The Secret Way of Immortality

In the dense forest, sunlight was blocked by the leaves, leaving only the caw of crows.

The crows of death circled in the air, clearly indicating a misfortune had occurred, yet they dared not approach the target for some reason.

“Aaaah…”

After waiting for a long time, the largest crow landed in the jungle.

The crow's appearance was unusual. Besides its claws, it had an organ resembling a snake's head on its abdomen. However, the snake's head was blank, with only a mouth, making it extremely strange.

Generally, when wild beasts and birds undergo mutation, it is due to the influence of cultivators' corpses, and even their habits change.

They are called "Grotesqueries."

The cawing stopped abruptly, and the crow grotesquery swooped down onto a branch.

The snake's head emerged from its body, causing the crow grotesquery's flesh to become shriveled, but its eyes became brighter.

The crow grotesquery seemed to be cultivating. The snake's head on its abdomen spat out a scarlet glow, and a faint gray mist floated over, which was then absorbed by the snake's head.

Its feathers became increasingly glossy under the nourishment of the mist, but the hunger in its eyes intensified.

The crow stared intently at an open space at the base of the tree, where the source of the blood was located.

More than a dozen corpses lay scattered on the open ground, all with their abdomens forcibly ripped open, and their internal organs exposed.

The deceased were likely a镖局 (biao ju) escort team transporting goods, and some civilians who had paid to follow along.

There were obvious signs of wild beasts lurking nearby, but their situation was the same as the crow grotesquery; they dared not approach the corpses to feed.

They seemed to be wary of something. Even though the stench of blood was pungent, they instinctively retreated.

After a moment, the crow grotesquery could no longer endure the stimulation of the blood and first flapped its wings, flying from the branch towards the corpses.

It deliberately selected a child's corpse on the edge.

The child was no more than seven or eight years old, with a terrified expression on his face, clutching a rattle tightly in his hand, his clothes stained with blood.

The crow grotesquery made no further sounds, remaining on the child's chest.

It cautiously looked around, but the silent jungle showed no signs of anything unusual. The other beasts had long been scared away by the carnivores.

The crow grotesquery paused for a few breaths, then pecked at the child's face with its beak.

Its beak was also mutated, filled with dense teeth that could help break down flesh and blood, allowing the body to absorb it better.

After the crow grotesquery completely swallowed the child's face, it did not continue to peck.

The snake's head bit into the crow grotesquery's neck, frantically devouring blood.

The crow grotesquery flapped its wings in panic, moving away from the corpse and returning to the branch, its body twitching, its eyes turning white.

Then, it forcefully tore at the faceless snake's head. Perhaps due to the intense pain, its strength was clearly weakening.

After an unknown amount of time, a human face suddenly grew on the crow grotesquery's snake's head, precisely that of the long-dead child.

After this further mutation, its cultivation advanced even further, and its size increased several times.

However, the crow's head lost control of the body, which was now controlled by the snake's head.

Seeing that the crow grotesquery was no longer a threat, the other beasts also became restless, gradually gathering around the open ground, preparing for a feast.

Bang!

A muffled sound came, and the crow grotesquery exploded, its minced flesh splattering everywhere.

The snake's head twitched a few times, its last bit of life completely lost.

Crack, crack, crack, crack…

The sound of bones resetting came, and the wounds on the abdomens of the corpses began to wriggle, the flesh and internal organs autonomously burrowing back into their bodies.

Even the blood staining their clothes and the soil flowed into the corpses through their mouths and noses.

The reason the crow grotesquery died so suddenly was because the human face it swallowed was causing trouble. Any organ from the corpse would return to its original owner.

The human face grew tentacles, crawling towards the child's corpse like a centipede.

The beasts roared in terror, fleeing in all directions.

Half an hour later, violent, rapid coughing sounded. A man in his early thirties climbed up from the ground, looking around with a dazed expression.

Then, one corpse after another came back to life, and the sound of coughing filled the air.

The man, named Cui Tian, was extremely pale. He instinctively reached for his abdomen, where a long scar nearly covered his chest and abdomen.

"Something bad has happened."

Cui Tian muttered to himself, standing in place, somewhat at a loss.

"Brother Cui, were we just sleeping heavily?"

