Chapter 138: Using the City to Artifact Refinement
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Facing the token that Lu Yuan threw back, Shen Xuan hurriedly caught it.
He looked at Lu Yuan, who was sneering at the Immortal Ascension Token, and couldn’t help but say, “Bai Dafei, what are you doing? Don’t you want to ascend to the Upper Realm?”
In response to Shen Xuan’s inquiry, Lu Yuan responded matter-of-factly, “Ascend to the Upper Realm? I’d have to be crazy to think about ascending to the Upper Realm.”
“I’m doing well in the Lower Realm now. Life is fulfilling, interesting, and safe.”
“But if 1 go to the Upper Realm, won’t I have to face many unknown dangers?”
“Moreover, based on what you said, the cultivators in the Upper Realm are much stronger than those in the Lower Realm. If I go now, 1 might be killed one day. I won’t go.”
“You, me, this…”
Hearing Lu Yuan’s words, Shen Xuan was completely stunned.
He had never expected that Lu Yuan would show such disdain when facing the invitation of the Upper Realm cultivators.
It was different from the scene he had seen before.
Previously, he had also encountered many geniuses from the Lower Realm.
Regardless of their personalities or cultivation levels, they all revealed excited expressions when they heard that they could go to the Upper Realm.
It was as if they could quickly become successful and stand out after going to the Upper Realm.
One should know that anyone from the Lower Realm who could go to the Upper Realm was undoubtedly a prodigy.
It was undoubtedly very difficult to stand out in such a place where geniuses gathered.
Compared to the Upper Realm, where a group of prodigies competed against each other, Lu Yuan preferred the Lower Realm, where ordinary people gathered.
He didn’t want to compete with others. He wanted to develop quietly and surprise everyone in the end!
Because Lu Yuan’s personality was deeply ingrained, Shen Xuan could not understand what he was thinking.
However, when Lu Yuan threw back the Immortal Ascension Token, Shen Xuan’s attitude toward him changed completely.
“Bai Dafei, since you don’t want to go to the Upper Realm, then leave quickly. 1 won’t keep you here anymore.”
“Your assessment is over. You can go to the next area.”
However, when Shen Xuan asked Lu Yuan to leave, Lu Yuan refused.
He looked at Shen Xuan and smiled. “Don’t worry, man. 1 still have something to do before I leave.”
“What is it?”
Lu Yuan did not explain but instead took out his Mountain River Painting and Mountain River Medallion.
Under Shen Xuan’s astonished gaze, Lu Yuan unfolded his Mountain River Painting.
As soon as the scroll was unfurled, the entire Ghost City began to emit a large amount of light.
Looking at the golden light that shot into the sky, Shen Xuan’s mouth was wide open, and his eyes widened.
What was this guy trying to do?
What was he trying to do?
Although Shen Xuan did not know what Lu Yuan was doing, he instinctively had a very bad feeling.
This was because he had a very bad premonition.
It was as if what happened next would have a very serious impact on him.
Soon, Shen Xuan understood where this unease was coming from.
As the light of the array shone, a series of screams came from within the Ghost City.
These screams came from the Paper Men.
Feeling the deaths of many of his Paper Men, Shen Xuan was completely enraged.
“Bai Dafei, how dare you sacrifice my paper soldiers!”
That’s right. The reason why Lu Yuan didn’t leave was because of the city of Paper Men.
Or rather, it was the death aura on their bodies.
Of course, death aura was Lu Yuan’s own terminology. Another term for it was ghost qi.
Lu Yuan looked calmly at the infuriated Shen Xuan and said, “Man, don’t be angry. I’m just using some of your Paper Men. What’s the big deal?”
Just some Paper Men?
The reason why Shen Xuan was able to become the gatekeeper of this Ghost City was because of his superb Paper Binding Technique.
It could be said that as long as Shen Xuan was still alive, the King of Hell who guarded the Gates of Hell could be resurrected indefinitely and maintained indefinitely.
