After leaving the police station, nothing further happened.
Maybe the investigation into the ruined highway was too busy, or perhaps the focus shifted to reinforcing the coastal defense lines, or it could be the hassle of figuring out how to raise public awareness about emergencies—whatever the reason, neither Si Nuocheng nor his team were called back, and Ji Si was not disturbed.
They had settled into the Qingding Grand Hotel, where their daily routine was nothing but eating and sleeping. Despite promising to keep the dream training goals in mind, as soon as their heads hit the pillows, they fell into deep, untroubled sleep, completely unaware of the passing hours.
Two days passed, and the energetic Jiang Qining could no longer sleep. As an expert in staying up late, even the cold winter winds couldn’t stop his desire to sail out on a yacht, but adjusting to a regular sleep schedule was almost killing him.
Seeing Si Nuocheng tirelessly working away, and Laki falling asleep within seconds while solving math problems, Jiang Qining felt that he couldn’t continue to be this lazy.
He too wanted superpowers, to live a life where he could punch demons, kick evil spirits, embrace the moonlight in one arm and the beauty of his lover in the other. He imagined the admiration of his little brothers calling him “Lord Savior” as he struck a heroic pose and claimed the throne of life’s winners!
Thinking about this, Jiang Qining couldn’t help but let out a silly laugh: “Hehehe…”
Everyone else: …
Laki, who had been immersed in his math problems, raised his drowsy head. “What’s wrong with him?”
Si Nuocheng, who had been focusing on the key points, answered bluntly, “Probably useless.”
He finished setting the development goals for the entire quarter, then delegated the tasks to his subordinates. After all, he wasn’t paying them millions of yuan a year just to keep a bunch of idle fish. If he had to do everything himself, it wouldn’t show his capabilities, it would only show that he didn’t know how to use people.
And being “unable to use people” was the most fatal flaw for anyone in a high position.
Once this round of work was done, unless something urgent came up, he wouldn’t interfere. If he overworked himself, the older generation of the Si family would probably start questioning if they had picked the wrong heir. After all, people at his level didn’t need to work from nine to five.
With the work done, Si Nuocheng was completely free. He now had plenty of time and energy to study the dreams.
Unlike Jiang Qining, who had no clue, and Laki, who was almost there but still missing the key element, Si Nuocheng had actually gotten a little glimpse of the threshold. The experience of the strange dimension had made him remember that mysterious feeling.
Perhaps, entering dreams wasn’t really “entering a dream,” but rather… weaving one’s own dimension?
Ji Si didn’t need sleep but could shift between dimensions anytime, anywhere. If Ji Si could do this, why couldn’t he?
From his observations over the past few days, Ji Si was full of mysteries, but his actions and behavior were human-like. His personality was close to human, and even his appearance was unmistakably human.
So could it be understood that Ji Si’s essence, or perhaps a stage in his life, was as a “human”? And this stage had such a profound impact on him that he still retained the nature and form of a human.
However, now was not the time to dig deeper…
He had always been a patient and cautious hunter.
Si Nuocheng gathered his thoughts, pulled Laki up, and they went down to the 12th-floor gym to spar for three hours. Afterward, they hastily ate at the buffet and then retreated to their rooms for a nap.
The curtains were gently drawn, and the room became dim.
Si Nuocheng lay down according to his usual routine. Before falling asleep, he turned his head and looked at Ji Si, who was sitting on the sofa, resting with his eyes closed, and asked, “Tomorrow is the 9th. Aren’t you going to Lingdong?”
“No,” Ji Si replied calmly, thinking the same as Si Nuocheng. “If I have to do everything myself, it won’t show my capabilities. It’ll only show that I don’t know how to use people.”
Si Nuocheng paused. This thinking was something he had only seen in fellow heirs of prominent families.
“The prophecy is given, and the army is in place. The monsters at the borders can be dealt with by artillery. If they lose…” Well, then they would be demoted to lifeless positions and replaced with fresh blood.
Ji Si raised his hand slightly, and with a “click,” the dim bedside lamp went out.
“You should sleep now, Si Nuocheng,” he said, “Remember who you are in the dream, remember the purpose of entering the dream, remember the feeling of being in the dimension.”
Remember who you are…
Si Nuocheng closed his eyes.
…
In Room 1607 on the 16th floor of the Qingding Grand Hotel, Qi Xinli removed a listening device from the wall, then skillfully installed a new SIM card in his phone and communicated with the police.
