The first time that Wu Ming wakes fully it's a warm tingling feeling that brings him to consciousness. His eyes flicker open ... No not eyes, eye... It's gone, that's right, his cursed hideous hated right eye is gone. He is about to raise his hand to feel how bad the damages when the feeling comes again, stronger and more persistent, sparking through him like lightning, and he just has time to catch a blurred glimpse of a cave and a figure in white and then everything vanishes.
The next thing he knows Wu Ming is sitting in the middle of a rocky crater which might once have been the middle of the street. He can feel waves of power running through and around him, force that rushes away from him like a storm. Maybe that's what caused the crater? It's hard to say and even harder still to guess where he could be.
He gets to his feet quickly, glancing around warily for a trap or an attack, and that's when he gets his first good look at where he is. The place is beautiful, all gorgeous palaces and stunning skies and everything glistening and shining in a way that looks unreal, ethereal ... Heavenly.
The thought strikes him suddenly but it's a ridiculous one, almost enough to make him laugh.
That's when his eye falls on the people, they inch closer to the edge of the crater, looking down at him with wide eyes as they murmur to one another, none daring to get too close. Each of them is dressed immaculately and each of them radiate spiritual power.
...Maybe this is heaven after all.
But what business would an evil spirit have in heaven?
Abruptly he realizes that he doesn't have his mask and that he tore his bandages aside when he ripped out his eye. Is that why they're all staring? What a horrifically ugly sight he must make, with his sunken empty eye socket and his face still blood splattered from his injury. Instinctively he raises his hand to hide that side of his face only to be met by the surprising touch of fabric beneath his fingers. A bandage seems to have been wrapped neatly around his head and over his missing eye and when his palm brushes against his cheek Wu Ming doesn't feel any dried blood there either. Strange... Did he do that? Did he clean himself up during his hallucinations?
"Welcome." His thoughts are interrupted by a female voice coming from his right. Wu Ming turns toward it and finds a dark-haired dark robed woman has broken away from the pack and now stands at the very edge of his crater, watching him with considering eyes. Beside her and slightly behind stands a man in armor with a high ponytail and a sword at his side. His arms are crossed and the expression he's giving Wu Ming looks as though he's sizing up a battlefield opponent.
"Where am I?" Wu Ming already has some idea but it's ridiculous enough that he wants it confirmed.
"Congratulations, you have ascended to heaven." The woman tells him and Wu Ming stares at her incredulously. He can't help it. He guessed that this is heaven but /ascended/? Him?
What the actual fuck?
"My name is Ling Wen," the woman continues. "I am a civil god tasked with heavenly organization.
She pauses, as though giving him a chance to provide his own name or ask a question. He doesn't have a name and he wouldn't be interested in sharing it if he did so he asks a question.
"What's their problem?" He glances toward the gods clustering scared behind the civil god.
"They want to know if you're a threat." It's not Ling Wen who answers but her sword bearing companion. "Are you?"
Ling Wen shoots him an annoyed look. "General Pei." Then, turning back to Wu Ming. "Tactless as he is, he's essentially correct. We've never seen a ghost ascend before, at least not as far back as our records go and no one knows what to make of you."
Well that's not his problem is it? Wu Ming is getting tired of this. His body still hums with the call of Mount Tonglu and his fingers itch for chisel and file. Between this little interlude and his need to protect those worthless humans, this is the longest he's gone without carving at least five statues of Dianxia in nearly a decade and he can feel the strain of being away from his caves and his work for so long scratching at the corners of his mind.
If he had things his way he would already be gone by now, but he stays where he is for one reason and one reason alone. By the time he reformed a thinking body he was already within the foothills of Mount Tonglu and since then this is the first time he's left it. He's had no chance to obtain knowledge of the outside world, no chance to obtain knowledge of...
"Where is his highness, the crown prince of Xianle?"
The crowd starts and startles at his sudden question, turning to each other with surprised speculative murmurs.
"Xianle? Did he say Xianle?"
"Does he mean that laughingstock?"
"What does a ghost want with a disgrace like that?"
Wu Ming's hand goes to the hilt of his sword and it takes everything he has in him not to throw himself at these pathetic worthless excuses for gods, not one of whom are fit to lick his highness's boots.
'Once I'm a Supreme' he tells himself, 'the moment I'm a Supreme and too powerful for any of you to touch, I'll come back here and destroy all of you. I'll burn every one of your temples to the ground and make you beg on your knees for my mercy and for his.'
"Where is he!?"
General Pei, who must be Pei Ming, martial god of the north, frowns down at Wu Ming, eyes narrowed.
"Why? What do you want with him?"
Before Wu Ming can snap and drive his sword through the god's throat, Ling Wen, raises a hand to gesture to Pei Ming to wait.
"His Highness isn't here." Ling Wen's voice is still calm and it lacks the derision he hears in so many of the others. Wu Ming decides that she gets to live. "I'm afraid he was banished back to the mortal realm on the same day as his second dissension."
"He what!? What happened!?" Wu Ming stares at her, shock and fury roiling inside him. His Highness ascended again? His Highness was /banished/ again?
How dare they?
How dare each and every one of them?
"Well that's the thing isn't it?" Pei Ming uncrosses his arms and taps his fingers on the hilt of his sword. "No one really knows. All anyone is sure of is that his highness had some sort of falling out with the Heavenly Emperor and attacked him.
'What?'
'What in the name of his god happened?'
'What did Jun Wu /do/'
Fury mounts and mounts within Wu Ming until he feels as savagely angry as the ghost class to which he is named.
"Where is he!?"
"No one is sure." Ling Wen tells him.
"What about Jun Wu?" Wu Ming all but spits the name.
