They Want My Train

Grandpa Train asked Li Banfeng if he still wanted to get out. Li Banfeng naturally did. While Zhao Dajun was still intently admiring the peach he had carefully calculated, Grandpa Train coughed. *Whoosh—* A cloud of steam dispersed in an instant, and Teacher Risa, who had been arching herself right in front of Zhao Dajun, suddenly aged fifty years. The peach had overripened. Seeing that previously smooth, firm peach suddenly sag into flab, Zhao Dajun turned pale with fright and cried out. Amidst his shouts, Teacher Risa vanished, and the entire villa shattered. The garden shattered along with it, and even the lake outside the villa disappeared. Nothing remained around them except overgrown weeds. Li Banfeng said, "The dreamscape Zhao Dajun worked so hard to construct—just gone like that?" Grandpa Train nodded. "He woke up." After a moment of silence, Grandpa Train asked, "Was I too cruel?" Li Banfeng nodded. "A little, yeah." A breeze blew past, and both men laughed wickedly. "Bwahaha! Being a bit cruel is the way to go!" "Heheheh, tweaking such a fine peach—don't you think he had it coming?" Right as the two were laughing heartily, the wild grass suddenly receded, and a new villa appeared before them. Zhao Dajun had rebuilt his dream. He was already jotting down formulas on the wall, still somewhat unsatisfied with the bedroom's design. Before long, the garden returned, the lake returned, and all the teachers returned. Grandpa Train picked up Li Banfeng and departed from Zhao Dajun Station. "See that? He woke up, but in the blink of an eye, he went right back to sleep." Li Banfeng looked back at the dream world slowly restoring itself to its original state. He could well imagine Zhao Dajun's condition in the real world. The man had merely opened his eyes, rolled over, and drifted back to sleep. "Senior, I don't possess the methods of a Dream Cultivator. How am I able to enter other people's dreams?" Grandpa Train turned his head. "Because I have the methods." "Why did you bring me here?" Grandpa Train shook his head. "You still don't understand. I didn't bring you in." As they spoke, Grandpa Train came to another halt. Ahead stood a quaint two-story building whose style was typical of Puluo Province architecture. A girl of thirteen or fourteen was staring blankly from the second-floor balcony, while bursts of cursing and weeping drifted up from the ground floor. The rims of her eyes were bloodshot, and her fists were tightly clenched. Her father was beating her mother. The girl gritted her teeth, grabbed a wooden stick from beside the bed, and headed downstairs. The father beating the mother wore a savage grin, his blows growing heavier and heavier, liable to beat the mother to death at any moment. The girl raised the stick and brought it down. When the first blow struck his head, he was shocked and terrified. When he took the second blow, he saw blood. By the third blow, he began wailing and begging for mercy. Clutching the stick with both hands, the girl gritted her teeth and struck again and again. She wasn't tall enough; by ordinary logic, she couldn't possibly reach her father's head, and with her clumsy movements, she shouldn't have been able to hit anyone at all. Yet Dream-Tethering Tower held no nightmares. Every single strike of hers landed true. Grandpa Train blew his steam whistle and said to Li Banfeng, "She can't leave either." Then came the next stop, where a woman won twenty consecutive rounds at a mahjong table. At the next stop, a man slept with twenty people in a row within a single room. At the stop after that, a man knelt on the ground, kowtowing twenty times in succession to another person. Li Banfeng frowned. "Kowtowing counts as a good dream?" Grandpa Train said, "I've visited this dream before. This man dreamed day and night of going to Jianrengang, but he never made it. In his dream, he finally got to go and was overjoyed. These people have left their hearts behind in their dreams, so they can never walk out. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Li Banfeng nodded. "I understand." "You still don't want to stay here?" "I don't." Grandpa Train set Li Banfeng down by the roadside and swung his arms in slow arcs. "If you don't want to stay, why did you come to Dream-Tethering Tower in the first place?" Li Banfeng had no idea how to explain it to this mad old man. "You carried me over on your back. I never wanted to come at all." Grandpa Train froze for a moment, the chugging, puffing sounds from his mouth gradually dying down, just like a locomotive shutting off. He looked earnestly at Li Banfeng. "I carried you to Dream-Tethering Tower because I saw your dreamscape. You had already entered a dream before you saw me. I merely delivered you to where you belonged." "I had already entered a dream before seeing you?" Li Banfeng couldn't wrap his head around how that could have happened. Grandpa Train asked, "Do you still remember the situation back then?" Li Banfeng recounted what had happened. Grandpa Train stared at him. "You were looking for a newland at Heishipo, a crane operator pointed the wrong way, and you barged into the Inner States?" Li Banfeng nodded. It sounded somewhat absurd, but that was genuinely how it happened. Grandpa Train's eyes locked onto Li Banfeng, his piercing gaze seemingly capable of boring straight through Li Banfeng's body at any second. Under such circumstances, if Grandpa Train suddenly accelerated and vanished from sight at an incomprehensible speed, Li Banfeng would be pulverized into mincemeat. Under that tremendous pressure, Li Banfeng couldn't help but shiver. Grandpa Train suddenly closed the distance to Li Banfeng. "You want my train, don't you?" Where was this coming from? *Isn't your train already in my hands?* While Li Banfeng was still wondering how to answer, Grandpa Train suddenly grinned savagely. "Your master wants me to build him another train, doesn't he?" Li Banfeng shook his head and answered honestly, "I don't have a master." "They still haven't given up? They want my train that badly?" *Chuff, chuff.