Chapter 696: The Refining Process of the Human Emperor Flag

"What on earth is this thing..."

Ye Lin's expression was incomparably grave.

Intuition told him that the great terror hidden in the darkness was simply not something he could afford to provoke.

However, there was still a doubt in the depths of Ye Lin's heart.

The Human Emperor Flag had been stuffed with hundreds of millions of soul bodies without any issues, and it was only the flag itself that was struggling to hold on.

Why was it that when it came to the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, he couldn't refine a tenth one?

It couldn't be that the refiners of that previous world were more capable than he was now, could it?

Ye Lin took out the Human Emperor Flag and placed it alongside the nine Ten Thousand Soul Banners.

The Human Emperor Flag and the Ten Thousand Soul Banners were completely different in appearance to begin with.

The Human Emperor Flag was dark gold throughout; if not for the black smoke constantly rising from it, it would have no evil aura at all, but rather a sense of iron-blooded righteousness.

The Ten Thousand Soul Banners, on the other hand, were pitch black and covered in sinister, blood-colored patterns; just looking at them was chilling, even enough to make one shudder.

Although both the Human Emperor Flag and the Ten Thousand Soul Banners had the function of storing soul bodies, they didn't look like the same type of object at all.

Ye Lin activated his Soul-Hunting Underworld Pupils, and his eyes instantly turned as black as ink.

This ocular technique, learned from the Spirit Peak Master Situ Qi, allowed him to observe yin and yang and perceive karma even without having reached the Cave Profound Realm.

When he looked at the Human Emperor Flag and the Ten Thousand Soul Banners with his Soul-Hunting Underworld Pupils, Ye Lin finally discovered the clue.

There was a terrifying aura of the Imperial Dao on the Human Emperor Flag!

Following the threads of karma, Ye Lin even saw the figures of nine Human Emperors!

Ye Lin's eyes suffered a backlash, and blood and tears streamed down, but he ignored it.

He saw the first Human Emperor standing atop an ancient altar.

He slashed his own wrist, and golden Human Emperor blood flowed down, landing on a blood-stained battle flag, and he shouted in a deep voice.

"Receiving the mandate from Heaven, may I be long-lived and prosperous!"

From above the nine heavens, a strange power descended and fell directly onto the battle flag.

Afterward, scenes of the nine Human Emperors each holding the battle flag flashed before Ye Lin's eyes—they were blurred, lingering shadows of battlefields!

A bronze tiger tally was held high, a veteran with white hair and beard stood on the city wall beating a war drum, and the dark golden flag fluttered in the wind, snapping loudly!

Nameless soldiers, driven by the will to protect their homes, sang war songs as they charged into mountains of corpses and seas of blood, fighting until the very last drop of blood.

The dark golden battle flag had been destroyed nine times due to great wars, and nine times it had been repaired.

The soul bodies inside had been replaced cycle after cycle, yet every time, people stepped forward to take their place, meeting death with generosity.

Ye Lin suddenly felt a chill down his spine, because he actually saw his own face in these scenes!

The person who repaired the dark golden battle flag for the ninth time was none other than him!

Ye Lin's eyes suffered constant backlash, and blood and tears flowed like a waterfall.

At this moment, Ye Lin finally saw clearly what the dark golden patterns on the Human Emperor Flag actually were.

They were nine mysterious yellow chains intertwined together! Like nine giant golden dragons!

Deep within every mysterious yellow chain lay a dormant, ancient will that made one tremble; it was a torrent of humanity thousands of times more terrifying than the Ten Thousand Soul Banners, a power of sentient wishes that even the Heavenly Dao had to avoid!

Pop.

Pop.

Ye Lin's eyeballs exploded like two lightbulbs overloaded with voltage, leaving behind only two bloody, mangled sockets.

His scalp tingled.

He finally understood why the Human Emperor Flag could accommodate so many soul bodies.

The so-called Imperial Dao aura on the Human Emperor Flag was actually condensed from the heroic battle intent of hundreds of millions of living beings; it could shield the heavenly secrets above and eternally suppress soul bodies below!

