Uncertainty burdened Yun Jieshi like a pregnancy, but he didn't let its pains obscure the very real possibility that he indeed could help the armored man.
After all, according to Hua Dongmei and Honghuo, the man had suddenly turned lively for the first time in who knew how long because he – the little monkey – was here.
There was no harm in trying.
Yun Jieshi was one of those people who were quite satisfied with trying something once, twice, thrice, and admitting defeat when it failed, head held high.
In this case, though, he wasn't sure he would be proud if he failed. There was a weight to failing here for him.
Honghuo and Hua Dongmei had turned to the monkey with a mix of interest and surprise when he had turned solemn. The latter had panicked when the Sage had spotted tears on his face, but she didn't dare presume she could comprehend if those tears were a sign of sorrow, pity, or some deeper enlightened sensation she couldn't understand. Thus, she only watched Yun Jieshi in silence.
The little monkey hardly spared the two a glance. He feared that his eyes would finally betray that he was in fact the Discount Sage and not the genuine kind if they looked at them now.
He cleared his throat before speaking to the phantom.
"Will you allow me to help you?"
The armored man ceased pulling out his hair, which fell to the snow as crooked ghostly strings of varying lengths.
He pierced the little monkey with a desperate, demented look. There was an insanity in that look, but not a bad one, as far as Yun Jieshi was concerned.
He secretly ground his teeth.
He knew that look very well. It was the look of a man who had forced himself on a single course for a long time, meeting little success but was unwilling to give in lest his very own soul called him a quitter.
"What?" the phantom said.
Yun Jieshi drew in a breath to firm his stance. He wouldn't have managed to weather the burning gaze from the armored phantom otherwise.
'My ruan should be able to extend past the Gap. It seems to me that this man can't cross because he's attempting to do so on some kind of invisible rope that I can't see. Maybe if he uses my ruan instead…' Yun Jieshi thought, but then he frowned. 'Can he interact with it though?'
This was the plan he had woven together. Well, it hadn't been a plan initially, but a string of observations that formed a valid question.
Yun Jieshi himself had only thought it was worth trying after seeing the man crumble before his eyes.
'Will it really work?'
The old phantom was looking at Yun Jieshi with expectant eyes, but more than just the objects of his sight expressed his fierce desires. He lunged and clutched Yun Jieshi's shoulders. The Discount Sage shuddered. The phantom was atrociously fast.
But the phantom's speed was a minor reason for surprise. Hua Dongmei's gasp said it all.
'He can touch me?' Yun Jieshi thought.
Not only had he not expected a firm grip from the phantom, he had also been caught off guard by the frigid cold coming from the old man's hands, adorned in gauntlets. It was a strange kind of chill that weaved past the flesh and instead tickled Yun Jieshi's bones.
What was this phantom really?
The little monkey did his best to hold down his surprise.
"Can you truly help me? Are you able to… help me cross?" The armored man's eyes widened.
Honghuo and Hua Dongmei looked at the two in shock. They couldn't believe the monkey could interact with the ghost physically.
Yun Jieshi gulped audibly and then, after a second's hesitation, he grabbed at the phantom's wrist. If it was able to touch him then surely, he must have been able to do so too, right?
And indeed. He felt the coolness in the plates of the phantom's brigandine armor.
"Feng Jie Hong, the Disharmonised ghost of a warrior from the natural world," the old sagely voice informed.
Yun Jieshi was taken aback.
There it was again. Disharmony.
His thoughts wandered to the Jade Imps at once and then the Harmonising Psalm of Zhan Hao.
He frowned suspiciously, but the armored man shook him out of these distractions.
"Well? Can you do it?" he asked desperately.
Yun Jieshi sighed. He pried himself free of the phantom's grip and held out his ruan.
"That depends. Can you touch this, Feng Jie Hong?"
The old phantom reeled and stumbled back.
"You know my name?"
"Of course, I do," Yun Jieshi said with an almost perfect calm.
"How… How could you know? Who are you?"
Hua Dongmei had rushed to answer in Yun Jieshi's stead when the little monkey raised a hand to stop her. This time, he didn't want his 'identity' exposed when there was a risk of failure. He had already dug himself a potential grave. The last thing he wanted was to bury himself in it with dishonor, at least not in the eyes of Feng Jie Hong.
"Take this ruan," he said to the phantom.
The armored man's gaze remained fixed on Yun Jieshi for a few seconds before he hesitantly reached for the instrument. He gripped its neck as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
'I guess that proves it then,' Yun Jieshi thought with a shaky breath and he looked past the Great Gap.
He really would be crossing after all.
If it proved to be too cold – something he was sure he would be able to judge upon reaching the other side – he could simply turn back. He had a feeling Feng Jie Hong would be able to go on without him even if that proved to be the case though.
Hua Dongmei read what was next before Yun Jieshi could spell it out.
"You're going right away, aren't you?" she said to the little monkey dejected and a little embarrassed.
"Yes," Yun Jieshi said. Honghuo made a sound somewhere between a hum and a whimper. The Discount Sage turned to him. "What is it?"
"If… if you're able to withstand the cold past the Gap and retrieve what the Imp King stole from me, I really will find the means to repay you afterward, Sage Xingyu," he said.
Yun Jieshi sighed. He gave a quick look to Feng Jie Hong who was cradling his ruan with a dubious expression.
"I didn't doubt you the first time. But of course, if you try to swindle me, I'll just take what I find of yours among the Imp King's possessions as payment." Honghuo might have chuckled nervously at this… or not, it was hard to tell with the hissing of the snow beneath him.
"And I will be waiting as well, Sage Xingyu." Hua Dongmei didn't want to be outdone. She held the little monkey's finger with her hands and donned a sad smile.
Yun Jieshi nodded. He imagined she was not feeling too good about not accompanying him. The terror in her eyes was all but evident.
In truth, Yun Jieshi was a little bitter that even now, the two refused to come with him. He might have used Honghuo as a heater at least and Hua Dongmei for further intelligence. But then again, now Yun Jieshi left the latter role to Feng Jie Hong. He was trusting the phantom to perhaps help him identify what Honghuo and Bei Jun had lost to the Imp King – if they hadn't met this fairy he was in love with by then.
It was hard to say if she was still even… alive?
'I have no idea how this works.'
With that, Yun took his ruan from Feng Jie Hong and caused it to grow as large as was necessary to cross the Great Gap.
Its neck grew tall and pierced the sky like a divine arrow.
Its belly grew as fat as the Wutong mountain's base.
And then Yun Jieshi dropped the daruan over the gap. He heard its head fall with a soft boom far on the other side, beyond the stretch of darkness.
'Just how big can this thing get?' the Discount Sage wondered while grimacing at the ruan's current size. It was gigantic. Feng Jie Hong, the petite fairy and the odd ball of light and fire were gaping, the latter even managing a whistle.
Yun Jieshi leaped as high as he could to stand on the ruan, and for some reason, Feng Jie Hong found it necessary to do the same.
And with that, the little monkey, burdened by his sack, a giant bow, and quiver full of large arrows, led the phantom between the massive strings of his ruan.
Hua Dongmei waved at him while Honghuo did a little spin in the air.
Yun Jieshi waved back.
He didn't know how long this mission would take him to complete. He was somewhat confident that the flashes of light he saw in the distance would lead him to the Imp King. If he was right, his journey was still going to take him some days, and if he was wrong…
Well, if he was wrong, he hoped Feng Jie Hong would be of some help.
They were likely to be stuck together for a while.
…Or so he thought.