The faint yet stable frequency fluctuation on the Copper Token was like two hearts, silent for millennia, awakening in his palm.
This was absolutely not a simple marker!
Gu Xuan’s spirit shook violently, and a bold, almost insane thought flashed through his Spirit Sea: These Copper Tokens were Coordinates, beacons, and more importantly, Anchor Points capable of resonating with the vengeful spirits of the same kind within this withered forest!
They could stir up those slumbering resentments, just like a magnet attracting iron filings.
And the Demon Suppression Hall in his Spirit Sea was inherently for Devouring and Refinement.
If he could use these Copper Tokens as bait to set a massive trap, wouldn't he be able to "fish" for these wandering Spook Ghosts in bulk?
At this thought, even the blood within Gu Xuan seemed to burn hotter by three parts.
Exploring south was important, but rapidly accumulating strength here was the foundation for survival!
He no longer hesitated in the slightest and resolutely turned back, braving the biting Yin Energy wind, retracing his steps for over ten li.
Finally, his gaze locked onto a peculiar terrain—a massive circular depression, surrounded by steep slopes, deeply sunken in the center, resembling a giant natural bowl, or even more so, a naturally formed cage.
This was his ideal hunting ground!
The night was like ink, and shadowy figures flickered throughout the withered forest.
Gu Xuan’s figure, however, darted around the edge of the depression like a phantom.
Lacking any magical artifacts, he picked up a hard Terracotta Plate from the ground and, with astonishing wrist strength, sharpened several thick withered branches into sharp wooden stakes.
He closed his eyes, carefully sensing the original direction of the two Copper Tokens when they were first discovered, and then precisely drove the wooden stakes into the southeast, northwest, northeast, and southwest corners of the depression.
That wasn't enough!
He sliced his fingertip, and bright red blood dripped out, mixing with the residual Spook Ghost blood he had collected earlier.
As soon as the blood mixed, it emitted a faint sizzling sound, and a strange aura, blending vitality and death, permeated the air.
Gu Xuan dipped into this specially made "ink" and rapidly drew incomplete Fu Wen markings along the inner slope of the depression.
These Fu Wen traces did not come from any known Daoist scripture; rather, they were forcibly imitated based on his comprehension of the Demon Suppression Hall's Refinement—the trajectory of spatial distortion that occurred the instant it devoured a target!
This was a huge gamble; he was betting that although the low-level corpses and wandering spirits lacked intelligence, they possessed an irresistible instinctual fear and curiosity toward the unique spatial fluctuations and aura generated when their kind were devoured and perished.
They would be like moths drawn to a flame, instinctively attracted to the source of this "pseudo-hall domain"!
With all preparations complete, Gu Xuan silently climbed up behind a broken rock on the highest point of the west side of the depression, perfectly concealing himself in the shadows.
He took a deep breath, pulled out a tinder stick from his robes, and lit a prepared torch.
"Hoo—"
The firelight suddenly flared up, appearing exceptionally harsh in the dead silence of the darkness.
He merely raised the torch high, waved it twice as a feint, and then violently jammed it into the dirt beneath his feet, extinguishing it completely.
Light and heat are symbols of Yang Energy; in this place saturated with dense Yin Energy, any sudden fluctuation of Yang Energy is like a stone tossed into a calm lake, certain to create ripples.
Time ticked by, and the air seemed to solidify.
In less than the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, an Aberration suddenly occurred!
Gu Xuan keenly felt that deep beneath the ground where he stood, the previously gentle flow of the Yin Energy river suddenly became surging and active!
"Crack... crack..."
The sound of earth shifting erupted from three different directions simultaneously.
Immediately following, three newly risen corpses, covered entirely in mud, struggled out from underground!
Their movements were stiff and slow, their joints emitting a grating sound that made one's teeth ache, but within their hollow eye sockets burned two clusters of pitch-black mist, their targets astonishingly clear—they lunged straight toward the very center of the depression!
When they stepped into the area marked by the Fu Wen Gu Xuan had drawn, the forms of the three corpses abruptly paused, as if they had hit an invisible wall of air.
The brief stagnation was followed by rage born of instinct!
They let out a low, inhuman roar, abandoning their path to the center. Instead, they frantically clawed at the earth beneath them with their stiff, sharp claws, seemingly trying to dig something out from the deep ground.
Gu Xuan held his breath, his eyes narrowed, pushing the perception of the Demon Suppression Hall to its absolute limit.
He clearly saw that as the dirt flew, objects buried deep underground were unearthed—a rusted, broken helmet, a snapped sword hilt, and a legging completely soaked dark brown by congealed blood...
Every single relic belonged to the same unit—the Xu Zi Ying!
An even stranger scene unfolded.
Every time a relic of the Xu Zi Ying was dug up, the black mist in the eyes of the three corpses visibly strengthened by a fraction, and between them, the previously independent black mists began to form a faint, almost imperceptible connection, like three streams about to merge into a single lake.