This was also why many cultivators from the Lower Realm would mistake the King of Hell here for evildoers after entering the Gates of Hell.
However, in reality, these Kings of Hell were not evildoers at all. They were the result of Shen Xuan’s three thousand years of relentless effort.
The situation at the Gates of Hell in other places was similar to Shen Xuan’s.
They were all equipped with a ‘staff member’ who could continuously reset instance dungeons.
And what Lu Yuan was doing now was frantically consuming Shen Xuan’s blood, sweat, and tears.
Luckily, Lu Yuan seemed to understand the importance of leaving room for future encounters.
Therefore, when Lu Yuan asked Meng Ruyan to help him defend against the array stones, she only covered half of the city area.
However, the parts that Meng Ruyan was in charge of were relatively unimportant.
The truly crucial arrays were all set up by Lu Yuan’s clone.
The cores of these arrays were all made of spiritual stones and Soul Pills.
Not only could it bind ghosts, but it could also activate Lu Yuan’s skill, the Divine Soul Pill Refinement Technique.
What Lu Yuan was doing now was not complicated.
In essence, he was applying the Divine Soul Pill Refinement Technique to half of the Ghost City.
Facing Lu Yuan’s Divine Soul Pill Refinement Technique, the Paper Men in the area were practically powerless to fight back.
Soon, amidst their screams, they turned into pure ghost qi and gathered in the direction of the King of Hell’s residence.
Meanwhile, some lucky surviving cultivators discovered that the ghosts chasing them were dissipating at an astonishing speed.
This situation shocked them, but they also felt like they had narrowly escaped death.
Lu Yuan also considered the situation where the array would envelop the cultivators.
Therefore, he had specially made improvements when he set up the array.
It was only targeted at those who were surrounded by death aura.
In fact, if he hadn’t been worried about killing too many people and affecting his position in the heavens, Lu Yuan might not have spared even these cultivators.
As Shen Xuan watched Lu Yuan use the Ghost City as a furnace to refine his thousands of years of hard work, he was so angry that he wanted to attack him directly.
However, due to the restrictions of the Upper Realm, Shen Xuan could only refine Paper Men and command them to attack Lu Yuan.
And the strength of the Paper Men he could refine could not exceed the first level of the Core Formation Stage.
Undoubtedly, Paper Men with such limited strength would not pose a threat to Lu Yuan.
Therefore, Shen Xuan could only watch helplessly as Lu Yuan refined more than half of the Ghost City.
It condensed into a huge death aura.
Lu Yuan looked at the huge amount of death aura gathering above the King of Hell’s residence and took out his soul weapon, Soul Reaper Rope.
“Go,” he commanded.
Lu Yuan released the Soul Reaper Rope.
A large amount of death aura began to gather on the Soul Reaper Rope.
The death aura of hundreds of Foundation Establishment Stage ghosts quickly changed the shape of the Soul Reaper Rope.
The blood-colored shackles on the Soul Reaper Rope began to increase at a visible speed.
After all the death aura was consumed, five shackles appeared on the Soul Reaper Rope.
The five shackles indicated that Lu Yuan was already able to capture a divine soul at the peak of the Emptiness Realm.
The strength of the divine soul of many Core Formation Stage cultivators at the seventh or eighth transformation stage was also about the same level as this.
Lu Yuan looked at his Soul Reaper Rope with excitement in his eyes.
With this hidden skill, even if a Core Formation Stage cultivator above the fifth transformation stage encountered him, he would have to think twice before facing him.
After all, once the divine soul left the body, a cultivator’s divine abilities could only be exerted to about fifty percent.
Having accomplished all of this, Lu Yuan no longer continued to provoke Shen Xuan.
He waved his hand at the grim-faced Shen Xuan and said, “Fellow Daoist, we’ll meet again.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Yuan walked towards the passageway…
Throughout the entire process, Shen Xuan remained silent.
If looks could kill, Lu Yuan would have been killed by him hundreds of times!
“We’ll meet again? I don’t want to see you again!”
“Just go away, the farther the better.. Never come back!”