Chapter 684: Wracking His Brains
The newly recruited female Evil Spirit had no skin, a fact Yang Haoran hadn't forgotten. He had thought of it during his last trip to the Underworld, but he hadn't had the time to deal with it.
He had planned to custom-make a skin for the female Evil Spirit, matching her exact appearance and figure. This would demonstrate his sincerity, and besides, all the other ghosts in the Ghost Cave wore custom-fitted skins. If he didn't provide a custom-made one for the female Evil Spirit, what would she think?
The problem lay precisely there: custom-made skins required a certain amount of time to be ready. At the time, Yang Haoran didn't even have the leisure to step into a skin shop, let alone wait for a custom order. Thus, the matter had been temporarily put on hold.
The matter still gave him a bit of a headache. Times had changed; in the current climate, he no longer had the luxury of constantly traveling to the Underworld.
Furthermore, frequently ordering custom skins was bound to arouse suspicion. If he were to be targeted by someone in the Underworld, it would undoubtedly lead to trouble. If he could refine skins himself, the problem would be solved at its root. Not only would it eliminate the risk, but he would also have an endless supply of skins for the future.
He simply had no idea what methods were required to refine these skins, or what materials they might need.
Now that Tang Shi had actively brought it up, it was likely because the female Evil Spirit's lack of a skin made many training exercises difficult to conduct. This, in turn, would impede his training progress.
Considering this, Yang Haoran decided he would still find time for another trip to the Underworld, as he didn't want to hold up Tang Shi's training.
After responding to Tang Shi, Yang Haoran departed the Ghost Cave, respectfully seen off by Tang Shi and the other ghosts.
To resolve the issue of the female Evil Spirit's lack of a skin, Yang Haoran, upon leaving the Ghost Cave and after a period of careful deliberation, decisively chose to address the matter that very day.
He first visited the various Death God Temples in Lecheng to inspect them, understand the prevailing situation, and incidentally, boost the morale of his Night Watchers. After spending some time handling these matters, he summoned the Ghost Gate and departed for the Underworld.
His purpose for this trip to the Underworld was singular and clear: to handle just one matter. Consequently, the entire round trip took him less than an hour, and he was back in Lecheng.
This time, when he went to the Underworld to custom-order the skin, he didn't return to the shop he'd used before. Although their craftsmanship was excellent, he opted for a different skin shop to avoid any unnecessary complications.
Upon returning to Lecheng, Yang Haoran headed directly back to the villa, where he locked himself in his study to attend to another matter.
This matter, naturally, concerned how to address the issue of his subordinate ghosts being captured.
Just as he had told Tang Shi earlier, there were myriad ways for a person to commit suicide. But ghosts, having already died once, possessed no physical bodies, only Spirit Bodies. To make their Spirit Body dissipate quickly, and for this method to remain firmly within their own control, was indeed no simple feat.
The challenge lay in maintaining self-control. If they encountered a powerful opponent, it was perfectly normal for a ghost to undergo Soul Transformation; that held no difficulty whatsoever. However, for a ghost to instantly achieve Soul Transformation by their own will, as an act of self-destruction, that was far from simple.
After some consideration, Yang Haoran thought of talismans—specifically, the Ghost-Slaying Talisman, designed expressly to combat ghosts.
The Ghost-Slaying Talisman was a potent weapon against ghosts. Even against Underworld Officials or Spirit Mediums, the Ghost-Slaying Talisman possessed a degree of lethality. If each of his subordinate ghosts carried a Ghost-Slaying Talisman, they could choose to use it to end their own existence when all other avenues were exhausted.
Although ghosts were not Talisman Masters and lacked Talisman Spirit Power, Yang Haoran could implement some special modifications to the talismans. For instance, he could place a seal on the Ghost-Slaying Talisman; once the seal shattered, the talisman would activate automatically. Then, the ghosts would only need to use their own power to break the seal, thus triggering the Ghost-Slaying Talisman's effect.
This method was indeed sound, but Yang Haoran soon rejected it.
The reason was simple: he was currently just a Yellow Talisman Master, and a very ordinary one at that. Even though he had managed to draw the lost Ground-Escaping Talisman from the Talisman Order last time, his Talisman Spirit Power was ultimately limited, showing a significant gap when compared to top-tier Yellow Talisman Masters.
The weakest ghosts currently under his command were all at the Evil Spirit level. Furthermore, they weren't ordinary Evil Spirits; within the Evil Spirit realm, they were considered quite powerful.
