Chapter 576: All of You, Pray Enter the Banner

Chapter 576: Chapter 576: All of You, Pray Enter the Banner

Leng Yuehua’s silver dress disintegrated into fine ash, revealing her charred Dharma Body. Her black hair crumbled to dust, and her Divine Soul was forcibly stripped away. With a piercing, desperate shriek, it was pulled into the banner, and the last remnants of Ice Soul energy around her were greedily devoured.

Sun Qishan struggled the most violently, but his broken, grievously wounded body was like a candle flickering in the wind.

The knotted muscles on his body peeled away like melting wax. A thick, roiling torrent of baleful blood Essence Qi, mixed with his vital spirit and the essence of his flesh, formed a dark crimson flood. This torrent, along with the massive silhouette of his soul—roaring and howling with endless, tyrannical resentment—was mercilessly devoured by the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

The three cultivators’ flesh and bone dissolved. Their Essence Blood and Magical Power were completely devoured, their Divine Souls were forcefully stripped out and imprisoned, and they were absorbed, powerless to resist, into the pitch-black Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

The banner shuddered violently, as if a well-fed Fierce Beast had just let out a hearty belch.

On the banner’s surface, among the countless ghastly green motes of light, three more suddenly appeared.

One was dark, with the subtle luster of black jade. Another pulsed with an icy-blue Death Qi. The last was crimson as fire, its malevolent aura surging.

Witnessing this, a smile crept onto Xu Yunfan’s face. He casually scooped up their Storage Bags and other belongings, gave them a cursory glance, and then dismissed them from his mind.

Compared to the fortune Chu Chengnan had left behind, these three were practically paupers.

’Excellent. Once all three hundred and sixty-five stars are gathered, I can deploy the All Heaven Star Formation. And now, I’ve added three Foundation Establishment cultivators to serve as Star Monarchs.’

’Well, even the tallest tower starts from the ground up.’

At this thought, Xu Yunfan felt a pang of regret. He had killed Nezha too casually. If he had tossed his Divine Soul into the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner, the Soul Banner would have grown even more powerful.

The moment the three new stars were branded onto the banner, they were ensnared and imprisoned by the banner’s inherent Star Secret Power. They began to suffer the corrosion of Resentful Fiends and starlight, as well as the initial Refining process by the banner’s master.

Their consciousnesses remained, but they were utterly subjugated, becoming a new cohort of Divine Weapons and Celestial Generals within the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner. With their individuality gone, they merely awaited the banner’s master to finish refining and commanding them.

The air still reeked of scorched flesh, vaporized blood, and dissipating Magical Power.

Within the valley, apart from the Five Thunder Reverse Yuan Locking Heaven Formation—still spinning and contracting, its lightning now dim—all that remained was a scene of devastation, marked by scorches and stains on the ground.

The auras of the three Foundation Establishment Daoist Masters had vanished completely from this part of the world.

Xu Yunfan looked away and beckoned with his hand.

HUM!

The violet-blue Array Disc supporting the Heaven-locking Array retracted its glow and flew back into his palm, warm to the touch.

The Array Disc’s surface had dimmed significantly, and it was now covered in a fine web of cracks. Clearly, the recent burst had taken a heavy toll; one more use, and the Array Disc would certainly shatter on the spot.

But Xu Yunfan was quite satisfied with its performance.

Refining a reusable Array Disc required extremely rare Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, and he didn’t have any on hand.

He glanced at the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner in his hand, which was still trembling faintly. A pure radiance rippled across its surface. Black Qi billowed from within, but a vast, ocean-like starlight also surged, continuously cleansing the three Foundation Establishment True Cultivators.

"Not bad at all."

Xu Yunfan remarked, quite satisfied.

But from within the banner, Zhang Ziyang couldn’t help but interject, "What do you mean ’not bad’? I’ve spent the last few days carefully studying the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner, and Yunfan, I’m afraid there’s still room for improvement."

With that, Zhang Ziyang offered a number of suggestions on the spot, finally concluding, "If you could strip away their memories but leave their consciousness intact, this banner could one day become a Spiritual Treasure."

At this, Zhang Ziyang’s face flushed with excitement. He cultivated the Incense Fire God Path, and as the banner’s main spirit, he naturally hoped for such an outcome so it could grow ever greater and more powerful.

Xu Yunfan looked a little embarrassed. Though he gave a verbal assent, he changed the subject. "Sect Leader, are you sure you don’t want to come out? I could find a Heavenly and Earthly Treasure to forge an Innate Dao Body for you."

