The Secret Way of Immortality

“Cough, cough, cough, cough…”

Suppressed coughing echoed from within the dim carriage.

Unlike Tian Sanzhong, who was just recovering from a long illness, the person inside seemed terminally ill, as if they might breathe their last at any moment.

Zhao the caravan leader swallowed. It was already late, and they should have stopped to rest, but Miss Sun’s condition couldn’t afford any delays.

He looked hesitantly at an unremarkable old man in the caravan.

The old man was surnamed Liu. It was said that he used to be a famous martial artist who could easily snap an opponent’s neck with extremely cruel methods.

However, martial artists would decline after the age of thirty, so Old Liu followed Sun the wealthy merchant, mainly to train the latter’s private soldiers.

“Alright, let’s rest for three hours.”

Old Liu cast a sharp glance at Zhao the caravan leader, then said to the maid beside him, “Qinghua, go check on the young lady.”

“I… I…”

“Go now!!”

Qinghua was on the verge of tears, her legs weak as she shakily approached the carriage.

“Miss, are… are you feeling any better?”

Sun Rong coughed for a while before finally calming down, and said in a gentle voice, “I’m fine, Qinghua. Help me get something to eat.”

“It’s good that you’re alright. I’ll be right back.”

Qinghua breathed a sigh of relief and quickly trotted to the carriage behind to ask for some food, preparing to immediately hand it to Sun Rong.

But before she could get close to Sun Rong, her arm was grabbed by Old Liu as if in a vise, and the food in the porcelain bowl was snatched away.

“Qinghua, are you crazy?!”

“Those with the heat sickness can’t touch any meat! How did I tell you?!”

“It hurts… it hurts…”

Old Liu snorted coldly, then flung Qinghua’s arm away and asked someone else for some dry rations to give to her.

Qinghua’s eyes were filled with tears. She wanted to cry but didn’t dare to, so she could only hold the dry rations and head towards Sun Rong, her steps somewhat unsteady.

Old Liu shook his head and walked to the outer edge of the group, pulling out his smoking pipe. As he puffed out smoke, his tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed.

“Old Liu, can you explain in detail what heat sickness is?”

Hearing someone ask beside him, Old Liu subconsciously turned his head, only to see an unfamiliar man with a child perched on his shoulder.

“You are…”

His expression turned serious as he reached for the back of his waist, but he quickly relaxed.

The other party had no weapons and was carrying a child. He hadn’t tried to attack upon meeting, so he shouldn’t pose too much of a threat.

Of course, most importantly, Old Liu inexplicably trusted Ren Qing without even knowing why.

“Young hero, you really have some skills. To come before me under the watch of a dozen guards, your abilities are much better than mine were in my prime.”

After seeing the strangeness within the caravan, Ren Qing didn’t hesitate to follow them, and the unease in his heart grew stronger.

Since there were no mass casualties in Qingyan Town, could it be that the giant toad-rabbit directly erased the existence of those mortals?

Ren Qing vaguely had a feeling that if he wanted to find something different from the seemingly ordinary Jing Province, he couldn’t let go of any anomalies.

The pupils in his eyes swirled.

He discovered that Old Liu was at most stronger than an ordinary person, barely considered to have cultivated external martial arts.

Could it be that the blood moon or the Heavenly Dao worm was intentionally preventing mortals from coming into contact with cultivation methods?

Ren Qing took the initiative to strike up a conversation, and Old Liu responded repeatedly, abandoning his usual silence. They seemed like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

The nearby guards turned a blind eye.

Ren Qing looked at the arm extending from Sun Rong’s carriage, covered in scars like burn marks, and learned from Old Liu what heat sickness was.

The source of the heat sickness was unknown. Every so often, dozens of people in Jing Province would fall ill.

The patient’s skin would gradually be covered in scars, and their temperament would become increasingly strange, eventually leading to death without exception.

Sun Rong’s stated reason for going to Jing Province City was to seek medical treatment, but in reality, the Sun family’s ancestral tomb was near Jing Province City, most likely to send a living person to be buried.

“Only dozens of people…”

Ren Qing was slightly puzzled, using his double pupils to constantly examine Sun Rong inside the carriage. Her body didn’t seem to be sick.

The so-called heat sickness seemed to appear out of nowhere, somewhat like the body’s mutation and loss of control.

But if the heat sickness was related to the giant toad-rabbit, then the number of cases Old Liu mentioned was somewhat off.

The number was simply too small.

Ren Qing couldn’t help but ask a few more questions. After repeated confirmation, he learned that each town had at most three or four people suffering from heat sickness.

According to the time when Sun Rong’s sudden change occurred, it was the second day after the giant toad-rabbit appeared. There was definitely a necessary connection between the two.

Ren Qing pondered to himself, and Sun Rong began to cough violently again.

It was accompanied by heavy breathing. Qinghua couldn’t help but look into the carriage, and was so frightened by what she noticed that she retreated repeatedly.

The howling of wolves faintly sounded from not far away, and a faint smell of blood permeated the air.

Old Liu didn’t bother with Ren Qing and quickly directed the guards to set up defenses, pulling out a short, flexible sword from his waist.

Ren Qing stood in place.

The wolves weren’t there for the caravan. After all, with two dozen well-trained guards and some Sun family guards, the beasts wouldn’t act rashly.

