Because Venerable Huijing's heart demon had been severely damaged, his subconscious had barely managed to suppress the heart demon for a short time, allowing his body to be controlled by the subconscious.
This was why Li Yuanba could still carry Venerable Huijing's body without being slapped to death by Venerable Huijing.
In just a few moments, the Heavenly Ghost had reached Venerable Huijing's side.
Despite his injuries, Venerable Huijing's strength was still sufficient to sense the presence of the Heavenly Ghost.
Though the invisibility ability of the Heavenly Ghost was attained from the Heavenly Demon, it still could not hide its presence in front of a Nascent Soul Ancestor.
However, through his clone Li Yuanba, Li Shiming had previously conveyed to Venerable Huijing that the Heavenly Ghost was absolutely trustworthy, which caused Venerable Huijing, then under the control of his subconscious, not to resist the Heavenly Ghost at all.
The Heavenly Ghost entered Venerable Huijing's body and almost instinctively discovered the heart demon.
The heart demon inside Venerable Huijing was extremely stubborn and could not be removed.
But the Heavenly Ghost created by Li Shiming, a new species fused from a fierce ghost and the Heavenly Demon's shell, still retained some special abilities of the Heavenly Demon.
The heart demon could make a cultivator lose control of their mind; when it reached a certain frequency, it would summon the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon was much higher in hierarchy than the heart demon, although the Heavenly Ghost only inherited a small part of its abilities.
However, the heart demon within Venerable Huijing was not in its strongest state; having engaged in a fierce battle with two Nascent Soul Ancestors and suffered severe injuries, the Heavenly Ghost saw an opportunity.
The Heavenly Ghost lunged at the heart demon, an ethereal entity that could only be attacked by a being like the Heavenly Ghost, which existed between illusion and reality.
The Heavenly Ghost opened its mouth—while appearing humanoid, its mouth was several times larger than that of an ordinary human, and it swallowed Venerable Huijing's heart demon in one gulp.
If it were before Li Shiming's guiding intervention, when the heart demon had not completely taken over Venerable Huijing's spirit, the Heavenly Ghost devouring the heart demon could have immediately awakened Venerable Huijing.
But at this time, the heart demon and Venerable Huijing's spirit were entangled; devouring the heart demon equated to consuming Venerable Huijing's affected spirit.
This was why the heart demon was so difficult to expel; the heart demon and the cultivator's soul and spirit were closely linked and even entangled, and any attempt to violently remove the heart demon could harm the cultivator himself.
After the Heavenly Ghost devoured the heart demon, it started swaying as if intoxicated.
The heart demon, being that of a Nascent Soul Ancestor like Venerable Huijing, contained such abundant spiritual energy that the Heavenly Ghost was overwhelmed by it.
Li Shiming observed Venerable Huijing and sensed that, just as the Heavenly Ghost was devouring the heart demon, the Heavenly Ghost had already acted before he could intervene.
He did not know whether the devouring of Venerable Huijing's heart demon by the Heavenly Ghost would awaken Venerable Huijing.
While he was worried, he sensed through Li Yuanba's divine thought that Venerable Huijing was looking at Li Yuanba.
This was a gaze so clear it had not a single impurity, viewing Li Yuanba as a dear one, even as an only reliance.
"Has Venerable Huijing gone mad?" Li Shiming thought with shock.
Venerable Huijing was a Nascent Soul Ancestor; how could he be so fragile?
He did not consider what Venerable Huijing had endured—first tortured by the heart demon for many days, then during recovery, guided by "Telepathy," his spirit was totally defenseless when Li Shiming triggered the complete explosion of the heart demon.
While under the control of the heart demon, Venerable Huijing had also been seriously injured in a joint attack by two Nascent Soul Ancestors, and then the Heavenly Ghost had devoured his heart demon and spirit. Surviving this far was all thanks to the terrifying vitality of a Nascent Soul Ancestor.
Li Shiming, controlling the divine thought of his clone Li Yuanba, gently touched Venerable Huijing's body, wanting to inspect his condition.
Normally, Venerable Huijing would not allow any cultivator to inspect his body, an instinct of a cultivator.
But Venerable Huijing made no resistance to Li Yuanba's examination, instead deliberately restraining his aura to prevent it from affecting Li Yuanba's divine thought.
This confirmed to Li Shiming that there was something wrong with Venerable Huijing's soul.
Although Venerable Huijing was still alive, the current Venerable Huijing was no longer the same.
The present Venerable Huijing's memory and spirit were almost wiped clean.
What remained in his body was just the realm of the Nascent Soul Stage, a somewhat weak Nascent Soul, fighting instincts, and the subconscious planted by Li Shiming.
His spirit was almost like a blank slate, one that could be marked and written upon by Li Shiming.
Once sure there was no danger from Venerable Huijing, Li Shiming, several miles away, flashed to Li Yuanba's side.
Through Li Yuanba, and using "Telepathy" beforehand, he had planted the subconscious in Venerable Huijing that he must obey all of Li Shiming's orders.
So when Li Shiming appeared, Venerable Huijing's pure gaze turned to Li Shiming, the way a dog looks at its master.
Li Shiming's life-bound magical treasure, the IBMz15, immediately identified a kind of powerful one-sided servant contract that had been planted, which was also the safest way to proceed. Once the contract was made, even if Venerable Huijing regained his original memories, he could not escape the obligations of the contract.
Naturally, making a contract with a Nascent Soul Ancestor, a being a whole level higher, was not an easy task.
The first requirement was that the Nascent Soul Ancestor had no resistance at all, which alone made such contracts generally unachievable; how could a Nascent Soul Ancestor possibly tolerate another's control.