Dream Within a Dream

Shentu Nantian emerged. Although he seemed to be in the worst situation of everyone, he had persevered for so long, his results should be pretty good...

Many people share this thought, but so far, the Empress Secret Realm has not provided an assessment of its performance.

About fifteen minutes later, the punishment from the secret realm's laws that Shentu Nantian had endured slowly disappeared. At this time, the young Shen Tu, who had been punched by Shentu Nantian and had vomited half a pound of blood, eagerly ran to Shen Shentu Nantian 'Shentu Nantian side to help him heal. However, this time, he dared not offer him any more pills, lest Shentu Nantian mistake them for the Seven Fiends Heavenly Yin Pill.

Seeing this, Yi Yun couldn't help but sigh, thinking that this lackey was truly doing a very good job.

But... Yi Yun turned his head and looked at the huge crystal relic pillar. Lin Xin Tong still hadn't come out?

More than half an hour has passed, and the time it took her to enter the second trial is already five times that of the person with the shortest time.

Many people couldn't help but whisper among themselves, and some even suspected that something might have happened to Lin Xin Tong.

At this moment, inside the light gate...

It was a lush green forest. Lin Xin Tong lay on the grass in the forest, her white dress spread out on the grass like a blooming white rose.

Unlike many others, Lin Xin Tong encountered no enemies after entering the portal; it was as if she were in a long, drawn-out dream.

In her dream, she returned to her childhood, where she endured the ostracism and ridicule from her older cousins, and the indifference from her uncles and aunts.

Even so, she remained steadfast in her resolve, vowing to find a way to restore her severed Fatal Meridian.

She continued to cultivate and grow, never giving up any hope. She went to explore the Empress Secret Realm underwent many trials. However, just when she was about to gain the Empress's approval, she failed at the last moment!

She missed the chance to have her Fatal Meridian restored.

After that, she tried again and again, but all her attempts failed.

As time passed and five hundred years went by, she reached the final moment of her life.

Her unparalleled beauty will fade away in a mere five hundred years.

Born with Fatal Meridian and invaded by yin energy, her life was as fragile as a candle flickering in the wind. Just as she was about to die, for some unknown reason, she suddenly awoke, only to find that everything that had just happened was merely a dream...

She was only eighteen or nineteen years old. Everything she had just experienced felt incredibly real, so real that it seemed like her future life. However, it was, after all, a dream.

She opened her eyes and was surprised to find a boy standing in front of her, smiling.

The boy had delicate features and deep eyes. He seemed to possess an aura that was both righteous and wicked, giving people a strange feeling just by looking at him.

"... At that moment, I had an idea that might sound ridiculous: I wanted to restore your congenitally severed Fatal Meridian..."

The boy spoke, his voice both real and unreal, reaching Lin Xin Tong's ears.

"Yi Yun... it's you..."

Lin Xin Tong's lips twitched slightly. This name seemed to be deeply buried in the depths of her memory, so deep that she could hardly remember it.

She had to strain to recall that year, in the vast, desolate Yunhuang, in the deep Barren Human Valley, under the bright moon, a Linen-clothed Youth looked at her with incredibly earnest eyes and made a promise in his still-childish voice...

Even though at the time he was just an ordinary boy in the Great Wilderness, so ordinary that with his limited experience he couldn't possibly understand the world-shaking difference between him and her...

A thousand thoughts raced through Lin Xin Tong; countless past scenes flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern. In the blink of an eye, she remembered the Lin family's victory celebration banquet, where, under the dim lights, the young man solemnly uttered the words he had once spoken...

His promise was also his belief.

"I will fight for your destiny..."

The boy spoke again, and Lin Xin Tong was pulled back to reality by his voice. She saw that the boy was holding an unknown metal box, which was covered with dusty patterns.

He took out an ancient scroll from the metal box; it was so ancient that it seemed to belong to another time and space.

"This is the ancient remedy to restore your congenitally severed Fatal Meridian. I've found it!"

