Chu Xuan chuckled lightly, then with a flicker, he arrived at Blue Star— it had vast numbers of zombies in the wild. Slaying through the hordes would quickly amass hundreds of thousands of souls.
Driven by hunger, these souls would battle each other, and the survivors would ascend as ghost soldiers. Within less than a day, Chu Xuan had accomplished his task, capturing four hundred thousand souls within his Grand Soul Banner.
All that remained was to wait for ghost soldiers to emerge from these souls.
Several days passed.
Chu Xuan scanned with his spiritual sense, nodding in satisfaction. It was done. His efforts had yielded one hundred and fifty thousand ghost soldiers, ample for nurturing a Yin Soul Bamboo to nine inches.
Near a zombie farm, Chu Xuan found a small mound and buried a bamboo shoot there. His storage bag was already filled with similar spiritual plants like Yin Soul Bamboo, ready for use whenever needed.
As for the growing environment—true powerhouses never complained about their surroundings. Even in a barren desert devoid of moisture, as long as there were enough ghostly souls, Yin Soul Bamboo could stubbornly sprout and grow.
Chu Xuan casually extracted a ghost soldier from the Grand Soul Banner. His spiritual sense formed a piercing needle, and with a casual stab, he threw it toward the bamboo shoot. He repeated this process with five ghost soldiers in total.
The bamboo shoot began to stir, taking root and sprouting. A young bamboo of a dark purple hue grew at a visible rate.
Chu Xuan smiled faintly, continuing to feed the Yin Soul Bamboo with ghost soldiers. After twenty or so were thrown, the leaves of the bamboo began to morph, resembling gaping maws full of sharp teeth!
Once Yin Soul Bamboo reached this stage, it no longer needed deliberate feeding; as long as ghostly souls were nearby, it would hunt on its own.
Sure enough, as soon as Chu Xuan threw another ghost soldier towards it, the surrounding leaves, snake-like, fixed their gaze on it. They snapped viciously, and in the blink of an eye, the ghost soldier was shredded into pieces, its essence absorbed as nutrients by the Yin Soul Bamboo.
Pleased with the progress, Chu Xuan nodded in satisfaction. He then summoned Bao from the Corpse Nurturing Tower, for another task or further cultivation activities, continuing his preparations for creating the Sky-Shielding Umbrella.
Having settled Bao with the task of feeding the Yin Soul Bamboo, Chu Xuan's attention now turned back to other matters. He returned to the rooftop of the Haotai Hotel on Blue Star.
There, he had yet to explore the storage bag of the Majestic Sword Sect female disciple he had encountered. For safety, he had chosen to open it on Blue Star.
"A direct disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator—perhaps there might be a small surprise inside," Chu Xuan mused as he prepared to delve into the contents of the storage bag. Rubbing his hands together, he first wiped away the spiritual imprint on the bag before opening it.
Instantly, a small sword of spiritual sense flew out, aiming straight for Chu Xuan's mind with a sharp whistle.
Chu Xuan's expression shifted slightly, and with a low shout, his own spiritual sense quickly condensed into a piercing needle to counter the attack.
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Clang!
The spiritual sword clashed against the piercing needle.
For a moment, the two forces were locked in a standstill, then suddenly the spiritual sword exploded into fragments. The invisible shockwave of spiritual sense swept outwards, instantly killing any small insects hiding in nearby crevices.
Chu Xuan frowned. "Thankfully, my spiritual sense is strong enough. Another Golden Core cultivator might have fallen for this trap."
"Shangguan Hao the Flying Dragon Sword, this must be his safeguard left in the disciple's storage bag," Chu Xuan huffed.
The disciple was devoured by a demonic beast, and I kindly took the storage bag to prevent the treasures from being lost. And yet, this is how it repays me. Utterly ungrateful!
Now more cautious, Chu Xuan probed the storage bag more thoroughly with his spiritual sense.
"So many medium spiritual stones? This certainly solves my immediate needs."
There were at least eight hundred medium spiritual stones, equivalent to eighty thousand small spiritual stones! Surprisingly, there were only about a thousand small spiritual stones.
Aside from the spirit stones, there were two magic treasures inside the bag. One was the "Evil-Suppressing Sword," a mid-grade magic treasure with offensive and flight capabilities. The other was a string of "Purple Jade Beads Necklace," a mid-grade magic treasure with offensive, defensive, and detoxification properties.
The Evil-Suppressing Sword, designed to suppress evil spirits and demons, was obviously unusable for Chu Xuan, who employed such beings himself. Using it would only harm his corpse puppet and ghost followers.
Given that the Majestic Sword Sect specialized in sword techniques, using the Evil-Suppressing Sword would make it easy for members of the sect to recognize and potentially track him.
However, the string of sixteen Purple Jade Beads presented an opportunity. If he re-crafted and altered their appearance, they could be useful. From a distance, they looked like ordinary beads; up close, they were clearly prayer beads.
"What's wrong with a high monk like myself using a string of purple jade prayer beads?" Chu Xuan mused.
Chu Xuan continued his search within the storage bag and discovered numerous spiritual sense jade slips from the Majestic Sword Sect, all containing cultivation techniques. There were six methods suitable for Golden Core cultivators and even two for Nascent Soul cultivators.
"Shangguan Hao really spared no effort in training his disciple," Chu Xuan mused, impressed by the range of powerful techniques stored within the bag. Since these techniques were of no use to him personally, he planned to assume another identity to trade them later.
"This is a jade slip with a map of the extraterritorial battlefield? Excellent!" he exclaimed, pleased with the find.
His interest piqued as he stumbled upon a unique jade slip detailing a method of Nascent Soul formation.
"'Mixed Essence Sword Soul Technique', a high-grade method for forming a Nascent Soul…" he read aloud. "It's of no use to me. Why didn't they prepare some Nascent Soul techniques suitable for me?"
Shaking his head in mild frustration, Chu Xuan turned the storage bag inside out to make sure nothing was missed. Then, he began the process of consecrating the Purple Jade Beads Necklace.
As he prepared to erase the spiritual marks with his powerful spiritual sense, he heard an indistinct roar coming from within the beads. It sounded like an angry rant or question, but the specifics were unintelligible.
"Perhaps it's a remnant will left by Shangguan Hao in the magic treasure?" he pondered. "To give a magic treasure to a female disciple but leave his own remnant will in it… intriguing."
Meanwhile, in Majestic City, Shangguan Hao retracted his Nascent Soul, his face ashen with fury. He had discovered that the murderer of Ning Yurong was attempting to consecrate the Purple Jade Beads Necklace.
Immediately, he projected his Nascent Soul, hoping to use the remnant will left on the beads to mark the murderer remotely—a trick to help him track the murderer later.
However, what shocked him was the vast distance, both metaphorical and literal, between him and the murderer. He couldn't discern any details about the other's true identity or location.
When the remnant will on the beads completely dissipated, he lost all means to determine the murderer's whereabouts, which enraged him even further.
"Damned be! Where is he exactly?" he roared. "He must be somewhere in the extraterritorial battlefield! It can't be anywhere else. I've even utilized the essence of my Nascent Soul, why can't I find him?"
Since his favorite disciple, Ning Yurong, fell on this battlefield in the western region, Shangguan Hao had been restless, haunted by her loss.