You shouted for a long time, but the Qiankun Mirror just kept smoking, and the cracks on its surface multiplied.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner, emitting black mist, drifted to your ear.

"Are we... never going back?"

"You understand 'crossing over'?"

"Nope."

"Does the Nine Provinces Cauldron understand?"

You and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner looked at the Nine Provinces Cauldron. Its artifact spirit, Da Chun, had already separated from the cauldron and was curiously exploring this world it had never been to before.

You and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner spoke in unison, "He doesn't get it."

Suddenly, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's voice shot up an octave.

"This godforsaken place doesn't even have the Essence of Heaven and Earth! What kind of shithole is this! A shithole! A shithole! You brought us here, buddy, so you're responsible for getting me back!"

"Holy crap! This is really weird, why is there no Essence of Heaven and Earth here? How am I supposed to cultivate then?"

"With your lousy Innate Talent, what's the difference whether you cultivate or not! Hurry up and get that Qiankun Mirror working again, make it take us back! My Spirit Artifact kingdom! I plotted for hundreds of years to succeed, how can I be separated from her by life and death! I was still thinking, after I outlived you, kid, and regained my freedom, I'd go sit on my throne!"

"I want to go back too! Wait, no? Is this Qiankun Mirror insane? We just needed it to get us away from the Starry Domains, why did it bring us to the Demon World?? Is that normal human thinking??"

"He's only half a mirror, can he be normal! A crippled but determined lunatic! A physically intact but mentally disabled idiot! Why did I ever get on this pirate ship with you guys!"

Both you and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner were depressed.

So you alleviated it a bit by having a fight.

After the fight, you still had to face reality.

You took a stroll around the vicinity.

Everywhere you looked was desolate, not a single living creature in sight.

Only countless Demon Tribe souls drifted about aimlessly.

Seeing living beings, they were extremely surprised and came over to crowd around.

Before long, the Demon Souls around you were swarming, packed in dense layers, three deep inside and three deep outside, blocking your path so you couldn't even walk.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner sighed.

"Confirmed. Every Demon Soul says this is the Demon World. Looks like it really is."

You also sighed.

"Confirmed. At least within a thousand miles around us, there's definitely no Essence of Heaven and Earth. Don't know if there's any further out, but most likely not."

You've been to many places in the human world.

The distribution of the Essence of Heaven and Earth is indeed uneven, some places are rich, some are sparse.

But a situation where there's absolutely none is impossible.

"Huh?"

You suddenly pointed your pinky finger at the sky, inspiration bursting forth.

"If there's no Essence of Heaven and Earth, we can't cultivate, but Demon Souls are everywhere here. Collect them into the banner, refine them, and feed the cultivation back to ourselves!"

As your realm increased, just as the Ten Thousand Souls Banner said, it couldn't provide you with cultivation gains forever.

But even a mosquito's leg is meat, and this kind of feedback is still considerably faster than you cultivating with your Low-Grade Bone Structure.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was speechless at you.

"Cultivate! Cultivate! All you ever think about is cultivation! We've fallen to this state, and you're still thinking about your lousy cultivation!"

You grabbed the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, mobilized the Three Energies to activate it, and began soul collecting.

"Less nonsense! Get to work!"

The Demon Souls who came to watch the fun, seeing you suddenly suck them into a weird, black mist-rolling thing, were terrified and flew about in panic.

"Where do you think you're running!"

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was the natural bane of these ghosts. With a shake of its banner surface, a crowd of Demon Souls uncontrollably flew backward into it, all entering the banner!

Some Demon Souls began to fight back.

Their realms varied from high to low, but regardless of what level these Demon Souls were in life, right now their attacks were just a bunch of useless special effects to you.

"This living creature is incredibly powerful! I still retain at least the power of the Demon King realm, why is it completely ineffective against him?!"

You saw a tiger-headed, human-bodied Demon Tribe member.

He looked somewhat similar to that Tiger Boss from Baiyun County.

His attack seemed the most powerful, so you paid special attention to him and sucked him into the banner.

There were too many Demon Souls, so the Ten Thousand Souls Banner directly started the refining process.

You collected while it refined.

The current Ten Thousand Souls Banner was Immortal Artifact grade!

Although it still hadn't reached its peak state, it was far beyond what it used to be.

The refining speed was blazing fast. Demon Souls below the Golden Body Realm basically went straight onto the assembly line upon entry, directly turning into Soul Power.

Half the Soul Power went to you, half went into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner's own pocket.

To the outside, it called this a seventy-thirty split, seventy for you, thirty for it.

You deeply understood the principle that water too clear has no fish, so you turned a blind eye.

The Tiger Demon's voice came from inside the banner.

"Wow! This thing can refine us, dispersing our souls! Fantastic!"

Hearing the Tiger Demon's words, the Demon Souls who were originally running around suddenly seemed bewitched, actively flying into the banner.

"Whoa, holy crap! Been using the Ten Thousand Souls Banner for so long, this is the first time I've encountered such a bizarre situation!"

You couldn't understand it.

Before long, all the Demon Souls in this area had crowded into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

It was unbearably cramped inside the banner, the soul-refining assembly line was clogged.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was hopping mad inside the banner.

"Are you dead demons stupid?! I'm the Ten Thousand Souls Banner! I'll refine you all! Can you show me some respect?!"

The Tiger Demon lay down on the assembly line.

"Refine me. Make it quick."

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was furious.

"Hey, my temper..."

You told the Ten Thousand Souls Banner to stop messing around for now.

When something unusual happens, there must be a demon behind it.

You needed to figure this out.

"Fellow demons, why are you so eager to be refined?"

The demons in the banner all started chattering at once.

You were instantly confused, couldn't hear anything clearly.

"Send one representative out, otherwise I'll release you all! Set you free!"

"No, no! You must kill us! Don't let us out!"

This was truly seeing ghosts!

Never heard such a request before!

The demons elected a representative, the one with the highest realm among them, that Tiger Demon.

This Tiger Demon spoke in a language you could understand; he directly used human language.

"We lonely ghosts and wild souls have existed for too long. We can't disperse, we can't live. Drifting around all day, unable to touch anything, unable to experience anything. It's pure torture..."

"How long could it be, to be so painful that you actively want to be refined?"

"Thirty thousand years..."

Thirty thousand years again.

You've heard this timeframe in several places now.

"I also find it strange. When living beings die, don't their souls disperse quickly? How could you not disperse for thirty thousand years?"

The Tiger Demon said with melancholy.

"Alien living being, you know one part but not the other. You think the natural dissipation of a soul means it disappears? Dissolves? Returns to heaven and earth?"

"Isn't that the case?"