Zhou Zixi returned to conversing with his shadow.
He spent an entire winter in the mountains, dying and reviving countless times as he fought with wild beasts for caves to keep warm. Gradually, he began to have some response to star power and grew curious about this force.
To fill his stomach, Zhou Zixi would steal food from mountain beasts. Fighting one-on-one was manageable, but encountering groups would lead to a miserable death.
The moment of death was too painful, filling him with fear. His desire to avoid death grew stronger each day, driving him to run even faster.
Zhou Zixi huddled against the wall in the depths of a cave, lighting collected kindling. The firelight illuminated the cave wall, elongating his shadow.
—My stomach is so hungry, so cold.
—Why don’t you leave this place and go somewhere else?
—Where?
—Beyond the forest, where people live.
This time, it was Zhou Zixi who fell silent.
He had learned many things and could think for himself, so he knew he had been rejected.
Being rejected by people he liked was something that made him very sad.
Zhou Zixi lay on the ground, turning over listlessly.
He now knew that his ability to resurrect was what made him detestable, but he couldn’t find a way to change this loathsome defect.
Perhaps if he could find a way to change his resurrection ability, the mountain man and his family would accept him again.
With this thought, a strength arose within him, and he decided to go search for a way to change his resurrection ability.
Outside, snow was falling, and the wind was strong. Zhou Zixi rubbed his face, took a deep breath, and ran down the mountain.
He moved quickly, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Usually, he could control his direction and had never encountered anyone as fast as himself, so he never imagined he would be knocked down by someone even faster.
________________________________________
Two figures collided and fell to the ground. Zhou Zixi was a bit dazed. Holding his injured nose, he looked up to hear the other person cursing: “Don’t you watch where you’re going with your Shadow Step?”
Zhou Zixi recognized this person.
It was the ghost he had seen at the entrance of A’sheng’s martial academy, the one taken away by the Martial Supervision Alliance. At that time, this ghost had his four limbs broken and his eyes blinded, covered in blood, and looking quite pitiful.
A’sheng had mentioned that this person was called Qiu Lang, once considered a genius with Eight Meridian Awakening in the academy.
Just as Zhou Zixi got up from the ground, still unclear about the situation, a Qi Circulation word spell pierced his chest, causing him to cough up blood continuously.
Qiu Lang’s expression changed slightly at the sight. The Martial Supervision inspector who had caught up frowned at the child pierced by the Qi Circulation word spell, thinking he had struck the wrong person, but not caring much as he continued to pursue Qiu Lang.
“As expected of the Martial Supervision Alliance, not the slightest burden when killing the wrong person,” Qiu Lang used Shadow Step to dodge the pursuing Qi Circulation word spell. Hiding in a tree and looking down, he froze.
The mistakenly killed boy, who had collapsed behind the inspector—a normal person would have died completely—suddenly opened his eyes and stood up again, his gaze warily fixed on the inspector.
The surrounding Qi circulation reversed, and star power howled with a killing intent. The inspector finally sensed something was wrong and turned around abruptly.
Seizing the opportunity, Qiu Lang suddenly attacked from the tree. His curved blade traced a beautiful arc through the falling snow, slashing the inspector’s throat and bringing him down.
Zhou Zixi had only been wary of the inspector. Seeing him suddenly collapse with blood flowing, his anger and fear of death gradually dissipated.
“So you’re a ghost too,” Qiu Lang said, wiping blood from his face as he addressed Zhou Zixi. “Though you don’t seem very smart.”
*
Zhou Zixi met his first ghost companion.
Qiu Lang’s impression of him could be summed up in two words: foolish.
A fool who knew nothing about star meridian power.
While hiding in a cave from the Martial Supervision Alliance’s pursuit, Qiu Lang told Zhou Zixi about star meridian cultivation, becoming something of a little teacher on Zhou Zixi’s cultivation path.
The two children huddled together by burning kindling, keeping each other warm.
