Cultivation: Tax Evasion!

The government soldiers stared blankly at the bandit leader, while the examinees, surrounded in the middle, didn't quite understand what had just happened.

Qian Yun gasped.

Under the cold moonlight, a spine glinting with chill killed as though mowing grass.

In everyone's eyes, the bandit leader who seemed like a demon was unable to even withstand a single round, his body pierced through and powerless to resist.

Ren Qing pulled the bandit leader in front of himself using Dragon-Snake Spine.

The latter was still struggling, but aside from causing a large amount of blood to gush from the wound, it was utterly futile.

No one present knew when Ren Qing had appeared, it all seemed extremely sudden.

Though the bandit leader was already dying, his vitality was unusually strong.

He mumbled, "Mother will... kill... you..."

The wound in his abdomen slowly began to heal, but the bloody smell drifting from it carried a strange scent of wine.

[Zhang Sanwa]

[Age: Twenty-three]

[Remaining lifespan: Three years]

[Technique: Wuwei Dao (Fake)]

Ren Qing pondered, could it be that cultivating this fabricated technique would consume lifespan?

Moreover, the man's intelligence seemed quite low.

Just as Ren Qing was about to close the information stream, further details about Wuwei Dao flooded into his mind.

Unlike the previous brief entries, this time it involved the "Pure Yang Filthless Method."

[Pure Yang Filthless Method, created by Ren Qing, is one of the techniques of Wuwei Dao. Through consuming hearts, one causes self-mutation. When fully cultivated, the flesh and blood of the entire body becomes extremely delicious.]

Delicious?

Why would it be described as delicious?!!

Ren Qing's face was full of confusion. He felt that there was a lot of hidden information here, even something deeply terrifying upon closer thought.

First, he needed to kill the hidden preacher.

He grabbed the bandit leader and leapt into the treetops.

People below noticed Ren Qing vanish and began to panic, but then heard Ren Qing's voice: "Set up camp and rest here. I'll be right back."

With that, Ren Qing tapped the branches with his feet and vanished like a shadow, heading swiftly into the forest.

Qian Yun swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Just as he was about to instruct his subordinates, he noticed that the amassed corpses had already attracted uninvited guests.

A dozen wild wolves were creeping toward them.

"Prepare to fight..."

Qian Yun gave a bitter smile and ordered the soldiers to light campfires and build a defensive line.

But suddenly, a whistling sound broke the air, and that spine-like chain flashed by. The corpses and wolf pack from earlier vanished like an illusion.

Even though the fear instilled by the bandits was gone, their hairs still stood on end.

...

Ren Qing had no intention of interrogating Zhang Sanwa. Using the traces left by the bandits as they traveled, he quickly pinpointed the mountain stronghold's location and rushed over.

As for Zhang Sanwa, he was casually thrown into the Prison Within the Abdomen.

Ren Qing also didn't waste the corpses and wolves he had collected.

The corpses were tossed to the Divine Leg Sutra's Supernatural Remnant as a snack, while the wolves were locked up together with the husky.

Moments later, Ren Qing arrived at the back of the mountain.

If one didn't look closely, it would be hard to notice the dozen or so thatched huts hidden in the valley, with a few acres of farmland nearby.

Ren Qing's figure merged with the moonlight. As he scanned the area, he was immediately surprised.

Even in the middle of the night, the bandits were still busy. They poured mud into wooden buckets and stirred in crushed stones.

Others were poking sticks into the fire, fishing out chunks of charcoal and also putting them into buckets.

Once they were done, they carried the buckets into a pit in the center of the village.

From the bandits' expressions, it was clear they were steeped in extreme fear, speaking only in hushed voices.

Ren Qing stepped directly into the village.

Even if some bandits noticed him, they would suddenly black out and collapse to the ground, so no one detected him.

He bent over and entered the underground pit, immediately catching a nauseating stench and a visual full of spiderwebs.

Ren Qing frowned and unconsciously quickened his pace.

Compared to the tunnels dug by the Rotten Mud Gang, this one was night and day.

This place felt more like it had been dug bare-handed, with many visible claw marks on the walls.

Ren Qing walked for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before discovering something.

At the end was a cave chamber deep within the tunnel, where a brick-and-stone sacrificial altar stood at the back.

A figure knelt motionless on the altar, its purpose unclear.

There were two large iron cages on the altar, containing dozens of ragged men tied together and unable to move.

But their expressions were full of fanaticism, faces truly seeking the Dao.

From their worn clothing, they appeared to be ordinary civilians from Heshan Town, not merchants.

How did these bandits even have the capability to traffic people from town?

Ren Qing squinted slightly.

The figure on the altar stood up, it was a woman in black robes, with eight spider eyes on her face.

She had likely cultivated a spider-based technique and was almost certainly a preacher.

She then banged on a metal plate and began chanting in a strange tone, completely ignoring Ren Qing.

"Dao begets Dao, Wuwei Gate..."

Ren Qing couldn't help but wonder, why was it "Wuwei Gate" and not "Wuwei Dao"?

"Immortal bestows immortal techniques..."

