Chapter 410: Confirmation Again
Yang Haoran's sudden return to the villa brought no small surprise to the humans, demons, and ghosts within.
Xiao Kang, in particular, was so overjoyed he bounced and leaped, his emotions highly agitated.
Throughout the entire year, Yang Haoran hadn't stayed home for long. Xiao Kang, after all, was just a child, so it was perfectly normal for him to become emotional after not seeing his Uncle Yang for such an extended period.
Yang Haoran could feel that Xiao Kang's longing for him wasn't feigned, but entirely heartfelt, which brought him deep satisfaction.
And the first thing Xiao Kang did upon seeing Yang Haoran was to display his strength before him.
Compared to his last departure, Xiao Kang's control over Spirit Power was now much more proficient. That he could achieve this after only five months apart came as quite a surprise to Yang Haoran.
Upon questioning, he learned that this was all thanks to Old Master Wu's excellent guidance; otherwise, no matter how hard Xiao Kang tried, it would likely be difficult for him to wield his Spirit Power so freely.
Xiao Kang's transformation astonished Yang Haoran, but what surprised him most was Bai Xue's change.
The Human Spirit and Demon Pill acquired during the battle with Zhao Hong had long since been fully refined by Bai Xue. Her strength had advanced by leaps and bounds as a result, and with her Demon Power fully unleashed, even he could sense a potent threat.
Bai Xue revelled in Yang Haoran's astonishment. In her memory, Yang Haoran had always been adept at concealing his emotions; being able to make him show such a surprised expression made her happier than acquiring another Demon Pill.
Old Master Wu's strength, however, hadn't changed; it was no different from when he last left. This was understandable, though, as with him, the Emissary of Death, absent, no one was paying the Night Watchers, so of course Old Master Wu's power wouldn't have increased.
The most unfortunate, however, was Xiujuan. Since Yang Haoran rescued her, she had always been utterly well-behaved, never going out to scare people or devour other souls, which meant her strength had remained completely unchanged.
Yang Haoran was quite helpless about this. After all, Pure Yin Qi was simply too precious, and he didn't even have enough for himself, so naturally, he couldn't spare any to satisfy Xiujuan.
However, he believed this problem would soon improve. After all, he now possessed the Soul-Refining Cauldron. Once he successfully refined Soul Pills, it wouldn't be difficult to regularly extract some Pure Yin Qi to enhance Xiujuan's strength.
On the day of his return to the villa, Yang Haoran immediately had Old Master Wu summon all Night Watchers to the South Lake Death God Temple for a meeting, instructing them to bring all the Spirits they had guided over the past five months.
This collection of souls from the Night Watchers would likely be their last for the year, as the year-end was fast approaching.
This year, however, was somewhat different from the last. In the previous year, their boss, Yang Haoran, would appear once a month to collect the Spirits they had guided and immediately reward them with Pure Yin Qi.
This year, however, they had only submitted souls twice from beginning to end, and had only seen their boss twice.
After collecting the souls, Yang Haoran distributed benefits to each Night Watcher according to last year's standards. These benefits included extra Pure Yin Qi and a considerable amount of New Beginning Coins.
Naturally, the amount of Pure Yin Qi they received was still directly linked to their performance this year.
Old Master Wu, however, had contributed even more this year than last, so Yang Haoran's additional Pure Yin Qi allocation for him was significantly higher than the previous year.
Throughout the entire year, the Night Watchers had submitted just over sixteen thousand Spirits, but unexpectedly, there was also an Evil Spirit among them, which was a pleasant surprise for Yang Haoran. . Seven or eight Z. o
According to Old Master Wu's explanation, this Evil Spirit had been subdued a month prior by himself, leading a few Night Watchers. As the Evil Spirit was quite powerful, they had all sustained considerable injuries during the encounter.
After returning to the villa from the South Lake Death God Temple, Yang Haoran began organizing the souls. He had to be absolutely meticulous about which souls could be submitted and which had to be kept. The slightest oversight could potentially cause him trouble, so he had to be cautious.
