Chen Ye's Advantage

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

However, even if he did know, he would not care much. In his past life, he had worked hard to curry favor with his superiors, only to find the results unsatisfactory; in the end, it always came down to connections or luck.

Since he had been reborn and had started cultivating immortality, he might as well focus on doing what he was supposed to do.

As for other benefits, if I get them, it is my fortune; if I lose them, it is my fate.

Chen Ye was now wholeheartedly devoted to his research.

Chen Ye already understood the method of the Cursed Spirit Child. Mo Ci did not know many demonic secret arts, but this was the one he had studied most deeply, as he had plenty of experience with possession.

It was just a pity that Mo Ci was not ruthless enough, and not every demon could use their own blood relatives to craft a magic treasure. Thus, Mo Ci only knew how it was done but had never actually attempted it.

Just like the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, this widely circulated secret art had different versions with varying details depending on who had created them.

The Cursed Spirit Child of the monk Ku'e was a textbook classic, with everything from the rune structure to the materials used meticulously following the classic procedures.

It was much simpler for Chen Ye to crack, and with the profound secret arts of the Ksitigarbha Vow Sutra, he had successfully tricked the monk Ku'e.

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

And it was not even the original version.

Although the Evil Possession Curse on Princess Hongyu was derived from the Cursed Spirit Child, it had been modified significantly, which left Chen Ye confused at first.

But after hearing Princess Hongyu say that many of her siblings had suffered and died when the curse was first cast, Chen Ye understood that he had been looking in the wrong direction.

That Elder Tianwu was not so powerful that he had improved the evil curse; rather, he had barely understood it and had messed it up completely.

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

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

Most could follow the instructions, but if you really asked them about the underlying principles, most could not provide an answer.

Take the simplest theory of the Eight Trigrams: Heaven and Earth in Harmony, with Kun above and Qian below—everyone knows this hexagram. But if you were to ask one more question—since Qian is Heaven and Kun is Earth, why is it auspicious when Heaven and Earth are reversed?—most loose cultivators would be unable to explain why.

They could only recite what was in the books: this is great auspiciousness, don't ask why.

When it came to divine abilities and secret arts, most loose cultivators did not care how different runes guided spiritual energy or what their specific uses were. Mo Ci was like this; as long as he copied it word for word and could cast the spell, that was enough.

If you suggested making a change to adjust for unnecessary or unsuitable effects, don't even ask—he certainly wouldn't have a clue.

But what if what they obtained in the first place was not the complete text?

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

Demonic cultivators, in particular, acted without restraint and had no qualms about killing, so they would capture people to experiment on, seeing what modifications worked before applying them to themselves.

Delete this section, and the flow of spiritual energy in the spell was fine at the start but dissipated after a while. So, add it back in, and it ended up having problems from the very beginning.

Then try changing it again; this time the beginning and end were fine, but why did the test subject die?

The reason was that they did not seriously study the purpose of each rune, nor did they understand the function of the combinations; they copied and appropriated them in large chunks, eventually creating a monstrosity.

Compared to ordinary cultivators, Chen Ye's greatest advantage was that he read many books. Unlike the piecemeal approach of loose cultivators, he read original versions that came with numerous annotations. Perhaps there were slight differences in practice, but in studying the essence of spiritual energy, Chen Ye had a greater advantage than many other cultivators.

To use sword forging as an example, an ordinary loose cultivator would shove a person into a furnace because "the ancestor said a blood sacrifice is needed."

Chen Ye, however, knew how to remove impurities, how to smelt, and how to quench. He knew why water quenching easily produced a divine weapon and why oil quenching was more reliable. He even knew that the so-called blood sacrifice was actually just a way to adjust carbon content and use grease to raise the temperature; there was no need to burn people at all.

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

Of course, when it came to a life-or-death struggle with swords, that was an entirely different matter.

With this confidence, Chen Ye treated Elder Tianwu's Evil Possession Curse like a primary school assignment. Whenever he saw something wrong, he first assumed the other party was messing around, then worked backward to find the correct answer.

In this way, his progress was much faster.

The rune structure, pieced together and based entirely on blind luck, was everywhere, and the many contradictions left Chen Ye feeling deeply moved.

It was truly luck, pure luck, that Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi had survived. It was fortunate that Elder Tianwu only knew the fragments; otherwise, he would not have let Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi grow up, and he would have destroyed their souls when they were young.

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

The Evil Possession Curse he had figured out could function perfectly, which meant he had completely understood Elder Tianwu's line of thinking and understood where the evil curse on Princess Hongyu could be moved and where it could not be changed.

Feeling that he was prepared, Chen Ye said to Princess Hongyu, "Although I am eighty or ninety percent sure, there is still a risk. Once I start breaking the curse, it is still possible to alert Elder Tianwu, and your life will be in immediate danger."

According to the plan Chen Ye had discussed with the Princess, the main method was to transfer the evil curse from Lan Shi onto Princess Hongyu, so that only Princess Hongyu would be the one possessed.

Once Elder Tianwu began the possession, Chen Ye would draw Princess Hongyu's soul into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and then directly destroy her physical body, leaving Elder Tianwu as a wandering ghost.

In this way, he could handle him just as he had handled the monk Ku'e.

Of course, the best result would be to similarly deflect Elder Tianwu's soul, making him unable to complete the possession, so that both Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi could survive.

And to ensure that Elder Tianwu was left with only the option of possession, several days ago, Princess Hongyu had returned to Cui County and ordered that the thousands of children who had been taken be returned home.

Although the magistrate of Cui County did not understand why, since it was the Princess's order, he had no choice but to comply.

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

But this also cut off any room for final negotiation.

Without these boys and girls, once Elder Tianwu came out of seclusion, he would have no choice but to proceed with the possession.

He couldn't possibly go door-to-door to snatch children himself; he would run out of lifespan long before he could finish such a task.

Princess Hongyu was using this method to force Elder Tianwu to perish together with her.

The young girl, enslaved for many years, had finally found an opportunity to strike back at this devil and was willing to risk everything.

The biggest problem was that Elder Tianwu's hiding place remained unknown, and since Chen Ye could not confirm his status, he lacked ten-tenths certainty.

Therefore, Chen Ye suggested that Princess Hongyu wait a little longer; if they could wait for Su Chunyi to return, everything would be much easier, as having this Sword Immortal presiding over the situation would ensure no mishaps occurred.

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

Seeing that the time agreed upon with Jiang Shiyue had arrived, if he truly kept the appointment, he would realize that Chen Ye had deceived him, and with Princess Hongyu having been missing for several days, Jiang Shiyue would likely notify Elder Tianwu immediately, at which point the Old Devil would arrive 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 on the horizon would appear first, or if the Evil Possession Curse on Princess Hongyu would take effect first.