I have a stalker ghost!

One thing he was sure of. MC gets the old man's soul in an artifact trope is running strong. The only other thing he could understand from the memories was that he was an 8 year old now, and his new identity was that of a certain training masochist named Linley Baruch of Wushan Town, Kingdom of Fenlai. And he knew this particular story, and it was not a good one at all because of who he was.

The kid's destiny is to find and kill targets WAY ABOVE his pay grade. Only the ridiculous power of the Xianxia MC's luck and those of revenge and betrayal power-ups help(?) in his victory. So HE was damn sure he could not pull any of those out of thin air and he definitely was not going to cut any corners if he needed to survive.

Hence he needed help. From the ghost that was staring straight at him for the past ten minutes while he was talking to himself.

"Hey."

Not at his most eloquent, the new and improved(?) Linley greeted the soul of the Grand Earth Magus of an Empire long past.

"I imagined there would be a much different greeting, but we can improve that later on. My apologies, my name is Doehring Cowart, Saint rank mage of the Pouant Empire! Can I get any information on where I am right now and what year it is?"

"Um. Well, simply put, Its the year 9990 and the Pouant Empire was destroyed over 5000 years ago. We now are in the Kingdom of Fenlai, near the Mountain Range of the Magical beasts.So... Most of what you know doesn't probably exist anymore. Sorry."

He answered lightly. The confusion was visible on the ghostly spirit's face and he managed to eke out a few words.

"The Pouant Empire was destroyed?! That's impossible-"

"Old man, you are a self proclaimed 5000 year old ghost attached to an 8 year old kid. Tell that to the others and tell will tell you that its impossible, okay? So calm down and start begin the exposition."

"..."

************************

Long story short, the nice old man's body was destroyed when he was ambushed by another Saint level Magus and a Saint level assassin. He then hid his soul inside the neigh indestructible 'Coiling Dragon' Ring(Linley calls it that. The old man's version was not correct- perks of being an SI.), which Linley found a while ago when he was cleaning the old rooms of his ancient manor and was awakened because Linley bonded with it when his blood soaked onto the ring. Now he had a ghost Grandpa who could teach him how to train himself to become a top level combatant in this plane.

One thing was clear. He ain't letting this old man die. Tell fate and destiny that this time, the story is AU!

"Young Master Linley, It's time for dinner."

The housekeeper, Miri reminded him. His memories told him that he was a good man and was very loyal to his father Hogg, who was the noble who owned this town and the area around it. He also remembered that Hogg was a loving father and lord, but he was very strict and never hesitated in punishing him for any mistakes. So he scrambled out of bed with the old ghost in tow.

His father and his younger brother Wharton was waiting for him at the table. Today's dinner looked much better than what he was used to. Definitely because of the impressive yet terrifying fight between the two Saints earlier today. That was something he could not unsee, or un-remember, in his case.

"How are you feeling son?"

His father asked, perfectly pulling off a 'concerned yet strict' face. The man had a presence to him, like he was a block of marble. Being a rank 6 warrior does that to people, he supposed.

"I am fine, father. A good sleep helped. Though I still feel fear when remembering what happened."

"Anyone would, my son. Such people stand at the top of this continent. We are the ones who are unlucky, since they chose their battleground so close to our city."

His father's attitude had mellowed out a lot, probably due to Linley's close call with death today. Hogg did not want to lose another member of his family, like he did his wife. They had a very nice yet silent dinner, as Hogg was musing about the large losses his town took in the past few days. A magus with a velocidragon followed by two saint level combatants was definitely did not help his already-in-the-red town. Hogg went back to his papers while Linley returned to questioning his ghost grandpa.

...

Effectively, Grandpa Doehring went on to explain how mage-force and mental energy worked, and told him to enter a meditative state to test him on both.

Mage-force was basically refined elemental essence that a magus holds inside of him. Elemental affinity decides how quickly one could refine elemental essence into mage-force. A magus calls forth his mage-force to summon elemental essence present in the nature, both of which are controlled through mental energy, making it the most important factor for becoming a mage.

'Understanding the 'Essence' type laws would definitely help in increasing mage-force. Spiritual energy would also increase because of the connection to nature and the laws itself. So try to ponder the essence-type laws as quickly as possible.'

Linley thought as he sunk deeper into his meditative state. He started to see large amounts of earthen, green and red colored specks of light all around him. He found out that his affinity towards fire had also reached an exceptional level.

"Grandpa... I can feel a lot of brown, green and red colored particles all around me! Does this mean I can be a magus?"

Linley tried to sound excited as any child should be in such a scenario. Grandpa Doehring was actually shocked at Linley's words, because he hadn't even begun to increase the elemental essence around him.

'Brown,green and red?! What kind of monster has three exceptional affinities?And considering his mental energy... maybe, just maybe the kid could reach the level of that person in the Yulan Empire or even that of that existence in the Forest of Darkness...'

"Son, your affinities are the best I have heard of. From now on, I will be training you very strictly, so that I could maximize your training returns, understood?"

Grandpa Doehring turned back from doting old man to the feared Grand Magus who commanded respect at that moment. Linley opened his eyes and gave a nod, not willing to anger this side of the old man.

"But what about my mental energy, Grandpa?"

"You need not worry about that. I have already checked it, an exceptional 35 times stronger than that of an average person. Such mental strength from the beginning is only seen amongst the best geniuses in a millennia. Being a magus of the 8th rank is a done deal for you, and you have a high chance of becoming a Grand Magus! So you will train with the goal of being one at the very least, Understood?"

"Yes Grandpa! I'll become the best Magus in the continent!"

Linley replied enthusiastically. Doehring went on to explain how to draw elemental essence into his body, as it was common for all essences. Linley dived deep into a trance like state, much deeper than the meditative state to draw and refine the essence.

'Grandpa...my goal is not something as low as a weak Grand Magus. I need to be a few trillion times stronger than that to be even close to my goal...One step at a time!'

...