Little Head Ghost’s roar reached Jian Chou’s ears, but she only frowned slightly and didn’t stop.

Countless streams of earth force and yin essence rushed madly toward her like a tide trying to submerge her.

Big Head Ghost immediately trembled in fear, almost suspecting that their little broken house would be “scrapped” in Jian Chou’s terrifying cultivation.

Little Head Ghost was also stunned with shock: How was eating so much any different from seeking death?

However, just as he thought Jian Chou was doomed, all the exclamations that hadn’t had time to escape were choked dead in his throat.

The massive amount of earth force and yin essence washed toward the ten points of spirit light above Jian Chou’s head.

The dim spirit lights immediately became like small boats swaying in great waves, completely unstable.

But the moment the earth force and yin essence rushed over, they only flickered without moving at all!

The tremendous power, after surging to above Jian Chou’s head, actually didn’t attach much to her, as if it had struck empty air, and collapsed with a thunderous crash!

In just an instant, the countless streams of earth force and yin essence before Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost scattered away.

The entire broken house was filled with an aura called “extravagance.”

Waste…

Such waste!

Little Head Ghost stared blankly at the room full of earth force and yin essence, his brain unable to process it, speaking dazedly: “You… this… why did you let go of so much earth force? My Lord Yama, this is too much of a waste of heaven’s gifts!”

“Waste of heaven’s gifts.”

Jian Chou’s voice, flat without a trace of fluctuation, rang out amidst the shroud of earth force and yin essence.

“…”

Little Head Ghost touched his chin: “So it’s pronounced ‘tian’? Oh… wait, that’s not the point! What exactly are you doing?”

Originally Little Head Ghost had wanted to say “I’ve learned something,” but halfway through, he suddenly remembered – what did this have to do with earth force and yin essence?

“Don’t change the subject!”

Who was changing the subject?

Clearly it was a certain little ghost who had mispronounced a character and now couldn’t save face.

Jian Chou gave him a cold look. The cultivation method circulating around her gradually stopped, and the entire ground calmed down accordingly, no longer having endless earth force and yin essence extracted by her.

The broken house that had been swaying and creaking chaotically was finally somewhat safe.

Little Head Ghost wiped away cold sweat.

But Jian Chou’s fingers hadn’t left the ground – she had just stopped.

She thought of all the earth force and yin essence that had gathered just now, then considered the portion that remained – it wasn’t even one-thousandth, and the extracted power wasn’t uniform.

She hadn’t understood before why the seven red spirit lights on Little Head Ghost’s head were brighter, but now having tried it herself, she understood.

The power absorbed by the three souls tended to be gentle, while the power in the Extreme Territory’s evil soil was more fierce and turbid, so the power of the Extreme Territory’s evil soil itself was actually more suitable for cultivating the “spirits” within souls and spirits.

Of course, for Jian Chou, this made no real difference.

No matter how much power there was, at most only a little would remain with her, like pouring rice soup into a broken pot – only a thin layer would stick to the pot’s walls.

“With incomplete three souls and seven spirits, indeed as you said, cultivation is rather difficult.”

She felt some effect, but it was nothing more than taking a pill and nourishing her souls and spirits a little – not much different from before.

Jian Chou didn’t hide her condition, speaking honestly.

Little Head Ghost’s mouth twitched: “So you can extract this much power?!”

“…”

She just wanted to know how much her souls and spirits could retain when washed by massive amounts of earth force and yin essence, that’s all.

Why did Little Head Ghost look quite grief-stricken?

Little Head Ghost was so angry he jumped up and down: “Don’t look at me like that! The house is about to collapse! Do you think you’re innocent? The earth force and yin essence in each area is limited. One li of land can support a hundred people extracting from it – add one more and it affects others’ extraction. You alone are equivalent to a hundred people – do you know that?!”

“I didn’t know…”

Jian Chou answered with extreme calm.

“Thud!”

Little Head Ghost toppled over headfirst, completely defeated by this female cultivator.

In fact, normal people didn’t extract earth force and yin essence like this.

Because they lacked the ability.

But Jian Chou was just an anomaly. Little Head Ghost couldn’t figure out how she could be so abnormal anyway. Could it be that even with incomplete three souls and seven spirits, she was still a genius?

This was too much of a bully!

Thinking this way, Little Head Ghost almost wanted to lie on the ground and not get up.

Powerless.

Seeing his exaggerated behavior, Jian Chou couldn’t help but be amused.

She understood the reason for Little Head Ghost’s grief and indignation – it was probably because her previous “test” had caused quite a disturbance and affected the two people’s cultivation.

However, she still had unresolved doubts: “Speaking of which, do souls and spirits absorb earth force and yin essence differently? Why do I feel that most of the earth force and yin essence that remained was in the spirits?”

This was the problem she had noticed before. Little Head Ghost had been the same when cultivating – when earth force and yin essence washed over, the spirits would be brighter and grow stronger faster.

