The monks of Heaven Above Heaven slept even later than before, after all besides reciting sutras they also spent quite a lot of time steaming and boiling food.
In a certain sense, their behavior had now become more normal, except that the food they ate was somewhat unbearable to look at.
After the rotten rice was eaten, the monks began turning their hands toward the vegetation within the city. Even though it was the season of early summer, the leaves had already completely fallen.
Ren Qing observed through dream flowers that the monks' appetites had expanded to the point of indiscriminate hunger. Some even swallowed their own fingers without noticing.
The food supplies of Heaven Above Heaven could not last long. Once the vegetation was eaten clean, no one knew what the monks would use as food.
Ren Qing did not think too much about it.
He continued selecting among the hundreds of thousands of monks, pulling those with milder split personality disorder into the South Mountain small world.
Ren Qing was already powerless regarding the split personality disorder of hundreds of thousands of monks.
Originally it could still be erased through the Six Illness Method, but now the spread of split personality disorder had exceeded the scope of what the Six Illness Method could handle.
He checked the South Mountain artifact spirit once. After last night's tempering, the small world's carrying capacity had increased by another two or three thousand.
At most tomorrow or the day after it would reach full capacity.
Ren Qing began pulling the monks' malicious intent into the South Mountain small world. The empty grounds soon gained fourteen to fifteen thousand figures.
They sat cross-legged densely upon meditation cushions, devoutly reciting sutras.
If Ren Qing transformed the South Mountain small world into the Western Pure Land, this would be a scene identical to the Buddha preaching the Dharma.
Mirror Immortal cooperated with the dream techniques, and severed limbs of corpses appeared before the monks.
They could not restrain themselves even for half a breath and frantically stuffed them into their mouths, flesh and bone fragments splattering everywhere, appearing extremely bloody.
When the malicious intent intensified, flesh aberration simultaneously acted upon their bodies.
In only a moment, more than ten thousand monks transformed into thousand-handed pillars of flesh, over a hundred arms grabbing bloody food from every direction.
Ren Qing glanced at his own information flow. The speed of lifespan increase was even faster than last night; in a short time it had already surpassed one hundred years.
He even developed a kind of illusion.
If he could remain in Heaven Above Heaven for a long time, at most ten years would be enough to step into the Earth Immortal realm, and the long-awaited path to immortality would be within reach.
Ren Qing calmed down again. A gambler's mentality would not do, it would cause major trouble.
Moreover, if he had no other opportunities to obtain lifespan, the terrifying lifespan required for Earth Immortal could never be gathered by the Dream Butterfly Method alone.
"Dead Man's Sutra, ah Dead Man's Sutra, regardless of what sense of immortality it represents, as long as I can achieve immortality, I can transcend through it..."
Ren Qing closed his eyes tightly and used his consciousness to observe the changes of monks and Buddhist qi. The malicious intent absorbed madness as nourishment and continued growing.
Because Buddhist qi was vast like an ocean, the malicious intent was infinitely diluted the moment it merged in, but it could still be faintly detected.
When the sky began to brighten, the malicious intent automatically separated from the South Mountain small world.
Ren Qing summoned the information flow.
[Lifespan: 1978 years]
In merely two brief nights, it had nearly caught up with Ren Qing's ten years of gains in the Restraint Officers' Hall. Yet a thousand years of lifespan within Heaven Above Heaven was still as inconspicuous as a drop in the ocean.
After hesitating for a moment, Ren Qing decided to immediately advance Eternal Space Prison to the Yang Spirit realm.
Consuming lifespan as much as possible could also indirectly improve lifespan extension efficiency.
Once Ren Qing's lifespan reached about two thousand years, the lifespan gained from Three Inches Human Realm would decrease by at least thirty to forty percent, possibly even more.
Inside the cave dwelling he arranged artifacts that concealed the aura of spellcasting and engraved Moon Patterns with similar effects to prevent attracting external entities.
Fortunately, when advancing realms through the information flow, the disturbances caused could almost be ignored; otherwise Ren Qing would not dare to break through here.
After everything was prepared, Ren Qing deliberately checked several more times to ensure there were no oversights.
Just as he closed his eyes to visualize The Taotie Method and brought his state to the peak, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward Heaven Above Heaven in astonishment.
On the northern city wall, monks were packed together like sardines.
The remaining hundreds of thousands of monks filled the adjacent streets.
Their gazes all stared outside the city simultaneously. Their expressions were extremely ferocious, and from their clenched teeth dripped strange blood glowing with golden light.
Although each monk's face appeared plump, their sunken eye sockets looked as if they had starved for several days, resembling hungry ghosts emerging from caves.
The city had already been dug three feet deep. All vegetation had been eaten completely.
If not for the Buddhist qi restricting them within Heaven Above Heaven, they would have already rushed into the mountains and forests and eaten their fill without discrimination.
Dust rose along the mountain road.
A full fifty to sixty thousand refugees were walking toward Heaven Above Heaven.
Compared to the monks in the city, they appeared sallow and emaciated, yet their eyes were filled with reverence for Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
After all, the Heaven Above Heaven they were about to reach was the legendary Pure Land.
Reality indeed did not deviate from expectations. After crossing the final hill, a town seemingly formed from piled glazed glass appeared before their eyes.
Followers of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva knelt one after another, soon forming a continuous stretch of tens of thousands of people, and sounds of sobbing could be heard.
The speed of the procession immediately increased.
