CW: self-harm (very brief), implications of past abuse
There was no way to identify which direction Langxia had been traveling in. At some point, the path had ended and he had begun roaming through the fog. The Nightmare Blooms began to gather in denser clusters, but there were now less bodies to be seen. Langxia sent the Night Pearl forward, but still couldn’t find anything.
He could only assume that, from this point forward, the bodies had already been eaten clean, leaving the Nightmare Blooms to nest on their own.
If that were the case, then that meant Langxia was on the right path.
He listened to Gui Yin’s steady stream of words and replied only when necessary. At this point, he had been in the array for a little over an hour. While he was still fully conscious, he could feel his body growing more lethargic. He glanced at the Nightmare Blooms at his feet that seemed to have moved closer at some point. His brows furrowed.
“Qinle.”
“Huh? Did I ramble too much? I just think the internal structure of Huigu Palace is interesting.”
“It isn’t that,” Langxia said with a soft smile. He twisted his staff in his hand. “You might feel a bit of pain in a few seconds, but I haven’t gotten hurt.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m falling asleep,” Langxia said.
“…Was I too boring?”
“I could listen to you for hours, but it isn’t you,” Langxia said. He lifted his staff and slammed it into his leg.
His brows furrowed for a brief second before he tried to calm his breathing.
“What are you doing!? Are you hitting yourself?”
“I’m fine,” Langxia said, despite knowing that Gui Yin would see through his lie.
“There has to be a better way to keep yourself awake, isn’t there? You can’t just abuse yourself!”
Langxia smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t cut myself. I’m afraid I’ll fall asleep faster if the pollen gets into my wounds.
“That’s not the important part. Is there another way? Is there anything I can do?”
Langxia let out a low hum as he crushed the Nightmare Blooms that neared his feet. “I don’t know. You’re keeping me mentally awake, but I can feel my body slowly shutting down. I suppose an hour is my limit.”
“Are you any closer?”
“I am,” Langxia said. “There are more Nightmare Blooms here.”
Which contributed to his current drowsiness.
“I don’t think they’d be so polite as to lead me to their mother though,” Langxia said. “But they sure are persistent in coming closer. I suppose I’m quite appealing.”
Langxia was stuck in a dilemma.
If he were to destroy all the Nightmare Blooms, they would all explode at once. With his current situation, he would definitely fall prey and fall asleep. Falling asleep is one thing—he was sure he could get out—but when night fell, the flowers would bloom, making it more impossible to find his way out of the array. However, if he let the Nightmare Blooms follow him, there was a chance that they would swarm him when he found the center of the array and potentially swallow him whole.
If it were the him from a few months ago, Langxia wouldn’t have even had to think before choosing the second option. There was a higher chance of surviving and it was the fastest way out, but there was a two percent chance that he would die. He couldn’t risk the two percent with Gui Yin’s life attached to his.
Langxia remained still. Even Gui Yin had fallen silent.
“Actually,” Langxia suddenly said, “I have an idea, but I need your collaboration.”
“Tell me. I’ll follow you.”
“Nightmare Blooms thrive off of resentment in the form of nightmares, so they keep their hosts trapped in sleep. Until the last minute, no one wakes up. They grow stronger that way,” Langxia drawled. He used the tip of his staff to poke the nearest flower. “So, what I mean is—what if the way to break the array isn’t in our world, but in the dream world.”
“That makes sense. But if you fall asleep, won’t it be hard to come back out?”
“Part of Huigu Palace’s cultivation technique is to think of dreams and reality as one and the same. It makes it difficult to fall into traps that confuse the mind, so even if I fall into the array, I will be able to come out eventually. What I’m afraid of is that it will become night time before that happens. At that point, it won’t matter even if I keep my awareness,” Langxia said. “What I need you to do is fall asleep with me, so, when night falls, Ruo Yan can wake you, and I will wake as well.”
“How…how do we do that?”
“Our souls are connected. You’ll be able to enter my dreams easily,” Langxia said. “Just will it to happen and it will.”
