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墨書 Inktalez
Not only did Yun Jiuzi arrive, but the Spirit Stone also came along.
Yue Changzi was prepared and led everyone to a special chamber for testing magical artifacts.
The chamber was ten zhang wide, deep within the peak, surrounded by thick mountain walls. The four sides, including the top and bottom, were tightly encased in three-foot-thick solid Steel Essence plates, with only a small door for entry and exit. Furthermore, after the four entered, Yue Changzi activated Restrictions, and a flash of Azure Light passed through, making the chamber even more impregnable.
"Wow, when did our Nine Li Sect build such a nice place!" Spirit Stone exclaimed.
"Stop talking nonsense and pay attention," Yue Changzi said as he placed the Black Banner in the center of the chamber. He carefully stepped back a foot and unleashed a stream of spiritual energy. A fiery red light shot straight towards the Flagpole, causing the Black Banner to emit a burst of Black Light. Instantly, a black mist surged out from the base of the Flagpole in retaliation.
However, something strange happened; the black mist left the Black Banner without finding a target and dissipated like soap bubbles, leaving no trace behind.
"Now it's your turn, Yun Jiuzi, Great-Granduncle. You need to channel your spiritual energy into it. Remember to keep your hand on the Flagpole no matter how that black mist attacks you. With your cultivation level, it won't harm you at all. Then we will observe," Yue Changzi said confidently as he stood back with his hands behind him.
Yun Jiuzi stepped forward and followed his instructions. After sending a thin stream of firelight towards the Flagpole, the Black Banner automatically retaliated again. The black mist continuously surged towards Yun Jiuzi's wrist but was kept under control below his elbow. However, Yun Jiuzi's entire hand turned purple-black, and his expression became quite Strange.
Li Hong turned to Yue Changzi and asked, "Are you sure Yun Jiuzi can handle this?"
"It should be fine. Now please let Great-Granduncle tell us how he feels," Yue Changzi replied with a smile.
Yun Jiuzi frowned and said, "I'm not afraid of this poison, but I hear many voices crying out in pain. My Divine Consciousness is filled with this chaotic noise; it's not harmful but very uncomfortable..."
"It's like many negative feelings are rushing into your Divine Consciousness, right?" Yue Changzi interrupted to ask.
"Yes, that's exactly how it feels," Yun Jiuzi nodded.
"Look!" Spirit Stone pointed at the Black Banner.
The black mist continuously surged into Yun Jiuzi's body but was transformed by his spiritual energy. The Black Banner was strangely fading from purple-black to deep gray, and the black lines moving across its surface were decreasing in number.
"Hehe, just as I expected. Great-Granduncle, keep going; don't stop! You must eliminate all the Soul Refinement above," Yue Changzi said with a smile while stroking his beard.
"Soul Refinement?" Li Hong and the others asked in unison.
"Yes! As Little Monkey mentioned earlier, this item was named by Cosmic Bag as the Soul Summoning and Spirit Refining Banner. Seeing that toxic black mist dissipate made me realize what it is—souls refined by Demon Sect Monsters. I call it 'Soul Refinement,'" Yue Changzi explained.
Li Hong pondered for a moment before a light bulb went off in his mind: "No wonder I couldn't summon any souls using Summoning Technique; these evil spirits have been refined by Demon Sect Monsters and are incomplete! That's why I can't summon them!"
"You are right." Yue Changzi focused on Yun Jiuzi, who was continuously dissipating the black mist, and said thoughtfully, "Humans possess Three Souls and Seven Spirits. The two souls of heaven and earth can roam freely between heaven and earth while being inseparable from the life soul. When the life soul disappears, a person dies; however, the two souls of heaven and earth can exist independently. The combination of the two is what we call a ghost. The same applies to the seven spirits: the seven spirits—Chong, Hui, Qi, Li, Zhu, Jing, Ying—each have two yin and two yang, along with three human spirits, where yin and yang are mutually inseparable. After a person dies, the three human spirits vanish, but the remaining four spirits still exist as ghosts. Therefore, ghosts possess the two souls of heaven and earth and the four spirits of Chong, Hui, Qi, and Li. The life soul and three human spirits automatically dissipate between heaven and earth upon death. Before death, yang predominates over yin; it is important to note that the three souls consist of two yang and one yin, while the seven spirits consist of two yin and five yang—yang greatly exceeds yin. After death, what we commonly refer to as 'ghosts' have equal amounts of yin and yang; with the life soul and three human spirits gone, only the two souls of heaven and earth remain along with the four spirits of Chong, Hui that are in a yin-yang relationship. This is the foundation of cultivating the Ghost Path. The ultimate goal of cultivating the Ghost Path is to strengthen the yang souls significantly beyond the yin souls until a tangible entity that can be seen in sunlight is refined. Currently, each Yin Spirit that has been refined possesses only yin without any yang; lacking the yang Heavenly Soul and the Qi and Li spirits, they are left with only the yin Earth Soul and two yin spirits of Chong and Hui; this results in incomplete memories from their lives, only obeying the commands of their Black Banner master. Your Summoning Technique can eliminate them; Yet No can bind them into form precisely because of this reasoning."
Li Hong listened intently with bright eyes; he immediately thought of his ten Golden Pills. It turned out he had fundamentally misunderstood—while the yang Heavenly Soul transformed into Heavenly Dan is indeed the most powerful Golden Pill, it is actually the life pill that is essential. He silently reminded himself to be cautious in the future; that life pill must not go awry; otherwise... actually thinking about it made him unsure what would happen—perhaps nothing?
"Then it's strange; where did these Yin Spirits' yang souls go? Why are there only yin ones left?" Spirit Stone asked.
