Originally, Ghost Rider was created by God and was supposed to be called the Spirit of Vengeance, whose mission was to help God punish those evil people who were inherently bad and unrepentant.
To put it bluntly, he was God's proxy on Earth.
It was only later that Satan took an interest in him, using a demonic contract to transform the Spirit of Vengeance into his own Ghost Rider.
He used him to collect evil power from the human world.
The 'immortality' ability of the Spirit of Vengeance was actually bestowed by God. So, under normal circumstances, the Spirit of Vengeance would not be killed or die of old age.
As for Carter's situation, it was because over the past few hundred years, he had grown tired of this job of punishing bad people and wanted to retire and live a normal life.
Facing the 'lying flat' of the old generation Ghost Rider, Satan had no choice but to approach Johnny Blaze, using methods such as 'coercion and inducement' to make him the new generation Ghost Rider, replacing Carter, to continue collecting evil power for him in the human world.
However, over the past few hundred years, Carter, the old Ghost Rider, had already learned about the Contract of San Venganza's importance to Satan.
Therefore, during this period of transition between the old and new Ghost Riders, Carter, holding the Contract of San Venganza, while evading Satan's pursuit, quietly nurtured Johnny, the new Ghost Rider.
He aimed to ensure that before his retirement, the new generation Ghost Rider would have the ability to safeguard the Contract of San Venganza, thereby preventing Satan from obtaining the power within the contract scroll.
To summarize, Carter wanted to find someone to entrust the Contract of San Venganza to before he retired.
Previously, Johnny was the chosen entrustee, but after witnessing Mike's charisma, Carter felt that Mike could also be this person.
"I can hand the contract over to you..." Carter unscrewed the movable handle on the iron shovel, took out an ancient contract scroll from inside, and after presenting it to Mike, he said, "But you must promise me that this contract will not fall into Satan's hands."
"And if there's an opportunity, I hope you can find a way to purify the evil power within it."
Hundreds, thousands, or even longer periods of energy collection had accumulated a massive amount of evil energy within this demonic contract.
Once this energy fell into Satan's hands, the consequences would be immeasurable.
As a Ghost Rider who walked with sin but held righteousness in his heart, Carter was very unwilling to see such a situation occur.
"Corruption + 66"... "Corruption + 69"... "Corruption + 99"... "Corruption + 111"...
"There's really a lot of energy in this demonic contract!" Even before touching the Contract of San Venganza, Mike had already received many black energy clusters in his hand. Although the energy value of each cluster was not high, there were too many of them.
"Perhaps I should purify the evil spirits inside right now!" Mike, who had obtained the Contract of San Venganza, felt that the absorption of Corruption Value had not accelerated.
At this efficiency, it would likely take months to completely absorb the corrupt energy within.
Mike, whose strength had already reached a certain level, did not have that much patience to wait.
So, under everyone's curious gazes, he slowly unrolled the Contract of San Venganza in his hand.
This ancient contract, initiated by God and then altered by Satan, simultaneously contained the aura of both holy and evil power.
"Interesting." Mike studied the sealing energy on the contract for a moment, then a white light lit up in his hand and he pressed it onto the parchment.
Immediately, a hexagonal star pattern appeared on the parchment.
When the holy Power of Faith filled the star array, a dazzling white light flashed, and the ancient seal on the contract was forcibly opened.
Amidst a whistling sound, black evil spirits broke free from the scroll.
Immediately after, the evil spirits trapped in the contract seemed to find an outlet, and densely packed evil spirits, like a swarm of locusts, rushed out of the contract one after another, eager to escape.
It was like black fireworks blooming, or a natural disaster descending.
The sky, which had been relatively clear, was completely occupied by evil spirits. Those twisted and ferocious evil spirits, filled with madness and anger, quickly formed a black tornado, and its scope was expanding rapidly.
"What have you done?" Carter, who had been observing, saw the catastrophic scene before him and immediately transformed into his Ghost Rider form.
The Hellfire flames on his body condensed into two burning old-fashioned revolvers in his hands, and he began to indiscriminately kill the evil spirits in the air.
