Ren Qing continued toward the lake, while the Ghost Shadow followed the Stomach World back to the soles of his feet. Its pitch-black body was tinged with a hint of dark red.
The Ghost Shadow was drinking the Manta Ray Cultivator's blood. This was a habit inherited from the Heavenly Dao Insect, but in reality, it provided no particularly obvious benefit.
Under normal circumstances, the Manta Ray Cultivator would gradually be devoured according to the Ghost Shadow's habits.
Once his blood was drained, it would move on to his bone marrow, then his brain matter, followed by his fresh internal organs. It was actually somewhat uninterested in his flesh, blood, and bones.
Ren Qing watched as the Ghost Shadow tormented the Manta Ray Cultivator in all sorts of ways. He could vaguely hear his spine-chilling screams, yet the man showed no sign of weakening.
Clearly, a centipede could still writhe even after its death.
Ren Qing did not kill the Manta Ray Cultivator. Instead, he signaled the Ghost Shadow to return him to the prison in the Underworld.
Seeing this, the Ghost Shadow plunged its tail straight into the Yellow Springs and flung out a horribly mangled body. The disk-shaped Manta Ray Cultivator was already riddled with wounds.
Ren Qing locked the Manta Ray Cultivator deep inside the prison, sentencing him to life imprisonment.
Compared with the corpses of Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators, he preferred preserving the cultivators' value. After all, once they entered the Stomach World, they could no longer control whether they lived or died.
That way, whenever certain materials were needed for artifact refinement or alchemy, he could simply take them for himself.
The third level of the Underworld had also become livelier because so many cultivators were imprisoned there, but most of the prisoners had already abandoned all hope of escape.
The Manta Ray Cultivator panted heavily. What had happened to him not long ago felt like a nightmare.
He had been blinded by greed, thinking the Heavenly Court would be easy to handle. Instead, he had been completely crushed without the slightest ability to fight back.
He could not help trembling all over. His injuries had already been suppressed by the yin qi of the Underworld, leaving him in a state where even death was beyond his reach.
What terrified the Manta Ray Cultivator most was the indescribable yin qi permeating this place.
If nothing unexpected happened, even suicide would be useless. The yin qi would transform the corpse of any living creature into a zombie.
He would still remain imprisoned, unable to escape punishment for all eternity.
The Manta Ray Cultivator pressed himself against the prison door and looked outside. He could sense an inexplicable eeriness in this place, as though there were more than one Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator here.
"The Heavenly Court. Could it really be an order left behind by the ancient immortals and gods?"
He collapsed weakly onto the ground and let out one hysterical roar after another, but none of it could escape the prison. It was all futile.
The Manta Ray Cultivator's reckless actions had created a butterfly effect, indirectly changing the situation in the Inner Layer World and causing the other factions to calm down.
Unless they were mentally deranged and fanatically extreme cultivators, most factions had gradually abandoned the idea of going to the Deeper Layer World.
After all, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage was about to begin. The chessboard had already been set up, and by now they probably would not even get a sip of the soup. They were better off staying in the Inner Layer World.
The Heavenly Court was a roadblock, and it clearly was not wise to offend them.
They were obviously using their low-level Heavenly Soldiers to temper their cultivation, while ancient monsters were secretly protecting them. They refused to yield to either force or persuasion.
The Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators could only leave Jingzhou in frustration. They could not bring themselves to compete for resources with a group of low-realm cultivators.
The remaining factions could not help but take the Heavenly Court's strength seriously. The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
The number of Heavenly Soldiers in the Inner Layer World continued to grow, beginning to sweep across the region.
With Song Zongwu stationed there and Ren Qing secretly protecting them, the Restraint Officers' Hall could dispatch cultivators without restraint. Their numbers soon surpassed the ten thousand they had deployed in the Surface Layer World, reaching more than twenty thousand.
The sight was spectacular. Whenever they discovered a place where Gu were gathered, teams of Heavenly Soldiers would arrive moments later and strip the area of its resources.
The Heavenly Soldiers had not the slightest trace of immortal aura. They could be described as nothing but demons, monsters, and evil spirits.
