"In the blink of an eye, it's been six or seven years since I last visited Lingxu; I miss it dearly." Fu Shanyue rubbed his hands enthusiastically, looking truly full of anticipation. "When do we leave?"
"Very soon." Bai Ziqi also tucked away his slight surprise, smiled at the two of them, and stood up. "I still have a few pieces of news to wait for, so I'll head back first."
The two saw Bai Ziqi out to the inn's doorway, watching his figure disappear around the street corner.
This imperial emissary refused to take a carriage, insisting on walking back, claiming that pacing helped him think.
Only then did He Lingchuan let out a long breath. "Sure enough, he wants me to return to Lingxu with him."
That man was truly hard to fool.
"Don't worry, with me at your side, he won't be able to make things difficult for you!" Fu Shanyue patted his shoulder. "Isn't this great? You were heading to Lingxu City anyway. Now you won't need to travel with a merchant caravan or fret over border passes; a Duyun Emissary will personally escort you."
He Lingchuan gave a wry smile. What good intentions could Bai Ziqi possibly harbor in wanting him in Lingxu City?
Fortunately, with Fu Shanyue traveling along, Bai Ziqi would not be able to move against him openly on the road.
Walking back inside, Fu Shanyue noticed his pensive expression. "What's on your mind now?"
He Lingchuan had been pondering the Gu master's bamboo canister, but hearing the question, he shook his head. "I was wondering—were those treasures lost by the Azure Palace more than ten years ago really stolen?"
Fu Shanyue could only shrug. "If they say they were, then of course they were."
Would saying otherwise do any good?
He Lingchuan recalled the portrait of National Preceptor Qingyang. Mai Xuewen had spoken of the National Preceptor as if breezing past him, but intuition told He Lingchuan there was likely some connection between the two.
"From the portrait to the snail-toads, everything connects back to the Azure Palace." He Lingchuan exhaled. "The clues Mai Xuewen left point so clearly in that direction; there's no way Bai Ziqi failed to notice."
Although the case of the elixir of immortality had been taken over by Bai Ziqi, lifting most of the pressure from He Lingchuan's shoulders, he could still sense that the road ahead was fraught with thorns at every turn.
Any further in, and this case was no longer something he could investigate—nor was it something Fu Shanyue or the Chiyan Kingdom could investigate.
"The Azure Palace, eh?" Fu Shanyue let out a long sigh as well. "That fellow certainly has guts. Perhaps someone is backing him."
***
Dawn finally broke.
Cheng Yu felt warmth spread through his entire body.
Opening his eyes, daylight filtered through the door and shone across his face, slightly blinding.
This was a request he had made the night before—to sleep with his head toward the door.
The golden, warm morning sunlight brought relief straight from the bottom of his heart.
Bai Ziqi sat in a chair in the corner. Seeing him stir, he remarked, "Well, I thought you wouldn't wake up."
"Cen Boqing and I were merely in an employment relationship. He paid, I killed—and I didn't even succeed," Cheng Yu said, watching the warm light streaming through the door. Breathing a sigh of relief, he stated decisively, "I had absolutely nothing to do with the Cen family's other sordid affairs."
Bai Ziqi chuckled.
Cheng Yu pressed, "I'm not a major culprit in Cen Boqing's case, right?"
"You plotted against the Chiyan Crown Prince's special envoy. If this were handed to the local magistrate for trial, it would be a capital offense," Bai Ziqi said at his leisure. "With me, it depends on the circumstances."
"What circumstances?"
"Just what means did you use to deal with the Chiyan Crown Prince's special envoy?"
Cheng Yu hesitated for a moment. "A nightmare."
Bai Ziqi tilted his chin slightly, understanding dawning. "So you entered into a pact with a nightmare?"
Some curse masters could forge pacts with nightmares, borrowing their power to kill in dreams. Nightmares left no trace; in reality, the victim suffered no external wounds, leaving behind no useful clues, making investigation impossible.
