A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Duan Rong sighed softly, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

If this is a matter of life and death, then it will be very difficult to help him break free from the inner demon of countless sword shadows.

These methods of treatment are also recorded and explained in Lü Yinlin's notes.

As one of the eight major sects of the Nine Provinces, Taiyi Sect has a history of tens of thousands of years, and therefore has accumulated a great deal of exploration and experience in overcoming and treating various inner demons.

Moreover, some of the methods for overcoming inner demons from the eight schools have also been leaked out.

For example, the method of using the contemplation of white bones to counteract lust originated from the Faxiang School of the Western Regions.

In fact, this is an ancient practice. Long before the methods of cultivation spread across this land, Buddhism had already begun to use this method to counteract lust in order to reach the state of Nirvana, where one finds bliss in quiescence.

Later, after cultivation spread throughout the land of Kyushu, the Faxiang School, which dominated the Western Regions, inherited the ancient method and used the White Bone Contemplation to break through the lustful demons that had solidified in the mind. Because this method was very effective, it gradually spread throughout the land of Kyushu, and almost all eight schools used this method.

However, not every remedy is as effective as the White Bone Contemplation.

The White Bone Contemplation method is, after all, inherited from ancient Buddhist explorations. However, other methods of counteracting it may not be the same.

Duan Rong felt that this life-or-death confrontation didn't seem to be very effective.

As he pondered this, he looked up again at the body lying before him. Under the bright sunlight, the white jade-like corpse gleamed with a cold light. Although it had developed lividity, the skin on the rest of its body remained smooth.

Just then, Duan Rong suddenly noticed a black spot on the right cheek of the body.

The black spot was only the size of a fly, located near the corner of her eye; it was clearly a newly formed lividity.

Duan Rong's heart skipped a beat, for this was the first time that lividity had appeared on that beautiful face. For some reason, Duan Rong felt that the lividity had not damaged her appearance. The lividity that suddenly appeared at the corner of her eyes was like some kind of strange makeup, with an alternative and eerie beauty.

Duan Rong sat cross-legged not far away, looking solemnly at the lying corpse.

As the light gradually dimmed, more and more livid spots appeared on the body, like copper coins, one by one.

The livor mortis on his cheeks was also getting bigger.

As dusk approached, the beauty of the body had vanished, and the once jade-like corpse now exuded a sense of horror.

Three lividity spots had appeared on her face, and even the skin without lividity spots was beginning to turn bluish. It was a bluish color that seemed to emerge from deep within the skin, only faintly showing through; the greater change was actually beneath the skin.

As night fell, the light of day completely disappeared.

Four hanging oil lamps illuminated the bluish corpse covered in lividity.

Terror and eeriness permeated the damp and dark stone cave.

Looking at the terrifying, bluish-green corpse before him, Duan Rong's face turned bitter.

In just one day, a body as beautiful as white jade became a demon in hell.

Duan Rong couldn't help but feel a little lost at this moment.

Was it that the jade-like beauty who had transformed into the bluish-green demon before us? Or was this bluish-green demon the true form of the beauty, and the delicate, rosy skin she had previously possessed merely an illusion conjured by the demon?

When this thought arose in Duan Rong's mind, a sudden chill ran through his body.

At that very moment, he clearly felt that some of the lustful demons deep within his heart had been eliminated.

"The White Bone Contemplation really worked!"

The cool sensation that arose traveled down his spine from the back of his head, through his tailbone, and lingered around the root chakra.

Duan Rong immediately focused his mind and began to observe. The cool sensation lingered around the root chakra before slowly spreading outwards until it completely disappeared...

Duan Rong opened his eyes, and when he looked at the terrifying and bizarre body lying before him, a coldness appeared in his eyes.

He knew that his recent mental meditation had broken through a part of the deep-seated lustful demons within him.

In other words, during the process of focusing his mind and contemplating, he gradually came to understand the composition of the lustful demon.

This conclusion was drawn from his contemplation of the subtle changes in his own deep psychology.

The structure of lust actually consists of five components: desire, sex, lust, passion, and love. These five are intertwined to form the demonic influence of lust.

To overcome lust, you must first break it down, and then break it down one by one.

Sex refers to the physiological part, the most basic part.

Desire, in this context, refers to all kinds of fantasies and quirks. This is also the most difficult part to overcome.

"Color" refers to the infatuation with appearance and body.

Sex is like dry kindling, lust is the spark that ignites it, and desire is like boiling oil.