The spider woman closed her eyes and knelt again. The metal plate continued clinking unconsciously, its sound echoing in the tunnel.

She then took out a bamboo tube from her bosom and began reciting the words written on it.

"Grant the immortal technique..."

The bound seekers fell silent.

They listened ravenously, then grabbed glowing hot charcoal from the wooden buckets and stuffed it into their mouths.

Their body temperatures rose rapidly, steam rising from their heads. Some screamed and collapsed, quickly dying.

Ren Qing had thoroughly examined the bamboo slips inside Wuwei Daoist Altar.

The spider woman was teaching one of the fabricated techniques, "Yi Wood Fire Generating Art."

Then more bandits arrived with buckets, smearing the surviving seekers with mud to isolate the heat.

Ren Qing shook his head. Preachers were likely restricted from entering Wuwei Daoist Altar, so they simply practiced fake techniques in the outside world.

Just Zhang Sanwa alone had cost an unknown number of lives, truly horrifying.

Ren Qing's palm split open into a mouth, Dragon-Snake Spine was ready to strike.

But suddenly, one seeker began to struggle violently.

The mud around him cracked open, revealing pitch-black skin. The temperature in the tunnel rose noticeably.

The seeker's facial features were hollow, and upon breathing, fire exploded from his mouth, instantly dissolving dozens of people in the intense heat.

The stench in the tunnel vanished, replaced by a bizarre aroma of cooked meat and charred corpses.

Before the man could react, Dragon-Snake Spine wrapped around him.

Information stream surged.

[Chen Lie]

[Age: Twenty-seven]

[Remaining lifespan: Six years]

[Technique: Wuwei Dao (Fake)]

[Yi Wood Fire Generating Art, created by Daoist Hanmei, is one of the techniques of Wuwei Dao. Cultivation requires consuming large amounts of charcoal to induce mutation. Upon mastery, the flesh and blood becomes relatively delicious.]

Delicious. Again, delicious....

Ren Qing finally understood that it wasn't that the destruction of Wuwei Daoist Altar caused the emergence of these preachers.

The original Wuwei Daoist Altar probably operated this way all along.

Ren Qing suspected that before its downfall, Wuwei Daoist Altar posed as immortals to select disciples from mortals and teach them techniques.

But in truth, it was only to make the mortals more edible.

Possibly to raise suitable hosts for the eerie creatures hatched from the Heavenly Dao Egg within cultivators' bodies.

Ren Qing stepped out from the shadows of the cave and swallowed the man into the Prison Within the Abdomen, keeping him in a separate cell from the bandit leader.

If his guess was correct, then this was a perfect opportunity. He could use the two as bait to see if it would lure out the creature in the black pond.

"My child... you will die..."

The mad spider woman turned and noticed Ren Qing. Without hesitation, six bulges swelled on her back.

Ren Qing's expression grew alert. She was actively seeking mutation through technique, she wouldn't even retain her intellect.

Such means were undeniably mad.

He could clearly feel that the spider woman hadn't cultivated on her own but gained the technique by consuming a Supernatural Remnant.

Ren Qing recalled the peddler he encountered during the exam, the Human-Faced Beast Demon. Very similar to this spider woman, yet completely different.

Her gaze locked tightly on Ren Qing, and she threatened: "Wuwei Gate... knows all... prepare to die..."

"Wuwei Gate."

Ren Qing sensed this woman was very different from the other preachers he'd encountered.

That peddler hadn't even realized he'd been preached to by the Blind Daoist, he had Ghost Envoy-level power but couldn't wield it.

But the spider woman clearly had conscious awareness.

Wait, Wuwei Gate might not be related to Wuwei Daoist Altar at all. It could be some cultivator's own faction formed in secret.

Maybe it had nothing to do with the Blind Daoist, just someone with the same idea: monopolizing Wuwei Daoist Altar.

The bulges on the spider woman's back burst, spraying fluids everywhere. Several appendages emerged, resembling spider legs.

Using them to cling to the stone wall, she crawled swiftly toward Ren Qing.

"Wuwei Gate grants me immortality. Wuwei Gate grants me eternal life..."

Ren Qing asked curiously, "What exactly is Wuwei Gate?"

"Submit to my Wuwei Gate, or die!"

As she moved, her body grew more spider-like. She had nearly completed massive-scale mutation in a short time.

Her mutation could wield strength well beyond the Half-Corpse realm. With confidence in victory, she sought to devour her prey quickly.

Her mouth stretched to her ears, revealing fangs dripping with blood.

Ren Qing murmured to himself, "This cultivator built a faction around Heshan Town using Dao Sheng Dao..."

Right now the faction was still small, but he knew it had to be eliminated quickly. Otherwise, it would attract attention from the Restraint Officers' Hall.

If Wuwei Daoist Altar were exposed because of this, all that fortune would be reduced to mere soup.

The spider woman lost all human form, becoming a giant creature over three meters tall, she reminded Ren Qing of a Nether Feather creature.

She laughed wildly, eyes full of madness, as if already seeing Ren Qing torn to shreds by her own hands.

But soon the mad spider woman couldn't laugh anymore, because the man in front of her was also mutating...