Chapter 42: Chen Ye's Advantage

Chen Ye still did not know that he had already caught the eye of two righteous sect leaders.

But even if he knew, he would not care too much. In his past life, he had tried hard to curry favor with leaders, yet the results were always unsatisfactory; in the end, it was either about connections or luck.

Since he was living this life again and had even begun cultivating the Dao, he might as well first do what he ought to do.

As for other benefits, gaining them is my fortune, losing them is my fate.

Chen Ye now devoted himself wholeheartedly to his research.

Chen Ye already knew the method of the Evil Curse Spirit Child; Hearing Mo Ci knew few demonic sect secrets, and this one was the one he had researched most deeply, after all, he had considerable experience with soul usurpation.

Unfortunately, Hearing Mo Ci ultimately lacked the ruthlessness, and not every demonic villain could use their own blood relatives as a magical treasure. So Hearing Mo Ci only knew how it was done but had never truly attempted it.

And just like the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, for such widely circulated secret arts, the versions produced by different people also had subtle differences.

Monk Ku E's Evil Curse Spirit Child was a textbook classic; from the rune structure to the materials used, everything was executed with meticulous care according to the classic procedures.

It was much simpler for Chen Ye to decipher it, and since the secret art in the "Sutra of the Original Vows of Ksitigarbha" was truly profound, he successfully tricked Monk Ku E.

But what Chen Ye intended to do this time was completely different; he wanted to transfer this evil curse onto another person.

And not even the original version.

The soul-usurping evil curse on Princess Princess Hongyu, though derived from the Evil Curse Spirit Child, had been modified quite a bit, which initially left Chen Ye somewhat confused.

But upon hearing Princess Princess Hongyu say that many brothers and sisters had suffered and died during the initial cursing, Chen Ye realized he had gone in the wrong direction.

That Elder Tian Wu Elder was not so powerful that he had improved this evil curse; rather, he had blindly modified it while only half-understanding it.

This was common, just like Chen Ye's master, Hearing Mo Ci.

Independent cultivators often picked up a fragment here and dug out half a secret art there, piecing them together to ponder on their own.

Most could follow the book word for word, but if truly asked about the principles, most could not answer.

For instance, the simplest theory of the Eight Trigrams: Heaven and Earth are harmonious, Kun above and Qian below; everyone knows this trigram. But if asked one more question: Qian is Heaven, Kun is Earth, why is the trigram still auspicious when Heaven and Earth are reversed? Most independent cultivators could not explain the reason.

They could only recite the book verbatim: this is great auspiciousness; do not ask why it is great auspiciousness.

When it came to supernatural techniques and secret arts, how different runes guided spiritual energy and what special purposes they served, most independent cultivators did not care. Hearing Mo Ci was like this; as long as he copied word for word and could cast the spell, that was enough.

If you said to modify it, adjusting some effects that were unnecessary or unsuitable, then do not ask; you definitely do not understand it at all.

But what if the original copy obtained was not a complete version?

Most independent cultivators chose to "guess" or "take a gamble."

Especially demonic sect cultivators, who acted without restraint and did not fear killing, would capture people for experiments to see how modifications could succeed, then later apply them to themselves.

Delete this section, and the spiritual energy flow of the spell starts fine, but soon it disperses. So add it back, and the result is that there are problems from the very beginning.

Then try modifying it again; this time the start and end are fine, but why did the test subject die?

The reason was that they had not seriously studied the function of every rune, nor understood the function of the combination, then copied and plagiarized in batches, finally creating a monstrosity.

Compared to ordinary cultivators, Chen Ye's greatest advantage was that he had read many books; unlike independent cultivators who pieced things together, he read original versions with numerous annotations. Perhaps the practical application differed slightly, but in researching the essence of spiritual energy, Chen Ye had more advantages than many cultivators.

To use sword-forging as an example, ordinary independent cultivators would simply shove people into the furnace because "the Ancestral Master said to blood-sacrifice."

