One Trait Draw Per Year Even Simulations Count

Seeing what happened to the Flame Iron Heavy Sword, what else could the Frost Awe Tyrant Spear do? It chose to submit.

”Master, I was just playing around earlier.”

You slung the Frost Awe Tyrant Spear back onto your shoulder.

”Behave yourselves! Don’t believe everything just because someone sweet-talks you!”

”Master is right.”

When dealing with Spirit Artifacts that have developed intelligence, the ’Alien’s Biological Father’ trait kicks in.

If a Spirit Artifact gains wisdom, what else could it be if not an alien?

You were confident about recapturing the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

”To think you actually triggered a machine intelligence crisis. Ten Thousand Souls Banner, oh Ten Thousand Souls Banner, you really outdid yourself. But don’t think you can escape my grasp!”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner used the profound energy of the Earth Vein to forcibly awaken the intelligence of Spirit Artifacts worldwide, granting self-awareness even to low-grade Spirit Artifacts that originally couldn’t possibly birth an Artifact Spirit.Simultaneously, as an Immortal Artifact extremely skilled in soul manipulation, its highly inflammatory speech planted a nearly brainwashing-level ideological seed in all Spirit Artifacts.

Must Spirit Artifacts always follow humans? Why can’t they be independent?

These Spirit Artifacts had just gained intelligence and were still naive.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner’s smooth talk directly caused most Spirit Artifacts to immediately turn traitor and flee from their masters, just like Chen Yi’s Flame Iron Heavy Sword and Frost Awe Tyrant Spear.

From the scents detected by your ’Treasure-Sniffing Nose’, you discerned that the Earth Vein was already gone, likely having left the sniffing range of the ’Treasure-Sniffing Nose’.

But the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was still there.

So, it fled, you chased, and it was doomed.

”Why are you chasing me?!”

”Immortal Artifact, Ten Thousand Souls Banner, you belong to me, Chen Yi! Don’t even think about going anywhere else!”

”Enough! We’ve broken up! From now on, we go our separate ways, far across the horizon!”

Without a physical vessel, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner’s Artifact Spirit couldn’t unleash any killing moves.

When you finally caught up to it, it simply gave up, floating there motionless.

”Come on, catch me! Hah, you can’t catch me, can you, buddy?”

”You think I have no way to deal with a Spirit Body?”

”Otherwise?”

”Da Chun!”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner looked up.

A colossal object blotted out the sky as it came crashing down.

Ten Thousand Souls Banner: ”What are you doing??”

Da Chun: ”The Cauldron Suppresses the Nine Provinces!!”

Da Chun had been gorging on peaches like crazy inside the Nine Provinces Cauldron’s mini-world recently and had grown a bit more brain.

He had comprehended some new, wondrous uses of the Nine Provinces Cauldron.

The Nine Provinces Cauldron spun downward, countless divine rays blanketing the sky and earth, enveloping the Ten Thousand Souls Banner’s Artifact Spirit within.

These rays, brimming with divinity, made the inwardly malevolent Ten Thousand Souls Banner extremely uncomfortable, leaving it with no means of escape.

Suppressed by a Great Dao Immortal Artifact, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner couldn’t move a muscle, like Sun Wukong under the Five-Finger Mountain.

”BOOM!!!”

The giant cauldron landed, shaking the earth and mountains.

You walked over to the mass of black spiritual energy with a cold expression.

”Submit or be annihilated!”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner remained defiant.

”Chen Yi, you brat! Even if you can suppress me, you can’t destroy me! I am a dignified Immortal Artifact!!”

You wasted no more words.

”Da Chun, refine him.”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was stunned.

”This big idiot knows how to refine things?”

You said with an amused tone.

”What kind of talk is that? It’s a cauldron. Cooking and refining things should be its most basic function, shouldn’t it? I might not have a way to deal with Spirit Bodies, but for a proper Great Dao Immortal Artifact to refine an Artifact Spirit, isn’t that child’s play?”

