My Little Ghost

Volume 1.2.0 — The Transmigration

It can be said that Bai Bing Wen’s usual process of recollection, whenever he collapses, is fairly normal. He’s sure that he’s in the school’s realm before his eyes closed. He was just regretting most of his life’s choices or at least the latter part of it before losing consciousness. A battle was breaking out; he found out his mother’s an immortal; his father’s wailing noises—they all belonged to the memory of when he was about to pass out.

But he sure as hell would not believe it if someone tells him he’s been dreaming that entire life for himself all this time.

Because right now, he’s been staring at these strange surroundings and everywhere he looks, everything just seems more and more real.

And what’s worse, he’s getting bits and pieces of flashbacks of another person’s life whenever he focuses on a specific spot.

How come he’s looking at some theater set room, wearing these unfamiliar overlapping white robes, and hearing an unfamiliar voice from outside the unfamiliar room call out to His Majesty? It has been more than five minutes, and he’s yet to realize whatever the heck is going on.

Everything feels familiar, but everything is also unfamiliar. He has no recollection of ever living in a place like such, yet he remembers how three maidens are always tending to his clothes and his long black hair.

But his hair had always been in a military cut, with a beautiful brown color.

Bai Bing Wen slaps his face a couple of times and feels the stings on his cheeks, making his face red. He’s definitely awake, and he’s definitely in someplace that is far from the school’s realm.

In a short, passing thought, he chuckles at himself for thinking about his Jie-gege’s amulet. Can it really send a cultivator on the brink of death to the future?

He touches the necklace unconsciously, only to find that the amulet is infused with a different spiritual energy that doesn’t belong to him. He removes it from his neck, sees a blue essence instead of gold, swirling in clouds inside the tiny space.

“What?” he mumbles to himself, taking another careful look at his surroundings. This time, he stands up from the huge canopied bed with golden sheets and curtains, walking towards the bronze mirror.

Although the color is much distorted, Bai Bing Wen confirms that his now black hair is even longer than his mother’s. Probably even straighter and silkier, too.

His face looks exactly the same, especially the gold in his eyes that are sparkling with abundant spiritual power. He checks on his magic core and breathes out a sigh of relief when he realizes that it is intact and full of vitality. He assesses his level and his light and finds out that he’s one level behind his original core, and he’s only at the first light.

“Just my freaking luck,” he grumbles quietly. He’s probably been sent to a different realm and he can’t even bring his entire cultivation progress with him.

He looks at the exquisite brooches and hairpins on the table underneath the huge bronze mirror. Everything inside this room is in gold color, and probably most of them made out of real gold, too. He touches the lone hairpin made of fire-red jade with golden linings and examines it. It looks out of place amongst the bunches of what looks like expensive pieces of jewelry. He takes it in his hand and holds it against his chest.

He walks around, a bit lost after the flashes of memories in his mind has slowed. It stops at the memory of this person being served a cup of tea, knocking him out on the table after drinking half of it. He doesn’t know exactly who he’s supposed to be in this realm, but one thing is for sure.

The dense spiritual power in every corner and the lack of technology screams ancient.

Even the smell of burning wood mixed with the smell of food is an obvious sign.

At this, he weakly curses his older brother in his head, “Future my foot. You sent me to the ancient world!”

How he’s supposed to get back to his own time is beyond him, but what’s more pressing at this moment...

“His Majesty, the Emperor, has arrived,” a different voice announces in a firm tone right outside the door of this room.

First, a middle-aged man in a servant’s uniform walks into the room after opening the two sliding doors. Bai Bing Wen scowls a little at the sound, trying his hardest to act normal lest these people suspect him of qi deviation or evil arts as the cause of not knowing who he is. They might think he’s gone nuts and throw him out somewhere that is even more dangerous.

“What is taking you so long?” the voice of an older man asks, making Bai Bing Wen frown a bit more.

His head snaps back to stare at the general direction of the door, seeing a man resembling his great-grandfather with longer hair and older features. His great-grandfather is originally in his younger form due to his immortality. But he imagines this as exactly how he would have looked like if he aged after all these years of living. Maybe not the long hair, but the features and little wrinkles here and there.

“Good morning, father,” he greets, with a respectful bow, following the usual custom he sees from the vague memories in his head.

