Gradually, I felt my body becoming saturated with the foul, suffocating aura. My skin darkened, agony stabbed through me—an unbearable, relentless pain that clawed at my insides. I convulsed, wracked by violent coughing and desperate, ragged breaths, as if something monstrous was gnawing away at my life.
It felt as if I was on the verge of suffocation. I clutched my throat, the pain intensifying—the foul aura was already invading my body. My current soul constitution couldn’t resist it, so I had no choice but to distance myself further and try to float higher.
Gradually, the black foul aura caused the ground to crack, and collapse was imminent again. I looked around—the scene was exactly the same as last time, except the foul aura was even stronger now.
My body began to change drastically. Wrinkles bulged across my skin, which shriveled rapidly. I whimpered, unable to breathe, as my body withered. Eyes wide, I felt someone tap my head just as the ground collapsed beneath me.
The moment I awoke, my eyes snapped open. I stared at the shifting images on the book’s page—black words flickered in and out of existence, but whenever they appeared, I still couldn’t understand them.
I turned, my heart pounding, and saw Spirit Snake and Deathbane Ghost. It was them—my unlikely saviors—who had dragged me back from the brink.
"What just happened to me?"
Drip, drip—sweat fell onto the table. I stared at the black liquid spreading across its surface, slowly evaporating.
"Just now, you suddenly cut off your own airway. At first, you seemed fine, so we didn’t wake you. But then your power started to wither, so we woke you up."
I let out a dull, defeated sound, my mind a tangled mess of confusion. Turning to Spirit Snake and Deathbane Ghost, I spilled out everything I’d witnessed, twice now. In this haunted realm, they were the only ones sharp enough to pierce the darkness. I was lost, forced to rely on their insight—after all, these two had saved Ethan Zhang from oblivion more times than I could count.
Deathbane Ghost sat on the Wraithlord’s bed, grinning slyly, his eyes fixed on me with intrigue.
"You rarely talk to us, and you never really communicate. So why now?"
Spirit Snake was watching me too. Honestly, these two were entrusted to me by Ethan Zhang after his death. They were never truly my ghosts—just fragments of Ethan’s power. All I wanted was to keep them safe until Ethan returned, then give them back.
"It’s nothing, really. It’s just that this time, I’m out of options—I need your wisdom."
Deathbane Ghost burst out laughing while Spirit Snake remained deep in thought.
"Normally, foul miasma sinks underground. What you saw might be a hallucination—or it could be real. After all, what your consciousness perceives is beyond our reach; we can’t see or sense it, nor glimpse even a fragment of its memory. To us, you’re just sitting at your desk, staring at a blank tome."
I grunted and got up, looking at Spirit Snake. Deathbane Ghost, now lounging on the bed, continued speaking.
"There are countless inexplicable things in this world, and in a lifetime, you might only glimpse a sliver of them. What you’re seeing now—the foul aura—has existed since ancient times. It’s similar to baleful energy, but while baleful energy is pure, foul power is mixed and chaotic."
I was startled. Deathbane Ghost was right—I’d never noticed it before. The foul aura drifting through the living and the dead usually disperses over time. It never gathers and threatens everything around it like I saw in the book.
This kind of unusual power was unfamiliar even to them. After the Four Entities appear, foul aura briefly gathers near them, but soon dissipates, sinking underground—just as Deathbane Ghost described.
"Could it be earth energy? Did the foul aura finally sink into the earth’s energy?"
I asked, but Deathbane Ghost just laughed and shook his head.
"Earth energy is produced naturally, born from living things. You can think of it as the breath of all things in the world. It couldn’t possibly absorb foul aura."
"What about hell, then?"
I was still confused. My mind was in chaos—how could I possibly comprehend the first page’s contents? For me, it was extremely difficult. Once my consciousness was drawn into the world of the book’s pages, I couldn’t use any power at all.
"You mentioned a pig farm earlier. That sounds familiar."
