Chapter 125: The Budding Shape of Underworld Faith

There was no denying it—Shark’s subordinates were remarkably efficient. No sooner had Lu Yan arrived at the airport than he received a complete set of identity documents and a passport.

Of course, these were all forged using Shark’s authority as a city councilman and bore no connection to Lu Yan’s real identity in the Eastern Federation.

Alongside the documents, Shark had also thoughtfully prepared a phone, a SIM card for the Eastern Federation, a bank card, and some cash.

Seeing how considerate Shark had been, Lu Yan nodded in praise.

“Not bad.”

Shark instantly broke into a grin and responded respectfully.

“Your flight will start boarding in ten minutes. I wish you an enjoyable stay in the Eastern Federation.”

To Lu Yan, if Shark in the Cyber Version was a high-stakes gambler chasing opportunities, then the Shark in the Urban Version was more like a businessman who clearly understood his place.

The plane ticket was first class. Under the guidance of a flight attendant, Lu Yan took his seat.

The journey from the Union to the Eastern Federation would take over ten hours. Rather than waste time waiting idly, Lu Yan quietly retrieved his Soul Banner—shrunk down and stored close to his body.

The temperature in the first-class cabin dropped slightly without a sound.

Outwardly, Lu Yan appeared to be resting with his eyes closed. In truth, his consciousness had already entered the Soul Banner.

After successfully containing the Soul Continent, the entire banner had undergone a dramatic transformation.

First was its grade. Though the Soul Banner had barely managed to contain the Soul Continent and hadn’t even undergone any additional refinement, it had already advanced from a top-tier magical artifact to a level just shy of a genuine Dharma Treasure.

As long as Lu Yan refined another two hundred fierce spirits, the Soul Banner could easily be upgraded to the legendary Thousand-Soul Banner, on par with Dharma Treasures.

More importantly, the interior of the Soul Banner had transformed.

Originally, it could house malevolent spirits and ghosts by relying on the banner’s surface. The most direct manifestation was that all the spirits were visibly imprinted upon the banner’s cloth.

It was said that once a banner reached the Thousand-Soul level, it could open an inner “ghost realm,” allowing the housed spirits to move freely within a limited space.

However, the size of such realms was usually quite restricted. A newly promoted Thousand-Soul Banner could only hold a realm roughly the size of a slave transport ship.

But after containing the Soul Continent, Lu Yan faced no such limitation.

At this moment, the interior of Lu Yan’s Soul Banner could no longer simply be called a “ghost realm.”

An entire eight-hundred-li-wide Soul Continent had been sealed within the banner, including a segment of the world barrier sliced off by the Heavenly Dao Code—creating a self-sustaining miniature world inside the banner!

Although only souls could exist in this small world, that was more than sufficient for the Soul Banner. Even holding tens of millions of souls at once would be no issue.

As soon as his consciousness entered, Lu Yan saw ghosts charging chaotically around the small world.

Each fierce ghost trailed thick clouds of ghostly mist behind them. Under their lead, the mist was spreading outward across the mini realm.

However, despite its appearance, the ghost mist dissipated within just a few li of spreading and faded away entirely. The ghosts had no choice but to turn back and gather more to try again.

“There still isn’t enough ghost mist…”

Lu Yan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

The ghost mist he had collected from slaughtering over a hundred thousand zombies in the Apocalypse Version had mostly been consumed while nourishing the fierce ghosts. Even if he poured all the remainder into this miniature world, it wouldn’t be enough to envelop the entire eight-hundred-li space.

Without enough ghost mist, he couldn’t even begin the refinement of the small world.

This had become Lu Yan’s biggest problem for the time being.

The most stable solution was to wait for the next Apocalypse Version and go on another zombie-clearing spree to collect more ghost mist and wandering souls.

With his current strength, clearing out the ruins of a few cities would be no trouble at all. The millions of zombies he could slay would generate more than enough ghost mist to refine the miniature world—and push the Soul Banner to a whole new pinnacle.

The real problem, however, was that waiting for the next Apocalypse Version was far too uncertain.

Across several version updates, over ten different versions had already appeared. Who knew how many remained that he hadn’t seen yet?

Randomly drawing the Apocalypse Version again from so many possibilities felt like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

If he was lucky, the next version update would bring it back. If not, he might never get another chance to gather enough ghost mist in the foreseeable future.

What about mass slaughter in the Urban Version to collect ghost mist that way?

First off, there was the matter of his inner demons—whether he could even pass that psychological hurdle. Secondly, the Urban Version’s military wasn’t exactly weak.

Beyond that, the Urban Version was connected to many other versions. Whether Eastern or Western, they all fell under its framework. Kill enough people here, and who’s to say the next version wouldn’t feature a mighty cultivator who decided to deliver justice on behalf of the heavens?

Lu Yan wasn’t willing to take that risk.

Especially now that he understood the existence of “only ones of this world.” If he went on a killing spree in a low-energy version, he’d be painting a giant target on his back—because he’d never be able to cross versions and kill every enemy that came after him.

The more he killed, the greater the risk in the next version.

“Perhaps… I need to find a different path entirely.”

Lu Yan’s thoughts deepened as his focus shifted from the miniature world back to the Soul Banner.

Carefully sensing it, he picked up faint traces of incense-will power—tiny threads of devotion and prayer. As his consciousness sank into it, he could even hear whispers of prayers.

“Please bless my business and help me through this crisis!”

“I pray for Your divine favor!”

“It was You who saved me—my soul shall forever belong to You!”

Listening to these scattered, chaotic prayers, Lu Yan couldn’t help but show a strange expression.

Back in the Cyber Version, in order to trap the Intelligent God, Lu Yan had created an underworld loan platform. It was designed to provide soul-based loans to the unfortunates trapped in the Paradise Computation Center, making it easier for his ghosts to sneak into the Soul World.

To make the loan system feel more authentic, he even drafted a “Soul Contract,” which included a clause that required recipients to pray day and night to the Soul Banner’s totem.

At the time, Lu Yan hadn’t thought much of it.

But after the Paradise Computation Center collapsed, the eight hundred lucky souls who had received loans gathered and confirmed the legitimacy of the underworld loan system.

Having escaped the soul-grinding torment of the computation center, they began praying to the Soul Banner totem day and night—going so far as to preach about the platform and call themselves the “Eight Hundred Saints Chosen by the Underworld.”

As their story spread, more and more people began emulating them and praying to the Soul Banner.

Initially, the numbers were small and had no significant effect.

But as time went on and the number of worshipers increased, the accumulated incense-will power began to assist Lu Yan during his attempt to contain the Soul Continent.

In that oppressive and maddening cyber world, the miraculous existence of soul loans had unexpectedly become a source of spiritual solace for many.

Lu Yan had been too focused on containing the Soul Continent to pay much attention back then. But once the task was complete, he suddenly realized—

The propagation threshold for forging a merit-based Dharma Treasure…

Had already been more than halfway fulfilled without him even noticing.

(End of Chapter)