Reborn Moonlight Youth

 

Chapter 1: Life or Death

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Rattie

Ou LingYi floated leisurely, wandering around the spacious and empty hospital corridor. There were rooms along the walls on either side. He could hear the barely audible sounds of some people laughing, some people sighing, and some people sobbing.

He tried to go out through the thick white walls, but an invisible force pulled him and imprisoned him in this four-sided big box. He thought that he died and became an Earthbound spirit within the hospital. Unless the hospital collapsed, he would always float here and watch the separation and reunion of those in the world of the living. Life and death were repeated here.

Yes, the hospital was a stage where all tragedies and comedies would gather. Every day, the most dramatic plot would play out. He had become tired of watching. His heart had become as hard as iron over the continuous transformation. He felt no happiness or sadness.

In the emptiness of night, he sat down. Ou LingYi lazily spread out his slender limbs, and let the jade pendant on his chest absorb the moonlight. The jade pendant radiated a bright white light. Ou LingYi's body also started to glow slightly, showing his human figure in the air.

Avid readers of fantasy scrolls would definitely exclaim 'cultivation'! That's right; Ou LingYi was indeed practising, much like the cultivators from the legends. It was probably similar. However, he didn't have any mythical cultivation space or powers. He could only cultivate with the help of his jade pendant, which, despite being tangible, could be hung on the intangible neck of a ghost. At that moment, it would turn invisible. The pendant then could absorb energy from the moonlight to fill his hollow body.

Bathed in the cold moonlight, Ou LingYi felt that his body began to sink; he slowly descended onto the roof. He took a step cautiously and felt his feet touch the rough ground beneath. He raised his eyebrows and smiled indifferently.

How many years had he been in this hospital? He didn't remember. About twenty? No, no, no, forty? Ho ho, Ou LingYi's lips were still curved into a smile. I really don't remember!

After love and hate were gradually forgotten with the passage of time, the only thing left in his mind was a beautiful face, with a smile, but also with tears and blood. It was the last memory left in his mind. The rest of his memories had become a white blur.

The person with that face in his memory had put this jade pendant into his hands, leaving him with one last smile filled with relief and longing. His Master closed his eyes forever, and... then, Ou LingYi couldn't remember. To put it simply, he woke up to be a special ghost, the only wandering soul in the hospital.

It was strange that in the hospital, people died every day, and yet, there were no other ghosts. Maybe they had all dissipated with the death of their body. Ou LingYi's conclusion was that without this jade pendant, he would not have existed.

Thinking of this, Ou LingYi gently stroked the jade pendant which was still glowing in the moonlight, smiling faintly. He didn't care about death, he didn't care about destruction.

At first, because he couldn't stand the loneliness of having to wander aimlessly, he had tried several times to throw away the strange jade pendant that bound his soul, but no matter what he did, the jade pendant would return to his neck in the blink of an eye.

In the end, he tired of trying, and so he could only bear the endless nothingness and emptiness in silence.

Maybe this jade pendant was given to him for a reason by its former owner? He thought that sometimes. Thinking about it, he remembered the beautiful face again.

Every day he felt painful and helpless, until one day he found that the jade pendant glowed in the moonlight. At that moment, he felt that the energy from it slowly filled his hollow body, making him as comfortable as if he returned to his mother's womb, and his body gradually gained mass.

From that day on, he tried to bask in the moonlight and absorb energy every day. It didn't matter whether he was alive or dead – it seemed that something affected his mood and urged him to do this.

Well, cultivation was to practice. Ou LingYi, who was indifferent to everything, thought that life was boring anyway.

"I don't know where your resting place is, Ou LingShuang, but soon, I'll be able to get out of here, see you with my own eyes, and return this to you. It's important to you, I know!" Ou LingYi held the jade in his hand, mumbling to himself. He waved his arm and was satisfied to see his shadow in the moonlight moving on the ground.

Once he'd have a new body, Ou LingYi was determined to return the strange jade pendant as soon as he could. If the soul of Ou LingShuang was still there, it may be useful. He sometimes thought so foolishly.

It was always good to have a dream to live for. Although in his current state he was not alive, he was not completely dead, right? He had to have a purpose to keep going. Ou LingYi thought about this uncertainly.

"Today's shadow seems a little stronger than yesterday!" he said to himself, slowly pacing on the roof. "Ah, let's go watch a heart surgery tonight!"

Whenever there was a heart operation, Ou LingYi couldn't help wanting to watch it. He was also puzzled by his obsession.

With the passage of time, he managed to keep fewer and fewer emotions and memories, and yet he was so interested in something, how could he not be surprised? However, without a clear memory of the past, Ou LingYi was not interested in investigating. It was good to have something to pass time in these long days...

Ou LingYi wandered to the door of operating room #2. The light in the operating room was on and outside in the corridor, the patients' family was waiting anxiously.

Ou LingYi entered the operating room through the wall and he felt more resistance than ever before. He frowned slightly. It seemed that he could not cross through walls for much longer.

