Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Chapter 211 Seizing the Body
After Chen Yuan left, Zhang Zian took out a jade slip, probed his spiritual sense into it, left a few words, and then put the jade slip away.

He and Wang Ran waited until the sun set and the sky became dark, and no more foundation-building cultivators came to hand in their mission talismans.

Zhang Zian whispered a few words to Wang Ran, then left the Good Merit Hall and came to the gate of a house where a Jindan Zhenren lived. He said loudly, "Zhang Zian, the head of the Good Merit Hall, pays homage to Elder Zhuge."

After a while, the two doors flashed with light and slowly opened. A faint voice came into Zhang Zian's ears: "Come to the main hall to see me."

Zhang Zian walked into the house and came to the main hall. Zhuge Qi was sitting on the armchair, looking at him indifferently.

Zhang Zian bowed deeply and said respectfully, "Elder Zhuge, except for the seven monks who died in the battle, all the monks who participated in the battle have handed in their mission talismans. I have written down the details. Please have a look at it, Elder Zhuge."

As he spoke, he stroked his storage bag, took out the jade slip, and presented it with both hands.

Zhuge Qi raised his hand and took the jade slip in his hand. He probed his spiritual sense into it and examined it, his expression still indifferent.

Suddenly, his expression changed slightly: "Chen Yuan... do you know his background?"

Zhang Zian said respectfully, "Junior Brother Chen is a disciple of Elder Jin Luoheng. Three years ago, he killed a late-stage foundation-building demon cultivator by leaps and bounds during a sect mission. As far as I know, he is also a master of alchemy with extraordinary alchemy skills."

Zhuge Qi was surprised: "He is also proficient in alchemy?"

Zhang Zian said, "Chen Yuan is familiar with our palace steward Wang Ran. Wang Ran has asked him to refine pills twice, and his success rate was as high as 70%."

Zhuge Qi nodded slightly, stroked his storage bag, took out a token, raised his hand and waved it gently, handed it to Zhang Zian, and said lightly: "Give this token to Chen Yuan, and allow him to return to the sect to recuperate for three years, and then come to the Demon Desert to obey orders."

Zhang Zian took the jade token with both hands and said respectfully, "Yes."

He put the jade token into his storage bag, bowed deeply, and turned to leave.

Zhuge Qi sat upright on the armchair and murmured, "Chen Yuan, not bad, not bad..."

……

After Chen Yuan left the Shangong Hall, he did not immediately return to his small building, but went to visit Shen Danmei first.

Three days later, she had recovered as before, but perhaps due to the influence of the charm, her cheeks were still slightly flushed and her eyes were much softer than before.

Seeing that Shen Danmei was fine, Chen Yuan did not stay long. He just said a few words to her, then got up and said goodbye, returning to the small building to meditate and practice.

A day later, Chen Yuan's true energy was restored. He took out the mustard seed ring from his arms, and with a thought, the soul-nourishing tree appeared out of thin air in front of him.

According to Zhang Zian, he would have to wait a few days if he wanted to leave the Demon-Slaying Desert. This was a good time for him to use the Soul-Nourishing Wood to repair his damaged consciousness.

Over the past three years, he has absorbed the spiritual energy contained in the Soul-Nourishing Tree every month, and his spiritual awareness has expanded by more than eleven feet in total.

Under the continuous consumption of spiritual energy, the soul-nourishing tree, which was originally half a foot long, is now only three inches long. The thick gray luster on the surface has also become much thinner, and there are signs of drying up, giving people a feeling of twilight similar to that of a centenarian in the mortal world, which is extremely strange.

According to Chen Yuan's estimation, if he continued to use the Soul-Nourishing Wood to strengthen his spiritual consciousness, after all the spiritual energy was consumed, his spiritual consciousness should be able to expand to twenty-five feet.

But his consciousness is damaged now, and he needs to use the spiritual energy in the soul-nourishing tree to restore it, so the effect will inevitably be greatly reduced.

But if left alone, the consciousness will recover very slowly, and it will take at least several years to recover.

Moreover, the power of the stars in the sky is mainly used to temper the body. Although it can strengthen the spiritual consciousness, its recovery is extremely slow. One time of starlight infusing the body can only restore one inch of spiritual consciousness.

Before his spiritual consciousness is fully restored, Chen Yuan cannot improve his cultivation and can only use the soul-nourishing wood to nourish his soul.

He looked at the soul-nourishing tree in front of him, feeling quite regretful. He slowly closed his eyes, spread out his spiritual awareness, and slowly extended it to the soul-nourishing tree.

Chen Yuan felt as if his body was immersed in a pool of hot springs, warm and comfortable.

Strands of gray silk threads emerged from the soul-nourishing tree and slowly extended into Chen Yuan's soul space, wrapping his soul inside.

The severely damaged spiritual consciousness slowly recovered under spiritual nourishment.

