[You killed five martial artists who tried to rob you. With a wave of the Myriad Soul Banner, their souls were also sucked inside.]
["Let us out! You damn demonic cultivator!"]
[Watching the faces of those five people struggling on the surface of the banner, you revealed a hint of a villainous smile.]
["Thanks for the martial artist souls, my five good bros! I, Red Hair, gladly accept them! Hahaha!"]
[The Myriad Soul Banner spoke up at an inappropriate moment.]
["Didn't you say you disliked the nickname 'Red Hair'?"]
["Ahem, I don't need you to remind me!"]
[Times were hard, and morality had decayed. Traveling abroad, this was not the first time you had encountered something like this.]
[Although you couldn't trigger the "Biological Father" trait in front of humans, once the Myriad Soul Banner was brought out, you were still their daddy.]
[Unless the robbers' cultivation realms were too high, in which case you could only admit defeat.]
[Then again, true experts wouldn't lower their status just for a few hundred crystal stones.]
[You indeed didn't carry a large bundle on you, so where did you keep your crystal stones?]
[The answer was, the Myriad Soul Banner.]
[This thing also had the effect of a spatial storage artifact, allowing you to put some items inside.]
[However, you could only store items with relatively stable properties; otherwise, they would be corrupted by the demonic aura inside the Myriad Soul Banner.]
[Crystal stones could barely be put inside, but they couldn't be left there for too long.]
[Every time you left them inside for too long, you would find that the numbers never matched up when you checked the accounts with the Myriad Soul Banner.]
["I clearly put five hundred in."]
["No, it was four hundred and fifty."]
["You stole them."]
["Ha! How is that possible? I am a grand immortal artifact. Would I steal your broken stones?"]
[These were the usual lines exchanged between the two of you.]
[The twenty-third year. You were forty years old.]
[You arrived at Divine Weapon City, the provincial capital of Divine Weapon Commandery in Lingzhou.]
[This was a special city.]
[Rumor had it that there was originally no city here. Many years ago, an old master skilled in artifact refinement settled down in this place.]
[As a result, some people came to become his apprentices and learn the craft, while others came to ask the old master or his disciples to refine artifacts for them.]
[With the increasing number of people coming and going, this area became bustling and gradually developed into a large city.]
[Later, the old master's disciples formed a unique martial artist faction, the Divine Weapon Pavilion, which specialized in the art of forging spiritual artifacts.]
[The city was then renamed Divine Weapon City.]
[Even the commandery it was located in was renamed Divine Weapon Commandery.]
[And this Divine Weapon Pavilion was now the strongest faction within the Five Regions, being one of the eight martial arts sects known as the Eight Pillars of the Five Regions.]
[Your crystal stones were limited, so you didn't dare to extravagantly hope to hire a top-tier artifact refiner from the Divine Weapon Pavilion to forge the Myriad Soul Banner for you.]
[But Divine Weapon City didn't just have the Divine Weapon Pavilion as its sole artifact refinement sect nowadays. There were also many second and third-rate minor sects whose fees were much cheaper.]
[The Hidden Weapon Tower was one of them.]
[Feng Mo, a seemingly young disciple of the Hidden Weapon Tower, fell deep into thought after looking at the blueprint of the Myriad Soul Banner you handed him.]
["This thing of yours, what is it called again?"]
["The Demon Subduing Banner!"]
["Is it?"]
[The more Feng Mo looked at it, the more he felt that this thing resembled the Myriad Soul Banner mentioned in ancient texts.]
[Of course it looked similar, because the blueprint was provided by the Myriad Soul Banner itself.]
[The Myriad Soul Banner knew that you currently lacked the resources to restore its true body and could only make a low-end version, so the blueprint it provided wasn't exactly identical to its actual self.]
[If it were completely identical, Feng Mo would have determined on the spot that you were here to forge an evil artifact.]
[Proper artifact refiners like them were not allowed to make evil artifacts.]
[As the world's largest sect of artifact refiners, the Divine Weapon Pavilion also bore the responsibility of supervising all artifact refiners in the world.]
