After Ren Qing mastered the dream flowers, the speed of spreading split personality disorder indeed surged explosively.
He switched to a more efficient method, letting ghost shadow carry Broken Moon Meteor pseudo dragons through the night across the town, searching for isolated monks and directly infecting them with split personality.
Originally it required nearly half a quarter-hour, but now it only took a dozen breaths.
However what left lingering fear in Ren Qing's heart was that the monks led by No-Thought had completely changed their behavior since staying inside the South Mountain small world.
Regardless of whether their consciousness was in childhood, prime age, or old age, they would occasionally fall into a daze, and their appetites had also increased.
Ren Qing inspected the monks' bodies and souls through dream flowers.
It should be that malicious intent was indirectly influencing the main consciousness. Fortunately, as long as the Buddhist qi showed no reaction, it meant the problem was not serious.
Mm, it should be... not serious.
While preparing to extend lifespan, Ren Qing's main body secretly planned matters of withdrawing from Cishi, and also improved the ghost ship along the way.
Unknowingly more than two months passed again.
Because resources were tilted toward it, the artifact spirit of the South Mountain small world grew rapidly and finally reached the point of bearing a Ghost Envoy realm aberrant fetus.
The entire mountain peak had undergone no small changes, especially its altitude of over a thousand meters, which had actually shrunk by one third.
Ren Qing arrived at the foot of South Mountain.
South Mountain was located at the edge of Eternal Space Prison, so it appeared desolate and uninhabited. In the environment resembling a Gobi, even vegetation rarely grew.
South Mountain appeared inconspicuous within it.
As soon as Ren Qing took out the aberrant fetus, he felt the surrounding area shake violently, showing the artifact spirit's craving to advance to the Ghost Envoy realm.
At first he did not pay attention, but soon his expression became strange.
Compared with the ghost ship and Wuwei City, the artifact spirit of South Mountain was extremely chaotic. It was very likely influenced by the monks' malicious intent.
"As expected, anything related to Buddhism brings nothing good..."
Kaka kaka kaka kaka!
From the mountain peak came the sound of gravel rolling down. The mountain body that rose straight upward actually tilted slightly like a finger, wanting to reach toward the aberrant fetus.
"Quite bold."
Ren Qing frowned. Ghost shadow instantly surged into Eternal Space Prison, carrying materials and engraving mysterious Moon Patterns on the surface of South Mountain.
The previous two aberrant fetus artifacts had been quite obedient and required no concern, so earlier he had no plan to refine South Mountain and bind it as master.
Now it clearly had to be treated differently.
As Ren Qing's soul aura merged into the artifact spirit, he could vaguely sense the violent thoughts within it, as if a hyena were shrieking in his mind.
He would not indulge the South Mountain artifact spirit and directly suppressed it with dream techniques.
The South Mountain artifact spirit still attempted resistance, but soon fell into the endless nightmares brought by the dream techniques and could not extricate itself.
The refining lasted several hours. Ren Qing sculpted the artifact spirit's consciousness, removing its hostility, and only stopped when the sky turned dark.
Next the South Mountain artifact spirit would constantly contact the monks' malicious intent. If it was not restrained somewhat, this artifact might become ruined.
Thinking of the resources spent during refining—enough for three ghost ships of the same level—Ren Qing felt deep pain in his heart.
He threw the aberrant fetus to South Mountain. The artifact spirit repeatedly confirmed with Ren Qing whether it could devour it, and only after receiving confirmation did it bite down.
South Mountain gradually broke through to the Ghost Envoy realm. The stone mountain body showed some tendency toward flesh-transformation, but otherwise there were no particularly obvious differences.
Ren Qing then checked the monks in the entire city suffering from split personality disorder and noticed the total number had already increased to over fifty thousand.
He could not help showing surprise.
In recent days he had been busy perfecting the ghost ship, and the frequency of infecting monks had decreased. Ren Qing remembered that the number was definitely not this large.
Could split personality disorder be contagious?
Ren Qing immediately denied it. Split personality disorder was formed through casting the Six Illness Method and had no physical disease seed, so how could it possibly...
He forced himself to calm down. After the South Mountain small world advanced to the Ghost Envoy realm, he first attempted to pull one hundred monks inside.
The area of the South Mountain small world could now accommodate at least twenty to thirty thousand monks, but inside it was still extremely empty, with only large numbers of meditation cushions.
When the monks' malicious intent appeared inside the South Mountain small world, they all looked like accomplished monks, with no visible abnormalities.
Ren Qing did not harbor lucky thoughts and fixed the malicious intent onto the meditation cushions.
The malicious intent seemed able to sense that it was restrained. The sound of sutra chanting from their mouths grew even louder, even to the extent of being ear-splitting.
South Mountain trembled slightly, but soon returned to calm.
Even though the artifact spirit had protection from Buddhist dream flowers, it was still influenced by the malicious intent. Fortunately the number of monks was not large yet.
Ren Qing placed food made of the five grains before the malicious intent. Because it was constructed from dreams, it did not truly consume supplies.
Sounds of swallowing saliva rang out one after another.
Soon monks could no longer restrain themselves. They abandoned their dignified demeanor and grabbed the food, stuffing it into their mouths ravenously.
The scene resembled starving ghosts reincarnating.
Ren Qing then used the ability of Three Inches Human Realm and began obtaining lifespan through transactions, first conservatively setting it at five breaths.
The monks ignored it completely and continued devouring food.
