Corpse City gave Ren Qing the feeling of a grave mound used to bury corpses.
Lu Liang's destination should be beneath Corpse City. The passages within the city walls were utterly ordinary, but everywhere were lifeless White Zombies.
After Ren Qing followed Lu Liang for more than half an hour, the strange feeling became even more obvious, to the point that it made his scalp tingle.
Perhaps after becoming immortal zombies, most would lose their direction, not to mention that the zombies inside Corpse City were also suffering from the deadly wind chill.
The terror of the wind chill could be seen from Lu Liang. Not long after leaving the yamen, the bacteria began spreading, and his flesh uncontrollably dissolved and liquefied.
He no longer suppressed the illness by replacing internal organs, but instead took out crystalline stones from his bosom and poured them into his mouth, forcefully swallowing them.
The crystals were clearly products of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, completely dispelling Lu Liang's coldness.
Lu Liang trembled as he swallowed the crystals, then looked at Ren Qing with burning eyes and said, "As long as you're willing to bring me Corpse Exhaustion, I can provide cultivation resources for you..."
He noticed Ren Qing's expressionless face, then muttered regretfully to himself, "When you gain intelligence, when you gain intelligence, I'll come find you again..."
Lu Liang impatiently quickened his pace while carefully storing away the Corpse Exhaustion, seemingly consuming it every time the wind chill flared up.
Ren Qing used Ghost Shadow to intercept a small portion of the fallen Corpse Exhaustion.
The information stream surged.
Formed through the condensation of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique, created by burning Purple Zombies as materials. After consumption, the body falls into complete corpse transformation and can assist the cultivation of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique.
To put it plainly, the purpose of Corpse Exhaustion was to completely kill the consumer's body, thereby suppressing the restless wind chill bacteria within.
Ren Qing covertly glanced at the accompanying Purple Zombies.
The Purple Zombies had only stayed in Corpse City for a little over half an hour before wind chill bacteria had already begun breeding, proving that the coldness was the source of the bacteria.
If Ren Qing wanted to, the Six Diseases Method combined with the Taisui Scripture could easily absorb the wind chill bacteria from all the zombies in the city, but it would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause.
He pretended to have just gained intelligence, remaining taciturn the entire way.
As Ren Qing approached the center of Corpse City, the surrounding temperature gradually rose, and he could smell a nauseating scorched stench in his nose.
The aura of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique became increasingly intense.
When the temperature climbed to a scorching level, he finally saw the full appearance of the Melting Furnace.
Ren Qing's pupils contracted. The familiar aura told him that ahead was Meat and Wine Taoist's dantian, which should have been stripped out from the stomach world.
As for why the dantian had been discarded and unused, could it be that the cultivator who killed Meat and Wine Taoist had not only targeted the stomach world?
Or perhaps after Meat and Wine Taoist's stomach world had been used to refine a magical artifact, the dantian had merely been abandoned as leftover waste?
At the ends of the roads amidst the surrounding walls, there was actually a furnace.
The furnace's exterior was composed of flesh and blood. At a glance, it was clearly a complete dantian, its bloody exterior carrying a bizarre grotesque feeling.
As for the furnace opening, it looked like a gap had been forcibly dug out.
Inside burned raging flames, while blood vessels spread across the furnace gradually transported some unknown liquid deeper underground.
Ren Qing's eyelids twitched wildly. The Melting Furnace was definitely Meat and Wine Taoist's dantian.
The area around the furnace was empty, with only a short elderly Hairy Zombie standing beside it.
The old Hairy Zombie's condition was much better than Chen Chuan's. Perhaps the aura of the Food-Consuming Immortal Technique had suppressed the flesh and blood that was on the verge of collapse.
Lu Liang continued leading the Purple Zombies forward for over a hundred meters, causing their flesh to emit sizzling sounds.
The Purple Zombies were even worse off. As carefully selected zombies, their flesh practically ignited at a touch, and blazing flames immediately burst forth.
