Soul Banner: Playing the Fisherman Who Reaped the Spoils

Elsewhere, in Cloudmist City, at the County Office.

"Qiu Yun, this journey is perilous. If I do not return, you must not avenge me."

Candlelight flickered. Ling Youdao's face was grave, hundreds of blood-red threads coiling around him, all pointing toward the Four Elements Mountains.

Behind an openwork screen, blood mist swirled above a pool of thick blood. At its center, Ling Qiuyun's slender body was submerged in a huge bronze cauldron, her bare shoulders white as snow. Twisted, horrifying blood-red script marked the creamy skin of her back.

Dozens of corpses lay piled beneath the cauldron, sunk to the bottom of the pool. All belonged to the Ling Household.

Their faces were contorted, their bodies riddled with dagger wounds. Every thrust had been fatal.

Blood replacement defied heaven's harmony. Its recipient was bound to bear the Karmic Bond, and the process was like being hacked by a thousand blades, an agony beyond endurance.

"Father, Qiu Yun will wait for you to come back."

The blood in the pool boiled. Ling Qiuyun felt as though flames were consuming her, every inch of skin touched by the blood-red markings spasming in pain.

Her lovely face turned deathly pale, then flushed scarlet. She bit her lips until they bled, yet still managed a gentle smile.

"I'll walk with you to the very end, Father."

Pity filled Ling Youdao's eyes. He gripped the Soul Banner, resolve hardening in his gaze, then rode a black wind straight toward the Four Elements Mountains.

Is this retribution?

The stench of blood filled Ling Qiuyun's nose. Tears brimmed in her willow-leaf eyes. She was like a white lotus steeped in mud, fragile enough to break.

Ever since her father had fallen to demonic ways, guilt had weighed on her heart. If not for her sickly body, the Ling Household and all the lives sacrificed to refine the Soul Banner would never have suffered this calamity.

Now the blood replacement's agony, like ten thousand ants gnawing at her heart, eased that guilt a little.

"I only hope this ruined body of mine can help my elder sister."

Ling Qiuyun brushed the blood pool with a pale hand and watched ripples spread across its surface, as though she could see Ling Moxue's reflection there.

In the Four Elements Mountains, Ling Youdao sped between towering peaks and ridges.

His sense of the blood essence mark flickered in and out, as if something imbued with spiritual energy concealed it. He quickened his pace, but his guard rose.

Cao Mengde had once used Witchcraft to lead him around in circles. The scoundrel might well be playing the same trick again.

"What a cunning bastard."

Ling Youdao cursed under his breath and swallowed a Breath Concealment Pill. His vicious Killing Intent vanished without a trace.

He tightened his grip on the Soul Banner. Trap or not, he had to go. Witchcraft was a crude art that used True Essence terribly inefficiently. At Cao Mengde's cultivation level, making two charms in so short a time would have been his limit.

Cao Mengde had only one chance left to deceive him.

He followed the steep cliff face upward. Near the summit, the blood-red threads around him grew agitated. His target was close.

He slowed, advancing cautiously while sending out his True Essence to probe ahead.

"Why is there demonic energy?"

Ling Youdao froze. A faint smell of blood reached him, and his face darkened.

Farther ahead, deep tracks marked where something serpentine had slithered past. He gripped the Soul Banner, ghostly shapes faintly surfacing around his body.

He summoned more than ten Wraiths to search the area. Amid their wails, several ghostly figures brushed right past Luo Fanchen.

Fortunately, Luo Fanchen and Ling Moxue had taken Breath Concealment Pills beforehand. The Wraiths had no rank and little intelligence. Though they noticed something amiss, they turned away and passed them by.

"A Soul Banner? Is that damned Ling Youdao a disciple of a Demonic Sect?"

Hidden in a shallow pit beneath the weeds, Luo Fanchen cursed Ling Youdao's caution. The Soul Banner had sent a chill down his spine.

Were his eyes playing tricks on him? A Soul Banner—a genuine, ranked Soul Banner?

You've got to be kidding me.

Those who cultivated demonic arts were ruthless and unpredictable, despised by cultivators everywhere. Anyone who committed deeds that outraged heaven and earth could be cursed as a Demonic Cultivator.

