The Secret Way of Immortality

Ren Qing was refining the magical artifact for storing You Yuan, waiting for his spine to recover so he could peel off the insect roots, with each interval being about ten days.

It was a pity that the mutation of the living skin required a long time to absorb excess nutrients in order to take effect; otherwise, the recovery speed could be even faster.

He soon discovered that the insect roots could subtly absorb true essence, indicating that the more there were, the higher the Heavenly Dao Insect's cultivation efficiency would be.

Ren Qing couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Jingzhou was truly a treasure land for him. Even if he didn't gather enough lifespan to advance to the Yang God realm, the Netherworld Art would eventually break through the Transformation Spirit stage.

Of course, the Shadowless Ghost had to advance first; otherwise, the Netherworld Art would only be stuck at the bottleneck.

Several more days passed, and the separated soul was finally completely nurtured.

Ren Qing also stabilized his cultivation. After this seclusion, all of the Shadowless Ghost's minor techniques had been mutated.

The appearance of the ghost shadow seemed not to have changed much, but in reality, it was obviously more restrained.

If Ren Qing didn't use the technique, the ghost shadow would be like an ordinary shadow, and no one would guess what kind of great terror it contained.

He then released the separated soul from his Niwan Palace, preparing to cultivate the Marsh Immortal Art.

Ren Qing planned to reach the stage of severing the three corpses in the Marsh Immortal Art to see how many disease types the separated soul could accommodate.

In the Longevity Forbidden Zone, disease types were equivalent to the aptitude for cultivating techniques, and the effect of immortal arts was to make the diseases more severe.

As Ren Qing concentrated on cultivation, traces of the three flowers gathering on the crown appeared in the separated soul, demonstrating the Marsh Immortal Art's characteristic of rapid success.

In a short period of time, he was already approaching the threshold of severing the three corpses, and the separated soul became like a substance, emitting bursts of distorted halos.

The separated soul skillfully absorbed nightmare demon aura, and a swelling bulged on its neck. The nightmare demon head completely formed in just a few breaths.

Ren Qing hesitated slightly. Now, he only needed to absorb demon energy to cultivate the Marsh Immortal Art, but he didn't have the Demon Summoning Nightmare Dream Seed.

He felt that the separated soul might affect the physique after the body formed, so could he use other alien species' aura to cultivate the Marsh Immortal Art?

Ren Qing took the separated soul into the Eternal Imprisonment and threw it directly next to the ghost wolf, whose artifact spirit contained the aura of the ghost shadow.

At his signal, a large amount of ghost shadow aura poured into the separated soul's body.

The Marsh Immortal Art moved towards perfection, but Ren Qing didn't see any signs of the separated soul growing a third head, which made him feel puzzled.

He didn't stop his actions until the Marsh Immortal Art reached a point where it couldn't be cultivated any further.

At this moment, black smoke spewed out from the mouths of the immortal and demon heads, and the black smoke drilled into the neck, and a pitch-black ghost shadow head was conceived.

Ren Qing looked at the separated soul. The Marsh Immortal head in the center exuded an ethereal aura, but the Nightmare Demon head and the Ghost Shadow head were extremely terrifying in style.

Set off against each other, it instead highlighted the Marsh Immortal head's aura of evil.

"In a sense, the seven jailers all control different alien species' auras."

Ren Qing stroked his chin and pondered to himself. He could continue to improve the Marsh Immortal Art when he had nothing to do. If he could increase the number of heads, it should be considered an indirect improvement in the separated soul's cultivation.

There was no need to rush this, after all, the exploration of the Longevity Forbidden Zone would constantly consume the separated soul, and there would be plenty of opportunities to slowly adjust it.

Ren Qing summoned a black worm from the ghost shadow's body, and then merged it into the separated soul's shadow.

The essence of the black worm was formed by the ghost shadow and the Heavenly Dao Insect, containing the characteristics of both, but it was not a living thing, so it could barely be considered a strange object.

Ren Qing felt a little guilty about this, knowing that the purpose of the forbidden zone was to devour strange objects, and he was still very afraid of backfiring.

