A Small Compensation

Huai'an Prefecture, in Southern Zhili, borders the Yellow Sea to the east.

This area, though not as prestigious as Yanjing or Suzhou and Hangzhou, was the place that the Dream-Eating Marquis chose at first glance when selecting a location for his sect.

Because this is the largest crystal-producing area in the Nine Provinces region.

The mansion of the Dream-Eating Marquis is built against the mountain and by the water, and crystal sculptures can be seen everywhere in the mansion.

On the large crystal artificial mountain, lifelike monkeys, toads, and birds are carved from various colored crystals.

The air next door is filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers. In Zhongdu captivated by the crystals here, flying over to hop and play, lingering there for a long time.

The Dream-Eating Marquis was a plump man with thick black hair, a golden crown on his head, a round face, and dressed in a black fitted outfit and a golden gauze robe.

At this moment, he sat cross-legged among the crystal rockery, a smile on his face. In his left hand, he held a palm-sized crystal sculpture of a beautiful woman, and in his right hand, he held a golden needle, which he placed on the woman's forehead.

"My lord!"

A handsome scholar holding a peach blossom folding fan slowly approached, bowed, and greeted them.

"Haha, Taohua Scholar, you've come at the perfect time."

The Dream-Eating Marquis put down the golden needles, stroked the beautiful sculpture in his hand, and said, "My Crystal False Dream is complete."

"Come, come, immerse yourself in it, and experience a love story that stretches from snow-capped mountains and deserts to the shores of the East Sea, from bandit battles to military exercises—a story of poignant and earth-shattering passion!"

The dreams that disciples and students buy from various places can usually only be used once.

That's because the people who buy these dreams are bound to have very different experiences and personalities from the original dreamer.

Therefore, when they experience the pleasure of dreams, they must adopt the original owner's senses, mindset, and artistic conception, which will greatly damage the foundation of the dream.

It's like throwing a snowflake into a blazing red-hot cauldron; it will naturally melt away completely and disappear without a trace.

Many buyers found the dreamlike experience very novel and wanted to experience it again after just one visit.

However, no matter what, it's impossible to find a second identical dream.

Even if you find the person who created this dream last time, you have to go to great lengths to arrange for them to experience all the situations they encountered before.

However, there's still no guarantee that the other person will experience the same feelings or have the same dreams.

In fact, the Dream-Eating Marquis once personally took action, and after taking away a person's dream, he immediately suppressed all the person's soul fluctuations with his incomparably powerful divine power.

This prevents the person from dying, but interrupts their thought process, preventing the formation of any new memories. Meanwhile, the body is gently nourished, recovering from the weakness following the removal of the dream.

Every physical detail was almost identical to the last time.

The Dream-Eating Marquis attempts to use this method to preserve a person's emotions, experiences, and state of mind, maintaining them in the same state as when the previous dream occurred.

Then, once the other person has fully recovered, gently wake them up and observe whether they have a second identical dream.

Unfortunately, it still failed.

At the time Dream-Eating Marquis found it hard to understand.

Later, on one occasion, he stood on a mountain and looked out over a cloud dozens of miles away, where snowflakes and ice crystals were condensing. He sighed in admiration.

The disciples beside him also looked in that direction, but they couldn't see anything.

The Dream-Eating Marquis immediately regained his senses.

The principle is actually very simple: there are many subtle things that he can see but his disciples cannot, and those things are constantly changing.

So, he thought he had restored everything about the original owner of the dream to the state it was in when the dream last occurred.

In reality, subtle changes have already occurred on many levels that even the Dream-Eating Marquis could not observe.

The universe is vast, and the sun, moon, and stars are infinitely distant and immeasurably large.

The depths of heaven and earth are so profound, so subtle, so minute, that exploring them seems endless.

The Dream-Eating Marquis realized that he couldn't control a living person who kept having the same dream, so he turned his attention to other things.

Crystal False Dream is one of his masterpieces from recent years.

When he created the "Dream-Savoring Divine Art," he studied casting techniques and discovered that crystal gourds, after being nurtured with his unique internal energy, could be used to store dreams.

So, is it possible to use this unique crystal to create a fake dream?

With one's own thoughts, one continuously carves within the crystal, creating incredibly fine imprints to form figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, fish, and insects, thus constructing images and events.

When an outsider's mind enters into it, it's like having a dream; they can even feel the joys and sorrows, the pain and exhaustion, and experience love and battle.

Both men and women love beauty, but a woman of unparalleled beauty, a handsome and valiant man, and someone who is also safe enough are not so easy to find.

Moreover, the kind of romance that someone fantasizes about is inherently unsafe.

They should meet amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, encounter each other on cliffs and in storms, and anticipate a hero rescuing a damsel in distress, and so on.

However, there are too many masters in the world. Even for royalty and nobles, the probability of being killed in a real-world battle against such masters is too high.

Experiencing such a life within a false dream is completely risk-free.

Of course, the sense of immersion and the psychological perspective of this "Crystal False Dream" is far less enjoyable and immersive than directly purchasing the dreams of living people.

However, while the dreams of a living person cannot be replicated, Crystal False Dream can.

If a buyer gets their hands on Crystal False Dream they like, they'll want to play with it a second time.

As long as the payment is paid, I'd play it ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times—that's perfectly fine!

When invited to try out the new product, Taohua Scholar did not refuse. She walked over, knelt down, and sat down gracefully.

After receiving the sculpture of the beautiful woman, he placed a finger on her forehead and closed his eyes.

After a moment, he shuddered and came to his senses. His face was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and his breathing became slightly rapid.

"Such a beautiful person exists in the world?!"

Taohua Scholar wiped his sweat with his sleeve, full of praise.

