"If I threw him into my Billion Soul Banner, I doubt he'd last half a breath. Those vicious souls would tear him to pieces on the spot. He wouldn't even qualify to become a secondary soul."
At the words "Billion Soul Banner,"
the hunchbacked elder kneeling below bowed his head even lower, his body trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.
Ancestor Duntian waved his hand, as if shooing away a fly.
"Forget it. He's too worthless to eat, but too good to throw away."
"Take him down and toss him into your Hundred Thousand Soul Banner to test the waters."
The Ancestor gave the order indifferently.
"If he can last three days in there without being devoured by the other vengeful souls, then I'll grudgingly let him stay as a low-ranking Main Soul."
"If he can't, then he was simply born unlucky. Let him turn into soul energy and nourish the banner."
The hunchbacked elder was as relieved as if he'd been pardoned. He hurriedly knocked his head hard against the ground.
"I obey the Ancestor's decree!"
With that, he scrambled to his feet, grabbed Gui Mei by the collar, and hurried out of the oppressive cavern.
Only when he reached the Bone Plaza outside did the hunchbacked elder finally let out a long breath.
He wiped the cold sweat from the corpse-like blotches on his face, then turned to look at Gui Mei dangling from his hand.
"Lucky for you, kid. The Ancestor didn't think you were worth keeping."
The hunchbacked elder grinned, baring a mouthful of yellow teeth. His smile was sinister.
"Still, being tossed into my Hundred Thousand Soul Banner won't feel much better than dying."
As he spoke, he drew a small black triangular flag from the wide sleeve of his black robe.
The banner looked somewhat tattered, and its surface was embroidered with numerous twisted human faces in dark red thread.
The hunchbacked elder pinched the flagstaff and gave it a slight shake toward Gui Mei.
"Absorb!"
A gust of sinister wind, thick with the stench of blood, rose from the ground.
Gui Mei didn't even have a chance to struggle. His vision went black, and his entire body was instantly sucked into the black banner.
As Gui Mei was sucked into the Soul Banner, the view on the Sky Screen shifted along with him.
For the first time, the people of Douluo Continent saw the inner world of a Cultivation World magical treasure clearly, through a truly immersive, first-person perspective.
It was a gray space that made their scalps crawl.
There was no sky and no ground, only roiling gray mist in every direction.
Countless wraithlike figures floated densely within the mist.
They were men and women, old and young, and even all manner of strange spirit beasts.
They had no physical bodies, only souls.
Every soul had scarlet eyes, and faces twisted with agony and madness.
The only rule in this space was to devour.
On the screen, a soul somewhat larger than the others opened its gaping maw and bit down on the arm of a smaller soul beside it.
The smaller soul let out a piercing scream and struggled desperately, but the larger one still tore a piece of its spirit body away and chewed it up.
Before the larger soul could even digest its meal, seven or eight even more vicious remnants suddenly pounced on it from behind. They pinned it in midair and tore it to pieces in an instant.
Biting, screaming, devouring—without end.
This was a true Asura hell.
The moment Gui Mei, bearing the aura of a living person, fell into this gray space,
the souls fighting around him abruptly came to a halt.
Thousands upon thousands of scarlet eyes turned in unison, staring fixedly at Gui Mei, the "new prey."
To these vengeful souls, hungry for who knew how many years, the scent of a fresh spirit body was like a spring to a traveler lost in the desert.
"Raaah!"
No one knew which vengeful soul let out the first piercing screech.
The next second, the gray mist in every direction burst open like boiling water.
Hundreds upon hundreds of hideous evil spirits lunged at Gui Mei, baring their claws and fangs.
Outside the Sky Screen.
On Shrek Academy's dirt field, many students squeezed their eyes shut, trembling all over with fear.
Ning Rongrong clutched Zhu Queqing's arm so tightly that her nails dug into the flesh.
"That's horrifying... This is a million times worse than killing him outright."
Ning Rongrong spoke with a sob in her voice.
"To be eaten alive, bit by bit, by those evil spirits—and then, even after dying, to become one of them, trapped in that banner forever to fight and devour each other."
Tang San's face had gone pale as well. He clenched his teeth tightly.
They had never even heard of a magical treasure that directly targeted the soul on Douluo Continent.
