The sky was gloomy to a frightening degree, and it had already lasted for several days.
The dark clouds did not look naturally formed at all; instead they seemed mixed with Heavenly Demon aura, causing the sun and moon to be obscured.
The cultivators within Wuwei City all felt invisible pressure, not daring to slacken in the slightest.
The corpses of Rabbit-Toad cultivators were pounded into minced flesh by heavy objects, mixed with powder ground from Ksitigarbha ribs, and evenly smeared onto the city walls.
In Ren Qing's view, artifact spirits were a very special kind of existence.
Although as the consciousness of an aberrant fetus artifact, the two could be said to share prosperity and loss together, at the same time before the aberrant fetus artifact was destroyed, the artifact spirit would not suffer too great an impact.
Due to erosion by demonic qi, Wuwei City's artifact spirit had grown considerably in a disguised manner.
How to put it.
The artifact spirit was like something parasitic within the aberrant fetus artifact's body, somewhat similar in form to a Heavenly Dao Insect, only the artifact spirit could not detach from the aberrant fetus artifact.
Bang...
An explosion came from afar. One could see pillar-like black qi rushing straight to the sky, dyeing the clouds pitch-black. This was already the fifth time within several days.
The commotion coming from Jingzhou caused the expressions of Wuwei City's cultivators to grow panicked.
Instead, it diluted the uproar of Ren Qing advancing to Yang Spirit realm. After all, his age had not yet reached a hundred years; thinking about it was unbelievable.
Many cultivators even felt that given Ren Qing another hundred years, Heavenly Aberration realm could be expected.
Li Tiangang loudly urged, "Hurry up, only then can we withdraw from Jingzhou as soon as possible!"
Barrels of blood plasma were poured everywhere to accelerate the speed of blood-refinement.
The lumps at the base of the city walls continuously swelled, as if living creatures were about to break out.
Ren Qing used corrosive Nether Yuan to stimulate the artifact spirit's consciousness, while the corner of his eye kept staring at the Blood Moon overhead; the more he looked, the more something felt wrong.
Previously in the marshland, the Blood Moon he saw was as if one leaf covered the eyes, but now while in Jingzhou, he actually had a similar feeling.
As if the Blood Moon had become extremely false.
Ren Qing shook his head. Unless he went to deeper layers of Jingzhou, it would be difficult to clarify the situation, but who knew what dangers the waning moon layer held.
In power struggles involving Earth Immortal existences, Yang Spirit realm were merely somewhat larger ants.
Moreover, Wuwei City lacked manpower. Li Yaoyang and the others of Yin Difference realm had gone to recuperate, so he could only personally refine Wuwei City.
When the daylight dimmed, Wuwei City's aura gradually restrained itself.
Ren Qing let out a breath.
Altogether it had taken five full days, plus two Yang Spirit realm Rabbit-Toad corpses. The artifact spirit could finally accommodate a Ghost Envoy realm aberrant fetus.
Wuwei City showed no obvious changes, but the speed of repairing damage greatly increased.
Li Tiangang wiped sweat from his forehead. If Wuwei City still had not met the conditions, he felt Song Zongwu would go hunt Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
After all, in recent days Song Zongwu had more than once mentioned whether Rabbit-Toad cultivator corpses could be used to shorten the process of blood-refining the artifact spirit's consciousness.
However, two Yang Spirit realm corpses were already sufficient for the Blood Refinement Method. Seeing Song Zongwu eager to move, there was somewhat a personal emotional factor of regaining face involved.
The many cultivators stopped their hands, watching Ren Qing take out the aberrant object of Spirit of the Hill.
The Spirit of the Hill aberrant object overall resembled a gigantic mountain rock; on its surface one could even see traces of moss and vegetation growth.
Ren Qing did not choose to bring the aberrant object to the marshland to wear down its consciousness, but instead directly wrapped it with massive Nether Yuan.
Qingsongzi stared at the vast Nether Yuan at the side and could not help yearning.
