My Little Ghost

Volume 1.4.2 — The Transcendence

If Bai Bing Wen gets a talisman every time he surprises himself with everything he’s discovering for the first time in this world, he probably has more than what the Bai Clan factory produces in a month.

But what Meng Zhang is talking about now doesn’t even have anything to do with him nor his goal of getting back to his own world. It has nothing to do with the advancement of his cultivation, nor has it anything to do with answering a few other questions he has in mind. If anything, it has become another rabbit hole.

How is it that Bai Bing Wen didn’t recognize Meng Zhang the first time they met? He has been seeing flashbacks through the Crown Prince’s mind, but seeing Meng zhang didn’t even trigger a sense of familiarity.

And yet, as Meng Zhang starts saying these things now, he suddenly gets a roomful of memories about the Crown Prince Huang Di and the Crown Prince Meng Zhang. And in this mind’s eye, Meng Zhang was always the most beautiful creature that he’d ever seen.

But that can’t be right. How can Bai Bing Wen feel what the Crown Prince Huang Di was feeling back then, too, just because the memories are starting to swarm him?

And besides, Ji Feng Huang has always been the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen in this world. Not even Meng Zhang in a flower crown can compare to that.

“You might be wondering how I never looked familiar, Xiao Bing,” Meng Zhang says, a soft, tranquil look on his face.

Bai Bing Wen almost thinks that Meng Zhang might be reading his mind, but he guesses it’s pretty obvious with the way he keeps gaping and closing his mouth, and then gaping again. He wonders if there would ever come a time when he doesn’t need to get dumbfounded by every single thing that he’s discovering the more he talks to these people.

“It’s probably because of the curse of the Hei Meigui.”

Hearing a familiar term, Bai Bing Wen scowls a little, remembering what they have recently talked about. “Black Roses? Didn’t you say their name was White Roses?”

“Bai Meigui, or what you call ‘white roses’ in your vocabulary, is the name of the royal beasts in the stories of our ancestors. The first of the royal beasts blood—creating a unity of spiritual pact under the leadership of a qilin royal beast mage. Hei Meigui, or what you call ‘black roses’ in your vocabulary however, were different. They were products of greed and hatred, wanting immortality for whatever cost it may take. But like what I said, Xiao Bing, this should be told by Feng-Feng instead of me. I really... I don’t think I can talk about it in a way that would make me easy to understand.”

“Well, just tell me the story and I’ll worry about understanding what I can. I need to know what these stories are because as much as I want to help right now, I also need to understand you all before I can do something. I really have no idea what’s going on and that makes me feel like a burden to all these heroic quests you’re all getting yourselves into. And what’s worse, I don’t even compare to your cultivation levels yet you keep making me feel like I need to become a part of this quest, too.”

“Xiao Bing, we’ll explain everything once we’re complete. It would be easier to understand by then. For now, what if—”

“Hei Megui is not just a name you tell stories about,” a voice cuts in. “They’re something else.”

The three of them turn to look at the one who’s now talking and leaning most of his weight against the door. Ling Guang, with an arm wrapped around the external area of his core, has his face contorted in pain. His body is trembling a little and his breathing is erratic.

“Why are you already up? Take a rest for the night,” Meng Zhang says, standing from his seat to help Ling Guang up.

“Well, I was resting until someone with a high level of cultivation disturbed my aura’s ease. You could’ve killed me in my sleep, you insensitive dragon.”

“How is that possible? You shouldn’t be affected with my oppression anymore,” Meng zhang argues.

“I have been temporarily demoted to the seventh level, thanks to your little experiment. Now, I have no idea how long it would take for my dantian to heal.”

When Meng Zhang realizes his mistake, he sighs deep in exasperation and decides to just lead Ling Guang to one of the chairs. “Forgive me for being careless but I lost the will to save your butt when you were being rude to Xiao Bing.”

Seated right next to Meng Zhang, Ling Guang answers, “I don’t even want to talk about that right now, especially not in front of other people.” He then glances at Bai Bing Wen and clears his throat. “If Bai Bing Wen wants to know the story of the black and white roses, then we might as well let him know. The least we could do for one another is just answer the questions to avoid confusion.”

