The painful sound of wood on body resounded all over as Mark watched from a raised platform as the first soldiers tested every recruit.

Naturally, everyone that had woken up was given their basic gear. Although it was extremely basic, it was enough to close any gap they may have with spirits.

However, if the registry had not been enough to show everyone how hard it would be, Mark made it his mission to get the soldiers to properly beat the message.

The 400 young army soldiers were quite skilled as you would expect. Although the change to wisp caused a lot of confusion for them, they were still ghosts rescued from a dark but active battlefield. Such a place was tainted in negative energies.

In fact, Soul society had to send special exorcists and outright armies to destroy ghosts in this place while rescuing any sentient soul that appeared among this chaos and get them out. No small number of ghosts of children came out of there and just desiring a peaceful life as their regret.

Such ghosts move on within the year of their rescue once they move to a genuinely safe place.

The real pain came when the other ghosts started up. Honestly, there were some whose souls were already nearly wisps and were the first to wake up. Of course, they had a gap to fill to reach exorcist standards but that wasn’t important. They were likely the first to officially reach wisp.

Sadly, however, they were also the most whinny and the ones that irritated the older soldiers, making them hit harder and bark like a drill sergeant in front of the entire field as they beat them until they could barely move.

Mark naturally wouldn’t be able to do this, his strength was already too high and he hadn’t had a chance to test his full strength yet and learned the feeling of holding back with his changed body.

Still, the men were very skilled in what they did and broke down each of them until they were nearly unconscious before slapping them awake and making them get in line, beaten as they were, to watch.

After a few hours, finally the last groups finished and basically 1,600 souls were bruised and beaten.

Mark finally stepped down and walked in front of them.

“This is what you will face if you do not straighten up, shut up and properly train. If you do that you will not face any troubles but if you whine, complain and fight the wave, you will find that we will send you on a one way trip to the afterlife. I don’t give a fuck if you were filtered through who knows how many screenings that soul society put you through, as soon as you accepted to get your name sighed, you gained spiritual power of an exoricists and you will train to use it properly. Am I understood!” He shouted.

“Sir yes sir!” The 400 soldiers and those who knew their place.

Those that were more mumbles, he narrowed his eyes. With his enhanced sense of his domain due to the hidden changes, he knew each mouth that had mumbled and he called out the book of registry and began to manipulate it.

Surprising the older soldiers, he literally made names float and rearranged all the names.

No one understood what was going on as he worked until he closed his book and looked at everyone. “What I just did was single out every last idiot who doesn’t have the motivation to train. Everyone who was serious, they have been moved up in my book and those who did not will be greatly tested. I should tell you, the Book of Ghostly Registry is in its infancy, I already have in mind many tiny adjustments for the book that makes it more efficient, improves the functions and soon many of these changes will take effect, even without increasing the number of child books used. However, this is one thing I’ve already noticed from the few changes I’ve done to the structure of its formation.” he stopped and walked back looking over the older soldiers and getting back on the platform before making his voice boom out, “The first and biggest change is a slowly developing hierarchy system and at the top are only 12 commanders who will receive direct energy from the book and they will split this mess of an army into divisions that will further funnel the amount of power reach person has. Don’t think that the benefits are going to remain the same, if you do not put the work into it, you will never get even close to these future seats that can equal my personal rank.” He said.

This time, they showed clear emotion. Of course, people who broke rank were instantly noted while those that only looked at one another were clearly suppressing their emotions at this moment as they should.

“Now, it will take roughly a month or so for you weaklings to stabilize in the wisp stage for you to do normal work. I am expecting each and every last one of you to put work into it. Don’t think that just reaching the stage of wisp is going to cut it. You are going to have to learn all the skills of an exorcist to do your fucking job. Also, jobs assigned, even in groups or solo, tend to be 10 jobs weekly and you are expected to have at least those ten done. However…” Mark said before he exerted the power of his soul which filled the entire field with his anger, “I expect you all to do much more than 10 jobs a week.”

“Sir! The bounty board for vengeful spirits only around Elizabethtown does not support nearly 2,000 working exorcists, sir!” One of the 400 soldiers shouted.

