The Girl's Rebellious Phase? Gathering Souls

"Take one last look."

Two days later, at the County Magistrate's residence, Luo Fanchen gently patted the back of Mo Xue's head. She pursed her lips and turned away, her bright eyes showing not a trace of attachment.

He had packed every resource they could use and left a short letter explaining that the County Magistrate had fallen to demonic corruption and been slain for the people's sake.

When the Clear River Sect sent someone to investigate, the letter would serve as an explanation.

"Let's go."

Luo Fanchen shook his head, formed a seal, and recited an incantation. Several bursts of Flame Curse Art shot out, and he watched the County Office burn to the ground.

The constables scattered in chaos. Cries of fire rang out without cease as Luo Fanchen took Mo Xue's hand and strolled away. Behind them, flames soared skyward, refusing to be quenched by water.

On the road, Mo Xue lowered her eyes and let her shoulders droop.

Luo Fanchen tried talking to her now and then, but she only nodded lightly or gave a simple "Mm."

She was obedient, yet there was a faint awkwardness about her, as though she wanted to pull away but could not bear to.

She wouldn't approach him, but she wouldn't refuse him either?

How strange.

Luo Fanchen pressed his lips together in thought. He could not see anything wrong with what he had done, and Mo Xue's Admiration Points were rising overall.

After all, this was the hometown where she had lived for more than ten years. Once they left, it might be decades before she returned. It was only natural to feel reluctant, wasn't it?

He did not notice the complicated glance she cast at the Soul Banner.

"Master Luo."

As he pondered, Ling Moxue tugged gently at his sleeve.

He looked down at her. She knit her fine brows, hesitated with her lips pressed together, then said timidly, "I want to... go back to the Ling Household's Old Residence."

"All right. I'll take you."

Luo Fanchen would never refuse her. Taking her hand, he sped off using Smoke Cloud Escape, and they soon appeared inside the Ling Household's mansion.

The faint scent of blood still lingered. Luo Fanchen thought Mo Xue would revisit familiar places, but her small face turned cold. Imitating him, she formed a hand seal and chanted until a ball of fire condensed before her.

Flame Curse Art?

He had never taught Mo Xue, but Ling Youdao must have left some basic cultivation manuals at the County Office. She had evidently learned it on her own. She truly was a born cultivator.

Flames blazed up. Ling Moxue's pretty face remained calm.

Nearly two months of nourishment from True Essence had left her skin soft and fair. She was showing signs of another growth spurt, too, with the delicate charm of a girl next door.

"Uncle Luo."

"What is it?"

"Nothing... Take me away."

Ling Moxue stopped herself from saying more. Her gaze lingered on a corner of the estate near the stables.

There stood a cramped, shabby wooden hut. It held over ten years of painful memories, yet it had been her only shelter.

A harbor where she could numb herself against the boundless dark.

Now she no longer needed that pitiful sense of safety. Wherever Master Luo and Qiu Yun were, she could feel at peace.

They spoke little along the way. Cloudmist City lay thousands of miles from Flying Cloud Market; even flying on a Spirit-Riding Talisman would take over a month.

Luo Fanchen could not bear to use so many talismans, nor did he want to waste precious True Essence. So the Soul Banner was put to use for the first time.

"I can carry Uncle Luo and Sister through the air."

Under the blazing sun, Ling Qiuyun floated above the ground. The Soul Banner above her head stirred without wind, shielding her from the sunlight and allowing her to appear by day.

She volunteered eagerly, delighted that she could be of use.

Qiu Yun formed a seal and chanted. Her Soul Essence became a streak of light and entered the banner. A fierce yin wind sprang up as the Soul Banner expanded a hundredfold, transforming into a dark flying carpet.

Black-and-red clouds of blood rose beneath Luo Fanchen's feet. They soon enveloped him and Mo Xue, swept them onto the banner, and carried them slowly upward.

The banner's surface was cool. Black mist curled around them and cut through the wind, making the ride comfortable. The yin wind also carried the effect of an Illusion Formation, concealing them remarkably well.

It surpassed a Spirit-Riding Talisman a hundredfold and flew at three times its speed.

"Qiu Yun, you're incredible."

Luo Fanchen clicked his tongue in wonder. Even an ordinary First-Rank Low-Grade flying artifact was worth no fewer than ten Spirit Stones.

The Soul Banner was slightly better at flight than artifacts of its rank. Better still, he did not need to divide his attention to control it. With Qiu Yun there, he could even rest or cultivate while they traveled.

