I widened my eyes, rubbed them, and stared in disbelief at the vast space above me—a crescent moon, several meters long, unmistakably real. I even began to doubt what I was seeing, and the power of the moonlight sensed through my Specter Web.
"Hmph, John Chou, do you really know my instincts?"
Basil Bertram muttered in dissatisfaction, but John Chou hadn't actually said what Basil Bertram's instinct was.
"Indeed, I know your instinct, but not its name. I only vaguely know some things your instinct can accomplish. For us Ghost Sovereigns, instinct is undoubtedly the ultimate trump card. If you don't intend to tell us, we naturally won't ask."
"So, what do we do next?"
John Chou rested his chin on one hand, pondered for a moment, then pointed at me and said.
"Brother, try using your Specter Web and see if you can absorb the pure power of this moonlight."
I nodded, and strands of black Specter Web gently floated upward. Bathed in the moon’s soft glow, they drifted around the moon. Basil Bertram sat cross-legged on the ground, quietly watching John Chou.
After a while, I felt something strange in my body—a faint, spectral glow radiated from my skin, an odd sensation that gradually turned into pain.
Suddenly, a flash of green light severed my Specter Web in an instant. Basil Bertram looked coldly at John Chou.
"Are you planning to let Ethan Zhang die, John Chou?"
John Chou shook his head.
"As far as I know, your instinct can transform light and shadow, right?"
Basil Bertram seemed unwilling to answer. After staring at John Chou for a while, he finally nodded.
"That's true. I didn't expect you to know this much already."
"I mean nothing else by it, Basil Bertram."
John Chou spoke, then sat down. With a wave of his hand, a stream of black water flew out of the pool. He cupped it in his hands, stared at it for a moment, then gulped it down with a gurgle, immediately frowning in discomfort.
"Now it's my turn."
John Chou spoke, releasing his own Specter Web. In no time, his face grew paler, as if the ghost soul inside him was suffering.
"For a ghost to transform into tangible light and shadow is very difficult, John Chou. Don't continue, or your ghost soul will be in danger."
Yin Choujian didn't stop, but continued to absorb the moon's power. Suddenly, with a splatter, a mouthful of crimson blood burst from his lips. He smiled coldly, and to my shock, one of his hands began to glow like a flashlight—utterly unbelievable.
"Let's stop here for now. I can't hold on any longer."
Yin Choujian said, retracting his Specter Web. Berziran was also visibly astonished.
"It seems you have to drink the water from that pool as a medium, then desperately absorb the power of light your instinct releases. With this medium, we might be able to transform between physical form and light and shadow."
"Is it really that easy?"
Berziran was clearly still unconvinced. I didn't know what to say; just now, Yin Choujian's body seemed ready to explode, a powerful force surging in the ghostly energy like a ticking time bomb.
"How about this instead?"
After a while, Yin Choujian spoke. Berziran grew tense.
"What are you planning?"
"Give me and Ethan Zhang a bit of your Woodbound Stone. Maybe that will work. Begun in light and shadow, ended in light and shadow."
Berziran burst out laughing.
"You really are a dreamer. This method is like a machine circuit, like the positive and negative ends of a battery. Fine."
Berziran spoke, raising a hand. A large, root-entwined chunk of wood appeared—the Woodbound Stone. He tore off two root tendrils and handed them over. Yin Choujian took one and swallowed it, giving the other to me.
My nerves tightened, but I was also excited. Yin Choujian had just succeeded—part of his body had turned into light and shadow.
"It's time to begin, brother."
With that, Yin Choujian and I opened our mouths and used ghost energy to send water from the pool straight down our throats. A complex mix of sensations surged within me, but the most immediate was a cold, stabbing pain—my whole body felt instantly uncomfortable.
Swallowing this flow of dark power directly was pure torment. Yin Choujian and I began using our Specter Webs to absorb the power of the moon above.
It grew more and more unbearable—I was close to my limit, blood streaming from my seven orifices. But to my shock, one of my hands had already become light and shadow—utterly unbelievable.
"Keep going, don’t be afraid, brother. Once we succeed in becoming light and shadow, we can use this water as a medium to enter the Dark Banquet directly."