The separated soul then left the house.

He noticed that the height of the city wall had increased again, but it still couldn't cover the greenery outside. The birds occasionally flying by were at least two or three meters in size, and the size of the beasts was even larger.

The flow of people in Wuwu City was surging, especially at the city gate.

Cultivators went to the jungle outside the city in groups. Among them were prison guards and Taoist disciples, and there was no estrangement between them.

Most of them traveled on giant wolves, and from the smooth and new bone armor of the strange beasts, it could be seen that they were reluctant to release them during battle.

The returning cultivators placed their gains in the open space in the center of the town. The corpses of demon beasts more than ten meters high made people's hairs stand on end.

Now that the rabbit-toad cultivators had not yet arrived, the demon beasts in Jingzhou had already reached such a level, and it was conceivable what would happen after the drastic changes.

Ren Qing's expression couldn't help but become solemn. If it didn't work at that time, he could only evacuate Jingzhou.

He glanced at the insect skin with the corner of his eye. This material was obviously at the Earth Immortal level. If he had to give up the camp in Jingzhou, he would take the opportunity to put the spiritual veins into the Eternal Imprisonment.

Of course, Ren Qing believed that with the complex situation in Jingzhou, there was still room for survival for the Prison Guard Hall, provided that the Supreme Heavenly Demon didn't intervene.

The separated soul silently walked out of the city wall and came to the Water Ze Great Desert in the sky full of yellow sand, heading towards the location of the Longevity Forbidden Zone.

He traveled at a moderate pace, and could encounter companions of the reserve on the road.

Ren Qing's expression changed when he noticed the strange beasts ridden by the reserve, and he was stunned in place for a long time before continuing on his way with a wry smile.

He originally thought that a seven- or eight-meter lizard mount was already very exaggerated.

But the prison guards didn't know how they did it, but they actually made the size of the lizard mount grow to more than twenty meters, with as many as forty pairs of feet.

Ren Qing felt like a stitched monster, and basically there was no possibility of further progress, but the advantage was that it was huge.

Bird-like strange beasts had also been sold one after another.

God knows what these strange beasts used as messengers will look like in a few months.

Ren Qing shook his head with a wry smile. Only the prison guards would be so unscrupulous. Taoist disciples would never dare to move strange beasts.

If there was no external pressure, and they were allowed to develop for hundreds or thousands of years, it was hard to imagine what a brilliant immortal cultivation civilization would be formed.

Ren Qing was a leader, a follower, and a witness.

He simply let Yuan Si be responsible for the incidents of various wild beasts turning into strange beasts. Regardless of whether the formed strange beasts were useful or not, they were handed over to the prison guards to grasp.

After Ren Qing explained everything, he had already arrived outside the remote Longevity Forbidden Zone.

The camp seemed to be more active. The prison guards used strange beasts to fight each other in their spare time, and it had even formed a competition scale.

Some prison guards even came from other places to participate in this simple beast fight.

The giant wolf guarded the water well. After it smelled Ren Qing's aura, it wailed and clamped its tail with its hind legs.

Ren Qing easily jumped over the giant wolf and then threw himself into the well.

His eyes fell into endless darkness, and a strange sense of tension accumulated in his heart, after all, the existence of the black worm was too special.

Fortunately, the Longevity Forbidden Zone did not react, and the separated soul gradually grew flesh and bones.

This time, Ren Qing did not have a dream seed attached, so he could not see the surrounding disease types clearly, so he had to wrap the separated soul's body with a ghost shadow.

He collected the disease types he encountered and checked them with the information stream in turn.

[Disease Type—Night Sweats]

[Disease Type—Brittle Bones]

Most ⊥ New ⊥ Small ⊥ Say ⊥ At ⊥ Six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ Book ⊥⊥ Bar ⊥⊥ First ⊥ Hair!

[Disease Type—Night Blindness]

[Disease Type—Allergies]

………

Ren Qing read through all kinds of dazzling disease types, but because there were too many disease types, it took a little luck to encounter deformed disease types.

