It must be said, Zheng Yi is quite satisfied with the performance of the Qi Family Patriarch he casually supported.
At least during his Qi Cultivation Stage, Zheng Yi could comfortably be the mastermind behind the scenes, remotely directing tasks he couldn’t tackle directly, saving a lot of hassle.
The entire Qi Family was his white glove, incredibly useful, and very beneficial.
This is one of the reasons he didn’t exterminate the Qi Family entirely in the beginning, leaving a branch for personal use.
Because the Power of the Soul is hard currency among Demon Cultivators, and the profit from Essence Stones is extraordinarily large.
In the Doomsday World, Zheng Yi crafted those Ghosts, which were essentially cost-free transactions, only expending some time and energy.
Thus, Qi Lin established a dedicated Artifact Refining Room for Zheng Yi to use.
Inside the Artifact Refining Room, Zheng Yi picked up a piece of Lotus Silver Ore Mother placed in front of him, gazing at the silver glow on it, his face involuntarily showed a hint of smile.
"Qi Lin is indeed handy; it seems the Qi Family has a reason to exist."
This Lotus Silver Ore Mother is a very precious ore, priced not cheaply, requiring at least ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
Especially since it’s extremely rare, ordinary Qi Cultivators find it difficult to acquire.
However, this Lotus Silver Ore Mother is one of the best materials for refining the Soul-Catching Banner.
Other Qi Cultivators of the Soul Catching Sect do not have Zheng Yi’s steady stream of funds, and could only choose some affordable alternatives, but the quality of the Soul-Catching Banner declines correspondingly after upgrades.
But for Zheng Yi, his pockets are now full, and he demands the best for his cultivation path, especially since this Soul-Catching Banner is his Lifebound Spiritual Artifact and cannot be taken lightly, so the Lotus Silver Ore Mother must be arranged.
This is also the reason Zheng Yi has not re-refined the Soul-Catching Banner again.
He was waiting for the Qi Family to gather the best quality materials for him.
Actually, in Zheng Yi’s mind, the Qi Family was merely a tool easily established to expedite its power enhancement.
Once it reaches a certain realm, the Qi Family loses its purpose, and the consequence would only be abandonment.
Perhaps Qi Lin understands this very well, hence he closely follows Zheng Yi, completing the tasks assigned by Zheng Yi at a hundred percent completion rate.
Like this time collecting materials for refining the Soul-Catching Banner, Zheng Yi casually informed Qi Lin, and unexpectedly, when he returned to the Great Yi City Immortal Realm, Qi Lin had already completed everything.
This undoubtedly saved Zheng Yi a lot of time.
So his thoughts changed again.
Perhaps it could also increase the Qi Family’s strength from another aspect, providing him with more utility.
"Let’s refine the Soul-Catching Banner first, and talk about it later."
In the Artifact Refining Room, Zheng Yi directly operated the Black Evil Technique to move the Spiritual Power within his body, with Spiritual Power continuously surging, releasing blue-black Demon Flames.
Bam!
A mass of blue-black Demon Fire landed at the center of the Fire Gathering Array, igniting the large cauldron in the Artifact Refining Room with the absorption of surrounding Spiritual Qi.
Zheng Yi beckoned with his hand, from his body a flash of black light, and a small black banner appeared in his palm, featuring peculiar patterns on its surface with lifelike evil ghost heads.
If you listen closely, you can even feel the endless ghost howls from the Demon Banner.
Zheng Yi glanced at it, then directly threw the Soul-Catching Banner, which had begun to crack, into the cauldron.
Under the blue-black Demon Flame’s tempering, the small, black exquisite banner quietly suspended at the center of the giant cauldron.
As the temperature inside the cauldron gradually rose, the surface of the Soul-Catching Banner began to change.
The entire small banner gradually changed its color, from the originally black surface, turned somewhat white due to tempering.
The peculiar patterns on the banner’s surface began to fade, and a grim, ghastly white ghost head started to emerge.
The Soul-Catching Banner rolled in the blue-black Demon Flame, numerous black mist twisting, continually extending claws or ghastly faces, countless black shadows swarming, with ghostly screeches echoing from within time to time.
Apparently, they could hardly withstand the blue-black Demon Flame tempering, couldn’t resist letting out screams.
Actually, refining an artifact is also refining the Ghosts!
While tempering the Magical Artifact, it also tempers the Ghosts nurtured inside, burning away the dust, enhancing the qualifications, and can ascend to higher levels.
Those Yin Soldiers and Fierce Ghosts who cannot withstand would directly collapse, turning into pure Ghost Power, getting devoured by other Yin Soldiers and Fierce Ghosts.
The Ghosts that can endure the forging accompany the Soul-Catching Banner to grow, every time the Soul-Catching Banner is refined, the Ghosts’ qualifications and limit get enhanced.
"It’s ready!"
As he spoke, Zheng Yi’s eyes shot forth brilliance, countless Spiritual Qi converging in his pupils, forming the Spirit Eye Skill to see through the illusory phantom and discern the core essence.
In his gaze, within the huge cauldron, the rolling Soul-Catching Banner began to emit strands of black gas, purged impurities flowing out during forging.
Meanwhile, Zheng Yi felt calm and composed, as if this step had been operated countless times, he effortlessly cast the prepared materials one by one into the refining cauldron.
One by one, materials were refined into various liquids, ultimately converging into a furnace, forming a silver pill, like mercury, rolling back and forth in the refining cauldron.
With the final piece of Lotus Silver Ore Mother added into it, Zheng Yi amplified the output of Spiritual Power, stabilizing the entire temperature of the Demon Fire, while his gaze was closely watching inside the cauldron.
A moment later, a series of intense crisp sounds were heard.
Under the high-temperature combustion, the Lotus Silver Ore Mother directly shattered, extracting an essence which was a peculiar silver liquid.
As the liquid merged with the previously refined mercury-metal substances, the aura of the Soul-Catching Banner within the cauldron surged immensely.
Zheng Yi seized this opportunity, commanding the Soul-Catching Banner to leap upwards immediately, extending a finger and chanting words.
All material fluids completely merged into the Soul-Catching Banner.
The originally exquisite and compact Demon Banner at this moment became entirely uncontrolled, rapidly expanding, instantly swelling to half a meter in length.
Then, as the aura surged again, the Soul-Catching Banner suddenly expanded, ballooning to about one meter.
It quietly hovered at the center of the cauldron, the black banner surface adorned with gold silk embroidery threads formed strange fierce ghost figures.
The tip of the pole at the end of the Demon Banner was extremely pointy, like a long spear stained with blood, covered with blood-red color, piercing straight into the ceiling.
Fortunately, the cauldron space was vast enough, only a part of the banner surface was exposed and was not blown apart.
Zheng Yi’s expression turned solemn, knowing he had reached the most critical moment of refining.
The Black Evil Technique within him erupted to its fullest extent, the blue-black flame soared directly, the intensity of flames within the cauldron climbed up immediately by one fold.