Illusory Dreams

For example, the "Premium Chicken Cup" that Si Ming is currently waiting for boasts the idea of freshly slaughtered, cooked, and sold. The shop owner reaches out and picks up a chicken whose neck has just been cut and drained of blood. He holds the neck and pulls it down to remove all the feathers. Then, he makes a cut on the chicken's abdomen with his little finger and hooks it open, thus gutting the raw chicken. Afterward, he supports the other side with his thumb and quickly inserts the other three fingers along the cut, hooking and twisting to remove the chicken's internal organs.

If it were just that, it wouldn't be anything special; some martial artists with nimble fingers who have practiced Eagle Claw Hand could do it. But the final step, bone extraction, is a real test of skill. The shopkeeper forcefully inserted his index and middle fingers, while his other hand pressed down and rubbed the surrounding area in a certain direction and with a certain force. With the help of his two fingers, he pulled out the whole, connected chicken bones in less than a minute. Moreover, after removing the bones, he was able to keep the chicken in its original shape, preventing it from collapsing into a ball due to the loss of its skeleton.

"Impressive. Although it originated from Eagle Claw Hand, it's a completely different martial art. Besides technique, the most important thing is the experience gained through practice. You'd have to kill at least 100,000 chickens to reach this level."

Si Ming clicked his tongue in amazement. He discovered that the chicken bones that had been pulled out were all connected together, so even small bones could be pulled out easily. This showed that the shop owner had reached a level of understanding of the chicken's body structure that was "unfathomable," a level comparable to the Butcher Ding's Ox-Carving.

Of course, Si Ming could do the same thing, but with his current cultivation level, it wasn't like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut; it was like using Dragon Slaying Saber- slaying sword. The shop owner, who looked to be over forty, only had level four Internal Cultivation, and his ability to perfectly extract the chicken bones relied solely on "practice makes perfect."

"Here you go, two cups of premium chicken." Soon it was Si Ming and Si Huaruo's turn, and they received the snacks from the shop assistant.

The so-called chicken cup is simply fried chicken placed in a disposable plastic cup and drizzled with a special sauce. Si Ming used a toothpick to pick up a piece, put it in his mouth, and after biting through the crispy and delicious batter, the juices from the chicken piece shot out in his mouth like arrows. Instantly, the rich aroma of meat overflowed between his teeth, stimulating his taste buds.

"It's really good; it's a different kind of deliciousness from the kind of gourmet food made by professional chefs."

Si Huaruo ate a piece of chicken, her eyes slightly narrowed, revealing a satisfied expression. But then she asked doubtfully, "Since it was ultimately cut into pieces, there seems to be no point in keeping the original shape after deboning it, right?"

Si Ming thought for a moment and said, "I guess it's to attract tourists. Unlike the way food is cooked in the kitchen and then served on a plate, snack shops usually only have one storefront, with the living room and kitchen connected, or there's no reception area at all. Customers can only take it away. So, using special methods to attract tourists' attention is one of the selling points of these snacks."

Si Huaruo looked around and noticed that the owner of a pancake shop was holding a dough ball above his head and, using a technique similar to twirling a handkerchief in a folk opera, he had somehow managed to turn the dough into a giant pancake sheet three meters in diameter. The pancake was so thin that sunlight could almost pass through it, yet it didn't tear due to centrifugal force, and its thickness was uniform. This skill was even better than the "Feather-Plucking and Bone-Removing Hand" technique she had just witnessed. Many contortionist masters might not be able to do the same thing.

Because of the existence of martial arts, Sea Continent's cooking methods are undoubtedly closer to the fantasy world of "Cooking Master Boy" than the realistic "Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma! Shokugeki no Soma". Even the "Eight Demon-Breaking Formations" that controls people's minds is not impossible to make. However, it is easy to be seen through by a master. At that time, a chef who knows martial arts will not be able to defeat a martial arts master who knows cooking.

"You're right, it looks good and tastes good, that's what you call a delicious snack. My mother used to forbid me from eating these things, thinking they were unhygienic and unbecoming of my status, which made me miss out on a lot of fun."

Si Huaruo's mother was determined to place her daughter in the position of head of the family, so she naturally forbade her to buy street food, otherwise the sight of her eating while walking would easily damage the image of a well-bred young lady.

Now in a foreign land, Si Huaruo no longer needs to restrain herself and can eat as much as she wants without any worries. This feeling of breaking taboos alone has increased her appetite by 50%.

The two ate their way through the food street, not trying every single restaurant, but making sure to sample anything that interested them, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

After lunch, Si Ming planned to stroll around the famous local attraction "Hundred Flowers Garden" with Si Huaruo in the afternoon, but he discovered an interesting shop along the way.

What kind of business does your "Dream Illusion Hall" do?

The shop owner, a young man, greeted us with a smile, saying, "As the name suggests, we use illusion magic arrays to transport our guests into dreams, helping them experience a different life. There's a saying, 'Anything is possible in a dream,' and the most wonderful experience in life is having a beautiful dream."

Si Huaruo, a master of Divine Arts, immediately said, "What people dream about is uncontrollable. Although there's a saying, 'What you think about during the day, you dream about at night,' it's not always true. Moreover, the dreamer can't control how certain factors will affect the dream. For example, you might dream about your beloved, but the dream could depict a sweet and loving life together, or it could show them cruelly rejecting your confession."