Zhang Ziyang was clearly tempted by the offer, but he ultimately shook his head. "I’m of greater use to you inside the banner, where I can regulate its various effects. Let’s revisit this when you become a True Monarch. Besides, this place is currently the best location for my own comprehension."

Xu Yunfan didn’t press the issue. A figure as brilliant as Zhang Ziyang naturally had his own reasons.

With a flip of his hand, he put away the All Heaven Star Spirit Banner.

After doing all this, Xu Yunfan finally raised his head, his gaze turning toward the shattered heavens above.

The vista of the Celestial Court, hanging high in the firmament, was now alarmingly clear.

The South Heavenly Gate—once majestic and inviolable, coalesced from pure light and auspicious mists—had now completely collapsed.

Enormous, red-lacquered stone pillars carved with coiling dragons lay broken and toppled. The magnificent, ornate gatehouse looked as if it had been smashed by an invisible giant hand. It had shattered into countless massive chunks of stone, burning with either pure light or the flames of Demon Qi. These fragments now drifted aimlessly, blocking most of the ethereal passage into the Celestial Court.

Standing on the valley floor, he could see straight through the massive breach where the gate once stood, to the endless expanse of palaces within the Celestial Court, shrouded in shattered light and raging storms of energy.

The golden halls and jade palaces looked as though they had been ravaged by some colossal beast. Vast swaths of glazed tiles had been stripped away, revealing the blackened timber structures beneath.

The majestic palace walls, hundreds of feet tall, had crumbled and fractured, the massive breaks looking like hideous wounds.

White jade plazas, intricately carved with images of birds, beasts, the sun, moon, and stars, had cracked and subsided.

The immortal pools, once radiant and shrouded in Spiritual Mist, now overflowed, their waters cascading out. The celestial grasses and exotic flowers had all withered away.

Seeing this, Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder.

’What a celestial paradise it must have been. A real pity. Those True Monarchs are truly ruthless.’

A magnificent celestial landscape had been utterly transformed into an apocalyptic wasteland.

Two terrifying powers, their might beyond imagination, were still clashing violently above the core of the Celestial Court.

The brilliant light from the Divine Techniques of True Monarch Qing Yuan and the so-called Celestial Emperor constantly erupted, churning that region of space into pure chaos.

Moreover, True Monarch Pu Du’s Dao Realm projection—which encompassed all and governed the cycle of creation and destruction—was slowly descending. Each subtle ripple of its power caused vast golden halls to utterly collapse and disintegrate, sending out rumbling tremors that felt like the shaking of Earth Veins.

The Celestial Emperor of this World Heaven could not hold out; the space he controlled was being rapidly compressed.

This world’s Celestial Dao groaned in pain and fury, but the two Primordial Sect True Monarchs worked in concert to redirect the bulk of its power, firmly suppressing its fundamental Origin Rules.

’Time waits for no one. This is the perfect chance to sneak in and reap some unexpected rewards!’

A sharp glint flashed in Xu Yunfan’s eyes.

With the South Heavenly Gate shattered, the doors to the Celestial Court’s treasury were wide open.

The World Heaven Root Qi was precious, to be sure, but with the Celestial Court breached, this was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for plunder.

The True Monarchs might look down on the Celestial Court’s collection of Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, Divine Pills and Magical Artifacts, and Daoist Scripture Collections, but he certainly didn’t.

If his fellow sect members or those vultures from the Wansheng Sword Sect lurking nearby looted everything, it would all be gone for good.

There would be other chances to absorb the World Heaven Root Qi.

Once the True Monarchs broke through into a Celestial Realm, a passage to the resulting World Heaven was naturally left open.

’Just follow the standard procedure.’

His mind made up in an instant, Xu Yunfan hesitated no longer.

He took a deep breath, Magical Power surging through him as he activated the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman Secret Technique.

The Green Dragon Thunder Pearl Locking Tribulation and Calming Fortune Technique drew forth a faint wisp of Cyan Dragon Thunder Intent to coil around his Divine Soul.

At the same time, the unremarkable, dust-gray Chaotic Concealment Star Ring on his wrist suddenly lit up with an extremely thin, hazy layer of light that distorted the rays passing through it.

Three great treasures and Secret Techniques, all designed to obscure Celestial Secrets and conceal one’s presence, activated at full power simultaneously.