I have completely lost my appetite. If I don’t throw up, that’s already a blessing. I stand far away, a tingling numbness creeping down my spine.
The table is crawling with black Corpse Worms—twenty in total from four sachets. These worms are fat, almost as thick as a pinky finger, squirming across the table. Most importantly, the contents of each sachet differ; aside from the worms, everything else is different.
Stones, jewels, coins, soil, human bones, animal bones, and dried organs—all mixed together. The sight makes me deeply uncomfortable. Serena Chen, on the other hand, observes quietly, showing no reaction at all.
"I am already dead—not a ghost, not a soul, just a pile of consciousness. These things mean nothing to me. But you are different, because the real you is still alive."
I swallow, covering my mouth as the stench rides the cold wind straight into my face. I can barely stand it—the smell is overwhelming.
"What exactly are these Corpse Worms?"
I ask. About the Ghost Syndicate, I only know of the Chimei-Wangliang; the rest, I’m unfamiliar with. But now, the Chimei-Wangliang are dead. Ethan Zhang once told me they belonged to the same era as Yuna Ji, and he was the main culprit behind Yuna Ji’s downfall. He loved darkness—chased it relentlessly.
"The Ghost Syndicate, in our era, exists only in rumors. They say these people lived with ghosts, studied them, even fused some together—a truly bizarre sect. But that’s just legend; I never saw them myself. Only later did I learn that quite a few Ghost Syndicate members once entered this place."
I stare at Serena Chen in shock. She tells me that over two hundred years ago, a large group of people wearing bamboo hats came, bringing hordes of ghosts, hoping to uncover this place’s secrets. But they failed. In the end, terror consumed them—the ghosts they carried devoured them, and they were wiped out here.
It was from the mouth of a dying Ghost Syndicate member that Serena Chen learned the sect truly existed, and that they had suffered a major catastrophe—almost total annihilation.
Suddenly, I understood—it must have been John Chou and Yuna Ji who visited the Ghost Syndicate, and together, they nearly destroyed it.
As Serena Chen spoke, she picked up a black Corpse Worm between two fingers, making me feel sick to my stomach.
"These worms can endlessly devour Corrupt Miasma, always lingering near corpses. Most are just maggots, and when the corpse is gone, they vanish too. Only one in ten thousand survives, continuing to feed on the miasma around the corpse as food. These are essential for Ghost Syndicate members to practice their rituals."
Most Ghost Syndicate members, upon joining, start searching for these Corpse Worms in cemeteries. They're incredibly hard to find—you might have to search thousands of corpses to find a single worm. These worms can continually consume Corrupt Miasma and never die. Members usually let them parasitize their bodies, so the worms devour excess Ghost Aura.
Ghost Syndicate members are born to live alongside ghosts. This is so they can adapt to the Ghost Aura produced by ghosts, and with the sect’s training methods, they eat, sleep, and live together with ghosts. But most members are eventually eroded by Ghost Aura, which harms their bodies.
After these Corpse Worms were discovered, many Ghost Syndicate members avoided harm from Ghost Aura and Yin Energy, because the worms naturally consumed the intolerable Ghost Aura within their bodies. Most members carry numerous Corpse Worms to stabilize their strength.
"The purpose of these Corpse Worms is likely to stabilize this ritual. But to obtain so many at once, the creator of this ritual must have deep ties to the Ghost Syndicate—otherwise, it would be impossible."
I swallow, staring at Serena Chen in disbelief. Such disgusting worms are actually so valuable.
"Don’t underestimate these worms. Hundreds of years ago, a single one cost a thousand taels of gold. Now, it’s probably ten million."
My eyes widen at Serena Chen, but I immediately recall how Ghost Syndicate members traded with the living, and how that ordinary person in Ghost Tomb Mountain could even enter the ghost market.
Even now, though the Ghost Syndicate has declined completely due to the disaster at Ghost Tomb Mountain, there are still many members among the living, trading money by dealing with both ghosts and people.
