Initial Spirit lv9

Xuanguo Estate.

A small courtyard.

Chen Mu strode into the courtyard.

"Second Master."

Xiao Mei was washing clothes. When she saw Chen Mu enter, she hurriedly rose and bowed.

Chen Mu said nothing. He simply returned to the bedroom, stripped off the robes stained with a little snowmelt and mud, tossed them to Xiao Mei, and changed into a clean brocade robe.

He had destroyed the Black Water Gang without deliberately concealing his tracks. If someone followed the clues and investigated, they could trace it back to him, but that was no concern.

To a Sixth Rank sorcerer, destroying a mere small gang was nothing worth mentioning.

Besides, he was also Xuanguo Duke's bloodline.

If an investigation came his way, he could simply reveal his identity and enter the Directorate of Celestial Observation. Although that would place him in the open and draw him into certain affairs, with the Directorate of Celestial Observation as his backing, he could also enjoy many conveniences, such as all kinds of intelligence. Even the Royal Academy's records could be freely accessed and consulted.

Either way, there were advantages and disadvantages. Thus, Chen Mu had always let matters take their natural course.

He closed the door.

Chen Mu set the matter of martial training aside for the moment and summoned the system interface.

Name: Chen Mu

Age: 16

Martial Power: Too Weak to Tie a Chicken

Soulmind: Initial Spirit lv1 (+)

Soul Points: 47 points

Soul Roaming (Netherworld) — Available

After annihilating the Black Water Gang, he had gained 41 Soul Points, somewhat fewer than last time.

What surprised Chen Mu slightly was that raising Initial Spirit lv1 to lv2 once again required only 2 Soul Points. At first, he had thought it would start at 10 points at the very least.

Flash.

Chen Mu had already become extremely practiced at consuming Soul Points to raise his Soulmind.

A flash of light passed across the interface, and Soulmind rose from Initial Spirit lv1 to lv2, then to lv3.

However, raising it by two levels in succession did not bring about any major changes. During the process, he merely felt a thread of coolness brewing within his Soulmind, improving it by only the slightest amount.

"So lv3 is no longer a threshold."

Chen Mu murmured inwardly.

He was not surprised. After all, he had consumed only a mere few Soul Points. If it had caused another leap like before, that would have been strange.

Continuing upward, raising Initial Spirit from lv3 to lv4 consumed 4 Soul Points. It likewise only slightly strengthened his Mind-Soul Power, without producing any further changes.

Chen Mu did not stop, instead adding levels upward in one breath.

He continued all the way to lv9!

Name: Chen Mu

Age: 16

Martial Power: Too Weak to Tie a Chicken

Soulmind: Initial Spirit lv9 (+)

Soul Points: 3 points

Soul Roaming (Netherworld) — Available

Chen Mu had consumed all his Soul Points in one breath, leaving only 3 points.

His Soulmind had risen from Initial Spirit lv1 to lv9 in a single push. Although each level had brought only a slight strengthening of his Mind-Soul Power, crossing eight levels in succession still represented a significant improvement.

Chen Mu could feel that his Mind-Soul Power had increased by at least half compared with before. Although it had not undergone a qualitative transformation, it was still a tremendous enhancement.

Now, even if he faced a Fifth Rank Martial Artist during the day, he could probably gain the upper hand.

"Looks like the gap is probably at the next level."

Chen Mu drew a deep breath.

He could feel that his current Mind-Soul Power was like a deep pool, its water already level with the brim and unable to contain any more. As long as it rose a little further, it would inevitably overflow.

And overflowing undoubtedly meant a breakthrough—meant a transformation!

It seemed that after Soulmind transformed into 'Initial Spirit,' a qualitative change occurred only once every ten levels. Unfortunately, he did not have enough Soul Points and could not raise it to lv10 in one go.

The sky gradually darkened.

Chen Mu glanced out the window. Seeing the sun's final afterglow disappear over the horizon, he activated Spirit Sight and swept his gaze across the courtyard and beyond. He then came to the side of the wooden chair, sat down, and activated Soul Roaming.

