The crafting of the Yin Soul Banner doesn't require any precious materials. Only a banner pole and banner surface of the Yin-cold attribute are needed; no specific materials are required.
For the banner pole, Hun Changqing's Taiyin Black Death Wood is extremely suitable, and it's connected to his essence, making it very easy to use.
For the banner surface, he still has the skin of a Nine Netherworld Python he killed in the Soul Clan in his storage ring. The Nine Netherworld Python is almost the most powerful Yin-cold attribute magical beast on the Dou Qi Continent, and its skin is extremely tough and elastic, making it perfect for crafting the banner surface.
It can be said that Hun Changqing now possesses the most basic conditions for crafting the Yin Soul Banner. However, the crafting of the banner pole and banner surface is not the most important. The reason the Yin Soul Banner is recorded in the Taiyin True Scripture and described as having immense power is not simply due to the combination of two Yin-cold attribute materials.
The most important aspect of the Yin Soul Banner is the Yin Demons contained within its surface. These Yin Demons are forged from the souls of living beings through the influence of Taiyin True Qi. Yin Demons are bizarre; ordinary energy and physical strength cannot even touch them, and they devour energy and souls—truly terrifying.
If Hun Changqing could forge millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of Yin Demons and store them within the Yin Soul Banner, he could unleash them in battle, forming a vast, overwhelming array—the sight was too beautiful for Hun Changqing to bear.
However, forging Yin Demons requires extremely high-quality souls; ideally, they must be the souls of cultivators. Since Hun Changqing wanted to forge a massive number of Yin Demons, he couldn't possibly collect them one by one. Fortunately, there happened to be a force on the Dou Qi Continent whose primary goal was collecting souls—the Soul Palace, an affiliated force of his home base, the Soul Clan!
Every branch of the Soul Palace contains an immense number of cultivators' souls. Since Hun Changqing wanted to refine the Yin Demon but was too lazy to collect the souls himself, he had no choice but to rely on the branch palaces.
Hun Changqing only needed to raid the containers filled with souls collected over many years by the branch palace members in any of the branch palaces, thus obtaining enough souls to refine the Yin Demon.
This is why Hun Changqing seized the souls of Jiang Xuan and Protector Tie to investigate the Northwest Continent branch palace. Upon seeing the method for refining the Yin Soul Banner, Hun Changqing had already set his sights on his own Soul Palace.
Originally, Hun Changqing was planning to find these branch palace members sometime, but unexpectedly, they delivered themselves to his doorstep, so Hun Changqing could only accept their souls with a smile.
"I just don't know how strong the Dragon Venerable and the Star Venerable are. Every time these two protectors see these two Venerables, they act like mice seeing a cat, not even daring to carefully probe their auras. It makes it hard for me to judge their strength. The Deputy Hall Master should be a low-level Dou Zun without a problem, but the strength of the Hall Master, the Star Venerable, is a bit hard to predict."
Hun Changqing stroked his chin with his slender white fingers, a hidden light flashing in his eyes. After pondering for a moment, Hun Changqing finally made a decision.
"If I can't beat them, I'll just run away. With my ability to conceal my aura, even a Nine-Star Dou Zun can't stop me if I want to leave. Even if the Star Venerable is strong, can he have already started compressing his Dou Qi? If he were, he would have gone to the Heavenly Gang Hall to become a Heavenly Venerable long ago. Why would he be stuck in this godforsaken place?"
Now, although Hun Changqing's Taiyin True Body has begun to show its power due to his advancement to Dou Zun, it has not only improved the quality of Hun Changqing's Taiyin True Qi, but also accelerated the refining speed of the Four Waters and One Wood within his body.
These things, which he had integrated into his very being, were increasing in power at an alarming rate every day. Given time, these divine waters would surely unleash the power they described.
The Taiyin Black Death Wood had also broken through its growth limit. Nourished daily by Hun Changqing within his very being, it would one day undergo a transformation, growing into a true divine object.
Although Hun Changqing had undergone a transformation in every aspect after breaking through to Dou Zun, the gap between each level of Dou Zun was enormous. With his current abilities, he could only contend with the peak of the mid-level Dou Zun, namely a six-star Dou Zun, and even then, he would likely only be able to defeat him, allowing him to escape. Killing him would be extremely difficult.
The reason Hun Changqing was so arrogant towards Gu Ming when he first broke through to Dou Zun was because Yao Chen was protecting him. After advancing to Dou Zun, although the gap between him and Gu Ming was still significant, it was no longer as vast as the previous difference in quality; his attacks could now inflict damage on Gu Ming.
With Yao Chen, a peak ninth-level Dou Zun, present, and with him mediating, Hun Changqing naturally had no fear of Gu Ming, thus gaining the right to be arrogant.
Otherwise, without Yao Chen, Hun Changqing would have fled immediately after advancing to Dou Zun, running as fast as he could.
