"Is that all? I don't feel like my cultivation has improved at all!"
"It's not that fast, buddy! Refining takes time, and the quantity is too small! Look at those villagers outside, utterly ignorant, alive just to waste food. Kill! Kill them all!"
"Stop trying to trick me. The Great Qian dynasty is rotten, sure, but it hasn't reached the point of doing nothing at all."
The Ten Thousand Souls Banner began trying to bewitch you again.
Unfortunately, before the golden trait, it was utterly useless.
You could even hear a trace of helplessness in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's tone, as if complaining about how you were so stubborn and unyielding.
"Speaking of which, demon souls are indeed stronger than mortal souls, and the refining effect is better. Damn it! Why did all my previous masters only know to kill mortals? What a bunch of pig-brained fools!"
"Isn't it just because mortals are easier to bully?"
However, with you, because of the Alien's Biological Father trait, it's actually the demonic tribes that are easier to bully.
The eighteenth year, age thirty-five.
You carried the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, tracking demonic auras everywhere, slaying demons and eliminating monsters.
Because demonic auras could distinguish the strength of demons, you basically never failed.
As the number of demon souls within the Ten Thousand Souls Banner increased, the efficiency of the banner's feedback for cultivation became faster and faster.
The nieenth year, age thirty-six.
Your martial arts realm rose to the ninth layer of Spirit Gathering.
Some parts of demonic tribes, like horns, scales, claws, etc., could be sold for a considerable price in martial artists' marketplaces.
Martial artists' marketplaces settled transactions with Spirit Crystals, not silver.
Relying on selling demonic tribe materials, you earned quite a few Spirit Crystals, maintaining your daily cultivation needs.
The excess Spirit Crystals were even used to purchase auxiliary pills to accelerate your cultivation progress.
Among loose cultivator martial artists, you were living quite comfortably.
The twentieth year, age thirty-seven.
Your martial arts realm rose to the tenth layer of Spirit Gathering.
You were considering whether to cooperate with the Demon Slaying Division to hunt some stronger demonic tribes.
After all, what you wanted were demon souls;
it didn't matter if the materials from the demonic tribes' bodies were taken by them.
But upon careful thought, it wasn't very secure.
If someone discovered you had the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, the lightest consequence would be having it seized, the heaviest would be attracting a manhunt.
So you simply gave up on the idea.
The twenty-first year, age thirty-eight.
Your martial arts realm rose to the eleventh layer of Spirit Gathering.
The twenty-second year, age thirty-nine.
Your martial arts realm rose to the twelfth layer of Spirit Gathering.
The Spiritual Energy in your Twelve Main Meridians was fully cultivated.
You were about to launch an assault on the Soul Tempering realm.
The higher your martial arts realm, the harder it became to advance, but the demon souls you collected were also increasing, which actually balanced out the advancement speed.
Having wandered the martial world for five years, eliminating demons everywhere, you had gained some fame in the southern regions of Great Qian.
Because you cultivated the Heartflame Profound Art, more and more of your hair turned red, giving you a very distinct personal characteristic.
Some meddlesome loose cultivator martial artists gave you a nickname—the Red-Haired Demon Slayer!
Sometimes people would simply call you Red-Hair!
"That sounds terrible..."
Whenever you were discovered killing demons somewhere, and the commoners saw that distinctive strand of red hair on your head, they would chant in unison, "Red-Hair! Red-Hair!"
You would awkwardly give them a metaphorical three-bedroom apartment and then quickly slip away.
"Red-Haired Hero not only acts chivalrously and fears no demons or monsters! After eliminating threats for us, he doesn't demand any reward, doesn't even say a word!"
Over these years, you traveled east and west, battling wits and courage with the demonic tribes.
However, sometimes, people are more dangerous than demons.
You often sold demonic tribe materials in martial artists' marketplaces. Even though you were already on guard, only visiting a marketplace once, you were still targeted by some people with ill intentions.
On an official road at night, you rode a horse towards the Divine Arms County in Ling Province, where many people skilled in forging Spirit Artifacts resided.
Over the years, you had saved up some Spirit Crystals, planning to forge a better body for the Ten Thousand Souls Banner so it could exert greater power.
"Red-Hair? Please stop!"
Along the way, five martial artists blocked your path.
You had Photographic Memory, so you remembered these people.
When you were selling demonic tribe materials in the martial artists' marketplace, these people were near you.
"Esteemed warriors, what advice do you have?"
These five people got straight to the point.
"Spirit Crystals aren't easy to earn. We'd like to borrow some from you, brother. You just earned quite a bit;
a single golden bull horn sold for five hundred low-grade Spirit Crystals."
"We're all loose cultivator martial artists;
we won't make things too difficult for you. Just give us eight or nine hundred."
"You sold so many Spirit Crystals, yet we didn't see you carrying a very large bundle. Could it be you also have a storage-type Spirit Artifact? Hand that over as well!"
You sat on your horse, arms crossed over your chest, unable to hold back a laugh.
"Robbery, huh?"
The other party was shameless.
"Robbery sounds so harsh. It's borrowing. We'll return it to you after you die."
You smiled.
"Alright, I'll lend it. I'll lend it to you after you die."
The faces of the five opponents turned ugly.
"You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit! Three of us five are at the Soul Tempering realm. Let's see how you resist!"
For loose cultivator martial artists to reach the Soul Tempering realm was indeed quite impressive.
They dared to act because they knew your realm wouldn't exceed Soul Tempering.
Unfortunately, you didn't take these people seriously at all.
Opponents that didn't even trigger your Spider Sense, what threat could they pose?
You looked around, confirming there was no one else nearby. With a flip of your palm, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner appeared in your hand.
The pitch-black banner surface seethed with black mist, and gusts of Yin wind rose from the ground.
"What is this?"
These five people weren't very knowledgeable;
they didn't recognize the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, but they instinctively sensed danger.
"All demons, heed my command! Take them out!"
At your command, dozens of demon souls swarmed out from the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. They wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves, their faces ferocious!
"Mother!!"
Those five people were scared out of their wits on the spot.
Two of them, perhaps more afraid of ghosts, even wet themselves.
These demon souls could attack people, but people, lacking specific means to deal with spiritual entities, couldn't hit them back.
One could say it was quite shameless.
Moreover, the demon souls weren't limited to simple ordinary attacks;
they could still use the demonic arts they possessed in life.
The Ten Thousand Souls Banner's refining of spiritual entities actually had two meanings for "refine" and "transform."
"Transform" meant slowly melting the spiritual entity into Soul Power for feedback purposes.
"Refine" was more like a summoner, training the spiritual entity into a controllable soul servant that could be commanded to fight outside the banner.
For demons with relatively formidable combat power, you had the Ten Thousand Souls Banner "refine" them;
for weaker ones, you had it "transform" them.
Now, with a single move from you, it was a righteous gang-up.
Even if the other side had three at Soul Tempering, even if they had five or ten at the Soul Tempering realm, you could crush them with your multitude of demon souls.
Therefore, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's combat power operated in a snowballing form.
The more and stronger the spiritual entities contained within it!
This was also the reason why demonic cultivators like Old Liu, after obtaining the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, would slaughter villages and cities at the slightest provocation.
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