Soaring to the Peak of Spirit Gathering

【"Is this it? I don't feel like my cultivation has improved at all!"】

【"It doesn't happen that fast, buddy! Refining takes time, and the quantity is too small! Look at those villagers outside—they are utterly ignorant, a waste of food while alive. Kill them! Slaughter them all!"】

【"Stop trying to set me up. The Great Qian Dynasty might be rotten to the core, but it hasn't reached the point of complete lawlessness yet."】

【The Myriad Soul Banner had started trying to corrupt you again.】

【Unfortunately for it, this was completely useless against your golden trait.】

【You could even hear a trace of helplessness in the Myriad Soul Banner's tone, as if it were complaining about how completely incorruptible you were.】

【"Then again, demon souls are indeed much stronger than mortal souls, and the refinement effects are way better. Damn it! Why did my previous masters only know how to kill mortals? What a bunch of pig-heads!"】

【"Isn't it just because mortals are easier to bully?"】

【However, in your case, thanks to the 'Father of Foreign Races' trait, the demon race was actually the easier target to bully.】

【Year 18, 35 years old.】

【Carrying the Myriad Soul Banner, you tracked down demonic auras and traveled around slaying demons and eradicating evil.】

【Because demonic auras allowed you to gauge a demon's strength, you almost never bit off more than you could chew.】

【As the number of demon souls within the Myriad Soul Banner grew, the rate at which it fed cultivation back to you became faster and faster.】

【Year 19, 36 years old.】

【Your martial arts realm advanced to the ninth level of Spirit Gathering.】

【Certain demon body parts, such as horns, scales, and claws, could fetch a handsome price at martial artist markets.】

【Martial artist markets used crystal stones for transactions, not silver.】

【By selling demon materials, you earned quite a few crystal stones, enough to sustain your daily cultivation needs.】

【You even used the surplus crystal stones to buy supplementary pills to accelerate your cultivation progress.】

【Among rogue martial artists, you were living quite comfortably.】

【Year 20, 37 years old.】

【Your martial arts realm advanced to the tenth level of Spirit Gathering.】

【You considered whether or not to cooperate with the Demon Slaying Division to hunt down some stronger demons.】

【After all, what you wanted were the demon souls; it wouldn't matter if they took the physical materials from the demons.】

【But on second thought, it didn't seem safe.】

【If someone discovered you possessed the Myriad Soul Banner, at best, it would be snatched away; at worst, it would draw fatal pursuit.】

【You simply dropped the idea.】

【Year 21, 38 years old.】

【Your martial arts realm advanced to the eleventh level of Spirit Gathering.】

【Year 22, 39 years old.】

【Your martial arts realm advanced to the twelfth level of Spirit Gathering.】

【You had finished cultivating the spiritual energy in your Twelve Principal Meridians.】

【You were now ready to push toward the Soul Quenching Realm.】

【The further you progressed in martial arts, the harder it was to advance. However, the increasing number of demon souls you collected balanced out your cultivation speed.】

【Having roamed the martial world for five years, slaying demons far and wide, you had actually built up quite a reputation in the southern regions of the Great Qian Dynasty.】

【Because your cultivation of the Profound Heart Flame Art caused more and more of your hair to turn red, your physical appearance was highly distinct.】

【Some nosy rogue martial artists gave you a nickname: Red-Haired Demon Slayer!】

【Sometimes, people would just shorten it to Red Hair!】

【"That sounds awful..."】

【Whenever people caught you slaying demons in a certain area, the commoners would spot that distinctively vibrant red hair on your head and chant in unison, "Red Hair! Red Hair!"】

【You cringed so hard your toes could have dug out a three-bedroom apartment, and you quickly slipped away.】

【"The great hero Red Hair not only upholds justice and fears no demons, but he also asks for no reward after eliminating threats for us—he doesn't even say a word!"】

【Over the past few years, you had traveled far and wide, battling wits and courage with the demon race.】

