The next morning, when Dracs opened his eyes, he was very happy with his new status ! He had finally solidified his gain and he could only look at the data with a smile on the corner of his mouth.
[Dracs' data] :
Specie : Corrupted Anomaly (unlisted)
Corruption points (CP) : 22,493
Energy (system) : 18,932
Cultivation rank : Qi gathering
Secret Body (new) : Ghosts' Prison
Cultivation technique : Body Prison of Thousands Ghosts
inventory : 50 cubic meters (1M to upgrade)
Bloodline : none
Seeds of corruption (active) : 3/5
Bloodline samples (relevant) : 99.9% white bat
[Host's body data] :
Specie : human (cultivator)
Cultivation rank : Profound Realm (mid stage)
Cultivation technique : Ghosts Subjugation Fire technique
Bloodline : none
Even though his cultivation was only at the very first Realm of the cultivation rank, that was a big step in his journey.
At this moment, the old ghost opened his mouth and said.
"You passed the test. As your teacher I can only be proud about your achievements. The technique that you choose is a dangerous one. I guess you have refined those ghosts perfectly. You should be careful about it, after all this technique is known to have many side effects and can backfire easily if the practitioner is not diligent."
Dracs waved to the old ghost and made a refined ghost appear between them. This ghost was clearly formless, it was only a presence made of ghost Qi.
The old ghost nodded and said.
"Impressive, your technique is… flawless. Well, that was a small matter after all but you cause quite a ruckus here. Nevermind. I spoke to disciple Farek, he will accompany you in the lower level of our Mausoleum, after all, it's only like this that you will fully understand our situation."
Dracs was intrigued about what really lurked deep inside the Mausoleum so of course he was willing to go, moreover disciple Farek would be accompanying him so it was for the best.
"Are you saying that we are leaving already?"
Master Taikian nodded again.
"Indeed. I could tell you but what is the point if you don't see with your own eyes? After all, experience is everything and I have the sentiment that it will wided your horizons."
~sigh~
Dracs sighed and smiled strangely.
"Teacher, is there a reason why you are always so mysterious in your answers?"
~COUGH~
"Cough! Disci… Student Dracs! Don't you go overboard! COUGH! I mean… yes, yes, it"s my role as your Mas… Emh… Teacher… Well, nevermind, nevermind. Disciple Farek will accompany you to the training ground. Do you have questions?"
The old ghost had literally turned green as if he had eaten the wrong medicine! But Dracs' interest was piqued, a training ground? What a massive opportunity it was!
"Of course teacher I have one! When do we leave? I'm very excited to go there!"
The old master looked at him blankly for a second before he sighed and said.
"Do as you want, be careful, there's dangers far above what you can imagine, even if you have many trump cards and your weird abilities, I won't be confident if I were in your place. On the other hand, it will be a good deed for our Mausoleum and can bring you many benefits."
This time, Dracs didn't fool around and just answered seriously.
"Don't worry Teacher, I know my limits."
The old ghost had some doubts but he didn't express them.
"Well. You can go when you are ready, but remember that we have little time. You should come back at least one week before the inheritance opening, so you have less than three months."
"I need to go back to the surface in a month, my personal trust aid will meet me there."
"Very well, don't forget to pass by the temple then. I'm sure we'll have plenty to discuss."
"I will."
"One last thing. Don't be too tough with my disciple, Farek is a good lad. He's a bit stubborn and he thinks a bit too highly of himself but his devotion to our Holy Ground is unmatched. Nevermind, I'm speaking too much…Cough... Just go!
And so, Dracs left the small room and went to the main area of the temple. Farek was currently cultivating near the strange pond in a cross legged position but when he felt someone approaching him he opened his eyes and stood up.
"Oh, it's Young Master Taidian, or should I call you junior brother now?"
Farek was full of smiles and of course sarcastic even if he knew that this young master had a special status because of his newly achievement, he just couldn't admit it.
