The Ghost Banner's End

1,724 words

Ji Ning had never executed the sixth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation before. Back in the aquatic palace, even the fifth layer had pushed him to his absolute limit. However, ever since he began comprehending the Nine Volumes of Formations, he had learned to 'lead' with greater efficiency. The fifth layer had become effortless for him, and while the sixth layer was still extremely difficult, he felt he had a genuine chance of success.

"I must succeed. Failure means death!" Ji Ning strained to control the situation. Four hundred and eighty-six flying sword treasures orbited around him. He used his divine sense to frantically control the key 'core swords' of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, using them to 'lead' the rest. For a moment, the four hundred and eighty-six flying swords bobbed up and down like restless waves.

It was arduous, but a faint white light began to shimmer on all four hundred and eighty-six swords.

"I did it!" Even as he fended off the poisonous insects, enduring their bites, and evaded the black-furred zombie chasing him, Ji Ning was ecstatic. He had managed to execute the sixth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation due to his profound formation comprehension.

"Die!" Ji Ning stared with murderous focus at Beisheng, who was on the boat.

A single streak of sword-light, condensed to its absolute limit and sharper than anything, obeyed his will. It shot out like a meteor, tearing across the heavens with unstoppable momentum to strike directly at Beisheng.

"Die!" Beisheng, who was on the boat, also shook the blood-red cloth banner in his hand.

The moment the banner swayed, heaven and earth darkened. Dozens of vicious, visibly corporeal ghosts howled out. These were the survivors of the countless ghosts who had slaughtered and devoured each other, further strengthened by being nurtured within the banner. This was still only a half-finished product; once fully refined, its true power would be terrifying.

But even so, this half-finished magic treasure allowed Beisheng to look down on the vast majority of Zifu Disciples.

"Roooar!"

"Kill!"

"I'll eat you!"

The countless evil ghosts, hideous beyond measure, let out piercing cries. Having been nurtured in the blood-red banner, these ghosts could now even speak! They swarmed forward, crossing paths as they flew toward Ji Ning with tremendous speed. Of course, compared to the speed of Ji Ning's sword-light, the sword-light was faster.

"Chi chi chi." Beisheng wielded his horsetail whisk, which transformed into three thousand strands of white silk that desperately tried to block the attack. But this streak of sword-light was far more powerful than before. It pierced straight through layer after layer of obstruction. In desperation, Beisheng even used the staff-handle of the blood-red banner to deflect the sword-light.

The sword-light was too fast; Beisheng barely managed to touch it.

Sssss. The sword-light slammed into the staff-handle. The entire blood-red banner trembled violently, and the sword-light's power weakened further. When it finally struck the magic robe (transformed from his protective armor) on Beisheng's body, it only left a faint black mark before dissipating.

"Barely managed to block it. That nearly pierced my body and took my life." Beisheng was startled. A life-and-death battle between Zifu Disciples was always a hair's breadth away from disaster. "Hmph. Now that he's being torn apart by the ghosts, he can't focus on using that sword-light. Beset by so many vengeful ghosts, he's dead for sure." Beisheng was confident. Even he would surely die if torn apart by these ghosts.

Ji Ning's face changed as he watched the densely packed, howling ghosts fly toward him. The ghosts easily pierced through his six layers of Water-Fire Lotus blossoms. Being intangible souls, physical objects like weapons and elemental constructs like the Water-Fire Lotus were completely useless against them.

"I'll eat you." "Eat."

Countless ghosts surged forward in an instant, completely engulfing Ji Ning. They all madly charged into his body.

"He's dead for sure." Beisheng waited confidently for the moment Ji Ning would fall. But then his expression changed. The blood-red banner in his hand began to tremble, its aura steadily weakening. The power of the banner was clearly fading. "What's going on? How... how is this possible?"

Beisheng was shocked and furious.

This banner was his trump card, and it had never failed! Yet now, the banner's aura was weakening, which meant its power was declining. The banner's foundation was those ghosts... There was only one possibility: a massive number of ghosts were dying!

"How can this be? Ghosts are souls filled with violent energy. No weapons or objects can block them. They devour and tear at the opponent's soul. How can countless ghosts fail to devour his soul?" Beisheng refused to believe it. Even a Zifu Disciple would have their soul torn apart and devoured in a few seconds.

In the sea of consciousness.

Ji Ning's soul resided here. A torrent of vicious ghosts charged in, shrieking as they tried to devour him.

"What do I do?" Sensing the countless ghosts surging into his sea of consciousness, Ji Ning was greatly alarmed. His soul was his foundation. If his soul was destroyed, even reincarnation would be impossible. And Ji Ning had no experience with soul-level combat.

"The Nuwa Diagram." The thought flashed through his mind instantly.

In the sea of consciousness, Ji Ning, clad in white robes, sat cross-legged. A vision of the goddess Nuwa appeared before him. Nuwa stood there, as if eternal and immutable, beyond the erosion of time itself. Her gaze was filled with compassion and protective care, like a mother's eyes. She radiated boundless light that enveloped everything.

