The sensation of his Soul falling felt like drowning, but Gu Xuan’s mind remained as still as an ancient well.
When his consciousness reassembled, he found himself in an entirely new Spirit Sea space he had never set foot in before.
This place was no longer the platform holding only a solitary palace hall, but an abyss enveloped by endless darkness.
In the center of the abyss, a massive pool shaped like an inverted ancient cauldron dominated the entire view. The pool did not contain clear water, but churning, boiling black liquid, viscous like melted ink, emitting a Yin Energy chill that pierced the Soul.
The seven twisted, struggling Soul Shadows were precisely the Spook Ghosts from the Xu Zi Ying. They floated above the Black Water, and every roll brought forth silent wails, as if enduring unspeakable torture.
Just as Gu Xuan was scrutinizing this bizarre space, a cold message surfaced automatically in his mind:
“Black Water Pool · Initial Formation: Can nurture, tame, and catalyze the remnant Souls of those suppressed, generating 'Yin Gui' or extracting fragments of divine abilities.”
Divine ability fragments?
Gu Xuan’s gaze swept over the seven Soul Shadows, his heart remaining completely unmoved.
No matter how fierce these Xu Zi Ying soldiers were in life, after death and transforming into Spook Ghosts, all their martial arts had long been eroded by resentment and madness. What useful things could possibly be extracted?
His attention finally settled on the words "Yin Gui."
These were not resources for extraction; they were weapons.
And weapons should be used to draw blood!
With a thought, Gu Xuan’s intent transformed into an invisible great hand, precisely plucking out the most frantic and struggling remnant soul from the seven Soul Shadows.
That remnant soul seemed to sense a deeper terror; its twisted face was full of resistance, yet it could not resist this will emanating from the Dian Zhu of the Demon Suppression Hall.
“Plop!”
The Soul Body was mercilessly thrown into the Black Water Pool.
Instantly, the Black Water, which had only been slowly churning, suddenly erupted like a school of sharks smelling blood!
Countless black tentacles shot out from the depths of the pool, tightly wrapping around the remnant soul. More transformed into sharp filaments, frantically drilling into the Soul Body through its seven orifices and pores!
“Ah—”
An extremely piercing, silent shriek exploded in Gu Xuan’s consciousness—a mental shock purely composed of agony, enough to cause instant Soul Dispersal in anyone with a weak will.
The remnant soul thrashed and convulsed violently in the Black Water, its Soul Body visibly thinning and shrinking at a visible rate.
That feeling was less like Refinement and more like a bone-scraping baptism administered through the cruelest form of torture.
Resentment, madness, the Resolve from life, the unwillingness after death... all complex emotions and memories were stripped away, ground to nothingness, bit by bit, under the erosion of this Black Water.
In just a moment, the Black Water Pool returned to calm.
The volume of that remnant soul had shrunk by nearly half. The previous frantic aura was completely gone, replaced by a deathly stillness.
It slowly rose from the Black Water, hovering by the edge of the pool. Its eyes, once filled with madness and malice, actually regained a faint, almost imperceptible clarity. Then, it lowered its head and knelt in the direction of Gu Xuan.
Gu Xuan suddenly understood clearly.
This "taming" by the Black Water Pool was not simply refining energy, but using extreme agony as the price to wash away all distracting thoughts and Resolve from the remnant soul, precisely preserving only its core combat instinct and absolute will of obedience.
This was the birth method of the "Yin Gui."
Cruel, efficient, and powerful.
Gu Xuan moved his thoughts and issued a simple command to this newly born Yin Gui: “Patrol the boundary.”
The Yin Gui silently stood up, without the slightest hesitation. Its entire Soul Body instantly transformed into a faint wisp of black smoke, silently slipping out of Gu Xuan’s Spirit Sea space and merging into the real world under the deep night, without causing the slightest ripple of energy fluctuation in the physical realm.
Gu Xuan sat cross-legged in place, eyes tightly shut, yet his consciousness extended infinitely along with that wisp of black smoke.
The next moment, a wondrous sensory connection, unprecedented before, was established.
His vision instantly switched, as if he himself had transformed into that wandering black smoke.
Within a hundred zhang, the swaying of every blade of grass in the night breeze, the chirping of every insect in the soil, the scurrying of every mouse along the field ridges—everything was perfectly clear, terrifyingly detailed!
This was a form of perception that surpassed the five senses, almost like a domain.
The Yin Gui moved rapidly along the ground, following the command.
Soon, Gu Xuan’s “vision” captured a trace of abnormality.
Two li away, in a long-abandoned mass grave, several cold currents of Yin Energy were slowly escaping and gathering from a few newly added mounds. The Corpse Fiend Qi contained within grew increasingly dense, clearly indicating that a new corpse transformation was imminent.
Gu Xuan slowly opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing through them and vanishing.
“So... I can use them to ‘see’ this world for me,” he murmured to himself, a cold curve forming on his lips.
This was not just gaining an extra thug; it was gaining a pair of eyes that could penetrate any dangerous place!