“Then clear out the specters. They are what become vengeful spirits, why wait for them to grow more dangerous. We have a territory of 17.5 km radius around Elizabeth town under our jurisdiction to clean out. As wisps and exorcists, as long as you know how to properly coat your sword and how to send souls on their way, you can clear out most vengeful spirits and specters. This is what this entire chaos of change that souls society underwent is for. We are here to make sure that there are no dark spirits left, even if there is no underworld, there is the void that is the afterlife and that is where souls should be going after death. Now you are dismissed, go back to your altars and begin training, your souls should grow faster and stronger after that beating.” he said.

He sent one of the older soldiers to the altar to put the book in place for them to get the energy feedback while he looked at the older soldiers and called a few of them.

“I need your help for my training. You will use me as a punching bag.” Mark said.

“Sir?” one of them said.

“That is exactly the order. As someone with my natural mortal shell, I found that taking immense damage is the key to properly making the strongest body. The more beat up it is, the more feedback I get to adapt. If a walking dead exorcist can still be damaged by wisps, that means he is an outright weakling and that isn’t what we are training to be so draw your swords and come at me. This will also help me test my reflexes but I won't be attacking, just defending and dodging.” Mark said.

The elder soldiers looked at one another and nodded before the five most senior members walked up before shouting, “All soldiers, commence your separate training, we will help commander Black.” the colonel said.

“Yes sir!” They shouted and each of them headed to the study hall to continue learning the arts of exorcists.

The five that remained drew their wooden swords and just outwardly coated it to give it extra punch to close the gap in strength. They already knew how to properly infuse their spiritual power so it made sense that they just used the blunt weapon instead.

After that they started a 2 hour slugfest where Mark was tossed, beaten and kicked to the ground. Of course, it wasn’t like the five didn’t get hurt but it was purely out of his natural defense. They had to be especially prepared when they kicked or punched him because his body was still dense and mostly only the weapons could actually hurt him.

When they ended, he coughed while his body felt swollen and it even felt like he had damaged bones.

A few of them even caught him in dangerous holds and didn’t hold back and dislocated his shoulders, once he was caught in a leg lock and actually felt his knee snap.

Because of his ghostly nature, he just cried out in pain before he turned his entire leg into ectoplasma and put it in place.

Towards the end, two of the five even infused energy properly and slashed him to start training his defense against blades and he had many normally lethal slices through his body.

“Well… if i didn’t look like a corpse or zombie before… I do now.” He said through a swollen lip.

The five were actually proud of their work. That said, it was surprising that his body was still vulnerable despite having advanced even if by natural means. It went to show just how different trained ghosts and natural grown ones were.

“You can go.” Mark said and held his limp arm. His mortal shell slowly turned into ectoplasm and the injuries causing problems for his mobility fixed itself but he felt the pain in all of it.

With a groan he put his shoulder back in place before he sighed and walked to his altar.

Sitting cross legged he just had one thought as he looked up and sensed the energy in the domain “It’s getting stronger… even with so many things using it and only with the one anchor.”

He smiled as his entire mortal shell broke down and returned to his soul orb before his soul was instantly covered in golden flames as he did the wisp stage once more.

There was no other option, he knew he had to adapt to the change of the domain from the start and it hit and smashed directly. The intense Karma he had absorbed appeared at this point and he felt his soul pull and all that energy turn into strands as it infused into the core of his soul before spreading through his ectoplasm.

He spent almost 6 hours before his mortal shell surged out and formed just the skin.

The cuts had turned into marked scars on his body just before his skin began to ripple and burst along all the wounds and started to repair itself.

The build up from the wisp stage was being felt and the altar was feeding him the energy he needed to do this.

If he had blood, it would have formed a pool already.

He spent nearly a day before his skin stopped any form of rippling and his bone condensed and all that feedback turned it to dust. Maybe because the setup was ‘correct’ this time, he was caught in a trance, much like the first time he started training and like many of the people who did like he did.

His bones sucked up spiritual power and weaved it into every grain of his solidified essence and slowly it began to form stronger bonds until his skeleton fully adhered and resisted the ripple and grew stronger until the waves no longer formed.

