Ren Qing used Dao births Dao to pull the ghost shadow into Wuwei Daoist Altar.
The Fire Refining Palace was quite far from Wuwei Hall, and reaching it would take at least half an hour.
Immediately, the ghost shadow appeared beside the Spirit Division.
After leaving the main body, it behaved rather unnaturally, circling the Spirit Division like a cat or dog.
Ren Qing ordered the ghost shadow to stay put.
The Spirit Division successfully merged into the ghost shadow, mainly because the latter showed no resistance.
Under Ren Qing's control, the ghost shadow came to the edge of the lotus leaf. After prolonged cultivation in water, it no longer showed any aversion.
However, upon sensing the aura of the Heavenly Dao Worm, it still instinctively felt fear.
After calming the ghost shadow for a while, it slowly flowed into the pond and swam toward Wuwei Hall.
At first, Ren Qing was still a bit nervous, afraid the ghost shadow would be lost within Wuwei Daoist Altar, and it would take a lot of time to nurture another one.
But unexpectedly, the Heavenly Dao Worm larvae were indeed not very interested in the ghost shadow.
Even when a few worms occasionally came near, they turned away after a moment.
Ren Qing had the ghost shadow speed up as much as possible. After all, the Heavenly Dao Worms possessed intelligence, if they sensed anything unusual, it could all go to waste.
The ghost shadow gradually moved deeper into the pond.
The journey was relatively smooth, but as Wuwei Hall drew closer, Ren Qing's heart suddenly tensed up.
He sensed something was wrong, vaguely premonishing danger.
A shadow on the water's surface darkened from light to deep, exuding a terrifying aura as if it were material. That giant maggot had clearly locked onto the ghost shadow.
The ghost shadow had only recently been born and had never seen such a scene before, desperately swimming toward its destination.
The giant maggot's mouth covered the surface of the water, the intangible pressure suffocating. The surrounding Heavenly Dao Worm larvae all fled in fear.
Ren Qing realized that size and flexibility were not necessarily proportional, despite its hundred-meter-long body, its explosive speed surpassed even the smaller larvae.
From the moment the giant maggot's shadow appeared to it leaping from the water took no more than five breaths.
Boom!!!
The chrysanthemum-shaped mouthparts opened and closed, and the water surged across the pond.
Ren Qing's face turned pale. Though the ghost shadow's injury wouldn't harm him directly, it still had some impact.
"Good thing I had a backup plan..."
Most of the ghost shadow's body was swallowed by the giant maggot, but a strand of its remains escaped through its teeth, carrying the Spirit Division along.
Taking advantage of the wave's force, the ghost shadow reached Wuwei Hall.
However, by the time it climbed onto the lotus leaf, only a fist-sized lump remained.
Ren Qing brought the ghost shadow back to the outside world.
To heal, it turned back into a shadow and began absorbing blood again.
Ren Qing ignored it and refocused his attention on Wuwei Daoist Altar, where the Spirit Division now faced the majestic Wuwei Hall.
Wuwei Hall soared into the clouds, its exterior more like a mountain peak, dotted with caves of various sizes.
These caves were the cultivation places of core disciples.
Ren Qing did not rush up the mountain. With hundreds of caves, checking them one by one would be too time-consuming.
He pondered the positions of the caves along the mountain, they resembled acupuncture points on the human body.
Wuwei Daoist Altar had arranged the caves this way for a reason.
After all, each Heavenly Dao Technique differed mainly by the body part where the Heavenly Dao Egg was embedded, corresponding to acupuncture points.
Ren Qing's gaze locked onto the Tian Shu Point near the mountainside, located around the navel, precisely where the Nether Sea Breathing Art embedded the Heavenly Dao Egg.
His clone ascended the mountain.
Passing by the Yongquan Point cave at the base, he noticed how desolate Wuwei Hall had become.
Weeds grew at the cave entrances, with white bones half-buried in the soil, even unnamed graves visible.
Yet in his mind, Ren Qing envisioned the scene of Wuwei Daoist Altar's prosperity.
Dozens of core disciples sat before their caves, while Heavenly Dao Child stood atop the peak, expounding the Dao, his voice echoing throughout the grounds.
"Pity that the Heavenly Dao you cultivate does not belong to humanity."
Ren Qing sighed lightly and soon arrived at the Tian Shu Point cave. A river should have flowed through it.
Now only a dry riverbed remained, with some fish bones scattered about.
He remained vigilant as he entered the cave.
A breeze blew. Perhaps due to some formation, the weeds were kept at the entrance. Inside, the decor resembled an ordinary Daoist temple.
Wooden table, incense burner, meditation mat...
Even if the cave was simple, one could tell at a glance that it was a place for cultivation.
Ren Qing carefully rummaged through the items in the Tian Shu Point cave. Most were fragments, even a perfumed sachet from some admiring senior or junior sister.
He pulled out several yellowed letters and learned from their content that the cultivator who lived here was named Huang Qi.
The letters mostly advised his parents to take care of their health and asked about the alchemy shop business in Jingzhou City.
This showed that under Heavenly Dao Child's development, cultivators were far more numerous in Jingzhou than in Xiangxiang.
Before the Heavenly Dao Worm disaster, Jingzhou must have been very peaceful, with every mortal hoping to join Wuwei Daoist Altar.
In a sense, this was what a normal cultivation world should look like...
That's why Heavenly Dao Child went mad after the catastrophic outbreak of the Heavenly Dao Worm.
Ren Qing searched meticulously and finally found the Nether Sea Breathing Art beneath the pillow, its pages filled with annotations.
