Li Mu thought for a while and decided to follow the rules.
The less trouble the better.
Moreover, based on the observation he did these days, the Two Sages of Bone Sacred Mountain had treated the ghost cultivators equally. They were indeed helping the low-level ghost cultivators to better their lives. This sect was a fair and open-minded one that could rarely be seen. The system and hierarchy of the sect were well-established. All in all, it was a great rising force.
On the other hand, the three major ghost sects that had waged war against the Bone Sacred Mountain had been branded with slavery during their long history. They killed without mercy and had adhered to the mindset that those who were not their members would always want to harm them. Therefore, they were extremely brutal towards the sects and rogue cultivators that were not under their jurisdiction. Also, they held great enmity against the living beings outside of the Ghost Rally Star.
Since the Cultivation Method could be obtained by making contributions to the sect, Li Mu thought he might as well give this rising force called Bone Sacred Mountain a helping hand.
But in this way, Li Mu would have to spend more time on the Ghost Rally Star than he had planned. He was afraid that he would not be able to sort things out within a month.
“It seems that I just have to make my new friend, Shan Tian, go on a few more trips.”
Li Mu thought to himself.
After it was done, he would definitely find a way to repay Shan Tian one day.
Having made up his mind, Li Mu soon calmed down.
His attention went back to the Ghost Cultivation Method and the 10 Ghost Beads.
“On that day, the Xiantian Skill echoed the half-dead energy in the divine-level Primordial Stone. Could it be that the Xiantian Skill can refine this kind of energy?”
Li Mu was eager to give it a try.
In the end, he decided to do an experiment.
Li Mu summoned a Ghost Soldier captain and ordered him to announce to the other members that he was going to do closed-door training. Then, he directly shut the gate of his cave.
“I’ll use the Ghost Cultivation Method called the Spirit-gathering Spring to suck the energy inside the Ghost Beads into my body, and then cast the Xiantian Skill to refine it. This is surely a plausible method.”
After deducing the whole process several times, Li Mu gradually came up with a plan.
He took out a Ghost Bead and ran the most basic Ghost Cultivation Method of the Bone Sacred Mountain.
Soon, a look of pleasant surprise appeared on Li Mu’s face.
It worked.
He had actually succeeded in running a Ghost Cultivation Method in the body of a living man.
Li Mu was not sure if he was the first living person who managed to practice a Ghost Cultivation Method. But it meant that his previous plan could be carried out.
In fact, the Spirit-gathering Spring was a technique to help one absorb the Ghost Qi between heaven and earth into one’s body. For ghost cultivators without substantial bodies, they only absorbed the Ghost Qi to complement their three souls and seven spirits, so as to solidify their existence. The ultimate purpose of this skill, just like that of all the other Ghost Cultivation Method, was to enable the ghosts to transcend the half-dead state, surpass life and death, and go back to life.
But Li Mu found that after the Ghost Qi was guided into his body by the Spirit-gathering Spring, it began to flow in his meridians like natural qi. As it circulated, his breath became cold as if his body was going to freeze.
An ordinary expert would probably not be able to withstand such Ghost Qi because they would suffer damages to his meridians.
However, Li Mu’s physical body was incredibly strong and his meridians were remarkably resilient, so he was fine after the first trial.
“If I turn this Ghost Qi into natural qi, I wonder how powerful it will be?”
Li Mu’s interest was piqued.
He began to absorb the rest of the Ghost Qi in that Ghost Bead.
“Hiss…”
The energy in the Ghost Beads was indeed hundreds of times richer and purer than that in the air between heaven and earth. Li Mu felt a stream of icy water flowing in his meridians. Instantly, cold, white air began to come out from his whole body, as though he were going to turn into an ice sculpture.
After draining the energy in that Ghost Bead, Li Mu felt that he had become more or less an ice sculpture or a snowman. It was probably the most Ghost Qi that his physical body could withstand.
Then, he set up a Breath-concealing Deployment in the cave to prevent his aura from escaping the cave. After that, he began to operate the Xiantian Skill to refine the Ghost Qi in his meridians.
