Chapter 190: The Madman

Chen Luo pondered the entire sequence of events.

He had initially planned to assist in murder, but from the moment they entered the ‘corpse house,’ his plan changed. These old demons perfectly embodied the traitorous nature of evil cultivators—none trusted each other, and at the first sign of danger, each sought to take their companion down with them. Most crucially, every one of them harbored their own ulterior motives. Lady Bai Gu and the Blood Qi Old Demon aimed to kill Roshana, while for the rest, including Chen Luo, murder was merely a secondary outcome.

Their core objective? Personal gain.

Lady Bai Gu must have known what kind of people she’d invited, yet she didn’t care; her goal was simply to create chaos and seize an opportunity for herself.

Kill and leave! he thought resolutely.

He needn’t worry about the cultivation technique issue—he already possessed the brains he needed. At worst, it would be a waste of time learning the restrictions.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Luo quickened his pursuit.

The coffin-carrying old man had to die. This fellow had witnessed his soul banner, and among all evil cultivators, it was common knowledge that only Core Formation ancestors could refine such a high-level artifact. In this realm, there were only two Core Formations: the Blackstone Ancestor, who ruled over Blackstone City, and the Demonic Heart Ancestor, who had been expelled long ago.

This matter involved grudges at the Core Formation realm level, far beyond what Chen Luo could comprehend or get involved with. There was no hope that Patriarch Blackstone would listen to his explanations. From the perspective of a Core Formation cultivator, Chen Luo was merely an early Foundation Establishment youngster. Rather than wasting time investigating, it would be easier to simply kill him.

The light in the passage grew increasingly dim as they descended until reaching the bottom, where the space suddenly opened up.

A wave of intense heat hit them. A vast cavern came into view, its ceiling adorned with stalactites hanging down like inverted bells, while the floor was covered in stalagmites. The surrounding stone walls were densely plastered with spiritual talismans and some incantations written in blood.

Four massive iron chains extended from the rocks, converging in the center.

There, a five-meter-wide pool of blood lay.

The coffin-carrying old man Chen Luo had been searching for stood by the edge of this blood pool.

“A blood pool?” Chen Luo muttered.

He held the soul banner in hand but didn’t step inside immediately. Instead, out of habit, he produced a talisman paper.

Infusing spiritual energy into it, the paper transformed into a paper figure that flew from his hand and leaped into the cave. As soon as the paper figure’s feet touched the ground, it gave way, revealing three wisps of black mist mixed with skulls beneath the rocky surface.

The paper man’s surface swiftly turned black as it was swept by the dark qi, then toppled over stiffly.

Witnessing this from beside the blood pool, the old man carrying the coffin felt his expression slightly darken. He hadn’t expected this person to be so cautious; not at all like a young upstart. This level of caution reminded him of those seasoned old demons with years of experience.

Afterwards, Chen Luo summoned seven or eight more paper men, having them cover the nearby area step by step. Only after ensuring there were no dangers did he enter the cave himself.

Gurgle.

As Chen Luo entered, a figure rose from within the blood pool.

It was the little girl whom the old man had brought along earlier. Now her hair had transformed into a blood-red hue, and her eyes opened, emitting a terrifying murderous aura. As if sensing Chen Luo’s threat, the girl floated out of the blood pool and let out a fierce roar directed straight at him.

“You know, we don’t actually have any mortal grudges between us.”

The old man set down the coffin on his back with a resounding thud, its heavy weight causing the ground to tremble visibly—a clear testament to the casket’s immense mass.

“There’s no need for a life-or-death struggle. You’ve already destroyed my refined corpse; you’ve vented your anger as much as you needed.”

“Heh!” Chen Luo let out a laugh. This old fellow was quite adept at calculating risks.

He thought one refined corpse could dispatch me?