The boy spoke, his voice tinged with excitement and agitation.

"Found it?"

Lin Xin Tong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling overjoyed. However... she vaguely felt that something was amiss, but her desire to restore her innate Fatal Meridian made her overlook this slight imperfection.

Together with the boy, she searched for the ingredients in the ancient prescription, traversing famous mountains and rivers, traveling to all corners of the world, and venturing into many secluded and rarely visited places, including the God Burying Abyss and the Sea of the Undying Sea Return...

Finally, they found all the materials and refined them into the ancient relic that restored their severed Fatal Meridian.

After she consumed it, her Pure Yin Body could not withstand the power, and she experienced excruciating pain throughout her body.

She endured seven days and seven nights of excruciating pain, feeling as if she were about to die. But at the last moment, the boy embraced her.

The boy's body contained pure and abundant Pure Yang Energy, just like the sun.

She was covered in sweat and her mind was already hazy. In this state, she and he complemented each other in yin and yang. As a result, the chaotic yin and yang forces in her body inexplicably reached a wonderful balance, and her meridians were thus connected.

She obtained the power she had always dreamed of, and from then on, she and he roamed the world, achieving great mastery of their cultivation.

Later, they even left the continent where Tianyuan Realm was located and went to a wider world. They once again became the strongest beings in this world, becoming gods and saints, and living as long as heaven and earth.

She didn't know how many years she had spent immersed in this, experiencing countless joys and sorrows, but at a certain moment, she suddenly awoke.

She opened her eyes and was shocked to find herself lying in a black square.

So much time had passed that it took her a long time to remember the square. She had come to this square after crossing the long Storm Bridge after her first trial.

In this black stone plaza, she began her second trial.

Yes, I'm undergoing trials in the Empress Secret Realm. This is my chance to obtain the Empress Inheritance and mend my Fatal Meridian through my own strength...

She looked around; a large crowd had gathered in the square, staring at her in astonishment...

This included the boy who appeared in her dream...

Recalling everything from her dream, a strange feeling welled up inside her.

That was just a dream...

Lin Xin Tong shook her head; dreams always come to an end...

Lin Xin Tong tried to stand up, but just then, she seemed to hear a cold voice...

"Dreams may not necessarily end..."

"Bang!"

With a sound like shattering glass, the scene before Lin Xin Tong's eyes—Black Stone Square, the astonished crowd, and the boy—all shattered, turning into countless fragments and disappearing. Lin Xin Tong found herself lying in a forest.

She lay on the grass in the woods, her long white dress billowing out like a blooming white rose.

Her once jet-black hair, due to the influx of yin energy into her body, also turned white, just like her dress.

Her white hair spread out, becoming part of the white rose.

Her eyes were closed, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and a layer of Ice Crystal had formed on each of her distinct lashes.

Her skin seemed to turn into Ice Crystals, and her fingers became completely translucent.

It's so cold...

She felt an icy chill that started in her veins, spread throughout her body, and eventually turned into Ice Crystal, continuing to spread.

She felt that she was going to die; the cold, yin energy generated by the Innate Yin Meridian within her body would eventually devour her.

So, I hadn't woken up at all...

To hold his hand and roam the heavens and earth, to live as long as the sun and moon—these were all illusions that arose in my mind at the very beginning, as I approached the end of my life, on the verge of death...

Even going to the Empress Secret Realm is a dream...

Perhaps, my near-death experience was itself a dream?

Will this dream end? And if it does end, will it still be a dream?

When is it a dream, and when is it waking up?

Will this endless cycle of dreams within dreams continue indefinitely...? Will I become lost within it, never to awaken?

Ice Crystal gradually covered Lin Xin Tong's entire body, making her incomparably beautiful and inspiring awe, yet at the same time, there was an eerie and deathly feeling about her.

This deathly silence stood in stark contrast to the lush, vibrant forest surrounding it...

...(To be continued~^~)