Looking at the kindly Old Lady Zhao, the evil spirit Zhou felt as though his brain had shriveled.
No matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not understand why Old Lady Zhao, a mighty Vengeful Ghost-level evil spirit, had suddenly become so warm and friendly.
Your dignity is in pieces all over the floor!
Evil spirits had their own cultivation ranks.
From lowest to highest, they were Little Ghost, Evil Ghost, Vengeful Ghost, Ghost Fiend, Ghost General, and Ghost Monarch!
Zhou, for example, was merely a Little Ghost-level evil spirit.
Precisely because he was so weak, he could only guard the entrance to the Amusement Park.
But Old Lady Zhao, a Vengeful Ghost-level spirit, was different.
Apart from a few forbidden areas, she could go wherever she pleased throughout the Amusement Park!
There were even rumors that she had some sort of connection to the boss, Ghost King Zhong!
Yet such a powerful evil spirit was now gently coaxing Tang Xiaoling with a kindly smile.
She was someone who took particular delight in eating children!
The livestream viewers were equally dumbfounded and utterly confused.
The bloody scene they had expected never happened. Instead, everything looked peaceful!
Most baffling of all, why was she giving the girl money?
What, had evil spirits changed their ways now?
Had they stopped eating people and become philanthropists?
"Holy shit! That stack has to be worth at least ten thousand Evil Spirit Coins, right? Are evil spirits really this generous now?!"
"Generous doesn't even begin to cover it. An ordinary person couldn't earn that many Evil Spirit Coins in a lifetime! Even if you're lucky enough to clear an instance, the reward is only a few hundred!"
"There's something... off about this kid! Not only did she avoid getting eaten, she even got an evil spirit to give her money! Could her dad really be that powerful?"
That remark immediately caused an uproar.
Many viewers began speculating that Tang Xiaoling's father might genuinely be someone important!
But just as the discussion was heating up, a viewer named "Eerie Knowledge Explainer" posted a comment:
"Stop guessing wildly. This is actually easy to explain."
"The evil spirit isn't being nice to this child because of her father. She's cultivating her like a venomous creature!"
Cultivating her like a venomous creature?
The viewers all posted question marks, showing their confusion.
Seeing this, Eerie Knowledge Explainer continued:
"'Cultivating a venomous creature' is a term we professionals use. You can also think of it as raising a ghost!"
"Do you think the evil spirits in instances simply appear out of nowhere?"
"No! They were once human too. They became evil spirits because their resentment lingered after death!"
"But as time passes, their resentment will eventually dissipate, and they'll reincarnate."
"Yet instances can't function normally without these evil spirits."
"So when they encounter certain special people, those people become targets for cultivation. Eventually, they're turned into Evil Ghosts, or even Vengeful Ghosts!"
Reading these explanations felt like having a door to knowledge opened for them, and many viewers could not resist asking more questions.
"Expert, what do you mean by 'special'? Is Tang Xiaoling one of those people?"
"I'm curious. Based on what you're saying, with so many people dying in instances, hasn't anyone turned into an evil spirit?"
"Exactly! With a 99.99% death rate, how many people must have died?! Even if only one in ten became an evil spirit, there wouldn't be any need to cultivate more, would there?"
Faced with the viewers' barrage of questions, Eerie Knowledge Explainer quickly posted another comment.
"You people really don't know anything! Spirits feed on resentment. As I already said, it takes immense resentment for a human to become an evil spirit!"
"Plenty of people die in instances, but most die filled with fear. Very few develop resentment."
"Besides that, certain specific conditions have to be met for an evil spirit to form!"
"So it's not that nobody becomes an evil spirit in an instance, but it's extremely rare."
"As for Tang Xiaoling, she probably has a special birth fate, like being born in a yin year and a yin month."
"People like that can turn into evil spirits relatively easily as long as they harbor resentment, and they tend to become extremely powerful ones!"
Seeing every question answered, the viewers were instantly filled with respect.
Quite a few even clicked on Eerie Knowledge Explainer's avatar to check his profile.
As they browsed the pictures he had posted, they made a startling discovery.
Among them was a diploma issued by Qingbei University, one of Dragon Country's top universities!
The major listed on it was none other than Paranormal Studies!
This new major had been established at universities in the second year after Evil Spirit Instances descended.
Its purpose was to help talented people in the field better research Evil Spirit Instances, increasing clearance rates and reducing casualties!
Over the past twenty years, it had produced considerable results.
In certain specific instances, survival rates had already been raised as high as thirty percent!
As a result, anyone studying Paranormal Studies was highly respected.
That went doubly for outstanding graduates of Qingbei, one of Dragon Country's finest universities!
"Sorry, expert. I was blind to your greatness. I shouldn't have argued with you!"
"Oh my god! An outstanding Qingbei graduate! This is the first time I've ever gotten this close to one!"
"I never imagined someone as amazing as you was lurking in this livestream!"
"Expert, expert, I have a question. Now that this evil spirit is buttering Tang Xiaoling up, what will she do next?"
As one admiring comment after another appeared, Eerie Knowledge Explainer's vanity was immensely gratified.
He had indeed wanted to get into Qingbei University to study Evil Spirit Studies.
Unfortunately, his talent was limited. Even after taking the entrance exam for five years, he had never been admitted.
In the end, his self-esteem took such a crushing blow that he simply had a fake diploma made and posted it online.
Then he added some captions containing basic knowledge of the field.
To his surprise, he immediately attracted a large following!
Having long since lost his confidence, he suddenly found immense satisfaction in their admiration.
From then on, he began drifting between forums and livestreams.
Putting on an inscrutable air, he spouted nonsense based on his meager knowledge.
But because he did possess a little specialized knowledge, his mixture of truth and falsehood actually convinced even more people.
In reality, the genuine students and experts in the field were a different story.
They were busy analyzing various instances, working quietly to improve the survival odds of Dragon Country's participants.
Even for a chance of just 0.01, they forgot to eat and sleep, putting forth every ounce of effort they could.
None of them had time to spout nonsense online like he did!
"That's all I'll say. Some things are better witnessed for yourselves. I'm not at liberty to say more."
Having deftly shown off again with that brief remark, Eerie Knowledge Explainer went silent.
No matter how the viewers questioned him, he did not say another word.
Yet the more he behaved this way, the more unfathomable they found him.
Combined with the Qingbei diploma they had dug out of his photo album, it only strengthened their impression.
For a while, Eerie Knowledge Explainer's standing skyrocketed in everyone's minds.
Some even began boldly speculating that he had to be a professor of Paranormal Studies at Qingbei University!
Before you continue