While Ling Guang talks, Meng Zhang is trying to heal all the discomfort on his body, making Ling Guang wince every time Meng Zhang’s spiritual energy runs through a part that is still a little sore from the accident earlier.

“Gege, he’s hurting,” Jian Bing worriedly says.

“He’s overreacting, didi. Don’t mind him,” Meng Zhang says.

Ling Guang glares at him. “Why do you keep going through that part? It would heal itself. On. Its. Own. Stop poking at it,” he complains some more through gritted teeth. He hisses when Meng Zhang intentionally hits that part again.

“You really have to mind your language a little. I’m still older than you, you know,” Meng Zhang warns, a bigger ball of bluish-green light swarming on his palm, as if to threaten the already hurting Ling Guang.

“Gah. You really enjoy hurting other people with the pretense of healing them. Whoever said you’re a fine man with a noble’s personality must not have spent a whole day with you yet.”

“Stop whining. Even Xiao Bing with an inferior cultivation level can endure this. Why are you so weak?” Meng Zhang whispers a few spells and with bluish-green characters glowing in the air, he takes them one by one and attaches them to the same spot near Ling Guang’s core. “By the way, since my theory about your fire spirits is correct, then I can finally share the good news to all of you. Once the two of you learn to get along, whoever has the inferior cultivation level can  mirror the level of the superior one. This may sound pointless but it really is going to be so useful in battles. It would all make sense once we start training together.”

“How is that good news for me? Do you think I’m willing to go through that kind of pain again just to lend this nobody of the modern world my cultivation level?”

“You may not know it, but there could be a situation in the future where you might be needing Xiao Bing’s help with. And when that time comes, remember what you just said about and to him today.”

Ling Guang chooses to not mind Meng Zhang, rolling his eyes. He turns to face Bai Bing Wen instead to go on with the matter regarding Hei Meigui. “Hei Meigui cultivators weren’t so powerful before but there was a time when they were everywhere. They outnumbered the beasts and mortals because for one, anyone could become a Hei Meigui. And two, becoming a Hei Meigui means winning the favor of the Heaven Almighty Chief.”

“I have never heard of these things before,” Bai Bing Wen mumbles.

“Which means your world is already a better version for not inheriting the curses and blessings. It would really be such a pain if we have to go through the whole story, but know this. Since you are the Crown Prince of the Central Empire and the realm of your empire just recently opened for the ceremonial rites, it also meant that Hei Meigui could just be lurking around and waiting for you to walk into their trap. When that happens, you’ll be given a choice to choose to accept their curse or not.”

“Then I can just choose to not accept it,” Bai Bing Wen answered.

“You think it would be easy?” Ling Guang moved forward in his seat, staring deeply into Bai Bing Wen’s eyes. “The ceremonial rites is just a short time away. Why do you think we haven’t found all the Crown Princes yet?”

Bai Bing Wen can only shake his head. He's seen the Crown Prince of the East, Meng Zhang, the Crown Prince of the South, Ling Guang, and the Crown Prince of the West, Jian Bing. But he's never seen the other one yet, the Crown Prince of the North. “This is something I happen to not understand yet.”

Ling Guang grits his teeth. “When you go back to the modern world, make sure you tell your i***t generation about this so none of them stays ignorant of how the world was like before everyone turned stupid.”

“Language,” Meng Zhang warns, showing his hand balled in fist and dense spiritual energy swarming around it.

Ling Guang snorts. “I am serious," he clarifies. "When the descendants of the five royal beasts have all reached the age of maturity, they all gather in one place, but none of them knows where the others are. That place is the Central Empire. This empire is the smallest amongst all the great empires of the world but it’s a home to all the smartest mages. Not that there are many mages outside, but the point still stands. Which means in order to prove to the qilin royal beast that a Crown Prince deserves immortality, they have to go through endless loops of illusions and trap spells. To be able to survive these trials prepared by the qilin royal beast, we must find a way rescue one another and practice our cultivation to the highest light of the ninth level. Are you following so far?”

“I can manage,” Bai Bing Wen swiftly replies.

