The Wraithlord smiled coldly and shook his head.
"You desire power, but where does power come from?"
I looked at the Wraithlord in confusion.
"Let me keep reading this Blank Desire Tome. As long as I can catch up with your progress, I will be able to grasp power."
"Even if you reach the last page, you still won't possess power."
I glared at the Wraithlord, dissatisfied. Although the truths he revealed astonished me, none of it mattered—I just wanted power, real power I could hold in my hands.
"Your heart is pure, but you do not understand the essence of power. Without understanding its essence, you cannot master it."
I stared at the Wraithlord, puzzled by his intentions at such a critical moment.
"Aren't you worried at all? If the Underworld Court wins, your resurrection will become nearly impossible."
The Wraithlord smiled and shook his head, then beckoned to the Desire Ghost.
"You two will play a game—hide and seek. If you can catch the Desire Ghost, I'll give you the Blank Desire Tome. Otherwise, you'll have to first understand the essence of power."
I looked at the Wraithlord, annoyed. Catching the Desire Ghost in this Forest of Desire was basically impossible.
"To keep things fair, you can't vanish. As long as the Earthly Soul touches you, that's enough."
"Got it!"
The Desire Ghost rubbed her hands together, grinning at me, then made a face. I grinned back, a bit irritated.
"Can we start now?"
As soon as I finished speaking, the Desire Ghost beckoned to me. I teleported over—an easy move. But just as I was about to touch her, she leapt back several steps, landing lightly in the distance and kept making faces at me.
A whistling sound filled the air as Deathbane Aura surged over my body. I couldn't reach the speed I had at my end, but I wouldn't lose. After all, I'd trained for speed while using Deathbane Aura.
I turned into a black shadow, darting through the forest. The Desire Ghost moved strangely—each time I was about to touch her, she dodged, never giving me a chance. It wasn't like she knew in advance where I'd move.
"What's wrong? Can't catch me?"
As the Desire Ghost spoke, I chased after her again, but the result was the same—every time I was about to touch her, she slipped away with ease. I wondered if she was using Desire Force, since my wish to catch her was itself a kind of desire, and she could read my movements by tapping into that force. But she didn't do that; I felt no power from her at all.
After a long while, I still couldn't catch the Desire Ghost. She danced around right in front of me, no matter how I tried or changed my approach—I just couldn't touch her.
"Well? Do you think you can catch her?"
The Wraithlord called out from not far away. I didn't know how to answer. He drifted slowly toward me.
"You can't catch her."
The Wraithlord said this, glancing at the Desire Ghost.
"How about you and I play instead?"
The Desire Ghost's face changed instantly. She pouted and said,
"It's no fun with you."
But as she turned to leave, the Wraithlord suddenly appeared in front of her, pressing a finger to her forehead with a whoosh.
"Because I understand the essence of power better than you do, you can't escape me."
As the Desire Ghost spoke, she spun around and floated away at high speed, but after just a few meters, the Wraithlord moved again and pressed his finger to her forehead.
"I'm done. There's nothing fun about this."
I watched in surprise—after all my failed attempts, the Wraithlord caught the Desire Ghost with ease. He didn't use any obvious power, just moved normally and caught her.
"How did you do it?"
"The essence of power—many people can't understand it, so they can't master power."
My restless heart began to settle. I quietly watched the Wraithlord.
"So what is the essence of power, really?"
"You should know that the stronger the power, the stronger the force needed to restrain it—and the tougher the body and spirit needed to bear it. I don't need to explain that, do I?"
I nodded. That's exactly how it is, and it's the way most people progress—myself included.
"Are you saying that's the essence of power?"
The Wraithlord nodded and continued.
"That's just the superficial essence. If you want to control power, you need the conditions to control it. But at best, that's control—not mastery."
"Then what does it mean to truly master it?"
The Wraithlord raised a hand. I saw Deathbane Aura flicker at his fingertip. He smiled and flicked it; with a whoosh, a stream of Deathbane Aura swept past my cheek, and I instantly felt something strange.