Next to form was his heart and circulation system but it was all ground to a paste, unable to barely solidify and it was rippled to shreds.

Already the others had noticed his disappearance and found him trapped in a trance while his body was a volcano of activities.

Billy looked at him from the last steps of the altar before turning, “No one takes a step beyond this last step.” He said simply. He searched through the formation blueprints until he found how to activate Mark’s lockdown.

He acted as representative and just told the older soldiers to train everyone as if it was a military boot camp.

After some thought, they broke the development just like one. Month 1 was meant to break disobedience, month 2 would include all types of classes from handling weapons properly to knowledge studies and month three was active training alongside actual jobs.

Those with more experience went along with the jobs to test them.

It was also a good refresher for the older soldiers to properly learn the technical skills better to not shame themselves.

It was put into practice for the first three months of 2022.

Mark didn’t move a single muscle during that time but his body broke down to mulch each step of the way. Each organ was ground to bits until it fully formed and could handle the immense waves.

Once the organs formed, the elemental energies in them and his body finally also recondensed his dantian, meridians and acupoints that were broken and damaged but as a spiritual organ and aspects of the body, they were quick to adapt and reform as robust as his body.

Finally, only after his brain and nerves, his muscles were the last to remake and was also the longest to train. The organs had been finished in the first month while the muscles alone took 2 months.

As the final ripples through his muscle fibers ran through, he took a deep breath as if life was returned to him and he clenched his fist, causing cracking and began to move.

The completely solid and properly formed body popped and cracked all over as he started to move and Mark stood up, feeling amazing.

“Wow, the strangeness in my body is gone… Wait… did the outside change?” he muttered as he noticed new constructions and higher workflow.

He deactivated the lockdown and walked out but instantly felt the larger bustle.

The roads of the central town were much more developed, he could see his soldiers training in squads and he saw that the buildings were far more developed and there were many more.

When one squad was passing back the sergeant stopped.

“Sir, you are finally out! The pressure from your soul is intense however.” He said.

“Is it leaking?” Mark exclaimed and focused as he felt his spiritual power in full motion and trying to enter his dantain.

He restrained it and removed what had entered that system and slowly his body returned to normal.

“How long was I in there?” he asked.

“Mr Madison said you fell into a training trance. It’s been 3 months, we’ve all but finished putting the recruits through bootcamp under his suggestion. We’ve been doing jobs as active training and now even us older soldiers are able to take jobs solo on the field, sir.” he explained.

“I need to catch up on the changes. I was stuck for too long.” He said.

That said, he did take the time to examine the recruits. He noticed a number of faces he had memorized and their much flimsier bodies had bulked up and they were in a neat file line.

“Well you all certainly put them in order.” Mark said.

“There is nothing like 4 drill sergeants to teach a few snot nosed maggots obedience.” the sergeant said.

“Good, call all the commanding officers, you’ve all watched over them so I want each of your input on every member.” Mark said.

“Are you going to pick the commander seats?” He asked.

“No, I might have if I hadn't fallen into a trance but I’ve not been able to enhance the book since then. I’ll take a while until then. I need to know which are trustworthy to make them squad leaders. We are expected to police the entire domain as well as do exorcist work. We need public order.” Mark said.

“Understood sir, I will call all the commanding officers.” He said and made the recruits follow and head off.

Mark didn’t waste time in going to catch up but at the same time, Elder Conway was present and was happy he was back. Although there was a lot of work, he pulled Mark to a training field and tossed him a practice weapon.

“Billy said you fell into a trance so that means your body has fully formed and trained in one go. Now is the best time before you are swamped by work to test your power.” Use it without reserve on me, I am not weak.” He said.

Mark grinned and breathed in before his assault began.

Soon the tremors attracted a huge amount of attention from those nearby and recruits and commanders rushed to see only to find Mark mid battle moving at supernatural speeds and attacking with force that cracked the ground.

Elder Conway negated a lot of force but even that didn’t stop the ground from breaking under the intense brutal power. He had to slowly adapt and finally find the level to fully block without collateral damage and he matched Mark’s speed.

