Chapter 2: Summoning

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Chapter 2: Summoning

Ji Bai took only one glance before looking away. He set down his wineglass, flipped the roast, then got up and picked up the white bread beside it, which had already been toasted slightly crisp. He placed it on the cutting board and used a dinner knife to chop it into fine cubes.

Tap, tap, tap.

Next, he took out a bowl, cracked an egg into it, added sugar and spices, and whisked everything together before pouring it into the chicken stock. He continued simmering it over the heat, then finally added the diced white bread he had just cut. He stirred slowly but continuously until all the aromas blended together, and the delicious, fragrant golden soup was ready.

The laughter had long since stopped, like a fleeting illusion on a slightly chilly spring night. But the next second, another demonic whisper emerged from the shadows cast by the firelight.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

Ji Bai acted as though he hadn’t heard. He took a large wooden bowl from the cupboard and leisurely ladled the soup into it with a long-handled spoon. Then he turned around and plated the roast. Everything was timed perfectly.

The fish fillets were fried as well. He drizzled it with the sauce he had prepared beforehand with red wine vinegar, sugar, onions, and seasonings, officially bringing dinner to a close.

Ji Bai was accustomed to cleaning as he cooked. The lack of running water here was inconvenient, but the fireplace-style stove could dispose of a lot of kitchen waste. He casually tossed the excess fish bones and onion skins into the fire, calmly watching the flames consume them.

The voice came again. “There’s no point in avoiding me. You clearly heard me.”

“Come. Heed my call and become a great necromancer!”

The silvery laughter rang out again, but Ji Bai still didn’t answer.

Although he wasn’t particularly fond of reading web novels, even he knew that when you arrived in an unfamiliar place and heard an invisible entity calling to you, it was best not to answer. Words had power. They could even bind you to a contract. Who knew when you might foolishly end up selling your soul to the devil?

A necromancer? In an age when necromancers could openly walk the streets, anyone secretly preaching in the shadows was definitely up to no good.

“You’re ignoring me.”

The voice began to complain.

“You’re actually ignoring me.”

Ji Bai had already sat down to eat. The aroma of the food and the fullness it brought slightly eased the tension and trace of fear in his heart. The goosebumps on his arms were hidden beneath his clothes, while his naturally melancholy pale green eyes concealed every emotion as he lowered his head to eat.

Running away was useless. For one thing, he had nowhere to go. For another, would running really make things better?

The strange phenomena occurring in Pinecone Tower were certainly connected to Pinecone Tower itself. Perhaps they were also connected to Charlie, and to all the unknowns behind it. Unknown. Unknown. And more unknown. The only way to have any chance of understanding it was to face it head-on.

Whoosh—

The fire suddenly surged upward. A wave of heat struck Ji Bai in the face, making him instinctively want to recoil. But just as his body was about to lean back, he forcibly stopped himself. One hand still held his fork, while the other gripped the armrest tightly, forcing himself to remain seated.

He stared at the flames. They seemed to lash out wildly, as though they intended to engulf him, yet they remained nothing more than a frightening display and caused him no actual harm.

Just like… impotent rage.

The voice was still furious. “I’m going to punish you!”

As soon as it finished speaking, something suddenly fell from the chimney and slammed into the soup pot hanging there by an iron chain.

Thud!

It knocked the pot askew, sent the lid flying, and smashed into the coal fire before rolling out of the fireplace with a rumbling sound.

Although Ji Bai already had a suspicion about what was happening and some of his fear had faded, his heart still skipped a beat at the sight. Especially when the thing rolled straight toward him, leaving sparks and black ash in its wake, before suddenly launching itself off the ground in defiance of gravity—

Straight at Ji Bai’s face!

Ji Bai’s pupils contracted. He instinctively twisted aside, and the thing shot straight past him and flew behind him.

As it passed him, Ji Bai finally saw what it was—a skull.

Crack!

The skull slammed hard into the wall, then fell to the floor. After rolling with a rumbling sound, it came to a stop. Ji Bai saw it twitch again, but whether it had run out of strength or had been damaged by the impact, it never got back up.

Only a resentful, humiliated voice echoed through the room. “I hate you!”

Ji Bai: “…”

How did I end up being the one it hated?

What was he supposed to do now?

Even someone as calm as Ji Bai was a little at a loss at this point. After thinking it over, he decided to stay in character and simply turn back to his meal. Amitabha. Amen. Heaven above, earth below. Just pretend I didn’t see anything.

A sinister voice sounded behind him, like air hissing through clenched teeth. Ji Bai ignored it as well.

After a while, a tap, tap came from the hallway outside. It sounded like footsteps, but not the sound of shoes against stone steps. It was even crisper.

