The Buddhist corpse swung the Throne of Skulls beneath its feet at the flock closest to it. Instantly, several fine-wool sheep were smashed into indistinct piles of flesh.
The smell of blood spread through the air.
The Buddhist corpse then bent its arms and began frantically devouring the flesh and blood with the head hanging downward.
The flock was terrified, causing them to run even faster, while the shepherds hurriedly directed the sheep toward the canyon.
Under normal circumstances, if Ren Qing wanted to use the shepherds to replenish the population of the Stomach World, he could have taken this opportunity to save them.
He might even have been able to obtain some useful clues.
But he keenly sensed that something was off.
The shepherds rode emaciated horses and carried long whips used to drive the flock.
Yet during the pursuit by the Buddhist corpses, Ren Qing felt that the sheep were far more frightened than the horses. In fact, the horses seemed more startled by the sheep than by the Buddhist corpses themselves.
Animals possessed an instinct for avoiding disasters and sensing danger.
Even when facing wolves, horses would not remain this calm. The only explanation was that the Buddhist corpses' malice was primarily directed at the sheep rather than the shepherds.
Yet the terror displayed by the shepherds did not seem fake either.
Ren Qing's brows knitted tighter and tighter. The plain seemed abnormal no matter where he looked.
He had encountered Buddhist corpses before while in Heaven Above Heaven. They were essentially corpses that had mutated after being eroded by Buddhist qi.
Buddhist qi alone was not enough. It also required various materials imbued with Buddhist qi.
If there were no Buddhist forces behind these Buddhist corpses, even Ren Qing himself would not believe it, especially since the matter very likely involved Song Zongwu.
Yet these few Buddhist corpses contained not the slightest trace of Buddhist qi. Whether that was intentional on the part of the Buddhist sects, he could not say with certainty.
"Perhaps they were drawn here by Song Zongwu?"
Ren Qing pushed all his ocular techniques to their limits, yet still gained nothing.
The shepherds were indeed ordinary mortals. At the very least, there were no traces of techniques in their flesh, blood, or bones, and their souls had formed naturally as well.
Because of Song Zongwu, Restraint Officers' Hall seemed to have accidentally come into contact with some greater scheme.
Only after the flock had lost dozens of sheep to the Buddhist corpses did the shepherds successfully approach the canyon.
They were then accepted inside, setting up tents with those they carried while chatting among themselves in a strange-sounding language.
The Buddhist corpses did not continue the pursuit. Carrying their Thrones of Skulls, they headed in the direction opposite the canyon and soon vanished into the endless plain.
"Ren Qing, have you discovered anything?"
Li Tiangang's voice sounded from outside You She, and he quickly arrived at Ren Qing's side.
He had guessed Ren Qing would first come to the secondary head, so as soon as he noticed Ren Qing had emerged from seclusion, he immediately came to check the situation.
Several tiger demons shuddered all over. Only then did they notice a familiar figure standing silently in the corner. One of his arms was connected to the Forbidden Corpse's nerves as he seemed to be sensing the outside world.
"Lord Ren..."
Li Tiangang waved his hand, signaling the tiger demons to leave the secondary head. They immediately scrambled away and boarded a ghost ship in the River of Blood.
Ren Qing withdrew his arm and said in a low voice, "For now, it's hard to say. It's all... too normal."
"Exactly... too normal."
Li Tiangang thought of the six-armed headless figure in the temple. His emotions fluctuated slightly, and the flesh on his body immediately showed signs of turning into pages.
Ren Qing reminded him, "Your Yang Spirit Realm cultivation hasn't stabilized yet, has it?"
"A Yang Spirit Realm attained through shortcuts. It'll still take a few more years before the effects of mutation stop affecting me."
Given the time flow of the Stomach World, during Ren Qing's five years of seclusion, Li Tiangang should have spent twenty to thirty years stabilizing his cultivation. It showed that the Natal Golden Core was not entirely without drawbacks.