They desperately struggled to get away from the Melting Furnace, but it was completely useless.
"Tian Fang, I've already brought the consumable materials. There's also a Purple Zombie capable of resisting the Melting Fire. Could you gift me some Corpse Exhaustion?"
The old Hairy Zombie named Tian Fang showed no change in expression, but still tossed out an amount of Corpse Exhaustion only sufficient for one use from his bosom before picking up an iron fork.
Lu Liang looked like he wanted to say something but stopped himself, ultimately saying nothing before turning and leaving.
Tian Fang forcefully stabbed the iron fork into a Purple Zombie's chest and abdomen, then dragged it quickly toward the Melting Furnace and directly threw it inside.
The flames burned even more fiercely, and faint tremors spread through the ground.
Ren Qing frowned. Why did Corpse City undergo subtle movement whenever Purple Zombies were used as fuel? Could something be hidden underground?
He also noticed that while the flames burned, they absorbed the surrounding heat, thereby causing Corpse City to be cold like winter.
One of the reasons wind chill bacteria bred was this Melting Furnace.
Tian Fang spoke coldly, "What are you standing around for? Help me transport the consumable materials."
Ren Qing immediately got to work. The two of them quickly threw all the Purple Zombies into the Melting Furnace, causing the flames inside to become even more ferocious.
Of course, this also indirectly caused Corpse City's temperature to plummet.
Tian Fang shoveled out the ashes of the Purple Zombies with an iron shovel, then stored them in various containers.
Not long after, a long line formed beside the Melting Furnace. Thousands upon thousands of White Zombies all longed to use Corpse Exhaustion to suppress the suffering brought by the wind chill.
But in Ren Qing's eyes, everything seemed completely backwards.
Corpse Exhaustion could indeed cure the wind chill, but if Purple Zombies were not continuously thrown into the Melting Furnace, the wind chill would never become this severe.
After finishing the work, Tian Fang no longer paid attention to Ren Qing, merely squatting within a tiny area.
Only occasionally would Purple Zombies be sent to the Melting Furnace. Aside from that, Tian Fang resembled a corpse, without any extra movement whatsoever.
Ren Qing happily enjoyed the leisure, letting Ghost Shadow gather useful clues throughout the city while also using the Corpse Refinement Method to attempt refining zombies.
He had always felt that the Corpse Refinement Method was very strange. After all, this crude technique had been created by Dead Man's Sutra, yet looking at the Disaster Dispelling Method, Mirror Immortal, and Storyteller, they were clearly not on the same level.
Right now Ren Qing had yin qi collected by Dreamflower on hand, perfect for corpse refinement.
The corpses he personally selected naturally far surpassed creatures like cocoon people, increasing the speed of advancing realms as much as possible.
At first Ren Qing used Restraint Officer corpses that had died in the stomach world, then soaked them in the death intent of the Rebirth Yellow Springs.
Only after wasting dozens of corpses did he simulate a state similar to corpse transformation.
Ren Qing also used Moon Patterns to perform a degree of refinement on the corpses, making them more compatible with absorbing yin qi, but unexpectedly the efficiency was not high.
"Looks like transforming into immortals allows races like cocoon people to adapt to the rules of the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone."
Ren Qing could not help feeling somewhat troubled.
He simply wanted to understand why after White Zombies advanced to Hairy Zombies, flesh collapse would occur.
But from Chen Chuan's body, it could be seen that zombie cultivation casually used centuries as counting units. Their advancement speed was truly too slow.
Countless thoughts filled Ren Qing's mind as he continuously screened through various methods.
In the end, through the "Fetal Flesh" used as Storyteller parasites, he found inspiration for corpse refinement and put it into action.
Tian Fang would occasionally fall into deep sleep, no longer paying attention to outside matters.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ren Qing dug out a fist-sized chunk of flesh from a Purple Zombie's body, then used Dragon Roar Within the Casket to transform the flesh into an independent entity.
