Ren Qing immersed himself in how to better utilize the function of Storyteller and paid no attention at all to the passage of time. He even only occasionally checked the general situation of the Longevity Forbidden Zone.
Overall, three to four out of every ten among the hundreds of thousands of population had already mastered body martial arts.
However, because low-realm body martial arts mainly tempered qi and blood, it had not yet clearly boosted the trading of the Dream Market.
Instead, Ren Qing discovered that after the jailers advanced together with the stomach world into Avici Hell, they now seemed to carry a faint sign of impending transformation.
He planned to consider increasing the number of jailers after everything settled down. The Yang Spirit realm should no longer limit the number of jailers below the Yin Difference realm.
The situation on the Heaven Above Heaven side was becoming increasingly complicated.
If Ren Qing had not continuously observed Heaven Above Heaven with the Shadow Dream Seed, it would have been difficult to associate the current giant corpse Buddha with the Buddha that previously walked in Bottomless Pit.
The giant corpse Buddha now resembled a withered mummy, sitting cross-legged on a lotus throne polished from the mountain body, as if she had already been seated in death meditation for a long time.
Most of the skin on her body had fallen away. The tens of thousands of monks converted by the Buddhist qi no longer continued smearing Buddha bone powder and completely left it unattended.
The area covered by the Buddhist qi had already shrunk by nearly half, but recently the efficiency with which the giant corpse Buddha absorbed the Buddhist qi had clearly stagnated completely.
Ren Qing felt that the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva's arrangement in Heaven Above Heaven had basically failed, and the vitality of the giant corpse Buddha was becoming weaker and weaker.
He did not know what the Buddhist qi would do next.
If it rebuilt Heaven Above Heaven, that would actually be good for Ren Qing, as he could find opportunities to continue harvesting lifespan. What he feared was it acting in an extreme manner.
If the entire Cishi were flattened, his calculations would naturally fall apart.
Ren Qing planned to use a Dream Flower magical artifact in the near future to burrow into the giant corpse Buddha's body and thereby obtain clues about Dead Man's Forbidden Zone.
Heaven's Fall..
To be cautious, he replaced the Shadow Dream Flower with the Buddhist Dream Flower, hoping that the aura of the same origin would not trigger a violent reaction from the Buddhist qi.
According to Ren Qing's previous experience with Buddhist qi, its mechanical intelligence simply did not care what intentions he had.
However, perhaps after the current Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva escaped the fruition position, the Buddhist qi had become incomplete, making its behavior difficult to predict.
Ren Qing remained ready to evacuate at any time.
After absorbing Buddhist qi for a long time, the Buddhist Dream Flower had transformed into the appearance of a golden cicada and silently entered the region of Heaven Above Heaven.
It rested on the trunk of a giant tree. After confirming that the Buddhist qi had not produced any abnormality, it slowly approached the direction of the giant corpse Buddha.
Through this Ren Qing discovered even more strange aspects of Heaven Above Heaven.
He noticed that thousands of monks were lingering among the ruins of buildings, seemingly avoiding the scorching heat of the blazing sun.
The monks had already completely transformed into "Indestructible Golden Body," their appearance resembling brass statues. It was evident that they had consumed Buddha skin and Buddha bones for a long time.
The Indestructible Golden Body had not given them strong physiques. Instead they looked like they breathed in more than they breathed out and might die at any moment.
Ren Qing ignored the many monks and directly arrived within one hundred meters of the giant corpse Buddha.
The chest and abdomen of the giant corpse Buddha still rose and fell extremely slightly, and dark-gold blood flowed from the lotus throne onto the ground.
The Buddhist Dream Flower approached the giant corpse Buddha's face. The latter's heavy breathing formed hurricane-like winds that nearly blew the golden cicada away.
Ren Qing took a deep breath and controlled the Buddhist Dream Flower to crawl into the giant corpse Buddha through the nostril.
Compared with the thousand-meter body of the giant corpse Buddha, the Buddhist Dream Flower was like a speck of dust and did not trigger the slightest reaction.
Ren Qing noticed that the giant corpse Buddha's decay was not limited to the surface. The condition of the flesh and internal organs was even worse, even showing signs of imminent collapse.
Originally the Buddha skin and Buddha bones could still slow the trend of extinction, but now they were left unattended and might rot completely within several months.
Ren Qing naturally would not meddle in it and followed the blood vessels toward the brain.
Compared with the ruined flesh body, the brain of the giant corpse Buddha appeared glass-like, emitting waves of hazy faint light.
But this also meant that the erosion of the Buddhist qi on the brain was the most severe.
Ren Qing hesitated for a long time and immediately abandoned the plan of forcibly extracting memories, choosing instead to search for clues using the ability of the dream magical artifact.
However, as a Yin Difference realm dream magical artifact, influencing the giant corpse Buddha was extremely difficult. He could only slowly grind through it.
He spent several days before barely obtaining a few useful blurry images.
It seemed that the place she was in was extremely dim. One could vaguely see countless corpses hanging in midair, large and small, ranging from half a meter to several thousand meters, appearing extremely eerie.
