Relying solely on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the Qiankun Mirror simply won't be enough.

Especially when one is ready to turn traitor at any moment, and the other is prone to going crazy at the drop of a hat.

But you refine pills very quickly.

To be precise, it's the Nine Provinces Cauldron that refines pills quickly.

When a Great Dao Immortal Artifact refines pills, does it need to be as slow and tedious as an ordinary alchemy furnace?

What would be the point of calling it a Great Dao Immortal Artifact then?

Of course it doesn't!

You just toss the raw materials inside, and Da Chun immediately rolls out the pills for you.

"Yi Brother! The pill's ready!"

"Good!"

"What kind of pill is this?"

"A Sleeping Pill!"

"How is he supposed to take it?"

"If I say he can take it, then he can take it!"

More than half of the Shen Family Founding Ancestor's body had already crawled out of the banner.

The moment he emerged and saw the devastated Star Force Mystic Realm, his mentality shattered on the spot.

"My Star Force Mystic Realm! What on earth have you done here?! You thief! Do you have any idea how precious this place is?! I swear I'll grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes—Gulp!"

The guy was roaring in fury, his mouth wide open.

Taking advantage of his intense emotional turmoil and lack of focus, you moved with lightning speed and stuffed that pill right into his mouth.

Even the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was dumbfounded.

"Is this right?! Am I going crazy too??"

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor was even more bewildered.

"How is this possible... I'm in a soul state, how can a soul ingest a pill?"

Under normal circumstances, of course it couldn't.

But you are a steadfast Materialist Warrior!

What ghosts are you talking about?!

There are no ghosts in this world, only people pretending to be ghosts to scare others!

How can a person not take a pill? Huh? Answer me! Looking my eyes!

"It actually worked..."

To be honest, you were gambling a bit just now.

You knew that "Materialist Warrior" allowed you to see ghosts and hit ghosts, but making a ghost take a pill was definitely a first.

You weren't sure if it would work either.

But given the situation just now, you had no choice but to try a desperate remedy.

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor felt drowsy and wanted to sleep.

He couldn't comprehend any of this.

After over thirty thousand years of dedicated research into eighteen different disciplines, he had never encountered anything so bizarre!

Suddenly, he had an epiphany!

"I understand! All of this is fake! It's an inner demon! I must have gone berserk from cultivation, fallen into an inner demon illusion! Only in a delusional world would such unreasonable things happen! Hahaha!!"

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor seemed to have seen through everything.

The Sleeping Pill's effect took hold. With a peaceful smile, the Shen Family Founding Ancestor sank into a deep sleep inside the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

The immediate crisis had passed.

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor was still trapped within the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. Before falling asleep, he sealed himself off again, preventing the banner from refining him.

"Two more years left, damn it, I'm going all out!"

You began to study the forging of Heaven-Grade Spirit Artifacts without rest.

When you were so exhausted you couldn't hold on, you refined Wakefulness Pills to forcibly restore your energy!

When you were so tired you couldn't even lift your hands, you refined Stimulant Pills to forcibly activate your adrenaline!

You were truly going all out this time!

Year Thirty-Nine, age fifty-seven.

Over the past year or so, the Shen Family Founding Ancestor had caused trouble several more times.

Every time he acted up, you fed him the prepared pills.

If that didn't work, you shot a couple of keywords at him to knock him senseless, then fed him the pills.

You almost gave that old geezer drug resistance.

"Success!"

Heaven rewards the diligent!

You finally forged a Heaven-Grade Spirit Artifact!

Even as practice, you followed the standard of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner for refining.

Although, due to incomplete materials, the Heaven-Grade Spirit Artifact Ten Thousand Souls Banner you refined was far inferior to the one the Shen Family had made.

But after "Enhancement!" strengthened it, it directly filled in the gaps and became a perfect Immortal Artifact Ten Thousand Souls Banner!

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner's Artifact Spirit howled with excitement.

"Awooo—I'm not lacking anything anymore!!"

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner, carrying its original vessel and the demon souls, Feng Yucheng, and the Shen Family Founding Ancestor inside, all entered the new body!

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

You heard a series of mechanical clicking and shifting sounds coming from within the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

"What are you doing?"

"No master craftsman in this world knows the Ten Thousand Souls Banner better than me, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner Artifact Spirit itself!"

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was modifying this Immortal Artifact to make it more similar to its original form.

Although it couldn't be made identical, according to the banner spirit itself, if its spirit body could fully recover, it could unleash at least ninety percent of its original power!

That's enough.

Once the modifications were complete, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner wasted no time and immediately began refining the Shen Family Founding Ancestor.

Before, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner couldn't touch the Shen Family Founding Ancestor, but now it was different!

"Ten Thousand Souls Banner! How dare you?!"

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor sensed the banner's intention and was shocked to discover that the Ten Thousand Souls Banner seemed capable of refining his soul, which would erase his own consciousness!

"Shen Ancestor! My last master before I was shattered, known throughout the jianghu as the 'Evil Banner King,' do you still remember him?"

"I have heard of the Evil Banner King's fearsome reputation even in the Starry Domains. What about him?"

"He killed one of your Shen Family disciples who was training on the mortal plane, which led to your Shen Family army hunting him down! Your Shen Family's influence is terrifyingly vast, managing to unite both humans and demons to hunt him together!"

"Hmph, someone who uses an evil artifact like you to commit atrocities, a mass murderer, shouldn't he be killed?"

"He deserved to die! I also deserved to be destroyed! I'm not saying he shouldn't have! What I'm trying to say is... the wheel of fate turns. Today, I am reborn from the ashes, and you are about to fall into my hands!"

The situation inside the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was a contest between spirit bodies, a display of the Immortal Artifact's divine power.

You currently have no divine sense, so you can't see what's happening inside.

But it must be a difficult battle.

This hard fight lasted a full month.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was not fighting alone.

You, Da Chun, and the Qiankun Mirror were all outside the banner, lending your support.

Finally, the great task was accomplished!

The Shen Family Founding Ancestor's soul body now stood motionless before you.

"Jump once."

He jumped once.

"Squat down."

He squatted down.

"Take a couple of steps." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

He took a couple of steps.

He completely obeyed your commands!

He had been refined into a soul slave!

"Unfortunately, this soul slave cannot unleash the full combat power of the Shen Family Founding Ancestor. Because it's the soul body after the failed possession backlash, although it has recovered somewhat, it hasn't returned to its peak state. Then again, if he were at his peak, I wouldn't have been able to refine him either."

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner's tone was cocky, brimming with self-satisfaction.

"A Shen Family Founding Ancestor not at his peak should still be useful enough. The real hard battle is yet to come!"

Year Forty, age fifty-eight.

The entrance to the Star Force Mystic Realm opened. The entire Shen Family of the Starry Domains stood in the starry void outside.

They were arranged neatly in three echelons according to the Sun Lineage, Moon Lineage, and Star Lineage, a vast, dark mass of people.

Those who could fly hovered in the air directly; those who couldn't had Levitation Talismans stuck to them.

As your figure slowly walked out from the entrance, the entire starry domain echoed with the mountain-shaking cheers of the entire Shen Family.

"The Shen Clan congratulates the Founding Ancestor on obtaining a new body! May the Shen Family prosper and never decline for ten thousand generations!"