The Secret Way of Immortality

Butcher Zhang wrapped half a catty of pig eyes in oil paper, wiped his hands on his apron, and handed them to Ren Qing.

"Ah Qing, no need for the money."

"How can I? You're being too polite, Brother Zhang."

Ren Qing refused with a smile, taking out some loose change and stuffing it into Butcher Zhang's hand, intentionally brushing against him.

The information showed that Butcher Zhang had fifteen years of life left and had not mastered any术法 (shùfǎ -术法 is left untranslated as it is a key concept) , indeed unrelated to the No-Eyed Method.

Ren Qing breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt a little apprehensive.

From the 《No-Eyed Method》, he could see that the Hundred-Eyed Old Monk highly valued human eyes.

Perhaps under normal cultivation, cultivators of the No-Eyed Method, once they tasted human eyes, would likely become deeply addicted and unable to extricate themselves.

It would be easy to verify. Just inquire if anyone in Sanxiang City has had their eyes gouged out recently, and it would be clear.

It's just that his connections in the yamen are too limited.

Ren Qing found a noodle shop to fill his stomach, and as he watched the sky gradually darken, he got up and returned to the yamen.

Wisps of white smoke drifted from the courtyard walls of the Fire Worker Hall, indicating that Li Mian and the others had begun burning a new batch of corpses.

Ren Qing greeted them, then carried a bucket of well water into his side room.

He first soaked the pig eyes in the well water to remove the blood, to make them easier to swallow.

Then he sat on the bed, closed his eyes, and entered meditation.

After half an incense stick's time.

Ren Qing sighed and opened his eyes, pinching his temples in silence. After a long while, he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"It seems that taking shortcuts has its drawbacks. I can't seem to enter a state of cultivation."

Normally, after swallowing the eyeballs, one would experience darkness at all times for forty-nine days, making visualization extremely easy afterward.

Ren Qing was the opposite. His grasp of the No-Eyed Method was extremely brief, to the point where he couldn't find direction.

And the more anxious he became, the more likely it was to affect his state.

Ren Qing simply decided to try the life-extending effects of the pig eyes first, maybe he could find a breakthrough.

Borrowing the moonlight filtering through the window, he examined the crystal-clear pig eyes, hesitated for a moment, and then threw them directly into his mouth, his face flushed red.

It took him a few breaths to swallow it with difficulty, the fishy stench lingering in his mouth, almost making him vomit.

Fortunately, the pig eyes given by Butcher Zhang were relatively fresh, not causing any physical discomfort.

The pig eyes transformed into heat in his abdomen, quickly spreading throughout his body, a refreshing sensation welling up in his heart.

Ren Qing sat down on the spot.

He naturally began cultivating the No-Eyed Method, and the surroundings were once again shrouded in darkness, rustling sounds emerging from the corners.

Ren Qing felt the heat being absorbed by his eyes along the meridians, producing a slight ache.

But as the cultivation deepened, the movements in the darkness became more and more obvious, as if someone was whispering in it…

Ren Qing unconsciously frowned, the familiar footsteps appearing again, slowly approaching him.

Ren Qing hesitated whether to end the cultivation, but in that moment, the footsteps were already within ten meters.

"Yamen Runner!!!"

The wooden door of the side room was knocked, Li Mian's anxious voice came.

Ren Qing was immediately awakened, the surrounding darkness receding like a tide, his back covered in cold sweat from the cultivation.

It seems that the cultivation of this strange technique must be timed well. If you immerse yourself in it, something uncontrollable will definitely happen…

He calmed his mind and shouted at the door: "What's wrong?"

"Yamen Runner, the corpse is alive!!!"

Ren Qing's heart jumped, not caring about the sweat on his body, even without checking the change in his lifespan after swallowing the pig eyes, he directly opened the door and rushed out.

"What corpse, which one?!"

"It's the one brought at noon, and the other corpses are also a bit strange…"

Li Mian was so frightened that he stammered.

In the first half of the night, the three of them took turns guarding the furnace smoothly, but they didn't expect an accident when they were about to move the corpses.

The corpse of the bookstore owner stood up from the corpse room without warning and disappeared into the night in a few steps.

Ren Qing snatched the lantern from Li Mian's hand and walked quickly towards the corpse room, while listening to Li Mian recounting the process.

He reached the door in a few steps. After seeing Ren Qing, Li Heng and Xiao Wu quickly retreated.

As soon as he entered the door, Ren Qing pinched his waist hard with his fingers to keep calm.

The remaining fire worker corpses still had eerie smiles and opened their eyes, looking at the door with inexplicable gazes.

There was originally a shelf in the room to place the corpse of the bookstore owner, but now it was empty, and the linen cloth wrapping the corpse was scattered around.

Ren Qing carefully checked with the vision enhanced by the No-Eyed Method, and found a series of bloody footprints extending from the corpse room to the outside.

If he notified the yamen now, he would have to take responsibility and might not be able to be a yamen runner. And his current strength is not enough to protect himself in Sanxiang City.

Ren Qing made up his mind and said: "Xiao Wu, you come with me to find the corpse. Li Mian and Li Heng, you stay here and watch, and remember not to act rashly."

Li's brothers nodded, staring at the corpse room in fear, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

Ren Qing turned to Xiao Wu and asked, "Are you okay?"

Xiao Wu bit his lip and replied, "It's okay, Brother Qing."

"Then let's go."

Ren Qing anxiously followed the bloodstains, but when he left the courtyard, he turned back to the house and grabbed a handful of pig eyes.

The two of them followed the bloodstains, turning east and west. The location of the Fire Worker Hall was already remote enough, but unexpectedly, the direction indicated by the corpse was even more remote.

Damp dew fell on them through the leaves, and the cold gradually penetrated their bones.

A six or seven-meter-high courtyard wall came into view.

"This is the outer wall of the west district of the yamen."

"Brother Qing, then…"

Xiao Wu pointed to the corner of the wall, where a figure was standing motionless, facing the wall, making people's backs feel cold.

Ren Qing stared at the figure, barely able to see it clearly.

The corpse was already tattered, with a few pieces of linen cloth still hanging on its body, and its eyes were even more vacant and hollow, with drops of bloody tears flowing down.

"Brother Qing, what do we do?"

Ren Qing mustered up his courage and approached.

He circled the corpse a few times, without finding anything unusual. He pushed it with his arm and it fell loosely to the ground.

Ren Qing glanced at the direction the corpse was facing. Could it be that the Hundred-Eyed One who hunts in the dark caused the corpse to riot?

"Carry it back first."

Ren Qing stuffed all the pig eyes into his stomach, the taste making him roll his eyes.

It was too dark, Xiao Wu didn't see clearly what Ren Qing was eating, only feeling that the other party's mouth was bloody.

The pig eyes were quickly digested.

Heat rose from the top of Ren Qing's head. He and Xiao Wu carried the corpse one after the other, heading back to the Fire Worker Hall along the original route.

After only half the journey, the corpse moved again.

Xiao Wu's teeth chattered as he reminded: "Brother Qing, the corpse is on your shoulder."

Ren Qing was facing away from the corpse, so he didn't notice that the corpse's hands had been thrown to his neck, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

His eyes were slightly red, and the fear encountered during cultivation temporarily gave him a big heart.

"Damn it."

At this time, the sky was slightly bright, and if they didn't return to the Fire Worker Hall, they might be discovered.