A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

Ghost Sifting Banner

When Han Li saw these beads, his heart stirred. Could it be that these were also lightning beads?

This thought flashed through Han Li’s mind, but he had no intention of stopping the activation of the Aureate Sword Formation.

These golden threads were one of the abilities of the Aureate Sword Formation. They were somewhat similar to the sword transformation technique of a sword cultivator. They were the result of condensing the astonishing sword Qi within the hundred sword lights into threads.

Due to the power of the formation and the infusion of Auric Essence, the flying swords were incomparably sharp. As a result, the sword threads formed were much more powerful than those of ordinary sword cultivators.

Ordinary magic treasures and ancient treasures wouldn’t be able to block the golden threads.

As for things like lightning beads, Han Li was not afraid.

As long as the 36 hidden flying swords were unscathed, even if the sword threads were destroyed, they would still be able to continuously reform. They were not afraid of attacks at all. This was also why the Aureate Sword Formation was so terrifying.

Just as Han Li was pondering, golden light flashed and those beads also triggered the sword formation’s restriction. They were cut into several pieces by the many golden threads and then exploded.

Unexpectedly, the beads didn’t contain any lightning or fire. Instead, they exploded, releasing a dense black-red mist of blood.

As soon as the blood mist dispersed, it immediately filled the air. At the same time, it emitted an extremely pungent and nauseating aura.

These beads were known as the “Blood Lightning Seeds”. It was said that they were refined from extremely filthy materials. As long as it wasn’t a treasure refined by the Devil Dao, once it came into contact with the blood mist, its power would greatly decrease and its spirituality would greatly decrease. Regardless of how powerful one’s magic treasures were or how high their spirituality was, if one wished to restore the power of their treasures, they would have to refine them with Nascent Fire for several days.

Of course, these Blood Lightning Seeds were extremely rare in the devilish sects. Not only were the raw materials extremely scarce, but the success rate of refining them was also pitifully low, making them much more difficult to refine than ordinary lightning beads.

These ten or so seeds were all that the black-robed youth had accumulated over the past hundred years.

As an elder of one of the ten great demonic sects of the State of Jin, he was very knowledgeable. As soon as he recognized the sword formation that Han Li had set up, he immediately thought of using the Blood Lightning Seed to contaminate Han Li’s flying sword.

The sword formation required flawless coordination in order to unleash its abilities. If any of the flying swords in the formation were to malfunction, the sword formation would naturally be destroyed.

This method was one of the most common methods used by the devil cultivators of the State of Jin to fight against the sword cultivators controlling the sword formation.

Of course, the Blood Lightning Seed was an extremely precious item that was rarely used in a one-on-one battle. It was usually used in large-scale confrontations. After all, how could a single person control a sword formation?

Seeing this blood mist, although Han Li did not know what was going on, he clearly felt that it was a little strange. Just as he was muttering in his heart, a low thunderclap suddenly sounded.

At the same time, patches of golden light appeared within the blood mist, following which streaks of faint golden lightning shot forth. When these arcs of lightning came into contact with the blood mist, they immediately exploded and perished.

In the blink of an eye, Han Li’s Divine Devilbane Lightning had perished together with the blood mist.

Han Li was stunned.

The Divine Devilbane Lightning didn’t wait for him to activate it, and it actually shot out from the flying swords on its own. This was the first time he had encountered something like this. Furthermore, the blood mist that appeared to be an evil being was actually able to neutralize the Divine Devilbane Lightning. This was truly inconceivable.

Han Li naturally did not know that these Blood Lightning Seeds specialized in tainting the righteous treasures. It was almost the same as the Divine Devilbane Lightning, which specialized in restraining Devil Dao cultivation techniques. Under normal circumstances, neither could restrain the other.

Although there was quite a bit of blood mist, it was far inferior to the lightning contained in the thirty-six flying swords. As a result, the blood mist was completely expelled in the blink of an eye.

“Divine Devilbane Lightning! These flying swords are all Golden Lightning Bamboo magic treasures! Impossible, how could there be so much Golden Lightning Bamboo?” When the black-robed youth saw this, his face paled and he cried out.

“I’ll answer your question when you’re dead!” Han Li replied bluntly. At the same time, he took a deep breath and activated a technique in his heart.

Due to the appearance of the blood mist, the golden threads had paused for a moment before silently pressing toward the center.

Although this Aureate Sword Formation was extremely powerful, it was still a little too much for Han Li’s current cultivation.

Although he was able to activate the sword formation, the loss of magic power was truly astonishing. Furthermore, after activating the sword formation, he was powerless to accelerate it.

Otherwise, he would’ve been able to kill the black-robed youth with a single strike of his sword threads. He wouldn’t have watched the black-robed youth use any other methods to resist him.

Han Li estimated that according to the consumption of magic power in this sword formation, it should be the best choice for a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator to start cultivating this divine power. If it weren’t for the fact that he had only activated half of the sword formation and his magic power far exceeded that of an ordinary early-Nascent Soul cultivator, he wouldn’t have been able to use this sword formation at all.

