Chapter 550

Nikun had also spent quite a few days in this sea area and had a wide circle of acquaintances; otherwise, he could not have gathered so many rogue cultivators to besiege the Seven-Star Eel Demon. At this time, he retracted the Flowing Cloud Hundred Blessings Dharma Body, transformed into a white bat, and flew in one direction for several days before seeing a remote small island.

This small island was about several dozen miles in radius and had a population of nearly ten thousand, which had been plundered from other places by a wicked cultivator on the island named Wu Gui.

He settled them on this small island and made it his private property!

That Wu Gui was also a Penetrating Law cultivator, and the external objects needed for cultivation were numerous—refined copper and iron mother for refining magic treasures, spiritual medicine materials for opening furnaces to refine pills, and even daily necessities, clothing, food, housing, and transportation. All had to be provided by the commoners on this island, so the labor was extremely heavy.

The island was full of thatched mud houses, but this person had built a cave dwelling with carved beams and painted rafters, and had several delicate native women and clever Daoist boy servants.

He even took in several disciples on the island to help him manage the commoners there.

After Nikun transformed into a white bat and infiltrated the island, he saw a native who had learned two rough Daoist spells and was dressed like a Central Lands steward squire. He held a black banner and walked out of the island's mine cave in a hurry. He met another disciple guarding the mine cave and scolded: "This month, why did the cave only produce nine thousand jin of ore? The Old Xie Xie Zushi is opening the furnace to smelt copper essence, and it needs at least ten thousand jin to refine a few dozen jin of copper mother to build that magic tool!"

"You even dare to swallow this; aren't you afraid of being sacrificed to the furnace?"

That disciple begged for mercy: "Yan Yan Shixiong, how would I dare to delay the Old Xie Xie Zushi's affairs? It's just that those copper-producing mine shafts from last month were dug until they broke. Now, even if we don't deduct anything, we can't make up the number!"

"If you can't make it up, you make it up..."

The disciple holding the black banner said coldly: "Don't you know how to let those mine slaves dig deeper?"

"Thirty have died this month, all young and strong. The population on the island is counted. It's fine if the old ones die! Just say they are no longer usable. But these young and strong ones who are in their prime are not easy to replenish. Yan Yan Shixiong Baliu, who guards the household registration, watches these people very closely..."

"Thirty young and strong ones!"

The disciple holding the black banner glanced at the black banner in his hand: "The young and strong have very heavy blood qi, and they have families. Even if they die, their resentment is deeper than the old ones. They are excellent souls. The ones you offered clearly have half their souls weak; you are using the old and weak to make up the number!"

The disciple guarding the mine vein flattered: "Yan Yan Shixiong, although that Yuan Magnetic malevolent qi is faint, if we bury corpses to set up a formation, maybe we can raise a Copper Armored Corpse. This corpse-raising technique requires the soul to remain in the body without dissipating to be of supreme rank..."

"How precious is a Copper Armored Corpse? It would be good enough if you could raise a few Iron Corpses!"

The disciple holding the black banner was also moved. His eyes turned, and he sneered: "Like this, I will cover up the mine exploration matter for you. Send over those thirty old and weak ones under my command. Their children and grandchildren are all in my hands; they dare not fail to work hard."

"You send them to drill into the deepest parts, driving those earth-worms to open the way. Whoever finds the mine vein, I will let their family change to an easier job, without having to take care of the poisonous grass in the medicine garden! Although these people are old and weak, and going down the mine is a life-or-death matter, it is not difficult for experienced people to sell their lives to open a new shaft."

"If they don't work hard, let their children and grandchildren go down the mine. There are a few among them who take care of poisonous grass, and they are deeply poisoned by miasma. Keeping them is just a waste of spiritual medicine!"

"Bury them alive; maybe you can refine poisonous corpses!"

"This is a variant of the Iron Corpse. You cultivate it carefully. If you produce two or three, it's not impossible to share one with you!"

The disciple guarding the mine nodded and bowed, but cursed in his heart: "That Yuan Magnetic Gold Malevolent Qi is my territory. You use it, and you still act as if you are bestowing a favor!"

But this bitter job of guarding the mine vein was not as favored as the one guarding the medicine garden like the banner-holding disciple. His status and magic power were far inferior to this Yan Yan Shixiong, so he had no choice but to agree.