The night deepened, and Gu Xuan’s figure moved through the field ridges like a phantom, soon stealthily reaching the edge of that mass grave.
Yin winds howled intermittently, mixed with the fishy smell of soil and the stench of decaying corpses. An ordinary person would feel uneasy staying there for even a moment longer.
He did not rush to attack but hid behind a withered, crooked tree, remotely controlling the Yin Gui through the mental connection.
Receiving the command, the Yin Gui, abandoning its previous stealth, actively released a wisp of Yin Energy, transforming into a clearly visible Black Shadow, which swaggered right through the center of the mass grave.
This deliberately exposed movement was like dropping a drop of cold water into boiling oil.
“Roar!”
The earth covering three new graves suddenly burst open, and three newly emerged corpses, covered in white fur with greenish-black claws, roared as they clawed their way out!
Their hollow eye sockets gleamed with a craving for living flesh. Upon capturing the pure Yin Energy of the Yin Gui, they immediately made it their target, pursuing it frantically with stiff yet swift steps.
Following Gu Xuan’s instructions, the Yin Gui neither fought nor fled, merely circling in place, deliberately displaying a weak posture.
The three corpses instantly surrounded it, their sharp claws tearing mercilessly into the Yin Gui’s Soul Body. Every strike tore away large patches of black smoke.
The Yin Gui’s aura rapidly weakened, appearing as if it would be completely torn apart by these three low-level zombies the next second.
Just as they were about to deliver the final blow and completely destroy the Yin Gui—
Gu Xuan, hidden in the shadows, had his eyes suddenly turn cold!
“Retrieve!”
He violently urged the Black Water Pool in his Spirit Sea, switching from “taming” to “plundering.” A formless, supremely domineering reverse suction force erupted violently from the Yin Gui!
The movements of the three zombies about to strike the killing blow froze simultaneously.
Innumerable fine black threads burst forth from the core of the Corpse Qi within them, as if the very source of their power had been seized by an invisible great hand!
This force was not acting upon their physical bodies, but directly locking onto the muddled Souls within them!
In the next instant, three remnant souls—even weaker and more muddled than the Yin Gui—were forcibly ripped out of the corpses’ crown openings by this domineering power. Letting out a silent lament, they transformed into three streaks of light, crossing space, and were all pulled into Gu Xuan’s Spirit Sea!
“Boom!”
The water in the Black Water Pool churned again, and the water level actually rose slightly. The three newly arrived remnant souls floated powerlessly in the pool, in a state even weaker than the previous Spook Ghosts.
Gu Xuan was in no hurry to refine them into new Yin Gui. Quantity was less important than quality.
His intent transformed into a great hand once more, scooping up one of the three new souls, and then... injecting it in reverse into the body of the first Xu Zi Ying Yin Gui!
“Ah!”
The Yin Gui let out a low roar that was both painful and excited. Its Soul Body began to swell and contract violently, as if undergoing a brutal process of devouring and fusion.
A moment later, when everything settled, its Soul Body was several points more substantial than before. The most obvious change was that within the depths of those eyes, which previously held only a slight clarity, a pinprick of faint crimson now appeared!
The system prompt reappeared:
“Yin Gui · Advancement: Can carry multiple remnant souls, Soul Body strength increased, possesses simple tactical judgment ability.”
Gu Xuan nodded in satisfaction.
This entity was no longer mere cannon fodder, but the nascent form of a “Ghost General” capable of executing simple tactical commands on his behalf.
Having resolved the trouble at the mass grave, Gu Xuan turned to head back.
Just as he was passing through a patch of woods, a bone-chilling coldness suddenly struck his chest, immediately followed by a burning heat.
He paused his steps and abruptly lowered his head to pull open his robes.
There, the Copper Token of the Xu Zi Ying, which he had personally pressed into his *Shanzhong* acupoint, now seemed to possess life, emerging from the flesh and adhering tightly to his skin.
Even stranger, the outline of the token and the character "Xu" upon it were branding a mysterious, dark Seal onto his chest. The strokes of the Seal writhed slightly like living things, emitting an ominous aura.
Simultaneously, inside the Demon Suppression Hall within his Spirit Sea, the six remaining Xu Zi Ying remnant souls floating in the Black Water Pool abruptly ceased struggling.
They all looked up simultaneously, gazing in the same direction—South—and began uttering low, unintelligible chants.
One sound, two sounds, six fragmented syllables converged, miraculously piecing together a complete final message filled with despair and warning, crossing death and time, echoing clearly in the depths of Gu Xuan’s mind:
“The South Gate has fallen, Sky Split brings punishment... Do not return!”
Gu Xuan’s steps froze completely. He suddenly looked up, gazing toward the distant horizon shrouded in night to the South.
The massive vortex cloud layer he had glimpsed the night before had not dissipated; instead, it appeared even more oppressive and deep.
And beneath the clouds, that terrifying Black Shadow, which he had only caught a glimpse of—resembling a colossal, heaven-reaching monument—seemed... lower tonight in his perception.
It was as if some colossal entity was pressing down upon this land, inch by inch.