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Chapter 231: The Great King Brought Me to Patrol the Mountains
What came out of the formation was also a ghost officer, and it was evident that he had a really high rank. He immediately pulled Zhu Yao into the formation, and she had already arrived in another realm in the next instant. The ghost officer named Ning Yun gave her a simple explanation as they walked.
The place she was at before was just a very small part of the Underworld. Because of the existence of the Door to the Underworld, a large number of fallen practitioners would appear there. However, most fallen practitioners had frail souls, and though they kept a little of their human intellect, they were usually fragmented and incomplete. This incompleteness was not only manifested on the ghost body itself, but also on their intellect. No wonder she felt that the ghosts she saw were acting strange, their spiritual consciousness was not completely intact.
With an incomplete spiritual consciousness, a ghost had two choices. One, to reincarnate and build their spiritual consciousness again starting from a child. Two, return to the mortal realm to recall his past life. Only then could they truly begin cultivating their spiritual body.
That strange rule of needing to scare exactly ten people in the mortal realm before ghosts could become a ghost officer, was set up to aid the ghosts in awakening their spiritual consciousnesses and restoring their intellect to normal.
She wondered if they were to scare several more people, would it raise their intellect even more?
“We’re here!” Ning Yun suddenly stopped.
In front of her eyes was a long, silvery white river. It was very broad, and the bottom of the river could be seen due to how clear the river water was, as though it was a gigantic piece of silver coloured silk. Zhu Yao was dumbfounded. There was actually such a beautiful scenery in the Underworld, this was simply illogical.
“That’s the River of Forgetfulness.” Ning Yun brought her towards the riverbank. The place was densely packed with several ghosts, and surrounded by them were about five other ghost officers dressed like Ning Yun, who were attempting to maintain order. Those ghosts looked ferocious and terrifying, different from those which were lacking brains back at the Door to the Underworld. These ghosts were filled with hostility and were extremely deranged, occasionally letting out some terrifying wails. These were the true evil ghosts of hell.
Seeing them coming over, the eyes of the ghost officers at the front sparkled.
“Ning Yun, you’re finally back.” A man came running over. As he gave Zhu Yao a scrutinizing eye, he said. “Is this a ghost who had just awakened her spiritual consciousness?”
“Mn, my luck was pretty good. I encountered one the moment I left.” Ning Yun nodded.
“That’s great, we finally have another helper.” The man heaved a sigh of relief. Looking at the crowd of ghosts at the front, he said with a resentful look. “This is why I say I hate heretic practitioners the most. They could cultivate whatever they want, but they just had to cultivate these ten-thousand-ghosts banners and gather these many evil ghosts, causing the entire space to be filled with murderous intent. It’s fine if he falls, but leaving behind so many evil ghosts really creates so much trouble for us.”
“Don’t complain anymore.” Ning Yun waved his hand. “If you have the time, might as well hurry and cleanse these evil ghosts.”
That man pouted, and then he looked at Zhu Yao with a smile. “Newcomer, you have only just birthed your spiritual consciousness, so you’re not suitable to come into the waters. Stand at the side and keep these ghosts under watch. It’s fine to scare them a little to stop them from running around.”
“… Alright.” She really was here to scare ghosts, hey.
After the man finished his instructions, he brought Ning Yun towards the river in front of the crowd of ghosts.
Zhu Yao took a closer look. There were indeed more than ten thousand evil ghosts in the crowd, lining up in several dozen queues. Though their looks were terrifying, they were still obediently staying in their lines. Occasionally, there were a few who would cause some disturbances, but as long as she stood in front of them, they would immediately turn quiet and obedient, as they tried to hide away from her with fearful looks.
Zhu Yao touched her own face. Was she really that scary?
After pondering for a moment, she figured that it was because of the word ‘Officer’ on her hand, causing these ghosts to instinctively fear her.
Ning Yun and the rest were standing at the very front of the riverbank, pushing these ghosts into the river one after another. After those ghosts entered the water, they would stay in the water for about seven minutes at most before floating out. The ghosts who came up anew had completely different looks. The murderous intent on their bodies had completely dispersed, their expressions turned peaceful and calm, and they even carried a slight form of sluggishness. Not to mention their clothes had turned snow-white in colour as well, and not even one of them had the slightest appearance of an evil ghost.