"Isn't that power control? What's different? If I could live as long as you, I'd..."
"Indeed, using the least power to achieve far greater effects is also the essence of power—call it mastery. With some time, many people can do it, and how well depends on individual talent."
I raised a hand and released a flicker of Deathbane Aura; it shot out instantly. But in speed and sharpness, it was nowhere near what the Wraithlord had just produced, even though the amount of Deathbane Aura we used was about the same.
"Not bad—you seem to understand. But unfortunately, that's not the true essence of power. Many people think it is, but it's just the surface that power shows to everyone. She understands it far better than you do—what the essence of power really is."
I glanced sideways at the grinning Desire Ghost as the Wraithlord continued.
"What is essence?"
"The most primitive form of a thing."
I answered immediately. The Wraithlord nodded, and I seemed to realize something.
"You've only seen power—how it's produced, used, and enhanced. These are features of power, not its essence. So I'll ask you again: do you know what the essence of power is?"
What the Wraithlord said made sense. I shook my head—truthfully, I didn't know what the essence of power was. I raised my hand and released a flicker of Deathbane Aura. It existed in my body, that's all I knew. My Po generated Deathbane Aura, and because of my unique nature, it became my power. To use it, I had to draw on my Po to release this force.
"Is it Sha? The essence of Deathbane Aura?"
"I'll say it again—it's just a feature. Deathbane Aura is born from a killing intent, a desire to live, and from actually killing other things, so Sha is formed. But that's not the essence of Deathbane Aura. All powers are like this; you know the reasons many powers are born, right?"
I grunted in agreement, but these still didn't seem to be the essence of power.
"If you grasp the essence of power, you'll know the essence of all powers. Then you can find the path that suits you, and advance. Zhang Qingyuan understood this long ago, but you and the Heavenly Soul do not. Even in the world of the living, quite a few people have grasped the essence of power."
I looked at the Wraithlord in surprise as he continued.
"The Heavenly Soul's power is based on their strong constitution's ability to withstand the force of the Heavenly Dao, and thus they develop powerful restraint. Only with the absolute, conserved power of the Heavenly Dao can they become strong. But that's not the result of understanding the essence of power. Of all those I know who grasp the Heavenly Dao, only the fifth-generation master of Naraku truly understood its essence; others who use Heavenly Dao power are far inferior to him."
I looked at the Wraithlord in confusion, and he gave a brief explanation.
That was over 200 years ago, when Naraku reached its fifth generation. The new master was the inheritor of the Ox zodiac, who kept Naraku's lineage alive during a crisis. His proudest technique was borrowing the power of timing—without relying on location. He developed his own spells, each with different effects depending on the hour. He repeatedly used timing to defeat many evil ghosts, and at Naraku's weakest, he ensured the lineage survived.
That fifth-generation master invented many spells that could only be used by those who mastered the Heavenly Dao. In the years that followed, some could use Heavenly Dao power, but none could use his spells.
"It's really a shame. Since then, I've never seen the master's Celestial Hour Technique again. The difference between his technique and the Heavenly Soul's pure Heavenly Dao power is vast—that's the gap between knowing the essence and just knowing the features of power, like heaven and earth."
I swallowed, and the Wraithlord slowly floated upward. I followed, and the Desire Ghost grinned and came along too.
"How did Zhang Qingyuan come to understand the essence of power?"
I asked, still puzzled.
"The Way of Man—that's the essence of power he understood. Human power. The previous person who grasped Human power was named Zhang Zhiqing."
I looked at the Wraithlord in shock.
"Looks like you've known everything that's happened between the two realms over the years."
"Of course. My Heavenly Soul travels constantly between the realms of Yin and Yang, witnessing much. Naturally, I know a lot, understand everything, and thus can create countless powers. But you're different—even if you know everything, you can't comprehend it all. That's the difference between us. Nuwa granted me power, and the most important part of it is essence!"