The water level of the underground river remained unchanged. Some dark shadows could be vaguely seen floating and moving in the water.
Everyone else, including the mad beggar, remained quiet, while Han Laizi and his companions shouted loudly, "Help! There's something in the water! Help!..." Struggling, he lost his balance and coughed again.
Qingmu watched all this with a cold eye, continuing to ponder the details of this criminal plan.
"Are you the main architect of this plan, or your master Duwa? But I imagine important figures like you are all very busy, so you let the Medicine Granny manage this cave? Because the Medicine Granny is involved in human trafficking, she can find suitable people to help you traffic drugs. Coincidentally, the Medicine Granny has a certain reputation among the local people, and she naturally possesses the ability of lucid dreaming, so your master took her as his apprentice and taught her some tricks of deception."
"But I still can't figure it out. Neither you nor your master could have constructed such a powerful Bottom-Layer Space rule that overlaps with the real world to some extent, allowing everyone who enters the cave to enter the same dream space. How did you manage to do that?"
After listening to Qingmu's analysis, Du Juan laughed heartily, "You're really smart, a true genius! But it's a pity that being smart is useless now; your fate will be the same as theirs."
At this point, the water level in the underground river began to slowly recede.
An empty cage on the edge of the cliff creaked open.
"This cage is for you," said the Du Juan.
Qingmu felt an invisible force enveloping his body and pulling him into the cage. He didn't resist; it was as if he had walked in himself. He needed to slowly explore the rules of this space, to discover what unique features it had besides simulating the spatial rules of the real world.
"You think you can keep me locked up in an iron cage like this?"
"Knowing that the power trapping you comes from the entire space, not this cage, why bother asking?" Du Juan seemed very confident. "You can try to escape. Ah, I really want to see how long someone as strong as you would need to be locked up before completely going insane!"
The water had receded completely, and the riverbed was so shallow that the stones could be seen.
"You're only a part of this dream, aren't you afraid of getting trapped inside too?" Qingmu said.
Du Juan laughed and said, "Don't worry about me. If I hadn't figured out the patterns here, how could I have trapped you?"
"So, you're admitting that this place wasn't created by you or your master? Then can you tell me exactly where this place is? I can't escape anyway, so at least let me die knowing the truth!"
"A ghost? No way. Don't worry, I won't let you die. How could I bear to let a man as handsome and strong as you die!" Du Juan floated down from the rock wall, her long white hair tucked away, and she regained her charming demeanor from the small wooden building. "After you lose consciousness, I'll take you out."
"I'll give you a haircut and a change of clothes, make you look nice. I think you'll look really, really handsome!"
"I won't let you become a drug-dealing beggar. I'm going to take you back to Masuba, plant a seed in your mind, and make you fall in love with me!"
She walked barefoot into the river and stood before the Qingmu cage. "A powerful Awakened has a seed of love for me in his consciousness, and he would be proud to be my devoted subject for life. He would do anything I asked. Ah... just thinking about it excites me!"
When Qingmu heard that he was going to get a haircut and a change of clothes, he made a ridiculous face. "You're too arrogant! A woman shouldn't be so arrogant."
Du Juan laughed heartily, "Can't I be arrogant? Fine, I might as well tell you, this is my territory. Even my master doesn't know the rules here better than me, because I was the first to discover this place. It was also here that I first met Situ."
When she spoke of Situ, she looked completely captivated.
" Situ? It's Situ again? Did he create this awful place?" Qingmu asked.
"Of course not!" Du Juan said, "But he helped me activate this place when I was only thirteen. You can't imagine how excited I was! That's when I realized there were things in this world more captivating than poppies."
The expression on her face was as shy as that of a young girl experiencing her first love.
"Thirteen years old!" Qingmu expressed his bewilderment at the age when a woman was considered mature. "So, that's when you tried to seduce Situ with your Tushu?"
Du Juan looked disappointed. "That's right, but unfortunately he remained unmoved."
"But shouldn't you have been in Mianyue when you were thirteen? Wasn't your master, Duwa, from there?"
"Yes, but my master often brings me to China. Otherwise, how do you think I can speak Mandarin?"
Qingmu nodded, looking at the endless rows of cages along the riverbank, and asked, "Just how many people have you harmed?"
"I don't know about the Tushu; the people were all brought in by my unlucky senior sister," Du Juan said. "But drug trafficking through this line only started after Mu Ka came back, less than two years ago. It probably hasn't harmed many people."
"You don't seem to care much about drugs," Qingmu said.
The Du Juan said, "What's there to worry about? I'm just a living poppy!"
While they were still chatting, the water level of the underground river began to rise again.
"Huh? Something's not right today. The water rose a bit early." Du Juan seemed a little puzzled. "Never mind, I'll go now. You can stay here and let it boil."
"But there's something I need to remind you. My senior sister is dead, and you've brought the police here, so no one will be bringing you food for the next few days." Du Juan smiled slyly, backing away as she spoke. "The water in this underground river is drinkable; there are fish in it, and sometimes rats, snakes, or other animals crawl through the cave. If you can catch them, you won't go hungry."
As the Du Juan's figure gradually disappeared, the light in the cave also gradually dimmed until it was completely dark.
Qingmu tried shaking the cage's iron bars with his hand; they were very sturdy and didn't make a sound.
In the darkness, nothing could be seen except the icy chill of the underground river water beneath my feet. The water level was rising, and the cold sensation spread upwards along my legs.
Qingmu carefully sensed everything happening to him. This was both the rule of this dream and the sensations his real body was experiencing. So, what kind of environment was his real body currently in?
The river water rose past his waist, then slowly submerged his chest and neck. He felt a cool sensation on his chin, then on his nose.
Unlike the others in the cages who craned their necks to desperately breathe, he let himself be completely submerged in water, with only his messy hair sticking out.
He knew that consciousness wouldn't drown.