A young man asked. He didn't notice that the eye socket had not completely healed, and the skull could be seen through it.

"Wang Ke, the talisman given by the Taoist priest before he left has been used up. We are still a hundred miles away from Four Mountains Town. We can only rely on ourselves now."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ke opened his mouth wide, and a sense of horror rose in his heart.

Cui Tian ignored Wang Ke, got up, and helped the confused people pack up their goods, preparing to head to Four Mountains Town at dawn.

"We must set off immediately while we still remember, otherwise…"

As they busied themselves, the scar completely disappeared, and the panicked expression vanished.

They seemed to have forgotten their deaths, discussing the carriage accident caused by the horses being startled.

The group ignored the horse carcasses in the distance, their flesh having been gnawed clean, having been dead for at least ten days.

Because the carriage was wrecked, they could only select the valuable goods to carry on their backs, taking a shortcut to their destination.

Even the children and wives traveling with the team had to be carried along.

Cui Tian continuously strapped ironware to his back, unknowingly carrying dozens of pounds, his feet sinking into the mud without him noticing.

"Brother Cui, when did your martial arts improve so much?"

Old Xu, whose face was full of wrinkles, couldn't help but ask. A martial artist's realm required time to hone, and usually didn't improve by leaps and bounds.

Cui Tian belatedly realized this, his expression somewhat strange.

In his memory, he had been stuck in the small realm of Body Tempering for over twenty years, and he thought he would never break through the bottleneck in this life, but he didn't expect another opportunity.

Cui Tian then noticed that the镖师 (biao shi) in the escort team, as long as they were around thirty years old, had more or less improved in martial arts, but not as noticeably as him.

He couldn't figure out the reason, and could only speculate that it was related to the accident they encountered.

Cui Tian tried to recall the memory of the carriage accident, but the last ten days were a blur, as if he had just woken up from a drunken stupor.

Old Xu looked at the continuous mountain range and said with a sigh, "The road ahead will be difficult, and we must be careful to encounter evil things."

"Let's just go."

Cui Tian's doubts were somewhat diluted, and he shook his head.

The escort team quickly finished packing, and everyone silently embarked on their journey, walking along the narrow and muddy path in the mountains.

But they didn't notice one thing at all.

According to the location of the carriage accident, the direction they were traveling was completely opposite, as if something was invisibly guiding them back.

After passing through several mountains, what came into view was a slightly wider official road.

The official road was paved with gravel, and although it was still not easy to walk on, at least the view was open, and they could react if they encountered danger.

Cui Tian glanced at the dim sky and was about to find a place to settle everyone.

Suddenly, he noticed that there was a figure walking alone on the official road, wearing a green Taoist robe and a copper coin sword at his waist.

"Taoist priest!!"

"Taoist priest, wait!!!"

Cui Tian quickly shouted, and the figure stopped.

Old Xu reached out to stop Cui Tian, reminding him in a low voice, "Brother Cui, don't…"

"It's okay, Old Xu. Anyone who can be alone in the wilderness must be a capable expert."

Cui Tian came within ten meters of the figure. When he saw the Taoist priest's appearance, a sense of trust inexplicably arose in his heart, and he took a few more steps forward.

"Taoist priest, are you going to Four Mountains Town?"

Ren Qing sized up the group with a strange look, then nodded and said, "Yes."

"Going to Four Mountains Town."

"Taoist priest, would you be willing to travel with us? It would be good to have someone to look after us for a hundred miles."

Cui Tian was overjoyed, and the expressions of the others immediately became relaxed, naturally accepting a stranger.

Ren Qing nodded, indicating that there was dirt on Cui Tian's face that he hadn't wiped off.

Cui Tian was stunned for a few breaths, then smiled and wiped his face with his sleeve, tearing off an entire layer of skin, and blood flowed freely.

"May I ask for the Taoist priest's Dharma name?"

"Zhen Yuan."

"So it's Taoist Priest Zhen Yuan. My name is Cui Tian, and I'm the镖头 (biao tou) of Hengfeng Escort Agency."

Cui Tian introduced the situation of the escort agency as they walked, preparing to find a place to camp, as traveling at night was too dangerous.

Ren Qing looked at the escort team. After using the Toe Separation Technique, he realized that in their own eyes, everyone's appearance was extremely normal.

