Evil Ghost Resurrection and the Eighteen Layers of Hell

Cold sweat dripped from Yang He's forehead as he immediately recognized the man.

It was Song Zhi, wanted by the authorities.

Something was clearly wrong with Song Zhi. Through the Ghost Eye, not only was there not a trace of Yang energy in his body, but his Yang Fire was a blackish gray.

Even the exposed skin was covered in scattered corpse spots.

Yang He did not dare act rashly. He clenched the lotus seed in his palm as a backup.

"Little brother, aren't you hungry?"

"I haven't had a full meal in a long time. Hungry, so hungry..."

By the end, Song Zhi's tone had become exactly like that of a Hungry Ghost. His Yang Fire was nearly extinguished. If not for his intelligence, Yang He would have taken him for a humanoid Hungry Ghost.

Yang He looked up at the sky as the dark clouds gradually dispersed.

Moonlight illuminated the streets and alleys.

Yang He finally saw Song Zhi's true appearance clearly, and goosebumps rose all over him.

Song Zhi was constantly stuffing the Hungry Ghost's flesh and blood into his stomach. That was right—his abdomen had an incomparably savage gaping bloody maw.

In moments, half the Hungry Ghost's corpse had already been swallowed into his stomach.

How should he put it?

He looked like a half-human, half-ghost monster.

Song Zhi's eating slowed somewhat as he muttered, "Ever since I was thrown into prison, I've truly been getting hungrier and hungrier."

He patted the gaping bloody maw. "My intestines are like a bottomless pit..."

Whoosh.

A tongue shot from the gaping bloody maw, instantly piercing the ghost lantern hanging from the eaves before dragging it into his stomach to chew.

Yang He's pupils shrank slightly. Song Zhi really could see ghosts.

Yang He relied on Spiritual Vision to see ghosts, while Song Zhi relied on his half-human, half-ghost state. Moreover, that transformation was still worsening.

"Little brother, how long have you been insane?"

Song Zhi deliberately lowered his voice as he spoke in a twitchy, nervous manner.

Yang He did not reply. He could tell that Song Zhi was not trying to make conversation. His mind was simply on the verge of collapse, and he wanted someone to confide in.

Sure enough, Song Zhi began talking to himself again. "I came from the Water Crane Martial Arts Hall. By the age of twenty-six, I was already a renowned instructor in Peibai City... no, throughout all of Jialiang Water Town."

"At thirty-eight, my martial arts had reached Acquired Perfection, a level beyond the reach of ordinary people."

At that, Song Zhi laughed smugly. "Unfortunately, I searched all over Jialiang Water Town and found no method to advance to the Innate Realm. I refused to believe it. A mere Acquired Realm could never trap me."

Yang He had also heard of martial artists being divided into the Acquired and Innate Realms, but he had always felt that those were not the true realm classifications of the Main World.

Song Zhi mocked himself. "Later, I got my wish and successfully advanced to the Innate Realm."

"Only then did I learn how laughable the terms Acquired and Innate were. What martial talent? It was merely that my constitution happened to be compatible with a Hungry Ghost. Hahaha!"

"Acquired Realm? Ridiculous. It's clearly the Weak Ghost stage. The Innate Realm is the Evil Ghost stage, and what comes next should be the Fierce Ghost stage."

Yang He compared that with the information on the panel. The Ghost Eye was currently a Weak Ghost.

He could not help asking, "Could advancing to an Evil Ghost... cause ghostification like yours?"

"That is Evil Ghost resurrection! Because I failed to satisfy the appetite of the Hungry Ghost inside me!!"

Song Zhi clutched his head as tears streamed endlessly down his face. "I shouldn't have pursued the Innate Realm. Now I can only watch myself turn into a ghost."

Yang He suddenly understood. "So if a ghost's needs cannot be met, it will cause ghostification."

Song Zhi murmured dazedly, "Yes. If only we had known sooner. Weak Ghosts still have a way out, but Evil Ghosts are already at a dead end."

Yang He's scalp prickled.

