The Secret Way of Immortality

Ren Qing could only clearly perceive the fungal soul in the darkness when the corpse candles were lit, which showed that even the Toe Severing Art, which gave birth to One from the Dao, could not influence the Immovable Light Buddha.

The facts proved that the Immovable Light Buddha was more troublesome than imagined.

To be precise, Ren Qing was probably unaware of the true nature of the Immovable Light Buddha. After the Tathagata Buddha was possessed by the Supreme Heavenly Demon, what kind of bizarre and inexplicable monster would it form?

Currently, there was not much known information, only that the darkness spreading over thousands of miles was the Buddhist realm formed by the Immovable Light Buddha, which already possessed rules similar to a forbidden zone, easily causing cultivators to fall into depravity.

Fortunately, the danger of the Buddhist realm was not high. At least the Ghost Envoy realm cultivators inside were still alive.

The exploration of the Buddhist realm by the Prison Guard Hall quickly fell into a bottleneck, especially after they discovered that the darkness was still expanding.

Seven days after the initial expansion passed without any major incidents, the Buddhist realm stirred again.

The darkness was like a tsunami, spreading outward from Jing Prefecture as the center, and finally stopped after increasing by a thousand miles in area. It could be seen that the Immovable Light Buddha, as an existence above the Earth Immortal, was so terrifying even with just the aftereffects.

The Immovable Light Buddha could be said to have perfectly inherited the characteristics of Buddhism and the Supreme Heavenly Demon, displaying the terrifying means by which all things could be eroded.

Ren Qing successively evacuated the Dragon Blood Sea area. The transfer of the Immortal position was simple, but the Matchmaker Immortal at the bottom of the sea was difficult to move.

He had to first cultivate giant dragon beasts to slowly move the Matchmaker Immortal.

Fortunately, the trend of the Buddhist realm's expansion had slowed down slightly. It would take at least ten years for it to spread to the Dragon Blood Sea area, so there was still plenty of time.

Ren Qing couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The slowed frequency of the darkness's expansion at least indicated that the Immovable Light Buddha's Buddhist realm had an upper limit.

If the expansion were endless, it might cover this world in a hundred years.

After trying various conventional methods, the Prison Guard Hall cultivators found that they could not shake the deep and boundless darkness, so they gradually withdrew from the periphery.

Li Yaoyang's Gu worms, once they entered the Buddhist realm, were like clay cows entering the sea, unable to be recalled by spells and their life or death unknown.

And Little San'er's magic tool puppets were completely giving gifts to the Immovable Light Buddha.

It was equally impractical for the demon to use digging to travel to Jing Prefecture. Before long, it was called to a halt and all were driven back to the stomach world.

No matter how deep the cave was, as long as it was within the range covered by the Buddhist realm, it would fall into endless darkness.

What the Prison Guard Hall was most afraid of was that even Yang God realm cultivators, when in the darkness, would gradually lose their sense of time and direction.

The Prison Guard Hall had done experiments, using magic tool ropes to tie cultivators and enter the Buddhist realm.

As a result, they were clearly only three or four meters away from the outside world, but they groped for several hours like headless flies and could not find the path.

Corpses in the Buddhist realm would mutate into shriveled corpse candles.

After the corpse candles were lit, the cultivators seemed to see indescribable horrors, and most of them went mad, calling out to the Immovable Light Buddha.

Ren Qing completely gave up the possibility of autonomously escaping the Buddhist realm, and simply divided the ghost shadows into multiple groups to search for survivors in the darkness.

By the way, the ghost shadows could also find out the location of the two True Immortals.

Ren Qing sensed through the Heaven and Earth Life Energy that the Lunar Star Lord's injuries were extremely serious, while the Earth Immortal of Fortune had not been fundamentally injured.

With the vitality of an Earth Immortal, they shouldn't die in the Buddhist realm.

