Strictly speaking, the Sheqing Ghost could not be considered a "ghost" at all.
It was a being formed when a living person, before death, lay beneath corpses without food or water while harboring massive resentment, enduring forty-nine days or longer to absorb the surrounding corpse qi and transform into a half-human, half-ghost entity. The very moment they cast aside their living identity, their entire body's blood surged in reverse, carrying a potent aura of death. With resentment as its core, it became something far more terrifying than a Crimson Fiend.
Since it was neither human nor ghost, it transcended the Three Realms and remained outside the Five Elements, much like the most powerful jiangshi, establishing its unique ability and status. Even after taking full revenge, it would still be driven by its resentment, absorbing new power bit by bit and growing stronger and stronger.
Yiqing was born precisely this way.
The world he inhabited was deeply twisted. Perhaps he was simply unfortunate to be born in the most turbulent era, where human nature was the ultimate luxury and a pretty face brought him no benefits whatsoever, only deeper malice.
He suffered a great deal of inhumane treatment, from childhood to adulthood, his hatred deepening with every passing moment.
What kept him going was, first, his survival instinct, and second, the hatred that drove him to tear the people who bullied him into a thousand pieces.
Eventually, he simply could not hold on any longer.
As an ordinary person—someone devoid of brute strength yet possessing a naturally kind disposition—he was utterly powerless in the face of fate. Thus, he crawled and crawled through the mass grave until he reached the underside of those filthy, decaying corpses.
He actually knew the legends surrounding the Sheqing Ghost. Clinging to the resentment of *even