Mark groaned as he looked at the five attempts he had done over the last day. He had even stopped to take a break and feed the midnight flowers and eat something just to calm down and continue but the attempt was the same.

The cover for all five were charred and all the pages were nearly completely burnt or charred at least. They were still ‘alive’ but they couldn’t be considered much else.

“What the hell am I doing wrong?” He muttered.

He checked the blueprints and shockingly found that this is actually the ‘complete’ state. The book embryos were almost always made of normal material but changing the material would usually start to change the constitution and make it develop beyond the raw material requirements needed. The result left them in this state after being processed.

He sighed because this was still a theoretical spiritual item.

He took them and piled them up but as soon as he did, he discovered a shocking feeling coming from all of them when they touched.

All the runes that had been put into the books began to resonate and before he could react, the top book, the first one he made, floated up while the four others turned into spiritual energy while all the mass and spiritual power began to flow into it.

All the similar runes fused and seemed to enhance each other and perfect themselves while the paper, cover and all the mass filled up the first book causing the pages to regain their full size.

When the shining stopped he just found a book of charred paper while the original segment of paper had regained vitality and wasn’t charred anymore.

The book dropped to the ground and while looking shocked he also checked to see if this was a thing but surprisingly there was no mention of any of this.

He took the book and opened the cover, “Are you still alive?” he asked.

It took about ten seconds for any movement from the book to show and very slowly a faded ‘Yes’ appeared on the white paper.

“Do you know why you absorbed the other books?” he asked.

He waited patiently for an answer.

“We either… combine to survive… or we fall apart.” it said in three chunks in the small space it had.

“Do you need more books to restore yourself?” He asked.

“No… I need… energy.”

When it said that, he thought about the requirement, ‘a huge amount of energy to power it or someone powerful that can sustain that requirement.'

He looked at it wondering how it worked but then thought about the axe.

“It couldn’t be right? Would it work the same.” He said before looking at the still damaged cover and began to flow it on the surface.

When the cover was covered he felt the depressions pulling so he started at the edges and filled up the many damaged areas.

Unlike the axe, the book only filled up and held onto the energy which slowly infused into the area like a scab forming to heal a wound.

Soon the cover was full and the book had formed a thin film to hold that energy which caused it to form a vein like design on the cover while the runes and things there were glowing as they were clearly starting to heal and improve but it was a slow process compared to the quick one of the axe.

He opened the cover and looked at the page before holding the page open and up while infusing spiritual power. Not only the charred zone but even the normal page was filled and covered however the white page sucked it up due to lacking energy itself. Once it saturated, it expanded a film just like the cover and kept the charred segments bent and straight all the way to the edges.

Seeing that it was actually working, he spent his time doing that for every page until the last and finally the book closed and opened itself to the front page.

The small section soon formed letters, “I am better now… but still weak… I need a constant supply of energy to maintain this process.”

He looked at the altar and after some thought he walked to the center spot and put it over.

It surprisingly stuck to the center and it began to absorb spiritual power from the stone and the faint glows from the veins strengthened.

“Hmm… i wonder why no one’s ever noticed this?” he muttered.

He didn’t know but he still checked his reserves and found he barely used 10% of his spiritual power

With this he first checked the time before taking out his axe and finally feeling the barrier being surpassed.

His spiritual power started to channel into it and into the depths and fill the handle just lightly beyond the barrier and he soon felt new cracks and began to infuse this.

That said, the amount of energy required was astronomically higher and he was soon nearly emptied before getting a third of the way up the handle and it was already starting to show a new design.

He smiled at the growth because it would further improve his strength.

He rested and absorbed ambient energy to restore himself before going up. After being focused for so many days, he finally took some time to talk and check on the phantoms.

Many of them had been growing a lot recently as the spirit tea trees had finally reached independence from them and absorbed ambient spiritual power.

In return, they radiated a lot of beneficial power for them and they all happily used the absorption method the altars had to saturate their spiritual bodies before going to train and this cycle constantly went on.

