The day emperor Wu TianLan had his head severed happened to be the same day a young monk living on top of the mountain Tiankong was struck by lightning. But instead of dying, he was in the midst of waking up.
-.-.-.-.-.-
A sharp stab in the ribs startled Qing MingYu, pulling him out of his slumber.
"ShiBai?"
Who was talking? A soft groan escaped Qing MingYu's lips as he tried to tune out the grating voice that pierced his eardrums.
"ShiBai! Are you ok?" An unfamiliar voice of a young man called.
ShiBai? MingYu was sure he knew no one named ShiBai.
"ShiBai? Can you hear me? It's XiaoHe."
Qing MingYu crinkled his brows. A terrible headache, combined with his tingling muscles and the soreness that seemed to radiate from within, told him he was unfortunate enough to be back with the living.
The pains of death lingered as MingYu reached up to rub his neck. He could still feel the icy edge of the sword as it struck and sliced his head off.
Who said dying was not painful? He already died twice, and it was as painful on both occasions! But why did he die the second time?
Opening his eyes, he scrambled up, wobbling as he got used to being alive once more. His face darkened upon seeing his surroundings. He was in the middle of a mountain forest, in a clearing. A small monastery rose in front of him. The young monk who called himself XiaoHe was looking at him with his brows furrowed with worry.
An urge to vomit overwhelmed him, but MingYu suppressed it. He took a step forward but stumbled and fell on his ass.
"What is wrong with this body?" MingYu groaned, his voice hoarse and raspy. He was in a desperate need of water.
"Lightning struck you," XiaoHe said as he hovered around MingYu like a worried mother hen.
Well, that was one way to die, MingYu thought.
"ShiBai, how are you feeling?"
Like shit.
"Breathing," MingYu said instead, and his stomach churned on cue.
Settling in a lotus position on the ground, MingYu took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and concentrated on his core–there was a weak warmth within his guts, that's all. This body hadn't even gotten a stable enough core to be considered a cultivator. MingYu had a feeling he couldn't jump higher than his knees.
Such infuriatingly average body for a deity to perform any missions in! Why on earth was he possessing a body with no powers? Why was he possessing a body in the first place? Did someone make a mistake up in Heaven?
Looking around the scorched ground, he noticed a terribly familiar bamboo scroll. After all, he had himself handed a fair share of them out during his time as a god. A scroll of Heavenly missions. MingYu grimaced. So, this meant he had a mission in this realm. That was a first.
He usually worked as a messenger or a secretary. Going on missions wasn't his thing. Besides, Heavenly missions meant he had to go through the rebirth limbo. No one possessed a body to complete these missions. Looking at the scroll more closely, MingYu stiffened. It wasn't a mission scroll. It was a goddamn punishment scroll.
It read,
-
General Qing MingYu, Qin dynasty, went down in battle at age 27
Task: end the Wu dynasty as Wu TianLan
Punishment: make amends with the families that suffered unjustly
Current status: spirit possession of a body of a monk, ShiBai
Note: if fail the mission once more, the spirit shall be crushed and scattered across the three realms
Stamped and approved by Heaven's committee of Heavenly Missions.
Complaints will not be approved.
-
A giant red stamp spelled FAILED over the task section. MingYu's face fell. The bureaucracy was heartless, even in Heaven. But he didn't have any memories of being Wu TianLan. How could this be? Surely someone had made a mistake!
MingYu crawled on the ground and finding a ragged stone, cut his palm on it and started drawing over the stone slaps with his blood. He drew a circle and heavenly incantations around it. Sitting in the middle, he took on a lotus position and concentrated.
The sky darkened and MingYu moved out of the way just in time before the lightning struck him the second time in that day.
XiaoHe screeched and ran inside the temple.
Whoever was up there didn't want to talk!
Opening the scroll once more, MingYu noticed in tiny carvings, words,
'In case of complaints, the soul will be shattered immediately.'
Got the message loud and clear! MingYu grimaced. So, he was to take over this punishment, whether he liked it or not. He just got back to the books of the living. Dying for the third time was out of the question.
"You must be Qing MingYu."
MingYu looked up at the temple with a startle. An old, blind monk stood there with a gentle smile on his wrinkly face.
"How do you know my name?"
"I have been expecting you. But come inside, wouldn't want to be hit by lightning for the third time in a day."
