In the Sane Man's Head.

TEN MINUTES PRIOR…

Tai Yang let out a drawn-out groan of frustration. "Alright. Breathe. Breathe. Everything will be fine. We just have to think of it logically. Okay?"

He ran his hands over his face and sat down on Bed-Jiejie the Second. "Think." Tai Yang said, crossing one arm across his chest, and using the other to hold his cheek.

"So let's see. You need to gather more information. How will you do that? Well, there's surveying people in the castle, and asking Ji Ru questions. But…" He suddenly gasped.

"There's Tai Yang's room! Or… My room?" He scratched his cheek, then shook his head. "That man had a bedroom and a study in the Infirmary. Maybe there'll be some information there. YES! If nobody could get in there, then he probably kept his information in there too. Hmm, but now that I'm here, what if Ji Ru asks me to open the rooms for him? What if he wants to go inside and look around?" He bit his lip. "I'll have to get there sneakily before him, get whatever information there is and hide it somehow, and soon. If he thinks about the rooms, by the time he asks me to open it, I need to have already taken everything of importance! Yes, yes."

Something bumped on the door from the outside and Tai Yang looked towards it.

'Ji Ru could be back any time now… It wouldn't do to have him hear your scheming.' He thought. 'It's okay, Bed-Jiejie the Second. I'll fill you in at a time I'm sure Ji Ru won't walk in at.'

He stood up and started to pace again. 'How would I manage to wander the castle though? Would they find it suspicious for me to be walking around?'

'Come on Tai Yang. Use that chonky brain of yours.' He thought and thought, walking up and down at the foot of Bed-Jiejie the second. After a few minutes, he lifted his head and saw his reflection in a floating mirror, not too far from their beds.

For a brief second he stepped back in chock; he thought he was looking at Xiao Xia until he realised that it was himself. 'Oh, you almost gave me a heart attack.' He thought, looking at his reflection. As he did, he turned his head from side to side, marvelling at the resemblance. 'You're only about three centimetres taller than her actually.' He frowned and tilted his head. 'Your build is practically the same though. If you wore make up and a padded bra then-" His eyes widened and he gasped.

'CROSS-DRESS AS XIAO XIA!' He thought, covering his mouth. 'If she comes here, she can make me look like her, and she can pretend to be me. Then as Xiao Xia, I'll go off with Wu Ji and Rai Lin around the castle! YES!' He put his hands on his flat chest. 'She must have a bra that I could fill with socks or oranges.'

Tai Yang grinned in a sneaky way. 'Perhaps I can even use that disguise to get out of Changying, and since Xiao Xia has magic, maybe she can escape!'

He grasped his hands and looked up at the starry sky simulation. 'We can sort out all the details when we see each other again. I guess I may have to wait on her to come back, but that's okay. In the meantime, I should ask Ji Ru to take me around the castle, maybe I could find a nice hiding place for the information I'll get.'

Tai Yang poked his lip and looked at the door. 'I hope that Li Jun doesn't treat Xiao Xia badly when she's pretending to be me though… Of dear, what if I ruin his chances?'

He winced. 'Perhaps I should befriend him before I carry out this plan… I don't want to ruin his life. Xiao Xia may hate him if he tries to strangle her. And what if he pulls down her pants to poke the mushroom? She may get traumatized…'

'Hmmmm… If we figure out a way for her to be me for a few minutes, and then switch back to herself, I'd be the only one in trouble and her cover wouldn't be blown! Yes! We could say we both need to pee or something! We switch in the toilet, and switch back after! And if I'm trying to escape the Kingdom, I'll escape with her escorts, and then she can zap away or something! OH! OH! We could just make it as if Wu Ji and Rai Lin kidnapped her when she's pretending to be me! Then we switch and do whatever we need to!" Tai Yang clicked his fingers with a bright grin.