When the black-robed youth heard this, a layer of black Qi appeared on his face and he coldly said, “Do you truly believe that a trifling sword formation will be able to trap me? Your sword formation may be sharp, but will it be able to sever our sect’s ultimate treasure?”

When he saw that the golden thread was less than 100 feet away from him, he wordlessly raised his hand and fiercely punched his chest.

With a puff, he spat out a mouthful of black blood. There was also an inch-long green flag caught in the black blood.

As soon as the flag left his mouth, green light flashed and the surrounding black blood was completely absorbed.

The flag had turned jade-green.

The black-robed youth gloomily waved his hand at the flag, and with a swoosh, the small flag shot into his hand as a streak of black light. He rubbed his hands together, and brilliant light erupted as the green flag grew to several feet in size.

The banner was shimmering with green light and covered in dark clouds, making it impossible to see its true appearance. However, a corner of the banner was clearly missing, as if it had yet to recover.

Han Li’s pupils constricted as he muttered, “Ghost Sifting Banner!”

Back then, the Yin Sifting Sect’s Master had said that he wanted to use the Ghost Sifting Banner to deal with Devil Concord. Later on, although the guy did not really use it, Han Li remembered this name in his heart.

Now that the black-robed young man took out this small flag, Han Li naturally guessed correctly.

“You’re quite clever! This is one of the main flags of the 12 Ghost Sifting Banners. You should experience its power for yourself.” When the black-robed young man saw that Han Li recognized the item in his hand, he was stunned for a moment before sneering. He seemed to be very confident in the item in his hand.

Soon after, the young man tightly grasped the banner and lightly waved it in a certain direction.

With a crackle, dark green clouds emerged from the banner and rapidly expanded, enveloping the youth within.

A bone-chilling wind swept through the air, and many dark clouds had unknowingly descended from the sky. In the blink of an eye, the entire sky had turned pitch-black, completely obscuring the sunlight.

The sky grew extremely dark, and a vast green ghost mist had appeared around them at some point in time. The sounds of ghostly wails rang out all around them.

He only lightly waved the banner in his hand, but it caused the world to change color. It was no wonder that he was so confident in the banner.

Even though Han Li had great confidence in the Aureate Sword Formation, he was still shocked.

At this moment, the sound of air being torn apart came from the opposite side. Countless thin black lines shot out from the mist where the young man was, directly entangling Han Li.

Golden light flashed and the restrictions within the sword formation were activated. Countless golden threads intersected with one another, and all of the black threads paused for a moment before transforming into countless small fragments. However, all of the broken black threads immediately turned into balls of green mist before flying back into the green mist.

“Huh!” Before Han Li could think of anything, the black-robed young man in the green mist cried out in surprise. These Yin Soul Threads could be said to be incomparably tenacious, but they were also destroyed by the opponent’s sword formation with a single blow. This was somewhat beyond his expectations.

After a moment of contemplation, he decided to unleash the ghost banner’s full power.

He suddenly tossed the banner in his hand out of the green mist and planted it three feet in front of him.

Soon after, an obscure incantation sounded from within the mist, and gusts of gloomy winds swept up the surrounding mist from all directions.

In the blink of an eye, the green flag grew to a height of 20 feet, and the mist on its surface began to dissipate, revealing its true appearance.

When Han Li saw this, his expression changed drastically.

“You actually used so many living souls to refine the banner? How many people have you killed?” Han Li shouted sternly.

The surface of the green banner was densely packed with humanoid faces that had shrunk countless times in size. There were men, women, old, and young, all of them squirming on the banner as if they were alive, and all of them revealed expressions of extreme pain. It was truly a terrifying sight.

The youth’s sinister voice sounded from within the green mist, “Who knows how many? Perhaps a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand. The souls of several hundred cultivators are required in order to refine such a flag.”

Han Li fell silent and coldly stared at the green mist. After a moment, he said a few words.

“You all deserve to die.”

“Deserve to die? I don’t know how many people have said that to me, but I’m still alive and well. As for the person who said that, their souls have already been absorbed into the flag and become a part of it. You’re no exception,” the youth said with a sneer.

He then cast a red incantation seal onto the huge flag.

Brilliant green light erupted, and a large hole that was several feet in diameter suddenly appeared on the banner. Black air erupted from it, and gusts of Yin winds blew from within.

A series of pops rang out as several huge skulls with ghostly flames burning in their eyes and green smoke spouting from their mouths flew out from the banner in a single line.

One of the largest skulls had two huge bull horns on its head, but its facial features were identical to that of a human.

Could it be that this skull was a metamorphosis stage demon beast when it was alive? Han Li was shocked.

But what happened next made Han Li put the doubts in his heart to the back of his mind.

In addition to the first few skulls that came out, there were also all sorts of ghostly fire skulls swarming out from the black hole on the green banner. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred skulls appeared and filled the black-robed man’s surroundings.

“Go!” In the green mist, the black-robed young man pointed in Han Li’s direction.