Chapter 33

At some unknown point, a skull had floated up beside Shen Jibai’s shoulder.

Its empty eye sockets stared directly into his eyes as its teeth opened and closed, producing a dry clicking sound.

Shen Jibai’s face paled. He spun around and stepped back, putting some distance between himself and the skull.

Only then did he realize that the artificial hill, which had originally been constructed from rocks, had somehow transformed into a mound of countless white bones and skulls.

As though they were alive, the skulls chased after the light and tottered toward him.

Zhou Xin immediately pulled out a yellow talisman and flung it at them.

“All evil, disperse!”

The talisman landed on the dried bones but produced no reaction whatsoever. It was no different from a useless scrap of paper.

Something was wrong.

She circulated her qi and recited an incantation, activating the Dumbbell Bracelet.

“Get out of the way!”

Shen Jibai leaped backward and landed beside Zhou Xin. When he saw Zhang Qingqing huddled close behind her, his gaze abruptly turned cold.

A sudden peal of thunder exploded across the sky and struck the skull mound directly.

With a tremendous boom, the entire artificial hill was blasted into a heap of shattered fragments.

“Holy shit!”

Zhang Qingqing trembled in fright and immediately collapsed onto the ground.

He clung tightly to Zhou Xin’s leg, squeezed his eyes shut, and wailed, “This is terrifying! I can’t stay in this godforsaken place for another day! Send down another bolt of lightning and take me away! I’m begging you!”

Zhou Xin tried to push him off.

Unexpectedly, he was rather strong. She could not move him at all.

Shen Jibai’s expression darkened. His black-jade eyes were filled with frost as he seized Zhang Qingqing’s wrist and forcefully bent it backward.

“Let go.”

Zhang Qingqing howled in pain. “I’ll let go! I’m letting go!”

The pressure around Zhou Xin’s leg disappeared. She walked toward the place where the artificial hill had stood, blew her fire striker alight, and crouched down to rummage through the bone dust.

Zhang Qingqing cried, “I already let go! Why haven’t you released me yet?”

Whether Shen Jibai did it deliberately or not, he waited several moments after the protest before finally letting him go.

Zhang Qingqing rubbed his right wrist, grimacing in pain. He glared sideways at Shen Jibai and lowered his voice.

“Court Minister Shen, aren’t you being a little unreasonable? Didn’t you say you don’t like Lord Lingyun?”

Shen Jibai stared at Zhou Xin’s back without sparing him so much as a sidelong glance.

“What does that have to do with you?”

“Then what does my asking her to protect me have to do with you?”

“Ask if you must. Why did you have to put your hands on her?”

Zhang Qingqing was half a head shorter than him, so he naturally lost in terms of imposing presence.

He rose onto his toes and lifted his chin toward Shen Jibai, looking like a tiny dwarf attempting to stand shoulder to shoulder with a giant.

“Court Minister Shen, the Court of Judicial Review isn’t in the business of selling oversized bowls of noodles. You’re not anyone special to her, either. What gives you the right to stick your nose into so much?”

Shen Jibai clenched his back teeth.

“You—”

“Something’s wrong.”

Zhou Xin, who was crouching in front of them, had not heard a word of their whispered argument.

She turned toward Shen Jibai.

“The bodies of those two guards are gone.”

At that, Shen Jibai immediately looked toward the crabapple tree. His expression changed slightly.

The corpse beneath the tree had disappeared as well.

He quickly surveyed the other areas of the courtyard, only to discover that every guard stationed there had vanished.

His hand silently tightened around the Dragon-Patterned Saber.

“You’re right. Something is wrong.”

Zhou Xin said, “Your Heavenly Eye is open. If there were truly a demon in this courtyard, it would be impossible for you not to sense even the slightest trace of demonic qi.”

Zhang Qingqing quietly shrank farther behind her.

“…I already told you they were ghosts. At a time like this, could you stop insisting on materialism?”

Zhou Xin dragged him out in front of her.

“There isn’t the slightest trace of yin energy anywhere in this courtyard, so where would a ghost come from? Did you give birth to it? You’re a man, for heaven’s sake. Can’t you straighten your spine? What do you look like, cowering like that?”

Zhang Qingqing did not listen at all. He hurriedly hid behind Shen Jibai instead and muttered, “…But I’m scared! Being scared isn’t against the law. Who knows where another ghost might suddenly appear from—aaah!”