“That doesn’t sound like a fool proof plan.”
“It’s fine,” Langxia said. He smiled slightly as he brushed aside the Nightmare Blooms at his feet. “I trust you. You’ll be able to find me. If not this way, then there’s another route. However, that one is far more dangerous, and I might become gravely in—”
“Alright, let’s go with your first plan then,” Gui Yin quickly said.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Understood.”
Ojcuzlj erfv tlr rajoo ab ygert jkjs atf vfjv obiljuf jcv Rlutawjgf Dibbwr yfobgf tf rja vbkc, mgbrr-ifuufv. Lf kjlafv ecali Xel Tlc’r nblmf fcafgfv tlr wlcv jujlc. Lf tewwfv ab rtbk tf ecvfgrabbv. Lf gfjmtfv bea ab atf Rlutawjgf Dibbw ys tlr rlvf jcv qiemxfv la ogbw lar rafw.
As the flower was crumbling, Langxia brought it up near his nose and took in the overly sweet scent. His brows furrowed in disgust as he tossed the flower to the side. He kept his hands on his knees and closed his eyes as he was dragged to sleep.
Langxia hadn’t had any dreams since he had been captured by Qi Du Cult.
When he first realized this, he had asked Xun Yunding about it. What he was told was that emotions were what fed dreams. Dreams indicated a reality that one wanted—if not that, then it was about the person’s fears. Without emotions, it was difficult for a person to have dreams. They would not be discontent with their reality, they would not crave for more, and they would also not be able to have fears.
This was another way to remind Langxia that he was different from everyone else.
His emotional root has since healed, yet he still found himself waking up to a canvas of black whenever he fell away from reality. In this black box, he could only see himself. He could see his hands, his feet, his arms, but nothing else changed. The scenery would not ripple. Nothing didn’t make sense. He would be in this state, aware, yet unchanging, until it was time to wake up.
When he fell asleep this time, it wasn’t any different.
Langxia sat on the ground and stared at the darkness in front of him. His breath was calm as he waited. But he didn’t know what he was waiting for anymore.
Once in this space, he was disconnected from “reality”. Dream would become his new reality, as was in line with the technique that he had invented. But in order for that to hold true, his “reality” could only become a distant “dream”.
Langxia looked down at his hands and slowly raised a brow. His staff had come along with him. That meant that he must be in a precarious situation. He had to be alert. Should he even be sitting down like this?
Langxia slowly stood and brought his staff with him.
Had he been lured into a trap? What had he been doing before?
Simple questions tumbled about in his mind, but he knew that it was useless. He thought about walking, but if he walked, would he get lost? If there truly was something wrong with this sleep this time around, it would be best if he stayed where he was.
Langxia lowered his gaze and flexed his fingers around his black staff.
He didn’t know how long he spent standing there when he heard a familiar voice.
As he turned, color surged through the black canvas and painted a distantly familiar scene. He watched as someone ran over to him with a slight furrow to his brows. The worried expression made Langxia unconsciously smile as he registered the situation. He reached out a hand and his hand was naturally held by the man who stopped in front of him.
“Are you okay?” Gui Yin asked. He huffed irritably. “I used the technique Ruo Yan taught me, but I feel like I still wandered for a good half hour. Nothing happened, right?”
Langxia hummed. With reality at his side, the dream had turned murky, but he remembered why he was here. “I’m fine. It was just a little dark.”
“A little dark?” Gui Yin questioned blankly. He squeezed Langxia’s hand and let out a huff. Forget it. There was no use asking him anything. It’s not like he would tell him the truth anyway.
Langxia held Gui Yin’s hand. “Shall I explain the rules?”
Gui Yin raised a brow and followed Langxia up the stairs. “Go ahead.”
“Right now, we’ve entered a nightmare induced by the Nightmare Blooms,” Langxia said. “This is a shared nightmare, but it will only affect me because you came into my consciousness.”
