Chapter 10: Subjugation (Part 1)

The principle of crafting a Evil Talisman Bag is similar to that of a Talisman Storage Bag. An Evil Talisman Bag requires special materials and must be infused with Evil Beads; without them, it cannot be created.
Guo Shier knew that some items needed specialized storage spaces—such as liquids, which required special bottles for storage—so he wasn’t surprised and continued collecting Evil Beads. Since Golden Evils were rare, his goal now was to gather as many of them as possible.
A few hours later, the old man appeared, holding six Evil Talisman Bags. “Let’s see how many Evils we can collect. Wait here and don’t move,” he said.
Guo Shier put away the Golden Evils he had collected so far and said, “I hope we can gather more.” He understood how scarce Evils were.
The old man threw one of the Evil Talisman Bags and cast a series of spells. Instantly, the palm-sized bag expanded into a huge pocket. He cast another dozen spells before shouting, “Collect!”
Countless Fire Evils and Golden Evils fell into the bag. The old man kept casting spells to compress the Evils inside, trying to collect even more.
Guo Shier’s eyes lit up—this collection speed was lightning-fast. What took him hours to gather by painstakingly forming each Evil could be collected by the bag in just one second. He sighed, “If I had known this, I wouldn’t have gone through such trouble. Sigh, I’ve worked hard all day yet still haven’t collected a thousand Evil Beads.”
The old man replied over his shoulder, “Putting them in Evil Talisman Bags still requires another effort to refine them into Evil Beads; otherwise, they can’t be used. You’re not an Evil Soul Beast that can directly absorb Evil energy from the Sea of Evils.”
It was like mining for metal ore—some had to collect raw ore and refine it, while others could just collect the raw ore directly. The collection speeds couldn’t be compared, as one required time for refinement while the other only needed collection.
Once one Evil Talisman Bag was filled, another was thrown in. In just one day, six bags were filled. The Sea of Evils shrank by about one-third, and its Evil energy weakened significantly.
The old man smiled as he took out a crimson jade bottle. “Fortunately, I still have this treasure,” he said.
Guo Shier asked, “Is it a sacrificial artifact?”

The handsome old man said, “Where would I get so many sacrificial treasures? This is one of the talisman containers I left behind back then. It was originally used to hold talisman fire, but unfortunately, all the fire has run out. It’s still good for storing fire and gold evil energies. Hehe, this thing has much more space than a talisman bag and is also more durable. We need to extract the fire and gold evil energies from the talisman bag as soon as possible; with this, we won’t have to worry.”

He tossed the crimson jade bottle aside and cast a spell with his hand. The jade bottle instantly transformed into a giant bottle, seven or eight hundred meters tall, sinking beneath the Sea of Evil. The handsome old man said, “Let’s go down; otherwise, we’ll be sucked in by the bottle.”

Guo Shier replied and flew downward using the altar. Beneath the Sea of Evil, a huge jade bottle hung in the air, its mouth facing the sea above. The handsome old man smiled and said, “Kid, let me show you the level of talisman storage in our era.” He cast hundreds of spells in a row and shouted, “Collect!”

Boom!

Guo Shier was stunned.

The jade bottle was like a bottomless pit, with an immense suction force that drew everything straight into the Sea of Evil. The entire sea seemed to be leaking—once extremely light evil energies suddenly fell downward, rushing toward the bottle’s mouth with a loud roar.

The handsome old man said proudly, “Haha, as expected! It really works!”

Guo Shier looked at him speechlessly. After a while, he asked, “You weren’t sure either that the jade bottle could collect evil energies?”

The handsome old man replied, “Of course not. I’ve never used it to collect anything before, so it was just a guess.” He looked extremely proud.

Guo Shier couldn’t help but sigh. This old man never held back in his words. In fact, he was quite kind to Guo Shier—handling many things without Guo Shier having to worry, completing them silently. At critical moments, he would do his best to help and remind Guo Shier in time. Therefore, Guo Shier still respected the handsome old man deeply and would never oppress him as the master of the altar.

“This jade bottle can probably collect the entire Sea of Evil, right?”

The handsome old man smiled and said, “At least most of it. If we’re lucky, we might even be able to collect it all.”

Under the powerful suction of the jade bottle, the Sea of Evil began to spin rapidly. Above the sea, a huge vortex could be seen, as if water was being drained from a pool—large amounts of evil energy flowed downward.

In just half a day, the Sea of Evil above was completely emptied. Even the handsome old man was a bit surprised. After thinking for a while, he understood and said, “I see.”

Guo Shier asked in wonder, “What?”

