Invincible in Dreams?

Dreams were a wondrous thing. As the saying went, "What one thought of by day, one dreamed of by night," yet no one could truly control what they dreamed at night.

Moreover, dreamers often did not know they were dreaming. Everything they felt in a dream was taken as real.

It was as though a fleeting world had come into being.

Legend had it that if a person died within a dream, there was a chance a ghostly creature known as a Nightmare Spirit would be born.

It could enter and leave other people's dreams, cultivating itself by draining their yang energy in dreams. Once its cultivation deepened, it could even forcibly drag people into dreams.

Such ghostly creatures rarely appeared, but once one was born, it was difficult to deal with. It was far too easy for it to harm people. Within dreams, no one could stand against a Nightmare Spirit.

To destroy such a ghostly creature, one had to find its true form and suppress it.

That night.

Li Chu and Li Xinyi stood guard in the outer room of Miss Ge's bedroom, each sitting with closed eyes in meditation.

Two faint streams of qi drifted from Li Xinyi's nose like dragons. Their tails coiled and circled, rising and falling rhythmically with the Heavenly Cycle circulating within her body.

Li Chu, however, did not need breathing exercises to strengthen his power. He was using the Mind's Eye Art to observe his surroundings.

Though the Nightmare Spirit came and went through dreams, leaving no tangible trace, unseen did not mean nonexistent. He wanted to use the Aura Observation Method to sense the area and see whether he could uncover any Spider Silk.

As his use of the Mind's Eye Art became increasingly proficient, he gradually gained some insight. The range of the Mind's Eye Art depended on how deeply he immersed his Divine Soul within it.

If he sensed only thirty feet ahead of himself, he could move freely without being affected.

But if he expanded his perception to encompass all of Yuhang Town, then he had to devote his entire body and mind to it, and his other senses would grow considerably duller.

This was actually a rather dangerous state.

After a long while, Li Xinyi completed two major Heavenly Cycles and slowly opened her eyes. Looking at the moon already past its zenith, she was somewhat puzzled.

"Why is it so quiet tonight?" she asked softly.

On previous nights, Miss Ge should already have begun muttering fervently in her sleep.

Then a faint voice drifted from the inner room. "I haven't fallen asleep yet..."

Li Xinyi slapped her forehead. No wonder.

A Nightmare Spirit could drag sleeping people into dreams, but it could do nothing to those who were awake.

So theoretically, one could avoid a Nightmare Spirit's harm simply by not sleeping.

But that was only theoretical...

If Miss Ge wanted to make a clean break with this Nightmare Spirit, hiding would not solve anything.

As they had discussed beforehand, Miss Ge was supposed to try and find out the Nightmare Spirit's origins tonight—namely, where its true form was located.

Who would have thought that she would suffer from insomnia?

Li Chu heard their conversation and was just about to open his eyes when he suddenly saw a nearly transparent wisp of smoke lingering above the Ge residence's roof.

It was here!

Was this the power the Nightmare Spirit relied on to enter dreams?

Unfortunately, the smoke was far too ethereal, and Li Chu had not seen the path by which it had arrived.

Since Miss Ge had not fallen asleep, the smoke could not get in. It merely circled above the roof.

From inside, Miss Ge said meaningfully, "When I couldn't sleep as a child, Father would gently pat me and coax me to sleep. If there were someone who could come in and pat me now, I should be able to fall asleep too..."

Li Chu did not answer. He was fully focused on observing that wisp of smoke.

Li Xinyi shot to her feet. "I'll do it."

Miss Ge hurriedly said, "No need, don't trouble yourself. I feel... ah!"

While she repeatedly declined, Li Xinyi had already pushed open the door, strode to the bedside, and delivered a practiced chop to the back of her neck.

The force of that hand chop was controlled with extreme precision. It was just enough to knock her unconscious without causing any additional harm to her body.

And it was deeply satisfying.

Li Xinyi clapped her hands briskly. I've found you unpleasant for half the day already!

Hmph.

As Miss Ge closed her eyes, the circling smoke slowly descended and merged entirely into her body.

Green hills and clear waters, birds singing and flowers fragrant.

Two figures abruptly appeared amid the picturesque scenery.

Miss Ge had shed her former weak and dispirited appearance. She now wore a goose-yellow silk skirt adorned with pearl tassels. Her hair was tied in an Ascendant Immortal Hair Bun, pinned with a string of pearls. Bright eyes and white teeth, red lips lightly touched with color, and a slender figure carrying a hint of frailty—she looked exceptionally lovable and delicate.

Before her stood a man dressed in an emerald green robe.

The man wore a green Round Hat inlaid with jadeite jade. His long robe fluttered in the wind, and he looked elegant and refined. His face was like polished jade, his eyes bright and brows like stars. He truly was a rare beauty in this world.

No wonder Miss Ge had been so utterly enchanted by him before meeting Li Chu.

But now, when Ge Cuihua looked at the lover before her, the obsession in her eyes was gone, replaced by a complicated expression.

