The Evil Ghost Banner

This triangular stretch of land, spanning tens of thousands of miles in every direction, all belonged to the Yin Sha Sect. Located within the vast angle between the main range of Hengduan Mountain and the Yin Sha Mountain Range, it was plagued by Yin Winds year-round. As a result, countless Yin Sha Lands had naturally formed across the sect's immense territory.

The Phantom Flying Sword became a black-glowing bird in the sky, circling at times and darting forward at others. Lei Dong, meanwhile, kept matching the recognizable terrain and landmarks against his map. After a long while, he brought the Phantom Flying Sword down, landing outside a desolate valley where the Yin Wind howled.

The Yin Sha Sect held complete control over four great nations and seven smaller ones. Each was under the sect's indirect rule. This place lay within Hou Chen Country, three or four thousand miles from the main branch of the Myriad Ghost Cave. He had chosen it for two reasons. First, it was far from the Myriad Ghost Cave, so even if something went wrong, he could cover it up more easily. Second, Hou Chen Country had been at war with its neighbors for decades. There were dozens of battlefields where more than a hundred thousand people had died, and the country's people had been left destitute. Countless Mass Graves had long since sprung up across the land.

This vast region was known as the Yin Sha Domain. Its natural environment made it especially prone to forming Yin Sha Lands. When many people died in one place within a short time, their resentment surged to the heavens; if the surroundings were suitable, it would often condense into the earliest form of a Yin Sha Land. Of course, the surroundings had been made suitable in part by the Yin Sha Sect's hidden machinations.

But none of that had anything to do with Lei Dong. He had come to harvest Yin Souls, strengthen his Spirit Ghosts, and sell them for pills.

He summoned his Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier and Shadow Ghost Soldier, both already at the peak of level five, and arranged them in a formation: one visible, one concealed; one ahead, one behind. The Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier would lead the attack, while the Shadow Ghost Soldier stayed close to Lei Dong in case of trouble. This Yin Valley, stretching for hundreds of miles, had once been a bloody battlefield where more than two hundred thousand had perished. Even after decades, countless half-buried, rust-eaten suits of armor and weapons remained scattered across the valley, so badly rotted they were impossible to identify.

The instant Lei Dong stepped into the area, a wave of Yin energy washed over him, and the circling Yin Winds howled without pause. His spirits lifted. This place was far better than the Mass Graves near the Myriad Ghost Cave. At the same time, he grew more cautious. This had once been a major battlefield, after all, and powerful vengeful ghosts might still appear.

Lei Dong had now reached the peak of level five. He had also never neglected his cultivation of the Spirit Forging Art, and his divine sense was now no weaker than that of a cultivator at the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Refining. He steadied his breathing and focused, then cast the Divine Scan Technique. He spread his divine sense as far as he could in front of him, fanning it out until it reached nearly a thousand meters away. Though spreading it so thin greatly dulled its sensitivity, the disturbances caused by drifting Yin Souls could still make it waver.

The Divine Scan Technique was an ordinary application of divine sense, not even a true spell. Put simply, it used divine sense like the radar in Lei Dong's memories, scanning in every direction or along a chosen path. Then, whenever something moved within the area covered by his divine sense, it created ripples in that invisible field.

A cultivator using the Divine Scan Technique could judge what they had detected by the ripples' size, frequency, and other features. But the thinner the divine sense was spread, the less sensitive it became. This showed just how ordinary the Divine Scan Technique was: it was merely a practical technique, not a spell. Lei Dong had spent only a few Contribution Value points to acquire this exceptionally useful method.

Using the Divine Scan Technique to locate Yin Souls was far more effective than wandering around and hoping to bump into one himself or sending his Ghost Soldiers out to search.

Sure enough, Lei Dong was delighted to find seven or eight ripples within the fan-shaped area nearly a thousand meters ahead. They moved slowly, and their signals weren't especially strong. If he had continued walking straight as he used to, he would have encountered at most one or two.

