My Little Ghost

Volume 1.4.0 — The Transcendence

When those words about his true identity are finally out, Bai Bing Wen believes he’s made the three imperial nobles more speechless than they made him and this brings a small sense of victory in his heart.

Ah, to be introducing himself as Ji Feng Huang’s future husband does have a nice ring to it.

“What?!” the three of them say almost at the same time.

The fact that even Meng Zhang is also surprised has doubled this unreasonable sense of victory that Bai Bing Wen is feeling. “It’s true. You can ask him. He proposed to me during that day when he admitted to only ever trespassing the Central Empire’s imperial palace with the sole intention to be closer to me,” Bai Bing Wen tells them almost smugly, leaning back on the bed.

“That’s not something you should be proud of,” Meng Zhang mumbles to himself, eyes narrowing in disbelief.

“Is the Lord in love with you, Young Master?” Jian Bing asks, looking a bit more interested now.

“He’s not in love,” Ling Guang immediately denies. “He needs all spiritual pacts with all Crown Princes to complete the prophecy. That’s not love. That’s taking advantage of an i***t who’s willing to agree.”

“Ling Guang,” Meng Zhang warns.

“But he didn’t need to marry anyone to create a spiritual pact,” Jian Bing lightly argues back.

“Jian Bing,” Meng Zhang goes on. “Stop antagonizing him, you two.” Meng Zhang pulls the nearby chair and gestures for Ling Guang to take it. “Sit your butt down, Your Highness. Or so help me, we won’t get anything done today.”

“What are we supposed to be doing today?” Bai Bing Wen asks, choosing to ignore Ling Guang’s words.

“Today, we’re going to test my theory,” Meng Zhang explains. “If I’m right, then Ling Guang must be able to detect the familiarity of your spirit, too. But for you to catch up with our cultivation—”

“Wait, why would I need to catch up with your cultivation? And how am I supposed to do that? You’re a step away from immortality, for goodness’ sake.”

“This little experiment of yours would take years of training before we can move forward. Are you sure about this?” Ling Guang says, checking his nails. When he doesn’t hear an answer, he looks up at Meng Zhang who’s also looking at him. “What?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Did you bring what I asked you to?” Meng Zhang asks him, completely disregarding everything else that he said.

“And why would I hand over my ancestor’s cultivation scroll to some thief?”

At this, Bai Bing Wen also raises and eyebrow. “Excuse me, are you talking about me?”

“Well, who else in this room actually stole a body of someone and used it to act like a Crown Prince?” Ling Guang answers, placing a foot at the edge of the bed. “For all we know, you could be having the original Crown Prince hidden somewhere and you’re only here because of an impure motive. Like stealing cultivation scrolls of all empires, for example.”

In Bai Bing Wen’s petty perspective, it’s unfair that this person can say things like such to him when he’s the one who just woke up into the body of someone he’s not even familiar with. But because he’s been brought up by his parents to be rational at most times, he pauses for a bit before he replies with, “You’re right, actually. These scrolls... No one should entrust them to anyone you don’t even know.”

The three nobles all give him varying looks. From Meng Zhang, it’s an exasperated one. Probably because he already knows Bai Bing Wen has never lied to him and it’s exhausting trying to convince one of his friends to believe in something only he can understand. Without Ji Feng Huang here, it really is impossible to convince anyone for the most part.

From Ling Guang, it’s a look of utter scorn. This no longer shocks Bai Bing Wen, given the guy’s hostile attitude towards him, which is only justified. Bai Bing Wen is a stranger to them, regardless of the body he’s inhabiting as of the moment. These people didn’t even know the original Crown Prince himself, much less anyone who just suddenly transmigrated into his body claiming to be from another time.

Surprisingly, Jian Bing, who’s been mostly quiet, takes control of wherever the conversation is going. “There are three of us on the ninth level within this room. He’s one cultivator not even on his sixth level yet. What harm can he do to us?”

Probably already sensing his defeat, Ling Guang sighs loudly, leaning back in his chair. “Open your meridians,” he says.

It’s not that Bai Bing Wen doesn’t want to try whatever it is that Meng Zhang is asking all of them to do. It’s just that, with his useless core, for the time being, he really doesn’t know how to move the spiritual energy in his body and command his meridians to create an entrance. Even Meng Zhang has to do it manually on him with his own spiritual force.