But by the standards of their cultivation methods and principles, only those from the Three Great Demonic Churches who inherited their Demonic Treasure arts counted as true Demonic Cultivators.

The Heavenly Demon Sect, Three Corpses Cult, and Bodhi Monastery were the three Demonic Churches. Together with the righteous Heavenly Origin Sect and Purple Empyrean Pavilion, they formed the Five Great Mystic Sects.

The Soul Banner was a Demonic Treasure inheritance of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

Anyone capable of refining one had, at the very least, come from among the Heavenly Demon Sect's core affiliates.

Even sects with Foundation Establishment cultivators kept their distance from orthodox Demonic Cultivators like that. What chance did a Rogue Cultivator with no backing like him have?

Luo Fanchen had half a mind to turn and run.

Orthodox Demonic Cultivators were fiercely protective of their own. Kill a younger member, and a whole pack of old monsters might come hunting for revenge.

If he killed Ling Youdao today, he could forget about living in peace afterward.

"Master Luo, what's wrong?"

In his arms, mist clouded Ling Moxue's eyes. The ghostly wails had clearly stirred up her fears and frightened her badly.

She huddled against Luo Fanchen. Even through his clothes, she could feel his heart beating faster and faster.

"Nothing. Just keep refining the medicine's effects. I'll avenge your family."

Luo Fanchen's expression remained calm as still water, but inwardly he cursed Ling Leng for getting him into this mess. If Ling Youdao had revealed his identity sooner, Luo Fanchen would have handed Ling Moxue over with both hands.

Now he was aboard the pirate ship, locked in a struggle to the death. Only by destroying Ling Youdao could he have the slightest chance of survival.

Elsewhere, Ling Youdao drew in the Soul Banner and took the strands of hair and drops of blood the Wraiths had found. His thick brows knitted.

"Damn it. Cao Mengde deserves to die."

Using the hair and blood as a medium, Ling Youdao cast his secret art again to confirm the blood essence's location. The blood-red threads still pointed into the cave.

A Demon Serpent occupied it. The marked blood essence was inside its belly.

Cao Mengde knew he could not defeat Ling Youdao, so he had abandoned the Heavenly Demon Spirit Puppet and fled, feeding it to the Snake Demon to distract him?

"No. That demon never takes a loss lying down. I drove him into a corner. He'll drag me down with him."

Is this a diversion? Is he going after the County Office?

Ling Youdao muttered and turned to return to the County Office to protect Qiu Yun. But after two steps, he stopped, torn.

The blood essence art could still sense Ling Moxue. Her blood essence had not yet been refined.

If he cut open the serpent's belly now and nourished her with blood medicine and secret treasures, then made a blood sacrifice of Cloudmist City's mortals, he might restore her body for Qiu Yun to seize.

"Without the Heavenly Demon Spirit Puppet, Qiu Yun will surely die. Even if I go back and save her, it won't change that."

Conflict flashed through Ling Youdao's eyes, then gave way to a ruthless gleam.

If Cao Mengde had taken Qiu Yun hostage, he would not kill her if he wanted to escape unharmed and gain something from it.

The urgent task was to reclaim the Heavenly Demon Spirit Puppet before the Demon Serpent refined Ling Moxue. Only then would Qiu Yun have a sliver of hope.

His face turned cold. He pulled all manner of sinister implements from his Storage Bag, mixed blood essence with corpse oil and human skin, and inscribed hexagonal blood-red runes around the cave. Then he planted the Soul Banner at the entrance as the Central Palace.

"Vengeful souls and savage spirits, heed my command! Let your souls scatter into my banner! Let resentment gather baleful force and seal the four directions! Savage spirits from every quarter, assemble!"

Ling Youdao's pupils rolled back. As he chanted, a cold wind roared up, bending the willows double.

Sand and stones flew. An eerie glow rose from the blood-red runes and gathered on the Soul Banner. More than a hundred resentful spirits devoured by the Snake Demon burst from the ground, their sinister aura blanketing everything within two hundred meters.