This water was really too mysterious. It’s basically a powerful detergent, and after a wash with it, even the type of clothing itself would change.
Zhu Yao curiously inspected the new ghost for a moment, and then turned to look at the evil ghost at the side. She stared at him attentively, looking for any differences.
The evil ghost at the side shivered for a moment, as though he was frightened. His ghastly head lowered, lowered, and lowered even more. In the end, as though he was unable to stand her burning gaze any longer, he weakly stretched out a hand and passed her something all of a sudden.
Zhu Yao was startled. “For me?”
The evil ghost quickly nodded.
“Thank you!” Zhu Yao curiously received it. The object was snowy white and had a reflective surface. It only had the size of a pencil, and a small portion of it was delicately carved. What was this?
Zhu Yao was doubtful, and then she saw that vile ghost plucking out something again from his hand. Then, he passed a similar object over to her. And now, two fingers were missing from his left hand…
“Uh…” Zhu Yao’s face darkened. “This can’t actually be your finger bones, right?”
That evil ghost gave her a quick glance, and then immediately looked down.
The hell, what’s with the reddened face?
Why are you giving me your bones, hey?
Seeing that she was not rejecting them, the ghost decisively broke his entire left hand, and then orderly placed each section of it onto her palm.
Then, he raised his head and stretched the corner of his lips, as though he wanted to give her a smile. However, he ended up pulling out a ferocious grin, and even let out a strange laughter. “Kekeke…”
Looking as though he was desiring praise.
Chills ran down Zhu Yao’s spine. When he was about to tear down his collarbone, she stopped the ghost who loved to give people his bones.
You’re an evil ghost, being evil and showing tricks are different, hey!
Pushing her hands, she stuffed his bones right back into his hand.
“Hold them yourself.” If you don’t want to be crippled in your next life.
The evil ghost’s expression instantly sank, and tears began to fall. He would have looked heartbroken, if not for the tears made of blood flowing down his face…
Zhu Yao hurriedly walked away. Why did these ghosts like to take out parts of their bodies and give them away randomly? To act cute? It’s not cute at all, alright!?
In truth, the so-called ghost officers were existences that do miscellaneous chores in the Underworld. Occasionally, there would be missions sent down to help maintain the order in the Underworld. Different from the myth she knew of, ghost officers did not belong to any department, and there wasn’t any leading figure called King Yama or whatever in the Underworld either.
All of the ghost officers were left to fend for themselves.
When Zhu Yao asked Ning Yun how should ghost officers go about in cultivating spiritual bodies and ascending to Spiritual Realm, Ning Yun’s reply was –
Patience!
That’s right, it was patience. There’s nothing else to do but wait. No one knew how spiritual bodies were formed, just that when ghost officers had stayed in the Underworld for a long time, they would naturally have them one day. Just like people with mixed qualifications, they would naturally be promoted after a long time.
This setting was really too random.
It’s no wonder these ghost officers would be willing to maintain order in the Underworld or extradite evil ghosts without any payment. This was all because, they had nothing better to do.
Of course, there were many people who could not endure this long wait, and directly chose to reincarnate. Thus, the number of ghost officers had always been maintained at a stable amount.
And the appearance of this batch of evil ghosts this time was because of a fallen heretic practitioner. That heretic practitioner cultivated a ten-thousand-ghost banner when he was alive, and captured countless of evil ghosts with it. When the heretic practitioner died, the countless ghosts returned to the Underworld, and they had even arrived at Ning Yun’s territory. Because they killed people under the heretic practitioner’s control, the murderous intent on these evil ghosts were too heavy. If they were to stay in the Underworld in their present state, chaos would definitely ensue. Thus, the bunch of ghost officers had a discussion, and decided to send them directly to reincarnation.
