Possessed by a Ghost

I slept until the sun was high in the sky, and I felt so refreshed I could hardly describe it.

After howling at the sun overhead several times, Zhang Yang felt like he could come back to life at full health twelve times over.

But today was destined to be an incomparably busy and important day.

At that moment, Zhang Yang's thoughts were especially clear as well. He quickly recalled everything that had happened over the past two days and immediately reached a conclusion.

"The process of carving a wooden spear and the result of turning a wooden spear into a magic artifact aren't directly related, but they are indirectly connected."

"The main reason I succeeded wasn't because I mastered the Imprisonment Spell. It was because the wooden spears Wu Yuan carved were of excellent quality and could withstand more casts of the Imprisonment Spell. Then, when the Imprisonment Spell failed and transformed into Mental Shock, it became equivalent to me constantly nurturing the wooden spear with Soul Power. Only then was I able to imprint the Imprisonment Spell onto it."

"So there's no need for me to take this unnecessary extra step and cast the Imprisonment Spell. I only need to make sure my Soul Power can skip this step and directly nurture the wooden spear."

"In short, Soul Power, or Spiritual Power, only needs to be strong enough to alter matter in reality. I don't need to concern myself with the principles behind the process. After all, I'm not the type to nitpick over everything. The most important thing for me now is to keep making these Imprisonment Spears—preferably more than a hundred of them. When the deer demons attack, I'll shoot them right in the face!"

"Village Chief."

Just as Zhang Yang was smiling strangely at the sky by himself, Wu Yuan had already led nineteen elite soldiers before him.

"Their skill at throwing wooden spears is about the same at present. May I ask what level of throwing ability you need?"

"Wait. What do you mean, they're all about the same?" Zhang Yang was stunned. He had previously asked Wu Yuan to select several soldiers with the best throwing abilities so that they could all use the Imprisonment Wooden Spears. After all, if their aim was lacking and they couldn't hit the target, wouldn't that be a complete waste?

Wu Yuan then picked up a stone from the ground, raised his hand, and tossed it dozens of meters into the air. He swiftly drew a wooden spear, and with a whoosh, shattered the stone in midair in the blink of an eye.

That move was dazzling, but it wasn't Wu Yuan's true throwing ability.

Zhang Yang said nothing and waited for him to continue.

Wu Yuan spoke again. "Village Chief, those nineteen men only just began training, so at present, their throwing ability is limited to hitting stationary targets within fifty meters. But if they train for another two days and two nights, they'll all be able to reach the level I just demonstrated."

Zhang Yang understood at once. But did they really have three days of buffer time for training? Besides, if people didn't sleep or rest, their bodies would eventually give out.

And if the deer demons suddenly attacked during this period, everything would go to waste.

After thinking for a while, he looked at Wu Yuan. "Even if we're lucky and the deer demons don't appear anytime soon, how are you going to solve the problem of rest? Over the past two days, they've been training until midnight and sleeping only four hours a day. That'll leave them exhausted. When they encounter enemies, won't they be unable to perform at their peak?"

"Also, is their training really progressing that quickly? Can they become throwing experts in a mere five days? Or do you have some sort of secret?"

"Village Chief, fatigue and recovery aren't problems at all. I discovered this over the past two days: as long as we stay near the Wood Demon Tower, our fatigue recovers rapidly. All you need to do is permit them to rest inside the Wood Demon Tower."

"As for your second question, there's no secret. The reason their training is progressing so quickly is entirely because they're already elite soldiers. Having soldiers accustomed to life and death, with their physical abilities at their peak, learn an attack skill that isn't particularly complicated—I'd say five days is already slow."

"In other words, the coordination between their hands, eyes, and bodies is extremely strong. Once they master the basic techniques, they can improve at lightning speed."

Wu Yuan gave Zhang Yang a detailed explanation. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Village Chief, I have a suggestion, though I don't know whether it's feasible. I don't know why you built the village here, but our numbers are simply too low. We won't have problems facing scattered monster attacks, but once we face a large number of enemies, it'll be easy for us to lose the initiative and fall completely into a disadvantageous position."

"So I was thinking, should we shrink our defensive perimeter? With the Wood Demon Tower as the core, we could fell trees, dig trenches, and use them to build a simple stockade wall. That way, we could avoid fighting the enemy in the open and wouldn't need to rely too heavily on Level 2 Protection. Once the enemy attacked, the wooden-spear throwing we're currently training would come in handy."

"Good. We'll do as you say. But don't forget to carve wooden spears for me—the highest-quality ones."

Zhang Yang completely agreed with Wu Yuan's suggestion. It had been his idea as well. Now that they had the elementary magic artifact, the Imprisonment Spear, they needed to carefully study how to fight.

Next, everyone sprang into action. The nineteen elite soldiers continued training their wooden-spear throwing.

