"You brat, you're asking for death!" Hong Yi swiftly put everything away. Since his opponent was trying to burn him to death, Hong Yi steeled himself and could only fight for life in the face of death. This Daoist's cultivation may not be very high. He definitely hasn't cultivated into a Ghost Immortal; otherwise, the pressure of his divine soul would have shattered mine outright, leaving me no chance to form a visualization. The Rakshasa King represented the murderous evil thoughts deep within him. If Hong Yi was overcome by those thoughts, he would become a bloodthirsty, inhuman fiend. Facing his opponent's Sun God Visualization Method, Hong Yi's divine soul was burned until it was terribly weak. He immediately visualized Amitabha Buddha, guarding his mind and preserving a trace of cool clarity within it. But he still couldn't extinguish the surrounding flames, let alone counterattack. Rumble! The fire surrounding Hong Yi grew even more intense. Brilliant colors shimmered through the flames, which at last shifted into a pure, translucent white. "Zi Yu, you're all getting up and feeding the horses!" Hong Yi and the Daoist were both wholly focused on suppressing and controlling the summoned Heart-Demon Divine Generals as they fought in the Void. "Huh? What's this?" If the Daoist had cultivated to the level of Manifestation, he could have used a Thunderfire Talisman to melt lead and mercury into qi, gathered the essence of lead, mercury, and the five metals with his divine soul, and manifested a golden body. Then he would have had an overwhelming advantage, and it wouldn't have mattered if Hong Yi could recover through visualization. The Daoist school refined lead and mercury into a Golden Core not for ingestion by the physical body, but to give form to a Yin Spirit. "Why hasn't this brat died yet?" A fiend and a Divine General fought in the Void. Hong Yi opened his eyes and felt utterly exhausted. At that moment, the Dingjia Divine General visualized by the Daoist appeared in Hong Yi's eyes with its golden light dimmed, far from the might it had displayed earlier. The Daoist was also astonished. He had clearly seen that after he used the Sun God Visualization Method, a vast sea of flames had completely engulfed Hong Yi. Yet his opponent sat motionless in the fire. Though trapped and unable to move, Hong Yi still couldn't be refined to death in a short while. The Daoist's soul twisted and struggled, but after repeated blows from the Rakshasa fiend, it gradually dissipated. Hong Yi then found a small wooden box. Inside was a long needle about the length of a finger, like an acupuncture needle. But it wasn't made of gold or silver; it was covered all over in blood-red patterns. It felt heavy in his hand, weighing twice as much as ordinary fine steel. Hong Yi finally understood more deeply why the Past Amitabha Sutra was the supreme art of the divine soul. He hurried to the passageway in the courtyard he had just left and, sure enough, spotted a small dagger on the ground, densely covered in purple runes. But just as the Yaksha King was about to stab down with its fork, a blazing red sun suddenly rose above the Daoist's head. Fire filled Hong Yi's vision, its scorching flames searing him, and the Yaksha King was instantly burned to ashes. As the Rakshasa fiend struck the Daoist and shattered his soul, it threw back its head and cackled. Then it suddenly turned, its two blood-red, eerie eyes fixing on Hong Yi. Once this scripture was cultivated to its highest level, the divine soul would hang above the Void, and one would become the Buddha of the Past. No matter how many tribulations one endured over a thousand lifetimes, they could never disturb one's true nature. A single strike could shatter Hong Yi's soul before his thoughts had time to turn. This was a clash of formless thoughts, not physical bodies, but the fight was especially perilous. Whichever side lost would suffer direct damage to its divine soul. Hong Yi searched the Daoist's body and found nothing but a money pouch containing a few small gold ingots. Hong Yi was shocked. During their brief clash of thoughts, he had sensed that although the Daoist's divine soul was powerful, it wasn't overwhelmingly so—at most, it was one level above his own. The Daoist had only reached Object Manipulation, not Manifestation. Holding fast to his true nature, Hong Yi visualized the Rakshasa King, even more powerful than the Yaksha King! The Rakshasa fiend saw Hong Yi and lunged at him, but as it did, its body tightened. The surrounding flames burned it with a sizzling hiss. Yet this visualization method could only be used once the divine soul had surpassed the level of Day Wanderer, and using it would injure one's own divine soul. Hong Yi knew the Dingjia Divine General had weakened because the Daoist's divine soul had been damaged. Whether it was the Yaksha King or the Dingjia Divine General, both were formed from the thoughts of their summoner: the stronger the divine soul, the stronger they were; the weaker the divine soul, the weaker they were. When the sun appeared above the Daoist's head, red light filled Hong Yi's vision until everything blurred and he could see nothing. His whole body stung as if burned by fire, as though he had truly left his body in broad daylight beneath the blazing sun and was about to melt away completely under its intense rays. Hong Yi struggled to his feet