After working for an entire day, they cleansed off a large half of the ghosts, and sent them across the River of Forgetfulness. Because Zhu Yao was a newcomer, she did not carry a great amount of spiritual energy in her body, and thus could not approach too close to the River of Forgetfulness. She could only watch from the side, and work on matters such as helping this ghost pick up his bones, and helping that other ghost pick up his eyeballs.
The number of ghosts decreased as time went by, and now, less than a hundred of them remained. Suddenly, the sky which was bright as day earlier, as though someone had turned off the switch, turned dark. In an instant, a cold wind blew, and a dense fog that could not be blown away began to appear in the surroundings.
“What’s going on?” Ning Yun and the rest were startled as well.
The remaining hundred or so evil ghosts became restless as well. Even though there were ghost officers next to them, they were unable to suppress their violent actions.
Suddenly, a strange, hoarse roar resounded, and it scattered in all directions like a shockwave. Zhu Yao simply felt her soul stirring, and even her ghost body shook for a moment, feeling as though she was being scattered.
“Not good, it’s a Realmless Ghost King!” Ning Yun’s expression changed, and he instantly became anxious. “I never expected that within this ten-thousand-ghosts banner, there’s even a Realmless Ghost King as well.” It even came so late. This was bad.
That furious roar once again erupted. This time, the remaining hundred or so evil ghosts, as though they had received commands, released out various terrifying ghost wails at the same time.
“This… What should we do?” The other ghost officers were in a fluster as well, as they looked at each other in the eyes.
“What else can we do?” Ning Yun said. “A single Realmless Ghost King can dominate ten thousand ghosts alone. How can we possibly hold on against it? Let’s hurry and leave!”
After saying that, he called everyone to dash to the road they came from before.
“Hurry and leave, the Realmless Ghost King is coming.” He especially dragged Zhu Yao along. “Newcomer, run faster. You have just awakened your spiritual consciousness, if you hear that roar a few more times, you will also be attracted by that Ghost King.”
Before Zhu Yao could even figure out the situation, she was already following after the ghost officers, fleeing for their lives.
Not far away, there seemed to be something approaching. Its figure was extremely huge, and even though there quite a bit of distance between them, that bone-piercing chill could still be felt.
The six ghost officers wildly sprinted towards the teleportation formation.
When Zhu Yao turned to glance at the riverside, she saw that the remaining hundred or so ghosts were still roaring out madly. Not even a moment later, they began to turn into beams of green light, flying into the distance, including the evil ghost who gave her his bones.
“What’s going to happen to those evil ghosts?” She could not help but ask Ning Yun.
“Obviously, they will be swallowed by that Realmless Ghost King.” Ning Yun replied. “The Realmless Ghost King is formed by smelting ten thousand ghosts in the first place. It basically does not have any spiritual consciousness, and unless it falls into the River of Forgetfulness, it will just swallow other ghosts.”
“Then are we just going to leave this be?” If it could swallow other ghosts, and was left as it is in the Underworld, there would come a day where it would eat all the ghosts, right?
“Don’t worry.” Ning Yun patted on her shoulders. “Spiritual Realm will not just stand idly by. I believe that they will dispatch someone quickly to defeat it… Look! He’s here!”
Ning Yun pointed at the sky. The sky which was still pitch-black earlier, seemed to have been sliced apart by something, exploding forth a beam of light that stretched out to ten thousand meters. A gigantic spiritual sword pierced across the skies and descended in a direction far away from them, causing a loud explosion.
From afar, she could see a gigantic human figure. Though she couldn’t see clearly due to how far away she was, she could discern that it was the figure of the Realmless Ghost King. It was more than a hundred times larger than an average evil ghost.
When the spiritual sword descended, it instantly pinned the Realmless Ghost King to the ground.
Riding on his sword, a white figure stopped in the air and seemed to have cast an art. The water of the River of Forgetfulness stirred, forming two water dragons that then rained down on the Realmless Ghost King. In an instant, like a deflating balloon, the Realmless Spirit King became smaller and smaller. It let out an enraged roar that resounded through the clouds.
“Newcomer, stop watching. Let’s hurry and leave.” Ning Yun immediately pulled Zhu Yao into the formation.
