Refining pills, refining artifacts, controlling mechanisms, cultivator battles, which of these doesn’t require divine sense?
"How does the mark of a boat disaster affect the flesh from the soul? This point needs more research."
"The Red Lotus Karma Fire is a disaster caused by accumulated sins, often faced more by demon cultivators. Once the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique is executed, it burns the soul to extinction, which indeed harms the harmony of heaven, thus raising one’s own sin rapidly."
"So, selecting what kind of soul to execute the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique becomes very critical."
"Moreover, can the merit I bear offset this layer of sin?"
Five Evils Entangle Truth...
Ning Zhuo possesses innate talent, capable of offsetting two items, but there are still three items that require careful handling.
"Still have strength, maybe I can try learning the third time."
Ning Zhuo carefully examines his own state, the soul is weak, the divine sea is dim, the spirit is listless, the flesh on both thighs is blurred, much of his hair is broken, but after some treatment, he can still persevere.
Previously, Ning Zhuo learned Pine Wave Qi Cultivation Technique, which actually contains more content than the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique. But when learning, the difficulty is notably much lower than this time.
"Pine Wave Qi Cultivation Technique is grand and natural, gathering wind without harming the root of spiritual objects, it aligns with my character."
"The Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique is too extreme, burning the soul for self-use, harming heavenly harmony, it is indeed a demon path cultivation method sourced from Heavenly Ghost, not in line with my disposition."
"Sigh... I am just compelled, reluctantly learning it." Ning Zhuo sighed in his heart.
Ning Zhuo continued to persevere, studying the third time.
The thighs were hastily treated, yet suffered several stabbings by the wooden cone, blood flowing all over, pain continues.
Almost half of his hair was broken, becoming noticeably sparse.
His divine sea gradually exhausted, the speed of generating thoughts slowed down. The literary style was passively triggered, quickly consumed, converting into strands of literary energy, becoming the crucial factor that allowed Ning Zhuo to persist.
After the difficult completion of the third study, Ning Zhuo’s eyes darkened, his hands supported on the desk, enduring intense dizziness, resisting the urge to fall asleep.
The extremely dim Ideograph Brush rolled on the desk, eventually stopping next to the Jade Slip.
Innumerable copied characters on the Xuan Paper had long been soaked in bitter ink, staining the surrounding blankness, the ink stained on the desk, a filthy mess.
Ning Zhuo’s brows furrowed tightly, firmly grasping the last bit of insight, exerting willpower, not relaxing at this crucial moment.
This is the result of his third study, if he allows himself to faint, although easy, the results would be largely lost.
"Turns out, the true meaning of the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique is to bury me."
"Using oneself as a sacrifice, tasting myriad flavors of life, oneself will also become nothing, sinking into endlessness, becoming a rare soul material!"
"Using others as robes, ultimately making oneself a robe for others."
"Soul Boat is not a boat, it is to attract souls, engrave my essence. Soul Crossing is not crossing, it’s a shovel for digging graves, digging a grave for oneself!"
Understanding the truth, Ning Zhuo couldn’t help but sigh in his heart: "Karma Fire cooks a hundred flavors of soul, only after devouring, feeding the cauldron’s dust."
His first beginner study only found that this Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique extremely formidable, like a sharp divine artifact, harvesting pearls from shells, unaware of the bleeding, only sensing the artifact’s sharpness.
The second study led to medium understanding, valuing the side effects of the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique, focusing on the Five Evils, a heart born of vigilance.
By the third study, he had deeply understood, realizing this demon skill was created with insidious intentions, specifically passed down, misleading others to cultivate, refining one’s soul into soul material. When the time is ripe, the creator cultivator can silently harvest with great ease.
Thus the apparent downside of the demon skill——Five Evils Entangle Truth, isn’t the price a cultivator pays to seek extreme power but rather a trap deliberately set around these downsides, aimed at refining others’ souls!
"Demon cultivators are demon cultivators, truly wicked."
"Cultivating a spell requires caution, strict examination."
"Luckily, my learning ability increased tremendously, with achievements after three studies, revealing this layer of truth."
"In the future... I must pay more attention, cannot easily fall into the schemes of demon cultivators. This is truly insidious."
Ning Zhuo sighed for a moment, then unable to persevere, made arrangements and then fell into deep sleep.
He was in the Bluestone Cave Mansion, within the array space, naturally safe.
When he awoke, he was refreshed, in perfect condition.
