Chapter 76: A Protective Object

"Sorry about that, I was working out just now and missed your call."

Ruan Hongzhuang's reply came back almost immediately.

"I see."

"You're not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?"

Followed by a puzzled emoji sticker.

Shen Siyuan found himself utterly charmed by her.

"I didn't contact you for a whole day, aren't you angry?"

"You must have been busy with something, right?"

Ruan Hongzhuang's thought caught Shen Siyuan a little off guard.

"That's what you were thinking?"

"Because I've been busy too. I actually planned to reach out to you in the morning and afternoon, but I was afraid of disturbing your work. I also thought about contacting you at noon, but I was afraid of disturbing your rest…"

Shen Siyuan stared at those few short lines on his phone, lost in thought for a long while.

He was no novice when it came to romance; he'd had a girlfriend back in college, but in that relationship, from the very start, he was essentially the one doing all the giving.

Even when they finally got together in the end, it was still Shen Siyuan who gave more, often swallowing his grievances to spare his girlfriend's feelings.

Though Ruan Hongzhuang's approach struck Shen Siyuan as a little funny, it was the first time he had felt so directly how good a woman could be to him.

After a moment's thought, Shen Siyuan typed out another message and sent it over.

"Honestly, I wasn't busy today at all. I purely just forgot. Because I've been single for so long, suddenly having a partner, I haven't quite adapted yet. That's my fault…"

"Then I'll help you adapt as soon as possible. (smile. jpg)"

"Sure, do you have time this Saturday? We could go hiking, shopping, watch a movie, grab a meal… let us get to know each other better."

Having decided to pursue the relationship, Shen Siyuan resolved to take the initiative more.

But after the message was sent, he suddenly remembered something—this Saturday, he seemed to have an appointment with Yang Hongwen.

Yet the message had already been sent; there was no taking it back. Surely Yang Hongwen would understand, right?

Yang Hongwen: …

……

The two didn't chat much longer; after setting a time, they ended the conversation.

Jiang Taozhi, who had been hovering nearby watching Ruan Hongzhuang's phone, said, "Right now I think you two really are quite a good match."

"Oh, really? Why do you think so?" Ruan Hongzhuang was delighted to hear it.

"Because you two are equally weird," Jiang Taozhi said.

"Heh, Jiang Taozhi, looks like I've been too nice to you…"

"Nooo…"

Shen Siyuan pocketed his phone, stirred his mind, and once again summoned the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】.

After Lu Guanchang's lingering wish dissipated, his soul transformed into a wisp of the purest soul force, feeding back into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

Combined with the two strands of merit from before, it was still a drop in the bucket for repairing the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, but it did have some effect.

Shen Siyuan's divine sense drifted like a wisp of green smoke, coiling around the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 in his hand, and then in a daze he arrived at a chaotic space.

The space wasn't very large, roughly the size of a seventy- or eighty-square-meter room, surrounded entirely by a gray, hazy mist.

Inside the space, miscellaneous items were piled in disarray—blades, spears, swords, halberds; bottles and jars; gold, silver, pearls, and jewels; brocade and satin garments…

This was one of the storage spaces built into the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】.

The 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】, as the treasure of the ancient Mo Sect's Gumo Sect, had an extraordinary origin. Within it there are nine layers of prohibitions in total, each layer composed of countless spaces, resembling a honeycomb, layer upon layer. The higher one goes, the larger the spaces, and the more honeycomb cells that compose it.

As the master of the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】, Shen Siyuan was finally able to glimpse its full appearance—the entire 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 was a colossal honeycomb suspended upside-down in the void.

But now this honeycomb was badly damaged; the higher one went, the more severe the damage.

Most of them served as dwellings for ghosts, filled with the netherworld's ghostly realm, brimming with vast amounts of ghostly Qi. The captured ghosts could cultivate, slumber, or even drill troops within.

For instance, after Dou Dou and Yin Xingyue were drawn into the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】, they were not in the same space as Du Xiuzhi and Lu Guanchang when they were drawn in.

After the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 was damaged, many "honeycomb cells" were destroyed, causing some originally adjacent "cells" to become connected. Because different "cells" had different rules—some even opposing rules—

this would cause many "cells" to lose their original "order," becoming chaotic and dangerous. Some "cells" even vanished entirely, becoming a stretch of nothingness.

Each layer of space had one entrance, and after entering, the "cells" also followed a spatial order.

Only by entering one "cell" could one proceed to the next. If a "cell" was missing or damaged, it was like a broken bridge, making it very difficult to reach the next "cell."

This was why Shen Siyuan wanted to repair the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】—because without repair, some "cells" simply couldn't be entered. One had to find a way to restore them, not just use them broken as they were.

Shen Siyuan was lucky; the "cell" used for storage on the first layer was undamaged. After repairing the surrounding "cells," he finally managed to enter.

However, this first-layer space stored only some miscellaneous items from when Nine Youmingjun first began his cultivation.

Don't be fooled by those blades, spears, swords, halberds, gold, silver, pearls, and jewels—they looked precious, but in the cultivation world of the Great Wastes, these were the most useless things, all mundane goods used by mortals.

What was most useful to Shen Siyuan, on the contrary, were those bottles and jars.

Because what Shen Siyuan had obtained were only some residual memories of Nine Youmingjun, he wasn't sure what was inside those bottles and jars, so he rummaged through them thoroughly.

Then he discovered—only wrong names exist, never wrong nicknames. Nine Youmingjun being called a Mo Lord was not without reason; among those bottles and jars, all stored were some sinister, evil, poisonous things, used against enemies.

Shen Siyuan didn't dare take them out of the space—one slip could easily cause a disaster.

Shen Siyuan couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. After all the trouble of repairing part of the "honeycomb" to enter the first-layer storage space, there wasn't a single spiritual item that could aid his cultivation.

But on second thought, it was actually easy to understand. The first-layer storage space was Nine Youmingjun's storage space from when he first began cultivating; back then his cultivation was weak. If he'd had any heaven-and-earth spiritual items, he would have eaten them himself long ago—why would he have kept them until now?

Unwilling to give up, Shen Siyuan rummaged through the clutter, sorting these miscellaneous items as he went, while mentally complaining nonstop—Nine Youmingjun was really no good, must have been a slob, didn't even know how to categorize and organize things.

After he finished sorting these things, Shen Siyuan finally discovered, in one corner, a spherical object flashing with red and blue light. Looking closely, it turned out to be many long worms coiled together. Shen Siyuan was overjoyed at the sight.

This was truly an unexpected windfall.

This is called the Iron-Eating Firefly, a creature that grows within metal veins, feeding on gold and iron. Its shape resembles a sharp sword, its body like refined iron, and like a firefly, it emits its own light.

They gather in swarms; when encountering an enemy, they fly into the air like a host of flying swords crossing the sky, ten thousand swords striking at once, a sight of great spectacle, hence they are also called Flying Sword Fireflies.

Clearly, these Iron-Eating Fireflies were captured by the Nether Nine Profound Demon Lord during his early cultivation to serve as a protective item.

He drew these Iron-Eating Fireflies into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner to refine and cultivate them, endowing them with new abilities.

Originally, these Iron-Eating Fireflies could only pierce the human body and gnaw on flesh and blood; now, they can set the sky ablaze with Nether Fire and devour souls.

Therefore, it is more appropriate to call them Nether Fire Fireflies now.

Unfortunately, the quantity is a bit small.

Shen Siyuan swept his divine sense, and this cluster of Nether Fire Fireflies fell into his hand.

PS: Begging for monthly votes~