Battle Flag of the Damned

Beast after beast was killed as they flocked towards the new prey that entered their territory. Beasts piling up and being deconstructed with their blood red hides and scales being processed into goods.

The occasional creature was spared and brought to him normally being a mutation or being an interesting specimen. So far the creature that interested him the most was a creature that was brought to him that resembled a tyrannosaurus rex, except it was the size of a pony with very long claws on its stubby arms.

The only special thing about it was its enhanced intelligence seemingly able to learn from viewing an action only a few times. He obviously tamed it and sent it to an area within his world for it to train and live.

Within the blood mist they soon reached a point where they could barely see their own hands and the dense blood Qi became more corrosive and lethal with the whole group having to eat more pills and even Bjorne have some assistance keeping the mental corrosion at bay.

Right now, in front of them was the body of a early rank 4 beast that was just killed, and behind it he was given reports that there is a barrier of blood Qi restricting access to the other side.

He left the carriage and sent his party to his inner world temporarily as he might need to run at a moment's notice. He stands in front of the barrier attempting to put his hand against the solid blood Qi mist.

His hand however goes through it like it was normal mist, different to the reports of his shadows. He swiftly retracts his hand and has one of his stage 4 expert's tests.

Though when his hand went forward it stopped, as if it hit a wall. He then tried with both a stage 3 and 2 shadow. The stage 3's hand also got stopped while the stage 2's managed to pass through unrestricted.

However it seems that the blood Qi was so dense in that particular spot his hand instantly started turning red and blood Qi rushed into his body. His eyes started turning red and his mouth started to foam. Blood lust started to seep out of his body and his red eyes turned ravenous.

Chang swiftly chopped off the head of the subordinate and takes a second to think while the shadows disposed of the corpse. 'it seems this is a cultivation restricted barrier. Normally those appear for inheritances but there should be nothing as it would have been found during the battle on these fields.

The only guesses I can think of is that it is a natural barrier by a heavenly treasure creating its own trial ground. It is a trap made by some sect, beast or even an artifact. Or it could be a barrier set up to protect something and it thinks anything below stage 3 is simple enough too kill that it doesn't need to waste the energy preventing them access and instead focuses more on the higher cultivation people.

It could also be something I am not thinking of, but I won't know until I try it. I would like to send some pawns in but it seems stage 2's arnt powerful enough to resist it. Luckily my technique has been absorbing the blood Qi and I now have a weak affinity for it, greatly reducing its corrosion effects.'

He calls for all the shadows except for a few and stores them in his inner world while the remaining ones hid and kept the direct area clear of beasts. He then turned to the place the barrier is and walked forward with a giant shield in front of him.

He is a little embarrassed hiding behind a giant shield like a snail but a small amount of pride isn't worth his life should he be surprised attacked. He effortlessly went through the barrier and came out the other side with his skin slightly bubbling.

His skin feels like its being torched as bumps start forming and few even pop. He quickly eats a pain numbing pill and grits his teeth forcing himself through the pain.

On the other side the fog is gone and he had perfect view around him. It was a small dome like area with the ground being covered in brown dried mud, bits of metal dust and decaying weapons and armour.

In the middle was a giant flag with a blood red wooden handle and a cloth looking like dripping blood with a black devil face in the middle.

As if sensing an intruder, the flag emits a blood lust greater than anything he had seen before. His breath felt heavy and he struggled to stay conscious. He quickly tried to think of ways to deal with the situation without having to resort to moving to his inner world when he suddenly had an idea.

He pulled out a large sabre and stuck it down in front of him. Like a magnet the surrounding blood lust infused with dense blood Qi was being absorbed by it.

This was the sabre he bought a long time ago that is made of a material that sucks up blood to get stronger. So he thought he could use it to attract the blood lust being directed towards him while he can get a breath and deal with the source.

He uses his movement technique to instantly appear beside the flag. He didn't want to let the sabre out for even a millisecond more than it needs to, he can't control it right now let alone should it absorb all the surrounding blood Qi.

He summons his 3 stage 4 experts and they put their hands on his back after he said did a few second run down of his plan. He they grab the flag and uses his Qi to try supress it.

His Qi being like an ant instantly starts to get devoured, it wasn't however for all of a sudden, his Qi to sky rocket as the 3 stage 4 experts combine their own Qi and support his.

Even then it wasn't enough, so he quickly summoned all of his stage 3 experts, numbering in the hundreds and the collective Qi was finally able to contend with it.