He abruptly screamed and leaped onto Shen Jibai’s back, wrapping both arms tightly around his neck. He buried his head deep in the crook of his elbow and did not dare move.

Shen Jibai frowned deeply. Though he clearly disliked physical contact, he did not throw Zhang Qingqing off.

He looked over his shoulder.

Dozens of pale-faced guards dressed in identical household-servant uniforms had silently appeared behind them.

Every one of them looked exactly the same.

Shen Jibai’s breath tightened, and he immediately drew the Dragon-Patterned Saber.

Zhou Xin’s pupils widened in astonishment. At last, she realized what was happening.

“I take back what I just said.”

She hurriedly pulled out several yellow talismans and flung them at the approaching servants.

“All evil, be destroyed and dispersed!”

Shen Jibai asked, “Which statement?”

Zhou Xin did not answer. She lightly dragged her finger across the saber’s edge, lowered her head, and drew a blood talisman on her palm.

“Zhang Chatterbox, relax a little! Stop being so tense.”

Zhang Qingqing was too frightened even to raise his head.

“How am I supposed to relax at a time like this?”

Once she completed the final stroke, Zhou Xin reached for Zhang Qingqing’s arm with the hand bearing the talisman.

“What do you look like clinging to someone’s back? Hurry up and get down!”

Zhang Qingqing tightened his arms around Shen Jibai’s neck.

“No!”

Strange.

Zhou Xin withdrew her hand and frowned at the demon-expelling talisman on her palm. Then she looked at Shen Jibai in confusion.

The moment their gazes met, Shen Jibai narrowed his phoenix eyes and immediately thrust his saber at Zhang Qingqing behind him.

The long blade pierced straight through Zhang Qingqing’s head.

Yet he remained completely unharmed.

“Hee-hee-hee… You found me!”

He slowly raised his head. An eerie smile spread across his pale face as he revealed a pair of fangs and lunged toward Shen Jibai’s neck.

“Watch out!”

Shen Jibai twisted through the air and flung the figure off his back with the force of a divine dragon sweeping its tail.

Zhang Qingqing crashed to the ground. Several cracks appeared across his body before he shattered like porcelain, breaking into pieces that scattered across the earth.

Looking at the false Zhang Qingqing, now reduced to a pile of powdered stone, Shen Jibai felt his scalp go numb. Every hair on his body stood on end.

“What is going on? Where is the real Zhang Qingqing?”

Zhou Xin walked over and crouched down, intending to pick up one of the stone fragments for examination.

The instant her finger touched it, however, the entire pile dissolved into smoke and vanished.

“All these bizarre things were ‘given birth to’ by Zhang Qingqing! No—more precisely, they were created by the dream-eating beast that transformed into Zhang Qingqing. That’s why every time he shouted that there was a ghost, a ghost inevitably appeared!”

“Transformed?” Shen Jibai frowned slightly. “Are we inside an illusion?”

Zhou Xin nodded.

“More accurately, we’re inside a dream. The dream-eating beast has trapped us in this false world, which means Zhang Qingqing is already in danger.”

Shen Jibai murmured, “No wonder everything that has happened since I woke up has been so strange. None of it conforms to reason.”

“Woke up?” Zhou Xin immediately seized upon the important detail. “Did you rest this afternoon too?”

Shen Jibai nodded.

That made sense. He had barely slept the previous night. He was made of flesh and blood, after all. How could he possibly endure without rest?

Shen Jibai surveyed their surroundings.

“Is there a way to break the illusion?”

“Unless something interferes from outside, or we find the dream-eating beast’s true body and subdue it, we’ll be trapped here for the rest of our lives.”

“Zhang Qingqing wasn’t its true body?”

“The talisman did not react to him. That was merely an incorporeal projection.”

She walked toward the courtyard entrance.

“First, we need to determine whether this dream belongs to you or to me. Only then can we follow the clues and locate the dream-eating beast’s true body.”

Shen Jibai followed behind her. One in front and one behind, they arrived at the moon gate.

Zhou Xin took a deep breath. After silently praying several times that the dream did not belong to her, she finally gathered her courage and pushed the gate open with all her strength.

Although only a single gate separated the two sides, beyond it lay an entirely different world.

Within the courtyard, the moonlight was cold and the night deep and quiet.

Outside, the blazing sun hung overhead amid the flourishing warmth of spring.

