Ren Qing's gaze focused slightly as he instinctively activated his Double-Pupil ability.
He noticed traces of bloodstains left where Tu Di had walked, though they were gradually being absorbed clean by the Avici Hell.
The blood clearly flowed from Tu Di's body. Combined with his worsening mutation and hazy memory, it seemed his condition was far from optimistic.
The Secret Pavilion's door closed automatically.
Ren Qing walked toward the bookshelves. He could spare time later to inform Song Zongwu about Tu Di's situation.
The Secret Pavilion was divided into five floors. Reserves could access the first three, and books documenting predecessors' advancements to the Ghost Envoy Realm should be on the upper levels.
But he wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he casually flipped through the books.
The records themselves were made of an unknown material, tough to the touch.
Ren Qing discovered that the ground floor contained records of Restraint Officers who had died in recent years, including the whereabouts and handling methods of their Supernatural Remnants.
Even if someone deliberately destroyed them, it wouldn't matter, the Secret Pavilion surely had safeguards, given how none of the records were missing.
After browsing the records briefly, Ren Qing prepared to head upstairs.
But suddenly, he noticed claw marks on the side of a corner shelf, seemingly left by Tu Di.
Frowning, Ren Qing approached and touched the marks.
The wooden shelf was hardened, likely soaked in tung oil, making it as tough as stone.
Such deep gouges couldn't have been made without some significant force.
Ren Qing's eyebrows rose. Tu Di must have been reading records here, had he suddenly lost control of his emotions?
With growing suspicion, he flipped through the records, his expression turning increasingly odd.
Over a dozen volumes documented Restraint Officers who had died in the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone.
The pages were relatively new, suggesting the Restraint Officers' Hall had compiled them recently.
As Ren Qing had guessed, because some Restraint Officers mastered multiple techniques, the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone had devoured their Supernatural Remnants.
That was why there were thirteen herbs in the medicinal garden, each representing a Supernatural Remnant.
Ren Qing also pieced together the full story of the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone.
Initially, a Restraint Officer discovered the Forbidden Zone and reported it to the Restraint Officers' Hall, but he accidentally died inside of it.
The Hall naturally dispatched many Restraint Officers, yet not only did they die inexplicably, their very existence was nearly erased by the Forbidden Zone.
In the end, Song Zongwu led a team to seal it off.
Ren Qing scrutinized the Restraint Officers' information several times, sensing something amiss, why was the most crucial Demon Seed Sutra missing from the records?
Refusing to give up, he checked other shelves and soon found something.
In a volume documenting missing Restraint Officers, Ren Qing discovered a cultivator named Jiang Ge, whose primary technique was the Demon Seed Sutra.
However, this person had been missing for three years. It was unclear if it was related to the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone, or why Tu Di was even searching for such information.
Ren Qing exhaled deeply.
Since the Disaster-Dispelling Forbidden Zone was already sealed, further investigation was pointless. The anomalies with Tu Di should be left to Song Zongwu.
Memorizing the details, Ren Qing turned and ascended the stairs.
The second floor had only four bookshelves and was slightly tidier, at least without suffocating dust.
A map of Xiangxiang hung on the wall, with the bustling Sanxiang City at its center and scattered villages around it.
The forests south of Sanxiang City were territory of the Miao people, labeled on the map as the "Southern Border Tribes."
There were a few small towns, all clustered in the south. In contrast, the further north, the more desolate it became.
Unfortunately, areas beyond Xiangxiang weren't shown.
Additionally, Forbidden Zones were marked in blood-red circles.
But relying on the map to locate these sealed zones was nearly impossible, the red circles were far too large.
Ren Qing's eyes moved to the top of the map, the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and his expression froze in shock.
A red circle covering a quarter of the map enveloped the depths of the mountains, completely severing the path between north and south. It was hard to imagine how terrifying such a Forbidden Zone must be.
It likely involved the Yang God Realm..
What stunned Ren Qing most was that the Forbidden Zone's position perfectly covered the mountain range, flanked by canyons and deserts.
An absurd thought struck him:
Could a Yang God Realm cultivator have deliberately died deep in the Hundred Thousand Mountains... to cut off the north?
He recalled Song Zongwu's words:
"Forbidden Zones are only one of the threats."
Goosebumps erupted across his skin. The sudden idea frightened him, and it took a while to steady his mind.
Perhaps he was overthinking it. A Yang God Realm cultivator wouldn't die so easily.
Suppressing his thoughts, Ren Qing began flipping through the second-floor books.
They documented known Forbidden Zones formed by Supernatural Remnants, along with methods to handle them.
However, their reliability was questionable, after all, other Restraint Officers lacked the Information Stream, making it hard to verify through subjective judgment alone.
For example, a Forbidden Zone formed by the Divine Leg Sutra caused living beings inside to gradually mutate into beasts.
The book's solution was brutally simple: send in Restraint Officers who had already fully mutated, using them to counter the zone.
But typically, Forbidden Zones would also devour other Supernatural Remnants, so sealing them was the safest approach.
Ren Qing set the book aside. His priority now was advancing to the Ghost Envoy Realm.
Without hesitation, he headed to the third floor.
The third floor of the Secret Pavilion held even fewer books, just over a dozen. A table in the corner displayed glass jars.
Inside them floated dismembered corpse parts, including a swollen head.
The head belonged to a man, likely in his forties. It was unclear why it was kept in the Secret Pavilion.
As Ren Qing moved closer to inspect it, the head's eyes suddenly snapped open, glaring at him viciously.
Was this some kind of eerie cultivation technique...?
Ren Qing forced a smile. "Senior, I'm just here to read about the Ghost Envoy Realm. I didn't mean to disturb your rest."
"Gurgle..."
The head drained the water in the jar, then spoke hoarsely: "Second shelf on the left."
Ren Qing nodded, ignoring the head's strange stare, and focused on the books.
The head spat out fresh water to refill the jar, closed its eyes, and sank back into slumber, its lips faintly twitching.
Ren Qing sighed in relief.
The head was likely a Restraint Officer tasked with managing the Secret Pavilion, albeit not very diligently.
He picked up a book and soon found content about advancing to the Ghost Envoy Realm.
However, the handwriting varied across volumes, clearly written by different individuals.
Each Restraint Officer's perspective differed slightly, but all mentioned that when advancing from the Half-Corpse Realm to the Ghost Envoy Realm, one might face a Inner Demon Tribulation triggered by their technique.
This could be bypassed using the Information Stream.
From other passages, Ren Qing learned that the Three Eerie Transformations of the Ghost Envoy Realm were the process of forging one's Dao Foundation.
But not all cultivators could complete all three transformations and some might even stagnate at a bottleneck and become forever unable to pass it.