The man stares dumbfoundedly at him—even the servants who are bowed behind the Emperor take a curious peek at Bai Bing Wen who only stares back with a blank look.

“Did anyone try to poison you again?”

Bai Bing Wen can only try to look as impassive as possible which has never been so difficult for him before since that’s how he’s always been in school. The only problem is, no matter how much he tries to dig into the memories that are given to him, he can’t find a single time that he’s been knowingly poisoned. Did that mean that he’s simply getting bullied like a helpless kid in this place where people address him with such fancy titles?

“Your Imperial Majesty, the Crown Prince is probably a little exhausted after his... colorful night. We cannot blame His Majesty for waking up a little later than everyone else. The servants of the Golden Flower Palace have reported of his late return, after all.”

Bai Bing Wen can already guess what more or less is going on. The people, especially the servants in this place, are probably looking down on him because of his low level of cultivation. There’s a look of stabbing scorn in their eyes whenever they talk to him and the poor Crown Prince whose soul used to host this body was too naive to realize it. In his modern world, there are always a few of those who discriminate against cultivators in lower levels, but there aren’t so much since spiritual energy is not as abundant. There are elite groups and associations dedicated to secure the safety of cultivators with lower levels and most of the practitioners with a high level of cultivation choose to take in disciples to guide them towards their potential peak instead of bullying them just because they’re weak. In a sense, despite having an abundant flow of spiritual energy in this ancient world, the modern world is still a bit on a better side when it comes to humanity. Here, being able to cultivate with no progress whatsoever after some time is probably considered a whole empire’s shame because they have no excuse to procrastinate their practice or delay their level ascension. Spiritual energy is literally everywhere that he can just sit on his exact spot right now and cultivate without difficulties. Unlike in his world where they need to be in a realm where spiritual stones are scattered to get a good whiff of naturally flowing spiritual energy.

He sees a few people in his memories that are always antagonizing him and marks them all in his head, remembering to get back at them when he gets time. But for now, he focuses all of his mind’s analytical ability on figuring out how to get back to his own world without changing so much in this to avoid a dangerous distortion of reality in the future. 

“What have you been up to all night again, you rascal?” the Emperor asks.

Not that he can come up with any excuses but before Bai Bing Wen can answer, the door opens again with another group of people coming in uninvited. Does no one know the concept of knocking in this place?

“His Imperial Majesty, the Crown Prince, is already going through so much lately due to his mother’s passing. Maybe the servant head of the Imperial Palace can tone down the mockery in his words a little?”

Everyone else turns to look at the owner of the voice. The lady, wearing a beautiful set of white and pink robes, gives a respectful bow to the Emperor with her snowy white hands cupped firmly in a formal gesture in front of her, and then to Bai Bing Wen.

Bai Bing Wen tries to scan the memories of the Crown Prince in his head, but can only remember the times when this lady, who’s actually one of the most promising amongst the Emperor’s consorts, gives him respectful gestures every time they meet. She has never initiated contact nor has she ever spoken to him before. Seeing her reaction still agitates Bai Bing Wen’s trust issues, but compared to the i***t servants and most probably frequently absent Emperor, he would rather start getting hints from the lady for now, by talking.

The servants of the Emperor give a customary bow to the Imperial Consort and all servants behind the lady are keeping their heads down.

“Forgive my sudden intrusion, Your Imperial Majesty,” she says while facing the Emperor with another bow. “But I can no longer listen to how the servants are treating the Crown Prince with such disrespect.” She turns to face Bai Bing Wen without looking into his eyes and says, “Your Highness, the Crown Prince, please put on your clothes.”

“I am wearing clothes. What do you call them?”

The servants behind the Emperor try their best to stifle their snorts, but the Consort remains composed.

“What use are the Crown Prince’s imperial servants if they cannot dress up His Majesty before the Emperor arrives? Shall I invoke the eighteenth amendment about disciplinary actions, Your Highness? It seems to me that the servants of the Golden Flower Palace are not doing what they are supposed to. Their lives, therefore, have no use for the Imperial Palace.”

At this, Bai Bing Wen digs up the Crown Prince’s memories some more and finds that these white robes are not actual clothes but just inner garments. Instead of feeling embarrassed, he decides to embarrass the servants further since he really would not be able to tolerate more layers of clothing at this rate. Even in winter back in the modern world, he barely wears coats and thick jackets. Most of his winter clothes are being used by his Jie-gege because his brother loves everything oversized on him. Just imagining the pain of having to wear three or four layers more for the sake of appearing decent is already inspiring him to become more thick-skinned.

