My Little Ghost

Volume 1.3.7 — The Transmission

It’s night time when Ji Feng Huang has finally come to. Instead of asking Meng Zhang more about this world in detail that Ji Feng Huang might have missed telling him, Bai Bing Wen spent the whole day sitting by Ji Feng Huang’s side, staring either at the unconscious boy or the scroll with characters he doesn’t understand.

He did, however, learn a few more things before walking back here.

He’s learned that Ji Feng Huang’s special ability as a mage is adapting to the special abilities of the martial cultivators bonded to him. He can mirror their power and extend his own abilities to them through spells and enchantments. This, he might not understand completely, but Meng Zhang has mentioned having Ji Feng Huang explain it when time comes.

Meng Zhang also finally shed a bit more light about the inheritors that Ji Feng Huang has once told him about. Legend has it that before becoming the mythical creatures everyone has come to know, the four royal ancestral beasts were bonded by their spirits. The golden qilin royal beast back then, the only known ancestor with pure mage bloodlines, led the four royal beasts by using his own spiritual cognition to strengthen their bond.

They were called Bai Meigui, or in Bai Bing Wen’s modern vocabulary, White Roses.

The White Roses were composed of five royal ancestral beasts, one of which was a mage, acting as the connection of the four martial cultivators. The azure dragon, vermilion bird, white tiger, black tortoise, and gold qilin. They were the strongest team amongst everyone else, blessed by the Heaven Almighty Chief to be the first ones to reach immortality and lead the rise of different cardinal empires all over the world.

But then nobody was prepared for the tribulations that the ancestors were supposed to face, a story which Meng Zhang decides not to tell Bai Bing Wen yet, since it has something to do with Ji Feng Huang’s ancestral background. He reckons it is only reasonable to have the little ghost himself explain what he needs exactly from Bai Bing Wen and why he’s so desperate to get that blood vow.

He’s also learned that Meng Zhang’s special ability is healing. And despite the possibility of it almost next to none, Meng Zhang believes that Bai Bing Wen possesses the same royal beast blood because of Meng Zhang’s familiarity with his essence. He believes, that if Bai Bing Wen can cultivate to a higher level, he can activate his azure dragon royal beast blood, too.

Bai Bing Wen can only shake his head, thinking it’s ridiculous. He can never be a royal blood, and a descendant of azure dragon, at that. The original Crown Prince might be, but not him. But then again, if the original Crown Prince is a royal blood, then he’d probably be a qilin royal beast descendant, not a dragon’s.

“Where are we?” Ji Feng Huang asks with a hoarse voice, not even bothering to try and sit up.

Bai Bing Wen places the scroll on the night stand  right next to the wooden cup. “We’re in one of the rooms here in your friend’s house.”

“Oh. It’s a wonder he gave me a bed this time,” Ji Feng Huang mumbles, rubbing his tired eyes.

Bai Bing Wen can only nod. He would rather have Ji Feng Huang thinking that his friend has been hospitable and generous enough to him this whole time than explain why he demanded a bed just for Ji Feng Huang’s sake.

“I had the most comfortable sleep for the first time after getting into this empire.” Ji Feng Huang stretches his limbs and finally sits up. “I think this place has just the right amount of warmth for sleeping. And right amount of quiet, too.”

Bai Bing Wen glances at the charmed mufflers on the table, deciding to just let Ji Feng Huang think that the comfort is coming from the place, too, instead of explaining in detail why he marked the unconscious boy with so much of his essences to keep him warm and took the effort to create another sorcery just to give him a peaceful sleep.

“How are you feeling now?” he asks, taking the wooden cup and handing it over to Ji Feng Huang.

“I am well, Xiao Bing,” he says with a smile, giving Bai Bing Wen a once over. “How are you? And what is this? It smells like Meng Zhang.”

Bai Bing Wen is surprised. “You can tell Meng Zhang’s smell just by this?” he asks in disbelief.

“I smell him all the time. We’re bonded by a spiritual pact so I know exactly what he smells like, even with my eyes closed,” Ji Feng Huang absently answers, looking at the suspicious liquid. He prepares himself to drink whatever this is in just one mouthful.

Falling speechless, Bai Bing Wen takes back the wooden cup before Ji Feng Huang can take a sip.

“What?” Ji Feng Huang asks confusedly, staring at his now empty hands. He looks up to see Bai Bing Wen’s subtle glare at him.

