Chapter 260: The Uniquely Positioned Spirit Qi

"Hm? You can talk? No, wait—you have a Spirit?" The corpse ghost suddenly spoke, catching Baichuan off guard as well.

Coming back to his senses, he was delighted rather than alarmed: "Even better. By the way, you still have a master? What species is he? How about I have you summon your master first?"

Two-faced corpse ghost: "……"

"Forget it, that's not urgent—let's study you thoroughly first." The words had barely left his mouth when Baichuan shook his head and overruled himself; he had only just begun his research and couldn't afford to overreach. "If you want to live, remember to report your sensations during the research truthfully."

With those words spoken, Baichuan paid no further heed to the corpse ghost's struggles. His sharp claws first carefully extracted a sample despite the corpse ghost's howls, and only then did he begin conducting experiments one by one based on the questions in his mind.

For instance, that cold, gloomy aura within her—what was it to her, how was it born, what properties did it possess, and what would happen if this aura vanished or swelled stronger?

And for instance, what abilities did she have, how did her physical structure differ from other living beings, and was there anything unusual about her?

How was the face on the back of her head born, how was it controlled—was it controlled by some other type of energy, or by the nervous system he was familiar with?

After all, he had been in this world for some Time now, and he hadn't been idle.

He now possessed not just one model of human capabilities from another world, and he was thoroughly familiar with the general human body structure.

And for instance, how did she think, which ability underpinned her activity, and what would happen if he stripped her abilities away one by one?

Which ability allowed her to move like a normal person, and after stripping it away and letting her evolve again, could she come back to life? Would she still be the same her?

And for instance……

……

Baichuan had far, far too many questions about this world that was both unfamiliar and faintly familiar.

In any case, that night, within that transparent barrier in the uninhabited deep mountains, the two-faced corpse ghost's wails or ecstatic mad laughter rang out from time to time.

Endlessly, endlessly.

Animals that happened to pass nearby, catching even a whiff of it, were scared into soiling themselves and fled at top speed.

Time passed slowly.

Half a month later, the transparent barrier gradually materialized and vanished.

It revealed a flood dragon with a somewhat unsatisfied expression inside, as well as a corpse ghost whose figure was even more shriveled than half a month ago.

Compared to before, although her aura had grown considerably stronger now, her expression no longer possessed its former liveliness; instead, she appeared somewhat dull and numb.

As though she had endured every torture in the world or experiences beyond imagination, to the point that she had now lost the ability to respond to any external stimulus.

What a pity.

Looking at the corpse ghost, Baichuan shook his head with some dissatisfaction, then immediately ignited a pale golden flame and burned her clean.

After the flames passed, a slightly blackish transparent crystal slowly appeared amid a pile of ashes.

Baichuan lightly avoided his claw tips as he pinched it up; by now he understood much of this world's common knowledge.

The truth was just as he had previously suspected: this world did not possess only a single energy system like Spirit Power, or more precisely, Spirit Qi should be a relatively high-tier energy.

This wasn't baseless speculation on his part—after he mimicked the process by which this corpse ghost generated Yin Energy using Spirit Qi, he astonishingly discovered that his own Spirit Qi had begun to draw in a formless aura from the void, which then transformed into a high-quality Yin Energy that corpse ghosts craved intensely.

He didn't know where this aura came from; it appeared as abruptly as Spirit Qi, but its nature was extremely cold and gloomy, and highly polluting. After mixing with Spirit Qi, it completely converted it into high-energy Yin Energy.

In summary, he speculated that Spirit Qi might be a high-energy, pure form of heaven-and-earth energy untainted by any pollution. However, although this energy was pure and of a high tier, it was extremely susceptible to Assimilation by other energies.

The form it manifested in—he recalled the various myths and legends from his previous life—resembled only the legendary "Clear Qi."

And beneath Spirit Qi existed several energies of lower tier than it; of course, considering the existence of high-quality Yin Energy, whether the other energies were truly lower than Spirit Qi remained undetermined.

Nevertheless, he now understood what that cold, gloomy aura he had sensed before actually was—it was indeed the Yin Energy he had guessed, and the aura the corpse ghost had previously fed on was indeed an energy called Yang Energy/Vital Essence.

Of course, regarding more specific information about Yang Energy—such as its nature, where it came from, and its uses—he currently had no clarity, unless he personally captured a human and had the corpse ghost feed while he observed and researched firsthand.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered using himself; unfortunately, just as a weak body cannot accept strong tonics, even the aura he inadvertently radiated from his body was not something that corpse ghost could contaminate.

After all, the temperature within his body had reached over six hundred degrees Celsius!

Such heat, once he released his restraints, could ignite the surrounding environment in an instant.

Therefore, he absolutely could not allow himself to be fed upon by the corpse ghost in order to discover what Yang Energy truly was.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't figure out how Yang Energy was born, nor could he transform it the way he had transformed Spirit Qi into Yin Energy.

Setting that aside for now, as for Yin Energy, according to the information the corpse ghost had given him, it was an aura originating from Mingtu.

As for what Mingtu was, he couldn't expect a weak little corpse ghost to tell him here.

He currently only knew that Spirit Qi was born from an omnipresent environment between heaven and earth, while the source of Yin Energy was Mingtu. Once corpse ghosts like them left Mingtu, the Yin Energy within their bodies would not spontaneously regenerate—of course, it was also possible that the Yin Energy generated was simply too weak, or that the Time required was too long.

Or perhaps this corpse ghost was simply too weak!

Because from the fact that Spirit Qi could transform into the Yin Energy unique to Mingtu, even thinking with his toes, he knew there must be some necessary connection between them.

The truth of the matter might be that Yin Energy wasn't exclusively born from Mingtu; rather, this corpse ghost was too weak and had access to too little information, leading to a misjudgment.

It seemed he would have to make a trip to Mingtu in the future. After all, whether beings as weak as this corpse ghost or mighty experts like demigods all attached great importance to Mingtu, this peculiar place, then Mingtu must possess something extraordinary about it, and one might just reap astonishing gains there.

Looking at the peculiar, slightly blackish transparent crystal on his claw tip, Baichuan murmured thoughtfully.

……

(End of this chapter)