Ren Qing left South of the City.
The streets were clearly unsettled. After several days of investigation, the Yamen had likely begun moving against the cultivators of the Eye-less Method.
Since the Forbidden Guards had been deployed, they would not leave anyone any room to escape.
The Hundred-Eyed had likely anticipated this long ago. He had probably gathered enough human eyes and would choose to lie low for the time being.
Ren Qing did not hurry back to the Fire Refining Hall. Instead, he headed straight for Butcher Zhang's butcher shop.
Though Butcher Zhang had closed the shop, the inner room he lived in was still brightly lit, and snores could be heard from within.
Ren Qing activated his Double Pupils, and everything around him came into view.
He knew that the Hundred-Eyed used some method to place eyes on insects or animals, killing people from afar through them.
What puzzled Ren Qing was that such a method clearly exceeded the Hundred-Eyed's abilities.
Both were branches of the Eye-less Method. The Double-Pupil User consumed an extra half-year of lifespan, so why was the difference in power so immense?
After looking around several times, he found a snail in the corner. Its body was tucked inside its shell, making it impossible to tell whether it had a human eye.
Without hesitation, Ren Qing stomped the snail to death. At once, Butcher Zhang's suppressed scream rang out from the inner room.
He hurried into the room and saw Butcher Zhang half-kneeling on the floor, reaching into his throat as though trying to vomit something out.
Ren Qing used a pair of chopsticks from the table to brace Butcher Zhang's teeth apart, lest he bite his tongue.
Once Butcher Zhang could no longer hold it in, foul-smelling black water surged from his mouth. Its odor was unbearably pungent, and it was corrosive as well.
Tiny eyeballs were mixed into the black water, though they soon vanished without a trace.
Butcher Zhang collapsed weakly to the floor. Ren Qing checked him with the Information Flow and found that although his lifespan had decreased by five years, the Anomalous Sickness had been cured.
After settling Butcher Zhang down, Ren Qing finally returned to the Fire Refining Hall.
The moment Ren Qing entered the courtyard, before he could rest, he saw Bo Feng and the other three preparing their tools. It looked as though they were heading out to deal with corpses.
Xiao Wu let out a sigh of relief. "Qing Ge'er, thank goodness you came back in time. Fire Workers have been constantly dispatched since just now. This time, it's our turn."
Li Mian could not help worrying. "Could some great chaos have broken out in Sanxiang City?"
Bo Feng said with a grim face, "Don't think too much. It might just be gang conflict."
"Let's go over first and see."
Ren Qing felt it was probably connected to the Forbidden Guards' purge of Eye-less Method cultivators.
So many people had died from the Headless Case during this period. The Yamen would surely act like thunder and lightning.
Led by a constable, the five arrived at a private residence on Tan Street. The moment they entered, they saw flesh and blood strewn across the floor, along with dozens of flies.
Even Xiao Wu had grown accustomed to it. They began skillfully gathering the flesh and blood, placing it into specially made wooden boxes.
Yet as the flesh and blood was gradually cleared away, they sensed that something was wrong.
They had clearly pieced together only one corpse, yet they had found far too many human eyes. Several human eyes were even embedded in the skin tissue.
Xiao Wu and the Li brothers could not help stepping outside to ease their taut nerves.
Bo Feng looked at Ren Qing with a pale face, only to see that Ren Qing's expression was calm, without the slightest ripple.
Remembering Ren Qing's performance in the prison, admiration could not help rising in his heart.
In truth, Ren Qing had long expected the corpse's abnormalities.
He appeared to be busy collecting the corpse, but in his mind, he was organizing information about the Hundred-Eyed. Everything felt shrouded in thick mist, yet also close enough to touch.
According to what the Mutation Tree had revealed, the Hundred-Eyed's ability should have been to create Illusions.
Why, then, could the Hundred-Eyed Ren Qing had encountered influence others from hundreds or even thousands of meters away, and even control animals and insects with eyeballs?
A thought stirred in Ren Qing's mind. Could it be that he possessed several Arts at once, which produced an unfathomably powerful effect when used together?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Moreover, the chaos caused by the Hundred-Eyed had spread through nearly all of Sanxiang City. To avoid exposing himself, he would have to be hiding somewhere absolutely safe.
Ren Qing's eyes flashed brightly.
That left only the Yamen.
He felt as though enlightenment had been poured over his head. The disorderly clues converged in his mind and were sorted into useful information.
The changes brought by the Information Flow were apparently not limited to a surface-level cheat. Even Ren Qing's analytical ability had been strengthened severalfold.
Aside from the Eye-less Method, the Hundred-Eyed knew at least one more Art, though he had mastered them all by consuming Eerie Objects.
With no path ahead, that man could only cling to life. Obtaining an Eerie Object of the Eye-less Method at the Ghost Envoy Realm was nearly impossible, so he could only keep extending his life.
Ren Qing suspected that the life-extending effect of the Eye-less Method grew weaker and weaker with age, which was why the Hundred-Eyed had begun to go mad.
To remain hidden in the Yamen for so long, the Hundred-Eyed's methods of extending his life must have been relatively restrained at first. Only when forced into a corner had he begun eating human eyes.
To Ren Qing, the Hundred-Eyed was a considerable opportunity. He might even use him to reach the Ghost Envoy Realm in a short time.
As Ren Qing considered how to deal with the Hundred-Eyed, an idea gradually took shape.
There was no need to rush the Hundred-Eyed's identity. The most important thing was to make every preparation foolproof.
Ren Qing was still far too green to face the Hundred-Eyed. The Eye-less Method at the Half-Corpse Realm leaned toward support, while the Human Skin Book had only just entered the door.
He had to fully exploit the Double-Pupil User's advantages.
Ren Qing's first thought was the Divine Feet Scripture.
If his legs gained overwhelming explosive power after Aberration, then all he needed was for his Double Pupils to lock onto an enemy's weakness, and he would be unstoppable.
Furthermore, the Divine Feet Scripture was controlled by a force connected to beggars. They surely possessed a profound understanding of the directions Aberration could take.
At the very least, Ren Qing would not need to cross the river by feeling for stones. He could directly consume lifespan to raise the Divine Feet Scripture to the Half-Corpse Realm.
Having roughly settled his plan, Ren Qing realized that all the flesh and blood in the room had already been packed into wooden boxes.
The five continued on to the next location for corpse collection. There were simply too many dead; even the scattered cases in West of the City numbered twenty or thirty.
Ren Qing noticed that roughly eighty percent of the corpses belonged to cultivators of the Eye-less Method. The rest had merely developed Anomalous Sicknesses after being affected by the Hundred-Eyed, their heads swollen and their eyes bulging.
Had Butcher Zhang not been saved in time by Ren Qing, even if he had somehow survived, the Forbidden Guards would certainly have dealt with him.
This showed that the Forbidden Guards' attitude was to rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one slip through. Who knew how many more would die in the coming search for the Hundred-Eyed?
Ren Qing returned to the Fire Refining Hall and sat on a stone chair, feeling somewhat melancholy.
Not far away, the furnace blazed fiercely.
If not for the Information Flow, he might very well have been one of those corpses. He had only barely managed to cultivate the Eye-less Method, yet he might have been killed by the Forbidden Guards without ever knowing why.
It was rather laughable to think about. In this world, could one only come into contact with the path of cultivation by being unlucky enough?
Ren Qing chose to keep a low profile. For now, he set aside all thoughts of the Hundred-Eyed and secretly began asking about the beggars in West of the City.
The result was that, even compared to the Yamen, gangs possessing Arts still counted as no small force.
There were even quite a few Forbidden Guards who had come from gangs.
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