Unveiling the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner

Qin Sang chose to flee due west. Heading east would lead to Wuya Valley, where the beast tide had erupted, driving out all the experts training within. Heading south led to Qingyang Market, and no one could say for sure whether any experts were lurking there. Qin Sang had no desire to shake off Wu Youdao only to be targeted by someone else, letting a third party reap the spoils. To the west of the Qingyang Demonic Sect lay a vast territory where spiritual power was exceedingly thin. This was a realm where mortals lived, and no cultivators established sects there. At most, there were cultivators dispatched by sects to oversee mortal affairs, and their cultivation was generally low. Pursuing and fleeing, Wu Youdao and Qin Sang traversed countless mountains and rivers, leaving the Qingyang Demonic Sect far behind. Along the way, the two exchanged blows several times. Wu Youdao's life magic treasure was truly extraordinary. The Qingyang Demonic Fire spewed from his gourd was not only exceptionally condensed, with might far surpassing ordinary Qingyang Demonic Fire, but it also gathered and dispersed at will—sometimes turning into sabers, spears, swords, and halberds, and sometimes spreading out into a sky-filling sea of flames. It was exceedingly versatile. In comparison, the moves of the ebony sword were far too limited. Qin Sang had to rack his brains, employing various swordsmanship techniques just to compensate and barely hold his ground against Wu Youdao. At this moment, Qin Sang was clutching the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner, racing against time to secretly refine this magic treasure. Only by relying on the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner could he counter Wu Youdao's fire gourd. Qin Sang had not opted to use the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman, as the speed boost it offered was limited, and the secret technique Wu Youdao had used earlier to accelerate suddenly was still fresh in his memory. Wu Youdao had likely sensed the ebony sword's limitations and was planning to gradually wear him down. Qin Sang knew full well that unless he fought a proper battle, displayed his true strength, and forced Wu Youdao to back down, the Nine Dragons Heavenly Chariot Talisman alone would never shake him off. He might as well keep it in reserve as a surprise move and focus all his efforts on refining the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. Qin Sang had possessed the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner for a long time and had even used it to slay several opponents. He was already thoroughly familiar with it, so his refining progressed swiftly. In the past, he had operated the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner by drawing upon the power of the Ten Directions Yanluo Array's main soul, knowing what it did without understanding how or why. One could say he knew next to nothing about the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner and the Nine Nether Demonic Fire. He had no idea what lay inside the banner, or why summoning its power yielded not myriad living souls, but rather a bizarre flame. What connection was there between the Nine Nether Demonic Fire and the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner? As the refinement progressed step by step, the banner's mysterious veil began to peel back before him. In Qin Sang's prior estimation, the magic tool version of the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner not only required duping someone into refining themselves into its main soul, but also needed to absorb the souls of countless living beings to reach completion. The magic treasure version, he had assumed, would be even more heinous! Not only was it the grand treasure of the Kuiyin Sect, but it was also Patriarch Kuiyin's signature magic treasure. It had once terrorized the Lesser Cold Domain, striking fear into all hearts; rumor had it that a formation of ten such banners could contend with a top-grade magic treasure! Qin Sang had assumed it must be an exceedingly sinister treasure containing an uncountable number of devoured souls. Yet as he gradually gained control over the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner, he realized he seemed to have been mistaken. The banner was not the purgatory he had imagined. Within it, there were no countless souls wailing like ghosts and wolves. There was only one thing—the Nine Nether Demonic Fire! The Nine Nether Demonic Fire lay coiled like a slumbering black dragon within the space of the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. As the refinement deepened, Qin Sang felt more and more that this magic treasure was like a vessel forged to seal the Nine Nether Demonic Fire. The treasure itself possessed no combat prowess of its own; it relied entirely on the demonic fire to clash with enemies. Even so, Qin Sang felt no disappointment. Once he gained control over the Nine Nether Demonic Fire, he realized the flames he had summoned before possessed only a fraction of its true power. The authentic Nine Nether Demonic Fire was not inferior in the slightest to the Qingyang Demonic Fire from Wu Youdao's fire gourd. In fact, for reasons he could not explain, Qin Sang had a faint premonition: while the Nine Nether Demonic Fire was surely no match in sheer power for the Ancestral Holy Fire atop Divine Astral Peak, its bizarre, uncanny nature might well surpass it. He could tell that the Ancestral Holy Fire and Qingyang Demonic Fire were inextricably linked. Even if the fire had not been artificially crafted, it was inextricably tied to the forebears of the Qingyang Demonic Sect. Despite all the ancient texts he had read, Qin Sang still had no clue about the origins of the Nine Nether Demonic Fire. Such an extraordinary flame could never have been refined by human hands. He could not fathom what method Patriarch Kuiyin had used to subdue it, rendering it so docile that it would submit to the bidding of the banner's master. They flew across another wide river. A plain appeared ahead, with a walled city faintly visible in the distance. The commotion caused by Qin Sang and Wu Youdao's flight was immense, startling the mortals below. The city walls were packed with soldiers staring in terror at the two shooting stars. As the saying went: when gods brawl, mortals suffer. At that moment, Qin Sang finally completed the refinement of the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. The banner flew automatically before his chest, black flames rising and falling across its surface, poised to surge forth. Qin Sang glanced left and right, altered his course to bypass the city, and flew toward the desolate mountains and wilderness. Seizing the opportunity, Wu Youdao triggered a flash of green light from his fire gourd. A blast of flame shot out, transforming into an arm-thick arrow aimed straight for the back of Qin Sang's heart. This time, Qin Sang did not intend to flee. Running any further would drain the true essence within his corpse core completely. He recalled the ebony sword and pointed a finger at the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. Instantly, a surge of black flames poured from the banner. Boom! The two streams of fire collided in midair. After the explosion, azure and black sparks danced wildly, and the blast wave blasted a boulder on an adjacent peak straight into dust. "Nine Nether Demonic Fire?" Wu Youdao's pupils contracted. Recognizing the fire's origins at once, he immediately demanded, "The Ten Directions Yanluo Banner? You are a remnant of the Kuiyin Sect?" "Clean your eyes, Fellow Daoist Wu! Not even the ashes of the Kuiyin Sect ghosts remain. This old man wants nothing to do with that cursed sect," Qin Sang cackled with an eerie laugh. Inwardly, though, he sighed. As expected, he could not fool Wu Youdao's sharp eyes. Belonging to a demonic sect himself, Wu Youdao was bound to be intimately familiar with the signature magic treasure of the Kuiyin Sect. In this battle, Qin Sang had exposed both his ebony sword and the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner. There was no need to worry right now, but he could hardly switch his magic treasures in the future, nor could he stay holed up in a cave abode cultivating forever. Concealing his identity indefinitely would be nearly impossible; the Qingyang Demonic Sect would sooner or later trace it back to him. However, to break free as quickly as possible, Qin Sang could not afford to dwell on that. In Wu Youdao's eyes, Qin Sang was already a genuine Core Formation stage cultivator. Even if he were discovered later, it would be no great matter. He had merely stolen a bit of Qingyang Divine Astral Qi and casually killed a Foundation Establishment disciple. Qin Sang knew Wen Yanjie's background well. Why would they hunt down a Core Formation cultivator backed by the Eight Righteous Sects over such petty enmity? "Fellow Daoist Wu, how many times must I say it? This old man needed Qiantian astral qi, and with no other choice, I had to sneak in and steal a small piece of your sect's astral jade. I touched nothing else, and I would never dare covet your sect's forbidden area. Why must you pursue me with such relentless persistence?" Qin Sang shouted at the top of his lungs as he spurred the Ten Directions Yanluo Banner.