The strange beasts had already left Nuwa's Mirage to hunt for prey. I was still waiting for Nuwa to speak, but she remained silent about Hell's restraint, which was about to fail.
I stood beside the furnace. The Heaven-Mending Stone inside had shrunk considerably, while Nuwa stared coldly at the flickering flames.
"What exactly is going on? Hell's restraint is failing, but isn't Hell still under the control of the Ten Judges? Isn't everything fine?"
After a long while, Nuwa finally turned around and looked at me quietly, asking.
"The world of the living has long since become fixed in its form. It stopped growing after the gods sealed the Wraithlord. But Hell is different. It keeps consuming the filth produced by the living world and continues to expand. What do you think?"
Suddenly, I understood. The ghost realm was indeed terrifyingly vast, especially the eight provinces of Hell surrounding the Underworld. I’d even heard that beyond those eight provinces lay an even broader ghost realm. So the ghost realm keeps expanding, and its total size has long surpassed the world of the living. That’s the reason.
"Is there really no way to curb this growth?"
Nuwa shook her head.
"Even if the gods still existed in this world and hadn’t been killed by the Wraithlord, their power wouldn’t be enough. Let alone humans or ghosts. Everything that has died, every sadness, anger, and all other negative filth produced by the living world over tens of thousands of years, all flows into Hell. Hell devours and absorbs these things, growing ceaselessly and its appetite increasing. You should know why Hell is needed, and why the dead souls must be tormented again and again."
Suddenly, memories surfaced in my mind—things I didn’t know where I’d learned. Though I couldn’t recall them clearly, I knew for certain: the constant torment of dead souls is meant to generate negative energy, which then flows into Hell. That’s why Hell must be so cruel—it’s the foundation that sustains the world of the living.
But now everything has shifted from its original benign state to an extreme. One day, Hell will open its maw wide, and in its insatiable hunger, devour the world of the living in a single gulp.
"Is there really not even the slightest way?"
I asked, and Nuwa gazed at me quietly for a long moment before finally speaking.
"You might be the only one who can end all of this. If the Wraithlord revives early, it will only hasten Hell’s liberation. But even if he does not, this world will still have to face destruction—maybe hundreds of years from now, maybe thousands."
I swallowed, then gave a helpless smile. By then, I might not even exist anymore, and what the world of the living will become is anyone’s guess.
But soon, I fell into deep thought—about Hell, and about the Wraithlord problem that both realms now faced. I took out the White Soulstone I had sealed with my power. As soon as I brought it out, it seemed to sense Nuwa’s presence and began to grow restless.
Nuwa waved her hand, and the White Soulstone slowly drifted into her palm. She opened her mouth, extended a tongue like a serpent’s, wrapped it around the Soulstone, and swallowed it whole.
I stared in surprise. Nuwa spoke.
"Let me keep this White Soulstone. It’s the only part of the Wraithlord’s humanity that you people call kindness."
I made a sound of agreement and continued to ask.
"After the gods died, many of their bodies turned into the broken mountains and rivers of the living world. Don’t those things, formed from the gods, have any use?"
Nuwa looked at me in surprise.
"Indeed, these bodies of gods that became mountains and rivers do have some effect. But you need to master your Karmic Force. With it, there may be a way to let the gods’ radiance shine upon the earth once more."
I nodded, raised a hand, and let a rainbow flame swirl in my palm. The power felt strange. With a wave, the flame turned into a breeze, its colors fading and then vanishing.
Suddenly, awareness surged in my mind. I knew exactly where this power would manifest. Tracks appeared in my thoughts, and with a single intention, a violent spatial distortion erupted kilometers away. A rainbow vortex formed, swallowing everything around it. A thunderous roar filled the illusion, and fierce winds scattered the clouds and mist below.
The feeling shocked me. The power seemed to transcend space and time, manifesting wherever and whenever I willed.
I swallowed, deeply shaken. Nuwa watched me silently.
"This is the Karmic Force. Ethan Zhang, truly comprehend this power. You’ve witnessed your own Karma countless times—what is it you must ultimately face?"
"Ghosts."
I uttered a single word, then looked at Nuwa. She seemed to know everything, but often refused to reveal it, as if hoping I’d discover it myself.
"The possibilities within you are just like this. I’ve witnessed your potential many times—the outcomes weren’t always good or bad. But because you possess such possibility, I chose to help you. You might be humanity’s only hope. If you fully comprehend Karmic Force, the Buddhist Order, the Daoist Order, and the four human powers, there will be a way. When the Wraithlord is resurrected, that will be the day you return to the world of the living."
I stared at Nuwa in shock, but quickly asked in confusion.
"The Wraithlord’s six soul fragments are all in the illusion. If he can’t recover the seventh fragment, even the three souls can’t combine, right? Or is there some other reason he could be resurrected?"
Nuwa shook her head.
"Suppression may work for a time, but not forever. Extremes breed reversal. Though he can be fully suppressed now, if the Wraithlord’s hatred for me and for all things grows strong enough to break the seal I and the gods placed, that will be the day he fully reconstitutes. At that point, nothing will restrain him."
Nuwa continued, explaining that after granting the Wraithlord intelligence, power, and an immortal body, what evolved was knowledge. The reason the gods couldn’t defeat the Wraithlord wasn’t his immortality, nor his cunning, nor his power—it was his unparalleled knowledge, his ability to turn everything he saw and felt into his own.
In the end, the Wraithlord kept developing unprecedented powers, which proved fatal to the gods. He even found their weaknesses and killed them. Especially after becoming a ghost, he mastered powers the gods had never encountered, and with time, his strength and knowledge only grew.
The gods kept searching for countermeasures, but the ever-changing Wraithlord shifted daily. Sometimes, after fighting the gods, he’d change again within hours. The gods had no solution; they couldn’t target him from any angle. He grew stronger day by day, leading to their demise.
It was in this desperate time that instinct began to appear in humans. The gods opened a pathway between the living world and the Unreal with the Unreal Covenant, allowing instinct to descend upon humanity. This power was unprecedented and incomprehensible to the Wraithlord, so for a while, it worked.
But when everyone realized the Wraithlord was constantly probing them, it was already too late. When Revenants were finally created, the gods had their chance and completely sealed the Wraithlord.
I swallowed. Back then, I’d only seen the images, never thought deeply. The reason people could seal the Wraithlord was that the gods temporarily severed his connection to Hell, and with the immortal Revenant Tan Tian battling him for ages, the Wraithlord’s power waned, making the seal possible.
If so many possibilities hadn’t converged, the Wraithlord would never have been sealed so easily.
"Because you’ve also developed new powers, you have the potential to oppose the Wraithlord. Ethan Zhang, don’t disturb me for the next few days—the impurities in the Heaven-Mending Stone are almost completely removed."
I agreed and left Nuwa. There were no islands nearby, so I wanted to find a place to rest. Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind, and with a rainbow light, the fallen stones beneath me gathered together, quickly forming an island.
Under the influence of my power, islands once shattered in the past restored themselves, and flowers, trees, and grass that would only grow in the future appeared early. Soon, the island was lush and green. I sat beside a stream, surrounded by birdsong and blossoms, and lay comfortably on the soft grass.
This Karmic Force is truly unfathomable. It’s not creation, but something that already exists, shaped by a single catalyst into countless different outcomes. All these processes can be controlled by the Karmic Force in my hands.