Fortune

The Nether Cold Realm was perpetually overcast. No one knew when light would appear, nor where it would come from. Dream Eater sat by the table, cradling a teacup in her hands. It held half a cup of water, and the liquid was faintly glowing. Outside, rain was falling, its steady patter drumming against the tarp above and weighing heavily on the heart. Today's rain glowed, casting a pale radiance over the surrounding world, yet Dream Eater could only sit beneath the palace's canopy of tarp, gazing out at the downpour. In the Nether Cold Realm, light was not a good thing. If an object that normally did not shine suddenly began to glow, it became exceedingly dangerous. On a rainy day like this, Dream Eater could not step outside the palace. What filled her cup was not tea, but glowing rainwater—meant only to be looked at, never drunk. Many great demons, shortly after being born, instinctively pursued light: glowing trees, glowing meadows, glowing ponds. And then they vanished. Only those born cautious, timid, and adept at hiding and camouflage managed to survive. Dream Eater had lived for a very long time, yet she had seen glowing rain like this only a handful of times. With every rainfall of light, more than half the friends in her memory would disappear. This rain had lasted especially long, and Dream Eater felt a faint, creeping unease. She stood up and carefully inspected the tarp overhead. Only when she saw no tears or leaks did she feel slightly relieved. Suddenly, she felt the earth beneath her feet shudder, and after a moment, it shuddered again. Dream Eater knew that the terrifying behemoths from the Outer Domains were walking once more. They might still be hundreds of thousands of li away, yet their footsteps could still make the earth tremble. Dream Eater looked toward the source of the vibrations, wanting to see what manner of colossal beast it was this time. Suddenly, she shivered. Through the rain, a figure holding an umbrella was walking forward, step by step. The instant she saw that figure, Dream Eater's entire body froze, and even her thoughts ground to a halt! The figure moved in a relaxed, unhurried gait, yet its speed was impossibly fast. A moment ago, it had still been at the far edge of the horizon; within a few strides, it arrived before Dream Eater's palace. It bent over with difficulty, yet still could not see Dream Eater beneath the canopy. Dream Eater resembled an ordinary human, appearing like an insect before its massive form, which stood over a dozen zhang tall. It rested the umbrella on the ground to block the glowing rain, then pulled back the palace's tarp roof. Its six amber eyes began to glow, illuminating Dream Eater below. Dream Eater broke from her nightmarish paralysis, but at this moment, her vision was filled entirely with six glowing disks resembling mini-suns. Immediately, a booming voice echoed in her consciousness: "Shu Li once captured a human who entered your game. Where is that man now?" Dream Eater answered woodenly, "He broke my Paper Bride and fled back to the Native Realm. I have not seen him since." It pondered for a moment before asking, "Why was he able to break your game?" "My Paper Bride game only works against sentient beings with emotion. But that man had no feelings at all. Everything I drew out of him was a chaotic mess, and he seized an opening to escape." The massive figure fell silent again, and then the six amber disks extinguished. It suddenly extended two fingers, plucking up the bride in the bright-red bridal gown standing beside Dream Eater. With a gentle puff of air, it lifted her veil. Beneath the veil was a blank face. Seeming to find it uninteresting, it squeezed lightly. With a snap, the dream puppet burst. It casually tossed the scraps aside, picked up its umbrella, and stood up with a rumbling din. Its lower body was immense and bloated, with six giant legs supporting a mountain-like torso; rising to its feet was a cumbersome, elaborate ordeal. Hanging from its sides were over a dozen corpses of varied shapes, each one enormous and far larger than Dream Eater. Dream Eater suddenly caught sight of two familiar bodies. She clamped a hand over her mouth, and tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. It glanced at Dream Eater and said, "I asked them questions, but some lied, and others gave poor answers, so they ended up like this. You are merely the vermin native to this world. If you refuse to obey, we will simply replace you with another batch." The massive figure gradually strode into the distance, yet Dream Eater could not stop her tears. Her two best friends were now hanging from that colossal body, destined to be served at the dining table and devoured by countless juniors of the Shamans. That figure was the nightmare of all great demons in the Nether Cold Realm. It could appear before any great demon at any moment and slaughter it for the strangest of reasons—perhaps because it was in a good mood, or perhaps because