"In reality, a person has only one soul and seven spirits within, adding up to exactly ’eight’."
"On top of the Life Soul, the seven spirits are parasitic..."
Mo Hua glanced again at the forbidden box.
On the pattern of the forbidden box, eight prisons are depicted; the largest is in the center while the other seven are distributed around it, centered on the middle.
This aligns with the principle of "seven spirits parasitic on the Life Soul."
The seven outer prisons each have a lock, with chains connecting them, converging upon the gate of the central prison.
The prisoners in the seven prisons suffer different penalties, but upon closer inspection, it’s discovered they are all parts of the penalty suffered by the prisoner in the central large prison...
Mo Hua’s train of thought suddenly became clear.
The Daoist Prison Map on the forbidden box, one prison with seven cells, corresponds to a cultivator’s one soul and seven spirits, resembling a "symbolic image" of the Divine Soul.
What is displayed in the diagram is the heart image of a cultivator.
Cultivators meditate on this image for years, imprinting the likeness of the punished prisoners firmly in their hearts to form a "heart image," which is then carved into the Divine Soul.
This way, the Divine Soul inherently carries the majesty and evil Qi of the prison.
The prison’s role is to kill and punish.
A Divine Soul containing the "prison" likeness can damage others’ Divine Sense upon soul emergence, causing fear, terror, and even death from shattered organs.
Therefore, the Water Prison Sect’s "nurturing of evil" at its core is actually "nurturing the soul."
Through upholding Taoist law, and slaying sinful people, one cultivates righteousness and evil Qi, incorporating it into the Divine Soul, making villains fear it.
But Water Yama is different; he doesn’t know how to nurture a soul, only how to nurture evil, even going so far as to adopt the Evil Spirit Transformation Skill of the Demon Path to commit immense killings.
If he merely nurtured these evils, that would be one thing.
If one day, he reaches the point where evil Qi merges into his soul, the "deadly evilness" he nurtures by wantonly killing innocents may immediately rebel, counterattacking his Divine Soul, driving him insane, living a life worse than death.
Mo Hua’s thoughts flashed.
Involuntarily, he came up with a way to "trap" Water Yama to death without lifting a finger...
Mo Hua’s eyes slightly brightened.
However, he hasn’t found Water Yama yet, so he can’t act for now.
For now, it’s better to learn the Pupil Skill first.
Mo Hua began practicing according to the theory he summarized.
He calmed his mind and focused, meditating on the Daoist Prison Map on the forbidden box, firmly memorizing these images as "heart images."
Initially, nothing happened.
The images remained images, without any phenomena.
Mo Hua’s state of mind didn’t change in the slightest.
But he was not discouraged.
Any spell, when first learned, is difficult, requiring step-by-step exploration, constant trials, and incremental research.
Just like learning those complex and profound formations, it requires perseverance, never achieved overnight.
Mo Hua, having studied formations daily, was very familiar with this process.
He concentrated his attention to the utmost, fully immersing himself in the Daoist Prison Map.
After an unknown length of time, Mo Hua’s heart trembled, his Divine Thought finally reacted.
Something mystical seemed to change in the Divine Sense dwelling in his Sea of Consciousness, as if something was "self-awakening."
Mo Hua’s spirit lifted, and he began to concentrate, tracing back to the origin.
He sensed from the external Divine Sense, gradually feeling inward, sensing the source from which the Divine Sense derived.
Again, after some indeterminate time, after a vague, indescribable exploration, Mo Hua’s mind shook, finally tracing back to a certain presence in his inner heart, belonging to him, but something he hadn’t previously realized—
"Divine Soul."
This feeling was extremely subtle.
Mo Hua "sensed" his own Divine Soul.
It seemed as if he saw himself from an observer’s perspective, glimpsing at those deepest lurking "selves" within him.
His "Divine Soul" was remarkably complex.
In it were various indescribable, indistinguishable clear and turbid auras, interweaving and ebbing, a chaotic mix.
Mo Hua thus realized he seemed to not entirely understand "himself."
After perceiving the Divine Soul, the subsequent process seemed somewhat simpler to Mo Hua.
He merged the "heart image" into the Divine Soul.
Mo Hua began to integrate the "heart image" of punishing prisoners depicted in the Daoist Prison Map into his Divine Soul.
This act felt akin to "remodeling" his conscious perception of the Divine Soul.