'Yeah! We'll fine-tune this idea when we're all together, but it could definitely work. Ah! And this way, I'm out of Li Jun's protection. I could try to die, and of course I would fail at dying since I always do, and that would be perfect! That meets the Netherworld summoning conditions, right? When a Netherworld shows up, I could sell my soul for the chance to go between Earth 394 and Earth 72!'

Tai Yang laughed out loud, happy at his ideas. 'Whoa! These ideas could work! Yeah! Tai Yang, you're on fire!' He clicked his fingers.

Suddenly, he felt incredibly hot.

'Huh? Is it just me or is it a little toasty in-' Tai Yang thought, but when he started to feel as if his skin was being scalded, he looked down to see that his body was on fire. Gasping, he dropped onto the floor.

"AH!" He let out a short scream as he rolled, trying to put the fire out. The grass caught alight too. Gritting his teeth. A strange barrage of voices flooded into his mind.

'And why should I save this boy?'

'Tell me what you want.' 

'My, my, Tai Yang, who is this kid that you're risking everything you've worked for? His body is so burned and mutilated. He's so tiny. It would take a lot to-'

'Prince! Please! Just do it!'

'It's gonna cost you, Tai Yang. You know I'll have to charge yo-'

'So be it-'

Tai Yang gritted his teeth as agonized tears streamed down his face. 'Get to the water! The steam!' He thought, forcing the strange images out of his mind.

'You can't die yet! Almost there!' He thought, stumbling to the water, and setting several things in his path on fire. The fire had gotten massive in a matter or seconds, and Tai Yang could barely breathe. He quickly jumped into the water.

It wasn't that deep, but it was deep enough for him to submerge his entire body. There was a massive sizzle as he went under and he wasn't sure if his burned skin felt relief or additional trauma from the water.

His mind went blank and he felt his body cease all movement. There was a silky, male voice.

'Who are you?' The voice asked.

His eyes were opened underwater but he saw nobody as looked around.

'I'm in your head, kid. You're not going to see me. Don't worry about looking like crap 'cause I can't see you either.'

Tai Yang still couldn't move.

'You almost died, y'know.'

Of course he knew that, but like always, he wasn't dead. He felt himself calm a little more knowing the fire on his body was gone.

'Who are you?'

'You tell me first. Why did I feel like I needed to get to you? Have we met before?'

'No, you tell me who you are first. What are you? How are you in my head?'

'Seriously, kid, just tell me.'

'Are you a spook?'

'What the fuck is a spook?'

'Wait… Are you here because I almost died?'

'Of course. You just bordered between life and death. I'm here from the Netherworld to make a deal with you, but I can't get into that damn castle because of that idiot prince. Before that though, you seem eerily calm for someone who almost kicked the bucket. Have you done this before?'

'I mean… Perhaps a few dozen times…'

'Ahhhh, you're one of those suicidal ones.'

'Urm…'

'Forget it. Tell me kiddo, is there something you want? Your soul is intriguingly robust. That's why I'm here myself, and not one of the weaklings. I'm a powerful being, and I could give you anything you want. Riches, power, land, luck, women… I could make your wildest dreams come true, for a price of course.'

'Power?'

'Mmm, yes. But let's discuss this a little more in person, kid. You've been underwater for too long. Get out of the water, and out of the castle. Find me at the Lake of Obscurity. I'll be waiting for you.'

'Wait! I don't know how long it would take-'

'Take your time. I'm not in a rush. I'm timeless after all. Oh, but you should look a little more traumatized as you go up to the surface. You were almost flame-cooked after all, and they shouldn't know that you had time to calm down while talking to me. I sense someone coming towards you... Yeah, it's a familiar. Don't tell anyone about this. The castle is filled with assholes… Unless you're one of them… Are you seriously not gonna tell me who you are?'

Tai Yang didn't reply to the question.

'How should I look more traumatized?'

'Let me show you a vision of my favorite 'Sauna' the Netherworld. Hehehheehee!'

