Chapter 53: Refining the Myriad Ghost Flag

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  Stealth, already an extremely rare and favored technique, was paired with the Ghostly Strike, a rather perverted skill. This made the being known as the Ghostly Ghoul into a tyrant in the darkness, the enemy's nightmare. Moreover, as a high-quality ghoul, it surpassed mid-quality ghouls in both spiritual movement and intelligence.

  As for the top-grade ghost soldier, it's even more necessary to surpass the previous one. Unfortunately, based on the promotion rules mentioned earlier, the time required to capture ghosts and upgrade a top-grade ghost soldier would take at least three years of hard work, even if everything goes smoothly. Perhaps in the future, when I reach the Foundation Establishment stage and my lifespan is longer, it might be possible to do such things. For now, it's simply a waste of lifespan.

  But now, if you don't take advantage of your youth and enter the foundation period while your physical functions are still strong, it will be even harder to advance as you get older. Moreover, a single top-grade ghost soldier is far inferior in overall power compared to three high-grade ghost soldiers working together. Therefore, whether from the perspective of time constraints or increased strength efficiency, refining three high-grade ghost soldiers at this moment is the most cost-effective thing to do.

  Apart from these three top-grade ghostly guards, Lei Dong's other gain was that he had also refined the top-grade Myriad Ghost Banner. Although it was called the Myriad Ghost Banner, in reality, with Lei Dong's current cultivation level, he could at most refine a hundred or so low-grade ghost souls, reaching the realm of a hundred ghosts emerging together. If it were truly tens of thousands of yin souls, then with Lei Dong's current divine sense intensity, it would be fundamentally impossible to suppress them, and like that evil ghost banner, it would be extremely easy to suffer a backlash.

  The Ten Thousand Ghosts Flag is a ritual tool that emphasizes the quantity of Yin spirits, but does not care about their quality. Using any high-quality spirit to offer sacrifices would be a huge waste. Of course, using wild ghost soldiers, scholar's living souls, beast souls and the like are also possible, but they are far different from the original ghost servants. The various souls that have been offered to the Ten Thousand Ghosts Flag will eventually all unify into a black mist-like state of primitive ghost soul. Of course, there are also strong and weak among the black mist ghosts.

  However, the problem with the Banshō is that the total strength of the vengeful spirits that can be controlled by the user is limited. The limit depends on the quality of the Banshō and the user's cultivation level. Those who like to use the Banshō have also gradually given a name to the number of souls they can control, which is called Soul Power Index, abbreviated as Soul Value.

  The so-called soul force boundary value refers to the maximum total strength of ghost souls that can be suppressed after adding different qualities of Wan Gui Fan and the cultivator's own spiritual intensity. For example, let's say Leidong's current spiritual suppression force is 100, then after this high-quality Wan Gui Fan is added, it will increase to around 150. Calculating based on a normal Yin soul being refined into a ghost soul as one point, his Wan Gui Fan can suppress at most 150 low-level ghost souls. However, if it's a first-level wild ghost that has been refined into a first-level ghost soul, it would require about ten points, so he could only control fifteen first-level ghost souls. Further up, each additional level of the ghost soul will consume an extra ten points. If a twelfth-level ghost soldier is refined into a twelfth-level ghost soul, each one would require 120 points to suppress. That means that according to Leidong's current strength, he can at most suppress one twelfth-level ghost soul in his Wan Gui Fan, plus some weaker ones. Of course, this is just an estimate and the actual value will have large fluctuations.

  In fact, the strength of the ghosts in the Wan Gui Fan is very different from the individual combat power of the ghost soldiers. Those ghosts are truly just a cloud of black fog that acts on instinct and command, and the so-called ghost level is only relative, referring to the strength or weakness of its soul's original power. Indeed, a twelfth-level ghost is much stronger than a lower-level ghost, with a pure soul intensity equivalent to about 120 lower-level ghosts. But it does not mean that a twelfth-level ghost can single-handedly defeat 120 lower-level ghosts. On the contrary, due to issues such as attack method and spiritual intelligence, 120 lower-level ghosts with numerical superiority often can nibble away at a twelfth-level ghost.

  This is an unimaginable contrast in strength between the cultivators, demonic beasts and ghost soldiers. Because a single 12th-level ghost soldier can still relatively easily defeat over a hundred ordinary yin spirits. And a cultivator who has cultivated to the 12th layer of Qi Refining can also relatively easily take down over a hundred very strong mortal soldiers.

