Although Hao Ren was fairly certain that his series of nightmares carried some kind of prophetic significance, similar dreams had never appeared again after the time he was jolted awake in the night.
He figured Vivian's calming soup couldn't possibly have been that effective—after all, its main ingredients were just common wild vegetables and herbs. Aside from being full of heartfelt concern, it had no real medicinal value. After drinking half a bowl, Lily had even been so energetic that she stayed up until three thirty in the morning (although the main reason was that Doudou had eaten several of the roots and herbs in the soup). Even Vivian herself wouldn't have believed that those strange vegetable soups could ward off nightmares.
Hao Ren himself was quite open-minded about it. If the nightmares faded, then so be it. After all, unless something this traceless appeared again, even a whole reinforced company of Sherlock Holmeses couldn't investigate it and reach any conclusion. Besides, he had discussed the matter with his fellow inspectors and learned that prophetic dreams were not particularly rare. Apparently, because the Xiling Pantheon had a true God of Prophecy, any employee under the Xiling Pantheon who had even the slightest connection to divinity would develop some degree of prophetic ability. Such abilities were usually neither stable nor precise. According to what he had learned, only intense omens—events that were certain and imminent—would produce recurring prophetic dreams. If a prophetic dream appeared only once, it usually meant that the event behind it lay far in the future, and that it would occur in a manner vastly different from the dream, or perhaps not occur at all.
As far as vague prophecies were concerned, the future was not set in stone. Such a dream merely presented one possibility.
Hao Ren