Chapter 183: Recondensing the Ghostly Form (Part 1)
iao Yu glanced at the bowed heads of everyone present, took a deep breath, looked towards the distance, and said in a solemn voice: "This is reality. The lives of ordinary people are roughly like this...Chapter 183: Reincarnating the Ghostly Form (Part 1)
"Little Eight, you and your team guard this place; nobody is allowed to enter, not even the young miss!" Upon seeing Xiao Yu and the earth ghost approaching, the old ghost turned back towards the leader of the ghost soldiers with a solemn expression.
"Yes, Brother!" Hearing the old ghost call him Little Eight, the ghost soldier realized that they were now in peacetime and thus changed his address accordingly.
The ghost soldier spoke, then he and the other ghost soldiers surrounded the entrance to the cave completely.
The old ghost glanced at Xiao Yu and the earth ghost before saying, "Follow me!"
With that, he floated into the large cave. He was very puzzled now; it seemed like there was a deep connection between this old ghost and his master, yet he had never heard his master mention anything about him.
Xiao Yu exchanged glances with the earth ghost before following the old ghost into the cave. The entrance to the cave sloped downward at an angle of around seventy degrees.
The entrance was barely a meter wide, and Xiao Yu couldn’t jump in even if he tried; instead, he had no choice but to slide down as one would on a slide.
After dropping about four or five meters, Xiao Yu’s feet touched solid ground. He dodged the obstacles above him and stood up.
The moment he stood up, an extremely dense aura of yin energy enveloped him, but when it reached Xiao Yu's vicinity, it suddenly dispersed.
As it was night time, there wasn’t a single ray of light in the cave. Xiao Yu had no choice but to activate his Yin-Yang Eyes; although everything inside appeared only in shades of black and white without any other colors, he could at least see clearly.
Xiao Yu stood by the entrance from which he’d come down and surveyed the surroundings. This was a huge space with a height of around three meters and an area of about 300 square meters; the old ghost and earth ghost were hovering nearby.
Turning his body, Xiao Yu looked back at the entrance from which he had descended; it was on one wall of this dark space, looking like the gaping mouth of a monster.
The thick aura of yin energy surrounded him but dissipated when it came within an arm's length of him.
"Young Master, follow me!" The earth ghost said to Xiao Yu, who was standing at the entrance.
Xiao Yu nodded and followed the old ghost and the earth ghost towards the center of this space.
As he walked, Xiao Yu observed that the floor, walls, and roof were all made of blue bricks; the ground was very dry and hadn’t become damp due to being underground.
Seeing everything before him, Xiao Yu thought to himself: Could this be an ancient tomb No, it must be one. Just then, he noticed that in the center of the space there was a large coffin.
This dense aura of yin煞 energy seemed to be surging out from beneath the large coffin.
The one person and two ghosts walked towards the center of the ancient tomb. As they were walking, Xiao Yu suddenly noticed a few dark, shadowy objects on the ground.
Seeing that Xiao Yu was looking at these dark objects, the old ghost said, "Those are a few corpses. These people should be grave robbers who died from being frightened to death by the hallucinations caused by the thick yin energy here! And that hole over there is what they made!"
After saying this, the old ghost pointed at the entrance of the cave where they had come down.
They arrived in the center of the ancient tomb. In the middle stood a broad and sturdy coffin. Around it was a skeleton wearing iron armor leaning against the coffin; several iron arrows were embedded through its chest.
Around this skeleton, twenty skeletons covered with decayed rags were scattered all around it. Each one either lay or reclined with their hands gripping their throats.
Xiao Yu was taken aback by this sight, realizing that these twenty skeletons had apparently suffocated to death here. This reminded him of an ancient custom—human sacrifice as burial accompaniments.
Seeing this scene made Xiao Yu's gaze turn icy cold; the master of this tomb must have been extremely powerful to use so many living people as sacrificial offerings.
Suddenly, Xiao Yu paused. Wasn't that person in iron armor the current form of this old ghost Then these... were those twenty ghost soldiers
However, looking at the appearance of those ghost soldiers, they didn’t seem to be forced into sacrifice but rather seemed willing to die with the old ghost.
The old ghost walked to the coffin in the center of the ancient tomb and knelt down, saying, "Master, your disciple has brought them here as you instructed!"
"Mm... These years have been hard for you. Stand aside first," a weak voice came from within the coffin.
The earth ghost anxiously called out to the coffin, "Xiao Shui, Xiao Shui! Is it really you"
"Little Earth... Little Earth... It's me... Me... How are you Are you alright" a weak voice from within the coffin stuttered.
"I'm fine, Xiao Shui. Come out quickly!"
"Ah, I can't get out!" came another weak reply from inside the coffin.
"What's wrong What happened Why can't you come out" The earthbound ghost floated above the coffin, asking anxiously.
“Sigh...” The water-bound ghost sighed and told the earthbound ghost about it in detail.
It turned out that back then, due to helping Zhong Kui fend off calamity, the water-bound ghost suffered severe damage to its origin energy. Seeing his body’s origin energy about to dissipate, the water-bound ghost used a secret technique to condense all of his origin energy into a fist-sized yin stone and hid his consciousness within it.
