Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Taotie Technique [Secondary Stomach User]
On the surface, Ren Qing agreed, but in reality, he was already planning to find the right time to advance his Taotie Technique. In any case, the mutation wasn’t that noticeable.
He asked about some of the confusing points he’d encountered in his cultivation, and Song Zongwu held nothing back, even using himself as an example.
Before they knew it, their conversation had turned to the Forbidden Areas.
According to Song Zongwu, there were a total of four Forbidden Areas near Sanxiang City. The core Mysterious Objects in two of them were at the Ghost Envoy Realm, and another was at the Yin Messenger Realm.
The situation in the remaining Disaster Mitigation Forbidden Area was unknown; they would have to investigate it to find out more.
It was because Forbidden Areas littered the lands outside the city that there was little trade between towns. Only the waterways were relatively safe.
Ren Qing’s heart sank. ’If Cultivators can advance through their own training, then the number of Forbidden Areas must be impossible to control.’
’Then why would the Forbidden Guards allow gangs to expose ordinary people to Magic Techniques?’
He couldn’t help but ask Song Zongwu this question. The man remained silent for a long time before offering a vague explanation.
"For a Cultivator, a Forbidden Area is but one of many threats upon this vast earth..."
Ren Qing understood that his perspective was limited by his own strength, so he didn’t press the matter further. But inwardly, his desire to advance to the Ghost Envoy Realm as soon as possible grew even more urgent.
Song Zongwu still had to prepare for sealing the Forbidden Area, so after giving a few more instructions, he left the Firework Hall.
Ren Qing didn’t continue cultivating. Instead, he got a good night’s rest.
When he woke up, he noticed a change in his body. The pork that had completely stuffed his stomach had already been fully digested.
He had never been able to digest that quickly before. This meant his digestive functions had improved again, further strengthening the Life Extension effect of the pig eyes.
Ren Qing grew slightly excited at the thought. ’If I can solve this problem of insufficient Lifespan, reaching the Ghost Envoy Realm will be just around the corner.’
At his current rate—consuming pig eyes nonstop for all Twelve Hours of the day—it would take at least half a year to accumulate enough Lifespan.
Even though this speed was something others couldn’t even dream of, it still wasn’t enough to dispel his apprehension toward this world.
Besides, to be on the safe side, it would be best to accumulate fifteen years of Lifespan before advancing to the Ghost Envoy Realm.
Otherwise, if some accident occurred after his advancement—like getting trapped in a Forbidden Area and being unable to procure more means of Life Extension—he would be in deep trouble.
Ren Qing had a monopoly on all the pig eyes in the western part of the city. Through experimentation, he found that the Life Extension effect had reached fourteen or fifteen days per day of consumption.
But before Ren Qing could rejoice for long, he noticed that as his Lifespan accumulated, the Life Extension effect of the pig eyes began to weaken slightly.
Ren Qing immediately realized that extending one’s life by eating eyes must have a specific limit.
He wasn’t discouraged. After all, achieving true longevity just by eating raw pig eyes was unrealistic. He would have to find a new Longevity Technique.
An even bolder idea formed in Ren Qing’s mind.
’Searching for Magic Techniques one by one is too inefficient. It would be better to look for them in the Forbidden Areas, where they’re clustered together. Of course, that’s only if I’m strong enough.’
Ren Qing suppressed these distracting thoughts.
He returned to his daily cultivation routine, his life reduced to a straight line between two points: blade practice and Visualization.
Before he knew it, the Government Office had completed its preparations to seal off the Forbidden Area.
The people of Sanxiang City could clearly feel the storm gathering. The number of constables patrolling the streets had multiplied several times over, and anyone wishing to enter the city now had their belongings inspected.
The gangs behaved themselves and stopped causing trouble, which allowed the braised offal business to develop steadily, gradually expanding into every street and alley of the western part of the city.
All the pig offal was stewed and braised by Butcher Zhang, and the finished products were then distributed to stalls affiliated with the Blood Dog Gang.
Song Zongwu privately revealed to Ren Qing that because the Forbidden Area in question was particularly strange, only five Forbidden Guards and a dozen or so Government Constables would be participating.