Looking at Marcus's group of four, they also stood back to back the moment the evil spirits appeared, resisting the rushing evil spirits.
It's worth mentioning that Father James and the probationary angel Bruce, this seemingly weaker duo, were actually more efficient at killing evil spirits.
There's no need to mention probationary angel Bruce; although he wasn't skilled in combat, with the blessing of the Power of Faith, every white light he unleashed could purify a small area of evil spirits.
And Father James was not to be outdone; relying on the short-barreled shotgun containing holy water crystals in his hand, each shot could kill several evil spirits.
"Mike, some evil spirits want to escape, quickly think of a way!" Father James, while reloading his shotgun, saw the evil spirits in the distance showing signs of escaping.
Although most of these judged evil spirits had been trapped in the contract for a long time and had become madmen who only knew killing and venting.
However, among these mad evil spirits, a very small number still retained some sanity.
Such evil spirits might not pose much of a threat to Mike and the others, but once they spread out, they would definitely be a disaster for ordinary people.
"Corruption + 86"... "Corruption + 99"... "Corruption + 111"... "Corruption + 132"...
On Mike's side, as the evil spirits were released, the negative emotions of slaughter, madness, and evil they carried erupted, and he instantly collected over two hundred thousand Corruption Value energy.
Indeed, guiding emotions was the quickest way for him to gain energy value.
Feeling the overflowing energy within him, Mike slowly floated up: "You all protect yourselves, leave the rest to me—"
After instructing everyone, Mike passed through layers of evil spirits, ascended into the sky, and once again bathed in the sunlight.
And as the Corruption Value on his body was converted into faith energy, a huge holy light birdcage appeared in the air.
Under the holy light's shroud, the evil spirits at the edges who were preparing to escape were the first to collide with the light pillars of the giant birdcage.
These self-proclaimed clever evil spirits didn't even have time to scream before they were turned into black smoke by the holy light and then dissipated into nothingness.
Immediately after, as the holy light birdcage began to contract, countless evil spirits with hateful faces turned into black smoke and dissipated one by one.
Even the most mindless evil spirits realized that something was wrong at this point.
They huddled together in fear, trying to avoid the holy light birdcage's harvest.
However, the birdcage, which closed down like a lid, had no place to hide.
"There are definitely over ten thousand evil spirits there..." Father James, standing outside the birdcage, looked at the spectacular scene of evil spirits being annihilated and exclaimed, "I didn't expect Mike to be so powerful. I would even believe it if you said he was God."
Beside him, the probationary angel Bruce nodded in admiration, also muttering to himself: Even Angel One probably couldn't achieve such a grand spectacle.
The Marcus brothers, who were also idle nearby, could only gaze at the magnificent scene with worship for the strong.
"Corruption + 99"... "Corruption + 111"... "Corruption + 121"... "Corruption + 132"...
Speaking of Mike, who was controlling the holy light birdcage in the sky, the more fearful and unwilling the evil spirits were, the faster he harvested corrupt energy.
After more than ten minutes, once the evil spirits had contributed all their Corruption, he waved his hand and created a holy light energy sphere in the densest area of evil spirits within the birdcage.
As the holy light energy sphere silently exploded, with both internal and external attacks, all the evil spirits that had escaped from the contract were instantly cleared away.
When the holy light birdcage also disappeared, everything seemed to return to how it was before.
"Are you all okay? Does anyone need treatment?" Mike, who had collected nearly seven hundred thousand corrupt energy in total, was in a very good mood at this time. After landing, he didn't forget to ask about Marcus and the others.
"No, no need, we are all fine..."
Marcus, his brother, Bruce, and the others looked at Mike as if they were looking at God.
To the side, Ghost Rider Carter, who had returned to his old man appearance and watched a good show, secretly picked up the Contract of San Venganza from the ground when Mike wasn't paying attention.
He had just thought about it; it would be better to hand over such a dangerous item to the next generation Ghost Rider.
At least the other party wouldn't suddenly go crazy and release all the evil spirits inside.