Chapter One Hundred and Twenty: The Ghost Origin

Chapter 120: Ghost Essence
Chapter 13: Cold Ripples on the Sea of Passion, Rare Treasures Found in the Immortal Abyss (Part 5)

Ye Hua had not expected his opponent’s strike to carry such immense force. With a wild flourish of the Red Crow Dagger, he enveloped himself in a shimmering veil of light. Pinching a spell seal with his fingers, he unleashed a silvery-purple ribbon of energy. A cacophony of clashing sounds erupted; wherever the silver-purple light swept, thousands of yellow-green flames were struck, bursting into a myriad of sparks that scattered upon the ground.

At that moment, the dense, pitch-black mist surged forward. Having dedicated immense effort to studying the "Ghost Valley Secret Tome," Ye Hua possessed a profound understanding of these ghostly arts. Seeing the countless malicious spirits and wandering wraiths lunging at him, he merely narrowed his eyes, muttered an incantation, tore out a lock of his own hair, chewed it into fragments, and spat it out along with a mouthful of fresh blood.

The hair, mixed with the crimson light of his blood, flashed and transformed into countless red threads. Blazing with intense radiance, they shot rapidly into the black mist. The threads were incredibly sharp; as the wicked spirits touched them, they were sliced into two without a sound, dispersing into wisps of gray, gloomy vapor.

From within his light barrier, Ye Hua clasped his hands together and let out a sharp shout. His complexion shifted, turning pitch black. He struck out with his left hand, and with a thunderous roar, a torrent of black brilliance erupted from his palm, enveloping the gray vapor. The gray mist gradually dissolved into the black column of light, which swirled relentlessly through the fog. The spirits severed by the red threads were unable to evade; caught by the black pillar, they were utterly annihilated.

This pure essence of malicious spirits was undoubtedly of great benefit to Ye Hua’s cultivation of the "Ghost Valley Secret Tome." His practice of the Nine Yin Secret Ghost Arts had only reached the peak of the third layer; further progress was hindered by his insufficient Ghost Essence. With this golden opportunity—an endless supply of spirits within the mist—if he could absorb them for his own use, his ghostly path might reach a new level.

Seeing Ye Hua so easily block these malevolent spirits, the skeleton monster inside the cave was taken aback. Upon witnessing the black light swirling and forcibly absorbing the countless spirits, it grew enraged. With a wave of its hand, the spirits in the black mist shrieked in unison, dispersed, and transformed into hundreds of black streaks, charging toward Ye Hua like lightning.

Suspended in mid-air and manipulating the black light, Ye Hua appeared calm but was actually enduring agonizing suffering. Waves of icy energy flowed along his arm’s Yin meridians, rapidly returning to his Dantian. Had it not been for his mastery of Ghost Essence and the Six-Essence Profound Heavenly Wish-Fulfilling Secret Art, no one would have dared to absorb such ghostly power! Even so, Ye Hua felt as though his entire body were being frozen, a coldness so intense it was nearly unbearable.

Seeing the enemy’s demonic spirits gathering for a coordinated attack, Ye Hua cursed silently. He darted away, splitting into hundreds of black shadows. The incoming arrows struck the shadows, which dissipated one after another, none of them being real.

The skeleton monster clearly understood that its opponent was also well-versed in ghostly arts. It let out a cackling laugh and waved both arms, causing the hundreds of black arrows to explode simultaneously. Yellow mist and green smoke surged, and the wailing of ghosts intensified. Ye Hua, who had revealed his true form in the distance, was shocked to see hundreds of thousands of spirits standing in the high sky, all wailing in unison.

Ye Hua had never seen so many spirits. Despite his deep study of the ghostly arts, he could not help but feel secretly terrified. He did not linger, transforming into a streak of white light to flee. The skeleton monster merely cackled and made no move to stop him. As Ye Hua escaped, the creature waved its hand, retracting the smoke and mist; within moments, the strange phenomenon vanished entirely.

Standing in the distance, Ye Hua looked back at the deep cave. Seeing that the old monster had not pursued him, he let out a long sigh of relief. After traveling about a mile, he found a flat rock to sit upon. His inner energy was now alternating between extreme cold and heat, clashing within him in an indescribably painful manner. He knew this was due to absorbing the ghost-yin energy and realized he had to refine it quickly to alleviate the pain.