The room they went in was small and apathetic. A small rickety table was pushed against the wall, opposite the straw bed, that's it. The old monk was sitting in the lotus position on the bed with his back hunched over, ready to nosedive towards the floor.
MingYu paced the room, throwing glances at the mirror on the little table in the corner. Frankly, MingYu didn't care for what he saw.
Bald, thin and bland. The only thing this body had going on was the height. He had to possess a body of a monk, of all people!
But this wasn't the moment to wallow in self-pity. His mind was furiously thinking over what the monk had just told him.
MingYu stopped his pacing and plopped on the ground, facing the monk.
"Do you know who I am?" The old monk said.
How could he not know who the Divine Guide was? The first fallen deity known in history. The founding father of demons and demon cultivation itself. But the man in front of MingYu was hardly an immortal being. He was as mortal as a mortal can be. In fact, he looked like he was halfway in the grave already.
MingYu had also noticed the rugged nails that were partly hidden beneath the old, wrinkly skin. They ran along his spine, barely visible under his robe's raised collar. Whoever had put them in had intended to kill the old man, or in the least cripple him for the rest of eternity.
"It's a little hard to digest." MingYu offered. He thought it better not to ask.
The old man smiled. "Yes, those days have passed for decades now. I'm now merely an old man who can't seem to die."
Brushing that aside, MingYu had more pressing questions in mind. Like why was he back in the mortal realm and how could he get out of it?
"So I am – was Wu TianLan. Do you have any idea how I died? What I did?" He had no memory of being Wu TianLan. How in the world was he supposed to know who he was to make amends with? What did he do, anyway?
"That I can't answer for you, I'm afraid." The old man said. "We live here on this mountain in seclusion, there are only the three of us."
MingYu frowned, the man sounded perfectly calm, not saddened at all that ShiBai had died and his body now possessed by someone else.
The old man seemed to read MingYu's thoughts. A smile quivered on his lips.
"ShiBai is now in a better place. He lived a good, modest life and is now freed from the sufferings of the living. We are grateful they allowed him to go at such an age."
MingYu rubbed his chin. He had never heard of anyone reaching enlightenment through a lightning bolt. He wasn't sure if this ShiBai was going anywhere inherently good, but it was better than living in this useless body.
The old man sat up straight as he mused with a knowing smile. "Time will reveal everything. But, I need something from you, I hope they are not too much to ask."
Somehow, it seemed unfair that MingYu got no explanations for anything yet was expected to take on more tasks. But respect your elders. So MingYu waved his hand dismissively. "Just say them, old man."
"I want you to take XiaoHe with you. Your arrival has set his fate in motion. He can't stay here any longer."
MingYu's eye twitched. He hadn't expected to become a babysitter the first day he arrived in the mortal realm. He muttered, "No problem."
"I also hope you will treat ShiBai's body with respect. His innocence is to be kept the way he left this realm."
Oh... Well, it was a reasonable request. Keeping this body's virtue intact? How hard could it be?
"Not a problem."
"The last request is that you won't tell about me to anyone."
MingYu raised his brow. "Not even your disciples?"
"Not even them."
MingYu curiosity peeked, so he finally said, "Divine Guide, did you ever have disciples in the names of Wang ZhiYi and Huan PingZe?"
Even if these two names were familiar to the monk, they were so far back in history, it would be understandable if he had forgotten their existence. Yet, MingYu had to ask, now that he was in the grandmaster's presence.
"ZhiYi and PingZe. Yes, cursed to walk the earth in spirit form. One very calm and studious, the other one - troublesome. Terrible incantations and talismans that one."
Sounded like MingYu's younger sworn brothers, all right.
"Have you seen them?" MingYu's skin prickled with excitement. It had been centuries since he saw the rascals.
"A few hundred years have gone by since the last time I saw them."
MingYu's excitement faltered. A few hundred years was a very long time. They could be anywhere in the world. His stomach interrupted his thoughts with a thundering roar.
Ah, yes, the feeling of hunger. It had been a while since he felt his insides knot up and twist, howling for food. This would be one hell of a punishment.
As he wallowed in self-pity, the old monk said, "Trust me, the mortal realm isn't that bad once you get used to it again. But now, I think we have visitors. I never have visitors. Remember, not a word of my true identity."
As the monk said the words, a powerful presence seeped through between the walls and doors, suffocating the entire monastery in the thick fog-like air.