Chen Ye, however, knew how to remove impurities, how to melt and cast, how to quench; he knew why water quenching easily produced divine weapons and why oil quenching was more stable. He also knew that the so-called blood sacrifice was actually adjusting carbon content and using oil to raise the temperature, meaning there was no need to burn people at all.

Both might forge good swords, but Chen Ye was the one who truly understood how to forge a sword.

Of course, if they actually clashed with swords in a life-or-death battle, that would be another matter entirely.

With this confidence, Chen Ye treated the soul-usurping evil curse of that Elder Tian Wu Elder like a primary school student's homework; whenever he saw something amiss, he first assumed the other party had acted recklessly, then worked backward to deduce the correct answer.

As a result, progress was much faster.

Pieced-together rune structures, entirely reliant on luck and trial and error, were everywhere; many self-contradictory points made Chen Ye sigh with emotion.

Princess Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi surviving was truly luck, pure luck. Fortunately, that Elder Tian Wu Elder only knew fragments; otherwise, he would not have let Princess Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi grow up so long, but would have destroyed their souls and spirits in their childhood.

Several days passed, and Chen Ye conducted experiments on a nest of rats.

Since the soul-usurping evil curse he had figured out worked perfectly, it meant he had fully understood the Elder Tian Wu Elder's train of thought and knew where the evil curse on Princess Princess Hongyu could be altered and where it could not.

Feeling he was fully prepared, Chen Ye then said to Princess Princess Hongyu: "Although I have an eight or nine-tenths certainty, there is still risk; once the curse-breaking begins, it is still possible to alert that Elder Tian Wu Elder, and you will immediately face mortal danger."

According to the plan discussed between Chen Ye and the Princess, the main method was to transfer the evil curse from Lan Shi onto Princess Princess Hongyu, so only Princess Princess Hongyu would be the target of soul usurpation.

When the Elder Tian Wu Elder began the soul usurpation, Chen Ye would store Princess Princess Hongyu's soul in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, then directly destroy her physical body, leaving that Elder Tian Wu Elder as a lonely ghost.

In this way, he could control him just as he had controlled Monk Ku E.

Of course, the best outcome would be to similarly deflect the Elder Tian Wu Elder's soul, preventing him from completing the usurpation, so that both Princess Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi could survive.

And to confirm that the Elder Tian Wu Elder had only soul usurpation left as an option, several days ago, Princess Princess Hongyu had returned to Cui Xian and directly ordered the over thousand children who had been taken to go home.

Although the Cui Xian Magistrate did not understand why, since it was the Princess's order, he could only comply.

In a few days, the vast majority of boys and girls had been sent home, and for a moment, the people of Cui Xian were overjoyed.

But this also cut off the last room for negotiation.

Without these boys and girls, once the Elder Tian Wu Elder emerged from seclusion, he would have only one path: soul usurpation.

He could hardly go house by house to catch children; that would never happen before his lifespan ran out.

Princess Princess Hongyu used this method to force the Elder Tian Wu Elder into a mutual destruction with herself.

The young girl enslaved for so many years finally had a chance to strike back at this demonic villain, so she threw everything away.

The biggest problem was that the Elder Tian Wu Elder's whereabouts were unknown; Chen Ye could not confirm his situation, so he did not have absolute certainty.

So Chen Ye suggested Princess Princess Hongyu wait a little longer; if they waited until Su Chunyi returned, everything would be easier, and with this Sword Immortal stationed there, there was no fear of any mishaps.

However, after waiting so many days, Su Chunyi still had no news.

The appointed time with Najiang Shiyue was approaching; if he truly kept the appointment, he would know Chen Ye had lied to him, and with Princess Princess Hongyu missing for several days, Najiang Shiyue would probably notify the Elder Tian Wu Elder immediately, at which point that old demonic villain would come in person.

Su Chunyi might not be able to return in time.

Yet Chen Ye could only wait, waiting to see whether the sword light from the horizon appeared first, or whether the soul-usurping evil curse on Princess Princess Hongyu would erupt first.