Suddenly, my eyes widened as I looked at Spirit Snake, who was staring at me gravely. I immediately asked:
"Did something like this really happen in the living world?"
Spirit Snake nodded and began to speak.
More than ten years ago, something truly bizarre happened in a small mountain village. It started with an outbreak of plague. A pig farm, founded just two years earlier, lost all its pigs within days.
The pig farm’s owner could only flee, leaving behind angry creditors. The farm was abandoned, filled with rotting, stinking pig carcasses. No villagers wanted to deal with it—no one would clean up, so the place was left to decay.
Within just two or three months, a massive, unexplained withering struck the area. Fields hardened, and relentless heat warped the environment.
Finally, a torrential rain triggered a landslide that buried the entire village. The disaster was so unusual, and the withering kept spreading, that the Nether Syndicate sent people to investigate.
Among those dispatched was the previous heir of the Nether Syndicate, which is why Spirit Snake knows about this. When they arrived at the mountain village, buried under dry soil, they made a shocking discovery—the earth energy was completely severed. The cause remains unknown to this day.
Once earth energy is cut off, the flow of life’s breath is blocked, and plants above ground lose nourishment and water, eventually dying.
This sort of thing has only happened a few times, always on a small scale—sometimes caused by zombies, sometimes by certain types of ghosts.
"If the pig farm you saw is the same case I know, then the reason is that foul aura severed the earth energy, triggering this disaster."
After that, I described to Spirit Snake and Deathbane Ghost the scale of the foul aura I’d seen—the strength of it in both encounters.
"Can foul aura really condense to such a degree?"
As Deathbane Ghost spoke, Spirit Snake nodded.
"That’s right. Foul aura can’t be used by ghosts because it’s too impure—too many mixed elements, no core, so it can’t work with ghost power and is actually harmful. But there’s one exception: the Green Wraith, Evan Zhao, whom you mentioned earlier. I sensed extremely strong foul aura in him."
I grunted. Deathbane Ghost sat up, smiling helplessly and shaking his head.
"Now that we know the reason, we need to find what allows the foul aura to gather on such a massive scale. If you find that, you’ll understand, won’t you?"
I grunted again, but in that world, I couldn’t use any power—not even basic perception, let alone finding the source of such immense foul aura.
Just then, the Wraithlord returned. He glanced at Deathbane Ghost and Spirit Snake, then smiled and spoke.
"The things recorded on page 11 and page 28—this is the first time I’ve seen them in their true form."
I stared in surprise as the Wraithlord walked over, shoved me aside, and sat at the desk, ready to keep reading.
"Wait—can you tell me how I can use my power in the world inside the book?"
I asked, and the Wraithlord glanced at me sideways.
"If you can’t even do the basics, what’s the point of trying to comprehend anything? Figure it out yourself. You three, don’t bother me—I need to focus for a few hours. I feel like I’m onto something."
Soon, the Wraithlord was completely absorbed in the book’s contents. Before long, his gaze went blank—his consciousness must have entered the book. To my surprise, Spirit Snake and Deathbane Ghost were also mentioned in the book, specifically on pages 11 and 28. I swallowed hard.
But what I cared about most now was why Spirit Snake and Deathbane Ghost were recorded there. The Wraithlord’s words were cryptic, but mentioning those two really shocked me.
"How long have you two been alive? Or rather, how long has your consciousness existed?"
I asked, and Spirit Snake smiled.
"Let’s talk outside. Don’t disturb him."
I looked at Spirit Snake in confusion, and then the three of us left the lake, heading a little farther away to a flat mountaintop.
"His remarks really surprised me."
Spirit Snake spoke, and Deathbane Ghost nodded, then laughed.
"If you really want to know, beings like us—spirit entities—have existed since the birth of baleful energy. Back then, we had no consciousness, but gradually, due to a certain catalyst, we gained awareness. In some ways, we’re similar to you three, but fundamentally different."