Jizhou City Lord, Human or Ghost?

The Ninth Prince left the capital and arrived in Jizhou in just one day.
Traveling all the way into Jizhou City, the martial artists in the city were not much fewer than those in the capital, only their realms were generally slightly lower.
A person like Ye Fan, a fifth-grade Houtian, was already considered a half-expert.

...

It was not until he met the Jizhou City Lord, Zhang Ceye, and saw this upright, sharp-featured middle-aged city lord wearing a simple Taoist robe, smiling honestly without any official airs, yet clearly not an ordinary person.

"Ninth Prince, this humble one is the Jizhou City Lord, Zhang Ceye. I have been waiting for you for a long time."

...

Ye Fan blinked a few times, discovering that the opponent's strength was actually also first-grade Xiantian?
Just as Ye Fan subconsciously activated 'Ling Tong Zi' to observe.
What a Jizhou City Lord! Inside Zhang Ceye's body was a pitch-black mass, like a bottomless abyss, extremely bizarre.
His strength was absolutely not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Just then, the 'young monk' Zhi Shen also coughed twice, seemingly very uncomfortable with the opponent.
Hearing Zhi Shen's cough, Zhang Ceye's gaze also shifted toward the strongest person in the Ninth Prince's entourage.
Zhang Ceye's voice suddenly turned somewhat eerie:

"An outcast of the Heavenly Master Sect, Zhang Ceye. May I ask for your Dharma name?"

"A sweeping monk of the Xiangguo Temple, Zhi Shen."

The moment they met, they seemed like mortal enemies, and the atmosphere abruptly changed.
The black power inside Zhang Ceye's body expanded continuously, and Zhi Shen's realm also began to rise to a higher level.
It seemed they were about to clash.
Seeing that the power inside Zhi Shen's body was about to lose balance again, Ye Fan could not publicly help the monk absorb it.
Thus, Ye Fan spoke up to 'remind' the Ninth Prince.

"Your Highness, we are exhausted from the journey and should rest a bit. We can discuss the martial arts assembly with City Lord Zhang tomorrow."

The Ninth Prince had never traveled far, and compressing a three-day journey into one day had left him very tired.
He said to the Jizhou City Lord:

"City Lord Zhang, then we shall meet again tomorrow."

...

Upon reaching the door of the guest room, Ye Fan asked:

"Monk Zhi Shen, have you taken a liking to the Jizhou City Lord?"

Zhi Shen was dazed and confused.

"Just now, I saw the two of you gazing passionately at each other..."

The Ninth Prince also nodded in agreement from the side:

"I saw it too... Zhi Shen, although you are a monk and cannot break the precepts regarding love between men and women, if the other party is a man... does that not count as breaking the precepts?"

Monk Zhi Shen looked at the two of them acting all mysterious, completely helpless.

"It is not as you see. This little monk and he are enemies."

"Enemies?"

Monk Zhi Shen's voice became solemn.

"Roughly the kind destined by fate."

Ye Fan burst into a hearty laugh:

"And you still say it's not? 'Destined by fate'—it seems you, monk, have developed mortal desires."

"Nonsense, this little monk does not understand."

Monk Zhi Shen decisively closed the door to practice meditation.
Jokes aside.
The Ninth Prince turned to ask Ye Fan:

"Was there something wrong just now?"

"Perhaps monks and Taoists do not get along very well."

The Ninth Prince nodded thoughtfully:

"I understand. I will limit their meetings in the future."

In reality, even today, deep down, the Ninth Prince did not fully believe the young monk was a first-grade Xiantian expert, and subconsciously still wanted to protect his subordinate.

...

Ye Fan left the City Lord's Manor alone. He had originally intended to quietly visit the old estate of the Ye clan in Jizhou to fill in the gaps regarding his identity.
But just as he stepped out, he saw Zhang Ceye leaving the manor with his head lowered, looking in a hurry.
By comparison, the bizarre Zhang Ceye interested Ye Fan much more.
Thus, Ye Fan quietly trailed behind Zhang Ceye.
But after walking for a while, the surrounding houses grew increasingly sparse, and the mountain path became more deserted. If Ye Fan weren't confident in his stealth, he would have suspected that Zhang Ceye was intentionally leading him in circles.
Sure enough, before long, they arrived.
This was a gray graveyard, with broken tombstones and yellowed white bones scattered everywhere. On a mound not far away, strange creatures that Ye Fan had never seen before were crouching.
Zhang Ceye suddenly fell to one knee, vomiting uncontrollably.
His body was hunched, his face contorted in pain.
Ye Fan quietly activated 'Ling Tong Zi'.
Splendid.
The black mist inside Zhang Ceye's body was constantly escaping, and his face began to turn aged and withered.
The once tall and handsome man collapsed to the ground, and only when the black mist stopped pouring out did he finally manage to crawl back up.
At this moment, Zhang Ceye's realm had dropped to only first-grade Houtian.
Yet the black mist in front of him actually possessed strength of its own!?

"Above the first-grade, profound and unpredictable?"

"What on earth is this ghostly thing?"

After Zhang Ceye crawled up, the black shadow spoke again.

"Haha, I did not expect that my path would not be lonely, and that someone would accompany this poor Taoist to this wild little country."

After he stopped vomiting, Zhang Ceye appeared very casual.

"Who on earth was that monk just now? Why could he cause you to suddenly awaken?"

"That monk is also someone like you."

"He is also a reincarnated soul?"

"No, he is like you, merely a vessel."

"..."

"But you are me, and I am you; we are one... Whereas the thing inside that young monk's body is like a parasite, waiting until it recovers to its peak to devour him."

Zhang Ceye let out a long breath.

"I understand. You already know about the events of the past few days. What should we do next?"

The black shadow made a grating sound again.

"Hehehe, isn't this simple?"

Zhang Ceye was somewhat puzzled.

"Then why don't we eat the young monk first?"

"Kekeke, if he could be eaten, I would have devoured him the moment I woke up."

"The thing inside his body is too strong; we are no match for it. If you want to live a few more years, take a detour whenever you see him in the future."

...

A black shadow meeting another black shadow.
Ye Fan was also very excited.
Previously, using the Qing Lian to devour the strange black shadow was equivalent to a lucky sign-in.
Now another black shadow had appeared; should he devour this one too?

...

Unfortunately, in just the blink of an eye.
Zhang Ceye and the black shadow inside his body merged into one, and his strength returned to first-grade Xiantian.
Devouring a human didn't seem very good, did it?
This Jizhou City Lord should still be carefully observed before making a decision.
However, to make Zhang Ceye run to this place to release the black shadow, there must be something special about this location.

"Hehe."

"Ding, detected that the master is at a new location, Jizhou Ghost Grave. Do you choose to sign in?"

"Confirm."

"Congratulations on receiving a 'Gui Wang Dan'."

The Gui Wang Dan could significantly boost a cultivator's strength, but it had unknown effects on the body.
Ye Fan swallowed it without a second thought.
Very quickly, Ye Fan regretted it a little.
His strength rose rapidly, from the early stage of the Nascent Soul to the mid-stage, and then to the late stage.
But just at this moment.
The Nascent Souls inside his body suddenly began to reject each other.
One Nascent Soul actually split into three parts!

...