Tang Jie returned to his “own” residence.
Two ghost women came forward and prostrated to Tang Jie. As they both had intelligence, they dutifully performed their roles, one of them taking his fork and the other serving tea.
This fragrant tea was actually a kind of Nether Domain water which was helpful to ghosts but highly poisonous to humans. Thus, Tang Jie acted angry and waved them off. “Leave, you useless things.”
The two maidservants had served Maraju for many years, so even though Tang Jie had inherited Maraju’s memories, he still faced the risk of exposing himself. Thus, the best solution was to drive them off with the excuse of his anger.
As expected, the two women were scared off, but before Tang Jie could leave, a faceless old ghost came in.
He bowed to Tang Jie and said, “Young Lord, what angers you?”
This faceless ghost was Maraju’s butler and was the ghost who had been with Maraju the longest. His cultivation level was slightly higher than that of the ghost eagle. Moreover, the ghost eagle was a ghost that Maraju had hired, while the butler was Maraju’s true trusted aide.
Tang Jie didn’t dare to act too wildly in front of this old ghost. “The Severing Hooks have been lost and the human has escaped. Not only did I lose all my soldiers, I didn’t even get anything in return and had to be mocked by Maraji. How could I not be angry? And that’s not even mentioning the descent of the Nether Emperor, which will only make my chances worse.”
Tang Jie’s voice turned gloomy toward the end as he put on a show.
Tang Jie feigned impatience. “What’s the point in saying all this? Now that I’ve lost my Severing Hooks, my fief will soon be taken away, and Maraji and the rest will all be laughing at me. You should be thinking up a way for me to get out of this situation!”
The original intent of these words was to drive away the old ghost once he couldn’t answer.
But to his surprise, the faceless ghost replied after some thought, “This old slave thinks that there is only one solution.”
“What? Tell me!” Tang Jie was slightly taken aback.
This faceless ghost actually had a way for Maraju to get the Severing Hook?
The faceless ghost said, “After gathering the Nine Nethers, creating Life, and refining the Yellow Springs, the Severing Hook will come into being.”
“What did you just say?” Tang Jie gasped, almost crying out.
“Gathering the Nine Nethers, creating Life, and refining the Yellow Springs” referred to laying down a refining formation in the Nine Nethers Rever, which would reverse Life and Death, link Yin and Yang, and induce Reincarnation.
The power of the formation would allow one to directly draw the power of Reincarnation from the Nine Nethers River and gain the Severing Hook. This was not finding the Severing Hook, but using a special method to create one.
But this kind of formation needed ten thousand human lives to activate, and even more lives to keep it running. The creation of a single Severing Hook would require several hundred thousand to a million lives, a horrifying price.
Most shocking of all was that this was actually a method developed by human cultivators. More than ten thousand years ago, there was a Ghost Dao sect on the Vast Wilderness Continent who sought greater power and ultimately developed this utterly inhumane formation. When the Ghost Gate to the Nether Domain opened, they would simply need to activate this formation and create Severing Hooks, which they could then use to reap souls.
But this Ghost Dao sect’s acts were simply too inhumane, and it was ultimately annihilated, its refining formation lost, as were the Severing Hook Scythes they had obtained.
Nobody knew who had destroyed this sect, and Tang Jie had only come upon this story in his travels across the Vast Wilderness. Of course, at the time, he only heard it described as a powerful Ghost Dao weapon, not that it was a Severing Hook. Later on, when he gained Maraju’s memories, he learned that this art had not actually disappeared, as some disciples of that sect had escaped to the Nether Domain.
It was just that Tang Jie had gained far too much information, so he had not put much thought into this news. After all, he hadn’t heard of anyone in the Nether Domain using this formation to create more scythes. It was surprising to hear this faceless ghost now bringing it up.
Tang Jie carefully examined the faceless ghost and then grimly said, “Do you realize what exactly your suggestion entails?”
The faceless ghost replied, “Of course I understand. This method of refinement goes against the heavens, and even though we ghosts of the Nether Domain dine on blood and flesh, we are still restrained by the Heavenly Dao. Such slaughter is liable to bring about the wrath of the heavens. But we have no choice, no? Moreover, since a Nether Emperor is coming this time, numerous outstanding ghosts of various clans are desperate for his favor, and I’ve heard that quite a few young ghost masters have already decided to use this formation.”
“Oh? You’re saying that more than one refining formation will be used at this Nine Nethers Feast?” A murderous light appeared in Tang Jie’s eyes.
This was murderous intent aimed at the ghosts of the Nether Domain. One refining formation could result in the death of a million people, so there was no way Tang Jie could sit back and let it happen.
