A sudden idea

"Ow! You little bastard, have you lost your mind? You dare hit your godfather?"

The old eunuch lay on the ground, cursing.

Gary ignored him. Instead, he looked toward the distant Forbidden City and muttered to himself, "Is that the Forbidden City? This should be the capital of the Ming Dynasty."

He had created this dream, so it had to be part of his memories. But he could not possibly have visited the capital during the Ming Dynasty, so this had to be some film or television show he had watched.

The old eunuch got up, still cursing. "I'm going to skin you alive today!"

"You're too noisy." Gary's left eye suddenly turned green. He raised both hands, intending to use mana to alter the dream.

Altering dreams had always been easy. Gary had done it many times and knew the process well.

But this time, he struggled tremendously. The reason was that the dream was simply too vast.

How vast?

His previous dreams had covered no more than small locations, such as a plain or a castle.

This time, he had created not just a capital, but the entire Great Ming Dynasty!

Modifying a dream involved two steps.

First, he had to stabilize the dream with mana to keep it from collapsing during the changes. Only then could he use mana to modify it.

The Great Ming Dynasty's territory was by no means small. It was roughly the size of the entire continent of Westeros.

As the "conduit" through which the Crystal channeled mana, Gary was now under immense strain.

After an unknown length of time, he finally completed the changes he wanted. But the excruciating pain in his body left him unable to stand, and he could only slump weakly to the ground.

"Oh dear, Godfather, why are you sitting on the ground?" Wearing a fawning expression, the old eunuch hurried over to help Gary up.

Gary glanced at him. "Mm, good boy."

The first thing he had changed was their respective identities. Now he was the old eunuch's godfather.

Hah, that's what you get for taking advantage of me earlier!

Of course, he had not forgotten his real business. His second change had been to locate Arya within the dream and teleport her somewhere in the capital.

"Son, go back to the palace first. Your father wants to stroll around alone for a while," Gary said solemnly, his hands behind his back.

The old eunuch dared not object. He could only bow and scrape. "Yes, Godfather."

Gary waved a hand and left first.

As he walked along the street, he kept feeling as though he had forgotten something...

Ah! I forgot to change my little brother back. Never mind, it's only a dream anyway.

By now, the sky was growing dark, and the palace gates would soon close. Not daring to delay, the old eunuch picked up the goods and headed toward the palace.

The Ming capital had a curfew. No one was allowed on the streets after nightfall. Only people in certain occupations could move about at night, such as night watchmen, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, or members of the Eastern Depot.

Gary was new here, unfamiliar with both the place and its people. How would he know any of this? He had merely borrowed the Crystal's power to simulate a dream. The Crystal had calculated everything else on its own, without any involvement from him.

So even as the dream's master, he could not know everything within it.

He admired the ancient city's sights as he headed toward Arya's location.

Watching the dwindling number of pedestrians, he wondered, Why is everyone going home? Did people in the Ming Dynasty have no nightlife?

In a little corner in the south of the city, a young foreign girl huddled up.

She had suddenly appeared on the street a few minutes earlier. Her strange clothes and unusual language had naturally made her a target to be driven away.

People had treated her as a beggar and chased her into a dark corner of the street.

"It hurts so much. I want to go home..."

The little girl sobbed softly. She felt cold and exhausted, and her consciousness was gradually fading.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

Footsteps reached her ears. The little girl raised her head with difficulty and moved deeper into the corner, terrified of being beaten again...

"Arya? How did you end up like this?"

Speaking in the Valyrian Common Tongue, Gary picked Arya up from the ground.

He touched Arya's forehead. "You're burning up. Do you have a fever? Don't worry, I'll heal you."

Gary modified the dream again, instantly clearing away Arya's injuries and illness.

Arya recovered her energy and looked at Gary in bewilderment. "Who are you? Why do you speak Westerosi?"

Gary pinched her little nose. "I'm Luke. This is my dream. Have you forgotten?"

"Luke! You're Luke? Why do you look different? And this is your dream? What a strange dream..." Arya was excited at first upon seeing Gary, but the more she spoke, the more aggrieved she became.

Slowly, she began to cry. "Why did it take you so long to find me? They were practically bullying me to death!"

Gary held her with one arm and patted her back with the other hand. "There, don't cry. None of this is real. Let's leave the dream now and go back to reality."

Arya raised a little fist. "No, I want revenge!"

Gary could not help laughing. He had no choice but to let Arya lead him to the "enemy" who had hit her.

Darkness fell quickly. By the time they emerged from the alley, the street was already completely dark.

"What? Where did they all go?"

Little Arya looked around for a long time but could not spot the vendor who had hit her. "His stall's gone too. Did he run away?"

