Spirit Body

"It's fine as long as you're okay. Just treat it as a lesson bought with money. You're still young—you have a chance to start over."

Inside a duck blood and vermicelli soup shop, an old man in his fifties worked busily in the kitchen. Wearing an apron as he prepared ingredients, he spoke with feeling to Wang Yi, who had already changed into a set of cheap street-stall clothes.

This ordinary-looking old country man was Wang Yi's former landlord, Uncle Li. His family owned six buildings and lived off the rent, but unable to sit still, he had opened a duck blood and vermicelli soup shop himself. His cooking was excellent, too.

He was also kind-hearted. He never chased tenants over delayed rent, and sometimes even helped those who were struggling.

"I'll give you the warehouse key. I put your things together in the corner on the right after you enter. You should recognize your own bag. It's a bit dusty, but there's a rag and a faucet nearby—you can wipe it down."

Uncle Li wiped his hands on his apron, then went behind the kitchen door and took out a key ring weighing several pounds. He searched through it for quite a while before finding a key with a label on it.

It was just a warehouse specifically used to store "junk," so he did not think much of it as he handed the key directly to Wang Yi.

"Once you've dealt with this, come back here. If you still don't have anywhere to stay, find a place to settle down first. Your deposit is enough for three months' rent. If you won't be staying, I'll return the deposit to you."

"Thank you, Uncle Li."

Wang Yi did not stand on ceremony. Refusing the old man's kindness might instead make him unhappy, and besides, Wang Yi truly had nowhere to stay right now.

After eating a bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup and savoring the familiar taste, Wang Yi set off for the warehouse.

The bustling traffic on the streets, the billboards lining both sides, the lightly dressed young women—all of it gave Wang Yi a feeling that was both familiar and unfamiliar. Under the ever-changing transformations of the past three years, he felt as though a lifetime had passed.

The trip was not far, so he did not take a car. He simply walked through the streets, watching numerous Film Crew members hurry back and forth as though time and space had fallen into disorder.

And so, Wang Yi made his way to Uncle Li's warehouse while watching the prosperity of this flourishing age like an observer.

It was called a warehouse, but in reality, it was merely a ground-floor room. It had not been rented out because it was rather damp, so it was used to store some "junk."

Yet when Wang Yi followed the address to the warehouse and saw the environment before him, he frowned slightly.

Dampness?

It did not seem to be that. This eerie feeling...

A Resentful Spirit was lingering nearby.

To be honest, given the sluggish magic in this world, normal spirits could only exist for a very short time after leaving their bodies.

It was not impossible for them to form, but they had to possess an exceptionally strong obsession. Unlike that low-magic world, where ordinary people had to be buried behind churches after death and supernatural incidents happened frequently, with some powerful wild undead even bringing about disasters that destroyed entire nations.

However, due to the level of magical activity here, although a Resentful Spirit had appeared, its destructive power was still limited. Ordinary people could not even see it. Even if they encountered one, at most they would fall ill or experience hallucinations. Those with stronger constitutions might merely shiver.

If this had been somewhere else, Wang Yi could not be bothered to interfere. But Uncle Li was a good man, so Wang Yi decided to purify it while he was at it.

There was no need to waste magic. The vitality and blood energy of a Great Knight Physique were enough to disperse this sort of thing.

Although his Great Knight Physique had also been acquired through magical tempering, after becoming a Great Knight, the expenditure could be replenished through everyday meals.

In terms of nutrition, while this world had no magical beast meat, its vitamins, proteins, and other nutrients were quite comprehensive. It was enough.

However, when Wang Yi used the key to open the rolling shutter door and pulled it up with a clatter, he paused slightly upon seeing the Resentful Spirit's form inside.

Dust scattered by the rising shutter drifted through the air, and under the light of the setting sun, it made even his nose itch.

In a corner untouched by sunlight, a transparent spirit sat curled up quietly, completely motionless.

His face was deathly pale, his body thin and frail, and he had the air of a scholar.

Even when Wang Yi raised the shutter door, he did not react. He merely sat there in a daze.

To become a Resentful Spirit under such sluggish magical conditions, he must have possessed an extremely powerful obsession. When such spirits first died, they retained a trace of humanity, but as time passed, they inevitably became increasingly indifferent until nothing remained but their obsession.

Natural spirits could be good or bad, but Resentful Spirits inevitably became more harmful in their later stages.