The Inner Layer World's resources were more than ten times richer. They first picked out the more valuable resources, so the terrifying sight of leaving not even a blade of grass behind had yet to emerge.
Even so, the various factions felt as though they were looking at a starving pack of wolves.
In their eyes, the Heavenly Court was so greedy that it would not spare a single resource. Seeing this, they could no longer sit still and began dispatching their own subordinates.
The Inner Layer World fell into a contest between numerous factions, yet they tacitly refrained from fighting.
Unfortunately, the Restraint Officers' Hall was a maggot living inside a corpse.
When it came to squeezing out every last bit of residual value, the others could not hold a candle to the Restraint Officers' Hall. Gu Immortal and the others had even begun turning their attention toward the various factions themselves.
Their current tolerance for the Heavenly Court snatching resources from under their noses was purely because it saved them the trouble of gathering resources themselves.
Song Zongwu, meanwhile, was eagerly challenging the Yang God realm cultivators of various factions, seemingly intending to walk through his own cultivation path all over again.
The various branches of the Restraint Officers' Hall might have occasional petty disputes that never saw the light of day, but the hundreds of thousands of cultivators were remarkably united when dealing with outsiders. It was not because they were truly united, but because they shared a similar "philosophy."
They were all fellow cultivators who had made their fortunes through robbery.
Ren Qing had not realized in the slightest that his efforts to cultivate the Restraint Officers' Hall's independence seemed to have gone a little too far.
He did not care about this, however, because the four of them were already close to the lake. Looking into the distance, they could see Fude Tathagata at the center of the lake.
The dense mist could not conceal Fude Tathagata's figure, making him appear hazy and indistinct.
Fortune Virtue Earth Immortal had originally been a True Immortal with somewhat feminine features. Even after being transformed into a Buddha, his appearance remained slightly effeminate, making him seem rather strange.
He sat cross-legged upon a Throne of Skulls shaped like a lotus. His body was probably close to ten thousand meters tall, and his head was almost enveloped by the clouds. No wonder Fude Tathagata could be clearly seen even from Small Buddha Heaven.
Besides this, countless flesh lotuses floated across the lake. They were entirely assembled from flesh and bones, and their floral fragrance was strangely similar to the smell of blood.
Flesh formed their stems, bones resembled their petals, and the centers of the flowers, when examined closely, were filled with children's milk teeth.
Ren Qing suspected that the flesh lotuses had been refined from monks.
The flesh lotuses remained alive, writhing constantly as though breathing. They were more than capable of supporting Buddhas nearly a thousand meters tall.
More than a dozen Buddhas were already seated upon the flesh lotuses. All of them were Bodhisattvas of the Heavenly Aberration realm.
One hand rested against their abdomen, while the other held an open palm before their chest. More than a hundred selected monks stood upon each palm.
Ren Qing looked toward Tang Sheng, who was cultivating even as he walked. Although the latter was only a hair's breadth away from reaching the consummation of the Yin Difference realm, Ren Qing had no intention of waiting any longer and directly sent him into the Stomach World.
Because he could not expose the Ghost Shadow and needed to separate the Dragon King of the Four Seas from the Lord of the North Pole Star, he simply opened his mouth, creating a suction force out of thin air.
Tang Sheng struggled as he was swallowed into his mouth, then was tossed into his residence in the Heavenly Palace to continue his secluded cultivation.
Daoist Zhu wore an awkward smile.
Whether it was the Heavenly Court or Lingshan Tathagata, why were their methods so cruel? They could even do things like harming their fellow cultivators. It was spine-chilling.
Ren Qing looked around and said, "Let's stop here for now. We will disguise ourselves as Buddhas before going in."
Daoist Zhu hesitated. "We come from the Daoist sects, after all. Fude Tathagata isn't blind. How could he possibly..."
Ren Qing could not even be bothered to explain. He grabbed Daoist Zhu and Daoist Mu Snake by the shoulders, granting their vision the enhancement of the Zhili Technique.
Daoist Zhu's mouth immediately fell open as he stared at the dozen or so Buddhas in disbelief.