Yet such occurrences were exceedingly rare. Nightmares themselves were scarce, and most could only conjure petty bad dreams, scraping by on whatever meager fear they absorbed.
Nightmares would even devour one another.
True behemoths capable of killing within dreams were rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns.
How could such dream overlords ever take orders from anyone? To forge a pact with them, one had to yield substantial benefits.
Cheng Yu nodded, lingering dread in his heart.
"Did Cen Boqing and Wu Kai know?"
"They only knew I could take lives in secret, but didn't know it was through a nightmare. I've never mentioned this to anyone."
"Why did you suffer a backlash?" Bai Ziqi asked. "The nightmare failed?"
"Not only did it fail, but I'm afraid it was also severely wounded by him; otherwise, its golden form wouldn't have suddenly shattered." Cheng Yu smiled bitterly. "I never imagined it would turn out like that."
"Wu Kai confessed that you were capable of placing a death curse on the monarch of an entire kingdom," Bai Ziqi said. "Was that by borrowing the power of a nightmare?"
"Yes." At this point, Cheng Yu had nothing left to deny. His past mystique had merely been meant to inflate his own worth.
"Mhm, could you have engaged a Dream Lord?"
The most formidable nightmares were honored as Dream Lords.
"...Yes." Cheng Yu was somewhat surprised that Bai Ziqi even knew the term.
"Its title?"
Cheng Yu lowered his voice. "Thoughts constantly dwelled upon will evoke an echo; I cannot speak its name openly."
"With my protection, you still fear it?"
"It was originally an immortal who fell into dreams to become a Dream Lord, having devoured countless nightmares itself," Cheng Yu said, terror lingering in his eyes. "It can enter dreams by day; ordinary warding methods are completely useless against it."
"You dare call the methods of a celestial god 'ordinary'?" Bai Ziqi gestured toward the burning candle in the corner of the room. "With the protection of an Everlasting Lamp before the throne of the Sacred Void, no harm will come to you. Speak—what is its title?"
The Sacred Lord's Everlasting Lamp? Cheng Yu looked at the candle, and indeed felt a calming, tranquil force from its flame. Gritting his teeth, he finally confessed, "It is the Hundred Faces Nightmare. It personally told me that its present cultivation already surpasses what it possessed as an immortal."
"Hundred Faces, is it?" Bai Ziqi stroked his chin. "How did you avoid it previously?"
"I originally had a dreamscape in a bottle, which I used up at the Cen Manor. My divine soul was hidden within it to recuperate, but Cen Boqing woke me ahead of time, leaving my soul injury difficult to heal."
Speaking to this point, the candlelight in the corner of the room suddenly flickered.
Warm sunlight illuminated half the partitioned room; though this flicker was subtle, it was directly across from Cheng Yu, so he caught it nonetheless.
Bai Ziqi turned back to look as well, frowning. "Since Hundred Faces is so formidable, how could it be defeated by He Xiao?"
"The power of Hundred Faces is not something an ordinary youth could contend with." Cheng Yu caught his breath. "I have always suspected he received immense protection, which was why Hundred Faces suffered such an abrupt defeat."
"Perhaps he has some magic artifact protecting him?"
"A magic artifact?" Cheng Yu couldn't help letting out a laugh. "If a mere few magic artifacts could withstand Hundred Faces, it wouldn't deserve to be called a Dream Lord. That would at least meet the threshold of a divine artifact!"
"A divine artifact..." Bai Ziqi mused. "What kind of divine artifact could it be?"
"One that can merge into the Azure Void, suppress evil and ward off malice, protect He Xiao's divine soul, and even gravely wound Hundred Faces." Cheng Yu felt a bit dizzy; likely because his soul injury had not yet healed, speaking just a few sentences left him winded and muddle-headed. "Treasures of that caliber... I doubt there are more than a handful in the world today. What's more, I suspect that Hundred Faces turning back to attack me is not unrelated to He Xiao."
