Chapter 23 Dream Request (2) That's only for those who unfortunately fall in love...

Let's begin now.

"Wait, wait, wait. Sharpening your axe won't delay your woodcutting, but we can't ignore safety production regulations."

The diner solemnly pulled a small booklet from his hood.

"Huh?" Xia Ying replied, puzzled. "To alleviate the soul fluctuations that troubled the client during the necromancy cycle."

"The second question is, what essential qualities are required to execute a dream-related commission?"

"Hmm, the ability to enter dreams?"

"Then the third question..."

That's enough.

Xia Ying clenched her fist, and the surrounding white mist condensed into a giant fist, which she swung fiercely at the annoying hood.

The man was beaten into pieces, flew to the horizon and then slowly drifted down. He could only raise his upper body and gave his dying words.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have joked… Here, take this ‘Dream Guide’.”

Xia Ying took the booklet, flipped through it briefly, then put it in her pocket. She squatted down in front of the tattered cloth and asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

“Most of the precautions are written in the Dream Intervention Manual,” the Eater said weakly. “Like you, clients have absolute control over their dreams. Although they won’t harm you according to the agreement, if a dangerous situation occurs…”

"Don't hesitate, leave the client's dream immediately, right?"

"As expected of your darling, absolutely right." After giving his final instructions, the eater lay down on the ground with a sense of relief, weakly waving his hand. "Then let's set off, Xia Ying, wish you a safe journey."

A door leading to the client's dream slowly formed in front of Xia Ying.

She paused for a moment, then reached out and pushed it open, revealing a deep blue, glowing dream cocoon on the other side of the door.

Xia Ying tried to reach out and touch it, but a rapidly spinning vortex suddenly appeared on the surface of the cocoon and sucked her in.

Everything that followed happened incredibly fast. A tremendous force pulled Xia Ying forward, drawing her through the soul barrier belonging to others. Then, the world suddenly opened up, and Xia Ying escaped the narrow and cramped passage, falling into a new space.

This time, the feeling of weightlessness didn't come from the sky, but from the ocean!

Xia Ying was in a dilapidated wooden boat, surrounded by the roaring black sea.

The tide surged and surged, and the towering waves suddenly tossed the small boat up. However, before it could climb to the crest of the wave, the force supporting it suddenly disappeared, and the bow of the boat plunged downwards.

The ship was suspended in mid-air and fell almost vertically. All the unsecured objects on the deck were overturned. Xia Ying quickly reached out and grabbed the mast tightly. In the wind and rain, she quickly took out the "Dream Guide" from her bosom and began to read the tips in it at a glance.

Xia Ying flipped the page with a "whoosh".

The actions you should take are as follows:

First, try to partially control the dream when the dream master is absent, in order to avoid damage to your soul.

Please pay special attention!!! As the master of the dream, the client is often hiding in one of the most memorable places within it.

At this moment, the small boat had almost crashed to the bottom of the trough of the waves. Xia Ying heard the keel groan under the weight, as if it was about to break in the next moment. Meanwhile, the waves on both sides, several stories high, were rolling with foam and launching a pincer attack on the small boat.

"It says it's about controlling dreams! But how exactly is it supposed to be controlled?!" Xia Ying screamed amidst the two giant waves, as if venting her frustration. "Could you please write the instructions in more detail?!"

Just as she was about to be crushed by the sea, Xia Ying couldn't help but miss the sky.

She was thinking: If only the little boat could fly.

The moment this thought flashed through Xia Ying's mind, the wooden boat beneath her was instantly replaced inch by inch with solid iron. The precarious parts were completely renewed, and two mechanical steel wings suddenly unfolded on both sides of the hull.

With a powerful flap of its steel wings, it tore through the wall of waves and carried the small boat high into the sky. Xia Ying stared in astonishment at this miraculous turn of events, and it took her a long time to recover.

The storm at sea continued, but the giant waves could no longer touch the soaring steel ship. Xia Ying walked to the side of the ship, looked down at the still raging sea, and savored the feeling of changing the dream with her own will.

She stretched out her hands, feeling the salty, cold, and damp sensation against her skin, and while imagining a calm sea, she spoke her wish.

"I want to stop this storm!"

Her thoughts caused a brief pause in the storm, but the calm did not last long. Although she had fallen into a deep sleep, the subconscious of the dreamer was still vying for control, and the giant waves soon returned, with the rain pouring down even more fiercely.

It seemed impossible to calm this dream down on her own. Xia Ying thought, the only option was to find the client.

She turned her gaze back to the sea, and just then, a dark hole suddenly appeared in the water, as if a tremendous force was rising from the depths.

The seawater surged violently, rushing and churning in all directions. An island, shimmering with the eerie light of the deep sea, broke through the boiling water and slowly but irresistibly rose from the abyss.

No, that wasn't an island, but a colossal body of flesh and blood.

It was a giant, deep blue whale.

In the instant the giant whale leaped out of the water, a deep and long whale song resounded through the sky, and a huge column of white mist shot up from its head and then gradually dissipated, like a giant tree completing its growth, blooming and withering in an instant.