“What did you mean that you’re bonded with Meng Zhang?”

Probably realizing that he accidentally revealed something he’s not supposed to, his eyes widen as he gasps and covers his lips.

“You really need to work on how to stop yourself from saying everything that’s on your mind.”

Both Bai Bing Wen and Ji Feng Huang look at the door where Meng Zhang is standing, leaning against the frame of the wooden sliding doors. While Bai Bing Wen is temporarily distracted, Ji Feng Huang takes this chance to drink up the tonic and scrunches up his nose for suffering the aftertaste.

“How are you? Did you at least learn a lesson or two after your selfish stunt?” Meng Zhang asks, rubbing his palms together. Bluish-green light glow from his hands. As soon as he reaches the bed, he harshly places one hand against Ji Feng Huang’s forehead and the other against his chest. “I’ve sent a signal to Ling Guang. He’s arriving tomorrow. If you can manage now, I suggest you return back to the palace and come back here early tomorrow. We need to talk about the berserker.”

“Ouch. Slow down. You’re making me dizzy,” Ji Feng Huang complains, gripping the blanket as Meng Zhang heals the knots in his meridians after almost losing his spiritual cognition.

“You’re tough, right? You’re not even scared of getting completely lost,” Meng Zhang tells him smartly, voice dripping with caramelized sarcasm.

“He’s asking you to slow down politely. Please don’t hurt him anymore,” Bai Bing Wen says, looking up at Meng Zhang.

When Meng Zhang looks back at him, he rolls his eyes after seeing Bai Bing Wen returning his steady eyes bravely. “For a low-level cultivator who can’t even use his dantian as of the moment, you sure are brave. That, or you’re just as stupid, too.”

“I’m okay now, stop that,” Ji Feng Huang complains some more, waving his hands. He picks up his headband on the table and wears it on himself.

Meng Zhang takes his hands back and fixes the creases on his pristine robes. “My work here is done. Please, leave. And when you come back, try not to get into anymore trouble.”

Ji Feng Huang gapes at him. “Need I remind you that you’re the one who started the trouble this morning?”

“I wouldn’t have done something like that if you didn’t fail to explain to me what exactly is going on. Who’s to say that you’re not being tricked to believe that this man right next to you is not the Crown Prince himself?”

“But he’s—”

“But of course, I know now that the Huang Di we have here is no longer Huang Di. And I believe the two of you after seeing what his cultivation looks like.”

“What?” Ji Feng Huang asks, confused.

“I checked his meridians earlier and found out that he’s cultivating differently, making his dantian a bit loose and his cultivation unsteady. But I rearranged the flow of his spiritual energy so he’ll be fine now, just as long as he learns how to cultivate the scroll.”

“What scroll?” Ji Feng Huang looks at the table, probably remembering what Bai Bing Wen was holding earlier when he woke up. “This one?”

“Yes.”

Ji Feng Huang takes the scroll and his eyes glow in a bright blue color, reading the characters. “Why are you giving him the cultivation practice of azure dragon?” He looks up at Meng Zhang, still perplexed. “He’s a qilin beast.”

He’s a beast?  Even Bai Bing Wen is not sure.

Meng Zhang snatches the scroll from Ji Feng Huang’s hands and shows it to Bai Bing Wen again. “What do you see?”

Bai Bing Wen, despite knowing he can only see a bunch of gibberish, still looks back at the surface of the scroll and sighs. “Characters that I don’t understand.”

“What?” both Ji Feng Huang and Meng Zhang say at the same time.

“Hold on. You can’t understand it?” Meng Zhang asks him like he’s an i***t.

Bai Bing Wen takes another glance at the scroll. “These characters are too complicated. Where I’m from, we read the simplified version and never learned this. I can’t even dig the skills no matter how much I force myself to go through the Crown Prince’s mind.”

“Are you saying that the Crown Prince is also an i***t?” Meng Zhang asks, still in complete disbelief.

“Wait. Are we just ignoring the fact that he can see the characters?!” Ji Feng Huang intervenes, voice louder than the two of them.

Bai Bing Wen gives him a perplexed look. “What do you mean?”

“He means...” Meng Zhang starts, drawing a symbol of some kind in the air. The symbol looks so much like a dragon, lines forming in the air with a bluish-green glow. “This is what he sees while looking at the scroll because he’s not a descendant of the dragon.” Then the symbol disappears, transforming into the same characters that Bai Bing Wen can see on the scroll. “While you... You are seeing these, aren’t you?”

