Tu Shanjun also instructed Wen Yue in the rudimentary use of spiritual power to gather baleful aura.

Of course, the real trick came from Zhao Shixian.

The techniques of loose cultivators were incomplete, and their methods crude and unreliable.

Only the skill seed from Zhao Shixian had filled in Tu Shanjun’s knowledge gap regarding the early stages of Qi cultivation.

No matter how wretched a sect disciple’s fate, they still possessed inheritance and resources, things that loose cultivators fumbling in the dark would never know.

By refining stones with spiritual power until they held a trace of spiritual force, then linking them with the Blood Fiend Sect’s special methods, one could form an exceedingly crude and inferior formation.

To call it a “formation” was really to flatter it.

The baleful aura was left to stew for three days.

By estimation, the thickened energy should be enough to birth a few low-rank ghosts.

When night fell,

Wen Yue donned a black robe.

He concealed his figure and face entirely.

With the murky aura of the Turtle Spirit Breath-Holding Technique cloaking him, even other cultivators would find it difficult to detect his presence.

Now that he knew Northern Wei had Qi cultivators intervening, Wen Yue had to be more cautious than ever.

Tu Shanjun reminded him again not to act recklessly, but if ever confronted by cultivators, he must never show mercy.

Whether facing righteous sects or demonic ones, if his life was in danger, he must fight to the death.

Wen Yue understood.

He had grown up in the marquis’ estate, experienced both rise and fall, and knew that if he were to fall, those around him would suffer terribly.

So, if someone dared threaten his life, he would never hesitate to kill.

Besides, he was never one for pedantry, in moments of life and death, whatever could slay the enemy was a good method.

The baleful aura below Tong Pass lingered heavily.

The corpses had already been cleared, most of them burned and buried deep underground.

Piling them up would only breed plague.

In severe cases, the illness could threaten both the common people and the garrison.

Diseases didn’t distinguish between Liang or Wei troops, if the common folk were exposed for too long, they too would become infected.

Thus, after each great battle, the victors always scoured the battlefield and burned the bodies.

This time was no exception.

Wen Yue stood outside the perimeter of his planted magic stones.

Because of the spiritual power barrier and pull, the surrounding baleful aura had all converged toward the battlefield’s center.

Even without using the Spirit-Seer Eyes, one could see the roiling gray mist within.

With a surge of spiritual power, the soul banner flew out from his robes.

It billowed in the wind and instantly expanded to a height of ten feet, anchoring itself above the crude formation.

The gray mist unraveled, rapidly transmuting into a crimson death aura. Within the swirling fog, ghostly silhouettes lifted their vacant eyes toward the soul banner.

Scanning the field, Tu Shanjun spotted several ranking ghost entities.

Among them, one even seemed on the verge of breaking into the second layer of Qi Refining.

The banner whirled like a vortex, devouring all the baleful aura into its folds, swallowing seven ghostly figures along with it.

As the surrounding aura and ghosts were completely drained, the ten-foot banner powered by spiritual power shrank back into a foot-long strip and returned to Wen Yue’s hand.

Tu Shanjun frowned slightly.

Something was off.

Not due to any suspicious person.

But rather, something was wrong with the amount of baleful aura.

Even though the formation was extremely crude, the spiritual power enhancements should’ve enabled it to absorb most of the baleful aura within three days.

He had indeed devoured a great deal and harvested seven low-rank ghostly entities.

But still, Tu Shanjun felt that what he consumed was far less than what he had initially estimated.

There were fewer ranked ghosts than expected.

Although many unranked wandering souls had been collected, it still wasn’t enough to support his breakthrough. Far from it. These ghosts were too meager.

If all he could obtain were such low-grade spirits, then his strength would certainly improve far slower than before.

Back then, he had absorbed multiple cultivators’ souls in succession.

Since cultivators possessed inherent strength, they had pushed his power up directly.

Tu Shanjun’s mind returned to the original question: “Could the baleful aura have dissipated too quickly?”

The stored quantity differed from what they had seen before, and the amount harvested by the soul banner was unexpectedly low.

Buzz.

The soul banner returned to Wen Yue’s palm, and he felt it tremble faintly.

Unfurling its surface, he saw the words:

“Not enough baleful aura.”

“Something is wrong.”

“Something’s wrong?” Wen Yue was surprised. His teacher never spoke without reason. This meant there was truly a problem.

After all this time together, they had built up a certain silent understanding.

Could someone have stolen it?

But that didn’t make sense, if someone had taken it, there should have been nothing left at all.

Wen Yue activated the Spirit-Seer Eyes to observe the faint movements of lingering aura.

He emptied his body and exhaled the Breath Concealment Technique’s murky haze.

Without its cover, his body’s spiritual light shone clearly, and his whole figure took on a lucid radiance.

“Quick!”

Wen Yue poured spiritual power into the soul banner.

Tu Shanjun stepped out immediately, his ghostly crimson eyes narrowing slightly as he clearly saw the movement of aura across the ground.

Between Heaven and Earth, pure qi rises, and turbid qi sinks.

Baleful aura being part of that turbid flow, should naturally settle downward.

But this time, the sinking speed seemed… abnormal.

Not just here, everywhere within sight shared this peculiarity.

“Teacher, I don’t see anything,” Wen Yue said after carefully observing for nearly fifteen minutes, looking bewildered.

The mountain ranges on either side of Tong Mountain perfectly encircled the battlefield ahead. The baleful aura, unable to escape, had gathered along the natural contours.

This was trapped baleful aura, perhaps the geomantic layout was causing the baleful aura to more easily sink into the ground.

Tu Shanjun shook his head. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause either.

But he could see the aura’s flow clearly.

This place’s geomantic configuration had major issues, though thankfully it posed no danger to the civilians in the city.

The city of Tong Pass itself was built of solid materials and blocked the influx of baleful aura.

Tu Shanjun returned to the soul banner. Though this geomancy caused the baleful aura to sink faster, as long as they harvested diligently, not much would be lost.

“Teacher, is something wrong?”

“Geomantic layout.”

The words formed on the banner’s surface, black mist condensing into two words. No further explanation followed.

Wen Yue pondered. He wasn’t versed in feng shui, but the aura’s flow did follow a definite pattern, and that in itself qualified as geomantic influence.

He gathered all his magic stones into his pouch, leaving none behind.

Then carefully erased all signs of his presence before returning to Tong Pass City.

These days, the battlefront was calm. Moreover, having forced the location of Northern Wei’s main army and camp layout out of Tuoba Bao, there was little need for urgency.

Perhaps, after some preparation, they might even consider launching a night raid.

Three days passed.

After nightfall, a lone figure stood silently in the dark.

The person let out a soft sound of surprise.

According to intelligence, a battle had occurred here seven days ago.

Though not a large engagement, with six thousand troops in total, at least two or three thousand must have been killed or wounded.

But now, judging by the lingering baleful aura, the area hardly bore any traces of a bloody clash.

“Could a loose cultivator have snuck in and stolen the baleful aura and ghosts early?”

The figure murmured quietly, full of doubt.

Such things had happened before.

But this time, the battlefield had clearly been swept clean, hence the suspicion.

After a careful search, the person found no trace of clues.

Something felt... off.

In the blink of an eye, the figure vanished from sight.

(Chapter End)