Chapter 84: The Five Turbid Evil Worlds

Shen Siyuan felt only a momentary daze, and the surrounding scenery suddenly changed drastically.

This was extremely similar to the evasion technique in the Nine Nether Demon Lord's memory.

Seeing the wronged souls and evil ghosts swarming like hornets due to the arrival of the two, Shen Siyuan directly summoned his 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】.

This was the first time he had summoned the Ten Thousand Souls Banner so recklessly.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner first emitted a clear, hazy light that enveloped Shen Siyuan, shielding him from the assault of the turbid qi everywhere around him—the sin qi, resentment qi, evil qi, and so on; then it expanded violently in the wind, transforming into a flag reaching the heavens, standing tall in the void.

Although the flag surface was riddled with countless holes and the flagpole bore a crack reaching the sky, it did not diminish its imposing momentum at all.

Streams of black smoke shot up from the flag surface; those fierce souls and evil ghosts, once swept up by the black smoke, were directly drawn into the flag, like a giant whale swallowing water; no ghostly creature could escape the power of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

In the blink of an eye, a vacuum zone formed around them.

Shen Siyuan set Lan Duoduo down and looked at the distant sky, but saw no trace of the flames that had burned the sky twice; he surmised they were in a new place, and the distance between them was extremely far.

Looking down at the ground covered in dry bones, Shen Siyuan stepped on them twice; countless skeletons turned to powder, revealing the dark earth beneath; Lan Duoduo also curiously kicked around with her feet; with Shen Siyuan by her side, she was remarkably bold.

Just then, Shen Siyuan suddenly discovered that beneath these skeletons lay some rusted weapons.

"Is this an ancient battlefield?" Shen Siyuan wondered in his heart.

"But who were the enemies?"

"And what place is this?"

"This might be the Netherworld."

Shen Siyuan looked up at the sky, but alas, it was shrouded in gloomy clouds, making it impossible to see the full picture.

"Thump, thump, thump..."

Just then, the ground suddenly trembled; countless skeletons were shaken up from the earth, some splitting open directly, others turning to powder.

These skeletons, having lain here for countless years, daily brushed by the yin winds, had long become extremely fragile.

Shen Siyuan waved his hand, and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in the void quickly shrank, falling back into his palm.

Then he bent down and scooped Lan Duoduo up in his arms.

"Let's go, we're going back."

Shen Siyuan knew that with his current weak strength, it was not advisable to encounter any powerful beings too early.

Lan Duoduo hurriedly turned the umbrella handle, and the two vanished instantly from their spot.

In that instant, Shen Siyuan caught a fleeting glimpse, seeming to see a massive shadow rushing toward them from the distance.

Back in the rental room, Shen Siyuan set Lan Duoduo down, then withdrew the Netherfire Fireflies into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner; after a moment's thought, he kept one and handed it to Lan Duoduo.

"This Netherfire Firefly is for you."

Lan Duoduo curiously extended her small hand, and the Netherfire Firefly immediately landed on her fingertip.

"Put the umbrella away properly; also, you must learn to control the Netherfire on your body as soon as possible."

Shen Siyuan pointed to the flames burning all over her body.

Lan Duoduo nodded obediently; at this moment, her entire attention was fixed on the Netherfire Firefly.

Shen Siyuan left her be, then re-wrapped the Soul-Binding Chain from his shoulder around his waist; next, he sank his consciousness into the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 to check the gains from this trip.

He saw that in one of the "honeycombs," a large number of fierce souls and evil ghosts were packed tight.

These fierce souls and evil ghosts had all had their souls invaded by negative qi such as sin qi, turbid qi, and evil qi, rendering their souls filthy and depriving them of their sanity; everything had turned into single-minded instinctual drives.

For instance, some fierce souls had fierce glints in their eyes, constantly roaring "Kill, kill, kill..." from their mouths.

Some fierce souls had lustful, evil glints in their eyes, emitting strange laughter from their mouths...

Others had ferocious glints in their eyes, endlessly repeating the cry "Sinful creature..."

These fierce souls and evil ghosts were excellent materials for repairing the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】, but Shen Siyuan dared not do so.

