Cave Refuge-Chapter 836 - 539: Three Banners of the Demon Path

Therefore, to refine the same soul threads, using a more complex method may only require the seven emotions and six desires of ten people, and after acquiring the soul threads, those ten people will not die.

Whereas with a simpler method, refining a single kind of soul thread requires the consumption of the souls of at least five to ten creatures, and naturally, the creatures whose souls are extracted from their bodies will die.

The Hundred Ghosts Banner became a foundational Demon Path Treasure precisely because of that simple refining method.

After all, that simpler refining method allows even those Demon Path Cultivators in the Elementary Qi Refinement Realm to successfully refine it, provided they have enough souls.

And most crucially, for the Hundred Ghosts Banner to grow stronger, it doesn’t need other rare and precious materials, just gather enough thick soul threads to effortlessly enhance the grade of the Magical Weapon.

Whether it’s the grade of the Magical Artifact at the beginning of its practice or upgrading it to the level of a Spiritual Treasure, the only material needed is souls.

The functions of the Hundred Ghosts Banner hardly need to be mentioned, simply put, they are to absorb souls, store souls, refine souls, and control souls.

Absorbing souls needs no further explanation: depending on the grade of the Hundred Ghosts Banner and the strength of the user’s Spirit Power, at an elementary level, it can absorb souls within a certain range that are unable to resist.

As the grade of the Hundred Ghosts Banner increases, it can not only forcibly absorb nearby ghostly creatures but can even forcibly extract souls from their bodies.

Inside the Hundred Ghosts Banner is a space filled with the aura of death, and those souls that are sucked into it can survive for a long time within this space, and if a Soul Body is injured, it can also absorb the Ghost Energy inside the Hundred Ghosts Banner to quickly recover.

There are two different methods of refining souls in the Hundred Ghosts Banner. The first is to refine the absorbed souls into the most basic aura of death. After all, the internal space of the Hundred Ghosts Banner does not produce the aura of death itself. To increase the concentration of the aura of death within the Hundred Ghosts Banner, it is inevitable to refine other souls.

The second soul refining method causes those Soul Bodies absorbed into the internal space of the Hundred Ghosts Banner to lose their reason and constantly devour other Soul Bodies within the Hundred Ghosts Banner.

Just like Gu Refining, it lets the Spiritual Bodies within the Hundred Ghosts Banner fight and devour each other, eventually leaving only the strongest inside.

Controlling souls is also quite straightforward; all the ghosts that enter the Hundred Ghosts Banner come under its control.

Of course, this control has its limits. If a low-level Hundred Ghosts Banner absorbs an especially strong Soul Body, unless the Soul Body remains unresisting after being absorbed, the moment it resists, the Hundred Ghosts Banner might instantly explode into fragments.

The White Bone Banner and the Bloodthirsty Banner serve almost the same purpose as the Hundred Ghosts Banner, with the only difference being the materials required.

To refine a White Bone Banner, one merely needs to extract the essence of bones, regardless of the type of the bones before death; possessing a sufficient amount of bone essence is all it takes to refine it successfully.

Unlike the Hundred Ghosts Banner which can control a myriad of ghosts, the White Bone Banner, though also capable of extracting the bones out of creatures, always has only one White Bone Puppet within it.

This White Bone Puppet can be human-shaped or beast-shaped, or even custom in form – in short, as long as there is enough bone essence, whatever type of White Bone Puppet one wishes to create can be crafted.

The Bloodthirsty Banner is even more straightforward; all it takes to refine this artifact is enough fresh blood. Its other abilities are more or less the same as the other two Magical Weapons; its unique feature lies in its manner of combat.

Compared to the Hundred Ghosts Banner’s control over ghosts and the White Bone Banner’s manipulation of a White Bone Puppet, the interior of the Bloodthirsty Banner stores a Blood Sea.

As the quantity of blood stored in the Bloodthirsty Banner increases, using it can summon a sea of blood.

If beings of flesh and blood are enshrouded by the Blood Sea, unless they quickly escape from the Blood Sea, their bodies will dissolve into bloody water.

And if the target is not of flesh and blood, staying in the Blood Sea for an extended period will also lead to its slow corrosion by the Blood Sea.

If the target has Spirit Power on them, upon contact with the Blood Sea, they will be corrupted and assimilated by the polluted air within the Blood Sea.

These three different Demon Path Treasures each have different focuses.

When facing a large number of common soldiers, the Blood Sea within the Bloodthirsty Banner is undoubtedly a divine artifact for clearing the field.

But when facing a powerful enemy, the White Bone Puppet inside the White Bone Banner, if nurtured well, can definitely battle beyond its level.

The Fierce Ghosts controlled within the Hundred Ghosts Banner are more balanced. In battles of the same rank, the ability to clear groups of foes with the Hundred Ghosts Banner is superior to that of the White Bone Puppet in the White Bone Banner, but weaker than the endless Blood Sea in the Bloodthirsty Banner.

Conversely, in fights against equally matched enemies, even though the Fierce Ghosts inside the Hundred Ghosts Banner are weaker than the White Bone Puppet inside the White Bone Banner, they are still much stronger than the endless Blood Sea.

However, even though the three Magical Weapons have different focuses, because the materials for refining them do not conflict, any Demon Path Cultivator who knows how to make these three Magical Weapons generally has one of each.

Since the methods for refining these three Magical Weapons are quite simple, their exchange prices in the Scripture Hall aren’t too high. Zachary was able to exchange for them with very few Survival Points.

The refining process is also quite straightforward: the White Bone Banner merely requires the extraction of bone essence, the Bloodthirsty Banner only needs a sufficient supply of flesh and blood, and the only slightly troublesome part is that the soul threads of seven emotions and six desires needed to refine the Hundred Ghosts Banner can also be obtained through the administration of drugs.

When exchanging for the method to refine the Hundred Ghosts Banner, a set of special prescriptions was given for free; by drugging the subjects, they could produce the seven emotions and six desires needed for refinement, and even amplify them several fold.