Chapter 27: The Second Main Soul

Now that he had figured out the source of the merit, Lu Yan’s earlier worries instantly vanished, replaced by an uncontrollable surge of joy.

The merit gained from separating a zombie’s soul from its body was minimal—almost negligible—but in a world overrun by the undead, quantity was power.

He had only exterminated just over ten thousand zombies in recent days, and that alone had earned him enough merit to refine a proto-divine ability—the Xuanhuang Merit Flame, a Golden Core-level divine flame.

What if he killed one hundred thousand? A million?

Just imagining how much merit that could accumulate—perhaps even enough to refine a complete Xuanhuang Merit Flame before reaching the Golden Core Realm—was enough to make one’s heart tremble.

Not to mention, those disembodied zombie souls were also top-tier materials for refining vengeful spirits into the Soul Banner.

Lu Yan could already see it—the road ahead, lit in golden radiance.

Once again, he raised the Soul Banner and allowed its ghostly mist to devour the two newly extracted zombie souls.

Now at the Third Layer of Qi Refining, and with the Xuanhuang Merit Flame to keep the vengeful spirits in check, Lu Yan no longer needed to divert a portion of his spiritual power to suppress backlash from the High-Grade Soul Banner. Controlling this demonic artifact had become easy.

The only limiting factor now was the amount of spiritual power required to maintain spirits outside the banner. Lu Yan’s reserves couldn’t compare to those of late-stage or peak Qi Refining cultivators, so he couldn’t summon all his ghosts at once for extended periods without spiritual stones to supplement him.

Still, he tested his limit—twenty-seven vengeful spirits was the maximum he could maintain in his current state.

And that was already more than enough.

Twenty-seven vengeful spirits, each equivalent to a Second Layer Qi Refining cultivator, were more than capable of sweeping through the outer city zones.

What concerned him more now was the rate of soul refinement into the Soul Banner.

Bathed in daylight, Lu Yan once again stepped out of the abandoned high-rise and began his new hunt.

With the help of the Xuanhuang Merit Flame, Lu Yan moved like a man possessed.

No longer burdened by fear of backlash, he cleansed entire city sectors methodically.

During the day, he avoided regions infested with peak-stage zombies or Foundation Establishment Corpse Kings, instead picking off scattered zombies from the outer ring.

It was slower—but steady.

And during this process, Lu Yan realized he had already formed a self-sustaining loop in his cultivation path:

• He separated zombie souls to gain merit.
• Those souls were refined into the Soul Banner to create vengeful spirits.
• The merit obtained from the soul separation empowered the Xuanhuang Merit Flame.
• That flame, in turn, suppressed the ever-growing number of vengeful spirits.

A perfect ecosystem. A flawless loop.

Within this cycle, Lu Yan’s power grew in all directions, no longer limited by his former inability to suppress the banner’s spirits.

At night, he didn’t rest either—he absorbed lunar energy to strengthen his soul.

Even though it was difficult to break through to mid-stage Qi Refining in the post-apocalyptic version, absorbing lunar energy would solidify his foundation. Once he reached the peak of Qi Refining and began nurturing a nascent divine soul, the accumulated lunar essence would yield immeasurable benefits.

By late evening, Lu Yan had finished purging a shopping mall overrun with more than a thousand zombies. After refining the souls, he successfully added thirteen new vengeful spirits to the banner.

He unfurled the Soul Banner. Within its surface, black mist churned and shrieked—ghostly spirits screamed, tore at the fabric, and swirled into patterns of grim specters.

The thirteen newly added spirits merged with the banner—but without his suppression, they were filled with hatred and tried to rebel.

Before Lu Yan could even react, the older vengeful spirits acted first.

They rushed forward en masse, surrounding the new ones and beating them down into submission.

The fresh souls were stunned.

They had expected rebellion to be routine—after all, disobedience was common among demonic spirit artifacts. None of them had imagined that other spirits would act to defend their master.

Inside the Soul Banner, the older spirits clearly held the upper hand. They suppressed the newcomers swiftly and violently.

Once the dust settled, they all turned toward Lu Yan and—shockingly—grinned in flattery.

This behavior should have been impossible. Vengeful spirits were born of resentment and hatred, and had no intellect to speak of.

But Lu Yan had spent the past week regularly pulling out the Xuanhuang Merit Flame and roasting a few disobedient spirits at random.

Over the past seven days, more than three spirits had been burned into ash.

Faced with real death, fear and submission became instinct.

Lu Yan said nothing. Instead, he formed a hand seal and summoned a bloom of Xuanhuang Merit Flame in the air.

A week ago, it had only been the size of a fingertip—a weak little wisp, barely qualifying as a divine ability in its infancy.

Now, the flame had grown to half the size of a fist. Its holy, upright radiance and demonic-destroying firelight were both noticeably stronger.

He hadn’t used it in actual combat yet, so he didn’t know its upper limits—but against the vengeful spirits, its suppression was already overwhelming.

With a clenched fist, Lu Yan retracted the flame and glanced at the thirteen new spirits. Each of their faces was now twisted with the exact same fear as the older ones.

Satisfied.

In the past week, Lu Yan had spent nearly every waking moment either hunting or sleeping. He had killed over ten thousand zombies.

After accounting for losses, sacrifices, and rebellious spirits used as warnings, the Soul Banner now contained two hundred and thirty-one vengeful spirits—more than double what it had just a week prior.

Lu Yan could clearly feel that this number had reached the limit for a High-Grade Soul Banner.

The creator of the banner likely never imagined someone would feed it so many souls before it even became a Top-Grade artifact.

To house more spirits, there was only one solution—upgrade its rank.

Upgrade it to a Top-Grade Artifact: the legendary Hundred Soul Banner.

In truth, the number of spirits already exceeded one hundred. But the upgrade had yet to happen for one reason:

The current main soul, Lishi, was only at mid-stage Qi Refining—nowhere near strong enough to support the banner’s transformation.

What Lu Yan needed was more main souls—stronger ones.

“It’s time to hunt a peak-stage zombie—one of those leader-level beasts,” Lu Yan murmured to himself.

He glanced at the sky—there were still two hours before full nightfall.

“Plenty of time.”

He gripped the Soul Banner. Around him, vengeful spirits began to manifest one by one. The ghostly mist surged out in all directions, shrouding hundreds of meters.

And the direction he marched toward…

Was none other than the residential complex he had first arrived at when entering the apocalypse.

(End of Chapter)