Who would have thought that one-third of them were actually disguised Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators? Their methods were simply too well concealed, making them difficult to detect.
One four-armed Buddha had already had its brain hollowed out. Its skull was covered in gold foil that blocked its aura, while a cultivator resembling a seahorse hid inside.
Another Buddha was wrapped in long serpents. A cultivator with a body as thin as a needle was concealed inside the serpent, remotely controlling every movement of the Buddha.
There were even cultivators who had skinned Buddhas and refined the skins into artifacts.
If the artifacts had not been painstakingly crafted and they had not deliberately chosen secluded Thrones of Skulls, even Daoist Zhu could have easily seen through them.
The Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators had already been in the Deeper Layer World for some time.
Even if they had not mastered possession techniques, the ample time available to them had been enough to find a solution.
Besides, Fude Tathagata seemed to truly be nothing more than a prop.
The person behind the scenes was mainly making use of the characteristics of the Heavenly Dao Insect.
Fude Tathagata was essentially a human-shaped spirit vein that constantly emitted Buddha qi, causing the immortal position's laws in Jingzhou to become extremely stable.
From this, it was clear that establishing immortal position laws required three conditions.
First, a means of sealing an immortal position or True Immortal, such as the person behind the scenes using Buddha qi to envelop Taiyin Star Lord.
Second, a source capable of continuously producing a special form of qi, making the environment different from the outside world.
Finally, the immortal position laws had to be confined within a limited space.
Ren Qing had constantly experimented through the intestines and stomach of the Forbidden Corpse, but unfortunately, his attempts had only been minor experiments. To truly produce a similar effect, it would probably be extremely difficult.
It would require a long period of preparation and a great deal of manpower to explore and summarize the process.
But at least he now understood the direction. Gathering the necessary conditions was only a matter of time. Once Jingzhou was over, he could immediately begin preparing.
As Ren Qing pondered, he took out several strange ancient pills with a bronze color.
"The two of us only need to swallow them. Daoist Mu Snake, spread yours evenly across the surface of the skeleton."
Daoist Zhu was just about to ask what the pills were for when Ren Qing directly swallowed one. His flesh immediately began showing signs of metallization.
Compared with the improvised methods used by the various Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators, Ren Qing's pills were much more straightforward.
The alchemists of the Restraint Officers' Hall loved nothing more than mixing all kinds of materials together every day to see what medicinal effects they would ultimately produce. The Buddha Transformation Pill was one of the resulting products.
As long as the body was not injured, the Buddha Transformation Pill could maintain one's Buddha transformation indefinitely.
It did have practical uses, but it was normally taken only when entering a death-seclusion cultivation. It could put the body into a state between life and death.
Daoist Mu Snake immediately spread the Buddha Transformation Pill over his body. His bones gradually turned dark gold.
"Lady White Bone really is quick."
Bai Zhi Bodhisattva walked toward the lake. Her body was slightly different from before, seeming more feminine. Her skeleton had probably been replaced entirely.
Elephant Lord and the other Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators were mixed among the monks.
In terms of disguise, Lady White Bone was second only to Ren Qing. Corpse Elephant, however, was brazenly lying in her palm. How could any cultivator fail to recognize his identity?
Unfortunately, the several Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators were cooperating with one another, making them the group least worth offending.
After Daoist Zhu and Daoist Mu Snake completely transformed their bodies into Buddhas, they activated their techniques and expanded themselves to slightly more than a thousand meters tall.
The Dreamflower between their brows emitted Buddha qi, making it difficult to detect anything unusual.
Ren Qing's method was even simpler. His bacterial soul was formless to begin with, so with a wave of his hand, a Buddha formed from more than a thousand meters of light and shadow appeared, its Buddha qi dazzling with all seven colors.
They walked toward the lake, and golden light immediately surged.
But in the eyes of the Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators, the scene looked somewhat absurd and bizarre.
A pig-man, a skeleton, and a being of light and shadow. None of them looked remotely like Buddhas, yet not a single Buddha present stopped them.
They did not know whether the others were simply ignorant or whether their methods were truly flawless.
