Ruan Qi looked dumbfounded at the white-haired old man.
The old man flew down from the sky and landed in front of her.
He was waving his wide sleeves and waved his hand at Ruan Qi, "Miss, annyeong haseyo! (Korean: Hello)"
Miss Ruan Qi: "..."
Ruan Qi stared blankly at the old man speaking Korean to her, then suddenly closed her eyes.
"I must be dreaming."
"Yes, definitely dreaming."
Ruan Qi mumbled to herself, then opened her eyes once again.
...The old man in ancient clothes speaking a foreign language was still in front of her!
Ruan Qi's small mouth slowly formed an 'o' shape.
"Mom... I really am hallucinating from being hit by the Night Pot!"
The old man's kindly and gentle smile slowly petrified.
His lips twitched slightly.
He glared at her irritably.
"Little girl, I am certainly not a Night Pot!"
Ruan Qi as if in a dream: "…Mom, the Night Pot is talking!"
Old man: "..."
The old man, who had lived for who knows how many years, nearly passed out from anger.
He grinded his teeth in frustration and flicked Ruan Qi on the forehead.
"Stinky girl, snap out of it! I'm not a Night Pot! Look if you don't believe me!"
He flipped his wrist, and a white object appeared in his palm.
...It was the very Night Pot that had knocked out Ruan Qi!
Ruan Qi reached out to grab it, but as she was about to touch the Night Pot, her hand passed right through it.
It was a phantom!
"This is the phantom of my true form, little girl, of course you can't grab it," the old man boasted with an air of triumph. "My real name is Bai Li, formed from the Essence of Heaven and Earth thousands of years ago. Little girl, I am a Spiritual Artifact, a very powerful one at that."
"Little girl, hitting you today was an accident. But it was also because your life was fated to end, that's why you were hit to death."
"Even without me, you would have died in your sleep the day before your twentieth birthday."
"My appearance has brought forward your death. It's my mistake. As compensation, I took the liberty of binding with you and revived you."
Ruan Qi: "…So, I won't die when I'm twenty?"
"How could it be that easy?" Bai Li the old man glanced disdainfully, "Reviving someone who is about to die goes against the natural order. In order to save you, I almost used up all my Spiritual Power.
As long as you are alive, my Spiritual Power will continue to be consumed. So, whether or not we both can survive now depends entirely on you."
Ruan Qi didn't speak.
She tried to digest the overwhelming information and organize her thoughts.
"So, the situation now is: your Spiritual Power could run out at any moment, and I could die at any moment. To keep living, we need to restore your Spiritual Power?" she summarized.
"Exactly. You got it right," Bai Li the old man looked at her approvingly. "I've lived for so long and met lots of people, but you're the first brat who remains this calm upon learning about her own death."
Ruan Qi smiled modestly, and at the same time, she rolled her eyes internally.
Getting such praise when she was going to die did not make her feel happy at all.
"What do I need to do to keep living?"
"Help me increase my Spiritual Power." Bai Li waved his sleeve, conjuring two chairs and pulling her to sit down.
Bai Li: "I used to go to other planes to visit, to exchange thoughts with the Spiritual Artifacts there. Oh right, they don't call them Spiritual Artifacts in those planes, they call them Systems. You've heard of them, right? The kind in novels."
Ruan Qi shook her head blankly.
...She didn't read novels.
"...Fine." Bai Li wiped his face in exasperation, "To put it simply, what I'm trying to say is: I am not an ordinary Spiritual Artifact System, but a highly distinguished, god-level System that has visited otherworldly planes, traversing both past and future."
"After binding with you, I investigated the background of this era. I've come up with the quickest method to restore Spiritual Power—faith power."
"Faith?" Two question marks popped in Ruan Qi's eyes, "So... do I need to worship you like offering incense to Bodhisattvas three times a day and bow down to you?"
Bai Li: "…"
Who on earth gave birth to this child!
What kind of bizarre thought process is this!!!
"Who asked you to prostrate?!" Bai Li snapped, "I mean for you to go to the entertainment industry and become a star!"