"Retract!"
At Chen Ye's command, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner fell into his hand.
A gentle shake of the long banner brought the sound of Ku'e's screams from within.
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner rang with the wails of countless ghosts, mingled with shrill howls. Chen Ye couldn't tell who was suffering.
On the other Ten Thousand Soul Banner, Mo Ci's face twisted into streaks of ink, warning Chen Ye: "If you let these wronged souls take their revenge, they won't be as vicious anymore."
Chen Ye glanced at the fluttering white banner and laughed. "Master, when did you learn to do that?"
Before, Mo Ci had needed to wrap the charcoal pencil in the white banner to write. Now he could make words appear directly.
"I just figured it out. Don't interrupt. This Ten Thousand Soul Banner is a superb magic treasure for you. If you let these wronged souls fulfill their wishes and disperse on their own, you'll ruin half its power."
Chen Ye reassured him. "Master, don't worry. I'll keep the fiend alive until I've squeezed everything he knows out of him. As for the other wronged souls, you can't expect me to hold them back and stop them from taking revenge, can you?"
"Why not? You didn't kill them. That's not how the Ten Thousand Soul Banner works. You're supposed to torment them mercilessly, cultivating their murderous rage. When you release them, you use spells to mislead them, so they see everyone as an enemy. That's how you get the might of ten thousand ghosts devouring the living. If you let them torment that monk, their rage will dissipate in no time."
Mo Ci shook with fury, and the words he formed grew clawed and savage.
The Ten Thousand Soul Banner might be a common item, but this one was a fine specimen. Both its materials and crafting technique were top-notch. It would be a terrible waste if Chen Ye's soft-heartedness ruined most of its power.
Chen Ye didn't care. He laughed. "Master, your math doesn't add up. I'd be better off trading this Ten Thousand Soul Banner with Miss Su for a few more Sword Talismans."
"Do you really think those Sword Talismans are ordinary spirit talismans? Talismans with that kind of power must be life-saving treasures given to Su Chunyi by her sect elders. There's no way that young girl could make them herself."
Mo Ci's words surprised Chen Ye. He had cultivated for only a short time and his cultivation was weak; when it came to appraising treasures, he really couldn't compare with Mo Ci, an old devil who'd lived for centuries.
If that was true, then he owed her a huge debt of gratitude. Chen Ye felt a little embarrassed.
But a debt of gratitude wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Friendship meant giving and taking, and Chen Ye had already promised Su Chunyi he'd investigate the trouble with the virgin boys and girls. The deeper this bond ran, the better.
Chen Ye said to Mo Ci, "The worst thing you can do in life is sit on the fence, swaying this way and that. Master, if you help someone, see it through to the end. If we're going to work with Miss Su, we shouldn't let our fiendish nature show halfway through."
There were no new words on the white banner for a long while.
Mo Ci knew Chen Ye had a point. Looking back over his life, he'd made this mistake more than once. When doing evil, he hadn't been ruthless enough, leaving the roots behind when he should've pulled them out. When doing good, he'd been greedy, always looking for a way to take advantage.
After several centuries, he'd barely made it to the Tongxuan Realm. And in all his life, he hadn't made a single friend he could talk to.
Chen Ye had more talent than Mo Ci, and his will was firmer. He was sure to go farther than Mo Ci ever had.
"Forget it. You decide."
The white banner fell silent, and no more words appeared.
Chen Ye didn't disturb him. He went on with his own work. First, he had to erase all traces of the battle, in case Su Chunyi returned and noticed Mo Ci's presence.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Chen Ye took stock of his spoils.
He put away all the pills. Most were harmful, but two bottles contained pills for cultivation and healing that would soon come in handy.
He found the Ksitigarbha Vow Sutra that had been blasted away. It had taken the full force of that Vajra Pestle strike and remained completely unharmed. What a pity that he couldn't refine this treasure. If he could turn it into a protective magic treasure, it would be a hundred times more powerful than the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.
There was also the golden Buddha that had been cleaved apart earlier. It had turned into a gray-black metal, and he had no idea what it was made of. It might prove useful, so he set it aside for now.
