Chapter 2

Lei Xiaozǐ, Lei Xiaozǐ.

The three characters kept swirling in Qingye's mind.

With a loud boom, the scenes from the dream connected in Qingye's consciousness.

That's right, I am Lei Xiaozǐ.

I am the famous rebel king at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, who once ascended the throne and vied for the empire with Zhu Yuanzhang.

Later, when I was defeated and committed suicide, I was saved by Lü Chunyang and taken as a disciple, learning the methods of immortality and becoming a practitioner of qi.

When I reached the age of over three hundred, my lifespan was exhausted, and I chose to be reborn and start over.

I am Gu Qingye, an ordinary person, born and raised in China, and only came to Japan with my parents after finishing primary school, where I attended junior high school. I am sixteen years old this year and about to start my first year of high school.

Lei Xiaozǐ is me, and Gu Qingye is also me. No matter whether in my past life or this one, I am who I am.

I am who I am.

These four words echoed like continuous thunder in Qingye's mind, signaling the complete integration of his past and present memories.

Qingye, who had been in a deep sleep, slowly opened his eyes and woke up.

"Who awakens first from the great dream? I know my own life. The thatched cottage is full of spring sleep, and the sun lingers outside the window."

Qingye stretched lazily, sat up cross-legged, and rubbed his still slightly aching back. He took out his phone to check the time. It had been about seven or eight hours since he fainted from encountering the ghost, but it was still not yet dawn, the darkest part of the night. Looking out the window, he could see the deep, ink-like darkness still enveloping the sky.

Then Qingye looked at the corner of the room, where a figure in white with disheveled hair stood still, the very culprit who had caused him to faint, the female ghost.

The female ghost also noticed that Qingye had woken up from his faint and slowly raised her head, revealing her pale face.

Her eyes were still completely black, and blood still flowed from the corners of her eyes. The female ghost floated toward Qingye, who was sitting cross-legged on the tatami floor.

Qingye looked at the approaching female ghost with a calm expression, as if he were just watching an ordinary passerby coming to greet him.

The female ghost came to stand in front of Qingye and suddenly opened her mouth, a gaping maw large enough to swallow a person's head, with the corners of her mouth stretching to her temples. Her tongue, which was about a meter long, hung in front of her.

If an ordinary person saw this, they would probably faint on the spot, but Qingye simply said, "A hanged ghost, I see. It seems you died by hanging in this room."

He then reached out and touched the female ghost's tongue, feeling the slight chill as his fingers passed through it.

"Fortunately, it's not a vengeful spirit, just an ordinary ghost that can barely manifest!" Qingye nodded, satisfied that he didn't have to engage in a battle with a ghost right after waking up.

Now, with his past memories awakened, he was not much stronger than an ordinary person. If he had to face a powerful vengeful spirit, it would indeed be a big problem.

The female ghost in front of him, although able to manifest and create various illusions, was not a vengeful spirit. As long as one did not fear her, she had no power over humans.

And clearly, Qingye was not afraid of her.

Or rather, after his memories were awakened, Qingye was no longer afraid of her.

As a person who had lived for over three hundred years in the past, and who had fought through the blood and carnage of a chaotic era and even once been an emperor, a mere female ghost with no real threat, who could only scare people with illusions, could not possibly make him feel fear.

Not to mention, after becoming a Taoist, he had subdued countless demons and ghosts. Even before becoming Lü Dongbin's disciple, he had fought in the blood and carnage of battles against the Yuan army.

He had slept on the bodies of variously shaped corpses, sat on piles of severed limbs and heads, and while smelling the blood, he had laughed and talked with his comrades while eating dried meat and flatbread, and even drunk horse blood from a canteen placed on a dead horse, sometimes even drinking the blood of the horse's owner, all to quench his thirst. What hadn't he done? That was truly the laughter and thirst of drinking the blood of the Huns.

Not to mention, after Qingye became a professional demon hunter, a Taoist, he was well-versed in dealing with demons and ghosts.

Such a person, you expect him to be scared by a female ghost who can do nothing but scare people? That's just a joke.

So, after Qingye confirmed that the female ghost was not a vengeful spirit, he put down his last bit of worry.

He stood up, completely ignoring the female ghost in front of him, and walked straight through her body toward the bathroom.

As he passed through the female ghost's body, Qingye felt a chill, as if a cold wind had blown past him, but it was nothing like the freezing sensation he had felt before. Indeed, the stiffness he felt when the female ghost passed through his body before his awakening was just fear, or rather, the fear amplifying the ghost's influence on his body.

The more you fear a ghost, the more influence it has over you.

Now, with no fear of the female ghost, Qingye only felt a chill as he passed through her body, and once he was completely through, the chill disappeared. Qingye walked into the bathroom, completely ignoring the female ghost, who was still posing behind him.

He turned on the faucet and continued the washing he had been interrupted by the female ghost a few hours earlier.

The water from the faucet was still blood-red, and Qingye glanced back at the female ghost, who had clearly not given up and was creating another illusion.

Qingye smiled and ignored it, washing his face and brushing his teeth with the blood-red water.

He didn't care that his face and mouth were covered in blood.

He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing the blood on his face from washing, which remained even after drying with a towel.

The blood taste lingered in his mouth, and his teeth were stained red.

But Qingye didn't care at all. Not only did he know it was just an illusion, but even if it were real, he wouldn't have flinched.

The female ghost, seeing that Qingye was completely unaffected by her illusions, could only circle around his body, frustrated and helpless. If the female ghost still had emotions like frustration, but as a ghost born from a past obsession, she probably only had some basic instincts left.

After several attempts to pass through Qingye's body, even with her low intelligence, the female ghost finally realized that this person was not afraid of her.

So, the female ghost could only roar at Qingye in frustration and then disappear.

With the female ghost's disappearance, the blood on Qingye's face and the blood taste in his mouth also vanished, clearly indicating that the ghost had lifted the illusion on him.

But Qingye knew that she would come back soon, as ghosts are quite "forgetful" or, more accurately, their memories can only last for a short time. Apart from their obsessions, which they cannot forget, the rest of their memories, whether from life or after death, gradually fade away.