Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!-Chapter 1704: Sect Quest Complete
-----
Everyone in the sect enjoyed the stew that Maria served.
"Bread? I’ve never seen this before... it’s... Hmm, not a bad taste!"
"It’s spongy and crunchy, salty... and soft inside."
"Ooh, check this! You can dip it in the stew, and it absorbs all the broth like a sponge!"
"Uooooh! You’re right!"
These people, who had lived most of their lives eating plain white rice, some radish, and the occasional chicken egg or fish, were amazed. The stew also had red meat—cow meat from Azure Star. It was tender and flavorful, giving everyone plenty of energy. The potatoes were new to them, big and tasty, while the carrots were sweet, and the tomatoes added a wonderful depth of flavor to the meal.
"Seconds please!"
"Seconds!"
"We want seconds, sect master!"
Maria was already preparing more stew in large pots, laughing and nodding.
"Hehe, alright! Wait a bit, okay? Don’t be so hasty, my children. You train so much, and you’re growing, so of course you need more food."
Slowly, everyone’s perception of Maria changed. The Elders couldn’t believe how quickly they had come to love her. Her motherly care and inspiring speeches had won them over. Many of the disciples were orphans who had never met their mothers, so having a sect master so close to them, who acted almost like an adoptive mother, was truly comforting. It made them happy and motivated them to work even harder.
"Also drink this natural fruit juice. It’ll give you all the vitamins you need."
Maria shared 100% fruit juice from Azure Star with no preservatives. It was a fairly expensive brand, but Maria didn’t care about the cost. She had earned a tremendous amount of money in Azure Star and continued to profit from selling nightmare monster corpses and other ventures.
"It’s sweet!"
"So many fruit flavors I’ve never tried..."
"This is... it’s definitely a heavenly feast only Immortals enjoy!"
The disciples rejoiced as Maria laughed. Her family and friends also enjoyed the food, sharing stories of their experiences.
The White Mist Immortal and his Elders watched in silence. The atmosphere had changed instantly. What had once been a torn-apart sect dominated by a tyrant had become a warm family. The fear everyone had felt was gone.
"So this is her true power, huh?" the White Mist Immortal smiled with his demonic face. "What a shrewd woman... A master of manipulation."
"Really? I think she’s just genuinely kind," Yoomyung said. "Look at her face—she’s enjoying this."
"I hate to admit it, but she’s... better than us."
"I agree..."
The other two Elders sighed and nodded. They realized they had been managing the sect wrong all this time. Never before had they seen their disciples work so hard and smile so much.
"You see it now, don’t you?" Wu Lieng laughed, stroking his beard. "This is the power of Lady Maria. She’s not just strong. She has something about her that draws people in, turning them into a strong family that protects one another. This is how she built her town back home."
"Town? She must have a giant city, right?" the White Mist Immortal asked. "No, perhaps an entire empire spanning a continent..."
"Ah..." Wu Lieng fell silent, recalling Maria’s town as just a small village of refugees surrounding the ruins of an old, fallen kingdom. "My Lady has modest and humble desires..."
He didn’t tell them about the little village she loved, nor that she wasn’t interested in building a nation. Revealing that would have broken the admiration the Elders and Sect Master were beginning to feel for her.
"Phew, what a morning," Maria sighed in relief, finally sitting down to enjoy a meal with her family. She ate from a big bowl of meat stew, chomping on the boiled potatoes in a single bite.
Some disciples watched their new sect master eating, giggling. She didn’t eat any differently than they did, and they found her more relatable than the White Mist Immortal, who always remained high above the skies, never descending to meet or supervise them.
As she rested, new notifications appeared.
Ding!
[Congratulations, all assigned disciples have completed the Sect Master Quest!]
[Rewards]: [Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: First Form – Phantasmal Fist: 100% Comprehension] [+1,000,000 Attack] [+1,000,000 KI]
[The Skill: Ghostly Fist Sect Master: Lv1 has Leveled Up!]
FLASH!
Maria’s eyes opened wide, turning completely white for a moment. She stopped eating, her mind dragged elsewhere.
There, she saw the efforts and enlightenment of everyone—their lives, their sorrows, their fears, and their grief. The Phantasmal Fist Technique she had once considered "shallow" no longer felt that way. She now understood perfectly why it existed and what its purpose was.
"It’s just the building block, a single fist technique that will help everyone go even further..." Maria smiled silently as she saw the final vision.
It was her own vision: how she had been captured in Yggdrasil, and how she was executed. In that moment, when her head rolled to the ground, she felt an indescribable sense of frustration, sorrow, grief, fear, and despair. She had wished she could use her ghostly soul to strike back, to punish those who had harmed her and her family. But as a mere soul, she had been powerless, forced to rely on magic to survive.
Deep down, she had wanted to use her fists to punish them. This was the philosophy behind the technique—to use her very soul to take revenge, to punish those who inflicted pain and agony upon it.
"I see... that’s a little too complicated," Maria thought, giggling. "But I like it."
She felt the power of the technique manifest within her fists. Phantasmal flames flowed with explosive elemental force. She not only had the fully mastered form of the first step of her Ghostly Fist School, but it was further boosted by her titles, skills, and stats.
By infusing it with her Nether, the phantasmal flames shifted to purple, then green and dark hues, becoming even stronger.
Maria nodded, satisfied with the results. After ten minutes of rest following lunch, she rejoined her disciples.
"Alright, your next and last quest for the day is this..."
[Your Sect Master has granted you a Training Quest: {Hunt Any Martial Beast Exclusively Using the Phantasmal Fist}!]
[Your Sect Master, Maria, has decided to help you further refine your abilities and mastery over the Phantasmal Fist, the building block of the Ghostly Fist Technique. Practicing alone won’t get you far, as these Martial Arts require real combat—life and death—to truly flourish.]
[Rewards]: [Spectral Ghostly Fist Art: First Form – Phantasmal Fist Comprehension] [+300 Attack Stat] [+100 KI Stat]
[Time Limit]: [12 Hours]
-----