Once mature, spirit tea only required an injection of a ghost's spiritual power a few days of the week to remain healthy and spiritual.

As such, most of the time they are training after absorbing sufficient energy from them and taking much wider steps to becoming a wisp.

Of course, they weren’t him, who had a ley line vent or a much stronger training method. They could get them however, the altar methods were bare bones but they could purchase a much better one but those were expensive.

After checking along with checking on the plant he went to his tv room where there were a few ghosts preferring to relax instead of train since just training and working became tedious even for them.

“Oh boss.” one of them said.

“Hello, anything special happen in this new year?” he asked since he hadn’t been watching over the last few days.

“Among the living, just the same chaos that usually has been happening.” one of them said.

“Trump supporters rioted in the capital causing a lot of problems. Basically terrorist style.” another one said.

Mark sighed, “The thought of Trump as president still baffles me.” he said.

He had died in 2015 so he was still in Obama's 2nd mandate but elections had not yet started so he hadn’t seen who the other candidate was but when he woke up, he discovered the current president so it could be seen that it was a very unpleasant surprise.

He sat down on the sofa and began to look for something to watch and like most of the ghosts, groaned at the selection. Even cartoon channels were going to hell because of how bad the constant remakes were getting.

“God damn, what the hell is with tv these last 5 years!” he exclaimed and sighed while one of the ghosts took the remote and looked in his place.

“Why not a movie then? Were you a marvel fan?” one of the ghosts asked.

“Sure, I’ve been so busy this last year that I totally forgot about movies.” He said.

They all looked and grinned and asked the list of movies he had seen and after writing it down they quickly brought up the entire list up to the latest movie and showed Mark that they were even planning streaming series for after the movies as well as more movies.

“Alright, let’s watch from the ones you’ve missed all the way to the current ones!” they said and quickly they accessed the streaming services available to them.

Mark did, however, check the estimated time for the sun to set, something all weather apps had and set an alarm so that they didn’t miss their farming duties since today was the day they needed to infuse the evening infusion.

After that they let it rip.

Eventually word got out to the other ghosts and most of them came.

Agatha was the least curious because they were starting in the middle but some of the other women said that they could watch the first movies and see what she thought of them and they could spend some free time watching them.

As such they had a sort of bonding moment with Mark as they went through all the missed movies and even rewatching some of those they already watched. It went through the night to the morning without any regret or fatigue on their part and it was all laughs and shouts until End game.

Of course this couldn’t be done in one sitting and was actually done through the day and night to catch up on all the movies and start watching the first episode of wandavision that had just started.

It was a good moment of relaxation for everyone but work calls for everyone and Mark headed back down to check on the book and as expected after a day of constant absorption. Using his spiritual power to fill the gaps and as the basis, the constant infusion had drastically reduced the vein like cracks in the cover leaving only the biggest breaks. He took it from the altar and checked the pages and smiled when they were already 80% restored.

He just smiled and put it back before turning to look at the phantom domain and then taking out his phone and sitting at the edge of the altar to check what the domains were in essence.

“Phantom domains are spaces created by unique spiritual individuals. Their form and aspect change depending on the location each of them are created but all of them tend to have the same effect. They all help spiritual beings condense their bodies. In a phantom domain, ghosts do not need to actively use their spiritual power to touch solid objects and at the same time, mortal beings can touch spiritual bodies without any spiritual energy. Phantom domains tend to be formed by walking corpses at the earliest, their size tend to be 100 meters and most often are made when they are watching people and so the domain forms inside houses or buildings causing them to adhere to that size forcing them to develop it there. Phantom domains cannot be moved once they are formed and cannot grow without their makers growing. If a phantom moves on or is destroyed, their domain just remains there but will be unable to grow further. Certain unique domains, when their creation faults are corrected, may produce unique spiritual vegetation that will then grow naturally throughout the domain. If a domain is ‘removed’, the resulting condensed object requires many similar objects combined to produce a viable crystal to reform a single domain in a new location.”