When Dracs was going to answer him, the old ghost appeared near them and he declared seriously.
"Disciple Farek, don't cause trouble for Young Master Taidian. You should understand that he will be the one entering the inheritance ground. I want you to accompany him in the training ground and help him discover our Mausoleum. It's an official mission, your reward will depend on it, is it clear, disciple Farek?"
Farek looked at the old ghost with a stern face, he bowed and said.
"I will do my best, Master."
The old ghost nodded and said.
"Good, you can go."
Dracs couldn't wait and he said immediately.
"Farek, don't be bothered with etiquette, if you insist on calling me junior brother, I don't care. I only want to go see this training ground. We'll be back here in a month, get ready as soon as possible or I'll leave alone!"
At the start, Farek had a smirk on his face and he thought that all was going well, but then the conversation became one-sided and he felt like an old man was ordering him.
He wanted to reply but Dracs was already leaving, not caring at all to hear his answer! He could only clenched his fist angrily and follow up that sneaky young master!
Dracs wasn't in a hurry, after all, there were many things to discover and the virtual map wasn't flawless at the moment. He only knew the direction approximately so of course he needed Farek to lead the way.
And a couple seconds later, as he was leaving the temple, Farek joined him and he said.
"Young Master, are you trying to make me fail my mission?"
"Of course not, I just can't wait to cultivate and train my skills and spells, when it comes to cultivation I can't help becoming an addict…"
It wasn't entirely true but it wasn't entirely false! Indeed, cultivation was repetitive and needed to be comprehended and improved so the part of the system inside him was really in full use when it came to it.
Farek looked at him intently but couldn't find any sarcasm so he was a bit confused. At the end he chose to ignore his behaviour.
"If that's the case, please follow me, there's a couple hours of walking before we reach the training ground area. Even though you can't cultivate properly during this time, you still can practice with your subjugate ghost."
When he heard it, Dracs was interested but he soon looked hesitant and he said.
"Farek, what's the point if I only depleted my qi for nothing, I will be useless."
"I supposed that you have now understand the nature of the qi in the Mausoleum, it's called ghost qi, so while we are in the Mausoleum I can only advice you to filled your dantian with ghost qi and use at the same time your cultivation while training your skill, in this case you won't use much qi at all. It's one of the advantages of cultivating our WHite Ghost Temple cultivation techniques."
In fact, Dracs had already understood it with the help of his virtual library and system abilities but it was always good having an expert confirming his own deduction.
Farek continued.
"Look, our ghosts can be used as scouts, weapons, armor and so on. But of course it needs a lot of control. I recommend mastering the Ghost Hand skill as a first step, it will help you familiarise yourself with the ghost qi."
Dracs pondered for a moment before nodding and used the ghost qi in the surroundings to use the Ghost Hand skill.
At first, he had too little control over the ghost qi to completely turn his hand like a ghost but he didn't cancel the skill and tried to maintain it as hard as he could.
Seeing this, Farek nodded subconsciously and led them toward the deep part of the Mausoleum.
Sometimes they could hear and feel the ghosts lurking in the corridors and through the walls and sometimes they saw many bones cracking before their very eyes as if they were expressing their miscontenment.
Everytime it happened, Farek released a strong ghostly aura of the Earth Realm and things calmed down.
After some hours in this eerie environnement, they finally saw an entirely different structure appearing in front of them. The sight was mystic, giving only reverence toward the magnificent arcanic formation.
"Farek, this…"
Dracs couldn't help being surprised by what was in front of him. His brain started to work at high speed in order to decipher and record the formation in his virtual library but his human part was only feeling sad and wanted to bow with the deepest respect from his heart.
"Young Master, that's also why this place is called a Holy Ground."
"Who are they?"
Right there inside the walls, many embedded figures trapped in the ice seemed to be sleeping, the kind of sleep that was eternal… They were thousands upon thousands of people!