Previously, control of the body had clearly been in Ming Yi's hands, and he could take over whenever he pleased.
It was only out of politeness and consideration that he would warn her beforehand to prepare herself before her body slipped from her control.
What had just happened? Why did she have to do it manually now?
Filled with confusion, Bai Ci asked softly, “What should I do? How can I actively hand control of the body over to you?”
As she spoke, she naturally recalled what had happened earlier. Not long ago, she had been idling deep in her consciousness when she was suddenly ejected to the surface, and this had not been the conscious choice of either herself or Ming Yi.
With a bit of thought, the culprit was obvious.
“Is this situation caused by the pattern on that jade plaque?”
“The origin of that pattern is unknown. I cannot grasp its specific function for the time being.”
Ming Yi did not hide anything and explained the situation to Bai Ci straightforwardly. He had never thought there was any need to hide these things from his other self.
“What caused our current situation is not the pattern, but the jade plaque itself.”
“That jade is no ordinary item. It must be a spiritual jade that has been nourished for many years and possesses its own protective spirit.”
“The jade plaque protected that man. At the cost of shattering, it blocked my attack, but it also caused me a small bit of trouble with my soul's stability.”
“You were not affected by the backlash, and your divine soul is pure and stable. Since my divine soul is currently fluctuating, the one dominant over the body's control has become you, whose soul is more stable.”
“Because of this, I naturally cannot actively take over like usual. It can only rely on you actively stepping back.”
So that was it.
“I understand. So, what should I do now to let you out?” Bai Ci understood completely and waited earnestly for Ming Yi's guidance.
“Relax your mind and discard all stray thoughts.”
Ming Yi's voice sounded, patiently guiding Bai Ci on how to sink into her consciousness.
As long as Bai Ci went down, he would naturally float up with a bit of effort.
“Imagine your divine soul sinking into the depths of still water, becoming completely quiet, sinking, and hiding. Once you step back, I will naturally float up and take over the body.”
...
She understood every word of this sentence, and she even understood the sentence itself, but this description was a bit too abstract.
It was entirely a mystical, profound realization of the divine soul, just like a straight-A student saying, “You can tell the answer is C just by looking at this question.”
This “just looking” required who knew how many practices before one could grasp the knack of it.
But after all, Ming Yi was the professional in this regard. Although she only half-understood, Bai Ci still planned to try what Ming Yi said first.
Emptying her thoughts and suppressing her mind, she tried hard to quiet herself down and let herself fall...
The more she told herself not to think wildly, the easier it was to do so. After trying twice, Bai Ci failed both times. The primary control of the body was still firmly in her hands without any change.
She simply couldn't grasp the knack of it.
After two failures, Bai Ci simply gave up this abstract method and prepared to act according to her own understanding.
In the final analysis, the essence of this matter was just to pull Ming Yi up, so whether she sank or not was not actually that important.
Since she couldn't sink and hide, she would actively pull him up.
She focused her mind, locking onto the familiar and sharp outline of the divine soul deep in her consciousness. Discarding all rules and methods, she relied purely on instinct to pull upward with force.
Come out.
Float up.
It was a very straightforward thought.
At this moment, Ming Yi was reflecting, wondering if he had explained it too obscurely and deeply, and was preparing to teach her again with a more understandable method.
Caught off guard, he felt a wisp of a soft, warm soul wrap around his divine soul.
The force was gentle yet firm, stubborn and serious, dragging him bit by bit from the depths of his silent consciousness.
It was Ming Ci.
It was her soul, clumsily yet earnestly pulling him out.
Understanding this, Ming Yi allowed her to guide him, slowly floating upward along that gentle force.
In the next instant, control of the body was successfully handed over.
Ming Yi opened his eyes, his gaze indifferently sweeping over the chaotic intersection ahead. His figure seemed to turn incorporeal as he passed through the gathered crowd and came before the corpse.
His power circulated through this body once. Finally, Ming Yi reached out through the air and scooped the shattered jade plaque into his hand.
The jade body was covered in spiderweb cracks, its spirituality almost completely dissipated. Yet the moment it fell into Ming Yi's palm, a lingering faint glow deep within the cracks of the jade plaque flickered twice.
Like a final struggle, it did not last long before extinguishing completely, devoid of any remaining spiritual energy.
Ming Yi lowered his eyes, his fingertips gently rubbing the broken jade surface as he examined it closely.
The complete pattern of the Ring of the Feather-Clutching Bird was clearly branded upon it. Besides that, in a corner of the jade surface, there was also a tiny character that had almost been worn flat by time.
The strokes were thin and hard, neat and clean—it was the character “Li.”
“It is hidden quite well.”
Ming Yi saw it, and naturally, Bai Ci, who shared the same field of vision with him, saw it too.
“This person's soul is indeed strange, but this area is not my specialty. I must seek confirmation from other Ghost Immortals,” Ming Yi explained to Bai Ci.
“As for this jade plaque, a spiritual jade plaque requires time or incense offerings to accumulate its power, and is by no means something an ordinary family could possess. This character ‘Li’ is highly likely a clan surname or a lineage name.”
“Give this to the person who said he is good at flipping through books. He should be able to find more things.”
Putting away the broken jade, Ming Yi retraced his steps, sweeping back toward the municipal library in an instant.
When he returned to the ancient books reading area and looked up, he saw that in just the short time he had been gone, the reference books in front of Zheng Gang had already been swapped out for a new batch.
Zheng Gang sat upright at the table, the speed of his fingertips flipping through books astonishingly fast. He read ten lines at a glance, extracting information as soon as his eyes passed over it, his hands writing down notes at a rapid pace. It was a smooth, flowing process without the slightest hesitation or pause.
Wu Daoqing, sitting opposite him, was already dumbfounded, his face filled with unbelievable shock. He murmured in a daze, with a hint of heartfelt admiration.
“...So fast.”
Ming Yi tossed the jade plaque, which was broken into two halves, onto the table, and then handed control of the body back to Bai Ci.
Thus, Bai Ci spoke up to explain to the two bewildered men: “Just now, someone was secretly tailing the two of you, following you all the way to the library. This broken jade was obtained from that stalker.”
As soon as Bai Ci's voice fell, Zheng Gang could not wait to reach out and grab the broken jade, holding it up to the light to examine it closely.
He quickly discovered the faint, small character in the corner of the old jade as well.
“Li?”
“Is it a clan surname? Or a craftsman's mark? Or perhaps the code name of some inherited sect?”
As he muttered to himself, he opened the library's catalog on his laptop, filtered out a large batch of books, and then called Wu Daoqing to go carry the books with him.
Wu Daoqing looked utterly dejected. He hadn't expected that on his first mission, the first obstacle he encountered would actually be a physical one.
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