Yet this one was somewhat different. Wang Yi realized that he actually knew this Resentful Spirit.

This was Uncle Li's Eldest Son. Wang Yi had seen him and his wife before heading to the magical plane, and they even had a mischievous little brat.

He had died?

And become a Resentful Spirit?

This made Wang Yi temporarily abandon his original plan. After pulling the shutter back down to block out the sunlight, he walked over to the corner where the Resentful Spirit was and silently watched him.

"Do you still have consciousness?"

After a moment of silence, Wang Yi asked in a calm tone.

Upon hearing Wang Yi's words, the dazed Resentful Spirit trembled. Then he raised his head and looked at Wang Yi with hollow eyes, seemingly never having expected that Wang Yi could see him.

With a miserable expression, he spoke stiffly, one word at a time.

"You... can... see... me..."

The voice was sharp and eerie, not truly a "voice," but a kind of fluctuation received directly by the brain and transformed into sound.

But upon hearing his response, Wang Yi knew there was not much hope. He had not died recently; too little of his remaining humanity was left.

After considering it for a moment, a silver ring appeared in Wang Yi's hand. The silver ring in his palm seemed to melt as though exposed to high heat, after which he traced a three-dimensional Magic Pattern in the air.

"!"

Wang Yi had started out as a Necromancer. Though he had later integrated and exchanged much other knowledge, he was the professional when it came to dealing with Resentful Spirits.

Since modern-day sluggish magic prevented Resentful Spirits from appearing everywhere, taking one in as a helper for odd jobs did not seem too bad. He could also stabilize its condition and help it recover enough to understand what had happened. Otherwise, if left alone, it might eventually harm people.

As the silver Magic Pattern shot directly into the Resentful Spirit's body, it had no ability to resist. It immediately let out a shriek and was absorbed by the Magic Pattern, turning into a ball of...

After the liquid Magic Pattern twisted for a while, it reverted to the shape of a ring and floated in the air. Wang Yi then raised his hand and took hold of this vessel.

Silver was an exceptionally fine Magical Metal. Once its metal crystal lattice structure was altered through mana processing, it could be transformed into Mithril.

After the Resentful Spirit lost the vessel of its physical body, Wang Yi used silver to forge it a new vessel. Together with the control of necromantic magic, he had more or less helped this fellow recover.

However, much of its humanity had already been worn away, so it still needed to be nurtured for a while before it could recover.

Feeling the mana expenditure, Wang Yi could not help but sigh.

"On my very first day back, using just two spells means I'll need two days to fill up again. How embarrassing."

Fortunately, he still had his Portable Space as a Mana Pool reserve. Otherwise, given how little natural mana he could currently leverage on his own, he really would not be able to cast many spells.

Subduing this Resentful Spirit had merely been something he did in passing. If it had not been Uncle Li's son, Wang Yi would initially have been more inclined to purify it directly. Now, he would wait for it to recover and ask what its lingering obsession was.

And after subduing the Resentful Spirit, Wang Yi began to consider how all the little goals he had set before returning would definitely have to be overturned.

Before his cheat arrived, he had planned to rely on his grasp of future opportunities, along with targeted study and self-improvement, to use core technology to secure funding, gradually tie capital to his chariot, and usher in the era of short videos.

The massive early-stage cash burn was not something Wang Yi could handle alone. Before the cheat arrived, that little advantage from his enhanced learning ability clearly could not achieve it either. He could only compromise, bring capital aboard, and have everyone share the pie.

But given his current circumstances, there was obviously no question of sharing the pie anymore.

Even if he had missed the golden three years, even if refusing to bring in capital made the difficulty skyrocket, turning an ordinary Super Mario into some brutally hard modded version, well, that was what made it challenging...

Wang Yi no longer merely wanted to achieve financial freedom as he once had. After three years of research in another world, he had come to enjoy that feeling. He wanted to combine the accumulated theories of the modern world with the supplementation offered by the magical side, and see sights he had never seen before.

He wanted to pursue eternal immortality!

Everything along the way would merely be scenery on his path toward eternity. Nothing more...

First update. The chapter isn't showing up, but I can see it in the backend. Everyone can keep leaving comments.

Signing a contract now requires the phone number to match the ID card holder's identity, but I'd still been using the number from my student days, which was under my mom's ID card. I only changed it today. So awkward...