After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

half year later.

Looking at the white jade slip in front of him, Huo Yu felt a little regretful.

The cultivation techniques prepared for outer disciples were ultimately too rudimentary. Although the soul-nourishing technique he derived was indeed effective, it had little effect on him.

The cultivation method in this jade slip is only the Qi Refining chapter. If he could obtain the Soul Refining Nascent Soul chapter, or even the Divine Division chapter, and add the Soul Nourishing Array of the Soul Respect Banner, Huo Yu would be able to deduce a Soul Nourishing Technique suitable for himself.

The Yellow Springs Sect submitted to the Heavenly Mystery Elder during his time. Half a year ago, Huo Yu was unaware of the sect's existence and knew nothing about its internal affairs.

His current spiritual strength is not as strong as it was when he was first reborn. In addition, there are strange forces in many places within the Yellow Springs Sect that block spiritual insight, so Huo Yu is unable to fully understand the situation within the sect.

However, he could still vaguely sense that there were at least four Nascent Soul cultivators in the Yellow Springs Sect: one in the early Nascent Soul stage at Soul Refining Peak, one in the middle Nascent Soul stage at Ghost Control Peak, and two at Shadow Stealing Peak. Due to the special nature of Shadow Stealing Peak, Huo Yu could not sense their specific strength.

If there were other methods, Huo Yu would not want to confront the four Nascent Soul stage cultivators head-on.

Deep within Huo Yu's sea of ​​consciousness, a pair of yin-yang fish were slowly rotating. As the yin-yang fish rotated, a pure spiritual energy flowed out slowly from the intertwining of the yin-yang fish and quietly merged into his sea of ​​consciousness.

This insignificant wisp of spiritual energy, like a gentle stream, nourished Huo Yu's seemingly normal but actually scarred soul, bringing him a subtle yet undeniable repair.

At this rate, it would probably take a hundred years or so for Huo Yu's soul to recover to the original level of this body.

Huo Yu obviously couldn't wait that long.

After much deliberation, Huo Yu decided to first enter the Soul Refining Peak to obtain the Soul Refining Chapter after Foundation Establishment.

As for how to infiltrate Soul Refining Peak, an excellent opportunity is currently presented to him—the aptitude test two years from now.

To successfully pass the qualification test and join the Soul Refining Peak, Huo Yu naturally needs to be proficient in the Soul Refining Chapter recorded in the jade slip.

Compared to the difficulty of deriving the Soul Nourishing Technique, this was undoubtedly much simpler for him.

Over the past six months, Huo Yu had almost completely deconstructed the Soul Refining Chapter, so he only spent a few days to fully grasp its essence.

The next task is to forge a Hundred Souls Banner.

Although Huo Yu possessed many rare materials, and even personally crafted a simple soul banner while deducing the array, none of these were things that ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples could obtain.

Huo Yu didn't want to attract too much attention within the Yellow Springs Sect. To make the performance more convincing, Huo Yu finally decided to visit the Yellow Springs Sect's Offering Hall.

Although the Yellow Spring Sect adopts a completely laissez-faire attitude towards its outer disciples, it is quite generous in its supply of materials.

Outer disciples who have mastered the Soul Refining Manual can receive a set of materials for refining the Hundred Soul Banner from the Offering Hall.

When Huo Yu entered the offering hall, there was only one Foundation Establishment stage disciple on duty waiting inside.

He glanced at Huo Yu's outer disciple robes and guessed his purpose. He casually pointed to a stone door on the left and said indifferently:

"Use the Soul Control Technique on the stone sculpture ghost on this door. If the conditions are met, the stone sculpture ghost will give you the materials to refine the Hundred Soul Banner."

Huo Yu looked at the stone gate, which was about ten feet high and five feet wide, and was carefully carved from a single piece of bluestone.

In the center of the stone gate, a lifelike little demon with a blue face and fangs almost occupies the entire facade.

This little devil has a single horn on its head, a tail behind it, and its eyes flash with an eerie red light, making it seem like a living creature and inspiring fear in those who behold it.

Huo Yu could tell at a glance that what was sealed inside the stone gate was nothing more than a little ghost in the early stage of Foundation Establishment.

As Huo Yu approached, the little demon lazily raised its eyelids, about to disappear behind the stone door. Huo Yu's fingers flew, his divine sense instantly locking onto the little demon, and his soul-controlling technique quietly took shape.

