The Ghost Ship traveled through the pitch-black darkness of the Bottomless Pit. Violent astral winds blew head-on, but because of the headwind the speed became slow.
However, this suited Ren Qing's intentions perfectly. He could have sufficient time to temper his body and increase the Primordial Fetal Membrane's resistance to Buddhist qi.
In fact, after mastering the Human-Skin Book, one could completely treat one's own skin as a magical artifact; it merely required long-term refining.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged inside the cabin. The Buddhist dream seed transformed into a Heavy Child embedded in his forehead, continuously emitting Buddhist qi outward.
Buddhist qi coiled around his entire body, and murmured chanting sounded in his ears.
Ren Qing's skin wriggled like a living creature, faint white patterns flickering beneath it, causing the Buddhist qi to be consumed extremely quickly.
He closed his eyes in meditation, doing his best to prevent his soul from being affected by the Buddhist qi, because its erosion was extremely subtle.
The Buddhist qi contained in the dream seed originated from the Sitting-Deer Arhat. If an ordinary person came into contact with it, they would uncontrollably develop reverence toward the Sitting-Deer Arhat.
Predictably, the Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva would certainly be even more terrifying, far beyond comparison with the Sitting-Deer Arhat.
Ren Qing felt somewhat regretful. Judging by the consumption speed of the Buddhist dream seed, the Buddhist qi could support at most about a month. The Primordial Fetal Membrane might not reach a level that satisfied him.
This was far from the half year he had anticipated, but it was better than nothing.
As traces of Buddhist qi seeped into Ren Qing's body, the Dragon Spine could no longer endure the erosion and quickly drilled out from his back.
Ren Qing ignored the Dragon Spine and simply had it guard together with the ghost shadow, in case something unexpected appeared in the Bottomless Pit.
He tried visualizing techniques, but the erosion of Buddhist qi infiltrated everything; no one could steady their mind under such conditions.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged for a long time.
His brows furrowed tighter and tighter. Since visualization techniques did not work, he circulated the Nether Yuan within his dantian, but he still could not concentrate.
Ren Qing sighed deeply.
He was used to dividing his attention among multiple tasks, yet now he could only maintain the Primordial Fetal Membrane, which made his entire body uncomfortable.
Fortunately, the Longevity Restricted Zone was currently at night. He simply let his main soul consciousness descend into the split soul; it had indeed been some time since he last observed the restricted zone.
He wondered whether the split soul had found the small Blood Moon. After all, it was a magical artifact involving an Earth Immortal, with unimaginable value.
As soon as Ren Qing arrived in the Longevity Restricted Zone and opened his eyes, he saw the enormous giant tree, and beside him were the meals sent by Wang Shanlu's sister.
The trunk shot straight into the sky. If his guess was correct, Chen Changsheng relied on this seemingly ordinary giant tree when traveling to the outside world.
According to the information flow, the tree was called the "Longevity Tree."
The Longevity Tree was condensed from the Resurrection Technique. It possessed the abilities to contain the memories of the dead, absorb leaked vitality, nurture split souls, and release aura.
The Longevity Tree's information now included the additional ability "release aura," indicating that the small Blood Moon must have fused inside the trunk.
After digesting the split soul's memories, Ren Qing discovered that the Longevity Restricted Zone had been relatively calm recently, and there were no clues regarding the small Blood Moon.
His primary purpose for using the small Blood Moon was its ability to release aura, spreading Nether Yuan throughout the towns to strengthen the Restraint Officers' Hall's ability to protect itself.
Otherwise, with the current strength of the Restraint Officers' Hall, the Restraint Officer techniques could only exert thirty to forty percent of their power, unable to face overly powerful longevity species.
Ren Qing stood up and looked around.
Although it was already night, the surroundings were still brightly lit.
Wei'an Town, Sanxiang City, Heshan Town, and Annan Town, four towns formed a great circle around the Longevity Tree, and the streets were bustling with people.