He looked at all the spots that had been ‘faults’ and even though he hadn’t checked in detail, he walked over and saw the ones that had grown sprouts had already grown a lot. From the single leaf, it was already a 30 cm sprout showing just how strongly it was growing. Clearly the phantom domain wasn’t the most common of places, sitting at a ley line vent. It might have also been one of the reasons that it was so big.

He still felt a lot of irritating points in the entire structure of the place. In his eyes he felt like there were holes in the structure that kept it from growing more but these were entire structures instead of some kind of fault. It wasn’t small holes, it was like a massive structure and he felt like it was several huge structures. One in particular was massive. Two of them were smaller but only in the perspective of the biggest while others were much smaller.

He couldn’t figure out what these were so he could only think that it might be some kind of artifacts or special spiritual items but such items would need immense power and he definitely wouldn't be able to get such an item with his strength.

Since he had no way to know what any of these things were he decided to focus on what he could make and took some book embryos and material from the stock to start making the child books in the book of ghostly registry.

The mother and child relationship is very representative. The blueprint shows that the books just act as a medium to produce a form of ID to a certain ghost. In truth, they would be absorbed into the main book and project a spiritual copy that would inhabit the phantoms that are registered in the book.

The result was a similarly damaged book but it was not as damaged because it used far less material and time burning and after making a second copy he prayed that it worked and put one book on the other and the book turned into material for the top one and repaired it.

With a smile he went through it and did like the mother book and eventually filled all the cracks and pages before putting it next to the mother book where both shared the energy.

He continued this, getting better at the process and converting all remaining books into child books.

10 books was the minimum requirement but it seems there is no limit and having more of these should, in theory, improve the structure. Of course, with so many books in the altar, the rate of them absorbing energy was far lower than it was so he left only 10, along with the mother book, to absorb energy and just absorbed ambient spiritual power.

“Damn, it’s been almost a week. Those small midnight breaks were really too small. I think I might just take a normal rest.

He took a nice nap during the entire day and at night he was feeding the flowers when they started to open as midnight approached and surprisingly, one by one, they unfurled and released an amazing spiritual energy.

“Woah!” he exclaimed and remembered the effect it had and smiled before sitting down near the middle and began to train.

The spiritual power pulled towards him. It was shockingly pure though a bit thin because most of it had been raised as a wisp and the last bit was as a poltergeist.

That said, the purity of the energy made up for it and it filled him and he trained his soul infusing that pure energy causing his own spiritual power actually remove small blemishes and impurities that was released as a very thin dark mist and it took about an hour to absorb all the energy the flowers gave off.

He smiled and went to the green house and got a few baskets and waited another hour before they started to fall out on their own.

He looked at the booklet and identified all the qualities.

He was happy to find one high quality flower for every bush meaning his own spiritual power had the capacity to push half grown flowers to such a high quality meaning the next batch would be much better.

He separated all three baskets and then contacted the tavern master that had taken care of him.

“Yes, the first Midnight flowers have sprouted and fallen.”

“Oh great! How many blossomed and their qualities?” the elder asked.

“I counted about 70 low quality, 30 mid and 10 that looked high quality but are probably in between since I just recently became a poltergeist.” He said.

“Oh! Fantastic! Since they aren’t completely high quality, let’s leave it at 40 mid quality for the time being. You will see the difference from true high quality when they actually sprout. Low quality blossoms sell for $70 each, mid quality for $240 and just so you know, high quality ones sell for $630.” He said.

“So it triples in quality each rank. Are there ranks above?” He asked.

“No, if it does go above high rank then the flower itself would have evolved into a different breed of spiritual herb of considerably higher value known as the Moon spirit flower. A low quality blossom of this flower doesn’t go for less than $10,000 because the essence is used for many special forging processes as well as being used for raising a special kind of spiritual herb.” He said.

This surprised Mark because he didn’t expect that herbs could mutate into something greater but after he thought, it made sense that it happened because ghosts could do that.