The moment when the Xiantian Skill was activated, the Ghost Qi inside him immediately became obedient. As if trying to please him, it began to run down the meridians designated by the Xiantian Skill, and the extreme coldness inside his body gradually disappeared.
Li Mu took a closer look and found that the extremely cold Ghost Qi was not gone.
It was still running in his meridians.
But for Li Mu, the reason why the extreme chill had disappeared was that the Ghost Qi was no longer harmful to Li Mu’s meridians and flesh. It seemed to have become a part of Li Mu’s body, and he could control it as easily as controlling his arm.
Yet, it seemed that the idea of merging the primitive natural qi in his body with the extremely sinister Ghost Qi could not be realized in a short period.
The Xiantian Skill was extremely deft in manipulating the two kinds of energy.
When Li Mu was running the primitive natural qi, the extremely cold Ghost Qi would hide in his Dantian and dissipate in the meridians. And when running the extremely cold Ghost Qi, the Primordial Genuine Qi would also lay low in the Dantian.
The two kinds of Genuine Qi could not be merged, but they did not interfere with each other, either.
Li Mu tried several times, but in the end, he decided to temporarily give up the idea of merging these two kinds of qi.
It was not the right time yet.
Of course, compared with the primitive natural qi Li Mu had cultivated for many years, the extremely cold Ghost Qi was much inferior regarding the amount.
It took Li Mu 10 days to completely absorb the energy in the 10 Ghost Beads.
Now, with the power of the extremely cold Ghost Qi, Li Mu was basically half a step away from becoming a Ghost General. Compared with ordinary ghost cultivators, Li Mu was advancing at a much more tremendous pace every day.
The realm and fighting capacity system of the ghost cultivators were different from the cultivation system of the living beings in the Brilliance Immortal Star Region. The Ghost General level was probably equivalent to the Void-breaking Realm, or the so-called Worm Realm, in the world of the living. Yet, the Ghost Lords were comparable to the general-level experts there.
Li Mu felt that he was having a headache.
The two different level systems seemed quite confusing.
One level of ghost cultivation spanned across several cultivation realms of living cultivators.
“Eh? You’ve made a breakthrough again?”
The eyes of the Ghost General elder named Zhen Ye lit up when he saw Li Mu.
Li Mu smiled and said, “Elder Zhen Ye, thank you for your care and promotion. That’s why I’m able to achieve what I have today.”
This was not just a compliment.
Zhen Ye did have taken good care of Li Mu.
Having worked for him these days, Li Mu could tell that this Elder Zhen Ye was a good person… Well, no, he was a really good ghost. He was quite nice to the rogue ghost cultivators who had come to join the sect and the other disciples of Bone Sacred Mountain. He was indeed a good person… er, a good ghost.
“In less than 20 days, you already reached the first stage of Ghost General. You can be considered a ghost cultivation genius. I did have picked the right man.” Zhen Ye patted Li Mu on the shoulder and said, “Come on, put in some more efforts. As long as you reached the middle stage of the Ghost General, you can become an elder of our Bone Sacred Mountain.”
Li Mu nodded and thanked him sincerely.
Zhen Ye added, “Little buddy, I’ve noted that you are quite young. When you died, you must be less than 20 years old, am I right?”
“When I died?”
Li Mu looked puzzled, but he still nodded and said, “I’m 19.”
Zhen Ye said, “The Wandering Souls that come to our Ghost Rally Star may die in various ways, but without exception, they must all have a strong wish that had not been fulfilled when they were alive. Their steadfastness moved heaven and earth. That’s why they were sent here. Otherwise, when ordinary people die, their souls and spirits simply scatter about and vanish. Every ghost cultivator wants to rise above life and death, go beyond the Ghost Rally Star, and return to the world of the living to fulfill their wish.”
As Li Mu listened, he figured out something else.
>”So, the ghost cultivators here are not born on this planet, but come from other places, right?”
In the past few days, he had learned a lot of the Ghost Rally Star, but he never heard of these things.
