Reading the many pages involving the evolution from phantom to wisp is as amazing as a fan of chinese cultivators finding a master to learn to control qi from. The fact that the exorcist confirmed its existence goes to show it’s presence in society as well.

Mark had a full day that he had to wait and didn't need food since he was a ghost so he went from the middle of the night all the way to late evening almost at night reading only the segment of wisp training.

The book also seemed to become more magical because the pages became blank except for the table of context that he now had to touch the subject chapter for the book to reveal that which filled the book’s pages. The number of pages matched the largest number of pages in a single subject.

As he reached the last part he began to blink like he had woken up and was surprised that he felt like he had been asleep but he was sure that he had been reading the book. A strange thing he felt was that all the chants and things he read were read to him instead and his mind felt like it had read it several times, several segments and copied it and he could recite it like he had always known and written this masterful method.

“Wow… to think just changing to wisp was so complex.” He said.

The transformation wasn’t simple, he basically needed to do a lot of training slowly gathering his soul into his chest at a single point and this also included what made up his body. Then he needed to constantly chant, making his spiritual power ‘burn’ his soul until he didn’t have much left and only the sufficient to reform his body.

Doing this causes his soul to become stronger and in return it produces more spiritual power naturally.

All his winter clothing was on the side and only the underwear was on him so he sat down and took a breath as he loosened his body and it started to glow and his mortal shell broke down into spiritual power and his ghost form appeared with the clothing he had died with once more reforming.

He got up and felt and smiled, “Wow, the amount of spiritual power forming my body is quite large, maybe i might be able to do a lot at once.” He said but that was just an illusion of his mind.

He put the rest of his things to the side and sat down and began to chant.

The book automatically flipped to the page as he started and with his eyes closed he didn’t notice as the ink began to lightly shine and his form began to waver as he spoke while his quiet voice became more ethereal and soon his form turned into something like heatwaves and slowly the extremities slowly deformed and were absorbed into the body and than the five extriemeites gathered towards the torso until there was just that floating mass and it continued to getting smaller until it gathered at the point where his heart had been.

His mind instinctively started the next part and his spiritual power instantly began to ignite and he felt a bit of pain all over but it didn’t stop him because his voice was no longer in his control.

His mind woke up with the pain but he couldn’t stop the chanting and realized that he might have been under some kind of hypnosis and after the soul flame formed, surrounding the soul orb, the flame began to pull and burn the main soul and slowly pierced to the center and felt like his very being would be burned to ash and it went through the entire thing, lasting over 6 hours from when he started to when his spiritual power ran out.

When the flame finally died his voice continued to chant as his soul slowly unfolded and reformed and only the barest minimum of spiritual power was left when his mortal shell reformed and when the last chant was done, his body was freed and he collapsed huffing.

“W-what kind of…” he said, feeling his heartbeat intensely and looked at the book in fear as he heard it closing on its own.

He tried to get up but felt extremely weak and could only succeed after a lot of effort as his energy levels barely supported his body despite it being as thin as paper.

He looked at the tea and felt an intense hunger so he took it and read the instructions and got the proper water amount and took out the kettle and heater and made some and with one of the cups available he sat there drinking.

It was like a massive shock to his system as the spiritual power enriched his starved soul.

“No wonder spiritual items and food are so rare and expensive. This is just normal tea that I had seen being just over 200 spirit dollars but it has such a big effect on me.” He said but as he drank the tea and his body grew more solid and he felt his body get saturated, he soon realized that it was still very little energy.

He took the chance to do the material to energy conversion and broke down what remained and finally he felt the true explosion.

The true energy exploded and began to fill him with a lot of excess for a bit and when he finished drinking and processing everything he could already gauge that he had increased his spiritual power by five times.

That said, he also felt his body leaking power that his body could not contain and after about ten minutes, his body stabilized at three times his original capacity.

“It tripled my energy but that is barely enough for anything. I hope the Midnight flower is easy to produce.” he muttered and looked at the box and took out all the packets and counted them up.

“100 bags counting the one I used just like normal boxes.” He muttered and sighed as he looked at it for a while. “This is definitely a training resource for phantoms, especially ones that have mortal shells and know how to break down matter.” he muttered before looking at the tea bag and frowned before looking at the box and turning it all around until he found a block of tiny writing.

“Each bag contains sufficient energy for a phantom to grow at a constant rate for 100 days. Boiling the bag will release 60% of the energy, this is vital so that the energy is diluted and the rest can be openly consumed and broken down via the matter conversion technique.”

