The Secret Way of Immortality

The sense of urgency brought about by the depletion of lifespan enveloped Jingzhou, and no matter how the ancient cultivators struggled on their deathbeds, it was all in vain.

It likely involved the unique rules of the Immortal Position, with the three Immortal Positions intertwined, making it difficult even for True Immortals to influence.

In such circumstances, it was like a silent plague.

The drawbacks of approaching the end of one's lifespan quickly swept through every part of Jingzhou.

Regardless of whether they were men, women, old, or young in Jingzhou, all of them noticed something wrong with their bodies.

Their skin began to become withered, the texture of their bones became increasingly complex and porous, their internal organs constantly deteriorated, and even their brains gradually forgot memories.

Death was inherently a curse, and in Jingzhou today, the curse was accelerated countless times, indiscriminately affecting all souls from ancient times.

Jingzhou had fallen into madness, with almost all the wild Gu worms being captured, leading to a large number of people becoming Insect Martial Artists.

They didn't even consider how to refine the Gu worms, choosing to combine them with their flesh and blood in the most primitive way, hoping to escape death.

All of this stemmed from a rumor circulating in Despair City, located in the southwest corner of Jingzhou.

"Gu worms can increase lifespan."

In fact, their crude method of refining Gu worms only affected their bodies and souls, possibly leading to a shorter lifespan than expected.

Of course, in the short term, Insect Martial Artists were indeed more energetic than ordinary old people.

The Daoist and Buddhist forces did not want to sit idly by and sought to promote Gu refinement techniques to find a way out of the impasse, so they immediately confirmed the rumor.

They used unorthodox methods to maintain their youthful appearance, and even if their flesh and bones were decaying, they could indeed bring hope to mortals.

Various forces were secretly searching for clues about the Insect Nests, wanting to continue obtaining human-insect souls, but the human-insects suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Everything was in vain.

Minghe Teahouse completely lost its business, and Ren Qing no longer had to be a hands-off shopkeeper, while Li Yaoyang and the zombie shop assistant had temporarily returned to the Stomach World.

He stood by the window, flipping through the methods summarized by Li Yaoyang, which could be used to indirectly control the Heavenly Dao Insects with disease types, and the feasibility was not small.

Ren Qing's peripheral vision looked at Sanxiang City, which was currently a scene of human hell.

Looking up, the people on the streets were all, without exception, physically twisted, with deformed and terrifying Insect Martial Artists everywhere.

Clearly, the upper half of their bodies were ordinary human forms, but the lower half presented the multiple legs of a centipede; or the five senses of their heads were like empty holes, with things similar to maggots constantly drilling out, seemingly replacing normal senses...

In front of the distant temple, Abbot Liaoque stood on a wooden platform that had been built, leading the Gu worm-transformed believers in chanting scriptures with an impassioned expression.

Behind him was a Thousand-Hand Guanyin, half-human and half-insect, with countless arms on its back, all replaced by insect limbs.

Jingzhou was in madness, and the people's perceptions were also undergoing drastic changes.

The Heavenly Void Daoist, who had been hanging in mid-air, had his black cloth torn off, and hundreds of Insect Martial Artists were worshiping him as an immortal Buddha.

Those who were unwilling to refine Gu worms, or unable to obtain Gu worms, locked themselves in their houses, only waiting for the arrival of death.

Ren Qing put the Gu worm methods into the Treasure Pavilion, and the recorded content was indeed very useful, but the Insect Nest seemed to have disappeared.

With the Insect Nest remaining motionless, it was impossible for him to forcibly go and find trouble with them.

The situation in Jingzhou became increasingly confusing.

Ren Qing had also tried it on Huang Gou'er, and as a result, no matter how much longevity-extending materials such as corpse food were consumed by the people of Jingzhou, it was difficult to extend their lifespan by even a day or an hour.

Jingzhou seemed to have a predetermined ending, and signs were gradually appearing.

"Shopkeeper..."

Huang Gou'er's old voice sounded, and Ren Qing turned his head, only to see that the other person's appearance was like that of a forty or fifty-year-old, and his gait had also become weak.

Most of the people who had not been parasitized by Gu worms were in the same situation as Huang Gou'er, withering and dying.

Ren Qing sighed and said, "Huang Gou'er, go and rest for a while longer. If you have an illness, you must take good care of your body."

Huang Gou'er looked at Ren Qing's still unchanged appearance and asked with reverence, "Shopkeeper, you must be an immortal, right?"

Ren Qing nodded and stopped talking. Huang Gou'er's soul had already begun to dissipate. Unless he became an immortal and attained the Dao, it would be impossible to change life and death.

"So there really are immortals in the world..."

Huang Gou'er murmured as he returned to the guest room. With his memory, it might not be long before he forgot what Ren Qing had said.

Ren Qing looked at the absurd Sanxiang City, where ancient cultivators were hysterically guiding the people, racking their brains to find a way forward for the Great Dao.

Heishui Zi was covered in blood, grabbing the flesh of the Heavenly Void Daoist and stuffing it into his mouth.

"I will become an immortal soon, and then I will transcend the limitations of lifespan, and all of you will have to die, but I am immortal!!!"

"Daoist priest, save me, I don't want to die!!"

"Immortal master, you asked me to place the Ox Heart Gu in my heart and lungs, and I did it. What should I do next? Don't let me die..."

Ren Qing shook his head helplessly, and after taking Huang Gou'er into the Stomach World, he flashed away from the devastated Sanxiang City.

After he left, Minghe Teahouse lost the protection of the Heavenly Demon Tribulation, and several Insect Martial Artists soon poured in, performing blood sacrifices in the lobby, praying to the Gu worm-transformed immortals and Buddhas.

