Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 85
Chapter 85: Dream
To be fair, the man in the neighboring world was indeed handsome.
Viewing him with an eye for appreciation at first, Xiang Haikui had given him a high rating.
Now, she just wanted to spit in his face.
Xiang Haikui curled her lips in disdain, but as the icy wind blew past, causing her to shudder, she suddenly realized something peculiar.
It seemed that she was the only one who could hear those two speaking next door?
She withdrew her gaze from the bottom of the icy spring, noticing that the golden light swirling around Bai Xingxian was already exceptionally dazzling and brilliant.
Taking a breath, the air was crisp and cold, and the foul stench on Lu Xiqiao seemed to have vanished as well.
She estimated that she had been in deep meditation for quite a long time, and the two of them were nearly on the verge of complete success.
If they were deep within their conscious realm, it was possible they couldn’t hear a thing.
Why was there no reaction from Yin Changli either?
Could he be in hibernation?
She quickly loosened her overlapping sleeves, raised her arm, and looked down into the sleeve opening.
She could only see the tip of his tail around her arm, spiraling upward.
“Senior?”
There was no response.
Oh no.
She reached her other hand into the sleeve and tugged on his tail.
The tip of the tail curled up in an instant.
“Hmm?”
Xiang Haikui let out a sigh of relief.
“I thought you had gone into hibernation.”
“No.”
His consciousness was merely a bit sluggish from the cold, making his response slightly slow.
“What’s wrong?”
Xiang Haikui asked, “Did you not hear that?”
Yin Changli’s eyes showed confusion.
Just as he was about to ask, “Hear what?”, a thought struck him.
Uncoiling from her arm, he reversed his direction and poked his snake head out of her sleeve, looking down toward the bottom of the small icy spring.
After scrutinizing it for a good long while, he asked, “Did you see that man again? And even hear his movements?”
Hearing the tone of his question, Xiang Haikui felt her heart sink.
She pointed toward the bottom, where the refined young man was still brandishing the small knife in his hand.
“Can you… not see it?”
Yin Changli did not answer, but the answer was self-evident.
A sense of eerie mystery arose, and Xiang Haikui couldn’t help but swallow her saliva.
“At first, I could only see them and couldn’t hear any sound. It was when that young man started ‘cutting’ space—who knows what he cut into—that the sound suddenly traveled over.”
Yin Changli asked, “Are they still talking now?”
Xiang Haikui nodded.
“Yes.”
Yin Changli, who had originally exposed only half of his body, fully slithered out from her sleeve.
With a flick of his snake tail, he whipped the golden, glowing Bai Xingxian like a lash.
Xiang Haikui didn’t even have time to stop him.
Seeing Bai Xingxian’s face turn pale with pain as he snapped awake and spat out a mouthful of blood, she couldn’t help but think to herself—no wonder people often complained that when raising a kid, as long as there’s no danger outside, the dad is the kid’s biggest danger.
Yin Changli was practically a “dad” to Bai Xingxian.
“Uncle?”
Bai Xingxian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Why didn’t you dodge?” Yin Changli questioned.
Bai Xingxian felt aggrieved.
“I was in the middle of meditation. When you suddenly attacked, how could I possibly dodge?”
Yin Changli let out an “Oh?” and said, “You couldn’t dodge me, yet you had the time to retract the Inspiration’s golden light back into your body?”
Xiang Haikui was slightly taken aback.
Right, when the golden light on Jing ran was this dazzling, it would already counterattack automatically. Jing ran wouldn’t even need to move; relying solely on the golden light’s backlash, he could slay many high-cultivation assassins.
Little Bai had already become so adept at freely deploying and retracting the Inspiration’s golden light.
She asked suspiciously, “Senior, how long have we been in meditation?”
Yin Changli replied, “A little over two months.”
Flicking his tongue, he added, “Little Bai’s speed in integrating the golden light is no different from my estimation. However, the speed at which his sly wits are growing is somewhat beyond my expectations.”
Bai Xingxian’s face suddenly turned pale, then flushed bright red.
“Uncle, I was just afraid of hurting you.”
Yin Changli said indifferently, “Then why lie?”
Bai Xingxian lowered his head, knowing his uncle had thoroughly seen through his inner thoughts.
When his uncle whipped his tail over, the golden light had sensed it, and he had woken up in the very first instant.
His first reaction was not to dodge; if his uncle hit him, he should take it.
But then he thought, his uncle suddenly whipping him was probably to test whether he would dodge or not.
