Ren Qing did not care about the threat posed by the Nameless Ascetic, after all the latter was not his true body, and he had already prepared his retreat in advance.
The Nameless Ascetic had become strange, chanting scriptures in his mouth, as if speaking with two evil Buddhas, or perhaps simply talking to himself.
Ren Qing had originally intended to stall for time, so he pretended to stabilize the Buddhist aura.
He recalled the information revealed by the Three Bodhis.
Three Bodhis Created by Song Zongwu, requiring the assembly of one hundred thousand living beings' bones and the nourishment of one hundred thousand absorbed souls. It can be used to cultivate esoteric Buddhist techniques through the Three Bodhis.
The Nameless Ascetic and Song Zongwu definitely had some inexplicable connection, and might even originate from the same source. The Three Bodhis was likely refined by the former.
Was the relationship between the two one of primary and secondary souls? Or a true body and a split avatar?
Ren Qing did not commit to a conclusion. He would likely need to find clues from Song Zongwu's memories, and the position of the Sitting-Deer Arhat also seemed to be part of a larger scheme.
Ren Qing picked up Song Zongwu's head and found that only the heavenly soul among the three souls and seven spirits remained.
Song Zongwu had not only lost consciousness, but even ordinary cognition. Only memories remained, wrapped within a remnant soul, drifting within the Mud Pellet Palace.
After a few moments of examination, Ren Qing confirmed that the remnant soul was indeed the Song Zongwu he recognized, and he could faintly sense the aura of anomalous existence.
This indicated that the Asura Dharma and the Truth-Listening Technique had not been fully erased and still left behind remnants.
Just as Ren Qing was about to pick up the remaining heads, he discovered that the other five had already disappeared, clearly taken by the Nameless Ascetic.
The Nameless Ascetic looked down at Ren Qing, his voice becoming gritted with hatred as he urged again: "Zongqing, hurry up and eat..."
"Eat!!!"
"Not urgent. I need to study this esoteric Buddhist method first, lest I be affected by the Buddhist fruit."
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. The corpse in the Stomach World had already swallowed the Corpse Core, and its aura was becoming increasingly close to the Dead Man's Sutra.
However, this also caused varying degrees of organ failure in the corpse.
Under Ren Qing's command, the entire Restraint Officers' Hall entered the corpse's body, starting from the abdomen and dividing flesh and bone.
Because of the time difference, the progress was faster than expected.
Ghost shadows silently covered the ground, forming a faint, nearly invisible gate within the soil, the door leading into the Stomach World.
The Nameless Ascetic seemed to faintly sense something, and his mood grew increasingly agitated, while the sealed brain of the All-Beings Buddha slightly trembled.
A strange odor spread out, and Ren Qing suddenly found Song Zongwu's head becoming strangely tempting.
He activated the Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth, fusing crystal mountains with his skull, forcing himself into a state of absolute calm before suppressing the desire.
It seemed that in order to become an esoteric Buddha, one must face absolutely no resistance in the target's heart.
The Nameless Ascetic said with an uncertain expression: "I have searched for the path to transcend the Bodhisattva realm for thousands of years without success, and now..."
He stomped down on the ground. The ghost shadows let out cracking sounds under unbearable pressure as dust filled the air and Buddhist aura surged out.
"Now I no longer seek enlightenment or Buddhahood. I only want to verify the path I have walked."
"Eat the Buddhist fruit, Zongqing!!!"
By the end, his voice had become a roar. Cracks appeared across the Three Bodhis statue, which was already beginning to collapse.
Behind his rationality was madness endured for thousands of years, long since unable to be suppressed.
Ren Qing knew this was only a soul descending into the Three Bodhis, but with the blessing of two evil Buddhas, its strength had barely reached the Heavenly Aberration level.
The All-Beings Buddha laughed gleefully: "I am in so much pain! Suffer eternal damnation with me!!!"
The Void Buddha slammed its body against the sealed brain prison repeatedly, its crude intelligence only able to emit beast-like roars.
The urge in Ren Qing's heart intensified, wanting to devour Song Zongwu's head.
"Eat! Eat!! Eat!!!"
The Nameless Ascetic roared continuously. His jaw fell from his face, turning into rotten mud that dropped to the ground, leaving his tongue hanging down to his chest.
Within the Three Bodhis region, monks rapidly turned into minced flesh and scattered. Countless remnants of souls were devoured by the Nameless Ascetic to maintain the statue.
Ren Qing forcefully suppressed his thoughts and tore open a slit in his palm. A strange mouth formed, drawing in the head and sending it into the Stomach World.
The Nameless Ascetic's obsession weakened slightly, but he quickly noticed that Ren Qing's body and soul had not changed at all, and his expression twisted.
"Why do you not eat the Buddhist fruit? Only by becoming Buddha can you escape fate?!"
Cracks spread across the statue. Through the deepest ones, piles of tens of thousands of human bones could be seen.
The Three Bodhis had been forged through the lives of one hundred thousand people using esoteric Buddhist methods, its evil nature was indescribable.
