The river before me flowed slowly. Leaning against the wall, I waited in silence. John Chou was still deep in thought—an hour had passed, and he still hadn't explained how to enter the Hellstream.
Thinking about it carefully, it's truly unbelievable. The Hellstream can endlessly consume Ghost Aura, no matter the type of ghost—yet only the Judges can control it.
Recalling everything that happened in the passageway before, there were those two enormous ghosts—and those Hellstreams were modified for the demons, their power to devour Ghost Aura not as strong. That's why we made it safely to the Netherworld, losing only a small amount of Ghost Aura.
"Hey, Rusty, give me some of your meat."
The Tabby Cat King walked over to Rusty without ceremony and asked for a piece of meat. Rusty didn't hesitate and handed it over.
The two of them no longer seemed to be bickering. Before, the Tabby Cat King always threatened to eat Rusty, but now he hadn't mentioned it at all.
At that moment, John Chou finally opened his eyes, stood up, and turned to look at us.
"Have you thought of a way?"
Rusty hurried over, as if he couldn't stand to stay here another moment.
"Just like I said before, it's extremely dangerous. We might really die this time."
"It gets weaker the further you go, or maybe..."
The Tabby Cat King scratched his head, looking like he knew the answer but couldn’t put it into words.
"Exactly, it gets weaker the further you go. I mentioned before that Ghost Aura is stripped away bit by bit, gradually dispersing. If a ghost’s Ghost Aura were stripped away all at once, what do you think would happen?"
My eyes widened.
"Didn’t the Ox-Horned King’s Ghost Soul leave his body before? His Ghost Aura..."
John Chou nodded, clapping his hands as he spoke.
"That’s the nature of Ghost Aura. Without the stability of the Ghost Soul, Ghost Aura will explode. Ghost bodies are formed by dense Ghost Aura, much like how a human body functions. When a person dies, their soul leaves their body, at most becoming a corpse. But for ghosts, once the Ghost Soul leaves the ghost body, the dense Ghost Aura loses control and instantly bursts out, like an explosion, creating a shockwave."
John Chou continued his explanation.
Although the Hellstream flows through the River of the Three Paths, if it used its full power to devour all the ghosts’ Ghost Aura at once, it would be easy. But the Hellstream’s purpose is to strip away Ghost Aura. If the Ghost Soul and ghost body were separated instantly, the Ghost Aura wouldn’t quietly flow away with the Hellstream—it would explode in an instant.
The resulting shockwave from the explosion isn’t much for a single ghost, but if there were hundreds, thousands, or even a million ghosts, the impact would be unbearable here.
When a ghost body explodes, it turns to ash, but we haven’t seen any ash here. Normally, that ash would go straight to the Yin Realm, but in this Hellstream, when a ghost body explodes, the resulting ash can’t escape. If enough residue gathers, the Hellstream would be blocked.
That’s why the Hellstream is designed to strip Ghost Aura from shallow to deep. When ghosts first enter, part of their ghost body is stripped away, making it unstable. The Ghost Soul naturally starts producing Ghost Aura to compensate, but thanks to the constant influence of the River of the Three Paths, this process is agonizingly slow.
So as ghosts descend, most of their Ghost Aura is gradually stripped away. The Ghost Soul desperately manufactures more Ghost Aura to fill the gaps, but eventually it’s exhausted and can’t do anything. The ghost loses consciousness, as if fainting, while the Hellstream keeps stripping away Ghost Aura. Once it’s all gone, the Ghost Soul is left half-dead and begins to slowly fade away. Though it turns to ash, the change is slow, and the ash, unable to reach the Yin Realm, is carried to the end of the Hellstream, never accumulating enough to block the flow.
Because of this gradual stripping, we’re able to fish out the severed limbs of ghosts from the river to replenish our own Ghost Aura, keeping our Ghost Souls from being depleted and allowing us to survive.
What we have to do now is find the Ghost Aura that was stripped from us and somehow swallow it back before it mixes with the Ghost Aura of other ghosts in the Hellstream. The difficulty is extreme—we have less than a second before our Ghost Aura is completely mixed and indistinguishable.
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"So, according to you, it’s basically impossible?"
The Tabby Cat King muttered. At that moment, John Chou raised a hand, and a streak of red ghost thread floated out. We immediately saw the thread extend, while John Chou’s Ghost Aura diminished. Releasing ghost thread is extremely dangerous—once it’s out, it takes Ghost Aura with it, which is instantly devoured.
Suddenly, John Chou leapt across the river, his mouth snapping at something unseen. He landed on the opposite bank, and the ghost thread was already withdrawn.
"What did you just do?"
John Chou smiled mysteriously, and we had no idea what he’d just done. Then he told us to fish for food. After eating, our Ghost Aura quickly recovered, and the patches of missing fur on our bodies grew back.
"Keep eating. Once your Ghost Aura is back to normal, I’ll explain everything."
The four of us started working hard along the riverbank, scooping up severed limbs and anything edible without hesitation. Eventually, stuffed to the point we couldn’t eat another bite, we stopped. I tilted my head back, feeling something I couldn’t quite describe—after all, what we’d just eaten was far from normal food.
"What do we do now?"
The Tabby Cat King asked. At that moment, John Chou stood by the river again, preparing to jump.
"Watch closely. You can all sense my Ghost Aura now, right?"
We nodded. Suddenly, John Chou released three ghost threads, and we instantly felt his Ghost Aura drop sharply. Releasing ghost threads directly from the body is like suicide—it opens a gap in the ghost body, making it even easier for the Hellstream to strip away Ghost Aura.
But John Chou had already jumped, mouth open in midair, snapping three times in different directions before landing on the opposite bank.
"How about now?"
"Your Ghost Aura doesn’t seem to have decreased."
I cried out in surprise, and John Chou leapt back over from the opposite bank.
"The simplest way is to use ghost thread. Try it yourselves—when you release ghost thread, you can sense the direction your stripped Ghost Aura is heading. Just open your mouth and bite in that direction, and you’ll swallow back the Ghost Aura that was stripped from you."
With a try-it-and-see attitude, the Tabby Cat King stretched out a paw and released a green ghost thread. He leapt, snapping at something in the air, swallowed, and retracted the thread. After landing, the missing Ghost Aura immediately returned.
Then Rusty tried it, and finally it was my turn.
The three of them looked at me. I swallowed nervously. With my size, jumping wasn’t easy.
"I can’t jump as high as you, and I can’t use Ghost Aura to fly."
"Give it a try, brother. You’ll need to practice anyway."
I grunted, bent my knees, and raised my hand. As I released ghost thread, I immediately felt my Ghost Aura being pulled away, hovering just ahead of me to the left. Eyes wide, I jumped.
With a splash, I fell straight into the river. A net flew over, and I grabbed it desperately as the three of them hauled me out. In just a few seconds, patches of skin were exposed where my Ghost Aura had been devoured, and my stomach began to rumble.
"Sorry, I..."
"It’s fine, brother. You were born human, not an animal."
I looked up at John Chou and said.
"But you did it, didn’t you?"
John Chou laughed.
"That’s because, back when I was still a vengeful ghost, I practiced jumping without using Ghost Aura."