The information revealed by Spiritual Vision had already noted the Hungry Ghost's flaw: its appetite. If it was not fed enough, it would devour its host and resurrect from within!!

The only consolation was that, according to Song Zhi, Weak Ghosts would not resurrect.

No wonder the authorities deliberately conceal the existence of ghosts and cut off the possibility of advancement. It is to ensure that large-scale Evil Ghost resurrections do not occur in the Main World.

Once the host of a Weak Ghost died, the ghost inside should only leave the corpse.

It would then wait to turn back into a strange object.

Luckily, I have Spiritual Vision. The Pupil Ghost has almost no chance of resurrecting.

Pupil Ghost Way (Qi Cultivator)

Once mastered, the Pupil Ghost becomes a spiritual root that communicates with the yin energy of the outside world. Each time the Pupil Ghost is used, one's eyesight suffers damage. If one becomes completely blind, the Pupil Ghost will replace both eyes.

The condition for the Pupil Ghost's resurrection was blindness. As long as he did not exhaust his Spiritual Vision, it would not be a problem.

"Resurrection! Resurrection!"

Song Zhi smashed his head against the ground and said in agony, "After resurrecting, I fell into boundless hell. I can see all the ghosts and monsters in every street and alley. Can you understand me?!!"

"Can you understand?!!"

Song Zhi began closing in, his sanity already near collapse.

"I understand."

Yang He spoke calmly. "The world I see..."

He pointed overhead and added with a bright smile, "There is a ghost corpse spanning a thousand li in the sky. All I have to do is look up to see it."

Song Zhi stopped. For some reason, Yang He's expression seemed grim and terrifying to him.

"You have already undergone a second resurrection."

Song Zhi stared at the clouds, seemingly wanting to glimpse the gigantic ghost corpse Yang He had mentioned.

"Evil Ghost resurrection is like falling into the Eighteen Layers of Hell. It never stops. I'm in the First Layer of Hell, Tongue-Pulling Hell. Heh heh."

Song Zhi trembled so violently that all four limbs shook. "I can feel it. My second resurrection is about to begin. I'm about to fall into the Second Layer, Scissors Hell."

He used the Eighteen Layers of Hell as a metaphor for the real world, and Yang He found it incomparably fitting.

Yang He was terrified. He had clearly relied on Spiritual Vision to eliminate the possibility of the Pupil Ghost resurrecting, yet he was now forced to witness the Eighteen Layers of Hell firsthand.

He suddenly realized that the Lore World was far safer than the Main World.

At the very least, the Lore World did not have the Eighteen Layers of Hell.

Song Zhi asked in confusion, "Why do you look..."

"I don't look insane?"

Yang He remained expressionless as he took a step toward Song Zhi.

Song Zhi retreated again and again. "You... you're far crazier than I am. Be careful. Don't let the authorities find out that you've already undergone a second resurrection."

Yang He asked, "What about you? What do you plan to do next?"

Song Zhi froze. "I want to go back and see my wife and children, then leave Jialiang Water Town and find somewhere without ghosts to live."

"Take this."

He calmly tossed a bloody lump of flesh to Yang He.

"This is a Hungry Ghost's Intestines. Once dried, its yin energy will be concealed. You can make it into inner armor to hide the yin energy leaking from your ghostification, or use it to store yin objects with stronger yin energy."

Hungry Ghost's Intestines

A yin object derived from a Hungry Ghost's organ. It can be refined through the Hungry Ghost Path and is one of the yin objects required for a Hungry Ghost to advance into an Evil Ghost.

Hungry Ghost's Intestines can be exchanged for 1.8 points of Spiritual Vision.

"Thank you."

Yang He looked moved. If he had not possessed Spiritual Vision and had rashly taken up martial arts, he might very well have ended up the same way.

"Goodbye, little brother."

Yang He stopped Song Zhi. "Can you tell me how a Weak Ghost advances into an Evil Ghost?"

"You wouldn't want to know, and every kind of ghost is different."

After saying that, Song Zhi crawled into the water well on all fours.

"Goodbye."

Yang He put away the Hungry Ghost's Intestines, then erased all traces of his visit.