Dream of Delusion

It made sense. The firewood they had started with had only been enough to last until midnight—which was now. Lu Li had gone out and brought some back, but there hadn't been enough time, and he couldn't carry much on his own. At most, they had enough left to keep the fire going for another three or four hours, while dawn was still at least five hours away.

Even though the Corpse Ghosts had retreated, Lu Li knew there were definitely other ghosts lurking in the darkness. If the fire went out, they wouldn't hesitate to make him and the Old Man their breakfast.

The Old Man held the Puppet, oblivious as the tear at the corner of her eye grew more and more eerie. A heavy, drowsy atmosphere filled the ruined temple. Lu Li saw the Old Man across from him, still holding the Puppet, struggling to keep his eyes open. He added some firewood to the fire, and the Old Man's head drooped as he fell asleep again.

Another wave of dizziness hit Lu Li, but this time his eyes lit up: "Brain Limit Release: 10%... 11%... 12%... 15%!"

The release of his brain's limits didn't just speed up Lu Li's thinking; it greatly improved his ability to absorb information and sharpened his senses. Every day, we took in an enormous amount of information, but to keep our brains from overheating, our own safeguards filtered out what they deemed unimportant.

Now, Lu Li began to gather all the information he would normally overlook: temperature, air, smells, light, sounds, even the inexplicable feelings lurking in the back of his mind. They were stored in his brain and analyzed. Lu Li pressed his fingers against his temples, his eyes brightening. "Got you..."

Then Lu Li passed out. Two streams of blood ran from his nose as the ruined temple gradually peeled away, turning into dark brown ash that drifted off. The real became illusory, and the unreal grew ever more real. This was a dream, but not quite one—a place suspended between illusion and reality, truth and falsehood.

When Lu Li opened his eyes again, he saw the Puppet across from him. She was still gazing devotedly at the sleeping Old Man. Lu Li suddenly felt that it was cruel. The two of them were like the Other Shore Flower: when the flower bloomed, its leaves withered; when the leaves flourished, the flower faded. Flower and leaf never met, forever missing each other. In the waking world, the Old Man didn't know the Puppet had a mind of her own, while in the Dream of Delusion, the ordinary Old Man could only sleep, and the Puppet could only watch.

They had depended on each other for decades, yet had never truly spoken. So innocent and unaware—what a tragedy! Lu Li sighed, then asked the Puppet, "Let's pick up where we left off. What do you want me to do?"

"Greetings, Young Master." The Puppet looked away from the Old Man and bowed to Lu Li. "As I said before, everything here has a purpose. The temple that should have been here disappeared, but that doesn't mean it was meaningless. Someone hid it. The temple represents safety. If we find it and move the fire there, we'll be truly safe, and the temple in the real world will become safer too!"

"The temple, huh?" Lu Li studied the Puppet, but didn't ask more about it. Instead, he said, "There isn't much firewood left in the real world. You know better than I do how many things are watching us from the darkness. Do you have a solution?"

"Young Master, don't worry about that. I'll take care of it when the time comes." The Puppet smiled faintly, then turned away. "Hurry and get ready. We don't have much time. Time doesn't flow steadily in the Dream of Delusion. If we haven't dealt with everything by the time it runs out, we'll be in trouble!"

Lu Li tore off another piece of his trouser leg and made a simple torch. He'd found the Dream of Delusion truly strange. Earlier, he had torn off a piece of his trouser leg here, but when he returned to the real world, it had still been there. Yet after he came back to the Dream of Delusion, the piece was gone again. Now both trouser legs were missing, leaving him in shorts.

Fortunately, the drifting red snowflakes weren't very cold. Otherwise, the temperature alone would have been enough to give him a hard time. The Puppet walked briskly ahead, explaining things about the Dream of Delusion, while Lu Li followed at an unhurried pace with the torch in hand.

"The Dream of Delusion is like a series of bubbles. Each has its own area, but they aren't completely separate. Ghosts usually don't leave their own areas, though they can cross the boundaries. When living beings fall asleep, a projection of them appears here, naturally in a sleeping state. If a ghost harms them here, they'll be harmed in the real world too."

"Everything here has a purpose. A house, for example, usually represents safety. Those ghosts can't enter a human house on their own!"

"On their own? So there are ways they can get in?" Lu Li asked with interest.

"Ghosts have a hard time existing in the real world, and they can't easily interact with it—but it isn't impossible. They can make certain sounds. Ordinary people might not hear them, but people with weak qi and blood or nervous disorders might. A knock at the door, for example. If the owner opens the door, the ghosts can enter the house that represents safety as they please."

"You said ghosts have a hard time existing in the real world. Then what are those white-skinned monsters?" Lu Li asked curiously. The Corpse Ghosts were extremely afraid of fire, but they could still exist in the real world at night!

"...Those monsters exist for special reasons." The Puppet paused, then continued, "They're different from spirits like me. My physical body in the real world is an inanimate object. Their bodies may be dead, but they're still human flesh."

"The Dream of Delusion also has different phases. During the day, it enters a low-tide phase. Ghosts can hardly move then, and they can't harm the humans projected here. But at night, if you're outside a house and don't have something like a fire nearby, you're very likely to become a monster's snack! Of course, when large numbers of people gather together, their life force can have an effect similar to a fire."

"One thing to keep in mind is that the Dream of Delusion and the real world aren't completely disconnected. Someone unusual like you can enter this place, and we can use our abilities to affect the real world. Some actions in the real world can even break the barrier between the two and summon ghosts from the realm of illusion into reality."

"This world isn't safe," the Puppet concluded.

"Seems that way..." Lu Li pondered for a while, then chuckled softly. "What an interesting world!"

Please recommend and add this to your collections. If you have a reading list, feel free to add it there. Some people sent red envelopes today and yesterday. You really didn't have to, but Xu Ming is grateful. Thank you to everyone who supports me. Truly, thank you!