707: Chapter 707 Under Control

The Buddhist temple.

Arhat Huicheng instructed the Disciples to remain vigilant and act as Protectors, then took the sealed Ghost Commander Youming to the secret chamber to go into seclusion.

Beneath the Buddhist temple, the area was shrouded in Buddhist light. Golden chains seemed to extend from the Void Realm, each one binding a specter wreathed in black smoke.

The further one went toward the center, the dimmer the eyes of the bound specters became, and the color of their bodies gradually shifted from black to gray.

Upon reaching the central area, the specters had completely lost their consciousness and were sealed by the Formation into thumb-sized gray beads, resembling glazed glass, displayed on jade trays according to their rank.

Arhat Huicheng ignored these low-level goods and flew straight to the exclusive cultivation secret chamber at the very center.

Arriving at the secret chamber, he sat cross-legged. He first performed a hand Seal to draw upon the Buddhist light Formation's enhancement of this node, then took the sealed Nascent Soul Ghost Commander from his sleeve.

At this moment, Ghost Commander Youming had lost his human form, having been compressed into a ball of black mist by Arhat Huicheng's Dharma power.

"Hum~"

A beam of golden Buddhist light shone from the ceiling, all converging upon Arhat Huicheng's hands.

Golden flames ignited upon the black mist. It was instantly scorched, causing it to churn wildly, but unable to break through the suppression, it could only shrink inward continuously.

After a day and a night, the black mist, just like the specters outside, transformed into a gray glazed bead, though it was slightly larger and more translucent.

"Why was the refining so fast?"

Arhat Huicheng looked puzzled. As far as he knew, erasing the consciousness of a Mid-Nascent Soul Stage Ghost Commander, given the level of this Buddhist temple, should have taken at least seven days. How did it finish in just one day?

"Forget it!"

"Every Nascent Soul Ghost Commander has different Divine Abilities, so the difficulty of refining them naturally varies."

Although he was somewhat puzzled, Arhat Huicheng did not take it to heart. After all, specters were extremely rare in the Western Desert, and they had little prior experience.

He stopped overthinking and gathered his thoughts, taking out a Medicinal Pill he had long since refined from his spatial ring.

This pill was named the Nirvana True Soul Pill. It had a good name, but in reality, it was only a semi-finished product. Consuming it directly only provided slight soul-nourishing effects; it had to be infused with a wisp of a specter to live up to its name.

Arhat Huicheng placed the Medicinal Pill and the refined specter glazed bead in his palm, then activated his Dharma power to initiate their Fusion.

As the specter glazed bead merged into the Medicinal Pill, the originally ordinary-looking Nirvana True Soul Pill lit up with golden flowing light, dazzling and eye-catching.

"It's done!"

Arhat Huicheng felt excited. He opened his mouth and swallowed the Medicinal Pill, then immediately pressed his hands together in prayer and activated his Cultivation Technique to refine the medicinal power.

As the pill entered his body, it immediately transformed into wisps of pure Soul Power that merged into his Sea of Consciousness. Arhat Huicheng submerged his Divine Sense into his Sea of Consciousness, enjoying the comfort of this growth in his Divine Soul.

Suddenly!

The pill, which had been digesting slowly, suddenly exploded, transforming into an eerie red light that surged into his Sea of Consciousness.

"Hum~"

In an instant, Arhat Huicheng's entire Sea of Consciousness turned into a sea of fire, and the pleasure turned into agony.

His reaction was swift. He immediately cast a Buddhist Soul-Suppressing Technique, causing his Divine Soul to contract and take form, while a golden Buddhist light shone forth.

However, this was useless. The eerie flames were ignited from within his Divine Soul; the defensive measures he employed were completely ineffective.

"Don't waste your effort. If you were more submissive, this seat might have kept you around for a while longer."

Ghost Commander Youming had monstrous ghost energy, his body burning with eerie Avici Karmic Fire as he slowly appeared within Arhat Huicheng's Sea of Consciousness.

While using the Avici Karmic Fire to suppress Arhat Huicheng's Divine Soul, he used his own Soul Power to surge into the Sea of Consciousness, gradually taking control of this body.

Several hours later.

Arhat Huicheng slowly opened his eyes from his closed-eye state, a flash of black light vanishing from his pupils.