Bai Bing Wen can only look at these beautiful characters, absently snatching the scroll back. He looks at the scroll and compares the characters, nodding to himself. “I am seeing these characters.”

“I know,” Meng Zhang answers.

“But why?” Bai Bing Wen asks, looking even more confused.

Meng Zhang glances at Ji Feng Huang who’s looking just as lost before looking back at Bai Bing Wen. “I don’t know, Your Highness. But what I do know is that, only dragon descendants have the ability to read the cultivation scroll of the Eastern Empire.”

“Which means our first theory is correct,” Ji Feng Huang mumbles to himself, looking up at Bai Bing Wen.

Bai Bing Wen almost forgets about the theory that Ji Feng Huang is talking about, if not for Ji Feng Huang reminding him of it.

“You are... a martial cultivator,” Ji Feng Huang says.

“He is,” Meng Zhang confirms for them. “However, his spiritual power is gold and his spiritual cognition is a fire spirit.”

Hearing this, Ji Feng Huang stares at Bai Bing Wen like he’s grown wings. “That explains your warm essence, then,” he remarks.

“I would really love to hear more of these but to be honest, I don’t understand what’s going on anymore,” Bai Bing Wen admits.

“Don’t worry. You’ll know more about your potential after cultivating this,” Meng Zhang says with a small smile, tapping the tip of the scroll. “For now, I want the two of you out of my house so I can clean the place before another visitor arrives. This one really cannot tolerate dirty places and I find it difficult to tolerate him, too, when he can’t tolerate his surroundings.”

With so much more questions than answers swarming in his head, Bai Bing Wen quietly follows Ji Feng Huang onto the streets outside Meng Zhang’s home. Instead of sending a signal to call on an imperial guard and have a carriage take them home, Bai Bing Wen decides to just take a long walk under the bright light of the moon as he tries to sink in everything new that he’s learned about himself today.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Ji Feng Huang asks, hands behind his back as they walk near the night market.

Bai Bing Wen snaps out of his own reverie, glancing at Ji Feng Huang. “What do you mean?”

“You left your essence on me so I would feel warm, didn’t you?”

Bai Bing Wen raises an eyebrow. “Why do you say it like that?”

“I know your scent, too. In fact, I can smell you even when I’m asleep,” Ji Feng Huang says proudly, throwing two small objects in the air and catching them swiftly. “You did this, too, didn’t you?”

Bai Bing Wen narrows his eyes, trying to see what these two small objects are. When he realizes what they are, he shakes his head. “Please, don’t tell me you smelled my scent on those, too.”

Ji Feng Huang chuckles. “I did. But that’s not how I figured out.”

When Bai Bing Wen doesn’t answer, Ji Feng Huang links his arm with his and smiles.

“Thank you.”

Nodding, Bai Bing Wen smiles back and chuckles to himself. “Okay, little ghost.”

“What do you call them?” Ji Feng Huang asks, looking at the charmed mufflers like they’re precious diamonds.

“Mufflers,” Bai Bing Wen answers simply. “How did you know it was me?”

Ji Feng Huang puts the charmed mufflers into his storage bracelet, looking up at the moon. “I saw them once in your memories. Your brother used them to keep the noises away.”

Hearing this, Bai Bing Wen sighs deeply, looking up at the moon, too.

“You seemed really happy back then,” Ji Feng Huang adds.

The moon shines over the streets and over the two cultivators wearing identical-looking robes. They slow down, just looking up to appreciate the night and the magical darkness lit up by the mystical moon.

“I hope you see them soon so that you can smile like that again.” Ji Feng Huang turns to look up at him once more, the light reflecting on his cheeks making him look a bit paler than usual. “You really are... one good-looking man when you smile like that.”

Bai Bing Wen can only hope that, wherever they are, his brothers are doing safe and well. And he sincerely hopes that they’re not too aggrieved for his disappearance in that world. Because for now, coming back might be an impossible task but he’s going to try everything that he can just to see them one last time, even if he has to go through another lifetime of cultivation.

But then again, the longer he stays here, the harder it is becoming for him to bear the idea of being far away from Ji Feng Huang.

“I’ll smile at you like that if you want me to,” he answers in a low voice, eyes glowing in golden sparkles.

“No,” Ji Feng Huang answers. “Please, only smile at me like that if you feel like you want to.”