Only this kind of top-notch spiritual object in heaven and earth can have such an effect.

Chen Yuan estimated that it would only take three days for his consciousness to recover.

Unfortunately, this is only half a piece of soul-nourishing wood, and it is incomplete. Otherwise, it would only take one hour for his damaged consciousness to recover completely.

Just as Chen Yuan was completely immersed in the spiritual nourishment of the Soul-Nourishing Tree and his mind was completely relaxed, a stream of yellow light suddenly flew out from the Soul-Nourishing Tree, followed a gray silk thread, silently entered Chen Yuan's soul space, and pounced towards his soul.

Chen Yuan was unaware of this and was still immersed in the warm and comfortable feeling.

Just when the yellow light was about to touch Chen Yuan's soul, the jade disk in the soul space suddenly emitted a golden light, and Chen Yuan's soul was covered with a layer of golden light armor, blocking the yellow light outside.

"what?"

A faint exclamation sounded, seemingly from nowhere. Chen Yuan's heart was shocked. He immediately withdrew his consciousness from the Soul-Nourishing Tree and looked inward at his body.

In his soul space, his soul suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the yellow light in front of him in surprise and doubt.

The yellow light slowly turned into a soul shadow, and he spoke lightly: "Haha, I didn't expect that there is such a treasure in your soul space..."

This soul shadow was a muddy yellow in color, much more solid than Chen Yuan's soul. It looked to be only in his twenties, extremely handsome. He turned his head with interest and looked at the jade disk standing in Chen Yuan's soul space.

After Chen Yuan saw the face of the soul shadow, his expression changed drastically: "You are... Master Qing You!"

The face of this soul shadow is exactly the same as the remains of Master Qingyou in the Wentian Palace!
The yellow soul figure turned around and said, "Yes, I am Qing You. Can you please explain to me what this jade disk without words is?"

Chen Yuan felt relieved when he found out that Master Qingyou couldn't see the Nine Transformations of the True Spirit written on the jade disk. However, he took a few steps back and asked, "How can you enter my soul space?"

No wonder the Soul Nourishing Wood’s effect in strengthening spiritual consciousness is so poor. It turns out that Master Qingyou’s soul is placed in the Soul Nourishing Wood, secretly absorbing the wood’s spirituality.

Master Qingyou smiled slightly and said, "My friend, you have absorbed the spiritual energy from the Soul-Nourishing Tree. I followed the spiritual thread and entered your soul space."

Chen Yuan took a few steps back and stared at Master Qingyou: "You want to take over my body?"

Master Qingyou smiled and said, "Yes, I want to take over your body." Upon hearing this, Chen Yuan's heart was burning with rage, and he wanted to tear Master Qingyou's soul into pieces, so he took a step forward.

But looking at the solid soul of Master Qingyou, Chen Yuan felt fearful again and stopped.

He didn't even notice any trace of Master Qingyou entering his soul space, and was able to escape only thanks to the protection of the jade disc.

But the jade disc only has the effect of protecting the soul and will not attack Master Qingyou. He also has no means to fight against the enemy with his soul and has no way to take over Master Qingyou's soul.

Seeing Chen Yuan's uncertain expression, Master Qingyou seemed to guess what he was thinking and said calmly, "My friend, calm down. After I woke up from my deep sleep, I saw that you were absorbing the spiritual power of the Soul-Nourishing Tree and wanted to destroy the spiritual object that my soul rested on. Naturally, I took the initiative to attack you."

"And now that the Soul-Nourishing Wood is in your hands, you must have entered the Secret Realm of the Heaven-Wen Ding and taken my treasure. Then isn't it only natural for me to take over your body?"

Chen Yuan said coldly: "Don't talk nonsense, treasures can only be obtained by those who are capable. I can enter the secret realm of Wentian Ding, that is my ability."

"If you have the guts, take over my body. I won't complain. Otherwise, I will definitely destroy your soul!"

True Man Qingyou laughed: "Yes, my friend, what you said makes sense. Treasures can only be obtained by those who are capable. Since you can enter the secret realm of Wentian Ding and obtain the treasure I left behind, that is your ability."

"But don't think that with this wordless jade disk guarding my soul, I can't take over your body."

Chen Yuan said coldly: "You can give it a try!"

As he spoke, he took a few steps forward and came in front of Master Qingyou, with no fear on his face.

The jade disk flew out from the jade pendant, recording the supreme skill "Nine Transformations of the True Spirit". How could a mere Jindan cultivator break it?
Moreover, if Master Qingyou was really confident that he could break the protection of the jade disk, why would he keep talking nonsense with him? He would have taken action long ago.

Chen Yuan was aggressive and ready to fight to the death, but Master Qingyou remained calm: "My friend and I have no grudge against each other, why did you make such a fuss?"

After hearing this, Chen Yuan became more certain that Master Qingyou could not break the jade barrier and that he was just making false threats before.

