The Nameless Ascetic remained alive despite being heavily injured. Blood flowed incessantly from his body as he slowly fled in a direction away from the Corpse Immortal.
The Nameless Ascetic seemed intent on preserving the remaining strength of the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect. As long as the evil Buddhas remained intact, rebuilding its power would take only a few decades.
Ren Qing chose to act without hesitation. The commotion nearby was simply too great and could very likely attract the attention of other factions.
He stepped forward with his right foot, and boundless darkness enveloped dozens of miles. Ghost Shadow could vaguely be seen flowing like a roaming dragon within it.
Ghost Shadow was being utilized to its utmost extent, without exposing even the slightest trace of its aura.
"You are... Ren Qing..."
Nameless Ascetic opened his mouth and spat out Buddhist qi. Human faces surged toward Ren Qing, while his figure rapidly expanded at a visible rate.
It was not an ability that altered size. Rather, Void Buddha was shrinking everything around him.
Seeing that Nameless Ascetic actually recognized him, Ren Qing understood that the other party had likely already obtained Song Zongwu's memories, so he no longer held back.
His figure instantly disappeared, leaving behind only a seven-colored fungus. The fungus then multiplied at a visible speed.
When he reappeared, Ren Qing was already above Nameless Ascetic.
He had completed his half-dragon transformation. Though compared to Nameless Ascetic's size he was only palm-sized, his presence was not inferior in the slightest.
Yin qi from his dantian poured into his flesh and bones, and the signs of zombification became increasingly obvious.
Ren Qing exhaled gray qi. To quickly deal with Nameless Ascetic, who was at least at the perfected Yang Spirit Realm, even if the latter was severely injured, the pressure he exerted was still unimaginable.
He began transforming toward a zombie dragon. His originally bony dragon horns became rotten and decayed, his dragon scales turned gray-black, and his body grew gaunt and skeletal.
Nameless Ascetic said, "Ren Qing, quickly devour the Buddha Fruit..."
Ren Qing swung his tail and fought Nameless Ascetic in the most physically powerful state of his body. Mountains collapsed immediately.
Nameless Ascetic wanted to counterattack, but fungi had already spread throughout his flesh.
Stimulated by The World Is Like a Dream divine ability, the fungi continued mutating. In the end, they even took on an appearance resembling intestines.
Nameless Ascetic's Buddhist qi was absorbed by the fungi, while disease spread into his internal organs.
Ren Qing wanted to force Nameless Ascetic's soul to leave the statue so he could seize the two evil Buddhas, yet the latter stubbornly refused to move.
He could only focus his attacks on Nameless Ascetic's skull, hoping to break open the brain and forcibly pull the evil Buddhas into Stomach World.
At that moment, Ren Qing suddenly felt an inexplicable palpitation.
He clearly held an absolute advantage. Even if Nameless Ascetic could continue holding out, the outcome was already obvious.
Ren Qing raised his right arm. Five-colored lightning struck Nameless Ascetic's head, and the evil Buddha inside the skull let out a painful howl.
Nameless Ascetic's arm pierced into Ren Qing's body. Buddhist qi surged forth once more, causing varying degrees of damage to his internal organs.
Using the opportunity created by exchanging injuries, Ren Qing smashed open the skull and directly pulled out the indescribable All-Beings Buddha.
The moment he swallowed the evil Buddha into Stomach World for sealing, the sense of foreboding became even stronger.
Ren Qing withdrew all his techniques and used Walk Among Mortals to relocate dozens of miles away. Even though Nameless Ascetic was already on the verge of death, he did not move in for the finishing blow.
He realized something was wrong. It seemed he had overlooked an extremely important clue.
Ren Qing's unease did not disappear simply because he had distanced himself from Nameless Ascetic. On the contrary, whenever he moved rapidly, it became harder to suppress.
He found a low mountain to hide in and used the Disaster Dispelling Technique to erase his presence.
Using Double Pupils, Ren Qing looked toward Nameless Ascetic's location. The latter's aura was already weakening. The statue had clearly reached its limit.