When he was young, his uncle had taught him the concept of “never drop your guard against others.”
He had once given him a luminous pearl and thrown him into a Human Clan black market, telling him not to sell it no matter who came to buy.
As long as he stayed in the same spot before the sun set three days later and the pearl in his hand was not lost, he would pass the test.
Who could have expected that on the very first day, his pearl was tricked away from him.
His uncle gave him another chance. This time he learned his lesson and refused to speak to anyone. As long as he didn’t respond to them, he wouldn’t be tricked.
Finally, after three days passed, the pearl was still in his hand.
When his uncle came to pick him up, he happily handed the pearl over to his uncle.
Yet, his uncle pointed toward the setting sun.
“The sun hasn’t set yet. You failed.”
Afterward, his uncle gave him a third chance.
This time, not only did he refrain from speaking to anyone, but he also kept his eyes fixed on the sun at all times.
However, on the second day, his uncle suddenly appeared and said that pursuers were coming.
Panicking, he transformed back into his true form, grabbed the little black orb, and ran.
Only after running out of the black market, when his uncle called a halt, did he realize he had been tricked again.
He had been young at the time and still had a child’s temperament.
He immediately threw a fit and quit on the spot, saying, “I’ll never win this test! You are the person I trust the most. If you trick me, how could I possibly guard against you?”
His uncle smiled.
“When you learn to guard against even me, that is when you will have truly grown up.”
Thinking back to this, Bai Xingxian considered dodging to show his uncle that he really had grown up—that he could shoulder responsibilities and ease his uncle’s worries.
But on second thought, he remembered a question he had asked his uncle back then.
“Does Uncle want me to guard against you?”
He remembered his uncle remaining silent for a long time before answering, “My feelings would probably be quite complicated.”
Recalling those words, Bai Xingxian no longer wanted to dodge.
And when his uncle questioned him, he didn’t want to voice his complex inner thoughts, because explaining would carry the same meaning as “dodging.”
After integrating the Inspiration, it felt as though he had grown up overnight.
At first, Yin Changli and Xiang Haikui had been communicating in secret telepathic transmissions, but now that all three were speaking aloud, Lu Xiqiao was naturally woken up.
He opened his eyes, felt that the atmosphere was somewhat off, and promptly closed them again.
Bai Xingxian was getting a scolding right now.
This was the man destined to become the Celestial Emperor of the Celestial Clan in the future.
It didn’t matter now, but once he became Emperor, if he happened to remember someone laughing at him today, that would not end well.
“Uncle…”
“Enough. Take a look at the bottom of the icy spring.”
Yin Changli pointed his tail at Lu Xiqiao again.
“You stop pretending too. Come take a look together.”
Lu Xiqiao gave a sheepish smile and looked toward the icy spring.
“What are we looking at?”
Yin Changli asked, “Little Kui, are they still there?”
Xiang Haikui: “They are.”
Not only were they still there, but they were also still talking.
…
The refined young man was probably tired from cutting.
He mumbled in complaint, “Even if someone really is using spatial arts to peek at you, it hasn’t affected you. This is just a cave we’re temporarily staying in, not your house. Why be so aggressive? For all you know, they might have gotten here even earlier than you.”
The heroic man ignored him.
The refined young man muttered under his breath, “Could it be that they caught you drooling in your sleep?”
The heroic man’s eyebrows shot up.
“Hurry up and cut! Having brought you along all this way, you’re not of the slightest use. I really doubt whether you can find the exit at all. If you can’t even catch this woman, we might as well part ways shortly!”
As if frightened, the refined young man’s hand holding the knife trembled, and he hurriedly resumed cutting.
…
“Who’s there?”
Lu Xiqiao stared at the water puddle for a long while, seeing only the reflections of themselves.
“Could someone be at the bottom of the water?” Bai Xingxian looked at Xiang Haikui.
Since Uncle had told them to look, it meant Uncle couldn’t see it either and wanted to test it out with them.
She was completely done for.
Xiang Haikui rubbed her temples.
“I might be having hallucinations.”
If it were a mirage between two worlds, it would be impossible for her to be the only one able to see it.
Yin Changli swam in a circle around the pool.
“That might not necessarily be the case. Didn’t you say earlier that your father could see it too?”
Xiang Haikui was unable to understand.
“But I couldn’t see it before.”
Yin Changli said, “Your father couldn’t see it at first, either.”
Xiang Haikui fell into deep thought.
“Then my father was only able to see it, not hear it. How come I can even hear it?”
