Bestowing Sutras, Transmitting the Way, Secrets of the Ghost Cultivator

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Clang!

Su Yi's drifting, elusive figure halted. He stood in the center of the courtyard and returned his sword to its sheath.

Along with the sword's hum, the night and moonlight rippling like waves grew calm once more.

"Exhilarating!"

Su Yi's eyes shone, his body and mind both utterly refreshed.

What was the Kuai Zai Sword?

A body like colored glass, a heart like the bright moon, clear and pure, body and mind both carefree and delighted.

And this was precisely one of the reasons Su Yi was devoted to the sword path.

After washing up, Su Yi turned back into the room, picked up the Ginseng Tea he had brewed earlier, and drained it in one gulp.

The fatigue throughout his body was swept clean away.

"My progress at the Flesh Tendons level is clearly a little slower than it was during Flesh Refining."

Su Yi quietly sensed the subtle changes in his body.

"However, I'm currently living in Apricot Yellow Medical Hall, and I don't lack medicinal herbs. As long as I maintain this pace, in less than a month, I can cultivate the Flesh Tendons stage to perfection..."

"No matter what, before Flesh Bones, I have to gather some 'spiritual medicines.' Otherwise, ordinary medicinal herbs simply won't be able to temper all my bones to the level of 'Marrow Like Frost.'"

At this thought, Su Yi could not help but sigh softly.

Originally, he had planned to take a trip to Cloud Cang Mountain.

This mountain range stretched for hundreds of li, vast and majestic. There was bound to be a place where Spiritual Qi gathered.

And things like spiritual medicines were often born in such places!

But recently he had been busy cultivating, and quite a few things had happened besides, delaying his plan to go to Cloud Cang Mountain in search of spiritual medicines.

"Immortal Master, Wan'er has thought it through."

Suddenly, Qing Wan's timid, soft voice came from inside the Soul-Nourishing Gourd.

Su Yi paused, then said, "There's no one around at night. You may move about as you please. There's no need to stay inside the gourd all the time."

"Uh... oh!"

Very soon, Qing Wan, dressed in blood-red skirts, appeared. A trace of embarrassment showed on her pretty, delicate little face as she said softly, "Before, Immortal Master hadn't instructed me otherwise, so Wan'er didn't dare leave on her own."

"Enough. Don't be so reserved. I'm not some bad person. Why be so uneasy?"

Su Yi shook his head.

He could tell that when Qing Wan faced him, she was like a startled rabbit, not daring to breathe loudly, and even her speech was timid.

When her gaze occasionally met his, it was filled even more with reverence and fear.

It made him seem as if he bullied her all the time...

Despite his words, Qing Wan still looked cautious and timid.

Su Yi could not be bothered to keep fussing over it and said, "What was it you said you had thought through?"

Qing Wan squeezed her pink little fists, as if trying to bolster her courage, yet still did not dare look into Su Yi's eyes. She said, "Immortal Master, I've lost my memories from when I was alive, and I'm unwilling to be given salvation before I recover them, so... so..."

Su Yi said directly, "So you've chosen to cultivate, and you want to try and see whether you can recover your memories?"

Qing Wan hurriedly nodded. "Mm!"

"Don't worry. Even if you can't recover them yourself, I'll help you."

Su Yi fell into thought as he spoke.

From the first moment he saw Qing Wan, he had discovered that although she was only the lowest-level Yin Soul, her soul body was uncommonly pure.

Together with the fact that she had forgotten what had happened before her death, it made Su Yi realize that there was definitely something strange about Qing Wan, and that was what had piqued his interest.

"Thank you, Immortal Master."

Qing Wan's large eyes were filled with gratitude.

Her eyes truly were beautiful—large and deep, the corners slightly tilted, a pair of limpid phoenix eyes.

When such eyes smiled, they would give off an astonishing charm, naturally enchanting.

Regrettably, she now looked only like a girl in her teens, more delicate and pretty than alluring.

But it could not be denied that she was the seed of a bewitching, calamity-bringing beauty, with tremendous room to grow.

"I'll first impart to you the entry-level cultivation mnemonic of the Ten Directions Asura Sutra. With it, you should be more than able to temper your soul body, transforming layer by layer from a Yin Soul into a 'Ghost Spirit.'"

As Su Yi spoke, he had already sat down before the desk, taken out paper and brush, and began splashing ink across the page.

After becoming a Ghost Spirit, the soul body could become solid enough to fear no exposure to daylight. Walking in the mortal world, there would already be little difference from an ordinary person.

Only then could one truly set foot on the path of a Ghost cultivator.

Moreover, Ghost cultivators were different from ordinary cultivators. The source of their bodies was soul power, so they did not need to temper their physique, qi, and blood like martial artists did.

Thus, after becoming a Ghost Spirit, one could step directly onto the path of the Origin Dao.