If they kept going, they would likely be able to supress it within a day with just enough Qi but he couldn't leave the sabre out that long. He removed his mind from the flag and had them each bring out a pill.

They understood what he wanted to do so he put his consciousness back into the flag and started counting down. "3, 2, 1, Go. EAT IT NOW!!!"

They all stuffed a vibrant green pill into their mouths. The next second their Qi gained a green hue and it gained dense amount of nature energy. The sudden influx of energy caught it off guard.

With it being of the blood nature, natural nature Qi and other life Qi's are deadly against it. The sudden influx of energy prevented it from being able to match it and its blood Qi swiftly got swallowed and purified.

For a fraction of a second the flag was in a stage of weakness as it prepared to increase the Qi to fight back. Chang however didn't allow that and as if lying in wait his ant like Qi in comparison sneaked up on its core and entered before it could stop him.

Inside the core his incredibly dense Qi burst out, supressing and replacing the blood red corrupted soul within. Once done he sighs in relief and uses his remaining Qi to grab the sabre.

The sabre felt that it was going to be grabbed and taken away from its food and tried to retaliate. He was too fast however as he did not give it long enough to gather enough blood Qi to stop him, and was once again stowed away cut off from its food source.

He doesn't dare keep it in his storage ring so he stores it in the snow area of his inner world and although it can absorb blood which is also of the yin element as ice Qi, the dense and unlimited ice Qi completely supresses the sabre, freezing it entirely.

All of his shadows where somewhat tired as they lost a lot of Qi and forcefully transferred their Qi to him. If not for his insane foundation and pathway through his inner world then it would not have been possible.

He returns the stage 3's back and has 2 of the stage 4's on lookout while he has 1 rest and get Qi back, before switching. He also does the same and regain his Qi by swallowing some pills and temporarily going back to his inner world.

Fully restored on Qi he leaves and grabs the flag. He admires it while looking over the information the database compounded about it. 'So it was an artifact born from the blood of the deceased warriors fighting here. That however wouldn't be enough to birth this, so what happened is that after the thousands of years of fighting, before my kingdom even was established this was a place that a powerful cultivator had fallen.

His body rotted away and his spirit got trapped here. Over the years of fighting after that the spirit got corrupted by both time, blood Qi and the wailing regretful souls who died here.

Eventually they all combined to create the soul inhabiting this flag and through a weird phenomenon the soul and flag fused creating this treasure. The information about this was compounded from the various book in the library vaguely explaining about how this battle field had been used before for thousands of years and was a legend about a fallen cultivator dying here.

The database used that information combined with the experiences of the godly scholar who knows lots about how these treasures formed and created this explanation.

Cool, seems like the database is becoming slightly better as before it wasn't able to do complex piecing parts together and coming up with a rough explanation. Still doesn't seem to have intelligence but more like the way it views information got expanded through experience.

This flag is also pretty cool. Backstory behind, the abilities it has are pretty good. Able to attract and store blood Qi and extract souls from body's and recently deceased. I can then interrogate the souls or enslave them and put them in new artefact's.

Those are side abilities though. Its main thing it to be able to create a barrier like this one filled with dense blood Qi supressing the enemy and release the souls and corrupt them, making them attack the enemies within.

Seems like a useful defence item but also allow territorial advantage when in large fights and wars. This is a mutated ability of the original flag that was used by a general during a war who died and the flag lost it owner allowing it to turn into this. Normally artefacts are born with names by its maker but since it's a new artefact after the corrupted soul took over, I shall give it a name. From now on it shall be called "Battle Flag of the Damned" as many damned souls will be stored within it, battling in my name.

I don't want to stay here long so let's have the flag absorb all the blood Qi except the very edges making people think its still the same. I will need to spend a few days absorbing the blood Qi within the flag however, before I can fully get the blood element.'

The fog swiftly starts to swirl around the flag and becomes less and less dense. The beasts to rely of the blood Qi to survive quickly run towards the edges getting away from the area with reducing blood Qi. A few beasts go to see what's taking the Qi, but they where delt with by the shadows stationed around.

The liquid blood like silk flag became a deeper colour of red and eventually looked like a sea of blood was contained within a piece of cloth sloshing around with demon like souls appearing within the waves like fish.

He resummons everyone and the girls shower him with questions about his health and about what happened, with Yan Yin pouting over his casual remarks with worry over how he said it was a simple matter.

They then left on the carriage, using the map that was made by the birds and monkey duo to make their way to the Xiangling kingdom unseen, using the blood Qi mist as cover.