As the two silently made their way to the town, neither of them pad any attention to each other.
TianXia felt awkward in the silence. He may have been dead for fifty plus years but that doesn't mean he was used to the silence. The older JingHe spoke to thin air sometimes, and TianXia replied, though unheard it resembled something almost like a conversation.
In simpler words, that many years as a ghost rendered TianXia to feel somewhat lonely.
But looking at JingHe out of the corner of his eyes, he clearly was in no mood to speak. And there's also the fact that he chose to stay far away from JingHe.
TianXia sighed in exasperation and shook his head.
JingHe caught this action and sneered as he said, "Are you an old man? Huffing and puffing this whole time."
TianXia replied without a second thought, "I am older than you... By fifty years or so..." He muttered the last bit.
"Tch, by like a month." JingHe spat and rolled his eyes. Then he continued, "The dream stalker. thoughts."
TianXia smirked to himself, this is where he could show off a bit with his past knowledge. "Dream stalkers have no physical form that belongs to it self, it manifests as an object within the dream of the person it's chosen as prey. There are is only one way to exorcise it. First we must find the shape of the object its pretending to be, then we must force the essence of the dream stalker out of the object and capture it with a talisman made net." TianXia slightly puffed his chest out, looking rather proud of himself.
JingHe on the other hand was slightly shocked at the abundance of information TianXia just provided. He would've thought TianXia would try to keep the information for himself and take all credit for the exorcism.
TianXia took one look at JingHe and could almost guess what the other was thinking. Indeed the past him would've kept this information secret due to his pointlessly competitive nature. But it was precisely because of that that they took a whole week to capture the demon.
JingHe was still speechless as TianXia strode forward with what would've been a wagging tail if he had one. JingHe blinked and muttered, "Maybe ShiZun gave hime the wrong medicine..."
Later on when they arrived in the small, ghost like town, they beelined straight for the nicest inn. The one thing they agreed on was the use of nice accommodation.
Once at the reception desk, TianXia stepped forth and said, "Two of your best rooms, the further away from each other, the better."
JingHe without missing a beat counters,"How about you go find a different inn to stay at huh?"
TianXia ignored him and received the keys, after looking at the room numbers, he chucked on to JingHe and walked off to the other.
He look down at the key in his hand, this was the room that JingHe stayed in in his past life. TianXia hoped that with the switching of the rooms, the Dream Stalker would target him instead. Everything can be done and dusted in a short while.
Later that evening...
As both persons put out their oil lamps, they each fell into their wn thoughts before eventually falling asleep.
It wasn't long before JingHe opened his eyes. However something was off.
His surrounding was not that off his bedroom. The sky was bright. And most importantly, his body felt diffferent. After confirming it, he found that not only was he taller but his appearance changed. He still looked like himself but he looked...older. More mature.
He took a moment to realise he was now in the dream stalkers realm. He died cursing, but he couldn't move his mouth, he could only furrow his browsing confusion in this strange body.
Just as he was about to summon his sword. He heard his name being called out. He knew this voice, yet he did not. His body spun around as he met the face of a smirking man.
TianXia.
JingHe did not know why his chest suddenly ached. His hand creeped up and slightly scratched at it. He wanted to ask why are you here? Yet still no voice came out.
So he could only stare at this more mature version of TianXia. He looked more handsome, his features defined, body finer and skin slightly darker.
"Didn't expect to see you here." TianXia said.
"TianXia...You're still alive...?" JingHe asked. He was shocked at what he had just asked. He did not ask that. This body looked like him but was not him! He really didn't intend to ask that question, it came out of his mouth on its own! What's going on!?
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A/N- sorry for inconsistent chapters.
Uni life is really... tiring....
But...
HOPE YA"LL ENJOYED