Crimson Palace inner court.
"What are you doing here Nanming?"
Lady Hwang said, once they are a considerable distance away from Viren that is.
And there is no risk for eavesdropping, for Lady Hwang has cast 'Silent' upon her surroundings.
Nanming did not expect her to be capable of Shamanism, it was quite a shock for him when Lady Hwang took out a life gecko from the hem of her dress and twisted its neck before chanting the mantra.
"…I'm looking for a book in a red building"
"? Every building here is red though, could you be more specific?"
"I'm sorry, it was a request from my friend, and I didn't really know the detail"
Lady Hwang then smiles, hearing the words 'friend' from him is quite endearing.
Both have exchange letters quite often, she sends one to Chen occasionally but reply came rarely, she thought it was because Chen was overwhelmed by the academy.
In that letter to Nanming, and the subsequent reply, he never once writes a mention of 'friend' so she is worried that Nanming might be ostracized and avoided there, thankfully he seems to have found a companion.
"I see, well you can accompany first then look for the book"
"Alright"
Nanming comply and walk alongside Lady Hwang who's each step is as elegant as they are light, its like her charm isn't this overwhelming type that screams 'notice me!'
Its like the one that always stays just outside of your view yet remains present.
The Ghost, who always remains by Nanming side stares at the Lady, is she Nanming's mother? They look quite different.
"Father…"
Here comes another memory, does it have anything to do with the Lady? The Ghost thought.
There, the same man who gives him book and flower looks extremely dark, his eyes vacant looking at nothing.
But a strange emotion dwell inside of the Ghost, like intense thorn thundering inside him in a wave of suffocating, heart wrenching pain.
Of Hate.
"Why would you do this?"
The man didn't even bother to look at the Ghost, his sight remains fixed upon the cauldron in front that is baubling with acrid and fleshy smell, and a scream, an anguish scream emanates from within the cauldron, like someone is being boiled alive inside of it.
"You wouldn't understand"
"Why? Because I'm stupid? Because I'm unfit to be the Demon King?"
"…"
"Answer me father!! If you regard me as your son, then answer me!!"
"…"
The emotion so deep inside of him, constantly clawing at his heart like a Starving Tiger looking for food in the ground.
"…Then perhaps, I was never your son. And you are never my father"
The Ghost walks away with heavy heart, as if he wanted to shout more, scream more and confront his father yet he cannot.
"Bro!"
Then, a boy approached him alongside a woman that looks like Lady Hwang if she was smaller.
When he looks at the boy, it's as if the previous Hate were never there to begin with, all the bleak thunderstorms were replaced by his warmth, as if a Sun has shines down over his heart and melts the thick snow inside.
"Hello Ra…"
"Ghost…"
"Huh?"
The Ghost memory was interrupted by Nanming yet again.
"Can you pray?"
Nanming ask, when the Ghost came to be, he realized that all three of them are now kneeling in what looks like a grave.
There is no name in the gravestone though, but below the stone, is a mark.
To be exact, in the shape of a droplet that came down one too many times, it can't be from rain knowing that this place is shaded by a tree.
That means the droplet came from someone.
"Ghost"
"…Oh, right, praying…"
The Ghost looks at Lady Hwang who fervently claps her hand together and shutting her eyes, so deep in focus that she did not realize that Nanming is talking to nothing this entire time.
"Namu Amituofo, Namu Amituofo, may the soul of one that lies here be cleansed. Namu Amituofo, Namu Amituofo…"
She repeats, so the Ghost just told Nanming to repeat what she says.
Nanming agrees and decided to replicate what Lady Hwang is doing.
"…Namu Amituofo, may their clay form reshape by a kindling bore a good karma, Namu Amituofo…"
"…Nanming"
"…Namu Amituo— What?"
Nanming stopped his praying when he realized that the Ghost was tucking on his robe.
"There…"
The Ghost point towards the flower bed surrounding the Grave, all of them were planted with a beautiful Scarlet Flower, could it be?
"Is that the flower?"
Nanming ask.
The Ghost nodded several times, yet it feels odd.
What he wanted was right in front of him, but he felt like he didn't want to get it, even though it's the same Ageless Rose that appears in his dream a while back.
Wait…
Can Ghost even dream?
Ghosts are a manifestation of Anguish and Guilt, most of the time they come from the Dead person Anguish.
But there is time where someone's guilt and regret ran so deep, that that person creates a Ghost.
Such existence is called Specter, a Ghost that came from another person Anguish.
What he wanted to do was what the person who manifested him wanted to do.
He is merely the manifestation of that will.