“Alright, the total should be… $16,600.” He said. “Perfect, I will make the trip and take the chance to check out your spirit tea.” he said happily.

Mark waited at the greenhouse until the elder ghost came through the barrier from the air and took the time to examine them.

“Marvelous, you even prevented damage to the flowers from their sudden growth. Good, good. Your next harvest is likely to be quite great.” he said with a smile as he put them in a much better container for transport and handed the money to Mark before looking at the fields and examining the trees.

He told Mark a few things to look out for, “You should purchase some fungicide for these molds I’ve told you. Let me just write it down for you.” he said taking out a small pack of post it paper and made a page while writing it all down and handed it to him.

“They are pretty cheap and sold in groups of 10 liters, any less or more is a scam so be aware. Also there is no danger in mixing them before spraying it over the branches and trunk. Make sure you cover the ground along the field as well and avoid watering them for about a day after applying it. Spray once every 3 days and water only a day before you spray it. If you do this for about a month all this fungus should clear out.” He said.

“Thank you for the help. I didn’t know fungus could infect spiritual plants.” He said.

“Don’t let that get over your head, fertilizer always has bacteria and mold in them so you should always be alert after you apply fertilizer.” he said.

Mark nodded and kept that in mind.

He was quick to purchase it but the order would come in the morning only and he took the chance to fly to the library he had visited before and update his knowledge base.

The great funds he had allowed him to update everything a level and purchase up to tier 2 without damaging his capacity to purchase that much.

Although he did have to upgrade the foundation, when he input the dimensions he found that he would require almost 5 million spirit dollars to complete the new foundation especially because it also included the fact that it was a phantom domain and would require modifying the original foundation to this specification.

He had used all his books and didn’t plan to sell any he was making with the remaining fragments.

He was going to see how the book turned out first and see if it needed more, he was patient enough to wait if needed.

For money however, he knew he couldn’t avoid vengeful spirits anymore. Although it could be said that he was cautious and fearful as a wisp, he would be cowardly if he still remained so after going up a rank. Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to be stupid about it. He absorbed spiritual energy in the air and took out his axe and continued filling it up.

The beautiful axe handle began to change and form amazing engravings and markings and a design reminiscent of viking but with the aesthetics ramped up.

He had to empty out his spirit power almost three and a half times for just the handle and as you would expect, the form changed but the length only increased about 10% but the durability sky rocketed.

After that was the head and it was far harder. He took a while to fully fill it with almost 10 full refills of his spiritual power to go from the back of the head to the front and the change was quite drastic. The distinct ‘pick’ at the back of the head morphed into a second head and both heads grew to form a beautiful but menacing double headed battle axe.

With a thought, it could take any of the previous forms but he could already feel the power in this. That said, this was also the limit of the axe. There was no further barrier at the center because it had reached the depths.

He did like he did the first time, with just light swings he checked the power but just like becoming a wisp, the cutting power was amazing and it flew almost 5 meters without much effort.

“I wonder what humans are like at this stage? Would I also be stronger than that priest that tried to exorcize me.” He muttered but didn’t think much and put the axe away. He looked at the books one last time and headed out to start preparing materials and the next morning he headed out to cleared towns he had gone through that had vengeful spirits and finally accepted these requests.

For these, he had to be 100% ‘hands on’ compared to the passive ease of the specters that still had some means of ‘control’ before they had outbursts.

Of course, his house seal was stronger now and it could easily cover an entire floor now and he just needed one. It was the benefits of finer and higher power.

When he walked in, he could already feel the cold but he took out his axe in the handaxe form which had been 40% of the wisp level.

It was a good limit and benchmark.

He walked through the dark force but it kept away from him like there was a small barrier around him.

He did as he always did, calling out for the specter while searching the first floor and seeing if there is no floor below before going upstairs but as he stepped on the stairs…

“AHHH!” A screeching shout came and a mutilated body of a woman with her mouth open like a snake that had unhinged its jaw and black fangs and claws jumped down. Her eyes were black as ink and he didn’t even wait, his body reacted instinctively and his axe shined only for a moment before he swung with shocking speed that even Mark didn’t know he had and the next moment he saw the spirit’s head flew off and the body smacked into his solid frame and dropped down motionless.

