his back as he glanced around warily.
For some reason, Du Fang felt something was wrong, but couldn't tell what.
He took out the implement controlling the Half-Corpses and shouted with a stern face: "The dead move; the living do not approach..."
Du Fang communicated with the copper gong, expecting the surrounding Half-Corpses to act according to his intent, but unexpectedly they completely ignored him.
He furrowed his brow and walked toward the Half-Corpses, but the distance between them grew farther instead of closer.
Thinking something was wrong with the Half-Corpses, he waved to the demon cultivators not far away, calling out repeatedly.
But the demon cultivators acted as if they hadn't heard.
Du Fang fell into inexplicable terror, like clutching at a life-saving straw as he ran toward the mounds, inside were zombie demon cultivators of deeper cultivation.
But before he had taken more than a few steps, he felt the surrounding light dim.
The underground had already been enclosed, with only a few candles for illumination, but with the eyesight of demon cultivators, one could still see to some extent.
Du Fang's situation was completely different, as if the light had been forcibly stripped away.
A faint mist drifted up without cause; piercing cold seeped out from it; the Half-Corpses in his vision disappeared one by one.
Du Fang stared at the Corpse Elephant in disbelief; he suspected an anomalous entity had been disturbed.
"They all said the Rabbit-Toad Immortal is about to descend, but the elders just had to stir up trouble."
"Damn it, damn it..."
He cursed in collapse, his footsteps quickening as he tried to break through the darkness to return to a safe place.
But Du Fang seemed to have been dragged into an endless hell. Although he could see Half-Corpses not far away, when he approached, only a phantom remained.
He turned his head around in panic.
Sssssss...
The breathing of some massive beast sounded, extremely abrupt in the silent darkness, causing his heartbeat to reach its limit.
Then Du Fang discovered that the darkness, which had been like a dead pool, was suddenly boiling; the darkness enveloped his body.
"This humble one had no intention of offending; it was arranged by those four Corpse Immortals, they intend to use the Corpse Elephant as nourishment."
Du Fang hurriedly knelt on the ground, banging his head hard, blood flowing uncontrollably.
As he kowtowed, he suddenly sensed something; raising his head subconsciously, he was stunned dumb by the sight before him.
He saw a colossal being resembling both dragon and snake opening its blood-red eyes, with three bizarre and inexplicable pupils on its forehead, sending chills down his spine.
The dragon-snake ghost shadow opened its mouth and swallowed Du Fang in a single bite; he screamed in despair, but was quickly engulfed by the darkness.
After Ren Qing shattered Du Fang's intelligence, he spent only half an hour using dream entry to fully digest the man's memories.
This also caused Du Fang to become a completely soulless walking corpse.
Ren Qing showed a strange expression.
He examined the memories inside and out, and unexpectedly found that demon cultivators were born with rebellious bones.
Zombie demon cultivators learned from the Corpse Elephant that when the demonic qi of Jingzhou became sufficiently full, the so-called Rabbit-Toad Immortal would descend into the Crescent Moon Layer.
They cultivated by relying on anomalous entities, so they were supposed to be within the same camp.
But the problem was that zombie demon cultivators throughout had treated anomalous entities solely as cultivation resources, having no understanding at all of the Rabbit-Toad Immortal.
If he were in their place, Ren Qing would also feel guilty.
Thus the zombie demon cultivators appeared to set up altars to gather demonic qi and clear out the Wuwei Monastery, but actually they had no trust in the Rabbit-Toad Immortal.
They used the Corpse Elephant in an attempt to break past the bottleneck of the Demon Infant stage, but didn't dare to go all the way, resulting in the current situation.
The altar to gather qi was indeed being built, but the progress looked like perfunctory work.
What Ren Qing needed to do was make the demon cultivators completely turn against the Rabbit-Toad Immortal, at the very least, prevent them from believing that helping the Rabbit-Toad Immortal aligned with their interests.
The only pity was that now was not yet the time to fall out with the demon cultivators...
How could Ren Qing forget the zombie demon cultivators' sneak attack on the Wuwei Monastery; he would take a bit of interest first, the principal to be collected later.
Under his control, the ghost shadow attached itself to the Dragon-Snake Spine, becoming like a sharp bone needle that viciously stabbed into the Corpse Elephant's flesh.
And then stirred.
At first the Corpse Elephant felt only a faint ache, but very soon it could no longer remain calm; the pain intensified deep within its body.
Its long trunk swung wildly, producing heavy, thunderous sounds that even the residents outside in Qingyan Town could sense.
The Dragon-Snake Spine bored directly into the exposed spine and began wildly absorbing the bone marrow.
Ren Qing felt slightly regretful; although the Corpse Elephant was huge, the bone marrow within its spine was not much, and the Dragon-Snake Spine would soon devour it all.
The Corpse Elephant immediately went berserk; letting the chains tear out wounds of all sizes, it still desperately tried to remove the foreign object from its spine.
It realized Ren Qing was behind this, and its mouth erupted with incomprehensible howls.
The sudden change caused severe casualties among the Half-Corpses around the spine due to the chains, and several demon cultivators even fell into the swamp, where they were torn into shreds by crocodiles.
Four Demon Infant–stage auras exploded at the same time.
The elders emerged from the black coffins inside the mounds, their bodies bound by numerous chains, though only part of them connected to the Corpse Elephant.
They exchanged glances, then used the chains to suppress the Corpse Elephant.
Although there were four elders, in reality they shared a single soul; no wonder they could advance to the Demon Infant stage, benefiting from their unique constitution.
"Corpse Elephant True Person, we are helping you attain the Dao, do not resist any further!!!"
Ren Qing's mouth twitched; to say such righteous-sounding words was impressive.
The Corpse Elephant trembled even more violently; the elders had no intention of tearing their faces off either, injecting their own demonic qi along the chains into its body.
Its wounds gradually stabilized, but Ren Qing had no intention of stopping.