However, the condition of the two True Immortals did not improve at all, and they seemed to be lingering on their last breath, probably buried in the central area of Jing Prefecture.

While Ren Qing was having a headache, the Prison Guard Hall shifted its main energy to the Zerg Nest, and while the Four Mother Queens were trapped in Jing Prefecture, a large number of cultivators began to garrison near the Zerg Nest.

The area of the Zerg Nest looks like a desolate Gobi Desert on the surface, with no useful resources to be seen, and the temperature difference between day and night is as high as forty or fifty degrees.

From the outside, no force would be interested in the Zerg Nest.

After several probes by the Prison Guard Hall, the Zerg Nest's reaction was mediocre, so they marched into the Gobi Desert with great fanfare and used spells to break open the soil layer.

True Man Taihan looked at the busy Zerg Vein cultivators, many of whom had already drilled into the ground, heading towards the gathering place of the Zerg Nest according to his instructions.

Song Zongwu deliberately lagged behind by half a step, his eyes covertly sizing up True Man Taihan.

It was said to be cooperation with the Zerg Vein, but Song Zongwu was definitely wary of True Man Taihan, and even had Li Tiangang lead True Man Yuhua to surround the Zerg Nest from the opposite direction.

Only by dispersing the Zerg Vein could everything be foolproof.

Even if Song Zongwu understood that the probability of the Zerg Vein rebelling was very small, he had to consider the Prison Guard Hall and eliminate all unexpected events.

True Man Taihan didn't care. After formally joining the Prison Guard Hall, he had already anticipated that there would be a day when he would be a guide, but he didn't expect this day to come so quickly.

"A hundred years ago, the ecology of the Zerg Nest was still relatively lush, but because the Heavenly Dao Insect-men completely hollowed out the ground, the nutrients in the soil were severely lost, eventually turning it into a Gobi Desert."

True Man Taihan seemed to be narrating a common thing, but in fact, Song Zongwu could hear confusion in his words.

If the Zerg Vein and the Heavenly Dao Insects were compared, they were actually two completely different races, with earth-shattering changes in all aspects of their habits.

True Man Taihan looked at the Zerg Vein cultivators going in and out of the ground. Due to the dual cultivation of the Prison Guard Art, their body types were not limited to maggots, and even had beast forms or human forms.

They didn't care about the Zerg Nest, but were filled with greed for resources.

Song Zongwu asked curiously: "Taihan, the Zerg Nest is so lacking in resources, you should have a habit of migrating, right?"

"Indeed, we migrate once every thousand years due to the scarcity of food."

True Man Taihan hesitated for a moment, then added: "It's almost time to migrate, but without the Mother Queen, the other Zerg Nest cultivators have no decision-making power at all..."

He shook his head, his tightly furrowed brow never relaxing.

More than a hundred years had passed since True Man Taihan last returned to the Zerg Nest, and True Man Yuhua was no better off.

The two of them didn't know much about the current situation of the Zerg Nest, and were afraid of making misjudgments.

Song Zongwu said lightly: "According to the information collected by the cultivators, the Zerg Nest seems to have fallen into internal strife after the Four Mother Queens left, and the tunnels leading to the deeper layers have been closed."

"We'll have to go to the ground ourselves to see the specific situation."

As he spoke, the Zerg Vein cultivators drove the magic tools and flew into the cave. The movement was not obvious, and the entrance was only ten meters wide.

They found that the soil in the deeper layers had already shown signs of desertification.

It could be seen that the Zerg Nest's destruction of the environment only took a hundred years, and it was about to completely drain the thousands of miles of the Zerg Nest area.

In contrast, the Non-Action Daoist Temple pursued the transformation of the ecology, and the spiritual veins could instead allow plants and animals to reproduce and thrive.

Song Zongwu was responsible for exploring the interior of the Zerg Nest, while Li Tiangang was on guard, guarding the open mountain peaks.

