Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Soul-Gathering Banner

’The cause of death is the same for all of them. First, they were crushed by immense force, then they had their Blood Essence Qi drained until they died.’

’One person killed more than thirty disciples of my Yellow Springs Netherworld.’

’It seems the Holy Sect has produced a remarkable figure in this generation.’

A few hours after Qi Yun’s party of three had left, a tall, slender man arrived, strolling onto the ravaged battlefield. He wore a wide-brimmed bamboo hat and a faded blue cloth jacket, and in his hand, he carried a long, old banner of white cloth.

He gave the long banner a gentle shake, and its surface fluttered without a wind.

The next moment, blurry, ethereal figures—remnant souls radiating faint resentment—began to emerge from the surrounding scorched earth and corpses. They were drawn by an unseen force, slowly gathering toward him.

"Senior Brother Zhao, you’re finally here."

"That’s right, Senior Brother Zhao, you have to avenge us!"

"That Holy Sect Disciple fights dirty! We died such miserable deaths."

The moment these remnant souls of the Yellow Springs Netherworld disciples appeared, they all began talking at once, surrounding the man named Zhao Wuji and tearfully recounting their grievances.

"Junior Brothers, please be calm. Take your time and tell me what happened. First, come and rest upon my banner."

Zhao Wuji gestured for them to calm down, a benevolent smile appearing on his slender face from beneath his bamboo hat.

"Senior Brother Zhao! We’re from the same sect! If we enter your Soul-Gathering Banner, we’ll never be able to reincarnate!"

"Run! He wants to use us to refine his banner!"

As remnant souls, the minds of these Yellow Springs Netherworld Cultivators were muddled and their spiritual nature was in chaos. They hadn’t realized that Zhao Wuji appearing here with a Soul-Gathering Banner was an extremely dangerous situation to begin with.

But by the time they realized it, it was already too late.

"Come now, why suffer the torment of rebirth and losing yourselves in the cycle of reincarnation?"

"It would be far better to enter my Treasure Banner. We fellow disciples can comprehend the great arts together. Wouldn’t that be marvelous?"

The smile on Zhao Wuji’s face remained, but his voice now carried a strange, alluring quality.

The shaking of the long banner in his hand intensified. With his other hand, he formed a strange spell as he began to chant.

Instantly, an immense suction force erupted from the surface of the deceptively plain banner.

Like an invisible black hole, it forcibly dragged back all the remnant souls attempting to flee.

Amid silent, despairing screams, the remnant souls were all sucked into the banner.

Faintly, new patterns of twisted, agonized faces appeared on the surface of the white cloth banner.

Zhao Wuji gave the Soul-Gathering Banner a satisfied heft—it seemed to have grown heavier. He then raised a hand and slapped several wisps of pure Yin Sha Black Qi, which he had collected from the corpses, into the banner.

’Hmm... This banner still lacks a Main Soul to command the others,’ he muttered to himself, his gaze from under the bamboo hat sweeping across the dried corpses on the ground.

’That Holy Sect Disciple has such a strong killing intent, and he’s steeped in Evil Qi. He’s the perfect material for refining a Main Soul...’

’Yes, I need to hurry. I can’t let those folks from the Zombie Alliance and Hehuan Palace beat me to it.’

...

Peach Garden, Fifteenth Level!

With a soft SCHLICK,

A strange, inch-long dagger slit an opening in the incredibly hard trunk of the Heaven-Reaching Peach Tree.

Three figures stumbled out from the surging Cosmic Jade Spiritual Light, looking rather battered.

"No wonder we could only reach the fifteenth level. The torrent of Cosmic Jade within this trunk is rampaging and unbearable. The higher the level, the more ferocious it gets."

"I’m afraid if we went one level higher, our bodies would have been torn to shreds."

Du Yunian coughed violently, feeling an aching pain as if every bone in his body had been rattled loose.

Without hesitation, he took two fragrant Elixir Pills from his Storage Pouch.

He swallowed one himself and handed the other to Shen Fan, whose face was just as pale.

He felt the Elixir Pill’s power dissolve, nourishing his damaged meridians and organs.

The piercing pain slowly subsided, and the furrow in his brow relaxed slightly.

Compared to the sorry state of Shen Fan and Du Yunian, Qi Yun was in much better shape. His aura was merely a bit unsettled—he was a Qi Refining Fifth Layer Perfect Cultivator, after all.

