“So, what I am seeing, the energies that seem to pulsate with evil, are real? Evil isn’t just symbolic; these souls are really being torn apart?” I asked, still not sure what my senses were detecting was true.

“The souls you see are the psychic imprint left within the astral plane. The soul of the dead shape, influence, and manifest as this pale reflection. These people have been suspended in place, waiting to be harnessed.

“There is evidence that harnessing of energies was beginning to take place. A cultist has molded the energies. Whoever was responsible for creating this mass grave practiced demonic cultivation techniques,” Toi replied. “You must look into that and ensure that person is hunted down.”

“It wasn’t the person responsible for their deaths,” I responded thoughtfully. “Lord Chon was a greedy, glutinous waste of breath. He would have wasted no time becoming a cultist if he could have, but he was a non-cultivator. Even cultivating demonic energy was beyond him.”

“What do I do to form the soul array?” I asked.

The sight of so many people writhing in agony was terrible enough, but as time passed, more of my senses were being affected. The sounds of souls writhing in torture began to carry across the aether, like fingernails across a chalkboard, the sound grated. The smell was even worse. The scent manifested here on the astral plane. The smell of decay and rot was almost more than I could stomach.

I needed to get this done so I could leave and those trapped in death could escape the nightmare Chon had facilitated. He might not have been the cultist involved in this atrocity, but he had been the well-spring that allowed it to happen. He supplied the fuel for the Demonic practitioners to take advantage of.

“You need to embrace the ectoplasm energies that surround you. Just as you can cycle and direct Qi, you need to do the same with soul energy,” Toi explained.

“I need to cultivate, gathering this energy instead of Qi?”

“Not exactly.

“You don’t want to fill your Dantian with this energy. Instead, it would be best if you guided it as you would a Dantian spell or alchemical fire. Allow it to flow through you without becoming a part of you.

“You will become a conduit for this energy. Because your soul is already formed, there is no room for any additional soul energy to be added. Trying to gather and refine the stuff of this soul realm would change you irreparably,” she warned.

“The energy in this plane is comprised of the bits and pieces from all life. The auric detritus that every living thing sheds, no matter how insignificant or grand. If you tried to claim it, it would work but more like a virus trying to infect your soul. Each particle of life you absorbed would then fight to claim your body.

“It is the fastest and easiest way for a person to become possessed. This realm can serve as a trap, one that Demonic cultivators lay for the ignorant or desperate.”

Toi’s warning was worrisome. I needed to control the ectoplasmic energy without making it a part of me. That made this more complicated than it might have been because I needed not only to make a concerted effort not to absorb it, I needed to make sure that nothing was absorbed by osmosis.

Every time I had the slightest bit of success, my Dantian spirit jerked, worried that I was about to invite a bit of residue inside my channels that would leave me open to the bits of soul that had been shed. Flakes of past lives that would begin possessing my body.

It was strange thinking of the soul realm as one made up of cast-off bits of soul energy. I even had to stop myself from laughing when I imagined a God wearing a maid’s outfit and carrying a dusting wand to restore order to the bits of soul dander that had collected over the eons.

The sounds and smells of the souls trapped didn’t help my concentration. It even seemed as if the souls I was trying to free were watching, waiting for me to have a small amount of success before they would work themselves into a frenzy, breaking my concentration to keep me from succeeding.

Eventually, despite their efforts, I succeeded. I was forced to maintain the same focus for this type of energy control as I used when cultivating [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath]. I had learned to be systematic with my cultivation because a mistake in cycling that cultivation technique would have disastrous results. I needed that same dedication and attention to detail when controlling the ectoplasm.

Treating the soul energy was a laborious process. The same patterns and techniques I used for my alchemical fire worked somewhat. It gave me enough control that I was able to create a circuit for the energy to flow through without risking contamination.

But it was not easy. It was even more challenging than when I had first learned to cycle my alchemical fire. The ectoplasm would fight my control. Each incremental step forward was a constant war for control, a battle that tested my will and determination.

Once I had some semblance of control, I used the techniques I’d learned for Dharmic spells when directing Qi energy into spell shapes. Weak and flimsy at first, the shapes I made were barely gossamer shapes of smoke that held together for the briefest of seconds.

“Good,” Toi said once I’d managed to form a circle of soul energy sturdy enough to maintain its shape for more than a few seconds.

“Now you need to shape the soul array into a pattern.

“It will be layered,” she continued using illusion or her soul energy to project the pattern and shape she was describing. “You need to begin by forming a triangle. Once that has been developed, you create a septagram that contains the triangle in the center. After that, you overlay a hendecagram, a star shape with eleven vertices. The septagram needs to maintain its position in the center of the hendecagram.

“The use of prime numbers: three, seven, and eleven serve to create a symbiotic relationship between intent and will. There is a reason those numbers are used so often in ritual and runic creation. Prime numbers are representative of the complexity of how the universe works and is ordered. Those numbers can be used to explain, in math form, the [Dao] behind the Universe’s working.”

Building a mental image, I worked slowly to form the shapes and angles needed to create the soul array to the required specifications. Toi would examine each attempt before swiping her hand across the image I had projected, destroying it in the process.

“Again,” she said after what felt like the hundredth attempt. “The degree for each angle on your hendecagram is off. They need to be 147.27 degrees. You have some at 151, and it is creating an imbalance that will cascade out of control if you try to activate it.”

I wanted to point out that it was impossible to create something so precise without mechanical aid, but she scoffed at my complaint when I mentioned my reasoning after one of my earlier failures.

“Use that eidetic memory that every Qi Gathering cultivator possesses. I have demonstrated the shape and contours of the array you need to form. Make a template using your memory of what I showed you and overlay your pattern with the one from your memory.”

I wish she had suggested that earlier or that I had made the leap in logic to make the connection without her input, but I complied once she had presented a solution to my problem. Her idea worked, and I was able to make an exact replica of the array, layering each pattern with the exacting precision she had demanded.

The energy I was trying to shape seemed to snap into position as the memory of what she had formed and what I was trying to form took shape, and Toi was satisfied with my effort.

The soul array was a mathematical representation of lines and angles that focused the [Dao] into those channels using soul energy and the secret of prime numbers to approach perfection.