The Secret Way of Immortality

Huang Ziwan looked at the opened window in horror.

A cold wind brushed his face, taking Lu Xiaoyu with it as she disappeared.

Cracks spread across the copper mirror artifact hanging in the room.

The houses closer to the flower field were already nearing their limit, the residents inside disappearing in their sleep.

The area of the disaster gradually expanded.

At this moment, the morning sun rose from the horizon, and then everything returned to calm.

Water Gourd opened his bloodshot eyes, his face ashen.

Only a bare mound remained of the distant Manjusaka flower field.

I'm afraid Zhang Mu was already affected by the forbidden area on the way to transport the flower seeds, and the forbidden area even hid a secret hand in the Manjusaka flowers.

Water Gourd pondered to himself, 'The people regard food as paramount,' and suddenly an idea struck him.

"Could it be the Immortal Devouring Art?"

It would be fine if the people who strayed into the forbidden area were just the dozens on the edge of town, but the main trouble was that a Jail Warden had been devoured by the forbidden area.

Moreover…

Water Gourd tore open his clothes, revealing his chest and abdomen covered in disordered lines, and even the 20,000 residents of An'nan Town were in the same situation.

What made him unwilling was that Yu Dachuan, half-dead, was also dragged into the forbidden area.

Water Gourd had plotted for so long, but in the end, he tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it; the frustration in his heart was indescribable.

The only thing he could be thankful for was that the forbidden area had not devoured him, indicating that it was not formed by a Yin Difference Realm anomaly, but should only be a Ghost Envoy Realm.

After contacting the Jail Warden Hall with his blood essence, he took out a Nether Feather and inquired about the Immortal Devouring Art.

【Immortal Devouring Art】

【Created by the Wine Meat Taoist; every part of the body can be cooked. It requires unique medicinal primers and thirty-six hours of simmering before being implanted back into the body to be cultivated.】

A large amount of water vapor emerged from the Blood Flesh Gourd.

Before the Jail Warden Hall takes over, the people cannot be allowed to leave the town.

………

Ren Qing's consciousness fell into a deep sleep, and when he woke up again, he found that the environment he was in had undergone drastic changes.

The surroundings appeared extremely dim.

The cold ground was covered with a thick layer of straw, and he could even see scattered white bones mixed in, making his hair stand on end.

Ren Qing held his head in his hands, his memory seemingly fragmented.

He could only recall what happened before the forbidden area, but had no impression of anything after that.

He closed his eyes tightly, trying to use Ghost Shadow Possession to increase his strength, but he couldn't sense the existence of the Ghost Shadow at all.

Not to mention the Ghost Shadow, but other than the Twin Nightmare Demon, none of his spells responded.

Ren Qing suppressed the panic in his heart.

Flashes of memory returned to his mind, and his expression became thoughtful.

Ren Qing carefully examined himself and found his body unfamiliar, his flesh appearing fragmented, as if pieced together.

It was definitely not his original body.

Fortunately, it was not the main soul but a split soul controlling this body, so even if he lost it, it wouldn't matter much.

Ren Qing guessed that he, like Zhang Mu, had been implicated and mistakenly entered the forbidden area.

Perhaps the split soul leaving the body was to check the situation in the forbidden area, but for some reason, it could not contact the main soul.

Fortunately, the Twin Nightmare Demon's abilities simultaneously affected the main and secondary souls.

Ren Qing knew that his main body, relying on the Inaction Dojo and the large number of eyeballs he had purchased in advance, would not have any problems in the short term.

Moreover, according to the description of the Heavenly Dao Law, advancing in realm might have the effect of extending lifespan.

However, with the Heavenly Dao Worm parasitizing the Ghost Shadow, he couldn't be sure if the lifespan extension would be effective.

Ren Qing sat up. He was currently in a closed cave, and he could see traces of excavation on the surrounding walls.

Then he noticed that the cave entrance was not far from him.

Ren Qing used his Heavy Pupils to observe the cave, only finding traces of wild animals.

He slowly walked towards the cave entrance, while secretly raising his vigilance.

Bones were everywhere along the way, but what made him feel strange was that the cave did not emit a rotten stench.

Many of the bones clearly looked like they had died recently.

But after all, this was a forbidden area, and it definitely had places that were completely different from the outside world, likely involving the abilities of various anomalies.

Ren Qing soon reached the cave entrance.

He carefully poked his head out and looked outside, his eyebrows furrowing involuntarily.

Ren Qing felt like he had come to a dark and damp kitchen, but everything was magnified dozens of times. The original short-legged chair was like a mountain peak, not to mention the stove.

It was indeed the forbidden area he had seen on the official road.

Looking at the steam rising from the stove, his mood became inexplicably irritable.

Near the corner of the kitchen wall, there were more than a dozen similar caves.

Ren Qing guessed that he was not the only one who had been pulled into the forbidden area; at least the Jail Wardens had to be counted.

However, they were severely injured, and it was likely that they were already in dire straits.

Ren Qing did not choose to set foot in the kitchen, as it was relatively empty and he could easily be exposed.

He planned to figure out the truth of the forbidden area first.

Sealing the core anomaly was too difficult; escaping from the forbidden area was more realistic. That was what Song Rong had planned to do back then.

Ren Qing waited slightly at the cave entrance, and then felt the ground shake.

A giant strode towards the stove, and as it moved, the moldy rice grains that made up its body kept falling.

It was also carrying a cage, containing dozens of trembling people, dressed as if they were from An'nan Town.

