Yin Demon Seal Script

The candidates for this assignment could have been either strong or weak. With Zheng Yi having only just entered the Qi Refining Middle Stage, he seemed somewhat too weak to guard a Black Iron Essence Mine.

But this mine was nearly depleted, and Black Iron Essence was an ordinary material. An ultra-small mine held only average value—something tasteless to eat, yet a pity to discard.

Yet the Black Iron Essence Mine could not be left completely unguarded. Though Qi Family, a Qi Refining family, would assist, the sect feared these minor families might steal what they were entrusted to guard. It also had to prevent Rogue Cultivators, swarming like locusts, from setting their sights on it.

Black Iron Essence was, after all, an artifact-refining material. Though not precious, an Inner Sect Disciple was still assigned to guard it against those who might covet it.

Zheng Yi was immensely satisfied with this sect assignment.

Zheng Yi knew a little about Black Iron Essence. Refining and upgrading his Soul Devouring Banner required a great quantity of it. Aside from the portion to be handed over to the sect, he had already claimed all the excess Black Iron Essence for himself.

This material was among the most common artifact-refining materials. Black Iron Essence mines existed in many places. Unless it was an ultra-large mine that had spawned precious subsidiary veins, it was not particularly valued.

That was why it had fallen to Zheng Yi, an Inner Sect Disciple who had only just advanced. As for the rights to guard valuable mines, those were lucrative assignments. Even if one bribed the sect with a vast amount of Spirit Stones, they would never be given to Zheng Yi.

Given a ten-day deadline, Zheng Yi spent only three days in the sect before taking some basic supplies and heading straight for his post.

During those three days, he also gathered the materials needed to upgrade the Soul Devouring Banner.

Within the Sect Marketplace, Zheng Yi happily paid the Spirit Stones.

From a cultivator's stall, he purchased a nondescript piece of metal with a pitch-black surface.

But this piece of metal was not to be underestimated. It was the core spirit material for upgrading the Soul Devouring Banner.

Earth Soul Silver.

This dark metal was only the size of a fist, yet it contained an intensely frigid aura—an uncanny force formed through the accumulation of endless ages.

Before such metal could take shape, there had to have been a large-scale death of living beings in the area where it lay, after which it would form into Earth Soul Silver over a long span of years.

Zheng Yi did not dare refine the Soul Devouring Banner within the sect. Instead, he spent Spirit Stones to rent a Blazing Fire Chamber at an external Marketplace.

Such Blazing Fire Chambers drew upon earthfire. Their power was ordinary, far inferior to the spirit fire or Demonic Flame cultivated by cultivators, but they were enduring and suited for Qi Refining Stage cultivators refining artifacts.

Zheng Yi sat cross-legged in the Blazing Fire Chamber and released his Lifebound Artifact, the Soul Devouring Banner. Dense Yin Fiend Qi instantly filled the entire chamber, forming a world of its own.

He then wrapped that fist-sized lump of Earth Soul Silver in his divine sense and slowly sent it floating above the earthfire vent.

He immediately activated the formation, and the earthfire in the Blazing Fire Chamber blazed fiercely.

Zheng Yi focused intently. As the flames grew hotter and hotter, the hard Earth Soul Silver reached its melting point and gradually melted into a mass of viscous black liquid.

"Now!"

A sharp gleam flashed through Zheng Yi's eyes. With a pointed finger, the Earth Soul Silver, now transformed into viscous liquid, continuously twisted and changed shape under his control.

He muttered incantations beneath his breath. After the mysterious chant came a complicated spell. Once he had cast a succession of techniques, densely packed, peculiar talismans formed within the Earth Soul Silver liquid.

The talismans pressed against one another in enormous numbers, like ants.

At this moment, Zheng Yi had pushed his divine sense to its limit. His cultivation was still somewhat low, after all; otherwise, controlling such an art would never have been this difficult.

But the Black Fiend Technique, which had already advanced into Azure Profound Fiend, gave him the confidence to barely keep the entire process under control.

Gradually, the viscous black liquid was refined smaller and smaller, while more impurities were forged into nothingness.

Zheng Yi concentrated completely. This step was the most crucial.

He did not dare slacken in the slightest. His hands continuously shifted and intertwined, forming one complex hand seal after another, while he summoned the true body of his Lifebound Artifact, the Soul Devouring Banner.

A demonic banner with a dark, blackened surface radiated a sinister aura as it floated silently before him.

Zheng Yi scarcely dared breathe. With a pointed finger, the melted Earth Soul Silver liquid, under the control of an invisible force, moved like a spiritual serpent, spiraling around the demonic banner as invisible power and mysterious components seeped into it.

With another wave of his hand, the other artifact-refining materials he had prepared long ago appeared one after another before him.

He cast these materials into the earthfire as well, melting and refining them bit by bit. At the same time, under his control, they were absorbed by the Soul Devouring Banner.

Zheng Yi remained wholly focused, proceeding cautiously and carefully with the next step.

His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water. Under the manipulation of his divine sense, after absorbing numerous components, intricate patterns appeared on the surface of the Soul Devouring Banner's true body, spreading out like a spiderweb.

Then Zheng Yi bit his index finger and forced out his essence blood with spiritual power, using his own blood to draw complex talismans across the banner's cloth and Banner Pole.

These talismans were strange and sinister, brimming with the mysterious power to command souls and enslave ghosts.

This was the true core of upgrading the entire Soul Devouring Banner.

These runes and talismans were the Lifebound talismans of the Soul Devouring Banner. Without being a true inheritor among the Inner Sect Disciples of the Soul Devouring Sect, one would absolutely never be taught them.

Even after Zheng Yi became an Inner Sect Disciple, he had sworn a Heavenly Dao Oath that without the sect's permission, he would never pass on these secret talismans.

Otherwise, he would surely suffer heavenly punishment.

There were gods three feet above one's head. Whether demonic cultivators or righteous cultivators, none would joke about such matters.

They took such things extremely seriously, for once a Heavenly Dao Oath was sworn, it would certainly take effect.

At this point, Zheng Yi was no longer nervous.

Because he knew that so long as he successfully inscribed the ninety-nine Yin Demon Seal Scripts for binding souls and enslaving ghosts with his own essence blood, he would have completed the first foundational step of the Soul Devouring Banner.

But this step also consumed the most mental effort. Zheng Yi's face had turned pale, his divine sense was greatly depleted, his spiritual power was beginning to run dry, and the essence blood in his body was being rapidly consumed.

Even with his Qi Refining Middle Stage cultivation, he felt he could barely endure it.

But he knew that at this moment, there could not be the slightest carelessness. A thousand-mile embankment collapsed from an ant hole; one stray thought could lead to a difference of ten thousand miles.

Streams of blood-red light emerged. More and more Yin Demon Seal Scripts, like bizarre, twisted tadpoles, silently appeared across the surface of the Soul Devouring Banner.

The entire Soul Devouring Banner was shrouded in a hazy red glow, finally forming ninety-nine strange, twisted Ghost Talismans.

Zheng Yi let out a long breath.

Ninety-nine Yin Demon Seal Scripts for binding souls and enslaving ghosts.

Complete!

When the final Yin Demon Seal Script formed from his essence blood was finished, Zheng Yi withdrew his hand, his face pale. This spell had consumed a tremendous amount of his essence blood and had nearly drained him dry.

Then all the Yin Demon Seal Scripts converged, abruptly contracting into the demonic banner. The Soul Devouring Banner released endless black mist, and countless ghostly hands stretched out, writhing continuously as though they wanted to drag people into Avici Hell...