“He can’t. You can try to pry his meridians open and he won’t fight back, but he can’t hold them open for you at this time,” Meng Zhang explains for him.

“Please don’t tell me that this impostor is acting like he doesn’t know how to use his dantian? He almost fell into a formation trap earlier in the market but miraculously just walked past it without sweat. How can you tell me that he can’t even keep his meridians open?”

“It’s the Lord Feng’s hairpin doing the work,” Jian Bing answers in a low voice, this time, sitting on the bed next to Bai Bing Wen and staring hard on the blue jade hairpin on his head.

Bai Bing Wen almost screams his lungs out at this. “How did you get there so fast?!” he can’t help but ask.

Jian Bing soundlessly moves away from him, standing back behind Ling Guang. “I am a special type of a martial cultivator,” he replies like it’s supposed to make sense all of a sudden.

But for Bai Bing Wen who’s been hearing this term for the past few days, he gets the idea that these people who call themselves royal beasts are probably all kinds of special, as what Ji Feng Huang would call them. “So... what kind?”

“He’s an assassin,” Meng Zhang says. “His specialty is going stealth mode but I’m guessing you didn’t see or feel him move behind you because you’re not used to having no spiritual force to help you balance your surroundings. I know, he can answer for himself but Jian Bing is, most of the time, a bit uncomfortable around strangers.”

“I understand,” Bai Bing Wen tells him, giving Jian Bing a little nod. “But, you’re right. I didn’t even know I was walking into a formation trap earlier. If not for the hairpin given by Ji Feng Huang, I probably would have lost myself and never see my family again.”

“The formation trap was meant to kill you, not to mislead you. You won’t just not see your family again, you won’t see another day at all,” Ling Guang says with narrowed eyes. This time, he seems to be considering the fact that Bai Bing Wen knows nothing much about this world. “How old are you?”

Still confused, Bai Bing Wen just answers, “According to Ji Feng Huang, the Crown Prince is at least one solstice younger than he is. In my world, we call that six months. And in my world, I have the same age as the Crown Prince Huang Di. I am thirty-seven solstices and where I’m from, it means I am eighteen years old.”

“We know what ‘year’ means,” Ling Guang scoffs, rolling his eyes.

“Wait. You do?” Bai Bing Wen asks, even more confused. He clearly remembers Ji Feng Huang getting a bit perplexed about their minimal language barrier during that time when they started to talk more about the customs of this world.

“The Southern Empire has always been more advanced than the rest of the major empires. It’s not surprising that he easily understands your vocabulary, Your Highness. After all, his ancestor has been to the modern world, which brings about the unique influences in their language and clothing choices,” Meng Zhang explains, looking at Ling Guang.

Giving a disinterested shrug, Ling Guang snorts. “Those stories are just myths. No one can possibly prove that a future world exists and be traveled to at that.”

“I beg to disagree. Bai Bing Wen is actually from the modern world,” Meng Zhang tells him like he’s a ten-year-old kid.

Ling Guang rolls his eyes once more. “How can you even believe all this crap? Like I said, he could just be lying to us, making this all up, and we’re all fools in the end for believing something that’s impossible to begin with. How can someone from the future go back in time?”

And if Bai Bing Wen is being honest with himself, if not for the condescending tone, he’s most likely to have the same mindset at Ling Guang. Back in the modern world, whenever Bai Li Jie talked about their great-grandfather’s impossible stories of time-traveling, he barely considered the idea and would oftentimes, call his older brother a kid for believing in those stories. Now, as frustrating as it is to not be believed in, Bai Bing Wen can actually see reason in Ling Guang’s argument.

“See? He’s not even defending himself,” Ling Guang adds.

“Because you’re right,” Bai Bing Wen says again. “If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe me, too. And I’m not here to convince you to believe me, seriously. I’m only here because Ji Feng Huang asked me to deliver a letter of some sort to Meng Zhang. After I’m done doing that, you can all forget ever meeting a deranged man, claiming to have traveled from the future and whatnot.” Bai Bing Wen gropes at his chest and takes out the parchment. “Here. It’s from Ji Feng Huang. Now that you have this, thank you for taking your time to heal me. I would forever hold this favor dearly in my heart and remember your kindness, but I need to go now.”

Meng Zhang only gives him a blank stare, absently taking the parchment into his hands.

