Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 112 Leveraging Opportunities is Also a Kind of Talent

Chen Ye pondered for a long time without finding an answer, so he couldn't help but ask, "Master, what are you good at?"

Mo Ci asked in confusion, "You're asking me?"

"Of course, Master, although you have possessed many bodies and your soul is extremely weak, you must have extraordinary abilities to have cultivated to the Profound Realm as a rogue cultivator."

"You also said that you were once hunted down by the Qinghe Sword Sect but managed to escape. That must be no ordinary skill. Teach me how."

Mo Ci sensed something was wrong. Was this wicked disciple genuinely seeking guidance, or was he subtly betraying his master and ancestors?

However, Mo Ci had almost gotten used to it and was too lazy to argue with Chen Ye.

Mo Ci said with considerable pride, "My most powerful skill is actually my movement technique."

Chen Ye asked, "Master, are you referring to the ability to escape?"

Mo Ci was not angry at all; on the contrary, he became even more smug and said, "That's not wrong. With this movement technique, I have avoided countless death calamities and have been able to live for hundreds of years."

Chen Ye asked in surprise, "Then why didn't you teach me movement techniques, Master?"

Having studied under Mo Ci for several months, I only learned the most basic things. Mo Ci actually held back a trick for me. He truly is a member of the demonic path. It's a tradition for masters to trick their disciples.

Mo Ci said to Chen Ye, "Teach you? I have taught you, but you just couldn't learn it on your own."

"When is this?"

In Chen Ye's memory, Mo Ci had never mentioned any spells or techniques related to movement.

Mo Ci laughed and said, "That's when your master throws pebbles at you."

Chen Ye was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Then weren't you deliberately abusing me?"

Chen Ye remembered that when he first started cultivating with Mo Ci, the old man always looked half-dead. Before speaking to him, he would always throw a small stone, which would leave him covered in bruises.

Chen Ye thought the demon was deliberately torturing him, but fortunately, a month later Mo Ci stopped throwing stones, and Chen Ye thought that he had finally accepted him as his disciple.

Mo Ci explained, “I was testing your talent. If you could easily dodge the stones I threw, you would be qualified to learn this movement technique. But you couldn’t dodge them every time, so I knew you couldn’t learn it. The movement technique I know is not some kind of supernatural power or secret art, but just the most common light-body dodging technique. It all depends on talent to comprehend. Since you don’t have this talent, I naturally won’t bother to teach you anymore.”

Chen Ye was speechless. What kind of outdated tradition was this? They had mouths but wouldn't say anything, insisting that their disciples figure it out on their own. If Mo Ci had said it earlier, wouldn't he have seriously avoided it?

Chen Ye quickly said, "I'm just afraid that you won't be able to throw it, and you'll get angry and kill me. If you teach me now, maybe I can learn it."

Mo Ci, rarely getting the better of Chen Ye, mocked, "If you don't believe you have no talent, then let me ask you, how many steps does it take to get from here to the cave entrance?"

Chen Ye estimated it with his eyes and replied, "About thirty steps."

Mo Ci said, "At your pace, you'll arrive in twenty-seven and a half steps. Try it if you don't believe me."

Chen Ye walked with some doubt, and sure enough, he arrived at the cave entrance after taking twenty-seven steps. He was just half a step away from stepping onto the grass outside.

Mo Ci said proudly, "This is talent. When I fought with others, I would take as few steps as possible and dodge by the slightest margin without wasting any extra effort. But you can't do that. At most, you can only practice until you are proficient, but you can never reach my level."

Chen Ye couldn't help but admire him. It seemed that Mo Ci was indeed exceptionally gifted in terms of spatial distance perception. He could also imagine that when Mo Ci fought with others, he must be as slippery as an eel.

Chen Ye could already imagine how Mo Ci had managed to evade the Qinghe Sword Sect's pursuit; he had probably weaved through the rain of sword light, his movements as swift as a ghost.

Looking at it this way, I really don't have that talent.

Chen Ye couldn't help but ponder again, what exactly was his strength?

Casting spells was not Chen Ye's forte. He had studied the four secret techniques of restraint, interrogation, and torture for a long time but had not made much progress and could hardly use them in a battle.

They have always relied on magical weapons to bully the weak, or they would try to get involved with the Qinghe Sword Sect.

Chen Ye smiled wryly: "By relying on magic weapons and powerful backers to bully people, it sounds like I'm the villain in the story?"

Mo Ci casually remarked, "Perhaps this is what you excel at. Leveraging influence is sometimes a skill. If I had had your ability back then, I wouldn't have ended up like this."

"Taking advantage of the situation?"

"That's right. In a battle of wits, the winner takes all. No matter what means you use, as long as you win, you're fine; if you lose, you die. If you have power to borrow, why not? If the leader of the Qinghe Sword Sect were your own father, you could be considered invincible."

