"Tisss… That stings..." Yi Tan cleaned his wound and wrapped it tightly. He hoped this would be enough to keep it from getting infected.
"Are you done?" The voice in his head asked. Just hearing the voice again made Yi Tan frown.
This time though, instead of answering it back, he decided to ignore it. He wasn't sure if he was really going insane or not. He hoped that as long as he did not answer this voice that maybe it would go away. He really did not want to go insane just yet. He decided to take a nap that hopefully, when he woke up, he would feel much better.
"Hey, brat! You! You dare ignore me and go to sleep! Fine! Let's see if I don't give you nightmares." The voice yelled in anger.
Yi Tan had the strangest dream. He dreamt that he was in a place full of fire, and many people were screaming out in agony. But what should have been a nightmare scene was completely washed away by the naked girl who was about the size of his palm floating in front of him, laughing at him. The girl was semi transparent, and her black hair ran down to her waist. She looked to be around twenty five years of age. Now most girls would be bashful to be seen in such a state, but this girl had her hands on her hips, and her head tossed back, laughing away mumbling something along the lines of: "How dare you ignore me!? Now pee your pants in fear!"
Yi Tan was getting a complete eye full of this strange older sister's body. The only thing he could chalk this strange dream up to was… puberty. But still, even if this was just a dream, he couldn't take the mocking laughter. "Big sister, can you please shut up?"
"Hmm?" The naked young woman stopped her laughter and looked at the young man who was looking back at her. A shiver ran down her ghostly spine as a thought came to mind… "Just to be sure, but… can you see me?" The young woman pointed at Yi Tan then back at herself.
"Mhmm… In all your glory. Big Sister, you may want to close your legs." Yi Tan answered honestly while nodding his head.
"You! You! You! You damn little pervert! Stop staring!" It was not apparent due to her white-blushing transparent figure, but if you looked closely, you could see the young woman's cheeks turning a darker shade as she covered her body with her hands.
"Huh? I can't look but isn't this my dream? What is wrong with me looking in my own dream? If you don't want me to look, why are you naked in the first place? Why not put on some clothes?" Yi Tan wondered why the tiny transparent woman was acting all bossy in his own dream.
"I am a damn soul! How can I put on clothes when I am dead!?" The young woman huffed. "Ahh! Forget it! Look if you want! Look! Not like I can do anything about it."
Letting out a deep breath, the young woman pushed her embarrassment aside and pointed at Yi Tan: "You! How dare you ignore me!? If it was not for me, you would have been dragged off by the damn government! Those bastards like to do all kinds of strange tests on people. Not to mention they would have ripped the soul lantern from your body, destroying my soul in the process! I, for one, will not let my soul disperse after finally finding someone who is on the same wavelength as me."
"Wait! Yi Tan's head was spinning again. "Are you the voice that was speaking to me? I wasn't going crazy? No, No, I must be going crazy. Why else would a naked ghost woman show up in my dream in the fiery pits of hell?" Yi Tan clutched his head, trying to figure out just what was going on.
"Crazy!? Brat, did you think you were going crazy? They didn't operate on your head but your stomach! Anyway, brat, you are not going crazy. I, Sei, guarantee that you are far from being crazy." Sei's tone made it seem as if her words could not be refuted.
"Ummm... I vaguely remember in my haze hearing some people talking about someone who had their brain burnt. How can you say that I am not going insane?" Yi Tan asked.
"Just trust me on this! The object they stuffed inside you is not from this world! The object itself has no physical form to it. Those people must have used some kind of weird technique to even be able to shove the soul lantern inside you. I am not sure how they did it, but they did it, and it assimilated with your body becoming one with you, which woke me up. But brat, you are very lucky because this has a function to it that can make you stronger." Sei explained.
Yi Tan's interest was finally piqued when he heard her say he could become stronger. "Oh, and how is that?"
"Finally listening, huh? Humph! I am not telling! You ignored me!" Sei crossed her arms across her chest and turned around.
"Then forget it I should wake up soon. I need to get to the academy as soon as possible." Yi Tan's interest quickly disappeared since she wasn't going to tell him, and he began pinching his body, trying to wake himself up.
Sei stomped her feet in the air before turning back around and yelling: "Fine! I will tell you! When you kill a living, breathing thing, a soul will come out of it. If you absorb this soul using the soul lantern, you will be able to strengthen your body. Not only physically but mentally as well. The only thing is that you need to find a power source that can activate the lantern."
"Hmm? Sorry but I do not want to become some kind of criminal. If I had to kill a person due to them trying to harm me is one thing, but to go around massacring a bunch of people to gain strength is not something I want to do. Is there a way to get rid of this stupid thing?" Yi Tan asked seriously. He was not going to become evil to gain power. What she was saying was basically the same thing as selling his soul to a demon.
"Of course not! Why would you go around killing innocents!? I would never allow it anyway!" Sei yelled. "The souls can be any living thing, including the souls from the monsters outside."
"Wait... How do you know so much about this world?" Yi Tan suddenly asked. This soul woman seemed to have a lot of knowledge about this world!
"This..." Sei suddenly realized she knew much more than she should know… "I am not sure… Maybe because the lantern has assimilated with you that it is passing me the relevant information. To be honest, this is my only explanation. Because you are right, I should not know these things. Anyway, you will understand the soul lantern more once we figure out how to supply it with some energy to activate it. For now, you should wake up. I will not contact you unless you contact me from now on or unless I sense danger around you. The last thing I need is you thinking I am lying to you or that you are going insane. For now, we will only talk in your dreams. Once you have activated the soul lantern, you will know that you are not insane and that everything I said is true."
"Alright, we will leave it at that." Yi Tan said before his mind went blank again.
Yi Tan could not see it, but in the deepest recess of his body where his soul was located, a small lantern could be seen and a young woman floated next to it. The young woman floated in this strange space hugging her knees. Her transparent body was slightly flickering as if it was about to disappear at any time. "Hopefully, he can figure out how to give this lantern some energy or I will..." Sei's voice trembled. She did not want to disappear.