Seeing that Chen Luo refused to back down, the coffin-carrying old man’s expression also darkened. His strength wasn’t truly formidable; despite being in the Middle Foundation Establishment stage, his overall power might not even match an early-stage Perfect Foundation Establishment cultivator like Chen Luo. His initial flight had been due to a lack of confidence, but within this cave, all his reservations vanished.

The casket beside him and the girl in the blood pool were his greatest assets.

This was common among all refined corpse cultivators. Their strength was concentrated in their ‘refined corpses’, with themselves possessing half the power and the zombie puppet the other half. Back when Chen Luo was on missions at the Sacred Lake Immortal Sect, Master Xianhe Chengfeng had faced off against a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Corpse-Raising Sect. At the time, to counter Master Xianhe, that Corpse-Raising Sect powerhouse had attacked using both their true form and the zombie puppet together.

“You better think carefully,” the old man warned. “Once I open the coffin, our conflict will know no end until one of us perishes.”

As the Coffin-Bearing Old Man spoke, he cast a glance at the soul banner in Chen Luo’s hand.

He had witnessed Chen Luo slay the Old Demon Fang—a formidable late Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even if he were to engage Chen Luo with his most potent trump card, his chances of victory would still only be fifty-fifty at best. Avoiding battle altogether was undoubtedly the wisest course of action.

Chen Luo raised his hand, channeling spiritual energy into the soul banner. A gray mist materialized around him as banesouls erupted from the banner, circling and howling.

The Coffin-Bearing Old Man let out a cold snort, cutting short any further pleasantries. He turned and delivered a forceful slap to the coffin lid.

Bang!

The casket swung open, releasing a torrent of bloody water. The corpse puppet standing within instantly opened its eyes, gripping the edge of the black coffin before stepping forward.

This corpse puppet bore an uncanny resemblance to the Coffin-Bearing Old Man—it was none other than his own brother!

“Brother,” it intoned, “it seems we have another troublemaker on our hands.”

This puppet was indeed the Coffin-Bearing Old Man’s sibling. In his quest for the perfect creation, the old man had personally forged his own brother into a puppet. Such a vile practice was so depraved that even members of the Corpse-Raising Sect—the very masters of necromantic arts—would look upon it with disdain.

The Coffin-Bearing Old Man rang his magical bell, and the corpse puppet let out a thunderous roar.

The little girl in the blood pool beside him howled as well. Her body spun, sending a whirlpool of bloody water into motion. She flew onto the corpse puppet’s shoulder, and the two began to merge. The corpse puppet rapidly grew taller, reaching three meters in the blink of an eye. Its skin turned blue-black, emitting an aura like smoke that swirled around its body.

After their fusion, the corpse puppet’s level instantly jumped to late Foundation Establishment stage, becoming a Black Iron Rank cultivator.

“Drain him dry!”

With a roar, the corpse puppet bent its legs and slammed its feet into the ground.

The stone shattered, leaving behind a massive crater. The puppet moved with ghostly speed, appearing before Chen Luo in an instant. At the same time, the Coffin-Bearing Old Man took flight, hovering above the blood pool. He extended his index finger and pointed down, drawing up the blood qi beneath him. It condensed into nine swirling skulls.

These skulls gathered around him, forming an enormous necklace of white bones that surged towards Chen Luo. A series of eerie cackles emanated from the skeletal mouths, attempting to disrupt Chen Luo’s spirit.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Luo unfurled the soul banner.

Woo…

In an instant, over a hundred banesouls emerged from the banner. Within the blink of an eye, these densely swarming spirits filled the entire cave. At that moment, Chen Luo took a step back, placing himself outside the cavern.

“Hisss! So many?!” The confident expression of the coffin-bearing old man shifted instantly; he now understood how Old Demon Fang had perished. Such an extravagant number of souls could exhaust anyone to death!

“You madman! Just how many people have you killed?!” The old man’s face was etched with horror.

