Demon Sword Sect’s Undercover
Chapter 432 - 432 431 Shanyin Ghost Festival 2 Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Ticket

432: Chapter 431: Shanyin Ghost Festival 2 [Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Ticket] 432: Chapter 431: Shanyin Ghost Festival 2 [Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Ticket] Hou Niao was cultivating and waiting in his heavily gated residence, contentedly living his gardener life, diligently pruning daily without tiring.

The E’to family was extraordinarily gifted, with layers of heavy doors, quite distinctively different.

The winds of Yujing City started to shift.

Three days after the Red Happiness Troupe’s performance, a cultivator from the Sima Mansion interfered, halting their shows, which signalled the beginning of another power struggle in the Yujing cultivation circles.

It no longer concerned the Red Happiness Troupe or even Hou Niao.

The high-level power struggles, full of unpredictable changes, involved a wide range, including the three mansions of Sima, Sikong, and Situ, as well as those independent Marquis Mansions and Prince Manors.

They had completely slipped from the control of the original instigators and instead had calmed down.

“Is this over?” asked the E’to family.

Hou Niao smiled, “No, this is just the beginning.”

“Then, about the Red Happiness Troupe…”

“Read more books on the laws of Shan Country.

In the future, no cultivator will come to trouble you, but there will not be a shortage of mortals criticizing each other.

There will always be those trying to flatter their way up, and such people will never completely disappear.

What you can do is avoid those taboo topics like I know your troupe does not shy away from inviting guests onto the stage.

Once this controversy blows over, various troubles will seek you out, but as long as you act uprightly, you cannot let the Red Happiness Troupe be seriously harmed.”

“What a hassle…”

“Living is troublesome, dying is easy.”

“Does the Master also find it troublesome?”

“Yes, and moreover, it’s endless inexplicable troubles, like seeking a residence and then getting involved in the sordid affairs with the Prince Manor.”

“But you also pruned the garden…”

“Rolling up the sleeves, even the mud is hard to tidy…”

Discussing horticultural technicalities was merely a leisure-time joke.

As time passed, almost no one in the mortal world knew, and the Shanyin Ghost Festival, which had no fixed date, drew near.

That very night, Hou Niao, who felt something, stopped cultivating.

In the air, he sensed a peculiar smell.

Knowing that it had come, he flew through the window, feeling a surrounding chill of the underworld, yet as a being of the mortal realm, he could not integrate into this aura.

He was capable of observing souls, but he had not opened his Heavenly Eye, nor did he possess any underworld physique; his ability with soul ghosts was simply due to practice makes perfect.

Therefore, he wasn’t like the old cultivator described, possessing special abilities that made it easy to break through such barriers; if he hadn’t taken on this mission, he would have at most felt a subtle difference between heaven and earth, seeing nothing else.

Between the Underworld ghost messengers and the Mortal World cultivators, there was still a barrier; he did not know what realm was needed to ignore it.

Anyway, Tongtian’s three realms couldn’t break through it, and he heard that even Golden Core couldn’t…

Stopping his wandering thoughts, he took out a talisman from Sikong Mansion, and slapped it on the crown of his head.

When he opened his eyes again, everything had changed.

His perspective had completely altered, his residence behind the heavy gates vanished, it seemed like not just Yujing City, but the entire Shan Country had become unrecognizable; there were no mountains, no waters, no cities, only desolation.

He knew this was viewing the world through the underworld’s eyes, therefore what he saw was totally different from what one would normally imagine.

It seemed as if he had entered a two-dimensional space within the same realm, the Underworld dimension.

Here, one could not fly, oppressed by the power of the Underworld.

But his other abilities remained intact, though the purpose of this suppression was unclear.

The Soul Ghosts of the Underworld were always different from the people of the Mortal World; for those without a physical form, the issue of flying or not flying didn’t seem to exist.

He exhaled, visualizing in his mind, and the breath gradually gathered and took shape, forming a dark steed; this was a small benefit of the Earthly Hell Talisman, enabling travel in situations where flying was impossible.

He could also transform into other formidable creatures if his imagination was sufficient, turning into dragons, phoenixes, or qilins was no issue; but Hou Niao’s exposure was limited, having never seen these ancient creatures.

What he had encountered were the monsters of Yinling and the Water Demon of Lizhi Sea.

A whole tiger whale was inappropriate, and riding a giant mouse didn’t seem right either, so a horse it was.

Leaping onto the horse, the dark steed transformed into a shadow, racing across the vast land with incredible speed.

The surroundings were misty, with Soul Ghosts beginning to appear intermittently.

Unlike the wild ghosts of West Mang Mountain, they were quiet, urgent, with a clear purpose.

Most drifted through the wilderness, while a few circled around specific locations wailing and howling, their voices like weeping appeals, heart-wrenchingly sorrowful.

Over several days, these Soul Ghosts became increasingly numerous, mysteriously emerging from beneath the ground.

The first day they were few and scattered, but then they multiplied like weeds in spring, endlessly.

The entire world was plunged into sadness, paired with the dim, sunless, iron-gray environment.

Those of weaker will couldn’t help but feel self-pity, lamenting the vicissitudes of life as illusory and dreamlike, ultimately just ending up as solitary souls.

This kind of Ghost Festival really wasn’t suitable for ordinary mortals to attend; it would scare them to death.

He finally understood that these souls, who had died within the last twelve years, also couldn’t find their original homes; the places they lingered were actually the corresponding locations in the Mortal World, but as Yin and Yang were separated, they couldn’t see their families or old homes, they couldn’t see anything at all.

They could only cry out mournfully at the locations they intuitively sensed based on memories, placing their sorrow there.

Therefore, the old cultivator’s description of these lost souls returning home to visit relatives was incorrect; if they couldn’t see friends and family, naturally, they couldn’t see enemies either.

Yin and Yang are separate, forever dividing the heavenly from the mortal.

The greater meaning of such a festival lies more in emotion, allowing them to reminisce about that trace of Yang energy, to comfort themselves that they are in the closest location to their relatives, and also…

This process of embodying Yang energy might lead to changes within the soul itself, a conclusion he deduced from several days of observation, which clarified the true purpose of the Shanyin Ghost Festival:

It was actually a method devised by the Underworld to train qualified Ghost Messengers and Ghost Soldiers; this process was similar to mortals feeling the pulse of energy.

In the Underworld, relying on souls to transform themselves was incredibly rare, so they used this method of making a journey to the Mortal World to hasten and select the process.

Those with potential mostly underwent some kind of transformation during this period, and once they returned to the Underworld, they could possibly continue further cultivation.

The essence of this world is that nothing is without purpose; if you can’t see it, it simply means you haven’t discovered it yet.

The Underworld is no different.

Ghost Messengers and Ghost Soldiers began to appear; these beings of the Underworld seemed much more robust than ordinary lost souls.

With his cultivator’s instinct, he could feel a slight threat from them, though just a slight one.

These Ghost Messengers were much more composed as they drifted in a fixed direction, breathing deeply the Yang energy along the way to strengthen themselves; this was their method of cultivation, until they reached the point where they no longer needed Yang energy to balance themselves.

By then, in terms of strength, they would possess the capabilities of the lowest-ranked Underworld officials, Oxhead and Horseface.