I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

When Ji Tian walked out of the Adventurers' Guild, it was already completely dark.

There were far fewer pedestrians on the streets, with only a few drunken adventurers occasionally staggering out of the tavern, arms around each other, singing off-key songs.

He walked along the base of the city wall for a while and stopped at the entrance of a secluded alley.

Without turning his head, he said, "Come out."

There was silence behind me for a few seconds.

A figure emerged from around the corner.

The moonlight shone on the person, making their silvery-white hair look like flowing mercury.

It is Legolas, the archer of the Hero Squad.

The elf stood a few steps away, carrying his longbow, looking calmly at Ji Tian.

"You knew I was following you?"

Ji Tian turned around. "I knew it from the moment you stepped out the door. The elves' footsteps are indeed very light, but your breathing gave you away."

Legolas was silent for a moment, then the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. It was the first time Ji Tian had seen such a "smile" on this elf's face.

simply--

Just like her own second apprentice, Ophelia, who has facial paralysis.

As expected, all elves have expressionless faces.

Ji Tian made up his mind.

"You're definitely not an ordinary F-rank."

"I never said I was a regular F-rank."

"Who are you?" he asked again.

Ji Tian thought for a moment.

"A cultivator who seeks to refine his mind and break through in the mortal world."

Legolas frowned: "A monk?"

Ji Tian replied without changing his expression, "In our village, it means 'a person who cultivates their mind and body,' similar to your magicians, but the methods are quite different."

"Why is it different?"

"You cultivate the external, I cultivate the internal. You pursue demonic essence, I pursue the 'Tao'."

Legolas remained silent for a moment.

"road?"

Ji Tian waved his hand, "'The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.' In short, just think of me as practicing a very uncommon meditation method."

The elf didn't ask any further questions. He simply stood there, quietly watching Ji Tian, ​​as if trying to confirm something.

He suddenly said, "Alex is a good man; he's genuinely worried about you."

"I know."

"But with your abilities, it seems there's nothing to worry about."

"right."

Legolas nodded, as if he had received an answer.

"Then I won't bother you any longer." He turned around, took two steps, then stopped. "By the way—what school of breathing techniques do you use?"

Ji Tian was stunned for a moment.

"Breathing techniques?"

"Did he sense it?"

He replied, "It's my own creation."

It is indeed a breathing method he created based on content written in an online article.

Legolas glanced back at him, and for the first time, a kind of...respect appeared in his amber eyes?

The elf exclaimed sincerely, "Amazing!"

He then bowed slightly and disappeared into the night.

Ji Tian stood at the alley entrance, looking in the direction Legolas had left, and remained silent for a long time. "The senses of pure-blooded elves are indeed much more acute than those of humans."

"Breathing rate, center of gravity distribution—these are things that ordinary people can't see at all, but he noticed them all."

"Be careful next time."

He turned and walked toward the inn in the city.

A breeze blew in from the western wilderness, carrying a hint of coolness.

Ji Tian walked on the cobblestone streets of Kold, his boots making rhythmic sounds as they trod on the stones.

He looked up at the city wall in the distance.

Beyond the wall lies the territory of the Demon King's army.

On this side of the wall stood the hero and his party.

He was nothing more than a self-proclaimed "cultivator" from the most remote village in the eastern part of the empire, an F-rank adventurer without even a formal magician qualification—

Standing between the two.

He thought to himself, "No rush, there's still a long way to go. It's not too late to deal with it after I've 'shattered the core to become an infant, shattered the infant to become a spirit, and refined the spirit to return to emptiness'."

He went into the hotel, asked for the cheapest room, and sat cross-legged on the wooden bed.

Close your eyes.

The cycle of the five elements (卯酉周天) begins.

As night deepened, the noise in the hotel gradually subsided.

Ji Tian sat cross-legged on the wooden bed for a long time.

After seven cycles of circulation, the golden elixir within the body became increasingly perfect and flawless.

This speed isn't fast, but for someone who has no teacher to guide them, no elixirs to aid them, and has to figure things out entirely on their own, it's already astonishing.

He opened his eyes.

The moon hung high in the sky outside the window, its cool light filtering through the thin paper window and spreading a layer of silvery frost on the floor.

He got out of bed, walked to the window, and opened it.

The night in Kold was quiet, with torches forming a winding line of light on the distant city walls.

Further away lies the desolate western wilderness, pitch black, where nothing can be seen.

But he knew that something was moving in that darkness.

Ji Tian looked down at his waist.

There hung a black banner folded to the size of a palm, its surface woven from the silk of the Blue-faced Demon Spider. It was extremely resilient and had a natural affinity for souls.

The frame is made from the heartwood of a dead ancient tree, which is as hard as iron yet as light as a feather.

It took him three months to forge this banner.

It doesn't have a name yet.

To be precise, there isn't a single name he's willing to say aloud.

In the online novels of my past life, this thing was called the "Ten Thousand Souls Banner": it uses ten thousand souls as a guide to gather the resentment of heaven and earth, it can swallow the sun and moon and cover the sky. It is a treasure of the demonic path, the favorite of evil cultivators, and something that righteous people would shout and kill as soon as they see it.

But Ji Tian didn't like the name.

"Ten Thousand Souls" is too straightforward, and the three characters "Ten Thousand Souls Banner" don't sound like a proper magical artifact at all. It will be troublesome to explain if someone asks about it in the future.

He thought about it for a long time and finally decided to call it—

"The Emperor's Banner"

I'd used this name in a web novel from my past life. It was about using the will and power of the people as a guide, gathering the fortune of the world, and forging the Emperor's Sword, a sword that could cleave the heavens with a single strike.

"Ten Thousand Souls" represents slaughter, while "Human Emperor" represents the way of the king.

The former is the demon, the latter is the Tao.

He didn't mind being mistaken for a demonic cultivator—there were plenty of demonic cultivator protagonists in the web novels he read in his previous life, and they could still achieve immortality, but it was always better to have less trouble.

Of course, the most crucial point is that he always claimed to his disciples that the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect was a reclusive sect with a long history and a prestigious and righteous sect.

He held the black banner in his palm.

The banner gleamed with a cold, eerie light under the moonlight, and one could vaguely see fine runes flowing within it.

He carved those runes bit by bit with his blood and spirit, each rune representing his complete understanding of the "Way of the Soul" from his past and present lives.

not enough.

The banner is now just an empty shell: it has a skeleton, veins, and runes, but no soul.

It's like a body without a soul.

It needs souls to fill it.

Ji Tian hung the black banner back up, pushed open the door, and quietly left the inn.

Dark as ink.

He didn't go through the main entrance.

For him now, scaling the twenty-zhang-high city wall of Kold is just a matter of a single breath.

A gray shadow rose silently from the shadow of the city wall, crossed the crenellations, and landed on the desolate grassland outside the city.

Ji Tian glanced back at the city behind him.

The guards on the city wall were still patrolling, the torchlight flickering on their faces, but no one noticed him.

He turned and walked towards the Ash Forest.