Spiritual Pills and Breakthrough

In the abandoned building two thousand meters away from the residential area, the once lavishly decorated rooms were now covered in dust.

Lu Yan, who had changed his residence, cleared a small area near the window to facilitate the absorption of Moonlight Spiritual Energy for his cultivation.

Looking towards the residential area, even from such a distance, Lu Yan could still hear the angry roars of that Peak Qi Refining zombie.

Clearly, Lu Yan's decision to escape early after harvesting the zombie Wandering Souls was very wise.

The convergence of a large number of ordinary zombies, possessing the special power to absorb Moonlight Spiritual Energy, was a crucial resource for Transcendent Zombies who instinctively absorbed Moonlight Spiritual Energy.

From the regional distribution of zombies in the city and the changes in the number of Transcendent Zombies, it could be seen that the strength of Transcendent Zombies was often positively correlated with the number of zombies in the area they controlled.

Lu Yan harvesting the Wandering Souls of thousands of zombies was undoubtedly undermining the foundation of the Blood Beard Zombie. If he hadn't escaped in time, a battle would have been unavoidable.

"It seems that in the future, I should go to a more distant place to harvest zombie Wandering Souls. Harvesting them nearby carries the risk of being targeted by Transcendent Zombies."

"The best method is to use the cover of night to let the Vengeful Souls scout the surrounding situation, map out the territories of Transcendent Zombies, so that I can hunt and harvest during the day."

Muttering softly, Lu Yan gently tapped the Soul Banner with his index finger. The next moment, a thick ghost mist rolled out, and a full twenty-seven Vengeful Souls appeared in the room.

The room, which was over two hundred square meters, instantly turned into a Ghost Domain scene. Vengeful Souls with distorted faces and strange appearances wandered in the room, their cold aura constantly spreading.

And in the center surrounded by Vengeful Souls, a tall, ferocious giant ghost knelt on the ground, like a Netherworld Ghost General.

Ignoring physical attacks and directly attacking the soul, these Vengeful Souls were naturally the purest killing tools.

With just an order from Lu Yan, these twenty-seven Vengeful Souls could slaughter the hundreds of zombies upstairs and downstairs in the abandoned building.

Under the leadership of the Main Soul Warrior, they could easily kill Mid-Stage Qi Refining zombies, and even directly confront Late-Stage Qi Refining zombies without issue.

From eight Vengeful Souls to twenty-seven, this was just the harvest from today alone.

As the number of Vengeful Souls increased, Lu Yan's speed of harvesting Wandering Souls would inevitably accelerate. At that time, the only limiting factor would be the speed of refining the Soul Banner.

In Lu Yan's eyes now, this abandoned apocalyptic city, with its millions of zombies, was a huge treasure trove, with a vast number of zombie Wandering Souls for Lu Yan to harvest.

By then, let alone a Top Grade Magic Tool Hundred Soul Banner, even a Thousand Soul Banner comparable to a Golden Core magic treasure would not be a pipe dream.

As for the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, it would require more than just low-quality souls. Even a million zombie Wandering Souls would not be enough to support a Ten Thousand Soul Banner.

However, in this vast world, is there only one apocalyptic city?

In the future, there will inevitably be more zombie Wandering Souls, and even more powerful Transcendent Zombie Kings. By then, Lu Yan will not lack high-quality Transcendent Zombie souls, and Lu Yan may not be without the opportunity to refine a Ten Thousand Soul Banner.

However, for Lu Yan at the moment, the treasure trove was close at hand, but he might not be able to consume it all.

Lu Yan, holding the Soul Banner, maintained the scene before him for only a minute, and his face was already pale.

The Soul Banner's promotion to Mid-Grade Magic Item increased the consumption of Mana for manipulation, and controlling twenty-seven Vengeful Souls required a large amount of Mana. This short period of time almost drained his Mana.

In addition, simultaneously controlling so many Vengeful Souls also required a sufficiently strong soul to support it.

Waving his hand to disperse most of the Vengeful Souls, leaving only nine, Lu Yan took out Spirit Stones and while replenishing his Mana, he whispered:

"No wonder the Demonic Path Cultivators who are said to control Soul Banners almost all start from the Foundation Establishment stage.

If the number of Vengeful Souls in the Soul Banner is too small, it is difficult to exert its value, and they can be easily extinguished with a flick of a finger. But once the number increases, the required Mana and soul strength will increase exponentially.

Abundant Mana, and the divine sense that can only be possessed in the Foundation Establishment stage, are the biggest guarantees for controlling the Soul Banner."

Lu Yan immediately keenly realized his biggest current weakness: his cultivation was too low, and his soul was not strong enough, completely insufficient to unleash the full power of the Mid-Grade Magic Item, the Soul Banner.

"So the focus at this stage should be on cultivation. Only with sufficient strength can I confidently control more Vengeful Souls."

With this thought, Lu Yan took something out of his Storage Bag.

It was a delicate-looking porcelain bottle. This was the bottle of pills he had obtained from Steward Chu's Storage Bag earlier.

When Lu Yan killed Steward Chu and inventoried his gains, he had noticed this bottle of pills.

However, at that time, Lu Yan had not yet started cultivating, and all his attention was focused on cultivation techniques, so he naturally didn't bother with the pills. Over time, he had forgotten about them in his Storage Bag.

Today, controlling the Vengeful Souls made Lu Yan realize the importance of cultivation, which reminded him of this bottle of pills.

From the outside, this bottle of pills was no different from the low-grade goods commonly seen in the Bamboo Forest Market. Truly precious spiritual pills often needed to be stored in special jade bottles to preserve their spiritual energy and medicinal properties, and they would also have the exclusive mark of the pill refiner.

But as Lu Yan opened the porcelain bottle, a rich spiritual energy instantly surged out.

After sniffing the pill's fragrance, a clear and refreshing sensation flowed through Lu Yan's entire body. The Mana that had been greatly consumed by the Soul Banner was immediately replenished significantly.

"This is a genuine Ranked Pill, and it's a spiritual pill for increasing Mana!"

Lu Yan confirmed at a glance that this spiritual pill was absolutely extraordinary.

The reason it was stored in a porcelain bottle was likely because the original jade bottle might have contained information related to the victim's identity. Steward Chu didn't want to leave any traces, so he replaced it with a common porcelain bottle.

However, to be cautious, Lu Yan poured out a spiritual pill from the porcelain bottle. Its appearance was emerald green, like jade.

Gently scraping off a layer of the spiritual pill's powder, Lu Yan took it and tried circulating his cultivation technique. Immediately, that tiny bit of powder transformed into pure spiritual energy and surged into Lu Yan's body, rapidly increasing his Mana refinement.

Feeling the changes within his body, Lu Yan's eyes lit up, and then he swallowed a spiritual pill without hesitation.

Bathed in the Moonlight Spiritual Energy entering through the window, Lu Yan closed his eyes and began cultivating. The surrounding spiritual energy seemed to turn into a vortex, madly surging into Lu Yan's body. Even the moonlight in the night sky was drawn in, making the moonlight in this area appear brighter.

After a night, the moonlight dissipated, and the sun had risen high in the sky. The Wandering Zombies retreated back into the houses.

But Lu Yan's cultivation still didn't stop. The spiritual energy vortex grew even larger.

In the sunlight, faint traces of fire-attribute spiritual energy gathered around Lu Yan, following the spiritual energy circulation and entering the Heavenly Cycle.

After several hours, the spiritual energy vortex slowly dissipated.

As everything calmed down, a clear sound of breaking seemed to ring out. Lu Yan, who had been sitting cross-legged, slowly straightened his body.

Second Layer Qi Refining, breakthrough!