Sunlight streamed through the moon gate. Beyond it stretched a simple, rustic street lined with old bamboo houses and the occasional dilapidated wooden dwelling with a tiled roof. Narrow paths and ridges crisscrossed the land, dividing it into field after field.

It should have been the height of the farming season, yet not a single person could be seen in the fields. Instead, a few pedestrians occasionally passed along the street.

They were plainly dressed. Most of the men wore belted robes with narrow sleeves and right-over-left collars, while the women wore deep robes with broad sleeves. Their clothing differed greatly from the styles popular during the prosperous Tang dynasty and strongly resembled the Warring States robes fashionable in the modern world.

Zhou Xin stepped through the moon gate and stood in the street, looking left and right.

“This seems to be a rather underdeveloped village.”

Shen Jibai’s expression became more solemn than she had ever seen it.

He surveyed the area before stepping out and looking toward the end of the street.

Several burly men hurried past them, whispering among themselves.

“I heard Scholar Shang captured that abomination. He tied it up at the entrance to the village and plans to burn it alive in front of everyone!”

“An inhuman creature like that should never have been allowed to remain in this world!”

“Exactly! It should have been burned to ashes long ago!”

“Who knows what Perfected Chongxu and Guan Qiusheng were thinking, keeping that evil creature by their side for so many years? Look what happened now—it killed someone! Fortunately, I warned my children and grandchildren long ago to stay away from it. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable!”

“Even without your warning, no one in the village would willingly go near that thing!”

Zhou Xin was completely confused by what she heard. She reached out and stopped one of the men.

“May I ask what sort of abomination you gentlemen are speaking of?”

“Huh? Why have I never seen you before?”

The man turned toward her, and his eyes widened as though he had seen a ghost.

“How did you get in here?”

The burly men beside him stopped as well, each of them looking as though they were facing a dangerous enemy.

“Who are you? How did you trespass into Buzhou Mountain?”

The tallest of them slapped the shorter man beside him.

“Hurry and inform Scholar Shang! Outsiders have broken in!”

Zhou Xin drew in a breath.

Was there some kind of barrier surrounding this place? Were outsiders unable to enter?

The short man immediately turned and ran toward the far end of the village.

Zhou Xin casually fabricated a lie.

“This poor Daoist was passing by and noticed that the spiritual qi here was abundant. Thinking that this might be a secluded paradise, I entered to take a look.”

“A Daoist?”

The tall man narrowed his eyes and looked her up and down.

People who lived in the wilderness suffered far more exposure to wind and sun than ordinary folk, so their skin was generally dark. Having lived in seclusion here, they had almost never seen a young lady with skin as fair and delicate as hers.

Moreover, her appearance was cool, ethereal, and exceptionally beautiful.

The tall man stared blankly for a moment. His gaze abruptly became frivolous.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

“She’s lying!” he shouted. “Tie her up! We’ll take her home and interrogate her properly!”

With that, he reached out to seize Zhou Xin.

Zhou Xin: “?”

Shen Jibai stepped in front of her with a single stride.

“Stand back.”

Zhou Xin obediently retreated.

In the blink of an eye, Shen Jibai subdued the tall man. He caught the man’s arm in one hand and twisted it forcefully behind his back.

“Take her home?”

A crisp crack rang out.

The tall man’s arm had been broken.

Yet Shen Jibai showed no intention of stopping. He continued bending the broken arm backward until it formed a grotesque angle.

The tall man, however, did not appear to feel any pain. Instead, a sinister smile slowly spread across his lips, and a vicious light gleamed in his eyes.

He reached out with his other hand. At some point, a dagger had appeared in his grasp.

He slashed upward.

Caught entirely off guard, Shen Jibai was struck across the chest. His robe split open, and blood immediately welled from the wound.

At the sight, the other villagers attacked as well.

None of them knew martial arts. Even together, they were no match for Shen Jibai and were kicked to the ground within a few moves.

But they were as tenacious as cockroaches that refused to die. Every time they fell, they climbed back up and rejoined the fight.

The tall man was quick-witted. Seeing that he could not defeat Shen Jibai, he gripped his dagger and charged directly toward Zhou Xin.

She immediately turned and sprinted toward the end of the street.

“Shen Jibai, save my life!”

A clear metallic cry rang out as the Dragon-Patterned Saber left its sheath.

Zhou Xin glanced back.

