Inside a room.
Luo Chen held the banner flag in his hand, scrutinizing it closely.
Only after a long while did he slowly nod.
"Sure enough, this is the soul path dharma artifact mentioned in Gu Yue's autobiography—the Soul Refining Banner."
"To think that an artifact Gu Yue never even possessed was actually forged by Li Da."
"And its rank has impressively reached high-grade!"
This Soul Refining Banner was the very reason Luo Chen had gone out of his way.
This treasure could trap souls and convert them into means for combat.
If that were all, it would hardly matter; Luo Chen did not lack a dharma artifact or two.
Yet this treasure could also help extract Duan Qiankun's remnant soul from Wang Yuan's body.
That fact had compelled him to act on a spontaneous impulse.
"Li Da can only blame his own bad luck."
Luo Chen smiled faintly, feeling not the slightest guilt over having struck him down.
Perhaps it was because Li Da had shown him disrespect first.
Or perhaps, after breaking through his cultivation realm, his state of mind had shifted, making his conduct bolder and more unrestrained.
Or maybe, during the days when he was weak, he had suffered enough oppression from those above him.
Now, the dragon-slaying youth had finally become the dragon, putting on the airs of a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator.
In any case, he was quite fond of his present state.
"Once I leave this place, I can set about resolving Wang Yuan's lingering affliction."
"Moreover, having the Soul Refining Banner in hand will be of considerable benefit to me right now."
He was currently inside the Ghost City.
Although Luo Chen felt his own methods were sufficient to deal with whatever arose, one could never have too many treasures tailored against yin souls.
Aside from the Soul Refining Banner, the rest of the legacy in Li Da's storage bag held little worth discussing.
A few medicinal pills and standard dharma artifacts failed to catch Luo Chen's eye.
Once he returned outside, he would place them in the Luotian Association's treasury for the cultivators below to redeem!
The only item that held some interest for Luo Chen was the set of three Ghost Mother Needles he had initially pocketed.
Looking at the three silver needles in his hand, Luo Chen murmured to himself,
"This treasure isn't meant to be used like that!"
***
Within the Ghost City, Luo Chen walked forward with his lantern.
His pace was somewhat slower than before.
It was not because there were too many yin souls along the path, but rather that he was using this time to familiarize himself with the newly acquired Soul Refining Banner and Ghost Mother Needles.
The former was straightforward enough; whenever he encountered slightly stronger ghosts, he could simply capture them and bend them to his own use.
The latter, however, was quite intriguing.
"Mm, another three yin souls are coming."
Green light flared within his eerie eyes. Luo Chen flicked his wrist, sending the three silver needles flying out.
Low-tier yin souls were unlike ghost generals; they had not condensed physical forms.
Ordinary people found them difficult to handle without relying on Evil-Breaking Talismans or specialized spells.
Previously, Luo Chen had only possessed the Cleansing Art, Fireball Art, Soul Absorption Art, and the Green Firefly Lantern to deal with them.
Now, however, he had something far more convenient.
In a flash, the three silver needles shot clean through the three yin souls.
Outwardly, it seemed no harm had been done, but after piercing them, three slender threads snapped into form.
"Wuuu..."
The yin souls let out shrill wails before being dragged back by the Ghost Mother Needles, transforming into pure yin qi that plunged into the Soul Refining Banner.
Nourished by the yin qi, the pitch-black banner noticeably deepened in color.
The rank of a Soul Refining Banner was never set in stone.
Instead, its upper limit was dictated by its materials and the strength of the souls it contained.
Luo Chen was well aware of this; what interested him was the effect of the Ghost Mother Needles.
"Ghost Mother Needles, spiritual sense threads."
"As expected, it is a rare soul path dharma artifact that can channel spiritual sense to mount attacks."
Among Gao Tingyuan's legacy, in addition to the *True Soul Refining Art*, there was a book concerning spiritual sense.
It detailed the various marvelous uses of outward spiritual sense projection once a cultivator reached Foundation Establishment.
Generally speaking, the spiritual sense of a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator could only be used to detect nearby living beings, or released in full force to create the rare aura of Foundation Establishment pressure.
His clash of spiritual sense with Nangong Jin back then had been an example of the latter.
Aside from those two uses, spiritual sense had few tangible effects.
Yet this did not mean spiritual sense lacked potential.
