NOVEL NEXT Chapter 385: Is There Any Benefit to Being Struck by Lightning Every Month?
A chilling wind swept through, and the scene fell silent, with only the wails of countless ghosts echoing in the area.
“Oink oink—”
“Moo—”
“Baa—”
Neither the shriveled old man nor Vice Sect Leader Petrified, both Unity stage cultivators with thousands of years of experience, had ever encountered anything like this before.
Vice Sect Leader Petrified’s expression was a bit stiff. Just moments ago, he had been gravely stating how troublesome things had become after the opponent successfully refined the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.
Yet looking at the current situation, even if the opponent had refined ten Ten Thousand Soul Banners, it might not have been a problem.
The shriveled old man hadn’t expected such a result either. He had merely passed by a small village and noticed an incredibly high concentration of blood energy, perfect for refining the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. So, he had swept away all the blood energy and hastily chosen a secluded place to refine it.
Facing a powerful enemy, he managed to complete the refinement of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner just in time. He had been preparing to sacrifice his enemies’ blood to it, intending to unleash millions of vicious ghosts to claim their lives.
But instead, he had summoned… this?Gritting his teeth, the shriveled old man formed hand seals again to activate the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.
“No matter. Whether it’s people or livestock, as long as they’ve been refined into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, they are all considered vicious spirits!”
Vice Sect Leader Petrified realized the same issue. The Ten Thousand Soul Banner might look ridiculous right now, but its power couldn’t be underestimated!
“Attack! Devour them!” the shriveled old man ordered, laughing wildly, determined to bury Lu Yang and his companions here.
The pigs, cows, and sheep scattered in all directions. If not for the Ten Thousand Soul Banner holding them together, they would have already bolted off into the distance.
A few pigs even nuzzled the shriveled old man before slowly wandering away.
The shriveled old man: “…”
Vice Sect Leader Petrified: “…”
“Senior Brother Lu, is this what a Unity stage battle looks like?” Peach Blossom Leaf asked Lu Yang via sound transmission. She had little experience and was witnessing a Unity stage battle for the first time, but she couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
Lu Yang thought to himself, This is my first time seeing something like this too.
“Fairy, why did refining livestock into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner make them uncontrollable?”
Inside his mental space, Everlasting Fairy was laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath.
“Hahaha, what an idiot! You refined livestock into a Ten Thousand Soul Banner? Why didn’t you try refining insects while you’re at it? Hahaha…”
After she had calmed down, she explained to Lu Yang, “The essence of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner is to control souls. The souls that can be controlled must come from intelligent beings—humans, demonic beasts, and the like. The higher their Cultivation in life and the greater their resentment, the stronger the banner’s power.”
“A bunch of livestock without intelligence—do you really expect them to understand commands and attack?”
“But I seem to remember that using infants’ souls to refine the Ten Thousand Soul Banner is possible, right? And infants don’t have intelligence either.”
“It is possible to refine the Ten Thousand Soul Banner using infants’ souls, but there’s something you missed. Demonic cultivators don’t immediately refine an infant’s soul into the banner. The process takes several years. During that time, while the infant’s soul remains physically unchanged, their mind matures. By the end of the process, they reach an age where they can understand commands, which is when the refinement is truly complete.”
Before she became an immortal, Everlasting Fairy had dealt with many demonic cultivators. During the ancient era, when order was chaotic, demonic cultivators were everywhere. Her understanding of demonic practices far surpassed that of even Vice Sect Leader Petrified.
She gave one last piece of advice to Lu Yang: “You should study harder and not end up like that old illiterate fool.”
With this answer in mind, Lu Yang relayed it to Peach Blossom Leaf, earning a look of admiration from her.
Senior Brother Lu was so knowledgeable.
Wait—why did Senior Brother Lu know so much about demonic cultivation?
The shriveled old man tossed the Ten Thousand Soul Banner aside and pulled out a necklace. Each bead on the necklace was a small skull, each with a different, terrifying expression.
