Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 92
Chapter 92: Companion Spirit
The Blood Asura was taken aback. His mind spun rapidly, and instead of flying into a rage, he let out a laugh.
“Fine then, I’ll just take my sweet time flying.”
Enjoy waiting around in that bitter, freezing wasteland.
Let’s see whose time gets wasted and which coward ends up freezing to death.
Yin Changli shot him a glance that practically said: That’s wonderful. I hope you fly as slowly as possible—give me all the time in the world to be alone with my sweetheart.
The Blood Asura: “…”
…
Thus, by the time Xiang Haikui and Yin Changli arrived at Ice Spring Mountain, the Blood Asura was still mid-air on his journey, at least half a month away from reaching them.
Xiang Haikui sat cross-legged beside the water pit to continue her meditation.
Previously, the three of them had cultivated their minds here. Over those three months, both Little Bai and Lu Xiqiao had achieved qualitative breakthroughs and were already on the “battlefield.”
Xiang Haikui alone had remained stuck at the peak of the eighth grade, unable to budge.
Yet during this session, it took her a mere three days to breakthrough into the Ninth grade—effortlessly simple.
Afterward, she focused on stabilizing her cultivation realm while waiting for the Blood Asura to arrive.
When he finally rushed over, panting and shivering from the cold, Yin Changli slithered out of Xiang Haikui’s sleeve, dropped to the ground, and transformed into human form.
He first raised his arm to adjust the scales at his temples before offering a soft smile.
“Do you need a rest?”
The Blood Asura let out a cold snort and ignored him, turning instead to Xiang Haikui.
“Where is this intersection point?”
Xiang Haikui immediately squatted by the water pit.
“Right here.”
The youth named A-Mu, seemingly terrified of losing connection with this world, had been holding his knife-clasping hand high up in the air the entire time.
“Miss Xiang, step aside first,” the Blood Asura said as he raised an arm.
The radiant, luminescent Dream Sword materialized right in his palm.
Xiang Haikui hurriedly jogged behind him.
Holding the sword, the Blood Asura stood still and closed his eyes to sense the surroundings for nearly six hours.
Suddenly, he snapped his eyes open and gave a sharp flick of his arm, causing the sword in his hand to burst with brilliant light.
As his wrist rotated, wisps of sword aura slithered like dragons, writing out runes mid-air.
It was far too scribbly for Xiang Haikui to make out what was written.
She only knew that the Blood Asura’s current expression was worlds apart from before, his full presence as a powerhouse of the Tribulation Stage completely unleashed.
As expected, a man hard at work truly is at his most charming.
“Shine!” the Blood Asura barked.
The runes burst forth with brilliant light like a mini sun.
Immediately after, a loud BOOM erupted, shaking the earth and mountains—even the air trembled in response.
Amidst the vibrations, the Blood Asura flicked a finger, casting out a bubble that enveloped the three of them.
The bubble then shrank and plunged straight into the water pit.
Without causing a single ripple, it passed straight through the ice layer and landed in the cave below.
After the bubble popped, the Blood Asura’s complexion had turned deathly pale, yet his mood was ecstatic.
He marveled, “The thickness of this Mirage Realm’s barrier is at least dozens of times that of ordinary dreamscapes!”
This trip was truly not in vain; it had really opened his eyes.
“You guys actually made it in…”
A-Mu could finally lower his sore, aching arm, staring at them in pleasant surprise—especially at the Dream Sword in the Blood Asura’s hand.
Xiang Haikui looked up at the ceiling of the cave, finding no trace of the ice spring at all, and then turned to the delicate-featured youth.
“A-Mu, your companion… that Jueshi Gaoshou still hasn’t returned?”
When she had returned to Ice Spring Mountain this time, Jueshi Gaoshou was already gone from the cave.
Supposedly, a monster was charging toward the mountain, and fearing that a collision might sever their connection with her, Jueshi Gaoshou had gone out to kill it.
A-Mu replied, “He’s still fighting it.”
Xiang Haikui was slightly taken aback.
Time was synchronized on both sides at this intersection point—how could killing a single monster take over ten whole days without finishing it off?
A-Mu wore a bitter face.
“The monsters in the Mirage Realm are each more ferocious than the last. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have teamed up with him and put up with his terrible temper all day.”
Hearing the word “ferocious,” Xiang Haikui felt an itch to give it a try.
Tian kuang was also leaping inside its scabbard, equally growing thrilled.
Although it was already max-leveled, Tian kuang had zero interest in retiring just yet—it simply couldn’t restrain its heart for fighting, killing, and watching the chaos unfold.