Sure enough as rumors said, Ren Qing had indeed advanced to Yang Spirit realm using a Heavenly Dao method, already reaching the level of Patriarch Heavenly Daozi of that year.
He subconsciously absorbed the leaking Nether Yuan, and immediately his bottleneck loosened somewhat.
One must know that although Qingsongzi relied on abundant resources to barely reach late Golden Core stage, his own foundation was extremely unstable.
He had not expected that merely contacting Ren Qing's Nether Yuan would show signs of breaking through to Golden Core perfection.
Han Li and the other disciples felt it even more clearly. Many low-realm cultivators directly chose to close their eyes and sit cross-legged in place.
Ren Qing was slightly surprised, not expecting Nether Sea Breathing Art to have such obvious assistance to the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method.
He could consider using Nether Yuan as material, supplemented by materials that increase physique, to refine the "Foundation Establishment Pill" once made by the Fire Refining Palace.
It always felt that although the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method had the drawback of the mother Heavenly Dao Insect, opportunistic means far surpassed the extremely dangerous Restraint Officer methods.
A piercing noise interrupted Ren Qing's thoughts.
The Spirit of the Hill aberrant object let out shrill screams. Dense human faces grew on the rock surface, among them men, women, old, and young.
This indicated that the Restraint Officer before death likely possessed among his aberrations one related to devouring souls, leading to such a situation.
While Ren Qing wore down the aberrant object's consciousness, Song Zongwu quickly returned from outside the city.
Song Zongwu carried a half-meter-sized head. One could vaguely see it should be a Rabbit-Toad cultivator, but it had already undergone severe Heavenly Demonization.
"We must leave as soon as possible. Jingzhou is truly too chaotic."
As soon as he spoke, it drew anxious gazes from everyone. Regardless of cultivation depth, they had realized the atmosphere in the city was unusual.
"I searched within five or six hundred li for several days. In the end I did not even see miscellaneous demons. The living beings within Jingzhou seem to have already gone extinct. I only found a corpse eroded by Heavenly Demon aura."
Ren Qing increased the release of Nether Yuan. The screams from within the aberrant object grew increasingly intense.
Great Dream True Person came beside Song Zongwu and calmly said, "Xiangxiang is already prepared."
Li Tiangang nodded and said, "That is good."
Ren Qing focused on the aberrant object, listening to them discuss Xiangxiang's situation.
Restraint Officers' Hall was ready at any time to withdraw from Xiangxiang, considering returning after Jingzhou calmed down, though specifics still required joint discussion by the Yang Spirit realms.
Ren Qing had considered taking everyone into Yongjian Leixie, but ultimately gave up.
If they ultimately withdrew from Xiangxiang.
The several thousand remaining in Wuwei City were manageable, but Xiangxiang concentrated the entire population of three regions, totaling hundreds of thousands.
With the fragile ecosystem within Yongjian Leixie, it was impossible to support hundreds of thousands of people.
The movable magical artifact Wuwei City was therefore very important, equivalent to an island upon the vast ocean, considered the reliance of Restraint Officers' Hall.
Thus even risking somewhat, Great Dream True Person advocated refining Wuwei City.
As for first putting away Wuwei City.
Ren Qing had secretly tried casting Yongjian Leixie on Wuwei City, but due to conflict with the surrounding demonic qi, to smoothly take it into the stomach world would require at least several hours.
He could only wait until the Ghost Envoy realm aberrant fetus fused, anyway at most half a day.
Not long after, the consciousness of the Spirit of the Hill aberrant object completely vanished. Its exterior returned to an ordinary sparse mountain rock form.
As soon as Ren Qing withdrew Nether Yuan, Wuwei City trembled. The artifact spirit impatiently wanted to absorb the aberrant fetus to reach Ghost Envoy realm.
He slowly brought the Spirit of the Hill aberrant fetus close to the ground.
The ground split open a crack, forming the shape of a mouthpart. Inside diffused thick stench, and one could see countless corpses produced by blood-refinement.
