"Who... who are you?"
Gongyang Xuanming stammered, his expression full of fear.
Although he was ruthless and treated human life like grass, it was only on the mortal level. He had never seen such a terrifying scene before him.
More than twenty years of cultivated common sense made him instinctively believe the scene was false, yet the corpses on the ground, the ghastly Ghost Qi, all reminded him of the truth.
Gongyang Xuanming could only forcibly suppress the fear in his heart and pleaded to the three ghostly figures before him:
"If it's money you want, please don't harm me, I have lots and lots of money.
My father has power and influence in Myanmar. Just say the word and I can produce whatever you want!"
The three ghostly figures said nothing, just slowly approached Gongyang Xuanming.
"Oh? Can you really produce anything?"
A voice full of ridicule slowly echoed in the room.
Gongyang Xuanming instinctively looked towards the direction of the voice, but found that there was nothing there, no shadow of a person.
"Just say the word, and I'll produce whatever you want!"
"Very good."
It was as if an invisible ghost was wandering in the room, each word of the voice penetrated directly to Gongyang Xuanming's heart.
"I want, your life!"
Fear instantly filled Gongyang Xuanming's mind, he instinctively wanted to cry for help, but found that no matter how he tried to open his mouth, his throat couldn't produce the slightest sound.
A dagger flew from the ground into the air, stabbed into Gongyang Xuanming's heart.
The body fell to the ground, pungent blood continuously flowed out from Gongyang Xuanming's body, but under the guidance of some magical force, began to slowly spread out, transforming into complex patterns.
And in front of Gongyang Xuanming's corpse, Lu Yan stood silently, holding a copy of the "Secret Record of Demonic Magical Artifacts" in his left hand, while his right hand guided Magical Power to control the flow of blood.
Beside him, a Spirit Talisman, glowing faintly, floated.
First-rank lower-grade Spirit Talisman · Invisibility Talisman!
Early when the three wrathful souls began their battle, Lu Yan had already used an Invisibility Talisman to stealthily infiltrate the presidential suite at the top floor of this hotel, disconnecting the power and all surveillance equipment in the suite.
In truth, if it was simply killing Gongyang Xuanming, Lu Yan had no need to come to the scene personally.
But after discovering that Gongyang Xuanming had so many bodyguards, another thought emerged in his mind.
And that was to use the souls of Gongyang Xuanming and his men to complete the unfinished Demonic Soul Banner.
The completion of the Demonic Soul Banner still lacked a cultivator, and Lu Yan was the last cultivator chosen by Gongyang Xuanming and Shopkeeper Chu.
However, Lu Yan succeeded in a counter kill, and brought the Soul Banner to the urban version, disrupting the original refining process. To make up for this last defect, one had to find another cultivator for sacrifice or use a large number of souls to compensate for quality with quantity.
Conveniently, Lu Yan killed Gongyang Xuanming and his men, the materials were already there, plus he got the "Secret Record of Demonic Magical Artifacts" from Shopkeeper Chu, Lu Yan naturally wouldn't waste them.
Besides, Lu Yan still had a bit of experimental thought in his mind.
Gongyang Xuanming and the middle-aged man looking like a butler, in the Xianxia version, would undoubtedly be powerful cultivators with profound cultivation.
Once transformed to ordinary humans in the urban version, would their souls be in the ordinary state posthumously? If their souls were sacrificed and refined into the Soul Banner, would it increase the Banner's power once the version updates?
These seemingly trivial pieces of information would be crucial for Lu Yan to better leverage version updates for his own benefit.
As thoughts flowed, referencing the array on the "Secret Record of Demonic Magical Artifacts," Lu Yan used Magical Power to guide the blood to slowly condense into an array.
However, since Gongyang Xuanming's body was not a cultivator, the blood contained no Spiritual Power, so Lu Yan had to take a Spirit Stone from his storage bag, crush it, and merge it into the blood array to give the blood some spirituality.
After a while, the Soul Sacrifice Array took shape, and the Soul Banner fell into the array.
Lu Yan crafted a seal technique with his right hand, pulling Gongyang Xuanming's soul from his body.
The spiritual Qi in the urban version was too sparse, not enough to support a soul's long-term existence, let alone transform into a fierce ghost-like entity.
His soul extracted, Gongyang Xuanming's face still bore the astonishment and fear from moments before his death, until the three wrathful souls appeared before him, he awakened from the previous fear of death.
Lu Yan glanced at Gongyang Xuanming's soul, his gaze carrying a hint of disappointment.
As expected, Gongyang Xuanming's soul was only at an ordinary person's level, insufficient to contribute growth to the Soul Banner.
If it wasn't confirmed that Gongyang Xuanming was the real power behind Shopkeeper Chu, Gongyang Xuanming's performance or his ordinary soul couldn't have made Lu Yan connect him with such a high and mighty demonic cultivator.
But where there's loss, there's gain, through Gongyang Xuanming, Lu Yan also confirmed one thing, that the different versions were indeed completely independent.
This counts as a good thing for Lu Yan, at least he doesn't need to worry that after killing a powerful old monster, he would end up getting counter-killed by the opponent's spirit far surpassing body strength.
Awakened, Gongyang Xuanming looked at the surrounding three wrathful souls, their pale and ferocious faces presented a bizarre and twisted appearance like it was stitched together.
Without the protection of flesh, Gongyang Xuanming more keenly felt the horror comparable to early-stage Qi cultivation wrathful souls, his soul seemed to gradually freeze in that chilling breath.
The corpses on the ground and the eerie blood sacrifice array further shook Gongyang Xuanming's soul, frantically he looked around and shouted in query:
"What do you want to do exactly?"
Lu Yan paid no heed. Although he personally descended to repair the Soul Banner, to avoid information mapping impacts, he couldn't leave any information.
Within the room, only the ghost-like voice echoed again.
"Look carefully, he's the culprit behind your deaths.
The so-called Shopkeeper Chu was merely a tool under his control."
Upon this phrase, the faces of the three wrathful souls suddenly revealed tiny faces, those twisted souls merged into the wrathful souls after sacrifice struggled and howled as they wanted to escape the binds of the wrathful souls' bodies.
Wrathful spirits, formed from resentment, transformed into ghosts even after losing consciousness, the resentment in their hearts remained unchanged.
Gongyang Xuanming's pupils trembled intensely, for he recognized them, the faces on the wrathful souls were precisely the materials selected by Chu Hao.
In this world, are there really ghosts?
But nobody answered his doubts.
"Eat him."
With offhand words, the final judgment was delivered.
The long-desired wrathful souls grabbed Gongyang Xuanming's soul and tore it away, the six Ghost Claws shredded the fragile soul to pieces.
Small faces munched on Gongyang Xuanming's soul, seeming to vent long-accumulated hatred.
The blood array on the ground emitted a faint light, the blood light spread to the surroundings, soon engulfing the entire presidential suite floor.
From the fallen corpses, souls slowly detached from flesh, manifesting in the array, converging towards the center of the array formation where the Soul Banner resided.