They seemed to see their future life in Heaven Above Heaven—no more illness, no more hunger, living carefree forever.
However when the tide of refugees approached Heaven Above Heaven, the leading monk suddenly stopped.
They stared at the city wall in terror, only to see countless monks standing upon it, licking their lips greedily.
The elderly monk leading the refugees did not hurry to step into Heaven Above Heaven and remained in place as if thinking.
Since he did not approach the city wall, the rest of the people in the group also quietly waited, showing how terrifying the old monk's prestige among the refugees was.
A young monk beside him asked, "Old Dharma Master, why do I... why do I..."
He opened his mouth several times but could not speak words of disrespect, though his expression already revealed the panic in his heart.
"Feel like this isn't the human world?"
The old Dharma Master took a deep breath and said, his trembling hands revealing the turmoil in his heart.
"Yes, I..."
The wrinkled face of the old Dharma Master forced out a smile as he calmly said, "Seas turn to mulberry fields. Nothing is eternally unchanged, Heaven Above Heaven included."
The young monk looked at the old Dharma Master, then at the madmen filling the city, yet still said firmly, "I still want to go to Heaven Above Heaven. That is merely Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva testing us. Without enduring suffering..."
Before he finished speaking, he saw the old Dharma Master step toward the open city gate, simultaneously making a gesture telling him to stop.
"If I do not enter hell, who will enter hell."
Tens of thousands of people witnessed the old Dharma Master approaching Heaven Above Heaven, all holding their breath.
The old Dharma Master successfully walked into the city.
Waiting for him were tens of thousands of monks, whose naked appetite seemed to foreshadow something.
Hope flickered in the refugees' eyes as they prepared to follow the old Dharma Master's footsteps.
Roar...
A beast-like roar came from the city.
Immediately a monk leapt toward the old Dharma Master with force from his legs, and the other monks rushed forward in competition.
They tore at the old Dharma Master's flesh and blood. In only a few breaths, only a shattered skeleton remained.
Before dying, the old Dharma Master shook his head, as if silently persuading the refugees.
The monks looked again outside the city. The bones were soon dragged to Bottomless Pit and casually thrown into the pitch-black fissure.
Specks of light drifted past.
A dream flower inadvertently passed through the skull, carrying the old Dharma Master's soul away to somewhere unknown.
Soon a lifelike butterfly appeared at Ren Qing's fingertip. The old Dharma Master's soul hidden within it seemed about to dissipate completely.
For some reason, Ren Qing felt that this mortal soul possessed an incredible purity, so he simply placed it into the Flesh Furnace.
Using vigorous firewood to ensure the soul would not perish.
Because of the old Dharma Master's sacrifice, the refugees returned along the opposite direction, but the atmosphere had become deathly silent.
The Buddhist Pure Land they pursued had already been occupied by demons and monsters.
After the refugees left the range of Buddhist qi, the hundreds of thousands of monks behaved as if nothing had happened, reciting sutras and walking toward their residences.
Ren Qing's mind stirred. Discovering that Buddhist qi did not stop the refugees, the ghost shadow beneath his feet immediately left the cave dwelling and moved through the rock walls.
The exhausted refugees randomly found a mountain to rest upon. For a moment they had no idea where their road ahead lay, and the atmosphere was lifeless.
Returning to Buddhist Heart City was unrealistic. Demonic attacks occurring every few years had already left nine out of ten villages around the city empty.
Now that Heaven Above Heaven could not be entered either, it seemed the only fate awaiting them was to die in a foreign land.
At this moment ghost shadow had already reached the refugees' location. Tens of thousands of people did not notice that the area of shadow was expanding.
A child playing with mud was instantly swallowed by the ghost shadow.
Seeing no reaction from the Buddhist qi, and since this place was already outside its range, Ren Qing relaxed and signaled ghost shadow to finish quickly.
Ghost shadow no longer concealed itself. The cultivation of the Yang Spirit realm erupted instantly.
Before the refugees could realize it, the entire mountain had already been covered by ghost shadow, and tens of thousands of people were collected into boundless darkness.
Then ghost shadow quickly rushed toward the cave dwelling.
Only after the refugees were inside Eternal Space Prison did Ren Qing finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The number of refugees was close to sixty thousand, and they had never cultivated any techniques. They were excellent seedlings for mastering the Restraint Officer Method.
However Ren Qing placed the refugees in a corner far from the Restraint Officers' Hall.
Allowing them to contact the Restraint Officers' Hall in the short term was unrealistic. After all, the demons they had encountered might not even be as terrifying as the Restraint Officers.
Ren Qing could only gradually change the refugees' thinking subtly.
After the refugees arrived in Eternal Space Prison, they noticed piles of grain not far away, along with farming tools and seeds for planting fields.
They could not help becoming ecstatic, believing it to be a manifestation of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva.
Ren Qing currently had no energy to interfere with the development of tens of thousands of refugees. He directly transmitted the contents of the Netherworld Heavenly Worm Method to them and had the jailer Nether Crow secretly guard them.
Once these Cishi people gradually began cultivating, the efficiency of lifespan extension would naturally increase.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged with eyes closed. After being delayed briefly by the refugees, he had to hurry and break through quickly to avoid affecting the lifespan extension tonight.
His attention fell upon the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique and Wine God Technique that had not yet advanced to the Yin Difference realm.
The information flow surged.
[Do you choose the branch Stomach Contains Wine Sea? It will consume two hundred years of lifespan.]