The ghostly figure came from Ming Zhao's Second Martial Soul, the Water Vengeful Spirit.
For Soul Masters who died to his Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Red and White Colliding Calamities, Ming Zhao could choose to bind their souls and make them members of the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, or have them become nourishment for the hundred ghosts entirely.
Of the seventeen inner-court disciples who had died at his hands, Zhang Lexuan had become the new Ghost Bride, while the other sixteen had all become members of the hundred ghosts.
The men became paper figures, and the women became ghost women.
Those who became members of the hundred ghosts after death could retain some of their abilities from when they were alive, forming an unstoppable undead legion.
Summoning them individually like this and assigning a paper figure or ghost woman to do something was another way to use them.
There were, however, some restrictions.
When he unleashed the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, the Ghost Qi and Soul Power they consumed could be restored through the Soul Power Ming Zhao supplied, and they could be revived if they died.
But when they were summoned individually and were far away, Ming Zhao had no way to supply them with power remotely.
Cut off from their source of power, they could only keep consuming the Ghost Qi Ming Zhao had given them when he summoned them.
Once their own Ghost Qi was used up, they could be used again and again if Ming Zhao recalled them in time. Otherwise, their souls would scatter.
The stronger they had been before death, the stronger the paper figures and ghost women they became after death. They could hold more Ghost Qi and remain away from Ming Zhao for longer.
The paper figure he had left by Huo Yuhao's side this time had been an agility-type Soul Master at the Soul Saint level.
He had Shrek Academy to thank for training that paper figure for him.
With it there, Huo Yuhao's every move would be laid bare before him.
Even when Ming Zhao couldn't get away, he could control the paper figure remotely and make it carry out tasks he assigned.
All he had to do was recall the paper figure at intervals and replenish its Ghost Qi.
After planting his spy, Ming Zhao left the Duke's Mansion.
Huo Yuhao's Soul Power Level was still at rank nine. Judging by the somewhat unstable fluctuations of Soul Power around him, he would likely break through within the next half month.
"Heh, heh, heh... half a month."
After entering Star Luo City, Ming Zhao headed straight for the Starlight Auction House with a clear objective.
He didn't ask the auction house directly about the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife. Showing his intentions too clearly would inevitably arouse suspicion, though under normal circumstances, no one would have cared about such a thing.
This was a sensitive time, with Shrek pursuing him with all it had. To minimize the risk of exposing his identity, Ming Zhao could only hide himself as best he could.
As for Shrek forcing him into such a constrained position, he would remember that debt.
At the Starlight Auction House, Ming Zhao acted like an ordinary customer, attending several moderately sized auctions and casually buying a few inexpensive trinkets.
To him, those trinkets were ornaments to fiddle with at best. His main purpose was to make discreet inquiries.
From the conversations of the other guests around him, Ming Zhao learned that the monthly soul-tool auction would take place in a few days. Only an auction of that caliber had a chance of bringing out an item on the level of the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife.
A year later, the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife would be the final auction item at a soul-tool auction, with a hefty starting price of a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins. Its price and status could only be higher now.
Fortunately, murder and arson brought a golden belt.
Ming Zhao was not short of money.
On the contrary, he was quite wealthy. His bad luck merely meant he lacked the good fortune to encounter supreme treasures; it didn't stop him from fattening his purse after a hunt.
At the soul-tool auction a few days later, he found the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife listed as the final item on the auction house's list.
Just as described, no one dared buy it. The listed starting price of two hundred thousand remained untouched.
Ming Zhao was in no hurry to bid either. Only when the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife was about to go unsold did he snap up the priceless treasure, made of Gold of Life, for the starting price of two hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins.
Before this, the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife had already gone unsold several times.
Now that a sucker like Ming Zhao had picked it up at the starting price, the auction house could hardly wait to toss the hot potato of a carving knife to him. It caused not the slightest stir.
Just like that, he had achieved his goal with ease.
Without alerting any of the people hunting him.
"The Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife... to an ordinary Soul Master, it really is an evil object to be shunned like snakes and scorpions, feared like tigers and wolves. But to me, it's a supreme treasure, through and through."
In a perfectly ordinary hotel, Ming Zhao lay on a soft, spacious bed, gently playing with the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife in his hand.
The sharp, overbearing Evil Qi on the knife had no effect on him. The piercing shrieks lingering around his ears were like dogs barking: aside from being a little noisy, they meant nothing.
When it came to sinister evil, Ming Zhao himself was far more sinister than the curse on the knife.
It was only because the curse was attached to the Gold of Life and sustained by its life force that it gave the false impression of being beyond reach and impossible to approach.
After a careful examination, however, Ming Zhao suddenly grew excited.
He had discovered something very interesting!
"The curse is sustained by life force. As long as I don't pull it out by the roots, it can act like a relay station, endlessly converting life force into Evil Qi!" The more Ming Zhao sensed it, the brighter his eyes grew.
"Evil Qi, Yin Qi, Baleful Qi, the power of curses! This is practically a perfect supplement!"
Wasn't this exactly the kind of power that yin-baleful fierce ghosts loved most?
As long as he preserved the root of the curse, Ming Zhao could continuously devour the various sinister powers it converted, speeding up his cultivation and strengthening the soul bodies of his paper figures and female ghosts, even enhancing the origins of his two Martial Souls, the Ghost Bride and the Water Vengeful Spirit.
Lift the curse on the carving knife and purify it back into Gold of Life?
There was no need at all!
Ming Zhao brought the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife to the tip of his nose and took a deep drag, an epic inhale straight into his lungs. A great deal of sinister power was swallowed into his body.
At the same time, a look of enjoyment and intoxication appeared on Ming Zhao's face.
That felt good!
So fucking good!
"Tell me... (sniff, sniff, sniff) who on earth... (sniff, sniff, sniff) invented this little thing?"
Crack-
Outside the window, the sky was bright.
An almost imperceptible sound of something breaking also came from within Ming Zhao.
Before he knew it, he had spent the entire night clutching the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife and inhaling.
The curse on the knife had grown somewhat wilted from his inhaling. It was no longer puffed up and hissing at everyone it saw as it had been at first. Instead, like a turtle, it had meekly withdrawn into the knife.
Ming Zhao, having absorbed most of the curse's power, had broken straight through the bottleneck to rank eighty after only just reaching rank seventy-nine.
It had been less than a month since he had broken through to rank seventy-nine!
"Just as I thought, it really is a pure-yin tonic!"