Little Head Ghost was still lying on the ground and had barely managed to get up.

Hearing Jian Chou ask this, he rolled his eyes: “Have you heard of ‘souls being good and spirits being evil’?”

“I suppose I have…”

She had heard someone mention it briefly, but she wasn’t clear on the details.

“What do you mean ‘suppose’?”

Little Head Ghost continued rolling his eyes, guessing this actually meant “haven’t heard of it,” so he simply explained it carefully to Jian Chou.

— It was great talking to a living person, as he could show off his knowledge at any time!

“Let’s say there was a person who, before dying, went to talk with a friend. He was gentle and kind, and when they got to emotional parts, he even shed tears. After chatting for a while, this person said he should go, but his friend asked him to stay longer, so he sat back down.”

“Unexpectedly, as soon as the person sat down, his friend noticed that the man’s eyes suddenly turned red, his skin cracked, and fangs emerged – he was trying to bite people!”

“His friend was immediately frightened and quickly ran away. Later he encountered a Daoist on the road and was saved.”

Interesting.

Listening to this, Jian Chou became curious: “What does this story have to do with souls being good and spirits being evil?”

“It’s closely related.”

This was quite an old story that circulated among the human world’s isolated islands and the Extreme Territory.

Little Head Ghost had heard it when he first arrived.

He continued: “Human life and death are related to the Life Soul. When this person came to talk with his friend and fulfilled his wish, saying goodbye, his three souls had already left his body. What remained in his body were the seven spirits, which is why the fierce ghost suddenly arose to harm people. This is souls being good and spirits being evil.”

Little Head Ghost’s words were straightforward, and Jian Chou understood.

She nodded: “So souls are human good thoughts, while spirits are the evil side. Once there’s a situation where one waxes while the other wanes, human nature will be affected accordingly.”

“The lower the cultivation, the greater the impact,” Little Head Ghost added, but then corrected: “However, saying souls are good thoughts isn’t entirely accurate. More often when we say souls are good and spirits are evil, ‘good’ represents relatively positive emotions, while spirits represent more negative, adverse parts, based on their impact on a cultivator’s original heart.”

“An interesting way to categorize.”

This was Jian Chou’s assessment.

“I suppose it is for you all. This entire territory of the Extreme Territory is called ‘evil soil.’ According to Judge Chu, it’s because there are eighteen levels of hell beneath, making it more suitable for nourishing spirits.”

Little Head Ghost patted the dust off himself.

“If you want to balance souls and spirits, you either need to expend greater effort to extract more balanced earth force and yin essence from deeper places, or you can only rely on Dark Jade. By the way, the pills you gave us do nourish souls more.”

“…”

Jian Chou frowned, flipping her palm to reveal a sky-blue jade bottle lying in her palm.

She still remembered Fudao Shanren’s expression of pretending not to be heartbroken when he threw these bottles and jars to her.

There were also several bottles stained with the greasy shine of chicken legs.

All had been prepared by her master for her incomplete souls and spirits. Unfortunately, they were all futile in the end, but unexpectedly, they came in handy here.

Just looking down at this jade bottle, she could feel that unique aura belonging to Yashan.

A smile unconsciously appeared at the corner of Jian Chou’s lips, but her eyelashes trembled, and the smile slowly faded.

Who knew when she would be able to return?

She forced herself to suppress these emotions.

After thinking about it – the Extreme Territory’s evil soil, pills from the Nineteen Continents for nourishing souls and spirits, yet they favored nourishing “souls,” and considering souls being good and spirits being evil – there was truly an indescribable feeling.

She poured out a pill from the bottle, a different, more ordinary type called “Heavenly Heart Pill,” with medicinal power only slightly higher than the Heart-Containing Pills.

Jian Chou swallowed it and simultaneously circulated her cultivation method.

Sure enough, the medicinal power circulated and flowed through her soul and spirit, finally gathering in the ten points of souls and spirits light. This time, the azure light representing “souls” was brighter.

It seemed Little Head Ghost’s words were indeed true.

Jian Chou’s entire action was under Little Head Ghost’s observation.

While feeling sorry for the pill, seeing Jian Chou stop, he couldn’t help asking again: “With your incomplete three souls and seven spirits, you can’t cultivate – what do you plan to do?”

“…”

Bringing up exactly what she didn’t want to hear.

Jian Chou looked at him meaningfully: “Continue cultivating.”

She hadn’t found a solution yet, but water could wear through stone. Each time she extracted power, there was always a little left over. Even if it was one-thousandth, it was still growth.

Her current power wasn’t sufficient to externally manifest soul force, so she had no way to cultivate any Extreme Territory techniques.

Of course, she currently had no techniques to learn either.

Outside, dawn was approaching.

After answering Little Head Ghost’s question, Jian Chou glanced around, then flipped her hand to put away the jade bottle containing pills and pressed her fingers against the ground again.