“But then—”
“I’ll be fine, but you should take care not to react,” Langxia said. “If you react, you’ll also be dragged in even though your body isn’t within the array. If that happens, things will be much worse.”
“Alright, I understand,” Gui Yin muttered. He looked around curiously. “But where are we…?”
“My hometown,” Langxia said.
The buildings around them were blurry and the faces of the people were obscured. Some parts of their faces stuck out more than the rest, while others didn’t have a face at all. There were noises, similar to talking, but Gui Yin could tell none of these noises made up a proper conversation.
As they walked, Gui Yin started to hear a coherent conversation. But even then, it was in a language he didn’t understand.
He looked ahead and watched as a familiar looking young boy was dragged out of a rundown house by a group of burly men. A beautiful woman followed after, her hair a mess and her fingers bloody. Long cuts trailed down the boy’s arm, but the boy didn’t cry out of pain. He was struggling against the men, trying hard to fight his way back to the woman.
“This—”
“Don’t look,” Langxia said. He lifted a hand and covered Gui Yin’s eyes.
Without his sight, he no longer knew what was happening.
“…Er’lang, didn’t you say this was your hometown?”
“It was,” Langxia said. “Let’s walk around them.”
Gui Yin pursed his lips but obediently stayed by Langxia’s side as they walked past the fight. He kept his head lowered and even closed his eyes until the noise faded. Langxia’s warm hand slowly lowered and when Gui Yin opened his eyes again, they were standing in the middle of a desert.
He turned to Langxia unsurely.
Langxia was the only one who could make sense of the dream. Gui Yin could be seen as a ghost, at this moment. He was visible and he could interact with Langxia, but he couldn’t interact with his surroundings. Therefore, even if he wanted to help find the source of the array, he couldn’t.
“It’s not here either,” Langxia muttered. “I have a feeling the Nightmare Blooms are toying with us.”
He turned to Gui Yin with a leisurely smile. “But if I don’t react to anything they put out, they’ll just have to make it more painful. It’ll show up soon.”
“How can you still smile like that?” Gui Yin mumbled. He wanted to ask what the scene just now was, but a pained scream interrupted him midway.
Gui Yin’s gaze flickered behind Langxia. He caught sight of a well-dressed man and a set of demon beasts, but before he could see anymore, he found Langxia blocking his path.
“Er’lang—”
Langxia pressed his hands over Gui Yin’s ears. His voice rang in Gui Yin’s ears. “How crude. This is all you could dig up? How about I help you?”
The sunlight immediately disappeared and a soft, ghostly glow was its replacement. The desert heat vanished. Instead, a muggy humidity took its place. Gui Yin’s gaze flickered to the ground and then the walls.
The stone was near black and was stained with a suspicious substance. In a dream that had nothing to do with Gui Yin, he couldn’t smell the same putrid, rotting scents that Langxia was currently smelling. He could only squint and attempt a closer look.
He was sure the stains were blood.
“Don’t move,” Langxia scolded.
Gui Yin stilled. He could feel a great number of people behind him, but with Langxia holding him still, he wasn’t able to see. He put his hands on Langxia’s wrists and looked up quizzically.
Langxia pouted and shook his head. “It’s not pretty. You don’t need to see.”
Gui Yin shuddered slightly and shifted closer. He wrapped his arms around Langxia and let the other man continue to cover his ears and block out the sounds of a young boy’s shrieking. His back was cold. He could only imagine what kind of horrors could take place in a dungeon like this.
Langxia watched the scene in cold silence. He recognized a great number of the masked men and he remembered exactly how he had repaid the favor not too many years ago. His lips curled slightly in satisfaction as he leaned his head against Gui Yin’s.
“I thought you really wanted to eat me,” Langxia said. “I don’t feel the sincerity.”
Gui Yin noticed the way the scenery around them warped and wobbled.
Langxia released Gui Yin this time and let out a soft sigh.
