42: The Three Lives Forbidden Technique...Past, Present, Future

A meaningful curve lifted the corner of his mouth. “On the surface, Sanskrit sounds permeate everywhere, peaceful and serene; but underneath, there's a secret prison that siphons people's Lifespan, and it's suppressing such a peerless beauty radiating monstrous Devilish Qi...”

Inside the inn, candlelight flickered.

The saved woman's eyelashes fluttered, and she finally woke up slowly.

She first instinctively looked around warily. When she clearly saw the people in front of her, especially Chu Ye's candid expression that seemed to say, “I may not look like a good person, but I definitely saved your life.”

She turned back, her gaze sweeping over the three women in the room, each with a different demeanor but possessing earth-shattering strength: the Empress's majesty, the Witch Queen's mystery, and the Fox Immortal's cold glamour.

After observing the three women, whose aura was unfathomable and beauty peerless, her tense nerves slightly relaxed, giving way to a complicated sigh.

“This humble one is Mo Li, the Enforcement Elder of the Demonic Sect in the Southern Domain.”

Her voice was hoarse from long confinement, yet carried a stubborn clarity as she introduced herself.

Immediately afterward, signaled by Chu Ye's gesture indicating he “wished to hear the details,” this Demonic Sect Elder began her “Southern Domain Dark Secrets Victim Press Conference.”

According to her, the Southern Domain once barely maintained a fragile dynamic balance among three forces: the Demonic Sect, which pursued freedom and ease while adhering to the principle of “Do not impose upon others what you yourself do not desire.”

Buddhist nunneries or Taoist Temples, where practitioners mostly female Cultivated purity and goodness, and Buddhism, which had the largest influence and the widest following.

“But now, that balance shattered long ago.” Mo Li sneered, suppressed fury burning in her eyes. “Those Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, appearing solemn and compassionate on the surface, secretly engage in acts of murder, arson, and soul extraction and refinement!”

“The blood on their hands is more than all the fanatics who suffered Qi Deviation recorded in our Demonic Sect combined!”

She grew more agitated as she spoke: “They privately tamper with Buddhist scriptures and texts, distorting the doctrine, using scriptures laced with 'ingredients' and secretive rituals.”

“They have turned countless devout Buddhist followers, both men and women, into living Puppets who can only provide Power Of Will and have no self! How is this salvation?”

“This is mass production of walking corpses!”

Mentioning the current power structure of Buddhism, Mo Li inventoried sarcastically: “Currently, Southern Domain Buddhism nominally respects the Three Lives Buddha as supreme, claiming he can perceive the past, present, and future.”

“Beneath him, they have the Four Great Bodhisattvas, Eight Great Ming Kings, Twelve Vajras, Eighteen Arhats, and One Hundred and Eight Venerables... Heh, doesn't that sound 'martially virtuous' and full of talent?”

Her tone shifted, chillingly: “But these people have long been rotten to the core!”

“Internally, they enforce ideological unity; if you don't comply, they grant you physical salvation. Externally, they expand their 'purification.' Our Demonic Sect was hunted down almost to extinction, and any Buddhist Nunnery that refused to comply was forcibly 'merged' or eradicated.”

“They even... create mass murder themselves, and then 'pacify' it under the pretense of 'subduing demons and eliminating devils,' using this to falsify Karma, deceive the Heavenly Dao, and Cultivate wicked techniques!”

Mo Li's voice trembled with grief and indignation: “In recent years, they have become increasingly unscrupulous, even engaging in the practice of 'Alchemy using humans'!”

“Siphoning people's Lifespan, refining their essence, blood, and Divine Souls... Where is the slightest hint of Buddhist compassion? This is nothing but a thorough, tightly organized cult!”

Chu Ye listened with great interest, as if enjoying a thrilling storytelling performance, but seeing that Elder Mo's rant was about to escalate into an indictment of the dark side of humanity across the entire Universe.

He raised his hand at the right moment and interjected, “That's a lot of information, thank you for sharing. But Elder Mo, pardon the interruption, have you heard of 'Abbess Jing An'?”

At the mention of that name, Mo Li's heightened emotions deflated instantly, like a popped balloon, replaced by a profound sense of exhaustion and sorrow.

“Abbess Jing An... naturally, I know of her.”

