Wild Ghost Soldier

Chapter 21: Wild Ghost Soldier

Of course, the power of a Top Grade Spirit Ghost or a Heavenly Spirit Ghost didn't depend on how strong it was by itself. But raising an ordinary Spirit Ghost to a higher level was no easy task. Not only did it require an excellent Soul Nurturing Pagoda, but you also had to hunt Monster Beasts from time to time and feed their flesh and blood to the ghost. If a Spirit Ghost hit a bottleneck while leveling up, you had to spend Essence Blood to perform a Blood Sacrifice again, hoping it would break through and grow stronger.

An ordinary person raising a Low-grade Spirit Ghost would have to pour in a great deal of time and effort—and Essence Blood—to keep it advancing alongside them. Raising two, or even three, meant spending nearly all their time and energy on those Spirit Ghosts. Thus, a Ghost Soldier evolved from a Spirit Ghost was indeed a powerful spell, provided its level could keep up. However, for most people who focused on the Ghost Taming Art, raising too many Low-grade Spirit Ghosts would seriously hinder their own cultivation. Top Grade Spirit Ghosts were entirely different. A little nourishment from a decent Soul Nurturing Pagoda, or a bit of Monster Beast flesh and blood, was enough for them to level up quickly. Their owners didn't need to spend much time raising them. Best of all, a Top Grade Spirit Ghost could soon surpass its original owner, and it was extremely unlikely to get stuck at a bottleneck for long.

As a result, with a Top Grade Spirit Ghost, Lei Dong could easily obtain a Ghost Soldier several ranks stronger than himself. For example, Lei Dong was currently at the Qi Refining Second Layer. With a little care, a Ghost Soldier refined from a Top Grade Spirit Ghost could quickly reach Level Five or Six. Under those circumstances, Lei Dong's combat power would naturally be astonishing.

Low-grade Spirit Ghosts could also keep advancing, but each breakthrough was a struggle, and they often hit bottlenecks. If their owner wasn't willing to devote much effort to raising them, they could easily fall far behind their owner's progress. Over time, they would become less and less useful.

That was why having an excellent Spirit Ghost—or even a Heavenly Spirit Ghost—could provide a powerful ally without requiring too much effort.

Lei Dong had no idea what level Myriad Ghost Ancestor's Top Grade Spirit Ghost had reached by now. But one thing was easy to imagine: its individual combat strength and level must far surpass Myriad Ghost Ancestor himself.

Lei Dong's Soul Devouring Pagoda, however, was an exception. After devouring large numbers of Yin Souls, the Soul Beads it formed could not only create Low-grade Spirit Ghosts but also raise them to Middle Grade. The one problem was that advancing to Middle Grade cost ten Soul Beads. Heaven knew how many it would take to go from Middle Grade to Upper Grade. A hundred? A thousand? Lei Dong didn't dare try. Whether a hundred or a thousand, he couldn't possibly gather that many in a short time.

After all, it took a whole month to devour enough Yin Souls to make around ten Soul Beads. For that reason, Lei Dong was already quite satisfied with raising his Ghost Soldier to Middle Grade. His own aptitude wasn't especially good, and with the Ghost Soldier's quality reaching Middle Grade, it wouldn't fall too far behind his cultivation even if he left it in a Soul Nurturing Pagoda. Of course, that assumed he had a decent one.

Making up his mind, Lei Dong decided to stay in Myriad Ghost City and capture Yin Souls to temper into Soul Beads, then use those beads to produce another Middle Grade Spirit Ghost to sell. Middle Grade Spirit Ghosts were a hundred times rarer than Low-grade ones. According to the Ghost Taming Art, the odds of finding a Middle Grade Spirit Ghost were an astonishing one in a million. In other words, with only average luck, you might have to go through a million Yin Souls before finding one.

As you could see, a Middle Grade Spirit Ghost was worth at least a hundred times as much as a Low-grade one. Upper Grade Spirit Ghosts, meanwhile, were priceless treasures that money couldn't buy. Whenever one appeared on the market, it attracted countless cultivators who practiced the Ghost Taming Art, and it would often fetch an astronomical price.

Lei Dong's great advantage was that, with a little luck,

he could produce a Middle Grade Spirit Ghost in just over a month, and it would be worth more than a thousand spirit stones. Once he had a thousand spirit stones, buying a decent Soul Nurturing Pagoda would be much easier.

