A Will Eternal

The month that passed was a month of bounteous harvest for everyone in Squad 9. In fact, they didn't have to do anything other than escort Bai Xiaochun around and reap the rewards.

After all, the more than one hundred old-time prisoners all had indescribable caches of wealth. Although the guards would only get a small portion of it, when you combined it all together, it was still a shocking amount.

It was no wonder that Sun Peng, who got half of everything, would give Bai Xiaochun special treatment. Of course, Bai Xiaochun got the largest share after Sun Peng, and yet, considering his personality, he wasn’t the type to be a miser....

He had long since made contact with Zhou Yixing and Li Feng, and given them information that they could use to profit as well.

There were many people in Devil Penitentiary who realized this, but actually, it didn’t break the rules. As long as Bai Xiaochun wasn’t too excessive in how he helped his people on the outside, no one would cause any problems for him. After all, few people would ever risk causing trouble for a dark inquisitor.

Besides, Bai Xiaochun knew how to conduct himself with integrity. Whether it was his way with words or his generous nature, he always left people feeling good about him.

In the end, Bai Xiaochun’s greatest reward wasn’t all the wealth, but rather, the secrets he learned.... Those secrets weren’t something physical that could be counted, but were vastly valuable.

“There used to be five great clans in Giant Ghost City, not just three. Two of them... were exterminated overnight by the giant ghost king!”

“The giant ghost king has a demigod cultivation base, but rumor has it that there is a fatal weakness in the technique he cultivates.”

“There are a few of the ten marquises who actually want to rebel against King Giant Ghost!”

Those were only a few of the secrets he had learned, all of which caused his eyes to sparkle with curiosity.

“Who would have ever thought that I would gain so much in this prison!?” Chuckling to himself, he looked at his crystalline soulhoarding pagoda and the vast collection of vengeful souls he had, which was the largest collection he had accumulated in his entire time in the Wildlands.

“I'm almost finished with my auguries of thirteen-colored flame....” He was almost inclined to make an attempt at conjuring thirteen-colored flame, but his residence was too small. Besides, if he lost control, it could lead to a huge disaster.

After some thought, he walked out of his quarters and headed toward the entrance to the cellblock.

Along the way, any of the guards he saw would greet him very politely. In return, he would smile, reveling in the feeling of being so important to everyone. Before long, he was passing through the entrance.

Inside, he ignored how his arrival instantly caused a stir of fear among the gray-robed prisoners and the prisoners in the cells. During his month-long stay recently, he had found an area some distance away from the entrance that was relatively wide-open, which was where he headed now.

After arriving, he set up numerous spell formations, then sat down cross-legged and took a deep breath. After taking a moment to review the formula he had come up with for thirteen-colored flame, he performed an incantation gesture and waved at his soulhoarding pagoda.

A vast amount of vengeful souls swept out of the soulhoarding pagoda, filling the entire area. Then, a serious expression could be seen on Bai Xiaochun’s face as he waved his hand to produce a twelve-colored flame.

“I started working on thirteen-colored flame back when I left the Bai Clan, thanks to the inspiration I got from Bai Hao’s research notes. After plenty of augury, I'm now eighty percent certain that I’ll succeed!

“Even if I fail, it shouldn’t matter. I can just determine the cause of failure, then make some adjustments, and be even more confident than before!” Without the slightest hesitation, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed at the twelve-colored flame, which spread out into a sea of fire and then began to consume the vengeful souls.

Although the process went quickly, it all went according to the complicated method Bai Xiaochun had come up with in advance. Time passed, and the souls disappeared. Gradually, another color became visible within the flame, but unfortunately, along with it came an uncontrollable instability. No matter how Bai Xiaochun tried to adjust things, nothing worked, and the flame finally fell apart into nothing.

Frowning, he contemplated the matter for a bit, then tried again.

One day. Two days. Three days.... Before long, half a month had gone by. Bai Xiaochun had tried several dozen different methods, all of which had failed, but all of which had given him new directions to attempt.