If he captured enough Soul Essences in the future, he could activate the Spirit-Gathering Formation on the banner, increasing both its flight speed and his cultivation efficiency.

Of course, it had a drawback.

The Soul Banner had no Soul Essences to feed Qiu Yun yet. Tonight, the girl would probably climb into his bedding again.

Night fell. A campfire cast a hazy glow. Thanks to the Soul Banner, they could now cover three days' distance in one.

Inside a cave, Mo Xue cultivated until well past midnight. Exhausted, she ate a late meal and fell asleep fully dressed, while Luo Fanchen took the watch.

"That girl keeps everything bottled up."

Luo Fanchen raised a brow. Mo Xue still kept a faint distance from him, though she would sometimes suddenly cling to his arm, give a little huff, and let go.

She had barely spoken to him of her own accord during the journey. Baffled, Luo Fanchen could only think that a woman's heart was a needle at the bottom of the sea.

The night breeze was cool. Luo Fanchen pulled his fur covering tighter, but an odd chill ran over him. The covering began to wriggle on its own.

After a long rustle, a small head timidly emerged. Qiu Yun blinked her dewy eyes and rested her chin against his chest, her breath hot.

Her pretty face was flushed pink. A faint red tooth mark showed on her lower lip as she spoke softly.

"Un-Uncle Luo, I'm sorry. I can't hold out anymore."

"Hey, bear with it a little longer. Mo Xue only just fell asleep."

Luo Fanchen froze, pressing a palm lightly to the girl's forehead. He glanced guiltily at Mo Xue, who lay with her back to him, breathing evenly.

"I can't wait. Sister's been cultivating for three days straight. She's exhausted and must be fast asleep. Uncle Luo, please."

"Sigh. All right, all right. Just this once."

Luo Fanchen held out his thumb, but before he could cut his fingertip, Qiu Yun's hot breath washed over his collarbone.

"Hey, don't bite all over. Ah—gently..."

Luo Fanchen sucked in a breath. The warm, damp sting against his chest was so awkward that even his toes curled.

He clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a sound, then glanced at Mo Xue. Only when he saw her breathing steadily, seemingly unaware, did he relax.

At the same time, Ling Moxue lay facing away from Luo Fanchen, her dark eyes fixed on the rock wall without seeing it.

Her small face showed no expression. Hurried breathing and swallowing sounds filled her ears. Her hands clenched and loosened. For a long, long time, she could not summon the courage to rise. She could only squeeze her eyes shut bitterly and let those sounds batter her nerves.

The next day, Qiu Yun stood on the Soul Banner, brimming with energy.

Luo Fanchen and Mo Xue had not slept all night. Dark circles shadowed both their eyes.

No. I need to find more Soul Essences soon. If that ravenous girl keeps raiding me at night, even a brawny Body Refining cultivator couldn't take it.

Luo Fanchen muttered under his breath. Seeing Mo Xue's weary face, he was about to ask after her, but she silently turned her head away without a word.

Did Mo Xue seem even more distant from him now?

Luo Fanchen could not make head or tail of it. Surely Mo Xue was past her rebellious phase?

He decided to find a time to talk with her alone once they reached Flying Cloud Market. For now, finding food for Qiu Yun came first.

When they passed a village, he changed course and went straight to the village head.

"Are there any bandit strongholds or highwaymen nearby?"

Luo Fanchen got straight to the point. The gray-bearded old man trembled, assuming the Clear River Sect had sent someone to rid the area of evildoers.

At once, he rattled off more than a dozen bandit strongholds as though reciting a menu. Every one of them was a scourge to its surroundings.

"Hm?"

Luo Fanchen was startled. He had not expected banditry to be so rampant under the Clear River Sect's rule. These brigands openly occupied mountains and crowned themselves kings. They had nerve.

But he soon understood.

Recently, a secret realm had opened, drawing a flood of Rogue Cultivators from Flying Cloud Market. Casualties had been heavy, and the Clear River Sect had lost quite a few disciples as well.

The territory around Flying Cloud Market was short of cultivators just now. The bandits were cunning, adept at hiding, and difficult to root out completely.

Even if cultivators went to the trouble of eliminating them, they would gain only mundane wealth while wasting cultivation time. The effort was hardly worth the reward.

Luo Fanchen had no such concern. His Soul Banner happened to need vicious spirits.

He had not sunk so low as to refine innocent mortals into the banner, but refining bandits interested him greatly.

Luo Fanchen politely declined the village head's offer of lodging. On the way back, he marked several strongholds along their route, stepped onto the Soul Banner, and continued flying. Mo Xue, meanwhile, perked up and hugged her Wooden Sword, eager to try her hand.