“Haha, brother, you’re a ghost who died not long ago, aren’t you?” As soon as Elder Zhen Ye saw Li Mu’s expression, he knew that Li Mu didn’t know much about the Ghost Rally Star.
Li Mu nodded.
“No wonder.” Elder Zhen Ye, the Ghost General, chuckled. Then, he said, “Then, let me tell you something about this world.”
“Ghost cultivators couldn’t reproduce. Even if some ghost cultivators fell in love with one another and became Cultivation Partners, they couldn’t have children. On this Ghost Rally Star, ghost cultivators are dying all the time. However, the total number of ghosts remains basically the same. The reason is that ghost cultivator on the Ghost Rally Star, though claim to be born from heaven and earth, are actually the dead people from all the major planets in the Brilliance Immortal Star Region. Because they are strong in spirit or have some unquenched obsession, or for some other reason, their souls and spirits haven’t dispersed. So, under the guidance of the law of heaven and earth, they land on this Ghost Rally Star.”
“This had been the case for tens of millions of years.”
After hearing what Elder Zhen Ye said, Li Mu was greatly shocked.
“How could things be like this?
“Doesn’t that mean…”
All of a sudden, a wisp of expectation rose in his heart.
Elder Zhen Ye continued, “Many ghost cultivators still retain the memories of their previous life after they come to this world. Thus, they want to return to the world of living and reunite with their loved ones. It can be said that this is one of the motive powers that incent most ghost cultivators to fight and struggle. It’s also what keeps them going. However, the handful of reincarnation places on the Ghost Rally Star are guarded by the Three Divine Gates of the Ghost Path. If ordinary ghost cultivators want to go to these places to reincarnate, they must become lackeys of the Three Divine Gates. They will be bullied by others and be completely miserable. However, the Two Sages of our Bone Sacred Mountain have made a great ambition. They’ve vowed to lead us ghost cultivators to open the door of cultivation, take over the places of reincarnation that have been controlled by the Three Divine Gates all along so that every wronged ghost cultivator can transcend life and death and return to the world of the living. So, buddy, you are a genius in cultivation. I really hope that you could be truly loyal to the Two Sages and defend the Bone Sacred Mountain.”
When he came to the last part of this remark, Zhen Ye himself also felt a surge of emotion.
Upon hearing that, Li Mu didn’t know what to say.
He only found out about these secrets.
Hearing these words, there was a moment Li Mu felt that he had abruptly become a member of this planet, a real ghost cultivator, and a 100 percent disciple of the Bone Sacred Mountain.
“Let’s go, buddy. Come with me to get a new identity card. Now that you become a Ghost General, your status naturally gets higher.”
With these words, Zhen Ye turned around and led the way.
“How I wish I could take another look at the blue sky at my hometown…”
He sighed.
The sky of the Ghost Rally Star had always been overcast because of the dense layer of Yin Qi. No sun or moon could be seen in the sky. Nor was there the circle of seasons or the switch of day and night. It was always like the dusk before a rainy night, which was rather depressing.
Following Zhen Ye’s guidance, Li Mu went to the Disciple Hall in the Bone Sacred Mountain and got a new identity card. He no longer needed to exchange for Ghost Beads with his merits. Now, he would get three Ghost Beads every month, which was the salary of the disciples at the Ghost General Level.
Another 10 days passed.
Li Mu’s strength of ghost cultivation increased steadily.
With the extremely cold Ghost Qi running, he didn’t even need to disguise himself with that mask and robes. Instead, he looked just like a real ghost cultivator.
As time went by, the situation the Bone Sacred Mountain had been facing grew more and more alarming.
In several big battles, Bone Sacred Mountain suffered heavy losses.
Apart from the three major ghost sects, it was said that some of the senior ghost sects in other regions also strongly opposed the great ambition of the Two Sages of the Bone Sacred Mountain. There were dozens of ghost sects ready to join forces and exterminate this rising sect.
Everyone could feel the tension. A fierce battle could break out at any moment.
