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**
The ghostly figure Ling Xiao and the others had first spotted began to lose its shrouding black mist.
Soon, it no longer resembled a mere specter, revealing the form of a man.
He was draped in a pitch-black robe, yet even the face beneath his hood was obscured by a layer of dark energy, leaving only eyes that emitted an eerie blue glow. He remained a spine-chilling sight to behold.
As the man revealed his form, Ling Xiao connected it to how Hu Liena had just addressed him.
A suspicion regarding the man's identity immediately took root in his mind.
"Grandpa Ghost, why is it you who came this time?" Hu Liena hurried forward. Although the man appeared incredibly uncanny and hardly human, she didn't show even a hint of fear.
"Your trial here in the Mystic Trace Canyon was originally meant to be monitored by myself and Yue Guan respectively. It just happened to be my turn this time," the black-robed man spoke in a ghostly, ethereal voice.
His tone drifted unpredictably, yet upon closer listening, it seemed to carry a touch of kindness.
"Greetings, Elder Ghost."
Seeing him finish speaking, Ling Xiao stepped forward and bowed, his manner deeply respectful.
"Oh? You recognize this old man?" The blue light flickered within the eyes of the Titled Douluo, Ghost, Gui Mei, which were hidden deep within the black mist.
He looked directly at Ling Xiao.
He didn't explicitly release his aura, yet Ling Xiao couldn't help but feel an immense pressure weigh down upon him—or more accurately, upon his very soul.
Withstanding the pressure, Ling Xiao looked up to meet his gaze and replied, "Though I have never met you before, I have heard much of your great name."
"A lingering ghost shadow without a visible soul ring, a Martial Soul so mysterious and unpredictable... forget Spirit Hall, I fear one could not find a second person like you in the entire world of Soul Masters."
Ling Xiao wasn't merely exaggerating to flatter him; he truly believed it.
From what he knew, Ghost Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo were partners as close as brothers, both serving as Judgement Elders of the Elder Hall. However, Ghost Douluo's strength was actually superior to that of Chrysanthemum Douluo.
Furthermore, Ghost Douluo was extremely mysterious—and not just because of his Martial Soul.
Rumor had it that very few had ever seen his true face. Aside from the several Worships within the Douluo Consecration Hall, perhaps only the successive Popes and Chrysanthemum Douluo had ever laid eyes on him in the entirety of Spirit Hall.
As for Ghost Douluo's Martial Soul, it was exceptionally rare—perhaps even the only one of its kind in the current era. It wasn't a shadow-type Martial Soul possessing dark-attribute power, but a Ghost. Or, more accurately, a Soul.
The power contained within his Martial Soul wasn't a simple dark elemental force, but the ultimate Yin and frigid Nether Ghost Qi—a power that ordinary living beings simply could not possess.
This Martial Soul was incredibly unique.
Legend had it that once he merged with his Martial Soul, Ghost Douluo himself would transform into a ghostly shadow, no longer possessing a body of flesh and blood.
Purely physical attacks were almost useless against him. Some even wondered if a man with such a Martial Soul could even be considered "alive" once he transformed into that ghost shadow.
A raspy laugh suddenly rang out.
Ghost Douluo nodded and said, "Not bad. I have been observing you all for some time. I didn't expect that you would truly be able to pass the trial of this Death Canyon. It is quite surprising."
"The one-year term has now reached its end. I am here to collect you."
The moment Ghost Douluo spoke those words, joy colored the faces of Ling Xiao and the other three. They had long grown weary of this place. Now that the trial period was over and they could finally leave this godforsaken hole, how could they not be elated?
"Grandpa Ghost, are you taking us back to Spirit Hall?"
Despite spending a year in this place, Hu Liena was no longer the sheltered little girl she had been a year ago.
She had learned to carry out acts of slaughter with a cold, expressionless face. But seeing someone she was close to and knowing the trial was finally ending, she couldn't help but feel a sense of youthful excitement.
Shaking his head, Gui Mei spoke leisurely, "No. Her Holiness the Pope has ordered that since the four of you have now promoted to the Soul Ancestor realm, I am to take you to the Star Dou Forest to hunt for soul rings. Only after that shall we return to Spirit City."
"I see. Our thanks to Elder Ghost," Ling Xiao and the other three bowed in gratitude.
The words had barely left their lips when a massive surge of black mist erupted from beneath Gui Mei's feet. Like a spectral fog, it rapidly expanded to envelop Ling Xiao and the others, completely submerging even Ghost Douluo's own figure.
In an instant, the auras of the five individuals vanished entirely. Suddenly, a gargantuan black ghostly claw, at least several dozen meters long, lunged out from the mist.
Exuding a powerful Nether Ghost Qi, it clawed at the air. The void shattered instantly like a breaking mirror, revealing a massive spatial rift spanning over a hundred meters.
Endless spatial turbulence and void storms manifested within, looking like the dawn of a cataclysmic apocalypse. The ghostly mist surged, plunging straight into the chaotic void. Gui Mei was a Rank 95 Super Douluo.
Although he had not yet stepped into Rank 96 to further transcend the Titled Douluo level, an expert who had reached this stage was already considered to be at the very pinnacle of the Soul Land's pyramid.
They could shatter space with immense force, and their combat prowess was enough to alter the very weather.
His influence over space allowed him to not only perform spatial exile—hurling enemies below the Titled Douluo level into the void to be shredded by spatial turbulence—but also to enter the void himself.
By locating spatial nodes tens of thousands of miles away in the main world, he could utilize this method of "void shuttling" to drastically reduce travel time.
The distance between the Mystic Trace Canyon and the Star Dou Forest was vast.
Gui Mei found it too slow to simply fly there with Ling Xiao and the others, so he opted for spatial shuttling to reach their destination in the shortest time possible.
High in the sky, tens of thousands of meters above the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest, a sharp and thunderous crack echoed.
Space shattered like glass, revealing a gaping hole.
A massive orb of black mist burst forth, churning and contracting until the figures of Gui Mei, Ling Xiao, and the rest were revealed. With Gui Mei's current cultivation, he had long been able to stand upon the void, but Ling Xiao and the others could not.
The black mist transformed into a cloud-like platform beneath their feet, supporting them in the air. The starry sky was boundless, and bright moonlight cascaded down. Ling Xiao looked up at the night sky, momentarily entranced.
The Mystic Trace Canyon was shrouded in mist year-round, cutting off the sun and sky; the interior was perpetually dim and gloomy. Having spent an entire year there, the four of them had long lost their sense of day and night.
Now that they had finally escaped that dark place, even though it was still night, the bright moon hanging in the sky and the brilliant clusters of stars provided a radiance they had missed desperately.
"It's been a long time since I've seen such bright moonlight. Such a mesmerizing night... you'd never see this in that Death Canyon," Ling Xiao said, his gaze fixed on the stars with a complex expression.
Though this year of training hadn't been exceptionally long in terms of time, the impact and changes it had wrought upon him were immense. To the four of them, it felt as though several years had passed.
The days of studying and living at the Spirit Hall Academy a year ago now felt like a warm, peaceful, and cherished memory. Recalling the sparring matches with classmates or those simple trials from back then, he couldn't help but let out a small smile.
Those were truly green and naive years.
Observing the change in their expressions, Gui Mei nodded slightly.
It seemed the effect Her Holiness the Pope desired had been achieved. One year of tempering in the Mystic Trace Canyon had brought immense growth to their mindsets. Now, they were no longer childish academy students.
**
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