What was that? Ji Bai slowly and steadily took a bite of roast, carefully listening to the sounds outside. Before long, the sound reached the door.

Knock, knock. There was a knock at the door.

Ji Bai’s heart tightened again. He quietly picked up the silver spoon and used its polished surface to sneak a look at what was behind him. But the skull remained completely still and made no further sound.

Knock, knock. The knocking grew more urgent.

Ji Bai took another sip of soup. It was still warm, at just the right temperature, with an excellent texture. Even the spices, which were so often criticized, had performed beyond expectations thanks to the perfect proportions. Yet in Ji Bai’s mouth at that moment, every bit of deliciousness seemed diminished.

Anyone who could enjoy a meal without a care under circumstances like these certainly did not include Ji Bai. He was only pretending.

Knock, knock, knock! The pounding seemed to carry a growing fury.

Third time’s the charm. The voice finally sounded again. “Open the door and give me back my head!”

To open the door or not to open the door. That was the question.

Ji Bai finished eating, took out his handkerchief, and wiped his mouth. He decided to clean up the table first. After washing the knife and fork, dishes, and cookware, he placed them on the rack to dry. He looked around, then picked up the broom.

Pinecone Tower was simply too dilapidated. Even though Charlie wasn’t a messy person, he couldn’t have kept a place that had been abandoned for so many years spotless.

Ji Bai wasn’t particularly obsessive about cleanliness, either. He simply enjoyed doing housework and the process of putting everything “messy” back in order and restoring “cleanliness.” Of course, the result mattered, too.

The voice started again.

“Poor thing. Don’t you know all these trivial chores could be solved with a single Dust-Removal Spell?”

“Just heed my call and become a great necromancer. You can have everything you desire, everything wonderful and dreamlike!”

Clink. Charlie moved the cabinet aside and discovered a silver coin wedged in the gap. It fell to the floor, and he quickly snatched it up. Once he confirmed it was genuine, some of the gloom in his eyes faded.

The voice scoffed. “It’s only one silver coin. Don’t you know that once you become a necromancer, mountains of gold and silver will no longer be some distant dream?”

Ji Bai remained where he stood. The voice pressed on. “You can obtain the treasures of dragons and turn those mighty creatures into skeletal dragons. When you ride that enormous creature, blotting out the sky and sun as you fly across the wilderness of Totolando, you’ll bask in the worshipful, yearning gazes of every living thing. The world will be yours to hold in your hands!”

Totolando was the name of this continent.

Although he knew he was being tempted, and although he had done his best to remain calm, Ji Bai still couldn’t help imagining the scene. Wealth, dragons, the wilderness… It really was tempting.

He consequently reached a conclusion: this temptation was limited to verbal persuasion. It hadn’t reached the level of mental influence.

At this moment, Ji Bai’s thoughts were exceptionally clear.

This sudden appearance of the voice was clearly connected to the strange tower, and tempting him to become a necromancer seemed to be its goal. Could Pinecone Tower’s former master have been a necromancer? A necromancer and a Tower of Resurrection… There was certainly some connection there.

But why had it only appeared now?

There had been no trace of this voice in the memories of Charlie that Ji Bai had inherited. If it had appeared earlier and tempted Charlie, perhaps Charlie would already have embarked on the path of becoming a necromancer. Then what would have been left for Ji Bai?

There was too little information, and Ji Bai still couldn’t piece everything together. But that was all right. Since this voice couldn’t directly harm him, this would simply become a battle of attrition.

The longer he dragged things out, the more impatient the other side would become, and the more information it might reveal.

“Are you tempted?”

The voice continued its seduction, smugly waiting for Ji Bai’s response. It waited and waited, only to see Ji Bai pocket the silver coin and continue cleaning.

Charlie liked the decorations on the walls. They looked like murals made by directly embedding fragments of gemstone into the walls. He couldn’t understand them, but they were interesting. There was also a beautiful set of crystal teacups hidden in the cupboard. Perhaps they could be used to entertain certain important guests.

And then there was the glassware. There were numerous glass vessels throughout Pinecone Tower, both in the kitchen and the bedroom.

Although glass was no longer a rarity on the continent of Totolando, porcelain remained the preferred choice among nobles and Grand Mages who valued a high quality of life.

Why were there so many glass vessels in Pinecone Tower? Was it simply the former master’s personal preference?

Once Ji Bai started thinking, especially while doing housework, he could shut out much of the outside world.

The voice gradually weakened in the face of Ji Bai’s indifference, once again becoming a hiss like air escaping through clenched teeth. Finally, when Ji Bai’s broom went around the skull on the floor and he once again pretended not to see it, the voice turned into a curse filled with resentment.