Ren Qing threw the aberrant fetus into Wuwei City's mouthpart. The crack immediately closed.
Song Zongwu stood atop the city wall vigilantly, fearing Rabbit-Toad cultivators might approach Wuwei City, but at a glance all was deathly silence.
Li Tiangang looked around, his gaze sweeping over several thousand cultivators, and reminded, "Each of you seize time to recuperate. Even if we are at the periphery of Jingzhou, that does not mean withdrawal will be safe."
Cultivators closed their eyes to rest. Even though the smell of blood was pungent, they did not dare waste time.
Ren Qing observed for a moment with heavy pupils, confirming Wuwei City's advancement was fairly stable, then placed his attention on the Broken Moon Meteor in his palm.
Since the information flow indicated a wisp of the Rabbit-Toad cultivator's soul inside the Broken Moon Meteor, perhaps he could use this to obtain memories regarding the Blood Moon.
The different mouth swallowed the Broken Moon Meteor. As soon as it reached Yongjian Leixie it was bound by black ropes.
Then the Broken Moon Meteor was peeled layer by layer. The exposed textures differed, as if not refined but naturally formed by crustal movement.
At the very core, a finger-sized white worm wriggled.
Whenever Ren Qing saw insects now he thought of Heavenly Dao Insects, but clearly the two were unrelated. The white worm indeed was manifested from a soul.
He carefully cast entering dream, wanting to obtain information from the white worm's memory.
As a result, just as Ren Qing pulled the white worm's weak consciousness into the dream, it immediately died violently. Then some shallow memories appeared in his mind, digested within half a breath.
He frowned slightly; the memories were truly somewhat crude.
The white worm seemed to have long been soaked in some kind of liquid, during which it absorbed special substances, forming the hard shell of the Broken Moon Meteor.
"Could it be that after turning into Rabbit-Toad, memories are stored in the Broken Moon Meteor, rather than the soul?"
Ren Qing suddenly realized the special nature of the Broken Moon Meteor.
He took out another Broken Moon Meteor obtained from Song Zongwu and continuously examined it with heavy pupils, muttering, "Using a remnant soul to refine a complete soul resembling a magical artifact?"
Although the Broken Moon Meteor was essentially a magical artifact, its function was already not much different from an ordinary soul. Rabbit-Toad cultivators used this kind of "artifact soul" as their core.
Cultivation version cybernetic machine man?
Ren Qing felt absurd, then used his own soul to contact the Broken Moon Meteor. Immediately memories poured into his mind, quickly digested.
Because the Rabbit-Toad cultivator had died, the memories stored in the Broken Moon Meteor were already incomplete, and he did not see information regarding the Blood Moon.
Even the contents of the Facing-the-Moon Method were ambiguous. Most recorded how to use materials to refine "puppet" Rabbit-Toad cultivators.
After checking several times, he learned that the realms of the Facing-the-Moon Method were divided into New Moon, Remnant Moon, Waning Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon.
But each Rabbit-Toad cultivator's upper limit was already determined by the quality of the Broken Moon Meteor.
The highest realm Full Moon was equivalent to Yang Spirit realm, but the cultivation method indeed as Ren Qing previously guessed differed from ordinary techniques.
Rabbit-Toad cultivators used demonic qi to polish themselves, very similar to nourishing magical artifacts.
The Blood Moon's invasion of Jingzhou was more like using living beings to strengthen demonic qi, thereby feeding back to itself. In plain terms, it was refining artifacts.
Ren Qing felt the Blood Moon as a magical artifact had indeed reached Earth Immortal, but it was not some great being's magic treasure, very likely existing independently.
In the eyes of Rabbit-Toad cultivators, the Blood Moon should be an immortal deity, dharma name Taiyin Star Lord.
At this time, Wuwei City's transformation neared completion. Ghost Envoy realm aura spread. Walls and ground all turned into rock.
Seeing everyone already standing ready, Ren Qing compiled the Facing-the-Moon Method into a volume and stored it for preservation.