The Small Circulation was already established in his body, making his physique several times stronger than theirs.

With his physical strength, he could have withstood another two levels.

Ignoring Shen Fan and Du Yunian, who were still meditating to recover, Qi Yun strode toward a nearby statue.

It was a statue of a smiling, middle-aged man, sitting with his legs crossed and his chest bared. He held a gourd in his arms and carried a longsword on his back.

Its style was quite different from the previous two statues.

The Spirit Points on the back of his hand once again shot out a faint ray of light, which sank into the statue before him.

Orbs of light appeared once more.

Though his heart throbbed with several strong pulses of desire, Qi Yun ignored them. His gaze swept over one orb of light after another.

He was searching for the one item he truly desired!

’There it is!’

The moment his gaze fell upon the divine item, the furrow in Qi Yun’s brow vanished, replaced by a smile of relief. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

But when he saw the Spirit Point cost to redeem it, his smile faded slightly.

Fifty thousand!

A full fifty thousand Spirit Points!

Even after killing so many venomous creatures and demonic beasts, not to mention over thirty Cultivators from the Yellow Springs Netherworld, he was still more than ten thousand Spirit Points short.

’You get what you pay for,’ he thought. ’The higher the price, the better the item’s effect must be!’ After consoling himself, Qi Yun withdrew his gaze and began a finger divination to calculate his immediate fortune.

GREAT PERIL!

Seeing the result of his divination, Qi Yun’s eyes flickered. He took out a healing Elixir and swallowed it.

’Still great peril?’

’It seems the Three Sects ganging up on my Holy Sect is indeed a perilous situation.’

’First, I need to find a way to gather enough Spirit Points for that divine item.’

’Once I have it, everything will be manageable.’

’Unless a Master personally intervenes, I can handle any ordinary Qi Refining Cultivator with Gathering Form and Scattering Qi.’

’And if the Three Sects Masters do make a move, our own Holy Sect Masters will be there to face them.’

With this in mind, Qi Yun’s figure flickered. He used Gathering Form and Scattering Qi, leaving an illusory duplicate in place while his true self moved to the side. He took out the Great Marvelous True Luo and began to restore his Heart and Spirit.

「Time slowly passed.」

In the distance, Du Yunian watched the "Qi Yun" who remained motionless beneath the statue, his chin cupped in his hands. With a conflicted expression, he couldn’t help but mutter to Shen Fan beside him:

"It’s been almost two hours... Hasn’t he finished choosing yet?"

"Don’t tell me this level doesn’t have that divine item for changing one’s aptitude either?"

Du Yunian’s heart sank at the thought.

He worried that if Qi Yun’s hopes were dashed, he might take his anger out on the two of them.

"Let him look for as long as he wants. What’s it to you?" Shen Fan shot Du Yunian a look. His eyes were like limpid autumn pools, and a faint smile played on his lips from time to time. Lost in his own secret thoughts, his expression held a hint of languid charm.

’What a lovesick fool...’

Looking at the expression on Shen Fan’s face, Du Yunian couldn’t help but roll his eyes at first. But as he continued to watch, he found a strange sort of beauty in Shen Fan’s focused expression.

It even made his heart pound, stirring an impulse to move closer.

"My friend... you smell so fragrant..." A sweet scent seemed to appear from nowhere, and Du Yunian’s eyes glazed over.

Shen Fan, beside him, was in the same state. He had already risen to his feet and, with a dazed expression and unsteady steps, was walking toward the "Qi Yun" beneath the distant statue, unconsciously murmuring something.

"Hee hee, a little drama between three big men? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that before~"

As she watched the three men lose their senses, a light, charming laugh like the tinkling of silver bells suddenly rang out.

A graceful figure descended as lightly as a butterfly. She was clad in a sheer pink gauze robe, her fair, jade-like feet were bare, and a pair of delicate silver anklets adorned her ankles.

Her beautiful, cunning eyes, sparkling with life, swept with great interest over the three men, who were clearly not in their right minds.

Her gaze lingered on Shen Fan, who was walking toward "Qi Yun" with a dazed look, and on Du Yunian, whose eyes were vacant. She couldn’t help but lightly bite her slender white fingers.

Her exquisitely beautiful face lit up with excitement and anticipation, as if she was about to witness a spectacular show.

...