Disease types like allergies were not considered. If he was allergic to food or water, he would die on the spot and start over.

He first integrated the night blindness disease type. With the dream seed and ghost shadow, it didn't matter even if he couldn't see anything at night.

However, Ren Qing then discovered that the eyes of the separated soul's body were a little white, so he knew that even his vision would probably be affected.

He cursed a few times and continued to integrate the second disease type, "Insomnia."

Insomnia refers to difficulty falling asleep, and prolonged wakefulness can lead to mental breakdown.

But Ren Qing could use meditation instead of sleep, or let the ghost shadow forcibly knock himself unconscious, so it wasn't a big problem.

The separated soul's flesh and blood had grown, and the next step was the skin.

He quickly tried to use the ghost shadow to intervene, contacting the skin with the aura of the technique, so as to make the skin stained with some of the characteristics of the Substitute Ghost Skin.

It was not known exactly how useful it was, but the skin did become darker.

Ren Qing did not hesitate, and then chose the disease type "Night Sweats", betting that the skin could absorb and store moisture. If it didn't work, he would have to drink water desperately.

He felt that he would reach the limit with two more disease types, so he directly integrated the "Common Cold" disease type.

As for the last disease type, Ren Qing suddenly hesitated, mainly because the disease was likely to involve subsequent development.

He felt that milder diseases might have limitations.

Seeing that the body was about to be completely formed, Ren Qing gritted his teeth and integrated the "Cancer" disease type.

Immediately afterwards, after a strange squeeze, Ren Qing returned to the broken temple in the Longevity Forbidden Zone.

This time, he did not obtain a deformed disease type, and the appearance was not too bizarre, like a dark-skinned, blind farmer.

[Ren Qing]

[Lifespan: Two Years and One Hundred and Thirty Days]

[Disease Type: Cancer, Night Blindness, Night Sweats, Common Cold, Insomnia]

Ren Qing's mind moved slightly, and the shadow behind the three immortal statues flowed like a ghost, and the remaining ghost shadow returned to the shadow at his feet.

The double pupils transformed by the dream seed grew on his forehead.

He simply moved his body, his vision had three or four hundred degrees of myopia, and the rest felt that in addition to more sweat, there was nothing unusual…

The mountain breeze blew.

Ren Qing couldn't help but shudder, his throat had a tendency to become inflamed, his body temperature began to gradually rise, and a familiar sense of weakness surged into his heart.

He helplessly covered his face. The common cold disease type was too pervasive.

Ren Qing had contracted an ordinary disease for the first time since he started cultivating techniques.

He didn't dare to underestimate the power of the common cold. Fever alone could lead to death, not to mention the various complications it could cause.

The black worm crawled out of the ghost shadow and drilled into Ren Qing's spine through his mouth and nose.

Ren Qing closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground, and took out a seemingly ordinary jade pendant, cultivating the Netherworld Heavenly Insect Art while the insect root was combined with the spine.

A wisp of You Yuan flowed out of the jade pendant and circulated throughout his body along the eight extraordinary meridians.

Ren Qing's whole body was excited. Although the common cold was not cured, the symptoms were suppressed, and the high fever also turned into a low fever.

Most importantly, the You Yuan actually stimulated the characteristics of the Substitute Ghost Skin, and he didn't know if there was a reason for the ghost shadow head.

Even if it was far less than the main body, it could at least lock in the moisture flowing out of the night sweats, and each disease was maintained in a weaker state.

As for cancer, Ren Qing has not yet found the cancerous part, and estimates that he needs to use his lifespan to advance once before it can be revealed.

He continued to close his eyes and operate the You Yuan, preparing to go to the Undead Town when he reached the Qi Refining stage.

He had to wait for the insect root to transform his physique into an insect body before he could cultivate in the Foundation Establishment stage; otherwise, the You Yuan in the jade pendant would not be enough to form the core at all.

Thanks to Heath Ice Tea and Book Friend 20220324230212746 for the reward