"Oh?" Bai Ziqi pondered. "You're saying He Xiao can turn a nightmare and drive it to attack you?"
What caliber of monster was Hundred Faces? That was not something an ordinary person could pull off.
"Very likely!" Cheng Yu pressed his temples. "I've never heard of Hundred Faces suffering a setback at anyone's hands."
At that moment, the flame of the Everlasting Lamp flickered once more, and then went out.
Cheng Yu pointed at it, immediately tensing up. "This..."
"There truly is something looking for you, completely reckless even in broad daylight." Bai Ziqi tossed a handful of incense ash toward the foot of the bed.
The incense ash drifted down, yet seemed to catch on something and could fall no further.
That thing had originally been transparent, but was now outlined in a rough silhouette—
It resembled a humanoid with a torso, legs, and hands, yet was not quite human, as its neck and arms were excessively long, like a tree monster.
Moreover, it had two heads.
It stood right beside the bed, stretching its heads forward to stare at Cheng Yu.
If Bai Ziqi had not tossed that handful of incense ash, no one would have known it was there.
This malicious, covert spying was truly chilling to the marrow. Even Cheng Yu shuddered violently, his scalp tingling with fright.
Once discovered, the nightmare transformed into a strange gust of wind, sweeping toward the door.
The incense ash marked its trajectory. As it neared the doorway, Bai Ziqi struck with a sword, neatly slicing the strange wind in two.
A faint golden glow coated the blade.
Both heard a faint, bizarre shriek, enraged yet pitiful.
Immediately, the strange wind spontaneously ignited, pale flames sweeping across the entire partitioned room. Yet neither of the two inside felt any heat from the flames.
The strange wind attempted to flee, but four candles in the corners formed a barrier, trapping it in the center. The candle flames flickered precariously, dimming and brightening.
It rammed repeatedly against the barrier like a fly beating against a windowpane.
Bai Ziqi scoffed disdainfully, "This is a Dream Lord? Seeing once is truly better than hearing a hundred times."
Cheng Yu was somewhat stunned. "I-It..." How could Hundred Faces be so pathetic?
As they spoke, the strange wind exerted all its might and finally extinguished one of the candle flames. The invisible barrier dissolved immediately, and it fled outside at last.
Bai Ziqi made no move to stop it.
"Perhaps it is reluctant to entangle itself during daylight. Or perhaps..." Cheng Yu pondered to himself, his eyes lighting up. "After being defeated by He Xiao, its power dwindled drastically, and it is no longer a Dream Lord!"
Bai Ziqi could not help laughing. "And you hid from a thing like this for days, even burning through a precious sealed dreamscape?"
Cheng Yu was speechless.
He had only remembered the Dream Lord's terrifying might, forgetting that if even he, the summoner, had suffered such a severe backlash, how many times worse must the injuries sustained by the nightmare itself be?
It was also heavily wounded; how could it retain its former majesty!
Realizing this, he relaxed completely, the heavy stone on his heart vanishing without a trace.
Bai Ziqi continued to question him, "Is the pact you forged with Hundred Faces still intact?"
Cheng Yu shook his head. "Around the time I returned to the Cen Manor, I discovered that the pact had automatically dissolved."
Which was why he had been panicked out of his mind back then.
"Dissolved is good; that way, you can deal with it without reservation." Bai Ziqi asked, "Can you stand? I want you to go to the county dungeon to cross-check depositions with Cen Boqing. You were fed plenty of good medicine earlier; you should be able to get up now."
Cheng Yu tried sitting up and found that his ailing body was indeed no longer heavy.
"Will you truly help me deal with Hundred Faces?"
"Of course," Bai Ziqi said earnestly. "I will need your help with my next case."
Cheng Yu was curious. "What case?"
Bai Ziqi smiled. "Once Cen Boqing's case is concluded, you will naturally find out."
Chapter 538