The abundant foundation of flesh and soul once again exhibited benefits.
Know that using Confucian means and self-harming hard study, the injury itself is difficult to treat. Most therapeutic methods’ effects will greatly decline, or even ineffective.
Confucian cultivators should have corresponding treatment methods after all they are of one family.
And for Ning Zhuo as such an outer cultivator, what he can truly rely on is actually his own recovery ability.
"What to do now?"
Ning Zhuo learned Soul Searching Technique, intending to take action against Silk Lady. Ban Ji’s issue might not need immediate handling.
Because Ning Zhuo reasoned, if he were Ban Ji, he would definitely go all out on various Xingyun Trials.
But the premise is, Ning Zhuo must acquire sufficiently accurate information to make such a judgment. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be responsible to himself!
And among Tian Shuang’s collection, there are many methods related to Soul Searching Technique.
After all, Heaven and Earth Ghosts came from the Soul Devouring Sect, this demon sect is the deepest organization researching souls in the cultivation world. Soul Searching Technique is precisely their specialty.
Ning Zhuo chose the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique from it, as its power was indeed the strongest!
But after three rounds of study, Ning Zhuo deeply understood it and discovered that this spell was actually a trap. It was the conspiracy of the creator or subsequent spreaders to obtain rare soul material, intentionally disseminating to entice others to self-manufacture.
Plans are beautiful, yet in practice, variations of all sorts often arise.
"I need to learn some other soul searching techniques to see if I can improve the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique."
Ning Zhuo’s learning tasks had to be temporarily increased a lot.
He wasn’t particularly confident in being able to improve, after all, the realm in this aspect is worlds apart from the Five Elements Realm.
Ning Zhuo relied more on his ability to learn.
In Tian Shuang’s collection, soul searching spells are really diverse.
Ning Zhuo possessed full patience and tenacity, learning them one by one.
The Soul Binding Silk Technique can cause one’s own soul to transform into silk, penetrate others’ apertures, resembling an angler retracting a rod. Those affected perceive as if trapped in a spider’s web, past events leaking with the soul silk.
The Three Souls Spinning Wheel Technique targets the target’s three souls. Fetal Light Soul spun into satin (showing memory), The Brisk Spirit-Soul twisted into blood lines (exposing privacy), Nether Spirit Soul drawn into poison yarn (inducing heart demon). Originally a method for making soul material, extracting memory is incidental.
The Pulse Seed Spirit Embryo Technique extracts the target’s one spirit directly, incorporated into one’s own dantian for cultivation, transforming into a Ghost Flower. Thereafter, leveraging the Ghost Flower to control the target, viewing memories is only one of its powers.
Soul Cicada Shedding, Human Candle Sacrifice, Soul Makeup Mirror Observation, Soul Tracing Scripture, Dream Soul Absorption Ointment, Nine Nether Bone Bell, Emotion Puppet Guide, Bone Marrow Ghost Firefly, Resentful Couple’s Unity Tribulation...
Ning Zhuo spent several days mastering all relevant soul searching methods.
"Didn’t expect the first thing I truly exerted full effort to learn turned out to be a demon cultivator’s soul searching art."
Even someone as determined as Ning Zhuo felt fatigue.
His body, soul also showed signs of fatigue, frequent intense consumption and recovery, greatly reduced the recovery speed and efficacy of both.
"Let’s take a break first."
Ning Zhuo deeply understands the principle of holistic approach.
Such significant investment yielded remarkable learning results for Ning Zhuo. He now has over a dozen directions for improving the Boat Burning Soul Crossing Technique.
But limited by insufficient realm, Ning Zhuo cannot clearly perceive which of these dozen directions are correct.
"Using the Luoshu Book Pages for deduction should allow faster calculation of the subsequent paths of improvement."
"But doing so would undoubtedly consume vast amounts of time, energy, etc., posing unpredictable challenges."
"No rush to do this, I have better cultivation sequences."
Thinking of this, Ning Zhuo released Silk Lady, kept imprisoned for days.
Silk Lady, upon seeing Ning Zhuo, although starved into a daze, proudly sneered: "What? Young Master Ning Zhuo ultimately intends to show sincerity? Trying to deceive me, claiming you excel at soul searching?"
"Don’t assume you belong to the righteous path; even in a demon cultivator family, your age, how much could you have accomplished in soul searching arts?"
Ning Zhuo paused, with a tone and demeanor of calm: "Since you stated that, let me show you my righteous path foundation then."