But Ren Qing's perspective was different.

The skin of the镖师 (biao shi) was like burlap, covered with gray-black strange depressions. Any movement would cause the skin to break and ooze pus and blood.

The fingers of the children had no bones, like octopus tentacles.

Most inexplicably, the strength they displayed was at the level of a Ghost Envoy Realm, but their bodies were as fragile as infants.

Ren Qing followed Cui Tian to rest. A bonfire was quickly lit with their busy work, and tents were set up around the bonfire.

Cui Tian wanted to give a tent to Ren Qing to rest, but the latter politely refused.

He didn't force it, and soon forgot Ren Qing's existence under the influence of the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, busying himself with packing dry food.

Ren Qing sighed. The situation outside was more bizarre than he had imagined.

Twenty years had passed since he escaped from the Immortal Position Forbidden Area, and he had spent most of his time practicing his control over various techniques.

Ren Qing originally thought that the mortals of this world had become extinct, but with the Toe Separation Technique, he could clearly sense that the number had only decreased by two or three tenths.

However, the mortals were divided into six parts, concentrated in various parts of this world.

Among them was the mountain village shrouded by the Mother of All Things, called "Peach Blossom Spring", as if it were a peaceful and happy paradise.

Apart from this, Ren Qing could obtain too little information, because the memories of the mortals were blocked by certain existences, and their memories were all ordinary lives that were irrelevant.

He chose a closer gathering place to go to, which was the "Four Mountains Town" that Cui Tian mentioned.

If he couldn't figure out the current situation of this world, Ren Qing was really uneasy, always feeling that it involved deeper things.

Advancing to Corpse Dissection Immortal was not the same as Earth Immortal.

He couldn't create a forbidden area that isolated the outside world again. The process of breaking through the bottleneck might be exposed to the eyes of the Three Dao Ancestors.

If the Three Dao Ancestors couldn't descend into the real world, that would be fine.

He was afraid that the situation in this world was caused by the Three Dao Ancestors.

Ren Qing had actually encountered Cui Tian's escort team fifty miles away from Four Mountains Town.

At that time, the escort team had just left the town and was walking on the barren plain. According to the memories Ren Qing collected from their minds, they were going to a place called Qingfu Town.

But the problem was that Ren Qing knew that there were no scattered towns in this world anymore. Apart from the six towns, there wasn't even a village.

At the beginning, the refugee tide he projected in the forbidden area was driven to the Peach Blossom Spring by the "Buddha".

The so-called "Buddha", Ren Qing had not found any trace of it in the outside world for twenty years, indicating that the Buddha was driving away the refugee tide.

It was likely that the six Unspeakable Things had divided up hundreds of millions of people in this world for specific reasons.

The information flow of Cui Tian and others was slightly strange, and perhaps they were already non-human.

[Cui Tian]

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

[Age: Thirty-six]

[Lifespan: None]

[Technique: ???]

Ren Qing had been following the escort team. When Cui Tian and others walked out of the fifty-mile range of the town, they encountered a strange and inexplicable accident.

One moment they were chatting idly, and the next moment they began to curse each other.

Ren Qing watched as their eyes turned red, pouring out the negative emotions in their hearts, gradually developing from bickering to pushing, and finally to fighting.

The scene turned into a bloody slaughterhouse.

The living ripped open the abdomens of the dead, held the internal organs in their hands, muttered softly, and then stabbed the sharp weapon into their own abdomens.

The horses were only disturbed by some noises and were hacked into eight pieces.

After completing a sacrifice, they turned into corpses, lying scattered on the ground.

The beasts dared not approach the corpses. No matter what means Ren Qing wanted to use to investigate, the tortoise shell hexagram would directly turn into "Death Omen".

The way to break it was to stay away from the corpses.

Ren Qing suspected that within ten days after the sacrifice, the existence behind Four Mountains Town was admiring the emptied corpses.

After ten days, before Ren Qing could react, the escort team came back to life.

However, the mutation of each person's body was more serious than before they were alive. The depressions on their skin had not been as dense as they were now.

After experiencing death and resurrection, the escort team changed the "Qingfu Town" they were going to back to "Four Mountains Town", going around in a circle just for the sacrifice.

