Ren Qing felt a slight headache. Who could have thought that was hiding somewhere in the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, and very likely inside that "door" at the center.
But since the strange door was a spell cast by , then what was the situation with Great Compassion Maitreya Bodhisattva and the other giant beasts?
The Dead Man's Forbidden Zone was involved far too deeply, and there might even be other forces interfering.
Ren Qing shook his head and temporarily stopped thinking further, first focusing on the Corpse Refinement Method.
He continuously pondered the contents of the Corpse Refinement Method, wanting to use it to investigate what kind of flaw the Dead Man's Sutra had that even deeply feared.
But unfortunately, Ren Qing's understanding of the Dead Man's Sutra was limited to folk rumors. Simply looking at the Corpse Refinement Method could not produce any conclusions at all.
At the same time, he did not stop the coffin from releasing yin qi to nourish the pseudo-dragonified zombie.
Ren Qing noticed that the pseudo-dragonified zombie was transforming in an extremely strange direction, completely deviating from the predetermined trajectory of zombies.
As its body absorbed more and more yin qi, the traces of rot gradually spread, and the speed of recovery was clearly unable to keep up with the decay.
But correspondingly, the toxicity of the corpse qi was strengthening.
Ren Qing always felt that after the pseudo-dragonified zombie reached the peak of Hairy Zombie, it would very likely completely turn into a puddle of lifeless rotten mud.
And the truth was indeed so.
After being nourished in the coffin for over a month, the pseudo-dragonified zombie was already unable to maintain even its basic flesh and bones. Its body turned fluid-like, constantly trying to escape inside the coffin.
Ren Qing immediately canceled the pseudo-dragonified zombie's Dragon Roar Within the Casket. The latter instantly trembled, finally completely turning into corpse water.
The poison contained within the corpse water was so fierce that even Huang Ziwan probably would not dare touch it lightly. It could count as a rather bizarre material.
No matter how he looked at it, the Hairy Zombie of the Corpse Refinement Method had already gone down the wrong path, but why did Corpse City still possess a Yang God realm Hairy Zombie?
Ren Qing had Ghost Shadow collect clues from all parts of Corpse City, attempting to find the secrets buried deep underground, though he had not discovered much for now.
Fortunately, he already had a rough idea about the Corpse Refinement Method.
The function of the Corpse Refinement Method should be to gradually make a cultivator's physique adapt to yin qi. From pseudo-zombie to Purple Zombie and White Zombie, all were like this.
Only the Hairy Zombie of the Yin Difference realm could not endure the baptism of yin qi, causing the body to collapse.
Back when spread the Corpse Refinement Method, there should not yet have been zombies that reached Hairy Zombie, which was why this situation occurred.
It was not difficult for Ren Qing to improve upon the foundation of the Corpse Refinement Method. After all, he had experience creating spells many times, along with the existence of the information flow.
Of course, the more troublesome aspect of the Corpse Refinement Method was that it differed from the Restraint Officer Method.
During the cultivation process of the Corpse Refinement Method, no strange object would be born at all.
Without a strange object, it meant Ren Qing could not use the abilities of the stomach world to strip it away, and could not terminate cultivation of the Corpse Refinement Method at any time.
If the spell lost control, he probably would not even know how he died.
Ren Qing's improvements to the Corpse Refinement Method would definitely head in the direction of the Restraint Officer Method.
As for how to improve it, he could completely reference the spells inside the Restraint Officers' Hall. He had come into contact with similar spells long ago.
[Corpse Body]
[Created by Corpse Immortal. It requires an infant born from a pregnant woman during a yin year, yin month, and yin day as the medicinal catalyst. Only by consuming it can one cultivate it successfully.]
This spell, Corpse Body, originally had no recorded books in the Restraint Officers' Hall, but Ren Qing reverse-engineered the contents through the strange object.
He had an extremely deep impression of Corpse Body. Back in Annan Town, he had fought a cultivator who mastered Corpse Body, named "Yu Dachuan."