Huang Qi's talent was slightly inferior to other core disciples, so he tried to make up for it with diligence.
Ren Qing stored the Nether Sea Breathing Art in the Prison Within the Abdomen and continued searching but found no clue about the Heavenly Dao Egg.
He didn't feel disappointed. Wuwei Hall had hundreds of caves; he was sure he'd find a Heavenly Dao Egg eventually and needn't rush.
Anyway, the ghost shadow still needed time to heal, just right to study the Nether Sea Breathing Art.
The Spirit Division returned to the mountain base and began searching the caves one by one from the Yongquan Point onward.
From the trinkets left in the caves, Ren Qing gradually pieced together a fuller image of Wuwei Daoist Altar.
A cultivation sect with over 3,000 disciples was bound to have intrigue and conflict, but Heavenly Dao Child tried his best to maintain fairness.
Xiao Chenzhi was one of Heavenly Dao Child's disciples, the eldest senior brother of Wuwei Daoist Altar, and concurrently the elder of the Hidden Treasury Pavilion.
Compared to Wuwei Daoist Altar, the Restraint Officers' Hall was sloppy in its recruitment.
Of course, this also related to the techniques themselves, Restraint Officer cultivators formed forbidden zones after death, so blindly expanding numbers wasn't possible.
Heavenly Dao cultivators, on the other hand, only had their Heavenly Dao Worms leave the body after death, forming a different cultivation environment.
Ren Qing searched over a dozen caves. While he didn't find a Heavenly Dao Egg, he did find an empty porcelain bottle that once held one.
Realizing this, he naturally sped up.
When he reached the cave at the Blood Sea Point near the knees, preparing to go inside, he suddenly sensed something wrong.
Nearby plants were twisted, and the wind howled.
The trees clearly weren't from the mortal world.
Their trunks were covered with fist-sized holes and black vines. When wind blew through the holes, it made eerie crying sounds.
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes, his breath quickening.
There were no such anomalies on the way to the Tian Shu Point, so this had to be recent. That meant only one thing...
He turned his head stiffly. In the distance stood an unnameable monster.
That cow-sheep-headed being stared coldly at Ren Qing.
Heavenly Dao Child had grown even more deformed than last time, with a black-furred arm growing from his shoulder.
"You are not a disciple of Wuwei Daoist Altar, how did you get into Wuwei Hall?"
Ren Qing didn't expect Heavenly Dao Child to still be lucid. After hesitating for a few moments, he chose not to withdraw the Spirit Division.
He tentatively replied, "Grandmaster, I'm an outer disciple of Wuwei Daoist Altar..."
"Impossible!!!"
Heavenly Dao Child's expression turned ferocious as he stepped forward, the vines around him writhing like serpents.
"You haven't even cultivated the Entry Method, how could you be an outer disciple?!"
He reached for Ren Qing's throat.
Seeing this, Ren Qing quickly brought the still-injured ghost shadow into Wuwei Daoist Altar.
The ghost shadow and the Spirit Division shared a source. After fusing, their aura was indistinguishable, and the Entry Method manifested in time.
Heavenly Dao Child's hand stopped half a finger from Ren Qing's neck.
He then said more gently, "As a newly initiated outer disciple, don't wander around. Entering Wuwei Hall by mistake would not be good."
"Yes, yes..."
Ren Qing took a few steps back, his legs somewhat shaky.
"What technique are you cultivating?"
"Reporting to Grandmaster, it is the Nether Sea Breathing Art."
Heavenly Dao Child's expression grew slightly dazed, then he said, "Not bad. With your talent, Huang Qi, that's enough. You'll be a core disciple someday."
"Huang Qi..."
Ren Qing had no choice but to accept the identity.
After hesitating a bit, he asked, "Grandmaster, I'm about ready to cultivate the Nether Sea Breathing Art, but I haven't received a Heavenly Dao Egg yet."
Heavenly Dao Child raised an eyebrow and snapped, "What's going on with Xiao Chenzhi, he can be sloppy even with something this important?"
"Wait here. I'll be right back."
With that, Heavenly Dao Child vanished, leaving Ren Qing standing alone.
He calmed the ghost shadow, feeling that he'd really been bold, but at worst, he'd lose both the Spirit Division and the ghost shadow.
Nervously, he waited. After just half a stick of incense's time, Heavenly Dao Child returned at the mountain's base.
Ren Qing quickly caught the porcelain bottle Heavenly Dao Child threw. Inside was a fingernail-sized amber bead, clearly a Heavenly Dao Worm larva.
"Thank you, Grandmaster."
"Huang Qi, put in some extra effort. Strive to reach inner disciple status soon."
"Dao births Dao, Wuwei Dao..."
Heavenly Dao Child began mumbling again, mixing nonsense, clearly not mentally well.
Ren Qing didn't wait for him to say more and promptly withdrew from Wuwei Daoist Altar.
He feared Heavenly Dao Child might suddenly go mad. Don't be fooled by his kindly appearance, he could flatten the Hidden Treasury Pavilion with a wave.
Ren Qing breathed a sigh of relief and placed the Heavenly Dao Egg into the Prison Within the Abdomen.
Once the ghost shadow healed, he could begin cultivating the Nether Sea Breathing Art, but judging by how the Entry Method went, it likely wouldn't be easy.
It would take slow and steady effort.
Just as well, Ren Qing could take the opportunity to accumulate more lifespan.
Once the ghost shadow mastered the Nether Sea Breathing Art, he planned to leave the Stomach within the Stomach.