Chapter 2172- Ghost Child City
Zhao Hai calmly proceeded forward. Although this was the underground world, the pa.s.sage of time was the same as the surface due to the Earthfire Pillars. The day-time cycle was practically the same.
Cleaning up the Ghost Cultivators was just one of Zhao Hai’s goals in coming to the underground world. The other purpose was to help the Red Goblins. But in Zhao Hai’s mind, these two goals weren’t the most important. Zhao Hai’s main goal in coming to the underground world was to investigate the Earthfire Pillars. Although he doesn’t know the origin of the Earthfire Pillars, one thing was certain, the Earthfire Pillars were powerful artifacts. And that reason was enough.
Zhao Hai’s second main goal was to collect lifeforms from the underground world. Both plants and animals went to Zhao Hai’s collection. He must increase the species in the s.p.a.ce.
The last time Zhao Hai came, there were too many people which made it inconvenient for him to collect lifeforms from the underground world. Back then, he had seen several plants on the ground not to mention unique beasts.
These lifeforms aroused Zhao Hai’s interest. Therefore, Zhao Hai made them his goal in coming to the underground world. As for the Ghost Cultivators, if Zhao Hai really wants to deal with them, he doesn’t even need to come to the underground world. He could just release his Undead. The Undead would be enough to annoy the Ghost Cultivators.
Zhao Hai wants to understand the underground world more. He wanted to see how it differs from the surface world, and what kind of life the Ghost Cultivators live.
Naturally, Zhao Hai can observe these things using the s.p.a.ce. However, experiencing things personally was different. Zhao Hai wanted to experience the underground world personally.
There are also cities in the underground world, as well as people living in them. Not all of a city’s residents were Ghost Cultivators. Even Ghost Cultivators have family members who are mortals. A lot of those mortals live in those cities.
However, what differs in the Underground World is that the humans rarely have to work. Even those who have no cultivation talent don’t have to do anything. This was because the underground world was full of Red Goblins. The humans have enslaved the Red Goblins. Every job was given to the Red Goblins to do. Besides cultivating, humans don’t need to do anything.
The Underground World also has organizations that weren’t prevalent in the surface world. These organizations were gangs, not sects.
Sects in the underground world function differently from the sects in the True Spirit Realm. The sects in the underground world don’t directly manage their branches. Instead, the branches would be managed by the gangs.
In the underground world, the sects were the highest level of existence. These sects also have branches, but their branches have a distant relations.h.i.+p with the main hall. The sects manage the gangs, and the gangs manage each city. As long as enough resources were sent to the sects, the sect wouldn’t care what happens in the cities. It doesn’t even matter if the city was turned into a h.e.l.lhole, as long as the resources are being sent, the sects wouldn’t care.
There were also rogue cultivators in the underground world. The rogue cultivators might be children of fallen clans or Ghost Cultivators who have been expelled by their sects. Rogue cultivators came from every background. The rogue cultivators could join the gangs in order to survive. At the same time, the rogue cultivators could also obtain cultivation materials.
Because of this, the Ghost Cultivators in the underground world survive the same way as cultivators on the surface, with a few small differences. After all, the two came from the same place.
What Zhao Hai had to do now was to mix into a city. Fortunately, he already made preparations before he came. He was aware of the lives of the Ghost Cultivators in the underground world. Unless there was something urgent, the people in the cities wouldn’t hurry along. Otherwise, they would be seen as cra.s.s. Ghost Cultivators would either use yin ghosts or Red Goblins to carry sedan chairs that would transport them. They wouldn’t walk on their own.
After getting in contact with Ghost Cultivators a few times, Zhao Hai also understood that Ghost Cultivators don’t only cultivate yin ghosts, they also refine corpses. There were even Ghost Cultivator sects that specialize in corpse cultivation. In the underground world, Zhao Hai can use his Undead without worrying about people who disliked corpses.
Zhao Hai’s current target was a small city called Ghost Child City. Ghost Child City belonged to a sect called the Battle Corpse Sect. However, the sect’s headquarters wasn’t located in the city. The true ruler of the city was a gang called the Ghost Child Gang. Despite being a gang, they call themselves an external branch of the Battle Corpse Sect.
The most famous cultivation method of the Ghost Child Gang was a set of poisonous techniques called the Yin Poisons Art. This cultivation method was very cruel. Firstly, the cultivator must find 81 pregnant women. Then when these women were about to give birth, they would be killed. As the pregnant woman died, they would give birth. But instead of a normal child, they would give birth to dying ghost children.
These dying ghost children were nothing more than ghost resources. If these ghost children were alive, then they would have great use. The Ghost Child Gang uses these dying ghost children as materials to refine a weapon called Ghost Spirit Child.
A Ghost Spirit Child wasn’t big. They kept their infantile appearance, but they are full of wisdom. Ghost Spirit Children always had thoughts of slaughter, destruction, and other evil things.
For a Ghost Spirit Child to grow, they would need to eat blood. The more blood they consume, the quicker they can grow. However, most cultivators wouldn’t let their Ghost Spirit Child eat all the time. If a Ghost Spirit Child grew too quickly, they might eat their masters. But if a Ghost Spirit Child was kept in tight control, their lethality was very good. Most importantly, a powerful Ghost Spirit Child could transfer its soul to other Ghost Spirit Children in battle. Naturally, it could only transfer to Ghost Spirit Children created by its master. It couldn’t transfer to other people’s Ghost Spirit Child.
This was equivalent to a Ghost Spirit Child having multiple lives. This was a terrifying thing. However, a Ghost Cultivator would need a powerful soul to control the Ghost Spirit Child.
