The Wandering Immortal

Chapter 72 Soul Searching and Spirit Stealing
Half a month after Jiang Yuan formed his core, the spiritual energy within the Spirit Gathering Array was replenished once more, and Liu Caiwei officially went into seclusion to prepare for core formation.

Jiang Yuan set up an array in a stone chamber, and Shen Wangzhi used the Heart Talisman Technique to inscribe eight Soul-Locking Talismans. After all, Wan Haiming was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, and they needed to be treated with caution.

Moreover, Jiang Yuan's goal wasn't just to destroy souls, but also to extract useful information. Without finding a way to weaken them, it was impossible to achieve this.

Currently, the highest cultivation level is Cui Qinghe's early stage of Golden Core perfection. Purely based on cultivation level, no one can control the soul of a late-stage Golden Core cultivator.

Having made thorough preparations, Jiang Yuan placed the peach wood hairpin into the formation, activating the red threads to disperse.

Before Wan Haiming's soul could fully manifest, eight soul-locking talismans shot out golden threads, firmly binding his soul.

Wan Haiming struggled for a while, then realized he couldn't escape, and his hatred surged.

He has been in charge of the Laoshan Dao Sect's Hall of Affairs for over a hundred years. He has established an ironclad rule that any disciple of the Hall of Affairs who is injured or defeated while carrying out sect missions outside must self-destruct their primordial spirit to die. They must not be captured alive, otherwise their entire family will be wiped out.

Who would have thought that he himself would have his soul captured?

"Young man, what method did you use to imprison my soul? Let me die knowing why!"

Jiang Yuan said coldly, "Back then, I also wanted to die knowing why, but you wouldn't give me a chance at all."

"What do you want?"

"Since I can imprison your soul, I can do whatever I want with you. If you hadn't provoked us, I wouldn't have had any interest in Laoshan. But now, I might just wipe Laoshan out completely!"

"Hmph, what a loud tone."

"Of course, your cooperation is needed. For example, I don't need to lift a finger to handle matters such as the inheritance of cultivation techniques, the sect's grand formation, or finding spies in other sects. Someone else will take care of everything for me!"

"You... shameless brat, how dare you do this!"

"You Laoshan sect have been bullying and oppressing people because of your power. Have you ever thought that one day you would be destroyed and your sect wiped out?"

Wan Haiming was enraged and struggled desperately, but Shen Wangzhi's golden talisman threads tightened even more, slowly weakening his soul power.

Jiang Yuan deliberately provoked Wan Haiming not for the sake of verbal sparring, but for another purpose.

Humans have three souls and seven spirits. The three souls are Heaven, Earth, and Man, and the seven spirits are anger, fear, love, hate, desire, joy, and sorrow. Things related to memory reside only in the three souls. The spirit of anger is useless, but it is the easiest to be triggered.

Jiang Yuan seized the opportunity and activated the formation to extract Wan Haiming's furious spirit from his main soul.

Shen Wangzhi naturally understood these things; it was Maoshan's original specialty, and they cooperated quite well.

Cui Qinghe watched from the side, constantly channeling spiritual energy to soothe Qiongniang within the magical artifact. The flower demon also recalled that if she had refused to submit back then, she would have suffered the same fate.

Wan Haiming was, after all, a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, not far from achieving Nascent Soul. His soul was sufficiently refined, and it took him a full hour to extract and destroy the raging spirit.

Wan Haiming was naturally weakened considerably, which instilled great fear in him.

"What? Are you scared now?"

"How many descendants does your Wan family have left? What will happen to them when Laoshan is captured?"

Once you find that fear, it's easy to extricate yourself from it; this time it only took half an hour.

Wan Haiming knew in his heart that there was absolutely no way to preserve the secrets of Laoshan, and he was immediately overcome with endless sorrow. This time it was even faster; the sorrowful spirit was withdrawn in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

There was no need to torture Wan Haiming anymore. Having lost his three souls and with his main soul damaged from being bound by the golden talisman for so long, he had become truly lost and dejected.

Jiang Yuan then began the soul search. As for cultivation techniques, he only wanted to look at the sonic wave technique at most, and for the others, he could just casually look at them and find their shortcomings.

