Chapter 1166

Under the leadership of Cui Dan and Qing Jiao, many young true disciples of the Earth Immortal Realm attempted to refine a curse spirit, which implicitly turned into a form of competition.

The curses refined by each family also revealed their underlying heritage.

Do not be fooled by the Central Lands cultivators who, despite their words of disdain—claiming that curses are nothing but heterodox paths—each refined curse spirits that were more vicious and ingenious than the last.

Especially among the children of noble families, some of the cursing techniques were enough to make even Cui Dan secretly alarmed.

As his thoughts shifted, he began to understand.

The art of cursing is naturally considered unpresentable among the orthodox paths of the Central Lands, but because it targets the divine path, it happens to be the most effective at obscuring fate and status.

In other words, it is naturally targeted at "noble people."

In the past, the curse of the Xia people could cause Jie of Xia, who held the status of an Emperor, to fall like the sun.

During the Immortal Han era, there were also many major cases of witchcraft and gu-poisoning that implicated countless noble people...

For this kind of art, one must naturally keep one's distance in public, and it is best not to be associated with it at all.

But in private, who wouldn't learn a few tricks!

The overseas true disciples, having seen those dazzling and varied curses, were also secretly alarmed. They looked at each other and whispered, "Did we speak too boldly just now? These Central Lands people are more vicious than the last! Wow... that frog gu was definitely not made using a frog originally!"

"Take an exotic frog as the mother gu, feed it the eggs of a blue-bottle fly, then place the mother fly in the embrace of a hundred wet nurses. Separate it from its children, give it no food or water, and let the children wail for three days. When the wet nurses hear this, they will surely be anxious and parched, causing their milk to flow. Take the milk to feed the mother fly, and kill it with a witchcraft curse."

"The mother and child of the blue-bottle fly will not be separated; the mother fly will surely carry the resentment of a hundred mothers into the belly of the exotic frog, transforming into a hundred eggs."

"Thus, a resentful mother-frog gu is formed. Dissect the frog under the bed of a woman about to give birth and crush the frog eggs; it can cause her to miscarry or abort..."

"This kind of witchcraft and cursing art, even a noble fetus protected by dragon qi, I fear cannot withstand it. The Central Lands people are too ruthless, too ruthless!"

The overseas true disciples whispered to each other.

Looking at this kind of curse, one knew exactly who it was meant to deal with.

Xia Yi sighed silently in his heart; this curse method was likely improved after the noble families moved to the Southern Jin, as it wasn't originally this "civilized."

Its prototype was a curse method of the demonic path—the General General Xuehe Cart. It didn't use frogs or blue-bottle flies as substitutes; it used real living mothers and children to refine the "child-mother ghost fetus blood river cart."

The so-called "river cart" is the placenta.

The effect was not just to cause miscarriage or abortion, but to let the General General Xuehe Cart enter the mother's womb and transform the fetus into a demonic fetus.

It is a method used by the demonic path to cultivate demonic seeds, ruin a family's foundation, and steal a bloodline's inheritance.

After such a demonic fetus is born, everything seems normal, except for a natural demonic nature lying dormant. The practitioner would secretly retrieve the umbilical cord "river cart" after the birth and refine it into a demonic river cart, which could then be used to cast curses, gradually causing the demonic nature of the fetus to erupt and be controlled by the practitioner.

By comparison, the frog gu has already undergone countless improvements and no longer requires blood sacrifice of human lives.

It is indeed much kinder.

Of course, given the ruthlessness of the Central Lands noble families, the children used to make the wet nurses anxious and terrified—left without food or water, wailing for three days—would inevitably see a few die, but those capable of such cruelty likely wouldn't care.

And the effect of the witchcraft and curse has also changed from ruining bloodlines and family foundations to creating a "debt-collecting ghost."

It has turned into a means of causing miscarriage and abortion, shifting from a curse targeting a noble family's foundation to a tool for inner-chamber struggles and women's schemes.

It can be considered...

Xia Yi couldn't quite convince himself; the Central Lands people are just poisonous and ruthless! Even the demonic path is direct and straightforward when it's evil; how could they be this evil...

Xia Yi glanced at the person who threw the frog gu; he was indeed a disciple of a noble family from the Southern Jin. Seeing his wide robes and elegant demeanor, many people secretly cast sidelong glances.