The feeling Yu Dachuan gave Ren Qing was one of vigorous vitality. Even after his body was completely destroyed, he could still linger on by relying on the strange object. At his peak, when transformed into a giant corpse person, his flesh was difficult to break apart.
Ren Qing suspected that Corpse Body and the Dead Man's Sutra came from the same source, both created by a single cultivator, forming this alternative system.
Unfortunately, Corpse Body did not involve adapting to yin qi, otherwise it would save a lot of effort.
The three aberration routes of Corpse Body were respectively:
[Corpse Eater: Flesh corpse transformation]
[Ghost Corpse: Soul corpse transformation]
[Blood Corpse: Storing poison within blood]
Corpse Eater was the aberration route chosen by Yu Dachuan, mainly centered around transforming into a corpse person, possessing powerful resistance to attacks.
Ghost Corpse was rather special, because it used soul aberration to affect the body.
After casting the spell, one would transform into a half-solid half-illusory ghost corpse, somewhat similar to Ghost Shadow, but far less endlessly changeable than the latter.
As for Blood Corpse, the blood inside the body would be replaced by corpse poison, and one could use spells to control corpse poison against enemies, though it would indirectly consume blood.
Considering that the Corpse Refinement Method targeted a corpse-transformed body, Ren Qing naturally chose to reference the Corpse Eater aberration route for its direction of improvement.
The Corpse Refinement Method was far too crude, completely relying on forcefully nourishing cultivation with yin qi.
In his expectations, after the Corpse Refinement Method combined with Corpse Eater, the body would autonomously absorb yin qi. Together with some concepts from Heavenly Dao Methods, it would form a special physique similar to a "Netherworld Immortal Body."
Of course, the most important thing was that the Corpse Refinement Method would produce a strange object.
When it came to creating spells, Ren Qing indeed could not compare to even on horseback, but he possessed the information flow, allowing him to stitch things together without restraint.
As long as it could be acknowledged by the information flow, it proved the spell was truly useful.
Ren Qing estimated that creating spells like the Disaster Dispelling Method had taken at least dozens or hundreds of years. He was undoubtedly much more relaxed.
Ren Qing continuously trialed and errored. There would always be a chance for a blind cat to stumble upon a dead mouse.
After that, Ren Qing's days fell into peace. Staying every day at the Melting Furnace was fairly leisurely, and even somewhat overly boring.
Occasionally, Lu Liang would come to the Melting Furnace to see whether Ren Qing had opened his intelligence.
But every time he returned disappointed. After all, from the outside, Ren Qing's corpse transformation showed no traces whatsoever of advancing into White Zombie.
This made Lu Liang increasingly disappointed, and the frequency of coming to the Melting Furnace also decreased.
On the other hand, Ghost Shadow detected many unexpected written clues inside the yamen, though most books had already rotted beyond recognition.
Large numbers of Hairy Zombies seemed to be locked inside coffins and deeply buried underground, likely because of the flesh collapse caused by the Corpse Refinement Method.
As for where they were imprisoned, Ghost Shadow could not yet search in detail.
Because the Melting Furnace devoured all heat within the city, causing the soil layer to become incomparably hard, and also mixed with dense yin qi.
For Ghost Shadow to silently drill into the deep underground was obviously unrealistic.
Ren Qing could only place his hopes on entrances leading underground. It would not take long before Ghost Shadow spread throughout Corpse City, so finding them should not be difficult.
He additionally paid attention to the situation of the White Zombies, being very interested in this kind of tireless labor force.
After the giant corpse Buddha stepped into the core region of the Dead Man's Forbidden Zone, yin qi would inevitably seep into its body. The intestines and stomach indeed had an environment suitable for zombies to establish themselves.
If Ren Qing could gather several thousand zombies, they could at least replace triple that number of cultivators.
However, among the several thousand White Zombies at the grave mounds, both body and soul had more or less suffered erosion from the wind-cold, and their memories had become disordered to a certain degree.
If this continued long-term, it might even lead to soul dispersal.
