Xue Wuhen gave the Ten Thousand Souls Banner a gentle shake.
With that single shake, the sky above the entire Arena abruptly darkened.
It was not the darkness of storm clouds blotting out the sky. It was as though something had swallowed the light itself.
Sunlight entering the Arena fell into a bottomless black abyss, never to reflect or scatter again.
The entire Arena sank into darkness so thick no one could see a hand before their face. Only the lava-like cracks across Yuan Sha's body still glowed a dull red.
The edges of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in Xue Wuhen's hand also gleamed with a ghastly white phosphorescence.
"Parlor tricks."
Yuan Sha's voice came from the darkness, rough and utterly unconcerned.
"I spent thirty thousand years in the depths of chaos. The darkness there is deeper than this ragged banner of yours by more than you can imagine."
"You can't scare me."
Xue Wuhen did not reply.
He gently pushed the Ten Thousand Souls Banner forward.
The pitch-black cloth of the banner suddenly churned like a pot of boiling ink.
Countless black shadows broke free from its surface.
Every shadow was a soul that had been refined.
Men and women, young and old, birds and beasts, even unknown beings of other races.
Tens of thousands of densely packed spirits poured out, blotting out the sky as a dark tide of souls swept toward Yuan Sha.
As they lunged at him, the spirits let out shrill, piercing howls.
Their cries intertwined into a sonic attack that struck directly at the mind.
Mixed into the soul tide were dozens of more solid souls.
They were the remnants of powerful cultivators Xue Wuhen had refined, each retaining more than sixty percent of its strength in life.
Now in the form of