The faceless ghost took this murderous intent to be aimed at Tang Jie’s competitors, so he calmly replied, “Indeed. I hear the young lords of the Guile and Mori clans both intend to do this. As for what other clans might want to do this, I cannot say. Regardless, this is truly a good way to obtain a Severing Hook. Young Lord, if you intend to retain your fief, getting just one Severing Hook is enough. As for the Nether Emperor’s favor, there’s no need for that.”
Tang Jie laughed. “Good, very good, wonderful!!!”
He took in a deep breath and suppressed his killing intent. “Since that’s the case, you go and arrange this refining formation for me. On the day of the feast, I will use it to create a Severing Hook. If I can get through this trial, Faceless, you will be the number one contributor.”
The old ghost respectfully said, “This old slave does not seek credit, only the Young Lord’s well-being.”
He withdrew.
Tang Jie watched him leave while inwardly exhaling.
It was a good thing he had come over, or else humanity would have suffered an unprecedented calamity.
But if he hadn’t come, then Nether Emperor Zoros might not have participated, meaning this Nine Nethers Feast wouldn’t have been so popular. If the Nine Nethers Feast were as usual, there probably wouldn’t be any refining formations used.
So was he the instigator behind all this? Or was he the one to stop it?
If he left now and didn’t take part in the Nine Nethers Feast, would Zoros also give up, meaning humanity would no longer be threatened?
Tang Jie didn’t know.
He couldn’t see the Web of Fate and examine all the connections, and his avatar could not cast his gaze here.
This matter involved tens of millions of lives, and Tang Jie was somewhat at a loss for what to do.
If his retreating now would make all of this disappear, Tang Jie would retreat without hesitation.
The problem was that he wasn’t sure.
Fate wasn’t impervious to change, but it also had its own kind of inertia. When certain events started rolling into motion, they became impossible to stop.
While the original body hadn’t entered the Dao of Fate, it had comprehended its principles, so it was well aware of this truth.
Thus, he could vaguely sense that even if he left, not only would it not be enough to neutralize this disaster, it would create more variables.
“Ah, forget it. Since I can’t neutralize it, I’ll personally intervene to stop it. Whoever they are, anyone who dares to use this refining formation must die!” Tang Jie swore.
The day after his return, Tang Jie left the city once more, with the reason he gave being recruiting more ghost generals. With the feast imminent, various characters were about to step onto stage and vie for supremacy, and besides personal strength, the strength of one’s subordinates was also important. Thus, the ghost tribes were all trying to grow stronger, and Tang Jie’s actions were understandable.
In reality, Tang Jie was sneaking off to the Yan River.
When Maraju had forced him to leave, Tang Jie thought that it would be a long time until he could go back to the original body’s corpse. But the unexpected discovery of the black grain and the Corpsespirit Flowers had let him create a miracle, wherein he killed Maraju and returned to Nightdark City as Maraju.
Nightdark City wasn’t too far from the Yan River, so Tang Jie used this chance to return there and cultivate.
After all those twists and turns, he had finally returned here, and Tang Jie couldn’t help but sigh.
The presence of the original body’s corpse allowed Tang Jie to rapidly cultivate. Whenever he took a break, he would have the Ghost March Ship go around catching ghosts. With the Spirit Communion Grass in his possession, he only cared about the strength of the ghosts, so despite using only a little time each day, he was far more efficient than his peers like Maraji.
Time went by very quickly, and soon, more than a month had passed.
Tang Jie had cultivated to the peak of Cognitive Creation and was only a hair away from ascending to the Celestial Heart Realm.
But Tang Jie didn’t plan to cross this threshold just yet. His intuition told him that he should wait until the Nine Nethers Feast to break through, that this would seemingly benefit him more. Bizarrely, even though he wasn’t capable of sensing the power of Fate, that strange sensation within him was growing clearer and clearer, as if something was guiding him.
By now, Tang Jie had grown the number of ghost generals to a historic fifty, and he had also gotten another Ghost King.
Fifty-some Mortal Shedding cultivators gathered together represented a significant power, and he also had three Ghost Kings. All in all, it was a decent force at his command, but in the Nine Nethers Feast, it would still be hard to stand out.
Many formidable ghost tribes were taking part in the feast, with the Guile and Mori clans mentioned by the faceless ghost being particular stand-outs. Tang Jie’s current strength still wasn’t enough to contend with them.
However, Tang Jie was in no rush. The stronger his opponent was, the more excited he was to fight them. This Nine Nethers Feast was bound to be a painful experience for the ghost tribes of the Nether Domain.