Yin Changli didn’t understand either.
He thought that it was necessary for him to meet Xiang Heng.
“Your father might possess some sort of innate talent, and you inherited this talent, excelling even further.”
What kind of talent was being able to see scenes from another world?
Xiang Haikui was just rendered speechless when she suddenly heard an unfamiliar term mentioned at the bottom of the icy spring.
…
“There’s no spatial barrier here anymore,” the young man said in distress, looking pitiful.
“Stop making things difficult for me.”
“Part ways then,” the heroic man said coldly and indifferently.
“I deeply suspect now whether you can even open the exit if you find it.”
The young man was truly helpless.
“Big brother, this isn’t the real world—it’s a mirage realm world! A mirage realm world is inherently mysterious. You just point at a patch of empty air, claim there’s a pair of eyes there, and insist that I dig her out of the air for you. I genuinely can’t do it!”
…
His tone shared a subtle resemblance to “this humble subject simply cannot do it.”
Listening intently, Xiang Haikui asked in confusion, “Senior Yin, what is a mirage realm world? Isn’t next door the Nineteen Continents?”
Those two seemed to be trapped inside a mirage realm world.
The world was quite dangerous, so the two had been forced to team up out of necessity.
The weaker young man specialized in technical skills but lacked self-defense capabilities, requiring the protection of the heroic man.
Bai Xingxian and Lu Xiqiao also looked at each other in mutual confusion, never having heard of this term.
“Mirage realm? A fantasy world created by a mirage demon?”
Searching his sea of consciousness, Yin Changli wasn’t very certain.
Knitting her brows, Xiang Haikui slowly reached out her hand, wanting to dip into the icy spring water to try touching the young man’s high-raised hand to see how it felt.
“Hold on, the icy spring water will freeze you.”
Knowing what she wanted to do, Yin Changli didn’t stop her.
“Little Bai, the gloves…”
“No need,” Xiang Haikui refused.
Without even thinking, she knew the principle of those gloves was to isolate water spiritual energy, which might block her from making contact with the other side.
As she spoke, her hand had already dipped into the water.
Instantly, the cold made her whole body shudder.
Her arm made a crackling sound as a thick layer of ice instantly encased it.
Grit It, she gritted her teeth and endured the cold, reaching out to grab the small knife the young man was waving in the water.
The small knife passed right through her hand without any resistance.
However, each time she made contact with them, ripples appeared on the surface of the pool, constantly expanding and radiating toward the lower layer like radio waves.
She gradually caught a clear view of the entire scene in the world opposite her—it was merely an ordinary mountain cave, with a night pearl embedded into the stone wall using magic to provide illumination.
As for those ripples, in the eyes of the young man opposite, they manifested as a subtle watery fluctuation in the air.
He exclaimed, “I hear the sound of water!”
Xiang Haikui tried asking, “Can you two hear me speaking?”
From the expressions on the faces of both the young man and the man, Xiang Haikui was certain they had heard her.
“Who are you people?” she spoke again, but judging by their reactions, it seemed they couldn’t hear her anymore.
Yin Changli said, “Presumably, sound can only be transmitted when you make physical contact with them.”
Xiang Haikui nodded.
Her hand submerged in the water was like scooping the moon out of the sea, continuously trying to grasp the young man’s arm.
“Who are you people?”
“Who are you?” the heroic man asked back coldly.
“Why have you been secretly peeking at me all this time?”
Xiang Haikui had been annoyed with him for a long time.
“Who even are you? What do you have that’s worth my peeking?”
The heroic man replied, “Me? Peerless Expert.”
Xiang Haikui was speechless.
Is his secondary school syndrome really at this severe level?
“Miss, you’ve misunderstood,” explaining with an awkward air—presumably having been misunderstood far too many times—the young man said, “He hails from Seven Star Flower Island. His family’s compound surname is Jueshi, and ‘Gaoshou’ is his given name.”
(T/N: Peerless Expert/Jueshi Gaoshou)
Xiang Haikui remained dumbfounded.
The surname “Peerless” made naming way too convenient, though it was probably easy to get beaten up when introducing oneself.
The young man spoke up again, “As for me, my name is… A-Mu.”
Noticing that the young man was about to pull back the hand holding the knife, Xiang Haikui blurted out, “Don’t move!”
A-Mu stopped immediately, without even asking why.
Jueshi Gaoshou continued his relentless questioning, “Do you dare claim you weren’t peeking at me?”
