Chapter 5 Precognitive Dreams:

"What? How could the result of the Heavenly Mirror be him?"

"He...a man."

"What's wrong with being a man? I'm a man too. When the Mirror Palace summoned me, I came, didn't I?"

"You're just imagining things. How could Brother Shen possibly like you!"

"Brother Shen might not even like you, so why isn't your name written on the Heavenly Mirror?"

“That’s…that’s Brother Shen’s favorite person, yes, the Heavenly Mirror shows that it’s Brother Shen’s favorite person! I must be the second…or the third…”

"Pooh!"

An uproar erupted around them.

The result shown by the Heavenly Mirror... indicates that it's Shen Bingsi's favorite person.

Shen Bingsi's favorite person is him.

It's like sucking on a plum; slowly, a sweet aftertaste fills your mouth.

My heart started pounding faster.

Rong Xie lowered his gaze slightly, avoiding Shen Bingsi's stare. He wasn't ready to respond yet. Was it really okay to confess in public like this?

Although he had a premonition that, in terms of affection, he might not be inferior to Shen Bingsi's lovers, after all, they were lifelong best friends, since childhood...

Wait, something's not right.

Rong Xie raised his eyes again, stealing a glance at Shen Bingsi's expression.

Shen Bingsi had been listless and pale ever since he came out, looking completely lost. This was even more evident up close. Rong Xie had never seen him like this before.

Rong Xie's joy also faded away.

He asked, "What's wrong? Why do you look so pale?"

Shen Bingsi did not answer him. Shen Bingsi clenched his teeth so tightly that the masseter muscles on both sides of his cheeks bulged out. He was forcibly enduring something, so much so that he could not open his mouth to speak.

Rong Xie tentatively reached out to touch Shen Bingsi's hand, but Shen Bingsi's hand felt like a cold stone. The veins on the back of her hand and her bulging knuckles were rough and uncomfortable. As soon as Rong Xie touched her, she pulled away.

Rong Xie's fingers remained suspended in the air.

"You...all of you, get out," Shen Bingsi said grimly.

Although the beauties really wanted to talk to Shen Bingsi, they obediently left upon hearing his order.

As Fairy Xingmiao left, she gently touched Shen Bingsi's shoulder and then glanced at Rong Xie with a complicated expression.

In the end, only the round-faced Taoist remained. He stared at Rong Xie in shock, as if frozen in place, his sword still undrawn.

Shen Bingsi held out her hand to him: "Sword."

The round-faced Taoist priest seemed to wake from a dream. He looked down and searched his waist for a while before remembering that the sword was in his hand. He quickly threw it to Shen Bingsi.

Shen Bingsi's hand remained steady, and she managed to grab the sword amidst the round-faced Taoist's flustered movements.

He looked down at his palm, as if he saw his destiny.

"You go out too."

Before Shen Bingsi could finish speaking, the round-faced Taoist had already vanished in a flash.

The sky darkened sometime earlier, the moon had not yet risen, and stars pierced through the clouds one by one, their faint starlight enveloping the two people in the courtyard.

“This is… Photonic White Orchid.” Shen Bingsi’s voice seemed to carry a self-deprecating laugh.

“Yes.” Rong Xie didn’t understand why he looked so sad. “The Taoist priest just now asked me to pick a weapon that you usually use when you’re in a bad mood. I don’t know what other weapons you can use besides Shengxie. We bought this sword at an auction. At that time, you only had 32,000 spirit stones in your entire fortune. You spent 30,000. I think you must really like this sword.”

Shen Bingsi chuckled again. He drew his sword and looked at the starlight. The gleaming blade reflected his crimson eyes.

Rong Xie's heart skipped a beat.

"Rong'er, it won't hurt too much." Shen Bingsi approached Rong Xie, reached out and pulled him into her arms, her palm stroking upwards along his spine until she reached the back of his neck, her cold palm enveloping the vertebrae at the back of his neck.

