Advancement

The first thing he did upon returning to the Soul Banner was find Zhang Gui's living soul.

"Soul Inquiry."

Extract:

Spirit Demon Foundation Fusion Art

Five Spirit Art (First Volume)

There were likewise only two skill seeds: one spell technique and one cultivation art.

The Spirit Demon Foundation Fusion Art was exceedingly tyrannical.

Even without spirit roots, as long as one used this demonic art to fuse with another's foundation, one could obtain spirit roots.

Nor was more people necessarily better.

It recorded two methods. One required five people with Heavenly Spirit Roots, forming a ceaseless cycle of mutual generation.

Fusing these five spirit roots would grant one a Five Elements Heavenly Spirit Root on the spot, with absolutely no bottlenecks.

The other was a simplified version: find any three Qi Refiners with spirit roots and use the Three Talents Formation to fuse their foundations and spirit roots.

Such a foundation was exceedingly inferior, and its ability to harmonize spiritual energy was also poor. There would be a bottleneck at every step.

Though this demonic art appeared powerful, it had a fatal flaw.

Because it fused the foundations and spirit roots of others, leaving the body and bones a mixed, mottled mess, one could remain only at the Qi Refining stage for the rest of one's life.

Once this method was used, even immortals could not save them.

What Zhang Gui had used was precisely the simplified Spirit Demon Foundation Fusion Art.

There was no helping it. He had already been gravely injured and his foundation damaged, so he no longer cared.

Besides, though the Prefect was a high official in the eyes of mortals, in the eyes of cultivators he was no different from an ant. Wanting to find cultivators with Heavenly Spirit Roots was simply a fool's dream.

Even if they found a Heavenly Spirit Root cultivator in the early Qi Refining stage, would they dare cut open their abdomen and fuse foundations?

So in truth, this was their only choice.

The Five Spirit Art was the foundational Qi Refining technique of the Five Spirit Sect.

This was all Tu Shan Jun could see from the Five Spirit Art.

Though extracting cultivation-art seeds was powerful, it did not include the rest of the living soul's memories.

It could only use the cultivation-art seed as its basis.

The more experience preserved within the cultivation-art seed, the more knowledge Tu Shan Jun gained. If there was little introduction, he gained little.

It all depended on how much the host who provided the cultivation-art seed had learned.

Just like Zhao Shixian—he had learned much, so the seed contained much information.

Unfortunately, Tu Shan Jun did not know how to search souls.

After thinking it over, he still needed to find time to cultivate a soul-searching technique. That way, he could directly search the memories of Yin souls.

Yet as he looked at these Yin souls and ghostly creatures that possessed no intelligence and retained only instinct, Tu Shan Jun grew puzzled again.

Did they still have memories at all? Could the Soul Banner have directly wiped them clean?

Because he had died and merged into the Soul Banner, that half-finished editor system had also fused in. What sort of changes it would bring about was truly unclear.

Tu Shan Jun simply stopped dwelling on it. He still needed to increase his strength.

If he had been powerful enough, he could have driven back that young immortal master then and there.

That man had possessed the same cultivation as him, but he was, after all, a proper righteous-path Qi Refiner. The Ebony Dharma Sword restrained ghostly creatures.

Even with equal cultivation, Tu Shan Jun had suffered a complete defeat after merely exchanging blows.

From the looks of it, that man was not an Attendant hired by Zhang Wanlong.

Then he must have been the immortal master stationed in the Prefecture City.

Two months ago, Tu Shan Jun had heard that the stationed immortal master's ten-year term was ending, and that he would return to the mountain, taking Li Qingfeng's friend with him.

Then this person was presumably the replacement.

Tu Shan Jun was actually quite fortunate that things had happened at this time. The replacement was young, and his cultivation was not high.

If it had been the previous immortal master, he would likely have possessed at least the strength of the sixth or seventh Qi Refining Layer.

Dealing with Tu Shan Jun would have been as easy as playing around.

The tale split in two.

While Tu Shan Jun was nursing his wounds, Li Qingfeng toyed with the Sword Hairpin and flipped through the beast hide.

The unknown beast hide recorded the moves and mental formulas of the Demon Ape Three Moves.

There was no difference from what he cultivated.

This also showed that the Main Soul evil ghost had sincerely taught him things.

He could use the Mind-Settling Fist to wear away the vicious aura accumulated from the Blood Fiend Art.

"What material is this?"

Li Qingfeng murmured softly. He held it beneath his nose and sniffed it, catching an overpowering stench of blood.

Spiritual light flashed through his eyes as the Spirit Official Dharma Eye stirred.