“I see it.” He said and looked at the bag with a smile as he closed the tea kettle with the bag inside but the string sticking out. “I need to work even through the pain to make total use of this and gain the capacity of spiritual power to be able to raise the flowers.” He said and put the tea bags back in the box and stored it in his backpack before starting up the training once more.

***

In another room, the old man that had met Mark watched him and chuckled, “Oh, Billy picked up a perspective one this time. He accepted the hypnotic effect for 12 whole hours and picked up the technique in one sitting. He even noticed the fine print, this is quite a good seed.” he said.

The waitress behind him looked at the screen, “His mortal shell seems quite strange like he has exercised but never lost weight and then he just removed all the fat in his body and never adjusted his shape.” She said.

“That ‘is’ what he did. You can tell from his soul’s shape. He looks likely has never picked up a weight in his life but this isn’t really important, his subconscious will slowly deal with the imperfections and impracticalities of his form. Just wait and see, after a few rounds you will see the ‘skeleton’ and ‘muscles’ shift about.” the old man said.

“I wish I had been able to get a mortal shell so early.” She complained.

“Oh my dear, don’t be like that, a walking dead at your level shouldn’t complain about something like that, after all you were dead for 62 years, even your bones were already nothing but dirt.” He said.

She sighed depressed and the man just laughed and switched to watch different ghosts in different locations world wide.

“I do wonder how long until he figures out that we still give exorcism contracts for the unaffiliated?” She asked.

“Who knows. Ah yes, did you get that haunted mansion about 4 hours to the south? The one that sits over a small ley line vent?” he asked.

“Yes sir, it was in extremely bad shape so we are giving it very basic repairs at this moment as well as making sure there are no more spirits and negative energy. We’ve also sent an earth spirit to check under the ground to make sure there are no hidden caves or basements contaminated with negative energy and spirits.” She said.

“Good, he might want to reject it but eventually he is going to get used to it once he starts taking in other phantoms as servants to aid in farming and most normal work.” He said.

“Sir, how long do you think until he becomes a wisp and after that a poltergeist?” she asked.

The elder leaned back while shifting through the countless scenes, “Because of the material conversion technique he efficiently doubles the efficiency of the tea leaves so for 2 training sessions, one bag. This means if he doesn’t overdo it, he can train for 2 thirds of a year. Naturally we know that isn’t going to happen since his soul is likely to grow quite quickly now that he is properly training spiritual growth techniques. He is likely to become a wisp after two months.” he said.

“Are you going to help him out with more tea?” She asked.

“Yes, every exorcist is important to the fight against dark spirits, make sure to ‘forget’ a bag of spiritual tea bush seeds and their instructions at the house. Leave it in the green house where they produce the saplings.” He said.

“Understood sir, if he does it well, we will also get a local tea supply line.” She said.

“Exactly, don’t think of it as support, think of it as investment. Midnight flower wine and Local spirit tea, we will have much to gain.” he said.

She nodded and sent word off to the workers of the added orders while looking into the situation of the car which needed the more annoying bureaucracy of the mortal world to be involved.

When the morning of the other day came, Mark was finishing his fourth training session and slowly reformed, starving. He opened the second tea bag and emptied its content inside his mouth. None of this had any taste so he just swallowed it and inside, broke it down.

Besides the spiritual energy there was also the material energy which was absorbed as well.

He felt his energy restore going higher and higher. It passed the limit for the first time and shot to what he knew as his current 90%.

When he calmed down he sighed and smiled as he felt his body. It felt more solid and stable but he knew he couldn’t continue because he would need to leave today.

He packed his things and put on his clothing and opened the door to find a different waitress waiting there in casual clothing.

“Hello sir, I’m here to take you to your new home. We’ve already sent ahead the seeds you had ordered so you will find them there.” she said.

“Great, thank you.” he said.

She smiled and looked him up and down curiously.

“Is something wrong?” He asked.

“No no…” She said turning red as she waved her hand, “I’ve just never seen a phantom with a mortal shell. It looks warm and filled with vitality.” She said.

“Huh? Are the walking dead not the same?” He asked.

“No way, yours is made from your original body of a mortal body. It contains warmth and what chinese call ‘yang’ energy, the vitality of a living body. The mortal shells of a walking dead are cold and formed of ectoplasm, they are pale like bloodless zombies and the stronger you get the stiffer until you become a stiff corpse. Those who get their original bodies as mortal shells avoid the rigor mortis despite also passing through the Stiff corpse stage.” She said looking at him with extreme desire.

“I see.” he muttered, surprised that regaining his original body possessed such a different reaction.