* Grandpa Train's breathing began to accelerate. Li Banfeng picked up on the clues. "You mean the people from the Inner States want your train?" Grandpa Train didn't answer, continuing his monologue: "They've sent so many people trying to coax out my dreamscape, thinking that just because I'm asleep, I'm easy to fool?" "Senior, there might be a misunderstanding between us." Two plumes of steam shot from Grandpa Train's ears. "They sent so many people before, and not a single one succeeded! What makes them think you can pull it off? Just because you're a journey cultivator from my pathway and look like you've got some talent, they thought you could cozy up to me?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "We aren't very familiar yet." "Right! We're not familiar! I don't even know your name, and you already want me to teach you how to build a train?" *Chuff! Chuff! Chuff!* Grandpa Train was on the verge of sprinting at any moment. "I don't want to learn how to build trains. I'm not a Craft Cultivator." Li Banfeng readied himself to flee; facing a lunatic like this, he couldn't think of a better option. "We're complete strangers, yet you want me to teach you how to ride a train—pure wishful thinking!" Grandpa Train burst into loud laughter. Li Banfeng shook his head. "I'm not wishing for anything." After laughing, Grandpa Train produced a toy train over a foot long and said to Li Banfeng, "Many people assume that to build a train, you should start with the body. My thinking is completely different from theirs—I start with the wheels!" Li Banfeng widened his eyes. "So that's how it is!" Grandpa Train instantly put the model train away and bellowed, "You really did come to steal my craft! I didn't wrong you after all!" Fuming with exasperation, Li Banfeng hollered at Grandpa Train, "Old man, I have something to say to you, so listen closely!" Flames were already spurting from the top of Grandpa Train's head. "Speak! Let's hear what you have to say!" Li Banfeng looked Grandpa Train dead in the eye. "Are we brothers or not?" "Are we?" Grandpa Train looked somewhat bewildered. Li Banfeng said, "I'll take the short end of the stick and let you be the elder brother." Grandpa Train blinked. "Did I really get the better deal?" "Regardless of who got the better deal, brothers don't fuss over that," Li Banfeng said with complete sincerity. "For the sake of our brotherhood, from now on, neither of us mentions the train. How about it?" Grandpa Train fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Is this a Fool Cultivator skill?" "Is it?" Li Banfeng shuddered inwardly. Grandpa Train muttered under his breath, "Haven't Fool Cultivators gone extinct?" Li Banfeng nodded solemnly. "I heard they went extinct too." Grandpa Train stared at Li Banfeng. "Then if it isn't a Fool Cultivator skill, were you speaking from the heart just now?" "Completely from the heart!" "Good! Then I'll listen to you. Since we're brothers, we won't speak of the train!" Grandpa Train nodded vigorously. "Let's talk about the tracks first. The reason I make the wheels first is to determine the type of tracks. There are many types of tracks, the most common being—" "Elder Brother!" Li Banfeng cut him off. This old man was completely erratic and mercurial, truly impossible to read. Yet Li Banfeng could understand him. He just wanted someone to talk to. "Elder Brother, let's not talk about the train, and let's not talk about the tracks. I don't want to learn, and I couldn't learn it anyway. But there are people who can, and people are watching." Grandpa Train froze for a moment, then suddenly chuckled. "I know they're watching. When I drove my train into the Inner States back then, they already knew. They didn't like people dashing around on their turf, but they couldn't catch me either, so they tried to buy me off. They offered me pills, gave me territory, and even offered me quite a high status—by old standards, practically a feudal lord! But I didn't care for it. We journey cultivators just want our freedom—to go wherever we please! Why should we be bound by them? Later, they set their sights on my train. Even after I sold it, they kept watching me. I really wanted to play along and have some fun with them, but what a shame—I slipped up this time and got trapped by them." Li Banfeng grew tense. "Can they see your train?" "They can't. Most of the time, I can't even see the train myself." Li Banfeng felt relieved. "But I can see the key, hehehe..." Grandpa Train suddenly flashed a sinister smile. If not for his top hat pressing it down, Li Banfeng's hair would have stood on end. The surrounding environment shifted. The dense forest vanished, leaving only a barren expanse of bare rock. Whose dreamscape was this? Grandpa Train's? Had he seen the key on him? Not necessarily. Right now was a dream; his dreamscape was intertwined with Grandpa Train's, but their physical bodies should be far apart. The key was with his physical body; Grandpa Train shouldn't be able to see it. Grandpa Train glanced at Li Banfeng's hand and asked, "Why do you always like touching your pocket? Is there something in there?" Li Banfeng didn't answer; he had no idea what to say right now. The surrounding scenery turned even more desolate. Not a single grain of gravel remained—only pure, empty space, offering no chance for temporary shelter. Grandpa Train lowered his voice. "Don't be afraid. Right now they can't see us. Nobody can see us. I'll ask you one more time, and you must tell the truth: do you really not want to stay here?" Li Banfeng nodded. "I don't." Grandpa Train sighed. "Your cultivation is too low. Leaving the Inner States is far too difficult. But we can take a gamble." "How do we gamble?" Grandpa Train said, "If your whole self entered the Inner States, you can forget about escaping—just stay here and keep me company. But if only your dreamscape entered the Inner States, I still have a way to get you out." Li Banfeng asked, "Why are you helping me? Just because I'm a journey cultivator?" Grandpa Train chuckled. "That's certainly what they think. They think capturing a journey cultivator will earn my trust, but that's not how I see it." "How do you see it?" "Once you get out, you'll know what I'm thinking."