The shop owner said, "Therefore, we need to use illusion magic to guide them. Although we can't guarantee that our clients will dream about anything specific, we can guide them to have dreams of corresponding types, such as a romantic love dream, a dream of achieving success and reaching the pinnacle of life, a martial arts dream of challenging the world's best masters, a gourmet dream of savoring delicious food, or a supernatural dream of playing with Ghostly Monsters, and so on."

As he spoke, he pulled out a list filled with various types of dreams, each with a different price.

Si Ming glanced at the list. The most expensive was the Martial Arts Dream, priced at 666 yuan, and the cheapest was the Supernatural Dream, priced at 444 yuan. Then he noticed that a corner of the list seemed to be covered by a strip of paper of the same color. He gently tore it open and saw that it read, "A Spring Dream of Ten Thousand Beauties in One Bed, Price 777, Note: Please bring your own change of underwear."

Chapter 762 Illusory Dream

The shop owner seemed to notice Si Ming's actions, gave an awkward smile, but didn't offer any explanation.

Si Ming could understand. If he came alone, the other party might secretly tell him about the secret service. But since he brought his girlfriend, the other party naturally had to keep it a secret, which was also for the customer's sake.

However, is helping clients have erotic dreams illegal?

Logically, the law only governs what people do, not what they think. Even if you have some outrageous thoughts, as long as you don't act on them, the law cannot convict you. However, what you think is a subjective act of the individual, and now a third party is helping you think, which inevitably raises suspicions of providing sexual services...

But then Si Ming thought again, Su State doesn't ban the sale of pornographic films, it just prohibits minors from buying them. Having erotic dreams doesn't violate a woman's wishes. Pornographic films need actors to make them, but dreams don't even need actors. You can fantasize about whoever you want, goddesses, school beauties, gods, or bodhisattvas, it's up to you.

"This kind of illusion has limitations, doesn't it?" Si Huaruo asked.

The shopkeeper nodded and said, "The stronger one's will, the less likely one is to be deceived by illusions. Even if one forces oneself to lower one's guard and fall into a dream, one will quickly discover the discordant elements and thus enter a lucid dream. Although lucid dreams offer a high degree of freedom, they lack immersion and are less stimulating."

Si Huaruo said, "That's not the limitation I'm referring to. Things in dreams originate from the human brain and cannot appear out of thin air. In other words, things that a person has not experienced cannot be reproduced in a dream. It's like someone who has never tasted dragon meat; even if they imagine a cooked dragon in their dream, they still won't be able to taste it."

Si Ming suddenly realized that this was like having a wet dream about a goddess. At most, one could imagine a woman with the same appearance, but as for what she would look like naked, or what her skin would feel like, since one had never seen or touched her, one could only rely on one's imagination or the "substitution method."

The shop manager paused for a moment upon hearing this, then chuckled, "It seems you're quite the expert, young lady. Well then, I won't hide anything. The method is actually very simple. We don't need to use illusion magic to simulate the specific taste. We just need to continuously generate mental stimulation of 'deliciousness' while the other person is tasting it, making them feel, 'Although I can't quite describe what it tastes like, it's just delicious.' Anyway, once people wake up, the memories from their dreams become very blurry, so remembering them clearly won't be of any use."

The reason why ghost dreams are cheap is not because fewer people choose them, but because no one has ever seen a ghost, so there's no need to pursue details, and it doesn't matter if the talisman technology is a bit rough.

Si Huaruo said with dissatisfaction, "You're lying to me."

"Hey, young lady, you can't just accuse someone like that. Making a promise and then not keeping it is called lying. We didn't make any promises, so it's not lying. Besides, how could you experience such a Higher Vehicle illusion that simulates the five senses for just a few hundred dollars? You couldn't possibly pay that much!" the shop manager quickly said. "Even if we put it another way, if I had such abilities, I would have been an expert consultant at a large corporation or research institute long ago. Why would I be running a shop?"

Si Ming quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "I understand, I understand."

They weren't there to cause trouble, so there was no need to be so petty. They pulled Si Huaruo along and prepared to leave.

"No, I want to try their Dream Charm."

"Didn't you think their stuff was a scam?" Si Ming asked, puzzled.

"Only by experiencing it firsthand can you know how to improve it."

Since the point of a date is to have fun, Si Ming naturally wouldn't insist on pulling Si Huaruo away and readily paid the bill.

The person paying was the boss, so the shop manager immediately put the previous unpleasantness behind him and led the two to a small room. There were three beds in the room, one of which was already occupied by a customer. A waiter was channeling his True Qi into the rune array engraved on the pillow to maintain the illusion. The customer seemed to be having some kind of dream, occasionally letting out lewd chuckles, with saliva dripping from his mouth.

Si Huaruo didn't choose the Love Dream, but instead chose the Gluttony Dream, because she was already in love and didn't need to rely on dreams to satisfy herself.

However, the experience was full of twists and turns. Because her cultivation level was too high and her will was firm, even if she wanted to cooperate and lower her guard, the rune array could not pull her into the illusion. In the end, it was Si Ming who took action and suppressed her soul, and only then was the spell successfully cast and she fell into a deep sleep.

The entire dream experience lasted 1 to 2 hours. Si Ming took a chair and sat next to the bed, staring at Si Huaruo's sleeping face to pass the time.

Seeing this, the store manager asked, "Sir, you're getting bored just waiting, why don't you give it a try?"

Si Ming glanced at it and said, "Forget it, if I fell asleep too, I wouldn't even know my girlfriend was being taken advantage of."

The current situation easily evokes images of short films containing the word "hypnosis," and he certainly doesn't want to sing Stefanie Sun's "Green Light." He even chased away the waiter responsible for channeling his True Qi.