A full week passed, and the Ghost Sovereigns had made almost no progress. Lord Shenyan spent the entire week carving at sticks with stone shards, without any other action. This shocked me deeply. I now have a general idea of what Lord Shenyan is trying to do—he seems to be sculpting something.
As for the advancement of skill and power, it seems Lord Shenyan no longer needs it. His Ghost Aura is already the most immense among the Seven Ghost Sovereigns, and as for technique, he must have honed it to perfection during his lifetime.
Throughout this week, John Chou has been sparring with the skeletons, but never once used his Bloodshade power. By now, he’s training with seven skeletons at once.
John Chou seems to genuinely enjoy this kind of training. Yvonne May and Mona Ouyang remain unchanged.
Basil Bertram still hasn’t uncovered anything useful from the ghost array at the entrance, while Redmond has spent the week furiously sparring with skeletons. His situation is dire—his Ghost Aura was always scarce, and he quickly runs out of strength in these matches. So all week, Redmond has been trying various ways to increase his Ghost Aura.
There’s a slight improvement, but for Redmond, such progress is meaningless.
So this week, Redmond has occasionally sought out some ghost wardens for drinks to relieve his frustrations. For him, improving his strength this way is nearly impossible. Even though increasing his Ghost Soul could boost his Ghost Aura, it’s a drop in the ocean—not every ghost’s Ghost Soul can grow quickly.
This is closely tied to how and when a ghost died. I don’t know how Redmond died, but it clearly wasn’t easy. Yet his resentment is minimal—he gives me the sense of someone who faced death willingly, with nothing left to hold onto.
Yuna Ji still hasn’t made any progress this week. The souls and skeletons remain impossible to fuse. She’s tried ten sets of souls and skeletons, repeatedly attempting to merge them, but if they get too close, both souls and skeletons explode.
She’s kept a distance of five meters the whole time, unable to move forward.
"Well? Yuna Ji, did your experiment succeed?"
John Chou asked, and Yuna Ji pouted and shook her head.
"What are you expecting, John Chou? Even if I manage to fuse them, it won’t do you any good, will it?"
John Chou laughed. I could roughly guess what he was after. Sparring with mindless skeletons can’t train certain things, since those skeletons have no awareness—only the instinct to attack, and their attacks are just echoes of habits from their past lives, stiff and predictable. With a little care, you can dodge them, and even if you’re surrounded, there’s always a way out.
If the skeletons had awareness, it would be a whole different story. Training with them would be much more meaningful.
"Hmph, John Chou, there’s no way to grow stronger in this place. We’re all branded here—it’s just a shackle. Why don’t we try to break the brand?"
Redmond asked, and John Chou glanced at him and laughed.
"Did you forget what I said? If the brand is broken, the Five Lords of Yama will know right away. They’ll send people here, and our situation will be exposed. Let me make it clear: if you want to end things early, I can just kill you now."
Redmond immediately grew angry. Yuna Ji and Basil Bertram held him back. After a brief discussion, the Ghost Sovereigns each went their separate ways again.
These dull, monotonous days, with nothing new or strange, are pure torment for them. Even if they have inner ambitions, in a place like this, it’s just too stifling.
By the third week, you could tell from the state of each Ghost Sovereign: John Chou was still fighting with the skeletons, now up to ten at once, but the matches were shorter than before, ending quickly.
I finally saw what Lord Shenyan was carving. By the end of the third week, the whole stick had been sculpted into a Buddha statue. The shape was clear, but the details were off. It shocked me even more.
He’d gone through countless stone shards. The once pitch-black stick was now split in two, both pieces meticulously shaped by Lord Shenyan. From dawn till dusk, he was always carving Buddha statues.
The face of the statue made me uneasy, but on closer inspection, it looked just like Lord Shenyan’s true expression.
You know, in the Buddhist sect, many who’ve committed terrible crimes are made to carve Buddha statues. Even if they don’t know how, they have to try. The wood is hard and the knives are sharp, so through carving, they can release much of what’s inside them. The finished Buddha often looks like their inner demons. The more they carve, the more their malice fades with time, but the past is never truly forgotten. Sin is different for everyone. Those who are too kind and upright can never forgive their own sins. That’s why some people never resolve their inner knots, no matter how long they live. This is the source of Lord Shenyan’s power—his own guilt.