“Hmm… as expected of an exorcist. I’m at roughly 30% of my power, he indeed has barely just stepped into the walking corpse. Even if he had the three month's to fix his body, he is still only catching up to the initial line of walking corpse. He has a long way to reach a stiff corpse.” he thought as he began to attack back to test Mark’s reflexes.

He was surprised that it had sharpened intensely and that was because his brain and nerves had been among the organs that formed. Even if it had yet to be spiritual enhanced, his spiritual power was pumping through everything and his brain was activated to much higher degree than mortal beings can normally achieve.

Still, reflexes are only just that, if the body cannot keep up, it might hinder them instead and he made sure to teach Mark this by speeding up and starting a small beating but it wasn’t as intense as what he had the 5 oldest soldiers do.

After no more than 5 minutes, they separated and landed apart while Mark was huffing while smiling and Elder Conway was no different.

“Your strength has properly grown into the walking corpse stage just like your body. Still it is just stepping into it, you’ve a long way to go.” He said.

“Don’t we all?” Mark replied. With a laugh he turned to see the crowd of recruits and members of Soul society looking at him in shock.

He approached and whispered, “So why are they shocked, Walking corpses should have this kind of performance?” He asked.

“It is not everyday that one goes ahead and attacks with all they’ve got. It even took a few seconds for me to adapt to your strength and it took 30% of my power to withstand it.” He said.

“30% huh…” Mark said and smiled. “I will take a break from training to do my work that has piled up but I need to check how the walking corpse grows.” He said.

“Indeed, it will be even more of a confusing path since you have a reformed dantian. The domain lords are all having a hard time adapting to the dual system similar to what mortals do.

That said, this small 5 minute bout gave Mark all the feeling he needed to know about his body and all the tingling sensations in his body. It was an amazing feeling and it was all calming down.

“Alright, show’s over! Get back to work!” he shouted.

He waited for them to slowly disperse before following the elders and start to catch up on the last 3 months of work.

A lot of it stemmed from the expanded land and running settlements and many other things. Primarily, the internal economy as well as how taxes would be imposed.

There was naturally a committee that had been built for each domain and Mark had the one for his to aid him.

He slowly listened and slowly learned about the growing economy.

“So… besides the soldiers and soul society members who gain money from outside and from the society itself, how have common souls been getting money?” Mark asked.

“They are mostly workers.” One of the elders said.

“We’ve been dividing the domains into territories so that each elder can manage easier areas and most farms are sponsored by your money and our organization. Workers get paid per harvest for their work. Because spiritual energy comes from the domain instead, we pay roughly 20% for farmers' work, of the rest, 30% comes to us for the knowledge, tools and instructions being our own and the rest goes to yourself which has been invested back to expand farming and fields.” the elders said, showing the growing expanse of farms.

“You’re uprooting the natural flora.” Mark instantly said when he saw that they already had nearly 60% of the initial base land deforested and part of the new area was in progress.

“Well, how do you think we will farm.” One of the elders said.

“Have you tested every plant for herbal or spiritual aspects?” He asked.

“Well… we have been gathering them and sending them to researchers.” one of the committee members said.

“Then you will quit expanding the farms and ruining the forests. The domain is only 80 km in diameter, even if it sustains a minor town of over 50 thousand to 200 thousand, it will not be at the expense of my domain's flora which 100% is possible to cultivate and domesticate.” He said.

“Sir, we get that you want to preserve your natural flora but… to use herbs… ghosts don’t need much of that stuff. What is the use for something like that for spirits?” one of the committee members asked.

“And here I was supposed to be the one learning yet I have to explain something.” Mark said, unsarcastically and very bluntly. “You guys are idiots, we don’t need herbs but mortals do. Besides self built spirit mountains made with domain crystals that humans obtain somehow, where else do you think they are going to look for large numbers of herbs? I mean, hell, all of the weapons are made from local trees but you guys are ripping all that out like it is weeds!” He shouted. “If you want money, put money into research and figure out the local herb and flora and then we can open trade up with the IOE.” he said.

“Sir, you want to openly trade with them?!” they shouted.