Ren Qing threw the firewood into the bonfire, listening to the crackling sound, and closed his eyes to rest.

The镖师 (biao shi) consciously took turns guarding the night. Howls rang out from time to time in the dark night, and it was easy to encounter beasts in the sparsely populated wilderness.

Cui Tian only dozed off for half an hour in the first half of the night.

He chewed on tobacco leaves, standing in the cold wind, forcing himself to stay awake, and occasionally tapping the ground lightly with the handle of his long knife.

The muffled tapping sound echoed Cui Tian.

This was the tacit understanding of the night watchman, and the frequency also represented various signals.

As time passed, Cui Tian dared not relax in the slightest, but his spirit was more or less slightly sluggish, constantly stuffing tobacco leaves into his mouth.

It wasn't until the horizon showed a glimmer of light that Cui Tian felt relieved.

Pitter-patter.

At this moment, a strange noise came from the grass in front of Cui Tian, as if something was rolling on the ground, hitting a rock.

Cold sweat broke out on Cui Tian's forehead, and he grabbed the long knife behind him.

The long saber was a full two meters long, its appearance more like a Guan Dao. An inch longer, an inch stronger, it was even more skillful when used in conjunction with a horse.

Cui Tian retreated several steps, deliberately making noise with his right foot.

The temporary camp, after a brief moment of chaos, quickly came to life. The bodyguards in their sleep were awakened, and hurriedly packed up their goods.

Cui Tian ran the blade across his palm, while lowering his body.

"Chief Cui, what's the situation with this evil entity?"

Ren Qing, at some unknown time, walked to Cui Tian's side, pretending to clutch a talisman in his hand, his copper coin sword already unsheathed.

Cui Tian couldn't help but swallow his saliva when he saw Ren Qing.

"Daoist Priest, evil entities often appear in the jungle, and they love the flesh and blood of living people the most. We call it the Head Ghost."

"I see."

The ghost shadow under Ren Qing's feet quietly spread into the grass, and the movement disappeared immediately.

When the morning sun completely emerged from the horizon, the sunlight shone on everyone, dispelling the haze in their hearts.

"Daoist Master, thank you for your help."

Cui Tian said with cupped fists. Even though the Head Ghost chose to hide, Ren Qing's willingness to stand up showed that he had some confidence in dealing with evil entities.

After chatting with Ren Qing for a few words, he hurriedly directed the bodyguards in the caravan.

Ren Qing stared at the embers when the bonfire burned out, but his consciousness was examining the world in his stomach.

The Head Ghost resembled a head, but without any facial features. Instead, it was covered with large and small pustules, moving with the help of the pustules.

Don't underestimate this inconspicuous ghostly object; its strength is at the level of the Heavenly Ghoul Realm.

After the Head Ghost came to the world in his stomach, its aura became somewhat weak, and the pustules on its surface began to burst one by one, with flesh and blood growing and incubating.

【Head Ghost】

【Bred from ???, requires the head of a statue of a Buddha or immortal as a carrier, and its lifespan expires five days after birth.】

"As expected..."

Ren Qing narrowed his eyes and continued walking with the caravan towards Four Mountains Town.

The purpose of the Head Ghost was to drive living people back to Four Mountains Town. It did not appear at night, but was attracted when the caravan rested.

The "Buddha" that drove the tide of refugees should also be a similar ghostly object.

Therefore, as long as the refugees stayed in one place for a long time, the Buddha would appear unpredictably, until the tide of refugees approached the head of the Mother of All Things.

Ren Qing knew very well how miserable the "Peach Blossom Spring," which was harmless in the eyes of the refugees, had become.

Under the shroud of the Mother of All Things' head, living beings would reproduce at an exaggerated rate.

In a few hundred years, mortals had reproduced at least dozens of generations, and their lifespans had been compressed to only ten years.

Infants could babble at most a month after birth.

Just after celebrating their first birthday, children were almost the same as adults, and they were preparing to marry and have children before their minds were mature.

With such an astonishing rate of reproduction, consanguineous marriage was unavoidable.

When Ren Qing reproduced to the twentieth generation in Peach Blossom Spring, he found that the appearance of mortals had become deformed, with extra limbs growing on their bodies, and congenital problems with their organs.

By now, the people in Peach Blossom Spring were almost unrecognizable.