Yet he shook his head helplessly and said, "I have carried this gu for nearly a hundred years! It was when my mother was pregnant with me that someone secretly found their way under the bed, intending to use this technique. Fortunately, because my zodiac sign is the Rooster, my uncle sent a golden rooster screen. When the frog gu appeared, it caused the golden rooster to crow, which exposed the thief. From then on, my mother took the golden rooster from the screen, embroidered a pouch, and had me carry the frog gu with me."

"Seeing that golden rooster land today, it seems there is a past connection, so I have decided to discard it..."

"Hiss, hiss, hiss..." The overseas true disciple beside Xia Yi whispered, "You noble families in the Central Lands really know how to play!"

Xia Yi also glanced over and smiled, "It's fortunate that my Hanhai Kingdom is far overseas, and such methods only circulate within the inner chambers of Central Lands noble families, regarded as secret, private arts. Otherwise, I fear I would have faced such a tribulation too."

Cui Dan was slightly startled, "You are of the Xia Hou bloodline, and even you..."

Xia Yi retorted, "Why else would I say you Central Lands people know how to play! The frog uses the secret arts of Southern Border witchcraft, symbolizing the sacred frog of male and female fertility. This is the sacred gu worshipped in the Southern Border for the Goddess Nüwa. Each tribe only lets the sacred frog crow long after the spring song festival; they mate upon hearing its sound, which is of great benefit to offspring."

"You stole the sacred frog bloodline to refine this kind of witchcraft gu that cuts off offspring!"

"And this blue-bottle fly, it was transformed after the death of the feudal lord Yu Bo of an ancient state during the Heavenly Zhou dynasty. You Central Lands noble families took it to cultivate; it's likely also an exotic species with ancestral bloodline reversion."

"With this whole set, let alone a Xia Hou descendant like me with mixed blood, even an Emperor who has obtained the True Dragon Qi and is protected by the Emperor's Dao Fruit, I fear, could have their bloodline harmed... Although this is a minor art, it is sufficiently insidious."

After speaking, he also fell silent.

The Lu family disciple who threw the frog gu suddenly spoke, "No wonder, no wonder the Sun family once had two sons competing, both dying. No wonder after the Sima family crossed the river, there was a period where offspring were not prosperous. After inviting the Celestial Master into the palace, he said that one must invite the bronze sparrow from the former Bronze Sparrow Terrace to be auspicious for sons and grandsons. At that time, we even laughed at the Celestial Master for not understanding yin-yang arts; a bronze sparrow isn't a pomegranate or a grape, how could it be auspicious for sons and grandsons?"

"Later, the Xie family presented the magic treasure Bronze Sparrow and built the Bronze Sparrow Tower, looking out at the Forbidden Palace, and only then..."

When the Lu family disciple said this, he couldn't help but tremble all over.

The crowd was also mostly silent. Even if this frog gu didn't require human sacrifice, those women and children used to refine the gu—how could there be any survivors?

Just that secret history after the crossing of the river carried a wild, bloody scent mixed with witchcraft.

Cui Dan couldn't help but sigh, "The art of cursing is better strictly forbidden!"

Xia Yi scanned the area at the remaining cloud-desolation gu (bats), fire-disaster gu (dogs), the odorless and colorless illness-causing yin-snake gu (snakes), and the earth-dragon desolation-evil gu (earthworms) that ruin foundations and break Dao bodies, all thrown by the Central Lands noble family disciples.

And this was just the killing-sacrifice gu that used objects as substitutes.

There were also the gan-gu, swelling-gu, and epilepsy-gu refined from the qi of a hundred insects in the human body to cause illness, the feather-garment gu, jade-bowl gu, and golden-bell gu refined from objects, and the hundred-fragrance gu refined from medicine...

They were truly diverse and exceptionally insidious. They weren't necessarily all ruthless or vicious; instead, they focused more on scale, ensuring that if you wanted someone to have a headache, they would have a headache, and if you wanted their brain to split, it would split.

Lightly, it could make one's head ache and swell, leaving one dizzy for three days; heavily, it could leave one without descendants, causing the whole family to die out.

Regardless of lightness or heaviness, they were all ingenious and extremely refined, only because the art of witchcraft and cursing is not about lightness or heaviness, but about being silent, undetectable, and unresolvable.

Compared to these varied and strange methods, their initial act of shaking their heads and chanting spells, casting spells purely with language, seemed very dull.

Xia Yi didn't say anything more; he simply collected the simplest curse spirit among the many curses using his Sun-Moon Golden Pupils, then closed his eyes to focus his mind, secretly refining it.

The onlookers also knew that they had exposed the "buttocks" of the Central Lands noble families, so they all watched silently and said no more.

