Chapter 21: Soul Shackles

Qu Yi glanced at the five people he had captured, his eyes shifting as he made plans in his mind.
Then, he said to Bai Sen, “Bai Sen, you’ll be in charge of the capture plan. I’ll just hold off these five here. Whenever you capture one, bring them here, and I’ll take care of guarding these targets.”
“Yes, Master,” Bai Sen replied promptly.
After that, Bai Sen led the other five and flew off to attack the three demon cultivators in the north.
Qu Yi watched the six of them leave before turning to the five sitting there and smiling, “You’ve been in the Hundred Demons Mountain Range for years without much rest. I’ll let you rest properly for a while.”
Suddenly, Qu Yi moved as fast as lightning, approaching the five and knocking them out with five swift strikes.
Then, he found a huge rock and sat down on it, meditating in silence.
The reason Qu Yi didn’t attack those demon cultivators himself was to avoid wasting time. He wanted to use this time to continue scanning the knowledge of arrays in his soul. Although his spiritual awareness was divided into six parts, with five parts always scanning arrays, he still found it too slow. He wanted to use all of his spiritual awareness for array scanning.
After all, arrays were the key step in artifact refinement—arrays determined the strength of the artifacts created. So, Qu Yi wanted to master arrays first before learning the art of refining artifacts.
While Qu Yi was immersed in scanning arrays, inside the Miniature Realm Sphere, Bai Man, Wu Yuan, and the Artifact God sat together.
“Artifact God, please contact Qu Yi quickly and ask him to take us out. Living in this Miniature Realm Sphere every day is so boring,” Bai Man said unhappily, pouting her lips.
Since entering Zhongyang City, Bai Man had never left the Miniature Realm Sphere. Not liking meditation by nature, she was not used to staying there constantly. This was related to her past experiences—because of the ‘Five Elements Spirit Evil’ in her body, she had to remain in a dormant state most of the time. She had always dreamed of going out and exploring every day, never wanting to stay in one place.
“Hehe, stop causing trouble. Stay in this Miniature Realm Sphere and focus on refining your skills. Speed up!” the Artifact God teased deliberately.
Bai Man immediately spread her arms, ready to throw herself at the Artifact God.
The Artifact God used to be afraid, but now he smiled, unafraid at all.

Wuyuan, ignoring Bai Man’s complaints and his own look of distress, grumbled unhappily, “Ugh, Artifact God, make Qu Yi give me those five late Yuan Ying stage guys. As long as I swallow their life essence, I can break through to the late Yuan Ying stage.” The Artifact God had already told Bai Man and Wuyuan about the situation outside, and Wuyuan became completely obsessed with it. “Hehe, that’s really a good idea,” the Artifact God said with a smile. Seeing Wuyuan jump up excitedly, it continued, “But not now. Qu Yi doesn’t want Wei Yan to be even slightly alert or to suspect the existence of the Dimensional Ball, so we can’t just kill those five people at will.” Qu Yi had thought it through: since Wei Yan controlled those twenty late Yuan Ying stage individuals, he would naturally know everything happening outside, including what the Artifact God and Qing Wu Gui were doing. Therefore, to avoid arousing Wei Yan’s suspicions, Qu Yi would carefully assist him without any hidden actions. Wuyuan immediately lay on the ground, his four legs showing remarkable flexibility as they pressed tightly against the grass. Seeing Bai Man and Wuyuan looking listless again, the Artifact God had no mood to talk. Suddenly, Qu Yi, who was in meditation, sent a message through his spiritual consciousness: “Artifact God, I’m in this Hundred Demons Mountain Range. I see some people practicing blood-based cultivation methods, some practicing physical cultivation, and some practicing ice-based cultivation methods. What’s the specific difference between them and cultivators?” Qu Yi knew that cultivators were essentially constantly comprehending energy, and all energy in the world belonged to the Five Elements. But he was confused about how demon cultivators practiced—how could they comprehend the energy of the Five Elements? “Qu Yi, there are countless energies in the world, all belonging to the Five Elements. But everyone’s cultivation method is different. What you mentioned—practicing blood-based methods, physical cultivation, or ice-based methods—is essentially also about cultivating energy. To put it more precisely, when the energies of the world enter the human body, the body naturally becomes imbued with various energies, especially in the blood, which is a gathering place for various energies. Those who practice blood-based methods refine their life essence to comprehend the energy within it. To reach a deeper level, they absorb others’ life essence to further enhance their understanding of energy,” the Artifact God explained slowly. Qu Yi remained silent for a while before saying, “Blood and life essence are just mediums. They use them to comprehend the energy of the Five Elements, right?” “That’s exactly right,” the Artifact God replied with a faint smile.