These ripples obviously couldn't have come from small animals. Any flesh-and-blood creature, unless it was exceptionally powerful, would struggle to survive in an environment teeming with Yin Souls.

To conserve his divine sense, he quickly plotted a route and committed it to memory, then withdrew his divine sense. He sent his Ghost Soldiers running toward the nearest ripple. Before long, they found a Yin Soul drifting aimlessly, completely unaware anyone had approached. The Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier stepped forward and gave it a light slash. As soon as the Yin Soul was struck and began drifting in and out of shape, Lei Dong immediately formed the necessary hand seals and easily collected it into the Soul Nurturing Pagoda. With Lei Dong's current strength, he could have collected the Yin Soul without injuring it, but an unharmed Yin Soul would instinctively resist more fiercely, costing him a great deal more true energy.

So, to conserve his true energy, it was better to have the Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier wound it lightly first.

Without pausing, he hurried toward the next ripple. Along the way, he checked the Yin Soul's aptitude; just as he expected, it was only an Inferior Ghost. Using the same method, he collected all seven Yin Souls in a matter of minutes. Such speed and efficiency made Lei Dong smile. He was already many times more efficient than he had been at the second layer of Qi Refining.

He hadn't used much true energy, so Lei Dong cast the Divine Scan Technique again. This time, he detected only five ripples, but one of them was several times stronger than the others. Lei Dong sighed. It had to be a Wild Ghost Soldier. Sure enough, when he reached the ripple, he found a level-one Wild Ghost Soldier. It wasn't worth much, but it would at least make a little snack for the Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier.

In this way, he swept up more than five hundred Yin Souls and one Wild Ghost Soldier over the course of a single night. At dawn, he left the valley and flew several dozen miles on his sword to a small mortal city in Hou Chen Country, where he rented an inn courtyard. He took a Qi Condensing Pill and meditated to replenish his energy; refining Soul Beads went without saying.

Every night, he flew dozens of miles back to this Yin Sha Valley. On a good night, he could catch seven or eight hundred; on a bad one, four or five hundred. After ten days of this, he left the valley and moved to another wicked place several hundred miles away, called Ghost Howl River Beach.

Ten days later, he moved on again. For a hundred and twenty days, he roamed among more than a dozen famous but not especially dangerous Yin Sha Lands. Lei Dong was utterly exhausted, yet overjoyed. In the jade vials inside his Storage Belt, he now had a hundred and forty-two Soul Beads. He had personally captured more than eighty thousand Yin Souls.

His luck had been merely average, even slightly poor. Out of more than eighty thousand Yin Souls, only six had been Low-grade Spirit Ghosts. Lei Dong couldn't help wondering if obtaining a heaven-defying treasure had left him with poor luck when it came to capturing Yin Souls and getting Spirit Ghosts. He had, however, come across around a dozen Wild Ghost Soldiers, one of them as high as level five. But with all three ghosts attacking together, the level-five Wild Ghost Soldier had been devoured down to the last scrap.

After calculating the time, he realized it was about right. The next Small Competition would be in two months. He had to refine a Middle Grade Spirit Ghost and sell it for an Earth Spirit Pill. Otherwise, he might find it difficult to break through to the Sixth Layer before the next Small Competition.

Dawn was breaking, and the Yin Souls had all curled up somewhere out of sight. Just as Lei Dong was preparing to fly away on his sword, three streaks of light rose from several hundred meters away. In a mere dozen breaths, they landed in front of him. The one leading them was a short, ugly young man in black, with an upturned nose. Judging by the style of his black clothes, he seemed to wear the uniform of a third-generation disciple of the Yin Sha Sect. But from the faint black sheen and rippling, luxurious-looking material, the robe appeared to be no ordinary garment. More striking still, beneath his feet was not an ordinary Flying Magic Tool, such as a sword. Instead, he rode a shifting mass of Black Mist. Faces twisted within it—fierce, resentful, terrified, crazed with pain—seeming to struggle free, only to warp back into Black Mist in the blink of an eye.

The Evil Ghost Banner! Lei Dong's heart chilled as he recognized the treasure.