In his understanding, there were no sane Soul Refiners among cultivators. Every bit of growth in a soul banner came at the cost of human lives—a practice even other evil cultivators abhorred as lunacy. Crafting the primary soul required not only powerful cultivators but also specific birth dates aligned with celestial patterns. The auxiliary souls were even more outrageous: one hundred ordinary individuals’ souls combined could form just one such spirit, and with slightly less luck, it might take three to five hundred people.

In the chaotic days of evil cultivation, stories of madmen slaughtering entire cities were all too common. Among these murderous lunatics, nine out of ten wielded Soul Refining Banners.

Now Chen Luo unfurled his soul banner, unleashing over a hundred banesouls—eleven primary souls and ninety-nine secondary ones.

How many lives must he have taken?

Does this madman not fear facing the Demonic Heart Art in the future?!

BOOOOOM!

Before the Coffin-Bearing Old Man could finish pondering, all the banesouls within the cave detonated simultaneously.

Light.

The world was flooded with blinding light from the exploding banesouls.

Among them, Lin Feng’s master had flown directly to the old man before self-destructing. His face, twisted with hatred, enraged the old man so much that he coughed up blood.

When Lin Feng possessed the soul banner, he employed conventional battle techniques: the banner attacked, and the banesouls injured enemies’ souls.

To a soul refiner, self-destruction was the crudest use of their abilities, causing significant harm to the soul banner itself. However, Chen Luo cared little for such concerns; he wasn’t a soul refiner by trade, having acquired this soul banner purely by chance. Even if it were destroyed, it wouldn’t break his heart.

For a magical artifact, its greatest purpose lay in slaying one’s enemies.

The explosion of densely packed banesouls whipped up a torrent of eerie winds, forcibly plunging the cave’s temperature. The terrifying divine soul energy, confined within this sealed space, oscillated relentlessly back and forth. It hurled both the flying corpse puppet and the old man carrying the coffin out into the void.

The blood pool on the ground froze solid from the banesoul explosion’s frigid essence. The splashed blood coalesced into a crimson waterfall, suspended mid-air as if time itself had halted.

“I… he… Aghhh*!*”

The Coffin-Bearing Old Man let out a shrill wail. His body, half-destroyed by the blast, plummeted lifeless to the ground like a kicked dog. His head thudded against the stone with a dull thud, bouncing twice before coming to rest. Blood gushed incessantly from his nostrils. The black coffin, once his most prized possession, had been blasted away, now frozen in a corner as an icy lump.

After the detonation of over a hundred banesouls, the scene inside the cave was utterly transformed.

Every stalactite above and stalagmite below had vanished without a trace. Loose rocks scattered across the floor were swept up by the shockwaves, flung against the cave walls where they froze into translucent blue ice blocks. Even Chen Luo, standing at the entrance, was slammed against the rear wall by the force of the blast. Inside him, his qi and blood roiled tumultuously.

The power of a self-detonation in an enclosed space was beyond his wildest imagination.

This level of devastation…

Chen Luo steadied his vital energies, took a deep breath, and re-entered the cave.

The coffin-bearers lay sprawled on the ground, convulsing uncontrollably. The fused girl puppet had been blasted apart, leaving two figures—one large, one small—lying to the side, their bodies covered in frost.

Chen Luo waited patiently until the frost dissipated from their bodies before slowly approaching.

The soul banner in his hand had grown even more dim; this method truly damaged its potency.

Tucking away the soul banner carefully, Chen Luo approached the still-breathing coffin-bearer and flipped out his blood blade.

With a flash of steel, head separated from body.

It was best to be rid of these old demons. Showing mercy by sparing them would only invite endless retaliation when they inevitably recovered.

Chen Luo severed the corpse’s head with a swift motion, then pressed down with his right hand to read the coffin-bearer’s final thoughts. Afterward, he incinerated the remains. The storage pouch, the distant puppet, and the unknown girl were all collected together.

His actions were performed with practiced efficiency, bordering on callousness.