“Shall we go, your new car has been prepared and we added an up to date gps and a complimentary phone to replace your old one that was lost after your death.” She said.

She reached into her purse and took out a phone and he looked at it and she just handed it to him and he just looked reluctant.

“This wasn’t in the purchase?” he asked.

“Yes but these are only a few spirit dollars, nothing too big.” She said.

“How much exactly?” he asked.

“Oh just 10 spirit dollars.” She said.

His face forced a smile because that was 500 dollars.

“How hard is it for a phantom to get 10 spirit dollars?” He asked.

“Not hard, they can take a job to watch someone. Those who can’t move since they are bound to a single house we make them watch mortal criminals or mythical beings and they get a substantial sum monthly, especially mythical beings since they might be attacked.” she explained.

“Substantial as in…?”

“1,000 monthly.” She said.

“Woah.” He said, shocked.

He looked at the phone and tried to turn it on and it was fully charged already and the woman remembered and took out the box and charger.

“It has the society's own special phone chip which hides your localization from any mortal company but connects to every single company to always have coverage. There is no pay required.” She said.

“Wow.” He said and stored the things in his bag before going with the girl and there were two cars waiting, one was the one he got and the other was a second one.

“Two cars?” He asked.

“I’ll need a way back right?” She said.

“True.” He said and she took out some keys and tossed them to him. The key chain had car keys and the electronic lock key as well as several other keys stuck to a second key ring.

“The other ring is the house keys.” She said, he understood and got in.

“Wow, it is so comfortable compared to my old ass buggy.” he said and turned the key and it was infinitely more quiet and had an actual radio but there was no disk spot and the woman inside got in and took out the GPS from the stand that was stuck to the windshield.

“Where is the disk insert?” He asked.

“It uses USB, the old radio was broken and new radios don’t have disk inserts.” She said.

He felt a bit irritated because that would mean he needed to get all his old songs on usb. In fact he just realized that he didn’t even have his computer or internet. He hadn’t had the time to think about it with everything going on but now that he did he groaned.

“Something wrong?” She asked.

“Well, I just realized that besides the phone, I don't have any other way to surf the web or internet for it.” he said.

“Oh is that it, we already took care of it. The internet is too vital in modern day now especially for an exorcist who needs to find localization and access the web to purchase things. You will be busy after this because although we repaired the structure of the house, the furniture is the same.” She said.

She continued putting in the address and when she was done she also took out a business card with the address to him along with another one for the number of the tavern.

“The white card is your address, zip code and all the information and the black card is our number.” She said.

He nodded and put it in his wallet before looking at the gps and together with the other car they headed out.

They eventually left the city and slowly wilderness covered the sides of the roads and they went on for four hours until they turned into a side road.

For a while he had been happy and so was the woman but every time they passed through a town their faces dropped to neutral showing how much being inside a town affected them.

“This is quite far.” he said.

“True but this isn’t that far depending on who you ask.” She said.

He didn’t know how to reply to that and continued on the road and when they made a turn his face clenched as a large mansion and there was a large rusty metal gate around a huge property connected to a beautiful lake.

“This…” He asked as the gps stopped here.

“Yep.” she replied with a smile

“I asked for a forest cabin, not a millionaire's mansion plus a private lake! Where does that lake even end!” He said looking out the care.

“All of the lake plus a 10 km radius from here to the back to reach the other side of the metal fence. It is much higher in the forested area. We have made sure to keep the knowledge of this mansion on the down low and most mortals still think it is haunted even after being cleared out. Basically ‘it draws ghosts in again’.” She explained.

“Why?!” He exclaimed.

She smiled and got out to open the gate which involved a key which formed a magical glow over the gate. Then she took out an electric key and the gates pulled to both sides.

He groaned and went through with the car behind him and there was a clear packed road from there and wasn’t bumpy anymore. She got back in and she gestured to go on after locking up and they headed to the door and finally got out and looked up at the three story house that could fit hundreds of people living here.

“Mind explaining why I’m being given a massive house?” he asked.

“May I see your phone?” She asked.

He took it out of his pocket and she opened it and they finished the start up settings and setting up his finger print key before she pointed out a few apps already there.

“See these apps. They are soul society apps, we have the world market which pulls up information from the entire world and you can buy anything worldwide including regular items like furniture using spirit dollars. Next to it is our job board for common ghosts who need something to grow from.” She said but he could clearly see a third one and she didn’t wait.

“This third one is a special one for exorcists, this is a bounty board with confirmed locations or areas of activity of certain spirits that need to be put down. Even as you are, a phantom, you can hunt other phantoms and get money for it.” she said and pressed the app and helped him register along with the other two.

