As the only unchanging element in the world’s version update, Lu Yan is like a loophole within the entire world, gaining the ability to glimpse reality.
He can know the progress of the version update in advance through this string of text, and when the progress bar of the version update is full, it means that the next version update will start.
Version updates mean infinite variables, which is Lu Yan’s greatest reliance and the source of his courage to resist.
Passing through the chaotic backyard, Lu Yan walked toward the direction near the warehouse, and at this moment a book fell into his view in front of the warehouse door.
The book seemed to have been left at the warehouse door, with three large characters clearly written on the cover: "Chang Chun Skill."
The first realm for a cultivator is the Qi Cultivation Stage, and although the "Chang Chun Skill" is common, it is reputed to be the most impartial and harmonious cultivation technique, without obstacles in later transitions to any other methods.
Most cultivators start by practicing the "Chang Chun Skill," using this technique to step into the Qi Cultivation Stage.
If other shop clerks were beaten and scolded by the shopkeeper all day, they would surely be overjoyed to see this Qi Cultivation Technique and would wish to cultivate immediately to become a cultivator and flee this Spirit Talisman Workshop.
But Lu Yan merely shook his head with a sigh, stepping over the "Chang Chun Skill" on the ground.
"The twenty-first time."
Lu Yan whispered softly; it was the twenty-first time he had seen this "Chang Chun Skill" in three months.
Almost every few days, this "Chang Chun Skill" would refresh in different places.
Under the counter, on the shelves, in the kitchen, warehouse... almost any place had the chance of finding the "Chang Chun Skill."
Whenever this happened, the irritable shopkeeper Chu would not be in the shop, giving Lu Yan plenty of opportunity to secretly hide the "Chang Chun Skill" or copy it.
But Lu Yan did not do so, as if he had not seen this Qi Cultivation Technique at all.
Taking a length of rope from the warehouse, Lu Yan approached the long-abandoned dry well in the corner of the backyard, easily descending to the bottom using the rope.
Beneath the seemingly ruined dry well had already been excavated, the soft soil transformed into hard walls with a spell to turn earth into stone; it was clearly an underground chamber.
Just upon entering the well, a loathsome stench of decay and blood invaded Lu Yan’s nose.
From his bosom, he extracted a grade-less Lighting Talisman, tearing it open, and the Spiritual Light transformed into a flame that illuminated the underground chamber.
The first thing catching Lu Yan’s gaze was the heap of white bones and the scattered bloodstains across the floor.
The piled-up skeletal remains seemed to have traces of ferocity and distortion, as if they had experienced enormous terror before dying.
On the ground, the blood formed complex array patterns that glowed with blood light, and at the center of the array stood an arm-length black banner, whose few textures depicted scenes resembling purgatory.
This was not Lu Yan’s first time here beneath the dry well; even though he had seen it a few times before, when his eyes fell on that banner, he still felt a wave of trepidation.
It was as if invisible vengeful spirits coiled around the banner, emitting wails only audible to the soul.
Even though Lu Yan did not know much about cultivation, after spending these three months in the Bamboo Forest Marketplace, he could recognize the magical artifact before him through osmosis.
The most famous magical artifact of various demonic sects, rampant during the era a thousand years ago when the demonic path thrived, demonic cultivators wantonly sacrificed and refined souls to create a large number of soul banners, suffocating many righteous paths.
However, refining soul banners inevitably harms heaven’s order; heaven’s wrath annihilated the so-called holy sect of the demonic path, the Jiuyou Demon Sect, leading to the decline of the demonic path.
The righteous path took advantage to rise, beginning to block the method of the soul banner, with various sects joining forces to set the rule that anyone manufacturing or using soul banners would be seen as an enemy of the righteous path.
Even the orthodox demonic sects do not dare openly use soul banner artifacts, not to mention shopkeeper Chu who is only at the fourth level of Qi Cultivation.
After exploring the underground chamber numerous times, Lu Yan already figured out that those bones on the ground were of clerks who had gone missing from the Spirit Talisman Workshop in recent years.
To outsiders, shopkeeper Chu appeared irritable, hitting and scolding the clerks all the time; over four or five years, twenty clerks ran away from the Spirit Talisman Workshop.
But in fact, those seemingly ordinary clerks were selected by shopkeeper Chu using secret methods to choose mortals endowed with spirit roots.
Shopkeeper Chu maltreated the clerks and deliberately scattered the "Chang Chun Skill" for those resentful clerks to acquire.
For self-preservation, clerks began to secretly use the shop’s Spirit Stones to aid in cultivation, and upon advancing to the first Qi Cultivation level, they were brought by shopkeeper Chu beneath the dry well to undergo soul extraction and refining, forging the soul banner.
A cultivator’s soul far exceeds that of an ordinary person, even if only at the first Qi Cultivation level, making them precious materials for crafting magical artifacts in the demonic way.
Ordinarily, numerous missing cultivators would inevitably summon investigation from Bamboo Forest Marketplace’s cultivators.
But the clerks of the Spirit Talisman Workshop all hailed from mortal cities, and their ascent to the first Qi Cultivation level was unknown to outsiders; hence, the cultivators of Bamboo Forest Marketplace merely thought some mortals couldn’t bear shopkeeper Chu’s abuse and secretly fled.
Shopkeeper Chu cleverly disguised himself, coupled with the fact that clerks were merely mortals, drawing no concern; over time, none took notice.
Using this tactic, shopkeeper Chu secretly collected over twenty cultivator souls over the years to forge the soul banner.
Lu Yan, chosen by shopkeeper Chu, was naturally one of the reserve materials.
Perhaps due to shopkeeper Chu’s disdain for Lu Yan’s mortal background, or perhaps because the impending completion of the soul banner decreased his vigilance, his disguise was inadequate.