Serena Chen continued, "Ghost Syndicate members sell ghosts to ordinary people, letting them use ghostly power for a brief stretch of good luck. But the backlash is severe—whatever you gain, you must pay for."
It’s not just the Ghost Syndicate. Most people who keep ghosts have to feed them with their own flesh and blood. Ghosts are extremely cold; though they’re satisfied for a short time, once they grow from feeding, their appetite becomes insatiable and the backlash intensifies.
At times like this, Corpse Worms can be used. Serena Chen was shocked when she first learned about them—not only Ghost Syndicate members, but even ordinary people can host these worms in their bodies.
For those who keep ghosts, most sellers set a time limit, calculating when the ghost will become uncontrollable and reclaiming it. But many ignore the warnings and end up dying at the hands of their own ghosts. If Corpse Worms parasitize an ordinary person, when ghostly power backlashes, the worms can devour it—whether it’s curse power, Yin Energy, or Corrupt Miasma drawn by the ghost.
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Thinking back to the ghost market in Ghost Tomb Mountain, the cheaper ghosts cost hundreds of thousands or millions, but the expensive ones reached tens of millions. I was stunned—these people must be insane. Most who live with ghosts meet a terrible end, especially those with evil intentions.
"So, was this ritual created by the Ghost Syndicate?"
"Not necessarily. Corpse Worms aren’t unique to the Ghost Syndicate. We in the Nether Syndicate know about them too. Later generations of Nether Syndicate members, if they saw these worms, would kill them immediately—never leaving them for other dark arts practitioners to find."
Now I notice the Corpse Worms on the table—once lively, but now growing weak and motionless.
"If the ritual is destroyed, it loses its effect. These Corpse Worms, forever hungry and relying on the ritual’s supply of cold Yin Energy as food, will slowly die as well."
Sure enough, soon the Corpse Worms on the table stopped moving. I went over and threw the whole table into the snow. Serena Chen had already memorized the array’s structure and the types of cold, yin-infused items inside each sachet.
In the end, we found no useful clues tonight. Serena Chen said she’d keep discussing with the other eleven, and I should just wait for her here each night. But after everything tonight, I changed locations—waiting at the entrance to our hotel instead.
Around 2 a.m., I lay dazed on my bed. I finally understood why I drank—two nights in a row, after drinking and falling asleep, I could see everything happening in the living world. I even asked Serena Chen why, but she couldn’t explain.
Lost in a haze, I found myself floating above the whole town. It was late at night. I saw Master Jianyun leading many disciples, searching everywhere, along with Samuel Young and some Daoist practitioners, all investigating the town.
Turns out, tonight’s buses brought both Buddhist and Daoist sects. In the distant mountains, I could see countless lights. Underworld Denizens were still searching the forest.
I returned to my hotel. As soon as I entered, I was stunned—my body was surrounded by a massive array, red runes covering every wall. My mother sat at the door, exhausted, keeping watch. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.
So many people are working for me—I have to find a way out. Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I jumped, but this time didn’t lose consciousness.
I stared blankly into the distance, then was instantly stunned.
"You, you bastard."
It was Rachel (Shadow Self), born from the Shadow Realm.
"Heh, I called you all night yesterday, but you didn’t respond. You really are slow."
"Why are you..."
Rachel (Shadow Self) grinned wickedly and shook her head.
"Stop dragging this out. The girl in that space is probably already dead. Think carefully about what you’ve experienced these past days."
I hesitated, staring at Rachel (Shadow Self) as she pressed down on my shoulder.
"No, Zhou Xiaomei is still alive!"
"Think about the simplest question—why are you still alive?"
I swallow, a scene flashing through my mind: my mother feeding me porridge every day.
"Impossible. Serena Chen said..."
"She did say Zhou Xiaomei might still be alive. But in this place where time and space overlap, is there really anything to eat? What have you been eating every day? She’s probably long dead. What you see is just a hallucination—Zhou Xiaomei is just a figment of your mind."
I press my forehead, dazed, replaying the string of events from these past days.