Yet Nameless Ascetic still had not canceled the soul descent, as if he intended to die together with it.
Ren Qing was completely baffled. Even Longevous Tortoise's divination still indicated fortune mixed with misfortune.
Nameless Ascetic posed no threat to him whatsoever, so why was he still so concerned? Could some hidden danger be lurking beneath the surface?
Crack...
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
Ren Qing instinctively pressed his tongue against the tortoise shell on the roof of his mouth, then his expression turned utterly shocked.
In only a few breaths, the fortune-mixed-with-misfortune omen had transformed into great calamity, and its color was becoming deeper and deeper.
There was only a single crack on the surface, but it ran through the entire tortoise shell.
As for the pattern on the shell, it was a fragmented moon, though its meaning was unclear.
Cold sweat covered Ren Qing's forehead. He suddenly realized something.
How had Nameless Ascetic survived in the hands of the Corpse Immortal?
Given the Corpse Immortal's chaotic and disordered mind, it should have attacked everything indiscriminately.
Ren Qing's pupils contracted. He looked toward the Corpse Immortal again, only to find that all movement in the distance had ceased.
Everything was eerily calm.
There was no trace of the Corpse Immortal anymore. Even the clouds in the sky had completely dispersed.
Ren Qing used Longevous Tortoise, trying to locate the sliver of survival hidden within the omen of disaster. As a result, dense black fog surrounded everything around him.
The closer one got to Nameless Ascetic, the darker the fog became, until it was impossible to see one's own hand.
Ren Qing realized that remaining honestly where he was was currently the safest option. Any unnecessary action would only invite death.
Fortunately, he had distributed severed pseudo-dragon arms throughout a thousand-mile radius. There was even one smuggled into the Longevity Restricted Zone.
Even if he died, he could revive through Death Gives No Birth. Thus the omen remained at great calamity and showed no sign of becoming a death omen.
When Nameless Ascetic died, Song Zongwu's memories were also digested by Stomach World.
Although there was not much content concerning Nameless Ascetic within those memories, Ren Qing still pieced together the full story and could not help drawing in a sharp breath.
His guess had been correct. Nameless Ascetic truly was Song Zongwu himself.
To be precise, the Song Zongwu whom Ren Qing knew was actually Nameless Ascetic's tenth life.
During his first life, Nameless Ascetic had already been the Buddha Child of Sitting-Deer Arhat. He cultivated the Immovable Scripture and had reached the Yang Spirit Realm.
To escape the restraints of Sitting-Deer Arhat's Fruit Position, he used some unknown technique to give birth to a second life while still alive.
The second-life Song Zongwu was an independent existence and inherited the Sitting-Deer Arhat Fruit Position.
For the following several centuries, things remained relatively orderly. Song Zongwu delayed cultivation as much as possible, allowing himself to live life after life.
However, before each Song Zongwu died, Nameless Ascetic would appear and refine him into a Buddha Fruit of the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect.
The tenth-life Song Zongwu likewise could not escape his fate. Even though he cultivated Restraint Officer techniques and allowed his Yang Spirit Realm bizarre object to contend against the Buddhist Chart, his final outcome was still the same.
"But... it doesn't make sense..."
Ren Qing's brows knitted tightly together. There were simply too many suspicious points surrounding Nameless Ascetic.
Creating techniques one after another.
Methods for escaping Arhat Fruit Positions.
Why he had gone out of his way to give Song Zongwu Restraint Officer techniques...
A chill suddenly ran through Ren Qing's entire body. He realized an extremely fatal problem.
All nine of Song Zongwu's previous lives had become remnant souls, so how had he gone to Dream City? The consciousness Ren Qing communicated with back then had been complete.
Unless...
The six-armed headless body in Dream City had actually been Nameless Ascetic's consciousness.
Boom boom boom boom boom!!!
The earth shook violently, and the sky was obscured by an enormous face.