Even Ren Qing didn't know why the Zerg Nest and the Earth Immortal of Fortune would go in opposite directions. There must have been some kind of drastic change between the two forces.

Ren Qing occasionally distracted himself to pay attention to the Zerg Nest. The Prison Guard Hall had already found the gathering place of the insect-men.

The situation in the gathering place was not optimistic. The tunnels leading to the depths were closed, resulting in a lack of food supply for the insect-men, and infighting occurred.

Even if it was just the nest of insect-men, it still seemed magnificent and exaggerated, which showed the creativity of the Zerg Nest cultivators in excavating underground towns.

The dense tunnels were intricate, and the structure of the cave seemed simple, but in fact each part had its corresponding use.

The houses were built of stone bricks, and the courtyards were planted with fungi and moss, which could barely provide a certain amount of food for the insect beasts.

Before the tunnels leading to the depths were closed, the Zerg Nest cultivators would provide them with a kind of viscous dry food every day, which was said to be a gift from the Earth Immortal of Fortune to the Zerg Nest.

But in fact, after Song Zongwu checked the remaining dry food, he found that the main ingredients were the dead skin shed by the Mother Queen, and the ashes of the insect-men who died and were burned.

Even Song Zongwu couldn't help but be surprised by the cruelty of the Zerg Nest towards the insect-men.

The Zerg Nest would not guide the insect-men to cultivate, let alone allow them to have writing, and even the food was provided free of charge.

Free food meant that there was no supply relationship between the Zerg Nest and the insect-men, and the insect-men became an insignificant subsidiary race.

Although the Prison Guard Hall was somewhat repulsive to foreign races, it would at least give them a path to climb up, and the Three Realms system in the stomach world was relatively fair.

The Zerg Nest had a very clear hierarchy. The higher the status, the lower the position. The bottom was the Mother Queen's cave, and even True Man Taihan had never been in contact with it.

Song Zongwu was very careful at first, but soon found something wrong.

All the tunnels leading to the depths were sealed to prevent the insect-men from accidentally entering, and the Prison Guard Hall could only forcibly excavate the rocks.

The rock layer of the Zerg Nest was also very special. It was said to be smeared with the saliva secreted by the Mother Queen, which was not only as hard as steel, but also had an indescribable defense against spell attacks.

Song Zongwu had a hunch that the depths of the Zerg Nest were likely to be empty, and the Four Mother Queens had no intention of returning when they went to Jing Prefecture.

After all, the resources of the Zerg Nest were already close to depletion, so it was normal to look for another place.

True Man Taihan asked the insect-men and found that most of the insect-men had low status. The Heavenly Dao Insect-men obviously disdained them, so naturally they couldn't know any useful information.

The insect-men followed the orders previously issued by the Zerg Nest cultivators and occupied the caves, not daring to go to the surface rashly.

Song Zongwu had to do his old job, let the Zerg Vein take over the control of the insect-men, and then take a group of cultivators to excavate new tunnels.

The support from the Prison Guard Hall quickly reached the Zerg Nest, and the scale soon exceeded five thousand people.

Ren Qing's ghost shadow had already discovered Han Li's trace, but the latter was not in a hurry to return to the stomach world, insisting on finding like-minded people.

The Buddhist realm was indeed relatively stable, and no cultivators continued to be killed or injured.

How should I put it, the Buddhist realm seemed to be in a delicate balance, with no major dangers for the time being, but something seemed to be brewing in the dark.

Ren Qing vaguely had a guess that the Four Mother Queens were likely to cause trouble in the Buddhist realm, especially since there were spies from the Nameless and Buddhist sects among them.

He didn't plan to continue waiting for things to ferment, and used the Heavenly Demon Possession to descend on the Zerg Nest.

Before Ren Qing had gone deep for long, he noticed the chaotic town built by the insect-men, and a foul stench wafted over him.

The insect-men lived with the insect beasts, and their status was at the bottom of the Zerg Nest.

