Mystic Box

At night.

Listening to the thunderstorm outside, Li Mo gradually fell asleep and entered the Mystic Dream once more.

Summer Flood had arrived, and the thunderstorms dragged on without end. Li Mo felt that the frequency with which he entered the Mystic Dream had clearly increased, but this time seemed somewhat different from his previous experiences within it.

In the dream, the slightly bewildered Li Mo instinctively looked down at his feet.

There was a somewhat abrupt shadow there.

It seemed abrupt because it was flickering constantly, like a flash of lightning vanishing from the sky and leaving a fleeting play of light and shadow among the dark clouds.

Since he was dreaming at the moment, Li Mo did not react too strongly.

After pausing to observe it for a while, he raised his head to gaze at the sky. Something immense seemed to sweep through the dark clouds, its shadow flashing past in an instant, yet he could not make out what it was.

So Li Mo continued walking forward with vacant eyes.

Across the boundless ancient earth, he walked for a long time without discovering any change. Though he was in a dream, he gradually became somewhat restless.

Suddenly.

Li Mo stopped again. He looked at his shadow, which appeared and vanished intermittently. Whenever lightning flashed, the shadow seemed to struggle desperately, trying to break free.

Lightning?

The thought flashed through his mind, and the dazed, bewildered Li Mo suddenly jolted awake!

He instinctively lowered his head, only to see that the shadow on the ground had abruptly turned into his sleeping self, sprawled on the bed with limbs flung wide. It was as though he were looking at his real self through a mirror.

Meanwhile, his dream-self had become the constantly flickering shadow, without physical form.

At this moment, his soul seemed to have exchanged places between the shadow in the dream and his body in reality. He was viewing everything that happened from another angle.

Thus, the Li Mo in the dream seemed to gradually awaken. He regained reason and developed a trace of fear toward the unknown, no longer acting on instinct in the muddled confusion of before.

"How could this be?"

Li Mo stood upon the empty, misty earth. He felt especially alone, as though this were a world inhabited by him alone. Looking down at his hands, which were in shadowy form and constantly shifting between light and darkness, fear gradually overcame curiosity. Then, like a drowning man, he felt the surrounding space pressing in on him. He struggled without cease, trying to grasp hold of something.

In a daze.

Li Mo faintly heard countless beastly roars, along with waves of murmured chanting. These sounds carried endless despair and frenzied evil, surging one wave after another from the depths of the misty illusion, like reflections cast by flowing light.

They desperately tried to bore into Li Mo's mind, trying to turn him into a witless madman.

"Sun Palace, Mystic Peak..."

"Spirit Reflection Mountain, Goddess Palace..."

Li Mo howled in agony, his eyes nearly splitting apart. Instinctively, he covered his ears. Wave after wave of drowning-like pain made him struggle with all his might. Just before he felt he was about to suffocate, he suddenly sat upright, opened his eyes, and gasped for breath. Outside, dawn had already broken.

A long while later.

Li Mo's racing heartbeat gradually calmed, and he instinctively swallowed.

He sat blankly on the bed for quite some time before reason gradually recognized that he had awakened from the dream. As he recalled the place names he had heard at the end, he analyzed the mysterious changes in the Mystic Dream.

After carefully recalling and pondering, he came up with several possibilities.

The Mystic Box was something that truly existed. I am gradually adapting to it, and I will gradually gain rational awareness within the Mystic Dream.

I have been constantly reading Three-Way Swordplay these past few days. What one thinks of by day, one dreams of by night. That is why changes occurred within the Mystic Dream as well, just as when I once studied medical texts and gained many inspirations in the Mystic Dream. It is only that I have yet to grasp the specific method for improving Three-Way Swordplay in the Mystic Dream.

Perhaps the changes in the Mystic Dream this time were merely an accidental special reaction, or perhaps simply a periodic reaction... No!

Li Mo suddenly thought of that hunter who had likewise been affected by the Mystic Box!

