My Little Ghost

Volume 1.3.6 — The Transmission

“He broke your dantian,” Ji Feng Huang says in a somber voice.

Bai Bing Wen is hunched over, trying to even his breathing. He’s right, this is one of those times he never thought things through. He didn’t think that seeing his family once more and not being able to reach out to them, touch them, talk to them, or at least even say ‘hi’ to them, would make such a big impact in his psychological state. It’s as if seeing them again just made it more real—that he’s no longer in that world and whether or not he can go back is still not clear to him.

“Take deep breaths, Xiao Bing,” Ji Feng Huang tells him.

He’s thankful that Ji Feng Huang is at least trying his best not to suffocate him even further. If his spiritual consciousness gets more chaotic, Ji Feng Huang might lose his spiritual cognition and never get it back, just like what Meng Zhang said.

“Xiao Bing?” he hears Ji Feng Huang gently calling out, squeezing his hand lightly.

He can’t let go of Ji Feng Huang’s hand or they would both get lost in this sea of unstable spiritual force. But right now, he really, really needs to stabilize himself before Ji Feng Huang gets affected, too.

“Breathe in and breathe out slowly,” Ji Feng Huang says.

Bai Bing Wen feels a soft hand running through his soft hair. He can’t remember when Ji Feng Huang took off his headband and hair tie or if it’s even Ji Feng Huang who removed them. But he tries to follow what Ji Feng Huang is telling him, taking a deep breath, and slowly letting it out through his lips. Surprisingly, focusing his mind on Ji Feng Huang’s voice actually helps.

“Do you trust me?” he hears Ji Feng Huang’s voice asking.

Bai Bing Wen clears his throat and turns to look at Ji Feng Huang. This time, Ji Feng Huang is on his true form, wearing the robes of silvers and blues, with his bluish-silver hair neatly styled to a half bun. He nods, giving Ji Feng Huang a weak smile.

Ji Feng Huang lifts his free hand and touches Bai Bing Wen’s cheek. “Close your eyes and let go of my hand.”

Bai Bing Wen frowns a little. “What?”

“Come on. Close your eyes and let go. Just trust me. We don’t have much time left.”

Bai Bing Wen, with his heart beating erratically and his spiritual force blurring in chaos, can only nod. But then he remembers promising not to let go of his hand so he holds on again. “I can’t.”

“It’s okay. If this goes on, we’ll both get lost and you would damage your dantian. The first time it happened, you were sent to a different world. What if you don’t open your eyes to anything anymore if it happens again?”

Bai Bing Wen holds on tighter. “I can’t. We promised not to let go,” he says.

“We also promised not to harm each other. So this...” Ji Feng Huang looks at their connected hands and smiles. “This is only temporary. We’ll see each other once we open our eyes back in my world. Our world.”

Bai Bing Wen feels the instability of his spiritual force starting to take toll on his core, cracks forming and spreading throughout. This is exactly what it felt like when he was still in the modern world, when that immortal in white robes attacked him. It’s as if he’s reliving that moment of his life once more, making him feel weaker and weaker in each passing second.

“Xiao Bing, you have to let go. You have to let go now,” Ji Feng Huang says, still with an encouraging smile. “Close your eyes.”

In order to not see the turbulence of his own spiritual force, Bai Bing Wen does as he’s told and closes his eyes. “Little ghost?” he calls out. The sound of crisp crackles and falling debris surround them, just as Bai Bing Wen feels him slowly losing his spiritual force.

He feels Ji Feng Huang’s hand holding both of his, transmitting the same comfortable coldness to his hands and throughout his body. “You open your eyes again as soon as we let go. Okay?”

“No,” Bai Bing Wen quickly answers.

“You have to,” Ji Feng Huang says. “I’ll see you later, Xiao Bing.”

Before Bai Bing Wen can even answer, he feels Ji Feng Huang’s little hands letting go of him, instead, and on instinct, he opens his eyes.

“What happened?” Meng Zhang frantically asks, placing white cloth on Ji Feng Huang’s nose.

Bai Bing Wen notices the blood stains on all the clothes scattered on the floor. “What...” he mumbles absently.

“Feng-Feng?” Meng Zhang calls out, lightly tapping Ji Feng Huang’s cheek. “What’s going on? Why are you the only one back?” he asks, glancing at Bai Bing Wen.

Bai Bing Wen feels the cracks and hollows of his core being mended and a thin layer of frost forming around. The spiritual force inside him is stabilizing, too, and the spiritual energy flows in a tranquil pace. It’s as if he’s undergoing a spirit calming ritual and all the anguish he’s felt while swimming into his sea of consciousness is quickly fading.

“What did you do?” Meng Zhang asks once more, holding the still unconscious Ji Feng Huang in his arms.

At this, Bai Bing Wen snaps back to reality, moving to take Ji Feng Huang into his embrace instead. “He let me go.”