Rong Xie felt Shen Bingsi's shoulders press down on him. His shoulders were broad, like a thick blanket. It was very comfortable to snuggle in his arms, but Rong Xie's stomach hurt terribly, as if it were about to break.

He looked up and saw the stars in the sky turning blood red one by one.

...

A force grabbed Rong Xie by the back of the head and lifted him off the ground.

He flew into the air and saw his body go limp as if his bones had been removed from his skin. Shen Bingsi also knelt on the ground.

The courtyard grew smaller and smaller, and the two figures were as insignificant as ants.

The majestic Mirror Palace lies dormant atop the highest peak of the towering mountains—the Mysterious Peak, while the distant land is shrouded in a gloomy black mist.

In the far distance, the moon rose, and a strange blood mist burst forth, instantly engulfing the moon, as if staining the stars red, soaking the moonlight, and covering everything on earth with a layer of fierce blood light!

Heavenly Demon!

This is the Heavenly Demon that "comes up" as soon as it gets dark!

I never expected it to "come up" like this.

Rong Xie felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end. He was suspended in mid-air, able to directly face the strange changes sweeping across the world. This fear was tinged with a sense of grandeur, making him both scared and shocked.

The shock and suspicion from being betrayed by Shen Bingsi were temporarily put aside. Rong Xie hugged himself, trembling, and stared wide-eyed, unwilling to miss the slightest change in the strange phenomenon.

Just then, a blinding golden light shot down from below.

A golden light streaked across half the sky, striking the blood moon with lightning speed, traversing thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, cleaving the heavy night, and leaving a dazzling blade of light in Rong Xie's eyes.

"Buzz—"

The sound of the communication jade pendant rang out, and Rong Xie suddenly opened his eyes. The golden light and blood moon in his field of vision had disappeared, leaving only a pure white background.

He lay there motionless, staring blankly upwards, his eyes unfocused.

I feel terrible, my stomach hurts, and I feel so nauseous I can't breathe.

After a long while, he slowly raised his hand and touched the spot where the light-emitting white orchid had pierced him. It was still intact, without any terrible hole.

Exhale slowly, very slowly.

It was a dream.

But the thought of Shen Bingsi calling him so gently and hugging him, only to plunge the sword he had personally chosen for him into his body, made Rong Xie tremble uncontrollably, and his face unknowingly became wet.

That dream felt so real.

Everything felt like it had really happened.

"Buzz—"

The jade pendant kept ringing.

Rong Xie reached out and touched something cold. He picked it up and habitually put it to his ear.

He realized something, picked it up and took a look. It was a black plate, light and thin, with a strange texture. It was not a sound transmission jade pendant, but a strange thing that Rong Xie had never seen before.

"This is……"

The black surface suddenly lit up, startling Rong Xie. He threw it away, and the board fell to the ground, spinning away like a top.

Rong Xie sat up, still feeling weak. He looked around and found that there was nothing there except a white ceiling and floor.

...and that blackboard that lights up.

"Excuse me, is anyone here?" Rong Xie asked tentatively, while quickly picking up the fallen board.

No one answered.

Rong Xie looked down at the black board. Luckily, it hadn't cracked. He had accidentally barged into someone's house and broken their things; it was far too rude of him.

Suddenly, the board vibrated again with a "hum," and the front lit up, revealing a very beautiful little picture with a line of small words floating on it.

The characters were not quite the same as those Rong Xie usually used, but this did not stump him. He could guess with a little effort that they were simplified versions of certain characters.

"Friendly reminder: Your subscribed work, 'Offering the World a Dragon-like Hero,' has been updated! Click to view."

Please forgive my confusion, but what is a "Dragon Overlord"? Why would someone offer up this heaven for the world? And "click" means to tap a spot with your finger.

As soon as the thought arose, his finger touched the text, and the image on the board changed, displaying a full text in front of Rong Xie.

A familiar name comes into view:

"The Great Dao has been proven! The Demon-Slaying Sword Saint Shen Bingsi transformed into a golden bolt of lightning, cleaving heaven and earth in two, utterly splitting the World-Destroying Demon in two!"