Bones grew wantonly, many people were born without limbs, like a pile of flesh and blood, or simply without heads.

The proportion of flesh and blood and bones in the body was decreasing, while fat was increasing.

This undoubtedly led to people becoming lighter. Nowadays, adult men generally weighed less than fifty pounds, almost to the point where they would not sink in water.

What made Ren Qing shudder was that under the shroud of the purple light emitted by the Mother of All Things, living beings could only die from the exhaustion of their lifespans.

Even if they were not fed, children would only become very thin, but they would still grow and develop.

Ren Qing rarely descended into Peach Blossom Spring anymore, because the statue used as a carrier had become distorted, causing the connection with the Kitchen God to slowly disappear.

The people of Peach Blossom Spring should be the same as those in Four Mountains Town, their cognition has been affected. No matter how deformed their bodies are, in their eyes, they are still their original normal appearance.

Compared to the weakening of their bodies and souls, the aura emitted by the people had already reached the Yin Messenger Realm.

Their strength was so weak that wild beasts could easily attack and kill them, but their aura was constantly becoming stronger, and even infants were born with the Ghost Envoy Realm.

Ren Qing recalled the beast pen, where black goats were floating towards the sky. The higher their cultivation, the farther they were from the ground, clearly being screened.

"If it's really the Three Dao Ancestors in the game, things will be very troublesome."

Ren Qing glanced at the black goat skin, and found that the latter had reached the perfection of the Heavenly Ghoul Realm, and had risen to a hundred meters.

The black goat skin had surpassed several black goats, but it was still not enough to see.

"We're here."

Cui Tian couldn't help but put down his arms behind his back after noticing the town in the distance.

Ren Qing had already learned the number of mortals in Four Mountains Town in advance using Toe Separation, which was about two million, and their souls were very normal.

But when he looked at Four Mountains Town from afar, he still felt a sense of scalp tingling.

There was obviously an aura of the Heavenly Ghoul Realm revealed in Four Mountains Town, and it was probably not far from the Earth Immortal Realm. It was probably the work of the Three Dao Ancestors.

"What a mess..."

Ren Qing directly left the caravan, and in a few flashes, he came to the entrance of the town.

The hexagram on the surface of the tortoise shell did not show a death omen, not even a great misfortune, but a very strange "great fortune."

The auspicious omen had reached its extreme. Ren Qing had never seen such an opportunity.

Even when he was about to obtain the Scripture of the Dead, even though it involved immortality, the hexagram was not as terrifying as it was at this moment.

Ren Qing was now at a loss. He had prepared himself to face the death omen, but what greeted him was actually an omen of great fortune?

Could it be that there was an opportunity hidden in Four Mountains Town that was enough to involve a Corpse Dissection Immortal?

Ren Qing frowned, and released one severed limb dragon after another by using Ancestral Vein Derivation, letting them distribute themselves everywhere, and by the way, go to the six towns where mortals gathered to investigate the situation.

Four Mountains Town was also much more bustling than expected.

As soon as Ren Qing stepped into Four Mountains Town, he felt an aura filling the air, which could protect the bodies and souls of mortals.

The aura did not make the bodies and souls of mortals like Peach Blossom Spring, old but not dead.

But it had a special effect. Ren Qing had not yet figured it out, but at least he could be sure that it would not affect his body and soul.

The mortals in the town were strangely shaped, their skin had depressions, and Ren Qing even noticed that some people had tentacles growing out of their spines.

The degree of alienation of the appearance was related to the strength of the emitted aura.

Of course, even if the aura had reached the Heavenly Ghoul Realm, the strength was still at the level of mortals, but their lifespan was immortal.

Ren Qing also noticed that there were many third-rate industries in Four Mountains Town, especially gambling. All kinds of gambling houses could be seen in the streets and alleys.

An old man in the Heavenly Ghoul Realm passed by. His feet had degenerated severely, and he relied entirely on crutches to support his body, moving slowly with a large number of tentacles.

Ren Qing's gaze stayed on the old man's spine.

Because the back was occupied by tentacles, the entire spine was squeezed out of the body.

And after the mutation, the exposed length of the spine was actually about one meter, like an antenna facing the sky. As the old man's aura slowly strengthened, the spine continued to grow.