Gu Xuan’s heart tightened sharply!
This was no longer simple individual resentment; this was a collective Resolve, slumbering for countless ages, awakened by the relics and the earth's Yin Energy!
They were reconstructing the connection between themselves by digging up the relics.
If allowed to continue, once the Resolve coalesced, it would likely give rise to a terrifying change far exceeding his expectations!
He couldn't wait any longer!
A cold glint flashed in Gu Xuan's eyes; abandoning all concealment, he violently activated the Demon Suppression Hall within his Spirit Sea!
Buzz—!
A low hum resonated across the soul plane.
The Copper Token stakes at the four corners of the depression instantly became scorching hot, and the Blood-Colored Runes drawn along the slope instantly lit up with a faint, ethereal blue glow!
In an instant, an invisible yet vast and mighty force field descended from the sky, completely enveloping the entire circular depression!
That power was a degraded simulation of the Demon Suppression Hall's Devouring Power!
The two corpses closest to the Fu Wen traces had no chance to even struggle.
Their bodies seemed to be seized by an invisible giant hand, instantly twisting and stretching, and with an extremely piercing, silent shriek, they were directly pulled into the great hall of Gu Xuan's Spirit Sea!
Cold Blood-Colored Runes immediately flashed in Gu Xuan's consciousness:
"Can be refined: Rotten Bone Specter ×2 （ Newly Awakened State ）. Initiate Refinement?"
"Yes!" Gu Xuan chose without hesitation.
The next second, a pain so intense it felt like his soul was being torn apart suddenly struck him—this was the backlash generated when the Demon Suppression Hall refined Soul Essence.
Gu Xuan grunted, his face instantly turning pale, but he gritted his teeth tightly, his posture as steady as a rock, continuing to control that immense suction force to cover the entire field.
However, the third corpse displayed a completely different reaction!
It seemed to have fallen into a deeper level of frenzy due to the disappearance of its companions. The moment it was pulled halfway into the air by the suction, it let out a deafening roar, and its entire body exploded!
"Boom!"
The dense black mist was not drawn in; instead, it transformed into a torrent of violent Yin Energy, surging backward and impacting the Fu Wen array laid out by Gu Xuan!
"Pfft!"
One corner of the array instantly shattered, and the ethereal blue light dimmed immediately.
The Yin Wind rushed back in, and Gu Xuan felt as if his chest had been struck by a heavy hammer, spitting out a mouthful of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Yet, instead of panic, a cold, sinister smile curled on his face.
"You think it ends like this? Too naive!"
The contingency plan he had buried in advance was activated at this moment with full force!
He had sealed the residual soul of the first Spook Ghost he refined in the ruined temple into a blank Copper Token he had never used before.
At this moment, he detonated it with his divine sense!
The blank Copper Token he held in his palm vibrated violently and then exploded with a loud bang!
A stream of extremely pure Spook Ghost black mist shot into the sky, swirling and howling in mid-air, instantly condensing into a spectral phantom of a Spook Ghost far more substantial than any corpse before it!
That phantom exuded the aura of its own kind, yet it carried the dominance and destruction resulting from being refined by the Demon Suppression Hall!
The sudden appearance of this "companion" threw the remaining corpses, which had just unearthed relics and whose power was climbing, into instant chaos.
Their instincts could not discern whether this was friend or foe; they only sensed an intense threat.
In the confusion, they abandoned Gu Xuan and instead roared, pouncing on the Spook Ghost phantom, tearing at each other!
Now was the time!
Gu Xuan seized this fleeting opportunity, ignoring his injuries, and pushed the Devouring Power of the Demon Suppression Hall to its limit!
"Get in here... for me!"
The suction force surged, transforming into a massive, invisible vortex, engulfing the tattered bodies tearing at each other in the melee, along with the Spook Ghost phantom used as bait!
This time, no further accidents occurred; the three broken bodies, along with their awakening collective Resolve, were dragged into the Spirit Sea Hall in one go!
"Rumble..."
Inside Gu Xuan's Spirit Sea, the giant hall, black as ink, trembled violently, and the Black Water Pool before the hall churned and boiled incessantly.
In the center of the pool, a brand new Fu Wen totem was slowly taking shape.
A new ability was about to be unlocked!
The depression returned to dead silence.
Gu Xuan slowly stood up from behind the broken rock, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and surveyed the ravaged battlefield. There was no fatigue in his eyes, only increasingly fervent ambition and cold calculation.
He murmured to himself, his voice scattered by the night wind:
"Next time, I need to invite a bigger 'guest' in."
And far away in the heavens, unknown to Gu Xuan, beneath the forbidden zone perpetually shrouded by black vortex-like clouds, that colossal Black Shadow standing like a giant monument, seemingly unchanging since antiquity—those "eyes" that appeared to be formed from the purest darkness and stillness—at this moment... slowly shifted direction, as if crossing infinite space to cast a glance.