The Ghost King, who had just devoured the Flame Spider Essence, blazed with fire from head to foot, his entire body glowing red. His swordlike form stood before the deep pool like a pillar of roaring flame raised in the black night. When the red light shining through him faded a little, the hideous Ghost King, who had once told Xing Yan that he had lost his true nature for several hundred years, suddenly seemed lost in thought. He stood still for a while, his basket-sized head lowered, then puffed a cloud of smoky fire from his blood-basin mouth and said, "I... seem to remember a few important things from the past."
"Oh?"
Xing Yan was delighted for him and hurriedly asked:
"What did you remember?"
"I remembered a great deal! I recalled-"
At Xing Yan's question, Ghost King Xiao Mang was about to pour out a torrent of words, but just as they reached his lips, they suddenly stuck. For a moment, he could not squeeze out a single syllable! It was rather like having a dream, then trying to tell someone about it upon waking, only to discover that one's mind was utterly blank and nothing could be remembered.
This left the boisterous Ghost King so frustrated that he spun furiously in circles on the spot. To Qiong Rong, he looked like a great windmill whirling madly.
"Don't worry. It doesn't matter if you can't remember right away. You've forgotten for several hundred years already; you might as well wait a little longer! Besides, you're a ghost spirit, and you've just swallowed an intensely yang Fire Essence. You'd better work your magic and circulate your power to refine it first."
Xing Yan had noticed the Ghost King's face shifting from red to black, its colors changing eerily, and