Chapter 15 Whispers in the Woods "Lean on me and rest for a while."...
"So what happened?"
The campfire hissed as Shen Lixia picked up a long branch to use as a fire poker and kept adding firewood. The group sat around the fire, their eyes all fixed on Simmons.
Simmons pondered for a moment, then slowly began to recount the cause and effect.
The previous problem wasn't the Great Dream Array she had set up, but rather the frequent disappearances, initially confined to Kui Prefecture, but gradually spreading to the outskirts of Jing Prefecture. The unusual aspect was that this time the plea for help didn't originate from Kui Prefecture, but rather from the people of Jing Prefecture who, suspecting supernatural beings, sought help from nearby cultivators. Several rogue cultivators arrived in Kui Prefecture and then disappeared without a trace. Simmons entered Kui Prefecture after them and discovered that the people there were normal during the day, but their behavior at night was quite unusual.
"What's unusual about it?" Shen Lixia asked anxiously. "This can't be summed up in a single word."
Sitting opposite her, Simmons touched the Buddhist prayer beads on her wrist, which were warmed by the flames. Perhaps her question had stirred up unpleasant memories, she snorted coldly, and disgust flashed in her eyes.
"This land no longer belongs to the people; instead, it's home to a bunch of filthy creatures that devour people without spitting out the bones!"
Qiao Yanshen, who had been flipping through the small notebook in his hand, paused on one of the pages, looked up and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Most of the people living in Kuizhou can no longer be called human. They are no different from ordinary people during the day, but at night they roam around and devour others. Many local residents have been eaten, so they cross the mountains and forests to the edge of Jingzhou to forage for food, hunting the residents or travelers in the forest. When I was crossing the mountains and forests, I found several corpses that were not completely decomposed. They had storage bags hanging on their bodies, all of which required spiritual power to unseal. They must have been rogue cultivators who came here to take up their posts a while ago."
"What is the current situation in Quebec? Is there any drought?" Qiao Yanshen continued to ask.
"It's probably because these filthy creatures are obsessed with cannibalism. Large swathes of farmland have withered, irrigation ditches have dried up, and the goods sold in the market are infested with maggots. All the livestock have been eaten. The normal people living there who haven't been eaten are having a very hard time, and they'll even pull up and eat the grass growing on the ground," Simmons sighed. "But I can't even protect myself, and I can't take anyone with me. I can only set up a defense in these mountains and forests to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. As for the rest, we'll just have to take it one step at a time."
"So this is the origin of the drought demon..." Qiao Yanshen murmured to himself. Shen Lixia noticed that her unusual complexion, which had been pale since she woke up, seemed even paler, so she quickly moved closer to her.
She asked softly, "Senior sister, have you noticed anything strange?"
Qiao Yanshen shook his head: "It's nothing, it just made me think that all the legends in the world really do have their origins. But the drought demon is said to be a monster from the ancient times, how could it be resurrected again?"
If disaster were to strike again, the world would descend into chaos. She had a bad feeling, sensing that an even more perilous fate was about to befall her. The more this was the case, the more anxious Qiao Yanshen became, wishing she could leap to the Nascent Soul stage and master the art of teleportation to the Heavenly Realm to find out what was going on.
She dared not imagine how, if the world descended into chaos, she could protect those around her with her meager strength. While trapped in the Great Dream Array, she once again saw the woman who lingered in her dream, and heard her tell her:
"I gave my life for her. And you, you mustn't end up like that..."
Her calm voice was tinged with sorrow.
"I hope you will live, even if it's just to escape with her."
Qiao Yanshen couldn't understand the deeper meaning behind her words, but the regret that filled her heart resonated with the woman's voice, intertwining with it, making Chen Lixia seem less real the more she looked at her, and she was afraid that she would leave.
Then, she returned to the empty, deserted room and looked at the fireworks outside the window, but no matter how hard she tried, she could only grasp a fleeting glimpse of them.
"Drought Demon?" Tang Huairou exclaimed in surprise. "I read about it in one of Master's books. 'Wherever it goes, all is desolate'... It is the transformation of the body of the dead within a hundred days. Therefore, there is an ancient custom in Kuizhou to cremate the body. If that's the case, then the fact that not a blade of grass grows on the ground, there is no water in the ditches, the land is cracked and the crops are withered does indeed fit the image of 'desolation'."
Simmons was sitting close to Tang Huairou, so she leaned over to her and asked, "Does the book describe what this monster looks like?"
Tang Huairou recalled for a moment and replied, "Its canines were extremely long, its skin was deathly pale and cold and slippery, and it had no hair."
"...They really do resemble the monsters I saw; their skin looked truly terrifying under the moonlight." Simmons clicked his tongue. "It seems the legend of the drought demon is true."
Listening to their discussion, Qiao Yanshen pressed his fingertips to his brow, a strange feeling lingering in his mind for some reason. Even if the legends matched up one by one, the logic seemed to be somewhat loose in some places. But this disaster was very unusual. Since those trapped in the Great Dream Array were unharmed, their next task was to deal with this "drought demon."
Sensing the somewhat heavy atmosphere, Shen Lixia changed the subject at the right moment: "Speaking of which, you're just sending people back, why did you have to take their things off them? I heard some of them didn't even have their clothes left, and you're supposed to be a Buddhist disciple?"
