Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 336 The Inescapable Five Finger Mountain

Normally, Chen Ye only needs to send spiritual energy into the scriptures to display the scriptures.

But that's all; there are no other supernatural phenomena.

The true wonders of the Ksitigarbha Sutra have only been demonstrated twice. Once was when Chen Ye recklessly cultivated eighteen Qi Seas, and during his enlightenment, he couldn't help but use divination to calculate the locations of the eighteen Qi Seas.

If it weren't for the Ksitigarbha Sutra pouring a massive amount of spiritual energy into Chen Ye's body, he would have suffered a qi deviation due to the depletion of spiritual energy, and most likely would have died.

The second time was when Chen Ye was cultivating the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts, which required him to shatter his soul into millions of pieces and reunite it with his physical body. This process was extremely dangerous. If he wavered even slightly, Chen Ye's consciousness would shatter into millions of pieces and could no longer be gathered together, turning into a pool of pus and blood.

At that time, the Ksitigarbha Sutra also sensed Chen Ye's crisis, shone brightly, and prepared to protect Chen Ye.

It turned out that Chen Ye was actually faking it. In an instant, he reassembled his soul and body, seizing the opportunity when the Ksitigarbha Sutra began to operate on its own.

However, Chen Ye could only confirm that this treasure was special, but he was unable to unravel the secrets of this scripture.

Now that death is imminent, I wonder if this scripture will come to my rescue.

As the monk Jinming drew closer, his large mouth, filled with sharp teeth, opened and closed as if he couldn't wait to swallow Chen Ye whole.

Chen Ye did not have the habit of waiting to die.

Rather than waiting for this hungry ghost to come and devour you, it's better to be ruthless.

Since all spiritual energy is sealed and cannot be moved, and since all spells and supernatural powers cannot be used, then we should make the most of the only thing we can use.

The only thing Chen Ye can still move now is his consciousness.

Since consciousness remains, it means that the effect of this time-space stagnation has a weaker impact on the soul.

Then I will focus all my energy on my soul.

As long as one can separate their soul from their body, there is a chance to escape. Even if the soul of someone at the Profound Realm is weak, it is still faster than this slow old man.

Chen Ye was like a person trapped in a quagmire, struggling frantically.

The soul, which was originally closely integrated with the physical body, was experiencing excruciating pain, but Chen Ye couldn't even grit his teeth and could only endure the pain with his soul.

The soul leaving the body is the first step in breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, and it is also the biggest bottleneck Chen Ye has encountered.

If someone in the Profound Realm wants to break through further, since their physical body has already reached the limit that mortals can cultivate, they can only work on their soul.

Transforming into a spirit means making the soul, which relies on the physical body for nourishment, stronger and able to move freely without the body, so that possessing another body will not cause any harm.

So how do we do that?
The first step for ordinary cultivators is to get used to their soul leaving their body.

It will be very difficult at first. You may become extremely weak after only a moment of separation from your body, and you may easily damage your soul. But you must try little by little until your soul can leave your body in an instant. Only then can you complete the first step.

The second step is to find ways to strengthen one's soul when it leaves the body. For example, having hundreds of cultivators at the Tongxuan Realm set up an array to construct an illusion using one's own memories and emotions can have the same effect.

However, this kind of thing requires very high standards. You must be sure that all of these hundreds of cultivators are willing to help. If there is even the slightest bit of malice, the dangers in the illusion will increase exponentially.

Why hundreds of people? Because this ensures that the soul of the person breaking through receives sufficient nourishment, while the cultivators who help will not suffer much damage. Otherwise, no one would be willing to do something that benefits others at the expense of themselves.

Therefore, this is only the widely circulated "orthodox" method; various sects also have their own methods.

For example, the Soul Cleansing Flower of the Incense Burning Sect is a treasure coveted by cultivators all over the world.

Using the Soul Cleansing Flower, one can also create an illusion, where the soul will be subjected to various stimuli once it enters.

But stimulation is also training and nourishment. As long as one can successfully emerge from the illusion, one's soul will generally become strong enough to exist independently.

This is the Nascent Soul Realm.

