Ghosts of the Present , the Past and the Future !

Ling Yun used to think that he had seen almost everything.

When you have witnessed all from the petty squabbles of farmers in the countryside to a Immortal turning a rich land into a in infertile desert in the span of a single night you are certainly entitled to think that at least that was what he believed

Turns out he was wrong.

He had never seen or heard of anything even remotely similar to what was happening to him now.

Although he had been prepared for the possibility , watching himself turn into a ghost was not a nice experience.

He barely had the time to assess his transformation for he suddenly felt a piercing pain right where his skull should have been .

It was as if there were two different forces pulling him one pulling him towards the still slumped body of Meng Yun before him the other pulling him to who knows where .

The first was more like a subconscious attraction like he had observed pulling down the people he had thrown down from atop .

It had never stopped to amaze him , that unstoppable attraction that dragged everything down into the depths.

Perhaps that's why most men he knew were like that , one taste and they could never refuse, the darkness dragging them down relentlessly .

The way they imitated the Heavens had never ceased to be a source of amusement for him.

Now it wasn't.

Not when it was strong enough to rip what remained of him apart.

The other force was strange unlike the previous it felt more like a summons as if 'something' or 'someone' needed him urgently and were doing their best to drag him towards them .

For some reason he didn't wish to obey the summons.

He didn't know why.

Perhaps instinct.

All his long years had if anything taught him to trust that 'gut feeling '.

Who knows if it was a message sent from the Heavens for their favourite son in the world below ?

At least he liked to think that way .

Even if he never got to officially 'crown' himself as the "Son of Heaven' he still believed that he was far more of a 'Son' to the above compared to the drunk fool who even now sat on the throne indulging in his early morning 'rituals' spent with wine and women no doubt.

Why hadn't the damned dotard had the luck to meet a fox spirit ?

The idiot would have loved it too and He, Ling Yun would have had a legitimate reason to sit on the throne long ago.

Win-win isn't it ?

Ling Yun however didn't have much time to consider what might have been as the forces assaulting him like raging waves intensified.

He didn't know what to do placed in a situation he had no control of and after a long time he experienced something which he never thought he could

Fear

Fear of the unknown.

Eventually his sense of self -preservation won over the fear and he decided to something , anything that would get him of its predicament.

The only thing that he was aware of that worked in his current 'spiritual state' was the mystical 'meditation' poses that he had been capable of using in his disembodied state.

But how should he concentrate enough to somehow 'reform' his body according to the poses when he couldn't move even a little if he did not wish to be torn apart.

He didn't have much time to think.

Compared to the force that he felt from the body of 'Meng Yun' the other one had increased a lot in comparison to the extent that it wasn't a 'tug of war' anymore.

Any instant he would be swept far away and if his instinct were right it wasn't going to end well for him.

He gritted his teeth and did his best.

He barely had the time to notice what happened however for soon

"Boom !"

An invisible shock wave ripped through right were he was standing .

He watched to his horror as his 'body' was ripped into shreds right before his eyes by a terrifying unseen force .

He knew no more as his 'senses' faded away .

Far away inside a shabby room in a tavern a crystal suddenly broke apart into pieces.

A shadowy figure very familiar to Ling Yun gazed at the shards strewn all over the floor dispassionately.

Luo Ziyan sighed.

She then muttered aloud seemingly addressing the thin air.

"It failed."

"Somehow he was able to avoid a 'Fetch' ."

" It doesn't matter however as I know where he is now . "

'Come along , we are heading to Zilin City for a vacation !'

She headed out without waiting for whoever her orders were.

Just after she left a solitary hand reached out seemingly out of thin air and lifted up a shard as if it were inspecting it

A sinister whispering came out of the ether the voice would have sent shivers down anyone's spine.It was as if a venomous viper had learnt to speak after having its throat burned by its own poison.

"An unforeseen helper perhaps ? That might make things a little interesting . "

" Missy never lets me have fun. "

"I can finally flex my tired muscles after a long time. "

The voice laughed maniacally. Its hand with sharp hooked claws easily shattering the shard that it held in its hands.

The same explosion of fragrances assaulted his nose once again but this time he wasn't in a joyous mood .

The Garden of A Million Blossoms would no more be a delight to visit in the season of spring .The fields of colourful spring blooms opening their petals at the same time had vanished forever never to grace the world again.

The vivid scenery had long been replaced with the war-torn one from the broken world that he was familiar with.

But his mind wasn't on that.

Instead he stared at the foothills once more waiting for a descent of a legend once more.

He still remembered the forlorn look that she gave him when they met for the last time.

Her face was still so beautiful the tear drops akin to a string of pearls .

He never did have the opportunity to tell her that.

She jumped , the inevitable attraction taking her down into the depths as it did to his heart plunging it into the darkness.

He waited patiently for his quarry. He was prepared to wait till the end of time.

After all the descent of an immortal had belonged only to the myths before.

Ling Yun opened his 'eyes'.

Do ghosts dream ?

He seemed to have found the answer.

He had long since given up on the past .

All that was left in front of his eyes was his 'goal '.

