Dreams

"Wu Wei, can Qin Yunhai receive this message?" Lan Meng asked.

Wu Wei spread his hands.

Lan Meng pressed a hand to her forehead, looking helpless.

"You should go talk to Qin Yunhai again. Killing someone is against the law."

"It won't come to that. Impulses only arise in a moment, and can lead to irreversible consequences. Yunhai has calmed down now, so he won't do anything extreme." Wu Wei was confident about that, at least.

It was like people who wanted to jump off a building and kill themselves. If they made up their minds right then, closed their eyes, and jumped, that would be the end of it.

But if they hesitated and dragged things out, in the end they wouldn't have the courage to kill themselves.

Qin Yunhai had already passed that point.

Seeing that Wu Wei wasn't worried, Lan Meng stopped fretting over it.

She turned her attention back to the message, and her expression grew strange again.

What kind of woman would do something like this, then shamelessly say something like that?

Did her conscience really not bother her?

"Wu Wei, do you still think she hasn't been affected by the Heart Demon?" Lan Meng asked.

In Lan Meng's eyes, no normal girl would ever do something like this.

Wu Wei could only say she was far too naive.

Though Wu Wei also thought it was outrageous, he had to admit that he'd come across plenty of people just as bizarre elsewhere.

"I've seen plenty of strange men and women online. Their values and behavior are completely different from ordinary people's. Compared to them, Chi Yu is nothing special."

"But Chi Yu always seemed perfectly normal before," Lan Meng protested.

Because of Wu Wei, she knew a little about both Qin Yunhai and Chi Yu.

Before this, everyone had thought Qin Yunhai and Chi Yu were a good match. No one had seen that Chi Yu could be so "open-minded."

"So we still need to investigate whether she was suppressing her true nature, or whether the Heart Demon really drew it out."

Wu Wei said something that went without saying, then suddenly stiffened.

"What is it? Did you think of something?"

Noticing Wu Wei's reaction, Lan Meng grew a little tense.

"I just realized I forgot to discuss the relationship between smog and cultivation with Yunhai. If we can figure it out, we could actually cultivate a few practitioners on a small scale."

For example, they could use a super-powerful air purifier to clean the air in one area, so practitioners wouldn't have to breathe in smog.

Or they could improve the cultivation manuals and change them from absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to absorbing smog.

Of course, the latter was too difficult for Wu Wei for now.

But the former wasn't impossible, as long as he put his mind to it.

Lan Meng had grown somewhat immune to Wu Wei's wild ideas.

She waved a hand and said helplessly, "Our cultivation families have all tried that. It doesn't work."

"Too many people chasing too little, right? The spiritual energy left after purifying the air isn't enough to sustain a whole cultivation family?"

Wu Wei's reasoning was perfectly sound, and that was indeed the case.

Lan Meng nodded. "Exactly. And even if we concentrated our resources on cultivating just a few people, or even one person, the results would still be far worse than before. By the time a practitioner finishes cultivating, they can't even defend themselves against a bullet. What's the point of all that effort?"

Some of the old cultivation families hadn't given up and still dreamed of cultivating their way to immortality.

But families like the Lan Family had long since given up. They'd successfully reinvented themselves with the wealth they'd accumulated during their cultivation days, and were now among the leaders of the new world.

Wu Wei admired the Lan Family's decisiveness.

But in his eyes, cultivation wasn't necessarily a dead end.

The conditions just weren't right yet.

"The spiritual energy in the air hasn't disappeared. It's just been polluted by smog. As long as we can separate out the smog, it'll be just like before. Or we could use a special breathing method to avoid the smog and achieve the same effect."

"Wu Wei, isn't all that just fantasy? If we had that kind of ability, we wouldn't be called the Age of Dharma Decline." Though Wu Wei was her idol, Lan Meng still scoffed at what he'd said.

Wu Wei scoffed at her way of thinking even more.

"If you can't even imagine it, how can you make it real? Lan Meng, you need to broaden your imagination. The Age of Dharma Decline just means cultivation has fallen into decline. It doesn't mean technology can't achieve all of this."

"What does technology have to do with cultivation?" Lan Meng retorted.

"Someone once said that the end of science is theology. I don't completely agree, but if technology really develops the way I envision, the scientists of the future won't be all that different from gods."

Lan Meng's worldview was shaken once again.

"So, Lan Meng, read more. The ocean of knowledge is far more alluring than the temptations of the opposite sex. Our lives are so short. Don't waste them on useless things." Wu Wei earnestly advised her.

He still felt guilty about that so-called engagement.

Lan Meng rolled her eyes.

So that was what all his talk had been leading up to.

"Wu Wei, people say that if you don't have a dream, what's the difference between you and a salted fish?"

"Exactly. My dream is to see what lies at the end of science. Now I have another dream: to catch up with the possible Lord of Time and Space and Main God, then surpass them."

And to accomplish all that, he needed to devote himself completely.

Lan Meng wasn't moved in the slightest. She simply said, very seriously, "My dream is to sleep with you."

Wu Wei: "(?＞?＜)☆"

What expression was he supposed to make?

"You're wasting your effort. Once I, Lan Meng, set my mind on something, I won't change it. But don't worry. If you stay by my side, even a pig will improve. I'm no exception. Do you think I have a masochistic streak? Why else would I keep hanging around you and Qin Yunhai? I want to improve myself."

Wu Wei looked at Lan Meng in surprise. "I didn't know you had that kind of self-awareness."

Lan Meng was so angry she trembled.

"Do you really think I'm that hopeless? I get a scholarship every year, for goodness' sake. I often get perfect scores on exams, too."

"You get 100 because 100 is the best you can do. I get 100 because the test is only worth 100. We're not the same. You need to understand that."

"Wu Wei, you know you're going to die alone, right?"

"Not at all. No matter how aloof a male god is, there'll always be girls fawning over him. Take me, for example. I can't help it either."

Lan Meng took a deep breath.

Was she, Jingxiang, not flirtatious enough, or had he, Nobita, set his standards too high?

Actually, hadn't his standards always been high?

How was she supposed to deal with how much that hurt?

"Enough. Let's drop it. I'm going to pay Professor Chi a visit. Where are you going?"

Professor Chi was Chi Yu's father.

A family always had a great influence on a young person.

Of course, Wu Wei was also visiting Professor Chi because he was an authority in the field of biology.

Wu Wei did have some questions he wanted to ask Professor Chi.

And while he was at it, he could see whether there was something wrong with the Chi Family.