The Banner is Made

Tu Shan Jun's eyes flew wide as his body convulsed on the ground.

With every breath, dust and dirt from the village entrance rushed into his mouth and nostrils.

Snot and tears streamed uncontrollably, mixing with the dirt from his nose and the ground into mud that smeared across his face.

The tendons in his hands and feet had all been severed, his limbs twisted at unnatural angles.

His mouth was full of blood. He clutched half his tongue tightly in his hand, unable to say anything but garbled groans.

Nor did he have the strength to spit out any threats. All that remained in him was boundless resentment, rancor, and the purest hatred.

He did not understand why he had to suffer such torment.

He had clearly been given another life. As long as he lived properly, he could have carved out a place for himself.

Yet Heaven would not grant him even the slightest chance of survival.

What terrible misfortune!

How he hated it!

Though Tu Shan Jun had been tortured beyond recognition, his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

Though the loss of blood was snuffing out his life force, those eyes remained fiercely alive.

His limp body wriggled laboriously across the ground, leaving a broad trail of blood behind.

Mud mixed with blood and wrapped around his body.

Like an ugly worm.

Struggling to survive.

As long as he could live, there would still be hope.

Every inch he moved pulled at the wounds all over his body, twisting his features into an involuntary grimace.

Leave.

Escape the Demon Cultivator, escape the grand formation.

If he could, he wanted even more to escape this cruel world.

"I hate this!"

The sword's edge swept across his neck, its chill piercing his heart.

I'm not willing!

Not willing...

His eyes wide open, Tu Shan Jun was already separated from his head.

"Damn Demon Cultivator, even if I become a ghost, I won't let you off!"

"Never!"

His fine head lay in the bloody filth, staring unblinkingly at the demonic fiend.

In his final moments, all that remained was a hoarse, mournful wail of "Urgh... urgh..."

"Draw qi into the body, take resentment as the foundation, hatred as the bones, gather qi and condense a ghost."

"Hasten!"

The Demon Cultivator's hand seals shifted rapidly, his mouth chanting obscure incantations.

Surging gray mist poured from Tu Shan Jun's corpse, eventually gathering into a phantom silhouette.

The phantom flickered, revealing the visage of death as baleful yin energy gathered madly.

The Demon Cultivator stared intently at Tu Shan Jun's corpse.

What he wanted was a powerful soul brimming with resentment, preferably one capable of becoming a ghost directly.

Now, under the gathering Baleful Intent, qi had been drawn into its body.

All that remained was to see whether this yin soul could endure it.

A figure manifested from the black mist.

With a blue face, protruding fangs, crimson hair, and blood-red eyes, it resembled a fierce and vicious ghost that had crawled out of hell.

"Hahahaha."

"Good, excellent!"

"Now that I have this Main Soul, the Soul Banner is complete at last." The Demon Cultivator could scarcely contain his excitement.

Though it had been within his expectations, he had not thought it would condense so quickly.

It must have been a ghost with abundant soul power.

Judging by the surging ghost mist and baleful energy that had formed on the spot, it was surely a yin soul that had entered the ranks.

"Receive."

The Soul Banner, more than a zhang long, waved under the impetus of his magic power, drawing the newly appeared evil ghost into it.

The phantom's crimson ghost eyes fixed on the Demon Cultivator not far away, who was manipulating the Soul Banner and forming hand seals.

The ghostly figure let out a shrill howl.

The piercing wail drove the ghost qi around him into a violent churn.

Yet the Soul Banner behind him suppressed him tightly, giving him no chance for revenge at all.

The mournful ghostly wail went on and on.

"Array."

"Close!"

The demonic cultivator sat cross-legged at the center of the grand array, blood baleful qi billowing like a furnace in a raging tide.

The Soul Banner, over a zhang long, hung high above the demon cultivator's head, spinning as it drew the crimson baleful qi into itself.

The Soul Banner, originally crudely made, actually began to look refined.

Under the array's refinement, all the corpses visibly withered away.

In the end, nothing remained but dry skeletons, which turned to dust beneath the Soul Banner's pull.

Driven by spiritual power, the Soul Banner shrank into a small banner one foot long.

The demon cultivator grabbed the Soul Banner and immediately inspected it.

"A low-grade artifact?" The demon cultivator frowned deeply, his expression displeased.

He had used the sect's Ten-Directional Blood Sacrifice Banner-Refining Array.

Though this Artifact Embryo for the Soul Banner was a standard-issue artifact embryo exchanged from the sect, with the flesh, blood, and essence souls of more than two hundred people, along with a formidable ghost refined through the Ghost-Refining Art, it should have had a chance of reaching the mid-grade.

Why was it only a low-grade artifact now that it was in his hands?

"I followed the refining methods recorded in the books exactly. Could my talent for artifact refinement really be this poor?"

The demon cultivator could not help doubting his own talent, and the joy on his face vanished.

This was worse than spending Spirit Stones to hire a sect disciple skilled in artifact refinement.

Even such a formidable ghost could not save his artifact-refining talent. All those fine materials he had added had gone to waste; their impurities had barely been removed.

This Soul Banner was like a crudely made stick, casually hammered together by a blacksmith. It felt stiff and unyielding in use.

Still, it would do for now. Having one was better than having none.

