The Secret Way of Immortality

It took Ren Qing a long while to recover, and he couldn't help but let out a long breath.

The alienation of his body had mostly subsided, but his soul still had some dark red纹路 (纹路 wénlù: lines/patterns), which he estimated would take time to slowly grind away.

It took him more than half a month to calm the rampaging strange objects.

Fortunately, he benefited from the disaster. Ren Qing figured out how to obliterate the will of the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord, and embarked on the right path of the Yin Messenger realm.

However, the loss of the sand boat was too severe. It would take a lot of time to repair, and that didn't even include the sandman, who was only a little over ten meters tall.

Ren Qing looked at the ghost shadow under his feet. The latter had also lost most of its body in order to protect the sand boat, but it could recover on its own.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, his expression froze. Why was part of the ghost shadow's body missing? Could it be that the remnants of the ghost shadow torn apart by the sandstorm were still alive?

Ren Qing shook his head. He should repair the hull first.

It might fall apart at any time.

He got up and looked around.

The cabin was a mess, and the furniture had been turned into fragments by the impact of the sandstorm.

The walls were covered with all kinds of bite marks, and a starving husky was lying on the kitchen floor, already skin and bones.

The corner of Ren Qing's mouth twitched, and he took out some food and put it to the husky's mouth.

The husky devoured it ravenously. After cultivating the Mind Creation Technique, it didn't gain any other abilities, but its ability to survive was maxed out.

It quickly shook its head and wagged its tail.

Ren Qing didn't have enough materials left to repair the sand boat, so he simply returned to Abi Hell, delivered the Great Dream Forging order, and bought enough bone wood materials.

He also learned that the Imprisonment Hall had begun to recruit the third batch of Imprisonment Guards, preparing to go to the temporary camp in the swamp.

This time, Song Zongwu was leading the team, which clearly indicated some kind of action.

As for the garrison of Xiangxiang, it was handed over to the newly promoted Yin Messenger realm Wood Yi. It was said that the border fortress was now covered by vines.

The corner of Ren Qing's mouth showed a slight smile, after all, they were Imprisonment Guards he was familiar with, which would make any future tasks easier.

Besides Wood Yi, there were also two Imprisonment Guards preparing to advance to the Yin Messenger realm.

They were Bai Bai and Li Yaoyang. Bai Bai was the 白姑娘 (Bái gūniáng: young woman with the surname Bai) mentioned earlier.

The Imprisonment Hall had accumulated a lot of resources, and there were many people who had reached the completion of the Ghost Envoy realm, but because of the risk of promotion, they had not tried it safely.

Now that there was the Great Dream Adept, a Yang God realm expert, the accumulation of the Imprisonment Hall over the years had begun to gradually come into play.

He guessed that the third batch of Imprisonment Guards should arrive at the swamp camp within two months.

Ren Qing decisively turned the sand boat around, preparing to go to the temporary camp in a month and a half to see what the Imprisonment Hall was busy with.

He then left Abi Hell, planning his last free time in his heart.

Now that the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord was on the right track, there was no need to deliberately accumulate five hundred years of lifespan, and in order to pass through the sandstorm, the variability of the Wind and Sand Method could not be neglected.

However, Ren Qing considered using his existing lifespan to complete the three transformations of the Shadowless Ghost first.

He had a bold idea in his mind.

If the remaining ghost shadow was thrown into the Gobi Desert by the sandstorm and hidden in the shadows without dissipating, wouldn't it be able to investigate the situation of Sand City?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

While repairing the hull with bone wood, Ren Qing turned his consciousness to the Alienation Tree in his mind, and the buds on the branches flickered with light.

After thinking for a moment, he did not choose some extremely polarized transformation branches, but the seemingly mediocre [Night Wander].

[Night Wander]: Regardless of the distance of the ghost shadow, the soul of the cultivator can be used to control it at night.

In this way, the ability of [Shadowless] to leave the body for a long time was enhanced, and the means of the Shadowless Ghost became more and more abundant.

If Ren Qing once again attached the ghost shadow to a magical artifact, he could drill out of the magical artifact at night, and even use Ghost Replacement to cast spells.

However, Night Wander also has its drawbacks.

First of all, it can only be controlled at night, and contact with the ghost shadow will be lost during the day. Secondly, the soul needs to be strong enough.

After Ren Qing consumed fifty years of lifespan, the ghost shadow fell into transformation.

Because the ghost shadow was closely related to the Heavenly Dao Insect, the transformation would inevitably take some time, so he ignored it.

Ren Qing repaired the exposed holes outside the cabin, and the temperature also dropped, returning to its original coolness.

He then came to the bottom of the sand boat to check the keel.

If the keel was damaged, the service life of the sand boat would be greatly reduced, and there would be no need to consider using it to cross the sandstorm.

But as Ren Qing approached the keel, his expression became strange.

The Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord strange object in his body moved slightly, and he could still smell a strange bloody smell in his nose.

Ren Qing slowly walked to the center of the bottom of the boat, touched the gap between the wooden boards, and suddenly there were some obvious dark red bloodstains on his palm.

He simply pried open the wooden boards, and what came into view was a thick spine, with flesh and blood sticking to the surface, and wriggling from time to time.

It turned out that the Supreme Dark Nightmare Lord could give permanent life to inanimate objects, and its abilities might be related to the legendary Nightmare Demon.

Ren Qing couldn't see the use of the keel's activation at the moment, but at least the sand boat magical artifact had broken free from the limitations of the original materials.

There was a possibility of further advancement in the future.