Simmons showed no embarrassment upon hearing this, and said quite confidently, "I saved these people's lives, so why can't I keep some valuables? People who can afford to wear fine clothes certainly don't lack this one, and besides, I only took the outer garment, not the inner garment."
"You say you come from Buddhism, yet you show no respect for Buddha whatsoever, and you're not like those novice monks who keep calling people 'poor monk' or 'benefactor.' Could it be that you were kicked out because you like to steal things?" Shen Lixia found it amusing to tease this person, so she made a few sarcastic remarks.
To everyone's surprise, Simmons exclaimed in shock, "How did you know?!"
Shen Lixia: ......
This guy is a walking meme.
The group arranged their itinerary for the next day, planning to re-enter Quezhou with Simmons to investigate the returned drought demon. After finishing their business, they chatted casually for a while. When they talked about what they had seen in their dreams, Shen Lixia recalled the previous scene and asked Simmons, "You said you set up this formation, so can you see what others see in the formation?"
Simmons shook his head and said, "I can't see it. The Great Dream Array only draws people into a dream, and what they see in the dream is up to them. I don't follow the ordinary path of cultivation, but rather use dreams as a medium, so I guess you could call it dream cultivation."
As she spoke, she picked up a twig, took a step back, and began to draw and write on the ground.
"This formation uses sandalwood as a medium and a guide, just as you will discover its location when you break it. From a young age, I have been different from ordinary people, repeatedly seeing strange phenomena in my dreams, such as foreseeing unchangeable future events, or sleepwalking to places beyond the earthly boundaries. Perhaps I have already traveled through the celestial realms that cultivators ascend to in my dreams. Before I cultivated, I could not control my dreams; they could only be a mixture of reflections of reality and wondrous sights, until I—"
At this point, Simmons stopped, and her expression became strange.
"I dreamt of myself in another world, and saw her convert to Buddhism, so I also embarked on this path. The practice of Buddhism gradually enabled me to control the occurrence of dreams, and I came to understand it as magic, creating my own unique path. Therefore, as I said before, the scenes and things you see in your dreams must originate from yourselves, not from my construction. Forgotten memories, or secrets hidden deep in the soul... If you want to experience it again, I can let you enter the dream again to recall past lives or travel to the heavens."
Shen Lixia looked down at what she had drawn; it wasn't a formation, but rather some familiar scenes. She frowned and examined it carefully.
Seeing her examining it closely, Simmons said, "That's a scene I saw from my other self in another world. She was walking through these towering, strange buildings, surrounded by tin-clad beasts that emitted sharp cries. And speaking of which, my name is also hers..."
"Stop, stop!" Shen Lixia finally realized, "I feel like something's about to be triggered. Didn't a flash of lightning just appear in the sky? Okay, okay, I'm going to sleep."
As soon as she said that, Qiao Yanshen reached out and put his arm around her, pulling her towards his side.
"Lean on me and rest for a while."
Just as Shen Lixia was about to be moved, she noticed that the other two were staring at her, which puzzled her greatly. Somewhat confused, she asked, "What are you all looking at? Aren't you going to sleep?"
Simmons coughed twice.
"Cultivators rarely spend their nights sleeping; most choose to meditate and cultivate..."
Shen Lixia suddenly felt a sense of crisis that she was dragging the team down. She secretly glanced at her senior sister and found that the other sister was still calm and was gently patting her shoulder.
"We need to travel further now, and it will probably be quite tiring once we enter the prefecture. Everyone should take a break as soon as possible," Qiao Yanshen said softly. "Even though we are cultivators, our hearts are still human, and we always need to relax for a moment."
“That’s true.” Tang Huairou nodded, turning to look at Simmons. “We also…?”
Simmons quickly took out a few rolls of clothes from her storage bag and spread them on the ground, saying tactfully, "Fellow Daoist was just talking about 'Junior Sister' and 'Junior Sister', which is probably not appropriate for such intimacy. I have a few sets of cheap clothes here, so you can just sleep on them and make do."
Tang Huairou was speechless with emotion—then those two on the other side would be suitable?
Well, even an iron tree can bloom if it wants to, it has to rely on itself. She made do and lay down, back to back with the mattress. Qiao Yanshen took on the responsibility of keeping watch, and when he woke up Shen Lixia, he found that she was already fast asleep with her head on his shoulder, and he didn't know how much of what the two of them were saying had been heard.
He fell asleep so quickly… A slight smile played on her lips as she lowered her eyes and carefully shifted her body, gently changing her position so that Shen Lixia could rest his head on her lap. Long strands of hair fell down, lightly brushing against his face. She brushed them aside, looking at the boy's serene face. Perhaps the initial discomfort with physical intimacy had vanished due to the cold night wind. In this dark and silent forest, only this cluster of firelight dispelled the instinctive fear, drove away the ghosts, and illuminated the boy's features.
Qiao Yanshen stared at her, the scene in his eyes seeming to shimmer in the firelight. In a daze, she reached out to touch the boy's forehead, stroking it gently downwards.
It seems that this spot should originally have had a bit of bright red cinnabar, similar to the person in red in the dream.
A note from the author:
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Please watch the segment where they reveal each other's secrets.
Li Xia: I really can't understand you cultivators who don't even sleep.
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