The meaning of their existence should be to raise insect beasts, and to be immediately used as consumables when the Mother Queen needed cannon fodder.

After the Prison Guard Hall took over, the insect-men still maintained their boring lives.

Ren Qing stood at the entrance of the town, and dozens of insect-men pulled the insect beasts past him, while the Zerg Vein of the Prison Guard Hall distributed food.

The so-called insect beasts were actually giant maggots that were several meters long. What distinguished them from the Heavenly Dao Insects was that they had no human physical features.

The insect beasts had very low intelligence, but they could produce a gelatinous substance containing sugar, which was the food of the Heavenly Dao larvae.

When the Prison Guard Hall took over the town, the insect beasts were kept in captivity, but even so, the insect-men were still obsequious in the face of the insect beasts.

Song Zongwu didn't want to waste time on the insect-men. Anyway, he could take them to the stomach world in the future. After several generations of reproduction, any bad habits would be gone.

The insect-men looked at the Zerg Vein cultivators who came and went with envy.

In their perception, the Heavenly Dao Insect-men were all descendants of immortals, and were born to be long-lived species.

Unlike them, the elders in the clan only lived to be in their early twenties, and then died for various reasons.

The Zerg Vein cultivators looked down on the insect-men's flattering attitude.

If Ren Qing were to reveal the aura of the Ancestral Vein, even if it was only mixed with the inconspicuous Heavenly Dao Law, it could still make the insect-men kneel and kowtow.

The insect-men's bloodline had been engraved with the hierarchy of high and low status.

Ren Qing shook his head, then flashed and disappeared in place, then came to the mine being excavated, where a group of corpse vein zombie cultivators were working hard with mining picks.

The advantage of zombies was in hard labor, which was brought into full play.

They didn't need to rest, they could work without sleep or rest, and even if their muscles were damaged, they could take Yin Qi pills to recover from their injuries.

In this case, the efficiency of excavation was naturally far beyond imagination.

Ren Qing's expression was a little strange. He suddenly remembered the scene when he first joined the Prison Guard Hall and hollowed out the mountain with Huang Ziwan and others outside the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Zone by relying on their strength.

He then found Song Zongwu's figure, and Song Zongwu actually chose to excavate together.

Song Zongwu's six arms swung his fists, so fast that the naked eye couldn't see them, and cracks suddenly appeared on the rock wall in front of him.

Ren Qing found that Song Zongwu's aura was condensed and did not dissipate, and had reached the limit of the All-Yang Immortal, only half a step away from being promoted to the Non-Birth Immortal.

He intended to help Song Zongwu, so he canceled the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, did not hide his presence at all, and walked into the mine in a fair and upright manner.

Song Zongwu couldn't help but smile when he sensed Ren Qing's arrival.

"Ren Qing, let me see what's different about the Heavenly Aberrant realm?"

Ren Qing took out the long-lost Great Tachi. The blade made of ordinary materials couldn't withstand the destruction of the Zerg Nest's rocks at all.

"Senior Song, you're almost five hundred years old, but you're still as agile as ever."

Ren Qing slashed hard. Even though he hadn't used cold weapons for a long time, he knew that the stomach world could digest other people's memories, and the swordsmanship had made considerable progress without him realizing it.

Bang!!!

The rock wall exploded, revealing a knife mark that was half a meter deep.

The surrounding zombie cultivators were startled by the movement and couldn't help but stop their movements, looking towards the end of the mine.

Song Zongwu laughed loudly, not willing to fall behind, and used his fist as a pendulum.

Under the bombardment of the six arms in turn, the progress of the excavation suddenly increased several times, and gravel splashed, crackling.

Ren Qing deliberately guided Song Zongwu to exert his power without reservation, and could see that the latter's laughter became more and more cheerful.

However, Song Zongwu was only a Yang God realm cultivator after all. His body and soul had not been fused with strange objects, which meant that his strength was not endless.

