The Witch Bone

When he came to his senses he was alone. This was the second time he had fainted after coming to this world and he was none too pleased about it. A tree and a woman had manhandled him on the very night he appeared in this world. At the rate at which this was going, he'd become a laughing stock of the kingdom, and his father would be the one who makes fun of him the most. Ah.

Bai Hua for the first time paid attention to his surroundings. He was back in the clearing of the sacred grove and was under the ancient Holy Tree. Everything was white about the Holy Tree. Its fair leaves were gently swaying in the breeze and looked calm and pure. The tree reminded him of the "wicked shaman" who had abandoned him with her clone inside the space. But he did not mind it anymore as he no longer felt threatened. Both the tree and the lady shaman were fair and beautiful and both had an innate thirst for bloodl.u.s.t. He could feel it when he interacted with her. She appeared pure but there was a hidden bloodl.u.s.t in her soul which he felt while fighting her clone.

He sat in a lotus position under the tree and relaxed. For some inexplicable reason, he felt as if his soul was being filled up with an unceasing flow of spiritual energy. Then he remembered what the shaman had told him previously. That he would need to recuperate a month in the sacred grove to regain his spiritual powers. The ritual was not only an initiation ritual but it was also a form of purgation.

Now, he felt refreshed and felt that his senses had been heightened to a new level. He felt that the scarlet ground was no longer menacing and gruesome like he thought earlier. But he felt a trigger in his soul that made him think that the scarlet ground had a more profound meaning. It represented energy and the primal force of life. Red was the color of extremes, a trait that all humans have.

He could not help but think that this was a color that he had the most affinity with.

In his previous life, he avoided all bright colors and went for dull colors that represented his pessimistic approach to life and his social life which was pretty dull.

He sighed blissfully as he felt more relaxed under the tree. He could not even inspect his new body when he arrived earlier as his mind was storming and raging inside. He realized that he had a lean frame and he was quite tall for a normal 14-year-old. His hair that was tied into a ponytail was jet black. He could feel that he had bones and muscles that had undergone rigorous training.

Then he observed his anklet closely. Something had been nagging him from the moment of his arrival. But he did not realize it until he held the ivory blade in his hands. He was too busy to ponder over the matter earlier as he was trying not to become minced meat during the fight. But now that he was safe, he finally paid attention to his anklet of bones.

The previous Bai Hua did not like accessories and did not wear any even though he was the Young Lord of the kingdom of Soaring Dragon. And so Cheng Yan knew that Bai Hua never owned such an accessory.

He touched the anklet and suddenly it became a normal looking bone in his palm. He was already aware that it shape-shifted but this current form was oddly familiar to him. It had some runes on it which he did not understand and which he had never come across even in his previous life.

"Hmmmm... Why does it feel so familiar though?"

"I feel like I've seen this somewhere... But I cannot pinpoint exactly where for the life of me."

"Was it in this world? Or was it in my previous life?"

"It feels so familiar"

Then it hit him like a thunder on a moonlit night like this one.

It looked oddly like the bone that he stashed away in his backbag just before he died.

"What was it doing here??"

"Did I bring it with me?"

"Wait, is this thing from my previous world?"

"And how did a powerful artifact like this ended up in Nanjing??"

His mind could not wrap around these questions. And his eyes remained vacant as his mind wandered off to many possibilities that all seemed unlikely.