Because of the red clover, Tianjia Village had deliberately spent a few more days collecting medicinal herbs. After drying them, they filled only a small bag.
Although Tian Sanzhong had absolute faith in Ren Qing's words, he could not help but feel somewhat guilty.
In his opinion, such a small amount of red clover shouldn't be worth much silver, and it was very possible that even the apothecaries in the town might not accept it.
Due to his frail body, Tian Sanzhong did not plan to go to Qingyan Town himself, so he asked the farmer Tian Danian to take five strong young men along.
Ren Qing did not intend to go with them.
In fact, after the Butterfly Dream Technique advanced to the Yin Runner Realm, he had left in a hurry.
His main intent was to get to the town as soon as possible. The disappearance of dozens of people could not have left no trace, and this would serve well to determine the method of the gigantic Rabbit-Toad.
Ren Qing planned to first ensure his own safety while figuring out the true situation in Jingzhou, and only afterward consider his retreat.
As for the idea of finding some remote corner and surviving through lifespan extension via the Ghost Market, it could only remain a thought.
Judging by the locations from which the gigantic Rabbit-Toad had reached down, they were not necessarily densely populated towns, several times it had happened deep within mountain forests.
Its actions clearly carried little purpose, driven merely by its own preference, or perhaps by random selection of food.
Jingzhou was not a place to stay long.
Ren Qing walked along the winding and rugged mountain path, wearing a bamboo hat, dressed in the clothes of a wandering martial man, and with a three-foot long blade fastened to his waist.
Tian A sat upon Ren Qing's shoulder, curiously observing his surroundings.
Once Ren Qing walked beyond the area where the villagers lived, he glanced back out of the corner of his eye, then took the husky out from the Prison Within the Abdomen.
The husky tilted its head with a simple, foolish expression; judging from its appearance, it looked harmless to humans and animals, yet its body now stood over four meters tall.
Tian A's eyes shone brightly, and he muttered words that only he himself could understand.
The husky shook its body, and the ferocity belonging to a beast was revealed in full.
Far away, a hyena tucked its tail and ran away frantically, not daring to approach.
Ren Qing raised his eyebrows slightly.
He noticed that the husky had already broken free from the framework of the conjured technique, its bones and muscles were solid, and the qi and blood it exuded were increasingly refined.
Ren Qing guessed it might be because the husky had spent such a long time within the Prison Within the Abdomen, subtly influenced by the illumination of the sun and moon.
However, at most, the husky could only be considered at the level of having just entered the Half-Corpse Realm, better than nothing.
Tian A's gaze became somewhat vacant, and drool slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged and firmly upon the husky's back. While allowing Tian A to play as he pleased, he pointed his finger toward the direction of Qingyan Town.
The husky immediately started galloping madly forward, not along the official road, but taking a detour through the muddy mountain paths.
Ren Qing's divided soul emerged from within the Niwan Palace, the Ze Immortal Head located at its center, and then dispersed into a mist invisible to the naked eye.
It was not out of fear of startling others, but mainly because he wanted to use the journey to search for traces of cultivators, or perhaps certain strange entities.
With the husky as transportation, the journey that would normally take at least seven or eight days to reach Qingyan Town could now be completed in no more than two.
Ren Qing took this opportunity to close his eyes and meditate, letting his state of mind return to calmness.
Tian A was also quite safe atop the dog's back, so Ren Qing put most of his attention on his techniques, and even took out a book from the Prison Within the Abdomen.
A stream of information surged forth.
[Wine God Technique]
[Created by the Meat and Wine Taoist; it requires using men, women, young, and old as ingredients to brew thirty-six kinds of liquor, which, when drunk in combination, allows mastery of the art.]
Because the Prison Within the Abdomen still needed to undergo transformation, he had never practiced the Wine God Technique before, fearing that it might affect it.
Now, however, it was about time.
[Thirty days of lifespan may be consumed to waive the cost and obtain mastery.]
