A figure in black, holding a staff, stood beneath the throne.
Countless other black-clad figures knelt on one knee.
“High Priest.”
“A powerful being has intruded into the Ghost Realm.”
“The cave where the Master slumbers must not be compromised.”
The High Priest gripped his staff tightly, his face concealed by the hood of his black robe. His voice was as raspy as a crow’s.
“The path the Master has chosen was determined only after hundreds of years of experimentation. Once she succeeds, no one in this world will be a match for her again.”
“Even Subject Number One, who was lost, is not even a fraction as perfect as the modifications the Master has performed on herself.”
“To forcibly step into the path of Ghost Cultivation with a body of flesh and blood—what a brilliant and stunning idea. The Master — she is about to complete the final step of her sublimation.”
“The world knows that while no one can match the cultivation speed of a Ghost Cultivator, it is nearly impossible for them to enter the Source Level.”
“However, if one uses a flesh-and-blood body to complete the sublimation of their soul and finally merges with their previously preserved physical body, they can perfectly avoid the greatest drawback of Ghost Cultivation.”
“Once the Master succeeds, this will be the greatest epic breakthrough in the history of Ghost Cultivation.”
The High Priest’s laughter echoed through the hall.
The future — it would ultimately belong to the Ghost Cultivators. This victory belonged to their entire faction.
As the former First Evil Cultivator, the Master would crave battle and bloodshed more than anyone else. The day when Ghost Cultivation unified all worlds was not far off.
After a long silence, the High Priest waved his staff.
“The cave where the Master sleeps must not be compromised. With the cover of the formation, it is virtually impossible for anyone else to find her location. There is no need to pay mind to this supreme powerhouse who has forced her way into the Ghost Realm.”
“As long as she does not strike at the Master, let her do whatever she pleases in the Ghost Realm.”
“Of course, we still need to keep up appearances. Send a team to their deaths every twelve hours.”
The High Priest gave a cold sneer. “No matter how many ‘Sources’ of power you possess, once the Master wakes up, you can only die obediently. I hope you are sensible enough to leave early.”
“Soon.”
“It’s coming soon.”
He repeated the phrase over and over, like a man talking in his sleep.
At the highest point of the Great Hall, a soul incense stick in front of the throne had burned down to its final portion. Only a tiny bit at the end remained unconsumed.
The High Priest stared at the thin wisps of green smoke rising from the incense, his eyes gradually becoming frenzied.
“There is only — the final fifteen days left.”
“The final sublimation of two thousand years.”
Even the lowest-level Ghost Cultivator could survive for thousands of years. This was the greatest capital of a Ghost Cultivator. A Ghost Cultivator who abandoned their physical body could live forever, as long as their soul did not rot.
Correspondingly, a Ghost Cultivator who lost their body would find it extremely difficult to cultivate to the highest realms.
Every gain had its loss. Every choice had its price.
This law, which had remained unchanged for 10,000 years, was about to be personally broken by one person.
She was the unprecedented First Evil Cultivator and the legendary creator of Ghost Cultivation. She had countless fanatical followers.
In fifteen days, this powerhouse who had personally built the entire Ghost Cultivation Empire would break the most impossible curse of their kind, leading countless Ghost Cultivators to another peak of glory.
In an instant, countless people fell to their knees, shouting in unison toward the empty throne ahead.
“May the Master live forever!”
“May she ascend to the Imperial Realm!”
***
The Ghost Realm.
I stood on the deck of the spirit boat, looking down at the land where not a single living creature could be seen. “Did some tragedy occur in the Ghost Realm? Why isn’t there a single living human?”
Xi Zhiruo’s eyes were tightly shut. Countless painful memories were surfacing.
She saw a girl in a red dress, holding a black Human Emperor Banner, harvesting lives city by city. Countless people wailed. Blood stained the earth red, gathering into streams.
The Ghost Realm had once been just like the Sixth World — a prosperous world inhabited by billions of humans.
Until a girl holding the Human Emperor Banner broke in.
Everything changed.
She was obsessed with killing, cultivating through slaughter and constantly breaking through her own limits. Slaughter did not blind her; instead, it allowed her to find a unique joy in the carnage. She loved to seize the souls of the dead, watching them twist and rage in the palm of her hand.
Until one day, she saw something from the bodies of those she had tortured to death — souls emerging one by one from the corpses.
Ordinary people could not see them at all. But her gaze seemed able to pierce through the void. She saw the twisted, hostile energy deep within these souls.
This was a powerful force that caused a soul to become what commoners called a “Wraith” after death.
Suddenly, a bold idea popped into her head. A thought like never before.
If she could utilize this hostile energy born of despair, could she create a power system of her own?
She certainly couldn’t experiment on herself at first. Therefore, she killed even more people. She hoped to find a unique soul — one that could withstand all the twisted hostility and restore the sanity of a normal person through guidance.
She stopped in one city. Behind the girl was an endless stretch of scorched earth.
She saw an infant who had been abandoned by her mother. This infant’s soul was pure white, and as soon as it was born, it attracted and merged with countless nearby souls of deceased female infants.
The most pure, flawless, and holy color was stained with wisps of pitch-black hostile energy.
A Wraith, unlike any she had ever seen, was being born.
The moment the child entered the world, she was so powerful that it startled the girl.
“Do you crave slaughter?”
“Follow me, and I will make you even stronger.”
The girl grabbed a corner of the infant’s soul and laughed wildly in the middle of the ruins.
Suddenly, a teardrop fell from the sky. It hit the infant between the eyebrows, forming a silver mark.
Time seemed to freeze. An instant later, everything returned to normal. The girl had not noticed the anomaly at all.
The memory was forced to stop, and Xi Zhiruo’s eyes were filled with nothing but pain and struggle.
So, that was how she was born. Her memories were still incomplete.
What happened next? What happened after that?
What had occurred after the First Evil Cultivator took her away?
Xi Zhiruo had an intuition that something very painful must have happened afterward. So much so that just thinking about the experiences of that time caused her heart to throb uncontrollably.
“Where should we go now?”
I looked at my daughter’s pained little face and sighed. I slowly crouched down and wrapped my arms around her tenderly.
“I need to find the memories that belong to me,” Xi Zhiruo replied with a firm tone. “Therefore, I must go to a certain place.”
Xi Zhiruo silently sensed her surroundings. The location was a bit blurry, as if it were being blocked by something.
She needed to return to a cave where she had once lived. Only there could she find everything that belonged to her.
A mere blockage meant nothing.
Xi Zhiruo’s little face turned cold. She reached out and squeezed the air, causing countless laws to dissipate and scatter. Nothing could hide from her eyes.
An address appeared clearly in her mind.
“Mother, I already know where I need to go.”
She slowly took hold of my large hand and leaned her head against it. It seemed that only this could calm her recently chaotic heart.