After a long while, he exhaled a puff of gray vapor. He sat cross-legged, pinched a seal, and calmed his mind. He turned his right hand upward and pressed his left palm downward. A faint black mist seeped from his right hand, drifting straight up until it hovered half a foot above his head, then suddenly bent and poured into his crown. Simultaneously, his left palm emitted a faint golden glow that enveloped his feet.

Time passed. Ye Hua’s body flickered between light and shadow—sometimes flashing with golden radiance, sometimes wreathed in black mist. His body gradually became translucent, revealing the meridians beneath his skin. Within them, black and gold lines flowed rapidly, sometimes intertwining and merging, other times separating.

After an unknown duration, Ye Hua let out a sudden shout. He clasped his hands against his chest, then abruptly pushed them outward. A dark cyan radiance, neither gold nor black, enveloped a massive boulder in front of him. With a deafening boom, the boulder tumbled several yards away.

Ye Hua opened his eyes, staring at his palms in a daze, as if unaware of what had just transpired. He looked up to see a cloud of dust rising from the boulder’s movement. He stood up slowly and walked over to the rock. Whether due to the rock’s density or his insufficient force, there was only a clear palm print on its surface, without a single crack.

By all logic, given the power of his strike, the boulder should have been pulverized. Puzzled, Ye Hua frowned. After a moment of thought, he pointed a finger, and a blade of white light shot from his fingertip, slicing across the rock.

A moment later, with a loud crack, the boulder was cleaved into two pieces, the cross-section as smooth as a mirror. As Ye Hua peered closer, he realized the truth and his expression turned joyful. One half of the cross-section was crystal clear, like ice or snow-crystal, while the other half was charred black, as if scorched by fire. He touched it lightly, and a flash of purple-black light caused the boulder to vanish into thin air, as if it had never existed.

Ye Hua felt a rush of secret delight. "To think that the icy power of the Ghost Essence, when fused with the Buddhist inner energy of the Four Noble Truths I’ve cultivated, would be this potent! I’ve heard the Wudang sect’s Yin-Yang Infinite Palm contains Yang within Yin and Yin within Yang, with the two fusing into one strike. I imagine it’s no better than this! If I encounter them in the future, I shall certainly ask for a sparring match!"

As these thoughts crossed his mind, he circulated his inner energy and felt it surging, vast and enduring. He felt invigorated, his body brimming with inexhaustible strength. Aside from his previous external wounds, his internal energy had fully recovered. Ye Hua was overjoyed. "The skeleton monster’s ghostly power is remarkably pure! If I could seize more of it, the benefits would be immense!"

As this thought arose, he reconsidered. "Better not. That monster is too formidable; one slip and I would lose my life! I shall wait until my body is fully restored; then I will have a better chance of victory."

Having decided, he was in no rush to return to the bottomless cave. Ye Hua turned and walked along the lake. After a while, he found a hollow in a cliff face that was quite flat. He leaped up and landed inside. Though not very large, the space was several square feet, and after a brief inspection, he sat down.

After a moment of reflection, a flash of light appeared in his hand, revealing a secret manual. On the cover shone the words: *The Treatise of the Root Heaven*, passed down by the Ancestor Shou Chang. Ever since he left the Myriad Seed Sumeru Heaven of the Scripture Pavilion, he had not found the leisure to study it. This manual was a path to refining one’s consciousness; he wondered if he might find a way to deal with the blood curse planted on him by the Western Region’s "Sick Old Man."

However, he had heard that the Western Region’s blood curse was infinitely powerful, and he feared he might suffer from it for the rest of his life. To find a cure, he would likely have to travel to the Western Regions himself and plead with a master proficient in such arts.

"But traveling to the Western Regions is no easy feat. I might die from this curse before I even set off!" Ye Hua sighed softly. He browsed through *The Treatise of the Root Heaven*. He had already read it several times, but many parts remained difficult to comprehend. The Ancestor Shou Chang had once said that this book was merely a guide, and any deeper understanding must be discovered and realized through one's own exploration.

The Green Water Pearl had already been dissolved into his sea of consciousness, so there were no obstacles to practicing this treatise. Indeed, as Ye Hua slowly immersed himself in it, guided and bolstered by his own consciousness, he found he could control it with ease, shaping it into various forms. Aside from the slightly eerie blood-red rune floating quietly above his sea of consciousness, the entire space was a shimmering, five-colored expanse.