Ren Qing provoked Song Zongwu, even subtly infiltrating Song Zongwu's heart and brain with the "hyperthyroidism disease seed."

The hyperthyroidism disease seed made Song Zongwu excited, his fists gradually losing their form, becoming solely focused on raw power and speed.

The zombie cultivators' scalps went numb.

A pebble shattered from the rock directly left a deep, bone-deep gash in the abdomen of the nearest zombie cultivator.

Seeing the massive amount of pebbles falling like rain, how dare they approach again.

If it were cultivators from other branches, there might have already been casualties, but only the zombie cultivators could disregard damage to their bodies.

Ren Qing sheathed the great katana, satisfied as he looked at the still-pristine blade.

He mainly assisted Song Zongwu, and even if he had to take action, he left it to the Ghost Shadow to handle, always keeping Song Zongwu's nerves tense.

Only after ten days and ten nights of continuous fighting in the mine did Song Zongwu's body and soul feel fatigue.

His fists began to slow down, and a trace of exhaustion appeared in his bright, spirited six eyes, his tongue unknowingly bitten through by his teeth.

Ren Qing sized up Song Zongwu, whose aura had reached the peak of the Many Yang Immortal Cauldron, only half a step away from the No Life Immortal.

"Senior Song, I remember your martial path is to face death and find life, right?"

A flash of brilliance flashed in Song Zongwu's eyes, and the hyperthyroidism fungal soul entered his Niwan Palace, instantly causing his three souls and seven spirits to boil.

Faint smoke and dust emerged from the pores of his body, and the temperature in the mine rapidly increased.

"Everyone, retreat."

After Ren Qing spoke, the zombie cultivators dared not linger and fled in panic, some of their skin already covered in blisters.

Ren Qing frowned as he stared at Song Zongwu, the karmic fire still lingering.

The Flesh Body Tathagata absorbed the karmic fire from Song Zongwu's body and soul, but the temperature did not decrease, indicating that the karmic fire had penetrated deep into his bone marrow.

Whether it was good or bad for Song Zongwu was unknown, as the karmic fire was intertwined with his foundation, replacing his original Buddhist fruit position.

"Break!!!"

Song Zongwu roared, and all six arms struck out simultaneously.

The rock wall made sounds of unbearable strain, stopping only after collapsing downwards for more than ten meters, the Asura Dharma successfully advancing to the No Life Immortal stage.

Song Zongwu closed his eyes and sat cross-legged, the Asura Dharma and the strange object of the Earth Listener Technique merging with each other, but both carried traces of karmic fire.

Ren Qing did not disturb Song Zongwu, directly taking him into the cave within his stomach world.

The subsequent Immortal Ascension Ladder would be simpler than the No Life Immortal stage, only requiring continuous effort, but there would be risks in facing the Heavenly Dao.

Before long, the Forbidden Prison Hall would have another cultivator on the Immortal Ascension Ladder.

Dream Walker is now detached from worldly affairs, focusing his mind on advancing to the Heavenly Gu Realm, which shouldn't be a problem given his talent.

Ren Qing opened his mouth and swallowed the remaining karmic fire, then stepped towards the end.

An exaggerated dragon head emerged from his shadow, and corrosive Nether Profound energy poured out, acting on the rocks reinforced by the Insect Nest Matriarch.

The rocks became like tofu, and wherever the Ghost Shadow passed, the rock walls turned into pus.

Only a snapping sound was heard, and the tunnel leading to the depths was finally clear. Ren Qing did not sense the presence of any cultivators inside.

Instead, there were dozens of faint auras at the very bottom of the Insect Nest.

"What is the Insect Nest up to?"

Ren Qing did not allow the zombie cultivators to enter the tunnel, and instead walked alone into the heart of the Insect Nest, immediately noticing the extremely dense true energy.