There was more than enough time on the road, just right to make use of this limited leisure.
The three aberrant routes of the Wine God Technique were entirely different, showing utterly distinct directions, and Ren Qing had pondered them privately for a long time.
[Drinker: A Thousand Cups Without Falling]
[Solitary Drinker: Wine Sack and Rice Bag]
[Greedy Drinker: Lake of Meat and Forest of Wine]
Ren Qing had no idea which aberration route the Meat and Wine Taoist had taken, after all, even the inner small world of the latter had been stripped away.
He could only rely on his understanding of the Taotie Method and the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, combined with the fragmentary records in the Restraint Officers' Hall, to choose the most advantageous aberration route for the Wine God Technique.
In Ren Qing's view, the most crucial aspect of the Meat and Wine Taoist's system was the reconstruction of the inner small world, so it primarily targeted the body itself.
The Drinker and Solitary Drinker did not seem related to the Prison Within the Abdomen, only the Lake of Meat and Forest of Wine likely connected to the physical body.
In truth, even a secondary aberration route wouldn't matter too much; the Meat and Wine Taoist's techniques were all inherently interlinked, the difference was only in efficacy.
Ren Qing could use his ability to actively select aberrant branch abilities to gradually perfect the Prison Within the Abdomen, allowing it to evolve toward a true world.
[Do you choose the branch "Greedy Drinker"? This will consume one year and six months of lifespan.]
He already knew in his heart that since the Greedy Drinker affected the body, the exemption cost was greater, and thus the lifespan consumed was naturally higher.
At the moment Ren Qing confirmed inwardly, his face flushed slightly red, and a rich aroma of alcohol gradually seeped from his pores.
Tian A leaned closer to sniff, and soon became tipsy as well, toppling over into the thick fur and quickly falling into deep sleep.
Ren Qing could feel one-third of his blood turning into liquor, which then flowed through his blood vessels toward his kidneys.
Between the two kidneys, a new organ was born. Its exterior resembled a kettle, its spout connecting to the blood vessels, and inside the kettle was filled with liquor.
Before long, the Prison Within the Abdomen reacted violently.
The wine kettle gradually approached the stomach, its entirety seeming to melt like butter meeting heat, and the scent of wine grew thicker and thicker.
Ren Qing naturally did nothing to stop it.
When the two fused, the area of the Prison Within the Abdomen expanded by nearly half. A thin layer of cloud formed from wine vapor at its top.
Under the radiance of the fire-sun, the wine cloud did not disperse, instead, it gathered more and more densely, as if about to turn into a torrential rain.
Ren Qing couldn't help but move his mind and immediately checked the aberration tree within the Niwan Palace.
[River of Wine Within the Body: Nine-Bend Meandering Stream]
A look of delight appeared involuntarily on his face. From this information alone, it was evident that the Greedy Drinker was indeed highly compatible with the aberration route of the Prison Within the Abdomen.
[Do you choose the branch "River of Wine Within the Body"? This will consume fifteen years of lifespan.]
Ren Qing unhesitatingly advanced the Wine God Technique, then let out a wine-filled burp.
Even with the physique of the Yin Runner Realm, he actually felt slightly intoxicated at this moment, something that even Drunken Life, Dreaming Death had never caused.
The husky's steps grew unsteady, its tongue lolling out, and then it crashed headfirst into a stone wall, clearly drunk as well.
Inside the Prison Within the Abdomen, drops of rain fell from the wine clouds, turning into a rainfall.
Even after several hours, the torrential downpour showed no sign of stopping.
The Prison Within the Abdomen soon began to accumulate water, which turned into small streams, the tributaries converging into a river.
After some simple planning, Ren Qing caused the southwest corner of the Prison Within the Abdomen to sink, making the river flow backward into it.
It shouldn't take long before rivers and lakes formed within the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Although the lakes were composed of liquor, water was, after all, the source of life, only after obtaining the Wine God Technique could the small world truly accommodate living beings.