After all, cultivators focused primarily on refining qi with spirit refinement as a complement; as the external manifestation of the soul, how could spiritual sense truly be useless?
It was simply that ordinary cultivators lacked specific techniques to employ it!
Such methods were possessed only by major sects.
From that book on spiritual sense, Luo Chen had learned that besides specialized spiritual sense arts, there was another application:
Using dharma artifacts crafted from special materials to give tangible form to intangible spiritual sense.
These Ghost Mother Needles were a fine specimen of that kind.
"That Li Da truly squandered a heavenly treasure... No, his spiritual sense couldn't be projected outward, so even if he knew the method, he couldn't have executed it."
Under Luo Chen's experimentation, the true might of this set of Ghost Mother Needles was finally revealed in full.
Needle-type dharma artifacts were already renowned for their speed and stealth.
When further channeling projected spiritual sense, ordinary yin souls and ghosts were no match for them at all.
Furthermore, destroying low-tier yin souls this way and feeding their yin qi and soul power into the Soul Refining Banner enhanced the banner's power as well.
In this manner, it served both purposes beautifully!
Luo Chen put away the silver needles and continued forward.
***
Two days later.
Luo Chen stood outside White Stone Square.
He had tread with great caution throughout the journey, avoiding powerful ghosts wherever possible, which was why his pace had been so slow.
He had no choice; Dahe Ghost City was far more dangerous than just these low-tier yin souls.
Several thousand Qi Refinement loose cultivators lay buried here.
Among them, late-stage Qi Refinement practitioners were beyond count.
With such numbers, resentful spirits and fierce ghosts inevitably arose.
Neither of those could be compared to low-tier yin souls.
By their very nature, they were aggressive!
Moreover, inside this ghost domain, they could devour the weak without restraint.
In just a few years, the city had gone from having only a single ghost general at first to a full nine.
And that figure was already a year old!
A year later, only ghosts knew how many ghost generals there truly were.
Though Luo Chen was riding high in spirits after his breakthrough, he had not reached the point of utter arrogance, imagining himself invincible under the heavens.
Where life and death were concerned, he had to remain cautious.
To enter Mount Luofeng, the most critical step was crossing White Stone Square.
Here resided the very first ghost general born in Dahe Ghost City!
Back then, the Nangong family had suffered devastating losses in White Stone Square, forcing them to seal their clan away.
Only now, several years later, had they slowly recovered.
Facing this powerful, earliest-born ghost general, Luo Chen had to treat the situation with utmost care.
"Still, it shouldn't be much of a problem!"
Luo Chen felt full of confidence!
After ascending to the Foundation Establishment stage, the power of his first-tier spells had surged dramatically.
His ability to slay a renowned ninth-layer Qi Refinement expert like Li Da using nothing more than a single Entanglement Art was proof enough.
Among these spells, Luo Chen valued four above all others:
The Fireball Art, the Cleansing Art, the Spirit Eye Art, and the Breath Concealment Spiritual Art!
Back during his Qi Refinement days, the Breath Concealment Spiritual Art had already been sufficient to deceive Foundation Establishment True Cultivators.
Now that he was at Foundation Establishment, bolstered by spiritual sense, its effect was even more extraordinary.
Whether it could fool a Core Formation cultivator was hard to say, but against a ghost general that possessed virtually no intellect, it would certainly suffice!
In truth, this was the real foundation of Luo Chen's confidence in delving into the Ghost City alone.
With a thought!
The Great Perfection Breath Concealment Spiritual Art instantly enveloped him.
In an instant, Luo Chen's aura shrank to near nothingness!
Not a single wisp of spiritual energy fluctuation leaked out!
His vigorous vitality and blood were entirely restrained within his flesh.
And that was merely the first layer of insurance.
Should anyone stumble upon him by chance, beneath it lay a layer simulating the aura of a yin soul.
"Done like this, it can be called foolproof!"
Luo Chen took a deep breath, then strode candidly toward White Stone Square.
As he walked, his gaze drifted across his surroundings.
The Mixue Ice Cream & Tea shop had long since turned into a heap of rubble.
The battle back then had taken place nearby; how could it possibly have survived?
Yuan Xiaoyue's snack stall was also nowhere to be seen.
Amidst the ruins, however, the corner of a green stone caught his eye with a twinge of familiarity.
