The conversation ran deep.

  Orien’s eyes sparkled green, reflecting Wisp as he floated there.

  Wisp began to speak, "Orien, once upon a time there was something like an ancient world, I guess you can say. Cultivation is what allowed them to prosper and also what brought them to ruin. Humanity back then faced near complete annihilation. Back then, we were all one people, with similar names and appearances. Now, we are quite diverse compared to them. Even I'm not sure where exactly we all came from, but miraculously, we humans began to grow in population again thousands of years ago, and here we are now. Different races, different lineages. We have folks like Hubert and many more beastmen walking among us now. That's the first point I was making. The second one concerns you much more closely."

  Orien didn't make a sound. This was a lot to process at once, but he was listening.

  "You, Orien, are a descendant of the Castillo Family. That much you are aware of, yes? But I imagine you're probably thinking right now... what family?" Wisp asked.

  Wisp was spot on with his judgment as well.

  ‘Family?’ Orien thought.

  Orien's father was a farmer, and an alcoholic one at that. His grandfather died a long time ago, apparently. He had no memories of the man.

  "You may not know, and that's fine. How could you? Your family started in Pangaea, a family of the Imperial Capital. You, that Kaji family, Garrmund, even Geno Farina and Mila Petrov. All of you are descendants of the Imperial Capital. Obviously that includes me as well,” Wisp added.

  Orien looked thoroughly shocked.

  "Wisp, is this true? Who the hell are you? How do you know all of this?" Orien was genuinely baffled. Wisp did not seem to be playing a prank on him this time.

  "Boy, I'm not even halfway through yet,” Wisp said before continuing his explanation, “I was one of the cultivators guarding the vessel that brought your ancestors here centuries ago. About four centuries, to be exact. Why else would my grave be one of the first constructed in the cemetery? Naturally, my name is not on it."

  "Why did we-" Orien was about to ask.

  Wisp interrupted him, "I'm getting there, don’t worry. We had enemies and they were powerful enemies too. We, who essentially ruled the world, were pushed to the brink of extermination. The enemy was unlike anything we had ever seen or heard of before, but the issue is that... they came from within our ranks."

  "Wisp, there was a traitor...? Was it... one of us?" Orien stammered.

  "Don't be foolish,” Wisp reprimanded, “Why would anyone evacuate a traitor's family to this island? Truth be told, nobody back then thought that the enemy would be so troublesome. Your ancestors were brought here for safety but ended up staying here. Those on the mainland... were probably defeated and killed. Even I don't know the answer. The traitor wasn't quite a traitor, but rather, they were being controlled."

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "Controlled by who?" Orien couldn’t help but ask.

  "That, I never found out. I didn't have the qualifications to know something like that. Do you know that girl that you secretly fancy, Lucille?" Wisp suddenly said.

  "I don't fancy her! She's pretty, I'll admit, but we've never held a proper conversation..." Orien said as he defended himself against Wisp’s allegations.

  Wisp floated down slightly and stared at Orien for a moment, causing him to frown with embarrassment.

  "Right... Anyway, that Lucille Luxfer. She is from the number one family underneath the Emperor's family. Their power was actually not inferior to the Emperor’s family, it was just that their family heads were like sworn brothers and felt no need to compete over things like status. She's also a Luxferian, hence the white hair. That much is unmistakable. I would suggest trying to dual cultivate with her so you can-" Wisp was making sense until that final moment.

  "Mr. Vermittler, have some decency, please!" Orien interrupted him. He had always assumed that Lucille’s family had some sort of albino gene that gave them white hair.

  "Oye, brat, don't call me that. I am but a ghost now. What use do I have for a previous identity?" Wisp grumbled.

  Wisp paused before continuing, a habit he had taken to, “All jokes aside, out of all the characters I've seen so far, she and her family have the potential to be the strongest. I have not laid eyes upon any Vermittler family, especially not the main bloodline. I think I actually did notice an auxiliary member, but I have not an ounce of care towards them considering I did not have any offspring. There is no chance in hell they are related to me.”

  Orien was under the impression that Wisp was truly mistreated in his family branch while he was alive. He didn’t ever have anything good to say, but Orien felt like there was no point in asking about those unpleasant memories considering Wisp is a proud and arrogant person.

  "Oye, are you still listening?” Wisp asked, “We're almost done talking, so don't lose focus. The last thing I wanted to talk about was the spiritual world that I am connected to. This is how I know there are other Earths. I can't really understand much else outside of our own spiritual plane, if that makes sense. They're just random words and mostly gibberish to me. Sometimes it even comes to me in the form of music or images. Anyway, what I meant to tell you was when we experienced that earthquake some time ago and I, along with many, many other spirits, appeared.”

  Wisp would be making a serious expression right now if he had a face.

  “There were also very nasty, evil spirits that appeared too. Fortunately, there's almost none in our peaceful islands. They should be able to move once freed, just like me, I assume. If they were never given any funeral rites or burial, I fear they may be able to freely wander. They litter the mainland, that's for sure. I wish for you to keep that in mind in the future. Not all spirits are good or harmless like myself. They will definitely be different from me,” Wisp added.

  Orien smiled a little bit, before outright laughing in response, "Who said you're harmless? Old geezer, you're always trying to make me pursue multiple women. I'm not even sixteen years old yet. What's wrong with you?"

  Wisp, swept up in the seriousness of the conversation, was blindsided by this response.

  "Old geezer? Leading astray? Lad, I'd spank your behind red if I still had my cultivation!" Wisp bellowed.

  There was some laughter in Orien's room on this peaceful day. It would take some time for Orien to process all the information he learned today, but he had no doubt it was all relevant and useful to him.