Ren Qing didn't wait for Huang Ziwan to wake up.
This jar of Drunken Life, Dreaming Death would probably take until the Ghost Market closed before it was finished.
He immediately returned to Corpse Burners' Hall, planning to advance to Spine Bearer.
But Ren Qing first made a stop at the Immortal Buddha Shrine, stuffing the prepared slip of paper beneath the lotus seat where Song Zongwu performed his morning recitations.
Yet as soon as he reached into the crevice, he sensed something amiss, the slip he had left previously was still untouched.
That note recorded the anomaly he discovered when encountering Tu Di in the Secret Pavilion.
From this, it was clear that Song Zongwu hadn't come to the Immortal Buddha Shrine at all in recent days.
Ren Qing left both notes in the throne's crevice, evaded patrolling constables, and returned to the Corpse Burners' Hall.
He wasn't worried. The Rotten Mud Gang incident had alarmed the Restraint Officers' Hall, Tu Di was surely already wanted.
Having witnessed the power of Great Dream True Person, he didn't believe the land spirit could survive for long.
It was quite possible that Song Zongwu was currently handling the matter.
Ren Qing entered the side room at night. Bo Feng and the others had just gone to bed. It was the best time to break through Bone Armor Technique.
He first visualized The Blindless Method several times to make sure there were no abnormalities, then summoned the information stream and saw that the longevity section had changed quite a bit.
Only three or four hours had passed since Ren Qing swallowed the Stone Eye, yet his lifespan had already increased by nearly ten days, way more efficient than the Beast Eye.
The only thing that worried Ren Qing was that The Blindless Method's extension of life through eye-swallowing probably had a limit.
It wasn't possible to use it to live past a hundred years, even reaching fifty might be doubtful.
Otherwise, Song Rong wouldn't have been so desperate as to consider retrieving a Supernatural Remnant from the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone.
Ren Qing shook his head, doing his best to calm his mindset so as not to affect the Bone Armor Technique's breakthrough to Ghost Envoy realm.
No need to think too much now. At least as a newly inducted Restraint Officer reserve, he already knew of another way to extend life.
[Proceed with branch "Spine Bearer"? Cost: 1 year of lifespan.]
The moment Ren Qing's lifespan was drained, his eyes widened, and he knelt to the ground. His spine began squirming as if it were a living thing.
There wasn't much pain, but for the spinal column, the body's central structure, to suddenly mutate was still easy to imagine.
Ren Qing felt completely paralyzed, but the skin on his back was being gradually stretched open, as if something was about to burst forth.
"Damn it..."
His scalp went numb. Fortunately, the advancement didn't last long, just a dozen or so minutes before it ended.
Ren Qing quickly reached behind him. His spine seemed thicker than before, but there weren't any major differences.
If it weren't for merging with a life-bound artifact, this mutation path could be said to have no use at all.
The mutation tree in his mind also reflected the corresponding changes.
[Iron Bones Shroud: Skin Transforms to Bone]
[Back-Borne Bone Artifact: Bones as Vessels]
[Bone-Seeding Life: A Forest of Bones]
It seemed that after Spine Bearer advanced to Ghost Envoy realm, the spine would undergo further transformation, could it be that all bones in the body would mutate into artifacts?
Ren Qing had no way of knowing.
He took the Dragon-Snake Spine from his Abnormal Stomach and carefully examined the whip-like spinal bone, increasingly satisfied the more he looked at it.
But then Ren Qing felt stuck.
He hadn't read the Bone Armor Technique spell manual at all, so how was he supposed to fuse the Dragon-Snake Spine into his spine?
Ren Qing first tried pressing the Dragon-Snake Spine to his back, still completely useless.
Seeing that, he simply drew the Great Miao Blade and drove it into the back of his neck.
Blood gushed out.
While preparing to use Leather Refiner to transfer the injury at any moment, he grabbed the Dragon-Snake Spine and placed it into the gaping, bone-deep wound.
