"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Taiping, Taiping, don't be afraid! It's Grandpa! Grandpa's here!"
"G-Grandpa?!"
"Taiping, did you have a nightmare?"
"Yes, Grandpa. I had a nightmare. I dreamed about immortals?"
"Immortals?"
"Yes, immortals!"
"Hehehe, immortals, eh? What were these immortals doing in your dream?"
"The immortals... a few immortals seemed to be fighting a Great Demon! But... but that demon didn't really look like a monster or a ghost... he looked more like a deity in a painting. No! He must have been a demon, because he said he would plunge our Mortal Realm into eternal damnation!"
"What a strange dream you had."
"Yes, Grandpa! In the dream, I even helped those immortals!"
"Oh? How did you help them?"
"When the immortals and the demonic beast had wounded each other badly, I picked up an immortal's saber and slashed that Great Demon!"
"In that case, my grandson Taiping was the great hero of that battle."
"Heh... hehe... I'm no great hero... Grandpa... I... I'm so sleepy... so sleepy... and my head... hurts so much... it feels like it's splitting open!"
"Oh, Taiping, why is your head so hot! Grandpa will take you to see a physician right away!"
"Grandpa... I... I think I've forgotten something... Grandpa..."
Green Bamboo Abode.
The front courtyard.
"You're saying you dreamed about the time you had a fever after a childhood nightmare?"
Walking beside Xu Taiping, Lin Buyu looked at him with some curiosity.
Xu Taiping nodded.
"Unless I'm mistaken, what happened in that nightmare should be our battle against the Jade Emperor on the Heaven-Treading Contest Battlefield back then."
Lin Buyu looked thoughtful.
"In that case, it wasn't a dream, but a memory that belonged to you all along."
Xu Taiping nodded gently.
"Indeed."
He looked up at the sky, then said, likewise thoughtful,