Early morning,
Birdsong drifted through the air.
Jiang Hao opened his eyes and took a deep breath of the cool, pure mountain air, feeling vibrant vitality permeate his entire body from within.
A night of cultivation left him refreshed in both body and mind.
He looked toward where Zhu Guang had cultivated last night, but that fellow was already nowhere to be seen. "Zhu Guang, where are you?"
"Young Master, I'm in the bamboo tube."
A voice came from Jiang Hao's sleeve.
"Before dawn, I heard the roosters crowing and returned to the bamboo tube. What are your orders, Young Master?"
"You still can't move about freely under the sun?" Jiang Hao asked.
"I can, but being scorched by the sun feels like being burned by raging flames. It's unbearably painful, and it also consumes Ghost Qi, gradually weakening me. So I don't like appearing in sunlight. If Young Master needs me, I'll show myself at once," Zhu Guang said.
"No need. Stay where you are. I'll make something to eat first, then I'll go take a look at where you were buried." Jiang Hao got to his feet.
"What are you looking at my burial site for?" Zhu Guang asked curiously.
Jiang Hao fetched water to wash his face and said as he washed, "For you to become a fierce ghost, the place where your bones were buried probably isn't ordinary. It's likely a yin ground. Staying there too long is bad for a ghost's mind and can easily breed violent energy."
"And there's something else. I want to see whether I can turn you into a lich," Jiang Hao said.
"A lich? What's a lich?" Zhu Guang asked.
"Don't worry about that yet. We'll talk once we see whether it can be done," Jiang Hao said.
After breakfast,