The Secret Way of Immortality

When Ren Qing returned, he discovered that in just a few hours, the scale of the camp had changed considerably.

The city walls had been heightened again, and many papers were pasted on the ground, supposedly to reinforce it.

What surprised him the most was that more than a dozen insect cocoons had been buried around the periphery of the camp, a result of Li Yaoyang's late arrival.

Ren Qing couldn't understand the layout of the Forbidden Corps, it felt like they were drawing a prison on the ground.

But it seemed that the Forbidden Corps were ready to go, even Water Gourd and Mortise were on guard all around, ready to summon souls at any time.

Only the Grand Dream Master was still nowhere to be seen.

"Don't be suspicious, let's summon the soul."

Li Tiangang nodded to Song Zongwu, then stood beside the altar with a book in his hand, gradually releasing the seal on the black goat.

In an instant, the black goat trembled constantly, its soul showed signs of imminent collapse, and its flesh gradually began to peel off.

Meee...

A strange goat cry sounded.

But under the cover of the bacterial fog, the aura of the Heavenly Demon was not enough to affect the Forbidden Corps, let alone everyone present having the cultivation of a Ghost Envoy Realm.

Ren Qing stood on the city wall staring at the black goat, Li Yaoyang's eyes beside him looked slightly surprised.

It was hard to imagine that the Fire Worker had achieved three transformations step by step, and his realm had unknowingly almost caught up with his own.

The black goat cried out continuously.

A large bulge rose on its back, and then a gap slowly cracked open, from which a bat-like monster crawled out.

The bat represents the Thief-Swallowing Soul, whose function is sleep and recovery at night.

As soon as the Thief-Swallowing Soul appeared, it merged with the Avici Hell, and its body naturally swelled frantically, reaching tens of meters in just a few breaths.

Li Tiangang tried to take out a paper talisman to seal it, but before he could get close.

The Thief-Swallowing Soul flapped its wings and disappeared, turning day into night in an instant, and the camp became pitch black.

Ren Qing barely maintained his vision and noticed that the Yin Messenger Realm cultivators had begun to take action.

"Laughable..."

Water Gourd's voice rang out, the flesh gourd on his back opened its mouth, and a continuous drizzle fell, directly covering a hundred meters.

He used this to sense the location of the Thief-Swallowing Soul.

The other Forbidden Corps did not act rashly, but the seals formed by their techniques had already surrounded the camp, at least preventing the pseudo-soul from escaping.

Ren Qing originally intended to focus on self-preservation, but when he noticed Water Gourd, he suddenly felt a few drops of water heading towards the ghost shadow at his feet.

Seeing this, he covered his whole body with the ghost shadow, turning into a shadow and disappearing.

A stream of water brushed past the spot where Ren Qing had been standing, and then came the Thief-Swallowing Soul's miserable scream.

Ren Qing's face was livid.

It was obvious that Water Gourd was using the opportunity to deal with the Thief-Swallowing Soul to test the ghost shadow, even at this point he was still thinking about the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.

And he noticed that Water Gourd had deliberately left inconspicuous water droplets on several of the peripheral Forbidden Corps, obviously with ulterior motives.

The drizzle turned into a torrential downpour, washing over the devastated ground.

The Thief-Swallowing Soul simply couldn't dodge, and after being severely injured, the darkness it had transformed into receded, and it tried to escape.

Through the Thief-Swallowing Soul's body, Ren Qing seemed to sense something unusual.

He merged part of the ghost shadow into the darkness, with the Heavenly Demon Dream Seed mixed in.

Ren Qing planned to use the Dream Seed's concealment to guard against Water Gourd, so that even if it wasn't needed, it would be easier to retrieve.

Of course, it might be exposed, but after all, Water Gourd had made the first move, and Ren Qing had ample reason to take this risk.

The darkness disappeared completely.

The Thief-Swallowing Soul fell heavily to the ground, its body covered with wounds of varying sizes.