The saber flew toward them from behind and pierced straight through the tall man’s right leg.

Not a single drop of blood emerged.

He did not even seem to feel pain. Rather than slowing down, he ran even faster.

Seeing this, Shen Jibai lightly pushed off the ground and flew forward. He landed in front of the tall man, kicked him to the ground, and pulled the Dragon-Patterned Saber from his leg.

“You can’t hurt him, but he can hurt you!” Zhou Xin stopped running. “Only an idiot would keep fighting. Let’s retreat!”

Shen Jibai gave a quiet acknowledgment. He swiftly returned the saber to its sheath and leaped lightly to her side.

“Forgive me.”

Her waist suddenly tightened, and both her feet left the ground.

A sensation of weightlessness swept over her as the man beside her wrapped an arm around her and flew into the air.

After several rises and falls, they disappeared from the villagers’ sight and landed on the roof of a wooden house.

Shen Jibai immediately withdrew his arm.

Zhou Xin began analyzing the situation aloud.

“Did you notice something wrong? Anyone in this dream can injure us, but we’re completely incapable of fighting back! Isn’t this basically asking us to wait for death?”

“Which means we cannot allow them to discover us.”

Zhou Xin nodded repeatedly.

“You’re right!”

A large number of villagers had gathered on the street ahead. She hurriedly crouched down and hid behind the roof ridge.

Seeing the man beside her still standing upright, she grabbed his sleeve and tugged him downward.

“Hurry up and hide!”

Shen Jibai lowered his gaze toward her, then obediently crouched.

There was half a step of space between them.

Zhou Xin carefully shuffled closer to him. The roof tiles beneath her feet were uneven, and she suddenly lost her balance and tipped sideways.

Shen Jibai reacted quickly. He wrapped an arm around her and caught her by the arm, pulling her back.

With that tug, Zhou Xin fell toward him, nearly collapsing entirely into his embrace.

Shen Jibai released her and instinctively averted his gaze. His voice was slightly low.

“…Be careful.”

Zhou Xin’s cheek was pressed against his chest. Something damp had smeared against her skin, carrying the metallic scent of blood.

Only then did she remember that Shen Jibai had been injured.

She hurriedly propped herself upright and pulled aside the torn fabric to examine his wound.

Fortunately, it was not deep.

Zhou Xin held out her hand.

“Where’s the numbing powder?”

Shen Jibai continued looking away, his gaze fixed on the street beside them. It was impossible to tell what he was actually staring at.

“In the pouch inside my robe.”

At that, Zhou Xin slipped her hand directly inside his collar.

Shen Jibai’s entire body jolted. He abruptly seized her wrist and stopped her.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting the medicine!”

“I’ll do it myself.”

He pulled her hand back out, retrieved the medicine bottle, and turned away to apply it himself.

Zhou Xin clicked her tongue.

“What an unnecessary fuss. It’s not as though I haven’t seen it before.”

“It would be improper.”

Zhou Xin raised both eyebrows.

Her arm deliberately brushed lightly across his back, and she let out an exaggerated, teasing “Oh?”

“We’re sitting so close that our bodies are practically pressed together. Isn’t that improper too?”

Shen Jibai’s body immediately went rigid.

He put the medicine bottle back inside his robe but did not turn around. Nor did he move away from her as he normally would have.

It was improper.

Yet when she took the initiative to approach him—even when that closeness overstepped the boundaries of propriety, even when she was deliberately teasing him in such a frivolous manner—he did not want to avoid her.

He even found himself wishing that she would overstep a little further.

And then a little further still.

After struggling for a long moment, he closed his eyes as though resigning himself to his fate.

“…You may.”

But I may not.

Zhou Xin did not understand what he meant.

“I may do what?”

Shen Jibai silently turned slightly to the side and fixed his gaze on the street before them. He clearly had no intention of explaining further.

The wound on his chest had already been treated. Even the fabric around it was smeared with green medicinal paste that gleamed beneath the sunlight, as though accusing him of being careless and flustered while applying the medicine.

“Fine, don’t tell me. Why are you being so mysterious?”

Zhou Xin glanced at him.

“Don’t tell me you’re the legendary ninth Calabash Brother—the silent gourd?”

Shen Jibai behaved as though he had heard nothing.

Following the direction of his gaze, Zhou Xin’s expression gradually became serious.

Her eyes widened slightly.