Giant venomous pythons, packs of hound-sized mutant rats, vicious birds of prey with wingspans over three meters… whether lurking hunters or gentle herbivores, as long as they carried a certain amount of blood-energy and had souls strong enough to matter, they became his targets.
There were no fierce brawls—only precise, efficient slaughter. A flick of finger-wind, a snapped branch, a tossed stone—anything could become a killing weapon. Each time a life went out, a soul was seized and drawn into the Human Emperor Banner.
When the last trace of sunset sank beneath the horizon, the entire island fell completely silent. The chirps of insects and cries of birds vanished without a trace, leaving only the endless sound of waves slapping the shore.
Tabito stood atop the highest point at the island's center. Beneath his feet lay a piled heap of beast corpses—at a rough glance, well over a hundred. The Human Emperor Banner in his hand, once dull and lifeless, now seemed to carry a faint, elusive sense of motion across its surface, and the black aura coiling around it had grown a shade more solid. Inside the banner, more than a hundred beast souls roared and struggled in silence, exuding thick resentment, killing malice, and that sinister death-stench born in the instant of dying.
The primitive accumulation of resources was complete.
Night covered the barren island. A campfire crackled on the beach, throwing light across Tabito's expressionless face.
He didn't rest. Instead, he sat cross-legged beside the fire, forming a strange, ancient hand seal and laying his hands flat on his knees. The Human Emperor Banner was planted in the sand before him. The banner cloth fluttered without wind, snapping and thrumming.
Time for his first proper cultivation in this world.
With a single thought, the hundred beast souls within the Human Emperor Banner—after three days of buildup—unleashed their already-considerable resentment, killing malice, and wicked death-aura as if a sluice gate had been thrown open. It surged out in three visible currents—black, gray, and blood-red braided together—then poured into Tabito through his breath and every pore in his skin.
"Guh…"
A familiar energy—yet tinged with something alien—cold and violent, instantly flooded his limbs and bones. A faint stab of pain ran through his meridians, but far stronger was the exhilarating feeling of power returning.
The Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Art—the core method of his incomplete demonic cultivation—began to turn, slowly and steadily.
Unlike the cultivation world's rich, comparatively gentle spiritual energy, the "energy" of this pirate world (better called some kind of life force or natural force) was astonishingly thin, and its nature was wild, hard to absorb directly. If he weren't carrying demonic arts that could refine negative energy outright, trying to walk a proper immortal path here would be like taking a single step with your legs cut off.
Killing malice tempered his sinews and bones. Resentment nourished his soul. Wicked death-aura transformed into the most fundamental true power, flowing into the dantian sea that had been dry for three hundred years.
Time slipped by.
Sunrise gave way to moonrise. The moon sank, and the sun rose again.
Tabito became like a reef—motionless. The fire had long since died, but the black currents around him only thickened, faintly forming a tiny whirlpool. His face would turn pale, then flush with an unnatural red. Black filth even seeped from his skin with a fishy stench—impurities from this body being forced out.
Three days and three nights.
When the fourth morning's sun leapt over the horizon and scattered golden light across the sea, Tabito snapped his eyes open!
A thread of sharp radiance flashed through his gaze, then disappeared into a deep calm. He exhaled a long breath of turbid air—so cold it made the air above the sand subtly warp.
He rose slowly. Inside him came a fine crackling sound. Feeling the gray-black current—weak, but undeniably real—circulating along a specific meridian route, Tabito's mouth finally curved into a genuine smile.
"Qi Refining, second layer… done."
Compared to his past life at the Nascent Soul stage, this power was smaller than an ant. But it was a solid starting point—proof that, in this unfamiliar world, he had regained the foundation of strength beyond the mortal realm.
More importantly, with the breakthrough, he could clearly sense the Human Emperor Banner feeding back a wisp of weak but pure energy. It not only stabilized his realm; a small portion fused into his flesh, noticeably boosting the strength, speed, and toughness of his formerly scrawny body.
"As expected—the Human Emperor Banner is bound to my very fate. Rise together, fall together." Tabito ran his fingers over the icy banner shaft, calculating. "Upgrading the Human Emperor Banner's quality is the top priority right now."
The space within the banner needed more souls to fill it, to nourish it. The more souls, the greater the negative energy produced—accelerating his cultivation, and in a pinch, those stored currents of killing malice and resentment could be drawn out directly as extra "true power" for an instant burst, like carrying a mobile energy reservoir.