"That should be the large green stone Old Daoist Chen gave me."
"I gave it to Xiaoyue back then to set up her stall. To think it met such an end as well."
Seeing that stone corner, Luo Chen sighed with emotion, but his footsteps never paused.
Before long, he crossed the desolate White Stone Square.
It was very strange here; not a single yin soul or ghost roamed about.
It was as though some natural suppression hung over the area.
Arriving beneath the massive jade wall, Luo Chen shook his head.
The jade wall where crowds had once gathered in the greatest numbers was now nothing more than a gray, dilapidated ruin.
No trace remained of its former glory.
Without slowing his pace, Luo Chen passed through the ticket entrance into the passage leading to Mount Luofeng.
With the array restrictions gone, the corridor that had once seemed so wondrous was now merely a tunnel paved with massive green stones.
"Close, so close!"
"I can feel it—not far ahead, a surging wave of spiritual energy is undulating."
"Life and death coexist; this spiritual land has not entirely dissipated!"
Just as Luo Chen was about to step into the grounds of the Dao Discussion Platform, his body suddenly froze.
He slowly turned around.
A floating figure drifted eerily past the mouth of the tunnel outside.
Its eyes were vacant and bewildered, as if anchorless.
Yet for brief flickers, a faint gleam of sharpness showed within them.
It drifted out of the tunnel and circled slowly around White Stone Square.
Whenever a mindless yin soul accidentally wandered into the square, it would be instantly shredded and devoured by the figure.
Ghost qi billowed, crisscrossing like beams of sword light.
Gazing at that figure, Luo Chen could not help but feel a desolate pang at how drastically things had changed.
"So it was him... Alas..."
The person before him was none other than Yuding's Foundation Establishment true disciple—Luo Tianhong.
Back then, he had been assigned to Dahe Market to carry out his Foundation Establishment mission.
He was supposed to return to the Yuding Sword Sect once his ten-year term was completed.
Who could have foreseen that he would fall in this place?
Even after turning into a ghost, he still guarded the vicinity of the Yuding Sword Pavilion purely on instinct.
"He was exceptionally kind toward me. Though there was a hint of using me, he truly did remove the hidden threat Mi Shuhua left on my body."
"During the battle at Lancang River, he looked out for me a great deal as well."
"It's a pity that in his current state, I am powerless to help him."
Sighing, Luo Chen shook his head, and his figure vanished into Mount Luofeng.
***
Mount Luofeng!
Legend held that in ancient times, this was the place where a heavenly phoenix plummeted.
Ancient legends were untrustworthy, just as some claimed the Lancang River was formed by a flood dragon named Lancang undergoing a river flood to transform into a dragon.
In reality, it was formed by the melting snows of the Great Snow Mountain, gathering ten thousand streams as it surged onward to finally create a mighty river.
Luo Chen did not care about such tales; he only knew that Mount Luofeng was the center of spiritual veins across a thousand li around Dahe Market.
The reason the Yuding Sword Sect had established a market here, and even erected the Dao Discussion Platform, was precisely because a massive spiritual vein stretching several hundred li lay beneath it.
Passing through the underground palace and entering the Dao Discussion Platform, Luo Chen raised his vigilance to the absolute maximum.
Other places were manageable, but this had been the very center of the great battle.
If any place in Dahe Ghost City was the most dangerous, it had to be here.
He was already fully prepared.
If anything seemed amiss, he would flee immediately.
Yet after entering the Dao Discussion Platform, aside from the massive ruins formed by the collapsed structures, not a single yin soul or ghost could be found.
"That makes sense. As the center of the great battle, what ghost could possibly survive here?"
Feeling the dense sword qi lingering nearby, Luo Chen let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
Even after so many years, the remnant sword qi of the Core Formation sword cultivator still radiated sharp, lethal intent.
Even with his physique infinitely close to the first realm of body refinement, the hairs on his body stood on end.
Leaping up!
Luo Chen moved like an agile ape, darting across the jagged, boulder-strewn Dao Discussion Platform.
Soon, he crossed past the bounds of the platform into unfamiliar territory.
A pair of spirit eyes flared with sharp light, searching up and down.
"Over there!"
Without hesitation, Luo Chen advanced toward the deepest reaches of Mount Luofeng.
Before long, he arrived outside a mountainside concealed by massive boulders.
Without pause, Luo Chen spat out his sword pill.