"…R-Raijoo"
That name, a name he sheltered so greatly.
"What?"
Nanming looks at the Ghost who stopped responding to him while muttering the Demon King name.
"Nanming"
Then Lady Hwang calls him.
"Do you know who the one is buried here?"
"…"
Nanming felt like she just wanted to tell a story, so he just agreed.
"Yes"
"It's your uncle. And the Demon King's brother"
At the same time the Ghost muttered his own name.
""Wu Yinkuan""
…
"…I see"
Nanming said, no expression was found in his face, as if he had already known from the beginning, or is it because of his neutral face?
"…My name is Wu Yinkuan…"
The Ghost muttered.
"Well, its concluded, thank you for accompanying me on my monthly rite Nanming"
Lady Hwang pat Nanming's long white hair, revealing his purple eyes underneath.
"Yes"
"Don't you want to tie your hair? Its long now"
"No, I do this to hide my face so that pervert don't bother me"
"Ah"
Lady Hwang could only smile awkwardly at his remark, and it's not like she didn't understand, back then she would intentionally put clay on her face to appear less white and therefore less pretty.
All because there is a cost that comes with beauty, and if One isn't careful enough, they will be devoured and defiled.
"I won't hold you any longer, you can freely seek the book that you desired"
Lady Hwang said before she left.
"…Do you hear that Ghost, I mean, Uncle"
"…Don't call me that"
The Ghost protest as he looks at the flower.
"…Wu Yinkuan?"
"I am not Wu Yinkuan"
"Then what are you?"
Nanming continue to press the Ghost.
The Ghost felt confused as to why Nanming didn't get confused or at least flustered to know that he is the same family as him, and his uncle no less.
"I… I don't know"
The Ghost looks at his hand, then towards the grave.
"Am I even a real person?"
"Aren't you a Ghost?"
"Yes, but I was born from someone's guilt rather than my own Anguish, so I'm technically didn't exist"
"…Is that so. Well, you exist now, right?"
Nanming remarks caught the Ghost off guard.
Is it really that easy to dismiss the fact that you didn't exist as a person?
Is it really that easy to dismiss the fact that everything you once believe was right was wrong?
To know that you are just a manifestation of someone's guilt
That all your memories are fake, and it's not yours.
Is it that easy to let go?
Those words were caught inside the Ghost throat, tangled in fear and confusion and cannot get out.
"So do you still need the book?"
"I don't think so, maybe I am not tied to an object"
The Ghost then looks at the gravestone, the tree that shades it, the flower bed that decorates it and the palace in which it stands.
"This Palace is the one I'm tied to. Specifically, the owner of this Palace"
"The Demon King then…"
Why did you refer to him as the Demon King and not your 'father'?"
The Ghost asks, did his bro— Raijoo becomes like the man in his memory? So cruel and cold, mask wearing bastard and a liar?
"I am adopted, so its still… awkward for me to call the Demon King my father"
"…I see"
The Ghost did not press further, knowing that it might unearthed unpleasant memory inside Nanming.
"So, what should we do now?"
"…"
The Ghost began searching for his memory now, now that he knows who he is it becomes surprisingly easy for him to search deep into his Mind Palace.
"…"
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
His heart, his heart, oh, what has he done?
What have I done?
In front of him lies Raijoo, bloodied, dying. Around him a pool of blood, of his and Raijoo.
"No…"
He tried to hump his chest, trying to resuscitate him, tears drop down like a waterfall as his snot was mixed alongside it in the blood.
Besides him a bloodied sword, the one that he used to s-s-stab Raijoo.
"Please, brother, breath! Please! Im sorry! Please!"
He slurred his words, hurrying his pace as he desperately tried to make Raijoo breath in air.
He had unconsciously used his Tarnished River Body to impress Raijoo, but he fell under his own sin of Hate. In blind hatred as he stabs his own brother.
"Yin…Kuan"
Ahhh
Please, don't die yet! Don't die! Please, I beg of you, don't die!
"I… Love you…"
Please, anyone, anything, help him! Help… My brother.
Wu Yinkuan faced himself.
His dark and wicked self, his own Sins take form.
"Recite the words of greatness"
"…"
"Hurry, he didn't have much time!"
"…Onamukha Paduma, Buddha"
…
What Nanming saw was nothing sort of horrifying, the Ghost minds, as if being struck by an iron ball exploded into thin form as whatever was inside spilt into the air.
He can feel great Hatred, Great Envy, Great One, Evil Wicked One approach even when he didn't know what just happened.
He remembered a peculiar phenomenon listed in one of the books about technique and energy.
