"Rootless Soil."
Chu Mo murmured the name softly and gave no answer for a long while. Silence settled over the hall, without even the sound of breathing.
The silence tightened around Xu Ji's heart, and he hurriedly continued:
"In this subordinate's humble opinion... this place may be closer to some sort of... phenomenon, something like... an urban legend, rather than a place that truly exists." He paused after every sentence, as though weighing his words, trying to distill five hundred years of sights and sensations into the most precise language possible. "Heaven and earth have their boundaries. Even a strange place like the Ghost Market cannot escape that rule. But Netherworld Soil..."
"It is more like a [domain] born in response to thoughts.
"The longer living beings remain in Netherworld Soil, the more easily they succumb to its influence. First, their flesh decays. Then their souls gradually grow muddled, their memories drain away into this place, and they become dazed wandering souls.
"As wandering souls gather and Lingering Obsession accumulates, it expands and grows more stable. Conversely, when souls disperse, it contracts and gradually fades. This subordinate once witnessed a distant ghost domain being devoured completely by something more vicious. Before long, that region vanished like a reflection in water, returning to nothingness."
As he spoke of this, a trace of wonder surfaced in Xu Ji's eyes.
The region had vanished in an exceedingly subtle manner. Had he not lived in Netherworld Soil for so long and become intimately familiar with it, he probably would never have noticed.
"Born in response to thoughts... waxing and waning with souls."
Chu Mo looked thoughtful.
Xu Ji hardly needed to explain that Netherworld Soil resembled an urban legend. Chu Mo had returned precisely because he had set his sights on this phenomenon and