14 Two Dreams, Part 1

Noon.

Chen Da walked aimlessly along the mountain path, lost in a haze. Branded as Suan Yu, he had been trapped in the Five Venoms Forest for five years. Now returned to the mortal world, he found it strange and unrecognizable, unable to reconcile with the memories he once held.

Along the road, a few greeted him, “Chen Da, not hunting in that monster forest today?”

“Chen Da, you’re old enough to find a wife! Don’t put it off any longer!”

The youth’s gaze was distant as he looked at these mortals, so like the person he once was. They lived under the protection of Jade Capital Gate, toiling from sunrise to sunset, their lives sheltered by the immortals. They were busy with survival, and the incident of Suan Yu five years ago seemed to have slipped entirely from their minds.

But for Chen Da, those five years had been a nightly descent into chaos.

When another passerby greeted him, Chen Da couldn’t help but grab the man and ask, “Uncle, do you remember Suan Yu?”

The stooped uncle, carrying firewood, looked confused for a long time, hard of hearing. “Sour? You want vinegar? I don’t brew any at home.”

Chen Da forced a bitter smile.

He could only apologize and shake his head, not saying more. Guided by fading memories, he wandered in search of the house he’d left five years before. He was exhausted, longing for rest, yearning to close his eyes—

Perhaps these five years had only been a dream.

After directing a brother and sister to the inn, Chen Da took a small path alone. He dropped his gaze, only to be jostled on the shoulder by someone passing by.

A faint fragrance brushed past.

After five years as a monster, Chen Da was no longer the brash youth he’d been. He immediately looked up, offering a sheepish smile and apology, “Sorry, I didn’t—”

But the words froze.

His amber eyes trembled violently.

Though sunlight beat down, a cold sweat drenched his back in an instant.

Before him stood a young woman in red, sword at her waist, slender and radiant—a beauty unlike any common villager. Yet Chen Da recognized her instantly—

In his memory, she was the immortal disciple who had tricked Suan Yu into marriage.

She was also the one he had hated for five years, believing himself to be Suan Yu.

At a single glance, Chen Da could not suppress the tangled hatred and fear churning inside him. His hand clenched at his side, breath held, relying on the experience of five years as a great demon to persuade himself:

It’s fine, it’s fine.

I am Chen Da, not Suan Yu. I have no enmity with this woman. She is a disciple of the immortal sect… If I just quietly walk past, I will never see her again in this life.

But fate delights in mischief.

The young woman in red, recently arrived from Jade Capital Gate, was Hua Shi.

Hua Shi, unfamiliar with the mortal village, struggled to find the entrance to the Five Venoms Forest. As she pondered her route, her jade slip received a new message—“Senior Sister, where are you? The sect’s soul lamp shows Suan Yu is dead—did you kill him before we could find him?”

Hua Shi frowned.

She was utterly confused, all the more eager to reach the Five Venoms Forest and see what had happened.

She called out to Chen Da, “Hey!”

Chen Da stiffened, turning his head.

Hua Shi’s eyes, clear as peach blossoms, swept over the slightly bashful youth.

She carried no dust in her heart; her glance was casual and soon moved on.

Hua Shi asked, “How do I get to the Five Venoms Forest?”

Chen Da hesitated for a moment, then pointed the way.

Hua Shi nodded.

As Chen Da turned away, a gold ingot struck him on the back of the head. He looked back to see the proud immortal maiden flying away on her sword.

She remarked arrogantly, “A token of thanks—keep it.”

Chen Da looked down at the gold lying on the ground.

A tumult of emotions churned within him—

The woman he’d hated for five years, in truth, had little to do with him. Yet if not for her, Suan Yu would never have switched souls with him. He had suffered for five years...

And she didn’t even recognize him.

Absurdity.

Chen Da crouched down, picked up the gold, and stared at it for a long time, his fist slowly tightening.

An emotion welled up in his young chest, burning him cold and hot all at once. In years to come, he would understand—this was called “resentment.”

