Chapter 484: I'm Just a Child
Currently, Yang Haoran still had a considerable number of souls in his possession. However, he wasn't planning to use all of them to refine Soul Pills. Many of these souls were merely ordinary departed souls. While they had committed some transgressions in life, they weren't irredeemably evil. If he used them to refine Soul Pills, they would be completely destroyed, their souls scattered.
Yang Haoran didn't want to use these types of souls for Soul Pill refinement. The reason for this decision wasn't that he feared his actions would be too sinful; rather, it was because he couldn't bring himself to do it; he couldn't cross that moral threshold.
He still decided to send these types of souls to the Underworld in batches.
As for some of the Evil Spirits, he screened them according to their circumstances. Those he deemed worth keeping, he would retain for Soul Pill refinement. Those he found unnecessary to keep, he would likewise send to the Underworld.
As for how the Underworld would deal with them after they were sent, that was beyond his consideration. After all, he didn't have the power to interfere with such matters.
Congenital Malignant Spirits and Malevolent Spirits had endured too much inhumane torment in their lives, which was why they transformed into Evil Spirits and Malevolent Spirits after death. Yang Haoran's screening criteria were specifically applied to them.
As for Evil Spirits and Malevolent Spirits that had advanced through cultivation after death, they would naturally all become materials for his Soul Pill refinement, with no exceptions.
Yang Haoran possessed a large number of departed souls and Evil Spirits, and Deng Feng's contribution was indispensable.
However, this Soul-Gathering Bead didn't contain Evil Spirits, nor the more advanced Malevolent Spirits. Instead, it held the lowest-grade departed souls.
The fact that they were chosen by Yang Haoran to be materials for Soul Pill refinement, rather than being sent to the Underworld, could only mean they were truly "outstanding".
With a flick of his hand, a Soul Thread was forcibly drawn out from within the Soul-Gathering Bead by Yang Haoran. The moment the Soul Thread left the Soul-Gathering Bead, it immediately transformed into a mass of Yin Qi, attempting to seize the opportunity to escape.
Yang Haoran smiled, making no apparent movement. Suddenly, a black chain shot out from inside the Soul-Refining Cauldron.
When the chain shot out of the Soul-Refining Cauldron, it was only as thick as a pinky finger. As it extended, it grew progressively thicker. Once the chain reached the thickness of an adult's arm, it stopped expanding.
The chain was incredibly fast; the Yin Qi, transformed from the Soul Thread, had only just darted out, when it was firmly bound by the chain that had burst forth from the Soul-Refining Cauldron.
A man's furious roar emanated from within this mass of Yin Qi. However, the man's voice sounded somewhat childish, suggesting he hadn't been very old when he died.
As the roar echoed, the mass of Yin Qi struggled violently. It seemed intent on breaking free from the chains.
Unfortunately, his struggles had no effect whatsoever. Instead, the more he struggled, the tighter the chains wrapped around him became.
Finally, amidst a torrent of curses, the mass of Yin Qi transformed into a young boy.
The boy's face was distorted in a ferocious, menacing expression. Even bound by chains, he showed no sign of submission.
“Don't you know who I am? Do you f*cking know who I am? ! Even the teachers at school wouldn't dare treat me like this—”
Slap!
Before the boy could finish speaking, Yang Haoran delivered a resounding slap across the air, striking him hard across the face.
Yang Haoran's slap was condensed from Spirit Power, so even though the boy had no physical body, the slap still landed with full force.
Having been severely slapped by Yang Haoran, the boy showed no restraint whatsoever; instead, he grew even angrier.
“Damn you, how dare you hit me? ! The last guy who hit me, his grave grass is already—”
Slap!
Another crisp sound, as Yang Haoran slapped the boy's face again. This time, Yang Haoran struck with considerable force, directly smashing half of his face.
“You forcibly assaulted a female classmate at school, but because you were underage, the laws of the New Beginning Realm couldn't punish you. Your mother slapped you for it, and yet you stabbed her over a dozen times while she was asleep. You tried to move her body out of the stairwell, but you slipped going downstairs and ended up stabbing yourself to death with the knife you were carrying. I know everything about you, so there’s no need to put on an act in front of me. ”
Yang Haoran spoke calmly. As he spoke, the boy’s face, which Yang Haoran had smashed with his slap, returned to normal.
There was no trace of remorse on the boy’s face. Instead, he looked quite smug, as if immensely proud of his actions.
“If you don't want me to stab you a dozen times, you’d better release me right now! ” The boy’s face was full of provocation, looking as if he wanted to devour someone.
“Hmph, truly pathetic. You’ve already died once, yet you still don’t know the immensity of heaven and earth. Not everyone is your mother or father; they won’t indulge your every whim. And certainly, I won’t either. ”
As his voice faded, the chains began to retract. With a rattling sound, they forcibly dragged the boy’s Spirit Body towards the interior of the Soul-Refining Cauldron.
“You piece of trash! What do you want to do to me? ! ”
Curses once again spewed from the boy’s mouth. Yang Haoran had no intention of indulging him and slapped him again.
