Killing Men

"How dare you!"

Li Qingfeng shouted furiously.

Just moments ago, they had been kneeling on the ground and begging him to spare their lives. How had they turned murderous the instant they saw him fall?

He had clearly been moved by their words.

The scales in his heart had already tipped toward giving them a chance to turn over a new leaf.

"Clang."

The sound of metal striking metal rang out.

A green ghostly hand blocked the broadsword, passed through Big Guy's head, and yanked out his living soul.

The Green-Faced Fiend opened his blood basin of a mouth and inhaled sharply.

Big Guy's body actually withered away, its flesh and blood turning pale as it took on the appearance of a crumbling gray earthen wall.

With a crash, it collapsed into a heap of scattered bones and ash.

The Red-Haired Fiend stretched his body, and much of his previously listless air had returned.

Li Qingfeng stared wide-eyed at the Red-Haired Fiend, his voice trembling as excitement overwhelmed him. "I'm not dreaming, am I? Brother Ghost, you... you're alive."

The Red-Haired Fiend was Tu Shan Jun.

He tilted his head slightly and glanced at Li Qingfeng with his scarlet ghost eyes, saying nothing.

He and the soul banner were one. He was both the Main Soul and the soul banner itself.

As long as the soul banner remained intact, the fiend would not perish.

However, he had indeed been gravely wounded in his battle with that young man. He could not even cast Dream Entry and could only recuperate within the soul banner.

Who would have thought that Baleful Intent and living souls would deliver themselves right to his door?

When Li Qingfeng waved the Soul Banner and collected Little Guy's living soul, Tu Shan Jun awoke from his unconsciousness after being replenished by the living soul's Baleful Intent.

Then, as Li Qingfeng used his mana, Tu Shan Jun drew upon it to manifest his body.

Because he had seen Li Qingfeng's hesitation.

People could not be taught into goodness.

Uprooting the grass and removing the roots was the best method.

Just like now.

As Li Qingfeng weakened, this bandit once more entertained thoughts of killing Li Qingfeng and seizing his magic artifact.

Tu Shan Jun's expression remained indifferent as he pulled out the remaining bandit's living soul, condensed all the blood fiend energy in his body into Baleful Intent, and absorbed it completely.

His somewhat illusory body became considerably more solid.

Zhao Shixian had relied on a grand formation for refinement, but Tu Shan Jun, who possessed the Blood Fiend Art (Comprehensive) seed, could do it himself.

Still, these yin souls were clearly inferior to the powerful ones refined by the grand formation.

Baleful Intent filled the grand formation and resentment surged within it. The weak living souls shattered at the slightest impact; those that remained were all powerful living souls, some even transforming into yin ghosts on the spot.

Though they were unranked yin ghosts, they were still stronger than yin souls that had experienced nothing.

The circumstances were poor now, so he could only make the best use of everything and use the Baleful Intent within the banner to create living-soul yin ghosts.

Li Qingfeng cried out joyfully, "Brother Ghost, you're alive!"

He scrambled up from the ground and hurried over to Tu Shan Jun, his eyes moist.

"I thought you were dead."

Tu Shan Jun was deeply moved, even somewhat at a loss.

He would not die. So long as the soul banner remained in Li Qingfeng's hands, he would not die.

Yet he had never expected his appearance to make Li Qingfeng so delighted and excited.

"I am not alone."

Tu Shan Jun heard his own murmur in his heart.

That was right. In this unfamiliar world, he was no longer alone.

Li Qingfeng's aptitude was poor, but he possessed great perseverance and was not some mindless fool.

He was often softhearted, and that was precisely what made him feel real.

Poor aptitude did not matter. The soul banner was the greatest fortuitous opportunity.

Tu Shan Jun did not believe the soul banner possessed only these abilities.

Every time it advanced, new methods would appear. In the future, it would surely gain abilities that could alter a person's aptitude and accelerate their cultivation.

All in all, Li Qingfeng was undoubtedly a banner master with whom Tu Shan Jun was greatly satisfied.

If possible, there was still a long road ahead of them.

A short while later.

Tu Shan Jun condensed and absorbed the blood fiend energy from the four corpses.

He walked before Li Qingfeng and patted him on the shoulder.

Then he took out the two Storage Talismans hidden within Li Qingfeng's collar.

He swallowed Hou Boxu's talisman, then handed Zhao Shixian's Storage Talisman to Li Qingfeng.

