In the pitch-dark room, a man laid on a crimson bed, dressed in a neatly tailored suit.
The suit fit perfectly, mysterious and noble. From the bowtie at his throat to the white gloves on his hands, from those gloves to his polished leather shoes, not a speck of dust marred him. He was perfection incarnate.
A single vivid rose lay gently in one gloved hand, its petals still beaded with glistening dew. The man’s eyes were closed, his handsome face like that of a deity. The corners of his thin lips were curved in an eerie and slightly broken smile, as though he were waiting for a beautiful dream-date to begin.
Time ticked by.
After half an hour, the corners of the man’s lips gradually flattened. He opened his eyes expressionlessly.
The ghost could no longer enter Jiang Luo’s dream.
This enemy-turned-lover of his truly wouldn’t sit quietly and let himself be claimed in a dream.
Chi You’s eyes darkened. He sat up gracefully on the bed, gently twirling the rose in his hand.
Under his slender fingers, the rose petals rapidly withered and cracked. The ghost lazily stood, tossed the flower onto the bed, and casually walked out.
As he opened the bedroom door, a stench hit him in the face. Blood oozed across the hallway, pooling at his shoes.
He lifted his eyes—corpses lined the hallway. Countless severed heads and dismembered bodies were stacked on either side of the corridor, leaving only a narrow path for one person to walk.
Beneath the corpses and blood was a carpet, blackened from endless slaughter.
At the end of the corridor, dozens of members of the Chi family looked around nervously. When they saw Chi You, their pupils shrank as they fled in panic and pain.
“He’s here again! I dreamed of that lunatic again!”
“I don’t want to die in my dreams anymore—it’s too painful! Please, someone wake me up! Anyone!”
Some screamed hysterically, clutching their heads and collapsing, legs trembling as they scrambled to escape.
“What’s wrong?” Chi You asked innocently, “Why do you all run the moment you see me?”
He stepped forward.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
He chuckled darkly. “What, am I not welcome?”
His footsteps echoed like the approach of death. On the ghost’s handsome, pale face, a wide and increasingly deranged smile spread.
He opened his arms and, standing amid the mountain of corpses, spoke nostalgically: “We meet again in a dream. Aren’t you all happy?”
Watching these people tremble in fear, desperate to escape yet with nowhere to run, the ghost closed his eyes in satisfaction and muttered to himself, “Who told my little lover not to plan to see me tonight?”
“I had no choice but to come play with you instead.”
Whenever he was in a bad mood, or sometimes too good a mood—or even a neutral one—Chi You would drag the Chi family members into his dreamscape.
That dream had already been piled high with the corpses of Chi family members, again and again. It was Chi You’s private Eden of slaughter.
Each Chi family member could find more than one severed limb of themselves among the mass of dead.
Of course, to make the game more interesting, after each round of torment, Chi You would wipe their memories of the dream. All they’d retain was the vague sense of having had a nightmare. That way, they wouldn’t resist falling asleep. Then, when they were pulled into the dream once more and the memories came flooding back, their expressions of total collapse made Chi You enjoy it all the more.
Each nightmare was like a game of cat and mouse.
Chi Zhongye was one of the mice.
He often had nightmares. Every time he woke up, gasping and clutching his chest, all he remembered was the thrill of having barely escaped death—never the actual content of the dream. So he didn’t take it seriously. But the next time he was pulled back in, when he suddenly remembered everything again, it nearly drove him mad.
Chi Zhongye was trembling all over, terror welling up from deep inside. His wife beside him cried out, “Zhongye, what do we do? We’re dreaming again—you’re the family head, you must think of something…”
“What can I do?!” Chi Zhongye roared, trembling. As soon as he shouted, he caught sight of Chi You approaching.
The ghost was immaculately dressed tonight, like he was attending a grand banquet. If not for the mountain of corpses at his feet, he would have been someone anyone would admire.
But Chi Zhongye could only retreat in terror, heart pounding to the point of bursting.
The ghost smiled, full of pleasant anticipation. “The game begins now.”
***
The first thing Jiang Luo did upon waking was glance down at the talismans on his pillow. Seeing that seven or eight had burned out, he couldn’t help but laugh with joy.
Chi You didn’t manage to enter his dream the first time—and even tried several more times afterward?
Beside him, the little ginseng spirit was sleeping so soundly it had drooled. Startled by Jiang Luo’s laughter, it woke up groggily and muttered, “Daddy…”
Jiang Luo immediately stopped laughing. After getting dressed, he went out and jogged a few laps around the courtyard in the still pre-dawn light.
An hour later, lightly sweating, he returned. After washing up, he felt refreshed and sat down for breakfast.
The funeral parlor owner was also eating. Jiang Luo brought his bowl over and sat beside him, slurping noodles as he asked, “You said the Soul Capture Pendant gives one chance per day to peek into someone’s soul world. What exactly does that mean?”
“Just what it says,” the funeral parlor owner said after thinking a moment. “Have you ever heard that before someone dies, their whole life flashes before their eyes? Some memories are so vivid they’re etched into the soul. What I call the soul world could also be called a spiritual world—or inner landscape. Whatever we think about the most, whatever matters most to us, that’s what shows up in our inner landscape. For example, I’ve spent my whole life refining tools—my inner world is full of forging tools. I also love eating fish, so maybe there’s a steamed fish flying around in there too.”
The funeral parlor owner chuckled. “Don’t find it too unbelievable. ‘What you think by day, you dream by night’—dreams are mysterious things. The inner landscape and dreamscape have a lot in common.”
Jiang Luo nodded thoughtfully. “I get it.”
“As for how to use it…” the funeral parlor owner tapped his bowl with his chopsticks and lowered his voice. “It’s not the most convenient. If you want to see someone’s inner world, they have to physically touch the Soul Capture Pendant.”
That was inconvenient.
Jiang Luo lowered his head and continued eating, nodding.
Still, not impossible.
Jiang Luo’s scheduled time to soak in water was at ten o’clock. That was also when the Fated One would appear. Jiang Luo was bold—if he wanted to kill the Fated One, he had to know how powerful he was, what his weaknesses were. Jiang Luo loved to walk the line between life and death, and he planned to take a peek at the Fated One’s inner world today.
He was raring to go, already planning how to get the Fated One to touch the earring. The funeral parlor owner was just about to ask whose inner world Jiang Luo intended to see when suddenly his expression straightened. “Master.”
Feng Li walked slowly over and sat down beside them.
Jiang Luo turned and smiled at him. “Master.” Then he calmly lowered his head and resumed eating.
The funeral parlor owner shot Jiang Luo several glances, genuinely impressed by his acting skills.
Feng Li, too, was watching Jiang Luo.
The youth’s hair would slide from behind his ears whenever he bent forward. No matter how many times he tucked it back, a few strands would always fall again across his face.
After observing for a while, Feng Li frowned. “After breakfast, bring some scissors. I’ll cut your hair.”
Jiang Luo’s eyes lit up. He turned his head with a bright smile toward Feng Li. “Alright. Thank you, Master.”
