Dream Message
After Xiang Kun guided Lao Xia out of her dream, Lao Xia almost "woke up instantly." Now she is becoming more and more familiar with this kind of dream caused by "Emotion-Infused Object," and she is becoming more and more skilled at influencing dreams by controlling the projection of "Super-Linked Object."
Soon, Xia Libing entered the "world of consciousness" in her dream through the manifested "CAKE01," connecting with the Black Circle Graffiti on the windowsill of the branch office dormitory that she had just established contact with that day and had Xiang Kun bring it there.
My perception changed dramatically, as if I had entered a New World.
Xiang Kun knew that within the area affected by the Black Circle Graffiti on the windowsill, there was someone sleeping, who had been successfully drawn into Lao Xia's "Dream Within a Dream."
But upon seeing the situation in his dream, Xiang Kun was somewhat surprised.
The owner of this "Dream Within a Dream" turned out to be someone both he and Lao Xia knew.
On the night of the 29th of the lunar year, he had just returned to Citong and met with Lao Xia at a coffee shop. On his way back, he discovered that someone was following Lao Xia, so he got into a small fight and captured the two "bad guys".
The officers in charge of their case at the time were an older and a younger officer from the branch office; the older one was surnamed Xu, and the younger one was surnamed Zhao.
At this moment in the dream, the image of the "protagonist" is clearly that of Officer Zhao.
On the deserted street, Officer Zhao, dressed in plainclothes Zhengyi School hid behind a car.
A giant over four meters tall, with more than a dozen arms and eyes all over his forehead, was wandering the street, seemingly looking for Officer Zhao.
Xiang Kun was already somewhat surprised and astonished to discover that this was Officer Zhao's dream, but seeing this multi-armed, multi-eyed giant in Officer Zhao's dream was even more unexpected.
Although this giant's image is not exactly the same as the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving, not to mention anything else, even the number of arms, the way the arms are connected to the torso, and the arrangement of the eyes are fundamentally different.
But Xiang Kun had a hunch that the giant in Officer Zhao's dream originated from the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving.
He knew very well that his intuition now stemmed from a wealth of extrasensory information that his brain couldn't yet process, rather than unreliable guesses that popped into his head on a whim. Moreover, in the current dream environment, intuition was sometimes even more reliable than direct sensory information from within the dream.
However, he could also deduce from the giant's form that Officer Zhao's knowledge of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving likely came from someone else's account.
After all, judging from the many previous examples, whether it is creating hallucinations in reality through "Projection Manifestation" or projecting emotions onto Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving in a dream, although some specific details, such as the size, clothing, and skin condition of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster, may differ, the overall body structure, such as the arrangement of the eyes, the number of arms, and the way they are connected to the torso, should be the same and consistent with the wooden sculpture.
If someone is experiencing hallucinations or having terrifying nightmares, their description of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster in reality might be unclear. However, in a dream, the image of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster, originating from the subconscious, shouldn't be so distorted.
Xiang Kun immediately guessed where Officer Zhao had learned about the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster —the three car thieves whose emotions were projected into the abandoned factory by Xiang Kun in his "Hyper-Sensory State."
According to what he later heard, the three car thieves eventually went to the police station and were taken into custody by the police.
One went insane, and the other two turned themselves in.
They would more or less tell the police about the "hallucinations" they saw in the abandoned factory.
Although they went to the Yungang District Subbureau to turn themselves in, Officer Zhao wasn't there. But since they were both from Citong City, they probably heard about it to some extent—even his old classmate Li Peiye had heard a lot of news, let alone Officer Zhao was in the same system.
Having heard about it is one thing, but to dream about it in a dream... that's a bit strange.
It's important to know that this dream was triggered by Black Circle Graffiti, and based on past experience, it mainly involves things that the dreamer has been paying attention to recently.
More than half a month has passed since the incident at the abandoned factory on the outskirts of Yungang District. There's no reason for Officer Zhao to still be concerned about it, since it wasn't a case he handled.
Furthermore, the police wouldn't normally believe the car thieves' description. Based on Li Peiye's account at their classmate's wedding, the police treated it as a joke – that's the normal attitude.
Is Officer Zhao particularly concerned about these "rumors"?
Or... is Officer Zhao particularly timid and scared by that "rumor"?
Well, judging from the cognitive model established based on Xiang Kun's brief encounter with Officer Zhao on the evening of the 29th, the latter possibility is almost zero.
Just as Xiang Kun was wondering, Officer Zhao's dream underwent a dramatic change, transforming from empty city streets to the sky.
Officer Zhao was actually riding on the back of that multi-armed, multi-eyed giant, flying through the air, heading from the city center to the suburbs.
Soon, lush green trees came into view, and we entered the Purple Huan Mountain area.
Xiang Kun naturally knew that this was the work of Lao Xia, the "dream director".
In the afternoon, he had already discussed in detail with Lao Xia how to tell a "story" in the dream to guide the person who was sent the dream to go to Purple Huan Mountain to find the corpses after waking up.
The decision to have someone in the branch office's dormitory directly "report the incident through a dream" instead of randomly finding someone in a village or town near Purple Huan Mountain to report the body is also due to concerns that if ordinary people are guided by their dreams and see the corpses in the mountains, it could have a significant psychological impact and potentially cause some negative effects.