"This beauty surpasses any female knight-errant I have ever seen in my life by a third, and even possesses the charm of a noble goddess from exotic mythology."

"Your Excellency is truly knowledgeable; such a beauty, I wonder which noble family she belongs to in reality?"

The Dream-Eating Marquis smugly twirled the golden needle in his hand.

"This is a combination of the best features of many beauties, highlighting their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses. Later, I felt it was still somewhat lacking, only to realize it was too full. So I deliberately added a few imperfections to both sides of the cheekbones, which actually made it more charming."

"Hahaha, how can the imagination of ordinary people compare to that of this Marquis?"

"What woman in the world could compare to the goddess of my dreams?"

When the Dream-Eating Marquis finished speaking, he paused slightly, as if he were thinking of someone.

"However, in terms of temperament, with my skill, there are still many female masters in the martial arts world whose charm I cannot replicate, especially that Xie Luoxian, whose ranking on the Heavenly Ranking is even higher than mine."

"Hmph! This Marquis will win by sheer numbers."

He pointed smugly at Taohua Scholar, "You didn't play long enough just now, you only saw one, right?"

"Let me tell you, this lord alone has seventeen beauties carved on the back of this Crystal False Dream. There are middle-aged women, women with children, young wives and chivalrous couples, young ladies from secluded boudoirs, and witches from beyond the Great Wall, each with their own background."

Taohua Scholar was even more respectful. He carefully put the sculpture aside, straightened his clothes, and kowtowed loudly to the ground.

The Dream-Eating Marquis was taken aback.

"Such a fine item, I am speechless with admiration. I will kowtow to Your Excellency twice more."

Taohua Scholar kowtowed four more times.

The Dream-Eating Marquis burst into laughter.

There are countless people in the world who go to great lengths to please him and even kowtow to him.

Only Taohua Scholar truly made him happy every time.

"However, my lord, it's a bit of a waste to keep these seventeen beauties only in a dream."

Taking the opportunity, Taohua Scholar suggested, "In my opinion, these seventeen beauties can be sold in at least seventeen portions. If we change their outfits for each appearance, those seventeen beauties could sell for thirty-four or even sixty-eight portions."

The Dream-Eating Marquis hesitated, "Wouldn't that mean it'd be shredded to pieces? What about all the carefully crafted scenes and the coherent story I created—?"

"If one truly appreciates this Crystal Dream, wouldn't they be willing to spend tens of thousands of gold coins to collect all of these fragments?"

Taohua Scholar countered with a question, then smiled and said, "My lord, I've come here precisely to discuss this matter."

"The few copies of Crystal Dream that have been sold so far are priced slightly lower than the Dream of the Living, which won't do."

"Although the experience of Crystal Dream is somewhat inferior to that of the Living Dream, the things inside were created by you, Lord Marquis, and are of extraordinary significance. For that alone, I think it's worth five times the price."

The Dream-Eating Marquis nodded thoughtfully.

"That makes sense. My skills are unparalleled in the world."

"There's no reason for me to sell off my apprentices who have learned my skills so cheaply."

"The idea that Shakyamuni sold his scriptures for a pittance, charging by the bushel of gold, is nothing but empty talk, offering only a little comfort to the heart."

"What I create has a comforting effect a hundred times greater than his; how can I sell it for less?"

Thump!!

Taohua Scholar prostrated himself in reverence.

"Your future status will surpass that of Shakyamuni a hundredfold!"

The Dream-Eating Marquis patted his belly and laughed heartily, overjoyed.

Taohua Scholar continued, "However, now that someone has dared to kidnap the Marquis's disciple and extort money from him, I think we should probably invite the Marquis to come in person to establish his authority over the world."

The Dream-Eating Marquis's laughter abruptly stopped, and he asked suspiciously, "Who is trying to extort me?"

Taohua Scholar immediately took out a letter from her bosom, finally feeling relieved.

Ailao Scholar, Ailao Scholar, considering that you've always been kind to me, your senior brother, and that we share similar interests, I'm going to give you a good helping hand today.

First, make the Marquis happy, then hand over this letter. There's a good chance he'll take action personally, and your chances of survival will be much greater.

You're really having a run of bad luck. You've always been sharp-eyed and quick-witted, able to spot the aura of a master within a dozen miles, and you only ever kick the weak when you're down. How did you manage to offend such a tough guy this time?

By this time Dream-Eating Marquis had finished reading the letter, his face ashen and grim as if it were about to drip water.

The happier he was just moments before, the angrier he became upon seeing someone extorting him.

In particular, the other party made an outrageous demand in the letter, asking that he first compensate them with 2,999 of his 3,000 disciples, to serve them.

If any are unusable, remove a few and replace them with new ones until they are usable.

"Hehe!"

The Dream-Eating Marquis laughed in exasperation, his belly trembling with rage. "Why doesn't he say that I, the Marquis, should also compensate him with myself?"

Taohua Scholar kowtowed and said, "That madman probably really meant it. However, he forced Ailao Scholar to write this letter. I suppose Ailao Scholar would rather die than write such insulting words about the Marquis."

"On the back of the letter, there is also a secret mark left by Ailao Scholar."

Dream-Eating Marquis turned the letter over, he saw that it contained only shallow scratches that looked like fingernail marks. Only a master in the sect could understand their meaning.

"Oh? Ailao Scholar observed the nameless expert who had captured him and realized that the other party seemed to have experienced a wondrous dream unlike any other in the world?"

The Dream-Eating Marquis was truly intrigued.

He remembered the name Ailao Scholar; he was very popular within the sect and extremely efficient in handling affairs outside. He was known for bringing back the most and most bizarre dreams.

Even this well-informed Dream-Gathering Sect said it was a rare find in the world.

"Then this Marquis really must go and take a look."