Chapter 14 Xia Ying's Dream (2) Xia Ying, I don't want to be separated from you...

Xia Ying put down her chopsticks and let out a satisfied sigh: "Thank you, Ke'er, I'm finished eating."

Is there anything else you'd like to eat?

"I'm full." Xia Ying looked up. "Ke'er, is there something you want to tell me?"

Cerberus, caught off guard, paused for a moment and replied somewhat awkwardly, "...Hmm."

Xia Ying looked at him intently: "Go ahead and speak, Ke'er. I'll listen carefully."

Cerberus took a deep breath and then asked, "Xia Ying, have you read the details of the next mission?"

"[Internship in the Ring Area]?"

Cerberus said solemnly.

“Xia Ying, I believe that you will find a way to protect yourself no matter what the circumstances, but you know almost nothing about the Demon Realm, which may arouse suspicion from other abyssal creatures. Therefore, I want to tell you some basic information about the Demon Realm first.”

"You're right!" Xia Ying suddenly realized, then sat up straight and pulled out a ballpoint pen and notebook from somewhere. "I'm ready, please begin."

Teacher Ker nodded and then began his lesson.

"The Demon Realm is located on the other side of the human world, and there is a spatial barrier between the two."

Xia Ying drew two circles in her notebook, one labeled "Demon Realm" and the other "Human Realm," and then drew a vertical line in the middle to separate the two circles.

"But unlike the human world, the Demon Realm is not a complete whole. It is said that it collapsed during the War of the Gods, which is why it is now in its fragmented state. These spatial fragments are called 'Abyss Realms'. There are four large Abyss Realms that exist, each ruled by a Abyss Lord."

Xia Ying quickly blackened the circle representing the demon realm, changing it into four smaller circles, and then poked some sesame-like dots around the four circles.

Xia Ying ignored the slanderous words about humans carried by the demonic hound and focused on writing the words "Yellow Springs" in a circle, adding the note "rational, cunning," and casually drew a small Qiongqi figure holding the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Blade next to it.

"If you go to Shadowscale Ring or Tomb Ring, you might run into these guys."

Cerberus paused for a moment, then continued.

"Then there is 'Nibelungen,' which is also where Fenrir comes from. Nibelungen is the harshest of the four abyssal realms. The abyssal creatures there have to fight each other for survival from birth, so they are aggressive and ferocious, with a strong sense of territory. They will probably all enter the Crimson Crown Ring."

With a few strokes, Xia Ying sketched Fenrir, who had wolf ears and a tail, and pointed an arrow at the circle marked "Nibelungen" which was labeled "belligerent and violent".

“The third is ‘Hell’.” Cerberus thought for a moment. “I don’t know much about Hell, I only know that the abyssal creatures there are mainly demons, and their lord is called ‘Lilith’.”

Xia Ying couldn't help but ask, "Demon race? Then is Hell also the home of the Demon Lord?"

Kel replied, "Probably not. The history of the Demon Lords may be longer than that of Hell, but there is indeed a possibility that there is some kind of connection between them."

Xia Ying nodded, drew a long-haired little figure next to the circle of "hell", meticulously added three pairs of wings, and put a question mark between the little figure and the circle.

Even after she finished drawing these, Ker hadn't started a new explanation, so Xia Ying urged, "It's time to talk about the next one, Ker."

After a long silence, Cerberus spoke again: "The last abyss is the Court of the Dead, my homeland, and its lord Typhon is my mother."

Xia Ying paused for a moment while holding the pen: "Then, wouldn't Kerber be equivalent to a prince of the Underworld?"

He hesitated for a moment, then gave up and said, "Never mind..."

"Cerberus, look at this." At this moment, Xia Ying had already finished drawing the Cerberus figure in her notebook with great ease and handed it to the other person with great satisfaction.

Cerberus stared at the lifelike fire-breathing figure for a while, then looked at the other masterpieces in his notebook and realized that his own precision was indeed incomparable to that of the other crude figures.

Watching her struggle to draw the puppy, Cerberus sighed, leaned on Xia Ying's shoulder as if all his strength had left, and wrapped his arms around her.

"So heavy!" The weight pressed down on Xia Ying, distorting her figure. She struggled to sit up and turned her head to ask, "What's wrong? Are you sleepy?"

"No," Cerberus whispered, burying his face in the back of Xia Ying's neck. "Xia Ying, I don't want to be separated from you."

"I know."