Inside Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong felt her scalp prickle again and again.
As she watched the vengeful souls swarm toward him on the screen, a profound sense of helplessness rose in her heart.
This was only the Hundred Thousand Soul Banner in the hands of an ordinary elder of the Soul Refining Sect.
If this were the sect's treasured weapon in Ancestor Duntian's hands, the one that sealed a billion living souls, how utterly hopeless would the scene inside it be?
Inside the Soul Banner.
As the evil spirits were about to pounce on him,
Gui Mei's instinct to survive was fully roused.
Though he had lost his Soul Power, his instinct to merge with the shadows remained.
"Evade!"
He screamed desperately in his mind.
His body melted in an instant, becoming an exceedingly faint wisp of shadow that pressed itself into the roiling gray mist along the bottom of the space.
The dozens of vengeful souls in the lead lunged at empty air, crashed into one another, and began tearing into each other.
But there were simply too many evil spirits inside this Soul Banner.
Although Gui Mei had hidden in the shadows,
the evil spirits that hadn't gotten a taste of fresh spirit flesh went mad. They began clawing wildly through the gray mist, searching every inch of it.
Hidden in the shadows, Gui Mei didn't dare move a muscle.
He could clearly feel several mouths full of sharp teeth pass within a hair's breadth of his scalp as the evil spirits bit at the air.
The terror and trembling deep in his soul made every second feel longer than a century.
He had to survive in here for three whole days!
If he showed even the slightest weakness during those three days, the hundred thousand evil spirits would tear him to pieces on the spot.
Time passed little by little.
Gui Mei moved cautiously through the shadows, doing his best to avoid areas teeming with evil spirits.
Just as he thought he might be able to escape danger for the time being this way,
the gray mist ahead of him suddenly began to part, slowly drifting to either side.
The ordinary vengeful souls that had been fighting frantically scattered in terror, wailing as though they'd encountered a fearsome natural predator.
Hidden in the shadows, Gui Mei's heart gave a sudden jolt.
He raised his head and peered ahead through a gap in the mist.
A huge black shadow, several times larger than an ordinary vengeful soul, was drifting slowly out of the depths of the mist.
It had two massive heads, and dense baleful energy coiled around its four thick arms.
It was undoubtedly one of the powerful Main Souls that had survived countless rounds of devouring inside this Hundred Thousand Soul Banner!
The Double-Headed Main Soul drifted over the place where Gui Mei was hiding and stopped.
The four dark golden eyes on its two heads slowly opened in the gray mist.
Its gaze pierced through the disguise of the shadows and stared straight at Gui Mei below.
One of its heads split into a wide grin, revealing a greedy smile.
The scene on the Sky Screen grew dark and oppressive.
Inside the gray space of the Soul Banner, the enormous Double-Headed Main Soul stared mockingly at Gui Mei, hidden in the shadows.
One of its heads, bristling with fangs, cracked open its jaws and revealed a chilling smile.
"Hiss!"
The Double-Headed Main Soul suddenly opened its jaws. A force of suction, so immense that it was impossible to resist, locked onto the patch of shadow where Gui Mei was hiding.
The gray mist around it was ripped to shreds by the force, forming a whirlwind that poured straight into the gaping abyss of its mouth.
Hidden in the shadows, Gui Mei felt like a leaf in a hurricane, liable to be torn apart at any moment.
He knew all too well what would happen if he were sucked in.
He had only watched other vengeful souls suffer the agony of having their souls chewed apart, and even that had made him feel worse than dead.
I can't die here...
His instinct to survive screamed wildly in Gui Mei's mind.
He clenched his teeth and squeezed every last trace of Shadow Spiritual Energy from his body.
Just as his body was about to be dragged out of the shadows,
Gui Mei made an incredibly decisive choice.
He abruptly abandoned a large chunk of the shadow energy in his left arm, turning it into a false decoy that flew toward the Double-Headed Main Soul's gaping maw with the pull of the suction.
His real body used the recoil from sacrificing an arm to shoot like a slippery loach into a deeper gap in the gray mist.
"Crack!"
The Double-Headed Main Soul bit down on the shadow decoy and chewed several times.