However, at that time, no one expected that they would appear in Officer Zhao's dream, and Officer Zhao would happen to dream of a giant who seemed to be Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Monster.
Lao Xia had clearly changed the "script" he had previously discussed with Xiang Kun, and improvised, adding the giant into the story.
At first, Lao Xia couldn't exert such a wide-ranging influence so quickly within the "Dream Within a Dream," but Xiang Kun found a way. When he himself assisted Lao Xia's "Super-Linked Object projection" within the "Dream Within a Dream," Lao Xia's efficiency in editing the Dream Within a Dream greatly increased, and he could also directly participate in the construction and editing of the dream.
Xiang Kun essentially transformed himself into a "what you see is what you get" super plugin that Lao Xia in her dream could use, quickly realizing her vision.
It was precisely because of this assistance that, although Lao Xia had never actually seen the place in Purple Huan Mountain where Xiang Kun found the body, he was still able to roughly visualize that place in his dream with Xiang Kun's help and support.
The multi-armed, multi-eyed giant carried Officer Zhao all the way into Purple Huan Mountain, then began to slow down, deliberately letting Officer Zhao recognize their location and the route they were traveling.
Although some details differ from reality, and many places are even blurred and unclear, as long as the general terrain and some iconic landmarks remain unchanged and can be used as a reference, Officer Zhao can still "follow the clues in his dream" and find the location after waking up.
If Officer Zhao can't be found, he can just appear in people's dreams a few more times...
When the giant reached its final position, it put Officer Zhao down and then pointed all its hands to the cave not far away, as if inviting him to enter.
Officer Zhao's fear of the giant in his dream had dissipated considerably after flying all this way. He cautiously walked to the edge of the cave and looked inside.
Inside, a person whose face was obscured and whose body was shrouded in mist reached out to him, calling out in a hoarse voice, "Help me..."
Officer Zhao was startled and instinctively took two steps back, but immediately turned around and rushed into the cave, reaching out to pull the man back.
Under Lao Xia's control, the dream ended there, disintegrating and dissipating.
Zhao Feng opened his eyes and woke up from his dream.
He got up and sat on the edge of the bed, glanced back at the dark sky outside the window, checked the time on his phone, frowned, and began to recall the dream he had just had.
This wasn't the first time he'd dreamed about the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster he'd discussed so many times with his old classmates from police academy.
Generally speaking, after waking up, he has difficulty recalling his dreams. At least most of the content and details are unclear, and he can only vaguely know that the dream was related to something.
And when he recalls the dream he just had, every single detail is incredibly clear.
He was actually carried by that monster and flown into the sky, and then into the mountains!
He also knew very well that the mountain he entered in his dream was Purple Huan Mountain.
The final resting place of the monster, the cave, was in a relatively remote and sparsely populated area inside Purple Huan Mountain.
Why would I have this kind of dream?
Does Purple Huan Mountain really have such a cave?
What does it mean when someone asks for help in a cave?
Zhao Feng suspected that he had this dream because he had read the post about the phoenix undergoing tribulation on Purple Huan Mountain during the day, and because he had been researching the hallucination of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster that many suspects had seen with his old classmate.
In fact, during this time, he and his old classmate who worked in another city made some other discoveries.
Through follow-up investigations of the six suspects in the previous two cases, they discovered that all six suspects had experienced hallucinations and seen multi-armed, multi-eyed monsters, and their behavior and personalities had undergone significant changes.
There are two main types of behavior. One type is that they sincerely repent and actively confess their past crimes and wrongdoings to the police and prosecutors, regardless of whether they are asked about them. They even confess to some things that are not illegal but morally wrong.
Another type is characterized by extreme nervous tension, strong paranoia, constant fear, insomnia, mental exhaustion, and wariness of everyone.
Of the six suspects, four exhibited the first type of behavior, and two exhibited the second type—one from each of the two cases.
The man from Citong City, the car thief who ran to the Yungang Sub-bureau with a kitchen knife claiming someone wanted to kill him, has had his mental evaluation applied for by the prosecutor's office.
Compared to the other two, the four people who exhibited the first type of behavior, who would all definitely have to serve their sentences according to the legal process, were in very good spirits, very optimistic, full of hope for the future, and calmly accepted the upcoming trial.
The contrast between the two is striking, with a huge difference.
Zhao Feng and his old classmate both felt that the suspects' unusual behavior was most likely related to hallucinations they were experiencing.
However, this situation is still just speculation without any substantial evidence. Since both cases are already settled, he couldn't bring it up with his partner Old Xu, and could only continue to investigate with his old classmate during their rest time.
It's normal to have this dream if you keep thinking about these things.
However, after lying back in bed, Zhao Feng couldn't fall asleep. His mind kept replaying the image of the Many-Armed Monster carrying him through the air in his dream, and the person who reached out to him in the cave.
So he got up again, rubbed his face, picked up his phone, opened the map app, and began to follow the "route" from his dream to check the actual geography of Purple Huan Mountain.
Then he was surprised to find that the route in his dream seemed to correspond to reality.
Moreover, that route was one he had never traveled in real life.
So, as dawn broke, he finally couldn't resist getting dressed and going out. He didn't drive the company car, nor did he notify Old Xu; he simply took a taxi to Purple Huan Mountain.
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I recommend a very unique classic fantasy novel, <The Deer Demon's Chase>.
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