She whispered, “Resistance has never stopped over the years. The earliest was a 'Bodhisattva Miaoyin' from within Buddhism. She tried to expose this hypocritical mask from the inside out, but the result... she vanished without a trace afterward, likely having met with misfortune.”

“After that, there was an exceptionally talented female Prodigy from our Demonic Sect. She reached the Peak Emperor Realm in just a hundred years and was seen as a star of hope... but ultimately fell at the hands of the Three Lives Buddha.”

“And then, there was Abbess Jing An.” A faint light appeared in Mo Li's eyes, then quickly dimmed. “She contacted surviving forces everywhere, running around and appealing for help, even mastering a method that could temporarily help people break free from the influence of the 'Power Of Will shackles'...”

“She was the last beacon in many of our hearts. But now... she is also completely unaccounted for, likely... facing a grim fate.”

She raised her head and looked at Chu Ye and the others, her face showing complete despair: “It's useless... the Southern Domain is beyond saving. The Power Of Will barrier seals off the heavens and earth, isolating the inside from the outside.”

“Inside, the Buddhist forces have become a colossal monster, crushing every spark of resistance.”

“As for our Demonic Sect, perhaps all that's left is this old bag of bones of mine, locked underground waiting for death, and a scattered few others hidden in unknown corners...”

Silence fell in the room, with only Mo Li's lingering voice, filled with endless sorrow and despair, slowly dissipating in the air.

What she described was a desperate situation where faith was utterly twisted, light was swallowed by darkness, and hope was extinguished again and again.

Mo Li grew angrier as she spoke, finally unable to resist complaining bitterly: “Our Prodigy back then clearly smashed the old baldy's true body, but who knew he had Cultivated that damned 'Three Lives Forbidden Art,' allowing him to sever his three forms: Past, Present, and Future!”

“He forcibly crawled back from the River of Time by sacrificing his 'Future Self,' which allowed him to narrowly turn the tables!”

This complaint was unintentional, but it caused the Witch Queen, who had been listening quietly, to suddenly fix her gaze.

Mo Li's indignant complaint was like a stone tossed into a lake, creating ripples in the Witch Queen's tranquil heart.

“The Three Lives Forbidden Art... Past, Present, Future Self...”

She murmured these words, her fingertips unconsciously tracing several profound and complex trajectories in the Void Realm—they were inscriptions representing the most ancient Shaman's understanding of time and Karma.

“If Abbess Jing An truly fell victim to the Buddha, yet is not present anywhere in the current world,”

The Witch Queen raised her eyes, deep starlight seemingly flowing within them, “Then the greatest possibility is that she was banished and anchored within a severed 'Past Timeline'.”

“Her 'existence' itself was temporarily removed and sealed from the current time stream. Therefore, the heavens and earth do not record it, living beings forget it, and Karma is hard to trace.”

The Fox Immortal's voice, clear and cold as an icy spring, sounded: “Is there a way back?”

“All things exist in mutual generation and restraint; the forbidden technique is no exception.”

The Witch Queen nodded. “There are two ways to break the situation: First, force the caster to lift the Restriction himself, or render him powerless to maintain the technique; second...”

She paused, “Risk entering the corresponding segment of the River of Time, finding the Restriction anchor point, and destroying it from within.”

“However, this method is extremely dangerous. Disrupting time and space means confronting the fundamental order of the cosmos, and even an immortal body might be eternally banished by the turbulence of time and space.”

After listening, the scene pre-enacted by the Prophecy Stele flashed through Chu Ye's mind again. Stepping in voluntarily might be walking straight into a trap.

“Then we'll force him to come out himself.”

His thought process was clear. “The source of the Power Of Will barrier must be the heart of the Buddhist Kingdom. Destroying it will both shake its Foundation and weaken its control.”

“Perhaps it can also interfere with his maintenance of that damned time-space forbidden technique. Rather than beating the grass to startle the snake, we should lure the snake out of its hole, and then strike its vital point.”

Qin Ni Chang now displayed the foresight of a great ruler: “This battle concerns the fundamental stability of the Southern Domain. Buddhism has operated for ten thousand years; its true depth is hard to fathom.”

“Although we are immortals, this place is saturated with Buddha Power and Power Of Will, like someone else's Divine Kingdom Domain. We must be cautious.”

Her jade finger lightly tapped the table. “We should gather our elites and conceal them within Chu Ye's hundred phoenix diagram, aiming for a lightning strike to achieve success in one fell swoop.”