“Good. Now, none of us can cultivate in this land until we find a trustworthy mage than can help us connect to the spiritual energy of this realm. As martial cultivators, we’re useless, powerless, and helpless in a different realm without a mage, so always remember that whenever you plan to visit a different realm. Which brings us to the situation at hand. Not accepting the curse of the Hei Meigui is not as easy as it sounds. They are tricksters of most with high or immortal cultivation and the baits they offer are always the one thing they know you’d want. For example, they meet you in the market street and look into your eyes. Once they figured out you want to go back to your world, they would offer you this in exchange of your cultivation, your bloodline, and sometimes even your memories of meeting the other inheritors, depending on the gravity of your desire. It’s like a reset spell of some sort.”

Bai Bing Wen takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “How... How do you know all this?”

“We’ve been studying...” Ling Guang starts but Meng Zhang cuts him off.

“Actually, we’ve been prepared before coming in here.”

Bai Bing Wen frowns. “Prepared... how?”

“We’ve already been told by our ancestors of the Hei Meigui Curse,” Meng Zhang goes on in Ling Guang’s stead. “Or at least the Eastern and Western Empires. Once one of the Crown Princes accepts the curse, all of those descendants that are supposed to become a part of the Bai Meigui ceremonial rites would go through the reset spell. Then we will begin searching again, as if the past few days, or even solstices that we spent after meeting another royal beast descendant didn’t happen. We’ll just confuse ourselves as to why we have advanced to our cultivation without remembering what happened for the past few days. Hei Meigui would focus on this trick because if we lost track of time and missed the blue moon, we would no longer be blessed with immortality and when that happens, the Hei Meigui would be undefeatable.”

“Undefeatable in a sense that nobody could fight them off anymore,” Ling Guang adds. “No one could compare to them.  Because as far as the royal beasts are concerned, only the inheritors could match the power of Hei Meigui and if we don’t possess the kind of power that can defeat them, we’re done for.”

“What’s worse, they’re all practitioners of evil arts,” Jian Bing adds, too, in a quiet voice.

"And in this world, evil arts practitioners advance faster than the heavenly cultivators. We could have gone farther in our tasks to find all the Crown Princes with more time left since we came in here earlier than our age of maturity. But the Hei Meigui won't let us succeed that easily," Ling Guang says.

Bai Bing Wen leans on his back, trying to absorb everything. “What even are they fighting for?”

“If the royal beast descendants don’t get blessed with immortality, no one one would be able to stop the Hei Meigui from killing all the phoenixes and other mages,” Meng Zhang continues to explain. “This is their goal. It’s no longer about the favor of the Heaven Almighty Chief. They have developed visions of their own, and so far, we’ve seen them targeting the descendants of the royal beasts so easily, and make it seem like a child’s play to trap the one who do not possess a royal beast’s blood. It’s like they get rewarded for each cultivator they consume and we’ve seen them taking so much interest in the mages of the Central Empire these past few days. We’re running out of time. When that happens, the whole world... well, there would be no more world for mortals and demon beasts.”

“Wait. Didn’t you say that the members of Hei Meigui are also mortals and... and beasts?” Bai Bing Wen clarifies, thinking if he’d missed a word or he’s just an i***t for not understanding the story correctly.

“They were,” Ling Guang answers this time. “But when they discovered evil arts, they were able to cultivate powers beyond imagination. And any evil arts cultivators who can kill a phoenix would also become an immortal so...”

“So...” Bai Bing Wen holds his head with both hands and closes his eyes for a few seconds. Once he thinks his mind is cleared enough, he begins asking again, “How did you prepare for this again?”

“We brought a phoenix with us when we came here,” Ling Guang replies. He looks up at Bai Bing Wen with a somber expression. “Ji Feng Huang is a powerful phoenix mage. If it wasn’t because of him, we wouldn’t know that five of us have already been tricked by the Hei Meigui cultivators. We’re guessing that they are gathering more cultivators to join them and once they are powerful enough, they might be challenging the Heaven Almighty Chief to replace him. They are that powerful. And who’s to say we won’t get tricked again? We don’t even have the other Crown Prince back yet.”

“Wait. Five? Four Crown Princes from the North, South, East, and West. You said they tricked five of you so... who’s the other one?”

Meng Zhang takes a deep breath before whispering out a simple answer, “The Crown Prince of the Central Empire—Huang Di.”

Bai Bing Wen frowns at this, feeling another flash of reverie coming to him. . .