The Secret Way of Immortality

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Li Yaoyang unhesitatingly transformed himself into countless Gu worms, fleeing outwards in all directions.

The scorching temperature behind him grew increasingly terrifying, as blinding flames exploded outwards.

The Gu worms crackled and popped, emitting a foul, burnt odor, and faint sighs could be heard.

“The Dao begets the Dao, the Dao is inaction…”

Even Li Yaoyang, who had achieved the Yin-Yang Transformation realm, was no match for the flames.

When Song Zongwu arrived, he only saw charred insect corpses scattered across the ground, and finding nothing else amiss, he couldn't help but frown.

A Buddhist eye grew from his brow once more, and after surveying the surroundings, he shook his head.

Apart from the prison warden, there wasn't a single person to be found in the entire Qingxu Temple, making it impossible to explain the situation.

As Song Zongwu attempted to search for clues, he noticed through the wall that Sun was rushing into the Avici Hell in a panic, with Li Tiangang close behind.

“Amitabha, could it be that the corpse of a Celestial Abnormality realm being retains consciousness?”

He pressed his palms together and quickly retrieved the prison warden's token to traverse to the Avici Hell.

The Avici Hell was in utter chaos, with the mushroom trees all over the ground undergoing bizarre mutations, their branches sprouting human hands and feet.

The ground was also covered in flesh-like tissue that had formed into twisted, grotesque facial features.

The culprit behind all this was the Black Goat standing in mid-air, its body radiating an extremely dense demonic aura that made one's hair stand on end.

The Grand Dream True Man stood not far from the Black Goat, the light and shadows around him distorted.

The Black Goat had clearly lost its sanity, and being isolated from the outside world only made it more uncomfortable, causing it to frantically try to break free.

It turned and charged towards the fleshy walls of the Avici Hell, its speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

But how could the Grand Dream True Man let the Black Goat have its way? He directly transformed the area within a thousand meters into light and shadow, then instantly traversed through it.

The two collided head-on, causing the entire Avici Hell to shake.

After separating, they collided again before long, their figures constantly chasing each other, and even though they were using the most primitive methods, it was still too fast for the eyes to follow.

The prison wardens then scrambled to leave the Avici Hell, as the demonic aura was simply too dense.

Even with their timely reactions, a dozen or so probationary members still experienced uncontrollable mutations in their bodies, growing black fur.

Even if they died as a result, their corpses would turn into half-human, half-goat monsters that wandered in the demonic aura, searching for flesh and blood to devour.

The reason why Li Tiangang and the others rushed back wasn't just because of the rampant demonic aura, but also because of the Heavenly Dao Worm.

A third of the Heavenly Dao Worm's body had disappeared, and its abdomen had a gaping hole covering its body, from which internal organs and blood flowed continuously.

The Black Goat had emerged from this hole, almost completely tearing the Heavenly Dao Worm apart.

Yet even so, with its Yang God realm cultivation, the Heavenly Dao Worm still hadn't died, struggling to crawl on the ground.

Its wounds couldn't heal due to the demonic aura, and fragments of the Inaction Daoist Rite's architectural remnants mixed with its internal organs flowed out.

Several black beetles could faintly be seen, indicating that Li Yaoyang wasn't dead and was devouring flesh and blood to recover.

The Heavenly Dao Worm's terrifying face stared fixedly in the direction of Yellow Sand City.

It had an instinctive desire for flesh and blood from those who cultivated fabricated arts, and its severely injured body needed to devour living beings to recover.

Li Tiangang rushed towards Yellow Sand City, intending to seal all the Gobi people inside.

Sun landed not far away, its body's feathers transforming into countless Stygian crows, which exploded around the Heavenly Dao Worm to buy time.

A moment later, Song Zongwu and the others arrived and began to face this dying behemoth.

Song Zongwu took a deep breath, his muscles gradually bulging, his bones constantly colliding, revealing his full Yin-Yang Transformation realm cultivation.

He frowned as he surveyed the surroundings, his four arms turning into afterimages as he struck the Heavenly Dao Worm.