The handsome old man didn’t answer. With a wave of his hand, the jade bottle shrank rapidly, turning into a red beam that flew into his palm. Holding the bottle gently, he heard the sound of water inside. He smiled and said, “Do you understand now?”
Guo Shier said, “Condensing energy into liquid? Is it also useful against evil spirits?”
The handsome old man smiled and said, “That’s right. When I was crafting this jade bottle, I imbued it with a replica of a natural condensation rune—a very rare natural rune I found in the deep sea. I placed it on my altar. Unfortunately, after the altar was damaged, that rune was destroyed as well… I made a few replicas, and one of them was placed in the jade bottle. It was originally meant to control flames, but unexpectedly, it’s also effective against evil spirits, with even better results.”
Guo Shier asked, “Has collecting from the entire Sea of Evil Spirits been enough?”
The handsome old man said, “Unfortunately, this Sea of Evil Spirits is still a bit small. The evil spirits here are too scattered, making collection quite troublesome. Anyway, let’s collect the metal materials here instead. Fortunately, I managed to create another large storage space. Otherwise, you’d have to discard a lot of low-grade materials.”
Guo Shier knew how large his altar’s storage space was. Not only did the Ancient Ink Lotus have a large space, but the altars built later also had significant storage capacity. Last time, two Level 15 Abnormal Rune Beasts took up a lot of space, otherwise, the storage space wouldn’t be so tight.
The handsome old man said, “I wonder if there are any more Evil Spirit Beasts. If there’s another one… that would be great.”
Guo Shier said, “It’s difficult. Having just one is already good enough. In such an environment, spirit beasts hardly have any chance of survival unless they’re fire-type. The Evil Spirit Beast we captured is likely a fire-type dragon-type spirit beast. Perhaps some coincidence caused it to become an Evil Spirit Beast.”
The handsome old man nodded. “Let’s still be careful. I always feel something strange about this place.”
Guo Shier nodded. He knew the handsome old man had a keen sense. In fact, he too felt a slight unease, though it was so subtle that it went unnoticed without careful attention.
“We’ll only take the best materials. Ordinary ones can be ignored!”
The handsome old man said, “Of course. There are many precious materials here. Ordinary ones aren’t worth bothering with. Let’s work together; I’ll guide you.” His eye for quality was excellent, and Guo Shier had no objections.
They used the altar to reach a small metal island. Guo Shier said, “This time, we can use Gu Xi Bi’s tentacles to grab them.” After being infused with fire and evil spirits, Gu Xi Bi’s tentacles were no longer afraid of molten lava or flames.

The handsome old man said, “Right, use Guxi Bi… It collects faster than us.” Guxi Bi had tens of millions of tentacles, and when all of them were deployed, it could collect at an astonishing speed. Guo Shier hit the altar, and the handsome old man chanted several spells in succession to urge Guxi Bi to grab the metallic crystals on the islands below. There were many naturally formed metals there, including some precious ones. There were countless islands in the magma lake. If they collected them one by one, it would take forever, so they only stopped at each island to collect the precious metals exposed on the surface before moving on. Guo Shier controlled the altar while muttering, “I’m a happy little bee, a damn happy little bee… flying west… and also east…” The handsome old man asked in confusion, “What are you humming?” Guo Shier replied, “It’s nothing. I’m just bored… humming…” In truth, he was on the verge of going mad. Monotonous tasks were the most unbearable. Although they could obtain many good things, flying from island to island one after another was unbearable to him—it was a very tedious and frustrating task. The place was extremely hot. Thanks to the protection of the altar’s shield, Guo Shier could still hold on, but the heat waves kept intruding. Even though his body was now a thousand times stronger than in his past life, he still felt restless. Yet he kept going, tirelessly flying over island after island. He knew well that such opportunities wouldn’t come around often. After an unknown amount of time, and without knowing how much metal they had collected, just as Guo Shier began to feel numb, suddenly the entire magma lake shook. The magma emitted unsettling flowing sounds, and streams of air gushed out from it—those were waves of fire evil. Under the impact of the scorching air currents, the fire evil quickly gathered and floated back to where the Sea of Evil used to be. Guo Shier stopped the altar and said, “Handsome old man…” The handsome old man’s face turned slightly green. He was a physical form formed from a soul entity, so anything that could make him change color was surely no good sign. He looked down, thought for a moment, and then said decisively, “Let’s go. We need to leave this place… I have a bad feeling.” The magma lake shook again, this time more violently, with magma even erupting. Guo Shier was shocked. He knew the power of a magma eruption and immediately drove the altar toward the exit. Just as they passed through the area where the Sea of Evil used to be, a loud roar came from below. The handsome old man shouted, “Damn it, don’t look back! Run! Hurry up!”

A powerful soul force spread out. Guo Shier’s heart almost stopped beating as he let out a shrill cry, “What the hell is that…?” Not daring to stay, he desperately activated the altar and rushed into the cave passage.
The old man kept shouting, “Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Hurry, hurry!”
Guo Shier felt as if he were racing wildly in his past life, pushing his speed to its limit.
Boom! In a moment of carelessness, Guo Shier’s altar crashed into a rock. With a loud explosion, the altar shattered the rock in its path. The old man screamed, “Concentrate! Damn it… we’re trying to survive! You’ll kill yourself!”
The entire cave was shaking. The altar had shrunk, and to increase speed, Guo Shier had to reduce it to the size of a washbasin and hold it above his head. The old man’s body was now only half visible; he looked no bigger than a rat, and his shouts were much weaker.
The protective talisman light hanging from the altar enveloped Guo Shier. The whole cave trembled violently, with tons of debris falling. Whenever these debris touched the talisman light, they were instantly repelled.
Guo Shier found that powerful soul force terrifying beyond measure. He couldn’t help but roar, “Old man, what is that? What the hell is that?”
The old man screamed, “I don’t know what it is, but I know… that thing is absolutely beyond our ability to resist. Even if the old man still had his old altar and his old body, he still couldn’t withstand it… It’s too terrifying! Run, damn it!”
Amidst countless pieces of debris and gusts of wind, Guo Shier rushed into the small magma lake he had been in before. Horrifyingly, a powerful soul force also permeated this area, surging up from beneath the magma. Guo Shier didn’t dare to stay and flew frantically toward the exit.
There was only the sound of roaring and extremely unsettling cracking noises in his ears.
The old man howled, “Go to the teleportation array… Ah… make sure the teleportation array doesn’t fail!”
Guo Shier’s face turned pale instantly.
Book 27: Fugitives