"That's a bit of a shame," Salas thought for a moment, then asked, "What's the Empire's reaction?"
The matter between the Lin family and Spirit Hall certainly couldn't be brought into the open. Even Lin Ye and Lin Yao didn't know about it, since they were just children; what if they let something slip?
The Lin family was still ostensibly a noble family of the Heaven Dou Empire, and Salas wanted to know how they would handle it.
The deacon bowed his head and replied, "No reaction. The news was suppressed and not reported."
Salas was momentarily stunned, then understood. All four members of the Lin family were dead, which meant there would be no family members to pursue the matter.
If this matter were investigated, the officials responsible for public order in Heaven Dou City would be held accountable, which was why they chose to conceal it, hoping it would simply fade away.
"Alright, you may go."
Salas waved his hand, dismissing the deacon. His thoughts were the same; since they had already been wiped out and held no value to Spirit Hall, Salas couldn't be bothered to meddle.
Anyway, not many people knew that the Lin family had pledged allegiance to Spirit Hall.
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed, and some strange things began to happen in the southern part of Heaven Dou City's outer district.
"Da Niu, have you heard? Old Li's grandson went crazy!"
In the South City, a gossipy woman stopped in front of a meat stall, flirting with a muscular young man.
The young boss's eyes flashed with impatience. This old widow, all day she dreamed of an old cow eating young grass. How could his purity be defiled by her?
However, the widow's words made him frown slightly. For some reason, lately, people had been going crazy one after another.
"Could Old Li's grandson have also gone crazy after returning from the Mass Burial Grounds?!"
The young boss asked. When discussing these matters after meals, they noticed that all the people who went crazy shared a common characteristic.
That was, they all showed signs of mental instability upon returning from the Mass Burial Grounds, and then went crazy within a few days. But some people returned as if nothing had happened, and people couldn't find the problem.
"Oh, isn't that right? Little Li was not normal when he came back yesterday. He looked like he had lost his soul."
Da Niu secretly thought that it was indeed the case, and at the same time secretly decided that he would never go to that ghostly place again. Like Little Li, curiosity kills the cat!
...
The scorching sun baked the earth, and several stray dogs hung their heads, panting with their tongues out, weaving through the sparse weeds.
But when they stopped, the surroundings changed drastically. The ground was devoid of yellow-green vegetation, only white bones everywhere—broken fragments, pale skulls, all easily visible.
This was the Mass Burial Grounds, also the end of life. Numerous unclaimed corpses were discarded here, and over the years, this area became a forbidden zone of life.
Under torn clothes, in corroded rotten flesh, countless maggots crawled, and the stench attracted large swarms of flies.
A vulture pulled its head from the clothes of a corpse, a string of already putrid rotten flesh dangling from its sharp beak.
Just as the vulture tilted its head to swallow the rotten flesh and was about to extend its head back into the corpse, a pair of red eyes suddenly appeared behind the vulture.
The red eyes eerily surveyed the surroundings. The alert and agile vulture immediately flapped its wings and took to the air. Several stray dogs gnawing on bones also seemed to sense danger, tucking their tails and scattering in all directions.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
At this moment, a strange gust of cold wind suddenly swept through the Mass Burial Grounds. The sunlight imperceptibly receded, replaced by a strange gray mist that enveloped the area.
A dim space, stacked bones, and gusts of howling wind.
This scene, like hell, had a somewhat eerie feel.
This scene, like hell, had a somewhat eerie feel.
And in the center of this place, where the red eyes were, darker energies converged, twisted, and underwent some unknown transformation.
As the dark energy gathered more and more, slowly, a human-like silhouette appeared, but its body was drifting with wisps of black gas, swaying unsteadily, appearing somewhat stable, yet also like a drifting smoke, as if a gust of wind would scatter it.
And at this moment, after a brief period of confusion, a hint of Spirit gradually appeared in those red eyes.
"Didn't I die?"
Surveying his surroundings, Lin Ye was somewhat dazed. He clearly remembered that he should have been burned to death.
"System? Simulator? Golden Finger?"
Lin Ye tentatively called out a few times, waiting for a long time, but received no response.
Well, I thought too much. I really don't have a system, Lin Ye wasn't too disappointed. After all, it had been several months since he transmigrated, he was used to it, and had to accept it!
Afterward, he introspected, needing to first figure out what was happening and how he had come back to life.
A moment later...
"Heh heh heh, I, Lin Ye, am back! Shrek, I've come to have a good time with you all!"
The eerie black shadow let out a chilling, strange laugh, its tone filled with extreme resentment.
Through a brief introspection, Lin Ye understood his current state.
His body had been incinerated by Ma Hongjun, and now, he couldn't be considered a human. He was a creature born from a qualitative reaction between spirit power energy and soul power.
After death, his obsession lingered, and in the Mass Burial Grounds, nourished by the negative energy of the place, he transformed into a Specter body, or more precisely, a Soul Ghost.
To some extent, Lin Ye himself could now be considered a Spirit, a mental Spirit, but unfortunately, he couldn't attach spirit rings.
This made Lin Ye think of someone: Ghost Douluo of Spirit Hall. It was rumored that Ghost Douluo had died once in his childhood, but by a stroke of luck, his soul was able to reattach to his body, thereby awakening his Spirit, resulting in a very special Spirit condition—that of a ghost. In a sense, his soul was his Spirit, while he himself was a living dead man.
Lin Ye's state was somewhat different; his physical body was destroyed. Although his current form could be considered a Spirit, he couldn't attach spirit rings, which made Lin Ye feel a bit regretful.
There was also good news: he had awakened a Domain, the Soul Ghost Domain.
Soul Ghost was both himself and his second main Spirit.
And the Soul Ghost Domain was generated by his main Spirit.
Looking at the gray space representing the Domain around him, Lin Ye's lips curved into a smile. With a thought, he withdrew the Soul Ghost Domain, and the grayness in the surrounding space slowly receded, returning to bright sunshine.
It must be said that this encounter allowed Lin Ye to undergo a transformation and also showed him a glimmer of hope for reaching greater heights.
How does that saying go? Great suffering brings great fortune.
As for Flender and the others who caused all this, he felt no gratitude whatsoever. He swore in his heart that he would utterly annihilate them in the future.
And as Lin Ye thought this, he suddenly felt a sense of ease, a faint will dissipating.
That was the will of the original Lin Ye, Lin Yao's true brother. It seemed the tragedy of the Lin family's destruction had also turned that fellow into a resentful Spirit.