'W-Wha-'

Suddenly, gruesome images of a fiery land entered his mind. People were caught in the fire, screaming in agony as their skin welted because of the flames. Flesh fell off their bones as they struggled to get out, and suddenly Tai Yang realized in horror that he was one of the people trying to put the flames off himself.

'Get it off! Get it off!' He thought frantically, not realizing he was in an illusion. His body still stung from his severe burns, adding to the traumatizing mirage.

When he burst through the water, the images of burning people blared in his mind. When he looked at Ji Ru, the images were still there.

'That's it. You definitely sound like someone who survived something scary. Make sure your expressions match.' The strange voice said.

There was an odd feeling within him as if he'd been the one to set those people alight. He hadn't done anything to help them in his own plight and guilt began to build. He had trouble discerning the mirage from his reality.

'But I didn't mean to set the room alight. Those people weren't in here! Why were they burning? Did I do that?' He thought. The fear of having murdered people started to overwhelm him.

  Ji Ru continued to speak. Tai Yang looked at him.

'Ji Ru?' He thought as the man spoke to him. "How did the room catch on fire Tai Yang?"

Quite suddenly the images in his head disappeared.

'Talk now, kid. Come on. Illusion's over. He's talking to you. Sell it.'

Tai Yang didn't know what he was trying to sell and to who, but he was scared shitless.

Vaguely he understood that whoever was in his head showed him something fictional. However, if that was what it would look like if he didn't help Xiao Xia save the people she spoke about, if that was what it would look like for innocent people to die, then he needed to do everything in his power to stop it.

'What the world just happened?' He thought frantically to himself as he struggled to make his mouth answer Ji Ru's question.

Tai Yang sniffed and shook his head. 'Ji Ru wants to talk about the room.' He found his mouth uncooperative as he tried to explain.

His tears wouldn't stop. There were children burning in that illusion.

Why did he have to see people dying in that manner?

"I d-d-d-don't know! I was only t-t-t-thinking and the next thin-g-g I kn-ew, I w-was o-o-o-on fi-fire. I tri-ed to r-roll on t-the grou-nd but it c-au-ght fi-fire too, and t-then eve-everything was o-on fire." 

"What exactly were you thinking about?" Li Jun asked. 

Tai Yang was confused by that question. "W-What?"

"What words, he means. What were the words you were thinking when you caught on fire?" Ji Ru asked.

Tai Yang's eyelids fluttered a few times. 

'Kid. They don't know what you saw. They think you're scared about the fire. So you need to answer their questions about the fire and what happened. Actually, what happened here? How did you catch on fire? Did you really light yourself up?' The voice asked.

"I thought..." Tai Yang trailed off, and his eyes narrowed. 

'How did I catch alight?' After a while, he recalled what he'd been thinking.

"I thought 'Tai Yang, you're on fire'." He said. 

"Isn't that..." Li Jun started. 

"Effectuating, yes." Ji Ru said. Tai Yang stared at Ji Ru who was looking at him with deep concern.

'Effectuating? Are you a cognitive, kiddo?'

"But he would have had to snap his fingers, wouldn't he? And that was a high-level Cognitive technique. How would he be able to do it?" Li Jun asked.

Li Wei sighed. "If I recall correctly, Tai Yang has a habit of clicking his fingers when he has an idea. And that technique can only be done if one, your mind is advanced enough to cope with the power it brings, and two, you keep an oath of silence for a year."

"Exactly." Ji Ru said.

'Concentrate kid. I'm going now. Remember, don't let them know I was here.'

'I don't even know who you are.' Tai Yang thought. 'You didn't have to show me that.' He thought bitterly, but the voice had left. Now, everyone was staring at him.

'Erm... Tai Yang, you have some catching up to do.' He thought to himself, not aware of what had happened.

"W-what is it?" He asked.

Li Jun crossed his arms and exhaled.

"Congratulations, Mushroom. You've effectively made yourself even more of a target than your predecessor."