Compared to the madness of the towns, the Insect Nest located underground was undoubtedly much calmer.

The spies that Ren Qing had placed could sense that the scale of the Insect Nest was still growing rapidly, and the number of Heavenly Dao Insect People had surged to sixty or seventy thousand.

It could be seen that the Insect Nest had some means to draw Heavenly Dao Insect People from the outside.

The Matriarch was also aware of the arrangements of the mastermind, which were simply unscrupulous.

The Insect Nest had as many as seventy or eighty Heavenly Dao Insect People in the Yang God realm, all waiting for their lifespans to run out.

Even though the Insect Nest had an astonishing rate of reproduction, if so many Yang God realm cultivators all died in Jingzhou, it could still shake its foundations.

Therefore, the Matriarch was probably aware that the situation in Jingzhou would not deteriorate.

Ren Qing still underestimated the Insect Nest a bit. In an era where it was impossible to become an immortal, a force with multiple Heavenly Guile realms was undoubtedly at the peak.

Feng Kongren was holed up in the remote outer mountains of Jingzhou.

After they entered the Little Heavenly Court, Ren Qing used the Toe Separation Technique to hint to Feng Ye that the Feng Kongren should not go to the interior of Jingzhou for the time being.

The other forces were all standing still, probably realizing from the Insect Nest that some unexpected changes would occur in Jingzhou.

Time passed, and the madness only stopped on the last three days.

Even Insect Martial Artists would gradually run out of strength when faced with the depletion of their lifespan, and now the streets were full of corpses, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.

Ancient cultivators locked themselves in pre-dug basements, trying to have a dream of becoming immortals even after death.

Ren Qing stood on the top of a high mountain, looking around at the suddenly quiet Jingzhou.

His eyes stared at the jungle in the south, where Gu Zhenren was still struggling on his deathbed, trying to find the specific location of the Insect Nest forces.

The overall size of Gu Zhenren was five or six meters, and his body was like a hill, made up of countless Gu worms, making people shudder.

But he was also running out of lifespan, falling in the dense jungle.

Gu Zhenren gasped for breath, and his eyes couldn't help but look to the south, as if he could see the distinct seasons of Xiangxiang, and the old Tang's long-cherished wish echoed in his ears.

His situation was very special. After realizing the drawbacks of being eager to achieve success, he thought about using Gu worms to advance to the Yin Official realm.

In theory, as long as he reached the Yin Official realm, the Gu worms would undergo a transformation, and Gu Zhenren could also escape the predicament of losing control of his body.

At that time, he already had hundreds of human-insects following him, and he could use nutrients to push himself to the Yin Official realm without harming the lives of the human-insects.

Therefore, Gu Zhenren did not hesitate to drive the Shepherd Ant Gu. Under the nourishment of massive nutrients, the condition of his body did show signs of improvement.

Unfortunately, there were still a few Jingzhou people mixed in with the human-insects who had the Aphid Ox Gu.

When Gu Zhenren absorbed the nutrients brought by the Aphid Ox Gu, he also made his lifespan the same as that of the Jingzhou people, with only a few days left.

After his lifespan ran out, the nutrients he needed naturally increased, so hundreds of human-insects were sucked into mummified corpses.

Gu Zhenren moved forward a few more steps, his heart full of unwillingness.

The Attached Elephant Armor Gu began to transform, advancing towards the Phaseless Elephant Force Gu of the Yin Official realm, and endless strength was born with the Gu worms.

But it still could not change the soul annihilation brought about by the depletion of lifespan. There was only a dead end.

Gu Zhenren half-knelt on the ground, looking back on the past but found no regrets, but he developed a strong obsession with becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao, which could transcend cause and effect, allowing the inner demons to grow.

"If there is an afterlife... I must... become an immortal..."

Ren Qing flashed to Gu Zhenren's side, and the latter had completely lost consciousness, but his eyes were still wide open, staring at the distant Jingzhou.

"Is there really an afterlife?"

Ren Qing glanced at the sun that had already disappeared into the horizon. Jingzhou had finally reached the twelve-hour countdown.

He was about to take Gu Zhenren's corpse into the Stomach World. After all, he was also in the Yin Official realm, and refining him into a zombie should have good potential.

But at this moment, Gu Zhenren's corpse was actually decomposing at a slow speed, turning into particles of flesh and blood dust, floating into the air.

Ren Qing frowned, and found that all the mortals in Jingzhou were in the same situation, even if the corpses had been buried underground.

Only Huang Gou'er, who was in the Stomach World, did not have his corpse gradually decompose.

Ren Qing hesitated for a moment, and finally threw Huang Gou'er into the turbulent Yellow Springs, allowing the death energy to transform him into a zombie.

He didn't know what was going on in Jingzhou. Could it be that thousands of years ago, everyone also inexplicably ran out of lifespan, and then their souls dissipated and disappeared?

For safety's sake, Ren Qing left the surface of Jingzhou and went to a cave he had opened up thousands of meters underground, secretly observing the changes in Jingzhou.

The decomposition of the corpses was extremely slow, lasting for several months before disappearing.

At this time, all the towns in Jingzhou suddenly fell into silence, just like what Chen Changsheng encountered when he came to Xiangxiang that year. All the mortals had disappeared, but the towns remained the same.

Ren Qing paid attention to the movements of the Insect Nest, which seemed to be expanding its underground tunnels, heading towards the several towns currently located in Jingzhou.

As for the mastermind, he could not see any trace of his appearance at all, as if he had never existed.

Just as the Insect Nest was rapidly expanding, the reactions of the various forces were different, but some of them actually chose to occupy those empty cities.

At the same time, the Heavenly Guile realm cultivators from the outside were also rushing to Jingzhou.

'Lifespan is approaching, none'