The fight had lasted for more than ten minutes. I kept swinging the Phoenix Blade at the Heavenly Soul, attacking again and again. He blocked my sword each time, and even the bursts of flame were deflected. I still couldn't make any real breakthrough.
"Your power is especially suppressive against ghostly forces. Breaking through is indeed very difficult."
As I spoke, I increased the force in my hands, but my flames still couldn't break through. At that moment, the Heavenly Soul suddenly pulled back, widening the distance between us. He watched me quietly and smiled as he spoke.
"This method works, but only to a point. Ethan, you'll need to come up with something stronger."
I nodded, and suddenly my eyes widened as if I'd thought of something. Smiling, I rushed toward the Heavenly Soul. The moment I slashed the Phoenix Blade down, I let go of it, unleashing a surge of violent black flames directly at him. I immediately circled behind him, both hands already forming two Deathbane Aura Blades, stabbing them toward the Heavenly Soul.
Suddenly, the Heavenly Soul turned into a wisp of white vapor, passing through my body. I felt a sharp pain in my ghostly soul. He was already standing behind me. As the black flames dissipated, his sword pressed against the back of my neck, then stopped.
"Ethan, it's useless."
I nodded, looking at the two shattered black Deathbane Aura Blades in my hands. Just now, the moment I attacked, the human vitality mixed in my Deathbane aura was absorbed. The Heavenly Soul had used the vitality within my gray Deathbane Aura Blades as a medium to pass through my body.
"There's just no way!"
I sighed helplessly, and the Heavenly Soul nodded.
"If you want to restrain the power of Heavenly Law, the power of darkness is a good choice. But even if you use it now, without the will of that darkness to help you, you can't suppress me."
I looked at the Heavenly Soul in surprise. Then I returned to the apartment building, where we all gathered at the small pavilion. I told a ghost to fetch some tea leaves, brewed a pot, and planned to sit for a while and consult my ghost souls.
"Ethan, if you want to break through the power of Heavenly Law, my Desire Ghost and Zhu Tang's power can do it. But that's only enough to break through—it won't get you any further. The power of Heavenly Law isn't like the power of Buddhist and Taoist paths. Those belong to the realm of faith, but Heavenly Law is the supreme, ethereal force. It's like a white cloud: you can see it, but you can't touch it. Like the sun: visible, but impossible to approach."
I listened, half understanding, and nodded.
"Why not try using curse power?"
At that moment, Sylvia Blue suddenly spoke. I looked at her in confusion, and immediately noticed the Heavenly Soul's displeased expression toward Sylvia. She playfully stuck out her tongue, then got up.
"Alright, I'll stop talking. Ethan Zhang, keep trying. I'll go check the room."
I responded, and Sylvia Blue hopped upstairs. The room was exactly the same as when I lived there years ago—nothing had changed. Suddenly, I felt anxious, hurried over, and followed Sylvia into the room the moment she entered.
"What's wrong?"
I looked around.
"You can look, but don't go rummaging through things."
Sylvia Blue glanced at me thoughtfully, then leaned over and nudged me with her elbow, wearing a mischievous grin.
"Is there something you're hiding?"
I quickly shook my head.
"Just don't go digging through my stuff, or there won't be any barbecue tonight."
Sylvia Blue sprawled out on the bed, picked up some old magazines from the bedside, and started flipping through them casually. I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the box under the bed.
Inside were a lot of things from my student days, especially essays and some test papers. When it came to essays, I felt a bit embarrassed, and some of those test papers had scores of zero.
"I still can't use curse power properly. Only with the help of the Curse Ghost can I manage it."
I said. I'd tried using curse power before, but each time it left my body feeling numb and uncomfortable, as if I couldn't control it.
The Heavenly Soul sighed.
"It's true, Ethan. Of your eight powers, only curse power can deal with me. But right now, you can't use it on your own, because of its special nature—curse power is something outside of Heavenly Law, so Heavenly Law can't interfere with it."
I blinked and swallowed, surprised that the Heavenly Soul would say it so directly.
"What's there to hide? Ethan, focus all your power on one point, use my strength, and channel pure yin energy. If you reach a certain level, you can trigger the reversal of extremes."
The Yin Ghost immediately spoke up. I acknowledged, but then the Spirit Snake shook its head.
"Ethan can't do that. While yin energy can be converted using his Deathbane aura and other powers—created by the ghost souls—the whole process is too complicated and delicate. Ethan just isn't that type, so it's impossible for him."
