Ren Qing returned to the room and deliberately changed clothes before beginning cultivation, after all the fishy stench of pus from Nanfeng was far too obvious.
From the clan elders' attitude, one could tell that Weian Town still wanted to prioritize stability, with all their methods aimed at currying favor with the immortal who was about to arrive.
But thinking about it, that also made sense.
Compared to Longevity Species immortals transformed from aberrant beings, body martial cultivators had no advantages whatsoever, and disease types were even used to cultivate Tree Immortals.
Just the aura emitted by a Diseased Beast alone could drive body martial cultivators mad, and even cause disease types to undergo deformed, uncontrolled growth.
Ren Qing had used the ghost shadow to inspect the Diseased Beast's information flow.
Age: seventy-six
Lifespan: nine years and thirteen days
Disease types: Delirium Tree Type, Deformity Disease Type
So-called Diseased Beasts were nothing more than cultivators affected by delirium, emitting an aura that induced living beings into madness, yet they were far inferior to Longevity Immortal statues.
In Ren Qing's view, that Diseased Beast did not even reach the Half-Corpse realm, and did not possess the slightest bit of intelligence, yet such a situation still left body martial cultivators in an extremely miserable state.
In front of Longevity Species, body martial cultivators probably did not even have the power to fight back.
Seeing that the Longevity Species was about to arrive, a sense of urgency arose in Ren Qing's heart.
He no longer used Spirit Division to cultivate the Night Roaming Sword Method, instead placing all his effort into the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method, striving to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage as soon as possible.
Early the next morning.
When Ren Qing walked out of the wing room, he ran into Xu Sanzhang again. The latter's expression looked somewhat weary, clearly having not rested all night.
Xu Sanzhang nodded toward Ren Qing and hurriedly wanted to leave Qingfeng Pavilion.
However, after only a few steps he suddenly stopped, turned his head, and reminded him: "Shanlu, stop tempering your body for these days. Let your body martial arts enter the beginner stage as soon as possible..."
"Sigh, I don't even know if there's enough time?"
Xu Sanzhang could not help but hesitate, ultimately striding out through the main gate.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. Disease types would indeed be affected by the delirium aura emitted by Diseased Beasts, but body martial arts could still provide some resistance.
Nanfeng had only been in contact with the Diseased Beast for a short while, yet the delirium aura had nearly caused her to liquefy.
Qi Yun's cultivation was much higher than Nanfeng's, and his body martial arts had already reached the perfected Half-Corpse realm; only then did he have some leeway when facing the Diseased Beast.
"Heh..."
Ren Qing shook his head and, unwavering as thunder, came to the open ground outside the wing room, grasping a heavy stone ball with both hands and squatting into a horse stance.
An invisible aura spread out.
For him, tempering the body also had a slight effect of stimulating disease types.
Because of the insect body compressing flesh and bones, even Ren Qing himself did not know to what extent he would reach once the restrictions were lifted.
It was a pity there were no body martial arts linked to the giantization disease type or the flesh-increasing disease type; otherwise, Ren Qing was confident he could raise his physique by several times out of thin air.
He took a deep breath, pores all over his body seeming to breathe as they expelled evaporating sweat.
After the Iron-Grinding Sword Method reached the Half-Corpse realm, the feeling Ren Qing gave off no longer resembled a martial artist, but rather a ferocious beast lurking in the dark, peering out.
Xu Tu and the other disciples were all asleep, yet without prior agreement they opened their eyes.
They only felt a sudden jolt through their bodies, all drowsiness swept away, and immediately sat up in bed, then washed and prepared themselves.
The silence of Qingfeng Pavilion was instantly broken.
Of course, it was not just the martial instruction hall; even the entirety of Weian Town became noisy.
Nanfeng's headless corpse was quickly discovered. Even after being dead for several hours, it still looked fresh. Soon after, large numbers of soldiers surrounded the alley.
A body martial cultivator inexplicably losing head and body was no small matter, especially at the crucial juncture of an immortal's imminent arrival.
Fortunately, Blackstone Pavilion forcibly suppressed the chaos caused by Nanfeng.
But other troubles followed one after another.
Because of the Diseased Beast's rampage, wails soon rang out consecutively from residential areas, and a foul stench of decay spread through the air.
Although casualties had appeared one after another recently, they were far from as exaggerated as today.
The corpses carried out from inside were enough to make onlookers' hair stand on end...
Clearly they had been relatively normal in life, yet after death several heads suddenly grew; flesh rotted away completely, leaving only intact skeletons wrapping internal organs; teeth grew in reverse, forcibly piercing through the skull straight into the brain.
Simply put, all the deaths were caused by disease types going out of control.
Even those who barely survived, many townspeople could no longer be recognized as human, and some could not accept it and chose to commit suicide.
On the contrary, there were not many cases of children's disease types going out of control, likely related to their weaker constitutions, since disease types also required sufficient nutrition.
The sun had just risen above the horizon, and in less than half an hour, the sounds of funeral music became incessant, with spirit money drifting down.
What puzzled Ren Qing was that the people of Weian Town did not exhibit too much panic; even the funerals were handled somewhat perfunctorily.
Perhaps such incidents occurred once every few years in Weian Town, treated merely as outbreaks of disease, with no awareness at all of official interference.
For ordinary people who had lived in Weian Town for generations, disease, as a calamity without cause, was unavoidable from birth.
They were far more open-minded than those outside.
Even if Xu Sanzhang knew it was caused by a Diseased Beast, he would not suspect the clan elders.
After this utterly frenzied act, the number of delirium patients increased by three to four hundred, which should already have met the clan elders' expectations.
By noon, Xu Sanzhang returned to Qingfeng Pavilion once more.