Originally, Xia Yi, relying on the mystery of the Emperor's Double Pupils, prepared to refine the curse power with his Sun-Moon Golden Pupils, then unleash the Sun Pupil to raise a sun condensed from wish-power.

He intended to hide the various curse powers within it to sacrifice to the strange object in the Golden Rooster land.

But after seeing the methods of the Central Lands noble families, he felt he had been a bit too frivolous.

Isn't the so-called sacrifice just using a ritual to establish a connection between a person and the object of the sacrifice, isolated from others?

The Emperor's Double Pupils are indeed miraculous, but if the "object" summoned is truly a demonic creature, could he dig out his own eyes?

But if there is a sacrificial ritual to isolate it, with magic treasures and sacrificial objects as substitutes, if it really doesn't work, he can cut off his tail to escape.

That is the purpose of the ritual!

So Xia Yi also began to think honestly, standing in the position of those great shamans who schemed against the gods and demons of the cosmos, thinking about how to construct a sacrificial ritual and what method to use to sacrifice.

After a little thought, he took those small animals that had died in various ways and refined their wish-power into oil.

"This move..."

Ma Xiaobai immediately widened his eyes, "My father told me that this should be the art of 'adding oil to prolong life'! When my father went to train in the Guangling caves, he had personally seen the arrangements of the predecessors of the Supreme Louguan, using the Life-Usurping Lamp to burn vitality and condense life-oil!"

Xia Yi, who was refining wish-power into oil, felt his finger, which was dripping it drop by drop into the jade bowl, tremble slightly.

He looked over with shame and anger!

Lan Jiu, however, protected Ma Xiaobai behind him and shook his head, "Refining life-oil is the Daoist art of 'adding oil to prolong life.' The so-called praying for life, warding off fate, and adding oil are matters of the Big Dipper, the means of the ancient Daoist orthodoxy, the Big Dipper Dao. To refine life-oil without the ancient Big Dipper orthodoxy's spiritual treasure, the 'Heaven-Leveling Crown for Praying for Blessings and Warding off Evil,' one must have the realm of a Marquis, or have cultivated the great supernatural power of the Big Dipper's 'Praying for Life, Warding off Fate, and Adding Oil'!"

"Although Daoist Xia inherits the Xia Hou bloodline and is proficient in necessary shamanic means, he ultimately lacks a Daoist identity, cannot communicate with the Big Dipper, and finds it difficult to refine life-oil."

"So he can only refine the wish-power of all living beings into oil!"

"He uses the Buddhist method of refining 'Samadhi Ambrosia,' improved with shamanic ways, which is far inferior to our Daoist art of adding oil to prolong life."

Zhi Society protested upon hearing this, "Hey! Who said our Buddhist Samadhi Ambrosia is inferior to your Daoist adding oil to prolong life!"

"Adding oil to prolong life is a means of seeking longevity in the world. For the sacrifice of gods and Buddhas, it is useless, far inferior to our Buddhist Samadhi Ambrosia, which can use the beautiful wish-power of all living beings to refine the wonderful uses of 'nourishing all roots in the first samadhi, purity and ease in the second, and perfect merit in the third'!"

Cui Dan added calmly, "It is just a means for Buddhism to find ways to enjoy the wish-power of human spirits without being tainted by karma or suffering curses."

"But the Dao is one foot high, the demon is ten feet high. After Daoist Xia modified it with shamanic means, on the surface it is still completely harmless Samadhi Ambrosia treated by Buddhist law, but in reality, it is the 'Three-Sleep Ambrosia' of shamanism and the demonic path. The first is ignorance, the second is blindness, and the third is stupidity. It is refined from the ignorant qi of people's superstition, blind faith, and stupid faith in gods and Buddhas into ambrosia incense oil."

Speaking of this, Cui Dan couldn't help but whisper, "After all, in the divine path, the reputation of the demonic path stinks to high heaven! The reputation of the shamanic path is even worse than the demonic path. Now that it is no longer the ancient era of the shamanic path where humans and gods communicated, the gods have choices and will definitely guard against the shamanic and demonic paths. On the contrary, Buddhism has a rather good reputation in the divine path..."

"So even if it is the shamanic or demonic path, they have to wear a Buddhist skin, right!"

Jiang Shang took over the conversation, his expression strange.

Xia Yi's expression was neither salty nor bland, as if he hadn't heard, and he successfully refined the wish-power mixed with vicious curses into a white, ointment-like ambrosia full of the Samadhi fragrance of purity, peace, and wisdom.