—

After nightfall, Jiang Xuehe moved quietly through the Five Venoms Forest.

He had changed into a robe as white as snow and, so as not to frighten anyone, kept his hood drawn low. He was here to help his unconscious junior sister.

She had cast some strange spell on herself; her abdomen would not stop bleeding. Jiang Xuehe wanted to examine her, but propriety forbade him. She had forced him to swear to help her and haltingly told him where she had left the bodies of her pursuers.

Ti Ying was terribly anxious: the people of Jade Capital Gate must not discover she’d become a little murderer.

That night, Jiang Xuehe wandered the Five Venoms Forest, robe billowing like drifting snow. As he searched for the bodies, he pondered the identities of those sent to hunt his junior sister.

Jiang Xuehe’s identity was unique.

He had never spent a day at their master’s knee; he knew nothing of what grudges his master or junior sister had provoked. But it didn’t matter—now that the pursuers were before him, he would handle them.

With Suan Yu dead, the array in the Five Venoms Forest was broken. The vengeful spirits wandering within, now leaderless, drifted aimlessly like headless flies.

Whenever Jiang Xuehe chanced upon them, he struck them down.

Thus, he moved through the forest, killing as he went, his white robe trailing behind him, leaving a blood-red path.

At last, Jiang Xuehe found the place where Ti Ying had thrown the bodies the night before: a dozen young men and women strewn across the ground, the pallid moonlight shining on faces forever frozen in death.

Crows shrieked, taking wing from the branches.

Beneath the oppressive sky, Jiang Xuehe stood calmly among the corpses and began his spell to deal with the remains:

His technique fell upon the bodies, which dissolved slowly from flesh to bone, then to blood, then to earth, merging with the ground of the Five Venoms Forest.

This magic was silent—eerily gentle.

It lent the hooded youth in their midst an uncanny and immaculate beauty.

As Jiang Xuehe watched the bodies vanish, he thought to himself: His junior sister surely didn’t know that in this world, there was no one more adept at handling corpses than he.

Best not let her find out.

She was so timid… She even feared the ghosts she summoned herself.

Suddenly, a sword light flashed behind him like a rainbow.

Jiang Xuehe leaped into the air, landing atop a tangle of branches, evading the attack. Glancing down, he saw the sword return to the hand of a red-clad girl.

Hua Shi looked up, her eyes falling on the figure swathed in a hood, all in white.

With a delicate rebuke, she demanded, “Who are you? Where is Suan Yu? Did you kill all those monsters along the way?”

Jiang Xuehe wished to avoid further trouble and turned to leave.

Hua Shi gave chase, “Villain, don’t run—”

Jiang Xuehe turned to meet her, the clash of palms sending his hood askew. This woman’s strength surprised him; she was no ordinary opponent.

Hua Shi was astonished as well: though she’d never formally joined the sect, her father had guided her cultivation personally. To think someone could evade her so easily!

Her interest was piqued. “Again!”

Jiang Xuehe had no desire to entangle himself with her, fighting as he withdrew. This woman was connected to Jade Capital Gate, and after summoning his primordial spirit the previous night, he was suffering from backlash—using his true strength again so soon was impossible.

Thus, beneath the chill moon, their battle raged on.

But as Hua Shi’s fighting spirit reached its peak, the peal of a great bell thundered through the world.

The sound echoed from the direction of Jade Capital Gate.

Hua Shi’s proud face changed abruptly. Looking toward the mountain, her expression grew blank and lost. “The Sect Leader failed his tribulation and passed away…”

With the Sect Leader’s death and no successor appointed, and with the disciple selection underway and Suan Yu’s sudden death in the broken array…

Jade Capital Gate was on the verge of troubled times.

She could not stay to pursue Jiang Xuehe—she had to return to the mountain at once.

—

As the bell sounded across the heavens and all Daoist sects were shaken, Ti Ying, in the inn, was trapped in a nightmare.