Ren Qing licked his lips and gradually increased the lifespan in the transaction, but before it increased much, many monks stopped eating.
Seeing this gave him a headache. Malicious intent was driven by instinct, but it also carried beast-like intuition and seemed to sense something unusual.
Ren Qing decided to fill the South Mountain small world first.
Hundreds and thousands of monks were pulled into the South Mountain small world. The sound of chanting sutras even caused the artifact spirit to show signs of collapse.
Ren Qing quickly attached the remaining two dream flowers to the South Mountain artifact spirit.
The artifact spirit stabilized and even indirectly tempered itself through malicious intent, beginning to develop a kind of self-formed spirituality.
When Ren Qing increased the malicious intent to twelve or thirteen thousand, it reached the limit the artifact spirit could bear. Of course, with South Mountain's potential, it would likely accommodate tens of thousands of monks within a few days.
He adjusted the rules of Three Inches Human Realm, searching for the optimal efficiency of lifespan extension.
He discovered that no matter how he adjusted it, he could only obtain about ten years of lifespan from Heaven Above Heaven per day, far below expectations.
"Maybe just eating is too monotonous, perhaps I should add something else..."
"No, wait."
Ren Qing soon discovered something strange. For malicious intent, the five grains only satisfied hunger and were far from something they liked.
He adjusted the types of food. When he changed them to vegetarian meals from ordinary temples, the lifespan extension efficiency actually more than doubled.
Ren Qing instantly discovered the key point and controlled the dream flower artifact with all his effort. The types of food before the monks became increasingly abundant.
But regardless of how much food there was, the lifespan extension efficiency always remained around twenty to thirty years per night, which was not worth the risk.
After hesitating for a few breaths, Ren Qing ultimately could not restrain himself and took a sinful step.
Although he had thought that raw meat might stimulate the instinctive desires of malicious intent, he had never planned to harvest leeks so extremely from the beginning.
After all the incident of malicious intent rioting due to nightmares earlier was still vivid in his memory.
But now Ren Qing had no choice. He could not remain in Heaven Above Heaven for several years just to extend lifespan. Who knew when Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva's arrangements would close the net.
Meat replaced the five grains, and the chanting of sutras became indistinct.
The monks' eating actions turned into ravenous devouring, and blood began seeping from their skin again. They could not help scratching with their fingernails.
Their skin tore like rotten cloth, revealing nauseating flesh.
Ren Qing's pupils widened. The lifespan extension efficiency broke through to two hundred years and continued increasing as the malicious intent aberrated more intensely.
Since Xiangxiang fell, he had never again experienced visible lifespan extension like this. His breathing became heavy.
The most exaggerated part was that malicious intent was not satisfied with ordinary flesh. Only severed limbs of corpses could completely stimulate instinct.
The South Mountain small world instantly turned into a feast for demons, yet the chanting of sutras from their mouths never stopped, appearing extremely bizarre.
The monks grew more arms to grab corpse pieces, while their abdomens split open into slit-like mouths.
By the time the sunrise appeared over the horizon, they no longer resembled humans.
Their bodies were covered in arms, countless heads crowded together like grapes, somewhat resembling Thousand-Hand Guanyin.
After Ren Qing stripped the dream from the South Mountain small world, he expected the monks to return to normal, but what he saw was still a group of grotesque monsters.
Malicious intent waved their arms and produced shrill chaotic screams.
Seeing no food, they attempted to attack nearby companions, but the meditation cushions restrained their movement.
In the end the malicious intent began biting their own bodies, their expressions extremely satisfied.
Ren Qing naturally would not return the malicious intent to the main bodies, so he simply locked them inside the South Mountain small world first and planned to think about how to handle them during the daytime.
But when he checked his lifespan, the malicious intent had already devoured all excess parts.
After Ren Qing regained his senses, the incomprehensible scene had vanished. The South Mountain small world once again became a gathering of eminent monks sitting cross-legged chanting sutras.
Outside, the monks were at the moment of day-night alternation, with the three consciousnesses switching.
As a result the malicious intent gradually faded. Ren Qing had not expelled them, yet their consciousnesses autonomously returned to their bodies.
Ren Qing quickly used dream flowers to examine the situation in Heaven Above Heaven.
Inside the city the atmosphere remained harmonious. Hundreds of thousands of monks recited morning scriptures, their voices filled with devotion to the Buddha.
Unconvinced, he observed for most of the day. The monks who had entered the South Mountain small world did not show even the slightest abnormality.
Ren Qing's face turned serious as he slightly shook his head.
It seemed he still could not stop spreading split personality disorder, ensuring that the monks pulled into the South Mountain small world each night would not repeat.
His heart was filled with vigilance, but after seeing his lifespan, the corners of his mouth involuntarily lifted.
Lifespan: 975 years
In merely more than half a night, Ren Qing had extended his lifespan by nearly a thousand years, and this was with the South Mountain small world not yet filled.
One thousand four hundred years was already enough to advance Eternal Space Prison to the Yang Spirit realm. But since he had found a shortcut to longevity, he could not possibly be satisfied with a thousand years.
To be safe, Ren Qing rode the ghost ship deeper into the Bottomless Pit, preparing to move his cave dwelling to the farthest range from which he could cast spells.
It would also make it convenient for him to break through realms without attracting the attention of Heaven Above Heaven.
He had a premonition that the existence of malicious intent would certainly cause drastic changes. How many days he could peacefully steal lifespan was uncertain.