This was his lifebound magic weapon, the Eighteenth Generation Ancestral Necklace. To craft this necklace, the creator must first marry, have children, and then continue to reproduce for eighteen generations. Once the eighteenth generation is born, the most outstanding descendant from each generation is selected, subjected to torturous suffering, and refined into a bead. The beads are then strung together using the intestines of the creator’s wife.
The shriveled old man threw the Eighteenth Generation Ancestral Necklace into the air. The necklace broke apart, and each skull bead swelled, transforming into large floating bone heads that rushed toward Vice Sect Leader Petrified, snapping and biting at him.
This single move alone would deter most Unity stage cultivators from confronting it head-on.
“Haha, you old bastard! You’re ruthless enough to turn your eighteen generations of descendants into a demonic weapon. Their bloodline is tied to you, making it easy for you to control the necklace with ease!”
Vice Sect Leader Petrified remained calm, recognizing the necklace’s origin, but so what? To survive and rise to the position of Vice Sect Leader within the Demonic Sect, his methods were beyond what the shriveled old man could imagine.
He gripped his Bone Scythe, and spikes extended from the scythe’s handle, piercing into his palm. The scythe absorbed his blood, and a red line appeared along its blade.
Whoosh—
Vice Sect Leader Petrified swung the Bone Scythe, a brilliant light slashing through the sky, illuminating the entire mountain. Six of the eighteen demonic heads were instantly cut down.
The shriveled old man’s expression changed. “How is your scythe’s compatibility even higher than my necklace?!”
Vice Sect Leader Petrified strode forward, continuing to clash with the remaining demonic heads. “Of course! To forge this scythe, I pulled out my own bones and nourished them with my blood day and night. My bones remained alive after being removed, and only then did I refine them into this scythe!”
“No matter how closely your descendants are related to you, how could they ever compare to me and my own bones?”
“Madman!” The shriveled old man cursed. Refining one’s own bones into a magical weapon was a process that took hundreds of years and left one highly vulnerable to ambush. A single misstep could lead to severe depletion of vital energy or even death.
“Heh, I was fortunate that Sect Leader Qin valued me highly and protected me during the refinement process!”
The two fought intensely, with the shriveled old man unleashing an endless array of demonic techniques. The eighteen demonic heads reassembled themselves repeatedly, disrupting Vice Sect Leader Petrified’s attacks. Meanwhile, Vice Sect Leader Petrified’s figure flickered into elusive afterimages, making him hard to pin down. His Bone Scythe reaped life after life, forcing the shriveled old man to avoid close combat.
“I’ll set a rule here: Within a radius of 500 zhang, everybody except me shall have their movements slowed!” the shriveled old man invoked the power of rules, trying to restrict Vice Sect Leader Petrified’s actions.
Both Lu Yang and Peach Blossom Leaf immediately felt as if they were sinking into quicksand, struggling to move.
Vice Sect Leader Petrified let out a cold laugh. His soul left his body, unaffected by the slowing effect. He switched weapons, and his soul wielded a giant hammer, swinging it toward the shriveled old man.
“So you think you can make rules? Let’s set another rule: Within a radius of 500 zhang, no one can use demonic weapons!”
The Eighteenth Generation Ancestral Necklace dimmed, and the eighteen demonic heads vanished.
“Only a soul left, and you still dare to challenge me!” The shriveled old man charged toward Vice Sect Leader Petrified, only to be struck down by a swing of the hammer.
He screamed in disbelief, “How is this possible? How is your soul so powerful?!”
The shriveled old man had always been confident in his soul techniques, and yet, in terms of soul strength, he found himself inferior to Vice Sect Leader Petrified.
“If you get struck by heavenly lightning worth a billion spirit stones every month, you’d be like this too!”
Vice Sect Leader Petrified cursed angrily. He risked his life every month to undergo Heavenly Lightning Tribulation—of course, he’d gain some benefits!
(End of the chapter)