“I curse you. After you die, your skull will be a thousand times uglier than this one. No, ten thousand times uglier.”

Ji Bai heard it, but he didn’t care. Once he was dead, even if someone put his skull on display at the “World Exhibition of Ugly Things,” he wouldn’t have the slightest objection.

But the next sentence finally drew a reaction from him.

“I was the one who saved you, yet you ignore me.”

“Even the devil isn’t as cold as you.”

Saved me?

Ji Bai’s brow twitched, and goosebumps rose along his arms. Did the voice mean that it had brought Charlie back to life? Or… had it summoned Ji Bai and resurrected him in another world using Charlie’s body?

In this voice’s eyes, was he Charlie or Ji Bai?

And what was its purpose in saving him?

Ji Bai slowly stopped sweeping. He lowered his eyes and glanced at the dagger hanging at his side. He had found it in the bedroom and had been carrying it for protection these past few days, but he hadn’t had to use it yet.

Perhaps…

Ji Bai drew the dagger and looked over its gleaming blade. It wasn’t particularly sharp, with more decorative value than practical use, but it was sharp enough to stab someone.

Why not stab himself first and see what happened?

“What are you doing?!”

The voice’s startled cry nearly broke into a squeak as Ji Bai stopped the tip of the dagger just short of his neck. The next moment, he calmly sheathed the dagger and said, “Never mind.”

“…”

The voice fell silent at first. Then, realizing belatedly that it had been played, it grew angry, began saying whatever came to mind, and finally started sobbing. Its mournful crying seemed to seep through every crack between the floor tiles, sending chills through the bones.

Broken phrases accompanied the sobbing.

“It’s only becoming a necromancer. You don’t have to if you don’t want to…”

“Waaah…”

“…You don’t want me…”

“I’m so cold… I’m so lonely…”

“Waaah…”

Ji Bai listened for a long while without hearing it mention anything about another world, souls, or anything of the sort. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He still didn’t know enough about this continent, but he didn’t need to think hard to know what a soul from another world would mean.

It was like an alien invasion suddenly appearing in the twenty-first century. Regardless of whether the alien looked human or had three heads and six arms, one thing would inevitably be lost: freedom.

His very existence would become his greatest vulnerability.

Ji Bai composed himself. He figured he had pushed things far enough. Too much of anything could backfire, so he turned and walked toward the skull, then picked it up from the floor with both hands.

“Waaah—” The voice immediately fell into a brief silence.

Ji Bai took out his handkerchief and leisurely wiped the dust and soot from its skull. He placed it neatly in the center of the table, at eye level with himself, before asking, “Was it really you who saved me? Because I seem to remember a squirrel throwing pinecones at me.”

“It was me!” The voice hadn’t even recovered from finally receiving a response, or from the shock of being cleaned and treated so nicely. The moment it heard Ji Bai’s words, it immediately reacted. “That squirrel doesn’t know anything! It was me! I burned away half my soul fire just to barely compel it to fetch the pinecones! It was me!”

“Why a pinecone?”

“Because this is Pinecone Tower, of course! It was the home of the greatest and most powerful necromancer on this continent, who also happened to be a part-time alchemist. I remember! As long as you strike the soul with a pinecone, you can revive someone! My master told me!”

“Then what was your master’s name?”

“Her name was—was—”

The voice faltered again, like an old machine grinding to a halt halfway through operation. After a long while, it started up again. “I forgot.”

Its tone gradually softened as well, becoming a neutral young male voice tinged with endless sorrow.

“I only remember that my master left and never came back. I’ve even forgotten what she looked like.”

“Many, many years passed. Then you came here. Your death awakened me. I remembered what my master had said, so I fetched the pinecones and saved you.”

Ji Bai was enveloped by the sorrow in its words. Even the heart that had remained unmoved by its earlier temptations wavered for a moment. Was it telling the truth?

Perhaps it was.

Ji Bai steadied himself and continued asking questions. “Then why do you want me to become a necromancer?”

When he asked this question, Ji Bai expected the answer to be something like, “So you can inherit my master’s mantle and carry on the legacy of the mage tower,” or “Only a necromancer can restore the soul fire and help me recover my memories,” or something along those lines.

But the voice said, “I’m helping you! You don’t look like you can become any other kind of mage. Your talent is lacking, you’re too old, and all you can do is secretly clutch a wine bottle and cry. But if you choose to become a necromancer, burn yourself first and sacrifice your soul, maybe you can do it!”

Ji Bai: “…You’re really smart.”

Compared to this, Chapter One: Become a Mage in One Hundred Days, Chapter Two: How to Learn Forbidden Spells, and Chapter Three: How to Slay a Dragon were looking much more reliable.

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