Yama Rising

“After all… where there’s an incarnate revenant, there will invariably arise the phenomenon called the intersection of realms. Students, please take note. All who discover an intersection of realms must immediately evacuate the vicinity unless you are a Judge-class expert! Otherwise, you would most certainly die! This is because… a nest of ten thousand captive ghosts would already have appeared somewhere in the vicinity, and the entire locale would be undergoing a transformation into a land of Yin. Even the longevity of human beings in these regions would fall as a result of these phenomena.”

The students absorbed in the lecture were just about to raise their hands when two voices called out anxiously before any of them could act. Zhou Xianlong and Xu Anguo had practically blurted out their questions at the same time.

They’ve heard far too many fresh ideas and novel concepts since the start of this lesson! Even the leaders hadn’t heard of these things before! On one hand, a person can dismiss these details, saying that it’s nothing more than an opinion that cannot properly be proven true. But on the other hand, even a hypothesis that is grounded in some basis would be sufficient to make waves in academia!

Therefore, the two leaders blurted out their questions almost instinctively, completely obviating from their considerations the fact that they were principal and head of faculty altogether. It wasn’t until they finished asking their questions that they came back to their senses and realized the situation that they stiffened their faces in a contrived manner and adjusted themselves in their seats awkwardly.

He took some time to sort through his own thoughts before explicating, “The intersection of the realms is a term that I’ve coined. It essentially refers to a locality that has already become half Yin and half Yang, where hidden underneath the facade of the city is a whole new realm!”

“The City of Salvation!” Qin Ye declared, “The City of Salvation is the best proof of this! If we simply extrapolate what we’ve seen in the City of Salvation, who is to say that Yin spirits possessing stronger abilities wouldn’t engage in the very same conduct and behaviour?”

It was like a bolt of thunder had pierced the haze and brought clarity to their minds. Everyone went silent almost immediately.

When night falls, can it truly still be called a mortal realm? Can anyone truly be certain that there wouldn’t be another pair of eyes right beside each person, staring intently at them?

The well-prepared Qin Ye rattled off his response like a well-oiled machine, “It’s simple. High-level ghosts possess a commensurate amount of spiritual awareness. Wherever they go, numerous Yin spirits are bound to congregate around in reliance upon them. I call this the siphoning effect of Yin spirits, or the Yin spirit siphoning. It’s quite similar to how an entire province tends to siphon off the provincial capital.”

Pak… Old Man Yu closed his eyes and smacked the table in front of him.

In the end, he resigned himself to simply suppressing the excitement in his heart and smacking the table in front of him.

“So soon?” One of the men dressed in white lab coats asked in bewilderment.

He didn’t go on. But the more the men in the white lab coats thought about it, the more their expressions changed.

It was more than just important!

The soul sphere could be used to capture Yin spirits, thereby enabling their research into Yin Spirits, thereby allowing them to confirm his claim that Yin spirits do devour each other, which by extrapolation gives rise to a new understanding on how high-level Yin spirits advance even further, thereby drawing the inference that the red zone cities… represented the nascent formation of the ghosts’ own territory!

The direction of research, strategies and means would all undergo a massive overhaul!

“This kid…” The man in black who commented previously stared at Qin Ye, completely flabbergasted, “This… is far more than just an idea…”

Qin Ye had finally finished his exposition on this part of the lecture.

The original plan was to introduce two types of extraordinary Yin spirits, and run through their related supernatural incidents by this point in time. As things are, I would count myself lucky if I even manage to complete my introduction to one such Yin spirit.

He gave the panel of evaluators a somewhat begrudging look - Weren’t you supposed to be evaluating me? Are you sure you’re even doing what you need to be doing right now…

“Good lad.” Professor Yu’s expression turned grave and serious as he let out a long sigh, “How dare you challenge the research topic I’ve been tackling lately… I’d truly like to see what other surprises you might bring to the table!”

The student scribbled frantically on their notebooks with a chorus of soft rustling sound. Qin Ye tapped his pointer on the LED screen once more, and an image showed up.

Sha-sha-sha… Several students promptly set down their pens and raised their hands.

Local Bully reacted with great astonishment, “What the heck… when did this kid even do that? He totally lied to us about sleeping when he had in fact surreptitiously gone about with these scandalous affairs!”

Qin Ye continued with a loud voice, “This case wasn’t even recorded as a supernatural incident to begin with. I’d only picked it out after going through their records. 8 March, two years ago. Zhang Sanhao, a resident of Clearwater Street, was found to have been sleepwalking when he murdered his wife and son. When he woke up and discovered what he had done, he committed suicide.”

“Everyone, please take note.” He tapped on the bottom left of the screen, “I’ll let you in on a nifty trick on how to determine if a particular location is the scene of a supernatural incident. One of the most telltale signs is… time.”

Midnight!

All of these were deduced through the marks left on the bed and angle of force.

Exactly five in the morning!

Midnight was the intersection of night and day, or Yin and Yang, while five in the morning was the demonic hour. This was more than just a coincidence!

Wang Chenghao stood up and suggested, “Possession?”

Qin Ye tapped the LED screen once more, and two words immediately appeared - Whisper, hint.

The panel of evaluators furrowed their brows again. But this time, they knew better than to stand up to question it.

Qin Ye didn’t even bother about the embarrassment in the hearts of the leaders around. Instead, he pulled out a stack of documents and waved it around, “This is the information I’d personally collected when I went about interviewing Zhang Sanhao’s family members on the tenth of last month. Students who are interested in attempting an extra-curricular assignment can take a copy and see if you can spot how I’d discovered the involvement of the supernatural. This would also be covered in the next lecture, where we would be talking about a cultivator’s sensitivity… Alright, back to the topic at hand. To cut to the chase, seven years prior to the incident, Zhang Sanhao had dreamt of an old man wearing an ancient gray robe hovering in mid-air with his back facing him.”

“Record it…” Old Man Yu couldn’t help but instruct his aide to take notes even as he kept his eyes peeled on Qin Ye. Yet there would have been no need for his instructions, because his aide was already frantically scribbling down notes before he even spoke up.

Nightmare spirit.

Parapsychology was a discipline that had been founded and developed through the years. There has even been a development of various sub-disciplines, as well as its own set of nomenclature. Every single term of reference was added to the list only after much debate and deliberation. It was evident just how much trouble it was to build on the existing list of nomenclature.

Just then, the back door suddenly slammed wide open, and a man dressed in a white lab coat burst through the door, holding up a soul sphere in his hands victoriously, “Chief, it works! It really works!! This… this is going to usher in a whole new era of spiritual research!!”

Whoosh! Before he could even finish speaking, the soul sphere in his hand immediately flew through the air and landed in Xu Anguo’s hands. Xu Anguo closed his eyes and gently sensed its contents. Then, he opened his eyes so abruptly that even his facial hair trembled slightly. He cast a deep and profound look at Qin Ye, before handing the soul sphere to Zhou Xianlong, “Take a look.”

If the soul sphere could really seal a Yin spirit… this could potentially be one of the greatest breakthroughs in the recent years of cultivation history!

To think that a simple lecture could be filled with so many surprises, and yet even more astonishments!