The cost of this was that his consciousness could never leave the yin stone; once he did, without origin energy support, his consciousness would likely disperse in the world very quickly.
After the great calamity, the yin stone transformed by him was picked up by a weak ghost cultivator and used as an invaluable cultivation treasure.
Until one day, this ghost cultivator was exterminated by a Taoist from Maoshan, and his yin stone was taken into their treasure vault.
Later on, a descendant of Maoshan took the yin stone with him to raise ghosts. When he came to the seaside, he encountered rampant Japanese pirates. He was poisoned first and then ambushed by some Japanese pirates who knew rudimentary five-elements teleportation techniques and ghost-raising methods. Although he killed most of the pirates, due to poisoning, he was eventually killed by the remaining pirates.
The yin stone condensed from the water-bound ghost's origin energy was treated as a supreme treasure by these Japanese pirates. Later on, he learned that they were called ninjas and onmyoji.
Old Ghost Jinfeng was an anti-Japanese general who led his troops to encounter this devastating bandit force. But given the extraordinary nature of the enemy, Jinfeng’s army only had him and twenty men left when they managed to eliminate that bandit force.
This was because the water-bound ghost unleashed one burst from the origin energy condensed in the yin stone to win; otherwise, even if his entire army were wiped out, they wouldn't necessarily have won.
After returning, the water-bound ghost took Jinfeng as a disciple and taught him martial arts. Later on, because of severe depletion of yin qi origin energy, he instructed Old Ghost Jinfeng to find this extremely yin ghost-raising cave and built an ancient tomb here to nourish the yin stone.
Later, when Old Ghost Jinfeng was ambushed by Japanese pirates and seriously injured, he intended to see his master, Water-bound Ghost, for one last time. But Water-bound Ghost told him that if he stayed here, his ghost could survive.
Old Ghost Jinfeng gathered the remaining twenty trusted brothers, who were survivors from villages massacred by Japanese pirates and also among the earliest followers of Old Ghost Jinfeng.
He asked them to seal up the tomb; however, when these brothers knew that their leader was about to die and they themselves had nothing left牽掛, they all stayed behind as burial offerings.
After sealing off the tomb, Water-bound Ghost instructed these people to set up a gathering yin array with jade stones taken from Japanese pirates in the tomb to gather the yin qi of this extremely yin ghost-raising cave and nurture the yin stone condensed by his yin qi origin energy.
Until a year ago, when several grave robbers dug it open and destroyed the large gathering yin array here, causing the dark qi of this extremely yin ghost-raising cave to leak out. As a result, Water-bound Ghost's yin qi origin energy gradually dissipated, and he just had another burst; now, Water-bound Ghost is very weak.
The water-bound ghost’s original source yin stone was severely depleted in its earlier years, though later nourished by this extremely yin ghost-raising cave, it could only maintain the survival of origin energy and consciousness.
The earthbound ghost floated above the coffin, listening quietly to the water-bound ghost's recounting of his experiences over the years.
"Haha..."
After the Water Ghost finished speaking, the Earth Ghost floated above the coffin and started laughing hysterically.
"Little Earth, you untrustworthy thing! Seeing that your big brother is about to dissipate makes you happy" The Water Ghost said as he heard the Earth Ghost's laughter. Despite his words, there was no hint of disappointment in his voice; instead, it seemed somewhat joyful.
The bond between them for hundreds of years had made their relationship extremely close. Given how happy the Earth Ghost was laughing, there must be a way to help him. Nevertheless, this long-standing habit still led the Water Ghost to tease the Earth Ghost.
"Little Water, you have to beg me! Just plead with me and I'll help you, okay" The Earth Ghost circled around the coffin and said with an evil grin aimed at the Water Ghost.
"Heh heh, alright. I concede, Little Earth! Big Brother begs you—please help your big brother!"
The Water Ghost didn't expect the Earth Ghost to still be joking around in such a situation. But the more he did so, the surer the Water Ghost became that there was indeed a way out for him. With this thought, the Water Ghost couldn’t help but chuckle as he spoke.
Jin Feng also couldn't help but laugh upon hearing his master's words; he never imagined that his stern and enigmatic master had such another side to himself.
Xiao Yu smiled lightly seeing how both ghosts acted. It was astonishing for two spirits who had lived over a thousand years to still have this kind of playful interaction.
"Alright, I'll help you since you begged me!" The Earth Ghost nodded seriously in response before bursting into laughter again.
Actually, the Earth Ghost’s manner of speaking was his way of expressing emotions upon seeing a long-lost brother after centuries.
"Young Master, please do us a favor!" After stopping laughing, the Earth Ghost walked up to Xiao Yu and said.
"What Little Earth, what did you just call him" The Water Ghost screeched in alarm upon hearing this from the Earth Ghost.
After the Water Ghost’s shriek, it seemed as though he had used up all his strength; his aura became even weaker.
"Don't speak now. I'll tell you later!" The Earth Ghost turned sharply and sternly barked at the Water Ghost upon sensing that his aura was becoming fainter.
"Uh... How can we save him then"
Upon hearing that Xiao Yu himself would have to intervene, he couldn't help but ask blankly.primordial qi became increasingly thin, and these cultivators basically had no chance of breaking through further. Therefore, people with similar innate talents would become more powerful the longer t...