"The Changming Sect has come to urge for this year's tribute again! The Old Xie Xie Zushi is in a bad mood today. If you provoke him, he might take you to sacrifice to that magic tool!" The banner-holding disciple squeezed some resources from his Junior Brother, half-threatening and half-reminding him, which counted as pacification.

Then he shook the black banner and swaggered toward the mountain peak full of swamps and miasma deep in the island.

He shook the black banner, parting the miasma, and pondered the human bones on the banner, but in his heart, there were all kinds of calculations: "The foundation for me to settle down on the island is this Black Evil Banner. Hehe... I don't know how much painstaking effort I wasted to gather enough people to refine the Black Banner, blood-sacrificing to refine this magic tool. It is precisely because I have this magic tool that I defeated Old Six during the Old Xie Xie Zushi's competition last time and became the Sixth Disciple! I obtained the fat job of collecting souls for the Xie Xie Zushi..."

"The population on the island is the Old Xie Xie Zushi's private property, and it is watched very strictly. But it was Old Four who was responsible for mastering the household registration. I watched Old Four for a long time before I discovered that he was concealing newborn population and refining infant spirits. If I reported it, I might be able to take this fat job."

"It's a pity that the job of the medicine garden is also very oily. Most of the old people on the island are sent to the medicine garden. It is not difficult to get some living souls and flesh and blood. Now, if this Black Evil Banner of mine wants to break through the Sixth-Layer Restriction in refinement, the souls needed cannot be such inferior goods. They need to have heavy resentment... If there are eighteen infant spirits that are suitable, plus the un-decomposed bones produced by the corpse-raising ground in the Yuan Magnetic Gold Malevolent Qi, I can go one step further..."

While these many vicious thoughts were turning in his heart, the banner-holding disciple suddenly saw a bat flying out of the miasma in front of him, flapping its wings and pouncing toward him. Subconsciously, he waved the black banner, and the black evil qi surged, wanting to take the soul of this small beast.

Then he saw the bat pounce toward the black mist, transforming into dozens of golden bat shadows!

After the golden bat appeared, the Yin souls in the banner were all afraid and did not dare to step forward. The banner-holding disciple's eyes rolled back, and his soul was taken by a white bat that landed on his forehead.

Immediately, a scroll of the "Flowing Cloud Hundred Blessings Disaster-Relieving Sutra" dropped from the golden flowing clouds in the white bat's sea of consciousness and imprinted onto his soul.

This soul received the 'refinement' of the flowing clouds, and immediately grew two bat wings, transforming into a golden bat. It emitted an extremely faint wish-power, all of which was injected into Nikun's soul, making that Flowing Cloud Hundred Blessings God dharma body condense a wisp more!

Nikun, transformed into a white bat, seized the disciple's shell and casually beckoned, taking the black banner.

The souls on the banner had already been refined into a few thumb-sized bats, only pale gold, which could not be compared to the bats refined from the fierce ghosts he had carefully refined.

He reached out and pointed, attaching a group of bats to the black banner. The black qi on the banner surged, and a wisp of inconspicuous Five-Bat Group Cloud Pattern was added...

In his sea of consciousness, a faint voice came from the spirit pearl hidden very deep: "This person is indeed familiar with the road. He has a deep grasp of these wicked outsiders overseas. If it were me, I might not necessarily be able to find such a place—that harbors filth and hides dirt!"

"This place is the Dragon race's sea area. The major sects of our human race dare not enter without permission. I didn't expect it to become such a territory!"

Feng Xianzi also said coldly: "Just now I heard that the wicked path here actually pays tribute to the Changming Sect. It seems that everything here is with Changming's tacit approval! I didn't expect the Xie Xie Zushi's orthodoxy to become such a pickled sect. The Xie Xie Zushi protected the human race all his life and sheltered the commoners, which is why there are the Xie Xie Zushi's temples and incense everywhere overseas, and it hasn't been broken for thousands of years. Changming acting like this..."

"This is deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors!" Qian Chen sneered.

Both of them revealed a trace of power, blessing it onto Nikun. Qian Chen even took out his small notebook, thinking that if Nikun handled it properly today, he would shave off one of his sins.

Shaving off half of this sin would leave him one soul to reincarnate!

Nikun, wearing this person's shell, turned into the mountain and came to a magnificent cave dwelling. He greeted the boy guarding the cave dwelling vaguely, and then rushed straight to a quiet room, kowtowing outside the door: "Master is above, disciple Wu Liu requests an audience!"

