Chapter 184 Misty Rain Pavilion (Part Twelve)
"Master, we...have returned to Pingze?" When Wei Feng saw the three big characters of Jiaolong City, a hint of joy welled up in his heart, but he quickly realized that no matter how you looked at it, this was impossible.
“It’s a memory illusion.” Jiang Gu looked at the slightly flimsy edge of the city wall. “We were dragged into his memory by that red mist.”
The smile on Wei Feng's face vanished instantly.
He could vaguely guess the relationship between that remnant spirit and himself, after all, the ghost mark couldn't be faked, but he didn't like this feeling—no matter what happened a thousand years ago, it wasn't his memory, and he couldn't tolerate a remnant spirit taking away even a fraction of his master's attention.
"Master, let's leave here." He grabbed Jiang Gu's hand, trying to forcefully pull him out of the illusion, but unexpectedly he couldn't use any spiritual power at all.
“The memory illusion relies on the memories of its owner. We are not the people in his memories, so we cannot use spiritual power.” Jiang Gu gestured for him to calm down. “Memories always have an end. He won’t last long.”
Wei Feng's brows furrowed tightly. "But—"
"Past events are like fleeting clouds; there's no need to dwell on them," Jiang Gu said calmly, looking at him.
Wei Feng was stunned for a long time before slowly nodding.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a young man carrying a sword walked past them and stopped in front of the city gate.
His ponytail was tied high, with two small braids tied at his temples with colorful ribbons. His golden earrings shone brightly in the sunlight. His bright red and gorgeous clothes were particularly eye-catching. Various magical treasures hung from his silver-blue belt. He carried a black longsword on his back, the hilt of which was a piece of pure white bone. He put his hands on his hips, tilted his head back, narrowed his eyes, and smiled nonchalantly, "Is this Jiaolong City?"
He was very handsome, with fair and radiant skin, and his cheeks still had a bit of baby fat. When he smiled, he would reveal two small tiger teeth. His eyebrows and eyes were eight or nine parts similar to Wei Feng's.
"That's right." The bone sword answered him, its voice clear and melodious. "Who exactly are you looking for?"
"I don't know." The boy said with a grin, "He never tells me his name in my dreams, he only tells me to call him Master."
The bone sword remained silent for a moment, then said, "You must have gone mad from practicing cultivation."
"No way! He taught me all my skills. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't even be able to transform into human form." The boy raised his arm, slapped the bone sword in annoyance, and happily went into the city.
"Although I can never see my master's face clearly, he always wears white clothes, like a god." He carried his sword and walked through the bustling crowd. "As long as I see him, I will definitely recognize him at a glance."
Bone Sword chuckled.
The boy paid no heed to its mockery and kept rambling on about his master in his dream, but the bone sword wasn't listening at all. It was more like he was talking to himself, and the pedestrians on the street couldn't help but keep their distance from this eccentric person.
"You said that even though I was born in the far south, my master was able to find me. He must have been waiting for my birth long ago." The boy said with certainty, "If I hadn't swallowed so many evil spirits and lost my mind back then, I would have seen him in my dreams long ago, and I wouldn't have had to wait for several years. Hey, have I ever told you that I first saw my master in my dream when I was eight years old?"
The bone sword remained motionless, but he didn't seem to care. He continued muttering to himself, "What kind of good master beats up their disciple first? How could I stand for that? I roamed the far south for eight years, and immediately summoned all my ghostly runes to devour him, only to be slapped so hard I couldn't find my way back... Ha, my master definitely held back, I'm telling you. He even secretly patted my head later. Oh, I don't have a head, hahahaha..."
He wandered around Jiaolong City alone for a long time, exploring almost every street and alley, but he still couldn't find the so-called "master" he was talking about. As darkness fell, he rummaged through his storage bag and finally pulled out three low-grade spirit stones, then checked into the cheapest room in the inn.
He took off his clothes and soaked in the water, his arms draped lazily over the edge of the tub, the hideous scar on his right forearm particularly noticeable.
He poked the scar and asked Bone Sword, "My master said this is a memory seal. What exactly is sealed inside? Every time I mention it, he gets very angry, and I get a couple more beatings."
He had obviously asked this question countless times. The bone sword buzzed twice, then turned over and ignored him.
The boy sighed with a rare melancholy, staring into the void as he murmured, "Master, I miss you so much."
His gaze was unfocused, and he couldn't see Jiang Gu standing in front of him, but Wei Feng next to him found the scene extremely irritating. He stepped forward and used his body to block Jiang Gu's view, his gaze even more resentful than that of the boy in the bathtub.
Jiang Gu's eyebrows twitched slightly.
A boy's voice came from behind Wei Feng, "Master, am I really your only disciple?"
Wei Feng's eyes were practically spitting fire as he stared intently at Jiang Gu, his jaw clenched. Jiang Gu was silent for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the back of Wei Feng's neck, pulling him away.
The scene before him suddenly changed, and it was daytime again. In the dark alley, the boy seemed to be fighting with someone. He transformed into a thick, dark ghost pattern, devoured the troublemakers, and then transformed into human form, looking at the trembling little mermaid behind him.