After the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 devoured these fierce souls and evil ghosts, all the sin qi, turbid qi, evil qi, and so on upon those souls would transform into Demon qi; at that time, there would absolutely be rolling waves of Demon qi.

Shen Siyuan did not believe that with his current strength, he could withstand the pollution and assault of this Demon qi.

The 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 is a Demon Path artifact; devouring its master is its instinct; if not for the severe damage it sustained under the Lei Jie, leaving only a tenth of its power, Shen Siyuan would have long been turned against by it, becoming a puppet of the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】.

That is why Shen Siyuan has been so cautious time and again, not daring to use the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 recklessly.

Otherwise, the various grotesque lost souls wandering all over the human world, polluted by desire, would have long been taken into the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】.

It was precisely for fear of affecting himself, causing his temperament to change drastically and turning him into a slave of the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】, that he dared not do so.

And the reason Shen Siyuan was willing to take the risk to draw these lost souls into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was certainly not because he was too idle and enjoyed taking risks.

Rather, he wanted to see if he could find clues to that world from the fragmented memories of these fierce souls and evil ghosts.

Whether it was merely a ghost realm or the actual Yin underworld and Netherland was very important if Shen Siyuan wished to restart the cycle of reincarnation.

Thinking of this, Shen Siyuan directly drew several fierce souls and examined their memories one by one.

"Kill, kill, kill... Kill, kill, kill..."

In the memory, there was a young, burly man wearing leather armor and holding a long halberd, charging forward like a tide along with his companions.

The surroundings were filled with corpses; blood had dyed the earth red; at this moment, his eyes were completely bloodshot from killing, and he could not distinguish east, west, south, or north; his only thought was to swing the long halberd in his hand and stab at the enemy, thrust forward, thrust forward...

Then an enemy slashed his throat with a blade, and he lay on the ground; only then did he calm down, staring wide-eyed at the blue sky before losing consciousness completely...

"Kill, kill, kill... Kill, kill, kill..."

Still wielding the long halberd in his hand, he charged forward like a tide along with his companions, riding the yin winds; but this time, the world had changed.

The entire world was a hazy gray; countless monsters poked their heads out from the clouds.

There were colossal beings shaped like giant statues, slender snake-like monsters covered in eyes, and beasts shaped like mountains and resembling giant deer...

They opened their mouths and spat out a torrent of filth; the lost souls immediately lost their sanity, turning into fierce souls and evil ghosts, retaining only their instincts, charging and devouring each other in the sky...

"Is this the manifestation of evil turbidity?"

Shen Siyuan was greatly alarmed; from the memory of the Nine Nether Demon Lord, he knew that such a manifestation of evil turbidity was rare even in the Great Wilderness.

Evil turbidity is transformed from the six desires; Buddhists call it the Five Turbidities, while Daoists term it calamity qi.

The Five Turbidities are respectively the Turbidity of Calamity, the Turbidity of Views, the Turbidity of Afflictions, the Turbidity of Sentient Beings, and the Turbidity of Lifespan; a spacetime possessing these five states of sentient existence is called the "Five Turbid Evil World."

This is the manifestation of the sentient beings' evil thoughts, the Five Turbid Evil World, the collapse of rites and music, the loss of moral order, the non-existence of good thoughts, where the spacetime has degenerated into a realm of ghosts and demons, corrupting all spiritual wisdom and light, devouring spiritual energy and magic power, the five declines of heaven and man, degenerating into the Dharma-Ending Age; this is a calamity...

If this calamity can be crossed, then Buddhism and Daoism will flourish greatly; if it cannot be crossed, the human world will degenerate into a demonic realm.

Shen Siyuan vaguely seemed to understand something.

The world he was heading to should be the so-called Underworld and Nether Land.

To prevent evil turbidity from invading the human world, and also to prevent the souls of the dead, polluted by desires in the human world, from strengthening the evil turbidity, powerful beings completely sealed off the Nether Land.

If Shen Siyuan wishes to restart the cycle of reincarnation, then he must first clear away the evil turbidity within the Underworld and Nether Land.

Shen Siyuan fixed his gaze on the 【Ten Thousand Souls Banner】 in his hand.

Using demons to control demons?