Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Lin Sheng frantically flipped through the pages, trying to find one that was clear. But he nearly went through the entire book without finding a single legible page.
Smack.
He dropped the book and went straight back to the shelf on the left, quickly pulling a book from the upper half and flipping through it.
This time, he breathed a sigh of relief. The book was still fairly clear.
"Thank goodness. This one..." Before Lin Sheng could finish exhaling, he saw the pages in his hands begin to blur, too.
The first half of the book was clear, but the rest was just as blurry.
His expression changed. Even though he was in a dream, a sense of urgency rose within him, and he hurriedly began flipping through the books on the shelf one by one.
As time passed.
Soon, he had gone through dozens of hefty books on the shelf and had a rough idea of what was going on.
"Only the dozen or so most prominent books on the left-hand shelf are clear. Everything else is blurry."
Lin Sheng dropped into a seat in front of the low table and fell into thought.
"And all these books on the table are clear, too. This open manual on swordsmanship is especially clear—even the details in the illustrations are remarkably precise."
After comparing them again, he quickly noticed something.
Among the clear books, the manual on swordsmanship was the clearest, followed by the stack on the low table, then the dozen or so most prominent books on the left-hand shelf.
"Interesting." Lin Sheng had a vague idea, but he wasn't sure.
"Let's not rush. I'll try going outside first and see what's beyond the manor."
He was becoming more and more interested in this dream.
He stood still and took a moment to steady himself.
Lin Sheng set down the book and slowly walked toward the study door.
Compared to when he had first arrived, his five senses could now perceive his surroundings with much greater clarity.
The coolness of the air, the springiness of the ground beneath his feet, the friction of his clothes against his skin as he moved.
These sensations only strengthened his belief that something was wrong with this dream.
"This isn't an ordinary dream. No dream could be this clear. No dream could repeat itself for over a month!"
By now, Lin Sheng was certain that he had encountered something abnormal.
But if even the memories of his past life could exist, his ability to accept and adapt to things was far greater than that of an ordinary person.
Click.
The door connecting to the living room slowly swung open.
Lin Sheng stepped out slowly, looked to either side, then made his way toward the living room's front door.
He stopped in front of the exit.
Lin Sheng looked up and studied the door.
The dark-red door was made of some kind of metal, with a faint wood-grain pattern on its surface. From a distance, it looked like a red grandfather clock.
A circular design hung in the very center of the door. Four different animals formed a ring inside it.
Lin Sheng didn't recognize what kind of animals they were. They looked like cheetahs, but they had long, saw-toothed tails.
Above the door was a diamond-shaped pattern, like a huge, upright pupil staring at everything inside.
Lin Sheng frowned and reached out to touch the edge of the doorframe.
Unfamiliar letters repeated across it, forming a chain-like pattern that covered the entire frame.
"This door feels like it's protecting something." A strange feeling stirred within Lin Sheng.
But his curiosity still won out.
He reached for the handle.
The cold handle was carved into the shape of a black serpent's head, its dark-red eyes glimmering faintly. He could even make out the delicate scales along its body.
He twisted it hard.
Click.
With a faint rattling sound, the door slowly opened.
A vast woodland, shrouded in mist, appeared before Lin Sheng.
A carriage road ran through the middle of the woods, surrounded by tree shadows as it stretched into the distance, vanishing into the depths of the fog.
Everything seemed gray and black.
Lin Sheng swallowed and slowly stepped outside.
Three wooden steps lay beneath his feet, stained a faint dark red, as if some kind of paint had been spilled over them.
The steps felt soft beneath his feet, as if they might sway and collapse at any moment.
Creak, creak.
After descending the steps, Lin Sheng stood in front of the door and looked around.
Everything was dark and gloomy. Vast swaths of trees covered the night sky.
The sky was a little brighter than pitch-black, but not enough to illuminate the ground or the woods. He could barely make out the shapes of things.
Lin Sheng took a few steps forward. The soft, muddy ground beneath his feet made it hard to keep his balance, so he stopped again.
Puff. Puff. Puff.
A faint, strange noise seemed to come from far away.
Lin Sheng raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound.
Something seemed to be moving rapidly in the hazy fog.
Puff. Puff. Puff.
The sound had a steady rhythm and was slightly heavy.
"What is that?" Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes, concentrating as he tried to see more clearly.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!!
Suddenly, the sound sped up.
It was like a heartbeat—the rapid pounding of a person's heart in terror.
Before Lin Sheng could react, a tall, black figure came rushing toward him through the fog.
The figure moved incredibly fast, charging straight at him with that strange puffing sound.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!!
The sound grew closer and closer. It wasn't anything else—it was the figure's footsteps!
Lin Sheng's pupils contracted, and he staggered backward.
Clang.
He tripped over the steps and fell onto his backside.
"Damn it!!"
Before he could get back up,
The figure suddenly accelerated, moving faster and faster, as if someone had pressed fast-forward on a movie. Though it had still been a long way off, it charged toward him in an instant, its body twisting into a grotesque posture.
"I—!"
Pfft!!
Lin Sheng's half-risen body suddenly froze.
His head flew into the air, trailing a cloud of blood. It struck the half-open door of the hall, then rolled down and came to a slow stop on the wooden steps.
His wide-open black eyes gradually lost their light.
The black figure held a heavy longsword, its tip touching the ground. It paused, then suddenly swung down in a slash.
Slish, slish, slish, slish!!
Lin Sheng's body was smashed apart beneath a furious barrage of blows, blood and chunks of flesh spraying everywhere.
Amid the wet, splattering mess, his corpse was soon unrecognizable, chopped into several pieces scattered across the steps.
Huff! Huff! Huff!!
Lin Sheng snapped his eyes open, his whole body aching in a way he couldn't describe.
He lay on his back in bed, the excruciating pain of having his neck cut through by a sword still lingering.
"I died??"
The figure that had rushed toward him was like some kind of terrifying monster. Twisted and frenzied, it had swung its sword at him without hesitation.
Lin Sheng hadn't even had time to see what it looked like.
The overwhelming pressure bearing down on him, and the bone-deep chill that came with it, had left him unable to move in his final moments. He hadn't even been able to scream.
Lin Sheng instinctively reached up to touch his neck, then slowly sat up and leaned against the headboard.
There was no wound on his neck, but somehow it still hurt.
Fortunately, the pain was slowly fading—he could actually feel it getting better.
"What was that dream...?" When Lin Sheng remembered the figure charging toward him, a shiver ran through him.
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