The man sitting in meditation saw the four sleeping men die, and instantly, a surge of Evil Qi erupted from him. His figure flickered as he shot out of the Earth Hall, speeding east!

Lin Chang'sheng stowed away the storage bags.

With a snap of his finger, several Fireballs shot out in all directions. In an instant, the courtyard was engulfed in flames. His figure flickered as he headed toward the Spirit Cultivation Inn.

Not ten breaths after Lin Chang'sheng left, a black shadow darted over—it was the meditating man from the Zhang Family's Earth Hall.

The man in black's gaze was icy. He cast a spell, Cold Ice Qi spread, snuffing out the fire instantly, covering the whole yard in frost, as if winter had arrived!

The man in black walked into the house, saw the four disciples turned to charred corpses, and was immediately furious. He shot out more than ten spells in a row, and saw from each corpse fly out a wisp of black aura, swirling up and drifting toward Giant Whale City!

"Hmph! You can't escape!"

The man in black followed the black auras into the city.

......

Lin Chang'sheng torched the Celestial Ghost Sect disciples. After double-checking not a trace was left behind,

he hurried back and sat cross-legged in the inn.

He checked the four storage bags he'd just acquired, counting out all the Spirit Stones—3,400 in total!

"Hell yeah! That's more than enough to cover the 640 Spirit Stone gap for buying the Yuan Condensing Pill! Still got plenty left over!"

Lin Chang'sheng stored the 3,400 Spirit Stones away, satisfied. As expected, snatching treasures by killing is the real way. Who knows how many unlucky cultivators these Celestial Ghost Sect disciples had bled dry to collect so many Spirit Stones.

"Word everywhere is, ten years from now the Righteous and Demon Dao will go to war, but the Demon Dao is already this deep in Giant Whale City! Looks like the Righteous side is in for tough times!"

Thinking of those four from earlier, Lin Chang'sheng frowned deeply.

The Demon Dao acts with zero restraint, doing whatever the hell they please.

Sure, the Righteous Dao isn't all saints, but at least they care about their reputation.

Living in the midst of this Righteous and Demon Dao shitstorm, I gotta step up my game and power up. That's the only real way, huh!

"Huh? The Soul Searching Technique?"

Lin Chang'sheng kept checking the Celestial Ghost Sect disciples' storage bags—he found a Cultivation Technique manual and two Magic books: Ghost Dao Parasitic Technique, a Soul Searching Technique, and a Ghost Spirit Stab.

The Ghost Dao Parasitic Technique was for Qi Refining Stage ghost cultivators of the Celestial Ghost Sect.

It lets your soul leave your body and possess someone else, so you can go about things with a new flesh shell—super handy. If your host body gets killed, your soul still zips back to your real body. Sure, your soul gets hurt when that happens, but hey, it's a way to stay alive!

Soul wounds can be healed over time.

But your real body can't be too far from your host.

The Soul Searching Technique lets you, well, search someone's soul. But it's vicious as hell; once you use it, the target's soul shatters and disappears into the cycle of reincarnation.

Ghost Spirit Stab forms Ghost Qi to attack your enemy. If a cultivator gets hit by this thing, their blood all but freezes, their magical power grinds to a halt, and in bad cases, they just drop dead—becoming a black ice corpse!

"This Soul Searching Technique seems worth training!"

Lin Chang'sheng looked at the Soul Searching Technique book, eyes lighting up with satisfaction.

He remembered—

In Liuyun Immortal Sect's Cultivation Hall, there's no Soul Searching Technique. Who knew if the second-tier Foundation Establishment Stage Techniques would have it. But now he's got this one in hand—a real haul! Next time he runs into a tight-lipped enemy, a Soul Searching Technique will solve everything.

Super practical.

"Hold up, there's a Dragon Blood Grass! That means... I can make a Divine Essence Pill now?"

Lin Chang'sheng checked the bags again and found quite a few herbs. Among them was a Dragon Blood Grass—that was one of the key ingredients for refining a Divine Essence Pill!

He'd already gotten his hands on a 500-year-old Blood Red Reishi.

"Wonder how effective the Divine Essence Pill is gonna be?"

Hope rose in Lin Chang'sheng's eyes.

"Let's train the Soul Searching Technique first!"

Lin Chang'sheng's gaze sharpened—decision made, he took out the Soul Searching Technique for some deep reading.

Ghost Dao Parasitic Technique and Ghost Spirit Stab? No thanks, he wasn't about to go half-ghost. But maybe he'd study them for reference. The Soul Searching Technique, though, was something he HAD to master.

[Detected: Cultivation Immortality Technique—Soul Searching Technique Entry Level. Spend 20 Spirit Stones to Simplify?]

Just as Lin Chang'sheng read the Soul Searching Technique for the thirtieth time, a red prompt popped up on his interface.