For Evil Spirits of this caliber, the Ghost-Slaying Talismans drawn by Yang Haoran would be largely ineffective. Even those drawn by top-tier Yellow Talisman Masters wouldn't be able to instantly kill them, unless a vast number of Ghost-Slaying Talismans were activated concurrently.
However, such an approach was simply unrealistic. Quite apart from being troublesome and excessively resource-intensive, where would he even find these top-tier Yellow Talisman Masters?
This was only considering the Evil Spirit ghosts under his command. If it involved his Evil Spirit ghosts, the number of Ghost-Slaying Talismans required would reach an even more terrifying scale.
Forget top-tier Yellow Talisman Masters; even the Ghost-Slaying Talismans drawn by ordinary Black Talisman Masters would absolutely not be able to slay an Evil Spirit with just a single one.
Only if a Ghost-Slaying Talisman drawn by a top-tier Black Talisman Master were to encounter an ordinary Evil Spirit ghost—in such a situation of immense power disparity—would it be possible to slay the target with just a single Ghost-Slaying Talisman.
Yang Haoran did indeed have a Talisman Master friend, Wang Yiming. However, Wang Yiming was merely a Yellow Talisman Master, and thus couldn't provide the necessary assistance. Not to mention Wang Yiming, even Wang Yiming's master couldn't draw a Ghost-Slaying Talisman capable of slaying an Evil Spirit with a single strike. Moreover, he had some lingering animosity with Wang Yiming's master.
Therefore, while this method was promising, Yang Haoran couldn't find Ghost-Slaying Talismans of the required potency. He temporarily lacked the necessary resources in this area, and thus had no choice but to abandon it and re-evaluate other solutions.
With talismans temporarily out of the question, Yang Haoran turned his thoughts to Ghost Arts and Spiritual Arts.
Whether they were Underworld Officials, Ghost Officials, Spirit Mediums, or even mere ghosts, all were inextricably linked to Yin Qi. However, the power within Underworld Officials, Ghost Officials, and Spirit Mediums had undergone a qualitative transformation. As for ghosts, their power hadn't transformed qualitatively; it remained pure Yin Qi.
The vast majority of Ghost Arts and Spiritual Arts could also be cultivated by ghosts, but because their internal power had not undergone a qualitative transformation, aside from a few simple or unique techniques that were relatively easy to master, many other arts proved exceedingly difficult to cultivate. They might even find themselves unable to achieve success for extended periods, or worse, suffer backlash.
However, as they cultivated an increasing number of arts, their power would also undergo a qualitative transformation, making subsequent cultivation comparatively simpler.
And what Yang Haoran thought of at this moment was to begin with magical techniques.
He didn't know many Ghost Arts, and none of the ones he did know possessed a self-destruction ability.
The Underworld Office possessed numerous Ghost Arts; it was certainly not impossible that some of them had a self-destruction capability. So Yang Haoran took out the Underworld Iron Tome and searched for relevant information within its pages. Indeed, he found Ghost Arts with self-destructing capabilities, and more than one type at that.
To master these Ghost Arts, he would need to venture to the Underworld's Ghost Art Pavilion to locate them. The mere thought of having just returned from the Underworld only to have to go back again gave him a headache.
Furthermore, a trip to the Ghost Art Pavilion would consume Soul Pills. It was uncertain whether he could even find his target among the myriad Ghost Arts within a short timeframe.
After repeated consideration, Yang Haoran designated this method as a fallback. He would, in any case, have to make another trip to the Underworld to collect the female Evil Spirit's skin. If he couldn't devise a better solution before then, he would simply have to visit the Ghost Art Pavilion again.
With a decision now made, Yang Haoran temporarily relegated this plan to the back of his mind as a backup, then continued to brainstorm other methods. If he could conceive of a better solution, that would, naturally, be for the best.
After a moment of thought, he considered that since Ghost Arts were both troublesome and consumed his Soul Pills, what about Spiritual Arts?
To date, he had accumulated quite a few Spiritual Arts, including even some arcane ones. Although he had never thoroughly examined each of these Spiritual Arts, it wasn't impossible that they contained the very Spiritual Art he sought.
If so, it would not only spare him a great deal of trouble but also save him Soul Pills. This would truly be hitting two birds with one stone.
Upon this thought, he immediately retrieved all the Spiritual Arts he had collected and began to examine them one by one.
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