"Qiu Yun, I'm leaving this to you."

The bandits were hard to track, skilled at hiding, and quick to spot trouble. Luo Fanchen had no time to search for them one by one.

Fortunately, plenty of lonely ghosts wandered the valley, most of them good people murdered by the bandits. Luo Fanchen summoned Qiu Yun and easily gathered these remnant souls into the Soul Banner. Then, using Baleful Spirit Command, he guided them to seek out the bandits' base.

It worked beautifully. By the latter half of the night, Luo Fanchen had found the large stockade where the bandits holed up.

The stockade sat in a ravine between two mountain ranges, close to a cliff and perpetually veiled in thin mist. It was exceedingly well hidden.

A one-way rope ladder hung outside. Without someone inside to help, an ordinary person could never cross the cliff.

"Qiu Yun, tonight's a buffet. Eat your fill."

A woman's shrill wails rang in his ears. Standing on the Soul Banner, Luo Fanchen took Mo Xue across the chasm with ease.

Qiu Yun caught the scent of blood and killing intent. Her tongue kept darting over her lips, and she could barely contain herself.

She worried about Uncle Luo, so each time she fed, she took only enough essence blood to barely keep her mind clear. She had remained half-starved. Today, she could finally eat to her heart's content.

"Mo Xue, you try your hand too. Watch out for traps."

Luo Fanchen patted her back. She had suppressed her feelings throughout the journey and had long wanted to let them out.

Blood mist billowed from the Soul Banner. Yin winds howled, swallowing the thin mist and blanketing the entire stockade in moments.

Luo Fanchen guarded the exit and watched the two girls enter together. In moments, screams and the sounds of killing rang out, and lights flared throughout the ramshackle stockade.

"So much karmic debt."

Luo Fanchen narrowed his eyes. Since refining the Soul Banner, he could see most Soul Essences.

As disaster struck the stockade, countless remnant souls and wandering ghosts converged on it from the two mountain ranges. Their senses were dim, their forms feeble; driven only by obsession, they could dissipate at any moment.

Several bandits who managed to escape touched the remnant souls and were caught in a ghost maze. They fled straight back toward the stockade, where Mo Xue cut them down.

"She really was born with a Sword Bone."

Luo Fanchen clicked his tongue. This was Mo Xue's first real killing, yet she showed no discomfort. Her small face was flushed with excitement, almost elation.

She moved like the wind. In swordsmanship alone, Luo Fanchen was not sure he could defeat her.

The bandits broke and scattered, but they could not escape the Illusion Formation laid by the Soul Banner or the ghost maze formed by the remnant souls. Soon, shouts of battle gave way to pleas and sobbing. In the end, only faint weeping remained.

With every able fighter subdued, Luo Fanchen walked in. Blood had risen past his ankles.

He frowned slightly. An unseen force pushed the blood away from his feet, clearing a path. Qiu Yun was using Soul Power to open the way for him.

"Master Luo."

Mo Xue's pretty face glowed with exhilaration. When she saw Luo Fanchen approach, she promptly sheathed her sword and lowered her eyes, looking rather self-conscious.

She chided herself for losing her composure, afraid she had made a bad impression on Master Luo.

"Well done. Mo Xue, you truly have a talent for the sword. I'll find a Sword Manual for you someday."

"I just couldn't stand what the bandits were doing. I'm actually... very gentle too."

Mo Xue's cheeks reddened faintly. Her gaze darted between Qiu Yun and Luo Fanchen, her eyes carrying a trace of reproach.

Master Luo had spent most of his time with Qiu Yun lately and had neglected her a little.

She wanted to open her heart to Master Luo and receive his kindness and care. Yet whenever she tried to speak, she thought of Qiu Yun's gentle beauty and could not help feeling inferior. She feared that, if Master Luo compared them, he would grow tired of her.

"Uncle Luo, what should we do with them?"

Qiu Yun's lips gleamed, and her pretty face was rosy, her skin smooth and lustrous as fine jade.

She wiped her lips and let out a satisfied sigh. Before her, nearly a hundred women and children huddled together, weeping and trembling.

"I've settled the dozen or so innocent people who were abducted. The rest are the bandits' families."

"You two did the fighting. They're your spoils, so the decision isn't mine."

Luo Fanchen glanced at the trembling women and children. Unarmed and terrified, they looked pitiful.

"They weren't the ones responsible. Killing their husbands and fathers is punishment enough..."