The All-Beings Buddha and Void Buddha also roared, urging Ren Qing to become a Buddha.
The Nameless Ascetic could no longer restrain himself and reached toward Ren Qing, his flesh collapsing continuously.
A torrential blood rain fell from the sky, filled with tangible Buddhist aura, and the entire small world began to show signs of collapse.
Bang!!!
The palm struck down, but there was no one there.
What remained was only a Phantom Body of the Immortal in the Mirror. Ren Qing had already used Walk Among Mortals, temporarily slipping his body and soul into the void between heaven and earth.
The Nameless Ascetic missed, and forcibly activated the All-Beings Buddha's ability. Nearby living beings began to hear whispering voices.
Several surviving mutated monks tried instinctively to flee, but their expressions soon turned devout again.
They knelt and willingly offered themselves as sacrifice to the Nameless Ascetic, transforming into grotesque flesh mountains emitting foul stench.
From the piled flesh, strange beasts were born, using sharp senses to search for Ren Qing.
At that moment, a severed hand near the Three Bodhis began to twitch.
It rapidly expanded, and a human-shaped figure burst out from within, it was Ren Qing, who had used Walk Among Mortals.
Ren Qing could have escaped, but he had not yet finished his objective.
Song Zongwu's condition was complex. Whatever method the Nameless Ascetic had used, the remaining soul fragments could hardly be restored.
The best outcome would be reincarnation into a zombie using memory extraction.
But Ren Qing suddenly realized that if each of Song Zongwu's heads contained a soul fragment, and they all originated from the same source, then there might still be a slim chance of survival.
"It can't be that there were only six heads..."
He licked his lips. There should have been more heads swallowed by cultivators, resulting in the creation of more than three esoteric Buddhas.
Void Buddha, All-Beings Buddha, and Tathagata Buddha.
Except Tathagata Buddha was not here; the Void Buddha and All-Beings Buddha were both sealed within brains. There might even be remnants inside the evil Buddhas themselves.
If he could seize them in the chaos, Song Zongwu might not need to become a zombie.
"You are not Zongqing..."
The Nameless Ascetic stepped forward again, spewing more Buddhist aura.
"Either become Buddha, or die..."
Within the monstrous tide, Ren Qing stood alone at the center like a lone boat about to be swallowed by a tsunami.
Yet he did not react at all, as if awaiting the attack.
Crack crack crack...
An arm emerged from the ground. Terrifying yin energy surged out.
After merging with the Corpse Core, the corpse's yin energy was far weaker than the Great Compassion Maitreya Buddha, but its presence was no less overwhelming.
Ren Qing could sense that the upper half of the corpse, which had been cut apart by the Restraint Officers' Hall, was undergoing irreversible corpse transformation.
He had made his choice, at a cost, but at least it would not affect the corpse's core plan.
Unfortunately, the corpse was only a terrestrial immortal corpse. Even with artifact stabilization, once flesh lost vitality, it would rot into decay.
The Nameless Ascetic seemed distracted for a moment.
By the time he searched again, Ren Qing had already vanished. The clash of yin energy and Buddhist aura left the surroundings in chaos.
The Nameless Ascetic's eyes bulged, his remaining rationality on the verge of collapse.
Outside, the forest was in ruins. The statue and corpse expanded rapidly, soon exceeding a thousand meters in size.
Ren Qing's actions had wasted over a hundred years of the Nameless Ascetic's preparations.
More importantly,
Swoosh!!!
Chains fell from the sky, piercing the corpse's shoulder. Not even the reinforcement techniques of the Restraint Officers' Hall could stop them.
More chains followed, indiscriminately covering everything.
Even the Nameless Ascetic was engulfed. In the sky, a colossal shadow appeared, an indescribable Corpse Immortal had descended.
The Nameless Ascetic retreated in a miserable state, most of his arms severed, forced to avoid the corpse.
Ren Qing had anticipated this and had already entered the corpse.
Half of the corpse was exposed outside, its flesh transforming from Purple Zombie to White Zombie, nearing Hairy Zombie.
But its lower half remained within the Stomach World, untouched by corpse transformation.
He reached the dantian. The Corpse Core was already connecting to the corpse through countless blood vessels.
He pressed his hand on it and forcibly stripped it using the Dead Man's Sutra.
More chains locked onto the corpse, but it had already been split in advance.
Once sealed in his dantian, Ren Qing vanished and reappeared a hundred miles away.
He lay in ambush along the Nameless Ascetic's path.
Boom!!!
The Corpse Immortal emerged from the clouds, devouring the upper half of the corpse.
But it quickly realized something was wrong, the yin energy was hollow.
It began sweeping chains across everything, destroying all tainted regions and reviving corpses beneath the earth.
For Ren Qing, the corpse's core lay in the stomach and bladder.
As long as vitality was stimulated, the corpse could recover quickly.
The rest of the body devoured by the Corpse Immortal was meaningless without vitality.
He waited for the Nameless Ascetic while extracting memories from Song Zongwu's head in the Stomach World.
Truth began to surface.
He sighed softly, but it was not yet time to investigate further.