The sound of blood being drunk rang out.
Before he could react, the Dragon-Snake Spine suddenly began moving.
Ren Qing sucked in a sharp breath.
He didn't know if it was his spine devouring the Dragon-Snake Spine, or if the technique had caused the latter to undergo mutation, but he now felt like a giant python was burrowing into his bones.
This at least proved that life-bound artifacts weren't restricted to weapons..
Once the Dragon-Snake Spine had completely disappeared, the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. In moments, not even a scar remained.
Ren Qing closed his eyes and sensed, a cool current flowed within his spinal bones, spreading through the marrow into all other bones.
An unexpected profit, he hadn't expected Bone Armor Technique to nourish the bones automatically, without requiring active cultivation.
Placing a hand on his neck, he directly extracted the Dragon-Snake Spine.
It had changed from its original silver-white color to bone-white, with backwards-facing bone blades growing along its body, looking exceedingly eerie.
As Ren Qing held the Dragon-Snake Spine, the entire artifact twisted like a serpent.
He didn't even need to use his arm, the Dragon-Snake Spine directly extended to over ten meters, punching a fist-sized hole in the wall.
The most terrifying part was that the Dragon-Snake Spine combined speed with sharpness, it pierced through the wall without making a sound.
Ren Qing's twin pupils rotated slightly. Through the window, he saw several bats in the night sky.
Swish!!!
The Dragon-Snake Spine instantly shot out, piercing through the bats, the bone blades unfurled, directly bringing the corpses back into Ren Qing's hand.
The Abnormal Mouth devoured the bat corpses, which were then absorbed by the Abnormal Stomach.
Ren Qing felt slightly regretful. Although the life-bound artifact was smooth to use and met expectations, pulling it from the spine made it difficult to remain covert.
Unless the artifact could be made more flexible.
It was worth a try.
He stored the Dragon-Snake Spine back into his spine, then closed his eyes and attempted to sense the artifact.
But the cold current behaved as if it had intelligence. After trying to communicate for a long while with no response, Ren Qing lost patience and directly threw the Dragon-Snake Spine into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Under the threat of being devoured, the Dragon-Snake Spine naturally fell in line.
Ren Qing casually manipulated the artifact to flow through all his bones, then made it emerge from his chest and abdomen.
But the flesh was torn open, leaving a massive wound...
It felt like he hadn't even hurt the enemy yet but had already injured himself.
Weren't his only exposed bones his teeth?
Wait... The Abnormal Mouth!
Ren Qing kept experimenting , using the Abnormal Mouth's teeth was most convenient. It could directly drag opponents into the Abnormal Stomach.
The Abnormal Mouth also had repulsive force to assist, the two techniques working together made it impossible for ordinary cultivators to resist.
And this was only the initial ritual of refining his life-bound artifact. Once Spine Bearer advanced to Ghost Envoy realm, the power would surely step up another level.
It might even develop a Divine Ability after further mutation, this artifact's growth potential was extreme.
Before dawn, Ren Qing went into the courtyard to practice, mainly trying to make the Dragon-Snake Spine extend faster from the Abnormal Mouth.
A pity it was just one, if it could split into dozens, it would be far better.
Ren Qing retracted the Dragon-Snake Spine, and just as daylight came and Bo Feng woke up, he quickly had him contact Scribe Zhao to repair the side room and rear courtyard.
Bo Feng rubbed his eyes in a daze, his face full of disbelief.
Before sleep, the courtyard walls were perfectly intact, but after one night, they had over a hundred holes, with the morning sunlight shining straight through to the ground.
This clearly wasn't caused by Ren Qing's Great Miao Blade. It looked more like something from a military iron spear...
Bo Feng reported it nervously to Scribe Zhao.
He had expected to be blamed, but unexpectedly, over a hundred taels were allocated just to repair the courtyard, and they even expanded the area.