Ghost Zhan

Ghost Zhan, usually called Old Ghost Zhan, is the creator of the Battle Scrolls and the strongest known native cultivator to arise inside the cave before Wang Lin. His apparent role as a ruthless architect of the Inner–Outer Realm war conceals a second history: he once opposed the sealed world's division, failed an Arcane Tribulant, and survived only by fusing with one of the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign's separated souls. That fusion preserves his body and power while distorting his judgment into an obsessive search for the Sovereign's missing third soul. (Chapters 1204, 1663, 1666, 1695, and 1785)

Biography

Battle Scroll founder

Ghost Zhan first exists in the narrative as a problem hidden behind the Zhan family's inheritance. Wang Lin recognizes that the old man seen within the Battle Scrolls is their creator and may be the “Old Ghost Zhan” feared by the Sovereign. The Sovereign gives the Battle Scroll to Zhan Xingye, encourages him to cultivate a battle domain, kills him for his soul, and searches for Ghost Zhan's concealed bones. These layers turn the Zhan legacy into bait, map, and fragment of a much older conflict rather than a simple family technique. (Chapter 1204)

The creator himself does not need the scrolls to manifest his power. He owns the battle essence from which they descend and can condense the written character for “battle” into attacks. His long cultivation carries him through eight Arcane Tribulants, one short of the threshold he seeks. No other cave native is said to have advanced so far at that time. (Chapters 1626–1631, 1663, and 1777)

Failure, fusion, and the war he once hated

Ghost Zhan's history is deliberately revealed late. He and companions such as Lu Cai, Li Dong, and Chang Yi once resented the conflict between the Inner and Outer Realms and vowed to destroy the Realm Sealing Formation so the Inner Realm could walk free. After failing an Arcane Tribulant, however, his body decays and his origin soul collapses. A strange beast attacks him at the moment of death, and he becomes the vessel for the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign's dao-comprehension soul. (Chapters 1666 and 1746)

The fusion gives him continued life and greater power but does not leave his personality untouched. The Sovereign's divided souls are searching for their missing counterpart, and Ghost Zhan becomes one pole of that contest. He later admits, with bitter clarity, that he has become a source of the same realm war he once wanted to end. That contradiction is fundamental to him: the schemer pursuing the third soul is neither entirely the original cave cultivator nor simply the invading soul inside him. (Chapters 1666, 1695, 1750, and 1777–1778)

Watching Wang Lin

Ghost Zhan enters the Inner Realm openly when the Li Guang Bow is brought across the boundary. He lets its bowstring slaughter the surrounding Outer Realm army, confirms what he came to see, and disappears without attempting to claim the weapon. When the bow later recognizes Wang Lin's transformed celestial blood, the result surpasses even Ghost Zhan's expectations. (Chapters 1532–1535)

From hiding, he watches Wang Lin acquire six essences, endure divine retribution, and touch relics associated with the cave's original master. His disappointment that Wang Lin seems too weak to be the “third one” changes to greed when successive signs raise the possibility to what he judges a thirty-percent chance. He recognizes the Fate Sealing Ring and other components of the cave's retribution system, knowledge that exposes how long he has studied its structure. (Chapters 1626–1631)

Wang Lin eventually detects him in the depths of the Thunder Celestial Realm through a reaction from the Heaven Defying Bead. Ghost Zhan does not interfere as Wang Lin gathers the four Celestial Realms; he wants the cave's final mechanisms exposed and remains willing to let another person take the risks. The opening of the Ancient Celestial Realm finally draws him out to follow its generals and monitor their search. (Chapters 1683–1687 and 1713–1716)

Hunt for the third soul

Ghost Zhan and the Seven-Colored Daoist are rival embodiments of two separated souls: one carries accumulated dao comprehension, the other spell inheritance. Both need the missing third soul to approach the original Sovereign's wholeness. The search drives their manipulation of the realm war, their surveillance of the ancient celestial generals, and their pursuit of Wang Lin once he takes control of the Heavenly Dao. (Chapters 1695, 1726–1728, and 1750–1752)

Inside the three-hundred destroyed worlds, Ghost Zhan is cautious where the Seven-Colored Daoist is emotional. Wang Lin exploits the difference. He sets multiple ambushes, uses the Li Guang Bow to cripple the rival soul, and threatens Ghost Zhan without revealing how many arrows remain. Ghost Zhan refuses to gamble against an unknown final shot and allows Wang Lin to withdraw, a decision that shows both his rationality and the hesitation produced by the foreign soul fused to him. (Chapters 1753–1766)

He then pursues the injured Seven-Colored Daoist, absorbs that rival, and arrives at Ye Mo's tomb stronger than before. There he separates the caped Sovereign soul from his body and regains more of his earlier tyrannical directness. His battle characters overwhelm several opponents, and even after Wang Lin completes nearly all of Ye Mo's inheritance, Wang Lin acknowledges that he cannot defeat Ghost Zhan head-on without prepared advantages and allies. (Chapters 1769–1778)

Release at the cave gate

Ghost Zhan follows Wang Lin into the collapsing memory-world that hides the cave's true exit. Once Wang Lin opens the gate, Ghost Zhan threatens the people left behind and offers to abandon the cave in exchange for the third soul. Wang Lin instead activates two seals created from Xie Qing's heart blood and empowered by the Immortal Astral Continent's aura. The seals ignore Ghost Zhan's defenses and bind the two foreign Sovereign souls associated with him. (Chapters 1784–1785)