  But the ghosts, even the low-ranking ones, are special in this way. They are different from yin souls, different from fierce beasts, and even more different from ordinary human soldiers. Their bodies are all black fog-like, and when they attack, they often gather like a swarm of insects, and once they form a scale effect, they will exert extremely powerful forces.

  Of course, if you want to take down a 12th-level cultivator with just over a hundred low-level ghost spirits, that's simply wishful thinking. Because a 12th-level cultivator and a 12th-level ghost spirit are far from the same, cultivators have all sorts of spells, artifacts, talismans, etc. While a 12th-level ghost spirit only has roughly the same soul power, with no spells, equipment, body, or spiritual intelligence to speak of. However, if the number of low-level ghost spirits reaches tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, that would pose a huge threat to a 12th-level cultivator. The powerful force generated by scale and quantity is not something to be taken lightly, just think about how an enormous colony of ants can be understood.

  It can be seen that the ghost slaves pursued by Benming are the stronger the individual strength, the better the high-quality ghost slaves. However, the ghosts in the Wan Gui Fan are the lower the level, the better, which will create a huge scale effect. Tens of thousands of low-level ghost souls cover the sky and earth, even more densely than locusts, launching an invasion campaign, and the momentum is imaginable.

  However, using a large number of inferior ghostly spirits to refine low-ranking ghostly spirits also has its disadvantages. That is, if you encounter a difficult battle, the number of ghostly spirits sacrificed in the Myriad Ghost Banner will be very large, because those low-ranking ghostly spirits are too easy to die, and often need to be constantly refined and replenished. Otherwise, once the number of ghostly spirits cannot keep up, the power of the Myriad Ghost Banner will be greatly discounted. In this way, using slightly stronger ghostly spirits would not be so easy to die.

  In short, using a low-level or high-level soul to refine the Myriad Ghost Flag has its own advantages and disadvantages. The former can exert the greatest power of the Myriad Ghost Flag, but it will suffer great losses in intense battles. As for the latter, the loss will be greatly reduced, but the power is far less than that of the low-level one. Which one is better or worse depends on the consideration of the master of the Myriad Ghost Flag.

  But Leidong, in order to feed the high-quality ghost soldiers, usually had them devour most of the wild ghosts and low-level demon beasts they encountered. So his only choice was to use a large number of ordinary yin souls; he would deliberately refine around ten higher-level ghost souls to serve as the main soul of the Wan Gui Fan. Apart from that, almost all were inferior ghosts.

  With the formation of the hundred ghosts, combined with the sharp combat power of Benming Gui Pu, the power can be multiplied. However, Leidong has not tried it out on anyone yet and does not know what effect it will have in actual combat.

  Man Ghost Cave, in the notorious Yin Wind Gorge Valley.

  Lei Dong was entangled in a fierce battle with a seventh-grade wild ghost soldier.

  "Boom!"

  A lone wild ghost soldier was tightly grasped by the claws of a dark specter, and before it could even struggle free, it was brutally killed by three high-ranking ghost soldiers. The delighted trio quickly devoured the scattered soul fragments floating in the air, leaving nothing behind. After their meal, each of the three ghost soldiers grew significantly stronger. Especially the mid-tier specter ghost soldier, which directly advanced to the fourth tier.

  It's no wonder that these top-notch ghostly cultivators have such an abnormal promotion speed. However, for Lei Dong, the more abnormal the promotion speed of the ghost soldiers is, the better. He can't help but secretly cultivate these three top-notch ghost soldiers, and suddenly they all get promoted to ghost guards. Of course, this is just a pipe dream. Even if it's a heavenly spirit ghost, it's absolutely impossible to have such a promotion speed.

  Due to the outstanding performance of these three top-notch ghost soldiers, Lei Dong actually liked them more and more as he watched them. Their ferocious and sinister appearance also seemed quite cute in his eyes.

  Just as he was about to spread out his divine sense, searching for the next wild ghost soldier. But suddenly, in the sky above, a dark green light appeared from afar and flew towards him at an extremely fast speed. The light in the sky was like a shooting star, with a long tail of flames behind it, looking very beautiful.

  The heart moved slightly, but from the speed of the flash, it was likely to be a high-grade flight artifact. And those who can afford high-grade flying artifacts are definitely not poor devils. Immediately, without making a sound, he put away three low-grade ghostly soldiers and released a mid-grade dark shadow ghost soldier, letting it lurk on the side. At the same time, his hand secretly grasped several grains of dark thunder.

  ……