After the trial at Spirit Hall, the silence in Chen Fan's head was replaced by something far more unsettling.
At first, it was just a static hum—the sound of wind rushing through a hollow cave. But as he sat in meditation near the outskirts of the academy woods, the hum crystallized into a raspy, multi-layered whisper.
"Hungry... yet empty... follow... the scent of eternal spring..."
Chen Fan bolted upright, his heart hammering. He looked behind him. The Specter's violet eyes were no longer static pinpricks; they were swirling nebulae of dark energy.
"You can talk?" Chen Fan whispered.
The Specter didn't respond directly. Instead, it pointed a translucent, jagged finger toward the distant mountains beyond Nuoding City. "There... the cure for the hollow... the Emperor's breath..."
The Trek into the Wild
Chen Fan didn't pack a bag. He didn't tell anyone. Under the cover of a moonless night, he triggered Ghost Walk and vanished into the wilderness.
The Specter acted as a compass. Whenever Chen Fan strayed off course, the temperature in his left ear would drop until he corrected his path. They traveled for two days, bypassing high-level Spirit Beast territories by slipping through the shadows.
Eventually, the sound of crashing water filled the air.
They reached a hidden valley, untouched by the axes of woodcutters. A massive waterfall thundered down a cliffside, shimmering like a curtain of liquid silver. The air here was incredibly dense with Spirit Power—far purer than anything in the city.
The Hidden Grotto
"Behind the veil... where the light is blue..." the Specter hissed.
Chen Fan didn't hesitate. He merged fully with the Specter, becoming a weightless blur, and glided straight through the roaring wall of water.
Behind the waterfall lay a secret cave. It was damp, cool, and illuminated by a soft, pulsating azure light. In the center of the cave, growing from a crack in the stone, was a single plant. It was a blade of Blue Silver Grass, but unlike any Chen Fan had seen. Its leaves were etched with delicate gold veins, and it radiated an aura of profound peace and ancient dignity.
This was the Blue Silver Emperor—the transformed state of Tang San's mother, A Yin.
Next to the plant sat a lead box, weathered by time but sealed with a heavy, oppressive pressure.
The Emperor and the Bone
The Specter lunged forward, its form expanding. It didn't try to eat the plant; it began to "inhale" the overflow of life energy radiating from the Emperor.
"Wait!" Chen Fan shouted, grabbing his own chest as he felt the Specter's hunger spike. "This belongs to the Clear Sky Douluo! If we touch this, Tang Hao will flatten us into a pancake!"
But the Specter didn't listen. It hovered over the lead box.
"Within... the bone of the forest... the anchor for the ghost..."
Chen Fan realized the "cure" the Specter wanted wasn't the plant—it was the 100,000-year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone inside that box.
ItemOriginAttributeBlue Silver EmperorA Yin (Tang San's Mother)Infinite Life / RegenerationSpirit Bone100,000 Year QualityFlight / High-Speed Healing
The Specter began to wrap its smoky arms around the lead box. The "Soul-Devouring" trait he had feared wasn't just for killing; it was a mechanism to seek out the highest quality energy to stabilize its own ethereal form.
Suddenly, the gold-veined grass shimmered. A gentle, maternal ripple of Spirit Power washed over Chen Fan, momentarily silencing the Specter's hunger. It felt like a warm hand on his forehead.
"She's... she's trying to soothe the ghost?" Chen Fan whispered.
But as he reached out toward the box, a terrifying realization hit him. If he took this bone, he would be stealing Tang San's birthright and inviting the wrath of the strongest man on the continent. But if he didn't, the Specter's instability would eventually crack his own soul.
"Take it..." the Specter urged, its voice now sounding like a choir of the dead. "Become whole, or fade into nothing."