Day after day, whenever the Yin Souls in a Mass Grave grew scarce, Lei Dong quickly moved on to another place. Fortunately, there were countless gathering places for ordinary Yin Souls within hundreds of miles of Myriad Ghost City. Across the territory of the Yin Sha Sect, there were even more than anyone could count. Still, Lei Dong only dared visit sinister grounds less than a hundred years old. With his current cultivation, going to notorious, murderous places could easily bring him face-to-face with powerful Wild Ghost Soldiers, or even Wild Ghost Guards. It would hardly be worth the risk—he might even lose his life there.

Time was the greatest power of all. Even Inferior Ghosts, despite being nearly useless, could slowly evolve into Ghost Soldiers if they wandered through Yin Sha Lands for a very long time, hunting, feeding, and surviving. They could devour flesh and blood, or even other Yin Souls. Given enough time—hundreds or even thousands of years—they would grow fairly powerful. Their rate of growth was simply far slower than that of Spirit Ghosts.

But the most frightening were Spirit Ghosts that survived year after year and evolved into Ghost Soldiers on their own. Even without being raised by a person, a Spirit Ghost Ghost Soldier could grow terrifyingly strong if it was lucky and the conditions were right. With his Qi Refining Second Layer cultivation, Lei Dong truly didn't dare wander about recklessly. He could only visit Mass Grave Yin Lands that were just a few decades old.

After all, the Yin Sha Sect was an Evil Sect. It deliberately cultivated such places, even creating semi-artificial Mass Graves within Yin Sha Lands to help Yin Souls form and provide the sect with endless resources. They also gave junior disciples a place to hone their skills.

Since there were at least several hundred Mass Graves like these within the territory of Myriad Ghost Cave alone, Lei Dong didn't have to worry about running out of Inferior Ghosts in the short term. Nor did he have to fear that the disappearance of large numbers of Inferior Ghosts from a place he visited would arouse suspicion. For one thing, Inferior Ghosts weren't worth much, and almost no one paid them any attention. For another, hardly anyone caught Inferior Ghosts only to release them again. Even Inferior Ghosts had a few uses, however minor. Most commonly, they served as food for Spirit Ghost Ghost Servants or were used to refine Magic Tools like the Myriad Ghost Banner.

Boom!

A deafening explosion blasted a pit several feet wide beneath Lei Dong's feet. Fortunately, before the Fiend Thunder struck, he had leaped clear in an instant, relying on his Qi Refining Second Layer cultivation and his Cloud Ascending Boots. Even so, when Lei Dong glanced at the crater, cold sweat broke out all over him, and his face went pale.

The Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier let out a piercing howl, raised its shield, and knocked away the Level Two Wild Ghost Soldier that had nearly harmed its master. Blade Qi flashed as Yin Wind howled, and it fought desperately to hold the enemy at bay.

When the Ghost Soldier first detected the Level Two Wild Ghost Soldier, Lei Dong had been overjoyed. He'd sent his Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier into battle while hanging back and firing his Ink Green Small Sword. What he'd never expected was that this Wild Ghost Soldier possessed the astonishing innate spell of Fiend Thunder. One blast had nearly killed Lei Dong, who'd let his guard down.

Watching the Level Two Wild Ghost Soldier being driven back again and again by the Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier, howling wildly, Lei Dong couldn't help looking regretful. A Wild Ghost Soldier with such an innate spell must have evolved from a Spirit Ghost. But once a Spirit Ghost had evolved into a Ghost Soldier on its own, it could still be captured and placed in a Soul Nurturing Pagoda, but the Ghost Taming Art could no longer turn it into a Blood Sacrifice Ghost Servant.

That didn't mean a Wild Ghost Soldier was completely useless. The Yin Sha Sect had another Ghost Taming Technique specifically for collecting these wandering ghosts and refining them into Myriad Ghost Banners. When the strongest Myriad Ghost Banners were used against an enemy, Myriad Ghosts poured forth in a fearsome tide, their power immense. But because Wild Ghost Soldiers had already developed sentience, their intelligence had to be refined away first, leaving only their instincts. As a result, the Ghost Soldiers in a Myriad Ghost Banner were nowhere near as strong in battle as Blood Sacrifice Ghost Soldiers. And once a ghost had been refined into a Myriad Ghost Banner, even one descended from a Heavenly Spirit Ghost would have little chance of advancing again.

That was what Lei Dong regretted. To obtain a Blood Sacrifice Ghost Soldier, he had to refine and fuse with a Spirit Ghost through Blood Sacrifice while it was still a Yin Soul, before its intelligence had awakened. Still, although he couldn't recruit this Wild Ghost Soldier as a subordinate, it was an excellent meal for his Bloodthirsty Ghost Soldier. After steadying himself, Lei Dong cautiously sent the Ink Green Small Sword streaking like a flash of green, then drove it hard into the Wild Ghost Soldier.

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