Yang Haoran didn't intend to keep the Evil Spirit subdued by Old Master Wu and his team, as many people knew about it. Furthermore, he wanted to know how much reward a single Spirit could yield, so he decided to submit it.
Yang Haoran also decided to submit the soul of Du Xiao, the Spirit Medium, this year. He wanted to see just how much benefit could be gained from submitting a Spirit Medium's soul.
As for the souls of Spirit Master Zhao Hong and the other male Spirit Master, he temporarily decided not to submit them. He wanted to keep their souls for research, to see if he could discover anything else.
Besides, if he submitted the souls of these two Spirit Masters, their Guardian Spirits would certainly have to be submitted along with them, otherwise, it would probably be difficult to explain.
If the two Spirit Masters' souls held no research value, then submitting them wouldn't be a big deal. However, their Guardian Spirits were different: one an Evil Spirit (evil Spirit) and the other a formidable Evil Spirit (evil Spirit). Submitting such formidable ghosts would be a great waste. After all, he was currently in dire need of powerful, Yin-rich spiritual entities of that caliber.
Yang Haoran wouldn't be foolish enough to make such a losing deal.
In addition, Yang Haoran extracted a small number of Spirits from the five Soul-Gathering Beads that Deng Feng had left behind, preparing to submit them because Lecheng's souls were too scarce this year.
Furthermore, these extracted Spirits were just ordinary ones, not individuals who had committed great evil in life, and he didn't want to use such Spirits to refine Soul Pills.
Of course, to avoid drawing attention, he extracted very few souls—just enough to exchange Spirits for two Soul Pills. Submitting too many souls at once might also cause him trouble.
With everything prepared, Yang Haoran didn't immediately seek out Xu Meijing. There were still a few days left until the year's end, so he stayed in the villa, drawing talismans, occasionally going out for a drink, but conspicuously not refining Soul Pills.
It wasn't that he didn't want to refine Soul Pills immediately; on the contrary, he was inwardly very eager to do so. However, refining Soul Pills was time-consuming, and if the process wasn't complete by the time he had to depart for the Underworld, the materials put into the Soul-Refining Cauldron would surely be wasted.
Powerful ghosts weren't easy to acquire, and Yang Haoran didn't want any waste. He wasn't the type to be impatient, so he decided to begin refining Soul Pills only after his return from the Underworld.
Just like last year, Yang Haoran planned to find Xu Meijing ahead of time so they could journey to the Underworld together. However, before leaving the villa, Yang Haoran released six Spirits from a separate Soul-Gathering Bead.
Of these six Spirits, two had once been Night Watchers under Yang Haoran, while the other four had been Spirit Police under Luo Dui.
The reason he released their souls before leaving the villa was that Yang Haoran wanted to reconfirm their decision: whether they wished to stay by his side or go to the Underworld for reincarnation.
Yang Haoran had already asked these six this question once before, and their answers had all been unanimously in favor of staying.
Yang Haoran was concerned that the six might have changed their minds over the past few months. After all, he had paid them no mind during this period, so it wasn't impossible for some to alter their decision. That was why he decided to reconfirm.
Of course, this would be the last time he confirmed with the six. Regardless of their decision, he would not bring up the matter again in the future.
As it turned out, his approach was indeed meaningful. Upon reconfirming with the six, two of them had ultimately changed their minds, deciding to proceed to the Underworld for reincarnation.
Both of these individuals were Spirit Police under Luo Dui. As for the two Night Watchers under Yang Haoran himself, their attitudes remained as resolute as ever. Even though Yang Haoran had neglected them for several months, they had no intention of changing their minds about staying by his side.
As for the other two Spirit Police who hadn't changed their minds, their choice to stay wasn't due to any deep loyalty to Yang Haoran; they hadn't even begun working for him yet, so loyalty wasn't a factor.
In Yang Haoran's view, their reason for choosing to stay seemed to stem from having too many lingering attachments, just like Xiujuan.
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