Ren Qing decided to investigate the possibility of zombies cultivating the Restraint Officer Method. Perhaps it could add a large number of manpower to the Restraint Officers'Hall.
Just as he was secretly pondering, Tian Fang gradually sensed that something was wrong.
Tian Fang had come into contact with at least several hundred thousand Purple Zombies, but had never seen a Purple Zombie as abnormal as Ren Qing.
Although his intelligence was not apparent, his behavior seemed extremely orderly.
His body transformed relatively slowly, but it excelled in advancing steadily step by step, and the flesh appeared extremely fresh.
Tian Fang suppressed himself for over half a month before finally being unable to endure it anymore and opening his mouth to say, "You should naturally possess intelligence, right?"
"There truly are not many zombies like you, but I did see some decades ago."
As he spoke, he stared fixedly at the other party, wanting to detect flaws.
Unfortunately, Ren Qing possessed extremely precise control over himself. His face showed no ripples whatsoever, and even his pupils did not change.
Moreover, Ren Qing's soul was focused on improving the spell, while his body was entirely controlled by instinct.
Tian Fang probed several more times in succession, and thick disappointment could not help arising in his heart.
He had originally thought Ren Qing was formed from the death of some high-realm cultivator, but now it seemed to be nothing more than his own wishful illusion.
"Sigh, no intelligence is no intelligence. At least you won't feel despair. Being free and unconstrained normally is also good. When my life returns to the Yellow Springs..."
Ren Qing returned to his senses. He happened to lack an experimental target, so he would first start with Tian Fang to develop subordinate members for the Restraint Officers' Hall.
But at this moment, Tian Fang suddenly seemed to open a floodgate and began rambling nonstop, speaking all kinds of nonsense.
The collapse of the flesh throughout his body intensified, and his soul was also affected because of it.
Ren Qing multitasked. Spirit Division improved the Corpse Refinement Method, while also exploring quite a bit of useful information from Tian Fang's words.
Corpse City seemed to have maintained its current state for several thousand years. Most of the earliest batch of zombies had died from flesh collapse.
In the eyes of Hairy Zombies like Tian Fang, corpse transformation was a deadly poison called "eternal life," trapping them tightly within the city like a prison cage.
As long as they were zombies, they would gradually advance toward the realm of Hairy Zombie because of the omnipresent yin qi, ultimately turning into minced flesh.
Of course, they had also struggled before.
The Melting Furnace was specifically used to suppress the corpse transformation of the body, but it also brought the disease bacteria they called "cold poison."
Thus, after several thousand years, Corpse City had become the sight before their eyes.
Deathly silent, without any hope. Unable to live, unable to die. Remaining alive meant enduring incomparable suffering under the erosion of cold poison.
Tian Fang roared as he gouged out his own eyes, but under the effect of yin qi, they had already recovered within moments.
The chaos in his soul had become somewhat difficult to suppress, causing his body to gradually rot as well.
Just as Ren Qing planned to help Tian Fang escape the trend of imminent cultivation deviation, the latter staggered behind the furnace and took out an earthen jar.
After Tian Fang opened the clay seal, dense bloodiness mixed with the smell of alcohol rushed forth.
He poured corpse wine brewed from fresh livers into his mouth. Very quickly, he fell into a drunken state of living in dreams and dying in dreams, and his soul immediately calmed down.
Ren Qing shook his head and pointed a finger at Tian Fang's glabella, pulling the other party into Dream City within the stomach world, specifically at Coffin Elder's shop.
For now, he would let the long-idle retired Coffin Elder guide the newcomer.
Although Coffin Elder's cultivation had reached the Nascent Soul stage, he had absolutely no intention of leaving the stomach world, usually remaining in Dream City.
Ren Qing wanted to teach zombies the Restraint Officer Method, but doing it one by one was too troublesome, so he might as well develop more subordinate members in the coffin shop first.
Of course, the most important thing was that the Corpse Refinement Method was about to be completed, and he did not want miscellaneous matters disturbing him.