My Name Is Chen Guan

"Is she... a ghost?"

Chen Guan saw the female ghost, and a downright ridiculous thought crossed his mind.

That she was so cute?

In the flash of lightning,

her slightly thin oval face, large, gray, ethereal eyes, tiny nose, gray clothes, and timid expression...

If this had been in the real world,

so what if she was a ghost?

She was simply adorable enough to melt anyone's heart.

Without a sound, the girl backed away, passing through the stone platform beneath the statue. She edged deeper into the Dilapidated Temple and curled up in a corner.

She was a little afraid of this enormous "Black Bear Spirit."

Even when she'd lifted the threshold earlier, she'd only been trying to scare the terrifying Black Bear Spirit away.

Unfortunately, the Black Bear Spirit hadn't run. Instead, he'd spotted her.

The little girl was flustered. She wanted to leave the Dilapidated Temple, but instinctively feared the thunder above, and her corpse bound her here, too.

Just then,

amid the rain pattering outside the Dilapidated Temple and the occasional rumble of thunder,

Chen Guan and the little girl stared at each other. Neither dared make the first move.

The little girl didn't dare try to scare the strange Black Bear Spirit again.

Chen Guan knew all too well that bears and ghosts belonged to different worlds, so he put aside any tender feelings.

But the longer he stayed on guard,

even though the little girl wasn't doing anything,

Chen Guan found his eyes growing a little sore, and her figure began to fade.

"Is this an illusion?"

Chen Guan was starting to panic. Faced with the unknown, his first thought was to run.

He'd already run plenty today. What was one more trip?

It would make a good workout, anyway.

But the next second, when the sticky liquid on his head fur trickled down a lock of hair and into the corner of his eye,

Chen Guan saw the little girl clearly again.

She was still curled up in the corner, frightened.

Could it be...

A sudden realization struck Chen Guan. He tilted his head slightly and glanced out the rear door at the sticky puddle.

Could this Thunder-Struck Locust Wood's sap be letting me see... ghosts?

Chen Guan wasn't sure about this guess.

But there was only one way to find out.

His reincarnation had made him bold enough to lay down his life for the truth.

Especially since this vision, something like Yin-Yang Eyes, might come in handy someday.

So testing its effects and figuring out how to make it were a must.

Otherwise, if he already had a theory but didn't test it—

he'd be acting like some riddle-spouting weirdo. How the hell would he sleep tonight?

Whoosh—

A few more minutes passed. When the girl's figure began to fade again,

Chen Guan didn't use the mixture on his fur. Instead, he cautiously backed out of the temple and returned to the puddle.

He gazed at the sticky liquid in the puddle.

The liquid near the tree's ashes was especially dark.

If he was going to test it, he might as well use the purest stuff and smear it over his eyes.

Interestingly, the little girl seemed naturally curious.

When she saw the big black bear leave, she floated out of the corner, resting one small hand and half her body against the doorway as she curiously watched Chen Guan's back.

But when Chen Guan turned around,

she silently ducked back inside.

A few seconds later, she cautiously peeked out again, only to find Chen Guan still looking her way.

This time, the girl instinctively started to retreat, but when she sensed that the Black Bear Spirit didn't seem to mean her any harm, she bravely poked her little head out again and mustered the courage to meet his gaze.

Chen Guan watched her calmly. More than anything, he wanted to prove his theory.

A few seconds later, the girl vanished completely from his sight.

Chen Guan bent down, scooped up some of the sap, and splashed it over his face as though washing it.

At that moment,

perhaps because he'd used so much sap and rubbed it in so vigorously, its effects grew stronger.

A short while later,

Chen Guan saw not only the little gray girl, but also wisps of indescribable "gray aura" in the air.

The gray aura was similar in color to the little girl,

just not as dark.

"Could this be Killing Intent? Yin energy?"

Chen Guan had just arrived, and everything in this world fascinated him.

He swiped at the Yin energy in the air with his bear paw, but his paw passed right through without affecting its shape.

Even the rain pattering down around him didn't disperse the Yin energy.

"Can this water on the ground let me see ghosts? And let me see Yin energy that ordinary living beings can't?"

Chen Guan suddenly realized he'd stumbled on an interesting treasure.

But more than that, he was happy to uncover the answer for himself.

"It's laughing..." The girl tilted her head, even more curious now, as she studied the delighted Chen Guan.

Although Chen Guan wasn't laughing like a human, going "hahaha," and was instead growling "grrr" in the terrifying downpour,

the girl felt as if the Black Bear Spirit had really laughed.

"You can talk?" Chen Guan heard the girl's clear, delicate voice and turned to look at her by the doorway.

But what the girl heard was, "Grrr, grrr, grrr?"

The bear and the ghost were having a completely fruitless conversation.

Faced with this situation, Chen Guan thought for a moment, pointed at his own mouth, then at hers,

"Grrr... (Just speak like a human.)"

He growled, then, worried she hadn't understood, gestured a few more times.

It was his first time meeting a ghost, and she seemed like a harmless "little ghost."

Driven by curiosity,

Chen Guan desperately wanted to open a line of communication between them.

Maybe through the little girl, he could learn more about this world.

Like where her corpse was, and whether this Locust Wood Slime really worked like Yin-Yang Eyes.

But

Xiao Qing couldn't make heads or tails of Chen Guan's gestures.

If she hadn't thought the Black Bear Spirit brother meant her no harm,

she would have found the way Chen Guan pointed at his mouth terrifying.

After all, Chen Guan was a bona fide big black bear.

His gaping maw was the size of an ordinary person's head, and his sharp teeth were as thick as thumbs. There was nothing funny about that.

And now this enormous black bear was gesturing like a person in a thunderstorm.

If an ordinary person saw that and realized what they were looking at, they'd run as far as they could.

"Looks like talking won't work..."

Chen Guan gestured for a long while. When he saw that the girl was still completely dazed, he knew communication would be difficult.

Thinking it over,

Chen Guan looked at the little girl again.

The little girl seemed to think he was angry. She was still going, "Grrr, grrr, grrr... (Black Bear Spirit brother, why did you stop talking?)"

He couldn't understand her.

He really couldn't understand her.

But then he remembered that the little girl was human.

Maybe she could read?

Chen Guan thought that was promising, so he began recalling some of the old man's memories.

He wanted to communicate in writing.

As Chen Guan sank into his memories,

aside from the deeply ingrained memory of his "cheap cultivation grandkid,"

he also recalled some of the written characters used in this world.

The good news was that the writing here was quite similar to the writing on Earth.

So,

full of confidence, Chen Guan used his fan-sized paw and sharp, hooked claws to easily pry a piece off the charred locust wood.

He used it like a piece of chalk.

Swaying his enormous body, Chen Guan walked back into the temple.

He lowered his head to look at the little girl, who didn't dodge this time.

Chen Guan lay down his burly body and awkwardly wrote a line on the ground.

(My name... is Chen Guan)