Netherworld.

A vortex suddenly appeared.

The dark clouds overhead boiled at once. Even in the distant, seemingly endless reaches, shrill and frenzied mutterings erupted all at once.

Yet as if it had sensed something, the boiling black fog quickly returned to calm, and the shrill mutterings vanished without a sound.

The next moment.

Chen Mu's figure emerged from the vortex.

He still felt as though his consciousness was muddled and dizzy.

The instant his consciousness recovered, Chen Mu opened his eyes. Filling his vision was a deathly pale face, occupying his entire field of view and almost pressed against him.

Yet Chen Mu's expression did not change.

Calmly, he retreated about three feet.

That deathly pale face belonged to Mo Zhu.

"Zhang Hai is dead."

Chen Mu was concise and to the point.

Mo Zhu remained woodenly rooted to the spot, offering no response whatsoever to Chen Mu's words.

But on closer inspection, it could be seen that the blood-red clothes covering her body, as though soaked in blood, had visibly faded.

Chen Mu pondered briefly and immediately realized that Mo Zhu's obsession was not merely to have Zhang Hai die. She also wanted to see Zhang Hai again on the Yellow Springs Road in the Netherworld—and perhaps even tear him apart and devour him alive.

However.

The part that belonged to him was already done.

Chen Mu drifted past Mo Zhu and headed in another direction.

Just as he had expected, Mo Zhu remained where she was and did not follow him as she had before.

"Perhaps it isn't that Mo Zhu can provide fewer Soul Points than Xiao Qingshan. Perhaps it's because I haven't completely dispelled all her obsessions, which is why I received fewer Soul Points from her than from Xiao Qingshan."

This thought surfaced in Chen Mu's mind.

Come to think of it.

As a Sixth Rank sorcerer, he indeed possessed the ability to bind souls. However, Zhang Hai had died during the day, and not in a place where yin energy had accumulated. The instant he died, his soul had directly scattered into oblivion.

But thinking about it carefully, even if he had acted at night and bound Zhang Hai's soul after his death, he had no idea how he could bring it before Mo Zhu.

His ability to come to the Netherworld relied on Soul Roaming from the system interface.

If he were to carry Zhang Hai's soul himself and pierce through the boundary between the mortal world and the Netherworld... then he probably would not need the tiny amount of Soul Points Mo Zhu provided. He would have long since become a true immortal from the tales of strange wonders.

"Soul scattering may not mean true disappearance. It may simply mean the soul returning to heaven and earth. Perhaps it will still fall into the Netherworld. It's just unknown when it will descend into the Netherworld, or where it will land."

Chen Mu turned back to look at Mo Zhu's soul-shadow and murmured inwardly.

But this was ultimately only his judgment. At present, he still lacked the ability to explore the Netherworld. Without the system's protection, he would probably be destroyed by the terror here in an instant, his entire self and consciousness wiped away.

Upon the Grave Soil.

Chen Mu began to wander.

He had been too weak before to judge the strength of the Netherworld Ghosts wandering here. Now, however, he could vaguely assess it. Cui'er was the weakest, while Xiao Qingshan and Mo Zhu were roughly equal.

That was why Cui'er provided the fewest Soul Points, while Xiao Qingshan and Mo Zhu both provided many.

As for the difficulty of dispelling an obsession, it seemed to depend entirely on luck.

Some extremely terrifying Netherworld Ghosts might have an obsession as simple as wanting a jug of fine wine.

Some extremely weak Netherworld Ghosts might be obsessed with living another five hundred years!

The former was easy to accomplish, while the latter was pure fantasy. Leaving aside resurrection from the dead, even prolonging one's life was an exceedingly difficult matter. Apart from certain extremely rare heavenly spirit fruits, only a Martial Artist who cultivated to the Fourth Rank Non-Human Realm could extend their lifespan to two hundred years—and even then, they often found it difficult to live to two hundred.