The Buddhist Kingdom in Dreams (VII)

A malevolent ghost that could kill only in dreams. After a nightmare attacked someone, any injuries they suffered in the dream would carry over into reality. If the ghost killed them in the dream, they would die in reality as well.

"Cousin, what are you thinking about?"

Xiao Yuan walked over, holding a dagger, her face still spattered with dark red blood.

"Nothing." Yang Jian instinctively took a step back, putting a little more distance between himself and his younger cousin.

Only then did Yang Jian notice that his cousin's left eye was missing. The socket was pitch-black, and together with the blood on her face, it made Xiao Yuan look utterly terrifying.

"Xiao Yuan, where's your eye?"

Yang Jian asked tentatively. He was unsure whether the cousin before him was real. If she suddenly turned into a ghost like Liu Jing had, he might not even know how he died.

"Oh, right."

Xiao Yuan patted her head.

"I remember now. I was going to give you the eye."

"The eye?"

Yang Jian did not quite understand what Xiao Yuan was talking about. This cousin of his was always acting crazy.

"That's right."

Xiao Yuan raised a hand to touch her eye socket, then sighed and continued, "But some things can't be brought in here. I'll have to give it to you once we're out."

Yang Jian asked in confusion, "Some things can't be brought in?"

Xiao Yuan nodded hard twice and waved the dagger in her hand. "Things like this can be brought in, but not the kind in your left hand."

As she spoke, Xiao Yuan pointed at Yang Jian's incomplete left hand.

"My left hand...?" Yang Jian looked at the empty space where his palm should have been.

Could supernatural things not be brought into this world?

Yang Jian immediately understood what Xiao Yuan meant. When dealing with the supernatural, he was always exceptionally perceptive, even if he was now only an ordinary person.

Yang Jian was almost certain that he was dreaming, and that he was currently inside an incredibly realistic dream.

Xiao Yuan's meaning was clear. The ghost could drag people's consciousnesses and objects that existed in reality into the dream, but it could not drag other ghosts in as well.

Or perhaps the ghosts Yang Jian controlled could not take effect in dreams.

Dreams... when was I attacked?

Yang Jian rapidly searched his memories.

Could it have been Lin Bei...? When the bus stalled, he displayed supernatural powers related to dreams. But we never had any conflict. He had no reason to attack me...

Lin Bei... the bus... Elder Qin?!

Yang Jian suddenly remembered that Elder Qin had once told him he had driven the bus into his father and killed him. Combined with the information from Lin Bei, Yang Jian had already confirmed that his father had been a ghost rider.

Could I have already been attacked back at my old home, by Father's memorial portrait? Perhaps the real reason Elder Qin ran Father over was that his ghost was about to revive, leaving him no choice...

Yang Jian was analyzing everything rapidly. No one else could match this freakish speed of response when faced with the supernatural.

That would explain it...

Yang Jian sorted through all the information he currently possessed. The tangled clues linked together in his mind, and some long-buried events were gradually surfacing.

The ghost Father controlled when he was alive is the one attacking me now, and the attack happened during the day, when I was by his memorial portrait.

Yet even though Yang Jian had worked out the ghost's origins in an extremely short time, it did nothing to help his current situation.

How do I get out? Or rather, how do I get my consciousness back into my body?

Right now, Yang Jian was disabled. Forget a ghost-even if a dog came charging out, all he could do was run.

I have to get out as soon as possible. If I die in the dream, Lin Bei will be the first to suffer. That bald man definitely won't be able to stop my ghosts from reviving. When that happens, all of DQ City, and even the surrounding areas, will come under attack from his ghosts and mine.

"Xiao Yuan, take me out of here."

Yang Jian spoke immediately. His cousin seemed very familiar with this dream, and had even brought a dagger in preparation. Although he could not be sure whether she was human or a ghost, for now, he could only cling tightly to this golden thigh.

"Sure, Cousin." Xiao Yuan giggled and said to Yang Jian, "Follow me."

"Where are we going?"

Xiao Yuan said as though it were obvious, "To find the ghost and kill it. Didn't you want to get out, Cousin? Just find the ghost and kill it. If we still haven't killed it by dawn, people will die, you know."

Kill the ghost... in other words, ghosts can be hurt in dreams...

Yang Jian walked beside Xiao Yuan, silently committing this crucial information to memory.

He followed Xiao Yuan along the country path. The sinister sky hung dark and heavy overhead, and the dim moonlight faintly illuminated the path ahead.

"Xiao Yuan, have you been in this sort of dream many times?"

"Hmm..." Xiao Yuan touched a finger to her chin, thinking.

"I can't remember. All I know is that we have to kill the ghost to get out."

Whoosh... whoosh...

Rushing rivers surged past on either side, their splashing particularly grating. It sounded as though something was struggling to crawl ashore.

Xiao Yuan seemed very afraid of water. She deliberately walked down the middle of the path, avoiding the splashing river water as much as possible.

Splash!

A dull impact rang out, as though something heavy had fallen from the sky into the river.

Yang Jian narrowed his eyes and looked carefully. In the hazy moonlight, he could only faintly make out a round object drifting with the current. It looked like a ball.

Splash! Another, louder splash rang out. This time, Yang Jian saw it clearly: a long-haired female corpse fell from above and plunged straight into the river.

He abruptly realized that what he had seen earlier had not been a ball at all, but a dead person's head!

But that was not what frightened Yang Jian most. In the instant that corpse fell into the river, he had distinctly seen the appearance of the female corpse from the Ghost Lake!

She looked exactly as she did in Yang Jian's memories, without the slightest difference. What lay on either side of the path were not rivers at all, but the Ghost Lake!

Splash! Another corpse fell into the lake. Seeming to notice something, Yang Jian slowly raised his head and looked up.

Beneath the gloomy sky, countless female corpses hung from Ghost Ropes below the clouds, layer upon layer, with no end in sight. Their heads drooped, yet every one of them was staring fixedly at Yang Jian and Xiao Yuan.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps between the corpses, shining onto Yang Jian's shocked face.

"You've got to be kidding..."

The next second, the Ghost Ropes began to snap...

Splash!

Splash!

Corpses fell one after another, like raindrops, slamming into the lake. One sodden head after another emerged above the water, staring fixedly at Yang Jian.

"Run!"

Yang Jian grabbed Xiao Yuan's hand and ran madly forward. With this many corpses, the impacts alone could crush them both to death.

Yet the corpses fell from the sky in ever greater numbers. The splashes rang out without end, each one pounding heavily against Yang Jian's heart like a drumbeat.

Perhaps because they were still in the early stages of entering the dream, these female corpses did not move.

But more and more corpses fell, their numbers growing increasingly outrageous, until they almost formed a rain of bodies.

Smack!

A female corpse slammed down beside the path, the fall battering her flesh into a bloody mess. The next moment, her limbs began to bend at extremely awkward angles as she slowly rose to her feet.