The Mysteriously Vanished Souls
Seeing that many Rogue Cultivators had gone to hunt down Su Yi, Jing Lu was filled with resentment and helplessness. He turned to stare at Su Jingtong and gritted his teeth.
"A brilliant plan!"
"However, this can only solve the immediate crisis; the Su Clan cannot protect this Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine."
Su Jingtong glanced at Jing Lu, but did not refute her. He then turned to the remaining four Su Clan cultivators and said...
"Walk!"
After saying that, he mounted his sword and fled in the direction of the Rogue Cultivators.
The four of them also traveled on swords.
Jing Lu knew she was no match for the five men and dared not stop them, so she could only watch helplessly as Su Jingtong and the other four fled.
Once Su Jingtong and his group of five left, the entire Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine became an undefended area.
Jing Lu vented his anger on the miners in the mining area.
Five miles south of the courtyard, there is a mountain valley, in which stand tens of thousands of low shacks.
The shacks were crammed together in a chaotic mess, with sewage flowing everywhere, garbage scattered all over the place, and a terrible stench, resembling a giant garbage dump.
It was the dead of night, and the miners were all sleeping in their shacks.
But the fierce battle between the two sides had already awakened them.
They emerged from their shacks and witnessed the earth-shaking tremors caused by the fierce battle between the two sides. Some miners fled in panic, while others remained numb and listless, like soulless shells, neither running away nor hiding, as if they were walking corpses. For them, death might be a relief.
These mine slaves were all ordinary people enslaved by the Su Clan, and they were powerless to resist Jing Lu's attack.
The demon general stormed into the shacks where the miners lived and began to kill indiscriminately.
The ghostly aura swept outwards like ferocious, roaring dragons, and wherever it passed, the miners fell in droves like straw cut by a sickle.
When a mortal dies, their soul automatically leaves the body.
The ghost general used both hands to capture souls one by one, stuffing them into their mouths as if they were eating delicious food, feasting with great relish.
There are hundreds of thousands of miners in the entire mining area. It is easy for the demon general to kill people, but the number of souls that it actually devours is not many, only a few thousand.
Under normal circumstances, after a person dies, their soul automatically dissipates from the world and goes to some unknown place.
But Jing Lu, being a ghost cultivator, would never let go of the soul he had obtained.
He stood in mid-air, manipulating a pitch-black Ghost Banner. The Ghost Banner followed behind the ghost general, sweeping across the corpses of the mine slaves and forcibly capturing their souls.
What's going on?
Jing Lu's expression suddenly became one of surprise and uncertainty.
That black Ghost Banner was a soul-binding banner. Although it was only a high-grade magic Law Artifact, capturing the souls of these mortals should be a piece of cake.
For some unknown reason, the souls of most of the corpses mysteriously disappeared, their whereabouts unknown.
At this moment, the Rogue Cultivators who had been chasing Su Yi had succeeded.
Su Yi was completely powerless to fight back against the pursuit of more than a dozen cultivators of the same realm.
The Rogue Cultivators obtained Su Yi's storage ring and found that it contained only 10,000 Crimson Blood Spirit Crystals, but not a single Crimson Blood Crystal Marrow.
Enraged, they smashed Su Yi's corpse into a pile of minced meat, and her soul was also scattered by the scholar's Soul-Devouring Awl.
Although the windfall was not obtained, the planned 10,000 Crimson Blood Spirit Crystals were successfully acquired.
These Rogue Cultivators, carrying their storage rings, began their return to the mining area.
All of this was thoroughly investigated by Song Wen, who was hiding in the Cave.
The Su Clan's Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine was breached, resulting in significant losses and the deaths of three Foundation Establishment cultivators. This was good news for Song Wen.
Song Wen was happy to see anything that could weaken the Su Clan's power.
But Song Wen didn't participate in the whole process, and he felt like he had made a wasted trip.
It is located twenty miles from the Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine.
At the foot of a high mountain.
Su Jingtong and the other four members of the Su Clan were concealing their presence and hiding here.
"Third Elder, are we just going to let those Heretical Demons and Outer Dao plunder the crystal mines and destroy our Su Clan's assets? Those are our Su Clan's most important assets!"
"Shouldn't we ask our Lineage for help and wipe out these heinous Bandit Cultivators?"
Su Jingtong shook his head.
"Our ancestor is currently unable to intervene, and the only cultivators the Lineage can send are Foundation Establishment cultivators. By the time they arrive, those Bandit Cultivators will have already fled."
"Are we just going to let those Heretical Demons and Outer Dao go?" the Su Clan cultivator asked unwillingly.
A cruel smile appeared on Su Jingtong's lips.
"It's not that easy! Anyone who offends the Su Clan will naturally pay a heavy price."
"Before I left, I broke the seal on the underground Ghost King of the mining area."
The other four people's expressions changed drastically upon hearing this.
"Third Elder, that was the Ghost King the Ancestor managed to seal away with all his might thirty years ago."
"With the emergence of the Ghost King, the entire mining area may be destroyed."
"Those Rogue Cultivators will leave immediately after looting. We just need to capture more mine slaves, and the mining area can be rebuilt."
"With the mining area destroyed, the difficulty of reconstruction has increased several times over."
Su Jingtong remained calm.
Do you know why our ancestor went to such lengths to seal the Ghost King instead of killing him?
"Isn't it true, as the rumors say, that our ancestor wasn't strong enough to kill the Ghost King, which is why he sealed him away?" a member of the Su Lineage asked, looking bewildered.
Su Jingtong sneered.
"Of course not. If we can capture the Ghost King alive and seal him away, why can't we kill him? A mere Ghost King isn't some immortal being."
"Back then, our ancestor Wang Da. The Ghost King was no match for him, resulting in severe damage to his Ghost King, even shattering his soul core. The Ghost King's cultivation was reduced to less than one-hundredth."
"The ancestor captured it and sealed it deep underground in the Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine, and set up a Ghost Dao Formation. The purpose was to allow it to absorb the resentment emanating from the miners at all times, as well as devour the souls of the dead miners, to help the Ghost King repair his soul and rebuild his soul core."
"Once the Ghost King recovers his strength and we subdue him, our Su Clan will gain another third-tier combatant."
"But for some reason, perhaps because the Ghost King damaged its Foundation Wang Dang, or perhaps because the Ancestor was not proficient in the art of controlling ghosts, a full thirty years have passed, and this Ghost King has only recovered its soul body. The shattered soul core has never been repaired. It can only be considered a pseudo-third-tier Ghost King."
The so-called Soul Core is similar to the Golden Core of Human Race cultivators, the Demon Core of Demon Race, and the Corpse Core of zombies; it is something that only a third-tier Ghost King can condense.
The four Su Clan cultivators were all shocked upon hearing this, as it was completely different from what they had heard before.
"Even a pseudo-Tier 3 Ghost King is enough to turn the mining area upside down," one person said worriedly.
Su Jingtong said confidently.
"Rest assured, our ancestor is a man of perfect foresight. How could he be unprepared? He devised a countermeasure thirty years ago."
As he spoke, a small black Squad Commander appeared in Su Jingtong's hand.
"This banner is both the core of the sealing formation and a Ghost Banner. As long as we lure the Ghost King into the formation, and then you cooperate with me to activate the formation, we can capture him into the Ghost Banner."
"This ghost has been sealed underground for many years, and has been absorbing resentment for a long time. When it breaks free of the seal, its resentment will surely be overwhelming. We can use these Bandit Cultivator a sacrifice to eliminate its resentment."
"Once the resentment on the Ghost King dissipates, we can reap the benefits."