422: Chapter 426 The Beginning of the Scheme (1)

"Finally, they've made their move!"

Extremely far from the battlefield, Lu Ming's dharma body stood within the Void Realm.

At this moment, the human emperor banner was suspended above his head, with strands of Yin Nether Qi descending from it like a heavy curtain, shrouding his form, aura, and even his very existence in a deep, deathly silence.

But this was not enough.

Of the two people opposite him, one was Yun Chenzi, who had survived the five calamities and just entered the Dao Realm, and the other was Jiang Wunian, a core disciple of the Six Desires Demonic Sect who had also stepped into the Dao Realm.

Cultivators of this level possessed a keenness of perception and bizarre methods that were far beyond what ordinary Golden Core Cultivator could compare to.

To ensure absolute certainty, under the cover of the Yin Nether Qi, Lu Ming activated a secret technique from the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record to apply a layer of karmic barrier to himself.

Once this technique was cast, all karmic connections between him and the outside world were temporarily "severed" or "hidden."

At this moment, in the eyes of this world, he was like a speck of insignificant dust or a withered leaf falling with the wind, not worth any attention at all, let alone being perceived through divination.

With these layers of security in place, he finally turned his gaze toward the distant battlefield that had already been shattered to pieces.

Right now, in the sky above the battlefield, two terrifying auras were about to clash violently!

The corners of Lu Ming's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.

He had planned for so long and laid out so many schemes for this very moment!

...

Yun Chenzi wanted to kill the dao-obstructing person; this was a struggle over the path of Dao, a life-and-death showdown of destiny.

Jiang Wunian wanted to use the dao-obstructing person to achieve the Dao Realm; this was an Opportunity for a Breakthrough in cultivation, an Opportunity he had dreamed of for hundreds of years.

The conflict between the two was inherently irreconcilable.

But Lu Ming knew very well that in a normal comparison of strength, Jiang Wunian would be no match for Yun Chenzi.

Even if Jiang Wunian was also at Golden Core Perfection, and even if he possessed a Grotto-heaven Legacy like The True Scripture of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing All Spirits, he was still a notch below Yun Chenzi, who had already stepped into the Dao Realm and mastered the Laws of Yin and Yang.

If the situation developed normally, Jiang Wunian would most likely weigh the pros and cons and then abandon this "desire fruit," fleeing the battlefield in a sorry state.

After all, no matter how great the Opportunity, one had to be alive to enjoy it.

But what Lu Ming needed was a life-and-death struggle for the Dao, not a farce that ended anticlimactically.

Therefore, to make Jiang Wunian willing to stay and fight Yun Chenzi to the bitter end, Lu Ming had paid a heavy price this time.

Since Jiang Wunian wanted that "desire fruit" so badly, then let him have it!

But there was a key issue: Murong Jingyang was still of great use to Lu Ming.

Within the "Netherworld Space" being constructed inside the human emperor banner, Murong Jingyang occupied an extremely special position—the Underworld Official "Lady of Oblivion" of the Naihe Bridge.

He was one of the "anchors" for Lu Ming's conception of the Netherworld, an indispensable link for the operation of the entire system in the future.

If this person were to be swallowed by Jiang Wunian just like that, the loss would be far too great.

Thus, Lu Ming had not truly abandoned Murong Jingyang.

Long before Jiang Wunian arrived, he had already completely stripped Murong Jingyang's Divine Soul and drawn it into the human emperor banner to begin refining.

At this moment, Murong Jingyang was already in the Netherworld Space of the human emperor banner, playing his role on the Naihe Bridge according to Lu Ming's plan.

What remained outside was merely an empty shell that possessed cultivation but lacked a Divine Soul.

However, regarding an empty shell, let alone Jiang Wunian being a Great Immortal Master of Golden Core Perfection, even someone with a functioning brain would be able to notice that something was wrong.

Consequently, Lu Ming utilized the mystical power of the karma golden book and performed an extremely profound secret technique from the Heavenly Mandate Compilation and Fortune Diagram Record to graft the Karma of the two, performing a bait-and-switch.

The core of this technique was to use himself as a medium to swap, fuse, and reconstruct the karmic lines of two individuals.

At the same time, Lu Ming struck himself, stripping away half of the Divine Soul from his dharma body.

This half of the Divine Soul carried a portion of his consciousness but existed independently of his main body.

Then, using the karma golden book as a pivot, he intercepted the complete karmic lines of "Lu Ming" and "Murong Jingyang" and began to "fabricate."

In the process, he also sealed all of Murong Jingyang's real memories, emotions, and even his insights from cultivating the Six Desires Demonic Art into this half of the Divine Soul.

The final result was that this stripped-half of the Divine Soul had completely "become" Murong Jingyang on every level!

It possessed all of Murong Jingyang's memories, his emotional patterns, and even his instinctive resonance with the Six Desires Demonic Art.

Even the soul fragment itself, when conscious, would unwaveringly believe that it was Murong Jingyang.

This perception was not an illusion or a disguise, but a reconstruction performed at the level of Karma.

Unless there was a Cultivator whose cultivation far surpassed Lu Ming's and who used heaven-defying methods to forcibly trace back to the karmic Origin, it would be absolutely impossible to find any flaws.

But this soul fragment also had a fatal flaw.

After all, it carried a portion of Lu Ming's Divine Soul Origin, and Lu Ming himself had never cultivated the Six Desires Demonic Art.

This was why, when Jiang Wunian initially tried to control "Murong Jingyang" using The True Scripture of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing All Spirits, it completely failed.

Because the "soul" inside that body did not Cultivate the Six Desires Demonic Art at all!

This was the fundamental reason why Jiang Wunian's first attempt at control failed.

So, here comes the question.

Since the soul fragment did not know the Six Desires Demonic Art, how did it later absorb that massive amount of mortal desires and use them to "break through" to Golden Core Perfection?

The answer lay in Lu Ming's primary Cultivation Technique.

The Asura Tribulation Prison Scripture!

The mysteries of this technique far surpassed ordinary legacies.

It could not only devour a Cultivator's blood Qi and Divine Soul to use for itself, but it could also take any form of energy.

This included Spiritual Qi, Evil Qi, Resentment Qi, and even mortal desires—all of which were forcibly devoured, refined, and converted into its own Foundation!

When that massive amount of mortal desires flooded into the soul fragment's body, if it had been the real Murong Jingyang, he would have inevitably had his Dao Heart shattered and suffered Qi Deviation from the impact of that power.

But the soul fragment had the basis of the Asura Tribulation Prison Scripture; although it was only half of the dharma body's Divine Soul, it still inherited the core characteristics of this technique.

Thus, those torrents of desire, which were enough to make any Golden Core Cultivator lose control, were forcibly devoured, suppressed, and refined under the operation of the Asura Tribulation Prison Scripture!

Of course, the price was enormous.

The Asura Tribulation Prison Scripture was inherently an overbearing technique that exchanged power for the price of "enduring backlash."

And this time, what was devoured was a vast amount of desire sufficient to directly infuse someone from the Late Golden Core Stage to Golden Core Perfection; one could only imagine how violent the backlash was.

But after all, this was just a soul fragment.

In any case, it was destined to "die" at Jiang Wunian's hands sooner or later; enduring a bit of backlash was something it could just bear and get through.