Ren Qing chose a Blood Lotus behind Fude Tathagata. It would be convenient for implanting the immortal position there, while also giving him a perfect vantage point from which to oversee the entire situation.
Daoist Zhu and Daoist Mu Snake naturally sat down beside Ren Qing.
Ren Qing's expression became strange. The scene was simply too familiar. When he had established Little Leiyin Temple in the Longevity Forbidden Zone back then, had he not used almost exactly the same method?
After going around in such a huge circle, it had ultimately come back to him.
Moreover, the scene was extremely bizarre. A group of Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators were disguising themselves as Buddhas and participating in a pseudo-Buddhist ritual, all for the sake of making contact with the Heavenly Dao.
If this situation were described to cultivators unfamiliar with Jingzhou, probably no one would believe it.
"Lord of the North Pole, don't you think we stand out a little too much?"
Daoist Zhu felt extremely uneasy. The three of them looked so different from ordinary people that they were like fish laid out on a chopping block.
"Just ignore it."
Ren Qing cast Daoist Zhu a threatening glance. He had deliberately brought the two of them here precisely to attract attention so that he could go and arrange the immortal position.
Moreover, if he had no choice but to summon the Forbidden Corpse into the outside world, someone would have to protect it.
As the Forbidden Corpse gradually underwent corpse transformation, its mutated organs were failing, and its combat strength was already inferior to normal. Besides, everyone present was a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator.
Ren Qing certainly did not dare to drive the Forbidden Corpse recklessly. This guardian puppet was still extremely important to the Restraint Officers' Hall.
"Daoist Mu Snake, be careful. Remember not to reveal any yin qi."
"Understood."
Daoist Mu Snake nodded. He felt that compared with any cultivator present, he held no advantage whatsoever, let alone against Fude Tathagata.
He stared intently at the surrounding cultivators, observing every movement.
Seeing the tense atmosphere, Daoist Zhu steeled himself. He was afraid that a battle involving True Immortals might erupt at any moment.
Buddhas arrived at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage one after another, occupying the dwindling number of flesh lotuses.
"Lord of the North Pole, if the Blood Bat Matriarch arrives here, let us know."
"She arrived long ago."
Ren Qing signaled with his eyes for them to look nearby. At the outer edge sat a Buddha less than a thousand meters tall, engaged in a profound discussion of Buddhist teachings.
There was no trace at all that its core was actually an Insect Nest cultivator with a dull intelligence.
"The Blood Bat Matriarch is parasitizing beneath the heart. She is currently asleep, so it is the Buddha's subconscious that is controlling the body."
Ren Qing simply used the Zhili Technique to refine the Dreamflower between their brows. Their pupils immediately changed into double-pupil shapes, and their vision was greatly enhanced.
Daoist Zhu said no more. It was indeed the Blood Bat Matriarch. Who knew how she had managed to squeeze into a Buddha's body that was smaller than her own.
No one knew the exact time of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage, so they could only wait patiently.
Sure enough, more factions arrived one after another. Some came from remote regions, while others were once again Buddhas disguised by Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators.
Ren Qing, meanwhile, focused entirely on implanting the immortal position.
His greatest advantage was that he was not using his true body. Instead, this was a clone formed from his bacterial soul, allowing him to divide his tasks and work simultaneously.
The Ghost Shadow silently slipped into the depths of the lake and discovered that it was actually several thousand meters deep.
It was obvious that the lake water was mixed with dense Buddha qi. When the Ghost Shadow touched the bottom, it discovered that the Buddha qi almost covered every inch of the ground.
Clearly, the person behind the scenes was guarding against anyone trying to exploit a loophole.
But this did not stump Ren Qing. He tested the defenses through various methods, trying to bypass the protection of the Buddha qi. Before long, he found a solution.
Relying on the Dreamflower, the Ghost Shadow merged with Dipankara Buddha Qi and used it to enter the soil layer.
Splash, splash.
Waves suddenly appeared across the surface of the lake, causing several genuine Bodhisattvas to stand up and glare angrily at the nearby Buddhas.
"Brothers, have any of you done anything disrespectful to Fude Tathagata?"
