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

Chapter 27 Magical Items and Spells

Combat is an inescapable tribulation for cultivators.

In fact, most magical artifacts and spells do not help with cultivation. For example, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which is most common in the Demonic Sect, is useful in combat, but no matter how many evil ghosts and vengeful spirits you have, it is difficult to increase your cultivation. In the end, you still need to refine pills and take medicine, and concentrate on cultivation to achieve immortality and enlightenment.

However, cultivation is too difficult. Relying solely on meditation, one can only reach the Qi Sea Realm at most in a lifetime.

If Chen Ye hadn't received Su Chunyi's help, it would have taken him several more years to condense his Qi Sea by relying solely on blood refining cultivation.

There are only so many rare treasures in the world. If you don't compete for them, you won't become an immortal.

Therefore, there will always be conflict, and thus, a battle of wits is inevitable.

Magical artifacts and spells are both essential for magical battles.

Chen Ye now has the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and the Sword Box, so he has no shortage of magical treasures. What he really needs to do is study magic properly.

Don't be fooled by Chen Ye's skillful use of grave-moving techniques; he can dig a huge pit in one go, looking almost as powerful as the Vajra pestle of the monk Ku'e.

But the Vajra of the monk Ku'e is created instantly with a thought, appearing immediately upon the head. Chen Ye's teleportation technique requires chanting incantations for half a day, and then concentrating fully to perform it little by little.

If it were truly a life-or-death struggle, Chen Ye would have died a hundred times over.

Therefore, both magical artifacts and spells require the ability to be created instantly with a thought; the faster the spell is cast, the greater the chance of survival.

Among the spells taught by Mo Ci, there are very few to choose from. This is the troublesome thing about independent cultivators. Without a complete inheritance, they have to rely on themselves for everything.

However, what Chen Ye was more concerned about now was Mo Ci's last sentence: what did he mean by his appearance causing trouble?
Aside from his noble and pure soul, this physical body was the most precious thing Chen Ye brought from his previous life.

Chen Ye is very confident in his looks.

But Mo Ci spoke with such conviction that Chen Ye was a little unsure.

Did sleeping in the wilderness for the past few days really ruin your looks?
Unfortunately, Mo Ci was asleep again, and Chen Ye couldn't get any answers.

Where could he find a mirror in this desolate wilderness? Chen Ye could only shake the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and summon a vengeful spirit with a scarred face.

The moment the vengeful spirit appeared, it greeted Chen Ye with "Greetings, benefactor."

This is the main soul of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, refined by the monk Ku'e, named Yang Chongguang. In his previous life, he was an old man who had served in the army for many years. Because his grandson was seriously ill, he went to the monk Ku'e to ask for help. Who would have thought that all seven members of his family would be caught by the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

Although he died old and frail, he was a brave general on the battlefield, and after being refined, he became exceptionally fierce.

Don't be fooled by his fierce appearance now. When we first met, he was barely human. Every scar on his face turned into a hideous maw, ready to devour anyone.

When the monk Ku'e tortured him, he showed no mercy. Later, Chen Ye helped him complete his revenge, and Yang Chongguang was then willing to be driven by Chen Ye.

Now that they have been summoned, they are behaving with exceptional respect.

"Old man, there's no need for such formalities. I said I would avenge you, but it was just a coincidence. In fact, you mainly avenged yourselves."

Chen Ye merely set up a formation and waited for the monk Ku'e to walk right into the trap. When the battle began, he only relied on verbal mockery and didn't even show his face.

Yang Chongguang said, “I am a crude man and cannot speak any profound truths, but without your help, we would be wandering ghosts for the rest of our lives, suffering endless torment. Moreover, you have saved us more than once. Didn’t that River Faction want to annihilate us? If it weren’t for your righteous words, we would have been annihilated.”

Chen Ye sighed, "It's no wonder, Miss Su. The demonic path has committed countless blood debts, and often we have to go to extremes to correct it."

Yang Chongguang asked, "The emperor gave an order, and hundreds of thousands of people built palaces for him, with most of them dying or being injured. Why didn't this girl come to help? When we were harmed and killed, no one came to rescue us. Why is it that now that we are seeking revenge, they are overreacting?"

Chen Ye smiled and said, "The old man's question makes sense. I'll ask Miss Su about it later."

Chen Ye wouldn't advise Yang Chongguang to be magnanimous; he had experienced these injustices firsthand in his past life.

"My benefactor is too kind. I am uneducated and know nothing of cultivation, but I can tell that the young lady is no ordinary person. I was just venting my frustrations. If I were to cause you any trouble, I would be shameless."

Yang Chongguang was very fortunate to have met Chen Ye. In his eyes, this young man was an excellent person, practically a savior from suffering. Naturally, it would be truly ungrateful to make things difficult for him.

“This is a small matter, we’ll talk about it later. Old man, has that monk Kua confessed yet?” Chen Ye asked. Yang Chongguang quickly replied, “He confessed, he confessed a long time ago. But we hate him to the bone, and since our benefactor didn’t ask, we used torture on him a few more times.”