Just as Hun Changqing was pondering, Zi Yan walked in from outside. Her face was stuffed full of pills, and crunching sounds came from her small mouth.
Zi Yan, arms crossed and hugging her round belly, came to Hun Changqing.
"Silk pig... ooh... Yi Zun..."
Indistinct sounds came from Zi Yan's mouth, making Hun Changqing's head spin. He reached out and gave Zi Yan a sharp rap on the head.
"Swallow that before you speak."
Zi Yan covered her head with her small hands, looking at Hun Changqing with immense resentment, as if she were looking at a scoundrel who had abandoned his wife and children. She swallowed the pill in her mouth whole, then suddenly leaped and buried herself in Hun Changqing's arms, who was sitting cross-legged.
Zi Yan felt the smoothness of Hun Changqing's black robe and the softness of his body beneath it. She rubbed her face against Hun Changqing's chest with great pleasure, sniffing deeply the cool fragrance emanating from him. Then, she said to Hun Changqing in a dissatisfied tone,
"Master, I just helped you fool those students and you hit me! Do you have no humanity? How could you lay a hand on such a cute disciple? Humph!"
Zi Yan huffed angrily, then buried her head in Hun Changqing's chest again, her small body squirming as if she was enjoying being enveloped by Hun Changqing's aura.
Hun Changqing looked at Zi Yan, who was rubbing against him like a puppy, and his lips twitched. He grabbed her collar, lifted her up, and put her on the ground, saying helplessly,
"Speak up, stop rubbing against me like that, you're drooling."
Zi Yan, sitting on the ground, stared at Hun Changqing with a reluctant expression. She stuck out her pink tongue and licked away the glistening drool that had inadvertently dripped from the corner of her mouth. Then, she crossed her arms, looking sullen and unhappy.
Just as the atmosphere in the hall became somewhat eerie, a sharp whooshing sound suddenly came from outside, followed by a seven-colored rainbow beam that shot into the hall. In an instant, the dark and gloomy hall was illuminated by the seven-colored rainbow light, its radiance greatly increased.
As the rainbow light faded, Medusa's alluring and seductive figure was revealed. Upon entering the hall, Medusa curiously surveyed the dim and gloomy space, oblivious to the eerie atmosphere that had preceded her. In her hand, she carried an elderly man in a grey robe, his hooked nose now unconscious—the Eagle Mountain Elder.
Medusa walked to Hun Changqing, tossed the Eagle Mountain Elder to him, dusted off her hands, glanced at the sullen Zi Yan sitting on the ground, and then spoke to Hun Changqing.
"That old demon was quite powerful, and I couldn't hold back. I've already killed him, leaving only Elder Eagle Mountain."
Hun Changqing nodded upon hearing this, not dwelling on the old demon. After examining Elder Eagle Mountain, he took out a pill from his storage ring and handed it to Medusa, saying,
"Give this pill and Elder Eagle Mountain to Hai Bodong. After Elder Eagle Mountain wakes up, give him this pill. This is a seventh-grade poison pill; after taking it, his life or death will be in our hands. We're short-handed right now, so having him work for us will be a temporary solution."
Medusa took the round, emerald-green pill, played with it for a while, then looked at Hun Changqing, then at Zi Yan, and with a slight thought, tossed the emerald-green pill to Zi Yan.
Zi Yan saw the pill flying towards her and instinctively reached out to grab it. Only after catching it in her hand did she remember that it was a poison pill. She looked at Medusa with a slight surprise, somewhat puzzled.
Why are you giving me this pill? Upon hearing Zi Yan's question, Medusa crossed her arms and said indifferently,
"Go and take this pill and this Old Man Eagle Mountain to Hai Bodong."
Zi Yan immediately exploded, angrily shouting,
"Why? Master sent you! Why are you ordering me around?"
"Because I'm your master's wife! Go now, your master and I have things to do."
Medusa said expressionlessly, in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, ignoring the furious Zi Yan, she swayed her hips to Hun Changqing's side, grabbed his black robe, and, seeing his puzzled expression, said calmly,
"Come on, let's go to the room."
Hun Changqing had been missing for the past few days. Although Medusa claimed to be cultivating, she had missed him terribly. Upon entering, she saw Hun Changqing sitting cross-legged, seemingly doing nothing, and some of her ulterior motives immediately surfaced.
Hun Changqing was taken aback at first. He knew what Medusa meant, but he wasn't really thinking about it at the moment, having just crawled out of Yun Yun's bed. However, since it was Medusa's request, he wouldn't refuse. Hun Changqing nodded, then glanced at Zi Yan and said,
"Zi Yan, your master's wife and I really have some things to do. Why don't you go and take a look? Hai Bodong should be arriving soon, okay?"
Zi Yan, who had been bristling with anger, deflated like a punctured balloon upon hearing Hun Changqing's words, drooping her head and weakly replying,
"Oh, I understand."
