The Subsequent Stages of the Technique

The Law Transmission Hall was an exceptionally grand structure.

Its defenses did not seem as tight as he had imagined. Only a few sect disciples were stationed at the entrance to inspect visitors.

They did not question Zheng Yi much upon his arrival.

They merely had him present his Inner Sect Token.

One sect disciple tapped his own token against Zheng Yi's, transmitting some special information. Once the handover was complete, he allowed Zheng Yi to enter directly.

The entire Law Transmission Hall appeared open and accessible, yet only Zheng Yi himself knew otherwise.

Though there seemed to be little scrutiny, as he approached the Law Transmission Hall, his Lifebound Artifact, the Soul Devouring Banner, gave a slight tremble.

It elevated Zheng Yi's senses and spiritual awareness by several levels. In an instant, he felt a cold wind blow from his spine to his ribs.

He could vaguely sense that several auras had locked onto his body at once.

Should he make even the slightest unusual move, they would be enough to tear him to pieces.

Those auras were extremely well concealed. Once he had presented his Inner Sect Token as required and the handover was completed, the moment the guard let him pass, they vanished completely.

Clearly, while the Law Transmission Hall looked like an ordinary hall with few guards, it was loose on the outside and tight within.

Extraordinary power lay hidden inside.

Even though the Soul Devouring Sect and the Hundred Beasts Sect were at war, with many upper-echelon combatants deployed, the Law Transmission Hall's defenses had not slackened in the slightest. They might even have been strengthened.

Yet Zheng Yi understood inwardly.

This was what made sense.

After all, a place like the Law Transmission Hall was unlike any other. It concerned the sect's inheritance and was no trivial matter. Arrangements on this level were only natural.

If people had truly been allowed to come and go as they pleased, entering and leaving at will,

Zheng Yi would instead have wondered whether this Soul Devouring Sect was a fake.

Moreover, this kind of defensive force, deeply rooted and forever concealed in the shadows, was the most terrifying.

Like a venomous snake hidden in a cold, gloomy corner, anyone who underestimated the shallow waters of the Soul Devouring Sect would likely learn the very next moment what it meant for heaven and earth to collapse, what it meant for thunderous force to descend.

If not for the warning from his Lifebound Artifact, the Soul Devouring Banner, Zheng Yi would have been blind despite having his eyes open. He would never have known of the hidden secrets and arrangements within.

One should not underestimate the Soul Devouring Banner within him.

Although it was merely a standardized product mass-produced by the Soul Devouring Sect for ordinary Outer Sect Disciples, not a single function it ought to have was missing.

Most importantly, Zheng Yi had expended tremendous effort to refine a total of forty-nine Netherworld Soldier Vengeful Spirits from the Apocalyptic World into it!

Among them was even a Blood Fiend-grade Red-Clothed Vengeful Spirit, which Zheng Yi had refined into the Soul Devouring Banner's primary soul.

If it had been refined using the Living Souls of ordinary people, the Netherworld Soldier Vengeful Spirits in this basic Soul Devouring Banner would have required at least four or five hundred lives.

Even if he slew hostile cultivators, such a Soul Devouring Banner would still require the Divine Souls of more than fifty cultivators of the same realm.

For an ordinary low-level cultivator, this was not merely difficult—it was likely impossible.

Not to mention that it concealed a Blood Fiend-grade Red-Clothed Vengeful Spirit as its primary soul.

The emergence of a Malevolent Ghost's quality was like a cultivator's Spirit Root: it depended upon the gifts of heaven.

It was not something that could be refined simply by capturing the Divine Souls of one or two cultivators.

Furthermore, Zheng Yi had already refined this Soul Devouring Banner into his Lifebound Artifact.

It could be said that their hearts were in perfect accord, their Divine Souls linked.

Only then could he use the artifact's power to elevate his own sensory abilities and detect a few traces of the Law Transmission Hall's hidden arrangements.

Of course, though his heart was shaken, Zheng Yi appeared utterly unaware on the surface.

Without the slightest abnormality or reaction, he walked inside with a calm expression.

He was an old hand at acting. No one understood this sort of thing better than he did.

With his meager cultivation of merely Qi Refining Stage Four, displaying powerful perception or any other unusual traits within this Devil Dao Sect would be no different from painting a target on himself. It would bring him nothing but harm.

This three-story building did not look large from the outside, yet within it was another world entirely, immensely vast.

According to the guidance of the senior brother who had guarded the entrance, this Law Transmission Hall was the sect's paramount location, its core Inheritance Land.

It housed all manner of cultivation techniques, secret arts, and Divine Soul methods collected by the Soul Devouring Sect over nearly three to four hundred years since its founding.

Their sources varied. Some had been passed down by the founding patriarch, while others had been collected by successive sect leaders. Many disciples had also contributed techniques in exchange for the sect's Contribution Points.

Another portion had been seized from other sects during sect wars. This included not only other Devil Dao Sects, but also various cultivation manuals plundered from Righteous Path cultivation sects during wars between righteousness and devilry.

The cultivation techniques passed down by the Righteous Path were profound and mysterious, calm and balanced, with deep, stable foundations. Their flaw was that cultivation progressed relatively slowly, and laying the foundation and nurturing one's essence took a long time.

The techniques of devil sects, meanwhile, emphasized speed. Cultivation advanced extremely quickly, and they excelled in the strange and uncanny.

Yet their foundations were shallow, making it easy to suffer cultivation deviation, lose one's way, or even fall directly into the wicked path.

The two kinds of techniques each had their own advantages and strengths. It was impossible to say which was the true road leading to the heavens.

Over the countless millennia of the Da Yi Immortal Domain's long history, there had been immortal great powers capable of shaping creation and overturning rivers and seas. There had likewise been devil cultivator titans who covered the sky with one hand, their Demonic Flame enduring through the ages.

Both paths were roads leading to the heavens. It depended only on how one chose, and which path suited one better.

But cultivating devil dao techniques in a Righteous Sect was a taboo among taboos.

At best, one's Immortal Foundation would be abolished; at worst, one would be executed on the spot. The immortal laws were harsh, and this was no laughing matter.

Within a Devil Cultivation Sect, however, there were no such restrictions.

Devil Dao disciples were unruly by nature, acting as they pleased, devouring heaven and earth to cultivate themselves.

If even their cultivation techniques were severely restricted, it would go against the Devil Dao's true nature. Who would still choose to cultivate the devil path?

Thus, it was not particularly strange for Devil Dao disciples to occasionally know one or two supreme arts of the Righteous Path.

They could only be considered broadly knowledgeable, however, not truly proficient.

At their core, they still relied primarily on the ever-shifting, sinister techniques of the Devil Dao!

After entering the Law Transmission Hall, Zheng Yi did not immediately search for a cultivation technique. Instead, he casually browsed the comprehensive catalogues of techniques, secret arts, and stored manuals on the first floor.

After wandering about and stopping here and there for several hours, he finally selected the follow-up portions of the Black Fiend Technique that he urgently needed, covering cultivation from the Qi Refining Stage through the Foundation Establishment Realm.

As an Inner Sect Disciple, he was permitted to choose three techniques from the sect's Law Transmission Hall.

The second manual he chose was not a cultivation technique, but the subsequent refining method for the Soul Devouring Banner.

Because the Vengeful Spirits produced in the Apocalyptic World were exceptionally high in both quantity and quality, the Soul Devouring Banner granted by the sect to Outer Sect Disciples had, through Zheng Yi's extraordinary performance, already reached the limit of what it could bear in a short time.

Thanks to reader 160722155335237 for the reward, and Shuyu Fenfei for the monthly vote.