"It’s worth taking the risk." Owen Bertram took out the Crystal Tiger Token from the Storage Brocade Pouch!
He wasn’t going to release the entire Ghost Army but rather chose a random, low-level Ghost Soldier and pulled it out from the Tiger Talisman. The source of the malicious power in Short-lived Valley were these Ghost Spirits.
No one knew what kind of changes would occur after releasing a Ghost Spirit into the valley after so many years.
However, as soon as the Ghost Soldier appeared in Short-lived Valley, Owen Bertram understood through his connection with it that this Ghost Soldier didn’t have much impact on the valley. But this was limited to this type of Ghost Soldier.
The Ghost Army Owen Bertram snatched from the Chaotic Demon also originated from ancient times. It only became a Ghost Army after Copper Gorge turned into Extinction Domain. The memories from its previous life were long gone, and it didn’t have the immense resentment and attachment like other malevolent spirits.
It belonged to a relatively "pure" category among Ghost Soldiers. It was rather compatible with the powers of Short-lived Valley!
If a vengeful evil spirit entered, the power within the entire valley might immediately boil over and surge towards it, either drowning it or setting off a chain of explosions.
When the Ghost Soldier arrived in the valley, it initially seemed at a loss, because Owen Bertram, who held the Crystal Tiger Token, ordered it to move freely and do whatever it wanted.
After a while, a floating shadow flew over, circled around the Ghost Soldier, and drifted away. Soon, other shadows flew over, seemingly accepting the Ghost Soldier as one of their own.
The Ghost Soldier began to move freely within the valley.
Through the restrictions of the Crystal Tiger Token, Owen Bertram could sense that the Ghost Soldier really started to join the power of the whole valley. Though it couldn’t fully integrate, it wasn’t rejected either.
Moreover, the Ghost Soldier began to blindly roam around like those shadows, but Owen Bertram could tell that they followed a certain constraint.
Owen Bertram followed, slowly realizing that any foreign object in Short-lived Valley, whether it was himself and other Cultivators or even a bird mistaken flying in, would be incompatible with the valley!
The sensation with the Ghost Soldier joining the valley’s power was completely different. Owen Bertram carefully pondered and racked his brain for a suitable metaphor: the Ghost Soldier was like food being consumed and slowly digested, integrating into the body, while outsiders were like steel needles piercing through the body, causing pain to Short-lived Valley, which couldn’t assimilate them. That’s why the valley was full of "malice" towards all outsiders. The life force of the outsiders would rapidly decline once they entered Short-lived Valley.
With this realization, a flash of insight struck Owen Bertram: the seemingly random trajectory of those shadows and Ghost Soldiers was, in fact, the exact path of the power circulating in Short-lived Valley!
It was similar to the Spirit Veins inside a Cultivator through which Spiritual Energy flowed.
"Does Short-lived Valley itself possess some characteristics of a living being?!" Owen Bertram was shocked by his conclusion but quickly accepted it: there were countless strange creatures in the world, so a valley becoming sentient due to coincidences was not that surprising.
Even without the intervention of human Cultivators, after a long time, this valley might become a primordial deity!