“What?!” Meng Zhang quickly whispers a few enchantments under his breath, holding Ji Feng Huang’s head. Bright bluish-green glow swarms around the unconscious body lying in their arms. “This stubborn i***t,” he grumbles in a low voice, seeming absolutely tempted to hit Ji Feng Huang’s head. “Hurry. Go back. Hold his hand and go back there or so help me, I’ll kill you both myself.”

Bai Bing Wen sits up, this time embracing Ji Feng Huang in his arms instead of just holding his hand. “I can’t. I feel like something is blocking me,” he says desperately.

“What happened back there?” Meng Zhang asks.

Bai Bing Wen opens his eyes and studies Ji Feng Huang’s innocent, sleeping face. “I had a panic attack. I felt my core—my dantian breaking. He suddenly wanted to let go and asked me to open my eyes.”

“This i***t, really,” Meng Zhang curses through gritted teeth. He produces vines out of his spiritual power and binds Ji Feng Huang and Bai Bing Wen together. “Try again. But before you do, make sure your cultivation is stable and your spiritual force is at ease. I have a feeling that he’s trying to stabilize you first before he calls out for help. Can you do that?”

Bai Bing Wen nods his head, closing his eyes. He recently advanced in his cultivation so he’s not yet in full control of it, but he’s been in this level before so he has an idea on how to handle himself. He just needs to clear his mind off of his worries so he can go back. He can just worry about the same things once he gets Ji Feng Huang’s spiritual cognition out of his spiritual consciousness.

Placing his core at its most vulnerable state once more, Bai Bing Wen opens his meridians and sees a blinding blue light blending with the golden specks. “Little ghost,” he calls out. “Come here.”

The glowing blue lights gather into one small ball of light, moving straight towards Bai Bing Wen’s chest. “You came back?” he hears Ji Feng Huang’s familiar voice asking.

Bai Bing Wen embraces the blue light into his chest and calls out with a shaky voice, “Meng Zhang, now!”

“Open your eyes,” he hears Meng Zhang saying as he feels a strong spiritual force pulling them out.

When Bai Bing Wen opens his eyes again, he sees Ji Feng Huang slowly opening his eyes, too, with nose adorably scrunched up. “I’ve never seen so much gold my entire life.”

“You i***t,” Meng Zhang complains, standing up and leaving the two of them in the room. The vines around them slowly loosen and in a few seconds, they’re freed from the binding.

Bai Bing Wen embraces Ji Feng Huang tightly in his arms. “What have you done? You could’ve gotten lost in there.”

Ji Feng Huang embraces him back just as tight. Not long after, Bai Bing Wen hears little sniffles so he pulls away to look at him.

“What is it?” he asks.

Ji Feng Huang’s button nose is as red as the lids of his eyes, tears staining his cheeks.

“Hey. What is it?” Bai Bing Wen repeats.

Ji Feng Huang sniffles some more, playing with the excess ribbon of his belt. “I got scared.”

“You shouldn’t have pushed me to leave you there, then,” Bai Bing Wen says in a gentle voice, wiping away the tears on Ji Feng Huang’s red cheeks.

“No. I got scared because... I thought you would never get your dantian back again,” he says through sobs, burying his face in his own hands.

Bai Bing Wen embraces him again, laughing a little. “You really are an i***t,” he says, pulling Ji Feng Huang closer into his chest if that’s possible. “What am I going to do with you?”

They stay like this for as long as Bai Bing Wen can remember. He lets Ji Feng Huang cry his eyes out and when the smaller guy is already passed out, clinging onto Bai Bing Wen, he recreates Bai Li Jie’s charmed mufflers using the clean parts of the scattered pieces of white cloth on the floor and places them carefully into Ji Feng Huang’s pointy ears. With this, he hopes that the smaller guy’s sleep won’t get disturbed by unnecessary noises.

Bai Bing Wen prepares to call on Meng Zhang when the guy walks back in before he can say anything, holding a wooden cup.

“He’s asleep?”

Bai Bing Wen nods, removing the headband on Ji Feng Huang’s forehead.

“This is a calming tonic. Give it to him when he wakes up. Let me just get some sheets and pillows.”

“Do you have a bed?” Bai Bing Wen asks before Meng Zhang can leave.

Meng Zhang gives him a weird look. “Why?”

“It would make him feel more comfortable if he sleeps on a bed. This floor is a bit... too cold for him.”

Meng Zhang sighs, picking up the wooden cup again. He rolls his eyes before giving Bai Bing Wen a hand gesture to follow him.

Lifting up the smaller guy, Bai Bing Wen carefully carries Ji Feng Huang to a bedroom with Meng Zhang eyeing him skeptically the whole time. After safely placing Ji Feng Huang in a bed and leaving a lot of his essences all over his body to keep him warm, Bai Bing Wen whispers a few enchantments to keep the room protected before walking out and closing the door.

“What are you doing?”