After hesitating, she softly asked, "Zhang Lang, you once told me that your name was Zhang Yuyan and that you were from Chaoge. But you never told me why you came to Yu Hang County."

Zhang Yuyan looked strangely at the woman before him. "Cuihua, why are you asking this?"

"Because... I want to see you. Not like this, in a dream. I want to see the real you..." Miss Ge said hesitantly.

Zhang Yuyan stared at her. A sharp glint flashed through his eyes, and his expression abruptly changed.

His tone suddenly turned vicious. "You betrayed me!"

Miss Ge's face stiffened as she panicked. "Zhang Lang, what are you saying? I... I was only asking casually."

Zhang Yuyan sneered. "Do you think you can hide it from me? Within the Dream World, I know everything and can do anything. Your thoughts cannot be concealed from me."

Miss Ge staggered several steps back. Only then did she understand why Zhang Lang had previously seemed so thoughtful and understanding. It was not that he was considerate at all—every thought in her mind had been laid bare before him.

That was terrifying.

"Let me see who it is. Who made you change your heart? Isn't being with me good enough? Here, I have the most handsome face and the greatest power. There cannot possibly be anyone more perfect than me in this world! Yet you actually changed your heart..."

Zhang Yuyan's gaze was sinister and his voice low. The Jadeite Jade Cap atop his head gleamed brilliantly.

As he spoke, he suddenly turned to look into the distance and shouted furiously, "Is it him? He's actually right by your side!"

With a grasp of his hand, a hazy mist appeared out of thin air. When the mist dispersed, Li Chu's figure emerged.

Li Chu was quite astonished.

He was not asleep at the moment, but in the sensory state of the Mind's Eye Art. His Divine Soul was simply immersed more deeply, which could be considered "Deep Meditation."

Yet the Nightmare Spirit could drag even someone in Deep Meditation into a dream. The profundity of this method clearly could not be explained merely by entering dreams.

There was likely much to study in its underlying mechanism.

This was his first time entering someone else's Dream World. Though he had been forcibly dragged in, after briefly sensing his surroundings, it seemed no different from outside.

Just as he silently observed the surroundings, Zhang Yuyan also fell silent.

It was a Nightmare Spirit, a ghostly creature. Everything around them, including its own body, was a dream woven by it.

This appearance had been created by combining the most handsome facial features it remembered, a perfect face that existed only in imagination.

But today, it learned that some people existed beyond imagination.

Put simply, it could not imagine in its wildest dreams that a person could look like this...

After a moment of silence, its handsome face, near-perfect yet inferior to Li Chu's, gradually twisted.

Zhang Yuyan suddenly roared, "I want you dead!"

BOOM—

At its command, heaven and earth changed color!

Within this dream, it was the ruler! It could possess every power it could imagine.

Perhaps not an Earthly Immortal, but at least its Words Manifested!

Amid a thunderous roar, a thick, dazzling pillar of light descended from the heavens like divine punishment, instantly swallowing Li Chu's tall figure.

"Haha, die!" Zhang Yuyan cackled viciously.

Killing someone in a dream would not kill them on the spot, but it would wound their Divine Soul. If it kept targeting Li Chu and killed him once every time he slept, just as it had stolen Miss Ge's yang energy, then one day it would eventually make him die from exhaustion of his Divine Soul.

That had been its plan.

There was actually a face in this world beyond what it could imagine even in dreams. That was simply intolerable to a ghost!

But soon, something even more intolerable happened...

When that pillar of light reaching the sky dispersed, even the mountains beneath their feet had nearly been leveled.

Yet right where he had stood... a figure slowly rose to its feet.

Li Chu's brows drew together. The Nightmare Spirit was indeed powerful in dreams. The force of that strike just now had been suffocating.

He had actually been knocked down!

And he had suffered a minor injury.

A trace of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away, then drew his sword.

Zhang Yuyan was somewhat dazed.

This... why is that?

I'm a Nightmare Spirit. This is a dream. This is my home ground.

I'm invincible in dreams.

But... what was this overwhelming sense of mortal danger?

Only when Li Chu swung that sword did Zhang Yuyan remember.

So-called invincibility in dreams had its limits as well.

That limit was its imagination.

Everything in a dream could be manifested according to the Nightmare Spirit's imagination—so-called Words Manifested.

But imagination could not conjure something from nothing. It had to have seen it, heard of it, or at the very least possessed a concept of it before it could manifest it.

Just as all the most handsome facial features it had ever seen, combined together, still could not compare to Li Chu's face.

The greatest power it had ever witnessed likewise seemed inferior to Li Chu's sword strike...

No way?

At the instant the sword light descended upon it, an absurd thought flashed through Zhang Yuyan's mind.

Could such a person truly exist in this world?

I must be dreaming.

Ah.

It hurts so much...

Thanks to Moo Moo Moo 8888 for the thousand-point reward, thanks to Lone Star of Calamity, Bad Luck for the thousand-point reward, thanks to Book Friend 20191204014431195 for the two-hundred-point reward, and thanks to Book Friend 20170829185914366 for the hundred-point reward.