Wu Yuan used his spare time to carve wooden spears.

After carefully reasoning through everything, Zhang Yang gritted his teeth and recruited six more Longbowmen. He upgraded them to elites using incomplete demon souls, then had them join the previous six Elite Archers in felling trees and building the simple stockade wall.

This was extremely important. According to his plan, they could use the stockade wall as a defense, then take advantage of the terrain of this hill to attack from above. They would use the Imprisonment Spears to bind the enemies, then quickly kill them with ordinary wooden spears. It was practically perfect.

However, the prerequisite for this plan was that Zhang Yang could truly make enough Imprisonment Spears.

"I hope luck is still on my side and those deer demons don't appear too soon."

Zhang Yang thought this to himself, but he didn't actually place his hopes on it. In the end, he now had thirty-one elite soldiers, plus Wu Yuan, and they occupied the high ground. Even if they fought head-on, they had the confidence to hold their own.

Afterward, he didn't hurry to make Imprisonment Spears. Instead, he continued along the line of thought from earlier, seeing whether he could skip the step of casting the Imprisonment Spell and directly use Soul Power to nurture the spear. This would greatly reduce his Soul Power consumption.

"Then this is a little troublesome. I was able to master the Imprisonment Spell because the Village Building Order and the Lord-Grade Demon Soul directly acted upon my body, so I learned it in an instant. But how am I supposed to make intangible Soul Power act upon objects in reality?"

While he was pondering, Zhang Yang inadvertently looked up and saw Wu Yuan carving a wooden spear.

Wu Yuan carved wooden spears very quickly, with an indescribable rhythm of his own. Every time his knife fell, the flying wood shavings were exquisitely beautiful, making the whole process look incredibly soothing.

Zhang Yang even had the illusion that Wu Yuan was granting a wooden spear life and soul, bringing it completely to life!

"Perhaps maintaining absolute focus is a good method, just like the reverence Wu Yuan mentioned before."

Zhang Yang was deep in thought. "Actually, I took a detour, or perhaps I was thinking in the wrong direction. The reverence Wu Yuan spoke of isn't merely fear and terror. It means that when you devote yourself to something completely, just as you would when facing life and death, you naturally gain a more focused power. For me, that is the secret that can connect Soul Power to reality! Moreover, if my Soul Power is strong enough and precise enough, I should be able to perceive more details than I could with my own eyes."

Picking up a raw wooden branch, Zhang Yang drew his long saber, closed his eyes, and emptied his mind.

No one knew how much time had passed when several insect chirps in the grass entered Zhang Yang's mind. Then, an unknown insect the size of a soybean, with four pairs of wings, appeared vividly in his consciousness, as though he had witnessed it with his own eyes. No— even if he had used his eyes, it wouldn't have been this vivid or this detailed, because the insect's internal structure was all revealed at that moment.

Zhang Yang was startled. The next second, the illusion vanished, and dozens of meters away, an identical insect exploded directly into a puddle of mush.

"What the hell? So it can be done like this!"

After calming the turmoil in his heart, Zhang Yang continued experimenting. With his first success behind him, everything went smoothly from there, and he gradually grasped the patterns governing the control of his Soul Power.

At first, he had wondered whether this Soul Power of his should be classified as magic or cultivation, but once he could control it, he discovered that it actually didn't matter.

"What truly matters is that I can control it!"

After reducing seven or eight insects to unrecognizable corpses and turning more than a dozen wild grasses directly into dust, Zhang Yang successfully locked onto the raw wooden branch in his hand with his Soul Power.

The sensation was wondrous. He didn't need to look at the branch with his eyes or feel it with his hands. The raw wooden branch simply appeared in a completely blank world, where it was continuously broken down—bark, knots, wood grain, wood fibers, and then even finer, tinier components.

"I understand."

Zhang Yang muttered to himself. While maintaining delicate control over the raw wooden branch, he brought his knife down. The cut was not at all clumsy, because it followed the internal structure of the branch perfectly, without the slightest mistake. From the inside out, the depth of every knot, the changing direction of every fiber, and the thickness of every layer of bark were all broken down with absolute clarity.

Then, based on those internal details, he swung the knife in light strokes—not merely to make the thickness even, but to ensure the integrity of every fiber and the stability of the raw branch's entire internal structure.

From beginning to end, it flowed as one seamless motion!

This was the true use of a B-rank soul, rather than simply using it to cast spells.

Once one thing was understood, everything became clear. Once everything went smoothly, all things followed.

When Zhang Yang opened his eyes again, he saw Wu Yuan staring at him wide-eyed, so astonished that his mouth could have swallowed a goose egg.

"Uh—Village Chief, how—how did you do that? This is incredible."

"Me? Of course I was possessed by a ghost!"

Zhang Yang burst out laughing, feeling utterly exhilarated!