And just as he'd experienced, the higher the Human Emperor Banner's quality, the greater the benefits it returned—not only realm improvements, but continuous reinforcement of his physical body. In this sea of pirates where martial monsters were everywhere, a powerful body mattered.
"To raise the Human Emperor Banner quickly, I need a huge number of high-quality souls." Tabito's eyes lifted to the boundless ocean. "Hunting beasts is too slow. Beast souls are weak, dim-witted, and the energy they produce is low-grade."
"I have to go out to sea!"
Once the thought sparked, it couldn't be stopped.
Where in this world were vengeful souls most plentiful? The answer was obvious—the sea itself! Especially those lawless pirates with blood-soaked hands. Their vitality was fierce, their soul strength far beyond beasts, and the resentment and killing malice they left behind after death was purer. And killing them? Tabito didn't feel the slightest psychological burden.
"An age of chaos… heh heh. What a wonderful era." The curve of his mouth carried a faint cruelty. In peaceful times you had to hold back in all sorts of ways, but in this land beyond the law, hunting pirates could "enforce justice on Heaven's behalf" (not that he cared) while strengthening himself. It was practically an upgrade route tailor-made for him.
The more he thought, the more workable it felt.
Then do it.
Tabito turned and walked toward the heap of beast corpses, already beginning to reek of rot. His gaze swept over them and finally settled on the most intact one: a fierce tiger nearly twice the size of a normal one, its coat mottled and brilliant. This was the apex creature he'd killed on his first day on the island.
"You'll do."
He raised the Human Emperor Banner again, its cloth snapping sharply. He formed hand signs, murmuring an ancient, obscure incantation. As he chanted, a dense strand of black aura split from the banner and flowed like a living tentacle, slowly injecting itself into the tiger's corpse.
At the same time, Tabito locked his mind onto the strongest tiger soul within the banner and forcibly guided it out, sending it along that black aura and into the body.
Corpse puppet refinement—begin!
The stiff tiger corpse began to twitch slightly. Muscles writhed unnaturally beneath the fur, and its bones emitted a teeth-grinding creak. In its hollow eye sockets, two points of crimson light gradually ignited—filled with dead stillness and berserk violence.
The process lasted roughly half an hour.
When Tabito released the final hand seal, the tiger corpse puppet suddenly stood up!
Its movements were stiff at first, but quickly became coordinated. Its body seemed to swell another round, its coat losing its original sheen and turning gray and tough. Its claws and fangs gleamed with metallic cold light, and a faint air of death and killing malice drifted around it.
Tabito could clearly feel that, through the Human Emperor Banner, he had formed a tight spiritual connection with the tiger corpse puppet—he could command it like his own arm.
With a thought—
The corpse puppet tiger gave a low growl, hoarse and heavy, utterly lifeless. Its four limbs drove forward, fast as a gale, charging straight toward the sea!
A shocking scene followed—its four paws landed on the blue surface of the water as if it were solid ground. The sea only dipped slightly before holding its weight. It sprinted a full lap around the island's edge, kicking up white sprays of foam, its form steady as a mountain.
"So it really works!" Joy flickered in Tabito's eyes. A corpse puppet wasn't alive—weight meant nothing to it. Its movement relied entirely on the Human Emperor Banner's energy and the soul inside driving it. Running atop water was no great feat for them. And he could sense that its strength, speed, and defense had reached roughly three times what it had in life—an almost perfect killing machine and… a means of transportation.
For Tabito, who didn't even have a raft right now, this tiger corpse puppet was his best ship.
He gathered some ripe wild fruit from the island, bundled it together with broad leaves, and packed fresh water as best he could, making a simple bundle and slinging it on his back.
When he was done, he swung himself onto the tiger corpse puppet's back. Its body was cold and hard, without the slightest warmth, yet exceptionally stable.
He patted its head, then cast one last look back at the desolate island that had granted him rebirth.
"Let's go. Take me to find… our 'provisions.'"
The tiger corpse puppet let out a deep, rumbling roar. Its limbs launched it forward, and it surged out over the waves, carrying its master like an arrow loosed from a bow, shooting into the vast, endless sea—wide with the unknown and brimming with opportunity.
(End of Chapter)
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