"The Buddhist Nascent Soul is indeed three parts weaker than that of a Daoist Cultivator. Otherwise, even if I invaded the Sea of Consciousness, it wouldn't have been so easy to suppress and perform Possession."

The Sea of Consciousness is the home field for a Cultivator's Divine Soul. Even when scorched by Avici Karmic Fire, if one's cultivation is one minor stage lower than the opponent, it is not so easy to be subjected to Possession.

"Abbot, are you alright?"

A slightly worried inquiry sounded from outside the secret chamber. Ghost Commander Youming had only performed Possession on the Physical Body and had not acquired Huicheng's memories, so he did not know who the person was.

However, he could roughly guess the person's intention. It was likely that Huicheng's soul lamp had dimmed, and the people in the Buddhist temple were worried that something had happened to him.

Arhat Huicheng stood up, pushed the door open, and walked out. He looked at the person and said, "This seat had a slight mishap during cultivation, but it is no longer an issue."

"This Disciple understands!"

This Buddhist Cultivator Disciple was pleasantly surprised. Although he felt that the Abbot's tone of voice was different from before, the attitude toward him had clearly improved, which was a good thing.

Arhat Huiming ordered this Disciple to leave first, while simultaneously locking his Divine Sense onto him, ready to kill him immediately if he showed any suspicious behavior.

"I must act as quickly as possible, otherwise I will inevitably be exposed!"

Without gaining Arhat Huicheng's memories, Ghost Commander Youming could not even control the Buddhist temple's Formation as he wished. If too much time passed, flaws would inevitably appear.

Regarding this, he had long had a scheme. Since he couldn't hide in the Buddhist temple, wouldn't it be better to just perform Possession on the entire Buddhist temple?

He stood up and walked out, ordering all the Disciples in the underground specter suppression space to leave.

Subsequently, he sent a message to Lianyue Immortal Palace, asking them to secretly send over a batch of new specters.

...

Half a month later.

Ghost Commander Youming utilized his identity as the Abbot to assist other specters from Lianyue Immortal Palace in performing Possession on everyone in the entire Buddhist temple.

After completely controlling the Buddhist temple, everything became much easier. The Buddhist Disciples could openly head to the Black Death Marsh, and each time they could capture some specters and ghost Cultivators to bring back.

Currently, there were not many Buddhist Disciples in the Southern Border. The main task of the Buddhist temple was just to maintain the Formation nodes, so there was little communication between them, and there were few visiting Disciples.

The three Buddhas were high and aloof; as long as Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue did not make any unusual moves, they would not care about other matters at all.

The same thing was playing out in other Buddhist temples. It was always a Nascent Soul Ghost Commander performing Possession on the Arhat Abbot first, and then using the Abbot's identity to facilitate the Possession of other Buddhist Disciples.

Another half a month later.

The incident was exposed!

There is no wall in the world that does not let the wind pass through. As more and more people became involved, no matter how meticulous the plan, accidents would eventually occur.

First, a Buddhist Arhat with strength far exceeding expectations endured the scorching of the Avici Karmic Fire and suppressed and killed a Nascent Soul Ghost Commander, and later, a sharp-witted Buddhist Golden Core True Person discovered the abnormality in the Buddhist temple.

The news reached the ears of the three Buddhas. Just as they wanted to deal with the internal problems, Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue mobilized Lianyue Immortal Palace to rise into the sky, creating a posture of breaking through the Formation to escape.

Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue's purpose was very clear. Since they were already exposed, she would play her hand openly. "If you three dare to be distracted by dealing with the lower-level problems, I will take the opportunity to break the Formation."

After holding back the three Buddhas, Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue dispatched a large number of specters infused with the ten thousand soul banner to besiege various Buddhist temples, confusing everyone's eyes and making them unable to distinguish which Buddhist temples were controlled and which were still normal.

With this set of combinations, the three Buddhas developed an illusion that Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue was struggling with all her might to escape, yet could only remain in a stalemate with them.

"This is also fine!"

"The core of the Seven Treasures Heart-Protecting Formation is the seven Spirit Treasures; the many Buddhist Disciples are merely icing on the cake. If we can use them to drag out Ghost King Ghost King Lian Yue and keep her from becoming too desperate, that is also good!"

The three Buddhas communicated with each other, and in their words, everything was under control.