Tang Jie aimed the opening of the jade cup at Whiteface, upon which an ethereal version of the Whiteface Ghost King appeared in the cup.
He then flipped the cup over onto his palm, and ghostly figures began to dance across the surface of the cup. At the same time, the Whiteface Ghost King realized to his shock that no matter how much he flew, Tang Jie would always be nearby, coldly smiling at him.
When he looked more closely, he saw that a faint ring of light had appeared around him.
He was in this ring, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape. Most bizarre was that there was no power binding him. He could run or fly, but he couldn’t leave the ring of light, and he couldn’t distance himself from Tang Jie.
He was a frog in a well, and no matter what he did, he was stuck in his limited world.
Meanwhile, the ghost soldiers charged into the ring.
Whiteface knew that he had no chance of surviving, and in despair, he detonated all his power, this time for real. A massive wave of energy blasted outward, obliterating all the approaching ghost soldiers and causing that ring of light to flicker. At the same moment, the jade cup groaned from the pressure.
Tang Jie reacted quickly, promptly removing the jade cup’s Mirror World spell so that the cup didn’t shatter.
The Mirror World could imprison ghosts, but it had limited strength, so it needed to be used cautiously. Otherwise, Tang Jie would have used it to imprison Whiteface much earlier.
Tang Jie snatched them all and looked at them. “Haha, I didn’t expect to get this.”
The red bead was a ghost essence, an ultimate-grade ghost essence that had already condensed into a pearl.
Whiteface must have cultivated some kind of Golden Pill secret art in order to achieve such a perfect essence. In its completed form, this ultimate-grade ghost essence could produce immense amounts of energy that could push its master to an even higher level.
Judging by the exquisite patterns on this ghost essence pearl, the Whiteface Ghost King had lofty ambitions, most likely seeking to become a Ghost Emperor.
Alas, all of his hard work had ended up in Tang Jie’s hands.
Tang Jie was very satisfied with this ghost essence. He opened up the coffin and threw the ghost essence in. “It’s yours.”
The Spirit Communion Grass cried out in joy.
Starsoul Dust could sustain it, but so could ghost essence, and to better effect. Tang Jie had lost most of his ghosts dealing with Whiteface, so the Spirit Communion Grass went to work without even needing orders, luring numerous ghosts out of the river.
The three Ghost Kings and his remaining ghost generals set about capturing these ghosts so that the Spirit Communion Grass could convert them.
Tang Jie flew right over to the Ghostperch Wood ghost ship.
According to the rules of the Nether Domain, a single ghost master could only have one ghost ship, and the ghost ship would grow stronger alongside its master. The stronger a ghost ship was, the more ghosts it could carry, while overloading the ghost ship would end up weakening it. This was why Tang Jie couldn’t have the Spirit Communion Grass gather too many ghosts at once.
However, Tang Jie wasn’t a ghost of the Nether Domain, so he wasn’t bound by its rules. Thus, he could change ships as he pleased, but in exchange, the ship wouldn’t grow stronger with him. Even if he advanced all the way to Ghost God, the Ghost March Ship would remain at the same level of power as it was initially.
This was why Tang Jie wanted to change to a new ship the moment he saw one that was stronger.
However, when he thought about his identity as a Yaksha, he decided to give up on the idea.
Although Whiteface’s ghost ship would make Tang Jie stronger, the mismatch of status would only bring him more trouble. There were countless experts attending this Nine Nethers Feast, and in his current situation, there was no way he could make himself the strongest of them, so maintaining his cover took priority.
He was one of the seven Mara brothers, which meant that he had six scapeghosts to take the pressure for him, which was much better than changing ghost ships.
Tang Jie felt a great sorrow over being unable to use this ghost ship, but there was no other option than to dismantle it. Even then, the Ghostperch Wood had already been used to make a ship, so converting it back into its original materials would result in huge waste, which was unavoidable.
Of course, before dismantling the ship, Tang Jie first had to see if there was anything nice on it, scanning it with his Spirit Will.
As the lord of a city, the Whiteface Ghost King had been rather rich. As various resources and treasures were revealed by his Spirit Will, Tang Jie stowed them away. Just as he was about to begin dismantling, he suddenly felt like something was wrong. There was a place inside the ship where his Spirit Will simply vanished.