“This is why soul society and the IOE are at odds, you don’t even consider that they might have valuables to trade which can be then traded within soul society for something that is actually worth the price. It is the way of the market, you don’t see muslems paying in gold for common cosmetics and perfumes they make on their own but when they reach other countries it is worth its weight in gold, we have the only source so we are also control a market unique to us if you can’t understand that then you can leave.” Mark said.

They were all embarrassed by the harsh criticism from the young man. Even the elders had nothing to say.

In fact, it was funny that they acted like this because it was exactly how early 19th century people were. They gave no mind to the extractivism mentality and ‘left it for future generations’ to handle. Sadly for them, the head of command of this domain ‘was’ the future generation that handled things.

Mark instantly began to designate areas for preservation and research. All farms were to exit out of there.

“I’ll make it a single warning right now, if every farm is not cleared out from the areas I marked out, I will personally purge every soul there.” He said.

It was a heavy handed warning but he was going to develop his unique market even if he had to trade with IOE. They naturally had great treasures and even knowledge that soul society looked down on and most of all, they had cultivation manuals. Only those with domains would see any value in them and Mark wanted to learn about mortal cultivation and it’s systems to see if it was compatible with his newly formed body.

It was overlooked for sure. That is why he already had in mind to use his natural resources to obtain that but felt irritated when he found his domain getting abused like this.

When he saw the committee members not replying he narrowed his eyes, “I’m serious, I’ve learned how to sense all movement and presence in my domain due to the changes and the effects it had back on me. Even now I know there are 89 people including 13 hidden underground chambers in several spots along these farms which house my local flora… hmm and are being prepared for smuggling to other domains.” He said growing increasingly irritated.

“Mark, that is not true!” One of the elder said.

“I’m sure it is, it is also interesting that it is in your territory that this specific farm I pointed to is located.” He said.

“Huh…” he said.

The old man suddenly felt a stifling feeling from Mark’s glare at him. It was almost like it was seeing into his core.

Elder Conway intervened, “We came here to catch up on happenings, not to start a civil war.” He said.

“This is my domain, the natural resources are mine. Even if you say that the spiritual vent is yours, that is the only thing because of the density of the spiritual energy in the domain, the resources that had gone into the foundation and all that were paid for by me.” he said.

“Mark, we aren’t trying to make enemies from friends.” He replied.

“I’m certainly not but I don’t accept my benefits to get stolen for someone else's.” He said.

“You’ve only reached this point because of our knowledge and support.” the elder being questioned said before snorting.

“Knowledge of which I purchased every step of the way. Resources I’ve purchased, as for the vent, I never asked for it, i wanted a peaceful forest cabin away from the city but you gave me a mansion with a ley line vent. Without detaching it and the elevator, I cannot move without destroying the tens of millions of spirit dollars I’ve put into this domain.” He said.

The elder was not exactly happy and Mark even less so. In fact, Mark already knew the cause of this. The elder was Billy’s friend but not Mark’s.

He was also a big time barkeeper and wanted to grow as well. He naturally wants to become an earthbound spirit and most of these elders were stuck at the stiff corpse, chained to their bonding items. Training systems for the earthbound spirit was merit earned only. Domain lords were kept in special regard now because they could produce homes for ghosts but some people found it wasn’t fair that they could ascend past the blockade that was this stage while they couldn’t.

“Are you going to clear it out?” he asked.

“And if I say no?” the elder said, finally getting close to losing his patience.

“Okay, you want to see what ‘no’ gives. I’m sure you have video surveillance. Open the channel for it.” he said.

They looked at him strangely and he closed his eyes and gathered his hands together. In his soul, the void key began to spin rapidly as he used it.

The elder suddenly felt something bad as he connected the visuals and opened the farms only for them to see the land literally exploding and bursting before it began to sink and engulf everything in the area.

Mark was sweating to do this but he made the earth start to spin and grind everything down to the last bit and only the souls were able to get away because he allowed it but no building or item survived as the ground began to break down from massive cliffs into boulders and even loose gravel and fill the land back.

Most surprisingly was that the destroyed land began to pulse and scattered violet grass sprouts began to appear.