Wangsheng Bodhisattva showed no hostility on his face, but the hand hidden behind his back formed an orchid finger. With each breath, surging Buddha qi poured forth.
Ren Qing showed no intention of stopping. The damage at the bottom of the lake had already recovered, causing the water to become unusually calm once again.
"Wangsheng Bodhisattva, calm yourself. What courage would an extraterritorial heavenly demon have to come to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage?"
Xiaomian Bodhisattva immediately spoke up to stop Wangsheng Bodhisattva. Seeing this, the latter said nothing more and continued sitting cross-legged while reciting scriptures.
However, after this incident, Wangsheng Bodhisattva strangled nearly half of the monks standing upon his palm.
The flesh lotus beneath him greedily absorbed the dripping blood, and several more petals grew from it, making the flower appear even more vivid.
Why did Ren Qing feel that the Buddhist sects should know that extraterritorial heavenly demons would come to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage, but did not know their exact number?
The atmosphere suddenly dropped to freezing point.
Several invisible gazes crossed one another, seemingly communicating.
As one side gained while the other lost, the Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators would certainly outnumber the Buddhas. In theory, they could simply attack and take control of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage.
But Fude Tathagata was right nearby, so the matter ultimately came to nothing.
Ren Qing, the instigator behind all of this, remained perfectly composed. He did not care in the slightest whether the two sides fought. At worst, they would simply go their separate ways.
He had originally intended for the Ghost Shadow to excavate a cavern underground large enough to accommodate the upper half of the Forbidden Corpse. Unexpectedly, the soil layer was only a hundred meters thick.
Beyond that lay an endless darkness.
Without the Buddha qi enveloping it, the entire ground would probably collapse in an instant.
Ren Qing sent part of the Ghost Shadow to explore the underground abyss of the Deeper Layer World, while the remaining Ghost Shadow returned to a position near the surface.
He had abandoned his original plan and instead directly dug toward Fude Tathagata's location, intending to strike at the foundation.
Contacting Fude Tathagata openly was unrealistic.
Even though Ren Qing's clone could unleash eighty percent of the Zhili Technique's power, Fude Tathagata was ultimately an Earth Immortal. Once he came within a hundred meters, some flaw would inevitably be exposed.
It was better to approach from underground, where he did not need to worry about cultivators detecting anything unusual.
The Ghost Shadow traveled through the soil. Although Ren Qing was not far from Fude Tathagata, that was only because their bodies could easily stretch thousands or even tens of thousands of meters.
Once compressed to the size of a needle's eye, the Ghost Shadow could only proceed slowly.
As time passed, the flesh lotuses became completely occupied, while Fude Tathagata began reciting some unknown Buddhist scripture.
"Jiedi, jiedi! Boluo jiedi, boluo seng jiedi, puti sapo he."
Ren Qing's brows furrowed slightly. He had not noticed it before, but now that he was hearing it from such close range, Fude Tathagata's pronunciation sounded rather strange.
He had come into contact with countless factions and had even digested the memories of their cultivators.
He had never heard such an accent before.
Wait.
Ren Qing followed Fude Tathagata's pronunciation and recited it several times. He then discovered that the words were simply the most ordinary Prajna Heart Sutra.
Although he was a Daoist cultivator, he had indeed studied Buddhism to some extent.
The original text was, "Jiedi, jiedi! Boluo jiedi, boluo seng jiedi, puti sapo he."
Its general meaning was to exhort practitioners to endure ascetic cultivation, cross to the other shore, and immediately act to attain the Buddha Dharma.
Fude Tathagata's pronunciation should have originated from ancient times thousands of years ago. It sounded like believers who had never actually cultivated Buddhist teachings and had merely occasionally heard monks reciting the Prajna Heart Sutra.
They could not read, so when the scripture was passed down orally, its contents easily became distorted.
None of the Buddhas present dared to question Fude Tathagata, while Daoist cultivators would not bother investigating the matter. Thus, only Ren Qing noticed that something was wrong.
This was not some earth-shattering discovery, but it meant that Fude Tathagata had already been controlled by the person behind the scenes.