In the giant corpse Buddha's memory regarding this, the two words "undying" were everywhere.
Ren Qing was at least seventy to eighty percent certain that the purpose of the Buddhist qi was the Undying Forbidden Zone.
Just as he was about to withdraw the Buddhist Dream Flower, he suddenly discovered that the giant corpse Buddha began to tremble.
The giant corpse Buddha seemed to have just awakened from sleep, struggling to stand up. Foul-smelling blood immediately gushed out.
Her actions were like accelerating her own death; with each step flesh collapsed.
Under Ren Qing's gaze, the giant corpse Buddha stood up and walked to the ruins of the buildings, facing thousands of monks who had transformed into Indestructible Golden Body.
She then opened her mouth, and a suction force suddenly swept up sand and soil.
Thousands of monks knelt on the ground. Even though the Buddha before them looked more like a corpse that had not yet fully died, their hearts remained full of devotion.
One by one they were sucked into the giant corpse Buddha's stomach.
The aura emitted by the giant corpse Buddha immediately restrained by several degrees, and then the Buddhist qi of Heaven Above Heaven impatiently surged toward her.
The Buddhist qi disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The condition of the giant corpse Buddha's body improved. Buddha skin even began to grow spontaneously, and the traces of rot gradually healed.
However the flesh became even more withered, with barely any meat visible.
Ren Qing felt the giant corpse Buddha still was not optimistic. She was entirely maintaining vitality through Buddhist qi, and her injuries could worsen at any moment.
The Buddhist qi inside the giant corpse Buddha grew increasingly dense and gradually began to gain more spirituality.
Taking advantage of this moment, Ren Qing had the Buddhist Dream Flower exit through the giant corpse Buddha's mouth and nose. Just after leaving the range of Heaven Above Heaven, he heard an explosion.
The Buddhist qi shot straight into the sky and used clouds to form the appearance of a Buddha.
The Buddha looked benevolent, with compassionate eyes. Faint Buddhist light illuminated the world, even covering the sun.
Ren Qing immediately reacted.
The reason the giant corpse Buddha devoured so many monks was mainly because the Indestructible Golden Body could act as a "battery" for Buddhist qi.
The Buddhist qi was forcibly making the giant Buddha corpse contain itself.
Once the clouds formed the shape of a Buddha, it would certainly attract large numbers of Cishi people to go to Heaven Above Heaven, which meant the Buddhist qi needed more batteries.
Sure enough, just as Ren Qing expected, within several days refugees from Cishi continuously arrived at Heaven Above Heaven for pilgrimage.
Their expressions were incomparably excited, completely ignoring the ruins left by the town and the smell of blood in the air.
As soon as they approached the Buddhist qi, the souls of many Cishi people were already converted by the Buddhist qi.
By consuming Buddha bones and Buddha skin, they quickly completed the transformation into Indestructible Golden Body and were finally devoured by the giant corpse Buddha.
Seeing this, Ren Qing released the ghost shadow, specifically hiding along a certain unavoidable road leading to Heaven Above Heaven, collecting as many Cishi people as he could.
For every faction, mortals were indispensable resources. It just so happened that the Buddhist qi was busy dealing with the giant corpse Buddha and would not pay attention outside Heaven Above Heaven.
Ren Qing knew that as time passed, more and more Cishi people would come to Heaven Above Heaven.
Even if he could only collect a portion, there would still be tens of thousands of people. The stomach world currently required a large population to fill it.
Unfortunately, after being illuminated by Buddhist light, Ren Qing clearly discovered that the bodies and souls of the Cishi people had already shown signs of uncontrollable mutation.
They might no longer be able to cultivate Restraint Officer methods.
Ren Qing threw the tens of thousands of refugees beside the village previously established by the earlier group of Cishi people, governed by a monk named Tang Sheng.
This situation continued for more than half a month before stopping when the Buddhist qi completely withdrew.
Looking again at the giant corpse Buddha, she resembled someone stricken with disease. Although she no longer continued to rot, she was skin stretched over bones and clearly near death.
Behind her appeared the Hundred Buddha Diagram, though all the Buddhas on it were headless.
"Undying, undying, undying..."
She emitted a low hoarse voice, using her legs to support her body as she stood up. Her joints creaked while blood splashed like rain.
The giant corpse Buddha stepped forward, flattening the ruins of Heaven Above Heaven with one step, while large amounts of flesh from her legs dissolved and fell away.
She faced toward the north. Her target was very likely the Undying Forbidden Zone she spoke of.
Ren Qing's ghost ship remained inside Bottomless Pit and began sailing at the same time. The ghost shadow carried the dream magical artifact closely following the giant corpse Buddha.
However, he felt that the giant corpse Buddha's condition was not optimistic.
The body pieced together by the Buddhist qi of Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva could not possibly sustain long-distance travel. It might collapse into rotten mud at any moment.
Ren Qing could only proceed step by step.
As for that unrealistic idea, it instead made him feel an increasingly strong impulse, because the benefits contained within it were beyond description.