With those connections severed, Ghost Zhan's eyes clear. His long-preserved body immediately begins dissolving, confirming that the fusion had kept him alive past his natural death. Rather than curse Wang Lin, he thanks him: Wang Lin has both freed him and fulfilled his original dream of opening the cave. Ghost Zhan spends the last flare of his life crossing the threshold so that he can see the Immortal Astral Continent before dying. His ending therefore belongs to the cave cultivator he was before the search for the third soul consumed him. (Chapter 1785)

Appearance and personality

Ghost Zhan is often presented through a blurry or hidden body rather than a stable portrait. The soul fused around him appears as a huge figure whose cape conceals everything below gloomy eyes, while the physical old man can seem almost lifeless until battle intent erupts. During his final pursuit he gives off no aura, an absence that makes his approach more ominous than a display of pressure. (Chapters 1533, 1750, 1760, and 1776)

He is patient, analytical, greedy, and profoundly cautious. He can watch a possible heir for years, allow rivals to test dangers first, and retreat from a fight when he cannot calculate the number of remaining arrows. Yet separation from the Sovereign soul reveals a far more forceful original temperament. His last gratitude also shows that the cave native's suppressed ideals never vanished completely. (Chapters 1626–1631, 1683, 1766, 1777, and 1785)

Abilities and cultivation

Ghost Zhan's late power cannot be assigned entirely to one identity. His native battle essence and extraordinary tribulant cultivation belong to the cave cultivator, while continued survival and part of his dao comprehension come from fusion with a separated Seven-Colored soul. The resulting person retains Ghost Zhan's memories and regret but is also driven by the foreign soul's search.

Battle essence and the Battle Scrolls

Ghost Zhan creates the Battle Scroll inheritance from his control of battle intent as an essence. Written characters for “battle” condense intent into independent attacks that detonate with enough force to severely injure high-level cultivators. The Zhan family scrolls preserve a transmissible reflection of that essence, allowing descendants and Wang Lin to study it, but possession of a scroll does not confer Ghost Zhan's full cultivation or personal mastery. (Chapters 1204, 1626–1631, and 1777–1778)

Eight Arcane Tribulants

He survives through the eighth Arcane Tribulant and later displays early Void Tribulant power, placing him above the other known cultivators born inside the cave before Wang Lin's ascent. That progression is exceptional but not cleanly independent: the original Ghost Zhan once fails a tribulant, his body decays, and his origin soul begins collapsing before the Seven-Colored fusion preserves him. Later realm labels therefore describe the fused being's effective power, not proof that the unaided original completed every stage. (Chapters 1663, 1746, and 1857)

Seven-Colored soul fusion

A dao-comprehension soul separated from the Seven-Colored Celestial Sovereign enters Ghost Zhan at the point of death. It stabilizes the failing vessel, supplies comprehension, and redirects his existence toward finding the missing third soul. The fusion is neither simple possession nor unchanged survival: Ghost Zhan can remember and condemn the realm war he helped create, yet his caution and objectives reflect the foreign soul. He later absorbs the rival Seven-Colored Daoist's portion, concentrating more of the divided existence before the final confrontation. (Chapters 1695, 1746–1750, and 1769–1778)

Perception, concealment, and limits

Ghost Zhan observes events across star systems, conceals himself in the Thunder Celestial Realm from ordinary divine sense, identifies cave-master treasures, and tracks ancient celestial generals openly when secrecy is no longer useful. These senses support manipulation and timing rather than omniscience. He remains wary of the Li Guang Bow, cannot overcome heart-blood seals empowered from beyond the cave, and is terrified by Xuan Luo's distant Grand Empyrean aura. When Wang Lin removes the foreign souls sustaining the fusion, Ghost Zhan's preserved body finally dies; this is the end of the fused continuity, not a projection being dismissed. (Chapters 1552, 1626–1631, 1683, 1705–1716, 1765–1766, and 1785)

Relationships

• Wang Lin: Ghost Zhan first evaluates Wang Lin as a possible route to the third soul, then hunts him as a rival. Wang Lin exploits his caution, completes the dream Ghost Zhan once held, and finally frees him from the sustaining soul-fusion. (Chapters 1626–1631 and 1752–1785)
• Zhan Xingye and the Zhan family: Their Battle Scroll inheritance descends from Ghost Zhan. The Sovereign's killing of Zhan Xingye and search for the founder's bones turn the family into collateral in the older contest. (Chapter 1204)
• The Seven-Colored Daoist: The two carry different portions of the same greater existence and compete for the missing third soul. Ghost Zhan eventually pursues and absorbs his rival before the final confrontation. (Chapters 1695, 1750–1769, and 1778)
• Xuan Luo: The distant aura of this Grand Empyrean terrifies Ghost Zhan and the other cave powers, placing a clear ceiling above the strength he spent countless years accumulating. (Chapter 1705)

Items

• Battle Scrolls: Ghost Zhan's dao survives as the Zhan family's written battle inheritance and becomes one of Wang Lin's early routes toward understanding high-level battle intent. (Chapter 1204)