Li Qingfeng looked at the worn Storage Talisman in Tu Shan Jun's palm in a daze and asked tentatively, "For me?"

Tu Shan Jun nodded and stuffed the Storage Talisman into Li Qingfeng's hand.

Hou Boxu's belongings could not be touched. He had promised Hou Boxu that he would return them to the Hou Family in Sun City. But there was no problem with the other Storage Talisman, so he might as well give it to Li Qingfeng.

When Li Qingfeng received the Storage Talisman, he assumed it was like the spirit talisman that had once made him incredibly fast. But when he activated it with mana, the Storage Talisman opened, revealing a small space inside.

It held a collection of miscellaneous items.

"A Sumeru Ring Space?" Li Qingfeng was instantly dumbfounded.

Inside lay a beast hide, several bottles and jars, three neatly shaped glowing blue stones, a hairpin, and other odds and ends.

Li Qingfeng took out the beast hide to examine it. It unexpectedly recorded the moves, mental method, and breathing technique of the Demon Ape Mind-Settling Fist.

The beast hide was ancient and resilient, its divine nature hidden beneath an unassuming exterior. Though it looked as simple as ordinary leather, Li Qingfeng felt it must be a fine treasure.

"What's this?" Li Qingfeng took out the blue stones as well.

These regular blue stones were only as thick as a thumb, yet they contained immense heaven-and-earth spiritual energy. One glance was enough to tell they were valuable.

"All of this is for me?"

Li Qingfeng was clearly still bewildered. These were all treasures, yet Brother Ghost was giving them to him.

Tu Shan Jun nodded. These things would be far more useful in Li Qingfeng's hands; he was a soul banner and had no use for them.

Tu Shan Jun picked out some silver from the miscellaneous items, pointed at the silver and then at the Spirit Stones, and placed them together.

"Brother Ghost, are you saying these are immortals' money?" Li Qingfeng suddenly understood.

The comprehensive section within the cultivation method seed had told Tu Shan Jun all of Zhao Shixian's general knowledge about immortal cultivation, so he naturally recognized the vast majority of things related to Qi Refiners.

Li Qingfeng took the hairpin before his eyes and studied it.

It looked like an ordinary hairpin, without anything remarkable about it.

Tu Shan Jun could only point at the hairpin, then at the Soul Banner, and place them together.

Li Qingfeng immediately understood what Tu Shan Jun meant.

"A magic artifact?"

He then infused it with a thread of mana.

The hairpin flashed with spiritual light and transformed into a three-foot longsword that circled Li Qingfeng's side.

Its sword cries rang clear, its sharp clamor like metal weapons howling, and it sounded exceedingly pleasing.

"Wow."

"It's a flying sword!"

Like a child who had received a novel toy, Li Qingfeng could not put the flying sword down.

No one could resist both literary and martial excellence.

And no Qi Refiner could resist the temptation of a flying sword.

Although Li Qingfeng possessed the Soul Banner, a magic artifact, had he not also dreamed of a flying sword beheading heads from a thousand miles away?

Li Qingfeng used the Sword Hairpin to bind up his long hair and adjusted his head with great satisfaction.

Tu Shan Jun wanted to laugh.

In the end, young people were simply like this.

Whenever they obtained something good, they could not wait to hang it from their bodies or hold it in their hands.

Seeing that there was not enough mana left to sustain the manifestation of his ghost body, Tu Shan Jun dissolved into mist and returned to the Soul Banner.

With the replenishment of five bandits' living souls and Baleful Intent, his injuries had stabilized. From here on, he only needed to continuously gather Baleful Intent and living souls to recover from his injuries and grow even stronger.

Zhang Gui's yin soul unexpectedly possessed the strength of the third level of Qi Refinement. Tu Shan Jun had not expected that.

However, even at the third level of Qi Refinement, he was still no match for Tu Shan Jun.

With the replenishment from this living soul, Tu Shan Jun had reached the fourth level. As long as he had enough living souls and Baleful Intent, he would soon enter the fifth level of Qi Refinement.

Li Qingfeng was very happy.

It was not merely because he had obtained a flying sword and a Storage Talisman. Most importantly, Brother Ghost had not died.

Even if he had gained nothing at all, so long as Brother Ghost had not died, he would have been happy.

All his disappointment was swept away, and he became filled with fighting spirit once more.