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Chapter 122, Section 121: [To subdue a dragon, one must first subdue one's own heart.]

Seeing that the sturdy Yin spirit, tempered by the tribulations of wind and fire, could only dissipate into specks of spiritual light, Chen Sheng immediately felt an overwhelming sense of panic.

"It shouldn't be like this, it shouldn't be like this."

"I had clearly already integrated with the Dragon-Subduing Buddhist Qi, and with the support of that Qi, I should have smoothly passed the tribulation. How could I have collapsed at the first touch of the tribulation lightning?"

The continued collapse of the Yin spirit made Chen Sheng extremely anxious.

He immediately tried to activate the mark that represented control over the Five Thunders, attempting to guide the tribulation lightning out of his body.

Unexpectedly, the tribulation lightning, which is characterized by creation and destruction, does not belong to the five elements of lightning. This action not only failed to resolve his crisis, but also almost destroyed the mark that controls the five lightning.

Chen Sheng had no choice but to stop what he was doing and begin searching through his vast memory for a way to resolve the crisis.

Unfortunately, none of the evil spirits on the Myriad Soul Banner that he searched were true fourth-tier cultivators. Even though he searched all the relevant keywords in the memory palace he created in his mind, he still couldn't find a way to deal with this unexpected situation.

As the Yin spirit grew smaller and smaller, seemingly on the verge of extinction under the lightning tribulation, a book of Fu Fengzi's sayings, compiled by extracting the memories of numerous evil spirits, suddenly appeared before Chen Sheng.

One sentence in particular jolted him awake like a thunderbolt.

"Human hearts are fickle, and many firm beliefs cannot last. How can one become an immortal in this way!"

To absorb the aura of malevolent energy, one must truly accept the ideals and will represented by that energy in order to become one with it.

"Does genuine recognition require integration?"
I have absorbed the Dragon-Subduing Buddha's power, but my Yin spirit remains incredibly weak. Is it because I haven't truly merged with it?

In an instant, Chen Sheng understood where the problem lay.

Relying on his advanced Taoist and Buddhist techniques, both at the fourth level, what exactly is the core concept behind [Minor Dragon Binding Hand Seal] and Dragon Subduing Buddhist Technique?
Is it through sheer force that we can subdue and subdue the demonic dragons from the outside world?

Absolutely not. The Buddhist concept of creating merit is far more complex than that.

Judging from the Buddhist tradition of seeking answers within oneself, the so-called subduing and binding of dragons probably means first and foremost subduing one's own mind.

If you can't even subdue your own heart, how can you talk about subduing dragons?
So Chen Sheng began to examine his own heart, to confront his fear of death, his instinctive hesitation and cowardice, and any thoughts that disturbed his mind...

When he regarded those distracting thoughts as demonic dragons that needed to be subdued, the illusory thoughts that originally existed in his mind were truly manifested at this moment as a colorful little dragon.

Chen Sheng raised his left hand and gently grabbed at the Yin spirit, pulling out those distracting thoughts.

As soon as the many thoughts left the body and lost the support of the Yin spirit, they immediately turned into ashes and scattered.

At this moment, Chen Sheng looked at his own heart again and felt that it was as clear as crystal and as firm as diamond.

A firm mind is unmoved by the eight winds and indestructible through countless eons.

With a Vajra Prajna mind, refine a Vajra-immaculate body.

At the moment he subdued his own mind, Chen Sheng's spirit shone with golden light, which mingled with the purple lightning, creating a dazzling and brilliant spectacle.

In this process, every tiny particle of the Dragon-Subduing Buddha's Qi truly merges with the tiny particles of Yin Spirit into one.

When the two are combined, the strength of the Yin spirit immediately increases a thousandfold.

Bah! Bah!
The tribulation lightning still roamed inside and outside the Yin Spirit, but it could no longer harm the Yin Spirit in the slightest. On the contrary, it made the golden Yin Spirit shine even brighter, just like the essence of gold forged by thunder and fire.

Another half hour passed, and when Chen Sheng's Yin energy was exhausted, the calamity completely stopped.

At this moment, his Yin Spirit had become as clear as crystal, without the slightest flaw. Even the marks embedded in the Yin Spirit had become more vivid. The light emitted by the Yin Spirit had also changed from dazzling to soft, carrying a warm feeling that brought peace of mind, illuminating the entire secret chamber.

There was no grand display of skill or ambition; it was simply a matter of internally calming one's mind and externally forging one's Yin spirit. The fourth stage of the Dao of Nature, the Tribulation Realm, was thus achieved in a simple and straightforward manner.

Perhaps it is due to the characteristics of the Small Dragon Binding Hand Seal and the Dragon Subduing Buddha's Qi.

At this moment, Chen Sheng felt that his body and mind were filled with a powerful force that could control everything, as if he could grasp everything in his hands.

He knew this was the unreal feeling of suddenly gaining a huge boost in power, and a slight side effect of the magical energy attribute.

Chen Sheng inhaled the fragrance in the air, calming his mind.

In this world, no one can truly control everything.

When practicing spirituality, it is a good thing if one's mind can align with the will of Heaven and the hearts of others, as this is helpful for spiritual practice.

However, it's best not to put yourself on a pedestal in everyday life.

After all, a fourth-level cultivator is not a true god. Being unable to extricate oneself from the fantasy of being omnipotent for too long will only harm oneself.

Once the delusions in his mind were completely suppressed, Chen Sheng began to test the power of the fourth level.

First, there is the change in the strength of the Yin spirit itself.

He stepped into a corner of the secret room and picked up a piece of Ghast Iron, known for its hardness, from a shelf.

Then, using the power of the Yin spirit, he squeezed the iron block, crushing the hard yet brittle iron ore into powder.

It may seem like nothing, but it's something that even Chen Sheng's strong body, now at the third level of the Life Dao realm, cannot do.

Clearly, after absorbing the Qi, Chen Sheng's Yin spirit had surpassed the strength of his physical body.

In the future, he will be safer fighting with his spirit than with his physical body.

Afterwards, Chen Sheng released a divine thought from his Yin spirit that was a level stronger than before.

The divine thought, carrying its own will, swept over the thick layer of earth and stone overhead, over the buildings of Miaochan Temple above, over the continuous mountains, and over the gently flowing Oujiang River... until it expanded to its limit before stopping.

The divine sense covered a vast area of ​​thirty miles around, allowing the mountains and rivers surrounding Miaochan Temple, as well as the tens of thousands of ordinary people and cultivators living there, to be seen.

While the innate perceptive ability of this Yin spirit is far inferior to using the Mirror Light Technique to spy on secrets, and it cannot perform auxiliary Taoist techniques from a distance, it does have the advantage of being easy to use.

It's more convenient to use under normal circumstances.

At this moment, as his divine sense spread out, a flood of chaotic information from dozens of miles around entered Chen Sheng's mind, yet he was still able to process it with ease. This was a sign that his Yin spirit's information processing ability had been enhanced.

He has become smarter than before.

Just as Chen Sheng was about to withdraw his divine sense to test the other abilities of the [Small Dragon Binding Handprint] after it advanced to the fourth level, his divine sense saw a man and a woman walking out of the door of a restaurant in Yongjia County.

A woman of exceptional beauty, paired with the hunchbacked figure of the Turtle Prime Minister—this combination is all too familiar.

"Oh dear, the Dragon Palace has invited me to a banquet again."

(End of this chapter)