"Grudge Marriage Nightmare?"
It was the first time Yue Wen had heard the name of this kind of Nightmare Wraith Creature.
"This is a Nightmare Wraith Creature formed from collective resentment. Too many people resent marriage and hate it, not just their own marriages, but other people's marriages too, with a hatred that runs bone-deep." Old Fan explained somewhat haltingly, as though he rarely spoke. "That resentment gathered above this hotel, and once something provoked it, it erupted."
Yue Wen understood after hearing that.
The reason Nightmare Wraith Creatures differed from "ghosts" in the traditional sense was that they were collections of mental energy, rather than physical manifestations of lingering souls.
After a living being died, all its Spirituality concentrated on that single point of resentment. This could indeed form a Nightmare Wraith Creature, and it was the most common way they formed.
But death was not necessarily required to give birth to a Nightmare Wraith.
If someone harbored exceptionally intense resentment toward something, that mental energy could also produce a Nightmare Wraith Creature. It was just that most people's mental energy was not strong enough, so the likelihood was very small.
In fact, only mighty figures in the Upper Three Realms could potentially create a Living Nightmare Wraith with a single thought.
But if enough ordinary people resented the same thing, their accumulated mental energy would be sufficient.
For example, the "Weekend-Rest Nightmare Wraiths" that had appeared quite frequently before were a kind of Nightmare Wraith Creature born from the combined resentment of workers deprived of their legally mandated two-day weekends.
These Nightmare Wraith Creatures wandered among factories and office buildings on weekends, attacking bosses who denied their employees lawful time off. For a time, they had caused a considerable stir and even driven social progress-now many bosses only