["What quality are you aiming for?"]
["Preferably high-tier, but mid-tier is acceptable too."]
["Are you providing your own materials?"]
["Yes."]
["Only one set?"]
["I only want to make one."]
["But there is a chance of failure in artifact refinement. You only have one set of materials. In case of a mistake, will you just give up, or will you purchase materials from us?"]
["Uh... if there's a mistake, will you refund my refinement fee?"]
["Of course not."]
["Then wait a moment."]
[To be safe, you decided to save up some more crystal stones before coming back for the forging.]
["Oh, middle-aged man thirsting for power, are you short on crystal stones? There is a small woods ten miles outside the city. Just squat there, and you'll have some!"]
[A leopard cannot change its spots; the Myriad Soul Banner urged you to go rob people.]
[Actually, robbing wasn't completely out of the question.]
[But you were now the somewhat famous demon-slayer, Red Hair!]
[You had a bit of an image to maintain.]
[Anyway, killing demons was extremely easy for you, and earning crystal stones using demon materials wasn't slow either.]
["In the blink of an eye, I've reached middle age again. As for my cultivation realm..."]
[The bigger problem now was that your cultivation realm was stuck at the twelfth level of the Spirit Gathering Realm.]
["Breaking through to a major realm is not easy, and mental cultivation methods are much harder than external and internal martial arts."]
[The Soul Tempering Realm required cultivating the third of a martial artist's three vital energies—Essence Energy!]
[The cultivation technique used for this was called a mental cultivation method.]
[Among the high-tier cultivation techniques you brought out from the Crimson Heart Sect, there was a high-tier mental cultivation method called the "Azure Flame Mental Mantra".]
[You had been studying it for a while now, but you still hadn't grasped the basics. It felt much harder than any of the cultivation techniques you had learned before.]
[Not knowing if it was because the quality was too high, you were considering whether to switch to a lower-quality one to practice first.]
["Oh, middle-aged man stuck at a bottleneck, do you need my help?"]
["You're full of wicked ideas. Can you really help me break through?"]
["Soul Tempering, Soul Tempering. Don't you think this is my area of expertise?"]
["Oh... that makes sense. What's your method?"]
["The Myriad Soul Empowerment Array!"]
[The Myriad Soul Banner explained it in detail.]
[It roughly required the following items.]
[First, at least ten thousand souls needed to be stored in the Myriad Soul Banner. It was referring to mortal souls; if they were demon souls, it wouldn't need that many, a few hundred would be enough.]
[Second, find someone who knew how to set up arrays to lay out a Myriad Soul Empowerment Array. If the other party didn't know what this array was, the Myriad Soul Banner could provide a complete set of solutions.]
[Third, a large amount of crystal stones. Array formations could not function without crystal stones, and the Myriad Soul Empowerment Array consumed an especially large amount of them.]
[Fourth, the main body of the Myriad Soul Banner had to be at least a mid-tier spiritual artifact. Currently, it was just a tattered banner used for sweeping graves, which definitely wouldn't do.]
[As long as this array was activated and you could withstand the impact of a massive number of souls rushing into your body within a short period while inside the array, the door to the Soul Tempering Realm would naturally open for you.]
["Mainly, it's because your innate talent is poor, kid, otherwise it wouldn't be this troublesome. But you should also be thankful that I'm here, or else you would never reach the Soul Tempering Realm in this lifetime."]
[You ignored the Myriad Soul Banner's attempt to elevate itself by putting you down.]
["Crystal stones and souls aren't difficult to get. By slowly killing demons, I can save them all up. Refining a new main body is also a problem that can be solved with 'money'. So that means I just need to kidnap an array master."]
[You suddenly jolted in shock.]
[Oh no, I've been led astray by this Myriad Soul Banner guy!]
[It's "invite," not "kidnap."]
[Therefore, the immediate priority remains the same: hunt demons and trade their materials for spirit crystals.]
[With enough spirit crystals, any problem can be solved.]
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
