Remembering the time in the library, when Zheng Yi interrogated that father and son, they mentioned.
This world, after the zombie apocalypse, suddenly saw the appearance of many Resentful Ghosts and Fierce Spirits in various locations, as if they sprung out of nowhere.
For instance, in the Soul Catching Sect, the price of a Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghost could reach two to three thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
The main reason is that the Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghost can be refined into something called Cyan Essence, which is greatly beneficial to Qi Cultivators.
It is also an important auxiliary material for refining High-Tier Soul Dao Spiritual Artifacts, with huge demand, and is considered a highly valuable hard currency.
More importantly, this Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghost is almost equivalent to the strength of a Fifth or Sixth Layer Cultivator, and without using a Magical Artifact, an average Loose Cultivator might not be able to overpower such a ghost.
Encountering three Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghosts at once, Zheng Yi dared not delay.
Any one of them, when singled out, would be stronger than the Main Soul Red-clothed Female Ghost of the Soul-Catching Banner.
Zheng Yi, being extremely decisive, manipulated the Soul-Catching Banner to directly control the ghosts within to surround and block the attacks of the three Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghosts.
Zheng Yi himself quickly retreated, finding a gap in the battlefield, hastily escaping from the parking lot.
Finding a safe spot, he directly returned to the inn in Blood Mist Abyss City.
"That was quite thrilling!"
Once safe, Zheng Yi could not help but let out a breath, then got up, paid a sum of money, and continued to rent the room.
He also asked the inn servant to activate the defense array patterns of the room, prohibiting any disturbance to his cultivation.
After a simple meal, Zheng Yi returned to his room and began refining the Soul-Catching Banner.
Previously in the Doomsday World, Zheng Yi had been busy refining Soul Power, capturing a multitude of Fierce Ghosts and Resentful Spirits through the Soul-Attracting Array, and had only initially refined the Soul-Catching Banner.
But now his idea has been proven viable in the Doomsday World, coupled with his current progress in the Black Evil Technique approaching the Cyan Profound Fiend level, he could deepen the refinement of this Magical Artifact, the Soul-Catching Banner.
Zheng Yi decided to refine this Soul-Catching Banner into a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact now.
Compared to regular Magical Artifacts, a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact is connected to the cultivator's heart and veins, with magical power flowing through it, infused with the Divine Soul and merged with the blood and qi, resulting in much greater power.
If an ordinary Magical Artifact allows a Cultivator to exert eighty to ninety percent of its power after initial refinement.
Then a refined Lifebound Spiritual Artifact could exert one hundred and twenty percent of its power.
Furthermore, as the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact ascends in rank, the cultivator's own realm will receive a substantial feedback in strength, invisibly boosting the cultivator's cultivation speed.
Of course, its weakness lies in that if a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact suffers a fatal attack, the cultivator will also suffer severe injuries.
Like the artifact being destroyed and the person dying!
Also, the same Lifebound Spiritual Artifact can only be refined once at a given realm.
Initially, Zheng Yi intended to wait, but the situation was dire; he could not contend with three Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghosts currently.
Every time he traversed, it was based on the current location.
If those three Hundred-Year-Old Cyan Ghosts lie in wait, or if that spot were their lair.
Then, upon his next traversal to the Doomsday World, there is a significant chance of encountering them again.
By that time, he might not have the same luck to escape smoothly.
With no other choice, Zheng Yi had to begin the process of blood-sacrificing the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact.
Of course, the special nature of the Soul-Catching Banner makes it even more compelling.
It can continuously update and iterate and can form a set.
That is, with the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact, Soul-Catching Banner as the main, it can control more auxiliary Soul-Catching Banners, forming an array together, greatly amplifying its power.
Hence, while the material of the Soul-Catching Banner is vital to some extent, the key lies within the Main Soul and Spirit Body inside.
As long as the subsequent secret techniques from the Soul Catching Sect for upgrading the Soul-Catching Banner can be obtained, it will be a minor issue.
Admittedly, the main reason is that Zheng Yi currently holds only this Soul-Catching Banner as a usable Magical Artifact.
The other Fine Steel Longsword, which he used frequently while he was a Loose Cultivator, is somewhat inelegant.
He bit his fingertip, channeling a spell, and forced out a drop of Essence Blood onto the Soul-Catching Banner.
Immediately, Blood Qi enveloped it, and tiny threads of blood spread like spider webs, crawling along the bronze rod of the Soul-Catching Stick, extending to the Soul Refining Cloth banner surface, gradually forming eerie pattern talismans.
In the end, as all the Essence Blood was fully absorbed by the Soul-Catching Banner, Zheng Yi quickly infused his Divine Thought into it.
The Essence Blood and Divine Thought merged, followed by the Cyan Profound Evil Qi from the Black Evil Technique within him surging upwards, enveloping the entire Soul-Catching Banner.
Zheng Yi then started chanting, beginning the somewhat energy-consuming process of refining the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact.
Spending roughly half an hour, Zheng Yi refined the Soul-Catching Banner into a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact.
This time, as Zheng Yi felt a movement in his heart, the black mist on the Soul-Catching Banner hinted at a sign of eruption, which he suppressed.
After all, this was Blood Mist Abyss City, and he was staying at an inn, a place crowded with people—any leakage of aura would surely attract big trouble.
Simultaneously, through the palm, the Soul-Catching Banner fed back a significantly powerful energy.
Ordinarily, when cultivating the Black Evil Technique, after devouring those many Resentful Souls and Fierce Ghosts, Zheng Yi's realm was already on the verge of breakthrough.
This time, the energy fed back from the Soul-Catching Banner far exceeded the energy Zheng Yi previously plundered.
It felt like a sudden heat surge in his body, like a dam breaking, directly smashing through the boundary of his realm.
With a rumbling in his mind, Zheng Yi's eyes shot out sharp glints, directly smashing through the Third-Layer Perfection of Qi Cultivation, advancing to the Fourth Layer of Qi Cultivation.
"After absorbing so many fierce ghosts into the Soul-Catching Banner, limited by the material, much of the Soul Power couldn't be absorbed, and settled within the Magical Artifact..."
"This time, with its refinement as a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact, both internal and external forces combined, it unexpectedly allowed me to break through the realm directly."
It must be said that for someone who took up Demon Cultivation midway, Zheng Yi hadn't been a Demon Cultivator long and was somewhat inexperienced.
He fully did not comprehend if he were holding a refined Hundred Ghosts Banner right now, he might have directly surged to the Fifth Layer of Qi Cultivation, or even possibly the Sixth Layer.
After all, Lifebound Spiritual Artifacts are deeply connected to their masters, closely bound together.
In some sense, they are considered an extension of a Cultivator's body.
The greater the benefits gained by a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact, the greater the feedback to the Cultivator.
Jumping off the bed, stretching slightly, Zheng Yi commented playfully, "This time, I should be able to handle those three old ghosts!"
As the Soul-Catching Banner in Zheng Yi's hands had been refined into a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact, its power had reached a new level.
The Fierce Ghosts inside, nurtured by Zheng Yi's Essence Blood and Black Evil Technique Power, became more well-defined, gradually starting to develop some intelligence, enhancing the entire Soul-Catching Banner's power.
Moreover, Zheng Yi's realm had also progressed further, reaching the Fourth Layer of Qi Cultivation, making the power of the Magical Artifact released even stronger.
With the enhancement in both areas, the released power far exceeded a mere simple addition.
...