They had just finished hunting, carrying the carcass of a deer in their mouths, and seemed ready to return to their den, uninterested in humans.

But it was precisely this bloody smell that triggered the change in Sun Rong.

Sun Rong hugged her head with both hands, her fingernails digging deeply into her scalp, and blood dripped down her elbows onto the bottom of the carriage.

Soon she began to scratch vigorously, as if only that could make her feel better.

Sun Rong’s expression became increasingly distorted, her face ferocious to the extreme, like a beast that had been hungry for a long time, nothing like the well-bred young lady she had been before.

After wailing in pain for a moment, she regained some consciousness until the wolves were far away, and slowly walked out of the carriage.

Everyone in the caravan looked at Sun Rong with astonishment, some even wiping away tears because of the tragic state of the Sun family’s young lady.

Ren Qing silently covered Tian A’s curious eyes, so as not to traumatize the little guy.

Sun Rong’s exposed skin was tattered, and even the underlying muscles could be seen, with white vapor rising from all over her body.

The reason it was called heat sickness was because the patient’s body temperature would become increasingly high before death, and the skin would peel off as if dissolving.

Even trying to end the patient’s suffering in advance was impossible. Before the skin peeled off, it was as tough as cowhide, and even sharp weapons could hardly harm it.

Old Liu knew that Sun Rong wasn’t far from death, and he couldn’t help but sigh deeply, his straight back becoming somewhat slumped.

Although there was no blood relationship, Sun Rong was someone Old Liu had watched grow up since she was a child, and it was truly unbearable to see her die of heat sickness now.

Sun Rong looked up at the sky, her distorted face gradually calming down.

She said nervously in a loud voice, “Did you all see…”

“That blood moon, it’s… it’s Lord Taiyin, I’m going to return my soul…”

“Lord Taiyin is above!!!”

Ren Qing had silently used his double pupils to the extreme, even attaching three dream seeds to his forehead, staring wide-eyed at the sky.

But he couldn’t see the blood moon at all, as if separated by a thick wall.

“Lord Taiyin is above!!!”

Sun Rong opened her hands as if embracing the invisible blood moon.

Tian A seemed to be stimulated by something, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, until he was taken into Ren Qing’s abdominal prison and became quiet.

Then, something incredible happened. Sun Rong stepped towards the sky, as if stepping on empty stairs.

Ren Qing felt a chill, his eyes fixed on Sun Rong, but his feet couldn’t help but retreat, ready to leave at any time.

When Sun Rong walked to about ten meters, she made a gesture of worship, and suddenly her figure disappeared.

Without even the slightest sign.

Sun Rong’s clothes fell to the ground, leaving behind a bloody heart.

The others were stunned, and the atmosphere became extremely silent.

Ren Qing seemed to understand a little. Sun Rong wasn’t erased, but rather suddenly disappeared from his sight.

Could it be that things related to the blood moon couldn’t be seen with the naked eye?

Was the giant toad-rabbit’s action leaving a mark, guiding mortals to some unknown place, a place invisible to the naked eye?

But if that’s the case, why are there so few people dying from heat sickness…

As soon as this thought arose in Ren Qing’s mind, the heart left behind by Sun Rong suddenly began to beat, and the speed became faster and faster.

Then flesh grew around the heart, followed by the prototype of bones…

Right before his eyes, Sun Rong actually reformed in just a few breaths, turning into a living woman again.

She no longer had scars, and her appearance looked no different from before.

The intelligence in Sun Rong’s eyes gradually recovered as she tidied her clothes, but it was clear that her soul was incomplete, so her movements were slightly stiff.

Ren Qing was thoughtful.

Perhaps the dozens of people who died from heat sickness simply couldn’t withstand the pain of flesh dissolving and accidentally lost their lives.

Sure enough, Old Liu and the others had completely forgotten the previous bizarre events. It seemed that they were originally on their way back to Qingyan Town, and had nothing to do with going to the ancestral tomb.

They packed their belongings and prepared to set off along the official road.

Qinghua’s face was still tear-streaked, and she said anxiously, “Miss, hurry into the carriage. Your body is already weak, so don’t catch a cold.”

Sun Rong responded, suddenly feeling as if someone had patted her.

When she looked around, Ren Qing was already hundreds of meters away from the caravan. Thinking it was just an illusion, she turned and walked towards the carriage.

Ren Qing carefully examined Sun Rong’s information flow.

As a result, apart from her lifespan being slightly lower than that of ordinary people, there was no difference at all. Even her soul would be able to fully recover soon.

Ren Qing shook his head, separated some ghost shadows to hide in Sun Rong’s shadow, and then rode the husky towards Qingyan Town.

If he wanted to understand the situation, it seemed more convenient to start from the Wuwei Taoist Temple. Such a large force couldn’t have no remnants.

He wanted to know what kind of world the other Sun Rong had gone to?

Tian A slept for a day and a night before waking up, still in a daze, but he would show confusion when looking at the night sky.

Ren Qing put away the husky and walked with Tian A for several hours. Qingyan Town came into view, and the streets were full of crowded people.

He carefully recalled the records in the Wuwei Taoist Temple’s classics, and still had a vague idea in his mind.

Sorry, it's a bit late, too many things to do