The unknown beast hide remained exactly as it had been, without the slightest change.

He poked it with the Sword Hairpin, yet failed to leave even a mark.

It could not be boiled apart in water or burned by fire.

Even when Li Qingfeng used all his current strength to tear at it, it remained undamaged.

Li Qingfeng could not help sighing. "It would be wonderful if this thing could be used as the banner cloth for the Soul Banner."

At that thought, Li Qingfeng hurriedly brought over the Soul Banner.

He held the banner in his left hand and the unknown beast hide in his right, then brought them closer together.

Still, nothing happened.

"Could my thinking be wrong, or does it need to..." Li Qingfeng continued fiddling with it tirelessly.

Inside the banner, Tu Shan Jun could not help smiling. What was this silly boy thinking? Without knowing artifact refinement, how could he replace it?

But what happened next made Tu Shan Jun's eyes widen.

The profound and unfathomable image he had painstakingly maintained instantly crumbled.

Fortunately, he was inside the Soul Banner now, so Li Qingfeng did not see him.

As Li Qingfeng's dharma power poured into the beast hide—

A phantom of a Blood Ape unexpectedly emerged atop it.

It beat its chest and roared toward the heavens.

Fierce Baleful Intent scattered outward, only to be absorbed by the Soul Banner.

The blood-colored demonic ape transformed into a streak of blood-red light and burrowed into the Soul Banner.

After the red glow persisted for a quarter of an hour, the tough beast hide in Li Qingfeng's hands shattered with a crash into dregs, like a weathered stone slab.

The main pole of the Soul Banner, having absorbed the unknown beast hide, became even deeper and darker.

Its icy touch brought reassurance.

The banner cloth gained much scarlet from the woven blood-fiend threads of the beast hide.

Its crimson hair surged like a tide, while its scarlet ghost eyes became exceptionally lively.

Black base, red border—the evil ghost within the banner grew ever more lifelike.

Those eyeballs even seemed as though they would turn in some unsettling manner.

The banner cloth was tougher than before.

Having expelled its impurities, the whole thing now carried a certain charm.

It no longer looked like something casually kneaded together, nor did it move awkwardly when waved.

Soul Banner advanced

Current grade: High-Grade Artifact

Skill obtained: Soul Gathering Pill

Tu Shan Jun hurriedly called out the scarlet panel.

Banner name: Soul Banner

Banner master: Li Qingfeng

Grade: High-Grade Artifact

Banner and soul as one (passively fixed): Absorbs Baleful Intent and living souls to increase the Soul Banner's abilities and grade.

Backlash (passively 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 Intake: Extracts living souls from dead corpses and stores living souls and Yin ghosts weaker than the Main Soul. (Current Main Soul strength: 'Qi Refining Fourth Layer').

Spirit Storage: The Soul Banner can store Yin souls and ghostly creatures. Current storage: (fifty-two/one thousand).

Repair: Consumes a certain amount of Baleful Intent and living souls to repair the Soul Banner and Main Soul.

Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts: All thousand ghosts within the Soul Banner may be released, gathering their night-wandering soul arts into a single devastating assault.

Soul Gathering Pill: The Soul Banner absorbs wandering Yin souls and Baleful Intent to condense Yin Soul Pills. Yin Soul Pills may assist the banner master's cultivation (one pill/twelve hours). Devouring Baleful Intent and Yin ghosts can accelerate the condensation of Yin Soul Pills.

Tu Shan Jun spat out a round black bead the size of an egg into his palm.

This was the ability the Soul Banner had gained upon advancing.

He did not yet know how much it could help the banner master improve.

A High-Grade Artifact Soul Banner.

Of course, it could also be called a Thousand Soul Banner.

Though there were only fifty-three Yin souls and ghostly creatures inside the banner, counting himself.

It could not even gather a hundred ghosts.

But a High-Grade Artifact was still a High-Grade Artifact.

Setting others aside, even among high-level Qi Refiners, it was an exceedingly rare treasure.

And now Li Qingfeng had stumbled into creating it by sheer accident.

It seemed that beast hide had a tremendous origin.

Tu Shan Jun did not give it further thought.

He had eaten it already. Whatever other origin it had was useless now.

Only an opportunity swallowed into one's belly could be called an opportunity.

If it had not been swallowed, who knew when it would become someone else's opportunity.

The urgent matter was to properly increase his strength, then return to Eight Directions Prefecture City and slaughter Zhang Wanlong.

Leaving that hidden danger alive made Tu Shan Jun deeply uneasy.