I nodded and kept absorbing. Berziran watched Yin Choujian and me with a grave expression—parts of our bodies had truly become light and shadow.
I felt my ghost soul was damaged, the pain intense—a wave of dizziness swept over me. Then, suddenly, I stared in horror as black root tendrils crawled out of my mouth, eyes, and ears like worms. Yin Choujian experienced the same.
Gradually, I felt much better. Yin Choujian stood up, and I stared at him in astonishment—his whole body had fully become light and shadow. Soon, my last foot also transformed.
I looked at my body in disbelief—no sensation at all. Even reaching out, I couldn’t touch myself. The instant Yin Choujian and I became light and shadow, our Specter Webs vanished. Berziran smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Looks like your plan wasn’t just thought up in a day or two, Yin Choujian."
"I just came up with it on the spot."
"You're lying."
"You're lying."
Berziran and I shouted in unison. Yin Choujian walked to the edge of the black pool, and I quickly followed. My body felt lighter than ever. With a thought, I released my baleful energy, and it seemed that becoming light and shadow hadn’t really affected our powers. Now, red ghost energy appeared on Yin Choujian’s body, and soon he became a black-clad figure with a covered face.
This chapter isn’t finished yet~.~ Please click next page to continue reading the exciting content!
"Hurry up, brother. We can't go in looking like this."
As Yin Choujian spoke, a white triangular epaulet appeared on his shoulder.
"I don't know if I can do it."
I began to change my appearance to match the image of the black-clad figure in my mind. Gradually, I looked almost like Yin Choujian, just a bit shorter, and the white epaulet appeared on my shoulder too.
"Why not use gold?"
I asked, since I had seen so many black-clad figures—the gold, silver, and white epaulets on their shoulders represented their rank, with gold being the highest.
"Ethan, when you first go in, you know nothing, so you start at the bottom. That way you can learn a lot. If you go in as a high rank from the start, people will get suspicious."
Soon, Yin Choujian and I stood by the edge of the pool—Berziran had already left. The sensation was incredible; our bodies had no weight at all.
"By the way, how do we change back later?"
"No idea, brother. We'll just have to take it one step at a time."
Yin Choujian said, then jumped in. I followed, and suddenly felt a strong suction. Soon, I couldn't see anything—just a whirring sound in my ears, like wind but not quite.
The moment I opened my eyes, I was stunned—a flash of green, and a world flickering with light. I hadn’t seen this in so long: forests, farmland, and cylindrical glass jars lining the country paths, like some kind of device.
Most of the black-clad figures like us were working in the fields, each plot growing something different—rice, wheat, corn, greens, everything you’d find in the living world.
Looking back, behind us was a round black pool. It seemed this pool was the way back to the Dark Place. Only now did I notice the glowing sun in the sky, its edges shrouded in black, like a curtain, and a halo around the sun.
No, it was a glass sphere—the light was coming from inside the sphere.
"You two, what are you doing?"
Just then, a figure floated over with a light step—a man with a silver triangular epaulet on his shoulder. Looking around, he seemed to be the only one, probably the overseer here.
"What’s going on? There shouldn’t be any soldiers on duty today."
Immediately, the black-clad man took out a tablet—it showed the entry and exit records.
"Sir, we were sent out a few days ago to recover test subjects. We were trapped by an outside Ghost Sovereign, and only now made it back from the primary base."
The black-clad man smiled, shook his head, and patted our shoulders.
"Alright, get back to work. Next time, you two don’t need to report for duty."
I breathed a sigh of relief. Yin Choujian and I went to a paddy field, working like the other black-clad figures—removing pests by hand and picking out larger stones to put into colorful buckets nearby.
Once the bucket was full, Yin Choujian and I carried it to the pool and dumped the stones in. It reminded me of the rocky ground surrounding the city—many of those stones came from all sorts of places.
"Step one is done, brother. We need to get a real epaulet. That guy’s already suspicious—he’ll probably come back soon to check our identities."
As Yin Choujian spoke, his gaze swept coldly around.
"That cornfield looks promising, brother. Target someone in there and grab a real epaulet."
I nodded, picked up the bucket, and followed Yin Choujian over.