Chapter 43: The Third Main Soul – Giant Spirit

The mountains shattered and the ground trembled.

A tremendous roar buried the once-elegant courtyard completely. Bloodbeard, the main soul, now controlled four hundred fierce ghosts, fusing them into a towering ghostly behemoth that had already surpassed the level of an early Foundation Establishment cultivator.

With every strike of his massive fists aimed at where the eerie young man once stood, an ominous ghostly aura surged skyward. Each blow was laced with murderous intent, shaking the heavens.

From the very start of their battle, Lu Yan had feigned weakness—on the surface, he only deployed two hundred fierce ghosts.

But under the cover of the sinister ghost mist, he had secretly embedded the rest into the ghostly domain, lying in wait.

His mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation was extremely deceptive. Just wielding the Hundred Soul Banner at that level was already enough to be considered monstrously talented.

Most would assume that two hundred ghosts was already the full extent of such a banner’s might.

No one would have guessed that this mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator’s banner actually held eight hundred fierce ghosts, with a main soul capable of fusing them all into a single entity.

This hidden trump card, when unleashed at the crucial moment, yielded extraordinary results.

Under the relentless assault of Bloodbeard’s massive fists, the eerie youth’s Red Lotus Guardian Charm had long been shattered. Even a top-grade umbrella-shaped magic artifact was now corroded into uselessness by the ghost mist.

Any talisman he activated was destroyed the moment it lit up. The barrage gave the eerie youth no chance to mount a meaningful counterattack.

“Damn you! You should be dead already!”

His eyes were bloodshot, all the composure and arrogance from before gone.

With a furious roar, his blood-red robes surged with spiritual energy, and he abandoned all defensive spells.

Boom!

Bloodbeard’s fist crashed down. The blood-colored lotus on the robe bloomed once more, blocking the blow with its deceptively delicate petals.

In the next instant, a crimson glow flashed.

A bizarre, barbed flying sword shot out from the youth’s storage pouch, streaking through the air toward Lu Yan hundreds of meters away.

“This giant ghost might block my attacks, but you’re just a mid-stage Qi Refining ant. What can you do to resist?”

The swordlight approached in the blink of an eye—but Lu Yan remained unshaken. A towering ghostly figure had already stepped before him—his first main soul: the Ghost Armored Warrior.

Innate Spell: Ghost Armor Technique!

From the mist, a fierce ghost flew out, its body glinting with black iron light. The spectral armor clung tightly to its soul as it charged straight into the sword’s path.

In an instant, the sword pierced the ghost’s form. But the ghost armor absorbed the brunt of the impact, giving the ghost a sliver of survival.

A single mid-stage ghost could not stop the crimson blade—but what about ten? Twenty? Or a hundred?

Each ghost bearing Ghost Armor absorbed and weakened the sword’s might. The cold aura of the blade dimmed as it cleaved through one after another. Fragmenting souls gave no regard for self-preservation, focusing solely on draining the weapon’s force.

Only after piercing through forty-one ghosts did the sword finally lose all momentum and clattered to the ground.

The eerie youth stared in stunned disbelief.

And what awaited him was another devastating punch from Bloodbeard.

The protective spell inscribed on his robes shattered. The overwhelming soul power and chilling ghost energy swallowed him whole.

From afar, Lu Yan narrowed his eyes, a flicker of wariness rising in his heart.

He was certain—the eerie youth hadn’t yet used his final trump card. The most terrifying spell of the Red Lotus Karma Fire Scripture was still hidden.

Sure enough, in the next second, from the ruinous crater smashed by Bloodbeard, a blood-red flame burst forth.

It ignited Bloodbeard’s giant hand and spread rapidly.

Top-Grade Spell: Red Lotus Karma Fire!

The scarlet flames engulfed Bloodbeard’s massive body almost instantly. The fierce ghosts howled in agony as their enormous fused form crumbled to pieces.

The eerie youth shot out from the pit, his body battered, robes torn and burned. He had spent a vast amount of spiritual power, especially suffering soul damage from Bloodbeard’s final strike.

Staring at the ghosts shielding Lu Yan, the youth gritted his teeth.

Though the Karma Fire had dispelled Bloodbeard, he wasn’t confident he could break through the rest.

Unable to hide his resentment, he spat coldly, “Next time, I’ll take your life!”

Just as he turned to flee, a blood-red lotus platform appeared beneath his feet, lifting him toward the edge of the ghost mist.

“You won’t get a next time,” Lu Yan said calmly.

As the ghost mist parted, a new figure awaited him.

It was a ghost whose soul had condensed into physical form. Its body wasn’t especially large, but it exuded an unfathomable weight. Its cultivation was clearly early Foundation Establishment.

As the eerie youth tried to flee the mist, the ghost reached out its right hand.

The hand, initially of ordinary size, began to rapidly expand, shrouded in ghostly energy, covering the entire region like a sky falling from above.

No—it wasn’t just the hand!

In the eerie youth’s shocked gaze, the ghost—barely three meters tall—suddenly grew more than tenfold, transforming into a mountain-sized giant.

This was Lu Yan’s third main soul, refined from a corpse king. Its innate spell was Giant Spirit Form, and Lu Yan had named it:

Giant Spirit.

As the enormous hand descended, it seemed to pull the entire ghost domain down with it.

The eerie youth triggered several talismans in panic, but they were all useless.

The Giant Spirit’s palm crushed down—and his body was obliterated.

“Damn it! DAMN IT!!”

From the ruins of his flesh, a white bell shot out—carrying his remnant soul. Screams of rage echoed from it.

The ghost domain shrank rapidly, and all the nearby fierce ghosts surged toward him. He had nowhere left to run.

“If I die, you’re coming with me!!”

His soul was instantly drained. A blood-colored curse formed and slipped past the ghosts, landing on Lu Yan.

Second-Rank High-Grade Spell: Soul Karma Curse!

This was the Red Lotus Demon Sect’s mutual destruction curse. The caster sacrificed half of their own soul, channeling all their karmic sins to corrode the target’s soul. Even superior cultivators, once marked by this karma, would struggle to advance their cultivation.

And the curse was nearly unblockable, unless one had a Treasure of Merit—which were unbelievably rare…

But in the next moment—

Divine Protection activated.

The void shimmered as the Golden Flame of Merit illuminated the world. Illusory forms of celestial deities manifested, their righteous aura suppressing the dark ghost domain in an instant.

The deadly Soul Karma Curse that had almost reached Lu Yan’s heart—

—was annihilated like a moth plunging into divine fire.

(End of Chapter)