As time passed, his confidence in being able to produce thirteen-colored flame grew. At one point, he suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, but his expression lively. Furthermore, his eyes were shining in anticipation.

“That was the last issue. As of this moment, I am completely confident in being able to succeed!” He waved his sleeve, causing a huge amount of vengeful souls to fly out of the soulhoarding pagoda and into the twelve-colored flame. Bai Xiaochun was concentrating completely, and his body even blurred with afterimages as he boosted his divine sense using his clones. Gradually, as he exercised rigid control over the process, a thirteenth color appeared in the flame!!

Almost immediately, rumbling sounds echoed out, and the heat emanating from the flame grew exponentially intense. It was almost like a tempest of fire swirling around him.

The prisoners who had been watching him this whole time were completely shocked, and didn’t dare to get near. Even many of the prisoners in the cells were looking over.

In fact, in a location not too far away from Bai Xiaochun was one cell that housed an old man with a red birthmark on his face, who suddenly looked up. In that instant, his eyes flickered... with immense shock!

The most important prisoners, the ones in the cells, all had their cultivation bases sealed, making it impossible to use them. And yet, this old man could clearly sense that Bai Xiaochun was working with thirteen-colored flame. The fact that he could sense that... was extremely bizarre!!

That old man had been pointed out to Bai Xiaochun when he first came to Devil Penitentiary. As the captain had explained, he had supposedly offended the giant ghost king, and had been locked up for more than two hundred years because of it.

A moment after opening his eyes, he closed them and went back to meditation, as if thirteen-colored flame was something that could only hold his interest for a moment.

Of course, Bai Xiaochun had no idea about what had just occurred. Keeping his aura under tight control, he cautiously closed his fingers over his palm, causing the sea of fire to shrink back down, accompanied by intense rumbling sounds. Then, when he opened his hand again... he had a tongue of thirteen-colored flame!

“It worked!” he said, laughing loudly. Thanks to Bai Hao’s notes, now that Bai Xiaochun had succeeded with thirteen-colored flame, he knew that he wouldn’t have much trouble with fourteen-colored flame.

After all, both flames were in the same overall level. However, fifteen-colored flame was a dividing mark, separating the terrestrial rank from the celestial rank.

Celestial necromancers... could be considered reserve powers in necromancer clans! After all, if a soul cultivator wanted to break through from the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage and step into the Deva Realm, he would need an object with a fifteenfold spirit enhancement. Only in that way could he gain enlightenment of heaven and earth, and also, earn the chance to become a deva.

“I already feel confident enough to take a shot at fourteen-colored flame....” he thought, his eyes shining with determination.

Another half a month went by.

Bai Xiaochun’s hair was disheveled, and he looked like a mad devil. He was now at a critical juncture. During the past half month, he had failed on numerous occasions, but had also advanced by leaps and bounds.

“It should only take me five more tries to succeed!” he said, his eyes bloodshot. With that, he slapped his soulhoarding pagoda, causing more vengeful souls to fly out. However, it was at this point that he realized he actually didn’t have enough souls!

Eyes widening in shock, he said, “I’m all out?”

From what he remembered, he had built up a huge amount of souls. After sitting there mutely for a while, he chuckled bitterly at the realization that his expenditures during the past month had been immense.

“I wasn’t paying attention and went overboard....” Scowling, he sighed and thought back to all of the souls he had handed in to the pagoda back at the Great Wall.

“It's too bad I gave all those vengeful souls over to get battle credit....” When he thought about how foolish he had been to do such a thing, his heart pulsed with regret.

“All of the old-time prisoners in Cellblock D have already talked. However, Zhou Yixing should have benefited from the information I sent him a while back.

“Ah, whatever. I guess I’ll just go see how many vengeful souls he's managed to get his hands on.” Although he was worried about his lack of vengeful souls, at least he had a lot of soul medicine in his bag of holding.