Fragment Acquired Again

As fellow possessors of the Red Dust Yin Gathering Method, a pure torrent of Evil Intent could naturally cause no real harm to the Finger Ghost.

But what if the torrent of Evil Intent released by Li Hai was not so pure?

In fact, after engaging in a "shouting match" with the Finger Ghost, Li Hai had quietly pushed his High-Order Primordial Breath Yang Refining Method—obtained from the elder of the Demon-Slaying Division—to its absolute limit, thereby elevating his cultivation realm to the level of [Focusing Spirit and Wandering].

The so-called Focusing Spirit and Wandering refers to the emergence of the Yin Spirit.

That which is purely Yin without Yang is a ghost; that which is a mixture of Yin and Yang is a Yin Spirit; that which is purely Yang without Yin is a Yang Spirit.

When a mortal dies, the Yin soul sheds its shell to become a ghost, whereas the soul of a cultivator, where the Yin is not yet exhausted and the Yang is not yet full, is termed a Yin Spirit.

Simply put, a Yin Spirit is a ghostly entity possessing a sense of clarity and Yang-based Dharma Power. Because the practitioner's mind remains firm and their physical shell still exists, they do not lose their resolve or descend into madness, allowing them to remain in the human world without falling into the cycle of reincarnation.

Therefore, it stands to reason that even after the Yin Spirit sheds its shell, it can still consume Yang energy to unleash techniques. While the power is significantly weaker than when the Yin Spirit resides within the body, it is still a cut above a practitioner at the Soul Gathering and Spirit Condensing stage.

In short, a detached Yin Spirit is an existence between a resident Yin Spirit and a Soul Gathering practitioner.

After the "shouting match" with the Finger Ghost, Li Hai chose to adopt a two-pronged strategy.

His physical shell (ghost body) continued to trade blows and grapple with the Finger Ghost, while his Yin Spirit (soul) detached itself, constantly consuming yellow talismans to unleash the Fire Essence Incantation, Evil-Expelling Incantation, Nightmare-Removing Incantation, Five Thunder Incantation, Demon-Subduing Incantation, and other anti-ghost talisman arts, mixing them into the torrent of Evil Intent to subject the creature to an endless, frenzied bombardment.

For a time, the entire underground drill ground was completely blanketed in golden-red talisman fire, azure lightning, and the Spirit-Capturing Thunder Sound, purging the oppressive, gloomy ghostly atmosphere that had previously filled the space.

Once subjected to this, the Finger Ghost naturally suffered greatly.

A few talisman arts alone could not truly harm it, resulting in the loss of only a dozen or so fingers, but when twenty or more talisman arts were raining down every second, the nature of the situation changed entirely.

After all, quantitative change leads to qualitative change.

Under Li Hai's dual assault, the Finger Ghost began to retreat step by step.

Not only did the area of the drill ground it occupied shrink significantly, but the efficiency with which it absorbed Yin energy to regenerate fingers gradually fell behind the rate of its losses.

In simple gaming terms, the Finger Ghost's health regeneration speed could no longer keep up with its damage intake.

At this rate, the defeat of the Finger Ghost was only a matter of time.

Yet, even so, Li Hai was not satisfied.

"Too slow, too slow."

The Yin Spirit of Li Hai, hovering formless and intangible above his ghost body, muttered, "I've already consumed over a thousand yellow talismans, yet I still haven't beaten this Finger Ghost into the ground... Hmm, I must cut off its source of Yin energy."

As soon as Li Hai thought this, the Invisible Evil Spirit that had been wandering the drill ground immediately shot toward the dozens of blurry "human" shapes wrapped in a mix of Evil Intent and raging thunder-fire.

"I've always been curious: if a monster that can constantly regenerate has its head cut off, then when its head grows a body and its body grows a head..."

Watching from afar as the Invisible Evil Spirit flew toward the remains of the Finger Ghost, with the word Naihe faintly flickering on the surface of its transparent soul body, Li Hai's Yin Spirit muttered, "Which head of this monster would be in charge?"

No sooner said than done.

Like a cunning hyena, the Invisible Evil Spirit snuck up to the Finger Ghost, immediately opened the portal to the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven, swallowed a chunk of severed fingers equivalent to the mass of four or five "people," and fled.

Once the remains of the Finger Ghost—consisting of who knows how many thousands of fingers—fell into the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven, they immediately began to stir, crawling about aimlessly like headless flies.

However, due to the intensity of the battle, even though Li Hai noticed this, he had no mind for research and immediately cast spells "from a distance," bombarding the crawling fingers.

At the same time, he multi-tasked, continuing to control the Invisible Evil Spirit to launch sneak attacks.

Thus, as time gradually passed, the Finger Ghost was eventually whittled down by Li Hai until it was less than half the size of a person.

Swish—

The Invisible Evil Spirit shot over once more, "swallowing" the Finger Ghost into the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven in a single gulp.

At that very same instant, a phantom identical to Li Hai appeared within the charred Side Hall of the Grotto-Heaven.

This phantom was the manifestation of Li Hai's perception within the Grotto-Heaven.

He looked at the Finger Ghost, which was somewhat withered from the loss of its Yin energy supply, and grinned:

"What's wrong? Not so tough anymore? You were pretty arrogant just a moment ago, huh?"

Without waiting for the Finger Ghost to react, hundreds of yellow talismans appeared in the air all around it.

As soon as these talismans appeared, they ignited without fire, transforming into streaks of talismanic flame and lightning that crashed down upon the dying mass of fingers.

BOOM!

The entire Side Hall shook violently.

The Finger Ghost was dead.

At the same time, Li Hai finally obtained the third Stronger Fragment since arriving in this world.

"Strange, strange."

Li Hai muttered with some confusion, "I killed Guo Huaijin and Asu earlier and got two fragments, but this time, after killing a Finger Ghost that was clearly stronger than both of them combined, I only got one? Tsk, how is this calculated?"

Unable to figure it out, he stopped thinking about it and began to ponder the matter of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven.

"This... must be what they call Soul Remains."

Holding a pitch-black spine that only he could see and touch in his ghost state, Li Hai muttered, "How should I feed this to the Grotto-Heaven?"

As he pondered, the Red Light Scroll spread out on the black desk several dozen feet away vibrated slightly and suddenly erupted with an incredibly dazzling brilliance.

"Hmm?"

Li Hai followed the light and discovered that the wisps of radiance blooming from the scroll had solidified into a line of brilliant, tiny characters:

"Grind bone into powder, use as a brush, paint into the scroll, and mend the gaps."

"What this means is..."

Li Hai slowly shifted his gaze to the Soul Remains in his palm, "I have to grind the spine left behind by the Finger Ghost into powder, then use it as pigment to paint onto that scroll?"

After pondering for a moment, he decided to give it a try.

A while later~

"Where should I apply it?"

Holding a handful of black ash piled on the desk, Li Hai scrutinized the large blank spaces on the scroll and muttered, "I can't tell which is which at all. Forget it, I'll just smear it on randomly."

With that, Li Hai boldly pushed and scattered the entire pile of black ash onto the scroll, preparing to start smearing.

But before his fingers had even swiped twice, the pile of black ash instantly liquefied into ink and began to wander across the scroll on its own.

This left Li Hai both puzzled and amazed, so he couldn't help but mutter:

"So it was automatic all along. Heh, and here I was racking my brain trying to figure out where to paint. Forget it."

Having said that, he watched quietly as the ink on the scroll moved like a dragon in flight.

A short while later, to the right of the small rectangular pattern representing the Side Hall, the ink had depicted a slightly larger circular pattern.

Beside this pattern, three small characters were inscribed:

"East Forest Garden"