When it realized it was only a hollow mass of mist, it roared furiously, its two heads looking around in every direction as it began searching wildly.
Gui Mei didn't dare stop.
Enduring the agony of his soul being torn apart, he struggled through the Soul Banner's labyrinthine folds of space.
He saw too many scenes that turned his stomach.
A half-bodied old man gnawed on the wraithlike figure of a child; the souls of mangled beasts devoured one another.
There was nowhere safe here. Every inch of space was filled with madness and hunger.
He didn't know how long he fled. Only when the Double-Headed Main Soul's roars had faded completely did Gui Mei dare to stop.
He huddled in a dead end formed where two masses of gray mist converged, gasping for breath.
Although he had no physical body, the exhaustion struck directly at the depths of his soul.
He lowered his head and looked at his body.
His once solid black form had grown somewhat transparent.
He had lost the energy in one arm, and his vitality was being drained without pause inside this magical treasure's space.
Gui Mei could feel that unless he replenished it, he would completely dissipate in half an hour at most, turning into a wisp of nourishment for this Soul Banner.
"Hungry..."
A hunger unlike anything he had ever felt suddenly welled up from the depths of his soul.
It wasn't the hunger of an ordinary person with an empty stomach.
It was an intense craving for the very essence of a soul.
He felt every inch of his consciousness crying out, wanting to devour something to fill the emptiness.
Just then,
a faint gray glow drifted slowly out of the mist ahead.
It was an incomplete soul.
From the looks of it, it had been an ordinary low-level cultivator in life. Someone had bitten off its lower half in the earlier fight, and now only half of its dazed spirit body remained, drifting aimlessly with the mist.
The remnant soul drifted near the dead end where Gui Mei was hiding. It seemed to sense danger and tried to turn and flee.
A ghostly green light suddenly flared in Gui Mei's empty eyes.
He swallowed a mouthful of nonexistent saliva.
His hands reached forward of their own accord.
But when he saw the remnant soul's face, distorted yet still bearing human features, he stopped.
"No... I'm human..."
Gui Mei clutched his head in agony, desperately resisting the primitive impulse in his mind.
"I'm an elder of Spirit Hall. I'm a Titled Douluo..."
"How can I eat someone's soul like a beast!"
The last remnant of his humanity struggled desperately in this dark corner.
But the laws of the Soul Banner were merciless.
The rule here was to devour. If you didn't eat others, this space would erase you.
The transparency of Gui Mei's body grew worse, and his consciousness began to blur.
The incomplete soul seemed to realize that Gui Mei was weak. Instead of fleeing, it cautiously approached, opening its toothless mouth to try to bite a piece off him.
It sank its teeth into Gui Mei's shoulder.
Although the other soul was weak, the pain of having his spirit torn apart shattered Gui Mei's last shred of reason.
"Get away!"
Gui Mei let out a hoarse growl.
He suddenly reached out with his remaining right hand and grabbed the remnant soul by the throat.
The remnant soul let out a feeble scream, its hands clawing wildly at Gui Mei's arm.
Gui Mei looked at the struggling face in his hand. Tears slipped uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes, dissolving into flecks of black light in the mist.
As he wept, he opened his mouth.
Then he sank his teeth into the remnant soul's head.
Douluo Continent.
At that moment, every viewer watching the Sky Screen felt their scalps crawl, their stomachs churning uncontrollably.
On the grounds of Shrek Academy.
Xiao Wu's face was deathly pale. She turned away and doubled over Tang San's shoulder, gagging.
Oscar and the others covered their mouths, not daring to look at the screen again.
"Madness. They've all gone mad..."
Dai Mubai's legs trembled, his voice shaking.
Tang San held Xiao Wu tightly, but his gaze remained fixed on the light screen.
He watched Gui Mei weep as he tore into the remnant soul like a beast.
Tang San felt no mockery, only a bottomless sorrow and dread.
"So this is the law of that world."
Tang San's voice was low, as if he were muttering to himself, yet also speaking for everyone to hear.
"Faced with life and death, a person's principles are as thin as a sheet of paper."
"What's frightening about that place called the Soul Refining Sect isn't that they can kill people."
"It's that they can turn you, while you're still alive, into a monster so disgusting that even you can't stand yourself."
Spirit City, Pope Palace.