It was very hard to detect, and it was only thanks to the sharp senses of his perfect body that he had noticed.
Tang Jie disappeared, and when he emerged again, he was holding a rock.
The rock was plain and black, the size of his palm, but upon close inspection, it was actually suspended between Illusion and Reality. Tang Jie was holding it in his hand, but there was an empty space between the hand and the stone which made it seem like it was hovering in the air.
Not only that, the rock would occasionally give off strange ripples.
At these times, the stone would briefly blink out of existence.
This rock was called a Void Stone, and it didn’t belong to the Nether Domain.
Void Stones were natural products that formed in the endless void. They could access the void and create a space within it. To put it simply, one could treat it like a Mustard Seed Bag and use that space to hold items. However, while the Mustard Seed Bag was its own independent dimension that nobody except the owner could access, the Void Stone was linked directly to the void, which was open to everyone.
This meant that this space wasn’t safe. If items were stored there, there was a chance that some cultivator would fly by, spot a pile of floating treasure, and take it away, and there was nothing one could do. In addition, there was also a chance of encountering one of the dangerous beasts in the void. Whenever one accessed the space to store or take out items, there was a chance of these void creatures appearing and even dragging one into the void.
When using the Void Stone, anything could happen.
However, the vastness of the endless void made the probability of all this extremely low. Moreover, the benefit of having access to this public area was that there was no storage limit, unlike Mustard Seed Bags, which could even cause spatial disturbances if they were holding too much, which had to be pacified using one’s cultivation.
The Whiteface Ghost King clearly hadn’t known what the Void Stone was, having tossed it away into some random corner of his ship. Thankfully, Tang Jie had noticed something suspicious when scanning with his Spirit Will. And thankfully, Tang Jie had his Immortal Platform experience so that he could recognize it for what it was.
Tang Jie was delighted with this discovery.
He was delighted because he finally had a spatial storage treasure. While it wasn’t very safe, so long as he didn’t put anything too valuable inside, it was fine to use it for a short while. Most importantly, he no longer needed to dismantle the Ghostperch Wood ship.
Holding the Void Stone, Tang Jie began attempting to activate it.
Activating the Void Stone required a sufficient understanding of Space, which was fortunately no problem for someone who had comprehended Space. As he circulated his energy, the Void Stone shot out a beam of light at an empty space, slowly opening a passage to a certain space in the void.
This space was where the Void Stone had been born, and it was the only location it could ever point to. From now on, whenever he activated the Void Stone, it would link to this space. Of course, there was no solid ground in this space, and all the items simply floated in it. If his luck was bad, some passing storm could scatter all those items into the endless void.
Thus, Tang Jie used his Spirit Will to completely feel out his surroundings, even using some of the black grain’s power to enhance his connection with his avatar.
This connection wasn’t to bring down his avatar’s Divine Will, but to have the avatar peer through the original body and see this space, using his understanding of the Dao of Space and the calculations of the Dao of Wisdom to determine the area’s safety.
Tang Jie’s eyes began to twinkle as the avatar peered through his eyes and took in the surroundings. At the same time, he began to calculate while seated within the Hall of Divine Conference.
A few moments later, the avatar finished his calculations.
Upon receiving the result, Tang Jie sighed in relief.
This was a relatively calm space where a spatial storm had come through one hundred thousand years ago, which was what had caused the creation of this Void Stone. There were no incidents expected for the next one hundred thousand years.
As for the question of whether cultivators ever passed by here, that wasn’t something Space and Wisdom could find. One would have to ask Fate.
But the avatar didn’t need to do this. After all, the chances were too small, as small as those of Tang Jie crushing a stone and the resulting debris forming an image of Tang Jie.
Thus, Tang Jie lifted the ghost ship and sent it into the void.
The ghost ship floated in the endless void, and Tang Jie sent with it some other resources that were useful but not particularly valuable.
Once this was done, Tang Jie returned to the Ghost March Ship.
By this time, the Spirit Communion Grass had recruited no small number of ghost soldiers, but not so many ghost generals. Tang Jie set off once more, seeking more ways to grow stronger.