Chapter 12

Swish, swish, swish.

Lin Sheng flipped through the pages frantically, trying to find a clear one, but he had gone through almost the entire book without finding a single legible page.

Snap.

He tossed the book aside, returned directly to the bookshelf on the left, and quickly pulled out a book from the upper section to examine it.

This time, he let out a sigh of relief; this book was reasonably clear.

"Thank goodness, this one—" Before Lin Sheng could even finish exhaling, he saw the pages in his hands begin to blur as well.

The first half of this book was clear, but the latter part was just as blurry as the others.

His expression shifted. Even though he was in a dream, a sense of urgency rose within him involuntarily, and he hurried to flip through the books on the shelf one by one.

As time passed.

Soon, after flipping through dozens of thick volumes on the shelf, he had roughly determined the situation.

"On the shelves, only the dozen or so books placed in the most prominent spots on the left shelf are clear. Everything else is blurred."

Lin Sheng plopped down in front of the low table, lost in thought.

"And these books left on the table are all clear. Especially this open sword technique manual; even the details of the illustrations are extremely precise."

After a quick comparison, he discovered a pattern.

Among these clear books, the sword technique manual was the clearest, followed by the stack of books on the low table, and then the dozen most prominent books on the left shelf.

"Interesting." Lin Sheng had a vague guess, but he dared not confirm it.

"No rush. Let's try to go outside first and see what's beyond this manor."

He was becoming increasingly interested in this dream.

Standing in place, he calmed his emotions.

Lin Sheng put down the book and slowly walked toward the study door.

Compared to when he first entered this place, his five senses could now clearly perceive the surrounding environment.

The chill in the air, the tactile rebound of the floor beneath his feet, the friction of his clothes against his skin as he moved.

All these sensations made him increasingly convinced that there was something wrong with this dream.

"This is no ordinary dream. No dream can be this clear. No dream can repeat for over a month!"

Lin Sheng was now certain he had encountered something anomalous.

However, since memories of a past life could exist, his capacity for acceptance and adaptation was far stronger than that of an ordinary person.

Click.

The door connecting to the living room was slowly pushed open.

Lin Sheng walked out slowly, step by step, looked left and right, and then paced toward the living room's main entrance.

He arrived before the exit door.

Lin Sheng looked up to examine the door.

The maroon door was crafted from some kind of metal, with faint wood grain patterns on its surface. From a distance, it looked like a red grandfather clock.

A circular pattern hung in the center of the door, featuring four different animals arranged in a circle.

Lin Sheng did not recognize these four animals; they looked like cheetahs, but they had long, serrated tails.

Above the door was a field of diamond-shaped patterns, resembling a massive vertical pupil, staring down at everything inside the room.

Lin Sheng frowned and reached out to touch the edge of the door frame.

The frame was covered in repeating, unrecognizable letters that formed a chain-like pattern, filling the entire frame.

"This door feels like it's guarding something." A strange emotion rose in Lin Sheng's heart.

But curiosity overcame everything else.

He reached out and gripped the door handle.

The cold handle was carved into the shape of a black python's head, its dark red eyes glowing with a faint luster. He could even see the delicate scale patterns on the snake's body.

He gave it a hard twist.

Click.

With a faint sound of the latch releasing, the door slowly swung open.

A spacious woodland filled with thin mist appeared before Lin Sheng.

In the center of the woods was a carriage path that wound through the shade of the trees, extending into the distance, deep into the impenetrable fog.

Everything seemed to be shades of gray and black.

Lin Sheng swallowed hard and slowly stepped out of the door.

Beneath his feet were three wooden steps, stained with a faint dark red, as if some kind of pigment had been splashed onto them.

Stepping onto them, they felt soft, as if they might wobble and collapse at any moment.

Creak, creak.

Stepping down from the stairs, Lin Sheng stood before the door, gazing left and right.

The surroundings were shrouded in gloom, with vast swathes of trees obscuring the night sky.

The color of the night sky was slightly brighter than pitch black, yet not enough to illuminate the ground or the woods. It was only just enough to barely distinguish the outlines of objects.

Lin Sheng took a few steps forward, feeling his feet sink into the soft, muddy ground. Unable to maintain his balance, he came to a halt.

Puff. Puff. Puff.

A faint, strange sound seemed to drift from the distance.

Lin Sheng looked up, peering in the direction of the noise.

Within the hazy mist, something appeared to be moving rapidly.

Puff. Puff. Puff.

The sound was highly rhythmic, carrying a slight, heavy weight.

"What is that?" Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes, focusing intently in an attempt to see more clearly.

Puff-puff-puff-puff!!

Suddenly, the sound accelerated rapidly.

It sounded like a heartbeat—the frantic, thumping rhythm of a human heart in the grip of panic.

Before Lin Sheng could react, he saw a tall, black silhouette rapidly approaching from the mist ahead.

The figure moved with incredible speed, accompanied by that strange puffing sound, charging toward him like a madman.

Puff-puff-puff-puff!!

The sound grew closer and closer; it wasn't some other noise at all, but the sound of the figure's own footsteps!

Lin Sheng's pupils constricted as he retreated step by step.

Clang.

He tripped over the stairs and fell to the ground.

"Damn it!!"

Before he could scramble to his feet, the figure's speed surged, accelerating faster and faster as if a movie had been set to fast-forward. Despite the distance that still remained, the figure moved with a bizarre, distorted posture, reaching him in the blink of an eye.

"I—!!"

Puff!!

Lin Sheng's half-risen body suddenly froze.

His head flew into the air, accompanied by a mist of blood, striking the half-open door of the hall before rolling down and coming to a slow stop on the wooden steps.

A pair of wide-open black eyes gradually lost their focus.

The black figure held a heavy longsword, its tip touching the ground, and paused for a moment. Then, it slashed down violently.

Squelch, squelch, squelch, squelch!!

Lin Sheng's body was hacked to pieces in a frenzy, with a spray of blood and gore splattering everywhere.

Amidst a wet, mushy sound, the corpse was soon reduced to an unrecognizable state, hacked into several pieces scattered across the steps.

Hah! Hah! Hah!!

Lin Sheng snapped his eyes open, feeling an indescribable pain throughout his entire body.

He lay flat on his bed, his neck still lingering with the sharp, agonizing sensation of having just been severed by a sword.

"I died??"

That rapidly approaching figure had been like some kind of terrifying monster, filled with distortion and madness, delivering that strike without a moment's hesitation.

Lin Sheng hadn't even managed to see the opponent's face.

The immense pressure and the bone-chilling tremor that had rushed toward him left him unable to move at the final moment, unable even to scream.

Lin Sheng instinctively reached up to touch his neck, slowly sitting up in bed and leaning against the headboard.

There was no wound on his neck, yet for some reason, he could still feel a dull ache there.

Fortunately, the pain was slowly fading, recovering at a speed he could actually perceive.

"What on earth is this dream?" Lin Sheng recalled the madly approaching figure, a shiver running down his spine.