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

Chapter 42 Chen Ye's Advantages

Chen Ye was unaware that he had already caught the eye of two righteous sect leaders.

Even if he knew, he wouldn't care too much. In his past life, he tried hard to curry favor with his superiors, but the results were always unsatisfactory; in the end, it all came down to connections or luck.

Since I've been given a second chance at life and have even started cultivating immortality, I might as well do what I'm supposed to do first.

As for other benefits, I am fortunate to gain them, and I am destined to lose them.

Chen Ye is now fully committed to his research.

Chen Ye already knew the method of cursing spirit children. Mo Ci didn't know many secret techniques of the demonic sect, but this was the one he had studied the most deeply, since he had a lot of experience in possession.

Unfortunately, Mo Ci was ultimately not ruthless enough, and not every demon could use their own blood relatives to create magical artifacts. Therefore, Mo Ci only knew how, but never actually tried it.

Just like the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, this widely circulated secret technique has different details in different versions created by different people.

The Cursed Spirit Child of the Bitter Monk is a textbook classic, meticulously crafted according to classic methods, from the structure of the runes to the materials used.

Chen Ye found it much easier to decipher, and the secret techniques of the Ksitigarbha Sutra were truly profound, which allowed him to successfully trick the monk Ku'e.

But what Chen Ye is going to do this time is completely different; he wants to transfer this curse to another person.

And it's not even the original version.

Although the curse of possession on Princess Hongyu was derived from the evil curse of the spirit child, there were many modifications, which initially confused Chen Ye.

But when Princess Hongyu said that many of her brothers and sisters had died from torture when she cast the curse, Chen Ye realized that he had gone astray.

That old man Tianwu wasn't so powerful as to improve the curse; rather, he just made random changes with only a superficial understanding.

This is a common occurrence, just like Chen Ye's master, Mo Ci.

Independent cultivators often pick up fragments from here and there, dig up half of a secret technique from there, and piece them together to figure it out on their own.

Most can recite from the book, but when asked about the underlying principles, most cannot answer.

Take the simplest Bagua diagram, for example: the hexagram Tai (泰), with Kun (坤) above Qian (乾), is known to everyone. But if you were to ask, "Qian represents Heaven, Kun represents Earth, so why is it still auspicious when Heaven and Earth are reversed?" most independent practitioners would be unable to explain it.

They can only say it directly from the book: this is very auspicious, regardless of why it is auspicious.

When it comes to supernatural powers and secret techniques, most rogue cultivators don't care about how different runes guide spiritual energy or what special uses they have. Mo Ci was the same; he simply copied them word for word, and as long as he could cast the spell, that was enough.

If you say you want to make some changes, adjust some unnecessary or unsuitable effects, then don't ask, you definitely don't understand at all.

But what if what you get isn't the complete text to begin with?

Most independent cultivators choose to "take a gamble" or "go all in".

Especially the demonic cultivators, who act recklessly and without restraint, capture people to experiment on, to see how to modify them so they can use them on themselves later.

If this section is deleted, the flow of spiritual energy in the spell works fine at the beginning, but it dissipates after a while. If it's added back, then the spell is problematic from the start.

Let's try changing it again. This time the start and end are fine, but why did the test subject die?

The reason for this is that they did not seriously study the use of each rune, let alone understand the use of the combination. They then copied and misappropriated large amounts of it, resulting in a hodgepodge.

Chen Ye's greatest advantage over ordinary cultivators is the sheer volume of books he reads. Unlike the haphazard compilations of individual cultivators, he reads original texts with numerous annotations. While the practical applications may differ slightly, Chen Ye possesses a significant advantage over many cultivators in his study of the essence of spiritual energy.

To take sword forging as an example, most independent cultivators would simply throw someone into the furnace because "the patriarch said a blood sacrifice was necessary." Chen Ye, however, knew how to remove impurities, how to forge, how to quench, why water quenching easily produces divine weapons, and why oil quenching is more reliable. He also knew that the so-called blood sacrifice was actually just adjusting the carbon content and using oil to raise the temperature; there was really no need to burn a person.

Both men may be able to forge good swords, but Chen Ye is the one who truly understands how to forge swords.

Of course, when it comes to actually wielding swords and fighting to the death, that's a different story altogether.

With this confidence, Chen Ye treated the old man Wu's possession curse as a primary school student's homework. Whenever he saw something amiss, he would first assume that the other party was acting recklessly, and then deduce the correct answer.

In this way, the progress was much faster.

The rune structures, pieced together from various sources and obtained entirely by sheer luck, were numerous and full of contradictions, leaving Chen Ye deeply moved.

Princess Hongyu and Lanshi's survival was pure luck, pure luck. It was fortunate that Old Man Wu only knew the incomplete text that day; otherwise, Princess Hongyu and Lanshi wouldn't have been allowed to grow up so long, and their souls would have been destroyed in their childhood.

Several days later, Chen Ye conducted an experiment on a nest of rats.

The fact that the possession curse he devised could work perfectly shows that he had fully understood the old man Tianwu's thinking and knew where the curse on Princess Hongyu's body could be changed and where it could not be changed.

Feeling that he was fully prepared, Chen Ye said to Princess Hongyu, "Although I am 80 or 90 percent confident, there is still a risk. Once we start to break the curse, we may still alarm Old Man Wu, and your life will be in danger immediately."

According to the plan discussed between Chen Ye and the princess, the main method was to transfer the evil curse on Lan Shi to Princess Hong Yu, so that only Princess Hong Yu would be possessed.

Once the old man Tianwu begins to possess another body, Chen Ye will collect Princess Hongyu's soul into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, and then directly destroy her physical body, turning the old man Tianwu into a wandering ghost.

In this way, we can control him just like we did with the monk Kuayi.

Of course, the best outcome would be to deflect the soul of Elder Tianwu, preventing him from successfully possessing another body, so that both Princess Hongyu and Lanshi could survive.

In order to confirm that the only option left for the old man Tianwu was to possess another body, Princess Hongyu returned to Cui County several days ago and directly ordered the thousands of children who had been taken away to return home.

Although Magistrate Cui was confused, he had no choice but to obey the princess's orders.

Within a few days, the vast majority of the boys and girls had been sent home, and the people of Cui County were overjoyed.

But this also eliminates any possibility of a final negotiation.

Without these young boys and girls, once the old man Tianwu emerges from seclusion, he will only have one option left: possession.

He couldn't possibly go door-to-door to grab children himself; he wouldn't live to see his lifespan run out.

Princess Hongyu used this method to force Old Man Tianwu to perish together with her.

After being enslaved for many years, the little girl finally had the chance to fight back against this devil and was willing to risk everything.

The biggest problem was that Old Man Wu was hiding somewhere that day, and Chen Ye couldn't confirm his situation, so he wasn't entirely sure.

Therefore, Chen Ye suggested that Princess Hongyu wait a little longer. If Su Chunyi returned, everything would be much easier to handle. With this sword immortal in charge, there would be no fear of any mishaps.

However, after waiting for so many days, there was still no news from Su Chunyi.

With the appointed time for meeting Jiang Shiyue approaching, if he were to actually keep the appointment, he would realize that Chen Ye had lied to him. In addition, Princess Hongyu had been missing for several days, and Jiang Shiyue would probably immediately notify Elder Tianwu, at which point the old devil would come in person.

Su Chunyi might not be able to return in time.

However, Chen Ye could only wait, whether the sword light on the horizon would appear first, or whether the possession curse on Princess Hongyu would take effect first.

(End of this chapter)