When someone's mind is overloaded with thought, when their own Mind Palace becomes hostile to their clay form, it will burst forth like Datura in Frozen Night.
Their psyche made manifest, spilt outwards into the world.
Fathom Imagery: Thousand Images of Rose Splattered in Blood.
"Onamukha Paduma…"
The Ghost said, the space around Nanming and him transformed into a field of Ageless Rose splattered in blood with a goat skull as their petal.
The Ghost himself, shackled by a chain that leads to a bloodied sword all the while beneath him, a river of blood flows.
"…Wu Yinkuan"
Nanming utters, completely at lost at what he should do.
All the while the Fathom Imagery continues to choke him with its thick Energy that has been manifested into a chain, slowly causing Nanming to sink.
In a moments notice, the strand of energy went inside his opened chest, and what happens rest… were a blur of Nanming.
…
"…Soot"
Wu Yinkuan said, no, something has taken over him, the Ghost ethereal form changed into that of a man in thick robe while its head grow a pair of goat horns.
Nanming on the other hand, his own Mind Palace spilt, taking over the Ghost own Mind Palace.
Fathom Imagery: Forest Full of Flame.
But only momentarily, for the dark things that threaten to take over Nanming quickly dissipates like smoke.
"I will not become Wrath…"
Nanming utter, abating the smoke and soot that emanates from within him.
The Ghost, half conscious, couldn't help but feel envious.
Nanming could easily resist the darkness of his own heart, to not be swept under the flame of his Sins, but he couldn't even help his brother without the same wickedness that corrupts him.
…
"Bro!!"
He can still hear Raijoo voice, calling out to him.
Right, he is dead because of him.
"Don't die! Yinkuan!!"
And he is alive because of him.
"Wahhhhhhh!!!!!!!"
Look at him, the future Demon King bawling his eyes out, how unsightly and weak of him… Heh, hahaha.
"…Ra…"
Under the pressure of death, his mind was strangely clear of all worry.
He ended up cursing Raijoo.
"Live… and don't forget me…"
What he wanted is for Raijoo to not feel alone, as if trying to tell him, 'I am fine in the afterlife, don't worry about me'.
Now, because of him, Raijoo is in anguish.
All his fault.
This is all his fault.
If only he hadn't tried to brag about his power.
If only he was a bit smarter.
If only he was more tenacious.
If only he didn't ex—
"Hey"
Nanming calls out to the Ghost, who is about to sink under the weight of his own chain.
"Its not all your fault"
"…It is"
"It's not your fault the nature of Tarnished River Body ended up consuming you"
"It is because of me…"
"It's not your fault that the world is as is, cruel and unfeeling"
"It's because of me!"
The Ghost screams, silencing Nanming.
"I just wanted the best for the both of us! I just wanted to make father proud! I just wanted to live! I wanted to feel love! To give love! To see other people smile and to help them! I just wanted to…"
Under the weight of his own admission, a guilt and a sin he buried deep even after death.
"…I just wanted to live…"
The Ghost cried, ordinary tears flowing down from his blacken eyes.
"…Is it too much to ask for?"
"…"
Nanming recalls a specific memory from deep within him, memory that has now regrown from the soot that is his heart.
Maybe because he almost lost control that the memory resurfaces, but it couldn't be more helpful now.
"□□□ what happens?"
His own mother, ask.
He himself is currently crying about the fact that he had lost the wooden toy his mother gave to him.
"Its fine, it's just a toy"
She said, her smiles so warmth beneath the snow that piled up in her white hair.
"B-But it's a gift from you… its important"
"□□□my dear boy"
Her mother swept tears from his face.
"What's important is your life and your own happiness"
"And to do that…"
…
Nanming now knows what to tell him, what to tell Yinkuan who bore deep regret.
"Its fine to be selfish, after all its for your own happiness"
"…"
Nanming stares at the ghost, his supposedly 'empty' face is now filled with determination to stop the Ghost from becoming a thing that is not himself.
"We never ask to be born this way after all, it's only natural that we should be selfish too, for our own happiness"
"You have done wrong this, I admit that, but you also redeemed yourself out of it"
Nanming extend his hand out.
"If you truly love your brother, then proof it by forgiving yourself and let it go"
"…Ahhh"
The Ghost, no, Wu Yinkuan tears did not cease.
But that same tear, is what dissolved the corruption as his form normalized.
'Right, if its for him… I'll do anything for him'
He reaches out to grab Nanming's hand, and the instant he did so Nanming pull him out, breaking the chain of his guilt.
The Fathom Imagery collapsed soon after and they found themselves in the same graveyard.
The Ghost has forgiven himself.