Once the flesh grew facial features and internal organs, it became equivalent to a miniature Purple Zombie.
Each of Ren Qing's three divine abilities had their own specialties, but in terms of sheer unreasonable power, Dragon Roar Within the Casket far surpassed World-as-Dream and the Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth.
He also used Spirit Division to refine an exceptionally high-grade Yin Gathering coffin inside the stomach world.
For this purpose, Ren Qing specifically nourished giant trees with yin qi, and together with Reincarnation Remaining Soul, caused the giant trees to naturally be capable of containing a certain amount of yin qi.
Only after carving the perfected Yin Gathering Formation did the coffin magical artifact finally become complete.
The coffin's exterior looked utterly ordinary, but from the carved patterns, one could see the results of Ren Qing studying coffin-making under Old Man Coffin back on Morning Street.
Ren Qing placed the dragon-transformed zombie into the coffin, then activated the magical artifact to devour yin qi.
Beforehand, he had secretly used two Dreamflowers to absorb yin qi for more than ten days. The contained yin qi was absolutely enough to let the dragon-transformed zombie reach Hairy Zombie.
Of course, this was mainly because the dragon-transformed zombie's body was relatively small, while the essence of the Corpse Refinement Method was body refinement, so the efficiency was naturally extraordinary.
Ren Qing waited for the dragon-transformed zombie to transform.
Meanwhile, outside at the Melting Furnace, he honestly worked as Tian Fang's assistant. In any case, the frequency of adding fuel was not high, only once every half month or so.
And just like that, several months passed.
Ren Qing had truly experienced the pleasure of immortality. After corpse transformation, lifespan passed extremely slowly, and several months felt like they vanished in an instant.
If not for the distance between the giant corpse Buddha and Corpse City gradually increasing, he would have even thought only a dozen or so days had passed.
The yin qi Dreamflower between Ren Qing's brows continuously twitched, then he looked toward the stomach world. The dragon-transformed zombie was about to advance to Hairy Zombie.
The coffin magical artifact had been placed on an island in the Wine Sea far away from land.
This island had not transformed from a jailer, but was a natural island created by Dao Dao Dao, so there would be no interference from the Restraint Officer method.
The yin qi within the dragon-transformed zombie reached a critical point, then it began convulsing nonstop.
Its arms subconsciously waved around, and deafening sounds came from the coffin, nearly flipping the coffin lid open.
Ren Qing was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Hairy Zombies to barely reach the strength of the Yin Difference realm of the Restraint Officer method.
But just as thoughts of mass-producing zombies arose in his mind, the dragon-transformed zombie's aura suddenly weakened, showing a rapidly declining trend.
The dragon-transformed zombie's flesh collapsed, shifting between decay and recovery, causing its body strength to become inferior even to White Zombies.
Ren Qing hurriedly summoned the information stream to inspect it, but the dragon-transformed zombie had clearly advanced successfully.
"What the hell? How could the Corpse Refinement Method have such an obvious flaw?"
Maybe it was a technique created in her early years?
Impossible. Judging from the eerie gate at the center of the forbidden zone, when Dead Man's Sutra arrived at the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, her cultivation had at least reached Heavenly Aberration realm.
Ren Qing could not make sense of it no matter how much he thought.
Wait...
Thinking from her perspective, in this world without a self, what she pursued was probably only immortality, right?
She definitely came to the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone for the Dead Man's Sutra. She may have already mastered it, which was why she created the Corpse Refinement Method.
Ren Qing swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
If, if the Dead Man's Sutra possessed some irreversible flaw, and after mastering it, some unexpected change had occurred that caught her off guard.
Then her first reaction would most likely be to create a secondary technique capable of indirectly interfering with it.
Races like cocoon people clearly looked like experimental subjects used to cultivate the Corpse Refinement Method.
As a result, due to uncontrollable factors, the Corpse Refinement Method only completed its prototype. But with her ability to cling to life...
"Fuck, could she be behind the eerie gate?"