Gui Yin looked down at his clothes. He was wearing a baggy T-shirt and a pair of slacks. His neck could feel the breeze of the air conditioning and he could see the frames of his glasses just out of the corner of his vision. He quickly followed Langxia to a table and sat down.
“How is this a nightmare?” Gui Yin asked.
“I didn’t like this dimension,” Langxia said as he gracefully sat. “But I would hardly call it a nightmare.”
Gui Yin held back his amusement.
Langxia spoke as he would as Huigu Palace’s Palace Lord, but he was currently dressed in fashion a regular twenty-two-year-old might wear in this dimension. It didn’t fit his image at all, but it was a cute dichotomy.
“If they really tried, I would have let them eat me,” Langxia said with a pout. He looked at Gui Yin with mock disappointment. “But they’re not trying hard enough.”
Gui Yin laughed.
It was only Langxia who could tease a demon in this fashion.
The initial tension Gui Yin held in his shoulders slowly relaxed. He reclined back and watched the scenery wobble and waver again.
The first two scenes were from Langxia’s childhood. He wondered what kind of scene would be shown next.
Soon, the modern café faded away and they returned to their robes. In front of him, a large, bamboo manor popped up, framed by a familiar pond and a set of red maple trees.
“This…is Fuyun Manor,” Gui Yin said. He turned to Langxia. “Why is this…”
A loud bang startled Gui Yin. He looked over and watched as a young boy, freshly bandaged, was mercilessly tossed out the front door.
“Get out!”
“Shizun!” a teenager followed after the irritable man and the boy. He quickly slid in front of the man and held him at arm’s length. He slowly crouched down and took the boy into his arms. “No matter what kind of fate you’re talking about, it has nothing to do with this child!”
Langxia clicked his tongue. He wrapped his arms around Gui Yin’s waist and pulled him back. His chin rested against Gui Yin’s shoulder. “This is hardly a nightmare. I actually quite like this memory.”
Langxia turned his head slightly and nuzzled his nose against Gui Yin’s neck. “Gege was quite handsome.”
Gui Yin had no memory of this event and watched rather carefully. He recognized Kui Wanming, but the boy in the teenager’s arms looked nothing like Langxia. He was extremely scrawny, with hair that had been haphazardly cut, as if by a knife. Bruises and wounds littered his body. Worst of all was the bandage around the boy’s neck that continued to bleed and seep through the gauze.
Langxia yawned and closed his eyes. “If this keeps going, I’m going to actually fall asleep.”
Gui Yin laughed. He turned and gave Langxia’s forehead a kiss. “I can’t stand you. How can you be so calm?”
“The reality in front of us is merely a flower in the mirror or the moon in the water. It’s already passed. My present is right here, so why should I worry about it?” Langxia mumbled.
Gui Yin tilted his neck away to avoid Langxia’s nibbling. He lightly pinched the other man’s nose. “Give some more respect to your enemy.”
“I would detest to,” Langxia said with a small frown.
The scenery around them abruptly changed. To Gui Yin’s surprise, he was no longer beside Langxia. Instead, he was on the other side of the field. As for what this field was, he had a vague memory. He saw a glimpse of a young boy, then of a teenager. His fingers twitched at his side and he tightly closed his eyes to avoid reacting.
These were Langxia’s memories. If he touched them or interfered, he would be falling into a trap. Not to mention, since this was Langxia’s consciousness, who knew what would happen if Gui Yin tried to “save” those in the memory while fighting the others. It might actually damage Langxia’s consciousness.
On the other side of the field, Langxia slowly smirked. He twirled the black staff in his hand and rammed it into the ground.
The ground split and the scenery changed.
Langxia slowly raised his gaze. A harsh slap sent his head the other way. A dark light flashed through his eyes. His grip on his staff tightened. He prepared himself to lurch at the person, but his movements froze when he was faced with the person who had slapped him.
Silent tears were held in Gui Yin’s eyes as he glared down at Langxia. Betrayal painted his soft features and his hand tightly gripped his fan, as if he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to attack Langxia now or spare him.
