Proving one's path through killing—this kind of merit is poisonous!

Chapter 14 Exploration
Perhaps because the Myriad Souls Banner was a low-level magical artifact, it wasn't as difficult for Gu Jinhe to make it recognize its master as she had imagined.

The blood dripping onto the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was quickly absorbed by it. Upon seeing this, Gu Jinhe hurriedly imprinted her divine sense on it.

Only then is the blood oath ceremony considered complete!

Gu Jinhe held the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in his hand and examined it carefully. He found that the large holes caused by the explosion had also repaired themselves.

In addition, she had more ways to use it in her mind.

So Gu Jinhe walked to Niu Er's corpse, infused the Myriad Soul Banner with spiritual power, then formed a hand seal and said, "Collect!"

The next second, black mist surged out from the banner, enveloping the corpse and forcibly pulling his soul out of it.

"what--"

The almost tearing pain made him clutch his head and scream.

He covered his head with his left hand and stretched out his right hand toward Gu Jinhe, as if he wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy.

“Senior…for the sake of the life I spared you just now, please spare me too. At least…at least don’t let me enter the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. I swear on the Heavenly Dao that I will never seek revenge on you.”

As he spoke, he couldn't help but pull his hand back, covering his head again, and continued, "And...don't you want to get rid of the poison?"

The agonizing torment caused his very soul to weaken.

Upon hearing this, Gu Jinhe's eyes turned cold. Instead of stopping the Myriad Soul Banner from collecting his soul, she increased the output of her spiritual power.

In just a few breaths, Niu Er's soul was completely absorbed into the banner after letting out a mournful cry.

"I don't believe you."

Although swearing an oath in the name of Heaven in this world will be subject to the constraints of Heaven, and violating the oath will inevitably be punished by Heaven.

But this person is an evil cultivator!

What if he has a way to escape the punishment of Heaven?

One wrong step and you're doomed.

She couldn't afford the gamble.

As for his mention of detoxification...

Gu Jinhe had long anticipated that one of the rewards after completing the system task would be the "Poison Classic" (fragment).

There are plenty of antidotes...

Therefore, the best option for dealing with such a useless person who is both dangerous and of no use is to turn him into a soul slave.

Just as Gu Jinhe was collecting Niu Er's soul into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, the system's voice sounded as promised.

[Host detected to have completed the mission: "Slay the evil cultivator"]

Reward has been issued, merit points +500.

Once the task was completed, Gu Jinhe's tense nerves finally relaxed a bit.

But once she got the item, she encountered a problem.

Putting aside the two books, she couldn't possibly carry the Ten Thousand Souls Banner openly on her person.

After all, this is a standard item for evil cultivators!
After thinking for a moment, she asked, "System, do you have storage space?"

Yes, the storage function requires 200 merit points. Do you want to unlock it?

How expensive!
Gu Jinhe gritted her teeth and nodded, "Yes."

Fortunately, these features are all one-time purchases; if she runs out of merit points, she can just earn more.

Although it's difficult to acquire merit points, and you could even lose your life if you're not careful, it's still much better than things that you can't use up once you've used them.

However, Gu Jinhe had barely calmed herself down when she heard the system speak.

[200 merit points have been deducted to unlock the storage function]
The current storage space is ten cubic meters.

The host can choose to spend another 100 merit points to expand it to 20 cubic meters.

Do you want to upgrade?

Ten cubic meters isn't a huge amount, but it's more than enough for what she has. She can't use the remaining three hundred merit points; she needs to have some means of self-preservation.

Thinking of this, Gu Jinhe quickly replied, "No."

She was afraid that if she answered even a second too late, the system would automatically approve.

After storing all his belongings in his storage space, Gu Jinhe turned and ran down the mountain as fast as she could...

Not long after she left, two figures, one in yellow and one in blue, came flying from the horizon on swords.

The one in yellow is a bald boy.

The boy squinted, and after taking in the entire mountaintop, his brows furrowed.

Not far from him stood a middle-aged man dressed in blue sect attire. The moment he saw the boy, he recognized him by his clothes.

In response, he said bluntly, "This is a matter within the territory of our Qingyun Sect. What are you Hengshan Sect people doing here?"

The boy ignored him, simply flying down on his sword until he stopped on the ground. After sheathing his sword, he continued walking forward.

"I'm talking to you, you..." When the middle-aged man saw that he was ignoring him, he rolled up his sleeves, intending to make a move.

But before he could make a move, he saw him head towards the ground. After thinking for a moment, he followed closely behind.

The boy walked up to Chen San, who had been burned to a crisp.

He crouched down, reached out and rubbed the charred area, then put his hand under his nose.

It smells like burnt human flesh...

After reaching this conclusion, he clapped his hands, stood up, looked around, and walked back towards Niu Er's corpse.

The middle-aged man took in the boy's movements, squatted down in front of Chen San, and reached out to wipe away some of the charred remains.

He put his hand under his nose and sniffed for a while, but couldn't smell anything.

Thinking about it, he licked it twice...

"Ptooey, what is that?!"

An indescribable smell almost made him vomit up his dinner from the night before.

So he quickly walked in the direction where the boy was.

Upon seeing Niu Er's charred and hideous corpse, the middle-aged man was filled with doubt and suspicion. He subconsciously looked at the boy beside him.

"What's going on here?"

The bald youth sneered and said, "Isn't this your Qingyun Sect's territory? What, even you yourselves don't know what happened?"

The middle-aged man was speechless for a moment.

Recently, evil cultivators have been rampant. Today, he happened to be leading his disciples to the north to investigate. When he heard the explosion, he rushed over as fast as he could, but he was too late.

What should he say if the elders ask?

Although he was flustered inside, he remained calm on the surface. Besides, he wasn't going to let others laugh at him for no reason.

He immediately retorted, "My sect is busy with affairs, so it's normal to have occasional oversights! Unlike your Hengshan Sect, which has few disciples and is constantly running around."

He paused, glanced at the boy, and continued, "Besides, I don't even know what happened here, yet you, an outsider, know?"

"I don't know, but I can guess."

The boy wasn't angry at the middle-aged man's words, but just guessed to himself, "Such large-scale destruction could only be accomplished by someone at least at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage."

The boy squatted down again, pointed at the knife on Niu Er's neck, and said, "Look at this method of killing. It's decisive and ruthless, a one-hit kill. It's not like something people from our righteous sects would do."

The middle-aged man stared at the gruesome state of Niu Er's corpse, his brows furrowed so deeply they could have trapped a fly, and asked directly, "So what you mean is..."

"He's an evil cultivator, he must be an evil cultivator!"

The boy definitively confirmed his guess.

(End of this chapter)