Ren Qing, however, had no issues consuming the Corpse Core. After all, the Corpse Core and Dead Man's Sutra followed the same path, and the Dream Technique helped suppress it as well.
Li Tiangang did not care much about that. Given his luck, reaching the Yang Spirit Realm was already fortunate enough. He had never expected to advance further.
All he wanted was to help Ren Qing make Restraint Officers' Hall flourish during his lifetime.
"I had cultivators use gu insects to investigate the shepherds' tribe these past few days."
"The gu insects weren't discovered, were they?"
"No. They were specially bred flies without any trace of technique aura."
Li Tiangang explained in detail. The shepherds' way of life was generally normal, but they traded sheep with unusual frequency.
Usually, a trade occurred every three days.
Most exchanges involved swapping individual fine-wool sheep, but sometimes a single sheep could be exchanged for several times that number. No one knew the significance behind it.
Furthermore, the shepherds did not seem to care much about whether their sheep lived or died.
They had ostensibly come to the canyon to avoid the Buddhist corpses, but even after all the nearby grass had been grazed bare, they did not migrate along the canyon.
The shepherds remained less than ten miles from the Forbidden Corpse.
It was very likely intentional.
Ren Qing released a Dreamflower, secretly sending it close to the shepherd tribe. Yet he still could not find anything unusual.
He barely managed to overhear some of their conversations, but unfortunately, he could not understand the language.
Shaking his head, Ren Qing said, "Senior Li, find an opportunity to bring me one of those fine-wool sheep. Also... notify the artificers to complete the artifact transformation of the secondary head's ears."
"Understood."
Li Tiangang agreed and immediately headed toward the intestines and stomach without further delay.
After receiving the task, the artificers all made their way into You She's skull.
After five years of accumulation, their artifact-refining skills had reached the point where they could independently inscribe Moon Patterns, though the process remained relatively slow.
The artifact transformation of the ears soon began, and Ren Qing had Ghost Shadow assist them.
If Ren Qing wanted to understand what the shepherds were saying, he could only rely on a technique. Coincidentally, while deducing techniques from strange objects some time ago, he had obtained a very special Restraint Officer technique.
Ear-Following Hearing
Created by the bandit Zhang.
To cultivate it, one had to be born without ears, then drive iron needles through both sides of the head where the ears should have been. Only by surviving could one successfully cultivate it.
All mutation paths of Ear-Following Hearing revolved around hearing, but none were offensive. The "Perceiver" mutation path was especially suitable for the current situation.
A Perceiver could detect hidden information within sounds.
However, because Ear-Following Hearing could not be actively shut off, any cultivator who mastered it would constantly hear endless chatter and countless voices in their ears.
While Ear-Following Hearing was suitable for refining aberrant fetus artifacts, cultivating it often drove people insane.
Not long ago, Ren Qing had already placed Ear-Following Hearing into the Great Dream Technique Pavilion, clearly marking its flaws on the cover. As a result, no one showed any interest in it.
"I wonder how the Corpse Mirror is progressing."
Realizing the importance of the Mirror World, he flashed away and arrived at Little Third's residence, which was located near the edge of the stomach region.
If the shepherds truly were connected to Song Zongwu, he needed to understand Song Zongwu's condition. That likely meant coming into contact with Buddhist forces.
Although Ren Qing's divine ability Walk Among Mortals allowed him to quietly replace someone, Buddhist cultivators specialized in manipulating souls.
Even ordinary mortals might have hidden safeguards, or perhaps they themselves were part of some Buddhist technique.
On the vast and sparsely populated grasslands, using Walk Among Mortals required extreme caution, though it could also serve as a method of traveling great distances in a single step.
The pseudo-dragon arms Ren Qing had released could likewise serve as targets for Walk Among Mortals. In terms of self-preservation, even Heavenly Aberration Realm cultivators would struggle to compare.
The reason he wanted to enter the Mirror World was actually to acquire some Buddhist qi and then use Dreamflower to disguise himself as a Buddhist cultivator.
