Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 16 A chilling aura
At this moment, Chen Ye really wished he could ask Su Chunyi to give him more alchemy materials so that he could go all out and try to condense two dantian qi seas.

But as soon as the thought arose, he immediately suppressed it.

One should not be too greedy. Demanding more materials at this juncture is tantamount to blatantly raising prices.

I had finally managed to establish a relationship with this master disciple of the Qinghe Sword Sect, and it was at a crucial stage of developing our connection. I must not offend him because of momentary greed.

Furthermore, this matter is not urgent. The book has already made it clear that the Qi Sea can be dismantled and rebuilt at any time.

With this in mind, Chen Ye abandoned his impetuous thoughts and focused on refining the Qi Condensation Pill.

This Qi Condensation Pill is not difficult to refine. Even if you give him a large pot and let him slowly simmer it for some time, he will eventually succeed.

However, the materials provided by Su Chunyi were all rare and high-quality items. How could Chen Ye bear to be so perfunctory and waste them?

Following the ancient texts, he meticulously set up an array in the cave, intending to draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to create the best possible support for alchemy.

Upon seeing this, Su Chun wanted to step forward to help, but she soon discovered that the formation Chen Ye had set up was completely different from what she had learned.

What surprised her even more was that the array's effect in gathering spiritual energy seemed to be even better than what she had learned. Although the advantage wasn't significant, if she were to use the same materials and time, the final result would probably only be about 70%.

Are all rogue cultivators this powerful these days?
Su Chunyi was full of doubts and wanted to ask for the truth, but she was also afraid of being misunderstood as having stolen someone else's secret techniques.

Chen Ye, however, noticed Su Chunyi's unusual expression early on. He laughed heartily and said without reservation, "If Miss Su has any questions, please feel free to ask. Lending me these books has been of great help to me, and I've been thinking about how to repay you."

Upon hearing his words, Su Chun's concerns vanished, and she immediately began to inquire in detail.

Chen Ye also spoke frankly and without reservation.

The main function of this formation is to gather spiritual energy, ensuring that the surrounding spiritual energy is rich and pure during the alchemy process. In this way, impurities and toxins in the pills can be effectively reduced, and the efficacy of the medicine can be greatly improved.

Theoretically speaking, this is a simple formation that everyone knows, but when Chen Ye set it up, he drastically reduced many of the incantations, making the overall structure even simpler and clearer, and the effect was even better.

After listening intently, Su Chunyi frowned slightly and offered his opinion: "In this way, more spiritual energy can indeed be gathered, but the spiritual energy attracted may be somewhat impure."

Spiritual energy is not a singular, pure substance. In the eyes of cultivators at the Awakening Realm, all things in the world appear in different colors, which are actually the outward manifestations of different spiritual energies. Alchemy, weapon crafting, and cultivation each require different attributes of spiritual energy, so the formations used to gather spiritual energy will naturally have different focuses.

According to the principle of mutual generation and restraint of the five elements, when there is no need for water-elemental spiritual energy, the Kun trigram should be used as the main element, supplemented by jade and other objects to form an array in order to suppress water-elemental spiritual energy.

This is a complex but not entirely precise field of study. It is impossible for something as absurd as breaking a sect's grand formation by simply throwing a small pebble, nor is it possible to set up an unparalleled grand formation that blots out the sky by placing a small pebble.

The "mixed" nature that Su Chunyi mentioned refers to the fact that Chen Ye's formation had cut out most of the steps used to filter spiritual energy, pursuing quantity at the expense of quality. As a result, the spiritual energy attracted was not only a mixture of the five elements, but also included some corrupt and filthy spiritual energy, such as yin spirit energy.

Chen Ye said, "It's alright. After all, the Qi Condensation Pill is a low-grade pill. Mixing spiritual energy will not affect its quality. The key is the refining speed. The faster the speed, the better the pill's effect."