The reason the hunter had kept muttering about Sun Palace and Mystic Peak, then gone out searching for them—could it be that, like Li Mo now, he had experienced all sorts of changes in the Mystic Dream and been affected by those clamorous beast roars and inexplicable murmurs?

After letting his thoughts run wild for a moment, Li Mo sighed.

It was getting late. It was time to begin a new day's work.

Li Mo swiftly dressed himself, washed up carefully, then went before the bronze mirror to arrange his appearance. Once he looked refreshed and radiant, he stepped into the front hall and exchanged greetings with several senior brothers.

Before long, someone came seeking medical treatment, and he quickly became busy.

After noon.

Li Mo returned from Old Crow Ridge.

He seemed somewhat absentminded, as though he were still contemplating last night's Mystic Dream. As for his first solo house call, he did not seem particularly affected by it—or rather, he had long since held victory in the palm of his hand.

"Senior Brother Wang."

"Mm, Li Mo, you're back. How was the situation at Old Crow Ridge?"

"Just a minor illness, nothing serious. The plague probably hasn't spread there yet."

Yet only moments later.

An old man in his fifties rushed into the room, panting heavily.

"My home is in Pear Blossom Village. My son suddenly started vomiting blood last night and has not stopped. He's unconscious! Doctor, please save my son! I'll kneel before you!"

"Pear Blossom Village?"

Li Mo jolted and snapped back to attention.

Seeing that Wang Ben had already picked up his medicine chest to leave, he immediately called out, "Senior Brother Wang, wait! I'll go with you!"

Wang Ben froze for a moment, but said nothing more. The three quickly departed.

Pear Blossom Village was very close to Hua'an Town. The three arrived in less than half an hour.

Looking at the man on the bed, blood flowing from his mouth and nose and his consciousness muddled, Wang Ben's expression turned grave. A trace of confusion surfaced on his face, and he let out a low sigh.

"The plague has actually already spread here. We cannot delay any longer. We must quickly report this to Baian County and have the court send people over. Otherwise, if the plague spreads, the consequences will be too dreadful to contemplate!"

Wang Ben then prescribed a medicinal formula to calm the mind and replenish vitality.

"This medicine can replenish blood and vital energy, but whether your son can make it through this trial depends only on himself."

At those words, the old man's hands trembled, and he nearly could not remain standing.

The old woman, women, and children nearby immediately fell into chaos. Some knelt on the ground and refused to rise, begging Wang Ben and Li Mo to save him, while others cried helplessly, utterly at a loss.

After the two opened their oil-paper umbrellas and left the old man's home, Wang Ben's mood grew increasingly grave.

"I feel that something is not quite right."

"What is it?"

Originally absentminded, Li Mo could not help coming back to his senses when Wang Ben said this.

Wang Ben said in a low voice, "As the saying goes, after a great disaster comes a plague. This is caused by worsening conditions and polluted water sources; it is a natural law. But this heavy rain has not even ended, and the plague has already begun spreading wildly. I suspect this is not a natural plague."

At this, he stopped speaking and looked solemnly at Li Mo.

Li Mo's face filled with terror.

"You mean some evil entity is causing trouble?"

Wang Ben did not answer, but the grave expression between his brows said everything.

At that moment.

The two passed the western end of Pear Blossom Village. At the edge of the village stood a crude brick-and-tile house, blue smoke curling from its chimney. It was the hunter's home where Li Mo had accompanied Doctor Zhang on an earlier house call, and where Li Mo had obtained the Mystic Box.

When Li Mo saw the blue smoke, he knew someone was home. After thinking it over, he decided that he should take a look.

"Senior Brother, that household belongs to the hunter with Wind Shock whom I visited with Master before. I would like to pay a follow-up visit."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ben was briefly stunned before his eyes revealed admiration.

"No wonder Doctor Zhang valued you so highly. All right, go ahead. I'll wait here for you."

"No need. It is not far from town. Senior Brother, you should return first. I'll head back right after the follow-up visit."

"Very well."

Wang Ben nodded and gradually walked away into the heavy rain beneath his oil-paper umbrella. Li Mo, meanwhile, came to the hunter's front door and lightly knocked on the wooden door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me. I came here before with Doctor Zhang to treat an illness."

