"Old Ancestor!"
Immortal Long's descendants stared at the figure floating before his spirit tablet, utterly stunned and shaken beyond words.
"Old Ancestor, you... you really came back to life...
"No, what exactly are you now?"
One of Immortal Long's sons by a concubine was so excited that he could barely speak coherently.
"The former shade has passed, the next has yet to come; anger and delusion linger, their nature not yet void. When I return from the Yellow Springs to my homeland, only then shall I become an immortal among the ghosts below!"
Immortal Long softly recited the verse Han Xiuguang had once chanted. Feeling the difference between his present state and his former self, he was overwhelmed with emotion.
"The Netherworld Sect didn't deceive me. The method for cultivating into a ghost immortal really works!"
"Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"
Immortal Long threw back his head and laughed, his face brimming with joy and satisfaction.
"All of you may leave for now. Later, I will pass the entire cultivation method on to you.
"Though this path requires a certain cultivation realm before you can achieve anything, it also opens the gates to the Underworld, offering hope that your consciousness may endure after death.
"Even degenerating into a vengeful ghost would be worth it."
He addressed the assembled crowd.
Overjoyed, they kowtowed. "Thank you, Old Ancestor!"
Now the Dragon Household of the West Sea was not merely down-to-earth-it had connections down in the Underworld. With someone on the inside, they could swagger around even beneath the Yellow Springs.
After everyone left, Immortal Long quietly examined his condition, lost in thought.
Ghost immortals shed their physical bodies, yet they were entirely different from ordinary yin spirits and other ghostly creatures.
The latter were aberrant beings with remnant souls as their spirits and yin baleful