With a flick of his finger!
The sword pill transformed into a sharp longsword, slicing open the boulders as it pressed forward.
Luo Chen followed closely behind.
After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, Luo Chen halted the sword pill's excavation.
With a push of his hand, the rock wall collapsed with a roar.
A crude cave dwelling immediately appeared before his eyes.
There was nothing inside.
It was rustic to the extreme!
"To think Pang Renxiong was actually an ascetic cultivator."
Looking at the spartan cave dwelling, Luo Chen sighed.
He did not enter immediately.
The place was indeed filled with an intensely concentrated, pure spiritual energy far beyond anything a first-tier spiritual vein could match.
It even made Luo Chen wonder if this was a third-tier spiritual land.
However, mixed within the spiritual energy were numerous chilling streams of yin qi and ghost qi, along with a small amount of malevolent qi suffusing the air.
Such a place was fundamentally unsuitable for cultivation!
Even with the aid of a Spirit Gathering Array, it would be difficult to extract the pure spiritual energy to aid one's practice.
In fact, this was precisely why the several Foundation Establishment cultivators of Dahe Market had shown little interest after exploring the area multiple times.
They had lacked the means to resolve this predicament.
Luo Chen, however, possessed the answer!
"Fortunately, to qualify for Emperor's Flowing Syrup, I ground my proficiency like mad and brought many spells to the Great Perfection level."
"Right now, the Cleansing Art is the perfect remedy for this situation!"
There was good reason Luo Chen regarded the Cleansing Art as one of his four most valued first-tier spells.
Upon reaching Great Perfection, it unleashed an unimaginable efficacy!
An ordinary Cleansing Art could only remove grime, serving as a trivial convenience.
When he had cultivated it to the Grandmaster level, it had finally gained the property of expelling foreign substances from within his body—such as demon qi, pill aura, and even the pure spiritual power Mi Shuhua had left on him.
Yet it had stopped there.
At the Grandmaster level, the Cleansing Art exerted its greatest effect internally; externally, it could only be used to clean pill furnaces.
All of that had undergone a qualitative transformation once the Cleansing Art reached Great Perfection!
Now, the Cleansing Art could be cast instantaneously!
Not only that, but it also exerted tremendous power against external threats.
For instance, the water-attribute spell Wang Haichao had cast during his Foundation Establishment banquet had been neutralized by Luo Chen's full-power Cleansing Art.
Likewise, two days ago, when Li Da attacked with the Ghost Mother Needles and the resentful spirits of the Soul Refining Banner, they had all proven futile against the Great Perfection Cleansing Art.
This spell truly possessed boundless potential.
Even at Great Perfection, Luo Chen felt it held potential for further optimization and deduction.
It was simply that, unlike with the Fireball Art, he had yet to find the general direction for such deduction.
Now, what Luo Chen needed to do was use the aid of his spiritual sense to purge every foreign aura other than spiritual energy from this spiritual land.
"Haha, it's just some spring cleaning!"
Luo Chen chuckled, flicking his sleeves repeatedly.
Soon, massive swathes of yin qi were driven out of the cave dwelling.
The remaining malevolent qi and ghost qi were also purged one by one.
Before long, the cave dwelling within the mountain belly once again brimmed with vibrant spiritual energy.
Its purity far surpassed the second-tier spiritual vein environment Mi Shuhua had activated back then.
It was also vastly superior to the temporary second-tier spiritual vein environment created on Mount Xiaohuan using the Ice-Fire Spiritual Spring.
Best of all, it required no expenditure of medium-grade spirit stones!
Suppressing his inner excitement, Luo Chen set up a first-tier defensive array at the cave entrance.
Not stopping there, he also laid down a concealment array.
In this manner, everything was truly foolproof!
Having arranged all this, Luo Chen finally let out a breath of relief and sat down cross-legged inside the cave dwelling.
His breathing grew steady, his mind completely clear.
The *Yimu Medicine King Scripture* slowly began to circulate.
Spiritual energy from outside poured steadily into Luo Chen's body.
Meanwhile, the vast medicinal power that had accumulated within his qi sea for so long was also mobilized through cycle after cycle of circulation.
*Drip...*
When the first drop of liquefied spiritual energy fell into the vast, boundless qi sea, it marked the official beginning of Luo Chen's secluded cultivation.
Chapter 193