“It wasn’t peeking. I am located at Icy Spring Mountain in the Yunmeng Realm, and while meditating, I accidentally saw you two…”
Only recently, when chatting with Yin Changli about the neighboring Three Thousand Realms, did she learn that the world she had transmigrated to also had a name—”Yunmeng.”
Xiang Haikui finished speaking rapidly, as she truly had no time for nonsense.
Her arm was on the verge of being frozen into an popsicle by the icy spring; the cold energy was invading her body, causing a thick layer of frost to cling to her eyebrows.
Yin Changli, who had originally needed her warmth, transformed into his human form. Moving behind her, he pressed his palm against her back and began infusing her with spiritual energy to prevent the chill from damaging her meridians.
“Uncle…” Seeing that his condition wasn’t looking all that great either, Bai Xingxian wanted to step in to take his place, but after receiving a sharp glance from him, he hastily shrank back.
After listening to her explanation, Jueshi Gaoshou looked at A-Mu, seemingly expressing skepticism about her words.
“Is that even possible? We are inside a mirage realm world, not the Nineteen continents. How could she possibly see us?”
A-Mu furrowed his brows deeply.
After pondering for a moment, he said, “Perhaps the core entity of this mirage realm is located near the Nineteen continents, and a spatial crossover has exposed us? After all, both of us entered this place from the Nineteen continents.”
Xiang Haikui couldn’t make sense of it.
“What does ‘mirage realm world’ mean?”
A-Mu said, “It means…”
He went through a long explanation that left Xiang Haikui completely bewildered, so she relayed everything to Yin Changli.
With Yin Changli’s depth of knowledge, he naturally understood it in an instant.
“Little Kui, among the three Sword Venerables of the Human Realm, besides Jing Wen who cultivates combat sword skills, there is another who cultivates the dream sword. Do you remember?”
Xiang Haikui naturally knew of the three strongest Tribulation-Crossing powerhouses in the mortal realm.
The Sword Venerable who cultivated the dream sword was named Blood Asura.
Despite his bloody name, he rarely engaged in sword duels with others. Instead, he spent most of his time sleeping, entering other people’s dreams to cultivate.
According to the theory that “a single flower holds an entire world,” dreamscapes could also form worlds.
However, when the flower withered, the world would vanish.
When a person woke up from a dream, the dream world would collapse as well.
“Under normal circumstances, people cannot control what dreams they will have. But the neighboring Three Thousand Realms have mastered a technique to leverage external forces to dream whatever they wish, sculpting a desired dream realm world.”
Yin Changli’s hand transmitting spiritual energy never stopped, and a thick layer of frost hung on his eyelashes just like Xiang Haikui’s.
“This method requires harvesting the demon core of a mirage demon as a catalyst, which is why it’s also called a mirage realm world…”
Xiang Haikui was already frozen numb to the point where she couldn’t even turn her head to check Yin Changli’s state.
“But what is the point of creating a world inside a dream? If someone is unsatisfied in reality, do they just want to act like a king in a dream?”
From his explanation, anyone capable of sculpting a dream had to be a top powerhouse.
Furthermore, the power of a mirage realm world was directly proportional to the cultivation level of the person sculpting the dream.
The two people trapped in this mirage realm didn’t look low in cultivation at all.
The person who sculpted this dream must possess an equally formidable cultivation level and could easily dominate in reality—why would they need to live in a dream just to seek a sense of existence?
Besides, a normal person’s body would be relaxed while dreaming, whereas the one sculpting the dream would continuously deplete their essence, energy, and spirit, causing their cultivation to regress steadily.
What were they even aiming for?
The two men beneath the ice layer could hear her doubts.
Jueshi Gaoshou said coldly, “I’d like to know why as well. Someone from my clan went missing, so I came out of the mountains to track them down, and ended up pursuing them all the way into this mirage realm…”
A-Mu followed up, “I’m even more aggrieved—I walked in for no reason at all. The two of us have already been stuck here for decades. Brother Jueshi challenged every heroic figure of this era, yet still couldn’t tell which one was the master of the mirage realm. We could only walk along the border to see if there was an exit. However, the climate at the border is harsh, and fire rain started pouring outside, so we had to hide in this mountain cave…”
As they spoke, Xiang Haikui acted as a translator, simultaneously relaying everything to Yin Changli.
Once they finished, she couldn’t help but ask, “Do you two know about Earth? It’s also part of your Three Thousand Realms…”
A-Mu was slightly taken aback.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
He turned his head to look at Jueshi Gaoshou, who likewise shook his head.
