It was still early morning, the time when day and night shifted in the Underworld.
Tian Jing was once again seated atop the mountain peak, using this transition between day and night to spur internal changes within her body. Yet the originally calm and orderly transformation suddenly became violent and chaotic.
Layers of dark bluish clouds faintly gathered above the Spirit Mountain Range in the gray yet bright sky.
"Ghost manifestation! This is the Underworld, a place meant to punish ghosts. Someone actually triggered such a phenomenon... Could it be a True Ghost?"
Tian Jing's eyes suddenly flew open as she stared incredulously at the anomaly in the sky. With her profound understanding of souls, she immediately analyzed what the phenomenon before her represented.
"Everyone knows that Zhang Chen has a ghostly side within him. But the ghost inside him was created by Azathoth. How could something created be a True Ghost? Yet this phenomenon was clearly caused by him. I'll have to ask him face-to-face when he comes out."
Rather than shock or solemnity, excitement gradually appeared on Tian Jing's face. "I never expected his search for the origin of his soul to trigger a ghost manifestation. This guy is truly incredible. With a breakthrough on the soul level, his strength has likely taken another huge step forward."
Tian Jing did not continue cultivating today. Instead, she went to the mountain peak above Zhang Chen's cave and waited.
Zhang Chen's body, whose vitality had been draining away until it resembled a withered skeleton, began shedding layer after layer of wrinkled skin like bark from dead wood.
Within the exposed body, there was no longer any flesh or internal organs. Only three visible objects remained: a shriveled brain, a heart of vigorous living flesh, and a spinal column glowing