"It seems Daoist Xia wants to use a lamp sacrifice..." Monk Zhi Society pressed his palms together, "This is indeed a suitable sacrificial method."

"A bright lamp illuminating the top of the Golden Rooster, sacrificing to the object in the stone with the light that never goes out, the fragrance of Samadhi purity, and the fire that penetrates darkness?" Lan Jiu frowned slightly, "Although the lamp sacrifice is a proper sacrificial method, it is usually used for long-term sacrifices, and the Golden Rooster's long-lasting brightness requires the grandeur of the sun breaking through the darkness and illuminating ten thousand rivers in an instant, which seems inconsistent with the charm of the lamp sacrifice breaking the darkness."

Xia Yi rolled his eyes.

He broke open the frog's belly and poured the hundreds of shriveled frog eggs into the lamp oil. Soon, the frog eggs, which were as shriveled as raisins, recovered to a state as round as pearls.

Then Xia Yi stuffed the frog eggs one by one into the bellies of bats, black dogs, scorpions, centipedes, and other witchcraft gu, then constantly calculated. In his eyes, the Sun-Moon Golden Pupils drilled holes into the Primordial Divine Stone, and he buried the dried corpses into them using five-colored soil.

There were a total of twelve gu creatures, buried in twelve directions respectively.

"Orthodox! Too orthodox!"

Lan Jiu praised, "As early as the Immortal Han, people discovered that the original way of casting curses had many flaws. Cursing by name was slow and ineffective, and stealing birth dates, hair, and essence blood was troublesome, and it was hard to succeed against experts. Thus, they integrated the various subtleties of the feng shui lineage into the path of cursing, developing the method of burying objects to curse, and cursing through yin and yang dwellings!"

"Xia Yi, your taste is too orthodox!"

"Shut up!" Xia Yi, covered in sweat, turned back and cursed.

At the same time, he used various curse objects, filled the jade bowl with incense oil, and then carefully refined the dissected frog into the gu creatures like the jade bowl and golden bell, turning it into an ingenious Qi Jinchan Lamp.

He also removed the feathers from the feather-garment gu, pulled out the longest one from each, chanted words, burned the feather garment, and poured all the black smoke into the feather that had been stuck into a thread in his hand.

It was immersed in the ambrosia oil and turned into a lamp wick.

And the various gu refined from the qi of a hundred insects in the human body had long been mixed into the ambrosia along with the vicious curse power. Just as Xia Yi racked his brains and finally refined this Qi Jinchan Lamp.

The Ear-Dao God walked over leisurely, dipped his pen in the lamp oil, and wrote a character on the lamp wick.

Then he swaggered away with his hands behind his back.

Xia Yi couldn't care about him. He walked properly, stepping in the Yu-step, carrying the Qi Jinchan Lamp, and walked to a hollow place that hid the wind and gathered qi.

Then he stood holding the lamp and said to Cui Dan, "I want the sky to be dark at this moment, and I want the Yinhe to have eight winds blowing!"

Cui Dan pondered slightly, pointed his finger, and the Nine Nether darkness responded, following the aura of destruction remaining on everyone, suddenly shrouding this place.

Eight true disciples, including Cui Dan, Zhi Society, Lan Jiu, and Qing Jiao, each stood in one direction.

The so-called eight winds are the eight winds of profit, decline, destruction, praise, acclaim, ridicule, suffering, and joy in Buddhism.

In the Daoist path, they are the eight qi of the flaming wind, surging wind, warm wind, giant wind, desolate wind, gale wind, fierce wind, and cold wind...

At this moment, they naturally came together.

Many true disciples each used their means to divide the water of the Yinhe into eight types of wind qi.

For a time, the wind came from all directions, whistling in the darkness, making everyone stand unsteadily and sway.

There were even countless demonic qi, countless miscellaneous thoughts of profit, decline, destruction, praise, acclaim, ridicule, suffering, and joy, breeding in people's hearts along with the darkness.

At this moment, accompanied by a glimmer of light.

The Qi Jinchan jumped up with light, breaking through the darkness and illuminating all directions.

Amidst the blowing of the eight winds, that glimmer of light remained motionless.

Yet Xia Yi's voice came from the darkness, "Light is not about size; breaking through the darkness is the sun. Fire is not about brightness; being unmoved by the eight winds is the Great Sun!"

At this moment, Xia Yi opened his eyes, and the only firelight in the darkness was reflected in his pupils.

The next moment, the sun and moon overlapped in his pupils, and a Great Sun suddenly leaped up.

Eyes containing lamp fire, transforming into the sun and moon!