“This still doesn’t answer why I have such a big space.” He said.

“It is because exorcists have a large growth potential and high money obtaining capacity and in return you can hire many ghosts to help production of spirit food and plants.” She said and showed him the bounty of spectors.

He looked and his eyes raised, “Wait, are you serious that a spector has a bounty range of 100 to 500 spirit dollars?!” He said.

“Yes sir, now look at vengeful spirits.” She said and just opened the next part and Mark’s jaw dropped as the price shot up to 2,500 all the way to 4,000 spirit dollars. Multiply that by 50 and it means at least 20,000 dollars.

“Okay… I can understand why now…” He said and looked around and noticed a weed covered area from near the lake coming up to the road and over on the other side.

“Oh, this was once a farming estate at one point but has been weed covered. There is a water pump but it is old and likely needs to be replaced along with most of the piping and hoses. At the moment you shouldn’t have trouble getting things farmed alone but you will soon find a limit, there is only so much a single ghost can produce alone.” She said.

He looked at her strangely but nodded and looked at all the contracts. “During my years as an exorcist I never expected that there was such an easy platform. Is there no way for humans to grow fast?” He asked.

“No. You don’t need to worry about it, for water and electricity the house is self-sustaining with underground reserves feeding with a new water system which was repaired, solar panels and many electric generators which charge batteries during the day and at night utilize that. All the wiring has been redone and although old, we’ve done at least some level of cleaning on the furniture so they are usable. I’ll give you a tour and show you your room, which is also the only room with a comfortable non moldy bed.” she said and showed him the house, the wings, kitchen, rooms. She showed that there were a few boxes of tea which could sustain him for a few months in the place of food but there was also food.

They had prepared some frozen food for reserves since he has a mortal shell.

After that they toured the entire property which had very basic paths into the woods that needed to be cleared and finally a greenhouse with all the necessary tools and seeds to start producing the plants.

The bag of midnight flower seeds was waiting there and there was a small book about how to properly raise it and see if it is healthy.

When they left he didn’t notice the car driver from the other car walk in and put down a second bag and book and quietly leave back to the car.

Finally when they were done going over everything and seeing things like the old water pump for the fields and how it had been divided before they finally arrived at the cars and she smiled and shook his hand.

“Welp, that is about it, it was quite a long tour and a big house but I bet you will get used to it. Make sure to feed your spiritual power to the key that opens the barrier. It will allow you to be recognized by the barrier protecting and hiding this place. There is also a special thing about it.” She said, showing him the key.

“It looks like the cigarette lighters in the car.” He said.

“Exactly, you pop this in and push it in to connect the power directly and add your spiritual power and your car will be covered in a short term barrier which will let it pass through the barrier but it only works for you to pass through, others will get squished so letting others in you need to go to the barrier with the key to open and close it actively.” She explained.

“That explains why you never did that. How strong of a person can it keep out?” he asked.

“It is limited to those under 50 years old so walking dead and up to evil spirits. Above that they can put pressure and rip a hole if they are wraith and can outright destroy it if they are reborn dead and above.” She said.

“Okay, at least the large majority of dangerous ones are kept out.” He muttered and rubbed his head.

“Don’t worry, if a disaster spirit appears, it is something instantly noticeable. Honestly meteorological and bioscience has helped greatly in noticing what had once been unnoticeable. Disaster spirits change the very weather like nature spirits, anyways that is about it, I hope you have a happy future.” she said.

“Do you need the key?” he asked.

“We have our own extras in case we need to enter hidden sealed places.” She said.

With that she waved and got in the other car and together her and the driver headed off and they didn’t stop except for opening the guy, they just passed right on through instead showing they each had it.

Mark turned to the massive building behind him and groaned, “So do i have to clean this entire place alone?” He muttered and knew that it wouldn’t be long until he hired others to work for him if he had to take care of this place alone.

He got in the car and took it to the garage and then decided that before he did anything else he should at least be a wisp so that he didn’t have to be limited in spiritual power and capacity. From there he can work.

That said he looked up and groaned, “I still forgot.” He complained as he saw floating black faced ghosts all over yet none of the ghosts even showed signs of noticing.

“I really wonder what these are.” He said but decided that he couldn’t distract himself and just headed in with what little baggage he had started to get the massive building in order such as turning on the heating and such so that pipes and stuff don’t freeze over.

After the house was basically started up he found a kettle and electric heater and took it to his room where he put away the few clothes he had.

“I should probably get something casual sometime or I will have to walk around in winter clothes.” he muttered as he went to bed and forgot about the world and started to train in earnest.