Zhou Zixi mentioned that he could run very fast, to which Qiu Lang replied: “That’s not just running fast. You’re unconsciously using the Body Meridian spirit technique, Shadow Step. Skilled people using Shadow Step can be here one moment and somewhere else the next with just a blink.”
Qiu Lang demonstrated with a small twig in hand.
Zhou Zixi made a sound of understanding and picked up a small twig, tapping it on the ground. “Then what are those glowing lines I see?”
Qiu Lang: “Did you see them on me?”
Zhou Zixi: “Yes! That day at the entrance of A’sheng’s martial academy, I saw you being taken away.”
“That’s something only ghosts have, similar to the star lines in the Eight Meridians Formation. They can only be seen when near death, but it seems only we ghosts can see each other,” Qiu Lang said, scratching his head. “I don’t know much either. I was studying at that martial academy, but then I was discovered. That guy got caught and sold me out to escape.”
Qiu Lang looked toward the falling snow outside the cave and murmured: “So ghosts also scheme against each other.”
Zhou Zixi asked: “How can I become like A’sheng and the others?”
Qiu Lang turned to look at him. Seeing Zhou Zixi’s serious expression, he was shocked. Pointing at himself, he said: “If I knew that, I would have become like them long ago.”
Zhou Zixi fell silent.
By the time Qiu Lang had recovered from his injuries in the cave, spring had arrived.
The ice and snow melted, and tender buds sprouted on the bare branches. Zhou Zixi would climb up to pick the fresh green buds to eat.
Standing beneath the tree, Qiu Lang said with disgust: “Hey, come with me to live outside where we can eat proper meals.”
Zhou Zixi looked down at him from the tree: “I want to find a way to become like A’sheng and the others.”
“You’ll need to go outside for that, too. What can you find here?” Qiu Lang beckoned to him, raising his eyebrows. “Come with me, let’s find a martial academy to study at again. Only by becoming stronger can we avoid being caught by those people.”
Zhou Zixi blinked and said, “But there’s not enough money for the martial academy.”
Qiu Lang: “I have a way.”
Zhou Zixi thought Qiu Lang was planning to work at shops to save money, so he followed him out of the deep mountains to another bustling city.
Within a day, Qiu Lang had stolen enough money.
Zhou Zixi: “…”
He was utterly shocked.
“Isn’t stealing from others wrong?” Zhou Zixi hesitated.
Qiu Lang put his arm around Zhou Zixi’s shoulders and walked toward the martial academy, snorting with laughter: “In a world where everyone wants to kill you, what’s stealing a little money?”
*
Before entering the martial academy, Qiu Lang told Zhou Zixi to keep a low profile, not to stand out, and not to reveal their ghost identity. They needed to be careful about everything and avoid dying.
Zhou Zixi agreed.
After entering the martial academy, people frequently looked at them with surprised gazes:
My goodness, Eight Meridian Awakening!
With this aura, they stood out without doing anything.
Qiu Lang then said, “It’s fine. Everyone will forget about the Eight Meridian Awakening after a while. As long as we keep a low profile, don’t cause trouble, and don’t meddle in others’ affairs.”
Because Zhou Zixi’s knowledge contrasted sharply with his age, making him seem somewhat foolish, the martial academy teachers liked him, but other students had mixed attitudes.
Some students thought Zhou Zixi was like an idiot—despite being Eight Meridian Awakened, it seemed he had sacrificed his intelligence.
Qiu Lang told Zhou Zixi, “We just arrived. Because your mind isn’t good and you don’t know much, many people will mock you. Just endure it, and it will pass.”
Zhou Zixi said, “Okay.”
While eating in the hall, several boys behind them pointed at Zhou Zixi, whispering: “Eight Meridian Awakening is so impressive, but it’s a pity his brain isn’t good.”
“With his brain, Eight Meridian Awakening is simply wasted. Better give it to me. At least I know basic arithmetic and recognize more characters than he does.”
“He seems not to even know what parents are. He must be an orphan!”