Under normal circumstances, only Fortune Earth Immortals can generate true energy, because the core of the Immortal position is to "transform into a spiritual vein and nurture spiritual energy."

He did not expect that the interior of the Insect Nest would be filled with true energy sufficient for the Heavenly Gu Realm.

However, as Song Zongwu had predicted, the Insect Nest was already empty, and the Four Matriarchs had apparently taken millions of people to Jing Province.

"A desperate gamble?"

Ren Qing swept over the buildings hanging in the underground cave, and the Heavenly Dao Insect People did not leave the Insect Nest in a hurry, appearing calm and unhurried.

The residences of the Heavenly Dao Insect People were very tidy, the buildings clearly divided, and everywhere were flags embroidered with Fortune Earth Immortals.

If one didn't look at the appearance of the Heavenly Dao Insect People, the Insect Nest was actually a traditional Daoist force.

Their worship of Fortune Earth Immortals was consistent throughout, and even the Insect Nest Dharma retained traces of the Heavenly Dao Dharma, especially the Qi Refining stage for beginners.

Ren Qing spread the disease seeds out, taking the better part of a day to permeate every corner.

After confirming that there was no danger, he had True Man Taihan lead the Forbidden Prison Hall cultivators to thoroughly sweep the Insect Nest.

When True Man Taihan arrived at the familiar underground cave and gazed at the empty town, his expression became extremely complicated.

The Insect Vein cultivators, however, could not empathize with True Man Taihan.

They rushed towards the various temples and Daoist temples, searching for abandoned resources, not even letting go of the buildings themselves.

True Man Taihan did not see Ren Qing's figure anywhere, knowing that the latter had most likely gone to the Matriarch's cave, so he chose to remain silent.

The tunnel leading to the Matriarch's cave was not deliberately arranged with any methods.

Ren Qing then arrived in front of a magnificent palace, the true energy in the air already almost tangible, the source being inside the cave.

The plaque of the palace was engraved with "Scale Armor Cave", referring to the Scale Armor Matriarch.

The Heavenly Dao Insect People under the Scale Armor Matriarch were all covered in thick scales, their positioning similar to the Cocoon Vein of the Forbidden Prison Hall, responsible for withstanding enemy attacks in battle.

Ren Qing discovered that there were many resources in the Scale Armor Cave that the Matriarch did not value, and also stored tens of thousands of Heavenly Dao Insect eggs, but they were no longer alive.

He put the insect eggs into his stomach world, leaving them for Li Yaoyang to forcefully hatch.

When Ren Qing was collecting the insect eggs, he noticed something unusual, almost ninety percent of the insect eggs had physiological defects.

The Heavenly Dao Insect People should have all been carefully selected by the Matriarch.

He thought that the Scale Armor Matriarch had deliberately annihilated the vitality of the insect eggs before leaving, but he did not expect that the Heavenly Dao Insect eggs were already dead at birth.

Ren Qing followed the tunnel to the remaining three palaces, namely "Blood Bat Cave", "Earthworm Snake Cave", and "Black Crow Cave", of which the Black Crow Matriarch was the Heavenly Gu Realm being controlled by the Corpse Immortal.

He noticed more shocking dead Heavenly Dao Insect eggs in the caves.

"This is…"

Ren Qing roughly collected seven or eight hundred thousand dead Heavenly Dao Insect eggs, a number so exaggerated that they could be piled into mountains, allowing the true energy content of the Heavenly Dao Palace to reach a level comparable to the "Immortal Realm".

But there were a few dead Heavenly Dao Insect eggs that he was extremely concerned about.

The insect eggs were amber-like, inside was a half-human, half-insect infant corpse, the more Ren Qing looked at the infant's features, the more familiar they seemed.

"Heavenly Dao Son?"

Ren Qing let out a long breath, suddenly realizing that hundreds of thousands of insect eggs all came from the Heavenly Dao Son who had died hundreds of years ago.