"So it's Wu Liu. How was the harvest from collecting souls today?"

The person inside the quiet room waved his whisk and opened the two stone doors.

He saw a black-faced Daoist holding a white-bone whisk, sitting upright in front of a huge copper furnace.

The fierce fire under the furnace was burning brightly, reflecting the Daoist's face, which was red within the black. His eyebrows were long and thin, and the two mouse whiskers under his nose were also extremely thin. His right hand, with long fingernails, twisted the mouse whiskers, and his eyes revealed a chilling, ghostly light.

Nikun was incomparably respectful, not caring about his face at all as he prostrated himself, kowtowing: "Today I collected over ninety souls. Disciple will present them to Master now!"

After saying this, he shook the black banner, and black qi surged from the banner surface.

Wu Gui did not doubt it at all, and then he saw the black qi in the black banner press down, suddenly transforming into rolling golden flowing clouds, gathering a patch of auspicious clouds above the two people's heads, suppressing Wu Gui's entire magic power changes.

Wu Gui roared: "You are not Little Six, who are you?"

He spread out the white-bone whisk, and countless silver threads grew wildly like the roots of a demon tree, but they were extinguished as soon as they were ground by the golden flowing clouds!

Nikun sneered, but did not reveal his true form, only saying: "Old man has turned over a new leaf! I'll start with you. The population on this island is all something I've taken a fancy to; it is the foundation for me to become a god. How can I allow you to ruin it like this?"

After saying this, the golden bat swarm surged out. Nikun had long known that this person occupied an island and multiplied the population, which was considered wealthy among their rogue cultivators. He possessed three magic tools. Besides the white-bone whisk in his hand, there was also a phosphorus fire bag and a piece of Hunyuan tile that had some power.

Seeing the Wu Gui Daoist raise a gray tile, transforming into a coffin-like object with a lid, and holding it above his head, he retracted the Flowing Cloud Great Formation, trapped the tile, and then urged the power of the golden bats, transforming into dozens of golden lights, dancing around his body, shaking open the Wu Gui Daoist's protective true qi.

Dozens of bats pounced together, and a golden rainbow circled around the Wu Gui Daoist. With a slight grinding, his soul was taken.

The Flowing Cloud Great Formation transformed into a golden cloud, collected the tile and the other two magic tools, and fell onto his soul. Another scroll of the "Flowing Cloud Hundred Blessings Disaster-Relieving Sutra" was imprinted on it. Before long, it was refined into a golden bat the size of a human head and taken into Nikun's body.

Nikun felt his magic power rise by another layer again, and he said joyfully: "Good method! It gains the uprightness and peace of the righteous path, and does not lose the bravery and diligence of the wicked path. It is worthy of being a grand divine path, winning over my original Daoist methods countless times!"

"Although killing the old man Wu Gui didn't take much effort, his disciples are all people with gloomy and vicious minds. It's not guaranteed that someone won't see that something is wrong. I'd better send them into my banner early to resolve their sins and become the protective blessing generals in my hands!"

After thinking this, Nikun scattered the golden bats and went to find the cultivators on the island. With a pounce of the protective blessing god, he killed that person.

After circling the island, he didn't spend much effort to kill all the people on the island who practiced magic.

The Wu Gui Daoist was cautious. The disciples who obtained his inheritance had the strongest magic power only knowing a few wicked spells and had not obtained the true transmission. This time, Nikun only refined seventeen bat gods, which made him a bit disappointed.

But in the blink of an eye, he turned his attention to the three magic tools. This was the big head, enough to make his magic power double and his cultivation greatly advance.

"With such a righteous path, who would still be willing to walk the wicked path?"

Nikun couldn't help but praise: "If there are enough Yin souls to convert, this divine path method is truly brave and diligent, advancing a thousand miles a day! No wonder those cultivators who have no fate with the Great Dao all want to switch to the divine path! It is truly a Great Dao of longevity, with infinite mysteries."

He reached out and pointed, taking these three wicked magic tools into the Flowing Cloud Great Formation. A hundred or so blessing gods danced, urging magic power to refine them, and soon burned strands of black smoke from the three magic tools, refining the souls within them.

Golden bat shadows constantly flew out and returned to the Flowing Cloud Great Formation. In half a day's work, the Flowing Cloud Great Formation, which was the size of a mu, had expanded by half...