Chapter 725 - 458: Three Souls and Seven Spirits (2)
If the Three Souls symbolize the most essential aspect of the spirit,
then the Seven Spirits symbolize bodily functions, having already departed from the realm of the spirit,
yet they still complement each other; if one becomes stronger, the other naturally does as well.
In daily life, we often see that some people’s spirits improve noticeably after exercising.
Similarly, we can see some people’s bodies naturally improve after resolving some mental knots.
Therefore, the Three Souls and Seven Spirits are listed together because the connection between soul and spirit is actually very close.
The first Spirit among the Seven Spirits is called Devourer, Celestial Rush. Simply put, this spirit’s function is like the immune system, eliminating illness and repairing the body.
The second Spirit is Corpse Dog, Spiritual Insight. It determines a person’s alertness during sleep. Some people sleep as though they’re dead, unable to be awakened by calling. Others sleep lightly, awoken even by the sound of a dripping water. Both reflect issues with this spirit.
The third Spirit is Stale Lung, representing Qi. It determines the length and quality of the breath, the function of breathing techniques. The longer and slower one breathes, the longer they live. The more hurried the breath, the more is consumed.
The fourth Spirit is Excrete Impurity, representing Strength. It’s about removing impurities from the body, explained in modern science as metabolism. The more calories a person can metabolize in a day, the stronger the spirit of Excretion, and the stronger the strength. The reason elderly people’s eyeballs become cloudy is due to issues in excretion, thus their strength weakens.
The fifth Spirit is Non-Poison, Central. It can remove cold toxins and heat toxins during sleep. Without sleep, Non-Poison cannot work, which is why after staying up all night, one feels very uncomfortable, and even after catching up on sleep, feels their body is harmed.
The sixth Spirit is Bird Shade, representing Essence. This spirit symbolizes sexual function; a man’s morning arousal and other sexual functions rely on this spirit. Explained in modern science, it’s the level of male and female hormones.
The seventh Spirit is Fushi, representing Excellence. It symbolizes human digestive and excretory functions, able to transform into vital energy. Ancient people believed that the intestines and stomach are sources of vital energy. The intestines create essence, the brain stores it, and those who excrete a lot often can’t retain vital energy, which is why many people feel mentally fatigued during diarrhea. But not excreting for too long results in physical issues, so balance is essential.
Overall, these seven spirits are essentially related to bodily powers.
When the Seven Spirits are strong, the body will also be robust.
Thus, what people commonly call ’spirit power’ actually refers to bodily strength. When the body is hardy, the spirit power will naturally be strong.
When spirit power is strong, it will naturally bring a sense of pressure to those around.
After understanding the concept of the Three Souls and Seven Spirits, Wang Ye’s brow furrowed ever tighter.
Because he discovered that the more he understood these concepts, the more soul transplantation seemed unsolvable.
According to Daoist School’s understanding, the Three Souls pertain to the spirit, while the seven souls pertain to matter.
Upon a person’s death and rebirth, the Celestial Soul takes to heaven’s path, the Earth Soul returns to the Underworld to reincarnate, and the Human Soul lingers in the world, possibly turning into evil spirits or angry ghosts, affecting reality and being discovered by ordinary people, becoming strange phenomenon.
Conversely, the Seven Spirits are confined within the flesh, dissipating, meaning that the Seven Souls cannot leave the flesh.
It’s no wonder that the squirrel from earlier died so quickly after possession.
Because it only retained the Three Souls, while the Seven Spirits remained in its original body. Even though the new body also had the presence of Seven Spirits, they could not be used by it.
When a person loses one spirit, their life and health are significantly impaired,
losing Seven Spirits, one can imagine how painful it would be.
It can be said that most of the body’s functions have already lost their effect.
"If that is the case... isn’t soul transplantation theoretically impossible?" Wang Ye squinted his eyes.
The current experimental results have already informed him of this outcome.
But since myth and legend contain the concept of possession, confidently stating that Immortal Gods can possess mortals,
That also indicates that soul transplantation is actually achievable, only he has not found the method yet.
He retrieved two squirrels again, performing another soul transplantation, though it ultimately still failed. This time, he closely observed the process of extracting the squirrels’ souls, finally discovering that during extraction, indeed some inexplicable things are solidified within the body and cannot be removed.
These things are likely where the Seven Spirits reside. If forcibly extracted, the Seven Spirits would directly dissipate.
Clearly, these Seven Spirits are already bound to the flesh.
Then, what should be done to possess with only a primordial spirit of Three Souls remaining?
Wang Ye pondered for a long time.
Moments later, an epiphany struck him.
Since Seven Spirits are closely related to the flesh’s strength, why bother removing the original body’s Seven Spirits, why not directly adapt to the Seven Spirits of another body?
Since Seven Spirits represent the strength of the flesh, discarding the flesh to extract the Seven Spirits is itself an unreasonable affair. The two are inherently one, what is the talk of extraction?
Instead, the Three Souls and Seven Spirits, though spoken of together, are essentially two different things.
Different Three Souls and different Seven Spirits can still coexist.
The Divination Child in southeast coastal regions of our country, Western spirit mediums, Chinese Shamanism in the northeast are all forms of witchcraft to invoke gods into the body.
These religious spells share a commonality in that through worshiping Divine beings, they allow the Divine to possess themselves.
The process of descent of the divine, to put it plainly, is letting the Divine’s Three Souls descend into oneself, unleashing its power through one’s own Seven Spirits.
The principle is such, yet in today’s age, Wang Ye does not believe there are real Chinese Shamanism and Divination Children anymore,
The fierce personalities and combat power shown by those who practice Chinese Shamanism and Divination Child are more like a performance borrowing the disposition of the Divine. It is a habitual ’personality dissociation.’
If in ancient times these Chinese Shamanism and Divination Children really existed, how did these Divine beings descend into their bodies to fight using them?
Wang Ye’s guess is that their Three Souls have been refined strong enough to control ordinary people’s Seven Spirits for a short period.
The stronger the cultivation of the Three Souls of the Divine being, the longer they can dominate; those with extremely high cultivation can truly possess.
This is also why the gods worshiped by Chinese Shamanism and Divination Children are gods of lower divinity because only these gods would participate in short-term possession.
But even with low divinity, they are still Divine beings. The strength of the soul is unmatched by ordinary creatures.
Hence, creatures with insufficient soul strength, once transplanted with a soul,
have only one outcome, death.
Only when the soul is robust enough can it possibly survive through body possession.
This standard is extremely high.
Squirrels can’t achieve it, nor can humans.
Even Wang Ye struggles to do it.
"Looks like... I need the Megalodon’s help." Wang Ye muttered.
With regard to soul strength, aside from himself on Earth, only the Megalodon could be considered the strongest.
Though Megalodon has never deliberately trained its soul, through millions of years of evolution, its soul strength is already second only to Wang Ye. In ancient times, it would definitely be regarded as a Great Demon.
With the soul strength of Megalodon, it should be able to achieve short-term possession. Given the current circumstances, besides Megalodon, he has no other options.
In conclusion, Wang Ye clearly won’t experiment on himself, as long as there’s another way, he won’t risk his own safety.
With this in mind, Wang Ye soared into the sky, flying at speeds exceeding Mach twenty, heading directly toward the Mariana Trench.
Moments later,
Wang Ye reached the Pacific Ocean but suddenly, as if sensing something, paused.
His precognitive instincts, through the disturbance of surrounding wind and sea, suddenly perceived a sense of crisis.
He sensed it: a hundred nuclear submarines are positioned at the Mariana Trench!
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