After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

The thought that this was the ruins of a Yellow Springs Sect cultivator who cultivated by raising ghosts, coupled with Huo Yu's eccentric behavior, made Long Yucheng feel that something indescribable was lurking in the darkness, and his hair stood on end.

Huo Yu walked towards the dark side room without hesitation.

Although Long Yucheng felt uneasy, seeing the calm and composed demeanor of the all-powerful Senior Brother Huo reassured him. With the mindset that "Senior Brother Huo will hold up the sky if it falls," he followed closely behind.

The moment he stepped into the side room, the firebird beside Long Yucheng went out without warning.

This firebird was originally part of Long Yucheng's spiritual power, and it would not go out as long as the spiritual power continued.

But at this moment, Long Yucheng suddenly lost his spiritual connection with the firebird.

Just moments before the firebird went out, a scene that Long Yucheng caught out of the corner of his eye set off alarm bells:

He caught a glimpse of a figure standing quietly in the corner of the side room, with his back to them!

Besides him and Huo Yu, there was actually a third person here!

No, there's a ghost!

Long Yucheng was shocked and instinctively activated the Fire Control Technique. However, the fireball technique that he could usually do with ease was now impossible to cast. His spiritual power seemed to have vanished without a trace.

At the same time, a cold wind swept across his face, as if something was brushing against his cheek!

Long Yucheng was so nervous that he was almost at a loss. Just then, a hand quietly landed on his shoulder, which startled him so much that he almost jumped up.

In fact, Long Yucheng did jump up, but he didn't realize it himself.

Huo Yu looked at Long Yucheng, who had a terrified expression, feeling both amused and helpless.

"It's me, close your eyes."

Hearing Huo Yu's voice, Long Yucheng's heart finally calmed down.

Although he didn't know why Huo Yu wanted him to close his eyes, he obediently closed them anyway.

Although he couldn't see anything in this place whether his eyes were open or closed, perhaps it was psychological, but after closing his eyes, Long Yucheng's heart, which was almost jumping out of his throat, gradually calmed down.

"You can open your eyes."

Long Yucheng opened his eyes and was almost blinded by the light in front of him.

In this cramped side room, Huo Yu stood in front of him, surrounded by a huge fire dragon.

This fire dragon was completely different from the blurry, elongated creature that Long Yucheng had summoned in his previous battles. It was lifelike, with each scale seemingly real, and the pressure it exuded far surpassed Long Yucheng's fire dragon technique.

And confronting this fire dragon was the ghostly figure that Long Yucheng had seen earlier.

Although the figure initially resembled a human, it actually lacked a clear face. Its features seemed to be fused together, presenting a blurred and indistinct appearance, and the edges of its body also exhibited a faint sense of transparency.

However, this thing seemed somewhat afraid of the fire dragon summoned by Huo Yu, and just stood there blankly, showing no intention of attacking the two of them.

Long Yucheng swallowed hard and asked:

"Senior brother, could this be a ghost?"

Huo Yu nodded.

In fact, he had sensed the ghost's presence with his divine sense outside the cave, but he briefly lost his connection to it after entering the cave. He only reconfirmed its location when he was in another side room earlier.

"This must be the owner of the cave."

Huo Yu added.

Although Long Yucheng was terrified at first, he calmed down after seeing the enemy's physical form.

As the saying goes, fear stems from the unknown. Since this ghost is clearly somewhat afraid of Senior Brother Huo's fire dragon, it means that ghosts can be eliminated. Since they can be eliminated, there is nothing to be afraid of.

He even had the leisure to ask Huo Yu:

“How come you see?”

"This is a dead soul, also called a bound spirit, which usually stays only in the place it cared about most in life."

Huo Yu said calmly, as if that had already explained everything.

Seeing Long Yucheng's bewildered expression, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly and explained the difference between a living soul and a dead soul.

The living soul refers to the soul that leaves the body before the physical body dies. It has all three souls and seven spirits, but has lost its physical body. It is not considered a true death and can still cultivate the path of ghost cultivation.

The dead soul is the soul of a living being who, after death, should have entered the cycle of reincarnation through the underworld spring, but unexpectedly escaped from the underworld spring.

They have souls but no spirits. Their level of intelligence varies depending on their souls, but most of them do not have clear consciousness. They only wander in the places where they were most obsessed in their previous lives, so they are also called wandering souls, or "ghosts" in the mouths of ordinary people.

The Soul Refining Peak of the Yellow Springs Sect actually refines living souls, so it is necessary to extract and refine the soul while the target is still alive, put it into the Soul Banner to drive it, and it can also grow in the Soul Banner.

The Ghost Control Peak, on the other hand, refines the souls of the dead to enhance its own cultivation. The souls of the dead cannot be stored in the Soul Banner; they can only be contained in the cultivator's own body.

Although controlling ghosts with one's own body yields greater benefits, it also carries greater risks. If there are too many wandering souls within one's body that cannot be refined in time, there is a risk of being devoured by the wandering souls.

"So, does that mean this wandering soul can't be taken into the soul banner by my senior brother?"

Long Yucheng grasped the key points from a pile of instructions.

"Yes. However, since you cultivate the Ghost Control Peak technique, you can try to absorb it into your body. After all, it is a Foundation Establishment stage wandering soul. If you can completely refine it, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage will be just around the corner."

Upon hearing that he could break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, Long Yucheng was momentarily excited, but quickly calmed down.

Although he cultivated the Ghost Control Scroll from the initial cultivation method obtained by the outer disciples of the Yellow Springs Sect, it was purely to pass the outer sect assessment.

The supernatural powers and techniques recorded at the end of the Ghost Control Scroll are more universal than those in the Soul Refining Scroll, which revolves entirely around the Soul Banner. However, Long Yucheng himself never considered the extreme cultivation method of raising a ghost within his body, which was like feeding a tiger with his own body.

It's not that he's afraid of ghosts, but he's afraid of accidentally developing a mental breakdown—one of the side effects clearly recorded in the Ghost Control Scroll.

The reason is that when using the Ghost Control Technique to refine wandering souls, one gains cultivation while also acquiring a wisp of the remnant soul's memory.

When the number of wandering souls being refined is small, this wisp of memory will not have any effect on the cultivator.

However, the more wandering souls a cultivator refines, the more fragmented memories they acquire that are not their own. Over time, this can even lead to symptoms of blurred self-identity.

In Long Yucheng's view, wasn't this a precursor to schizophrenia?

Therefore, although the Foundation Establishment stage was extremely tempting for Long Yucheng, he still declined it under the pretext of being afraid of ghosts.

Huo Yu did not suspect anything—after all, Long Yucheng's previous performance was evident to all.

It's funny that cultivators are afraid of ghosts, but considering this is Long Yucheng, it's not too strange.

Long Yucheng didn't know what image he had in Huo Yu's heart. He asked Huo Yu again with some regret, "Is it really impossible to put this wandering soul into the soul banner?"

Huo Yu shook his head, about to send the wandering soul on its way.

In fact, this poor wandering soul was becoming increasingly transparent in front of Huo Yu's fire dragon, which contained the Dao of Heavenly Yang and Tranquility. If the two talked for a little longer, it would disintegrate on its own.

However, at that moment, Huo Yu suddenly received an unexpected divine sense transmission in his divine sense.