"Simplify!"

He clicked confirm right away.

[Daoist Simplification active: Simplifying Soul Searching Technique... Simplification complete... Soul Searching Technique == Soul Rubbing!]

No sooner did Lin Chang'sheng hit confirm than another red prompt appeared on the screen.

"Huh? Soul Rubbing?"

Lin Chang'sheng was a little dumbfounded by the result.

You can rub a back or rub off some dirt in the bath, sure—but rub a soul?

So do I grab a soul and give it a good scrub?

"I've got tons of souls in my Myriad Souls Banner, why don't I pull one out and try rubbing?"

As soon as that thought came, Lin Chang'sheng grabbed the Myriad Souls Banner. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, a familiar soul appeared before him.

"Qi Hui?"

Lin Chang'sheng narrowed his eyes at the soul, saying, "Get over here!"

"S-senior..."

"Spare... spare me!"

Qi Hui trembled as he heard Lin Chang'sheng's words—sheer terror in his eyes as he dropped to his knees.

Ever since he'd been captured, Lin Chang'sheng kept dragging him out to the Myriad Souls Banner space to whip and burn him whenever he had time. Qi Hui had no idea when his suffering would end, and being trapped in the Banner meant even reincarnation was out of reach!

"You bastard! Who's suffering now?!"

"Hmph! Spare you? If I hadn't been strong enough and got turned into a Soul Seed by you, would you have spared ME?"

"I'm gonna torture you for ten thousand years—burn you whenever I feel like it! You'll never get reincarnated!"

Lin Chang'sheng sneered at Qi Hui's soul, reached out and slammed his soul to the ground. Then Lin Chang'sheng grabbed his soul's head and started scrubbing hard!

Qi Hui's eyes rolled all the way back as Lin Chang'sheng rubbed away.

Soul Searching Technique Experience Points +1!

Soul Searching Technique Experience Points +1!

.......

"Nice, this works! Not bad!"

"At this rate, I'll have the Soul Searching Technique at Perfection in no time!"

Watching his Experience Points tick up on the screen, Lin Chang'sheng's satisfaction grew. His eyes lit up, and he muttered, "If I drag out more souls, can I grind the skill even faster?"

Thinking thus,

Lin Chang'sheng gave the Myriad Souls Banner a big shake, summoning the souls of Zhang Hansheng, Murong Tian, Dugu Yun, and a few others. He threw a restriction on so they couldn't make a sound, then got scrubbing.

Soul Searching Technique Experience Points +1!

Soul Searching Technique Experience Points +1!

Lin Chang'sheng immediately noticed his Experience Points were skyrocketing—fast as hell.

"This is awesome!"

Eyes shining, Lin Chang'sheng really got into dual-wielding soul rubdowns.

"Why's he scrubbing our souls like laundry? Is this...?"

"Dear heavens, just let me die! I can't die, but who knows what kind of nightmare he's gonna put us through..."

"This guy—he's not cultivating, he's got us all laid out just to rub souls on the ground. Has he lost his mind?"

"......."

Watching Lin Chang'sheng's bizarre antics, Murong Tian, Zhang Hansheng, Qi Hui, Dugu Yun, and the other souls exchanged terrified looks.

They'd been stuck together so long in the Myriad Souls Banner, they'd basically become banner buddies.

Lin Chang'sheng couldn't care less what these souls thought. He just minded his own business, soul scrubbing away.

Suddenly—

His eyes narrowed, and with a wave of his hand, the Myriad Souls Banner scooped up Zhang Hansheng, Dugu Yun, Qi Hui, and the others. Lin Chang'sheng stuffed the Banner back in his storage bag, flashed out of the inn, and frowned, muttering, "Huh? Gone?"

Lin Chang'sheng's Divine Sense had just spotted a black-clad figure a hundred yards away, spying on him. But by the time he got out, there was no one in sight.

Lin Chang'sheng darted around the area, searching, but still saw nothing.

"That guy... could he be a Foundation Establishment from Celestial Ghost Sect?"

Vigilance rose in Lin Chang'sheng's heart.

If someone's got such kickass concealment, it's probably a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Plus, I just killed four Celestial Ghost Sect disciples. Sure, I wiped the place clean, but their sect's got all kinds of nasty Ghost Dao tricks—maybe they've got a tracking method I don't know about.

"This area is still Righteous Dao turf. The Celestial Ghost Sect was hiding out with the Zhang Family, so they probably wouldn't dare to move around by day... Chances are, they'll come at night!"

With that in mind, Lin Chang'sheng decided to leave Giant Whale City, find somewhere to lay low, set up some arrays for defense, and then pop a Yuan Condensing Pill to max out his Foundation Establishment First Layer Cultivation Experience Points!

Only by boosting my strength can I truly keep myself safe.

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