“Children raised without parents all have poor brains, haha.”
“…”
Zhou Zixi didn’t mind because he was focused on eating and didn’t notice the conversation behind him.
Qiu Lang wiped his mouth, turned around, and with one kick flipped over the table of the gossiping children, starting a fight with them.
Endure it? Hell no!
Zhou Zixi glanced at Qiu Lang fighting, then turned back to continue eating. Only after finishing did he go to help.
Everything must wait until after eating.
Given Qiu Lang’s temperament, keeping a low profile was impossible. Anyone who dared call Zhou Zixi an idiot or an orphan would get beaten by him.
The two studied hard at the martial academy and, aside from quarreling and fighting with students they didn’t get along with, they were quite well-behaved.
Zhou Zixi learned many things at the martial academy, and his mind began to ponder more questions. He became quieter, and his bright, pure eyes gained a thoughtful depth.
During the three years at the martial academy, he grew rapidly, seemingly making up for everything he had missed in the previous years.
Zhou Zixi loved staying in the martial academy’s library. Only Qiu Lang could find him there and could mutter beside him while he read without getting hit.
“Still indulging in fantasies?” The young man leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, feet on the table, swaying lazily. “A ghost becoming human—it’s never happened before and never will.”
“You might as well think about how to turn humans into ghosts.”
Zhou Zixi sat in the sunlight, turning pages, and said softly: “Don’t you have something you want to do?”
“I do,” Qiu Lang raised his chin slightly. “To live.”
Zhou Zixi looked up at him, and Qiu Lang narrowed his eyes: “I’m constantly striving for this one wish.”
“Qiu Lang,” Zhou Zixi said seriously, “you love preaching grand principles.”
Qiu Lang: “…”
He wiped his face, bewildered: “Do I?”
He wasn’t even aware of it.
*
Initially, it was just about survival.
But for ghosts, surviving in this world was rather difficult.
Because Zhou Zixi trusted his teacher too much, he didn’t conceal his research on how ghosts could become human. However, the teacher sensed something subtly wrong with his behavior, gradually becoming vigilant and even testing him.
The teacher gave him a cup of poisoned water, which Zhou Zixi drank without suspicion.
Watching his student die and resurrect, the teacher was devastated, regretful, and angry, believing that his genuine care over the past three years had been deceived by a cunning ghost.
Faced with a lethal attack from the teacher he respected, Zhou Zixi stood pale-faced. He could never have imagined that his teacher would test him with poison.
What if he wasn’t a ghost and couldn’t resurrect?
No, at the moment, the teacher decided to test with poison; he had already determined that Zhou Zixi was a ghost.
Zhou Zixi couldn’t bring himself to fight his teacher. Severely injured, he collapsed to the ground and was captured by arriving Martial Supervision Alliance inspectors.
That night, in his peripheral vision, he saw his teacher’s face, filled with extreme disappointment, and his resolute back as he turned away.
Qiu Lang couldn’t come to his rescue. Zhou Zixi’s exposed ghost identity had also revealed Qiu Lang’s past pursuit by the Martial Supervision Alliance, leaving him struggling to protect himself.
Zhou Zixi was imprisoned in the Martial Supervision Alliance branch’s jail. Due to a ghost’s special nature, the inspectors couldn’t kill him; they could only contain him.
First, they kept the ghost near death, without the ability to escape. Timing it precisely for the moment after death when he resurrected, they would then crush his limbs, depriving him of mobility, putting him back into a near-death state. This cycle repeated endlessly.
On the first day of his capture, Zhou Zixi still wondered what he had done wrong to disappoint his teacher so much.
He was a ghost, naturally different from his teacher and others, but he had been working hard to find a way to change!
I also want to become like my teacher, to be a person like my teacher!
Is that wrong too?
Soon, he had no time to think about these questions.
The excruciating pain of broken limbs left him no energy for further thought. With his star meridian power sealed and his entire body crushed, he could only lie pathetically on the ground, humiliated, at the mercy of others.
