"There's a huge difference here!" Xiaoyu rolled her non-existent eyes and wanted to despise Zhou Yuanyuan. In the moment before death, if a person feels pain, the expression on her face will be painful. If she feels happiness, the expression on her face will be happy. When she feels nothing, the expression on her face will be peaceful.
However, Xiaoyu still didn't dare to express her disdain for Zhou Yuanyuan. Ultimately, Zhou Yuanyuan's ignorance was Xiaoyu's own fault. In the Lingxiao Realm, every cultivator, after entering the mountain gate, would spend the first eight to ten years cultivating while learning from their fellow practitioners. Of the twenty-four hours a day, eight to ten would be devoted to theoretical study.
Zhou Yuanyuan, however, was different. In this world devoid of cultivators, Xiaoyu wished Zhou Yuanyuan would devote every minute and every second to cultivation, so she could quickly reach the power of Shattering the Void and return to the Sky Realm with her. Xiaoyu wouldn't volunteer to share her miscellaneous books on strange stories from the world of cultivation unless Zhou Yuanyuan asked. So much so that Zhou Yuanyuan now treated Xiaoyu like a dictionary and know-it-all whenever she needed help.
Xiaoyu had caused this all herself, so she couldn't just get annoyed just because Zhou Yuanyuan asked her about it. If Zhou Yuanyuan got angry and immersed herself in books about strange and bizarre things, Xiaoyu would probably be even more furious.
Thinking of this, Xiaoyu cleared her throat and replied, "Master, generally speaking, the causes of mass mortal deaths include soul devouring, soul devouring, soul refining, and soul extraction. The small mountain village you mentioned, where few outsiders visit, is a good place for some evil cultivators to perform these techniques."
Soul-devouring? Soul-eating? Soul-refining? Soul-extracting? Why are they all related to the soul? Zhou Yuanyuan was completely bewildered.
Seeing Zhou Yuanyuan's ignorant look, Xiaoyu couldn't help but feel a headache. It seemed that he couldn't be too impatient to force his master to practice every day. He should give his master some time to understand the daily knowledge of the cultivation world. Otherwise, even if the master really practiced to the point of breaking the void, a cultivator who knew nothing might only become a stepping stone for others when he went to other worlds.
Although Xiaoyu's views have changed because of Zhou Yuanyuan's ignorant questions, at this moment, Xiaoyu can only resign herself to her fate and teach Zhou Yuanyuan these common sense.
The soul is extremely important to both cultivators and mortals. A body without a soul is just a shell. With the departure of the soul, the body will gradually lose its vitality after a few hours.
A cultivator's cultivation focuses on two main goals: storing more spiritual energy within the body and strengthening one's spirit. With more spiritual energy stored, the spells cast become more powerful, and the cultivator's spirit becomes stronger. In battles with others, even the spirit can be used as a weapon, greatly reducing the chance of death. Therefore, some sects employ techniques to seize the spirits of others for their own use, such as "Soul Devouring" and "Soul Devouring," which involve devouring another's soul, refining it, and then strengthening one's own spirit.
However, most cultivators wouldn't resort to such extreme methods to strengthen their souls. After all, refining the soul is an extremely complex matter. Other souls might contain many impurities, such as unpleasant memories and negative emotions. After devouring such a soul, the owner of the soul would lose control of those negative emotions. Not only would they not be able to refine it, they might even become insane and lose their sense of who they are.
Soul Devouring and Soul Devouring can only be carried out one at a time. A large-scale death in a small mountain village doesn't fit the pattern of Soul Devouring and Soul Devouring. Therefore, Xiaoyu speculated that the Soul Summoning Banner, which uses the souls of living people on a large scale, could be the source of this tragedy.
Zhou Yuanyuan shuddered at Xiaoyu's words, nearly spilling the tea she was pouring for General Zhou. She was all too familiar with the Soul Summoning Banner. When she first read a book about unusual events in the world of cultivation, she was amazed at its power. She then searched for books about it and learned a little about it.
The path of cultivation is full of methods. In addition to cultivating themselves, cultivators also use tools to make some ownerless souls serve them. The Soul-Calling Banner is a magical weapon that uses magic to imprison the souls of others, turning these souls into powerful weapons in the hands of the cultivators.
To refine a soul-calling banner, the souls needed are in the thousands or even tens of thousands.
You must know that the path of cultivation defies the will of Heaven. Cultivation requires not only strength but also the cultivator's state of mind. Cultivators possess a myriad of methods, capable of causing the deaths of dozens in their sleep, even the lives of thousands or even tens of thousands, at the mercy of a cultivator's thoughts. However, a sane cultivator would not resort to such disregard for human life. They would gather the souls of the recently deceased on the battlefield, rather than extracting the souls of the living. Only the most ruthless and evil cultivators would recklessly harm mortals. Any cultivator who commits acts of mortal slaughter will face a devastating thunderbolt from the heavens during the calamity, utterly annihilating them.
"Yuanyuan, is the situation serious?" General Zhou was a shrewd man. Seeing that Zhou Yuanyuan fell into deep thought after hearing his words and her face became more and more ugly, he couldn't help feeling uneasy.
General Zhou knew a little about Zhou Xi's abilities; they were simply stronger than the average person and he could draw a few talismans. Since the Yushan Sect withdrew from the secular world thirty years ago, several smaller sects have also retreated into seclusion. The few remaining members of the special operations team were similar in abilities to Zhou Xi, not exceptionally talented. Such a small team would have a good chance of success against ordinary people. However, facing those outsiders, the consequences would be unpredictable.
The mass death in the small mountain village had a somewhat supernatural nature, which made General Zhou very worried.
"Grandpa, do you know what those people looked like when they died? Painful or peaceful?" Zhou Yuanyuan put down the teapot and sat down. She hoped Xiaoyu was just exaggerating. But her intuition told her that this incident was not simple, and perhaps Xiaoyu was right. Who else, other than a cultivator, could have the power to kill an entire village in a single night?
However, guesses are just guesses after all. Zhou Yuanyuan and Xiaoyu both need to know more about the situation before they can make a judgment.
Seeing Zhou Yuanyuan's serious expression, General Zhou stood up and walked to the phone to make a call, although he didn't know why Zhou Yuanyuan asked this.
In less than two minutes, the call came back. When General Zhou put down the phone, his face was still a little dazed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