Langxia’s gaze flickered down to Gui Yin’s hand. A feeling of dread filled his chest.
First, he smiled, but the smile felt so fake. It felt like an imitation—something he could never attain. Still, he held it. Then, he reached out for Gui Yin’s hand.
“What’s wrong, my dear?”
“Don’t touch me,” Gui Yin hissed.
Langxia looked at his hand, which had turned red from being slapped. He slowly looked up at Gui Yin again. “…What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“You already know, don’t you?”
“What—”
“My shizun was right all along,” Gui Yin said, his grip tightening on his fan. “You’re my calamity. You’re an unlucky star from the start. I should never have taken you in. If I hadn’t, then maybe I would have never met him.”
“Qinle—”
“You said we’re fated to be, right?” Gui Yin asked, his voice breaking as tears began to roll down his cheeks. “But then, why did you let him take me? If we really were fated, shouldn’t you have tried harder to protect me? Is Heaven’s Will more important than me?!”
Langxia lowered his gaze as the fan swiped across his face. He fell to the ground and stared silently at the ground as Gui Yin marched closer.
“In fact, you and him are exactly the same, aren’t you? You don’t actually love me—you’re unable to,” Gui Yin said. “You’re just using me. You’re using me too, so what makes you think you’re better than him?”
Langxia sat up. He looked at Gui Yin and slowly grabbed his black staff. “…You’re right. Everything you’ve said is right.”
The black staff reverted to its original form. One of the swords clattered to the ground while Langxia put the other into Gui Yin’s hand. He tightly gripped his hand around the hilt and turned the sword towards himself.
“I really want to love you, but I can’t,” Langxia whispered. “But it’s my only way out…I can’t…since I can’t love you, then you should just kill me.”
Gui Yin stared at him blankly, but before he could react, the sword lurched forward and stabbed Langxia through the abdomen. Gui Yin’s grip on the hilt of the sword tightened and he pushed it in further.
A triumphant look flashed across Gui Yin’s face, but before he could dwell on his victory for too long, Langxia leaned in.
“Is that all? Really, I expected more.”
“Gui Yin” abruptly looked up.
Langxia slowly tilted his head as his gaze flicked over the demon’s form. “Did you really think I couldn’t see through your little trick? I just said a few dramatic words and you thought I fell for it. Qiao Ceng would be disappointed about how stupid you are. Just because you can read my mind doesn’t mean you’ll immediately know my weakness. You ought to search a little deeper.”
He let out a long sigh and shook his head. “Ah, what am I saying? A servant will always be like their master. And even your master won’t win against me, so what can I expect from you?”
The demon let out a loud screech as its transformation magic was burned away. They looked down at the blood oozing from their chest, then Langxia’s unscathed abdomen.
Langxia straightened onto his knees and leaned closer. “You’re a flower that feeds off of nightmares, but I suppose you’ve never tasted a true delicacy.”
The demon trembled as he fell onto his back. Langxia towered over him and smiled cordially.
“I can show you what a true nightmare is before you die,” Langxia said. He pushed the sword further into the demon’s chest. His voice should have been inaudible, but it seemed to echo all throughout the demon’s mind. “In a true nightmare, you should yearn for the sweet release of death.”
The demon’s eyes widened, but the sword was only driven in further.
Langxia’s smile widened. “You have to be bold, like this.”
“Y-you’re crazy—”
“Crazy? You’re really flattering me,” Langxia said. He released the demon’s hand and pulled the sword from his stomach. His smile softened as he approached the demon. He grabbed the demon’s face and plucked out his sword. “It was you who provoked me first. Don’t blame me for being merciless.”
!!!!!!!!!!! this whole dream sequence was super cool!!!!!!!!!!!
hehe thanks for reading!!
Ahhnnnn the ending gave me goose bumps🫨
aaaaaa thanks for reading!!
I was so confused like: WTH! WHAT’S HAPPENING! But then I re read that part and I was like- oh he’s fake nvm
SDFALSJ;GH LOL thanks for reading!!