The largest contingent was a force of several thousand Official Soldiers. Their task was to clear out the bandits near the Forbidden Area to prevent them from interfering with the Forbidden Guards.
The campaign against the bandits lasted for about three days. The bodies of the mountain bandits weren’t brought back to Sanxiang City, but were burned on the spot.
Only after the Official Soldiers returned would the Forbidden Guards set out for the Disaster Mitigation Forbidden Area.
They needed to determine the approximate location of the Disaster Mitigation Forbidden Area beforehand, so they had departed earlier.
The Government Constables would follow a day later, organized into groups of five Fireworkers and two constables. Each group would follow a different route.
The team leader would be a Fireworker’s Steward. The routes were all predetermined to be safe, and even if they encountered danger, they had a way to contact the Forbidden Guards.
The slots for Fireworkers were distributed evenly. After accounting for those who couldn’t be spared, each street’s Firework Hall had to provide two of its members.
Ren Qing chose to take Xiaowu. The Li Brothers were too large and sturdy to be suitable, and Bo Feng would stay behind to manage miscellaneous affairs.
Even if they ran into danger, with Xiaowu’s small stature, he could use his Werewolf Transformation, grab Ren Qing, and make a quick escape.
Once the Forbidden Guards had left one by one, it meant the time for the Government Constables to depart the city was near.
Ren Qing, of course, had his own plans. As soon as Song Zongwu was out of Sanxiang City, he immediately began preparing to advance his Taotie Technique.
He had already instructed Butcher Zhang to collect a large quantity of pig eyes several days prior.
To him, the Jiezhi Space of the Abnormal Stomach was extremely important, as it would allow him to carry pig eyes on his person.
As long as he had pig eyes, he could recover from injuries in a short amount of time, greatly increasing his safety.
Upon learning they would be heading toward the Forbidden Area the next day, Ren Qing chose to advance his Taotie Technique late that night. The process was tense, but ultimately safe.
A fist-sized Abnormal Stomach had grown next to his regular one. On the surface, it seemed useless, but in reality, it contained a cubic meter of space.
It was more than enough space to store dozens, or even a hundred pounds, of pig eyes.
As for the Abnormal Mouth, Ren Qing chose to grow it in the palm of his right hand. This would make retrieving items extremely convenient.
When the Abnormal Mouth opened, it revealed rows of densely packed, fine teeth—a horrifying sight.
But Ren Qing had already grown accustomed to the macabre aesthetic of the Underworld, and even found the mouth to have a certain peculiar charm.
Besides pig eyes, Ren Qing also bought some hidden weapons from Zhao Hu.
Although he wasn’t very accurate with them, their main advantage was that he could retrieve them silently through the Abnormal Mouth. There might be a chance to use them.
Other than providing the Jiezhi Space, becoming a Secondary Stomach User offered almost no increase in power. The next advancement, however, would be completely different.
[Abdominal Prison: Binding the Stomach as Prison]
As the name implied, the space within the Abnormal Stomach would undergo a significant change, and he would also gain the ability to restrain others.
As for the other two mutation paths for the Taotie Technique, they were:
[Hill Spirit: Body of All Things]
[Vomiting Dark Spring: Soul Melting and Bone Erosion]
Among them, the cost to unlock Hill Spirit was the greatest, consuming the most Lifespan—a total of one and a half years.
Ren Qing carried medicinal herbs and dry rations with him, his Great Miao Blade strapped brazenly to his back.
As for Xiaowu, no conventional weapon seemed to suit him, so he simply grabbed a large iron wok, which was at least sturdy enough to ward off danger.
Besides them, Zhu Ding from Hexing Street had also joined their team.
Zhu Ding wasn’t originally supposed to go outside the city, as he had only recently been appointed. But unfortunately, his seniority was too low, and sometimes, one has no choice.
Seeing this, Ren Qing requested him from Clerk Zhao, so that Zhu Ding and Xiaowu could look out for each other.
The other two Fireworkers in their group were unfamiliar faces from the East Street Firework Hall, both in their early thirties.
The same was true for the constables. They had never even been dispatched outside the city by the Government Office before, and it seemed they had less courage than even Xiaowu.
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