Hou Niao ignored everyone's dumbfounded stares and chatted with people as he walked. Sometimes he merely exchanged a few words; at other times, no one knew how he did it, but he managed to force out a soul ghost!
As he made his way along, he discovered two more soul ghosts, one in a sickly old man lying on a stretcher and another in a pregnant woman. He finished each with a single stroke of his sword, so quickly that no one else could react.
He circled back and chuckled. "These ghosts can't approach anyone with vigorous blood and vitality, so they can only work on the old, weak, sick, and disabled. In that case, senior brother, do you think they can pass?"
The gatekeeper was astonished. "Junior Brother Hou, have you specifically practiced a cultivation method for dealing with soul ghosts?"
Hou Niao shook his head. "Where would I find the time? I'm just naturally sensitive to soul ghosts. I've been like this since childhood..."
Understanding dawned on the gatekeeper. There were indeed people in the world with special constitutions, known in cultivation circles as innate Dao bodies.
There were many kinds of Dao bodies, each with its own characteristics. The innate leakless Dao body, for instance, allowed exceptionally rapid cultivation. Then there was the Yin-Kui Dao body, highly suited to serving as a cauldron partner in dual cultivation, or the wind and cloud Dao body, which offered unique advantages in flight, and so on.
There were also some rather meager Dao bodies, like the ancestral return Dao body, which granted an inborn understanding of beasts. Others were like Hou Niao's, born with yin-yang eyes that could detect ghostly things to a certain extent.
"Since you have this ability, Junior Brother Hou, I'm convinced. In that case, sign the