Standing quietly behind the doctor, Ou LingYi carefully watched the operation. The doctor was very young and seemed to be a novice, but he was calm and attentive during the operation.

"Ah! Don't use any more strength. If you push too deep into the aortic root, you will penetrate the posterior wall of the aorta and it'll cause massive bleeding!" Ou LingYi's face was expressionless as he warned monotonously. [efn_note]: The aorta has thoracic and abdominal regions. The thoracic aorta is divided into the ascending, arch, and descending segments; the abdominal aorta is divided into suprarenal and infrarenal segments. The ascending aorta is the anterior tubular portion of the thoracic aorta from the aortic root proximally to the innominate artery distally. The ascending aorta is 5 cm long and is made up of the aortic root and an upper tubular segment.

 

Apparently, no one could hear his warning, though. The doctor continued to insert the profusion needle, and blood gushed out uncontrollably. The doctor in charge of the scalpel cursed and hurriedly instructed the nurse to staunch the bleeding with the forceps.

"No, the puncture wound is too big. An aorta is broken." Ou LingYi phased through the patient's body on the operating table and shook his head after examining the condition of his wound.

There was a rush of rescue personnel into the operating room. Finally, at 1:14 a.m. (1:14 = yes! Die!)[efn_note] It's a Chinese pun. The parentheses are in the original novel.[/efn_note] the monitor gave a final whine, and the patient died for good.

Ou LingYi stood quietly and watched a white fog that ordinary people couldn't perceive floating out of the patient's body, gradually disappearing into the air until it became nothing.

"It's a pity that I could not move the knife." Ou LingYi faced the cold corpse in front of his eyes expressionlessly. "It's a pity that I'm still a ghost. I can't hold the scalpel. Maybe I just need a little more time!" Shrugging his shoulders, he swayed away again, turning a deaf ear to the lament and crying of the family members of the patient.

After nearly half a century of wandering, he was used to life and death. Everything in the world was a floating cloud for Ou LingYi. He drifted into a sundry room, only barely walked through the wall, sat in the corner, and opened a tattered and yellowed ancient Chinese medicine book on the ground with the power of his mind.

After half a century of absorbing moonlight, he found that his spiritual power was becoming stronger and stronger. From the influence on people's emotions to the present air separation, it brought a lot of convenience to his wandering life.

This was a medical book about acupoints, treatment of miscellaneous diseases, ancient prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and moxibustion. [efn_note]Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia. It is used in sync with acupuncture. [/efn_note] The author couldn't simply be trusted. Ou LingYi liked to double-check when he had nothing to do. Since he had cultivated to a certain extent, he found that he had the ability of clairvoyance which allowed him to see through the human body. With this, he could make sure of the contents of the book and finally found that the records in the book were detailed and correct, which made him more interested.

However, Ou LingYi was not in good shape today. After reading the two pages, he was a little fed up.

Closing the pages with his mind, he drifted into the ward where he had woken up before, and he sat on the windowsill where he could bask in the moonlight. Ou LingYi felt that his body was getting heavier and heavier. He gradually curled up into a ball, and finally closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, it was daytime. Ou LingYi was still lying on the windowsill. He straightened up, and he felt pain in his neck after sitting in the same position for such a long time.

Wait, pain? Ou LingYi jumped down from the windowsill and examined his body carefully.

In the sunlight, he saw a distinct shadow on the ground.

Did he finally have a physical form? Ou LingYi felt joy for the first time in years.

"Fortunately, when I woke up, there was no one here," he murmured to himself, walking slowly out of the ward and through the hospital corridor.

It was strange that there was not a single person in the hospital where people came and went. Ou LingYi frowned and searched the wards one by one. All the bed cabinets and equipment in the ward were gone, and the walls were mottled and old.

"Did I sleep for many years?" Ou LingYi thought to himself. Carefully, he searched for anything that was dated. Then, he found a circle of red tape bound to the column in the hospital hall, with bundles of cylindrical objects stuck to it.

Ou LingYi stood in the hall and looked at the familiar tape and object for what felt like ages.

"Damn it! It's dynamite! How long did I sleep? If I slept in this hospital any longer, I would be destroyed, too." Ou LingYi instinctively clutched the qilin jade pendant and ran towards the door.

He was too late. There was the roar of a bomb explosion in his ear. The heatwave swept over Ou LingYi's body and he felt sharp pain.

For the first time in nearly one hundred years, Ou LingYi had a strong desire. He didn't want to disappear like this. He wanted to go back and look at the face in his memory...

With this strong wish, the jade pendant in Ou LingYi's hand suddenly erupted a strong white light, enveloped him, and a cold mechanical voice reached his ears. "Sacrifice successful, your wish shall be granted!"+

As soon as the sound fell, the white light wrapped around Ou LingYi disappeared in the light from the explosion, and the whole building collapsed a moment later.