"I think we've found a way to improve Demonic Arts from Yandao Demon Lord," Yue Changzi sneered.
"What?!" Li Hong exclaimed in unison with the others.
"Consider Yandao Demon Lord; he is said to be an exceptionally intelligent individual who improved upon the previous methods of Demon Sect that absorbed spirit beast demon pills, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures for cultivation by our Immortal Sect practitioners. But now it seems he has become even more sinister! He has changed to absorb the yang souls of mortals after death for his own cultivation while using the remaining yin souls to refine a Soul Summoning and Spirit Refining Banner for everyone—it’s truly malicious!" Yue Changzi scoffed.
At this moment, Yun Jiuzi had completely dissipated the black mist on the Black Banner; he withdrew his hand and murmured, "This Yandao Demon Lord is indeed formidable! He actually thought to exploit mortals!"
"Exactly! Mortals are numerous; they provide an endless source of power. However, this means that most mortals cannot enter Six Paths of Reincarnation after death. The slaughter caused by this Old Demon is beyond counting!" Spirit Stone said bitterly.
Yun Jiuzi stroked his chin and said, "Does this mean that whoever has higher cultivation will have a more powerful Soul Summoning and Spirit Refining Banner?" He recalled that Old Demon from Ancient Celestial Field whose Black Banner was indeed far superior.
"Definitely! We have thoroughly analyzed this principle behind Soul Summoning and Spirit Refining Banner. The reason why Demon Sect Monsters have one for each person lies here—they all use mortal souls to enhance their own cultivation. The more souls they absorb, the more powerful their Black Banner becomes. This one is at mid-grade artifact level; there must also be Superior Spirit Artifact levels. Perhaps Yandao Demon Lord's has even reached Celestial Artifact level!" Yue Changzi said coldly.
"Moreover, due to identical properties in nature, Demon Sect Monsters can also absorb our Immortal Sect practitioners' essence for cultivation even Golden Pills to enhance their power. I must say Yandao Demon Lord's insight into this method of enhancing cultivation through such underhanded means is truly remarkable but utterly immoral!" Spirit Stone exclaimed indignantly.
Li Hong thought about his deceased relatives including his mother Wanyi being potentially exploited by Demon Sect Monsters for soul absorption during their practice; he couldn't help but feel his hair stand on end. His fists clenched unconsciously as he shouted angrily, "Demon Sect! I will not rest until I destroy you!"
"Is there any way to break this?" Yun Jiuzi asked solemnly.
Yue Changzi smiled wryly as he picked up what had already turned gray—the Black Banner. "Look at this; now it has completely become a dead object. Only by dissipating all its refined souls can we truly break it. In other words, we understand its principle but actually have no way to break it."
"What about the poison on it?" Li Hong was most anxious about this.
"This point can still be researched further. I suspect that Demon Sect has special methods for refining souls which may have been crafted by Yandao Demon Lord himself. They can extract yang souls for their own cultivation while placing remaining yin souls into Black Banner along with some kind of peculiar poison that can affect those souls. The formula for such potent poison is quite sophisticated; I believe it will be difficult to crack for a while. We might need to capture a high-level Demon Sect Monster to force some answers out of them," Yue Changzi said.
Spirit Stone's eyes lit up: "Then it's settled! Our next mission is to capture a live Demon! Hmph! We must break their evil techniques so they can no longer harm mortals."
At this point, Yun Jiuzi's gaze flickered as if he thought of something but did not speak up.
Li Hong's mind was filled with thoughts about Demon Sect's evil techniques; he felt as though he was missing some crucial point but at that moment his thoughts were chaotic—the fleeting insight slipped away without being grasped.
"Spirit Stone" said, "I understand now. No wonder those Demons are so filled with negative energy; it must be because they have absorbed too much of the Evil Spirit's malice. Do you think those Evil Spirits can be casually used for cultivation? Even if the souls they absorb are positive, they are still ghosts, and their malice is extremely heavy. It gathers within the Demons and does not dissipate, which is why every member of the Demon Sect appears so ghostly."
"Exactly," Yue Changzi nodded.
"Evil Spirit!" Li Hong suddenly recalled and asked, "Isn't it true that the stronger the soul's power, the more beneficial it is for the Demons?"
"Of course. Ordinary souls are certainly not as powerful as Evil Spirits. The strength of an Evil Spirit's soul is much greater. Just to give you an example, do you know why our cultivators' Golden Pills are such a great supplement for them? It's because our cultivators possess very strong soul power, not to mention the essence of cultivation contained within the Golden Pills."
"But if our cultivators' souls are absorbed into their bodies, it would definitely backfire. I think they might have some other cultivation methods related to the Yin Power they acquire," Li Hong pondered.
"That's quite possible. There might also be similar Demonic Arts that complement the absorption of Yin souls," Yun Jiuzi nodded and said, "If they absorb a lot of Yin souls to enhance their cultivation, it would definitely lead to severe backlash. They must have some way to control it; otherwise, with the amount they absorb, even if they were exceptionally powerful, they wouldn't be able to withstand it and would have perished long ago."
"There must be some secrets here that we don't know about. There's only one way: capture a live one!" Spirit Stone once again brought up the idea of capturing a live one but looked at Yun Jiuzi and said, "Great-Granduncle, what do you think…"
"You want me to take action? Fine! I'm also curious about the techniques that Old Demon has improved. If we can find their weaknesses, it would be even better than having to fight them head-on every time."
Spirit Stone laughed happily. However, Li Hong still frowned as he looked at the grayish-white Black Banner on the ground, feeling that he had missed some crucial point.
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