Chen Ye is currently stuck on the first step. His soul and body are too tightly integrated. Although he has obtained a body that is almost without weaknesses and can change at will, it has prevented his soul from leaving his body. No matter how hard he tries, Chen Ye's soul will always influence his body, like salt that has dissolved in water and cannot be separated no matter how much you shake it.

But now it's different. Chen Ye's physical body is completely immobilized, but his soul is able to struggle a little.

It's as if boundless divine power has completely frozen the water in the cup, yet the dissolved salt still manages to struggle.

If you put all your force in one direction, you might be able to break free.

But this will be very painful, ten thousand times more painful than being slowly sliced ​​to death.

Chen Ye, however, disregarded everything and used all his strength to sever the connection between his soul and body. Whenever faced with a life-or-death situation, Chen Ye was always extremely resolute. He could rupture his own eardrums without a second thought, or he could bravely withstand someone else's magic and fight to the death.

It may seem a bit reckless, but it is by no means lacking in courage.

Under this reckless effort, Chen Ye really felt as if his soul was about to separate from his body.

However, the result of doing so is that his soul is inevitably being damaged. No one would use such a violent method to extract their soul. Chen Ye is not sure if he can maintain his will after his soul leaves his body, or if it will be blown away by a gust of wind.

Oh, there's no wind here now, so we should give it our all!

However, just as Chen Ye was about to successfully tear his own soul apart, a soft golden light shone from his storage bag and fell on Chen Ye.

In that instant, Chen Ye felt all the excruciating pain disappear, but at the same time, his soul, which was about to leave his body, was also pressed back down by the golden light.

The Ksitigarbha Sutra flew out of Chen Ye's storage bag, completely ignoring the time-space stagnation barrier.

The scriptures flew into the air and began to turn their pages with a rustling sound.

Chen Ye saw countless golden lights transform into Sanskrit characters imprinted into the sky, and a strange feeling arose in his heart. It seemed as if the Ksitigarbha Sutra was about to merge into one with this world.

The monk Jinming, who had been drooling as he crawled toward Chen Ye, was startled. His hunched body froze in mid-air, no longer daring to approach Chen Ye.

But it seemed he could not go back. When the golden Sanskrit characters of the Deva Sutra merged into the sky, the Buddha's hand holding the flower suddenly trembled as if it were twitching. Then, with force, the five fingers crushed the golden lotus into powder, and then clenched it into a fist.

With a scream, Monk Jinming could no longer maintain his suspended state and fell with a wail. Before he even hit the ground, his hungry ghost body exploded into a sky full of foul-smelling fragments.

Neither the Buddha's Palm nor the Ksitigarbha Sutra cared about the life or death of the monk Jinming.

At that moment, the ethereal meaning of the Buddha's palm plucking a flower vanished without a trace, and an overwhelming hatred surged from the mountain peak where the Buddha's palm was located, staining the world a blood red.

Chen Ye felt something was wrong. Wasn't the Ksitigarbha Sutra about Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva? The Buddha's hand on the mountain should also be related to Buddhism. The two should complement each other, so how could they seem like they were incompatible?
"No, this isn't the time to think about that. We should run away first!"

The moment the golden lotus was crushed, the time-space freeze was lifted. Regardless of the connection between the Ksitigarbha Sutra and the severed hand, running away was definitely the right thing to do.

Chen Ye dared not take back the Ksitigarbha Sutra, fearing that if he closed the sutra, he would be imprisoned again.

Whether it's the Buddha's palm or the Ksitigarbha Sutra, they are certainly not from the mortal world. Let these Buddhist grievances be resolved by themselves.

Just as Chen Ye was about to ride the clouds, a golden light landed in front of him; it was Mo Ci.

Mo Ci didn't say a word, picked up Chen Ye and ran. His speed was so fast that Chen Ye could only see everything around him being stretched into thin threads, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

The master and apprentice ran for a while before Qu Heng caught up with them.

As expected, all three of them chose to run away without hesitation. They didn't care about any treasures or secrets; saving their lives was the priority. They could come back and pick up the spoils after the fight was over.

However, the three had not flown far when they came to a towering mountain that seemed to reach into the clouds, with a giant hand on it.

On the Buddha's palm was the Ksitigarbha Sutra, radiating golden light.

Chen Ye was shocked. They had clearly been flying away from the Buddha's palm, so how did they end up back where they started?

(End of this chapter)