"Are you alright?" The boy squatted down in front of him, smiling as he stretched out a hand. The little mermaid opened its fins, bared its teeth at him in a show of defiance, and bit his palm.
The boy cried out in pain and flung the little mermaid away, its black scales instantly oozing blood.
The boy paused for a moment, then took out the bone sword from his back and tentatively poked the other's fish tail. "Hey, are you still alive? You bit me first, and I just flicked it away."
The little mermaid slowly opened her eyes, and her body convulsed involuntarily.
The boy sighed, grabbed the little mermaid by the tail and lifted him up. "Fine, I happen to need a spirit pet. You can be my spirit pet from now on."
Several days later, the boy discovered that the little mermaid had its tongue cut out and its ears poked out. It could neither speak nor hear, and it would always bite his palm until it bled profusely.
However, the boy was surprisingly good-natured. He fattened up the little black mermaid and even found a water-based magical artifact so that it could soak the mermaid's tail in it. The artifact was a large vat that was half a person's height. The boy placed the bone sword in front of his chest, carried the vat on his back, and swaggered out of Jiaolong City, completely ignoring the strange looks from others.
He named the little mermaid Ahei, and also gave the bone sword a name Ahbai. He carried Ahei and the bone sword from the water jar to many cities on the Pingze Continent, but still could not find the person in his dream.
"Stop looking," the bone sword advised him. "There's no such person in the world."
“Impossible, there must be.” The boy sat on a rock on the shore, watching Ahei swim around in the water. When Ahei got tired, he lay down on the shore, raised his webbed hand, and handed him a crystal clear silver-blue stone lying in his palm.
The boy grinned, took it, and put it in his sleeve. "Thanks, Ah-hei."
Ignoring the bone sword's advice, he continued his search, encountering many villains who wanted to kill and steal his treasure, as well as many kind-hearted people willing to help him, but he could not find the person in his dream.
It snowed heavily that day.
Ahei was immersed in the water vat, reaching out to catch the snowflakes. The bone sword had just finished killing someone and was drinking blood. The boy knelt in front of a large rock, pulled out a shivering, gray kitten from a cave, and tucked it into his front to warm it with his body.
"He won't survive," the bone sword said.
Ah Bai perched on his shoulder, peering curiously into his arms, and poked the cold, furry ball of fur with her finger.
"It can survive." The boy said confidently. He bit his finger and fed his blood to the kitten. Several days passed like this, and the kitten, which was only half alive, was actually saved by him.
"From now on, you'll be called Ah Mao." The boy grabbed its two front paws, lifted it high, and smiled so brightly in the sunlight that his eyes sparkled.
Then Ah Mao coldly and mercilessly slapped him with her claws.
The boy wasn't afraid of the pain. He laughed out loud, put Ah Mao on his shoulder, and continued on his way.
His method of finding people was quite strange. He neither asked people nor drew their portraits, but relied on smell. As soon as he stepped into a city, he knew whether the person he was looking for was there.
"No."
"No."
"……No."
"No."
"No……"
He missed his target countless times. Anyone else would have given up long ago, but he still refused to stop. He continued on his way with a confident smile, holding the bone sword in his hand, a gray kitten on his shoulder, and a large water vat on his back, in which he kept a small black shark that was both mute and deaf.
“Your master is not a person of this world at all,” Bone Sword said.
“He is,” the boy retorted.
"When was the last time you saw him?" Bone Sword asked.
The boy's smile froze for a moment before he finally answered, "Six years ago."
Bone Sword also fell silent. "Six years ago, you were only ten years old."
The boy fell silent.
Bone Sword persisted, “You said you first saw him in a dream when you were eight years old, and never dreamed of him again after you were ten. Even if you dream of him every day, you only knew each other in your dreams for a short period of two years.”
"Besides, you're a monster. Do you really sleep? All these years you've just pretended to be a human, imitating them by closing your eyes every night. You've never slept at all, so how could you dream?"
The boy stood there, somewhat bewildered and lost, and refused to move.
Ah Mao perched on his shoulder and meowed at him. Ah Hei in the water tank flicked its tail, splashing water onto his sleeve, and his hand hanging at his side twitched involuntarily.
“There is no such person at all,” Bone Sword said. “Even if such a miraculous encounter did occur, your master-disciple relationship would only last two years in a dream. Why are you so fixated on it?”
The boy stood alone in the wind and snow for a long time before slowly shaking his head. "No, Master said he would give me a name next time we meet."
Bone Sword sighed, "You're possessed."
"I was born a monster." The ghostly markings on the boy's back were bared and clawed, but the little black shark and the cat were used to it and would even try to tug at the ghostly markings to play with them.
Seeing this, Bone Sword stopped trying to persuade him.
The scar on his arm only felt slightly hot. The boy rubbed his fingers helplessly and laughed, "I must have had dreams during those two years. In my dreams, my master taught me many skills and treated me extremely well. If he didn't even exist—"
The boy, dressed in red, stood in the vast snowfield, his smile bright and radiant, yet his eyes were filled with stubbornness and determination.
"He's definitely there."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