The head flew up and hit the middle of the steps and came rolling down with a thump each step and landed at his feet.

He looked down and was shocked by his own reaction time and after blinking a bit he took the head and body downstairs to the clear doorway and began to purging ceremony and a cry came from inside the spirit’s body and head as it was still ‘alive’ and resisting but he was a full rank stronger and his spiritual power slowly gathered and expanded.

At the final moment the head of the vengeful spirit tried to break its soul but the purging chant had advanced. Threads of darkness shot out and wrapped around the head and body and slowly pulled it like it was being sacrificed to a demon and pulled it in until it was completely gone.

When the last bit of the soul was through, the opening sealed shut and a visible drop of yellow energy was in its place and shot into Mark.

“So karma becomes visible the higher the rank. Interesting.” he smiled and called an inspector to clear the house and while he did that he checked the house and all its untouched but old items that had been left to rot since the spirit had kept anyone from taking it.

There was, unfortunately, nothing special and he had learned how to search for things. He still had plans to keep upgrading knowledge tiers and unlock more but he had a lot to learn from already even now.

By the time he finished looking through all the items, the inspector had opened the door and he was going downstairs.

“So finally going up a rank.” he said.

“I still plan to do clean sweeps but for now I’ll still limit myself until I get used to being a poltergeist. I doubt I can become a walking corpse for a few years.” Mark said.

The inspector snorted a laugh and took out a few talisman and a solid marble, the big kind that fit snug in the palm of your hand, and made a small temporary formation and activating all the talismans the dense dark force in the house and its surrounding was pulled out and concentrated into the marble.

“What are those used for anyway?” Mark asked.

“Dark force is basically spiritual power with a lot of negative energy mixed in. We’ve developed methods to extract the negative energy leaving just the spiritual power and use these as extra power sources for small things.” He explained.

When all of the dark force, or at least what was extractable, was removed they left but Mark looked at the remaining stuff. “Not going to clear the rest?” He asked.

“That stuff is firmly fixated, it will take a few days after the spirit is gone along with the concentration of dark force to be null around it for that stuff to leak out of the walls and floors before we can clear it all out. The stronger the evil spirit, the longer the cleaning process.” he said.

“Oh.” Mark said and looked at the map. “There are…” he paused and counted, “9 other vengeful spirits in the area, want to follow and wait for me to clear it out and start right after.” He asked.

The investigator raised his brow and smiled, “Truly, we love it when dedicated exorcists appear, although it is more work, we get more money for the work we do.” He said and they laughed as they headed off to clear the vengeful spirits from this small town and ended the day like that.

The payment, as expected, was so much better than just specters. The 150 to 500 spirit dollar went up to 2,500 to 4k and ten jobs depending on the danger marked for each resulted in $30k.

As he counted up the money he raised a brow, “No wonder the walking corpses and stiff corpses basically ignore the specters. Less work and more pay.” he said.

“Yeah, honestly you’ve helped quite a lot to reduce the struggles within the surrounding communities all over. This is especially true during this pandemic.” he said.

“No problem… By the way, isn’t this caused by disaster spirits? Are they still at large?” He asked.

“Yes, soul society can’t directly find them but if you’ve been following the community forums, you would have seen that over the last year we’ve already attacked and cleared out over 200 reborn dead in the USA alone and it’s begun to show results as the negative energy cloud over the USA has drastically decreased. Besides the 2 that were killed in the initial hunt there have been another 3 that were found throughout the world. As you can tell, the disease is getting weaker.” The investigator said.

“Yeah, I noticed.” he said and looked at the bounty board and showed him the area he would be working in tomorrow and with a nod they split off.

At the same time, IEO was also moving to continue dealing with evil spirits as they have always done.