Hearing this, the stout woman opened the door. Seeing Li Mo had come alone, she immediately showed surprise.

"What is the matter?"

Li Mo smiled. "I merely came for a follow-up visit, to check on your husband's condition. At the time, we said he would need several months of rest. How has your husband's Wind Shock recovered?"

"He has been fine for ages!"

The woman beamed. "He happens to be home. Please come in and have a look."

Li Mo smiled, put away his oil-paper umbrella, and followed the woman inside. Sure enough, he saw that the hunter had somewhat recovered. He was leaning against the bed, seemingly lost in thought.

It was not until Li Mo entered that the man looked over.

After learning why Li Mo had come, the man revealed a somewhat meaningful expression and gestured for the children and woman in the room to wait in the side chamber.

"You have already read that book, haven't you?"

The man unexpectedly came straight to the point.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Mo's expression became slightly grave. In the end, he slowly nodded.

At this, the man unexpectedly revealed an eerie look of pity. He turned to gaze at the rain outside the window again and spoke in a low, hoarse voice.

"At the beginning, you discovered that it was filled with novel stories, and you felt incomparably curious. Afterward, you would try every possible way to enter that miraculous dream, and discover that the dream could help you in all sorts of ways. You would be delighted by that discovery and gradually become dependent on it, treating it as your own secret... Until one day, you discovered that it seemed to be more than merely a dream."

Li Mo's expression grew even more solemn at this.

"So you truly reached this stage too."

Yet the man merely gave a soft laugh. Turning to Li Mo, his face revealed mockery.

"No, I passed that stage long ago."

Li Mo's expression changed.

"What happened to you afterward?"

The man shifted his position on the bed and continued answering Li Mo in a distant voice.

"Later, I saw some terrifying things—terrifying things in reality. They all thought I had gone mad. Before long, you will be like me and see those things with your own eyes."

The man looked at Li Mo with an amused expression, while Li Mo's face grew uglier and uglier.

"What kind of terrifying things were they?"

The man drew in a deep breath, then slowly let it out, but did not answer.

Li Mo pressed, "So you went searching for Mystic Peak and Sun Palace?"

"No, that was merely an excuse I used to deceive them. I went to hide from those terrifying things, to hide from horrors that language cannot describe. I once thought Hua'an Town was a cursed land. I thought that if I went far enough, I could leave them behind. Later, I discovered... I was wrong."

The man slowly extended his left hand and displayed it to Li Mo.

Li Mo noticed that the skin on his left hand was extremely aged, like the skin of a decrepit old man—or rather, the skin of a dead man. Yet it had appeared on a hunter in his prime, which was utterly unreasonable.

"And then there was the Evening Moon that year. My hand was exposed for merely a few breaths, yet it became like this—merely because they saw it."

As he spoke, the man's facial expression gradually began to turn savage and distorted, mixed with despair, madness, and fear.

"That book gave me much, including the ability to see them. But as the price, they could see me as well. Perhaps this is the true world—a terrifying world, a mad world, a world beyond all cure!"

Ignoring Li Mo's increasingly ashen face, the man grew ever more frenzied, as though he had developed a mental illness. His eyes were filled with hysterical madness.

"Merely being seen by them means we will die, like wild grass by the roadside that no one cares for. So when they are most active, we can only curl up in dark corners like rats, maggots, and ants, lest they discover us. Once I understood this, I knew that fleeing however far was useless. That was why I returned and abandoned that book."

The man looked at Li Mo with mocking eyes, continuously letting out sinister laughter.

"The facts proved that I was right. To enter that dream, one must use that book as a fulcrum. After losing the book, I never saw those terrifying things again, nor could they see me. From then on, I returned to ordinary life. I could walk freely across this land. I survived. Heh heh, hahahahaha..."

The woman ran over from the side chamber and apologized to Li Mo.

Li Mo felt a drop of cold sweat slide down his forehead. After hurriedly bidding farewell, he left Pear Blossom Village.