One had to know that Rogue Cultivators in the early stages of Qi Refining might not even get their hands on a low-grade artifact.

Once he had the opportunity in the future, he could refine it again. Perhaps it could improve somewhat.

He dispelled the blood array.

The demonic cultivator headed straight for the Chaos Burial Mound the old village chief had mentioned.

According to the villagers, there seemed to be something unusual there. Perhaps he could find several more Living Souls.

Of the more than one hundred people sacrificed in blood, only a dozen or so Living Souls had entered the Soul Banner.

Most dispersed as soon as sunlight touched them, while the rest were shattered by the vicious baleful qi.

Living Souls that were too weak were useless to cultivators and still required personal refinement. It was more convenient to use the Soul Banner to capture a few yin souls instead.

So long as one's cultivation and divine sense were not weaker than the yin souls', there would be no risk of backlash.

As the spiritual power refined the banner, Tu Shan Jun within it felt as though a basin of bone-piercing cold water had been poured over him in the dog days of summer, or like a weapon fresh from the forge being quenched in mountain spring water.

Sizzle!

The chill rushed to his head, and he instantly woke up.

Tu Shan Jun emerged from his muddled state. Seeing that he still retained his consciousness, he was overjoyed. "I'm still alive!"

"I didn't die?"

"I didn't die!"

Panel Activated

Banner Name: Soul Banner

Banner Master: Zhao Shixian

Grade: Low-Grade Artifact

Banner and Soul as One (Passive, Fixed): Absorbs baleful qi. Living Souls can enhance the Soul Banner's abilities and grade.

Backlash (Passive, Fixed): When the banner master's strength and divine sense are insufficient to suppress the Soul Banner's Main Soul, the Soul Banner's Main Soul may actively backlash against the banner master and refine him into a Banner Slave.

Soul Collection: Extracts Living Souls from dead corpses and stores Living Souls and yin ghosts weaker than the Main Soul. (Current Main Soul strength: 'Qi Refining First Layer').

Spirit Storage: The Soul Banner can store yin souls and ghostly entities. Current storage: (thirteen/one hundred).

Repair: Consume a certain amount of baleful qi and Living Souls to repair the Soul Banner and Main Soul.

Tu Shan Jun stared at the panel before him, silent for a long while.

This system could not speak.

There were no sound effects, gift packs, or marketplace. Crude and shoddy, it looked like a half-finished video editor.

The panel that should have helped him ascend the path of immortality had changed its appearance because of his death.

The Soul Banner and he were one; he was both the Main Soul and the Soul Banner.

Fortunately, he was still alive. That was the only good news.

As long as he lived, there was hope.

Tu Shan Jun was very glad that he was still "alive."

If he was alive, he could take revenge.

No matter what predicament he faced, as long as he did not die, there would still be a chance.

Once dead, there was nothing left.

Having died miserably beneath a Demon Cultivator's sword, he now understood that this was a cruel world. If he wanted to seize his fate, he had to become stronger.

Immortality was still too far away.

First, he would refine that damned Demon Cultivator Zhao Shixian into his own Banner Slave.

Better yet, he would extract Zhao Shixian's Living Soul and stuff it into the Soul Banner, then give him a proper welcome—ten thousand ghosts devouring his soul—to ease the hatred in his heart.

Zhao Shixian grew puzzled. He used his mana to refine the Soul Banner, but it felt like a clay ox sinking into the sea; there was simply no way to refine this Soul Banner so easily.

His divine sense was also too weak. At most, he could look inward, far from the level required to condense a divine-sense imprint.

Using the sect's blood-refining method was not worth it, either.

This was merely a low-grade artifact. Even if he refined it with blood essence, it would not be of much help.

He would just treat it as an artifact for the transitional period.

Once his cultivation rose another level, he could replace it with another artifact.

After absorbing a great amount of blood qi, Zhao Shixian's injuries had recovered by more than half. Even his cultivation had begun to loosen, so he hurriedly undid the Storage Talisman, took out his cultivation manual, and read it again.

Tu Shan Jun was the Soul Banner itself, positioned right beside the book, so naturally he could see the words written on it.

The original owner knew very few characters. By extension, Tu Shan Jun only recognized a handful himself. The manual made his head swell just from looking at it; he could not understand it at all.

Blood Fiend Art

Qi Refining Third Layer

"Zhao Shixian is only at Qi Refining Third Layer?"

"I was actually killed by a Qi Refining Third Layer Demon Cultivator?"

For a time, he remained speechless.

The astonishment on Tu Shan Jun's face gradually faded, finally turning into a sinister ghostly laugh.

It was impossible to tell whether he was laughing at himself or at fate.

For someone at Qi Refining Third Layer, killing over a hundred villagers was no different from butchering dogs and chickens.

This was the power of immortal cultivators.

Even the early stages of Qi Refining far surpassed ordinary people, not to mention that this fellow had set up the Blood Sacrifice Array beforehand.

Qi Refining First Layer and Qi Refining Third Layer were not that far apart.

Once Zhao Shixian found some Living Souls and baleful qi for him to devour and increase his strength, he would soon catch up. Then he could finish Zhao Shixian off.

Hiding within the Soul Banner, Tu Shan Jun, wearing a deathly visage, stared sinisterly at Zhao Shixian as he read.