Xia Ying gazed intently at the magnificent scene and immediately determined in her mind the hiding place of the dream's owner.

Without hesitation, she steered the steel boat down, almost crashing into the water with the giant whale. The ocean was first dented by the godlike creature, and then the seawater was pushed in many times over, causing the small boat to rock from side to side and lose its balance.

The ship slid down the sloping walls of the esophagus, as if passing through an incredibly long tunnel. Xia Ying could feel the rhythm of flesh and blood and the roaring breath of the giant whale.

After an unknown amount of time, accompanied by shaking and a light but not heavy impact, the small boat finally reached the whale's belly and stopped falling completely.

By the faint glow of phosphorescence, Xia Ying observed her surroundings.

Compared to the stomach of a giant creature, this place is more like a tranquil lake. The whale's body has become the best sanctuary, isolating it from all turmoil.

The small boat moved slowly forward on the dreamy blue water, with the "sky" above rising and falling with each breath, and in the distance, whale bone structures resembling a pale stone forest were faintly visible.

Of course, Xia Ying did not forget her purpose in entering the giant whale's body. She quickly seized the rare moment of respite and began to read the "Dream Entry Manual".

"Let me see, is there a more detailed explanation regarding the whereabouts of the dream's owner..."

Just as she was flipping through the pages quickly, the small boat suddenly hit something hard, shook violently, and then stopped moving.

A very large clam.

This clam lay horizontally in the middle of the lake, its two pearly shells closed... Perhaps it's better not to look for physics in dreams, but it remained completely still despite being hit by the steel ship, without even being chipped, which shows how hard and stable this clam is.

Xia Ying bent down, put her ear close to it, and tapped the clam shell with her knuckles, hearing a clear echo.

This clam is empty.

Judging from its size, it should be more than enough to hold an object about the size of a person.

And it just so happens to appear in such a suspicious place.

Could it be that...

Suspicious, Xia Ying decided to open the clam shell. After thinking for a moment, a hammer appeared in her hand.

Xia Ying looked at the hammer and thought: Maybe I should get a different one, in case I accidentally hit a customer.

So the hammer changed and became a crowbar.

She wedged the flat end of the crowbar into the crevice of the clam and pressed down hard. Sure enough, the clam shell opened, revealing the creature hidden inside.

That was the client and dream master she was looking for; yes, Xia Ying had anticipated this.

But when she actually met him, she was still stunned.

Within the clam, slumbers an incomparably beautiful creature.

Its body is a crystallization of moonlight and seawater, shrouded in a soft milky white halo, with shimmering silver-blue hair flowing over its skin, the color becoming more ethereal towards the tail, like waves of varying depths gently lapping the white shore.

Even without looking through the translucent ear and pectoral fins, Xia Ying could easily recognize the other's non-human identity simply by its extraordinary beauty, not to mention its long, slender tail. As the tail fin swayed gently, the diamond-like scales shimmered, platinum, deep blue, and pale purple blending together to refract a mesmerizing iridescent light.

The creature inside the clam slowly opened its eyes.

Xia Ying forgot to look away, and so she witnessed how those eyes fell from the hazy mist into the raging waves, and finally dived into the deep abyss where starlight sank.

The deep sea finally awoke and responded to her gaze.

Xia Ying was now fully awake.

She began to realize that the dream was shaking her rationality. Remembering the drinker's instructions, Xia Ying quickly retreated and tried to urge the small boat to create distance, but the vast sea suddenly crashed down like a heavy hammer, unexpectedly shattering the scene in which they were.

There are no giant whales, no clams, and no small boats anymore.

Xia Ying was thrown into the purest and most empty depths of the ocean, with nothing around her to rely on but herself and the beautiful yet terrifying half-human, half-fish abyssal creature.

The heavy pressure of the seawater suddenly felt incredibly real. Xia Ying clumsily paddled her limbs, but only sank in vain.

Worse still, as she began to feel a sense of reality, Xia Ying suddenly realized that she was unable to breathe, as if she were in the real ocean.

Her strength was rapidly waning, her vision was slowly darkening, and just as her consciousness was beginning to blur, the thick seawater around her was torn apart, and a pair of hands cupped her face.

The siren's blessing fell silently on her lips.

Xia Ying snapped back to her senses and met the gaze of the abyssal creature before her.

Upon meeting her gaze, the hands suddenly released their grip, and Xia Ying sank back down, a string of bubbles rising to her lips in terror. The siren quickly swung her tail to catch up and grabbed her hands tightly.

Having temporarily escaped the crisis, Xia Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief and was able to look into the other person's eyes again...

Xia Ying thought to herself: Huh? Why does it look a little different from before?

At this moment, Xia Ying's figure was reflected in those eyes, and the faint light reflected from them had completely lost the vast coldness that belonged to the ocean itself.

Noticing Xia Ying's gaze, a ripple stirred in the siren's eyes, joy and shyness quietly spreading and slowly permeating them.

She doesn't need to do anything more or say anything more.

This stunningly beautiful creature had already lost itself in her gaze.

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Author's note: Now that we have land-based creatures, let's change things up and try some marine life (just kidding).