Seeing this, Little Head Ghost’s soul nearly left his body, and he immediately wanted to cry out in alarm.

This was happening again?

Didn’t she know the house was about to collapse?!

Unexpectedly, just as he jumped up, he was grabbed.

Looking back, it was actually Big Head Ghost, who had been silent all along.

“What are you doing?” Little Head Ghost asked irritably.

Big Head Ghost’s huge head was fully three times the size of Little Head Ghost’s pointed head, and his face looked very large too, with two soft chunks of fat pressed against his cheeks.

He extended his short, stubby finger and placed it on his thick lips, making an exaggerated—

“Shh.”

“…”

Little Head Ghost was dumbfounded. Big Head looked weird no matter how you looked at him – had he been possessed by something?

Big Head Ghost didn’t notice Little Head Ghost looking at him like he was looking at an idiot. Hearing that he stopped shouting, he carefully peeked at Jian Chou.

Pale fingers pressed against the ground, Jian Chou’s eyes were slightly closed as she cultivated.

New earth force and yin essence was being extracted, but perhaps because Little Head Ghost’s earlier words had been effective, she was controlling the extent and wasn’t as exaggerated as before.

But even so, the earth force and yin essence in the room was extremely rich, as if one could absorb quite a bit just by breathing.

Big Head Ghost’s stubby finger pointed at Jian Chou and whispered in Little Head Ghost’s ear: “Little, Little Head, do you think we could cultivate using this earth force?”

“…”

In that instant, Little Head Ghost was completely stunned.

After a long while, he suddenly slapped Big Head Ghost’s shoulder: “Good fellow, you’ve suddenly become a genius!”

Exactly!

Jian Chou was cultivating and had extracted so much earth force and yin essence that the entire room was filled with it. They could completely avoid the trouble of extracting it themselves, which would consume energy. Better to go directly to Jian Chou’s side and mooch off her!

Both their eyes instantly lit up like wolf eyes.

Just from this mutual gaze, they immediately understood each other’s meaning: What were they waiting for? Hurry up!

After nodding to each other, the two moved with perfect coordination, directly rushing toward Jian Chou’s side and sitting cross-legged behind her like children sitting in a row.

Jian Chou was immediately disturbed. Her finger paused, and she turned to look.

“What are you doing?”

Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost showed no shame whatsoever, looking at her very sincerely.

“Borrowing some light.”

“…”

Glancing at the rich earth force and yin essence around them, Jian Chou’s mouth twitched as she understood.

She wanted to say something, but after holding it back for a long time without saying anything, she simply decided out of sight, out of mind, and closed her eyes again.

Cultivation resumed once more.

Actually, both Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost thought Jian Chou’s brain had some problems – knowing it was futile, why work so hard?

But they would never interrupt Jian Chou.

If they interrupted her, who would provide them with such rich earth force and yin essence?

The so-called “enjoying the shade under a big tree” was exactly this principle.

The two little ghosts felt justified, delighted, and eager as they continuously absorbed and cultivated.

The lustrous light around them actually began to increase at a visible rate. Though very slight, it accumulated bit by bit, and soon made their entire souls and spirits emit a ring of light.

Little Head Ghost was cultivating when he couldn’t help opening his eyes to look at his hands and feet, extremely excited: “It’s really so fast – a hundred and eighty times faster than our own cultivation! Big Head, look, haven’t my souls and spirits become a bit more solid? I’ve stabilized at the Spirit Condensing realm!”

“Yes, yes, me too!”

Big Head Ghost nodded repeatedly.

Both little ghosts were about to go crazy with joy.

Little Head Ghost looked at the rich earth force and yin essence around them with an admiring gaze, as if sitting atop a vast empire, both satisfied and reverent, laughing exaggeratedly: “Bathing under Great Lord Jian Chou’s tyrannical might is wonderful!”

“…”

Jian Chou, who was concentrating on cultivation, had been hearing the two little ghosts chattering beside her, making her quite angry.

The two little ghosts whose spiritual power extraction was like rope had cultivation progress that was whooshing upward, countless times faster than hers, and they were still showing off behind her!

Really…

Too much!

This was tolerable, but what wasn’t?

Jian Chou took a deep breath and decided to be willful for once.

She stood up and showed the two little ghosts who were shouting about “Great Lord Jian Chou’s tyrannical might” a purely kind smile.

Both little ghosts stared at her blankly, blinking.

Then Jian Chou directly kicked out with one foot, then another!

Kicking them like two gourds, she kicked out with both feet in succession. Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost, with their short bodies and round heads, immediately rolled toward the wall.

“Thud.”

“Thud.”

The sounds of two heads hitting the wall came through.

The endless chatter in the world finally stopped.

Jian Chou exhaled a breath of satisfaction and smugly patted her hands.

Hmph.

Let them know what “tyrannical might” really means!