Chen Ye felt that Mo Ci's words made a lot of sense. A battle of magic was a life-or-death struggle, so what means couldn't be used?
I asked before going up into the ring, and there's no method that can't be used, as long as no one gets killed.

Chen Ye felt enlightened. The powerful enemies he had killed before were all because he had made preparations in advance. Why couldn't he take advantage of Qin Ze of the Mirage Sect this time?
Chen Ye said self-deprecatingly, "I'm still a diviner, how can I be foolish enough to confront someone head-on?"

As Sun Tzu's Art of War states: "He who wins a battle before it is fought has many calculations in his favor; he who loses a battle before it is fought has few calculations in his favor. Many calculations lead to victory, few calculations to defeat, and what about those who have no calculations at all? By observing this, I can see the outcome of the battle."

If you have an advantage, you should use it to the fullest. Chen Ye waved the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, summoning an army of Yin spirits.

"Everyone, please help me with my cultivation!"

At Chen Ye's command, the spirits of Yang Chongguang and others began to fly around, their spiritual energy transforming into threads that wove together the Xuan Yin Spirit-Absorbing Array.

A vast amount of spiritual energy surged from the void, filling the surroundings.

Chen Ye chanted the six-syllable mantra, and his eighteen Qi Seas, which were already overflowing, continued to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, while his right hand began to form various hand seals.

Divination requires a lot of spiritual energy; Chen Ye had previously exhausted his Qi Sea just by calculating the weather.

But now, the spiritual energy from his eighteen Qi Seas is enough to support him in completing a detailed divination.

Billions of sparks of light burst forth from between his fingers, transforming into countless shards of gold flying everywhere.

In Chen Ye's eyes, these golden rays were not chaotic and disorderly, but rather constantly separated and combined, evolving into various hexagrams.

What Chen Ye needs to do now is to calculate the final hexagram and confirm everything he wants to know.

Diviners should not attempt to divine the fate of cultivators with higher cultivation levels than themselves. Without a talent like Mo Suixin, reckless divination can easily backfire and be detected. Therefore, Chen Ye did not directly divine Qin Ze's methods of the Mirage Sect. The art of divination emphasizes indirect methods, deducing from other details.

The only problem is that Chen Ye might not be able to predict accurately.

The divination result is not necessarily true; if the divination is wrong, what is seen may be completely the opposite.

In short, it all depends on personal methods.

One more thing: you must trust the calculated results.

If a diviner does not believe the results of his own calculations, then he is essentially useless from now on.

No matter how outrageous or unbelievable it is, and no matter how likely it is to be a miscalculation, you must believe what the divination indicates.

As light and shadow shifted, the hexagrams gradually appeared.

Chen Ye opened his eyes and carefully observed the divination symbols in front of him.

"The hexagram Sheng (Ascending), Earth over Wind, with Kun (Earth) above Xun (Wind). Great success, do not worry, the auspicious position is in the South..."

After carefully interpreting the divination, Chen Ye felt all the confusion dissipate before his eyes. He said to Mo Ci, "Thank you for your guidance, Master. I am sure I will win this battle!"

Mo Ci asked in confusion, "What have you figured out?"

Chen Ye laughed and said, "It can't be said, or it won't work."

"Hmph, I dislike fortune tellers who pretend to be mystical the most. But don't be so smug. If Qin Ze really is at the Profound Realm, then he must possess a supernatural power. This supernatural power cannot be deduced by common sense. If that person is lucky enough to have a powerful supernatural power, he can turn the tide of battle at any time."

Upon hearing Mo Ci's words, Chen Ye couldn't help but ask, "Master, you are also at the Profound Realm, so why have you never told me what supernatural abilities you have comprehended?"

Mo Ci shook his head and said, "I'm too lazy to even mention this useless supernatural ability."

"You should also be wary of your apprentices?"

"We are all devils."

Chen Ye was speechless. This old man was all he had left was his soul, yet he was still clinging to the old ways of traditional demonic cultivation.

However, Chen Ye didn't necessarily need to know. Now that he had figured out the way to win, he should start making preparations in advance.

Chen Ye grabbed two pieces of paper and filled them with runes, then hurriedly went to the dueling arena.

It was still deserted and desolate, and even Lu Shichang was nowhere to be seen.

"No one will disturb us, this is just right."

Chen Ye summoned the spirits, took out the two sheets of paper he had drawn earlier, and said to the spirits, "Please arrange them according to the pattern I have drawn."

Yang Chongguang and the other spirits took the blueprints and immediately began to get busy.

Weeding, moving stones, digging soil and filling pits, the originally abandoned fighting arena was quickly transformed, and the outline of the arena could be barely seen.

Chen Ye couldn't help but sigh, this Ten Thousand Souls Banner is truly useful, worthy of being the number one magic weapon of the Demonic Sect. If only there were more Yin Souls.

(End of this chapter)