Zhang Lijun's propaganda was clearly effective, and the father and daughter, who had just entered the room, had hope in their eyes. It wasn't much hope, just a sliver, but it was the only lifeline they could grasp at when they were on the verge of despair.
Zhuang Li then soothed them, saying, "Don't be impatient. Sit down and talk slowly."
Xuan Ming also pulled out a chair nearby and sat down to listen.
Xiaodao and Huangmao gathered around, looking at the father and daughter solemnly. Since they had met them and they had the ability, they wanted to help as much as possible.
"Are you Master Zhuang?" the man asked uncertainly.
"I am Master Zhuang. What can I do for you?" Zhuang Li asked patiently.
The man looked him up and down, disappointment creeping onto his face. He probably felt that Master Zhuang was too young, perhaps not as powerful as the rumors said. His daughter snuggled up to him, breathing heavily, yet her breath was very weak, a sign of exhaustion.
The man looked at his daughter, who was nearly dying, and asked in near despair, "Master Zhuang, can you tell what's wrong with my daughter?"
Zhuang Li stared at the girl's dark eye sockets, purple lips, and the two deep creases on her earlobes, and asked, "How long has it been since she last slept?"
The man shuddered, nearly bursting into tears. When the girl heard the word "sleep," she couldn't help but hug her father's arm tightly, trembling uncontrollably.
Before Zhuang Li could figure out what was going on, Xuan Ming started talking: "Did she meet a nightmare?"
The man suddenly turned his head to look at him with an ecstatic expression: "Yes, yes, my daughter is haunted by a nightmare, please help me, Master!"
He originally just wanted to try his luck, but he didn't know that there was actually an expert hidden in this fortune-telling house who could see through his daughter's problem at a glance.
Zhuang Li blinked and suddenly became very interested in this nightmare.
Zi Wei then remembered that Xuan Ming was a top-tier expert, and his disapproval turned into a look of intense interest as he watched the exorcism. He also pulled up a chair and sat down to listen, even though he already knew what had happened to the father and daughter.
The man wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Xuan Ming, but he didn't dare to let go of his daughter's arms, for fear that she would collapse in the chair and never get up again. He could only bend over, nod, and beg.
Xuan Ming raised a hand, signaling him not to speak, and his sharp eyes scanned the girl's face.
After a while, he said in a low voice, "There is only one way to save her, and that is to enter her dream, find the nightmare demon, and kill it. But her consciousness has long been gnawed by the nightmare demon, and her soul has been gradually eroded, becoming fragile. My spiritual body is very powerful, and I can't enter her dream at all. I only need to send out a trace of thought, and your daughter's consciousness and soul will collapse instantly. Then the one who kills her will not be the nightmare demon, but me. Therefore, I can't save her."
Xuan Ming shook his head, turned to look at Zhuang Li, and denied: "You can't save her either. Your spirit body may be more powerful than mine."
He tapped the table with his fingertips, his tone serious. "Furthermore, there are two nearly insurmountable difficulties in saving your daughter. I think you should understand a little bit. The first difficulty is that in the dream created by the nightmare, it is an invincible existence. And it never appears outside of the dream, so the exorcist can only enter its dream to face this invincible existence. In the dream, the nightmare is so powerful that almost no exorcist can kill it.
"The second difficulty is that exorcists who can kill nightmares are even more powerful, so their spirits must also be powerful. However, those possessed by nightmares are often tortured to the point of near death. Their consciousness and souls are simply unable to withstand the invasion of a powerful spirit.
"Let me give you an analogy so you can understand. Your daughter's consciousness and soul are now as fragile as a paper bag. Meanwhile, my spirit, and that of any powerful exorcist, is boiling and scorching like magma. Trying to hold magma in a paper bag—you can imagine what will happen to it in the end."
Xuan Ming shook his head and said, "Anyone who has the power to kill the nightmare demon has no chance of entering your daughter's dream. On the other hand, someone who can enter your daughter's dream but does not have the power to kill the nightmare demon is an unsolvable contradiction."
He leaned forward slightly, looked the man straight in the eye, and asked, "Do you understand now? It's not that we don't want to help you, but we can't."
Therefore, the girl has embarked on a dead end.
Everyone understood the meaning of Xuanming's words.
Xiaodao and Huangmao showed pity when the boss said the word "night demon". They knew that they could not help the father and daughter.
Upon hearing this, the man collapsed in his chair, his lips trembling slightly, his eyes reddened, and it seemed as if he would burst into tears in the next second, but considering his daughter beside him, he could only pretend to be calm and nod.
The girl's head rested softly on her father's shoulder, her eyes unblinking, yet tears kept flowing out.
She was so weak she didn't even have the energy to cry out loud. To avoid being tortured and killed in her dreams, she hadn't slept for a long time. She had her parents hold a needle in their hands at all times, so they could prick her hard if she noticed she was trying to sleep.
