Chapter 1819 913: The Man in the Mist

"Good!"

The Five Dao General's face finally showed some signs of relaxation.

He stared at the ancient battlefield below, his eyes glinting with a subtle light: "These residual thoughts have not diminished in battle intent, their souls tempered by the Evil Qi for eighty years without dispersing. They are the perfect material for crafting the Five Directions Fierce Soldiers."

Li Yan, hearing this, kept his left hand performing the North Emperor Technique to protect the Yin God, while his right hand reached into his bosom.

The Five Directions Luo Feng Flag is restricted by the heavens and earth in the present world, but here, in the cracks of the Dharma Realm, it can unleash its full power.

As soon as the flagpole left his bosom, the ink jade material emitted a phantom glow, and the Fengdu Spell, embroidered in the secret script of the Yin Bureau on the flag surface, began to flow on its own like a fierce beast awakening from a long slumber.

Upon seeing this, the Five Dao General planted the long spear on the ground.

The spear tip penetrated three inches into the dark red sandy soil, sending a ripple visible to the naked eye spreading out from the spear shaft. Wherever it passed, the bewildered residual thoughts engaged in battle on the battlefield halted for a breath.

This is the natural suppression a Mortal God has over things of the Netherworld.

"Now!"

Li Yan understood, and raised the flagpole to the sky with both hands.

Without chanting a spell or forming a mantra, he purely used the Astral Bane Energy to activate this Daluo Magical Artifact.

The moment the flag surface unfurled, the airflow of the entire ancient battlefield changed direction.

First came the sound of the wind.

A wailing wind swept in from all directions, enveloping sand and broken armor plates, forming a spiral of gray mist around the flagpole, and then the flag surface began to expand.

It wasn't the soft unfolding of fabric but rather a swelling and extension as if a living thing was swallowing.

Five zhang, seven zhang, ten zhang.

The ten-zhang giant flag soared into the sky, its width spanning as much as three connected tile-roofed houses, slowly unfurling in mid-air.

The background color of the flag was the ink-black of Yin Si, and the outlines of the Six Palaces of Fengdu embroidered upon it were now frighteningly clear, with the ancient seal script of "Ghost Judge" and "underworld" on the palace door plaques seeping dark red streaming light, as if soaked in blood.

Howling winds.

Each flutter of the flag dimmed the battlefield below.

The residual thoughts of the ancient army clad in Mysterious Armor and Red Armor finally ceased their endless slaughter, all looking up towards the giant flag that blocked out the sky.

The first to be drawn into the flag was a Mysterious Armor cavalryman.

His warhorse raised its forehooves in a charge posture, but both horse and man transformed into a swirl of gray smoke, spiraling toward the flag surface. At the moment of contact with the flag, the gray smoke was absorbed into the "Military Department" palace gate of the Six Palaces of Fengdu pattern, and a faint outline of a spear-wielding cavalryman instantly appeared at the corresponding position on the flag surface.

Then came the second, the third.

Red Armor infantry, Mysterious Armor archers, flag bearers, Death Soldiers charging the formation... hundreds and thousands of streams of gray smoke rose from various parts of the battlefield, converging into the flag like rivers flowing into the sea.

The more residual thoughts the flag absorbed, the more solid and solemn its texture became, gradually transforming from the initial fabric feel to become like leather soaked in kerosene, and then gaining a cold, metallic luster atop the leather.

The entire process lasted about the time of one incense stick.

When the last Red Armor sword and shield soldier transformed into gray smoke and was absorbed into the flag surface, the entire ancient battlefield fell into complete silence.

No more phantom figures of battle remained on the dark red sandy soil, only scattered rusty blades and broken armor plates proved that tens of thousands of restless war spirits had once been trapped here.

The Five Dao General gestured with a hand, and the ten-zhang giant flag shrank accordingly.

When it fell back into Li Yan's hand, it had returned to the size of an ordinary order flag.

But the weight in his hand was completely different.

The flag weighed no more than three jin before, but now it was as heavy as cast iron, easily over thirty jin.

"These soldiers have been tempered in this Evil Land for eighty years. Though their souls lost their awareness, their battle intent and murderous aura have been honed to purity." The Five Dao General hefted the flag and, with rare satisfaction on his face, said, "It saves us the toil of training soldiers, they are directly top-tier fierce troops. Since it is a complete set of the Five Directions, they should have a name—"

He paused mid-sentence, suddenly tilting an ear to listen.

Li Yan also focused his attention.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, even the wind had disappeared, and a certain tremor could be faintly heard.

Like a heartbeat, or like a giant creature breathing in the distance.

"There are four more sides." The Five Dao General handed the flag back to Li Yan, raising his hand to point to another four directions in the dimness, "The Nine Palace Formation's array eyes have been altered, with the Five Directions Soldiers divided into five places. What we just collected were the Central Guard Soldiers, the remaining four should be the Eastern Wood, Southern Li Fire, Western Geng Metal, and Northern Ren Water."

The two did not venture deeper into the Yin Ruins but instead slowly circled the perimeter of the area where the soldiers had been collected.

The first place was three li to the east.

The scenery here was completely different from the central battlefield.

There was no sand, no weapons, but the ground was covered in a thick layer of, by now carbonized, moss-like plant remnants.

Stepping on it produced a crisp "crack" sound, as if crushing a ground full of bone fragments.

And above the moss layer, hundreds of pale gray shadows floated.

These shadows were slender, clad in vine armor, holding a longbow.

Their movements were extremely slow, drawing the bow, aiming, releasing the string, each action taking three times as long as it would for an ordinary person, yet the sound when the bowstring vibrated was not the usual whoosh through the air, but rather a creaking similar to a tree trunk breaking.

"Eastern Wood Soldiers," the Five Dao General remarked succinctly, "Wood represents growth and also binding. These souls in life should have been hunters in the forest or border scouts, after death contaminated by the Wood Bane, their arrows carry a binding effect."

Li Yan followed the same method, once more deploying the Five Directions Luo Feng Flag.

This time, as the flag surface unfolded, the absorption process was much gentler.

The pale gray shadows transformed into streams of soft light, seeping into the Flag surface's "Shackle Bureau" pattern beside the "Military Department" as spring rain soaks into the earth. The flag surface grew heavier again, the touch turning slightly cool with a faint scent of grass and wood.

The second location was to the south, a half-collapsed beacon tower.

The base of the tower was made from blue stone, with traces of kerosene as dark red as blood seeping through the stone gaps.