The list of text disappeared, and a man-sized diagram of Acupuncture Points replaced it. However, this diagram had a red spot in the middle of the chest. Victor had seen images of his own CT scan to know that was where his core was located. Reunion pointed at the core in the diagram and began.

“We know Takuma is being possessed by the ghost. This means the ghost is in his body. After it has been formed, the core will also be part of his body. So, after forming the core, you just need to force the ghost into the inner world.”

Victor looked at Reunion in worry. “That’s what I don’t understand. You want to force the ghost into his core. Why? Isn’t that worse? After all, the core is the location of a cultivator’s inner world.”

“Yes, and no.” Reunion touched his sunglasses like a teacher would and explained. “The core is a cultivator’s inner world, but most cultivators would not be able to access their inner world till the Unity Stage.” Reunion looked at Victor proudly. The villain looked back at the system with a blank look on his face.

“Uh…I still don’t get it.”

“And I am supposed to be the baby here.” Reunion palmed his face. “Okay, let me guide you with baby steps. What are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits of the departed who are linger in our world when their souls should have moved on. The reason for this varies, and we are not interested in that, but for them to linger on in this world, ghosts need two things. An anchor, and a source of power.” Reunion stopped once more, and this time Victor nodded.

“The ghost was in that scroll when your son opened it. When that happened, the ghost jumped from the scroll into Takuma’s body. The ghost is now within Takuma, and it is using your son’s body as an anchor in the physical world. Now, the best way to get rid of a ghost is make it so uncomfortable, it will leave the body of the possessed. Usually, this mean magic. For whatever reason, magic does not work on this ghost. So, since we can’t force the ghost to leave Takuma, we do an alternative treatment. We force it into a specific part his body.”

Victor suddenly understood where Reunion was going with this. “Like cutting off an infected body part to save a life.”

“In a way,” Reunion admitted, “but better since we will not be cutting off any body parts from your son. In fact, we will be adding something to him. Once you form a core in Takuma, he will become a cultivator. Having more cultivators on Nexus is already a ‘Win’ in my book, but Takuma won’t wake up with just that. His body is still the anchor of the ghost, his spirit is still used by the ghost as a power of power. What I am proposing is to force the ghost into a specific part of the body that isn’t of much use to him. He may be able to draw in Qi after you form the core, but as a low-level cultivator, Takuma would not be able to assess his inner world. More importantly, the ghost would not be able to get out. It will be trapped inside the core. If you managed to do to trap the ghost, Takuma should wake up as his body will no longer be infected by the ghost.”

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Victor nodded. He understood where the system was coming from, but he still had questions. “Takuma would still have a ghost in him. How would that affect him? Will there be any side-effects?”

“There would be some side-effects.” Reunion admitted. “He may feel a sense of weakness and be more prone to bouts of tiredness, but all that could be mitigated.”

“How?”

“Exercise, a healthy diet, even cultivation. Remember, if this works, Takuma would be a cultivator and there are ways for cultivators to make use of ghosts.”

“You said that earlier. You said that there are cultivators who specialized in ghost techniques. What do these techniques do?”

Reunion rubbed his chin again. “Well, there are many ways for cultivators to make use of ghosts. Most used them as summons, and have the ghosts fight for them in battle, but there are many other uses. I remember one special cultivation method used by the cultivators of Heonn. The cultivators from that area let themself be possessed by a ghost, bonding with it. As the cultivator grows stronger, so would the ghost. However, if the cultivator reached a bottleneck in their cultivation, they would sacrifice the ghost and drain all the Qi of the ghost into their core. This is usually more than enough to break whatever bottleneck they faced.”

Victor raised a eyebrow at Reunion’s story. “That sounds like a great technique. I take it there is a downside to it.”

“Oh, there are several.” Reunion said. “The ghost is good for only one-time use. Once it is sacrificed, the cultivator will need to find another ghost of comparable power. This means that a cultivator in the Sea Stage will need to find a ghost near the Sea Stage and let it possess him. The limitations for that are clear. There is also the social aspect of the cultivation technique. Most ghost cultivators have a sickly aura and most people, even other cultivators, are uncomfortable around them. Most people don’t want to around people who are sick.”

Victor looked at Reunion in dismay. “That sounds very bad. Is there no other way for you to help Takuma?”

“Sure, there are. If you are willing to wait a few years to train in other techniques. This is the fastest way.”

Victor sighed. “Very well. How many points do I need for this ‘Qi Transfer’ technique again?”