and was just about to go out when he remembered that he was in his physical body, not his divine soul, and the four maids were still watching outside. Now the Daoist was entangled by Hong Yi and had no way out. In desperation, he used the technique to wear Hong Yi's divine soul away completely. When a Daoist's soul left his body and died, his corpse became a complete imbecile. It could breathe and its heart could beat, but it had no awareness and did not move, like a plant. If a divine soul cultivated to the level of Manifestation, it could use the qi of a lead-and-mercury Golden Core to manifest a body directly, visible to the naked eye and even capable of harming real flesh. "Right, when that Daoist's soul was shattered, he dropped that Explosive Flame Talisman Sword. I should go take a look." In other words, once one had cultivated the Amitabha Sutra, even a thousand deaths and rebirths through corpse liberation could not damage the divine soul in the slightest, until one attained Yang God. Sure enough, the Rakshasa fiend lunged at him, swinging its enormous bladed wheel toward Hong Yi. If this keeps up, my divine soul will eventually run dry and be refined to death by the heart-fire. I have to find a way to counterattack. At first, the Divine General summoned by the Daoist had blazed with golden light. With a single swing of its axe, it could split the Yaksha King in two and reduce it to ashes. But now they were locked in combat. "The Sun God Visualization Method?" "This needle is Blood Patterned Steel?" "This is bad!" Flames circled Hong Yi, searing him with blistering heat and leaving him unable to move. As soon as his divine soul returned to his body, Hong Yi felt much better and much stronger. He suddenly leapt into the Void and transformed into the Great Amitabha Buddha. The Rakshasa King attacked him fiercely, tearing and biting, but he remained as immovable as a mountain. Although Hong Yi hadn't cultivated his divine soul to the point where it could withstand thousands of lifetimes of tribulations without wavering, keeping its true nature unchanged, he could recover from minor damage in an instant through visualization. Hong Yi had once mentioned this during a discussion with Bai Ziyue. The Daoist gritted his teeth and used the Sun God Visualization Method. His own divine soul also endured the agonizing torment, his whole body stinging with pain. But in order to refine Hong Yi's qi and then deal with Hong Xuanji with all his strength, he suddenly concentrated every last thought. At the same time, the Rakshasa King followed him inside, plunging deep into Hong Yi's mind. The flames of the Daoist's Sun God Visualization Method weren't truly the light of the sun, but rather the "heart-fire" of his thoughts. Yet their effect was the same as sunlight: scattering a person's thoughts and extinguishing their divine soul. They fought for who knew how long, through hundreds and thousands of exchanges. At last, Hong Yi steadied his divine soul. His thoughts turned, golden light blazed forth, and he forced the Rakshasa King deep into the recesses of his mind, where it vanished. "Ah!" The Daoist let out a scream. The flames vanished, and Hong Yi saw the Rakshasa fiend's blood-red, serrated bladed wheel flash as it split the Daoist in two. Walking over to the wall, Hong Yi used the dagger to pry out a brick. He climbed through the gap in the wall, then quietly made his way to a corner of the street, where he saw the Daoist's corpse. This was a divine art of the Daoist school: one visualized the blazing sun within one's thoughts and summoned it during a battle of divine souls, refining any demons in the opponent's mind until they were reduced to ashes. "This murderous urge is too powerful." Seeing the sound of clashing weapons coming from the government residence in the distance, the Daoist grew anxious. Suddenly, he gave a sharp shout and waved his hand. The Dingjia Divine General vanished without a trace. Of course, no ordinary person could see any of this. Battles between divine souls took place within one's thoughts, full of illusions that changed in a single instant. The Rakshasa fiend had originally been formed from Hong Yi's thoughts. As soon as it appeared, the Daoist's flames naturally burned it too. "Even if my divine soul is damaged, I'll refine him to death." But now Hong Yi could only rely on the Amitabha Visualization Method to keep his true nature unmoving and continually repair his divine soul. The moment he visualized it, a rich smell of blood filled his nose and mouth. Then a tide of crimson light surged all around him, and a red-haired Rakshasa fiend appeared, standing atop a vast sea of blood. The Daoist's six Ding and six Jia gods were powerful, no less so than the Yaksha King; they could scatter the divine souls of ordinary demons and ghosts. Even if they couldn't destroy them, they could still inflict damage that could never be repaired. But against Hong Yi, the damage was slight. Hong Yi gave a dark laugh and strode out. No one followed behind him. Out in the countryside, they called this "losing one's soul." Meanwhile, the Rakshasa fiend roared again and lunged viciously at the Daoist. The courtyard wasn't far away. Hong Yi drifted into his room and saw his physical body lying on the bed. His soul immediately slipped inside and returned to its proper place.
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