When the fierce, evil ghosts charged in and were bathed in Nuwa's infinite light, their violent energies dissipated. One by one, peaceful, happy smiles appeared on their faces.

They all looked at Ji Ning with gratitude. Some bowed; some knelt and kowtowed.

Then, one by one, they dissipated, heading to the Netherworld Kingdom for reincarnation.

Wave after wave of vicious ghosts surged forward, but they were all purified of their malice by the image of Nuwa. Once a ghost lost its violent energy, it could no longer remain in the mortal world and had to go to the Netherworld.

In truth, Ji Ning's soul was already at the level of a Wanxiang Adept. Even without visualizing the Nuwa Diagram, his soul's strength alone would have been enough to withstand these ghosts. After all, the blood-red banner was only a half-finished product, effective against Zifu Disciples but barely a threat to a Wanxiang-level soul.

But by visualizing Nuwa, he allowed these ghosts to be liberated and reborn—an act of immense karmic merit.

Though this description takes a while, only an instant passed in reality.

Ji Ning, completely unfazed by the ghosts surging into his body to devour his soul, glared at Beisheng in the distance and roared: "Kill!"

Whew! Whew! Whew! Whew!

One streak of sword-light shot out, then another... A total of four streaks of sword-light flew toward Beisheng. These four streaks drained almost all of the Xiantian-level ki within Ji Ning's body, leaving only a trace. This was his ultimate, all-out assault.

"How? How can a mere youth be immune to ten thousand ghosts biting at his soul?" Beisheng still couldn't believe it, clutching the blood-red banner. But when he saw the streaks of sword-light flying toward him, he was terrified and tried to escape on his boat.

But how could the boat match the speed of sword-light?

Beisheng frantically used his horsetail whisk to block and swung the blood-red banner. He barely managed to deflect the first streak, but the second streak arced around and pierced straight through the magic robe on his body, stabbing into his flesh.

Whew! Whew!

The other two streaks of sword-light instantly pierced his head and neck. A hole appeared in the center of his forehead, and his neck was completely severed. His head flew off.

"Impossible..." Beisheng's face still held an expression of utter disbelief.

The black-furred zombie in the distance stopped, its eyes dazed and confused. The poisonous insects, which had lost many of their number attacking Ji Ning, quickly retreated. With no master to command them, they naturally dispersed.

Only then did Ji Ning put away his flying swords. His eyes were full of melancholy and a trace of disbelief. "Did I... did I just kill a Zifu Disciple? And succeed?"

Right then—

As Beisheng's corpse fell from the boat, a golden light suddenly flew out from it. Ji Ning's sharp eyes caught it. It was a golden insect!

"What is that?" A golden insect flying out of a corpse? Ji Ning was shocked and suspicious. He felt something was wrong. His instincts told him he couldn't let that golden insect escape... but his Xiantian ki was completely depleted, and his Water-Fire Lotus couldn't reach that far.

"Shuaaaa—"

Suddenly, the world turned from day to night. Brilliant stars hung in the dark sky, forming a river of stars. Among the countless stars hung a huge, full moon, its gentle moonlight covering the world. The moonlight also fell on the golden insect that was frantically trying to escape.

The golden insect seemed panicked, flying desperately.

Suddenly, the gentle moonlight condensed into a giant hand. This hand of moonlight gently caught the golden insect. The insect was terrified and cried out, "Spare me! Spare my life!"

"Smack!" The giant hand of moonlight crushed the insect with a light squeeze.

Then, the countless stars and the full moon vanished, and the sky returned to daytime.

"What... what was that?" Ji Ning stood there, shocked. "Stars and a moon... a Wanxiang Adept! A Wanxiang Adept!"

"You were too careless." A man in a green robe with long, flowing hair flew over from mid-air, a smile on his face. "You worked hard to kill Beisheng's main body, but you almost let him escape by hiding his soul in his natal insect. Beisheng was a master of insect-rearing; of course, he would have a natal lifeblood insect. To truly kill him, you had to kill the insect as well. Almost failing right at the very end—that would never do."

Ji Ning understood that he had encountered a major figure. There were no Wanxiang Adepts in the Yan Mountain region. He immediately bowed. "Ji Ning pays his respects to the senior."

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Reading Guide Decoding

Soul Harvest and a Floating Moon

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter is a deep dive into two major xianxia concepts: soul-based combat and the completion of a kill.

First, the ghost banner. In Western fantasy, ghosts are often wraiths that cause fear or drain life. In xianxia, souls are a form of energy that can be harvested, refined, and weaponized. Beisheng's blood-red banner is an evil artifact that requires the slaughter and forced fusion of a thousand souls. The ghosts are semi-sentient, hungry, and can only be harmed by soul-level attacks or purifying methods. A normal Zifu Disciple would be torn apart in seconds.