The formation process of the Human Emperor Flag was simply incomparable to that of the Ten Thousand Soul Banners; it was the condensation of the battle intent of generations of human ancestors!

If not for the fact that the materials used were truly inferior, the Human Emperor Flag could likely hold another few hundred million soul bodies without any issues.

"Forget it, if it can't be refined, then I won't refine it." Ye Lin shook his head.

Nine Ten Thousand Soul Banners were enough for now.

Even by the lowest estimate, if one banner could hold five hundred thousand soul bodies, nine banners could hold four and a half million.

Besides, no matter how many Ten Thousand Soul Banners he refined himself, they could never compare to the Human Emperor Flag.

Ye Lin didn't have that much time or energy, and he didn't know how to collect the so-called wishes of sentient beings; he was quite experienced in collecting the resentment of sentient beings, though.

"The preparations are done, so I can start working."

Ye Lin put the nine Ten Thousand Soul Banners into his storage space.

In the caves of the disciples of the Greed-Indulgence Hall, there were often many resentful spirits of deceased cultivation vessels.

Kill one Greed-Indulgence Hall disciple, and you get a bunch of cultivation vessel soul bodies for free—how delightful.

Moreover, he still had a lot of Immortal Source Stones in the hands of those disciples; naturally, he had to collect them back quickly.

Ye Lin took out the data sheets filled out by those disciples and began to filter them.

He directly excluded anyone above the Five Elements Realm.

Although he could defeat cultivators of the Yin-Yang Realm, the commotion would be too great, making it easy to attract the attention of others.

Targeting disciples below the Five Elements Realm was the safest; basically one per vessel, and at most, a bit of sleeping potion or a flying sword would be enough to take them down.

After filtering the data, Ye Lin wore a smile and began a new round of the Grim Reaper's knocking.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Little Junior Sister, be a good girl, open the door, open it quickly, I want to come in~"

"Coming, coming, don't be in such a rush~"

The first lucky one of the night opened the door of her cave without any defense, looked at Ye Lin with affection, and led him into her boudoir.

When the Senior Sister spoke, she had a childish tone, which Ye Lin didn't like.

Moreover, the Senior Sister was a very materialistic woman; as soon as they met, she immediately asked Ye Lin for a gift.

"Little Junior Brother, I want a Sony machine."

A Sony game console cost at least several thousand, could Ye Lin agree to that? Naturally, he could not.

So Ye Lin took out the Bronze Dragon Vein Cauldron and gave this Senior Sister a hit.

Drain blood, collect soul, devour.

And while he was at it, he collected back all the Immortal Source Stones he had given out earlier.

This night was destined to be an exceptionally lively one.

Ye Lin was fair and treated everyone equally, even knocking on the caves of several male disciples.

When the male disciples saw Ye Lin, they were stunned at first, but then, thinking of the 388, 00 high-grade Immortal Source Stones, they still silently welcomed Ye Lin into their caves.

The personal data sheets the disciples filled out for Ye Lin were like a Death Note of the cultivation world.

By the time dawn broke the next day, another hundred or so lucky ones from the Greed-Indulgence Hall had obtained permanent residency in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner's luxury complex.

For three consecutive days, Ye Lin was busy collecting debts, and the number of soul bodies within the Ten Thousand Soul Banners grew more and more.

By the morning of the third day, Ye Lin's cultivation broke through twice in a row, successfully crossing into the third tribulation of the Five Tribulations of the Dao: the Five Elements Realm!

The Five Elements Realm required one to cultivate the Five Elements Dharma Bodies of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and then fuse them into oneself; only then could one step into the fourth tribulation, the Yin-Yang Realm.

And the heavenly tribulation for stepping into the Five Elements Realm, just as Ye Lin had expected, did not come.

In the past, the heavenly tribulation would always put on a show by striking once or running away after appearing.

This time, it was even better; it didn't even bother to act, and didn't even show up at all.

Ye Lin even suspected that he might be the only cultivator on the Longevity Continent who didn't have to experience a heavenly tribulation when breaking through realms.

And the deaths of over five hundred disciples finally attracted the attention of the interior of the Joyous Union Sect...