Ghost Manifestation Formation

After pumping himself up, Guihu Luixing started working. He had to carve a formation to both manifest the souls and protect himself.

The formation itself was very simple, it could be done even by a mortal child, provided they recieved proper instructions.

Guihu Luixing took the gardening spade and started digging.

He first dug a circle that had about five meters in diameter. Next, he dug another circle, just a few centimetres wider than the first. Between the two circles, he started writing, using his fingers, task he found quite tiring, as he was writing strange symbols and he had to make sure there were no errors.

Following that, he took the Qi Stones and placed them in regular intervals between the symbols.

Finally, he took half of the blood and poured in each of the symbols he sculpted on the ground.

When he was done, he could feel Dark and Yin Qi quickly gathering inside the formation. Following the instructions, he promptly left the formation and waited at a safe distance.

After that, the formation looked like a light show. Colors and flashes going around everywhere.

Suddenly, from each of the Qi stones in the formation, a pale blue light speared towards the light show inside the formation.

"Groahhhh."

Each time a light spear pierced the lights, a loud wail resounded.

The spears were actually chains and after every Qi Stone chained something, they pulled their catch back towards themselves. Guihu Luixing could finally see what he caught.

There were twenty five Qi Stones. This meant he captured twenty five mortal souls. Of these, thirteen were souls of dogs, cats and birds. Obviously, mortal souls of such creatures would not have the intellect to make a contract, so Guihu Luixing ignored them.

The remaining twelve souls were clearly human. There were five adult men, three adult women, two boys and two girls, they looked even younger than Guihu Luixing.

They were confused and didn't know how or why they were there. Some might not even understand that they were actually dead. They immediately became noisy panicking and asking all sorts of questions to no one specifically.

"May I have your attention?" Guihu Luixing asked loudly, bringing the attention to himself.

"Who are you, kid?!" asked one of the souls, in the shape of a men.

"My name is Guihu Luixing. I am the son of the sectmaster of the Ghost Fox Valley Sect."

All the souls were starled, they were all mortals from the surroundings wheb they died, so they obviously head of one of the local hegemons, the Ghost Fox Valley Sect.

"Wh-Why are we here?" asked another soul, this one had the appearance of a young woman.

"You are all dead." He said while he started walking around the formation "No need to worry, you haven't been killed by me, nor by anyone of the Ghost Fox Valley Sect, I think."

Some of the human souls lokked really shocked by what Guihu Luixing said.

Guihu Luixing reached the soul of a bird. "I also have no intention of causing further harm to you." he continued as he enveloped his arm in dense Qi, held the chain that was chaining the bird, pulled the bird outside the formation, and then broke the chain.

The bird's soul quickly began to disappear.

The Qi Stones obviously wouldn't have enough power to manifest so many souls fpr a long period of time, so he wanted to quickly free these 'useless' souls in order to save energy and prolong the amount of time he had available.

"I merely have a proposal." he continued speaking "If you refuse, I will simply release you, and your soul will continue the natural cycle it was supposed to have."

This time he released the soul of a cat and a dog, the human souls watched as the souls faded from their sights.

"What I want is for you to serve me for a period of time. I want absolute loyalty and secrecy, in exchange, I will gift you ghost cultivation techniques. If you agree, we will sign a soul contract binding our souls to follow it, the Heavens themselves punishing the oath breaker."

"Why would we want that?" asked one of the children.

"While Ghosts can't be said to be really living, they actually aren't really dead as well. If continue your life as ghosts, while you will never live like mortal humans again, you will have a chance to change your destiny, and a path of your own, free from the rules of the mortal world."

Although Guihu Luixing didn't exactly lie, this wasn't the whole truth either. While it was true that the moment they became ghosts, the mortal world rules would not apply to them anymore, they had to follow the rules pf the cultivation world. The rules of the cultivation world could be even more cruel.

These however, were lingering souls of humans who failed to quickly enter the cycle of reincarnation. Obviously they died with some regrets, regrets they embedded deep in their souls.

If they would accept or not, would be highly likely to be related to their regrets.

"I- If I serve you, would you allow me to check on my family. Make sure they're okay?" asked one of the men.

"I think that will be very difficult." Answered Guihu Luixing. "You won't be able to move too far away from me after we form a contract, and I certainly don't have time to walk around looking for your family."

Guihu Luixing said the truth. He could lie to them, but after signing the contract, the lie would be discovered.

It's a known fact that, while contracted ghosts can't openly betray their masters, they surely can be lazy on their jobs or turn a blind eye on certain things out of spite.

Wanting to avoid such situations, Guihu Luixing decided it was better to tell them the truth.

Hearing the answer, the man that asked the question and some others instantly lost their interest in the proposal.

"Hah... I'm sorry, kid. I'm not interested in your proposal." said the man.

Another man, a woman and one of the boys nodded in agreement.

Seeing that Guihu Luixing didn't waste time and removed them from the formation.

"Kid... Will I become srong. Strong enough to kill all my enemies." Asked the remaining young man.

Hearing such a question, Guihu Luixing was a bit startled. Using his Fate Agent Eyes he looked at the soul.

His soul was clearly of a [Regular], but was showing signs of waiting an opportunity to become a [Fated]. The problem was that, to his Fate Agent Eyes, the soul of the man was ugly and distoted.

Guihu Luixing quickly removed the man from the formation. Even without his help, he was showing traces of transforming into a Evil Spirit. Guihu Luixing wanted nothing to do with that. His Elder Brother Roan was enough of a headache already.

Only two women, a boy and the girls remained.

"There's no much time left. You should hurry in making your decision." Guihu Luixing hurried them.

"Big brother, I don't really understand. If I follow you, could I eat untill I was satisfied? Would I be able to eat food that isn't rotten?"

Guihu Luixing instantly understood the life this child led until now.

"I can't promise you that. If you become a ghost, you'll probably never eat again." He answered.

"Then I don't want, big brother. I don't want to starve again."

"...Me too..." said one of the girls.

Guihu Luixing removed them from the formation. "I hope you have a better life next time."

Only two women and a little girl were left.

"...Can I see him again if I follow you?" asked one of the women.

"I don't know who you're taking about, but I can't promise, but in all likelihood, you won't."

"... Release me, please. I will wait for him in the other side."

Guihu Luixing just nodded and freed her.

"Mommy! Let me go! I want to go with mommy!"

The little girl started panicking when the woman disappeared. Guihu Luixing understood what was going on and released her.

Guihu Luixing was a bit disappointed. He didn't expect all the spirits to reject him. If this continued, he might have to trick the next batch.

There was just the soul of one woman left. She looked in her thirties. She had long, wavy dirty blonde hair. Her expression was firm and resolute.

"What about you?" asked Guihu Luixing.

"Can you promise something?" she asked.