After the Divine Art spirituality was collected, the countless golden threads descending from the sky swiftly collapsed. In the blink of an eye, they turned into golden motes of light, scattering into nothingness like fireworks.
The Command Flag that had absorbed the spirituality transformed into a gray streak of light in the sky and landed atop a snow-covered mountain peak north of the Ice Mountain Archipelago. A middle-aged man clad in gray-white fitted leather armor stood at the summit, and the Command Flag landed steadily in his hand.
This was Lian Ji of the Taiyin Sect, a Third Realm Artifact Cultivator. Since the Taiyin Sect's orthodox Third Realm cultivators were all slumbering, he had naturally become the leader of the sect's Third Realm cultivators. Most of the time, he traveled the world in the Taiyin Sect's stead.
After taking the Command Flag, he produced a furnace resembling those used by the Shangdan Sect for alchemy and placed it on the snow before him. He activated the refining array within it. When pure Netherworld Energy formed inside the furnace, the snow on the ground rapidly melted, and before long, the sound of babbling water arose.
Lian Ji sensed the spirituality collected within the Command Flag, and a trace of regret appeared on his face. He then tossed the spiritual energy into the furnace, using the Netherworld array inside to neutralize the spirituality within the Command Flag.
The spirituality collected within the Command Flag carried the consciousness of the Divine Art casters and was filled with hostility toward them. It could not be absorbed or used. Not only was it impossible to absorb, but it could also affect a cultivator's soul or Primordial Spirit, infinitely magnifying the negative emotions in their consciousness—unless one could devoutly believe in it.
When the spirituality within