Myriad Souls Infusion Formation!

[Myriad Souls Infusion Formation! You killed five Martial Artists of the Tribulation Dao Realm. With one move of the Myriad Souls Banner, you also collected their souls.]

["Let us out! You damned demonic cultivator!"]

[You watched the five faces struggling across the banner's surface and revealed the faint smile of a villain.]

["Thanks to my five bros for the Martial Artist souls. I, Red Hair, gladly accept them! Hahahaha!"]

[The Myriad Souls Banner spoke up at an inopportune moment.]

["Didn't you say you disliked being called 'Red Hair'?"]

["Ahem, ahem. I don't need you to remind me!"]

[The world was hard, propriety had crumbled and music had gone sour. Out in the world, this was not the first time you had run into something like this.]

[Though you could not activate the "Biological Father" trait before humans, once the Myriad Souls Banner came out, you were still their biological father.]

[Unless the robbers who came after you were of too high a realm. Then you could only admit defeat.]

[Presumably, true experts would not lower their own standing over a few hundred crystal stones.]

[You did not actually carry a large pack, so where did you keep your crystal stones?]

[The answer was the Myriad Souls Banner.]

[This thing also possessed the effects of a Storage Spirit Artifact and could store some items.]

[However, it could only hold objects with relatively stable properties. Otherwise, they would be contaminated by the demonic qi within the Myriad Souls Banner.]

[Crystal stones could barely be stored inside, but not for too long.]

[Whenever you left them in there too long, you found that the numbers never matched when you checked the accounts with the Myriad Souls Banner.]

["I clearly put five hundred in there."]

["No, it was four hundred and fifty."]

["You stole them."]

["Ha! How could that be? I am a dignified Immortal Artifact. Would I steal your worthless rocks?"]

[This was a common exchange between the two of you.]

[Year Twenty-Three, age forty.]

[You arrived at Divine Soldier City, the commandery seat of Shenbing Commandery in Ling Prefecture.]

[This was a special city.]

[Legend had it that there had originally been no city here. Many years ago, an old master skilled in Artifact Refining settled here.]

[Thus, some came to study under him, while others came to ask the old master or his disciples to forge artifacts.]

[As more and more people came and went, the area grew prosperous and gradually developed into a major city.]

[Later, the old master's disciples formed a unique Martial Artist faction, the Divine Weapon Pavilion, which specialized in Spiritual Artifact forging.]

[The city was accordingly renamed Divine Soldier City.]

[Even the commandery where it was located was renamed Shenbing Commandery.]

[Today, the Divine Weapon Pavilion was one of the Eight Pillars of the Five Domains, the eight strongest Martial Dao sects within the Five Domains.]

[Your crystal stones were limited, so you did not dare hope to hire one of the Divine Weapon Pavilion's top Artifact Refiners to forge the Myriad Souls Banner for you.]

[But Divine Soldier City no longer had the Divine Weapon Pavilion as its only Artifact Refining sect. There were also many second- and third-rate minor sects, whose fees were much cheaper.]

[Cangbing Pavilion was one of them.]

[Feng Mo, a seemingly young disciple of Cangbing Pavilion, fell into thought after reading the blueprint for the Myriad Souls Banner that you handed over.]

["This thing... what was it called again?"]

["Demon Subduing Banner!"]

["Is that so?"]

[The more Feng Mo looked, the more he felt that this thing resembled the Myriad Souls Banner mentioned in ancient texts.]

[Of course it resembled one, because the blueprint had been provided by the Myriad Souls Banner itself.]

[The Myriad Souls Banner knew that you currently lacked the resources to restore its original body and could only make a low-grade version, so the blueprint it gave you was not exactly the same as itself.]

[If it had been exactly the same, Feng Mo would have immediately determined that you had come to make an Evil Artifact.]

[Proper Artifact Refiners like them were not allowed to make Evil Artifacts.]

[As the greatest Artifact Refiner sect in the world, the Divine Weapon Pavilion also bore the responsibility of supervising Artifact Refiners throughout the land.]