It can be said that Ghost Cultivators who use Ghost Spirit Children were harder to deal with than Ghost Cultivators on the same level. The Ghost Child Gang was famous for practicing this technique. Naturally, there weren’t a lot of people who could cultivate this technique. Like the methods on the surface, refining Ghost Spirit Children required talent.
If a Ghost Cultivator was unlucky, they wouldn’t get a single Ghost Child from the 81 pregnant women. The dead Ghost Children would provide no help.
If a Ghost Cultivator was lucky, multiple ghost children might survive among the 81 pregnant women. Then the Ghost Cultivator would choose the strongest ghost child to cultivate, then he would abandon the rest. This was because it was impossible for a Ghost Cultivator to control multiple Ghost Spirit Children with their own soul. If there were too many Ghost Spirit Children, it might backfire.
Because of this issue, there weren’t a lot of Ghost Spirit Children users. The Gang Leader of the Ghost Child Gang was a cultivator who uses a Ghost Spirit Child. In fact, it wasn’t only the Ghost Child Gang that used Ghost Spirit Children, every past Ghost Child Gang Leader also practiced the technique.
Although the Ghost Child Gang was located in a small city, its strength wasn’t weak. They were famous for being difficult to deal with. Therefore, plenty of Ghost Cultivators come to Ghost Child City every year in hopes that the Ghost Child Gang would receive them. However, the selection process of the Ghost Child Gang was very strict. They rarely received disciples. If they receive a disciple, their apt.i.tude must be good.
This was also the reason Zhao Hai came to the city. There were a lot of rogue cultivators who would come to the city every year. Moreover, the majority of them were new faces. It wouldn’t be strange for a completely unknown rogue cultivator to arrive in the city. Compared to other cities, it was much easier to infiltrate.
Zhao Hai observed Ghost Child City for several days. In these several days, he saw a lot of rogue cultivators arriving. Those who arrived didn’t leave immediately either, which was a relief to Zhao Hai.
After observing Ghost Child City for three days, Zhao Hai finally decided to enter. He waved his hand and summoned four Undead. Naturally, these Undead wouldn’t be strong. They were just enough to use for transport. Then Zhao Hai took out a sedan chair and had the four Undead carry him towards Ghost Child City.
In the last few days, Zhao Hai saw plenty of Ghost Cultivators who used the same method to enter the city. Most of these Ghost Cultivators were rogue cultivators. Rogue Cultivators were different compared to those who came from Ghost Cultivation Clans. Most of the time, Ghost Cultivators wouldn’t use Red Goblins to take the long distances because Red Goblins get tired. On the other hand, the Undead wouldn’t get tired as long as they were supplied with spiritual qi. Because of this, rogue cultivators would use Undead to lift their sedan chairs.
It was normal in the underground world to have undead lift sedan chairs. It would be strange if a Ghost Cultivator didn’t use undead to move around. As Zhao Hai sat in his sedan chair, the four Undead carried him into Ghost Child City. n.o.body blocked him, n.o.body even looked in his attention. He arrived in the city with no problems.
Ghost Child City could accommodate around 100 thousand people. One of the characteristics of the city was that it would only have 50 thousand permanent residents. The rest would all be outsiders, most of which were rogue cultivators.
A small gang-controlled city that could only house 50 thousand residents generally wouldn’t attract many people even if it had a great cultivation method. In fact, the real attraction of Ghost Child Gang was that they had a quota of ten people per year that could join the sect. Compared to the Ghost Child Gang, the sect behind them was more attractive to rogue cultivators.
The one-to-one ratio of permanent residents to outsiders was astonis.h.i.+ng. Because of this, the majority of the buildings in Ghost Child City were inns and rental houses. After Zhao Hai arrived in the city, he explored for a bit before having the undead stop in front of a small inn with ‘rental property’ posted in front.
As Zhao Hai exited his sedan chair and entered the small inn, a person immediately walked over and smiled, “Customer, are you here to dine or to rent a room?”
WIth a cold tone, Zhao Hai replied, “I’m here to eat and rent a room. I’ll eat first.”
The waiter immediately replied, “Customer has chosen well. Our inn is famous in the surroundings. Although we are a small shop, our food is the absolute best. Moreover, our prices are very cheap.”
Zhao Hai waved his hand and said, “Quickly bring the food. And I want a pot of Beast Blood Wine.”
The waiter immediately complied and then left. Before long, Zhao Hai’s food was delivered. There were four small dishes. Although the food was small, its flavor was good. One could see that the craftsmans.h.i.+p was good.
Zhao Hai gave a few nods at the food as he sipped the wine. Beast Blood Win was a liquor brewed from the blood of the underground world’s demon beasts. Herbs were also added during the brewing process. Because of this, the wine didn’t have a strong blood taste.
The beast blood wine in this inn had a unique flavor, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but nod with satisfaction. After a while, the four small dishes and the wine were consumed. Zhao Hai waved the waiter over and said, “Waiter, is there a small courtyard in the city that I can rent?”
Hearing Zhao Hai, the waiter couldn’t help but be stunned. If he helped this guest rent a good house, he might get a reward. Even if the guest didn’t give him a reward, the owner of the property will.
The waiter immediately replied, “Customer can rest a.s.sured. In the long time our inn operated, it always placed its guests’ interest in front. There will always be a property for rent. We have simple houses to shop fronts. What kind of courtyard does the customer want?”
Zhao Hai nodded, “I see. I was wondering why your shop has ‘rental property’ posted outside. Good, good. As for the courtyard, I don’t have a lot of requirements. I just want a quiet place.”
The waiter smiled and nodded, “I have received Customer’s requirements. We have five properties that meet your requirements. You can go see them now.”