A gray mist pulsed out of the little pagoda, completely surrounding it and making it difficult to see it clearly. At the same time, it emanated a feeling of ancientness, as though it had existed since primeval times.
The five levels of the pagoda were all integrated smoothly, making it look more like a conical tower than a traditional pagoda. Even more surprising to Bai Xiaochun, he could sense the power of spatial magic within it, something very similar to bags of holding.
“Soulhoarding pagoda....” he murmured to himself. Although he had never seen a soulhoarding pagoda before, at a single glance, he could tell that this was an item used in the Wildlands to collect and hold vengeful souls! [1]
If you put vengeful souls into a bag of holding, they would slowly deteriorate in much the same way that food would rot away if left out in the open. Only the legendary soulhoarding pagodas could keep vengeful souls fresh indefinitely.
As Bai Xiaochun examined the soulhoarding pagoda, Zhou Yixing looked on enviously. Although soulhoarding pagodas weren’t exactly rare, they were still very valuable, and were highly prized by necromancers. As for this particular pagoda, it was clearly very well crafted, and very old.
Although a five-story soulhoarding pagoda might not be anything particularly amazing to extremely powerful necromancers, to ordinary necromancers, they were like precious gems. However, to Bai Xiaochun, it seemed like little more than a bag of holding.
“What so amazing about that?” Zhou Yixing grumbled inwardly. “I had one before too....” And yet, he couldn’t help but be a bit envious. His previous soulhoarding pagoda, which had been gifted to him by his clan patriarch, only had three stories. Unfortunately, after being injured by Bai Xiaochun in the labyrinth, he had encountered another powerful enemy, and in the resulting fight, the pagoda had been destroyed....
As Zhou Yixing stewed in his envy, Bai Xiaochun looked thoughtfully at the soulhoarding pagoda. Then, his eyes flashed as if with lightning.
“Now I understand why I kept failing at conjuring eleven-colored flame!!”
1. The Chinese character I’m translating as “hoard” is the same as the character in “bag of holding.” So it could also be a “soul holding pagoda.” Or conversely, you could change bags of holding to “bags of hoarding”
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Chapter
576: I'm Looking At You!
Bai Xiaochun almost couldn’t control his breathing as he reached out and made a grasping gesture, causing the soulhoarding pagoda to fly out of the soul cultivator’s hand and fly toward him.
As soon as he had it in hand, he sent some divine sense inside, and detected a strong spatial power that was uniquely designed to nourish souls!
Now that his speculations were confirmed, his eyes began to shine with bright light.
“So, I was right! Soulhoarding pagodas really are like bags of holding! Except, they’re specifically designed to hold vengeful souls. If you put souls into a bag of holding, they slowly degenerate and eventually just fade away. But if you put them in a soulhoarding pagoda, they’ll stay in perfect condition forever!
“Furthermore, the reason I couldn’t conjure eleven-colored flame wasn’t a lack of proficiency with the technique, nor any problems that cropped up during the process. The reason... was because the souls I was using to try to make the eleven-colored flame had already begun to degenerate!!
“Although they had only degenerated a small bit because they were in a bag of holding, a little bit of degeneration with such a large group of souls would eventually build up into a major instability!
“The instability would only get more intense until eventually... it leads to detonation!!
“So basically, if I keep the vengeful souls inside of a soulhoarding pagoda, then when it comes time to conjure flame, I shouldn’t have any problem at all. I should definitely be able to conjure eleven-colored flame!!” Having reached this point in his train of thought, Bai Xiaochun was more excited than ever, and couldn’t wait to test out his theory.
When Zhou Yixing and the two soul cultivators saw how excited Bai Xiaochun was, none of them were really sure what was going on. Zhou Yixing was a bit taken aback, but the two soul cultivators were starting to get excited, convinced that this grandmaster necromancer was going to help them.
Deciding that it was best to strike while the iron was hot, they exchanged a glance, then clasped hands and bowed deeply.
“Grandmaster,” one of them said, “there are plenty of vengeful souls in that soulhoarding pagoda. As for the extra beyond what it will take to concoct the soul medicine in question, please keep them as our means of apologizing for everything that happened before.”
Ignoring Zhou Yixing and the two soul cultivators, Bai Xiaochun continued to examine the soulhoarding pagoda with his divine sense, and then began to count how many souls were inside.
From the number, he could tell that the Blackmountain Tribe was both anxious about the matter they had brought to his attention, and also sincere in their offer.
Feeling very pleased, he nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll help you concoct the--”
Before he could finish speaking, though, he suddenly looked up into the sky.
Soon, a beam of light became visible, streaking through the air at incredible speed as it headed directly toward the Blackmountain Tribe.
Even before it arrived, the aura of the great circle of Core Formation erupted from inside, causing the beam of light to shine radiantly in the evening sky.
Everyone in the Blackmountain Tribe was shaken, and countless savages gasped. As for the two soul cultivators standing near Bai Xiaochun, their faces fell as they looked up.
Zhou Yixing was clearly shocked, and his pupils constricted as he realized that whoever this newcomer was, he had a profound cultivation base that was on par with his own.
Everyone watched as the beam of light reached a position above the Blackmountain Tribe, and then faded away to reveal a middle-aged man with long black hair that flowed over his shoulders. He had average features, but his murderous aura was especially strong. Furthermore, he was surrounded by a black mist, within which could occasionally be seen twisted faces that were apparently vengeful souls.
The fluctuations emanating off of the man were not the soul power fluctuations of a soul cultivator. No, this man... was a necromancer!!
Everything and everyone in the area was shaken by this lofty figure who gazed out of the corner of his eye at what was happening down below. After looking at Zhou Yixing, his gaze fell onto Bai Xiaochun for a moment, and then he noticed the soulhoarding pagoda. At that point, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes, and he looked over at the two soul cultivators.
“Are you the leaders of the Blackmountain Tribe?” he said coldly. “Step forward and offer greetings!” From his tone of voice, he seemed like the ultimate ruler of this area, as if his mere presence was good fortune for the Blackmountain Tribe.
Almost immediately, the two soul cultivators stepped forward nervously and then clasped hands and bowed deeply in formal greeting.
“Greetings, exalted necromancer,” they both echoed.
“I, Li Feng, am here to solve the problem of your Blackmountain Tribe’s five hundred portions of low-grade soul medicine. So hand over that soulhoarding pagoda!” Li Feng was clearly not making a request, and expected his words to be obeyed immediately. If not, he would raze the entire area to the ground.
Actually, the entire reason he had come here was because he had been passing through the area and had heard the news that the Blackmountain Tribe was offering a soulhoarding pagoda in exchange for a large batch of low-grade soul medicine.