Why then did his 'heart' throb so ?

He shook off his stray thoughts and decided to move on from thinking of such pointless things

He took stock of his surroundings

He half expected himself to have 'died' and subsequently 'resurrected' in the void once again.

Surprisingly he wasn't 'dead' and back in the void .

But it would be a lie to say that he understood where he was .

He could 'see' the outside world and 'feel' it and from what it looked like he was back inside Meng Yun once again but something was different .

For one thing it felt like he was 'inside' Meg Yun not like before when he 'was' Meng Yun.

The difference appeared to be subtle in language but it was tremendous in the real world.

At least that's what Ling Yun felt.

He had however experienced too much to be affected and instead decided to take a 'deep breath' .

He noted in passing that Meng Yun didn't take the deep breath.

He gulped.

Meng Yun didn't.

There was not much he could do since that 'mystical meditation' had led him here then he had to believe that it was his salvation .

The other possibility was too frightening to think about.

He closed his eyes to severe himself from any thoughts of the outside world from affecting him.

The world came to a stop as Ling Yun's meditation went on.

Meng Yun opened his eyes which radiated an intense brilliance.

He let out an exclamation of amazement

Ling Yun 'was' Meng Yun again but this wasn't the main cause of his surprise.

What caused it was the strange feeling of new strength coursing through his limbs .

If he had to describe the feeling it was as if a viscous , sluggish liquid was moving all of his veins giving him an unparalleled vigour.

He felt as if he could do anything !

Including lifting mountains, turning over seas nothing seemed impossible to the empowered Ling Yun.

He calmed down however as he realised that the said feeling could be no more than a delusion .

But even so he couldn't stop making an exclamation in surprise .

To his shock he realised that the 'liquid' was exactly the 'qi' in Meng Yun's memories and the 'veins' were in fact his meridians.

However there was one important source of difference.

His qi seemed to emit from a point from his heart and he felt instinctively that if he 'focused' on it again he would end up in the previous situation of having no qi.

This was weird since nothing in Meng Yun's memories told that cultivators had the ability to rescind their qi but then he wasn't aware that there were apparently 'ghosts' that could possess bodies !

Ling Yun couldn't help but let out a cynical laughter through Meng Yun's mouth.

No, his mouth.

He had to stop thinking of the body as Meng Yun's and start to think of it as his.

After all he had won it justifiably didn't he ?

As for experimenting with 'withdrawing' qi He wasn't going to do it again without accumulating some knowledge.

After all that had happened he concluded that his lack of knowledge was a severe handicap .

Somehow he had managed to escape this time but who knows about the next ?

Truly , only fools do not fear the unknown.

The problem was however where was he going to get the relevant information ?

There was no way that any ordinary bookshop would have a scrolls on the way that ghosts cultivated would it ?

Which meant that his urgency to join the five sects had only increased .

Luckily for him after a brief trial he found out that Meng Yun's methods were now usable .

Not only was he able to ascertain his level which was the Second Stage of Refining Qi but was also able to 'run' the exercise according to his memories.

This added another layer of protection of him.

Hopefully the inspectors of the Five Sects would not be able to expose his true 'ghostly' identity.

Ling Yun couldn't help but snigger at his pun .

He always felt his skill at comedy was surpassed only by his relentless devotion to his goal.

He couldn't help but recall fond memories such as of the time that he had all at once tossed the Mother , Wife and Daughter of one of his rival generals into the river at full spate and asked him to choose one among them to save.

He had just made the traditional question come alive and the addition of the Daughter he had felt was a masterstroke.

Why bother with two when you can have three ?

Three's a company isn't it .

He had sniggered at that thought then even as he did now

The General didn't co-operate though.

That wimp .

He had him beheaded later as a punishment for disrupting his fun unfortunately he had never quite managed to fulfil his wish.

He shook his head , for real this time , coming back to the matter at hand.

Time for reminiscence was later .

Now , he needed to think of what to do and fast.

The selection would begin in a couple of days.

As a precautionary measure he had to move away from this place.

Who knew if the commotion created by him had been noticed by anyone ?

Also the 'summons' he had felt then didn't assure him at all.

If it was who he thought he was then the entire city was dangerous for him.

But in a short time there was no way that he could run far enough.

Moreover with the the entrance examinations coming up the Five Sects should have beefed up security .

Not even a rat should be able to get in or out for the duration.

If he played his cards right he should be safe enough.

But the premise was that he had to successfully become a member of the Outer Sect which meant that he had to find a way to cultivate at least to the 3rd stage preferably to the 4th in just a couple of days.

From his 'memories' he could figure out how difficult the task was .

Especially from the 3rd to the 4th stages since the demarcation between them was of an entire period it involved a change in the 'essence' itself a fact that had perplexed many a cultivator to the point that it was considered a 'bottleneck' .

Not to mention promoting to the 4th stage his prospects of promoting to the 3rd stage so soon were rather bleak as well.

But sitting here cooped up wasn't going to help as well .

He had to head out into the world and figure something out.

What chance did he have when his life was in balance ?

After all as a matter of principle he never let his life be left in the hands of others.