She felt somewhat aggrieved. She had thought that this unreasonable woman was pushing her problems onto her, and that Hun Changqing would side with her. Unexpectedly, Hun Changqing was actually siding with this woman, which infuriated Zi Yan. Looking at Medusa's stunningly beautiful face, she found it increasingly irritating.
However, now that Hun Changqing had spoken, Zi Yan had no choice but to accept her fate. After gritting her teeth, she had no choice but to accept her fate and obediently put away the emerald green poison pill. She slowly got up, stretched out her small hand, grabbed one of the old man Yingshan's legs, glanced at Medusa out of the corner of her eye, and then slowly dragged the old man Yingshan towards the outside of the hall, thinking viciously to herself.
"Hmph, that stinky master, he actually didn't help me! It's all because of that damned woman! If it weren't for her, would master have hugged me more? Hehehe..."
As Zi Yan dragged Old Man Yingshan away, her thoughts drifted, and her breathing became heavy. She licked her lips, a faint purple light flickering in her eyes, a terrifying energy brewing within them...
As Medusa and Hun Changqing, that two adulterous couple, disappeared from the hall, Zi Yan arrived outside and found Hai Bodong, who had rushed over after secretly escorting Yun Yun away from the Black Corner Region.
Hai Bodong was initially stunned by the bizarre and twisted architecture, but then immediately recognized it as Hun Changqing's masterpiece. The style of the building wasn't just similar to Hun Changqing's; it was practically identical.
Just as Hai Bodong was about to enter the main hall to rest, he encountered Zi Yan, who was dragging a figure that appeared to be humanoid, towards him.
Under Hai Bodong's questioning gaze, Zi Yan tossed him the Eagle Mountain Elder and the poison pill she was holding, relaying Hun Changqing's words to him in a slightly emotional tone.
Hai Bodong was initially stunned by the poison pill and the Eagle Mountain Elder, somewhat confused. After hearing Zi Yan's words, a helpless expression appeared on his face. He gave the Eagle Mountain Elder a speechless look before resignedly dragging him towards a room in the main hall.
After Hai Bodong left, Zi Yan was about to go to cultivate, but suddenly her eyes, as bright as amethyst gemstones, darted around, her gaze fixed on the direction where Hun Changqing and Medusa had entered together, her expression somewhat enigmatic.
"Hehehe..."
Zi Yan seemed to have thought of something, a strange smile appearing on her face. She then suppressed her aura completely and quietly moved towards the room.
Inside the room, Hun Changqing, engrossed in his work, was slightly startled upon sensing Zi Yan's approach. Even with her aura suppressed, Zi Yan couldn't possibly hide from Hun Changqing, though she did manage to deceive Medusa, who wasn't particularly adept at sensing things and was currently absorbed in something else entirely.
"What's wrong?"
Medusa asked, a hint of displeasure in her voice, noticing Hun Changqing's slight pause.
"Nothing, let's continue."
Hun Changqing smiled wickedly, not informing Medusa of Zi Yan's arrival, and continued working diligently. While Zi Yan's arrival surprised Hun Changqing, he didn't intend to drive her away. Since she had come to spy, he would consider it a preview for her.
Seeing this scene outside, Zi Yan's eyes widened, her cherry-like lips slightly parted, and she gently covered them with her hand, afraid to make a sound. She held her breath, her delicate face flushed crimson.
Although Zi Yan had lived for a long time, she had always fought wild beasts in the wilderness. After being taken in by Su Qian, she had always been raised as a little girl and had never been taught about relationships between men and women. She was completely ignorant about these things. Her previous attraction to Hun Changqing's embrace was simply because she felt comfortable being held by him.
But now, witnessing Medusa and Hun Changqing's so-called "doing business" was a shocking experience, and she felt as if her heart was about to stop.
After observing for a long time, Zi Yan finally quietly left. However, her expression was very strange. Her eyes gleamed with the excitement of discovering a new world, her face was flushed, and she kept licking her dry lips with her little tongue, a wicked smile playing on her lips.
After witnessing the events between Hun Changqing and Medusa, Zi Yan realized she was no longer content with simply being held by Hun Changqing. A greedy desire was brewing within her; at this moment, more than ever before, she longed to grow up quickly.
Previously, her desire to grow up stemmed from the annoyance she felt seeing the students she had brutally beaten growing taller than her.
But whether she grew up or not ultimately didn't affect her life much. Although her desire to grow up was strong, it wasn't to the point of being unavoidable. Otherwise, Zi Yan wouldn't have hesitated regarding Hun Changqing's conditions before he persuaded her.
But now, she had a reason why she absolutely had to grow up.
"Hehehe... Master..."
A low, eerie laugh echoed from the empty, gloomy hall, before her figure gradually disappeared from the space.