But human energy is limited, and after working hard for many days, she is almost reaching her limit.
She knew that if she closed her eyes next time, she might never wake up again.
Zhuang Li didn't say a word the whole time, just observing the girl carefully.
At that moment, her mother ran upstairs with a bowl of hot porridge. As soon as she entered the door, she said anxiously, "Xiao Nuan, I bought you some hot porridge across the street. Come and have a few sips. If you want to live, eat it! Eat more! Otherwise, how will you have the energy to endure it?"
The girl's desire to survive was so strong that when she heard the word "alive", she actually managed to raise her head and open her mouth.
Her mother quickly fed her a mouthful of hot porridge.
However, as soon as she swallowed it, her body had a severe discomfort reaction. She fell on Zhuang Li's desk and vomited a large pool of yellow and white turbid substance.
The fishy smell quickly spread throughout the office.
The girl opened her mouth to apologize, but no words came out. Tears streamed down her face. Her parents hurriedly apologized, helped their daughter to a nearby sofa, and then frantically cleaned up the mess.
Zhuang Li immediately stood up and moved away, with his head held high and his eyes fixed on the ceiling, not daring to glance at the desk at all.
Xuan Ming knew that his obsessive-compulsive disorder had struck again, so he quickly walked over, covered his eyes with his big hands, and whispered comfortingly in his ear: "I'll buy you a new table later. We don't want this one anymore."
This guy is a bit of a weirdo. His mysophobia seems to be selective. At work, in experiments, on adventures, he can tolerate even the most disgusting things. But in everyday life, he's often horrified by even the smallest stains.
The more Xuan Ming thought about it, the cuter he found it, and he couldn't help but kiss the little devil on the cheek.
Zhuang Li quickly said, "One more kiss!"
A kiss made him feel better.
Xuan Ming almost laughed out loud in front of this desperate family. He suppressed the corners of his mouth that were raised and kissed them again.
Zhuang Li blinked and finally forgot the horrific scene that kept playing in his head: the girl vomited all over the table and almost vomited on him.
After cleaning the desk and cleaning up their daughter, the extremely haggard couple repeatedly bowed and apologized. The girl held her aching stomach and curled up on the sofa, shivering.
Xiaodao's backpack contained a universal healing potion, but he didn't dare use it on the girl. Her body was already so weak that she couldn't even handle a mouthful of porridge, so how could she possibly withstand the potion's stimulating effects? Before the potion could take effect, she might die from the high fever caused by cell division.
To put it bluntly, if even the boss can't be saved, this person's only fate is to wait for death.
"I don't want to die, please save me. I don't want to die..." The girl tried hard to open her eyes and screamed in pain.
Her strong desire to survive is amazing.
Zi Wei suddenly burst out, not knowing what he was thinking. "You don't want to die, so you let others die? My fellow apprentice died saving you! He was only twenty-two years old. Didn't he want to live?"
The girl was stunned. Her cries for life suddenly turned into sobs of deep regret. She was so, so sorry! She had no idea she'd killed someone.
The girl's parents looked at Zi Wei in horror.
"I am also a member of the Dragon Team. When my junior brother entered your daughter's dream to save her, I was standing by and watching. You only cared about your own daughter and never even looked at me, right?" Zi Wei said with red eyes and gritted teeth.
The girl's parents then remembered something, and hurriedly knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Zi Wei continuously.
They just wanted to save their daughter, and they didn't know it would cause such irreversible consequences.
Zi Wei avoided the two of them and asked in a cold voice, "Didn't my master draw a lot of calming talismans for you? Why don't you use them? Calming talismans can help her sleep well."
"It was used and burned." The girl's mother took out a charred triangular talisman from her pocket and showed it to Zi Wei tremblingly.
If even the master and the underworld god can't handle it, then there's really no hope.
Zi Wei took the talisman and looked at it, and for a moment he could only sigh.
Only then did Zhuang Li slowly speak, "I want to first understand, is this nightmare a demon or a ghost?"
Xuan Ming explained in his ear: "Originally he was a ghost, but after killing too many people he became a demon."
Zhuang Li understood and said, "Ghosts must be the product of human death, right?"
The question was so basic that Zi Wei didn't even bother looking at him. Zhuang Daxian was indeed a master, but he certainly wasn't a master of metaphysics. He didn't even understand basic common sense.
Xuan Ming patiently answered: "Yes, people become ghosts after they die."
How could Zhuang Li, a man considered an encyclopedia of mysticism, not understand this common sense? He simply wanted to confirm it, as he had already found some clues.
"I think I can save you." He walked to the sofa and looked down at the girl.
The girl who had been moaning and trembling suddenly became quiet.
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