"Why can't he do it?"
The Yin Ghost looked at the Spirit Snake, unconvinced, and grabbed my collar with one hand.
"Ethan, come here. Let your big sister teach you properly."
I responded, but the Deathbane Ghost immediately held me back.
"Don't bother with pointless things."
The Yin Ghost was getting a little angry.
"How is it pointless? You—standing on the snake's side at a time like this! Is it because you lost to me so many times at mahjong, and now you're holding a grudge, trying to get back at me?"
I blinked, looking at them in confusion.
"How could I?"
The Deathbane Ghost immediately retorted, but his eyes showed a hint of emotion. Desire Ghost giggled nearby.
"Of all eight of us, Deathbane Ghost is the worst at mahjong. Always gives away winning hands. I've lost interest in playing with him. If he had any skill, he'd win on a self-drawn tile and even steal our winning hands."
Deathbane Ghost looked embarrassed. He glared at the other ghost souls, who all wore expressions of contempt.
"Can we stop messing around, please?"
I stood up, and only then did the ghost souls quiet down. The Heavenly Soul smiled and shook his head helplessly. I've noticed he smiles more lately; compared to his old cold demeanor, the Heavenly Soul now really seems human.
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"Ethan, do you remember your first ghost soul?"
I responded, but then I sighed helplessly.
"That ghost soul awakened after your ghost powers emerged, in Gourd Village, because of that bastard Lance Quinn. But in the Nether Syndicate, it took the hit from Tan Tian and died in your place."
"That's true, but at the time, if..."
The Heavenly Soul placed a hand on my shoulder and nodded.
"From the moment your ghost powers awakened inside you, even when you were still human, I was watching your strength. Because your ghost side awakened, I, as the Heavenly Soul, naturally became conscious too. So, I understand Ethan Zhang better than the eight of you. Please listen quietly."
The eight ghost souls nodded, and Heavenly Soul continued.
Because of my special nature, I wasn't human. After the three of us merged and became human, we weren't truly complete. But to become human, the soul we formed began to fill in the gaps on its own.
Until the Soul Hunter from Ghost Syndicate appeared and forcibly separated the Earthly Soul from our body. Our human body began to show abnormalities, so at that time, John Chou tried everything to find Mr. Cooper and Mrs. Blake to help treat me.
Because of that technique from the Nether Syndicate, my Threefold Soul was restored. So when my ghost powers appeared, the soul that was restored—or rather, the soul artificially created by the Nether Syndicate using the lingering aura of the Earthly Soul—became my first ghost soul, with the same consciousness and power as me.
"It was truly a critical moment back then. You should have been destroyed by Tan Tian, but someone helped you, letting that ghost soul die in your place and erasing your death."
I stared in shock, eyes wide.
"Was it Lady Meng?"
Heavenly Soul shook his head.
"Lady Meng does have the power to reverse life and death, but only at the moment before death. You had already died, and I was in grave danger too—maybe I'd have become just another speck of dust in the River of Forgetfulness because of you. But someone intervened. That person was the Saint of the Underworld. He saved your life."
"Why?"
I stared in shock, eyes wide.
"I already knew I was about to return to the Divine Law, but someone forcibly reversed it. That kind of power—there's only one person in this world who can control the Divine Law: the Saint of the Underworld, who created the Sixfold Cycle of Reincarnation."
I swallowed hard.
"Why would the Saint of the Underworld save me?"
"Let me finish, Ethan. I'll explain everything—after all, this concerns your future growth. You need to understand what your power truly is."
Heavenly Soul stood up, took a sip of tea, and continued.
What the Saint of the Underworld did back then wasn't just one thing. He forcibly used that fake soul to replace my death, and then erased all traces of me from the cycle of karma—leaving nothing behind.
"How is that even possible?"
Zhu Tang's eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. The other ghost souls were equally shocked.
I remembered that Yan Luo once told me that the Underworld Court would never accept me. After I died, I would simply become part of nature, not go to the Underworld Court.
"Of course it's possible. We were never truly human to begin with. It's only because we became human that we picked up everything human, including karma. Or, to put it simply, we're just things wearing human skin—inside, we're not human, but outside, we look like one. The only part bound by karma is this skin. What the Saint of the Underworld did was strip away that skin without damaging our core essence. Still, whether you're human, ghost, or anything else, once you have feelings, you become human. John Chou once told us that. Do you remember, Ethan?"
I nodded.