it was in a bad mood. Its hunts lacked rhyme, reason, or pattern. All adult great demons were its prey. It was Heavenly Shaman Long Zhe, and to the great demons of the Nether Cold Realm, it was even more terrifying than the behemoths of the Outer Domains. A drop of glowing rain fell on her body, piercingly painful. Only then did Dream Eater realize the palace's tarp roof had been torn away and casually tossed far into the distance. She immediately burrowed into the soil, hiding inside an underground stone chamber. The stone chamber was desolate, filling her with panic. Clasping her chest, she felt as though a piece was missing there. She vaguely recalled that she had hidden something inside that dream puppet, but the puppet had been crushed, and that item could never be recovered. Dream Eater strained to remember what she had put into the dream puppet: Was it emotion, cultivation, or memory? After thinking for a long time to no avail, she could only give up. Fortunately, she had escaped disaster once again, but her friends had not been so lucky. All her friends and foes alike hung from Long Zhe's frame. And Dream Eater knew that the reason she was fortunate every time was because of that Nether Shaman named Shu Li. *** Deep within the Wu domain, inside a colossal, gloomy palace, Shengxin and Huixin knelt side by side in the center of the hall. Upon the altar above them crouched a massive mass of shadow. A deep, thunderous voice rang from the shadow: "Have you still not found the whereabouts of the spiritual fetus?" Shengxin replied, "I went east to observe that human. He is clearly concealing something, but there is no aura of the spiritual fetus on him. Hongye's probing attack against the Wu domain failed, and Lord Shu Li seems intent on controlling the scale of the war with the humans, so I had no way to confirm further." The voice in the shadow grew palpably irritable. "Pay no heed to Shu Li! He lost the spiritual fetus and will soon fail to even keep his domain; does he still think he can control the conflict with the humans? I said long ago that his eccentricities would be the death of him, and now he is already close to death. Go tell Hongye that I want to know everything that man is hiding, even if it means slaughtering everyone in the Shattered Lands. If he cannot give me an answer, I will slaughter his entire tribe!" Shengxin said, "I will handle it. However..." "What else do you wish to say?" The voice in the shadow grew increasingly shrill. Shengxin said, "My intuition tells me that the secret that man is hiding likely has nothing to do with the spiritual fetus." "I don't care! Investigate first!" the shadow shrieked. Shengxin led Huixin out of the hall. Only after they had put some distance behind them did Shengxin sigh. "The master is finding it harder and harder to control his madness. Our time is running short; we must make Hongye accelerate his moves." "But Lord Shu Li will not agree." Shengxin said, "If we do not obtain an answer, the master may very well go to war with Lord Shu Li. The master is not far from total madness now." Huixin said suddenly, "Is it possible that we are all mistaken, and the spiritual fetus actually has nothing to do with that man?" "Yet in that entire region, he was the only one who entered the Nether Cold Realm and survived." "Perhaps there were others who did not enter through the domain, so we remained unaware," Huixin said. "If humans had entered the Nether Cold Realm, it would be impossible for us not to sense them." Huixin said, "If they entered the Nether Cold Realm from a grotto-heaven world, they could have hidden it from us; there have been precedents before. And within the Shattered Lands, there are several grotto-heaven fragments. In fact, there is another matter I have always found strange: the humans had originally abandoned that territory, yet not long ago, they suddenly established prefectures and commanderies there again, intending to retake the Shattered Lands. Moreover, Western Jin's Prince Cheng had been lurking there the entire time, only managing to escape Lord Sacred Shaman's hunt later by sheer luck." Thoughtful, Shengxin said, "In truth, I have also felt all along that the man's cultivation is too low—he could never have been a match for the spiritual fetus. Even I would find it difficult to kill the spiritual fetus, let alone him. But if it was Western Jin that set the trap, that would make sense." "What should we do now?" "First, unearth the secret that human is hiding, and then have Hongye sweep through Ningzhou." "What if Hongye refuses?" Huixin asked, somewhat worried. "Go to his tribe first and steal his unhatched offspring. If he refuses, I can use this unborn bloodline descendant to cast a curse, killing his descendants one by one. For every day he refuses, I will curse one to death until he yields." Huixin felt a pang of reluctance. "But... Hongye has treated me quite well." "Don't forget: the master is already on the verge of madness."