However, the Yin Messenger Realm cultivators did not deliver a fatal blow, as the Thief-Swallowing Soul's accidental death and resurrection would waste a lot of time.

Water Gourd walked up to the Thief-Swallowing Soul, and was about to examine it with interest.

Suddenly, the Thief-Swallowing Soul became even more unstable.

Bang!

It instantly turned into hundreds of bats, scattering and flying out of the camp.

While Water Gourd was stunned, the ghost shadow took the opportunity to drill into his shadow.

To prevent accidents, Ren Qing also had the ghost shadow actively dissipate, leaving only the Heavenly Demon Dream Seed.

The Heavenly Demon Dream Seed could sense at any time whether Water Gourd was relaxing, so that even if it wasn't used, it would be relatively easy to retrieve.

The Forbidden Corps then took action one after another, and soon stopped the Thief-Swallowing Soul.

After all, almost all of the Forbidden Corps' strength was gathered in the camp, and a mere pseudo-soul was not worth mentioning.

After being subdued, the Thief-Swallowing Soul actually split into two, turning into a bat and a human-headed bird.

Li Tiangang muttered, "Sparrow Yin Soul..."

The function of the Sparrow Yin Soul is reproduction, so it can be seen that only the Thief-Swallowing Soul was summoned on the surface, but in reality, all seven souls had appeared.

Looking at the black goat again, its whole body had withered, like a corpse with skin wrapped around bones, and its aura gradually became weaker and weaker.

If it continued like this, let alone the three souls, it would die in at most half a day.

Li Tiangang was not panicked, obviously he had expected this, he turned to Mortise and said, "Mortise, help me get some flesh and blood of strange objects."

Mortise nodded in response, then flapped its wings and left the camp.

Before long, a strong wind rose.

It carried more than a dozen corpses of strange objects in its mouth and threw them on the open space next to the black goat.

Ren Qing had been to the Land of Nether Feathers when he was promoted to the Twin Nightmare Demon, and he knew that the flesh and blood of strange objects had the effect of stabilizing the soul.

However, it would indirectly lead to alienation, so usually the half-corpse realm Forbidden Corps would separate their body and soul, and absorb the soul aura of strange objects in the form of strange objects.

This could temporarily stabilize the soul, thereby increasing the chance of promotion.

Li Tiangang picked up the flesh and blood of the strange objects and threw them to the black goat, which instinctively ate the flesh and blood of the strange objects in one gulp.

The emaciated black goat recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Li Tiangang explained, "The land gains power by devouring the three souls and seven spirits, which may break the balance between the brain tree and the Grand Duke Jupiter, so we must speed up the progress."

The eyes in the jar head glanced at Water Gourd and said, "Yes, hurry up."

Under Li Tiangang's distribution, the Forbidden Corps immediately set off for the Flesh and Blood Plain.

The Yin Messenger Realm cultivators also performed their duties.

Song Zongwu grabbed two pseudo-souls and then went to the depths of the brain tree.

The battle between the brain tree and the Grand Duke Jupiter became increasingly fierce, and even the earthquakes caused by the aftermath could affect the temporary camp.

As soon as Song Zongwu approached, the roots of the bacterial tree eagerly extended, directly rolling up the pseudo-souls and taking them into the ground.

The bacterial tree began a new round of growth. After possessing the seven souls, its intelligence was fully enhanced, at least no longer limited to instinctive actions.

Ren Qing wanted to tell Li Tiangang about Water Gourd's abnormal behavior, but there were too many people in the camp and it was not easy to speak.

He had to follow the Forbidden Corps out of the periphery of the bacterial fog, and leave a wisp of ghost shadow to find a chance to reveal the information.

Before he had traveled far, a large number of strange objects appeared in front of Ren Qing.

They were of various shapes and forms, and they pounced without hesitation when they saw living people, not retreating even if they died as a result.

Whoosh!

The Dragon-Snake Spine drilled out from his palm.