If he could dig out everything the fiend knew, this adventure would be an enormous windfall.
Chen Ye muttered to himself, "A horse won't get fat without night grass, and a man won't get rich without a windfall. No wonder everyone wants to be a fiend. Killing people and taking their treasures is so profitable. If I gathered all this on my own, wouldn't it take me a hundred years?"
Humming a cheerful tune from his hometown, Chen Ye started digging again, preparing to bury the remains.
He slowly used the Transport Technique as before, digging a pit, placing the remains inside, and covering them with earth.
Chen Ye wasn't in a hurry. Now that his qi sea had condensed, meditation wasn't much use, and his spiritual energy flowed without end. A minor spell like this was no hardship.
"I might as well use this to practice my spells."
Muttering to himself, Chen Ye dug from sunrise until noon. Though he was drenched in sweat, he'd only buried half the bodies.
Most of the day passed. Just as Chen Ye was working up a sweat, a streak of sword light suddenly descended from the sky. It was Su Chunyi.
Chen Ye was bent over his digging, and his ears still hadn't healed. He didn't hear the sound of the Sword Qi slicing through the air.
Only when Su Chunyi came up to him did Chen Ye look up in surprise. "Miss Su? Why are you back so soon?"
Su Chunyi had spent several days hunting down Ku'e the last time. Ku'e's soul had only just entered the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, so how had she returned so quickly?
Su Chunyi explained, "I found the fiend, but I only managed to destroy his body. His soul escaped. I was worried you might be in danger, so I hurried back. But it seems I was still too late."
Su Chunyi kept her explanation brief, but her spiritual energy was nearly depleted. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.
The sword strike that killed Ku'e had taken everything she had. Her spiritual energy had already been eighty percent depleted, and when she realized Ku'e's soul had escaped, she thought of all the life-saving methods of the demonic sects—and of the purpose of that pit of corpses.
Worried about Chen Ye, Su Chunyi had rushed back on her sword without taking time to recover.
Chen Ye pointed to his ears and explained, "Miss Su, my eardrums are injured, so I can't hear very well."
Hearing this, Su Chunyi noticed the traces of blood by Chen Ye's ears. She immediately took out a medicine bottle, poured out a pale-green pill, and handed it to him.
Chen Ye didn't even ask what it was. He popped it straight into his mouth.
The unknown pill melted as soon as it entered his mouth, turning into countless wisps of clear energy that flowed through his limbs and bones.
At that moment, Su Chunyi took hold of Chen Ye's hand.
The girl's hand wasn't soft and boneless. Instead, it was surprisingly strong, her long fingers clamped around Chen Ye's hand as though she feared he might pull away.
Chen Ye had just begun to look puzzled when a pure stream of spiritual energy flowed from Su Chunyi's palm. His palm warmed, and the energy mingled with the power of the pill before surging toward his ears.
Chen Ye felt a slight itch in his ears. In just a moment, the buzzing vanished, and his ruptured eardrums were healed with surprising ease.
With Chen Ye's own methods, he would've needed at least half a month to recover. The pills from a great sect really were impressive. No, it wasn't only the pills. Su Chunyi had also guided the spiritual energy with such precision that it drew out the medicine's full healing power and focused it on Chen Ye's ears.
Without Su Chunyi's help, it would've taken another hour or two to fully heal his ears.
Chen Ye let go of Su Chunyi's hand and said gratefully, "Thank you."
Su Chunyi smiled. "It was nothing. Don't mention it." But after saying this, she looked toward the eerie Ten Thousand Soul Banner beside them, then said to Chen Ye, "You must have faced many dangers. Could you explain what happened to the fiend and what secrets lie in this pit?"
Chen Ye felt no ripples in his heart.
If he'd listened to Mo Ci earlier and treated the Ten Thousand Soul Banner as his own, tormenting the resentful souls inside, there'd have been no way to clear his name now.
But that wasn't what he'd done. Chen Ye picked up the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and said confidently to Su Chunyi, "Miss Su, I only know that the fiend possessed a new body and was reborn. As for the evil he committed before, why don't we ask the wronged souls who suffered at his hands?"
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