490: Chapter 490 Tension

With a flash of black light, a mysterious black banner floated before Liu Xuan, its chilling aura roiling as if accompanied by the sounds of ghostly wailing.

The Ten Thousand Soul Banner was a Tier 4 Top-Grade Soul Dao Acquired Spirit Treasure, with a pole made of Nine-Nether Soul-Suppressing Wood, a banner made of Nascent Soul corpse skin, and a Soul-Guiding Bead as its core.

The surface of the banner churned with Yin Qi, displaying images of skulls, ghost patterns, and chains. The pole was embedded with seventy-two Soul-Locking Nails, and the top was crowned with a deep black Soul-Guiding Bead, looking extremely ghastly.

【 Ten Thousand Soul Banner: Tier 4 Top-Grade Acquired Spirit Treasure, capable of gathering Yin Qi, capturing and refining souls, manifesting ghost realms, eroding life force... 】

"Ten Thousand Soul Banner, Ten Thousand Soul Banner, but where are the ghosts?"

Liu Xuan checked it carefully; apart from the yin fiend energy inside, there wasn't a single ghost in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.

The strength of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner lay in the countless powerful ghosts it held captive. When ten thousand ghosts emerged together, they would create a monstrous ghost realm that suppressed Divine Souls.

A Ten Thousand Soul Banner possessing a powerful main soul and thousands of ghost soldiers was a supreme treasure of the Soul Dao, belonging to the very top tier of Tier 4 Peak-Grade Acquired Spirit Treasures.

But without a single ghost, it was merely an ordinary Tier 4 High Grade Acquired Spirit Treasure that could absorb yin fiend energy and suppress yin spirits, and it was also very easily countered.

"Where am I supposed to get so many ghosts to fill it with?" Liu Xuan said helplessly.

Ghosts were very special; they weren't simply formed after a person or Cultivator died. Instead, they required a place of yin fiend energy, as well as the resentment and obsessions of living beings.

Most powerful ghost Cultivators were also Cultivators in their previous lives, but they developed new spiritual intelligence; they were completely different individuals.

Therefore, ghost Cultivators were not Cultivators who had switched paths, but rather special beings bred under specific conditions.

Ghost Cultivators were inherently flawed. Although their methods were strange and unpredictable, they were extremely easily countered and often hid in dark, gloomy places.

Some ghost-path Sects utilized this to refine living beings into ghosts, using flesh and blood to strengthen them and driving ghost slaves to commit evil.

After the ancient era ended, the Dao Court classified all ghost-path Sects as evil Sects, to be eradicated by everyone.

Every ghost-path Sect was either wiped out or forced to hide in dark corners, and even if they had a Legacy, it was only considered low-class.

Although ghost Cultivators were suppressed, ghosts had always existed. As long as there were places of yin fiend energy in the world, ghosts could never be fully eradicated.

The previous Peach Blossom Sect was a place where ghosts were active. The Bone Fiend Sect, which Liu Xuan had once occupied, had members who were half-composed of yin spirits and evil ghosts back then.

The Peach Blossom Sect was located on the border between the Human Race and the Yao Race, providing the exact environment that various demons and ghosts loved.

However, ever since the Beast Taming Sect attacked, the yin spirits had been crushed and countered by the army fiends, and they had long since fled.

It was said that deep in the Yao Race territory to the south, there was a massive natural yin fiend location called the 'Black Death Marsh', and most of the yin spirits and evil ghosts had fled there.

Ghosts were active in the Peach Blossom Sect, and many were even members of the Sect, but the Peach Blossom Sect was not a ghost-path Sect and had little control over those ghosts. Once the war started, they had slipped away one after another.

"Forget it! I can't just go running off to some Black Death Marsh just to collect ghosts, right?"

The Ten Thousand Soul Banner could still be used without ghost soldiers; at the very least, it could be used to gather yin fiend energy to replicate the underground yin fiend hall of Bone Fiend City.

With the Dao Court suppressing ghost-path Sects, the risk of using something like the Ten Thousand Soul Banner was very high, even if it were complete. It was not suitable for public use for the time being.

"It's fine! At least it has some use."