Ren Qing had dealt with strange objects before, so his attacks were extremely clean and neat. After a moment, the Dragon-Snake Spine strung up more than a dozen corpses.

As long as he discarded the corpses, the Forbidden Corps would transport them to the camp.

Ren Qing quickly attracted the attention of others.

Under normal circumstances, the Forbidden Corps needed to work together to ensure a quick kill of the strange objects, but they intentionally or unintentionally looked towards Ren Qing, only to see that he had gone mad with killing.

The Dragon-Snake Spine turned into a blur, covering dozens of meters. Any strange object that approached would be instantly torn apart, and then transported away by the ghost shadow.

Ren Qing even collected some of the corpses of the strange objects into the Flesh and Blood Furnace, and after refining them, he obtained a material called "Strange Blood."

【Strange Blood】

【Condensed from Avici Hell, taking it reduces lifespan, slightly increases the soul, and is accompanied by a certain degree of alienation.】

For Ren Qing, Strange Blood was somewhat tasteless and a pity to discard.

If he wanted to consume lifespan to enhance his soul, it would be better to find a similar technique and directly rely on the information stream to advance.

However, the black goat certainly wouldn't be able to use too much flesh and blood, and the strange objects were like leeks, constantly growing, so he naturally hoarded some conveniently.

A large amount of flesh and blood of strange objects was sent into the black goat's mouth, and its condition became stable, but it was still extremely weak.

Song Zongwu also joined the ranks of hunting strange objects. With the intervention of the Yin Messenger Realm, the efficiency was even greater, and the corpses were almost piled up into a mountain.

It was just to race against time.

Ren Qing took the opportunity to tell Song Zongwu about Water Gourd, but the other party nodded and didn't care.

Seeing this, he was relieved instead.

After spending an hour or so, the Forbidden Corps had enough corpses and prepared to start the next round of soul summoning.

But just as Mortise used the Nether Crow to summon the Forbidden Corps to return, something unexpected happened.

Amidst the earth-shattering tremors, the bacterial tree pulled out all its roots, wriggling like a living thing.

The bacterial tree did not help the Grand Duke Jupiter fight against the brain tree, but instead chose to stay away, indicating that its intelligence had learned to avoid disasters.

The brain tree seemed to sense that the pseudo-souls were gradually moving away. It kept waving its branches, and a large amount of blood seeped out of its gray-black brain.

The bloody smell spread.

The strange objects seemed to be stimulated. They originally only stayed in specific areas, but now they surged towards the brain tree like a tide.

They were everywhere in the sky and on the ground.

The head in the jar was stunned for a few breaths, and then shouted loudly.

"Retreat!!!"

He used his techniques to cover the crowd, trapping dozens or hundreds of strange objects in the jar, but some Forbidden Corps were still besieged and killed by the strange objects.

With Ren Qing's speed, he naturally wouldn't fall behind, but he deliberately slowed down and rolled up dozens or hundreds of them into the Abdominal Prison.

Looking back, millions of strange objects were like moths to a flame, making one's scalp tingle.

A bird's cry rang out.

Mortise swept across the sky, its claws grabbing the Forbidden Corps who had no time to retreat.

The Forbidden Corps defended around the city walls, releasing techniques with the advantage of height, and soon stabilized the situation.

But trouble followed.

The roots of the brain tree absorbed the flesh and blood of the strange objects, and the momentum it showed became more and more terrifying, but it couldn't do anything to the bacterial tree that was far away.

It had to vent on the Grand Duke Jupiter, and the bacterial fog began to show a tendency to dissipate.

Ren Qing felt thorny. It seemed that after the bacterial tree absorbed the three souls and seven spirits, it might lose control as a result.

The purpose of the Forbidden Corps was to have the bacterial tree use the abilities of the Rat Mother to produce new souls, and finally replace the brain tree to take charge of Avici Hell.

What if the bacterial tree didn't follow the script and left Avici Hell...