"Such intense heat, could this be the hiding place of the demon Nüba?" As a member of the sea race, the mermaid queen was most sensitive to this dry and hot environment.

The Goddess of Wushan frowned and said, "It shouldn't be like that. When Nüba left, she didn't go in this direction, and her place is quite a distance from here."

Zuan ran his fingers across the wall, feeling the glass-like texture of the burnt surface: "Although both are about heat, the two powers are very different. The heat of Nuwa is full of destruction and death, while the heat here, although it also has a violent destructive intent, also contains a vibrant life force."

Most people wouldn't be able to perceive the difference, but now his understanding of power has reached a new level.

"Could it be that the Holy Maiden came here and fought a great battle with the master of the cave, and this power belongs to the master of the cave?" the Mermaid Queen speculated.

Zuan remained noncommittal. The fact that the two sides had reached this point clearly indicated that they were evenly matched opponents, and a guess gradually formed in his mind.

Suddenly, his eyes flashed, and he went to a corner, picked up a piece of metal, which looked like copper but was not copper, as if it were a piece that had fallen from a large cauldron.

There were some strange inscriptions engraved on it, but because most of the inscriptions were destroyed, they were not very clear, so it was impossible to tell where they came from.

"Ah!" The Mermaid Queen exclaimed in surprise after taking a look, because a human face was carved on the fragment.

The face was sculpted so realistically that it looked like a living person, but its expression was extremely painful and distorted, giving people a natural sense of unease at first glance.

"I wonder who carved this. With such superb skills, why didn't they carve some other patterns? Why did they have to carve something so sinister?" The Mermaid Queen was quite puzzled.

“You’re wrong, this wasn’t carved on,” the Goddess of Wushan took the metal fragment, her fingers gently touching the human face on it, her expression becoming solemn. “This is a living soul.”

Mermaid Queen: "???"

Zuan had sensed something was off about the man's face from the beginning, and upon seeing this, he asked what was going on.

The Goddess of Wushan had a serious expression on her beautiful face: "There are some evil spells in this world that can capture the souls of living beings and trap them in special vessels to achieve some ulterior motives. These runes are used to suppress these souls."

Zuan said in a deep voice, "Could it be that Mikado Hyoharu came here for some reason, and then ran into the master of this place who was using evil magic, and the two fought a battle?"

If that's the case, then Mikado Baiharu is in real danger.

Although she is powerful, the guy who researches this kind of evil stuff is definitely not a good person.

"Come and see here!" The mermaid queen's voice rang out. It turned out that she had just subconsciously tried to get away from the eerie mask and inadvertently discovered that there seemed to be a hidden world in another corner.

When Zu'an and the Goddess of Wushan went over to take a look, they found that a corner of the wall there had collapsed. It was probably caused by the high temperature of this cave causing the expansion of this place to be inconsistent with the surrounding walls.

With a gentle push, the wall collapsed, revealing the secret chamber inside.

Zuan scanned the area with his divine sense, then led the way inside.

The mermaid queen followed behind him. Although she felt that the place was eerie and strange, and that there was something sinister about it, she felt a sense of security in her heart when she looked at his back.

After entering, Zuan went straight to the innermost stone wall. He had just sensed something here.

He took the luminous pearl from the mermaid queen, and soon the contents of the stone wall appeared.

The stone wall is covered with rough lines that outline distorted human figures, as well as various blood-red talismans. Above it is a long wooden stick with a black banner hanging vertically on it.

Some of the patterns on the banner were quite blurred, but you could still feel a ghostly aura through the wall.

Zuan's heart skipped a beat. This thing was somewhat similar to the soul-summoning banner he had previously seized from those demons. Shaking it could make people's souls unstable. That one was already eerie enough, but compared to this, it was like an infant seeing a Titan.

"The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls!" The Goddess of Wushan parted her lips slightly and uttered three cold words.

"Does the goddess know about this thing?" The mermaid queen knew from the name that this thing was definitely not a benevolent object.

“There are some evil sects in the world that like to collect the souls of living beings and refine them into banners. The more souls a banner absorbs, the greater its power becomes. Banners that absorb more than ten thousand souls are called the Ten Thousand Soul Banners, which possess terrifying power. They often do things that incur divine wrath and human resentment in order to refine them.” The Goddess of Wushan stared at the lines on the wall, her beautiful eyes filled with icy coldness. “Although many parts of the drawings on this wall have been deliberately destroyed, they should be the method for refining the Ten Thousand Soul Banners without any surprises.”

"This is just a simple sketch, not even a real soul banner, yet it can create such a ghostly aura. Its terror far surpasses any known soul banner in the world."

“But the conditions required to forge such a terrifyingly powerful Ten Thousand Souls Banner are also very demanding,” she said after observing the sketch for a long time. “I heard my father mention that this level of Ten Thousand Souls Banner requires not only a ruthless user, but also the assistance of a person with a naturally poisonous constitution, combined with a deadly poison, to maximize its killing power.”

Zu An's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. The other party was the daughter of Emperor Yan. Although he did not know which Emperor Yan she was, all Emperor Yan were of the Shennong lineage and were experts in medicine. Since Emperor Yan said that, it seemed that this extremely terrifying Ten Thousand Soul Banner indeed required a person with an innate poison body.

Speaking of innate poisonous bodies, he couldn't help but think of Ji Xiaoxi. The only thing he was grateful for now was that she hadn't come into this world.

But the thought that the Mermaid Queen had appeared in this world, and that he had lost contact with Ji Xiaoxi for far too long in that fragmented timeline and had no idea of ​​her whereabouts, suddenly gave him a vague sense of unease.

"Has the goddess heard of any similar 'Ten Thousand Souls Banner' appearing in the world recently?" Zu'an asked.

The Goddess of Wushan shook her head slightly: "No, but it is precisely because there is no such thing that it is terrifying, indicating that the other party is plotting a shocking conspiracy."

"You just mentioned that this Ten Thousand Souls Banner is meant to collect living souls," the Mermaid Queen suddenly said, her face turning pale and her voice trembling. "Could the fact that the Chang clan members all died overnight also be because of this Ten Thousand Souls Banner?"

Upon hearing this, Zu'an and the Goddess of Wushan's expressions changed instantly. Zu'an, in particular, recalled that when he examined the corpses of the Chang clan members, he indeed could not sense their souls.

At the time, he thought that the underworld had not yet been established in this world, so their souls had scattered between heaven and earth.

Thinking about it now, it's quite possible that they were taken away by the Myriad Souls Banner. Only an evil object like the Myriad Souls Banner could silently and silently eliminate so many experts.

But why did the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls spare him and the Mermaid Queen in their bridal chamber?

Moreover, when Xing Tian reported to Hou Tu before, why didn't he mention this point about Hou Tu's abilities?