The sect's grand formation was merely a ploy to provoke Wan Haiming. With the chief of the deacon captured, even if Laoshan were stupid, they would have already changed the formation's method of restriction.

The most valuable secrets are undoubtedly those of the sect, including internal networks, external grudges, intelligence networks, and so on.

Jiang Yuan naturally also obtained some useful information.

There is also a secret realm in Laoshan, but it is not at the level of a grotto-heaven. It is only about 1,800 li in circumference, and there are no Nascent Soul cultivators hiding there.

Indeed, that size is at most a small blessed land, only slightly larger than Peach Blossom Paradise, and it can't possibly conceal the Heavenly Tribulation of Transformation.

The old sect leader Lan is at the late Nascent Soul stage, and there is also a Supreme Elder who is at the late Nascent Soul stage.

There are only two mid-Nascent Soul cultivators and four early-Nascent Soul cultivators remaining, including the seventh-grade alchemist Zhang Xuanyong.

The number of inner disciples is three thousand, and this number has been maintained for a long time. The bottom ten in the martial arts competition are expelled from the inner sect, and those who cannot establish their foundation by the age of thirty-five are also expelled from the inner sect.

There are 5,000 outer disciples, and the sect selects ten disciples every five years to be promoted to inner disciples. This is better than what Luofu Mountain does.

The biggest problem in Laoshan is its familial structure. The Lan family holds key positions in the sect. Wan Haiming is able to control the Hall of Affairs only because his wife is the eldest granddaughter of the old sect leader Lan.

The culprit behind the trouble on Tamna Island should be Lan Yuhuan, the eighth-generation granddaughter of the Lan Sect Master, who is at the early Foundation Establishment stage. At twenty years old and unmarried, she has become a goddess wildly sought after by the young disciples of the sect. Getting involved with her means saving a hundred years of hard work.

Jiang Yuan sighed. Even if they didn't attack him, such a sect would collapse on its own in three to five hundred years at most!
The biggest gain was naturally the sonic power, which Wan Haiming obtained by destroying a small sect.

That sect consisted entirely of female cultivators, all of whom were skilled in music. They hadn't provoked Laoshan at all. Wan Haiming only coveted their cultivation techniques, yet he wiped out the entire sect of over a hundred people.

Wan Haiming had no musical knowledge and no interest in music, but he found another way and mastered a technique called "Great Sound Without Silence," similar to the Buddhist Lion's Roar, which was indeed very useful in close combat.

Jiang Yuan had a Dragon Roar move in his previous life, which was also a powerful sonic attack. However, he obtained this divine ability by hunting a transformed dragon in the late Nascent Soul stage. He had never cultivated any sonic techniques.

Jiang Yuan naturally intended to use this musical technique on Qinghe, as its destructive power would be greatly enhanced if it could be integrated with sonic attacks.

However, if Qinghe wants to learn music techniques, she still needs to open up her metal-type spiritual veins, which will probably have to wait until after the "Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon" period.

Now that Wan Haiming has been eliminated, we can deal with the magical treasures he left behind.

Jiang Yuan first refined all the magical artifacts again, erasing all the original restrictions. Since they were already ownerless, it wasn't too much trouble. The main thing was to erase any possible tracking clues from Laoshan, so they could still be used after returning to the Central Plains.

That spatial magic treasure has a space of nearly ten miles. It is indeed a treasure of the Nascent Soul level. It can hold a lot of things. It will be much more convenient to have this when moving in the future.

The magical treasures of the other four Golden Core cultivators were all dismantled, their defensive types turned into piles of materials, and their flying swords and other magical artifacts were stripped of all their restrictions, turning them into iron bars.

Wan Haiming's soul completely vanished, and the faintly glowing soul lamp in the Laoshan Hall of Affairs naturally went out. The old sect leader, Lan, tried to divine the truth but to no avail, and could only sigh in despair. Little did he know that it was fortunate his cultivation was insufficient; had he possessed the Nascent Soul stage and been able to discern even the slightest clue, he might have been sent to his death.

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(End of this chapter)