["What quality do you want it to be?"]

["High-grade would be best. Mid-grade would also be acceptable."]

["Will you provide the materials yourself?"]

["Yes."]

["Only one set?"]

["I'm only making one."]

["But Artifact Refining has a chance of failure. You only have one set of materials. If something goes wrong, will you call it quits, or buy materials from us?"]

["Uh... if something goes wrong, will you refund the Artifact Refining fee?"]

["Of course not."]

["Then wait a moment."]

[To be safe, you decided to save up more crystal stones before coming back to forge it.]

["Middle-aged man who thirsts for power, are you short on crystal stones? There's a little grove ten li outside the city. Squat there, and they'll come to you!"]

[The Myriad Souls Banner could not change its vile habits and urged you to go rob people.]

[Actually, robbery was not impossible.]

[But you were now the somewhat renowned Red-Haired Demon Slayer!]

[You had an idol's burden to maintain, more or less.]

[In any case, killing demons was extremely easy for you, and earning crystal stones with Demon Race materials was not slow either.]

["In the blink of an eye, I'm middle-aged again. As for this realm..."]

[Your bigger problem now was that your realm was stuck at the Twelfth Layer of Spirit Gathering.]

["Breaking through a major realm isn't easy. Besides, Heart Methods are much harder than External Cultivation or Internal Cultivation."]

[The Soul Tempering Realm required cultivating the third of a Martial Artist's Three Energies—Essence Qi!]

[The Cultivation Methods used for this were known as Heart Methods.]

[Among the high-grade Cultivation Methods you had brought out of the Chixin Sect was a high-grade Heart Method, the Green Flame Heart Technique.]

[You had studied it for quite some time, yet you still had not reached Entry Level. It felt more difficult than every Cultivation Method you had learned before.]

[You did not know whether it was because its quality was too high, and you were considering whether to switch to a lower-quality one for the time being.]

["Middle-aged man stuck at your realm, do you need my help?"]

["You're full of bad intentions. Can you help me break through?"]

["Soul Tempering, Soul Tempering. Don't you think this is my area of expertise?"]

["Oh... that makes sense. What's the method?"]

["The Myriad Souls Infusion Formation!"]

[The Myriad Souls Banner explained it in detail.]

[It roughly required the following things.]

[First, at least ten thousand Soul Bodies had to be stored within the Myriad Souls Banner. It meant ordinary humans; if they were Demon Souls, then far fewer were needed—several hundred would suffice.]

[Second, find someone capable of setting formations and have them set up a Myriad Souls Infusion Formation. If they did not know what kind of formation it was, the Myriad Souls Banner could provide a complete solution.]

[Third, a great many crystal stones. Formations could not function without crystal stones, and the Myriad Souls Infusion Formation consumed an especially large amount.]

[Fourth, the Myriad Souls Banner's original body had to be at least a mid-grade Spiritual Artifact. At present, it was merely a tattered banner fit for grave-sweeping, so it definitely would not do.]

[As long as this formation began operating, if you could withstand the impact of a vast number of Soul Bodies entering your body in a short time, the gates to the Soul Tempering Realm would naturally open for you.]

["The main issue is that your Root Bone is poor, kid. Otherwise, you wouldn't need all this trouble. But it's also thanks to having me—without me, you would never reach the Soul Tempering Realm in this lifetime."]

[You ignored the Myriad Souls Banner's habit of putting you down to praise itself.]

["Crystal stones and Soul Bodies won't be difficult. If I slowly kill demons, I can save them up. Forging a new original body is also a problem that can be solved with 'money.' So, all I need to do is kidnap a Formation Master."]

[You were suddenly startled.]

[Oh no. The Myriad Souls Banner had led you astray!]

[It was "hire," not "kidnap."]

[So, what you still needed to do right now was kill demons, then use Demon Race materials to earn crystal stones.]

[As long as you had enough crystal stones, any problem could be solved.]