If the boiling oil of desire is not present, but merely a flame trying to ignite dry tinder, it can be extinguished the moment your thoughts intervene. This is why some people have good self-control, while others are demons consumed by lust.

The difference lies in the depth or shallowness of desire.

The other two are affection and love. Love refers to your current feelings for someone. Affection refers to the stories and emotions that have occurred between you over the years, the things that linger in your heart.

The demon of lust is a mixture of these five things.

During that moment of contemplation, Duan Rong entered into a state of sudden enlightenment, breaking through a part of his desires.

Sexual desire is unbreakable unless one castrates oneself. And when lustful desires enter a state of madness, there is no mixture of emotion or love.

Therefore, the two starting points for breaking through the demon of lust are desire and lust, that is, the desires and delusions in one's mind and the greed and infatuation with appearance and body. By gradually cutting them off, one can quit lust.

The White Bone Contemplation method also begins from this point.

The Buddhist practice aims to lead one to the bliss of Nirvana. Duan Rong, on the other hand, seeks to break free from the demon of lust and achieve profound enlightenment. Although their ultimate goals differ, both require the elimination of the demon of lust.

From this realization onward, Duan Rong's cultivation of the White Bone Contemplation entered a deeper level.

From this moment on, the lustful demon deep within his heart truly began to disintegrate and loosen.

After a night of meditation, Duan Rong's eyes were filled with icy coldness.

The body lying before them had turned brownish-purple, and some parts had begun to swell and rot.

The cave began to reek of a strong stench of corpses.

As night fell again, the stench of the corpse, coupled with the swollen and distorted appearance of the body before him, caused Duan Rong to feel waves of nausea, but he forcibly suppressed them.

In the dim light, he continued to observe the changes in the corpse, when he suddenly noticed a tender white maggot crawling on the corpse's face...

Duan Rong's face turned extremely ugly, and waves of nausea surged within him.

But he suppressed it through visualization and gradually adapted to the new changes in the corpse.

Once the corpse decomposes, maggots emerge in swarms.

Two days later, the disgusting scene before me was beyond description.

Duan Rong sat there cross-legged with a livid face, wanting to end his practice at the White Bone Temple several times.

Haw!

One of the corpse's eyeballs suddenly fell out, landing on several maggots that were molting in a sticky fluid... The area where lividity first appeared at the corner of the corpse's eye had already rotted away, and the entire skin at the corner of the eye had also rotted away, so the eyeball, which had rotted around its edge, fell off...

Duan Rong forced himself to close his eyes, suppressing his nausea. But after only a few breaths, he opened them again.

The practice of the White Bone Contemplation does not allow the eyes to be closed; one must visualize the entire process of the corpse's decay.

While contemplating the utterly disgusting scene before him, Duan Rong also tried to suppress the desires deep within his heart.

Suddenly, he felt an itch on the back of his hand. He raised his hand and saw a maggot crawling on the back of his hand.

Duan Rong's eyes narrowed, and he was about to throw it away, but the next moment, he suddenly let out a long breath and sat cross-legged with his palms facing the sky again, as if the maggots did not exist at all.

That night, not only did the back of his hands itch, but his neck and back also itch, yet his expression grew increasingly calm.

Just as Duan Rong entered a state of tranquility, becoming as withered and motionless as a ghost, Chu Wushang suddenly reappeared in the cave like a phantom.

As soon as he appeared, he was already in mid-air, his spear like a dragon, stabbing towards Duan Rong's chest.

The moment Chu Wushang appeared out of nowhere, Duan Rong looked at the spearhead, gleaming coldly, aimed at his chest, and couldn't help but sneer. "That trick again?"

But the next moment, Duan Rong felt a sharp pain in his chest, and his cold smile froze on his lips.

Because Chu Wushang's spear pierced through him, giving him a thorough chill.

Chu Wushang remained expressionless as the bloodied spearhead emerged from Duan Rong's back, blood dripping from its tip...

Duan Rong looked down at the spear shaft piercing his chest, and he could clearly feel that the spear had pierced right past his heart.

He originally thought that Chu Wushang would stop his spear at his chest, but he did not expect that Chu Wushang would pierce through him directly, almost rupturing his heart.

It's important to understand that although Duan Rong had achieved the Great Perfection of the Qi Cyclone Realm, he was still a mortal. If his heart were pierced, he would die. Unless, like Lü Qingzhu, he was hidden in a black jade coffin by the ancestor to control his injuries and then treated with divine medicine.