He was just about to put the wooden boards back when he suddenly had an idea and quickly ran to the deck and opened the异嘴 (yì zuǐ: alien mouth) in his palm.

A large amount of swamp sand was collected into the abdominal prison. The sandman, unlike his usual laziness, took the initiative to devour the swamp sand to strengthen himself.

Ren Qing spent several hours feeding the sandman, and stored several thousand kilograms of swamp sand before returning to the bottom of the boat.

He sprinkled the swamp sand on the keel, and a shrill scream sounded.

It seemed that the keel inherited the characteristics of the Ksitigarbha's ribs and could absorb souls, instantly devouring the remnant souls in the swamp sand.

Crack, crack, crack...

Strange noises came from all over the sand boat.

Ren Qing quickly got up to check and found that the places where the repair marks were obvious gradually became seamless, and there was no abnormality on the surface.

He couldn't help but show surprise, which would save him several months of time.

Ren Qing continued to sprinkle swamp sand on the keel, but the repair of the sand boat came to an abrupt end.

He therefore determined that the keel could not restore damage like a real life, and must have enough materials to assist it.

Moreover, the keel's devouring of souls could not strengthen the hull. It simply stored them briefly, and treated them as consumables at any time.

The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!

But Ren Qing was already very satisfied.

Ren Qing began to quickly repair the hull, without having to worry too much, just covering the damage with the same material.

As a result, the sand boat was restored to its original state in just five days, and even the broken masts were re-erected.

After Ren Qing replaced the new furniture in the cabin, he began to explore more uses of the keel, intending to use it to improve the sand boat.

He concocted an iron oil that could strengthen the toughness of the wood and brushed it on the surface of the sand boat. Soon, under the action of the keel, they merged with each other.

The texture of the bone wood changed, and there was a metallic敲击 (qiāojī: striking) sound when struck.

Ren Qing saw the hope of crossing the sandstorm on the sand boat and began to systematically strengthen various parts of the hull.

Increasing the weight of the sand boat was simple, Ren Qing could transform into a sandman, but increasing the speed was a bit troublesome, so he had to start with the sails.

Ren Qing sewed three sails together to increase the total amount of wind power stored.

Secondly, he made the bottom of the boat more pointed to reduce friction with the sand dunes.

While the sand boat was being modified in full swing, Ren Qing also made a lot of money by forging dreams, mainly because of the sale of Daoist robes.

Although the Imprisonment Hall would give Daoist robe magical artifacts to the Imprisonment Guards going to the swamp, they would definitely want to prepare more for safety.

Strange dust also provided Ren Qing with lifespan. Each time it was refined by the flesh and blood furnace and handed over to the Great Dream Adept, neither the blood crystals nor the lifespan were deducted at all.

This gave Ren Qing enough lifespan to complete the first transformation of the Wind and Sand Method.

He chose to increase the growth of [Sandification], which made the strange object's efficiency in devouring and digesting swamp sand become rapid.

As a result, the sandman was nearly twenty meters tall in just half a month.

Song Zongwu began to prepare to lead the Imprisonment Guards to the temporary camp in the swamp, and would arrive at the destination in at most ten days.

Seeing this, Ren Qing turned the direction of the sand boat and headed towards the camp first.

However, just as he was sailing, the ghost shadow completed its transformation.

Although there was no difference in appearance, it had truly reached the third transformation.

Ren Qing's perception of the missing part of the remaining ghost shadow was relatively vague, and he was not sure whether it had crossed the sandstorm.

He could only wait for night to come.

The moment the crescent moon rose from the horizon, Ren Qing established contact with the remaining ghost shadow, and couldn't help but reveal ecstasy on his face.

It was indeed around the Gobi Desert.

Ren Qing quickly closed his eyes and used the "Night Wander" to control the ghost shadow with his consciousness, wanting to figure out the environment.

But the ghost shadow seemed to be pressed under a heavy object. Because the outside temperature was too low, it would be frozen into渣滓 (zhāzǐ: dregs) as soon as it poked its head out, and could only linger on.

Ren Qing learned that the ghost shadow was actually in a mass grave of dead people.

The dead people were skin and bones, wrapped in straw ropes like mummies. There was no moisture in the corpses, so they naturally did not rot.

Feeling the cold outside, Ren Qing found that it seemed that no matter day or night, the ghost shadow would completely dissipate as long as it moved.

The main body rubbed his temples with a headache.

He simply checked the body structure of the corpses and noticed that the Gobi people were essentially completely different from the Xiangxiang people.

The skin of the Gobi people was thick to resist the cold, and they could stay in the sun for a short time. Their eyes were covered with a layer of white film to block the ubiquitous sand.

Their figures were similar, but their clothes were simpler, but they had the habit of wearing束道簪 (shù dào zān: Taoist hairpins).

It felt like the Gobi people had a strange obsession with becoming immortals, as could be seen from the ladder they built to ascend to the clouds.

Ren Qing couldn't find any other clues, so he had no choice but to stay in a corpse.

As long as a Gobi person came, the ghost shadow could quietly slip into the shadow.

If the Gobi person had no cultivation, he could still use the shadow to influence his behavior, and then the main body would come and cooperate from the inside.

Ren Qing's consciousness returned to the main body and controlled the sand boat to approach the Imprisonment Guard camp by a hundred miles before putting the sand boat into the abdominal prison.

He chose to walk there, anyway, under the action of the Human Skin Book, his heat resistance had been increased to at least comparable to that of the Gobi people.

But before Ren Qing reached it, someone seemed to be coming to the mass grave on the Gobi side.

There is still a chapter, wait a moment.