The Rice Grain Giant hung the cage on the stove and then disappeared.

Dense rustling sounds came from the various caves.

Ren Qing turned his head to look, and more than a dozen pairs of blood-red eyes lit up in the darkness, accompanied by the hoarse gnawing that only rats make when they are hungry.

They were indeed rats, but their size far exceeded his imagination.

Each rat was the size of an elephant, and their bodies were devoid of fur, the exposed flesh appearing dark green.

And on their backs grew more than a dozen fungi mushrooms of varying sizes.

Squeak, squeak, squeak…

The rats ran wildly towards him.

Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. Before he could even make a move, the rat pack bypassed him, their target being the rice grains covering the kitchen floor.

He threw a bone, and the power that erupted was somewhat unexpected.

It easily pierced a rat's neck, and dark green blood splattered everywhere.

The companions let out terrified cries, then quickly moved away from Ren Qing's location, rushing towards the rice grains in the remote corners.

They lowered their heads and devoured the rice grains greedily, as if there was a natural enemy nearby.

Ren Qing dragged the rat carcass into the cave and carefully examined it, immediately noticing the clues and falling into a brief contemplation.

First of all, the blood flowing from the rat's wound did not seem like it came from an animal at all. It felt slightly viscous to the touch and had a peculiar fragrance.

Ren Qing was stunned for a moment before reacting.

"Plant sap?"

He immediately cut open the rat's skin, revealing the hidden flesh, without the fibrous feel of muscle.

It really seemed like a plant.

Could it be that being in this forbidden area would cause one's flesh and blood to transform into plants?

Ren Qing also found traces of rope binding on the rat's neck, indicating that someone had once raised it as livestock.

Not long after the rat's death, its flesh and blood began to dissolve, and the mushrooms on its back actually grew vigorously.

In the blink of an eye, they grew to half a meter in size, their appearance translucent, and he could see rat embryos being re-incubated inside.

What a bizarre forbidden area.

Ren Qing's skin crawled with goosebumps, and he belatedly noticed that his fingernails had turned crystalline.

He forcefully broke off a crystal, which was somewhat like a coarse salt block. He put it in his mouth and tasted it lightly, and it was indeed coarse salt.

It was clear that even Ren Qing could not avoid the transformation from the forbidden area.

He didn't have much time to consider.

Young rats emerged from the mushrooms, each the size of a calf.

They ran out of the cave, joining the ranks of those devouring rice grains.

As they ate more and more rice grains, the rats' plantification became more and more serious, and bright red fruits grew on their backs, exuding an enticing aroma.

Ren Qing's eyes were fixed on the stove.

The Rice Grain Giant's footsteps sounded again, this time clearly to harvest the fruits, and many rats lost their lives because of the aftermath.

The remaining rats fled in droves, rushing into the caves in a panic.

A few rats were slightly slower, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Ren Qing jumped onto the back of a rat and followed it through the spacious and bizarre cave. Judging from the terrain, it should be going upwards.

Since the rats had traces of being raised as livestock, he might be able to find survivors in the forbidden area.

As the cave became wider and wider, multiple branches converged, forming a mighty rat tide.

After the rats reached the end of the cave, they automatically stopped, hundreds of eyes staring at Ren Qing.

The expressions revealed in the rats' eyes were all the same, with a kind of inexplicable strangeness.

Ren Qing looked at the stone wall in front of him and touched it with his hand, immediately creating a crack that slowly expanded to about two meters.

Clearly, it could accommodate one person walking through it.

His expression became dazed, and his Heavy Pupils seemed to see the outside world through the stone wall.

It was a remote mountain village, where residents grew fruits and vegetables, and everyone's chest and abdomen were covered in disordered lines.

Ren Qing immediately understood in his heart that the forbidden area was clearly guiding him to leave, which should be some kind of means of extracting the soul.

The reason why he couldn't sense the main soul was probably because this body was shielding it.

The stone wall was undoubtedly the exit.

Under normal circumstances, the fate of the main soul entering the stone wall would probably not be much different from Zhang Mu's, and it might become a puppet of the forbidden area.

If it were someone else, they would probably need to find the location of their main body and allow their soul to return to their body, but Ren Qing was different.

Ren Qing closed his eyes and carefully examined his soul, confirming that it was indeed a split soul.

Then, the Twin Nightmare Demon's ability forcibly caused the split soul to begin to collapse.

Then, he stepped forward without hesitation, his body gradually decaying, but his split soul becoming more and more awake.

Just as the split soul was about to disappear, Ren Qing took the opportunity to figure out how those inexplicably appearing notes came about.

【Telepathy】

【Created by an unknown ascetic monk; it requires cutting off the tongue and hanging it in front of the Buddha in the temple, and not speaking for three years. After cultivation, one can transmit thoughts by silently reading the names of others in their heart.】

When Ren Qing woke up again, the sensation in his body gradually recovered, and all his spells returned to his control.

After surviving the calamity of entering the forbidden area, he grasped the one-in-ten-thousand chance of survival.

………

After Song Zongwu heard that Ren Qing was in the Immortal Devouring Forbidden Area, he exuded a suffocating aura.

A large number of Jail Wardens were assigned to find the location of the Immortal Devouring Forbidden Area, but unfortunately, the harvest was mediocre, as if there was no trace at all.

Just as he was at a loss, a Nether Crow landed on Song Zongwu's shoulder, and then turned into meat paste after spitting out a note.

The note no longer contained disordered lines, but instead depicted a mountain village.