Chapter 575: What Ten Thousand Souls Banner? This is My Star Banner.

Chapter 575: Chapter 575: What Ten Thousand Souls Banner? This is My Star Banner.

The shadow of death hung over the three of them like a heavy, leaden cloud.

The Primordial Sect’s Foundation Establishment Daoist Master had the upper hand, and he naturally intended to drive his enemies to their deaths.

But who wanted to die?

"Xu... Xu Yunfan!"

Zhao Moyang coughed up bloody foam, his voice hoarse. His eyes were filled with terror and indignation as he stared fixedly at the imposing, unmovable figure at the center of the Thunderbolt.

If he could, he would have committed suicide without hesitation to reincarnate. But Thunderbolt was a natural counter to the Divine Soul. Besides, within his opponent’s Array Formation, it was impossible for his Divine Soul to shed its mortal coil and for his True Spirit to escape into the Sea of Reincarnation.

He had clearly seen his opponent’s two Cause and Effect Secret Techniques before, especially the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman, which the man wielded with considerable skill.

’There’s no escape. The more I run, the faster I’ll die.’

Moreover, this was the Celestial Realm, not the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm where one could escape into the Sea of Reincarnation.

"You can’t kill us! We are all Primordial Sect Disciples! We serve under True Monarch Pu Du! If you strike a killing blow, the True Monarch’s Divine Thought Reaches Heaven and he will surely sense it.

When that time comes, the True Monarch will call you to account, and your fate will be a hundred times more miserable than ours!"

He roared with all his might, trying to play his last trump card.

Xu Yunfan stood at the core of the Thunder Array, wreathed in violet lightning like a Deity commanding the Thunderbolt.

He looked down upon the three dying figures, his handsome face devoid of any emotion, showing only cold indifference.

The corner of his mouth curled into a faint, cold smirk, carrying an almost imperceptible trace of mockery.

"Senior Brother, have you forgotten we’re Primordial Sect Disciples? Surely you know the nature of our Sect, don’t you?"

As he spoke, his fingers danced like butterflies. The two Secret Techniques within him—the Green Dragon Thunder Pearl Locking Tribulation and Calming Fortune Technique and the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman—instantly activated to their absolute limit.

A subtle stream of gray energy and fine, serpentine Cyan Dragon Thunder Patterns flowed across his skin before silently merging into the void.

In that instant, the already tenuous connection between him and the trio, along with the last lingering traces of their karmic aura on the battlefield, faded and distorted like dewdrops cast into the blazing sun, until they were nearly undetectable.

"So-called sect-mates."

Xu Yunfan’s voice was flat and emotionless.

"Senior Brother Zhao, this is not the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm. Here, you were struck down and had your souls scattered by a Daoist Master Level enemy from the Celestial Realm... What has that to do with me?"

’Death in the outside world means forgetting about Reincarnation.’

He paused slightly, then slowly continued, "Rest easy, the three of you. Your junior brother... won’t strike a killing blow."

Hearing this, the tension in Zhao Moyang’s Heart and Spirit, stretched taut like a bowstring, suddenly snapped, and he nearly collapsed from relief.

’As long as I don’t die... even if I’m grievously injured, crippled, or utterly humiliated...’

’...it’s better than having my soul scattered to the winds.’

’As long as I’m alive, there’s hope.’

The hopeful thought had not even fully formed in his mind when he saw Xu Yunfan slap his own navel with the back of his hand.

SWISH!

A streak of black light shot out, swelling as it met the air.

In an instant, it transformed into a jet-black banner about ten feet tall.

The staff was neither metal nor wood, and it was ice-cold to the touch. It was impossible to tell what material it was forged from, but faint blood-red patterns were hidden within it.

The banner’s surface was black as ink, so deep it seemed to swallow all light. It was composed of countless squirming, microscopic dark vortexes that emanated a chilling and avaricious aura capable of freezing the very soul.

Looking closer, one could see innumerable specks of light twinkling faintly against the deep black background. They were dim, yet shone with a malevolent, cold glint, as if a defiled galaxy had been refined into the banner.