Just as Su Chunyi was about to continue asking for guidance, a sudden gust of chilling wind howled into the cave. The wind howled like a child crying in the dark, or a woman screaming in agony, or even the last faint breath of a dying person…

Chen Ye and Su Chunyi's expressions changed drastically.

This is neither an illusion nor a masterpiece of nature, but the real work of a ghost.

These are remnants of human souls, drawn here by Chen Ye's formation. At this moment, these remnants of souls have long lost their ability to think, leaving only their resentment from their previous lives, constantly emitting terrifying and horrifying sounds.

Such remnant souls were not even worth a second glance, let alone Su Chunyi or Chen Ye. But the question is, where did these resentful remnant souls come from?

The human soul is inherently fragile. Even a cultivator of Mo Ci's level would have their soul rapidly dissipate after death. The fact that such chaotic and disordered howling of resentment, along with so many remnant souls, can persist indicates that there must be an extraordinary place nearby.

The two exchanged a glance, both understanding each other's thoughts. Chen Ye put down the pots, pans, and bowls he was holding, and said to Su Chunyi with a solemn expression, "Miss Su, let's go and investigate the source of this eerie wind first."

Su Chun nodded. She hadn't expected that such a ghostly entity was lurking near the cave. Although it was just a remnant soul, it was best to dispel it as soon as possible to avoid harming innocent people.

Chen Ye chanted incantations, made hand seals, and drew talismans to exorcise evil spirits. His eyes instantly turned into a dazzling gold, and he became increasingly skilled and adept at using this spiritual eye technique. Looking at Su Chunyi, she merely blinked her eyes, and her bright, clear eyes, like autumn water, shimmered with layers of dazzling golden light.

"Ah this..."

Chen Ye sighed inwardly, thinking that this cultivator's realm was far superior to his own, and that the speed at which he could cast spells was much faster than his own.

However, speed doesn't matter; the effect will be the same.

In Chen Ye's eyes, several faint black lines appeared, which were the embodiment of Yin energy.

Chen Ye and Su Chun walked side by side, following the winding path of the Yin energy. The two had not gone far, bypassing two small mountain peaks, and after traveling less than ten miles, a huge mountain hollow suddenly came into view.

But when their gaze fell upon the mountain valley, Chen Ye and Su Chunyi's expressions instantly turned extremely ugly.

The reason was that there were hundreds of rotting corpses piled up in that mountain valley, and their deaths were gruesome and terrifying.

The bodies were in varying degrees of decomposition; some had turned into a pile of rotting flesh, while others still retained some human form. Clearly, they had died at different times, indicating that this was a prolonged act of brutality.

If you look more closely, you'll find that the hearts of these corpses have been removed.

Chen Ye was shocked, and Su Chunyi made no attempt to hide her anger.

"This is the Blood Refining Technique of the Demonic Sect! A demon is using human blood to refine his skills."

Su Chunyi's words felt like a tangible sword blade against his skin, sending a chill down Chen Ye's spine.

Chen Ye sighed inwardly, no wonder the righteous path was so ruthless in killing the demonic sects, sometimes even the demonic sects' own people couldn't stand their methods.

Among the pile of corpses were even three-year-old children, and Chen Ye wanted to kill the murderer.

Chen Ye said, "Miss Su, look at the corpse at the top. It's probably been dead for several days. That demon might not be nearby."

Su Chunyi said, "It's alright, I can find it."

Su Chunyi made a sword gesture with his right hand, and thousands of sword lights transformed into threads, weaving a net in the void and enveloping the corpse pit.

The sword light was so fast that Chen Ye's spiritual eyes couldn't see it clearly, and he didn't know what the purpose of this sword net was.

A moment later, the sword net transformed into millions of runes, exploding like fireworks.

The light and shadow scattered, but left a bright path pointing straight ahead.

Su Chun said to Chen Ye, "That demon is three hundred miles to the northeast!"

Chen Ye: ...

A tracking distance of 300 li? Master, we demonic cultivators still have too little experience.

(End of this chapter)