At the first blush of dawn, the sky had already turned a pale white.
Wang Xiedi lay on the pile of musty straw, a brilliant smile on his face.
He tossed and turned in his sleep, seemingly lost in a very pleasant dream.
Illusions, dreamscapes, and reality blurred together, making his dream a bizarre and motley spectacle.
However, whenever he reached a critical mont in his dream, the old man who had cowered in a corner during the illusion on the Asking Dao Ladder would transform into a series of terrifying, ghostly faces that appeared again and again.
"Have you forgotten what your grandfather said?"
"Are you going to be a coward who shirks responsibility?"
The wrinkled face pressed in close, bloody tears streaming from its empty sockets, nearly shocking him awake on the spot.
Then, it seed as if countless old n, clutching their butts and weeping tears of blood, were crawling toward him from all directions!
"You’ve made suffer so much! Do you have any idea how I left?"
"So this is the kind of person you are!"
"Have you forgotten what happened last night?"
Countless old n began to close in on him, their limbs bending at unnatural angles.
He ran and ran, trying to escape the swarm of rapidly crawling old n.
But then, rounding a corner, a gargantuan old man’s face suddenly appeared, its dark, empty eye sockets instantly filling his entire vision.
"I won’t tell anyone about last night..."
"AH—!"
The dream seed about to shift into so kind of horrific, bloody scene—sothing about Qingxu Temple, his martial sister, the Sect Leader—but just then, the image abruptly cut off.
The Heart-Protecting Mirror seed to emit a faint glow, and Wang Xiedi finally startled awake from the nightmare, drenched in cold sweat, his heart pounding wildly.
He gasped for air, using the faint light filtering through a hole in the thatched roof to confirm he was still in the hut. Only then did he pat his chest, his heart still racing with fear.
"Okay, okay... That scared to death!"
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, trying to calm himself down.
’Why did my dream start turning from horror to gore at the end? Good thing I woke up just in ti.’
’Whatever, I’m not going to think about it...’
Just then, a rhythmic knocking echoed, shattering the morning tranquility and making him jump.
KNOCK! KNOCK KNOCK! KNOCK!
His mind instantly conjured an image: was that hollow-eyed old man knocking at his door?
’No, not that! Anything but that!’
"Mr. Wa! Open up! Ti to get up and work!"
Outside the door, Lin Qingfeng’s resonant voice rang out. He had clearly been waiting for so ti, ready to urge this new junior martial brother to start contributing to the sect.
Hearing his eldest martial brother’s voice instead of the ghastly old man’s, Wang Xiedi couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief, a sense of security washing over him.
...
「anwhile, at Su Ling’er’s two-story bamboo house.」
The eldest martial brother had already arrived at her door.
Seeing it was her eldest martial brother, Su Ling’er imdiately put on an energetic expression and pulled the door open.
"Eldest Martial Brother, you’re here! I’m all ready to go!"
Lin Qingfeng saw how spirited his little martial sister was and couldn’t help but nod.
"Let’s go. Your junior martial brother is already up. Today is another day for you two to contribute to the sect."
...
Su Ling’er followed her eldest martial brother out of the house and saw Wang Xiedi.
His face was pale, with dark circles under his eyes. Cold sweat still clung to his forehead, and he looked thoroughly spooked.
Su Ling’er was puzzled. ’Could it be that his Cultivation is too low, and he was tornted by the Demonic Qi here, giving him nightmares all night?’
’It’s not impossible for a fourth-level Qi Refining cultivator, suddenly thrown into a place this vile, to have his spirit invaded by evil thoughts.’
The atmosphere was strange on the way to the Transmission Hall.
Wang Xiedi followed closely behind her as a telepathic ssage entered her mind.
[Wang Xiedi]: Martial Sister, this place really is a den of demons! I’ve only been here a day, and the treasure I carry on has already been stolen! They’re nothing but a bunch of petty thieves!
[Su Ling’er]: I told you this place was full of demonic Evil Cultivators. You should always listen to your martial sister. How long have you been here?
[Su Ling’er]: Wang Xiedi, prepare yourself. You’ll probably have to fetch water and sweep floors hundreds of tis, just like I did. Only after completing these nial chores will we be allowed near the dicine fields, which is our only chance to sneak into the Beast Taming House.
’I had to do it a full five hundred tis!’
’With Eldest Martial Brother watching us, won’t our plan to infiltrate the Beast Taming House be delayed significantly?’
’Heaven knows if that Heart-Connected Fruit will be sold off by Yan Buliu, used by Wang Xian, or cultivated into so other monstrous thing by Shen Nong!’
’If that happens, our last connection to Qingxu Temple will be completely severed!’
[Su Ling’er]: If I can’t find a chance to sneak in myself, you’ll just have to suffer for a couple of days. Once we can accept missions in the dicine fields, we’ll see if we can work together to get into the Beast Taming House.
[Wang Xiedi]: Yes, Martial Sister! Xiedi understands!
The two of them followed behind their eldest martial brother, walking and rapidly plotting with their Divine Sense.
...
The closer they got to the Transmission Hall, the more disciples they saw.
However, Su Ling’er soon noticed sothing extrely bizarre.
When those usually perverse and unruly disciples of the demonic sect saw Wang Xiedi behind her, they fell silent instantly, as if they had seen the plague itself.
Then, they all spontaneously retreated several steps, clearing an excessively wide path.
Their eyes were filled with terror, disgust, and even... a trace of admiration she couldn’t comprehend?
"Look! It’s that Wang Xiedi!"
"Heavens, why is he walking this way? Get away, quick!"
"Don’t let him see ! That guy... he’s toxic!"
"Yeah, yeah! And his na is even more of a problem! Who knows if he has... *that* kind of inclination!"
"I’m sure he does! Let’s go, let’s go!"
The whispers buzzed into Wang Xiedi’s ears like mosquitoes, leaving him completely bewildered.
He stopped, looked down at himself blankly, then at the crowd of people who were avoiding him like the plague...
’What’s going on?’
’Why is everyone avoiding ?’
’What’s wrong with my na?’
’Or do I have so weird sll?’
’And what’s this about being "toxic"?’
’No, seriously, what the hell is going on?’
This left Wang Xiedi feeling very frustrated.
So, he perplexedly sent a telepathic ssage to Su Ling’er:
[Wang Xiedi: Martial Sister, what’s wrong with them? Do I... Do I look that scary?]
Su Ling’er subtly put a little more distance between them.
[Su Ling’er: Don’t you have any idea what you did yesterday?]
[Wang Xiedi: I... what did I do yesterday? I was just passed out for a little while!]
[Su Ling’er: What you did to a mantis...]
...
[Reality]
[News Archive]
According to a report from the *Desel Daily*, citing internal sources, the Ashen Heaven Group is undergoing a profound restructuring of its data architecture.
Player behavior data from "Tianyuan Interactive Entertainnt," social model data from "Dust World Simulation," and AI analysis results from "Protheus Intelligence" are being systematically transferred to the servers of "Nirvana" Biotechnology Inc. on an unprecedented scale.
The report states that the security clearance for this data integration is even higher than that of the group’s financial data.
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