The moment this banner appeared, an invisible, intangible, yet incredibly heavy and malevolent gravitational force that sought to rip and tear souls apart instantly filled the entire space of the Heaven-locking Array.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

This banner, originally plundered from someone else and used by Xu Yunfan as an auxiliary Magical Artifact, was a Demon Banner. After being tempered with his vast Magical Power and Essence Blood, and refined with his highly skilled Artifact Refining techniques, it was a far cry from what it once was.

It had been refined using the All Heaven Star Monarch’s Dominating Slaughter Secret Manual, a text he had spent years of accumulated Contribution Points to redeem from the Primordial Sect.

Now, it was unequivocally a top-tier treasure of the Demon Dao.

However, while it was a treasure of the Demon Dao, its form could be altered.

Looking at the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which was billowing with Black Qi, Xu Yunfan gave the staff a slight shake. The Black Banner instantly transformed. The Black Qi dispersed, turning into the boundless Power of Stars, with infinite Starlight glittering within.

"Fellow sect-mates, the Yellow Springs Road is long and lonely. Since you don’t wish to die, why not join your junior brother inside this banner for a chat?"

Xu Yunfan grasped the icy staff, a gentle smile on his face, but his eyes were as cold as Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice. His tone was as casual as if he were inviting old friends for tea.

’If I really let these three go, I wouldn’t be able to eat or sleep in peace.’

In the eyes of Zhao Moyang and the others, that smile was more terrifying than the sneer of a fiend from the Nine Netherworld.

"What?!"

"The Ten Thousand Souls Banner?!!"

Xu Yunfan corrected him, "This isn’t the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. It’s the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner I specially refined. Once you enter, Senior Brother, you can naturally become a Star Monarch in the future."

"Bullshit!"

The sliver of hope that had just risen in Zhao Moyang’s heart was instantly drowned by boundless terror and fury.

His eyes looked as if they would split from their sockets, and he used every last ounce of his remaining strength to roar.

"Xu Yunfan!!! You dare!!"

Not a trace of color remained on Leng Yuehua’s icy face, only extreme terror.

To be absorbed into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner meant eternal enslavement to the Demon Banner, to have one’s Divine Soul endlessly eroded day and night by the power of Resentful Fiends, with no escape and no reincarnation, until one was either completely annihilated or utterly refined and controlled by a new master.

This was a fate thousands, tens of thousands of times more terrifying than death.

"No!!"

A shriek so shrill it was distorted burst from her lips—a sound of utter despair.

They were now fish on the chopping block. Unless they truly disregarded everything, courted death, and detonated their Dao Foundations with their Magical Power, the consequences were foreseeable.

But Primordial Sect Disciples would not give up their lives so easily if they had a chance to live.

Sun Qishan was mad with rage, struggling to his feet regardless of the wounds tearing open all over his body.

"You bastard! You want to refine me into a vengeful spirit in your banner?! Even if I become a ghost, I’ll...!"

Xu Yunfan couldn’t be bothered to listen to any more nonsense.

With a flick of his wrist, the ten-foot-long banner flapped loudly in the wind.

BOOM!

A low, hollow boom, as if originating from the depths of the Nine Netherworld, rippled out from the banner’s surface.

The dense specks of starlight suddenly glowed with a ghastly green light. A wave of endless, wretched howls and venomous curses, like a physical soundwave, battered the trio’s Divine Souls.

"Absorb!"

Xu Yunfan softly uttered the True Words as he formed a Spell with his hand and pointed it at the three figures.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner—no, the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner—erupted with brilliant Starlight.

The ink-black surface of the banner trembled violently, as if the giant maw of a Taotie had suddenly snapped open.

An irresistible and overwhelming suction force manifested from thin air, aimed directly at the three on the ground.

"Ah!"

"No! True Monarch Pu Du won’t let you get away with this—argh..."

"Xu... Yun... fan!"

Desperate curses and wails echoed through the air.

The residual Profound Yin Qi around Zhao Moyang was forcibly ripped away and devoured like smoke, while his Magic Robe was torn apart by an unseen force.

His Essence Blood, Magical Power, and even his very flesh and skin—all nurtured for hundreds of years—began to disintegrate. They transformed into pure streams of black and crimson energy that enveloped the terrified, contorted shadow of his Divine Soul, which was sucked, wailing, toward the banner’s deep maw.