Over the past few months, Xiang Haikui had been recovering from her injuries and barely touched her sword, causing her to distinctly feel it throwing a tantrum—mocking her as an Eighth grade trash unworthy of a max-leveled divine sword.
“Huh…” the Blood Asura suddenly blurted out.
Xiang Haikui turned her head.
“What is it, Senior?”
The Blood Asura furrowed his brows; he could no longer perceive the real world at all.
Pulling his gaze away from the longsword in his hand, he glanced sideways at Yin Changli.
“Did you notice a problem too?”
“Mhm.” Yin Changli had been analyzing the composition of spiritual energy ever since he landed.
The Blood Asura asked A-Mu, “When you two strayed into this place, how did you determine it was a Mirage Realm and not an ordinary dreamscape?”
A-Mu replied, “The two of us have been trapped here for decades. Who could sleep for that long? Even if a single dream lasts a thousand years and time isn’t a reliable metric, the territory of a dreamscape and the strength of its monsters are tied to the spiritual power of the dreamer. The domain here is infinite—you can all step outside and feel its power for yourselves…”
“I didn’t say it was weak. I think it’s too strong—you can enter, but you can’t leave.”
The Blood Asura had never entered such a terrifyingly powerful dreamscape.
It was so choked with violent, tyrannical energy that the luminous glow on his sword was being continuously corroded.
The Dream Sword had been with him for thousands of years, yet this was the very first time he felt it trembling in fear.
The Blood Asura made his judgment.
“This is definitely not a dreamscape that any random powerhouse could create just by using a mirage pearl and casting a spell.”
Not even a hundred powerhouses combined could necessarily pull this off.
For once, Yin Changli actually agreed with him.
“No wonder they haven’t been able to find an exit for decades. If they keep searching under the assumption that it’s a mirage realm, they won’t find it even in several thousand years.”
So this isn’t a mirage realm after all.
Xiang Haikui’s eyes turned cold.
She originally wanted to confront A-Mu for deceiving her, but after a second thought, she realized it had nothing to do with him.
Her overhearing A-Mu and the Jueshi Gaoshou talking previously was merely an accident.
The two of them truly believed they were inside a Mirage Realm.
Besides, given that the Blood Asura could open a passage using his Dream Sword, this place was bound to be connected to “dreams” in some way.
A-Mu was shocked.
“Then what kind of ghost place is this?!”
With that, he walked hurriedly toward the outside of the cave.
“Why don’t you all come out and take a look first?”
Xiang Haikui followed him out of the cave entrance.
The moment she stepped outside, her eyes widened, revealing an expression of utter shock.
Sparks of fire rained down everywhere, and in the distance stood a colossal stone giant whose surface was pitted and pockmarked, displaying a medley of different colors.
Xiang Haikui zoomed her divine sense in closer—the patches of green were entire forests, and the blue spots were lakes…
It was actually a human-shaped mountain!
With a single punch from the giant, the lake water shot out like giant waves, targeting the peerless expert as its attack.
No wonder A-Mu was afraid it would smash their mountain—the small mountain they were taking shelter in could be trampled flat by it instantly!
And no wonder they couldn’t kill it after fighting for over ten days.
“You can’t really describe this as just ‘ferocious,’ can you?” The veins on Xiang Haikui’s forehead throbbed.
“It’s just huge in size, belonging to the category of monsters that can still be dealt with,” A-Mu explained.
“On our way here, some of the monsters we encountered were ones we could only hide from.”
Engaged in a battle of spells with the giant, Jueshi Gaoshou sensed the fluctuation in spiritual energy and looked over in their direction.
Distracted for just a brief moment, he was nearly whipped by a barrage of vegetation and vines spewed from the giant’s mouth.
“It’s been too long since I got some exercise. Let me stretch my muscles and bones.”
As Xiang Haikui spoke, she charged straight in the direction of the giant.
She had also observed that this giant was a strength-type monster.
To deal with a simple, brute-force creature, one had to use a simple, brute-force method.
As for this Jueshi Gaoshou, despite having a rather “warrior-like” name, he was actually a “mage.”
Who could have guessed that a man with such a valiant, heroic face would unleash a rain of flower petals all over the sky when fighting?
It seemed he was a flower demon.
No wonder he always suspected women were “lusting” after him—it wasn’t entirely out of narcissism after all.
A-Mu cried out in alarm, “Miss, you mustn’t—”
She looked like she had barely entered the ninth grade. One had to keep in mind that even Jueshi Gaoshou, who was in the middle stage of the Tribulation Transcending realm, found it extremely taxing.
Yin Changli made no move to stop her.
“Be careful.”