Two bloodshot eyeballs stared at Nameless Ascetic. The mouth stretched open to an absurd degree, vaguely aligning with the gap in the blood moon.
Its bronze-colored skin resembled the statues of Buddhas in temples, but the gaps between its teeth were packed with countless white bones and corpses, enough to make one's scalp crawl.
Even the forbidden corpse seemed like the difference between an elephant and an ant before that Buddha face.
Through the Buddhist qi filling the sky, Ren Qing summoned the information flow.
[Ratnasambhava Buddha]
[Age: ???]
[Lifespan: ???]
[Technique: ???]
Ren Qing was dumbfounded. This was a Tathagata Buddha beyond the Bodhisattva Fruit Position, an existence whose cultivation far exceeded imagination, standing above Earth Immortals.
Ratnasambhava Buddha opened its mouth and extended a tongue covered in festering sores, licking Nameless Ascetic.
Nameless Ascetic's Buddhist qi was immediately absorbed completely.
Then it tossed Void Buddha from the skull into its mouth and chewed it like a candy bean.
Nameless Ascetic's soul left his body and became one of the corpses wedged between Ratnasambhava Buddha's teeth.
Ren Qing finally came to his senses. At this moment, he understood Nameless Ascetic's objective completely and wished he could slap himself several times.
Nameless Ascetic's Buddhist qi had actually originated from the same source as Ratnasambhava Buddha's.
This showed that when he escaped the Arhat Fruit Position back then, it was because he had obtained an even higher Fruit Position, namely the Ratnasambhava Tathagata Buddha.
How much of the boundless slaughter created by the Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect had truly gone according to Nameless Ascetic's wishes?
It was indeed Nameless Ascetic's consciousness that had become the six-armed headless body in Dream City, and it was indeed he who had guided Ren Qing to Three Bodhis.
Ren Qing should have realized it earlier. The Nameless Ascetic's actions from beginning to end had been far too deliberate.
Nameless Ascetic's goal had been to hand the tenth-life Song Zongwu over to Ren Qing.
The so-called Secret Transmission Buddhist Sect that he had planned for centuries was merely an empty-city stratagem used to conceal the existence of the tenth life.
Ren Qing had even fancied himself clever by seizing the evil Buddhas, not realizing that Song Zongwu's other heads were simply decoys arranged by Nameless Ascetic.
No wonder remnants of Restraint Officer bizarre objects still existed within the Buddha Fruit of the tenth life. They had been left behind to prepare for Song Zongwu's resurrection.
Nameless Ascetic's counterattack had been meant to prevent Ren Qing from obtaining the evil Buddhas, but Ren Qing's strength had been too overwhelming.
When Ren Qing recalled Nameless Ascetic's words, they had clearly been intended to enlighten him, only he had interpreted them in a completely different way.
Had he simply eaten Song Zongwu's head, the remnant soul would likely have survived, and Ren Qing would have immediately understood the situation.
Ren Qing directly threw All-Beings Buddha from Stomach World into the air.
Ratnasambhava Buddha had already swallowed Void Buddha. Its tongue immediately coiled toward All-Beings Buddha.
Whatever arrangements Nameless Ascetic had made, Ren Qing could sense that Ratnasambhava Buddha held no interest in the tenth-life Song Zongwu.
Otherwise, Stomach World could never have blocked its gaze.
In the eyes of such an existence, Ren Qing was no different from a crawling insect, while Nameless Ascetic was at most a somewhat tasty insect.
The world-destroying Buddha's might still affected Ren Qing, or more accurately, the entire land.
Wherever Ratnasambhava Buddha's tongue passed, the air split apart. The raging winds became blades that ground even sturdy mountain ranges into powder.
Ren Qing connected with the severed arms scattered everywhere, having them flee as far away as possible.
He had already erased himself with an enormous amount of death qi, causing his flesh and bones to disintegrate into ash and mix with shattered stone.
Ren Qing's soul disappeared. Under the effects of Death Gives No Birth, it merged into the diseased tree together with all his bizarre objects.
A new body was being nurtured.