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

Chapter 419 The storm is coming
In the northern border region, the wind carries sand and gravel, stinging people's faces.

A large tribe with thousands of people is holding its grandest annual sacrificial ceremony.

The roaring bonfire illuminated the devout and fervent faces of the tribespeople, turning them a deep red. The aged priest raised his gleaming sacrificial knife high, chanting ancient and obscure prayers.

On the altar, a docile lamb is bound, waiting to be slaughtered, its blood offered as a sacrifice to the City God who protects this land.

The priest's prayer reached its climax, and he raised his sacrificial knife, ready to strike fiercely.

However, just as the blade was about to touch the lamb's neck, a dark figure flashed like a ghost and appeared on the altar.

The man, holding a long, black banner, first knocked the priest to the ground, then reached out and scooped the bound "lamb" into his arms.

The tribespeople were stunned at first, then erupted in a furious rage.

"Those who blaspheme deserve to die!"

"Take him down quickly!"

Hundreds of strong tribal warriors, armed with weapons, roared as they surrounded the altar.

However, the black-clad youth who interrupted the ceremony showed no fear in the face of this fury that could tear a person to shreds. He merely glanced indifferently at the surrounding warriors, then casually displayed a black wooden plaque at his waist.

The wooden plaque is inscribed with two characters in ancient seal script: Yellow Springs.

The clamor and roars ceased abruptly the moment the wooden sign was seen.

It was as if an invisible hand had gripped everyone's throat.

The tribal warriors, who had been shouting and fighting just moments before, dropped their weapons with a clatter. Then, like felled wheat, they knelt down in droves, burying their heads deep in the ground, their bodies trembling violently with fear.

In the northern frontier, the Yellow Springs Sect is the highest authority.

This young man was Qin Le, Chen Ye's newly accepted disciple.

Qin Le flicked the lamb lightly, and almost at the same moment, the image of the docile lamb rippled like water before shattering abruptly.

Instead, an infant, still in swaddling clothes, was terrified by the sudden turn of events and cried loudly.

The priest froze in mid-air, his cloudy eyes fixed on the infant, his face drained of color.

Somehow, the lamb turned into a baby?
If it weren't for this disciple of the Yellow Springs Sect intervening, wouldn't he have mistakenly killed his clansmen?
Qin Le didn't care about these people from the northern frontier who were arrogant at first but obsequious later.

He was a native of northern Xinjiang and naturally understood the importance of the sacrificial ceremony. He wouldn't have interrupted the ritual unless he noticed something amiss.

Although Qin Le has not been a disciple for long, he is exceptionally talented and quickly condensed his Qi Sea. He has also shown amazing talent in controlling Yin Soldiers and studying illusion techniques. The Ten Thousand Soul Banner in his hand was personally crafted for him by Chen Ye.

That's why he was able to see through it at a glance: someone had used illusion magic to confuse the entire tribe's senses, attempting to use living people to complete this blood sacrifice.

Qin Le returned the crying baby to the conscious clansmen, his spiritual eyes scanning the crowd, searching for the whereabouts of the sinners.

Soon, at the edge of the trembling crowd, he spotted a small, thin figure trying to slip away. The figure was blurry, clearly using illusion magic to conceal itself.

Qin Le didn't even move a step, he simply shook the Myriad Soul Banner in his hand slightly.

A cold, black wind suddenly swept across the flat ground.

Several Yin soldiers, wielding standard weapons and clad in tattered armor, stepped out of the void and instantly pinned the demonic cultivator who was trying to escape to the ground.

Having resolved this minor trouble, Qin Le ignored the profuse thanks from the people of Northern Frontier and headed towards the City God Temple not far away.

The City God Temples in northern Xinjiang are different from those in the Central Plains. They are generally built with tents, and even the statues inside are made of wood. They are not very big and can be moved and set up at any time.

This simple City God Temple is quite popular, with a wood carving of a kind-looking, chubby man who looks benevolent and approachable.

Qin Le, however, slapped the offering table without any politeness and threw out the Yellow Springs Sect's waist token.

After a cloud of dust, the wooden carving seemed to come alive. It should have been a majestic deity, but in Qin Le's eyes, the City God was now leaning back on his throne, picking his teeth and burping, looking like a lazy bum.

Upon seeing Qin Le's sudden appearance, the City God's expression froze for a moment before he quickly straightened his clothes and forced a smile.

"So it is a celestial being who has arrived. I am so sorry for not welcoming you properly."