But he did not return alone; he also brought with him seventeen or eighteen crying children, making the martial instruction hall extremely lively.
The children all carried a cold aloofness toward strangers, having just experienced the nightmare of losing both parents, their minds hardly able to calm easily.
The children were settled in the wing rooms and cared for by Xu Tu and the others.
Perhaps because their backgrounds were similar, their relationships quickly grew closer, though vigilance still lingered in their hearts.
Ren Qing was immersed in cultivation and did not pay attention to the movements within the town.
In the eyes of Qingfeng Pavilion disciples, Wang Shanlu could entirely be called a martial fanatic, spending from morning till night solely on the monotonous tempering of himself.
After reflecting sunlight, his muscles made Ren Qing look like a living divine statue.
The newly arrived children could not help but feel afraid.
Breaking through the bottleneck of Foundation Establishment with Ren Qing's current body was more difficult than imagined, likely because his foundation had been laid far too solidly.
The Foundation Establishment stage was actually the process of Nether Yuan gradually transforming the body, mainly to create an environment more suitable for the black insect to parasitize.
Ordinary people did not take long to complete the transformation, but the density of his muscles and bones far exceeded imagination.
Ren Qing continuously circulated the Grand Zhou Cycle, his mind fully immersed in it.
Even the insect roots integrated into his spine were mobilized by him, helping Nether Yuan spread throughout his body, thereby breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Ren Qing seemed to have already sensed the opportunity.
He knew that the opportunity would vanish in an instant; if he failed to grasp it, he might waste more than ten days, which would truly not be worth the loss.
Ren Qing's bones emitted successive metallic collision sounds, and his legs directly cracked the bricks beneath them.
The ghost shadow proactively seeped into skin and flesh, tightly locking the aura of Nether Yuan within, with no abnormalities revealed on the surface.
Howling gales arose out of nowhere.
Xu Sanzhang belatedly looked toward the wing room, faintly sensing an inexplicable palpitation, unsure of Wang Shanlu's condition.
Could it be that his body martial arts had broken through?
It had only been a few days, was he already close to the Martial Practitioner realm...
Just as he was about to go check, he suddenly, subconsciously, glanced toward the entrance with his peripheral vision, where at some point a familiar figure had appeared.
"Qi Yun..."
Qi Yun was bare-chested, veins spread across his skin, crimson eyes filled with madness, yet his consciousness was still fairly clear.
"Xu Sanzhang, you were the last to have contact with Junior Sister Nanfeng, right?"
"Yes, but I left first. I didn't see who made the move."
Xu Sanzhang heard the implication in Qi Yun's words. He indeed had motive and time to kill, but there were no sword marks on the surface of the corpse; it looked more like the head had been smashed with a heavy object.
After learning of Nanfeng's death, he had gone to Blackstone Pavilion immediately, and Xu Shiwang had not suspected him.
"Seems I misunderstood you, senior brother."
Qi Yun became as if bathed in spring breeze, waved his hand, and turned to leave.
But just as he took half a step, his fist rapidly swelled several times over, his expression crazed as he swung it toward Xu Sanzhang's head.
Xu Sanzhang had already prepared, airflow bursting from his right hand as he dodged aside.
Since he could see the other party was a complete and utter madman, how could he gamble his life on whether Qi Yun still had any conscience left.
Qi Yun still refused to let up, his body martial palm techniques incomparably fierce, clinging tightly to Xu Sanzhang in combat, every move aimed at the latter's head.
"Stop it!!"
"I already said it has nothing to do with me!!"
Xu Sanzhang's eyes were filled with anger, but he truly had no good way to deal with Qi Yun.
Qi Yun's mouth curled into an exaggerated grin, saliva mixed with blood threads dripping onto the ground, and then his fists swelled even more.
If Ren Qing were to use information flow to inspect Qi Yun, he would discover that the latter's delirium was worsening, already counting as deviation into madness.
"Senior Brother Sanzhang, I'm a bit hungry."
Qi Yun's nose twitched, as if he smelled the blood from injured children inside Qingfeng Pavilion. His legs exerted force, instantly changing direction.
Xu Sanzhang reacted too slowly, actually letting the other rush into Qingfeng Pavilion.
Qi Yun's eyes were bloodshot, everything he saw layered with heavy afterimages. Just one step short of bodily deformation, he would turn into a Diseased Beast devoid of intelligence.
He moved on all fours, smashing through several walls in succession, quickly arriving before the wing room door, yet his gaze could not help but lock onto Ren Qing.
It was simply because the pressure Ren Qing brought was too strong.
"You were the one who killed my junior sister..."
Qi Yun directly flung his arm, swinging his fist toward Ren Qing.
Ren Qing abruptly opened his eyes, forcibly interrupting the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Method that was about to advance, an inexplicable anger surging in his heart.
He stepped back half a step, his right foot storing strength, both hands placed behind his back.
"Damn it."
Xu Sanzhang saw this with a face full of guilt. All the joints in his right arm dislocated in an instant, stretching down to touch the ground, like a long sword drawn from its sheath.
Dragging his right arm, he unleashed the "Dragging Sword Stance" of the Gale Sword Method to its fullest.
The two formed an angle in their positions and, without hesitation, struck toward Qi Yun, clearly aiming at weak points such as his neck.
But before their attacks could land, Qi Yun's head suddenly exploded.
Xu Shiwang stood to the side, flicked the bloodstains from his palm, then turned to look at Ren Qing and said, "My apologies, Wang Shanlu. I failed to properly supervise my own disciple..."
"As the head master of Blackstone Pavilion, I am willing to use a body martial art as compensation."
Ren Qing forced a smile that did not reach his eyes.
This old fox...