Ten Thousand Soul Banner: Deceased, do you have any unfulfilled wishes?
Chapter 75: Protective Charm

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Protective Charm

"Sorry, I was working out just now and didn’t get your call."

Ruan Hongzhuang quickly replied.

"So that’s why."

"You’re not angry?"

"Why should I be angry?"

There was a puzzled emoticon following the message.

Shen Siyuan was charmed by her cuteness.

"I didn’t contact you all day, aren’t you mad?"

"You must have been busy with something."

Ruan Hongzhuang’s thought surprised Shen Siyuan.

"Is that what you think?"

"Because I am also very busy. I actually planned to contact you in the morning and afternoon, but I was afraid it would disturb your work. I also wanted to contact you at noon, but feared it would interrupt your rest..."

Shen Siyuan stared at the brief lines of text on his phone, zoning out for a long while.

He wasn’t inexperienced in relationships, having had a girlfriend in college, but in that relationship, he was always the one giving more from the start.

Even in the end, when they were together, it was Shen Siyuan who contributed more, often sacrificing his own feelings to accommodate his girlfriend’s.

Although Ruan Hongzhuang’s actions were somewhat amusing to Shen Siyuan, this was the first time he felt so directly a woman’s kindness towards him.

After thinking for a while, Shen Siyuan composed another message and sent it.

"Actually, I wasn’t busy today. I simply forgot because I’ve been single for so long. Suddenly having a partner, I haven’t gotten used to it yet, and that’s my mistake..."

"Then I’ll help you adjust quickly. (smile.jpg)"

"Great, are you free this Saturday? We could go hiking, shopping, watch a movie, have a meal..., let’s get to know each other better."

Since he decided to date her, Shen Siyuan resolved to take more initiative.

But after sending the message, he suddenly remembered something—that this Saturday, he seemed to have made plans with Hong Wenqing.

But the message was already sent; it couldn’t be taken back. Hopefully, Hong Wenqing would understand, right?

Hong Wenqing: ...

...

The two didn’t chat for long, and after agreeing on a time, they ended the conversation.

Jiang Taoshi, who had been leaning over and looking at Ruan Hongzhuang’s phone, said, "I now think that you two are really quite suitable for each other."

"Oh, really? Why do you think that?" Ruan Hongzhuang was very pleased to hear this.

"Because you two are equally weird," Jiang Taoshi said.

"Heh, Jiang Taoshi, it seems I’ve been too nice to you..."

"Don’t be..."

-----------------

Shen Siyuan put away his phone and with a thought, summoned the [Ten Thousand Soul Banner] again.

After Lu Guanchang’s wish dissipated, his soul transformed into a purest form of Soul Power, which was absorbed back into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.

Along with the previous two strands of Merit, although it was still a drop in the bucket for repairing the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, it had some effect.

Shen Siyuan’s Divine Sense was like a wisp of blue smoke, coiling around the Ten Thousand Soul Banner in his hand, and in a trance, he arrived in a chaotic space.

The space was not very big, approximately the size of a seventy to eighty-square meter room, and it was filled with a gray fog all around.

Inside the space, various items were piled haphazardly, including blades, spears, swords, and halberds, bottles and jars, gold and silver jewelry, brocade clothes...

This was one of the storage spaces inherent to the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.

As the treasured artifact of the Ancient Demon Sect’s Netherworld Sect, the Ten Thousand Soul Banner has an extraordinary origin. It contains nine layers of restrictions; each layer is made up of countless spaces, resembling a beehive with layers upon layers, with spaces getting larger as one moves higher and the number of beehive cells increasing.

Now, as the owner of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, Shen Siyuan was able to glimpse its entirety; the entire Ten Thousand Soul Banner was like a giant beehive suspended in the void.

However, the beehive was now severely damaged, with the upper layers being more severely broken.

Most of it served as dwellings for ghosts, filled with Netherworld Ghosts and was rich in Netherworld Energy, and the captured ghosts could cultivate, sleep, or even train armies within.

For instance, after Dou Dou and Yin Xingyue were captured into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, they, along with Du Xiuzhi and Lu Guanchang, were not in the same space.

With the Ten Thousand Soul Banner being damaged, many "beehive cells" were destroyed, causing some of the adjacent "beehive cells" to connect, as different "cells" had different and even opposing rules.

This resulted in many "beehive cells" losing their original "Order," becoming chaotic and dangerous, with some "beehive cells" disappearing entirely into nothingness.

Each layer of space has an entrance, and after entering, the "beehive cells" also have a spatial order.

One can only enter the next "beehive cell" by entering one of them. If any "beehive cell" is missing or damaged, it’s like a broken bridge, making it difficult to reach the next "beehive cell."

That’s why Shen Siyuan wanted to repair the Ten Thousand Soul Banner; if not repaired properly, some "beehive cells" would be completely inaccessible. Only by finding ways to repair and not just breaking them can they be used.

Luckily for Shen Siyuan, the first layer used for storage was undamaged, and after repairing the surrounding "beehive cells," he was finally able to come here.

However, this first layer of space only stored some miscellaneous items from when Jiuyou Demon Lord first began his cultivation journey.

Though the various blades, spears, swords, halberds, and gold and silver jewelry seemed precious, they were the most useless in the cultivation realm of the Great Wilderness; they were merely common objects used by mortals.

What was most useful to Shen Siyuan, however, were those bottles and jars.

Because Shen Siyuan had only obtained some residual memories from Jiuyou Demon Lord, he was not clear about what exactly these bottles and jars contained, so he spent a while rummaging through them.

Then he discovered that there are no wrongly named labels, only wrongly named aliases; Jiu You Netherworld Lord being called Demon Lord was not without reason. These bottles and jars were filled with sinister and toxic substances meant to be used against enemies.

Shen Siyuan dared not take them outside of the space; a slight mishap could easily lead to a disaster.

Shen Siyuan was somewhat disappointed; after finally repairing part of the "hive" to enter the first layer of the storage space, he found nothing that would aid in his cultivation.

However, on second thought, it made perfect sense. The first layer of storage space, being where Jiuyou Demon Lord stored items when he first began his cultivation while he was still weak. If there had been any Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects, they would have been consumed by him long ago; there wouldn’t be any left now.

Undeterred, Shen Siyuan continued to rummage through the miscellaneous items, sorting them while constantly complaining internally about how Jiuyou Demon Lord was disorganized and lacked classification.

After he sorted these items, Shen Siyuan finally found in a corner a spherical object flashing with red and blue light. On closer inspection, it was many long worms clumped together, and Shen Siyuan was overjoyed at the sight.

What a truly unexpected gain.

These were called Iron-eating Fireflies, creatures that lived in metal veins, feeding on metal, shaped like sharp swords, bodies like fine iron, capable of emitting light like fireflies.

Gathered in clusters, when encountering an enemy, they would fly into the air like myriad flying swords across the sky, creating a spectacular sight, hence also known as Flying Sword Fireflies.

Clearly, these Iron-eating Fireflies were captured by Jiuyou Demon Lord at the initial stage of his cultivation, to be used as protective artifacts.

He took these Iron-eating Fireflies into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, refining and cultivating them, granting them new abilities.

Initially, these Iron-eating Fireflies could only penetrate human bodies, gnawing at flesh and blood, but now they could set afire Netherworld Fire, devouring souls.

Thus, calling them Netherworld Fire Fireflies would be more appropriate now.

It’s just that there were too few of them.

With a sweep of his Divine Sense, this cluster of Netherworld Fire Fireflies fell into his hands.

PS: Seeking a monthly ticket~