Qin Le ignored his polite words and simply placed the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in front of him.

"Your ritual almost resulted in someone's death, didn't you know?"

The City God's smile froze the moment he saw the banner. He scanned it with his divine sense and immediately knew what had happened outside, a layer of cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead.

"Immortal, please calm your anger! This humble god...this humble god was negligent for a moment, negligent for a moment!"

Although his cultivation level was much higher than Qin Le's, he didn't dare to have even the slightest disrespectful thought in front of the Yellow Springs Sect Master's personal disciple.

“Master said that the Demon Lord Feilian has become the number one in the world, and now the whole world is in a state of panic. As the City God, you should be more careful. If I hadn’t discovered it in time, you would at least be convicted of dereliction of duty. Are you really not afraid of being boiled in oil?”

Qin Le was already somewhat dark-skinned, but now, with his serious expression, he appeared even darker, which frightened the City God so much that he trembled.

"Yes, yes, yes, I will be more careful in the future." The City God nodded vigorously.

He couldn't help but mutter a defense in a low voice: "But Immortal, the news of the Demonic Sect's resurgence has been circulating for some time now. At first, we were quite nervous, but apart from the occasional insignificant little demon jumping out, there hasn't been much movement. As time goes on, it's inevitable... it's inevitable that we've become a bit lax."

Qin Le did not respond to his words because he knew that what the City God said was true.

The Demonic Sect's recent activities have been too strange.

For the righteous path as a whole, this year has indeed been an unlucky one.

First, the Demon Lord Wujiu, who had disappeared for many years, suddenly resurrected and, with a single move, perished together with Lu Xingzhou of the Fenxiang Sect and Zhang Qi of the Qinghe Sword Sect, both at the Dao Integration Realm. The Fenxiang Sect was once a major righteous sect, but its mountain gate was destroyed and its disciples scattered, causing the once dignified Fenxiang Sect to decline instantly and almost become a third-rate sect.

Immediately afterwards, the various lords of the demonic sects launched attacks in all directions. Some instigated infighting among the righteous sects, while others spread plagues in the mortal world. In an instant, the cultivation world was in chaos, and countless people died in this upheaval.

Then came the battle for the title of the number one cultivator in the Profound Realm. The Mirage Sect and Heavenly Heart Island were nearly driven to the brink of collapse by that demon named Ye Chen. If it weren't for their master Chen Ye's last-minute intervention to turn the tide, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

The righteous sects were bound by various rules and regulations, and ordinary people became their Achilles' heel, subjecting them to constraints at every turn. It was in this dragging on that the Flying Demon Lord actually found an opportunity for a breakthrough and successfully merged with the Dao.

Now, the entire righteous path is filled with dread, fearing that the Demon Lord at the Dao Integration Realm will unleash a devastating revenge. No one knows just how terrifying the Dao Integration Realm's power of "words becoming law" truly is; perhaps just a single sentence could turn the entire Northern Frontier into ruins.

The Yellow Springs Sect had been on high alert for a long time, even ordering all the city gods and local deities in the northern border to be on high alert for any disturbances from the demonic sect.

However, four months have passed, and there seems to be no movement from the Demonic Sect.

The anticipated large-scale invasion did not occur; there were only sporadic small-scale skirmishes, like today's. Even the sect elders did not need to take action; Qin Le, who was at the Qi Sea Realm, could easily handle them.

When you're under too much pressure, there's bound to be a time when you relax. Besides, most City Gods are the type who are lazy and don't compete or fight; they just drift through life.

The City God in front of us was habitually lazy, which almost caused a major disaster.

After being reprimanded by Qin Le, he could only pull himself together and thoroughly search the area under his jurisdiction, but after turning it upside down, he still couldn't find the second devil.

The prisoner was interrogated severely, and the result was the same as before.

They were all second-rate demonic cultivators, not even belonging to the underground demonic sect. They were just wandering rogue demonic cultivators who had come to the most remote place in the northern border to try and obtain some evil blood sacrifice techniques.

There was no one instructing them, no plan, and no collaboration with others.

Even though Fei Lian had become the Demon Lord, the Demon Sect was actually calmer than before. This feeling of impending doom made even the innocent young Qin Le feel oppressed.

"Alright, even if the sky falls, Master will hold it up. I'll go back to report and maybe have a drink with Senior Brother Fang Hao while I'm at it."

The boy happily mounted his Ten Thousand Souls Banner and slowly flew towards Fengdu City.

(End of this chapter)