My Cultivation Has a Progress Bar

"He’s fusing with a bloodline power that doesn’t belong to him!"

Hu Yin saw the Shrimp Demon’s situation at a glance. As she spoke, she looked at the Demon Soldiers on both banks of the river who were trying to get closer. The red light was draining their life force.

"Truly courting death..."

The Mountain Guard formed a spell, and his Primordial Spirit Consciousness unleashed a powerful demonic qi, suppressing the towering pillar of blood-red light just enough to save the Demon Soldiers ensnared by it.

"Fall back now!"

The Mountain Guard berated them coldly.

The Demon Soldiers snapped to their senses. Remembering the terrifying event that had just occurred, they scrambled away from the river.

Most of the Demon Soldiers here were from the Water Race, brought by Hu Qianqian from Baisui Lake. They had lived in human cities for years and had a basic sense of social order. If they had been from the demon clans of the forest, they might have tried to approach the river again even after being saved. After all, the powerful demon bloodline in the river held a natural attraction for the Demon Race.

"That’s the power of the Demon Gathering Banner. How did it end up here, obtained by a member of the Water Race who hasn’t even formed a Fake Pill?" Wu Quan had also recognized what was causing the trouble in the river.

"The Demon Gathering Banner, rumored to be able to gather the power of ten thousand demons?"

As the Tongming Wanderer spoke, his eyes unknowingly drifted to Wang Ping. "Rumor has it that it was suppressed beneath Bin Pass, held down by the fortune of the Zhongzhou Human Race. Some time ago, when the puppet Qi army swept through the Yunjiang and Pingzhou regions, a Demon Race army switched sides twice. They must be the ones who dug it out from under Bin Pass."

"That’s not something a member of the Water Race without even a Fake Pill can withstand." Zhigong also looked at Wang Ping.

Wang Ping felt everyone’s fervent gazes. After a moment of consideration, he looked at Hu Yin and asked, "Fellow Daoist, what are your intentions?" As he spoke, his gaze shifted to the eastern sky. Cultivators from the Liangjiang Region were rushing over. He immediately took out his waist token and sent it beneath the clouds.

Hearing Wang Ping’s words, the Mountain Guard’s eyes burned with desire as he looked at Hu Yin.

The Demon Gathering Banner, as its name implied, could gather the power of ten thousand demons to cast unbelievable magic. The price, however, was the lives of those demons. Furthermore, it could suppress the bloodline power of other members of the Demon Race to a certain extent. If a powerful demon were to obtain it, they could very well unite all the great clans of the Demon Realm.

The Daoist Scripture Hall had never assigned it a number because it wasn’t one of the Demon Soldiers, but a magical treasure refined by Demon Emperor Yaoyi. Therefore, to the Demon Race, it held an even greater symbolic meaning.

Hu Yin’s face remained impassive, showing no desire to possess the magical artifact. She cupped her fist to Wang Ping and said, "Since the Lord has asked you to take charge, Fellow Daoist, then naturally, the decision is yours."

She spoke frankly, her gaze shifting to the Shrimp Demon below, who was on the verge of collapse. "For us, this is not a stroke of luck, but a disaster. We’ve finally managed to survive here. We don’t want any more trouble."

She directed this sentence at the Mountain Guard.

Upon hearing this, the greed and desire vanished from the Mountain Guard’s face. He thought of his clan’s stable community and peaceful life in the forest. It was a simple life, but so much better than before.

POP.

With a soft pop, the Shrimp Demon’s body exploded. The moment its crimson blood and viscera touched the blood-red light, they were completely assimilated into chaotic Demon Race bloodline.

Then, the blood-red light connecting to the clouds vanished, and the parted waters of the river converged once more.

"I didn’t notice before, but there are many corpses of Demon Race Qi Cultivators at the bottom of this river..."

Ganxing scanned the surroundings, looking at the scorched marks. "It must have been from when the Demon Race attacked True Yang Mountain some time ago. A Demon Race contingent must have been passing through here and was discovered by True Yang Mountain, leading to their annihilation."

"They were probably trying to deliver the Demon Gathering Banner to the Demon Realm!" Wu Quan voiced his thoughts.

Wang Ping gave orders to those around him, "Help me stop those uninvited guests. I’ll retrieve it." After saying that and giving a nod to Yu Lian, he plunged into the river.

"So smelly!"

Yu Lian was displeased.

The river water had a heavy, foul stench, and the deeper they went, the more chaotic the spiritual energy became.

A few breaths later, Wang Ping landed on the riverbed. The water here was incredibly murky, and the bottom was covered in thick silt mixed with the countless corpses of dead fish and shrimp.

"These fish and shrimp just died. It was probably caused by that ’little sun’ from the Sun Sect heating up yesterday."

The ’little sun’ Yu Lian mentioned was Xu Chun, the Sect Leader of the Sun Sect. He had ultimately released a Sunflower that withered all life within a several-hundred-li radius of True Yang Mountain. If there had been any more delay back then, the Chu Country’s army of over a hundred thousand might have been wiped out as well.

As she spoke, profound arrays manifested on the surface of her body. Under the effect of the arrays, the water currents intensified, blasting away the muck on the riverbed.

Before long, a skeleton appeared in Wang Ping’s Primordial Spirit Consciousness. It was a demon’s skeleton. Then came more skeletons. All of them bore injuries, mostly to the sternum and skull. They must have been attacked in their final moments by someone whose strength could completely crush them.

After death, their bodies had been dragged here by some mysterious force, their flesh and blood drained dry.

"Found it!"

Yu Lian’s voice rang out in his Spirit Sea. Her form suddenly swelled in size, and with a flick of her long tail, she sent the skeletons flying, revealing a tattered red banner flag underneath. Its flag face was about the size of a standard military banner, and its pole was about two zhang long. At this moment, it lacked the world-piercing aura it had before.

"Its aura is very weak. No wonder it wasn’t discovered."

Yu Lian was about to curl her tail around the flagpole, but Wang Ping slapped her tail, stopping her. Then, Wang Ping formed a spell with his left hand and took out several blank True Talismans with his right. As his consciousness stirred, Spirit Stabilizing Talismans, carved with Wood Spirit Qi, appeared on the surface of the blank talismans.

The moment the Spirit Stabilizing Talismans appeared, they enveloped the entire banner flag, covering up even the last trace of its aura. Wang Ping then took out a new storage pouch and put the banner inside.

"Alright, let’s go up. It’s getting a little lively outside!"

Wang Ping held out his hand, and Yu Lian knowingly slipped into his sleeve. He then used the Water Separation Technique he had learned during his Qi Cultivation days to part the river water, transforming into a stream of light that shot into the sky.

Glancing around, he saw that several Second Realm Cultivators had appeared in the distant sky, ignoring his previous warning.

"Greetings, Changqing Zhenren!"

The Second Realm Cultivators cupped their fists in salute. Then, the cultivator in the lead stepped forward, saluted again, and said, "True Man, according to..."

"If there’s an issue, have Xiu Yu come talk to me himself!"

Wang Ping couldn’t be bothered with him. He had thought someone important had arrived. With that, he called to Zhigong and the others, and they transformed into a stream of light, flying toward Laishan.

Although the Second Realm Cultivators were resentful, they still had to maintain a respectful appearance. They bowed toward the direction Wang Ping had departed, only daring to straighten up after his and his companions’ figures had completely disappeared from sight.

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