Wherever the formation's yin energy reached, ordinary living creatures could scarcely tell one direction from another. Anyone trying to escape would be trapped in a ghostly maze like an Illusion Formation.

"No wonder the Soul Banner's powers are so uncanny. Who at the same rank wouldn't fear it?"

Luo Fanchen swallowed silently. Both were First-Rank Low-Grade Magic Treasures, yet Ling Youdao's Soul Banner was worth ten of his magic swords.

As for the Demon Serpent, the cold wind had already woken it. It opened its mouth and spewed a vast cloud of green smoke. Plants withered in its path, and more than ten resentful spirits failed to dodge. The smoke burned them away until not a trace remained.

"So it was you, Demon Serpent. You escaped by luck back then and hid in the Four Elements Mountains. No wonder I searched so long without finding you."

Ling Youdao panted. His body had already been a spent crossbow; the strain of wielding the Soul Banner at full strength threatened to burst through his meridians.

Blood vessels webbed the whites of his eyes as he roared, "Today, I'll act on heaven's behalf and put an end to you, Demon Serpent!"

Hearing a Demonic Cultivator claim to act on heaven's behalf, Luo Fanchen nearly laughed aloud.

"Heart Offering! Bloodstaining Curse!"

Ling Youdao formed hand seals without pause. Each spell he cast deepened the wrinkles on his face.

His once-straight back slowly hunched. As his life force drained away, the Wraiths under the Soul Banner seemed divinely empowered. Their forms grew more solid, blood-red light coursing over them. Unafraid of the green smoke, they lunged at the Demon Serpent with claws bared.

The Demon Serpent was nimble, but its body was enormous, and the cave left it nowhere to dodge.

Before long, more than ten Wraiths clung to it, gnawing through scales and flesh until great bloody wounds gaped open.

The Wraiths devoured the flesh greedily. Greed spread across Ling Youdao's face too. His mouth worked in silent chewing, as though he were savoring celestial wine.

"Roar—"

The Demon Serpent swept its huge tail across the cave, cutting every Wraith in its path in two. But they quickly re-formed at the Soul Banner's call and attacked again without tiring. Poison lurked in their ghostly bodies, and as the fight wore on, the Demon Serpent began to flag.

Ling Youdao suffered the Soul Banner's backlash as well. His condition was dire. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had burned through eighty percent of his True Essence.

He swallowed two Qi Gathering Pills and struggled on. The green smoke had corroded the skin of his face and hands, leaving flesh and blood to rot.

"What vicious miasmic poison. How many people of Cloudmist City have you harmed, you wretch?"

Ling Youdao swallowed another two antidote pills. The blue-purple cast of his face eased slightly, but the poison remained, and pain wracked his body.

"Two at once. He can afford to be extravagant..."

Envy flashed in Luo Fanchen's eyes. Even from a distance, he could tell Ling Youdao had taken First-Rank Low-Grade antidote pills. Each cost three Spirit Dust. Luo Fanchen had once bought one and divided it into five portions for emergencies.

That green smoke is poisonous?

Luo Fanchen was puzzled. Last time, he had spent a long while enveloped in it and breathed in plenty. Apart from the foul smell, he had felt nothing at all.

Fortunately, the blood mist blocked the green smoke from reaching his position. He did not have to worry about Ling Moxue being poisoned.

"Well, well. So True Essence can be used to wield Magic Treasures like that. Keep fighting, both of you."

Luo Fanchen had never fought another cultivator. He was happy to watch this rare battle to the death.

The Demon Serpent could take far more punishment than he had imagined. At its peak, it might have reached the late First Tier. Ling Youdao's performance surprised him too.

The Soul Banner was the Snake Demon's natural bane, yet despite his overwhelming advantage, Ling Youdao was faring poorly.

He could not finish the fight. His True Essence was unstable, his vitality exhausted, and nine-tenths of his strength lay in the Soul Banner.

Yet he could not withstand the Soul Banner's backlash long enough to use its full power. A battle he should have won quickly had turned into a stalemate.

"So he does have a hidden ailment. Good. That works in my favor."

Luo Fanchen let out a long breath, thanking heaven for its favor. It seemed he could play the fisherman who reaped the spoils after all.