Chen Ye had his eye on all the skills that the monk Ku'e had learned in his life and planned to dig out all of them. He originally thought it would take some time, but who would have thought that the monk Ku'e was so weak.

But thinking about it, that makes sense. Those who cultivate demonic arts are pleasure-seeking and cannot endure arduous training, so naturally they lack a firm will.

Chen Ye was quite envious of the "Open Mouth Zen" supernatural power, wanting to see what he could learn. With his mouth, wouldn't it be a perfect match if he learned that power?

After carefully putting away the things he had dug out from the monk Ku'e, Chen Ye asked Yang Chongguang, "Old man, I have a question for you. Do you think there's anything wrong with my face?"

Yang Chongguang carefully examined Chen Ye's face, and hesitated before saying, "My benefactor's face..."

Yang Chongguang remained silent for a long time, which made Chen Ye anxious and he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong with my face? Please tell me, old man."

"My benefactor's face... is described as having a nose like a hanging gall bladder with elegant bones, and lips like cinnabar surpassing peonies. Fruits were thrown to fill the carriages on the roads of Luoyang, and the whole city vied to see this handsome young man. This is how the old man used to sing in the operas I heard. This passage describes the appearance of my benefactor. He is definitely a handsome man who is rarely seen in the world."

Chen Ye was almost scared to death by him; it turned out that he was panting heavily because he was thinking of words.

That's not right. Why did Master say that this face needs to be covered?
Forget it, there's no use thinking about it now. Before returning to the city, I should first practice my magic items and spells.

The method of refining the sword box is very simple. Su Chunyi had already erased the magic imprint. Chen Ye only needed to inject spiritual energy into it and leave his imprint within the formation.

In a short while, the heavy sword case was hanging in front of Chen Ye.

With Chen Ye's command, a beam of light flew out of the sword box and headed towards the distant rocks.

With a soft sound, the sword light almost completely disappeared into the rock, leaving only half an inch outside. As the spiritual energy dissipated, the sword light gradually faded away, leaving only an empty hole in the rock.

"Impressive, as expected of the Qinghe Sword Sect's magic weapon, but the consumption is too great."

This sword box doesn't contain any flying swords, but it can condense spiritual energy into sword light, which is quite powerful. However, Chen Ye's cultivation level is a bit low, and if he uses his own spiritual energy to activate it, he can only support a maximum of three sword energies.

However, this sword box has its own unique use; it can condense sword energy in advance and store it inside. It can store up to thirty-six sword energies, but there is a time limit. If it is not nourished with spiritual energy every day, each sword energy can only be stored for a maximum of seven days.

This is a major consumer of spiritual energy. If Chen Ye has not yet condensed his Qi Sea, this sword box is essentially useless and cannot be used at all.

Chen Ye calculated carefully that with his current spiritual energy, he could only guarantee that there were seven sword energies in the sword box at most. Any more than that and he would have to spend all day holding the sword box and channeling spiritual energy into it, and he wouldn't be able to do anything else.

The magic weapon is now complete; the next step is to create the spells.

Most of the demonic spells passed down by Mo Ci are vicious and cruel, and are mainly used to injure and harm people. Chen Ye has a sword box to protect him, so he doesn't need to use them for the time being.

As for the monk Ku'e's amazing Zen abilities, Chen Ye was quite envious.

When it comes to debating scriptures, Chen Ye is truly not afraid of anyone. In his previous life, in that bizarre and chaotic society, all sorts of outrageous theories emerged endlessly. Just a few casual remarks could make ordinary cultivators furious but speechless.

The cultivation of these supernatural powers is simple: recite scriptures, make a great vow to the "Buddha" worshipped by the Nirvana sect, and you can master these supernatural powers.

Then, by fulfilling one's grand aspirations, one can naturally obtain the corresponding bonuses.

The monk Ku'e's "opening meditation" involves constantly debating scriptures with others. As long as he doesn't break through his defenses, he can obtain the protection of a golden body. Cultivation is not difficult, and Chen Ye doesn't need to make offerings at the Nirvana Sect. No matter when or where, he can complete the ritual of making a great vow simply by reciting scriptures.

However, the essence of this supernatural power is ultimately borrowing the Dharma from the "Buddha".

The scriptures say that the Buddha is selfless and saves all sentient beings, and that anyone can make a great vow to cultivate supernatural powers.

But who knows if this Buddha is real or fake? What if he is an evil god fabricated by the Nirvana School?
Judging from the way the Nirvana sect disciples act, this supernatural power is likely to have an evil aspect. Those who worship this Buddha who doesn't even have a name are probably bound to run into trouble sooner or later.

After much thought, I realized that practicing the four secret techniques of restraint, locking, interrogation, and torture from the Ksitigarbha Sutra was the safest bet.

After carefully studying the four secret techniques, he decided to begin practicing the "locking" technique.

The Soul-Locking Technique was the key Chen Ye used to capture the monk Ku'e. Now that he had a foundation, he could practice it more quickly and achieve results. The first move of this Soul-Locking Technique was the "Immobilization Technique".

(End of this chapter)