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Chapter 695: Surfacing

For the past six months, Lecheng has never been short of ghosts; there were newly formed ones and old ones that had been hiding.

Aside from a very small number that escaped, the vast majority of these ghosts were guided by Yang Haoran's people. Of those successfully guided, some were sent to the Underworld by Yang Haoran in accordance with the rules, while others were refined by him into Soul Pills.

In these chaotic times, human lives were cheap as grass, and too many people died for the authorities to manage. This naturally led to an increased workload for the Underworld Office.

However, Yang Haoran's strength was able to achieve a rapid increase precisely because of these ghosts. Without a large number of ghosts, it would have been exceedingly difficult for his strength to advance by leaps and bounds; even with the Soul-Refining Cauldron, it would have been useless without ghosts.

When one person achieves enlightenment, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven. As Yang Haoran's strength soared, the people around him, the ghosts he kept as subordinates, and his Night Watchers naturally benefited greatly, their strength likewise advancing by leaps and bounds. Only the Night Watchers received comparatively fewer benefits.

It wasn't that Yang Haoran was biased; rather, he didn't dare give the Night Watchers too many benefits. Although they were his people, the Night Watchers were, after all, a public-facing force. If their rate of strength improvement exceeded common sense, it would only bring great trouble to Yang Haoran.

Therefore, Yang Haoran could only enhance the strength of his Night Watchers within controllable limits.

Inside his study, Yang Haoran, as always, was reading. Simultaneously, Soul Pills within his body continuously released Pure Yin Qi for him to absorb and refine. This had been his mode of operation for the past six months: absorbing and refining Soul Pills while doing other things. It had become a habit for him.

However, he would stop whenever his supply of Soul Pills ran low, as he needed to keep some in reserve for unforeseen circumstances.

The book Yang Haoran was currently reading contained various hidden stories, even touching upon matters of organizational and communal inheritance, including records of the Talisman Order's succession methods.

He read the section on the Talisman Order's inheritance with extreme care, as he was a Talisman Master himself and naturally concerned with this issue.

According to the hidden stories, the Talisman Order possessed a method to transfer a Talisman Master's own power to another Talisman Master. In this way, the recipient could gain the transferee's power, and most of the Talisman Order's experts were cultivated through this method.

The book did not elaborate much on what this so-called power transfer method entailed, only mentioning its existence. As for the veracity of the book's claims, Yang Haoran couldn't be certain; after all, hidden stories could be true or false, so one couldn't fully believe them, nor entirely disbelieve them.

However, he genuinely hoped the Talisman Order truly possessed such a method, as it would allow him to exploit a loophole, strengthening the Talisman Spirit Power within him and keeping pace with his overall strength.

For the past six months, the Talisman Spirit Power within Yang Haoran had made little, if any, discernible progress. This was mainly due to the extremely thin spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the area, which offered very limited assistance. Furthermore, unlike other Talisman Masters who spent their days cultivating and absorbing spiritual energy to strengthen themselves, he had other matters to attend to, leading to the slow increase of his inner Talisman Spirit Power.

But if the Talisman Order truly had such a method of power transfer, he believed it would be somewhat beneficial to him. If he could somehow acquire this method, he might just find a shortcut.

Of course, this was merely his unilateral speculation. Setting aside whether the Talisman Order even possessed such a method, even if it did, acquiring it would be a major challenge. After all, the Talisman Order would undoubtedly regard such a method as an invaluable treasure, not something easily obtained.

Moreover, even if he did somehow get his hands on this method, which Talisman Master would be willing to transfer their own power to him?

Just as Yang Haoran was pondering this question, he suddenly sensed a wave of power rapidly approaching the location of his villa.

This power fluctuation was Spirit Power, indicating the arrival of someone from the Underworld Office. When this person entered the Mountain River Grand Array, the array did not reject them. He knew it was Wu Laoyezi returning, as Xiao Kang was cultivating inside the villa and hadn't gone anywhere.

Ever since the world fell into chaos, Wu Laoyezi's visits had become far less frequent. There were simply too many trivial matters for him to handle, and as someone who had to preside over the overall situation, he could no longer return to the villa whenever he wished, as he once did.

Yang Haoran's guess was correct; the person who had rushed back was indeed Wu Laoyezi, for a few breaths later, he appeared before him.

Over the past six months, Wu Laoyezi had constantly been on guard against Spirit Mediums and had to deal with numerous other trivial matters, which put him under considerable pressure. Furthermore, his physical body was aging daily, making him appear quite old now.

Yang Haoran had advised Wu Laoyezi many times, hoping he could temporarily put aside his responsibilities and rest for a while, assuring him that he would find a way to handle the Death God Temple's affairs. However, Wu Laoyezi had very resolutely refused, leaving no room for negotiation.

Helpless, Yang Haoran could only comply with Wu Laoyezi, then secretly try to find other solutions for his situation. After all, Wu Laoyezi had been with him for several years, and the bond between them had grown stronger with time. He didn't want to see Wu Laoyezi's life end this way.

“Old Wu, please, sit down and rest for a bit. ”

Yang Haoran could tell that Wu Laoyezi's return this time was likely for something important, but he didn't ask immediately. Instead, he had Wu Laoyezi sit down and rest, while he picked up the teapot to pour him a cup of hot tea.

“Boss, now is not the time to rest, nor to drink tea. I have earth-shattering news for you: a Spirit Medium has finally emerged in our Lecheng! ”

At Wu Laoyezi's words, Yang Haoran's movements paused slightly, but he didn't put down the teapot. He still poured Wu Laoyezi a hot cup of tea, then handed it to him with a smile.

“Heh, half a year has passed, and those fellows never showed their faces in our Lecheng. Now they finally couldn't hold back anymore. What's the situation? Tell me in detail. ”

Wu Laoyezi wasn't surprised by Yang Haoran's reaction in the slightest. He didn't know when it started, but in his memory, his boss had become like this: calm and unhurried when encountering problems, his expression unchanging, so composed that he seemed unfathomable.

What Wu Laoyezi didn't know was that as Yang Haoran's strength grew day by day, his inner world became increasingly unperturbed. He gave off an aura of growing stability. It wasn't that he had lost his emotions, but that his emotions had become increasingly difficult to shake, and he rarely revealed them.

Wu Laoyezi didn't bother to marvel at Yang Haoran's reaction; instead, he recounted the full details to him.

According to Wu Laoyezi, a new temple had suddenly appeared in a small town within Lecheng’s territory.

Normally, the appearance of an extra temple wouldn't be a big deal. After all, given the current situation in the New Beginning Realm, most ordinary people's faith in deities had reached a new height. Many villagers even spontaneously organized to build temples in their villages, dedicating them to the gods they worshipped, hoping to receive divine protection and deter those man-eating demons, monsters, ghosts, and ghouls. So, villagers building temples was indeed nothing to be surprised about.

However, the temple Wu Laoyezi spoke of was different, because this temple was actually a Spirit Medium Temple, and the deity enshrined within was none other than the Spirit God revered by many Spirit Mediums nowadays!

The reason Wu Laoyezi came to know this news was through a report from a Night Watcher. Just this morning, while guiding departed souls in his assigned district, this Night Watcher happened to discover this newly constructed Spirit Medium Temple.