"Kong Yue, there's something I'd like to ask you."
Kong Yue had been about to head back into the cave, but stopped at Chen Miao's words.
"What is it?"
"About Ghosts. Do you know of any that still possess human consciousness despite being Ghosts?"
After thinking for a moment, Kong Yue said, "I've never encountered one that can wander independently and still retain its human consciousness."
"But a Paper Effigy Craftsman can gather Soul Bodies that have left their bodies for some reason and have nowhere to go into Paper Offerings, allowing them to survive as Paper Effigies."
"In that situation, they count as Ghosts, but still retain their human consciousness."
Hearing Kong Yue say this, Chen Miao thought of the shopkeeper and the others he had encountered at the Kong Paper Effigy Shop in his previous life.
They were examples of precisely what Kong Yue had described.
But the Ghost in Shadow Cave could not have been a soul that had left its body like that.
Corpses and Ghosts sent to the Eastern Mausoleum had actually been dead for a long time, while Soul Bodies in that disembodied state could not remain outside on their own for very long.
While Chen Miao was thinking, Kong Tian brought up another possibility.
"Usually, when a Ghost is forming inside someone who has just died, the Soul Body retains some consciousness. But that period is very short, only a few hours or so."
"Once it fully transforms into a Ghost, its consciousness dissipates."
Chen Miao looked at Kong Tian.
"Someone who has just died?"
"Yes. Ghosts always need to undergo a process to come into being."
"Actually, in the years I've spent at the Ghost Market, I've met some interesting stallholders."
Seeing that both of them were listening, Kong Tian smiled and