However, Jueshi Gaoshou said, “Three Thousand is merely an arbitrary number. The worlds of various sizes on our side are beyond counting; it’s impossible to know every single one.”
Xiang Haikui thought so too.
Yin Changli was ninety percent sure Earth belonged to the Three Thousand Realms, and given how cautious he was, he was unlikely to be mistaken.
A-Mu called out for help.
“Since you can see us, Miss, do you have a way to help us leave? Or perhaps take a trip to Seven Star Flower Island to deliver a message for Big Brother Jueshi…”
A helpless expression appeared in Xiang Haikui’s eyes.
“It’s not that I won’t help, but there is a barrier between our two worlds. I can’t cross over.”
“Little Kui…”
Yin Changli, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly called out to her.
“Hmm?”
“Traveling to the Three Thousand Realms directly from here is difficult, but since a mirage realm has appeared here, trying to enter it is worth a shot.”
Yin Changli spoke with a hint of hesitation, deeply afraid that if it proved impossible, her hopes would be dashed.
“The master of the mirage realm is located in the neighboring Three Thousand Realms. If the mirage realm shatters and we are expelled from the dream, we should naturally land over there…”
A spark instantly ignited in Xiang Haikui’s heart.
This was equivalent to treating the mirage realm as a transit station!
However, he had said “we”?
Yin Changli said, “If I can make a trip to the neighboring world and study its spiritual energy structure, shuttling you back and forth between the two worlds shouldn’t be a problem in the future.”
Xiang Haikui felt as though a bucket of oil had been dumped onto the fire in her heart.
Although she longed to return home, she knew now was not the time; she still had many things to handle in this world.
If Yin Changli could truly achieve free travel between the two, it would be nothing short of wonderful.
“Tell them to stay in the cave and not leave, otherwise we might not be able to contact them later,” Yin Changli instructed her, withdrawing his force at the same time.
Reverting to his snake form, he slithered into her sleeve.
“You can pull your hand back as well. Let’s leave Icy Spring Mountain.”
After Xiang Haikui followed his instructions, she stood up and only then asked, “Where are we going?”
“I can’t even see them, so how am I supposed to study a method to enter the mirage realm? Let’s go find your father first and let me see what’s actually going on with you two, father and daughter.”
The little black snake coiled around her arm once more.
“And along the way, pick up a helper.”
“A helper?”
“Blood Asura.”
Xiang Haikui vaguely guessed it—that Sword Venerable cultivated the dream sword, so he ought to be fairly knowledgeable about things like dream realms.
She picked up the sword scabbard and slung it on her back.
“Speaking of which, the cultivation method of the dream sword is somewhat similar to our Twelve Divine Swords.”
Both belonged to the category that didn’t play by conventional rules.
Yin Changli laughed.
“They were originally forged by the same person, so of course they are similar.”
Xiang Haikui was taken aback.
“Brought over by that poverty-alleviation big shot from the neighboring Three Thousand Realms as well?”
“Mm. He said the ancestor of the Sword Sect was a weapon-forging lunatic whose original plan wasn’t to forge twelve divine swords, but sixteen. However, four of the swords were rejected and were not given names starting with ‘Tian’; instead, they were named Intoxication, Life, Dream, and Death.”
Among them, the “Dream” sword was now in the hands of Blood Asura.
As for why they were excluded from the “Tian”-series divine swords, it was likely because these four swords weren’t treacherous enough to their owners.
Still, they weren’t easy to cultivate either.
For instance, the cultivation method of the Dream sword required continuously absorbing the power of nightmares.
As a result, the sword master spent most of his life living inside other people’s dreams, witnessing all kinds of sweet dreams, erotic dreams, nightmares, and so forth.
Xiang Haikui instantly felt a sense of mutual sympathy.
“Speaking of which, Senior Blood Asura can be considered half a fellow sect member of mine. But with just this bit of fellow-sect acquaintance, will he be willing to help?”
Yin Changli said, “A mirage realm is a higher form of a dreamscape; he will definitely want to give it a try.”
Xiang Haikui had another question, “But he has always been elusive as a divine dragon. Where are we going to find him?”
Yin Changli said, “Easy. I only need to expose my location and say I want to meet him, and he will definitely come looking for me.”
Xiang Haikui asked in confusion, “Does he also owe you a favor?”
Yin Changli paused briefly before saying, “I gave him his sword. He has wanted to hack me to death for a very long time.”
