The Growth of the Soul

At that moment, seeing that the Female Hanging Ghost still hadn't moved, Zheng Que furrowed his brow and asked with utmost seriousness, "You're a dignified Resentful Soul, and you've even gained intelligence. Are you going to go back on your word now?"

At last, the Female Hanging Ghost came back to her senses and said coldly, "Ten thousand Resentful Souls? Impossible. There's no way I could do that!"

"Make a different demand!"

"Besides, you little Human Race brat won through a dirty trick, so I won't agree to anything too difficult!"

Seeing that the Female Hanging Ghost really was willing to honor the bargain, Zheng Que was rather surprised. After thinking it over, he decided not to push his luck and immediately made another demand. "From now on, don't hurt anyone without my orders."

The Female Hanging Ghost gave a cold snort. "Fine!"

As she spoke, a hemp rope appeared out of thin air around her neck. Its other end automatically looped over a beam in the room.

Tap, tap, tap...

The Female Hanging Ghost hanged herself, dangling from the beam and swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

Her skirt fluttered as she swung, and the room was bitterly cold, the chilling gloom impossible to dispel.

Zheng Que nodded slightly. His original plan had been to beat the Female Hanging Ghost into submission. Although a small mishap had occurred along the way, the result was still fairly satisfactory...

With that thought, he spoke again. "My name is Zheng Que. What's yours?"

He had actually already seen the other party's name, Qing Li, in the Life and Death Book in the Underworld Space. He was asking again now to make a clear distinction, in front of the Female Hanging Ghost, between his identity in the Underworld and his identity in the real world.

Hanging from the beam, the Female Hanging Ghost turned her blood-red eyes toward Zheng Que and replied icily, "Qing Li."

Zheng Que nodded, then said, "I'm going to cultivate now. Stay here and protect me."

Qing Li didn't answer. Her body, hanging from the beam, abruptly spun around until her back faced Zheng Que, and she continued hanging herself.

Zheng Que immediately sat cross-legged on the bed, focused his mind, and began to cultivate.

Perhaps because a Resentful Soul was beside him this time, the spiritual energy he drew into his body carried far more yin energy than during any of his previous sessions.

Before long, Zheng Que opened his eyes, and the ruined Wide Hall appeared before him once more.

The Life and Death Book remained open, spread across the long table in front of him.

Black energy poured rapidly from between his brows, like a bubbling stream, and flowed continuously into the Life and Death Book.

Zheng Que was already thoroughly familiar with all this. He began to think over Qing Li's behavior just now.

From the moment Qing Li had made demands of him, to her agreeing to the wager, and finally to her losing and honoring her promise, her thoughts and logic had all been perfectly clear. She was already remarkably like a living person.

Yet not long ago, this Female Hanging Ghost had shown no intelligence at all. She had even nearly perished because she couldn't withstand his spiritual blood.

The contrast between then and now was so stark that she seemed like an entirely different Female Hanging Ghost!

When he had captured Qing Li, she hadn't been a match for him at all. But in their fight just now... if not for the restraint of the Ghost Controlling Technique and the warning from his other identity in the Underworld, she could easily have beaten him to death!

Most likely, the reason Qing Li had undergone such a drastic transformation was that when she entered the Underworld just now, she had gained some kind of benefit unknown to him, a living person.

Now, she should possess both the intelligence she'd had in life and all the memories and ferocity she'd acquired after becoming a Resentful Soul.

With that thought, Zheng Que shook his head and looked at his name and records in the Life and Death Book.

"Species: Human Race."

"Name: Zheng Que."

"Native Place: Changfu Town, Taiping County, Tu Prefecture, Great Li Dynasty."

"Lifespan: Sixteen years, seven months, and ten days; died at the hour of the Pig."

Zheng Que turned the thought over in his mind, wanting to try and see whether he could alter the recorded lifespan.

After experimenting for a while, he found that no matter what he tried, he couldn't leave a single mark on the Life and Death Book.

Since he couldn't change his lifespan, Zheng Que simply stood up, walked down from the Imperial Dais, and wandered around the Wide Hall.

The hall was vast and deep. Though it was now dilapidated, with holes of all sizes in the walls and roof and a cold wind constantly blowing in, the orderly floor tiles, the damaged patterns on the beams and pillars, and the building's sheer scale all spoke of its former grandeur and majesty.

The hall had suffered grievous damage. Aside from a table and a chair on the Imperial Dais, there wasn't a single piece of furniture anywhere else. Patches of black grime had pooled across the floor. Whether it was old bloodstains or something else, he couldn't tell, but it gave off a chilly, sickly-sweet stench.

After making a round, Zheng Que returned to the lame-legged Grandmaster Chair and sat down.

Now, this incomplete Underworld served four purposes for Zheng Que. First, it made him extraordinarily sensitive to "death." Second, the Life and Death Book could absorb the excess yin energy in his body. Third, it let him see when his next tribulation would occur. Fourth, bringing Resentful Souls here seemed to increase their strength...

He had personally verified the first three of these functions.

Only the last one, which he had just discovered, still had many details he couldn't quite confirm.

When he'd brought Qing Li here just now, she had immediately regained her ability to move, but she hadn't gained intelligence at the same time.

Afterward, the Life and Death Book had revealed her name, native place, and lifespan... Then he'd flipped through the book, and for some inexplicable reason, she'd begun crying out that she'd been wronged...

"It'd be best to catch another Resentful Soul and bring it here for a test."

"Also, every time the Life and Death Book records another name, my mental state and my senses seem to improve a little."

"This must be growth of the soul..."

With that thought, Zheng Que immediately decided that whenever he had the chance, he would find a way to add more names to the Life and Death Book.

A moment later, the black energy between his brows had been completely absorbed. The scene around him shifted and wavered, and he returned to the room in the town.

Zheng Que opened his eyes and glanced around. The daylight outside the window had faded; the sun had already set. The room had dimmed, sinking into a murky twilight.

Qing Li was still hanging from the beam. Her black hair and white clothes stretched across Zheng Que's view as she swung back and forth, stirring up gusts of chilling wind.

Zheng Que glanced at her and immediately asked, "Did anything unusual happen in the room while I was cultivating?"

Qing Li still had her back to him. At his question, she replied coldly, "No."

Zheng Que nodded slightly. Qing Li hadn't noticed a thing, which meant that when he entered the Underworld, his physical body remained in the outside world rather than being transported along. It was no different from when he cultivated normally.

That also meant that before entering the Underworld in the future, he would have to make sure his physical body was safe...

With that thought, Zheng Que closed his eyes and continued cultivating.