"The /Emperor/" Pei Ming stresses the title, "is currently focusing on his cultivation and is not to be disturbed."
That's...
... That's probably a good thing. Much as Wu Ming wants to storm into the Heavenly Martial Hall and demand an accounting, he knows it's not the time, not yet.
Once he's finished in Mount Tonglu... Once he's dealt with those 35 pieces of trash who need removing... Then it will be time for Jun Wu.
Without another word Wu Ming jumps out of the crater and shoves his way past the crowd, gazing around himself for the exit.
"Your Highness?" The question comes from Ling Wen, and it takes him a moment to realize that she's talking to him.
"Why are you calling me that?" Wu Ming doesn't look back, continuing to scan his surroundings for a likely way out even as he hears Ling Wen and Pei Ming come up behind him.
"You have yet to introduce yourself." Ling Wen reminds him. "Without knowledge of your actual name or titles it is the appropriate address for the Martial God of the East."
The Martial God of the East, him?
Fury sparks across Wu Ming's skin all over again.
How dare they?
How dare they?
There is only one Martial God in the East.
How dare they disrespect him by giving his title away just like that.
How dare they call him laughingstock and think they can replace him.
How /dare/ they.
"/Don't/ call me that again."
Even without turning to look at them he can feel the two gods stiffening as some small part of his anger leaks into his voice.
"Then what does my lord wish to be called?" Ling Wen's voice holds a new stiffness now and from the corner of his eye he can see Pei Ming's hand tighten on the hilt of his sword. Wu Ming couldn't care less.
"Don't call me anything. I'm not staying."
"What do you mean?" When Wu Ming finally turns back to face them there's a frown on Pei Ming's lips. "Not staying where?"
The ghost ignores him completely, his eyes fixing on Ling Wen, the civil god with the information.
"There isn't anything known about the whereabouts of his highness of Xianle?"
Her lips purse. "Nothing I'm afraid. His Highness the Heavenly Emperor has me searching but I haven't been able to discover anything. Why are you so interested in his highness? Were you one of his followers?"
"Is it a grudge?" Pei Ming asks. "Do you have a score to settle?"
Their questions aren't worth answering so he doesn't bother.
"How do I get out of here?"
"By 'here' you mean...?" Now Pei Ming just looks confused.
"Heaven."
Ling Wen studies him through eyes that seem much more intelligent than those of the sword wielding fool beside her. "What did you mean when you said you weren't staying?"
"Exactly what I said now do you keep your gods prisoner up here or will you show me the way out?"
Pei Ming taps his fingers against his pummel. "The descending gates that way but you can't just go rushing back to whatever you were in the middle of. You're a god now and that means..."
"I am NOT a god!" Wu Ming snaps the words, his fury finally cresting the banks of his ability to hold it back. "There is only one person worthy to be a god and you've just told me he isn't here! Why would I want to waste my days with the likes of you when my place is on earth beside him!"
With that Wu Ming storms away in the direction Pei Ming pointed. He can hear the gods, racing after him, telling him to wait, reminding him of his new godly station. But he is no god and he has no station. He is nothing but a nameless ghost, and worthless though he might be, he's still better than the useless trash who hide up here and allow the world to suffer, allow Dianxia to suffer.
And so, when he reaches the descending gates, he jumps without hesitation. What use has he for a heaven that denies his god?
Above him, at the edge of the gate, a martial god and a civil god stand, looking downward in disbelief as the only ghost ever achieve godhood in known history falls away beneath them. After a while Pei Ming whistles softly and turns to his companion.
"He can't be serious about rejecting godhood. He'll be back."
"No, I don't think he will." Ling Wen frowns down at the place were the last speck of black vanished through the clouds. "Who knew that after everything that's happened his highness still had one last believer."
Below, beyond the clouds, Wu Ming is falling, his mind ablaze with wrath indignation.
How dare those heavenly trash?
What did they think they have to offer him anyway?
Why would he want to become one of their number, hiding away from every problem, safe on their cloud while they let the world burn?
They abandoned his god, his beloved, mocked and ridiculed and spat on him. They hurt and tormented him and pushed him into the mud and they still expect Wu Ming to want to join them?
Once he is finished on Mount Tonglu... Once he has the powers of a Supreme... Then he will take the burning to them and let all heaven learn what it is like to stand in the path of a Calamity!
Suddenly he becomes aware of the earth rushing toward him, the rocky cliffs and frost hard ground of Mount Tonglu racing to meet him. He gave no thought when he jumped to managing his landing and if it is something that comes naturally to gods, well, as he said, he is not a god. Maybe he does have a bit of divine power clinging to him now and maybe if he takes the time to sort it out he can understand it enough to use it to absorb his fall, but there is no time now and he doesn't understand it and when he hits the ground after such a long fall, even his ghosts body will probably break.
Wu Ming closes his eye and braces himself for impact.
It's fine. It won't kill him. He's dead after all. He'll manage to survive the other murderous ghosts until his body puts itself back together. He has the scimitar now. He'll survive, he'll manage, he'll...
A soft thud, an oddly muffled impact, and suddenly he's no longer falling, at least not how he was. Instead of cold wind and gusting snow there is warmth beneath him and around him and everything is like an echo of childhood, of the memory more precious than any other, warm arms to catch him, soft robes against his skin, and safety... Safety like he's never known...
Wu Ming's eye flies open and then a strangled gasp is ripped from his lips and he knows he must be seeing things, he must, because...
White robes, dark hair, and soft golden eyes... Unlike when Wu Ming was a child there is no adornment on his robes, no jewels on his ears or ornament in his hair, but he still looks just as beautiful, just as perfect, a vision of true divinity made flesh for him, and Wu Ming would know him anywhere.
"Your highness..."