The two factions appeared harmonious on the surface, yet their relationship still contained barriers.
This was unavoidable. After all, both sides possessed considerable strength and inevitably feared each other somewhat.
Only after facing a common threat would the two factions truly accept one another. Ren Qing could seemingly only wait for an attack from the longevity species.
Ren Qing gazed toward the busy three cities of Xiangxiang. Yin Difference realm cultivators were directing Restraint Officers to construct layers of defenses, gradually thickening the city walls.
At the same time, Restraint Officers below the Half-Corpse realm had begun learning physical martial arts.
After entering the Longevity Restricted Zone, the cultivation of Half-Corpse realm Restraint Officers was almost equivalent in combat strength to ordinary martial artists from the martial academies.
Ren Qing then turned and walked toward the Longevity Tree, planning to continue searching for the small Blood Moon.
This time he used a different method. He directly had the ghost shadow carry his main soul consciousness into the trunk of the Longevity Tree, searching inch by inch.
Ren Qing's expression changed slightly. As expected, he detected something unusual.
At the base of the Longevity Tree, there was actually a glowing fleshy tumor that occasionally wriggled like a living creature.
Ren Qing came directly beneath the Longevity Tree. The ghost shadow under his feet slowly drilled into the soil and soon touched the tumor-like small Blood Moon.
The Longevity Tree was thousands of meters tall, and its roots spread across dozens of li. Searching solely with the incomplete ghost shadow would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.
Ren Qing immediately understood.
The Longevity Tree was likely cultivated by Chen Changsheng using the corpses of split souls, employing a method similar to the Three Immortals planting disease trees, producing this manifested object.
Chen Changsheng must have known about the existence of split souls. Even if Ren Qing's main soul consciousness did not leave his body to search, once the split soul died and reshaped its body, it would inevitably discover the small Blood Moon.
The small Blood Moon had clearly been prepared for Ren Qing, more precisely, for the entire Restraint Officers' Hall to establish itself here.
The information flow surged.
Eight-Directions Demon Realm was refined by the Taiyin Star Lord. It required thirty-six thousand souls as the core and five hundred years of demon qi cultivation to refine; it could release demon qi through the Eight-Directions Demon Realm to mutate living beings.
Ren Qing swallowed. Even though the small Blood Moon was wrapped in a fleshy tumor, it did nothing to conceal the sharpness of the magical artifact. Faint Moon Patterns flickered across its surface.
The Eight-Directions Demon Realm truly felt like a living being. The Moon Patterns composing it continuously circulated, appearing extremely profound and mysterious.
For a moment Ren Qing became entranced, immersed in observing the endless changes of the Moon Patterns. The doubts in his heart suddenly became clear.
The concept of Moon Patterns resembled the Dao De Jing's principle: one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things.
Within the crossing lines, every combination seemed to contain meaning. Yet whenever Ren Qing attempted to probe it, the patterns transformed into something else.
Only when the sky began to brighten did he return from the vast ocean-like Eight-Directions Demon Realm.
Ren Qing noticed that his main soul consciousness showed signs of leaving the body, night was about to end and Night Roaming would disappear. He quickly controlled the split soul to delve deeper into the Eight-Directions Demon Realm.
He knew the demon qi of the Eight-Directions Demon Realm had already been drained, leaving only an empty shell, which was why he dared to act so boldly.
Chen Changsheng likely left something for the Restraint Officers' Hall within the Eight-Directions Demon Realm to ensure their safety in the Longevity Restricted Zone.
As Ren Qing's consciousness penetrated deeper, within the originally complex Moon Patterns appeared a thread of black mist like smoke and dust.
It was the missing Abhī Hell.
"So Abhī Hell was hidden within the Eight-Directions Demon Realm. Chen Changsheng probably hoped the Restraint Officers' Hall would refine them into a single entity."
Ren Qing immediately guessed Chen Changsheng's intention.