This slap was even heavier than the previous one, directly smashing the boy’s entire head.
The boy’s shattered head quickly reformed. But Yang Haoran’s blows, each heavier than the last, still forced him to let out a miserable wail.
To be honest, at this moment, he was finally afraid. Yang Haoran was far more violent than he had imagined. He worried that Yang Haoran’s next slap would directly shatter his Spirit Body.
However, the scene that followed immediately doubled the fear in his heart. As the chains rapidly retracted into the Soul-Refining Cauldron, his Spirit Body also drew closer to it.
The instant his Spirit Body touched the Soul-Refining Cauldron, a bizarre force immediately enveloped him. His feet twisted, shrinking to the size of a pinky finger, and were forcibly sucked into the Soul-Refining Cauldron.
As his feet were absorbed into the cauldron, his lower body quickly followed, shrinking to pinky size and vanishing after his feet.
The boy was genuinely terrified now. He knew that if this continued, his entire body would be absorbed into this cauldron. Although he didn’t know what the cauldron was used for, he understood that once he was completely sucked into the Soul-Refining Cauldron, his fate would definitely be miserable.
This guess had no basis; it was merely an intuition. However, he trusted that his intuition wouldn’t be wrong.
His self-proclaimed ferocity had now become a joke. He, who only lorded over his own kind and bullied the weak, was so utterly vulnerable when faced with a truly ruthless individual like Yang Haoran.
The arrogance and ferocity that had previously marked his face were gone. In their place was panic and helplessness, along with a deep fear of the unknown fate awaiting him.
“I was wrong, Uncle! I was wrong! Please, spare me! Let me go! I’m just a child who didn't know any better! Please, let me go! ”
Yang Haoran completely ignored the boy. He had no intention of letting him go either. Since he had decided to use the boy's soul as material for Soul Pill refinement, then no matter what the boy said or did, it couldn't change his decision. After all, his decision had been made after careful deliberation.
The boy’s soul was forcibly sucked into the Soul-Refining Cauldron. If one were to look down into the cauldron from above at this moment, they would clearly see a tiny figure, no bigger than a finger, struggling frantically inside. However, a chain was wrapped around the tiny figure, firmly pinning it to the bottom of the Soul-Refining Cauldron, so no matter how fiercely the tiny figure struggled, it couldn't break free from the chains' binding.
The boy’s cries continued to echo from within the Soul-Refining Cauldron. These heart-wrenching cries were filled with terror. However, these agonizing screams failed to move Yang Haoran. Instead, they merely added a chilling, eerie atmosphere to the study.
Although the boy was ferocious, he was ultimately just a departed soul. Departed souls have limited power, and it was simply unrealistic to try to refine a Soul Pill from a single one. Therefore, Yang Haoran needed to put more departed souls into the Soul-Refining Cauldron.
To be precise, what Yang Haoran was refining was not a Soul Pill, but a Soul Crystal.
However, successfully refining a Soul Crystal was extremely difficult, with a very low chance of success. Therefore, under normal circumstances, what was produced was a Soul Pill, not a Soul Crystal. And to put it directly, a Soul Pill was merely the byproduct of a failed Soul Crystal refinement.
Precisely because refining Soul Crystals was incredibly difficult, Yang Haoran hadn’t even considered that he could successfully refine one. His demands were not high; he would be perfectly satisfied if he could obtain a satisfactory number of Soul Pills from each refinement.
Although Soul Pills were the byproduct of failed Soul Crystal refinements, it was still quite good to obtain Soul Pills with each refinement. If the refinement completely failed and yielded nothing, that would be the worst outcome.
Since he hadn’t truly considered the possibility of refining a Soul Crystal, Yang Haoran simply referred to his current method of refining Soul Crystals as "refining Soul Pills."
Considering the worst possible outcome, Yang Haoran decided not to use Evil Spirits or Malevolent Spirits for his first Soul Pill refinement. He chose departed souls as his material. This way, even if the materials were truly wasted, he wouldn't feel too bad.
Only when his proficiency in this area truly improved, or when his supply of departed souls was exhausted, would he begin to use the Evil Spirits and Malevolent Spirits in his possession.
With a flick of his hand, another Soul Thread was forcibly drawn out from within the Soul-Gathering Bead. Unlike the previous boy, this Soul Thread, upon being extracted from the Soul-Gathering Bead, immediately transformed into a burly middle-aged man, his face contorted in a ferocious expression, as he charged directly towards Yang Haoran, who was sitting cross-legged below.
Judging by his appearance, he seemed intent on devouring Yang Haoran whole.
Yang Haoran found this fellow somewhat amusing. Forget that he was an Underworld Official; even if he were an ordinary person, this fellow wouldn't have the ability to devour him. At most, he could only scare him.
Compared to the previous boy, this burly man in front of him was indeed a ruthless individual. It was just that his brain wasn’t quite up to par.
Although the burly man was different from the boy, Yang Haoran's attitude towards him was the same as it had been towards the boy. Facing the burly man who ferociously lunged at him, he greeted him with a slap.
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