Qiu Yun spoke softly, watching Luo Fanchen's expression with care.

Luo Fanchen nodded, pleased. Becoming a Banner Spirit had not let evil thoughts corrupt Qiu Yun's mind. She was still kind.

Keeping her true heart was good. If she held on to that kindness, she could stay on the righteous path.

Mo Xue, by contrast, did not hesitate. She gave a simple, blunt answer: "Kill them all."

That suited Mo Xue's nature. The two girls balanced each other. Qiu Yun could stop Mo Xue from killing indiscriminately; with someone she cared about, Mo Xue would not fall to the demonic path.

At the same time, Mo Xue could protect Qiu Yun, so her kindness would not become a burden.

In the end, Luo Fanchen followed neither suggestion. He formed a seal and chanted, dispersing the Soul Banner's yin wind to let in the remnant souls surrounding the stockade.

"You both have a point. Let heaven decide."

Luo Fanchen gestured with his chin. Hundreds of remnant souls, the ones truly qualified to judge, slowly gathered around the women and children, their faces turning fierce.

If the souls of those murdered by the bandits could forgive and spare them, he would say nothing.

Unfortunately, not one living person remained in the end.

"Uncle Luo, these remnant souls..."

"Do you want to eat them?"

Qiu Yun collected the last of the bandits' vicious souls, then hesitated. Luo Fanchen looked back with a smile and gently patted her forehead.

He knew what she wanted.

Qiu Yun shook her head and pursed her lips in distaste. "No. These remnant souls are ragged, and their obsessions are gone. Eating them would be like chewing candles."

"In that case, let's give them a hand."

Luo Fanchen nodded. He formed a seal and summoned the Soul Banner, then, with Qiu Yun's help, cast Soul Hooking in reverse.

The Soul Banner could bind spirits, so naturally it could release them.

A yin wind blew through, gentle and cool as clear water slipping through a narrow gap. Wherever it passed, the remnant souls' obsessions faded.

Their mottled Soul Bodies, scarred by evil thoughts, slowly dissolved to reveal how they had looked in life. Their eyes were still clouded, but they bowed deeply to Luo Fanchen, bending all the way to the ground. At last, they found release between heaven and earth and awaited reincarnation.

As the remnant souls dispersed, Luo Fanchen thought he heard a few words of thanks. When he looked back, several glittering pieces of ore lay before him.

"Soul-Washing Crystal?"

Luo Fanchen was startled. This was a First-Rank Low-Grade spiritual material. It could be made into Spirit-Nourishing Jade to nurture the mind or used to forge a first-rank artifact.

The Soul-Washing Crystal before him was riddled with impurities and did not qualify for a rank. It was worth roughly one piece of Spirit Dust.

"Cultivate well. This is their kindness."

Luo Fanchen drew the Soul Crystal to him and placed it in his Storage Bag. Then he handed Mo Xue a mote of Spirit Dust. The girl accepted it, bewildered, and tucked it carefully against her chest.

Spirit Stones and Spirit Dust were both precious to her. She could not bear to waste even a speck.

Luo Fanchen patted Mo Xue's little head. After sending out several Flame Curse Talismans to erase their traces, he wrapped the dozen or so abducted women in the Soul Banner and vanished in a flicker.

A few days later, several strange things happened in the surrounding villages.

Women who had long since been abducted appeared safely at the village entrances. Their minds were dull, but their bodies were in passable condition, and they carried small amounts of gold, silver, and jewels.

Merchants traveling through the nearby mountains were no longer robbed by bandits, and the rumors of hauntings in the mountains came to an end.

Over the next month, Luo Fanchen followed the same pattern and destroyed four more bandit strongholds.

It took some time, but at least he no longer had to worry about food for Qiu Yun.

Mortal souls were fragile, and bandits who had strayed onto wicked paths bore heavy karmic burdens. Often, as they neared death, heaven and earth seized their souls, which dissipated quickly.

From the souls of more than five hundred bandits, he managed to refine only ten Melancholy Ghosts. There was not a single Vengeful Ghost, which was rather disappointing.

"No wonder Demonic Cultivators prefer to sacrifice ordinary people to refine their magical artifacts. Common folk carry no karmic burden, so there's a better chance of capturing their souls intact."

Luo Fanchen murmured to himself. A Melancholy Ghost required at least one soul to remain, while a Vengeful Ghost required one soul and three spirits. That was the most a mortal could retain.

To go any further, he would need cultivators. He would also have to raise the Soul Banner's grade before it could contain them.

"Ahead lies Flying Cloud Market."