From Earth to Heaven, From Heaven to Earth (TGCF HuLian)

Chapter 7 And Gives to Airy Nothing

Chapter 7

The crowd quiets after that and the old woman who asked for Wu Ming's name steps forward to offer Xie Lian her travel blanket to lay the ghost on. It's thin and warn but the other option is the snowy ground so Xie Lian accepts it gratefully. He kicks at the snow with his boots to clear an area for her to lay the blanket on and a couple of the other people in group step forward to help. The snow is cleared away quickly and the blanket laid out and Xie Lian places Wu Ming down on it as gently as he can.

The ghost is so pale... Xie Lian knows with the rational part of his mind that it probably has nothing to do with the blood loss, that Wu Ming can't bleed out, that the pallor is probably just Wu Ming's natural ghostly coloring, but still, the ghost is so pale...

Xie Lian's hands hover for a moment over the torn and bloody bandages still covering part of the ghost's face. Tearing them away feels like a violation of his privacy somehow. Wu Ming always kept his mask on and Xie Lian never got so much as a glimpse of his face before coming to Mount Tonglu. Looking now, without the ghost's permission, feels a bit like stealing something that he should wait to be given.

Yet Wu Ming is still bleeding.

With a swift breath Xie Lian pushes the thoughts away in favor of practicality. With quick fingers he pulls away the remainder of the bandaging on Wu Ming's face. Just one glance tells him that the ghost is beautiful, even with his eye gouged out and his face covered in blood he is beautiful. Xie Lian doesn't let himself pause to consider his beauty though, he needs to stop the bleeding and that means he needs clean bandages.

Without hesitation Xie Lian reaches up to his own neck and unwinds the bandage wrapped around his throat. He examens it for a moment and is relieved to find that, yes, it still looks clean. As gently as he can Xie Lian wraps the bandage around Wu Ming's head, covering the damaged eye. Once he's done the best he can Xie Lian sits back, considering his work and rubbing idly at his neck. After all these years its strange to feel it bare.

....Well not completely bare. The cursed shackle still sits just where it always did, his penance for what he did to the ghost in front of him. For a moment Xie Lian thinks of asking Rouya to wrap around his neck to cover the shackle again but the thought of Rouya around his neck....

Maybe he'll just leave the shackle uncovered for now.

The next half day passes in a blur. Xie Lian leads the trapped humans down the path to the exit of Mount Tonglu that Wu Ming found, the ghost still unconscious in his arms. He hates having to drag Wu Ming along like this but he can't leave the people to fend for themselves and he refuses to leave Wu Ming behind even for a moment. What if something happens to the ghost while Xie Lian isn't beside him? What if he loses him again? He can't let that happen.

At some point in the afternoon they are attacked by a group of angry ghosts who want to feed on the humans. Only then is Xie Lian forced to put Wu Ming down. He leaves him on the blanket in the care of the old woman and the couple who first invited Xie Lian to join their little group and draws Fang Xin. The fight is over in mere moments and the rest of the group look at him differently after that, more respectfully, but also as though they're no longer sure that he's human. Xie Lian thinks about all the dozens of ghosts he's slaughtered to reach Wu Ming and he's no longer quite sure if he's human either.

When he reaches Wu Ming the old woman tells him, "He's still unconscious but he started tossing and turning once you left and he's been calling for someone in his sleep. Quickly Xie Lian kneels down beside Wu Ming. "Your highness..." For a moment Xie Lian stiffens and then he sees that the ghost is still unconscious, his remaining eye scrunched closed perhaps at some distressing dream. "Your highness..."

"Shh, I'm here." Xie Lian reaches out and tucks a strand of hair gently behind the ghost's ear. "I'm here."

There's a quiet gasp from behind him and he turns to see the three whose care he left Wu Ming in staring at him with wide eyes.

Xie Lian scratches his cheek awkwardly. "Is something wrong?'

"Who /are/ you?" It's the man who asks the question.

Inwardly Xie Lian winces, already acutely aware of his mistake but outwardly he just blinks innocently. "What do you mean?"

The younger of the two women folds her arms. "You must have survived this place for weeks all on your own to reach us. You say you've been looking for the guardian spirit, for a ghost, because he's your friend, and when he called out for 'your highness' you answered as though that really is your title. You've been carrying him for half a day without seeming to tire and the way you fight... I didn't know anyone could move like that."

"The guardian spirt doesn't talk to us much," the older woman chimes in, and, much to Xie Lian's discomfort, he notices that more people than just those three are listening now. "But we've all heard him muttering to himself. Almost everything he says seems to be either about or addressed to a god, a god he only refers to as 'your highness'..."

"Ah..." Xie Lian says weakly. He's not quite sure how to get out of this one. If they hadn't seen him fight maybe he could have talked his way out of it but as it is... Well, better to get this over with now so that they can get moving again. He takes a deep breath and looks back down at Wu Ming, a sad smile curving his lips. "If it's what you're asking then no, I'm not a god. I used to be one but that was a long time ago. I made some horrible mistakes and am no longer worthy of such a title. Now I'm just a simple scrap collector."

The people draw back from him then and begin to murmur among themselves, casting furtive glances at him but he doesn't mind them. His attention is all for Wu Ming. He wraps the ghost into the blanket and lifts him again back into his arms to continue on.

Years from now the heavens will begin to hear rumors of new shrines popping up in the villages near Mount Tonglu. These shrines have not one figure on their alters but two, a ghost all in black and a young cultivator all in white. In some shrines they stand side by side, swords drawn, or they guard each other's backs, while in others the cultivator stands with the ghost in his arms. They are the shrines of the guardian spirit and the fallen god. There are no names attached to those titles for the guardian spirit is called simply Wu Ming "nameless" and the cultivator in white with the black shackle at his throat and the black sword in his hand is called only "His Highness."

The rumors come to Ling Wen first for it is her job to know such things. She frowns thoughtfully when she hears the news and she remembers a certain fallen god and a ghost all in black who rejected heaven to search for him and she remembers her orders from Jun Wu but a new calamity has ascended and has set thousands of temples burning and has torn 33 gods down from their alters and it's all Ling Wen can do to keep the heavens themselves from collapsing. Much as she wants to, she does not have time to look for a pair of stray gods.

The rumor comes to Pei Ming and it's not to do with women or war so he pays it little attention, although once, after seeing the statue of the unconscious spirit in the god's arms, he does remark to Ling Wen that the whole things seems "quite romantic."

The rumor comes to the two newly ascended gods of the South and when they hear the story of the banished god dressed in cultivators robes with a cursed shackle on his neck they both go pale. They do search, separately at first, and then, begrudgingly, together, but by then the trail is cold and there is nothing to find. There are no clues for them to follow for they know nothing about a benevolent ghost in black. The only ghost they know is dressed in crimson and driven by blood and fury.

It will be still more years till Xie Lian hears anything of this. For now he escorts the human travelers to the exit of the mountain pass and then, alone except for the band on his wrist and the unconscious ghost in his arms, he begins his climb back up the mountain.