Chen Ye's Advantage

Chen Ye had no idea he had already caught the attention of two leaders of the righteous sects.

Even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared much. In his previous life, he'd tried hard to curry favor with his superiors, but things never went his way. In the end, it always came down to connections or luck.

Since he'd been given another life and had started cultivating immortality, he might as well focus on doing what he ought to do.

As for any other benefits, if he got them, he was lucky; if he didn't, that was fate.

Chen Ye now threw himself wholeheartedly into his research.

He already understood the method behind the Cursed Spirit Child. Mo Ci knew few demonic sect secret arts, and this was the one he'd studied most deeply. After all, he had plenty of experience with possession.

Unfortunately, Mo Ci hadn't been ruthless enough. Not every demonic cultivator could use their own blood kin to make a magical treasure. So Mo Ci knew how the method worked in theory, but had never actually tried it.

And just like the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, this widely circulated secret art had different versions, each with its own minor variations.

The Cursed Spirit Child crafted by the monk Ku'e was a textbook example. From the rune structure to the materials, every detail had been carried out meticulously according to the classic method.

That made it much easier for Chen Ye to unravel. Combined with the profound secrets of the Ksitigarbha Vow Sutra, he'd managed to successfully trap the monk Ku'e.

But what Chen Ye had to do this time was entirely different. He had to transfer the Evil Possession Curse to someone else.

And it wasn't even the original version.

The Evil Possession Curse on Princess Hongyu was derived from the Cursed Spirit Child, but it had been altered in many ways. At first, Chen Ye had been a little confused by it.

But when Princess Hongyu told him that many of her brothers and sisters had suffered and died when the curse was first placed, Chen Ye realized he'd been looking at it the wrong way.

Elder Tianwu hadn't improved the curse through some brilliant modifications. He'd barely understood it in the first place and had simply changed things at random.

This was common. Just look at Chen Ye's master, Mo Ci.

Rogue Cultivators often picked up one incomplete fragment here, dug up half a secret art there, then pieced them together and tried to figure things out for themselves.

Most could follow the instructions by rote, but if you asked them about the underlying principles, few could answer.

Take the simplest example: the Eight Trigrams. Everyone knew the Tai Hexagram represented heaven and earth, with Kun above and Qian below. But ask them one question further—Qian represented heaven and Kun represented earth, so why was it auspicious for heaven and earth to be reversed?—and most Rogue Cultivators would have no idea.

They could only parrot what the book said: it was greatly auspicious, and you shouldn't ask why.

When it came to divine arts and secret techniques, most Rogue Cultivators didn't care how different runes guided spiritual energy or what special purpose they served. Mo Ci was the same. He simply copied everything word for word. As long as he could cast the spell, that was good enough.

If you suggested changing something, adjusting effects that were unnecessary or unsuitable, don't bother asking—they wouldn't understand any of it.

But what if the text they'd obtained wasn't complete to begin with?

Most Rogue Cultivators chose to "wing it" or "take a gamble."

Demonic cultivators, especially, did whatever they pleased and had no qualms about killing. They'd capture people for experiments, test what changes worked, then use the results on themselves.

They'd remove one section, only to find that the spell's spiritual energy flowed properly at first, then dispersed soon after. So they'd add something back, only for the spell to go wrong from the very beginning.

Then they'd try another change. This time, everything would work at the beginning and end, but why had the test subject died?

The root of the problem was that they hadn't carefully studied what each rune did, let alone understood the effects of combining them. They'd copy and transplant whole sections here and there until the final result was a hodgepodge.

Compared to ordinary cultivators, Chen Ye's greatest advantage was how much he'd read. Unlike Rogue Cultivators, who pieced together scraps, he'd studied the original texts, along with commentaries on their many different versions. The practical applications might vary slightly, but when it came to understanding the nature of spiritual energy, Chen Ye had an edge over many cultivators.

To use sword-forging as an example, an ordinary Rogue Cultivator would hear "the founding patriarch said to offer a blood sacrifice" and throw someone into the furnace.

Chen Ye knew how to remove impurities, how to smelt and forge, and how to quench the blade. He knew why quenching in water was more likely to produce a divine weapon, while oil was more reliable. He also knew that the so-called blood sacrifice was really just about adjusting the carbon content and using grease to raise the temperature. There was no need to burn a person at all.

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

Of course, if the two of them actually fought to the death with swords, that would be another matter entirely.

With that confidence, Chen Ye treated Elder Tianwu's Evil Possession Curse like a primary school assignment. Whenever he spotted something that seemed wrong, he first assumed the other party had botched it, then worked backward to find the right answer.

That made his progress much faster.

The rune structures were riddled with haphazard patchwork, cobbled together through sheer luck. Chen Ye couldn't help sighing at the many contradictions.

Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi had survived purely by luck—nothing but luck. If Elder Tianwu had known the complete method, he wouldn't have let Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi grow up. He would have destroyed their souls while they were still children.

After several days, Chen Ye tested his work on a nest of rats.

The Evil Possession Curse he'd worked out himself functioned perfectly. That meant he had fully grasped Elder Tianwu's approach and understood which parts of the curse on Princess Hongyu could be changed and which could not.

Feeling he was ready, Chen Ye said to Princess Hongyu, "Though I'm eighty to ninety percent confident, there's still a risk. Once I begin undoing the curse, I might alert Elder Tianwu. Your life could be in danger at any moment."

According to the plan Chen Ye and the princess had discussed, they would transfer the Evil Possession Curse from Lan Shi to Princess Hongyu, leaving Princess Hongyu as the only target for possession.

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

That way, he could handle Elder Tianwu just as he had the monk Ku'e.

Of course, the best outcome would be to divert Elder Tianwu's soul as well, preventing him from completing the possession. Then both Princess Hongyu and Lan Shi could survive.

To ensure Elder Tianwu had no choice but possession, Princess Hongyu had returned to Cui County several days earlier and ordered the more than one thousand children who'd been taken away to be sent home.

The county magistrate of Cui County had no idea what was going on, but since it was the princess's order, he could only obey.

Over the next few days, most of the boys and girls were sent home. Cui County was filled with joy.

But this also shut off their last chance to negotiate.

With those boys and girls gone, once Elder Tianwu emerged from seclusion, possession would be his only option.

There was no way he could go door to door capturing children himself. He wouldn't live long enough to wait for his lifespan to run out.

Princess Hongyu was using this method to force Elder Tianwu into a fight to the death with her.

The young girl, enslaved for years, had finally gotten the chance to strike back at the fiend—and was prepared to risk everything.

The biggest problem was that nobody knew where Elder Tianwu was hiding. Chen Ye couldn't confirm his situation, so he couldn't be completely certain.

That was why Chen Ye had advised Princess Hongyu to wait a little longer. If they waited until Su Chunyi returned, everything would be easier. With this sword immortal on their side, there'd be no need to worry about anything going wrong.

But after so many days, there was still no word from Su Chunyi.

The agreed time with Jiang Shiyue was fast approaching. If Jiang Shiyue showed up, he'd realize Chen Ye had lied to him. And with Princess Hongyu missing for several days, Jiang Shiyue would likely inform Elder Tianwu at once. Then the old fiend himself would come.

Su Chunyi might not make it back in time.

But Chen Ye could only wait—to see whether the sword light appeared on the horizon first, or whether the Evil Possession Curse on Princess Hongyu struck first.