“Same as before. Three people. No ‘fourth person.’” Qi Xinli leaned against the wall, reporting the details. “I’ve been staying next door for two days. Si Nuocheng wakes up at six, Vladimir at seven, and Jiang Qining still isn’t up by ten. After their meals, the other two spend some time in Si Nuocheng’s room…”
“The places they frequent are the suite, the gym, and the buffet—no sign of going out, no signs of buying a new car.”
“Yes, they have no intention of going to Lingdong.”
“…”
Five minutes later, Qi Xinli hung up the phone. He walked into the bathroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror, his gaze sweeping from his sharp eyebrows, over his phoenix-shaped eyes, down his nose, and finally to his thin lips… With his sharp facial features, his face was handsome, but it didn’t invite familiarity.
Tch, troublesome.
He pulled out a pair of gold-rimmed glasses from his backpack and put them on. In an instant, the aloof intellectual aura transformed into the demeanor of a social elite. He adjusted his appearance, forcing a smile.
After a moment, he settled back in his room and waited until 3 PM.
According to his observations, this was the time when Si Nuocheng would wake from his nap. A slight sound of footsteps came from the listening device, faint and slow, heading toward the door…
Qi Xinli got up, pressed the button on his Bluetooth headset, and turned the doorknob.
“Click!”
The two doors opposite each other opened simultaneously. Qi Xinli quickly adjusted his expression, raising his eyes in surprised politeness toward the person opposite. He raised a friendly, harmless smile.
Just as he was about to say “Hello” and nod, the figure in the doorway caught his eye, and his smile froze.
He had never seen this person before…
Wearing a low-key luxurious white robe, with long black hair that reached the floor. The man before him had delicate features, a refined air, and as their eyes met, he nodded and gracefully walked away. The entire space felt eerily still, only the sound of a cane tapping on the floor could be heard.
Qi Xinli stood there in silence for a moment before closing the door.
He opened it again, checked the number on the door, closed it, and repeated this process three times.
Very well, he had been following them for two days and had never seen anyone deliver food to their rooms, nor had he seen anyone bring food in for them. More importantly, he had never seen any strangers enter those two rooms.
This was the 16th floor—other than the elevator and the stairwell, no one should be able to access it. With only one corridor in his line of sight, how did the person get in?
If they had been living across from him for a long time, didn’t they need to eat?
Changing meal times? No, the Qingding Grand Hotel didn’t offer extra meals at midnight. Besides, he had been given full access to the 16th-floor corridor surveillance, so there was no reason he would have missed someone coming or going.
Qi Xinli turned back to his desk, quickly typed in a secret code, and switched the screen.
Just now, at 15:01, he remembered both doors opening at the same time. But the surveillance footage only showed him opening his door; the other door was completely still, as if everything he had seen was an illusion!
“Ha…”
He rubbed his face with his palm, his fingers trembling slightly. A moment later, he grabbed his phone!
“Team Leader Chen, I’ve got a lead,” Qi Xinli took a deep breath. On the other end, the person fell silent. “What I’m about to tell you, don’t be scared.”
“Tch, I’ve had strict training. No matter how scary, I’m not afraid.”
“Alright, I saw a ghost.” Qi Xinli emphasized. “I really saw a ghost during the day. You know, the kind with white clothes, long black hair, good-looking, tall… male ghost.”
“Enough. I want to see the ghost again.”
Team Leader Chen: “I suspect you’ve gone mad! I told you to infiltrate the place and find someone, not wander around seeing ghosts!”
…
The door to the new world opened, and Qi Xinli didn’t want to close it.
The shock of seeing it with his own eyes made him desperately want to catch the ghost, throw it into a machine, and get an X-ray to see what was inside. He was dying to figure out whether this was some kind of life form, a gas, or something else.
The future scientific milestone was beckoning!
But Qi Xinli wasn’t in a rush. He flipped through the background information on the three people, weighed the pros and cons for a long time, and dialed a phone number of an old friend from his master’s degree days…
Si Nuocheng was running wildly!
He wore heavy bamboo armor, his clothes soaked with blood, dripping through the cracks in the bamboo fibers onto the dark earth. Knives and axes lay scattered along the path, and broken bodies were strewn around him. With wild hair, he stepped over the corpses and moved forward, pursued by a terrifying monster with nine human heads and a snake body, its skin purple and green.