Finally Mark sighed and opened his eyes to see the projection and the elder that had built this smuggler's farm in shock.

“Done, now I will ask for you to leave my domain since you’ve clearly shown that you are more interested in your benefits.” He said.

“You, you’ve got some nerve saying that after accepting my domain crystal” He shouted and his aura exploded.

“If you're worried about that then take it.” Mark said and took out the money for two crystals. “There, double the money for your gem. Nearly 25 million, you can buy one and get a second and find a ley line vent to make your own domain just as you want.” He said coldly.

He looked at the other elders, “Those of you working your smuggling, you are also invited to leave.” he said.

There were four more elders.

“Mark, this is serious!” Elder Conway said.

“I don’t care.” he said. “I like you, elder Conway, because you helped me and actually took care of me. Although the spirit tea was a small thing that you wanted to get benefits from but any merchant wants to but you aren’t trying to steal while trying to blindfold me. Just like how you said that I was lucky to have met Billy and picked your bar. You said, at the time, that other bar keepers wouldn’t have thought twice to rip me off. I can see that your words were indeed true and now I want to rectify the mistake that I had snuck in as a friend. Leave.” he said to those who were less than friendly to the workings of his domain.

“I want to see you try.” The elder said in a cold, dark tone.

“Fine.” Mark said and directly took the void key out, confusing everyone before it shined and all the stiff corpse elders except Elder Conway vanished.

“Wha!” the elder exclaimed.

“Where did they go… and that orb!” he exclaimed.

“Neat right, initially it had no reactions but when I began to work on my domain, it discovered that it helped control aspects of the domain beyond what others can do. One of them is expelling people.” He said.

“Where did you send them?” he said.

“They should be popping out in Elizabethtown.” He said.

“How did it get sent so far?” He asked.

“Well the domain is just anchored to the vent and the elevator, it doesn’t mean the physical space is still in the same dimensions of the small cave under the mansion.” Mark said.

“I also sent out their most loyal followers so I will be arranging people to take over the management. Just like taking care of the mansion, it seems only when you run it yourself that things work out properly.” Mark said.

He got up and walked out to gather his soldiers and properly examine the domain in person and hand out orders. He gathered the librarians and picked several and labeled them the new mayors of the towns evacuated by the elders.

Of course, they would likely come back but Mark already had their spiritual marks, he simply infused them into the barrier of the domain and activated the blocking mechanism in the domain.

Eventually he felt a massive shake in the barrier but it held on perfectly but the elevator didn’t and their angered bursts actually damaged it.

Mark’s eyes shined at that moment as he took the chance to disconnect that connection and leave only the Elizabethtown anchor to hold it.

There was an obvious shift and Mark blamed all of those old bastards for breaking one of the few exits. If he did not have the orb there would be no exit possibly.

As for the exit, it was naturally the portal but he shot them outside the hole all the way on top so they wouldn’t see the formation.

Sadly, this event put Elder Conway between his old colleagues and Mark and maybe even soul society and he decided of his own violation to leave.

Mark couldn’t do much about it, he was able to easily send them out and bring people. In fact, those he had sensed the aura of, if they were within Elizabethtown, he would be able to sense and pull in.

He still planned to work as a member of soul society, he confirmed that, but not with those elders. He caught up with other work soon after and finally went to see the army, who was extremely respectful to him after his bout with Elder Conway.

He revealed what happened and that he was establishing the policing division with the army and they would work shifts through all the settlements. The number of officers was based on population naturally.

This became the first division. After that he got his budget of excess money and properly distributed it with the librarians and committee members on important development objectives and with the excess, he ordered book embryos to improve his book.

It was a major event that he expelled the elders and even more that the elevator had broken and disconnected but he could do nothing else about it. He still came out to do his job with his soldiers though and built an HQ over the hole and housed the large seal formation in the basement and added secondary formations as a secondary measure to contain the miasma. It ended up a good measure to hide the entrance of the domain as well.

Like that, the strongest of those left by soul society were only those a little stronger or equal to him.

It didn’t stop him from buying materials and the books that would begin the true transformation of his book into a much higher quality rendition.