The ghost’s painful howls and screams fell on the inspectors’ ears as mere noise. They complained about the hassle of having to come daily to break his limbs.
Zhou Zixi was confined in a formation that sealed his power, dying and reviving time after time.
To alleviate boredom, the inspectors would entertain themselves by discussing interesting ways to kill the ghost. Various strange and painful methods of death were tested on this youth, considered a monster, without any psychological burden.
He wasn’t human, after all.
That’s what people thought, so they felt entirely justified.
The Martial Supervision Alliance wouldn’t transport just one captured ghost; they would gather a certain number before sending them off for processing.
Inspectors under stress would take out their frustrations by violently beating the ghosts with clubs. Some inspectors, to earn extra money, would allow wealthy people with a taste for the bizarre to experience the thrill of torturing and killing ghosts.
There were two ghosts imprisoned in this jail.
Zhou Zixi had never seen the ghost in the adjacent cell but could tell from the screams and the inspectors’ conversations that it was a girl.
The girl seemed to have mental problems from the torture. Sometimes she would only cry and beg for mercy; other times, she would curse vehemently.
Zhou Zixi didn’t know how long he had been in this dark, gloomy dungeon. After each death, time seemed to stretch as if forty or fifty years had passed.
The mountain man’s family and the martial academy teacher became distant memories. What became ingrained were the inspectors he saw each time he opened his eyes and the masked “experiencers” who came to torture ghosts.
They were ugly, mean, and cruel. They were also human. Is this the “human” you want to become?
What have I done to deserve such treatment?
And by what right do you do this?
Zhou Zixi opened his blood-covered eyes, seeing in his peripheral vision a shadow swaying with the lamplight.
—Do you want to kill them?
Zhou Zixi’s throat moved slightly.
The shadow swayed toward him.
—Do you want to kill them?
The inspectors were torturing the girl in the adjacent cell, laughing at her broken pleas.
The shadow asked Zhou Zixi:
—Do you want to kill them?
Zhou Zixi’s eyelashes trembled lightly. A blood-red teardrop fell from his eyelashes as he said softly: “Kill.”
The containment formation covering the dungeon was broken. Countless star lines snapped in succession. Suddenly, the earth shook and the mountains trembled, startling the inspectors in the jail. Before they could react, the entire Martial Supervision Alliance building collapsed with a roar. Broken stones shot through the inspectors’ heads, blood splattered, and dust rose.
The tremors from the Martial Supervision Alliance’s collapse drew the attention of everyone in the city. They looked toward the direction of the Martial Supervision Alliance in fear, not knowing what had happened.
It was deep in the night, with a brilliant starry river above. The fire that broke out after the collapse spread quickly. All the protective formations within the Martial Supervision Alliance had been broken and rendered ineffective.
People couldn’t escape the focused, deadly stone fragments. They all died in the ruins, surrounded by the great fire.
Zhou Zixi rose silently from the ruins, listening to the girl’s loud crying. He frowned and looked at her: “Shut up.”
The girl sniffled, looking at him with tear-filled eyes.
By the firelight, they saw each other for the first time.
Although resurrection made all their injuries disappear, those wounds remained in their hearts. Their blood-stained clothes also reminded the two young ghosts of what they had experienced here.
Zhou Zixi took the girl away from the Martial Supervision Alliance, which was being devoured by flames.
In the pitch-black street, they encountered Qiu Lang, who had come to rescue them.
Beside Qiu Lang was a girl wearing a white cape. She spread her hands and said, “It seems like they didn’t need your rescue after all.”
Zhou Zixi had been imprisoned in the Martial Supervision Alliance dungeon for over a year. Qiu Lang had been evading capture outside, hiding everywhere and finding powerful allies, all to rescue his captured companion.
The gusty evening wind blew the four people’s clothes and hair wildly, also fanning the high walls of fire.
On this night, Zhou Zixi finally accepted his identity as a ghost.