Wherever it slithered, the stench filled the air, and large patches of land turned into swamp.
“Hehehe, Xiangliu, Xiangliu…” The nine-headed monster laughed as it chased him. “Hehehe! Ji Daoxu, where are you going?”
“Where are you going?”
The foul wind whipped up, and Si Nuocheng could almost feel the monster’s drool dripping onto his head. His body felt as though it had been poisoned, but his will to survive grew clearer.
“Ji Daoxu, Xiangliu, Xiangliu…”
【Demon spawn!】 Si Nuocheng felt an anger rise up in him that didn’t belong to him. He grabbed a broken gun and braced himself. 【I, Ji Daoxu, will not retreat any longer! You have slaughtered countless innocent lives…】
Who is Ji Daoxu?
Is it me? No, this is not me.
Who am I?
Si Nuocheng’s gaze cut through the blood-muddied long hair, fixing on the massive, human-headed snake monster behind him. If he remembered correctly, the name “Xiangliu” came from the “Classic of Mountains and Seas,” describing a monster that ate humans, later killed by Dayu. The places soaked with its blood could no longer grow crops.
Wait, why does he know this?
For some reason, it felt as if the monster was getting bigger and bigger, as though it were blocking out the sky. He remembered seeing a terrifying figure like this on a silver-white yacht.
Wait, what is a yacht?
The sense of incongruity was getting stronger, and he felt he should remember a lot, but had forgotten what he had forgotten. The monster’s shape grew taller, its nine human faces mocked him with cruel smiles. “Isn’t it normal for monsters to eat humans?”
“Humans are tools that connect heaven and earth; eating them nourishes blood and essence. Isn’t it a waste not to eat them?” Xiangliu twisted its snake body. “If I eat enough, I can turn into a human shape and gather the five elements, hehehe!”
Human tools, five elements?
Someone had said this before… who was it? Was it…
【A name is the shortest spell.】
【Remember who you are…】
Xiangliu’s neck curled up, preparing to strike. It shot down from the sky like lightning, its nine mouths opening wide, its fangs dripping with saliva.
It lunged at him, and Si Nuocheng could almost smell the stench, anticipating his body being torn apart.
But at that very moment, the entire world seemed to freeze in time, and everything became silent. Every bit of light and shadow stretched infinitely, every second slowed as though a year was passing.
The colors faded, like butterflies taking flight. The earth and sky, distant mountains, and close bones merged into desolate black and white. Only the human-headed snake monster remained, its tongue growing redder, its face turning even paler, its scales gleaming more intensely.
It was getting closer to him, its terrifying visage crystal clear—
【The second time! The second time!】 Memories surged, and emotions exploded! It was self-disgust at his helplessness, the anger of needing to hide behind a human to save his life.
The ruined highway, the split open rugged terrain, the light halo of faint golden color.
A man with white hair standing in the deep ravines, as if standing on the highest astrological platform. He held a scepter and looked at him sideways, their eyes meeting for an eternity.
“Si Nuocheng…”
Si Nuocheng suddenly woke up!
At this moment, the shackles of time shattered. Countless faint golden lines spread out from him, extending outward. Based on the subconscious feeling of experiencing dimensions twice, the lines naturally gathered in his palms, forming a large sword.
By instinct, Si Nuocheng swung the sword toward Xiangliu’s throat!
The precision and mastery of the strike were so perfect, it felt as though he had trained for decades… This subtle, indescribable sensation made his scalp tingle.
“Thwack—” Xiangliu’s throat burst open, spraying blood all over him.
Immediately after, he felt like he had been burned by strong acid, with excruciating pain sweeping through his body. His tall figure slowly dissolved in the toxic blood. Soon, he was overwhelmed by a powerful sense of falling, his body spasming, and his eyes shot open.
The dark room. No lights.
No one on the hotel sofa.
Only he, drenched in cold sweat, with his blood burning and his temperature higher than normal. Si Nuocheng gasped for breath, his fingers still tingling with the after-effects of the dream as he reached out to turn on the light.
The next second—
“Boom!”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
PS:
Ji Si: The louder the explosion, the stronger the power!
Si Nuocheng: Actually, I just knocked over the hot water bottle on the bedside table. It exploded.
Ji Si: …
PS:
Jiang Qining: Bro, tell me honestly, how much have you invested in fate?
Laki: Si Nuocheng, where did you buy your protagonist halo?
Si Nuocheng: …
