Like a Ray in My Night (Part 4)

665 What She Could Remember

Xi Ju Hai unwittingly thought of the past as the topic of trapping souls was brought up. One of the few things she had found in the Li Ren Sect as she searched was that one could indeed imprison the soul of a person or beast. It wasn't easy to do from the sound of it but to demonic practitioners, it would often be worth it.

When she originally found out about this, it had seemed like a glimmer of hope. If this had happened to Mu Qing, it would explain everything: Why he hadn't returned for so long and hadn't managed to send any kind of sign that he was alive while his soul lamp still burned without issue. After all, with this kind of technique, the soul was still in the mortal realm and the soul was what the lamp was bound to so ... unless the soul left, the lamp would continue to burn. This also meant that imprisoning the soul was a viable way to make it seem as if a person was still alive even though they technically might not be in the way one would expect.

To be caught in such a soul trap was a terrible fate. The book she originally found on this topic was one that was supposed to warn disciples of the signs so they wouldn't step into it themselves. To drive home the point of just how bad things would be if they didn't heed this advice, the tome had gone into detail on what it would be like to be caught in such a trap.

Usually, soul and body were one so few cultivators realized what was bound to which part of one's self. Simply put: Cultivation in terms of taking in energy, storing it, and finally releasing it was tied to the body. The same went for any martial arts. Other practices might be tied to the soul though and a cultivator's spiritual perception always was.

Yes, what most called the 'spiritual sense' was actually just a perception tied to their soul. It was difficult to strengthen because cultivation often favored the body over the soul even though the latter clearly played a vital role in it. Of course, with each new stage one reached in their cultivation, the soul would also be strengthened alongside it but there was simply no targeted practice.

Because this perception was tied to the soul, imprisoning the soul did not get rid of the cultivator's perception. Thus, they would be trapped and they would be fully conscious of it but with no way to free themselves because the body they had trained was now robbed from them and their soul was usually too weak to have any effect.

Even the Li Ren Sect which was aware of this fact didn't know how to effectively strengthen the soul. Maybe once upon a time, such a technique had existed but had long since been forgotten — that was what the book speculated — so nowadays, cultivators could only rely on their knowledge to evade such traps.

Xi Ju Hai furrowed her brows as she thought of the warnings. Da Hei was right when he explained what each choice of theirs would entail and this was indeed the best way. That didn't mean that she was happy about it though. Trapping a soul was cruel and as a righteous cultivator, she'd rather not do it.

She continued to hesitate but finally sighed. "If we do this, we have to kill them afterward. Have somebody stand by and if things go south, get rid of them. By then, it won't matter anyway and it is better for them to be dead than trapped." Of course, the demonic sects might be able to save them but the idea was to get rid of as many people from the other side as they could to ensure that the common people wouldn't suffer too much and give enough time for the righteous sects to recoup and come up with a plan to solve the issue. Thus, killing them at the last moment was the best choice.

Baili Chao nodded without hesitation. "I don't like it either, believe me. I just can't see another way right now. Maybe the other sects will make it here in time and we won't have to worry about this but for now ... we need to come up with a plan we could execute on our own."

Xi Ju Hai inclined her head. "I will write down what I know." To be honest, it had been a long time since she read those things. By now, more than five years had passed. Could she still set this up reliably? She honestly wasn't sure but she had to try. Anyway, she did feel that she remembered it quite well. It had been her whole focus at the time so maybe that wasn't too odd though.

The Elders handed her paper, brush, and ink, and Xi Ju Hai started to note down everything she remembered. As she wrote and drew whatever came to mind, she started to recall more details. She sighed in relief, feeling that maybe this would indeed work out.

The good thing was that apart from knowing how to do it, they wouldn't need too many resources to set up. The fatal thing about the soul trap technique was how easy it actually was to employ in terms of resources compared to other practices. The difficulty lay in mastering it because it was complicated but if you had enough time on your hands or were quick on the uptake when it came to learning formations ... there really was nothing stopping even a lower-level disciple from giving this a try.

Of course, what one could trap in the array also depended on their own strength. To use this technique on several elite disciples of the demonic sects ... she was afraid that one array alone wouldn't be enough. No, they might need to deploy several to ensure all of them were airtight. Otherwise, there was still a chance of escape if those disciples in their soul state combined whatever power they could muster. After all, a cultivator's soul also wasn't completely defenseless.