Gary smiled. "It's dark. He probably went home. Don't worry, I'll speed up time and make him set up his stall right now..."

Just as he was about to change the dream again, a squad of Embroidered Uniform Guards suddenly ran past them.

The guard in the lead exchanged a glance with Gary, then doubled back.

He looked Gary over a few times and asked, "The Directorate of Imperial Meals' uniform? Why haven't you returned to the palace this late at night?"

Looking at the man's face, Gary murmured, "Shen Lian? This dream is Brotherhood of Blades?"

Shen Lian could not help frowning. "How do you know my name?"

One of the guards beside him suddenly said, "Sir, the murder case at the inn still needs you to take charge. Why not leave a couple of men to handle things here?"

"Mm. Ding'an, stay here. Follow procedure. Question him and take a statement before making an arrest." Shen Lian waved a hand, and the remaining guards left with him.

Only the guard named Ding'an stayed behind. Resting his right hand on his saber's hilt, he asked, "Little eunuch from the Directorate of Imperial Meals, out with it. Why did you break curfew? Are you that eager to enter our Embroidered Uniform Guard's imperial prison?"

Gary put Arya down, then casually snapped his fingers. The dream began to freeze, undergoing subtle changes.

"Cough, cough..." His face went pale, and he coughed up a large mouthful of blood.

The frequent changes to the dream caused him unbearable pain. Ultimately, he was simply too weak to withstand the Crystal's immense power.

Across from him, Ding'an's attitude suddenly changed. "Why, isn't this Eunuch Xi? Still awake at this late hour? I failed to see your face clearly just now and spoke disrespectfully. Please forgive me, Eunuch."

He cupped his hands and bowed deeply to Gary.

Trembling all over, Gary braced himself against the wall and shouted furiously, "Get lost!"

"Yes, yes, of course!" Ding'an wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and took to his heels.

Gary had just changed his identity. Although he knew nothing about Ming Dynasty official ranks, he knew who held the most power in the Great Ming Dynasty at this time.

Not the emperor, but the grand eunuch Wei Zhongxian!

His official position had not changed. He was still a low-ranking eunuch under the Directorate of Imperial Meals. But now he was Wei Zhongxian's most beloved adopted son, which naturally gave him an extraordinary status.

Seeing how much pain Gary was in, Arya said with concern, "Luke, why don't we go back to reality? We don't need revenge."

Leaning against the wall, Gary slowly sat down on the ground. He smiled. "Arya, there's something I need to check."

He rested for a while, then took Arya to a nearby inn that was still open.

"Innkeeper, one of your best rooms."

Gary took a piece of gold leaf from his waist and tossed it to the innkeeper.

The innkeeper caught the gold leaf and felt it. It was real gold leaf! He hurried out from behind the counter and greeted them with a smile. "This way upstairs, honored guests."

They reached a room on the third floor, and the innkeeper personally closed the door for them. "If you need anything, just call out into the hallway."

After the innkeeper left, Gary crouched down and explained to Arya, "I need to check something. Wait here until I come back, and don't wander off."

Although Arya was a little afraid, she did not want to hold up Gary's business. "Then come back soon."

"Mm." Gary turned, left the room, and went downstairs.

Passing the counter, he deliberately paused. "Take good care of that girl, or else..."

Gary removed the badge from his waist and slapped it onto the counter. "I'll tear this inn down!"

The innkeeper looked at the four large characters on the badge, all color draining from his face. "Eastern Bureau of Investigation? You're an officer of the Eastern Depot! Rest assured, sir. We will take good care of the young lady and dare not neglect her."

Gary put away the badge and asked curiously, "It's already curfew. Why haven't you closed your doors?"

The innkeeper offered an ingratiating smile. "Don't you know today is the Ghost Festival, sir? Everywhere except the capital's main thoroughfare, curfew is delayed by two hours."

Gary raised his eyebrows. "The main thoroughfare? That wide road just one street over from here?"

"Yes. Didn't you know, sir?" The innkeeper was somewhat surprised.

Gary did not answer, merely nodding in silence. No wonder the inn seemed quite lively, while the broad road where he had encountered the Embroidered Uniform Guard had been deserted.

"I'm leaving. Take good care of her."

"Safe travels, honored guest!"

Gary left the inn and hurried in the direction Shen Lian had disappeared.

There was something he needed to check...

In fact, the instant he encountered Shen Lian, an idea had struck him.

Since everything in the dream was the result of the mysterious Crystal's calculations, could the martial arts moves it calculated possess real destructive power too?

If someone claimed they could bring internal energy and lightness skills from a dream into reality, Gary would certainly have scoffed.

But if it was merely martial arts moves, that was possible. Weren't these hand-to-hand fighting skills precisely the combat ability Gary desperately needed right now?