“Yes. Punish them,” Bai Bing Wen intentionally answers after looking at them and their clothes with nonchalance.

The Consort glances at the uniquely-uniformed servant on her right who gives her a polite bow in return before taking three steps back and leaving the room.

“Please, put on your clothes now.”

“No, I won’t.” Bai Bing Wen tries his best to resemble the stubborn aura of the Crown Prince while staring at the servants. “I am too embarrassed to do something about my clothes now. I would rather have these servants be stripped to their undergarments, too, and walk three lapses around the Golden Flower Palace during the afternoon tea. If they escape this command, an even more humiliating punishment awaits them.” After all, in his world, these layers of clothing are already considered too conservative.

“Your Majesty, aren’t you being too unreasonable?” the Emperor's head servant interjects, almost glaring at him. “You’re being given an inch and you’re taking a yard!”

Bai Bing Wen gives him a disinterested glance. “Very well. Since you dare your voice to this Crown Prince, I’ll leave you in charge. To make sure it wouldn’t seem unreasonable, lead the parade of the servants, if you may.”

“Your Highness!” the head servant readily objects, but the Emperor cuts him off.

“Enough. You heard the Crown Prince and the Consort. Get out and prepare the afternoon tea and have these servants attend to their purpose.”

The head servant can only reluctantly bow to his Emperor before leaving with a sour face.

“Leave the three of us,” the Emperor says in a firm tone as he glances at the rest of the servants before turning to look back at his consort who’s politely staring at the height of his chest with her hands behind her. The Emperor waits until everyone else has gone out. With the sound of the closing doors, he faces Bai Bing Wen once more with a resigned look on his face. “Did it work?”

The Imperial Consort also looks back at Bai Bing Wen with a tender look in her eyes. “Seeing as the Crown Prince is still alive, I’m guessing that it worked, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Bai Bing Wen can only look on but the questions in his head are threatening to escape his mouth.

“How are you feeling, Xiao Huang?”

Hearing a different name, Bai Bing Wen clears his throat and grips a stronghold around the hairpin and amulet in his hand. “I don’t understand, father.”

The consort walks towards him and whispers a few enchantments into her hands. In a few seconds, she holds Bai Bing Wen’s head tightly and closes her eyes. Her whole body glows a bright red color, making Bai Bing Wen feel a bit of his damaged spiritual power being sucked out of his body.

When the lady opens her eyes, she stares at Bai Bing Wen in shock. “How is this possible?” she mumbles.

The Emperor takes a worried look at his consort, and then back at Bai Bing Wen. “What’s going on?”

Bai Bing Wen can only hold back his tongue. He doesn’t even know what just happened, let alone, what to say to the Emperor.

“Your Imperial Majesty, I need to look into this further. Can you give me a little more time to check the Crown Prince’s qigong flow and dantian?”

“Is he alright?” the Emperor asks, grabbing Bai Bing Wen’s wrist. He feels his pulse and sighs a breath of relief when he feels his steady spiritual flow. “I am happy that he survived yet another threat.”

The consort bows her head. “He is doing better, Your Imperial Majesty. You need not worry about the Crown Prince. I will take care of him until we get rid of all the toxins in his body.”

The Emperor nods, letting go of Bai Bing Wen’s arm. “The traitors of this palace shall pay for what they’ve done with their own lives and the lives of their whole clans. I will have the royal guards prepare the ceremonial rites today for the opening of the Qilin River and look into this matter with the Shadow Guardians myself. Until I’m back, no servants are allowed in the Crown Prince’s palace except for those personally arranged by you, or me.”

“Yes, My Emperor.”

Walking out, the Emperor takes one last look at Bai Bing Wen before closing the doors behind him and taking all the waiting servants outside with him to make sure that no one disturbs the room.

As soon as the doors close, the bright red glow around the consort’s body comes back, with her eyes burning even brighter. She exudes a level eight aura on the ninth light, making Bai Bing Wen kneel in oppression.

“Who are you?” the consort asks, threatening to disturb Bai Bing Wen’s spiritual flow by infusing her energy into his meridians.

This day is going to be the longest day of his life.