Her senior brother had once told her that the nightmares haunting her after exhausting her spiritual power were but remnants of the world’s lingering thoughts, not to be taken seriously. But she deeply disliked the sensation.

Especially because…

The protagonist of this nightmare seemed to be herself, and yet not herself.

—

In the dream, Ti Ying found black mist surging through her spiritual sea, her energy blocked, unable to sense the vast Daoist arts.

Panicked, she managed to realize she was in a cave.

She comforted herself: It’s fine, it’s fine. I was trapped as a child—I’m not afraid.

Feeling her way along the wall, holding back tears and fear, she stumbled through the darkness. The cave twisted on, and as the light brightened around a turn, Ti Ying saw a figure in purple-feathered robes sitting with their back to her.

A small waterfall splashed inside the cave, and the man leaned against the wall—his silhouette gentle and elegant, oddly familiar.

Ti Ying realized her body wasn’t hers to control, her steps quickening toward the figure.

He turned in profile.

Within the dream, Ti Ying was startled—her senior brother!

Why would she dream of him?

Just as a surge of joy rose at seeing a familiar face, she heard her dream-self speak slyly, “Brother, is it hard, being bound by your junior sister?”

Ti Ying: “…”

She moved closer, stopping before the young man.

She was struck dumb: he sat upright. She’d thought he was merely resting, but up close she saw he was bound by a spell.

Black mist swirled around the spell, oddly similar to the one upon herself…

The young man in the dream opened his eyes.

Ti Ying looked at him, confused and hesitant: he seemed truly her senior brother, but… her real brother was covered in wounds, even his face scarred, but this one was as spotless as a crane, refined to perfection…

Far more handsome than in reality.

The youth spoke, “Little Ying, do not interfere with Lord Qingmu’s ascension ceremony. Do not oppose him, do not make an enemy of the immortal sect. Though you have fallen into demonic ways, you are still my fiancée. I’ve come to take you home.”

Ti Ying recoiled in horror: Why did he call her Little Ying?

And demon? What demon?

She had never heard of demons existing in this world.

Fiancée? What did that mean?

Home? Where was home?

Ti Ying was lost and afraid, yet saw her dream-self blink and smile, “Home? What home? We’re not even from the same sect. Just because I call you senior brother, do you think you’re truly my brother? Brother, you and I have a small, minor difference.

“You, an immortal, sent to me—a demon—yet you want to persuade me? Brother, you seem to misunderstand our old ties.”

Her dream-brother countered, “How have I misunderstood you?”

Ti Ying froze.

The immortal, bound by sorcery, leaned forward, his eyes deep as a cold pool, gazing at her with breath close enough to feel, lashes delicate as wings, gently lifted, light shimmering within.

He whispered, “How have I misunderstood you?”

So close.

His aura, cold and pure as snow, brushed her nose.

It was impossibly disconcerting.

Inexperienced in affairs of the heart, Ti Ying’s own heart fluttered, she stared into his eyes, as if breaking into a cold sweat.

She heard her dream-self pause, then smile with composure, “I may have once liked you…”

The dream’s female demon, Ti Ying, bore a cruel shadow between her brows, amused as she leaned in, tapping the youth’s forehead with a finger. “If brother wishes to redeem me, why not stay by my side, and use yourself to redeem me?”

The younger Ti Ying could not understand what her dream-self was saying.

She was frightened by the dream.

She’d never heard of demons, didn’t know what they had to do with her, nor did she understand what it meant to be a fiancée, or “use yourself to redeem me.”

Desperately, she fought her dream-self for control of her body. After some struggle, it seemed to work and she blurted out, “Jiang Xue… Brother, I feel so strange—I’m not myself—run…”

The dream youth’s eyes flickered, watching her for a long moment.

Her dream-brother replied, “The demonic energy has devoured you so completely you don’t even remember my name? I’m not Jiang Xue, Little Ying.”

Ti Ying was nearly driven mad with frustration: Of course it’s a nightmare! He dares to talk back to me!

Who cares what his name is!