And the person behind the scenes was a Buddhist disciple of Dipankara Tathagata. For him not to even know the most basic Prajna Heart Sutra was absurd.
Ren Qing immediately made a spot check of the souls of the ancient cultivators within the yellow circle of the Stomach World.
There was not much information in their memories, but their backgrounds could be firmly dated to around seven thousand six hundred years ago, with an error of at most ten years.
"Did something happen to Buddhism seven thousand six hundred years ago?"
Ren Qing remained noncommittal. The person behind the scenes certainly knew the answer, but even now, that person had yet to reveal himself.
The bacterial soul had already arrived directly beneath Fude Tathagata.
The Ghost Shadow slowly rose, doing its best not to make too much noise. If Fude Tathagata suddenly went berserk, things would become troublesome.
Something else was happening beside the lake.
The flesh lotuses were already full, yet three more Buddhas arrived afterward.
All the Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators looked toward Ren Qing and the other two. Clearly, these newcomers had not chosen to replace Buddhas. Instead, they directly occupied flesh lotuses.
"Brothers, could it be that the extraterritorial fiends..."
Wangsheng Bodhisattva scrutinized the three newly arrived Buddhas and was just about to investigate further when another slight ripple appeared across the lake.
As a chain reaction, Fude Tathagata's chanting grew increasingly loud.
The Buddhas had no idea that their death was already at hand.
Before they could even explain themselves, Wangsheng Bodhisattva raised his right palm. With the blessing of Dipankara Buddha, a single strike reduced them to minced flesh.
"Silence."
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage did not begin because of this. Everything seemed like an illusion.
Wangsheng Bodhisattva killed another third of the monks by squeezing them to death. The monks who were lucky enough to survive looked deeply regretful, as though they truly believed that death would allow them to reach the Pure Land.
Ren Qing was the only one whose face showed shock, because something had indeed happened.
The Surface Layer World was actually collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Cracks covered the ground, magma erupted from below, and space was gradually dissolving.
If one looked toward Jingzhou from the marshlands, one would discover that the Blood Moon was rising faster and faster.
Ren Qing immediately notified the Restraint Officers' Hall, giving them five days to cleanse the Inner Layer World while also ordering them to remain prepared for evacuation at any time.
The Inner Layer World had originally been nothing more than a trial ground, where a single Yang God realm cultivator was enough to suppress the area.
But after it developed into an emergency mission, not only would the Restraint Officers' Hall's active forces participate, they would even deploy their war machinery.
One Sand Ship after another, each carrying a Yin Difference realm cultivator, sailed into the Inner Layer World.
Large numbers of Sand Ships combined with one another, forming enormous floating islands. Dense ranks of cultivators leaped from their decks.
The strange creatures of the Yang God realm were difficult to obtain, but that did not mean Ghost Embryo Artifacts had to stop at the Yin Difference realm.
Using numerous artifacts as a formation was a new path that Xiao San'er had developed through his own research. In theory, if there were enough of them, reaching the Heavenly Aberration realm was not impossible.
Although no Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators appeared, the strength they displayed was still terrifying.
After all, Song Zongwu had already gone on a killing spree in the Inner Layer World. This indirectly demonstrated that the Heavenly Court's Yang God realm cultivators were completely unafraid of fighting enemies several times their number.
They also understood one thing from the Heavenly Court's actions.
Jingzhou was about to undergo a great upheaval.
While the Restraint Officers' Hall plundered the Inner Layer World, Ren Qing simultaneously noticed that the soil at the bottom of the lake was inexplicably becoming thicker.
How should he put it? It was as though the Surface Layer World was merging into the Deeper Layer World.
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pilgrimage also began.
What Wangsheng Bodhisattva had not expected was that Fude Tathagata still showed no reaction, yet the lake beneath their feet transformed into an enormous eye.
The Blood Moon had already risen several thousand meters, as though it were about to carry them into the galaxy.
Through the immortal position, Ren Qing confirmed that Taiyin Star Lord showed signs of breaking free, but the Buddha qi still firmly controlled the core of the True Immortal.