If Abhī Hell combined with the Eight-Directions Demon Realm, it would certainly allow the Longevity Tree's area to form something similar to the stomach-world.
It would be like a world within a world.
At that time, Restraint Officers could regain their ability to sense aberrant objects.
After Chen Changsheng fought the Blood Moon, his consciousness may have fallen asleep again, leaving Ren Qing, who understood Moon Patterns, to handle the task.
Unknowingly Ren Qing fell into deep thought. He did not even notice when his main soul consciousness returned to his body until he heard murmuring in his ears and finally came back to himself.
Within the Longevity Restricted Zone, the core aberrant objects were likely two Yang God realm techniques: the Resurrection Technique and the Six-Illness Method.
The aberrant object of the Six-Illness Method represented the external aspect of the Longevity Restricted Zone, while the aberrant object of the Resurrection Technique represented its internal aspect.
If Ren Qing wanted to obtain the Resurrection Technique, the best method was to completely eliminate the aberrant object; the second was to comprehend it through the restricted zone itself.
The opportunity before him was not the Eight-Directions Demon Realm, but this Longevity Tree.
If Ren Qing could refine the Eight-Directions Demon Realm and thereby control the Longevity Tree, he might glimpse the roots of the Resurrection Technique.
He put away the Buddhist dream seed on his forehead, then took out thick sheets of paper and began designing how the Moon Pattern formation should be drawn.
Since Abhī Hell had already mixed into the Eight-Directions Demon Realm, it meant Chen Changsheng used disease bacteria to parasitize and forcibly fuse them initially.
Ren Qing did not even need to alter the Moon Patterns of the Eight-Directions Demon Realm. As long as corresponding Moon Patterns were engraved on Abhī Hell, success would naturally follow.
At that time he could also reclaim the spirit crystals held by cultivators and refine a Pseudo Spirit Vein to place inside the Eight-Directions Demon Realm, solving the Nether Yuan problem.
However, the Pseudo Spirit Vein could last at most a few years. If replaced with insect molting...
Ren Qing's mouth twitched.
Blood Moon plus Restraint Officer techniques plus Heavenly Dao insects, he could even add pseudo-dragon transformation. It was hard to imagine what kind of artifact this would become.
He devoted himself completely to Moon Patterns. Whenever his mind grew tired, he used Buddhist qi erosion to strengthen the skin's resistance.
The Ghost Ship continued sailing through the Bottomless Pit.
Corpses were still carried down by astral winds, but the number had clearly decreased greatly.
Ren Qing did not know how much time passed. Even after the Buddhist dream seed's Buddhist qi was completely exhausted, he did not investigate further; his eyes seemed to contain only Moon Patterns.
The Ghost Ship followed a specific trajectory, heading straight toward the center of the Bottomless Pit.
When Ren Qing finally figured out how to draw the Moon Patterns of Abhī Hell, his consciousness returned to clarity, his expression containing joy.
His mastery of Moon Patterns had advanced further. It was no longer limited to refining the Eight-Directions Demon Realm; he had even improved the aberrant fetus artifact refining method.
Originally, aberrant fetus artifacts were troublesome to bind as owners and required special methods.
Now, as long as Moon Patterns were engraved onto the artifact and the soul connected with it, over time it could be controlled as easily as moving one's arm.
Ren Qing felt refreshed and could not help stretching lazily.
But his expression soon stiffened.
The ghost shadow and Dragon Spine simultaneously sent warnings. His pupils widened in disbelief as he stared at the wall, clearly seeing something through the hull.
Ren Qing did not know the exact location of Cishi.
He originally planned to judge when to leave the Bottomless Pit based on falling corpses.
But now the Bottomless Pit had fallen into complete silence.
He had clearly gone too deep, very likely already within the core region even Chen Changsheng feared.
Ren Qing swallowed and immediately turned the Ghost Ship around.
Yet within the darkness, at some unknown moment, faint white lights had appeared.