His soul almost jumps out of his body, hearing Meng Zhang’s accusatory voice behind him. “You scared me.”

“I scared you? Do you think I find comfort with you, manhandling my friend like that?”

“What was I supposed to do? He’s unconscious.”

Meng Zhang narrows his eyes, glancing at the closed door. “How is he?”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Bai Bing Wen almost runs a hand through his hair. When he realizes his hair is back to that long ancient style, he just simply fixes the headband on his head just to not make himself look like an i***t. “I checked his pulse and his spiritual flow. He’s stable.”

Meng Zhang steps closer, almost invading Bai Bing Wen’s personal space. He looks at Bai Bing Wen’s hair, his eyes, his nose, and everything he can look at. “Do you have any idea what you are?”

Bai Bing Wen can only stare at Meng Zhang, confusion written all over his face.

“You’re a special type of  martial cultivator. And I’m not sure if Ji Feng Huang knows about it yet.”

Bai Bing Wen frowns, shaking his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Your aura blends well with Ji Feng Huang’s. He’s a special type of mage. The only auras that can blend well with a special mage are the auras of martial cultivators of special specific types.” He walks to the side to look at Bai Bing Wen’s right ear. He produces a small vine with a pointed end, threatening to poke Bai Bing Wen’s meridian. Bai Bing Wen doesn’t move, but his guards are up. Meng Zhang stops and takes back his vine, gasping in surprise before he walks back in front of Bai Bing Wen. “Like mine, for example.”

Bai Bing Wen doesn’t know if Meng Zhang is just trying to spite him but hearing those words, he’d say it’s working. But when the man talks again, he figures that Meng Zhang is actually serious about the blending of auras.

“Follow me. I’ll show you more.”

Looking briefly at the door, Bai Bing Wen takes a deep breath before deciding to follow Meng Zhang and see for himself what these types mean and how it differs from what he already knows about himself.

“In the future world, I understand that there is only one type of cultivation?” Meng Zhang asks, sliding the doors to what looks like a library open.

“Yes,” Bai Bing Wen replies, still wary of the other man. “And everyone is allowed to practice martial arts, unlike here.”

“Well, you’re about to leave everything you learned in that world behind if you want a chance to get back.”

Pausing in his steps, Bai Bing Wen gives him a look of disbelief. “What do you mean?”

“I mean...” Mang Zhang picks a thick scroll from one of the shelves and hands it over to Bai Bing Wen. “If you want to possess the power to distort space and time, you must become an immortal. And to become an immortal, you have to be able to cultivate the right way.”

Bai Bing Wen stares at the scroll with odd characters on them. “Right way?”

“Your spiritual force is in chaos because your cultivating pattern is inconsistent with your dantian. This also explains why your dantian is easily shaken, making it vulnerable to disappearing and cracking while your meridians are open. It’s not strongly attached to your soul force.”

With so little words, Bai Bing Wen hears things he’s never heard of from the cultivating masters of the modern world, but he gains an epiphany.

“Can I touch your wrist?” Meng Zhang asks politely, reaching a hand out to Bai Bing Wen.

Nodding, Bai Bing Wen lifts his free hand and offers it to Meng Zhang.

“Whatever happens, don’t fight back,” Meng Zhang says before infusing his spiritual energy into Bai Bing Wen’s pulse.

Bai Bing Wen feels his meridians being forcefully opened, making him scream in pain. His knees give out, leaving him kneeling harshly on the ground. But Meng Zhang’s eyes are glowing bluish-green with no signs of letting him go. This feeling is worse than being oppressed by a higher level cultivator.

“It’s... Ugh... S-stop.”

“Don’t fight it,” Meng Zhang warns, this time doubling the pain by oppressing Bai Bing Wen with his aura. “Stop fighting it or it would get more painful.”

Bai Bing Wen then decides to just let it be. He would probably pass out of the pain, but that doesn’t really matter now since fighting back won’t help with this overwhelming aura. “This... i-is unfair,” he complains breathlessly.

A few minutes into this painful session, Meng Zhang finally takes back his aura and the spiritual energy he’s infused into Bai Bing Wen’s meridians. He kneels right next to Bai Bing Wen, bluish-green glowing out of his palms, and places his hands on Bai Bing Wen’s forehead and chest. Soon enough, the strains and stabbing pain all over his body start numbing and fading like nothing happened.

“You have so much knots in your meridians. We need to get that corrected if you are to cultivate to immortality,” Meng Zhang says.

Bai Bing Wen wants to reactivate his protective array but for some reasons, his core is not obeying him. “What did you do to me?”

“I rearranged your spiritual flow. It might take a few days before it goes back to normal but when it does, at least, you’re on the right path. In the mean time...” Meng Zhang pats his shoulder and gives him a small smile. “Study the scroll. You can rely on Ji Feng Huang to make sure of your safety while you can’t use your dantian yet.”