However, going from a Yin Soul to a Ghost Spirit was by no means easy. One had to first become a Ghostly Apparition, then a Ghost Monster, and only in the end could one transform into a Ghost Spirit.

Very soon, Su Yi set down the brush in his hand, pointed at the cultivation method he had written out, and said, "Take a look first."

Qing Wan drifted over carefully, not daring to get too close to Su Yi. She lowered her delicate head and stared at it intently.

A moment later, she let out a long breath and said, "Immortal Master, Wan'er has memorized it all."

"That fast?"

Su Yi was surprised.

Qing Wan's eyes were clear and innocent as she said blankly, "Wan'er doesn't know why either. When I looked at these words, I remembered them at a glance. After one read, I didn't miss the slightest detail."

Su Yi raised his brows slightly. "I didn't expect you to have quite the root of wisdom. In that case, I'll explain the mysteries within to you once. With your memory, it shouldn't be hard for you to remember it all."

As he spoke, he began explaining from the very first sentence.

The "Ten Directions Asura Sutra" was a supreme Dao canon created by the Great Wilderness's "Western Underworld Ghost Emperor," and it was also the foremost secret treasury in the eyes of all Ghost cultivators under heaven.

After obtaining this scripture in his previous life, Su Yi had also once studied and pondered it, ultimately coming to one conclusion—

The path of Ghost cultivators was completely different from Soul cultivators in the usual sense.

No matter how poor a Soul cultivator's physical body was, they were still a living person, nourishing and tempering the soul with vital blood and cultivation.

Ghost cultivators, meanwhile, walked a pure "path of the dead." The path of their transformation and advancement would ultimately point toward the netherworld!

For instance, the Western Underworld Ghost Emperor back then had often called himself the "Netherworld Ferryman."

And Su Yi was no stranger to the Dao of the netherworld. The fact that he could reincarnate and cultivate anew was, strictly speaking, related to the many profound truths within the Dao of the netherworld, such as "rebirth" and "reincarnation."

It was no exaggeration to say that if Qing Wan continued cultivating at his side, no matter how poor her future achievements were, she would at least be on par with the Western Underworld Ghost Emperor...

Very soon, Su Yi had finished expounding and explaining the cultivation method. He said, "Do you still have any other doubts?"

Qing Wan closed her eyes and pondered for a moment, then gently shook her head. "Reporting to Immortal Master, this cultivation method seems... not very hard to understand..."

Su Yi gave Qing Wan a deep look and said, "From now on, you will cultivate here. During the day, stay in the Soul-Nourishing Gourd. At night, you may move about as you please, but without my order, you are not to step even half a pace out of this courtyard."

"Yes."

Qing Wan obediently accepted the order.

Before Su Yi, she seemed to have no idea what refusal or resistance even meant...

Su Yi paid her no further mind. He turned around, lay down on the bed, and before long, fell into a sound sleep.

Late at night, all sounds fell silent.

Qing Wan waited for a long time. In the end, as if finally mustering her courage, she lifted the hem of her skirt and carefully drifted out of the room. Soon, she sat down on that Old Locust Tree.

Her blood-red skirt fluttered, her feet snow-white and crystalline. She wore no shoes, and each of her toes was delicate as if carved from fine jade. Her pair of slender calves swung gently as the evening wind blew, and her entire body relaxed completely.

Qing Wan lifted her head and looked through the branches at the stars and moon in the night sky, a joyful light shining in her big eyes.

Her soft pink lips parted, and she hummed a ballad. It was lilting and melodious, ethereal and misty.

"The former king went roaming to view the West Sea; Dragon Might Old Man hid his name in seclusion. North to the immortal mountain, into the Spirit Ruins; then he entered Dongting, Stealing Yu's Book. The great writing of heaven and earth cannot be unfurled; if fortune has yet to arrive, do not force the seek; if you seize it by force, you shall lose both state and dwelling..."

As she hummed to the end, she suddenly froze, an indescribable grief and sorrow rising in her heart.

"I... I have never remembered this ballad... yet why can I sing it? Could it be connected to the memories from when I was alive...?"

The young girl wore a crimson dress like a blood-red skirt. She lifted her head to gaze at the night sky, staring in a daze without speaking, her eyes filled with bewilderment.

Before the window of the room.

Su Yi stood with his hands clasped behind his back, quietly watching that graceful red figure on the locust tree in the distance. A strange gleam flashed through his eyes.

"The West Sea, Dragon Might Old Man, Spirit Ruins, Dongting Stealing Yu's Book... This ballad is rather interesting."

P.S. The ballad Miss Qing Wan hummed was adapted by Goldfish from the ancient Chinese "West Sea Ballad." Every line is a mythological story.

Brothers and sisters, asking for monthly tickets~ We're about to blow up Mars~~