At this point, Qu Yi also roughly understood it—those who practiced physical cultivation, ice-based techniques, or lightning-based techniques were all using the body, cold energy, and lightning to comprehend the energies of the five elements. It was just that, in the eyes of cultivators, these demon cultivators’ methods were somewhat cruel and sinister, which probably explained why they were called demon cultivators. After understanding this, Qu Yi fell silent again and continued to scan the formation with full effort.
…
Inside the Three Tripod Gate, Wei Yan was also in meditation. Suddenly, the “Thousand Demons Illusion Formation” that protected the sect trembled, and Wei Yan immediately woke up.
“It seems Xue Can has returned,” Wei Yan said with a smile.
Xue Can’s group of eight, along with sixteen captives, had rushed back to the Three Tripod Gate and were entering the formation. Wei Yan immediately controlled the “Thousand Demons Illusion Formation” to guide the eight toward the Three Tripod Hall.
Soon, the eight along with the sixteen captives flew back to the Three Tripod Hall.
“Master, the captives have been brought back,” Xue Can said loudly.
Wei Yan sat on the jade bed, glanced at the sixteen people, then smiled and said, “You’ve worked hard. Go and find more targets; I’ll take care of these sixteen.”
The eight showed no sign of resentment and immediately flew out of the Three Tripod Hall to search the Hundred Demons Mountain Range for cultivators in the later stages of the Yuan Ying phase.
After seeing them leave, Wei Yan got up, descended the stone steps, and approached the sixteen people.
All sixteen had their vital energies restrained. From what had happened earlier, they realized that the mastermind behind their attack must be the person before them.
“You’re not willing to accept this, are you? Hehe, it doesn’t matter. Whether you resist or not, you’ll all become my slaves,” Wei Yan said triumphantly, his eyes gleaming.
Not knowing Wei Yan’s true nature, afraid of saying the wrong thing, none of the sixteen dared to question him.
“Good. Since none of you complain, I won’t kill you. I’ll plant a soul shackle in each of you, turning you into my slaves. I hope your souls won’t resist,” Wei Yan said calmly.
“Ah!” The sixteen were terrified and instinctively tried to run away.
Who among cultivators didn’t know what a soul shackle was? It was a powerful method of soul control. Once implanted, one would become another’s slave, forced to obey their commands forever—a fate worse than death.
As if unaware of their terror, Wei Yan walked up to an old man with white hair and looked at him smilingly.

“No!” The old man looked at Wei Yan in terror.
Wei Yan’s previously smiling face instantly turned cold as he stared straight at the old man, a murderous intent growing within him.
“Don’t, don’t kill me,” the old man pleaded. Although his Yuan Ying was restrained, his Yuan Shen was not, allowing him to sense Wei Yan’s presence immediately.
“If you dare refuse again, I’ll kill you right away,” Wei Yan said coldly.
The old man immediately collapsed like a paralyzed man, lying limp on the ground, his eyes wide but filled with utter confusion.
Wei Yan glanced at the other fifteen panicked people, smiled, then focused on the old man. Suddenly, his spiritual consciousness entered the old man’s Yuan Shen, leaving his own spiritual imprint there.
The old man dared not resist with his soul. Even if he could eliminate the invading spiritual consciousness, he couldn’t use the true energy in his Yuan Ying and still couldn’t escape. Wei Yan might suffer damage to his spiritual consciousness, but he wouldn’t die and could still use his true energy to kill.
Thus, the old man had no choice but to accept the spiritual shackles.
Soon after, Wei Yan went to each of the other fifteen people one by one, planting spiritual shackles on them all with a smile.
All sixteen of them had ashen faces and were extremely depressed.
Wei Yan returned to the jade bed, scanning the sixteen people with a look of intense pride, and burst into laughter.
“Very good. You all cooperated well. Now that you’re all my slaves, I can carry out my plan. I’ll have you capture all the cultivators in the later stages of Yuan Ying around Nan Yun City and take control of it. Then, our San Ding Gate will gradually conquer the entire Bai Mo Mountain Region, unite all forces, and confront the five major cultivation sects of the Nan Mo Continent,” Wei Yan said proudly.
The sixteen were shocked, realizing that Wei Yan indeed had a grand scheme.
In fact, Wei Yan still hadn’t revealed his true plan, though he had shared his initial intentions earlier.
“Alright, now I’ll remove the true energy needles from you and restore your freedom. After resting for a few days and regaining your true energy, go to various places in Nan Yun City to find cultivators in the later stages of Yuan Ying,” Wei Yan said again with laughter.
Using this method, Wei Yan was confident that the power of San Ding Gate could grow rapidly, like a snowball effect.
After hearing this, the sixteen were once again stirred, understanding that the Bai Mo Mountain Region was about to face a storm, and they would be part of it.