A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of Duan Rong's mouth as he said, "Wasn't this a bit too much?"

He felt that stabbing himself like this was pointless. Would this really be effective in dispelling his inner demons amidst the swirling sword shadows?

"Is that so?" A sinister sneer appeared on Chu Wushang's gloomy face.

Suddenly, Chu Wushang's spear trembled, and Duan Rong's chest was covered in a cloud of blood and flesh.

A clump of blood flew back into Chu Wushang's hand.

Chu Wushang's face was cold as he grabbed Duan Rong's bloodied heart.

At this moment, Duan Rong had a bloody hole the size of a palm in his chest, which was open from front to back.

Duan Rong coughed up a mouthful of blood, mixed with bits of flesh. He was speechless, feeling as if he would die at any moment. His eyes were filled with terror as he stared at the bloody heart in Chu Wushang's hand.

Just then, Chu Wushang grabbed and shattered the heart in his hand into a bloody mess.

Duan Rong's face was horribly contorted; only now did he realize that Chu Wushang was actually going to kill him.

Blood and saliva gushed from Duan Rong's mouth. With his last breath, he lost control and shouted, "You're crazy! You really want to kill me?!"

Chu Wushang looked coldly at Duan Rong and said indifferently, "Duan Rong, it was the Ancestor who ordered your death. When you get to the underworld, don't blame me."

"Ancestor...?!" Duan Rong's mind raced with thoughts.

But Chu Wushang's figure suddenly disappeared.

"Don't go!"

Duan Rong tried to struggle, but he suddenly discovered faint spatial ripples around his body, making it impossible for him to move.

"why?"

"Lu Yinlin, why do you want to kill me?"

At this moment, Duan Rong could clearly sense that the life force in his body was draining away, and death was slowly devouring him.

He suddenly thought of Lü Yinlin, who had used his nascent soul's clone to enter his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

"Did he discover something?!"

Duan Rong was immobilized by the spatial ripples, and his heart was removed and crushed. His body was gradually withering away, losing its blood supply, and his brain was becoming sluggish.

"..."

"Am I going to die?"

Duan Rong never expected that he would die so inexplicably and so pathetically in this world of Kyushu.

But his eyelids were growing heavier and heavier. He suddenly glanced at the rotting corpse crawling with maggots not far away, and his lips twitched involuntarily.

He knew that before long, he too would rot like that decaying corpse in this cave, becoming food for maggots.

"Life and death are the same, long life and short life are equal; life is like a temporary stay, death is like returning home."

In the final moment of his death, a sudden realization dawned on Duan Rong's mind. The Daoist scriptures he couldn't understand flashed through his mind like fireflies flickering in and out.

But the light had barely flickered before it vanished completely into darkness, for Duan Rong's thoughts had already been extinguished at that moment.

He is dead.

Just as Duan Rong breathed his last, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him like a ghost.

As soon as Chu Wushang had a thought, the spatial ripples that had been faintly floating around Duan Rong disappeared on their own.

He gently laid Duan Rong down, then put a pill he was holding into Duan Rong's mouth, and then channeled a wisp of vital energy to send the pill into Duan Rong's stomach.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, he carefully placed a bloody heart into the bloody hole in Duan Rong's chest.

Chu Wushang's movements were methodical and orderly, because this was not the first time he had done this. Every cultivator who had achieved the ability to face death had to be killed by him in this way.

Not long ago, the bloody mess he crushed in front of Duan Rong was not Duan Rong's heart at all.

Chu Wushang positioned the heart correctly, confirmed the connection of the blood vessels, and then used his other hand to take out a brown porcelain bottle from his clothes.

The brown porcelain bottle was about the size of a fist. Chu Wushang held it in his hand and bit off the stopper with his teeth.

Then, he took the porcelain bottle and slowly poured the milky white liquid onto Duan Rong's heart and the bloody hole.

The milky white liquid inside the porcelain bottle emitted a strange smell, like the blood of some kind of insect.

But as the milky white liquid was poured over him, the severed blood vessels reconnected on their own, and the broken flesh sprouted granulation tissue, intertwining with each other. The blood hole in Duan Rong's chest was rapidly healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He can bring the dead back to life and heal the wounded.

Chu Wushang suddenly circulated his energy, using the flow of vital energy to stimulate Duan Rong's respiratory system.

"puff!"

Duan Rong, who had been frozen in place for only a few breaths, suddenly exhaled a breath of foul air. (End of Chapter)