I hummed in response, watching Lord Shenyan. I couldn’t help but think of Zhang Zhiqing, whom Zhang Qingyuan considered a great benefactor. He and Lord Shenyan are alike, but fundamentally different. What Lord Shenyan seeks doesn’t exist in this world. Justice itself is shaped by values and the era. Zhang Zhiqing possesses righteousness; if Lord Shenyan’s justice is naive—treating all evil as the enemy—then Zhang Zhiqing’s righteousness is clever, not simply black or white, nor grandiose, but something that blends both, yet remains fundamentally pure.
The justice Lord Shenyan bears is more for the era, for those defenseless behind him. Perhaps he spent his whole life charging forward with this relentless justice, only to be destroyed by its own twisted nature.
Now the Ghost Sovereigns gathered together again.
"Yuna Ji, judging by your look, did you find something?"
Redmond asked, and Yuna Ji grinned and nodded. She was no longer hiding anything.
"I might have found a way. Soon these skeletons will have self-awareness. Luckily, our time and space are the same, so although it’ll take some time, if you all help, and the other skeletons help too, then every soul in Abyssal Hell since ancient times will become my army. We’ll just wipe out those ghost wardens when the time comes."
At this point, John Chou was most focused on Basil Bertram’s progress, since it was key to their long-term survival here. If they could figure out the ghost array at the entrance, they could escape and also fool the Underworld Court, so no one would know what was going on inside. With Basil Bertram’s power, the skeletons could even disguise themselves as ghost wardens, and then the seven of them could do whatever they wanted here.
"That ghost array sealing the entrance seems to require a special kind of Ghost Aura to unlock, and only the designated ones can do it. That’s all I’ve figured out so far."
"Is that Ghost Aura similar to Yama’s?"
John Chou asked, and Basil Bertram shook his head.
"Completely different."
"Are you sure?"
John Chou asked again, and Basil Bertram nodded.
"It seems to be some unknown ghost wardens—maybe even Yama doesn’t know, since the ghost wardens escorting prisoners are always different."
John Chou laughed as he spoke. I knew this was a huge advantage for the seven Ghost Sovereigns, except Redmond, who was clearly unhappy—he couldn’t absorb even a trace of malice here, so his power couldn’t grow at all.
At that moment, what came to mind were Redmond’s left and right hands—Nameless and Vivian Maple. Both are exceptionally powerful Green Wraiths. Perhaps Redmond’s strength is weak in this era, but his two subordinates are incomparably strong. The three of them together form a trinity. I now understand why, wherever Redmond goes, either Nameless or Vivian Maple is always by his side—it’s not without reason.
In modern society, Redmond’s power is unprecedented, but in this era, his strength is feeble. Those who don’t know Redmond’s real background might actually fear the organization under his command.
“Hmph, what’s so great about that?”
Sure enough, Redmond, dissatisfied, was about to leave when John Chou called out to him.
“Your power is quite unique, Redmond. Unfortunately, there’s no way to enhance it. You need to find a way to strengthen yourself; if you keep ignoring this, the gap between you and us will only grow wider.”
Redmond stared blankly ahead, didn’t look back, and quickly left the cave. His face was filled with anxiety. The other Ghost Sovereigns also began to disperse. I followed Redmond; sure enough, he sat beneath a rocky cliff, leaning against the icy wall, baring his teeth and clenching his fists, already furious beyond control.
Even without John Chou’s words, Redmond himself knew—the other six Ghost Sovereigns changed week by week, their powers truly increasing. I don’t know how Yvonne May and Mona Ouyang managed to grow stronger, but both of their ghostly forms are becoming more stable.
“What’s so impressive about that? Who does John Chou think he is?”
Redmond roared in anger, his voice echoing through the mountains. But after sitting for a long while, he stood up, fists clenched, and black flames flickered faintly around his knuckles.
“It’s no use telling me anything—what does any of this even mean?”