This brings us to the Nuwa Diagram. This isn't just a pretty picture for meditation. Nuwa, the mother-goddess of Chinese myth, is deeply associated with creation, order, and repairing the fabric of reality. Visualizing her is not just a defensive technique; it's a sacred act of mercy. Ji Ning doesn't destroy the ghosts—he frees them. In the karmic economy of xianxia, this is the highest-value play. He gets the victory and the cosmic brownie points.

Finally, the natal insect. Many beast-taming or insect-rearing cultivators in xianxia bind their own souls to a creature. If their main body dies, their spirit can flee into the insect and escape, effectively giving them a second life. The Wanxiang Adept's lesson is brutal: xianxia combat requires absolute, paranoid thoroughness. If you don't understand the full nature of your enemy's abilities, you can easily be fooled by a last-ditch escape trick. Ji Ning needed to be reminded that killing the man is not the same as killing the threat.

Leading (引领)

A formation principle where a few core elements guide many others, drastically reducing the cultivator's soul burden and increasing flexibility.

Chapter Overview

Alright, fellow Daoists, buckle up. This chapter is a crushing victory lap for Ji Ning, but it almost turns into a disaster that could have undone everything. We get a full-bore technical demonstration of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation at its sixth layer, a soul-horror showdown with Beisheng's blood-red banner of tortured ghosts, and a massive, sudden reveal that the Yan Mountains are not as empty of high-level cultivators as we thought. Ji Ning not only kills his first Zifu Disciple—a man who literally commands a zombie and a small army of poisonous insects—but also gets schooled in the importance of finishing the job when dealing with cultivators who have backup plans. The chapter ends with the appearance of a mysterious Wanxiang Adept, a being whose power level is so far beyond the local scene that it fundamentally changes the geography of the story.

Key Plot Points

Breaking Limits: Ji Ning pushes himself to execute the sixth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation for the first time. It's a near-impossible strain on his soul and ki, but his new understanding of 'leading' formation principles allows him to pull it off.
The Ghost Gambit: Beisheng unleashes his half-finished magic treasure—a banner containing the souls of one thousand purified, man-eating ghosts. These are not ordinary phantoms; they are intangible killers that bypass physical and elemental defenses.
Soul Warfare via Nuwa: The ghosts flood Ji Ning's sea of consciousness, but he has an ace up his sleeve. Instead of fighting them head-on with his superior soul strength, he visualizes the Nuwa Diagram. The goddess's divine radiance purifies the ghosts of their violent karma, allowing them to pass into the cycle of reincarnation. This is a mercy kill and a massive source of karmic merit.
The Four-Strike Kill: With his ki nearly gone, Ji Ning unleashes his final attack: four streaks of condensed sword-light. Beisheng blocks two but is killed by the remaining two, which pierce his head and cleave his neck.
The Golden Insect: As Beisheng's body falls, a golden insect flies out. Ji Ning is too drained to stop it, but it's clear this is a life-saving mechanism.
The Wanxiang Adept: A powerful figure clad in green appears. He casually transforms day into night, summons a blazing full moon, and uses a construct of moonlight to catch the golden insect. He explains that it was Beisheng's natal lifeblood insect—a fail-safe that would have allowed him to escape. The Wanxiang Adept crushes the bug, saving Ji Ning from an embarrassing failure.

Reading Guide

Appreciate the Technicality: Ji Ning's breakthrough isn't just about raw power; it's about mechanical efficiency. Using his formation knowledge to 'lead' the swords is a huge step in his maturation as a cultivator. He's learning to work smarter, not just harder.
Witness the Danger: Beisheng was a legitimate threat. The ghost banner is the kind of attack that, if used a few chapters ago, would have instantly killed Ji Ning. The fact that he can withstand it now, and even profit from it karma-wise, is a massive measure of his growth.
Pay Attention to the Wanxiang: This guy is a plot bomb. A Wanxiang Adept in the Yan Mountains is like finding a nuclear submarine in a village pond. His appearance signals that the scope of the story is about to expand dramatically. The killing of a Zifu Disciple from the Ironwood Clan's Snowdragon Mountain branch has consequences beyond the local tribe-to-tribe conflict. The senior players are now on the board.

Deeper Dive: The Karma of the Kill

This chapter is a perfect illustration of an understated but crucial xianxia principle: efficiency of action. Beisheng used a weaponized crowd of suffering souls. Ji Ning could have fought them with the raw force of his Wanxiang-level soul, but that would have meant destroying them utterly—annihilating their last chance at reincarnation. That would create negative karma. Instead, by using the Nuwa Diagram, he achieves the same tactical result (the ghosts stop being a threat) while generating positive karma and converting enemies into spiritual debtors who owe him gratitude.

This is the mark of a cultivator with true Dao-heart wisdom. He's not just winning; he's winning correctly. It's a subtle but powerful flex that separates the savages from the sages.