"Changping! That's right, this is the site of the ancient battlefield of Changping. Back then, the Qin army and the Zhao army fought a decisive battle here, with corpses scattered all over the field and blood flowing like rivers. The heads piled up like mountains. In the end, the Qin general Bai Qi defeated the Zhao army in one move, burying 400,000 surrendered soldiers alive. He became the greatest killing god from ancient times to the present. And yet, this small piece of land was enough to send at least 600,000 lives to their deaths. Are you... trying to collect the vengeful spirits of those who died in battle back then?" Zhou Qing said to Xuan Yuan Fawang.
"Not bad, the military soul that died in battle is different from any other spirit. After death, it does not enter reincarnation, nor does it progress through the six paths. It can only wander between heaven and earth, forever unable to transcend. Its fierce and evil energy is unmatched within the three realms. Ordinary soul-trapping arrays cannot trap these military souls and fierce ghosts. Only the Twelve Heavenly Gods' Great Array, known as the number one demonic path, can gather them together. If I gather tens of thousands of military souls and fierce ghosts, even a true immortal coming down from heaven would be unable to withstand it."
Xuanyuan Fawang said coldly: "I indeed do not have a suitable attack treasure right now. The Purple and Blue Double Swords of Mount Shu are incredibly powerful. If I gather the military souls and take advantage of the opportunity, I can also practice and create the Yin-Yang Divine Demon Flag. At that time, my first target will be to exterminate Mount Shu and avenge the grudge against my old ancestor."
"Haha!! Haha!" Zhou Qing heard Xuan Yuan Fa Wang's words and finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Xuanyuan Fawang was laughed at by him and scolded: "Little boy, what are you laughing at? What's wrong with your brain?"
"Ah, I see," said Zhou Qing with a chuckle. "I say that even the wisest of sages can be foolish at times. This Longping War has been over for more than two thousand years, and yet so many people died in it. Those vengeful spirits and malevolent ghosts wouldn't just dissipate on their own. Logically speaking, this place should be teeming with ghostly energy, devoid of any life or vitality. And yet, the yin and yang energies here are still balanced, and nothing out of the ordinary has happened from ancient times to the present. There have been countless Daoist masters throughout history who possessed extraordinary abilities, capable of transcending the mundane world. If they wanted to resolve this issue, they would have done so already. Perhaps they've long since helped those vengeful spirits ascend to the afterlife? Moreover, there are also numerous powerful sorcerers in the demonic sects, and yet none of them have ever been known to gather tens of millions of vengeful spirits. Are they all just fools who didn't know about the abundance of evil ghosts here?"
Here is the translation:
Zhou Qing had indeed come here in his youth, and his exercise manual contained methods for refining magic artifacts. Refining Taoist artifacts was extremely difficult, first of all requiring materials, especially top-quality heavenly treasures and earthly gems that Zhou Qing couldn't get his hands on. So he set his sights on refining magic artifacts instead. Magic artifacts were relatively easy to refine and had considerable power; their toxicity when used against enemies also surpassed that of Taoist artifacts. Generally speaking, the materials used for magic artifacts were all yin souls, namely corpses that had absorbed the aura of death from underground.
However, in modern society, these things were also extremely difficult to obtain. Nowadays, people were cremated, and with a single flame, both body and bones turned to ash; where could one find any corpses? Even if they were buried, it was just ashes that were buried. Zhou Qing had once been enthusiastic about robbing graves and excavating tombs, but after discovering several urns of ashes, he never did such things again.
As for yin souls, those were even more difficult to obtain. One had to seize the opportunity on the seventh day after a person's death, when their soul had not yet entered the cycle of reincarnation, and use a technique to capture them alive. Zhou Qing had once secretly snuck into a hospital and waited for someone who was about to die, but he didn't know that after waiting for three days and nights, the person would be rescued back to life, almost suffocating Zhou Qing himself.
Furthermore, refining magic artifacts required yin souls with extremely heavy resentment at the time of death in order to manifest their power. In modern society, people were well-fed and clothed, and deaths were rare; even when someone did die, it was usually after taking medicine and passing away peacefully, without any resentment in their soul or spirit.
The more peaceful the world was, the harder it was for magic artifacts to be refined. That's why whenever there was chaos, demons and monsters would run amok. Zhou Qing had also set his sights on the ancient war dead, visiting many large and small battlefields, but he hadn't found even a single hair; those military souls had either been subdued by Taoist priests or superimposed by Buddhist monks.
This Longping battlefield was naturally not overlooked by Zhou Qing, who came back several times to carefully search but didn't gain anything. Later on, he gave up the idea of refining magic artifacts. Now that he heard Xuan Yuan Fa Wang wanted to set up a grand array here and collect military souls, where was the logic in that? This place didn't even have any military souls or malevolent ghosts; collecting air would be more feasible.
Upon hearing Zhou Qing's words, Xuan Yuan Fa Wang not only didn't get angry but instead had a hint of a smile on his face. "You're right, the military spirit is extremely harmful. In every generation, wherever there has been war, there will be Daoist and Buddhist masters who come to help the spirits of the dead ascend. However, this place is different. Back then, Bai Qi killed 400,000 soldiers in one night, causing a massive amount of resentment to accumulate, and not a single living thing was left within a thousand miles. The Qin Emperor invited all the high-ranking Daoist masters from around the world to help the spirits ascend, gathering 108 of them to set up the Tian Gang Di Xie Great Array, attempting to seal away these military spirits. Not only did it not work, but the 108 Daoist masters were instead swallowed by the military spirits, their bodies and souls destroyed, never to be reincarnated again. The situation became so severe that it almost alarmed the heavens, and a Nine Heavens Thunderbolt was sent down to strike them. Hmph!" Xuan Yuan Fa Wang dryly laughed twice before stopping his words.
"What happened later?" Zhou Qing was just getting to the good part of this pre-Qin secret story, when Xuan Yuan Fa Wang suddenly stopped talking. Zhou Qing didn't care about that and hastily asked again. But Xuan Yuan Fa Wang spoke loudly into the air instead: "There are fellow practitioners living here, why not show yourselves?"
"Ah?" A clear and crisp, heavenly voice floated in the air, making one feel like their pores were opening up, and Zhou Qing was about to swoon with pleasure. "Wow! What kind of sound is this? Such a powerful demonic tune, yet it doesn't give off any evil aura at all. Another incredibly formidable expert, I say. Why did that old demon give me the treasure for no reason? It turns out he's just getting started. This is going to be tough to deal with!" Zhou Qing's mind was resolute, and she quickly snapped back to reality, understanding Xuan Yuan Fa Wang's intentions. He wasn't here to collect any military spirits, but rather to subdue his own subordinates.
A gentle breeze mixed with fragrance blew over, and in Zhou Qing's astonished gaze, the breeze gradually gathered into a human figure. The figure became clearer and clearer, finally forming a woman in white clothes with a veil covering her face. The woman was slender and delicate, seemingly weak and unable to withstand the wind. As the breeze blew, she swayed back and forth, as if about to be blown away by the wind. However, Zhou Qing knew that this woman had already merged into the wind, without shape or form. When he scanned the area with his divine sense, there was actually nothing there. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have thought that the woman didn't exist.
Xuanyuan Fawang did not expect it to be a woman, and his brow furrowed as he said: "It's actually a woman who cultivates the demonic arts, truly a rare sight!" As soon as his words fell, several white bony claws suddenly stretched out from where the woman was standing, reaching towards the legs of the woman in white.
