The light and shadow in the sky shifted, and the towering figure of the Medicine Buddha shrank rapidly until it became the size of an ordinary person.
The Medicine Granny sat cross-legged on the grass, her right hand still forming a delicate orchid-like gesture, but the orchid was no longer visible between her fingers.
Her peaceful expression vanished, replaced by shock and bewilderment. She stared sharply at Qingmu and asked, "You're Awakened too?"
"What Awakened?" Qingmu asked.
The Medicine Granny looked around; the flowers, plants, and trees were all unchanged from before.
She gradually calmed down and said, "I thought you only knew a little about hypnosis or hallucinations, which is why you could wake them up from my control. But since you can enter a state of lucidity and control dreams, why didn't you resist when I hypnotized you just now?"
Qingmu asked, "How should I resist?"
"Huh?" the Medicine Granny asked in surprise, "Didn't your master teach you that?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "I don't have a master, but you do?"
The Medicine Granny stared at him for a while, seemingly trying to discern whether he was telling the truth or lying, then laughed self-deprecatingly, "I was truly confused. The subconscious in dreams doesn't lie. So you don't have a master, you're not Awakened, you're a self-taught, naturally gifted spiritual being."
Qingmu asked, "What is a born spiritist?"
The Medicine Granny said, "I'm not really sure either. I've only heard my master mention that there are such people. They're probably born with the ability to have lucid dreams and some degree of dream control."
Qingmu nodded as if suddenly realizing something, and asked, "Who is your master?"
The Medicine Granny seemed wary and said with a smile, "Why do you need to know who my master is? If you want to learn, then become my disciple. You are a natural-born spiritual being; it would be a waste to waste such talent. Meeting me is your destiny; become my disciple now."
Qingmu said, "Then you have to show me something you're capable of before I'll believe you."
"Isn't my skill great enough?" the Medicine Granny chuckled. "Alright, since you can't escape my grasp anyway, I'll teach you a little something first."
She pointed around, "Do you know where this is?"
Qingmu shook his head and said, "How should I know!"
The Medicine Granny said, "This is your own dream. A dream is your own world, a world where you can do whatever you want!"
"Everything in this world is created by you based on your own memories, and your soul—oh yes, you call it consciousness—is the master of this world. You can see whomever you want, do whatever you want, you can fly, you can be intimate with the woman you like, you can tear your enemies to pieces, as long as these things are in your memories."
The Medicine Granny kept talking, Qingmu listened with a smile.
"How does consciousness access memory? It relies on the stimulation of the body's senses. Our senses remember things because they are stimulated, and when we are stimulated in the same way again, we will recall that thing. For example, if you ate a delicious food when you were a child and never ate it again, you will gradually forget it. But if you smell that smell again one day, you will immediately recall that food."
"Dreams can amplify this kind of stimulation, so even a little sensory stimulation can trigger your dormant memories. If your pants are too tight, the slight friction while you sleep might make you dream about the girl who once made your nose bleed."
The Medicine Granny chuckled, a blush creeping onto her aged face.
"When I hypnotized you, you smelled the medicinal scent emanating from me, so you dreamed of a world of herbs. Look around you—Ganoderma lucidum, Gastrodia elata, Dendrobium nobile, Panax notoginseng, Maca, Spatholobus suberectus... those are all Chinese medicinal herbs that I often collect, and I always have the scent of these herbs on me."
"You are a cultured and intelligent person; you should understand what I mean. A naturally gifted spiritual being, if given my training and guidance, will surely achieve great things."
"Ganoderma lucidum, Gastrodia elata, Dendrobium..." Qingmu stood up, shuffled around the grass, and carefully identified the herbs. "What's the point of you mentioning these?"
The Medicine Granny said mysteriously, "You'll understand its meaning when you learn to enter other people's dreams."
Qingmu said, "Is it like you entering my dream? Isn't it just rambling on and on about a bunch of nonsense in front of me?"
"What do you mean by 'talking a bunch of nonsense'?" The Medicine Granny was furious. "You can enter someone's dream and easily understand their subconscious thoughts. If you guide them correctly, you can unearth the memories and thoughts you want. This is something only a super spy can do."
"So are you a spy?" Qingmu asked.
"Hmph! What's the point of being a spy? You're just someone else's dog!" the Medicine Granny said disdainfully. "When your will—you can call it Mental Power —is strong enough, you'll be able to control people's minds."
"Then what?"
"Then..." the Medicine Granny chuckled, "Then you can do some things you want, such as..."
Qingmu said, "For example, human trafficking."
The Medicine Granny paused for a moment, but quickly regained her smile and said, "Heh, since you'll be my apprentice soon anyway, it won't hurt to tell you. I brought those women back using this method, but the money was just a small amount."
Qingmu asked, "Small change?"
The Medicine Granny said, "How much money can these villagers in Mangdian offer? At most, they can sell a woman for twenty or thirty thousand! They can only bring back three or four a year at most. What can you do with that little money? I earn more selling medicine."
"Then why did you do it?"
"As a disciple of the Medicine Buddha, who saves people from suffering, it is only natural that I must help the people of my village who are suffering."
"Aren't the women and children you abducted, and their families, suffering even more?"
The Medicine Granny scoffed, "You're too young! The total amount of suffering and happiness in this world is constant, just like the total amount of money. If you have more money in your pocket, someone else will inevitably have less. Your sweetness comes from the bitterness of others; your wealth is taken from the poverty of others; your joy is built on the sorrow of others."
"I only help my fellow villagers; the suffering of outsiders has nothing to do with me."
"Did your master teach you all of this?" Qingmu asked.
"No, I figured all of this out myself," the Medicine Granny said. "My master only taught me how to enter and control dreams. But I'm telling you today that I treat you even better than my master treated me! Hurry up and become my disciple."
Qingmu did not bow to her, but looked at him with a half-smile.
The Medicine Granny said, "Don't think that just because I've already told you everything, you don't need to find a master. There are many intricacies involved! You might be able to figure out how to have lucid dreams on your own, but do you know how to enter someone else's dream?"
Qingmu chuckled, hands in his pockets, and started walking across the grass, his slippers trampling the herbs into a mess, just like his hair.
"Have you considered that I'm not a herb gatherer? All those things you just mentioned—Gastrodia elata, Dendrobium, Panax notoginseng, and what was that again...?..."
"I've never seen these things before, so how could they possibly appear in my dream?!"
The Medicine Granny, who had already adopted a dignified posture and was waiting for Qingmu to become her disciple, suddenly seemed to be frozen by some kind of magic. Not only did her body not move, but the expression on her face also froze, with only her eyes revealing uncontrollable terror.
After a long while, she pointed at Qingmu with her delicate fingers and said, "You, you, you mean... this, this place..."
Qingmu interjected, "This is your dream. I entered your dream, not the other way around. If anyone's going to become your disciple, it's you who should become my disciple. Of course, I wouldn't want a disciple as old, ugly, and wicked as you."