The little devil had already disappeared into the stone gate, but Huo Yu's soul control technique suddenly grabbed its tail.

The little ghost was taken aback. In the soul control technique it had experienced countless times, it sensed a strange aura that made it tremble to its very core.

Driven by instinct, the little devil screamed and struggled desperately, even tearing off half of its tail in an attempt to escape the aura that made its soul tremble.

Huo Yu remained unmoved, his divine sense firmly locked on, and he once again used the Soul Control Technique to loop around the little ghost's neck.

The cultivators on duty in the offering hall did not hear the little ghost's scream, but they saw the red light flashing in the eyes of the stone carvings on the stone door. They assumed it was another outer disciple who had not yet mastered the Soul Refining Chapter and was overestimating himself by coming to collect materials.

Just as he was about to speak to drive it away, he saw the stone demon suddenly vomit a large amount of materials from its mouth as if it had diarrhea.

The cultivator on duty was astonished. This stone-carved ghost was always extremely stingy. Since he took up his post, disciples who came to collect materials either returned empty-handed or had to deal with the stone-carved ghost for a long time before he would reluctantly produce a single piece of material—occasionally even short of the required weight.

He had never seen anything like it before, and his first thought was that the stone ghost must be broken.

However, the sect stipulates that all materials spit out by the stone-carved ghost belong to the cultivator who has obtained its approval.

He could only watch helplessly as this unfamiliar outer disciple put all the materials into his storage bag—if he wasn't seeing things, the pile of materials not only contained materials for refining the Hundred Soul Banner, but also materials for refining the Ten Thousand Soul Banner recorded in the jade slip!

After the outer disciple left, the disciple on duty rushed to the stone gate, quickly forming hand seals, and used the Soul Control Technique from the Soul Refining and Foundation Building Chapter on the stone ghost.

The moment his divine sense entered the stone gate, he was struck by a violent surge of soul power and was thrown out of the stone gate.

Under the intense backlash, he felt dizzy and staggered back several steps before barely managing to stand. He was terrified and dared not approach the stone door again.

What he didn't notice was that a crack had appeared at the tail of the stone demon on the stone gate, as if it had broken off.

On the other side, Huo Yu had taken the materials and was about to return to his cave to refine the Hundred Soul Banner.

In order to evade his soul-controlling technique, the little devil actually spat out a large pile of materials, most of which were not recorded in the Hundred Soul Banner crafting method, but were superior materials with similar functions to the Hundred Soul Banner materials but with better effects.

Huo Yu guessed that these were materials for refining the Myriad Soul Banner, so he simply took them with him.

When Huo Yu flew to a certain point on the fourth peak, he noticed a fluctuation in the divine sense on the half of the jade pendant he had left on Long Yucheng. He changed direction and flew straight towards the source of the divine sense.

Halfway up the fourth peak, beside a secluded pool, two outer sect disciples were locked in a fierce battle. Sword light and firelight mingled, creating a lively spectacle.

At the Fourth Peak, this kind of infighting among fellow disciples happens almost every day, and it intensifies as the qualification test approaches.

In the Yellow Springs Sect, the real disciple assessment is not the entrance examination, but the qualification test for outer disciples to enter the inner sect.

Only those who pass the qualification test are true disciples of the Yellow Springs Sect.

The aptitude test is the only chance for all outer disciples to leap over the dragon gate, and for this opportunity, outer disciples race against time and cultivate desperately.

Cultivation naturally requires spirit stones and elixirs; the resources provided by the sect upon entry are merely a drop in the ocean.

In order to obtain cultivation resources, besides spending time and energy to complete sect tasks in exchange for meager contribution points, the only other way is to plunder the resources of others.

For outer disciples who value time like gold, the latter is obviously more tempting, and there is even a group of people who specifically target newly admitted disciples.

The strong get stronger by feeding on the weak.

The Yellow Springs Sect uses this method of "raising Gu" (a type of poisonous insect) to eliminate the weakest disciples in the outer sect and then select the most talented among the remaining disciples to enter the inner sect.

The disciples who remained after this double selection process were all exceptionally talented and ruthless, each a promising candidate for demonic cultivation.

At this moment, among the two outer disciples engaged in a fierce battle by the pool, was Long Yucheng, who had just stepped out of his cave and was being watched.