Consoling himself, Liu Xuan stored the Ten Thousand Soul Banner into his Sea of Consciousness, planning to take a trip to Bone Fiend City when he had time to collect the underground yin fiend energy that had accumulated there for hundreds of years.

"The Yin Yang Harmony Transformation Grand Formation also needs to be modified to incorporate the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, to increase the effect of yin fiend Body Tempering."

The total amount of yin fiend energy in the Bone Fiend City's yin fiend hall was high, but the quality was low, and it had almost no effect on Foundation Establishment Body Cultivators.

Eldest Son, Dao Ming, Ling Hui... they had all been practicing the simplified version of the Kunpeng Swallowing Heaven Body Refining Method. Increasing the tempering effect of the yin fiend hall would be of great help to them.

With no major events, just a pile of trivial matters, Liu Xuan wasn't in a hurry. He would take it slow, treating it as a pastime for when he was bored.

Several days passed. Liu Xuan hadn't done anything, spending his time solely appreciating the female students from the academy that his fifth Senior Brother, Song Shulian, had brought over.

The women of this academy were truly different—gentle and knowledgeable, with an air of scholarly refinement. Even if they were green-tea gold-diggers on the inside, what they displayed was still poetic and elegant, with a temperament like an orchid.

Liu Xuan loved to read and was full of thirst for knowledge. Naturally, he couldn't let such an opportunity for learning pass him by.

"Master, Dao Hong is in the guest hall in the front courtyard with his two sons. Should you go over now, or should I have him wait?" Xiao Shuang (Younger Twin)'s voice rang out at the door.

"You all continue your self-study. I will check on you later!"

After instructing the female students, Liu Xuan stood up and walked toward the front courtyard.

Descendants of the Liu Family had to be brought in to be recorded in the spirit treasure genealogy upon birth, and must be brought before Liu Xuan to be seen before they turned one year old; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to receive Family benefits.

Liu Xuan didn't have the energy to spend time with his grandchildren, but he at least had to see them. He wasn't a heartless or ungrateful person; he simply couldn't care for everyone.

Guest Hall.

When Liu Xuan entered, his nineteenth son, Dao Hong, was sitting respectfully in the guest seat below, with two young female Cultivators beside him, each holding an infant.

Nineteen-year-old Dao Hong was forty-two this year, and his cultivation had just broken through to the seventh level of Qi Refining, advancing to the Late Qi Refining Stage. In the Red Pine Sect, he could still be considered a Genius, but among his peers, he was just one of those at the bottom.

After years of living in luxury in the Red Pine Sect, Dao Hong had put on a bit of weight and had acquired the worldliness and vulgarity of a middle-aged man.

Liu Xuan still looked like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth, while his son looked like a middle-aged man. In the eyes of Mortals without Divine Sense, it was perfectly normal to mistake them for each other.

"Greetings, Father!"

Dao Hong stood up and bowed deeply, and the two young female Cultivators hurriedly followed suit.

After bowing, the two women didn't dare to raise their heads. This 'Father' of theirs was no ordinary person—he was the Master of the Liu Family, a super big shot who sat on equal footing with Nascent Soul True Lords!

With their status, they rarely even saw Foundation Establishment Ancestors, let alone Golden Core True Persons, who were high and unreachable existences. And yet, in this Liu Mansion, it was said there were several Nascent Soul True Lords.

Liu Xuan looked at the two daughters-in-law who were keeping their heads lowered. He had a slight impression of one of them—she was Dao Hong's first wife, the mother of his eldest grandson, Liu Yifan.

He hadn't seen the other one before; she must be a Concubine the kid had taken in recent years. The young girl was quite pretty, with above-average looks, but she seemed excessively nervous, with cold sweat already forming on her forehead.

'Am I really that scary?!'

Liu Xuan didn't believe he had ever done anything heinous, and his reputation had always been quite good.

'But it's normal. In the Cultivation World, it's quite normal for a lower-level Cultivator to be nervous when meeting a higher-level Cultivator for the first time.'

"Hmm?!!"

A moment later, when Liu Xuan extracted a wisp of Divine Soul from the two children to record them into the spirit treasure genealogy, he was instantly dumbfounded!

Among the two infants, one of them, damn it, was not a descendant of the Liu Family!!