Among the several thousand bodies within the Mirror World, there were certainly many Buddhist cultivators.
Even if their cultivation had vanished, traces of their technique aura would inevitably accumulate over the years.
Even the current Laughing Lion Arhat had been sealed inside the Mirror World.
One had to know that the Arhat Fruit Position was an existence at the Heavenly Aberration Realm.
It did not take Ren Qing long to find the busy Little Third.
Little Third had deliberately moved his residence closer to the stomach region, making it convenient to regularly extract some flesh and blood from the Forbidden Corpse for refining experiments.
Since the Corpse Mirror had been made using an immortal's corpse, it seemed that only the Forbidden Corpse met the requirements for replicating such an artifact.
Of course, Ren Qing did not intend to use the Forbidden Corpse to create a large-scale artifact.
He merely wanted to open a side entrance into the Mirror World and quietly slip in to obtain opportunities.
When Ren Qing found Little Third, the latter was already organizing his artifact-refining notes.
There were dozens of pages covered with intricate Moon Patterns.
Little Third was clearly immersed in artifact refinement. His body had become noticeably thinner.
"Senior Ren, you're here."
"Refining a Corpse Mirror shouldn't be difficult. The main issue is that the artificer must possess the related technique. Otherwise, the chance of success is too low..."
Little Third let out a sigh of relief and began explaining endlessly, his mental state clearly stretched to the limit.
A trace of helplessness appeared in Ren Qing's eyes, and he could not help but feel guilty.
He extended a finger and touched Little Third's forehead, causing him to drift into sleep.
Little Third had reached the first mutation long ago, yet after five years he had made no progress whatsoever. Meanwhile, Han Li of the same generation was already attempting to break through to the Yin Difference Realm.
"Foolish kid. I can't let you waste five years for nothing..."
Ren Qing shook his head.
A faintly visible Dreamflower artifact appeared in his palm, and he fused it into Little Third's Mud Pellet Palace.
He let out a muffled groan as he forcibly separated the Dreamflower artifact from himself, causing a sharp pain in his primary soul.
Fortunately, it was only pain. Even the bacterial soul could not affect the primary soul, and separating the Dreamflower certainly would not damage it.
To Ren Qing, Dreamflowers were not particularly precious. He could produce several each month, and the vines wrapped around the disease tree were already covered in Dreamflowers of every variety.
But for Little Third, the significance was completely different.
Like Ren Qing, he possessed the Double Pupils mutation path of the Eyeless One. With the help of Dreamflower, he could avoid many unnecessary detours.
Ren Qing intended for Little Third to lead the artificers in the future, so he did not want to exhaust him dry.
He then left the house.
While walking, he committed the refining method to memory and could not help admiring Little Third's talent.
Little Third had actually innovated beyond the aberrant fetus artifact refining method and created something called the "Demonic Fetus Artifact Refining Method."
The Demonic Fetus Artifact Refining Method worked in the opposite direction.
Little Third used special methods to attract strange objects and actively fuse them into the primary material. He then refined the Demonic Fetus Artifact, allowing the strange object to interfere with the refining process.
As a result, the finished Demonic Fetus Artifact inherited the abilities of the technique the strange object had possessed in life.
However, because the strange object's consciousness had not been erased, the artifact became difficult to control and possessed far less growth potential than an aberrant fetus artifact.
Still, Little Third had at least opened up a new path.
With the Demonic Fetus Artifact Refining Method, there was no need to start with Martial Practitioner Realm strange objects.
Even Yang Spirit Realm strange objects could be refined into artifacts.
Ren Qing immediately began making preparations.
At present, he only possessed Ghost Envoy Realm strange objects. Whether they would be enough to sneak into the Mirror World remained unknown.
"Wait. There are so many cultivators in the Mirror World..."
A smile appeared on Ren Qing's face.
It seemed that everything could be harvested like leeks.