She saw a flash of red light, and then she arrived at a foreign street. There were manors orderly aligned at the two sides, and every manor looked pretty much the same. Ning Yun pointed to the manor at the very far end, and said. “Newcomer, you will live here from now on. We will call you when there’s tasks to do.”
So ghost officers were allocated their own houses? That’s pretty good welfare.
Ning Yun seemed to be extremely tired, and did not give much instructions before returning to his own home. Zhu Yao entered her courtyard. The Realmless Ghost King earlier looked pretty powerful, but it was still lacking in front of practitioners. It might pose a threat to those who had yet to form their Azoth Cores, but if it encountered someone of the Nascent Soul stage, it was just something that could be easily thrashed.
She suddenly thought of that white-robed practitioner. Though she was too far away and couldn’t see him clearly, she felt that the figure looked a little familiar?
In the early morning of the second day, she heard Ning Yun’s voice. Something seemed to have happened as he was fuming with anger. As he walked, he angrily said. “Those bunch of turtle grandsons, they’re really such bastards. We were the ones who clearly spotted the Realmless Ghost King, but in the end, they took all the merits.”
“That’s right, that’s right, it’s simply intolerable. So what if they were able to receive that lord? It doesn’t mean they will definitely enter a great sect.” The ghost officer at the side seemed to look furious as well.
“What happened?” Zhu Yao walked out at the same time.
“Newcomer little missy, it’s great you’re here.” Ning Yun waved his hands at her. “Let’s all go greet that lord who came from Spiritual Realm.”
The ghost officer at the side nodded. “That’s right. Let’s go together. We must definitely expose their schemes.”
“Hmph, those bunch of bootlicking ghosts, they’re aren’t frightening in the least.”
“They actually dare carry out such shady acts behind our backs, they will never form their spiritual bodies no matter how long they work as ghost officers.”
“We can forget about all the past incidents, but we definitely can’t tolerate them this time.”
“That’s right. We must settle this score.”
The ghost officers became more agitated and furious as they spoke, and they looked like they could eat the other party at any moment.
This felt like a group fight was about to happen!
Though there weren’t any management behind ghost officers, most of the ghost officers in the Underworld were thrown together in the first place. Ning Yun and this crowd, for example, were made of about seven or eight ghosts, so that they could conveniently look out for each other in times of crisis. As for the method of hiring newcomers, it was very simple. Whoever finds one first gets one.
Evidently, Zhu Yao was picked up by Ning Yun, and so she naturally belonged to their bunch.
Zhu Yao spent about half a day before she was finally able to figure out the situation from their conversations. When they were cleansing the bunch of evil ghosts yesterday, they spotted a Realmless Ghost King, and they had to retreat in advance in fear of being involved with the Ghost King. After the practitioner from Spiritual Realm took down the Ghost King, another wave of ghost officers came and took the merits of cleansing the evil ghosts instead.
Adding the fact that the Spiritual Realm practitioner seemed to have intentions of staying for a short while, they took the opportunity to receive that practitioner in their own home.
It must be known that ghost officers would cultivate spiritual bodies one day, and they would become newcomers the moment they enter Spiritual Realm. Once they build up a good relationship with people of Spiritual Realm, they would have a pillar of support in Spiritual Realm as well. No matter how talentless they were, they could still manage to join a sect or clan, and they would not have to end up as wandering practitioners.
Evidently, their pillar of support was robbed away from them.
This was simply intolerable!
This was why Ning Yun was so furious and wanted to bring people over to greet that practitioner of a great sect. He hoped that they could make it in time to give him a good impression.
Zhu Yao felt a little nauseous when it came to such bootlicking actions, and from the looks of it, there was a great chance that a group brawl would occur. As a newcomer, she truly did not feel like participating in a group brawl or whatever. But in the end, she was told by Ning Yun that it was a good chance to “gain experience”, and was brought along with them.
The group of people furiously charged right into their home base.
But to find nobody there.
Reason: The great king brought them to patrol the mountains.
That Spiritual Realm practitioner went to the River of Forgetfulness to enjoy the scenery, and incidentally brought along a bunch of ghost officers.
