Qin Chuan raised his left hand, and Illusion Bell appeared above his palm.
Five white rings circled him, their light dim, about as bright as fireflies.
Hu Liena stared at the five white Soul Rings for two seconds, then the corner of her mouth twitched. She held it in and didn't laugh out loud. Five white rings, all under a hundred years old—there wasn't a second person in the entire Douluo Continent who'd do something like this.
Qin Chuan ran through them in his mind: Shadow Hypnosis, Sinful Haze, Flowers Falling in a Dream, Memory Kill, Angel Anthem.
Any one of his five Soul Skills was enough to give Hu Liena a serious headache. But he didn't want to open with his strongest move, so he decided to test the waters with his First Spirit Ability.
"Shadow Hypnosis."
A mental ripple swept out silently and slipped into Hu Liena's mind.
Hu Liena's eyelids grew heavy, and her body swayed slightly before she steadied herself.
But her consciousness was no longer in the study.
Qin Chuan followed her into the dream.
He stood in the middle of a huge room, looking around with an expression that was hard to describe.
A pink bed, velvet blankets, a golden carpet. Fake stars and a moon were set into the ceiling, glowing softly. A chaise longue sat in one corner, beside a dressing table lined with bottles and jars.
At the other end of the room was a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond them lay the view from halfway up an island hillside. It was dusk, the horizon ablaze with red clouds, and a few seagulls skimmed over the sea.
Qin Chuan stood where he was, motionless.
He'd used hypnosis on Xiao Wu before. Her dream had been a peach grove, with petals drifting everywhere—clean and simple. When he'd used it on Ning Rongrong, her dream had been a sea of flowers. That had been normal too.
Hu Liena's dream was a... honeymoon suite?
Qin Chuan rubbed his temples.
Forget it. No point thinking about it. Just follow the procedure.
"Hu Liena, tell me, who do you love most?"
Hu Liena was lying on the pink bed, propping her head up with one hand, perfectly at ease. At the sound of Qin Chuan's voice, she sat up, and the blanket slid off her shoulders, revealing the thin, pale-purple garment underneath.
She walked over to Qin Chuan and stopped in front of him.
"The person I love most is, of course, my teacher."
Qin Chuan said, "That doesn't count. I mean someone of the opposite sex."
"The opposite sex?" Hu Liena tilted her head. Without a moment's hesitation, she said, "Then that's you."
Qin Chuan: "..."
He waited two seconds, making sure he'd heard right.
Something was wrong. The Soul Skill worked by asking questions after hypnotizing someone, and the hypnotized person would act according to the caster's instructions. The key was "according to the caster's instructions." He'd told her to answer a question, not confess her love.
"Hu Liena, are you lying? We've only known each other for a few days."
"Ever heard of love at first sight?" Hu Liena's tone was even, as if she were stating the obvious.
She stepped closer and hooked her arm around Qin Chuan's.
Qin Chuan tried to step back, but the space in the dream seemed to have shrunk. The edge of the bed was right behind him.
"What are you doing?"
"Proving it to you."
Hu Liena tugged him toward the bed. Qin Chuan stumbled, then fell backward, his back hitting the soft mattress.
A thought flashed through Qin Chuan's mind: Something's wrong. I'm the caster. I'm the one who controls the dream. How can she be controlling me instead?
He tried to draw on his mental power, hoping to end the dream.
Nothing happened. He tried again, but still nothing.
Hu Liena had already leaned over him. Her hair fell from her shoulder, the ends brushing Qin Chuan's neck. Their faces were very close, their noses almost touching.
Qin Chuan could smell her. It wasn't perfume, just the scent of her skin, carrying a hint of warmth.
"Fine night, fine scenery—worth more than a thousand pieces of gold."
Qin Chuan's mind went completely blank.
He finally understood what had happened. Hu Liena was a Soul Master specializing in mental control, and the Demon Fox Martial Soul gave her powerful mental strength. After his hypnosis entered her mind, it hadn't fully suppressed her consciousness. Instead, it had resonated with her mental power.
The dream was formed from the hypnotized person's innermost thoughts.
In other words, this room, this bed, these scenes, and everything she was doing now—all of it was what she herself wanted!
Worse, their mental powers had become entangled in the dream, and he couldn't sever the connection by himself. It was like two ropes twisted together: if you wanted to pull out your own, the other person had to let go too.
Hu Liena clearly had no intention of letting go.
The sunset outside sank little by little. The sky shifted from orange-red to deep purple, then finally to night. The light of the stars and moon spilled from the ceiling and spread across the whole room.
Qin Chuan's consciousness grew more and more hazy.
His last lucid thought was: I'm never using hypnosis on a Soul Master specializing in mental powers again. I'll have to use a different Soul Skill next time!
About an hour later.
Qin Chuan's consciousness snapped back. The pink room shattered into countless points of light, and the study's furnishings came back into view.
He was still standing where he'd started, three meters away from Hu Liena.
Neither of them had moved, but both were breathing unevenly.
Qin Chuan's face was red, from his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. He lowered his head, not daring to look at Hu Liena.
Hu Liena's face was even redder. She covered her cheeks with both hands, and the skin visible between her fingers was flushed crimson.
The room fell silent for five seconds.
"Qin Chuan!" Hu Liena's voice came from behind her hands, muffled. "What kind of Soul Skill is that?"
Qin Chuan opened his mouth, finding his throat a little dry. "Shadow Hypnosis."
"Your First Spirit Ability?" Hu Liena lowered her hands and glared at him. "Your First Spirit Ability does that? Then what does your Fifth Spirit Ability do? Does it just...?"
She trailed off and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Qin Chuan: "..."
He wanted to explain. He wanted to say that the Soul Skill itself was perfectly normal: after hypnotizing someone, he could get them to answer questions or perform simple actions, more or less like an interrogation.
But the content of the dream was created by the hypnotized person.
That room was what she'd imagined. That bed was what she'd imagined. Everything she'd done was what she'd imagined too.
Qin Chuan turned those words over on his tongue three times, then swallowed them.
If he said that out loud, Hu Liena might twist his head off on the spot.
"That's so wicked!" Hu Liena stomped her foot, her voice rising. "You... how could you do something like that!"
She couldn't finish, because she knew perfectly well that she couldn't blame Qin Chuan for everything that had happened in the dream. Her mental power was strong, and it had interfered with the hypnosis, causing the dream to get out of control.
But knowing that was one thing. Saving face was another.
"Hmph!" Hu Liena turned and headed for the door. She paused when she reached it and looked back at Qin Chuan.
Her gaze was complicated, full of anger and embarrassment, along with something else, buried deep and gone in a flash.
"I never want to talk to you again!"
The door slammed shut, and her footsteps hurried away.
Qin Chuan stood alone in the study, staring into space for a while. "Aren't I the victim here?"
Hu Liena ran all the way back to her quarters.
She shoved open the door, rushed into the bedroom, slammed it shut, and bolted it.
Then she threw herself onto the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
Her heart was beating too fast, pounding against her chest again and again, making her ears ring.
The heat in her face wouldn't fade.
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.
The scenes from the dream replayed one frame at a time. That room, those floor-to-ceiling windows, the sea, and the startled expression on Qin Chuan's face when he fell onto the bed.
Hu Liena covered her face with the pillow, burning with shame and indignation.
But once she'd calmed down...
Honestly, that dream had felt pretty nice.
Hu Liena was startled by her own thought. She abruptly rolled over and buried her face in the pillow again.
No.
She was Bibi Dong's disciple, the Saintess of Spirit Hall, and the core of the Golden Generation.
How could she... just because of a dream? But that dream had felt so real.