Chapter 114: Containing the Soul Continent

Long before Lu Yan set his plan to split the Soul World with the Heavenly Code, he had already carefully considered one key question—how large should the isolated region be?

Given the sheer scale of the Soul World, slicing off a mere few kilometers—or even a few dozen kilometers—would be utterly meaningless. For a world of such vastness, that would be no more than a scratch.

Such a small loss could be rapidly repaired with the effort of billions of souls. It wouldn’t stir the foundations of the Soul World, nor would it buy any real time to hinder the AI God.

On the contrary, such a futile gesture would only enrage the AI God further. And once the deity turned its full attention back to the material world, City No. 14 would be facing total annihilation.

After thorough deliberation, Lu Yan set the target radius at eight hundred kilometers.

That was the maximum limit the eight hundred Specters could cover while drawing the Heavenly Code circle. At the same time, such a region would account for over one percent of the entire Soul World. If a piece that large were forcibly torn away, it would inevitably cause serious upheaval.

And once the world’s barrier disappeared over such a region, the endless darkness lurking beyond the Soul World would have the opportunity to surge in.

This immense pressure would force the AI God to remain within the Soul World, busy stabilizing it. That, in turn, would prevent it from retaliating against City No. 14 in the short term.

That was Lu Yan’s true objective.

Now, with the AI God retreating back into the Soul World, abandoning its attack, it meant—Lu Yan had succeeded.

As for what came next—recovering the Specters and attempting to draw the entire Soul Continent into the Soul Banner—that was merely an additional experiment, a bonus pursuit after the primary goal was complete.

Yet, the moment the Soul Continent made initial contact with the Soul Banner, Lu Yan realized…

He had underestimated something.

The Soul Continent had no physical weight. But when it touched the banner, Lu Yan instinctively buckled under the pressure.

Though his body felt nothing, a tremendous soul-level force crushed down upon him. Holding the Soul Banner, Lu Yan felt as though he were shouldering the weight of an entire boundless continent. The spiritual oppression nearly shattered his soul.

Yet his eyes remained calm—almost expectant.

In essence, this Soul Continent had no material form, no laws, and—after the AI God was driven out—no divine rules. What remained was pure soul-crafted matter.

And that kind of target…

Was exactly the Soul Banner’s favorite.

The banner, adorned with depictions of the Hundred Ghosts of Hell, began to change. Intricate lines and symbols extended from the fabric, slowly sketching the outline of a vast, limitless continent.

Endless ghost mist surged outward, trying to wrap around the Soul Continent.

But even the mist Lu Yan had gathered from slaughtering over a hundred thousand zombies was pitifully insufficient compared to the scale of this land. No matter how it spread, the mist could only devour tiny bits at a time, consuming the continent slowly into the banner.

As the most famous growth-type demonic artifact of the demonic path, the Soul Banner’s core feature was simple—

So long as there were enough souls, it could grow indefinitely.

Hundred Soul Banner. Thousand Soul Banner. Ten Thousand Soul Banner. All of them started from this basic artifact and evolved upward. It wasn’t bound by material quality.

Moreover, the Soul Banner had a natural suppressive effect on soul-based lifeforms. Given enough time, it could theoretically refine any soul.

But this came with a caveat: the banner’s owner had to overpower the soul’s resistance, suppressing its will. If the target soul retained even a trace of self-consciousness and could resist, the refinement would fail.

In this case, however, the Soul Continent was the ideal prey—pure soul matter, no consciousness, no resistance.

It was like a colossal sleeping beast—immense in mass but utterly passive. Even the tiniest resistance could crush the banner… but it had none.

And so, Lu Yan’s Soul Banner began devouring it without contest.

While Lu Yan devoted himself to this grand refinement, the atmosphere within the spiral tower grew increasingly strange.

The AI God’s brief descent had suppressed everything with its mere presence, leaving an unshakable shock upon everyone’s hearts.

Then Lu Yan unleashed his trump card, splitting the Soul World and forcing the AI God to retreat.

And before the people could recover from their awe, the Soul Banner’s decree triggered the Soul Continent’s descent into the material world.

That brief moment of released aura had left everyone breathless—the oppressive weight of the Soul Continent made them feel as though they were insects beneath a falling sky. But Lu Yan had swiftly contained the spiritual pressure by beginning the refinement process.

To most present, these events were utterly incomprehensible.

They couldn’t grasp the meaning of the clash between these unfathomable forces. They couldn’t understand the cause—only feel the fear.

Only Buvise, as the assault commander, had a vague inkling of what had transpired—though even he couldn’t be sure.

All they could see was Lu Yan standing tall, enshrouded by a storm of churning ghost mist. The entire upper floor was veiled in that ominous fog.

After enduring two consecutive spiritual oppressions, the battlefield momentarily fell into a tense standstill.

But that stillness shattered a second later as explosions erupted outside the tower.

Sky warships descended from above, arriving at the Paradise Computation Center. Because the spiral tower was too critical to destroy, they couldn’t fire high-caliber annihilation beams. Instead, hundreds of metal crates rained down from the skies.

Each crate opened on impact, transforming into a fully-armed mechanical soldier.

These troops were far more advanced than the center’s standard garrison. Some were even equipped with large-caliber psionic cannons.

A new wave of blood-soaked battle erupted across the center.

At the very top, Lu Yan’s confrontation with the AI God had ended, but the battle for City No. 14’s survival had only just begun.

Inside the spiral tower, several High-Rank psionic users had recovered from their shock. One had been crippled by the Primordial Giant Spirit; another gravely injured by an elite’s psionic grenade.

But five remained.

Streams of information flashed in their eyes. They seemed to realize what had just happened. Their arrogance turned to fury, and without hesitation, they charged into the black ghost mist.

“Blasphemy against the God—die!”

“Suppressive fire!”

Dozens of high-energy sniper rifles immediately opened fire, sealing off the five attackers’ path.

These rifles, potent personal weapons, could damage a High-Rank psionic user’s defenses. But the real challenge was hitting them—they moved far too quickly.

Everyone expected the five to retreat temporarily—but to their surprise, three of them rushed ahead, taking bullets to non-vital body parts just to shield the others.

In that fleeting moment, the remaining two High-Rank psionic users broke through the defensive line and reached the edge of the ghost mist.

And then—

Crimson tendrils lashed out from within the fog, piercing the two attackers instantly.

(End of Chapter)