Translator: Cinder Translations
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Seeing that many of the rogue cultivators had gone after Su Yi, Jing Lu was filled with resentment and helplessness. He turned to Su Jingshu, gritting his teeth.
"Retreat!"
"But this only solves the immediate crisis. The Su family can no longer protect this Blood Crystal Mine."
Su Jingshu glanced at Jing Lu but did not refute him. He turned to the remaining four Su family cultivators.
"Let's go!"
With that, he mounted his sword and flew away in the direction opposite the rogue cultivators.
The four others also mounted their swords and followed.
Jing Lu knew he was not a match for them and did not dare to stop them. He could only watch as Su Jingshu and his group escaped.
With Su Jingshu gone, the entire Blood Crystal Mine area became unprotected.
Jing Lu vented his anger on the mine slaves within the mine.
To the south of the courtyard, there was a valley where thousands of low huts were clustered together.
The huts were cramped and disorderly, with sewage flowing everywhere, garbage strewn about, and a stench filling the air, resembling a massive garbage dump.
At this time, it was deep night, and the mine slaves were all in their huts sleeping.
But the recent battle had long since awakened them.
They emerged from their huts, and seeing the chaos caused by the battle, some mine slaves fled in panic; others, however, appeared numb and dazed, like soulless shells, neither fleeing nor avoiding, as if death was a form of release for them.
These mine slaves were ordinary people enslaved by the Su family, and they had no ability to resist Jing Lu's attacks.
The Ghost General rushed into the huts where the mine slaves lived, starting a brutal slaughter.
The ghostly aura spread like fierce, roaring dragons, sweeping in all directions. Where it passed, the mine slaves fell in large numbers as if sliced by a scythe.
When ordinary people died, their souls would automatically leave their bodies.
The Ghost General used his power to capture the souls, stuffing them into his mouth as if they were a delicious feast.
There were tens of thousands of mine slaves in the entire mine area. Although the Ghost General found it easy to kill, he had only consumed a few thousand souls.
Under normal circumstances, after death, souls would naturally dissipate into the world and travel to an unknown place.
But as a ghost cultivator, Jing Lu would not let the souls he had captured go to waste.
He floated in mid-air, controlling a pitch-black Soul Capturing Banner. The banner, trailing behind the Ghost General, swept over the corpses of the mine slaves, forcibly capturing the souls.
"What is going on?"
Jing Lu's expression suddenly turned to one of confusion and suspicion.
The black Soul Capturing Banner was a soul-capturing artifact, and although it was only a high-grade magic item, capturing the souls of these ordinary people should have been effortless.
Yet, inexplicably, a large number of the souls had disappeared without a trace.
...
At this moment, the rogue cultivators who had been chasing Su Yi had succeeded.
Su Yi had no means of resisting under the pursuit of more than ten cultivators of the same realm.
The rogue cultivators found that the storage ring on Su Yi's hand contained only ten thousand Blood Crystals and none of the Blood Crystal Marrows.
They were somewhat annoyed and turned Su Yi's corpse into a pile of minced meat, with her soul scattered by Shuo Nan's Soul-Devouring Spike.
Although they did not get the unexpected wealth, they successfully obtained the ten thousand Blood Crystals planned in their scheme.
The rogue cultivators, holding the storage ring, began to return to the mine area.
Song Wen, who was hiding in the cave, had observed everything clearly.
The attack on the Su family's Blood Crystal Mine resulted in significant losses and the deaths of three Foundation Establishment cultivators, which was excellent news for Song Wen.
As long as it weakens the Su family's strength, Song Wen is happy to see it.
But throughout the entire process, Song Wen did not participate, feeling as if he had made a fruitless trip.
...
Twenty miles away from the Blood Crystal Mine.
At the foot of a tall mountain.
Su Jingshu and the five members of the Su family were hiding here, concealing their presence.
"Third Elder, are we just going to let those evil cultivators plunder the mine and destroy our Su family's property? That's our most important asset!"
"Shouldn't we seek help from the family and eliminate these notorious robbers?"
Su Jingshu shook his head.
"Our ancestor cannot act right now, and the only cultivators the family can send are Foundation Establishment cultivators. By the time they arrive, those robbers will have long since fled."
"Are we just going to let those evil cultivators go?" one of the Su family cultivators asked unwillingly.
A cruel smile appeared on Su Jingshu's face.
"Not so easily! Those who provoke the Su family will have to pay a painful price."
"Before leaving, I released the seal on the underground Ghost King in the mine."
The other four's faces changed dramatically.
"Third Elder, that Ghost King was sealed by our ancestor with great effort thirty years ago."
"If the Ghost King is released, the entire mine area will be ruined."
"After the rogue cultivators have plundered, they will leave immediately. We just need to capture the mine slaves again, and the mine area can be rebuilt."
"If the mine is destroyed, the difficulty of rebuilding will increase several times."
Su Jingshu remained calm.
"Do you know why our ancestor expended so much effort sealing the Ghost King instead of killing it?"
"Isn't it as the outside world says, that our ancestor's strength was insufficient to kill the Ghost King, so he sealed it instead?" a Su family member asked, puzzled.
Su Jingshu sneered.
"Not at all. If he could capture and seal the Ghost King, why couldn't he kill it? A mere Ghost King is not an immortal being."
"Our ancestor fought a great battle with the Ghost King back then. The Ghost King was defeated, causing severe damage to its soul and even breaking its soul core. The Ghost King's cultivation was reduced to almost nothing."
"Our ancestor captured it and sealed it deep underground in the Blood Crystal Mine, setting up a Ghost Dao Grand Formation. The purpose was to let it absorb the resentment constantly emanating from the mine slaves and devour the souls of those dead mine slaves to help the Ghost King restore its soul and rebuild its soul core."
"Once the Ghost King's strength is restored and it is subdued, our Su family will gain an additional third-tier combat force."
"But for some reason, maybe the Ghost King's foundation was injured back then or our ancestor was not proficient in ghost control, even after thirty years, the Ghost King has only restored its soul. The broken soul core remains unrepaired. It can only be considered a pseudo-third-tier Ghost King."
The so-called soul core is similar to the golden core of human cultivators, the demon core of demon races, or the corpse core of zombies, and can only be refined by a true third-tier Ghost King.
The four Su family cultivators were shocked by this revelation, which was quite different from what they had heard before.
"Even a pseudo-third-tier Ghost King is enough to turn the mine area upside down," one of them said with concern.
Su Jingshu confidently said, "Rest assured, our ancestor's plans were meticulous. He had already devised a strategy thirty years ago."
As he spoke, Su Jingshu took out a small black flag.
"This flag is the core of the sealing formation and also a Ghost Controlling Banner. As long as we lure the Ghost King into the formation and you all cooperate with me to activate it, we can capture it with the Ghost Controlling Banner."
"This Ghost King, sealed underground for many years and absorbing resentment for a long time, will be full of resentment when the seal is first broken. We'll use these robbers to dispel its resentment."
"Once the resentment on the Ghost King dissipates, we can reap the benefits."
(End of the Chapter)
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