【However, sometimes, humans were far more dangerous than demons.】

【Because you frequently sold demon materials in martial artist markets, even though you took precautions by only visiting a market once, you were still targeted by individuals with malicious intentions.】

【On a dark official road at night, you were riding your horse toward the Divine Weapon Commandery in Ling Province, a place home to many experts in forging spirit artifacts.】

【You had saved up some crystal stones over the years and planned to forge a better physical vessel for the Myriad Soul Banner, allowing it to unleash even greater power.】

【"Red Hair? Please hold on a moment!"】

【Along the way, five martial artists blocked your path.】

【You had the 'Photographic Memory' trait, so you remembered these people.】

【When you were selling your demon materials in the martial artist market, these guys had been standing right near you.】

【"Gentlemen, what can I do for you?"】

【The five men cut straight to the chase.】

【"Crystal stones are hard to come by, so we wanted to borrow some from you, brother. You just made quite a fortune—a single Golden Bull horn sold for five hundred low-grade crystal stones."】

【"We are all rogue martial artists here, so we won't make things difficult for you. Just hand over eight or nine hundred, and we'll call it even."】

【"You sold so much, yet we don't see you carrying a large bundle. Could it be you have a spatial storage artifact? If so, hand that over too!"】

【Sitting on your horse with your arms crossed over your chest, you couldn't help but laugh out loud.】

【"So, this is a robbery?"】

【The other party was completely shameless.】

【"Robbery sounds so unpleasant. It's a loan. We'll return it to you after you're dead."】

【You smiled.】

【"Alright, I'll lend it to you. I'll lend it to you after you're dead."】

【The expressions of the five men turned ugly.】

【"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Three of our five are in the Soul Quenching Realm. Let's see how you fend us off!"】

【For rogue martial artists to reach the Soul Quenching Realm was indeed quite impressive.】

【They dared to make a move because they knew your realm couldn't possibly be higher than the Soul Quenching Realm.】

【Unfortunately for them, you didn't take these people seriously at all.】

【What kind of threat could opponents pose if they didn't even trigger your 'Spider-Sense'?】

【You looked around to ensure there was no one else nearby. With a flip of your palm, the Myriad Soul Banner appeared in your hand.】

【Black mist surged across the pitch-black banner, and gusts of eerie, chilling wind rose from the ground.】

【"What is that?"】

【These five men lacked experience and didn't recognize the Myriad Soul Banner, but they instinctively sensed danger.】

【"Demons, heed my command! Kill them!"】

【With your order, dozens of demon souls swarmed out of the Myriad Soul Banner, wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves, their faces twisted in hideous expressions!】

【"Mommy!!"】

【The five men were instantly terrified out of their wits.】

【Two of them, who were perhaps more afraid of ghosts, even wet themselves.】

【These demon souls could physically attack humans, but unless humans possessed specific methods to deal with spiritual bodies, they couldn't land a hit on the souls.】

【You could say it was basically cheating.】

【Furthermore, the demon souls didn't just rely on simple physical attacks; they could still use the demonic spells they knew in life.】

【When the Myriad Soul Banner refined souls, the process actually had two different functions: 'tempering' and 'assimilating.'】

【'Assimilating' meant slowly melting the soul into pure soul power to feed back to the user.】

【'Tempering' was akin to a summoner's ability, training the soul into an obedient servant that could be commanded to emerge from the banner and fight.】

【For demons with fierce combat prowess, you had the Myriad Soul Banner 'temper' them, while the weaker ones were 'assimilated.'】

【Now, whenever you made a move, it was a righteous gang beatdown.】

【Never mind three Soul Quenching Realm opponents—even if there were five or ten of them, you could still crush them with your sheer number of demon souls.】

【Therefore, the combat power of the Myriad Soul Banner snowballed over time.】

【The more souls it contained, the stronger it became!】

【This was exactly why demonic cultivators like Old Liu, upon acquiring the Myriad Soul Banner, would so readily slaughter entire villages and cities.】