When Bai Bing Wen stands up, he’s thankful that he doesn’t need to embarrass himself by falling over or losing balance. He is, however, met with Ling Guang’s fierce gaze as he steps closer, trying to find a way to escape the room and minimizing their interactions as much as he can. And even though Bai Bing Wen is almost a head taller, it’s just unfortunate that he has to pass by Ling Guang’s way in order for him to walk out.

“And you think you can just leave like that after knowing who we are?” Ling Guang calls out, holding Bai Bing Wen’s arm.

When this happens, Bai Bing Wen’s vision suddenly turns red and he falls on his knees again, feeling a scalding sensation burning his whole body. He barely registers the sound of a short, pained scream coming from Ling Guang for fear of suddenly seeing himself on fire.

“What happened?” Bai Bing Wen hears Jian Bing asking.

Meng Zhang is holding an unconscious Ling Guang in his arms with the familiar bluish green light coming out of his hand and going towards Ling Guang’s forehead.

“It’s the recognition of fire spirit,” Meng Zhang shortly explains, handing Ling Guang over to Jian Bing. He then duck walks to where Bai Bing Wen is weakly gasping for air, trying his best to stabilize his breathing. Meng Zhang uses his spiritual force to heal Bai Bing Wen once more. “Are you hurting anywhere else?”

“What was that?” Bai Bing Wen asks instead, feeling his throat drying up.

As much as the convenience of Meng Zhang’s healing power is helpful, to a degree, Bai Bing Wen feels like it would have been better if he also passed out from the pain because now, it feels like his body has been burnt and the burnt marks are getting undone one by one.

“I can’t breathe. I can’t... I can’t breathe,” he complains with a discomforting stutter, almost squeezing Meng Zhang’s hand that is healing him.

“Stay still, Xiao Bing,” Meng Zhang patiently tells him. “This isn’t going to take long. But Ling Guang is probably going to be out of it until tomorrow so we’ll talk about something else for now. Okay?”

Bai Bing Wen can’t reply. He can’t even nod nor shake his head, mind too focused on getting his air back.

“What’s happening, gege? Ling Guang-ge is not breathing,” Jian Bing says with a hint of concern in his voice.

“He’s alright, didi. He’ll gradually get his breathing back. It’s just that, having the superior fire spirit, when his energy clashed with Xiao Bing’s they tried to drain each other, resulting in both of them losing more than they can manage.” Meng Zhang runs a hand on Bai Bing Wen’s forehead, wiping his cold sweat away. “This is what happens when you’re both angry and you accidentally, physically touch each other. Because you both have fire spirits, you’ll both repel each other’s energy and get drained in the process.”

Bai Bing Wen’s breathing has slowly gone back to normal, but he sees that Ling Guang is still unconscious. “I should have done that earlier if I knew this was going to happen,” he mumbles bitterly.

Meng Zhang pats his head. “Xiao Bing, do you think Ling Guang is unreasonable?”

Bai Bing Wen looks up at Meng Zhang who’s supporting his head on his lap as he tries to heal him. “No,” Bai Bing Wen replies. “I think it’s only right that he doesn’t trust too easily.”

“It’s good that you think that way,” Meng Zhang answers. He helps Bai Bing Wen sit up before he brings out the familiar looking parchment. “Now. Shall we see what’s so important that this letter has to be personally delivered by you?”

Bai Bing Wen glances at the still unconscious Ling Guang, nodding his head. It would probably be less chaotic if one of them is asleep. “Okay.”

“Come on. Sit on a chair and let Ling Guang take a rest on that bed. If Ji Feng Huang plans to marry you, then you have got to learn how to get along with us as early as now. Because as Ji Feng Huang’s royal beasts, we would always be there whenever and wherever he summons us. Which means, we’re going to be seeing more of each other in the coming years. Or at least, as long as you’re here. But you can always change your mind about going back. Remember that you are always welcome here.”

Hearing these words for the first time after coming to this place, Bai Bing Wen feels a constricting pressure in his chest, almost making him tear up. He’s never been so warmly accepted in this place from the moment he’s opened his eyes and those who are supposedly strangers to the original owner of this body are actually the ones to first welcome him wholeheartedly in this world.

Thankfully, Meng Zhang chooses this moment to take a look at the parchment.

“What does it say?” Jian Bing asks, now helping Bai Bing Wen up to sit in one of the chairs while looking at Meng Zhang.”Was it from the Lord Feng?”

Meng Zhang nods, this time with a solemn expression on his face.