Xia Ying smiled, then loosened her grip, letting Cerberus fall down, rolling her twice on the ground before finally collapsing against the wall.

She gently cradled the demon hound's head in her arms, like the Virgin Mary cradling a fragile infant: "We won't be apart for long, Kel, can you bear with it a little longer?"

The demon hound propped itself up slightly with its right arm and raised its crimson eyes: "How long was that?"

"Hmm, I can't say for sure," Xia Ying pondered. "If I find out someday, I'll text you."

"No, it has to be sent every day."

"Only puppies are so clingy. Is Cerberus still a puppy?"

Cerberus instinctively transformed into a black puppy (fluffy version), nestled on the human girl's chest, and barked twice.

"..."

"..."

Their eyes met, and Cerberus began to realize what he had done without thinking.

Before he ran to a secluded corner to commit suicide out of overwhelming shame and anger, Xia Ying nonchalantly picked up the puppy, walked to the door, turned off the light, then went to the bed and hid under the covers.

"The [Circular Domain Internship] starts early tomorrow morning, so let's get some rest tonight." Xia Ying kissed the puppy's head. "See you tomorrow, Ke'er."

The last thing Xia Ying saw before falling asleep was moonlight spreading a thin layer of frost on the windowsill.

The moonlight is blue tonight.

Thinking this, Xia Ying slowly closed her eyes.

#####

"The night of slaughter often heralds the end of the scab cycle, followed by the necromantic cycle."

A strange man wearing a hood stood in front of Xia Ying and began to talk to her incessantly.

"During this period, the soul fluctuations of abyssal creatures will be exceptionally active..."

"Excuse me, sir, could you please stop for a moment?" Xia Ying looked around at the white world and decisively stopped the other person. "Shouldn't I be sleeping in my own apartment? Where am I?"

"...It is precisely because of the exceptionally active soul fluctuations that some abyssal creatures suffer from unstable symptoms such as nightmares, mental disorders, and memory regression."

The other person paused strangely for a moment, then continued speaking to themselves.

“Sir, you’re a bit of a chatterbox, but I think I understand,” Xia Ying said. “You mean I was drawn into your dream?”

The hooded man chuckled, "No, that's not it. It's because I have the ability to travel through dreams, so I rudely came uninvited."

"So it was just my dream," Xia Ying said bluntly. "This has nothing to do with all that you said before. Alright, you intruder, get out of here."

Under Xia Ying's control, this empty dream world suddenly twisted, and a giant hand formed from white mist reached out from the void and grabbed the hooded monster as if it were a small insect.

The hooded man cried out, "Let me explain, Miss Succubus! I am !"

"Who is 'The Eater'?" Xia Ying pondered for a moment. "Ah! The one who puts up those flyers! How did you know I'm a succubus? Looks like I'll have to silence him."

The giant hand clenched tightly, but when it opened its hand again, its palm was empty.

At the same time, Xia Ying felt someone pat her shoulder from behind, and the hooded monster's laughing voice rang out: "If Miss Succubus hadn't ignored my messages, I wouldn't have resorted to this method."

Xia Ying conjured the [Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi] in her hand, turned around and swung it. The hooded monster that was hit collapsed to the ground and turned into a cloud of smoke, but soon another hooded monster rose up again and continued, "Would you like to hear my request before you decide?"

Xia Ying stopped what she was doing: "Then you tell me."

Simply put, I want to establish a partnership with you.

"Be more specific."

"Haven't I been saying this all along?"

"The hooded weirdo said, feeling wronged."

"Due to the recent necromancy cycle, many abyssal creatures are suffering from soul fluctuations, so I am looking for companions who also have the ability to enter dreams to help solve the problems of these clients... Of course, there will be a fee."

The other party mysteriously poked out a hooded head: "To show my sincerity, you get six and I get four."

“Is that so?” Xia Ying nodded. “But I refuse, because you are too suspicious.”

The dream world is collapsing; she's about to wake up.

A note from the author:

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Mini-drama: About Cer's Separation Anxiety

Xia Ying skipped a grade and attended a university in the same city (but has since dropped out). However, she initially decided to live away from home at the school's suggestion. To appease Ke Er's emotions, Xia Ying promised him that she would go home every weekend, but the family dog ​​still secretly followed her.

How did Xia Ying find out? One day, when she went out of her dorm to pick up her takeout, she noticed a black dog lying by the fence, peeking at her takeout order and giving her an disapproving look... So she ended up moving back home.