The ghost wolves and sandmen were somewhat unaccustomed to the damp environment and all chose to avoid the regions covered by clouds, while only the Kunpeng greatly enjoyed it.
If the water source were not only a few dozen meters wide, it would probably have already leapt in.
Ren Qing pinched the bridge of his nose with some headache, truly worthy of the Meat and Wine Taoist, creating a small world with liquor as its foundation.
But could any flora or fauna actually survive in such an environment? If he raised fish or shrimp in the wine lake, wouldn't that become Chaoshan seafood...
Ren Qing glanced at the blood vines covering the corners and found they showed no signs of discomfort, still looking full of vitality.
Seeing this, he lifted his arm, and a strange mouth split open in his palm.
A suction force appeared out of thin air.
Nearby grass and soil were drawn toward the strange mouth, along with the small fish and shrimp in the streams, even insects, birds, and beasts could not escape. Only after more than ten minutes did it cease.
Ren Qing then flipped through his materials and dumped all the seeds of plants and trees into it.
He did not deliberately tend to the Prison Within the Abdomen, allowing it to develop naturally. At worst, he would replace the plants and animals if they all died out.
Ren Qing then performed the Wine God Technique again. The ambient alcohol vapors gathered into droplets, swallowed by the strange mouth, and fell into the wine lake.
How to put it, the ability "River of Wine Within the Body" was somewhat similar to Shui Hulu's technique, both involving absorbing liquid and controlling it with the mind.
As the wine within the Prison Within the Abdomen accumulated, the power of the technique would naturally become more and more terrifying.
Once the Wine God Technique advanced to the Yin Runner Realm, it would transform into "Sea of Wine Within the Belly," allowing him to spew ocean waves from his mouth, capable of destroying an entire city.
Ren Qing put the husky back into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
He casually took an ordinary gourd, filled it with liquor, and took a sip, immediately feeling a lingering fragrance upon his lips and teeth, savoring the aftertaste endlessly.
Ren Qing couldn't help but sigh. The Great Dream Tavern now had liquor that could replace Drunken Life, Dreaming Death, yet he could no longer return to the Avici Hell.
"Sigh..."
"I wonder if there are any cultivators left in Jingzhou. Otherwise, I could open another Ghost Market, double the harvest..."
Three Dream Seeds appeared at Ren Qing's fingertips, but a moment later he put them away again.
After the Darkest Nightmare Demon suppressed the Three-Inch Human World, the core and secondary techniques became linked, and the Dream Seed artifacts gained some of the soul butterflies' properties.
He could use Dream Seed artifacts to open smaller-scale Ghost Markets.
But come to think of it, while the Heavenly Dao Dream Seed was still manageable, as for the Fire and Demon Dream Seeds, who knew what kind of Ghost Markets they would form.
Holding the sleeping Tian A in his arms, Ren Qing strode quickly toward the official road, occasionally drinking mouthfuls of liquor and collecting some rare flora and fauna along the way.
Once he stepped onto the official road, more and more commoners appeared.
Ren Qing appeared to keep his head lowered as he walked, but his divided soul swept over each and every person nearby, especially those coming from Qingyan Town.
He also pricked up his ears to listen to their conversations.
The words of the passersby included much gossip about Qingyan Town, but none spoke of large-scale deaths or injuries.
He hadn't held much hope, after all, he had spent much effort investigating over a hundred thousand people before, but unexpectedly, he soon gained something.
A caravan brushed past Ren Qing.
Escort leader Zhao glanced at Ren Qing several times and secretly shook his head.
Although Ren Qing was dressed like a man of the martial world, his clothes bore not a trace of mud, and even his cloth shoes were spotless.
He must be some young master, he thought...
Forget it, who had the time to mind such things? Better to deliver Miss Sun safely to Jingzhou City and not let her die on the way.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes.
Out of the corner of his eye, he looked toward the middle of the caravan, there was a tightly sealed carriage.
A strange illness... or perhaps some sort of aberration?