"Stars tainted with demonic energy fell like rain, as if mourning his deceased beloved... Shen Bingsi finally succeeded in killing his wife to attain enlightenment, but no one could have guessed that the 'wife' in his heart was actually that man!"

"Rong Xie, the head steward of Huanxue Manor, a reliable support system, and a lifelong friend!"

Rong Xie was startled and almost threw the board away again.

"How come Bing Si and my names are on this? What nonsense is it spouting?"

He was full of doubt, but he looked at it carefully again. With his finger pointing, the simulated book pages in the picture would be turned over one by one. Before he knew it, he had read the contents of the page.

Unable to bear the weight, his legs slowly collapsed to the ground. Rong Xie sat back down, curled up, and buried his face in his knees.

He wanted some peace and quiet.

He needs some quiet time.

This novel, "Offering the Dragon's Pride to the World," is a popular vernacular novel. Its word choice and sentence structure differ from Rong Xie's usual style. He barely managed to read it, and after seeing even more chaotic book reviews, he roughly understood what the book was about.

Despite its unbelievable nature, it truly tells the story of her close friend, Shen Bingsi.

The novel begins with Shen Bingsi's childhood and continues until he joins the Lingjing Sect, cultivates the Path of Ruthlessness, becomes the youngest adjudicator in the cultivation world, and then slays demons and monsters, travels the world, and leads a group of young male and female cultivators to fight against the final villain, the World-Destroying Demon.

The novel, spanning over three thousand chapters, is rich in content and depicts the story of the protagonist, Shen Bingsi, as she explores the world, challenges various types of demons, and forms relationships with handsome men and beautiful women from different regions. The title "Dragon Soaring to the Top" describes protagonists like Shen Bingsi, who have tragic pasts and experience a dark period. Through extraordinary willpower and luck, they rise against all odds and eventually reach the pinnacle of the world, becoming legends.

Of course, Rong Xie couldn't possibly read all of this content; he found it in the introduction and book reviews.

He focused on the ending.

In the end, in order to fight against the Heavenly Demon and save the world, Shen Bingsi needs to quickly improve his strength. The Heavenly Mirror reveals to him that as long as he can "kill his wife to prove his Dao", he can ascend to the Great Perfection realm on the spot. In this way, he will have enough strength to fight against the Heavenly Demon.

However, Shen Bingsi did not have a "wife".

The Heavenly Mirror represents the will of Heaven and never makes a mistake.

Tianjing told him that this "wife" did not represent a wife or Daoist partner in the secular sense, but rather the love in his heart. Shen Bingsi may have suppressed this feeling in some way, but that did not mean it did not exist.

Shen Bingsi pondered the matter again and again, but to no avail. She could only ask the Heavenly Mirror for guidance.

Thus, the novel progresses to the scene in the Mirror Palace, which is exactly the same as what Rong Xie experienced.

This time, however, he stepped outside the game and saw more information from an observer's perspective. He saw those young men and women, with the intention of sacrificing themselves so that Shen Bingsi could attain enlightenment, rushing from the four continents and seven seas to the Mirror Palace; he saw Shen Bingsi's Dao heart on the verge of shattering when the Heavenly Mirror results came out; he saw that after his death, Shen Bingsi successfully attained enlightenment, defeated the World-Destroying Demon, and saved the world.

At the end of the story, Shen Bingsi stands alone, facing the setting sun, with two graceful figures quietly following behind him...

Upon seeing this, Rong Xie's heart surged with emotion, and his eyes welled up with tears. It turned out that he had died for Shen Bingsi's love. He was the biggest obstacle to Shen Bingsi's path to enlightenment. With such a formidable enemy before her, Shen Bingsi had no other choice but to kill him.

The reason was perfectly valid, but Rong Xie's mood did not improve in the slightest.

His mind was in turmoil. He picked up the board again, swiped his finger, and many book reviews popped up.