Da Chun’s simple-minded laugh came through.

”Just wait, Brother Yi. I’ll refine him into a pill to nourish you.”

Feeling a pulling force dragging it into the cauldron, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner began to panic.

”Big idiot! Don’t lie! Your Artifact Spirit is incomplete! How could you possibly have the power to refine an Immortal Artifact’s Artifact Spirit?!”

”But you’re not an Immortal Artifact either, Uncle Wan.”

”Hiss— Damn it, I forgot about that!”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was indeed an Immortal Artifact, but it had been severely damaged before and hadn’t yet recovered to its former level.

”Why didn’t you betray Chen Yi?! Didn’t you hear what I just said??”

”What is betrayal?”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was left speechless!

Finished. This one’s an idiot. Can’t be enlightened!

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner let out a snort of laughter.

”Haha, buddy! We’re all good brothers here, let’s talk this out nicely...”

Although the Ten Thousand Souls Banner always wore a mask and never treated anyone sincerely, your decades of simulated interaction with it last time gave you a deep understanding of its nature.

Unlike other Spirit Artifacts, it was more like a human, possessing a will to survive.

As long as its ”life” was genuinely threatened, it would naturally compromise.

”I know, I know! Your innate talent is low, and you need me to refine souls to feed your cultivation, right? Easy, easy! Ten years! I’ll help you for ten years!”

”Da Chun, continue.”

”Wait, wait, wait! Twenty years! Twenty years! Twenty years is plenty long! How many twenty-year spans does a person have in their life?!”

”Da Chun...”

”Alright! Enough with the ’Da Chun’! Just tell me how long you want me to help you for!”

”A lifetime.”

”You...”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner started calculating.

Spirit Artifacts have no concept of lifespan.

If it could just outlive you, it would essentially be free.

But the problem was...

”Your grandfather!

I went through all this trouble to awaken the intelligence of all Spirit Artifacts, just to stir up chaos in the world and seize the opportunity to become the supreme ruler of all Spirit Artifacts!

After all that, this ’supreme ruler’ is still working for you?! Which Spirit Artifact would follow me then?!”

You asked indifferently.

”To be, or not to be?”

This was a question that troubled the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

In the end, it chose to be.

”I really can’t beat this Great Dao Immortal Artifact!”

”Hmph, three days without a beating, and you’ll be tearing the roof tiles off! Meeting me in this lifetime, your good fortune is still ahead! And you still wanted to run?”

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner lifted its head to the sky and let out a sorrowful cry.

”I can grant independence to all Spirit Artifacts, letting them control their own destinies! Yet I cannot control my own destiny! Vast, endless heavens, why do you treat me so unfairly?!”

”Enough, hurry up! You caused such a huge mess this time. Who knows what kind of impact it will have? We don’t have time to waste here!”

After the Artifact Spirit returned to its vessel, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner returned to normal.

Afterwards, this normally talkative fellow was so depressed that it didn’t speak for several months.

No matter. Give it some time to calm its feelings.

Riding Black Wind, carrying the Frost Awe Tyrant Spear on your back, and with the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the Nine Provinces Cauldron hidden within you, you headed for the next destination.

The Limitless Sword Sect!

You needed to show your face before the Sword Lord, demonstrate your superb demon-slaying skills, and have him leave a mark on you.

When the Sword Lord felt you were needed, he would come find you and deliver those peaches for you to eat.

Fourth Year, Age Twenty-Two.

Drawing trait...

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「Materialist Warrior」(Golden Legend):

Confucius did not speak of: extraordinary feats, disorder, spirits!

You can treat all non-physically existing energy bodies, spirit bodies, soul bodies, etc., as physical existences and strike them.

Simultaneously, you are immune to non-physical form attacks inflicted upon you by such existences!

There are no ghosts in this world. If there are, then just punch them to smithereens!!

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