His fists striking the Heavenly Dao Worm's body could only break open minor wounds, and if the latter hadn't been eroded by the demonic aura, it probably would have recovered completely in the blink of an eye.

Such was the chasm-like difference between the Yang God realm and the Yin-Yang Transformation realm; even if the former was severely injured and dying, it couldn't be easily erased.

Fortunately, the Avici Hell was the prison wardens' territory, and coupled with the Heavenly Dao Worm's fragmented intelligence, they naturally held a great advantage.

The Grand Dream True Man also gradually gained the upper hand in his battle with the Black Goat, thanks to his pre-arranged methods, but the surrounding area was left devastated.

Song Zongwu was somewhat worried, as Ren Qing and Bai Bo had yet to return, and he wondered if anything untoward had happened.

He forcibly suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind, and the speed at which he swung his four arms became afterimages, causing the Heavenly Dao Worm to move slower and slower.

At this time, Li Yaoyang, after devouring a large amount of flesh and blood, finally reformed his body, though it was inevitable that uncontrollable traces of aberration would appear.

After regaining consciousness, he said in an extremely solemn tone, “Elder Song, the person in Qingxu Temple… is still alive!!!”

Song Zongwu's pupils dilated, and while raising his arm to block an attack, he asked, “Who is it?”

Fear flashed in Li Yaoyang's eyes, and after a few moments of hesitation, he said, “It's…”

Bang!!

Before he could finish speaking, a figure fell from the sky into the mushroom forest, only stopping after crashing through a dozen mushroom trees.

It was none other than Miss Bai, who was outside, but now she was covered in blood.

Miss Bai's consciousness was already blurred, a section of the flying sword in her hand was missing, and the scabbard was nowhere to be seen.

Song Zongwu's six eyes widened; he had clearly not found any traces of souls in Qingxu Temple, so how could an unknown existence appear?

…………

Meanwhile, the Qingxu Temple outside was eerily silent, with only the howling of the wind and sand to be heard.

Ren Qing still maintained his giant sandman form of over thirty meters, but stood blankly on the spot, not daring to move in the slightest.

Just a moment ago, Miss Bai had wanted to use the flying sword to devour some of the Wine-Meat Taoist's corpse, to see if she could increase the progress of her art.

But a scorching heat swept past, and she only felt all the ribs in her chest and abdomen break, causing her to cough up blood and fly backwards.

If her natal magic item hadn't protected her vitals, Miss Bai might have already died.

Miss Bai activated the prison warden's token with her remaining consciousness, but her fate was still unknown.

Ren Qing's expression stiffened upon seeing this.

Although he could go to the Avici Hell at any time, his instincts told him that something seemed to be observing him from the shadows.

The strength displayed by the other party was at least comparable to the Yang God realm, and their attention was focused on him, which was why they had ignored the others.

Ren Qing slowly walked to the Bone Gate's Strange Womb artifact and tentatively activated the magic item.

At this moment, the temperature of the Qingxu Temple became even hotter, the gale formed a tornado, and a familiar smell of smoke and fire filled the air.

The Tinder King within Ren Qing's Flesh Furnace opened his eyes and abruptly stood up, his eyes filled with blazing flames.

The most⊥new⊥small⊥say⊥is⊥in⊥six⊥9⊥book⊥bar⊥⊥first⊥hair!

“The Dao begets the Dao… the Dao is inaction…”

“The Dao begets the Dao… the Dao is inaction…”

Two identical voices rang out, one inside and one outside, echoing each other.

A large amount of tinder was born in the mid-air of Qingxu Temple, then transformed into two or three meters, from which an old man walked out with faltering steps.

Ren Qing subconsciously summoned the Wine-Meat Taoist's information flow again.

【Art: Wine God Method (Becoming Immortal Through Drinking), Food Immortal Method (Fragmented)】

The art column clearly had a fragmented Food Immortal Method, indicating that the Wine-Meat Taoist's Flesh Furnace had not been completely destroyed.

The Heavenly Dao Son looked at Ren Qing with a smile, his eyes occasionally showing some madness.