He sneered, took two steps forward, and came in front of Master Qingyou, almost sticking to him, and said, "You can start now!"

Master Qingyou took two steps back, and the last trace of fear in Chen Yuan's heart disappeared completely.

But at this moment, Master Qingyou suddenly laughed: "My friend, your mind is very strong. I really can't break the golden light of this wordless jade disk, but what can you do to me?"

"Since you have entered the secret realm of Wentian Ding, you should know my cultivation level when I was alive. Even if I cannot possess you, with your cultivation level of the middle stage of foundation building, do you dare to devour my soul?"

Chen Yuan's expression changed slightly. Master Qingyou's words hit his soft spot.

Although he was protected by the jade disk and was not afraid of Master Qingyou taking over his body, Master Qingyou had a very high level of cultivation, and even if only a wisp of his soul was left, he was far superior to Chen Yuan.

But he would never compromise with Master Qingyou, and said coldly: "Then just keep wasting time like this. Without the spiritual warmth of the Soul Nourishing Tree, you will sooner or later run out of soul power, and then I will naturally be able to destroy you!"

Master Qingyou smiled and raised his hand. A ray of white light floating in the soul space flew into his hand, transformed into a yellow light, and was absorbed into his body, and his soul and body solidified slightly.

Chen Yuan was shocked. These white lights floating in the soul space were the power of his soul. They could actually be absorbed by Master Qingyou to replenish his soul power.

True Man Qing You smiled and said, "To be honest, my friend, when you first absorbed the spiritual energy from the Soul Nourishing Tree three years ago, I woke up from my deep sleep, but I was extremely weak and unable to take over the body."

"When you absorbed the spiritual energy from the Soul-Nourishing Tree, I secretly intercepted most of it and nurtured your spirit. Until today, it has recovered to its peak and I am ready to take over your body."

"But I didn't expect that there was such a treasure in my friend's soul space, which made me fail at the last moment."

"But fortunately, I always like to keep a backup plan when doing things. In the past three years, every time you absorbed the spirituality from the Soul-Nourishing Tree, I would secretly perform a secret method to send a trace of soul essence into you. However, I did not attack your soul, but just let it stay in your soul space."

"After three years, your soul space has been contaminated with my soul aura. Although I can't use a little soul essence to usurp yours, it is not difficult to steal some of your soul power to replenish my own."

"As long as you are still alive, don't even think about waiting until the day when I run out of soul power."

As he spoke, he raised his hand again, taking in a wisp of spiritual power into his hand and absorbing it into his body.

Chen Yuan's face changed, and he controlled his spiritual power to move away from Master Qing You, but he raised his hand and took a ray of white light into his body.

Countless white lights were floating in Chen Yuan's soul space. Every time Master Qing You took away a ray of it, it was just a drop in the bucket.

But as long as he can steal Chen Yuan's spiritual power, it will not be a sourceless water, and there is no way he can exhaust his spiritual power.

Master Qingyou stopped what he was doing and said with a smile, "Don't waste your energy, my friend. Over the past three years, I have performed mystical techniques more than thirty times, sending more than thirty strands of soul essence into your body, filling your soul space."

“Unless you cultivate to the late stage of Jindan and your spiritual awareness is equal to mine, it will be difficult for you to find the traces of these spiritual essences, and I will be able to steal your spiritual power all the time.”

Chen Yuan's face turned ugly, and he said coldly: "Senior, do you want to stay in my soul space forever?"

Unconsciously, he changed the way he addressed Master Qingyou.

True Man Qingyou said sternly: "I have now entered your soul space, so it is impossible for me to perform this secret technique in front of you."

"If we do this, it will only be a different way to prolong our lives. If you really cultivate to the late stage of Jindan one day, that will be the end of me."

"I just want to tell you, my friend, that although I can't take over your body, you can't do anything to me either. Why bother to make it so desperate?"

Chen Yuan's heart moved, and his tone softened a lot: "Senior, what you said is very true. As long as you leave my soul space and return to the soul-nourishing tree, I will not interfere with you from now on. How about it?"

Master Qingyou said with a smile, "My friend, you are joking. I am just a remnant soul now. If I return to the Soul Nurturing Tree, I will be slaughtered by you. Only by staying here can I live in peace with you."

Chen Yuan's eyes turned cold: "Then I can only ask the master in the sect to take action to destroy the senior's soul. I can't allow the senior's soul to stay in my soul space!"

True Man Qing You sighed softly, "If you do this, I can only close my eyes and wait for death. But before I die, I will tell you everything about how you entered the secret realm of Wentian Ding."

"I wonder if the master in your sect would be interested in a space magic weapon?"

Chen Yuan sneered and said, "I'm afraid I'll disappoint you, Senior. The Heaven-Seeing Cauldron has collapsed on its own, and the spatial fluctuations have spread to a radius of ten thousand miles. This is known to all the cultivators in Qi State!"

(End of this chapter)