Ren Qing narrowed his eyes.

So…

The Wine-Meat Taoist's corpse had never revived its consciousness.

The Qingxu Temple was the backup left by the Heavenly Dao Son; he had used a portion of his own soul to turn it into a Tinder King, in order to deal with the Demonized main soul.

Come to think of it, only the Heavenly Dao Son could refine hundreds or thousands of tombstone furnaces related to his disciples, based solely on his memory.

Ren Qing suddenly realized that even if the prison wardens didn't come to deal with the trouble in Qingxu Temple, the Supreme Heavenly Demon probably wouldn't cause too much havoc.

The Heavenly Dao Worm in the Yang God realm, which was connected to the corpse's head, was clearly planning to refine it into a tombstone furnace, in order to seal the Supreme Heavenly Demon that had escaped.

And the hundreds of Heavenly Dao Son's flesh bodies in the lungs should also be prepared for himself.

The Heavenly Dao Son slowly opened his mouth in a strange tone, “Huang Qi… is home…”

Then he pointed to the north, his eyes becoming increasingly empty, and even his body began to gradually collapse, but quickly recovered.

The Heavenly Dao Son alternated between sobriety and madness, occasionally letting out chilling laughter, his eyeballs rotating erratically.

“Senior, you've mistaken me…”

Ren Qing only felt a chill rise from his spine, and without hesitation, he turned back into human form and retreated to the Bone Gate.

As a Tinder King, the Heavenly Dao Son could borrow part of the Wine-Meat Taoist's cultivation before his death, which was why his cultivation was comparable to the Yang God realm.

“Huang Qi, I remember that every morning at the hour of Mao in the Inaction Hall, the purple light came from the east, turning the entire mountain into a golden purple.”

“At the hour of Wei, the Fire Refining Palace gave birth to clouds and mist, and large swaths of heat swept past…”

The Heavenly Dao Son was like an old man about to die, his words full of nostalgia for the mundane world, but as he spoke, something was not right.

“I refined the corpses of my disciples into magic items, wanting to block the Blood Moon, but it was still to no avail, and more and more people turned into rabbit-toads, only…”

The Heavenly Dao Son's face was ferocious, and he shouted hysterically, “Only by using my flesh can I block the Blood Moon, only by believing in the Supreme Heavenly Demon…”

It was too slow for Ren Qing to escape using the prison warden's token, so he simply squatted slightly, and after a simple charge, he rushed towards the Bone Gate.

The Heavenly Dao Son turned into a scorching wave of fire, and a huge human face surged towards Ren Qing.

Even though Ren Qing reacted in time, half of his body was inevitably burned, and even the Substitute Skin didn't play any role.

He had refined so many strange objects, but this was the first time he had been burned by tinder himself, and the pain intensified, causing him to reveal a wry smile.

Fortunately, he had the ability of Ghost Substitute, which transferred most of the burns to the Ghost Shadow.

The Heavenly Dao Son crashed heavily into the Bone Gate, the tinder burning to the extreme, and even the Strange Womb artifact refined from the Ksitigarbha's ribs began to dissolve.

“Huang Qi, hurry back to Jing Province, the Blood Moon is in the sky, there's no time!!”

The explosion was deafening, most of the Wine-Meat Taoist's corpse's head was missing, and the Bone Gate and the Tinder King had all disappeared.

………

After a long time, Song Zongwu and the others came to Qingxu Temple again, their bodies covered in wounds, and they struggled to search for a few days but couldn't find Ren Qing.

They didn't know where Ren Qing was, but the Ghost Market of Avici Hell still maintained its existence.

Sorry, my lords, there is only one chapter today.

In fact, the second chapter has already been written, but I think the rhythm is too slow, and rewriting it was delayed due to something, which just allows me to sort out the plot.

The Water Marsh chapter is indeed relatively short as a transition volume, but next is to look at the world.

The Jing Province chapter will introduce a very interesting Strange Dao Cultivation system.

Different from the Heavenly Dao Method, it is a symbiotic system formed by the Heavenly Dao Worm and the Blood Moon.