“Don’t come over!” Jueshi Gaoshou was indeed overwhelmed and didn’t want to be distracted protecting her.
Yet he watched as she ran faster and faster.
After a burst of acceleration, she tapped her foot, leaped into the air, and instantly transformed into a jet-black flood dragon.
The flood dragon charged at the giant, adjusted its trajectory, and its body gradually expanded.
“Dodge!”
That shout was directed at Jueshi Gaoshou.
A split second later, a deafening crash echoed as the flood dragon slammed directly into the stone giant’s neck.
The giant recoiled from the impact, staggering backward so hard the earth trembled under its feet.
The flood dragon also looked a bit dizzy from the impact; shaking its head mid-air, it slammed into it a second time—this time sending the stone giant’s head flying clean off its neck!
Not only were A-Mu and the peerless expert left staring in sheer horror, but even the Blood Asura—who was half a fellow disciple—found it somewhat hard to believe.
“Which layer is her Tian kuang at now?”
When the Blood Asura used to challenge others to duels, he had sparred with a master of the Tian kuang Sword. At roughly the Eighth grade cultivation with the seventh layer of mad intent, that master’s strength couldn’t hold a candle to Xiang Haikui’s big toe.
Yin Changli watched as the flood dragon snapped off both of the giant’s arms as well.
“It’s maxed out.”
The Blood Asura’s lip twitched.
“You’re joking, right?”
Yin Changli gave no reply. He watched as the flood dragon touched down, transformed back into human form, and flew back over from afar.
“How does it feel?”
Jueshi Gaoshou returned a step behind her.
A-Mu couldn’t help shouting to him, “They say this isn’t a mirage realm!”
“How could that be?” Jueshi Gaoshou immediately doubted their capabilities.
However, the Blood Asura holding the sword was merely half a step away from the Joining Dao stage—his cultivation level was higher than his own.
Meanwhile, looking at the pure and elegant Yin Changli, it was impossible to fathom his cultivation level at all.
As for Xiang Haikui, the lowest among the three in terms of cultivation, she had just thoroughly shocked him, and he hadn’t fully calmed his emotions even now.
The Blood Asura pulled his gaze back from Xiang Haikui and asked Yin Changli, “What do you think?”
Yin Changli tossed the question right back.
“What do you think?”
The Blood Asura said, “Much as I hate to admit it, you are indeed more knowledgeable and well-informed than me.”
If the universally recognized sage wouldn’t speak up, what if he said something and ended up getting slapped in the face?
Xiang Haikui didn’t want to watch the two of them pass the ball back and forth.
“Everyone has their own area of expertise. Senior Blood, why don’t you tell us?”
Yin Changli generously admitted, “Indeed. My knowledge of ‘dreamscapes’ is only broad in scope; it certainly cannot match your depth in this field.”
These words stroked the Blood Asura’s ego immensely, so he stopped playing coy.
“If my senses serve me right, this should be the Prison of Nightmares—’prison’ as in a place of confinement.”
Xiang Haikui and the other three repeated in unison, “The Prison of Nightmares?”
“Very few people in the world know about it, but as it happens, it’s recorded within my Dream Sword.”
The Blood Asura lifted the sword in his hand and looked at Xiang Haikui.
“The progenitor who forged this sword only conceived the idea of creating the Dream Sword after accidentally straying into the Prison of Nightmares.”
Among dreams, there were sweet dreams, and there were nightmares.
Nightmares were often saturated with violence, fear, and various other negative emotions.
When nightmares were overly intense, even after the dreamers woke up and the dreamscapes collapsed, these negative energies still could not dissipate, flowing instead toward the Prison of Nightmares.
Hearing this for the first time, Xiang Haikui asked, “I often have nightmares. Could my own nightmare energy be here too?”
Who knows, maybe I’ll even see those monsters that chased me down three hundred streets in my dreams?
Back when I was dreaming, I couldn’t control myself and could never beat them. I’d really love to turn the tables and mess them up for real.
“Hard to say,” the Blood Asura said, crossing his arms.
“There isn’t just one Prison of Nightmares—there are countless ones. Otherwise, with so much nightmare energy from the living beings of the world, how could a single one hold it all?”
Xiang Haikui asked, “Does it have a capacity limit?”
The Blood Asura replied, “Naturally. Once it reaches its capacity limit, it will be wiped out by the Heavenly Dao, and a new one will take its place.”
“Wiped out?”
Hearing this, A-Mu’s face turned pale.
“Meaning, if we can’t find a way out, staying here means we might be annihilated along with it?”
The Blood Asura said, “Presumably so.”
Jueshi Gaoshou furrowed his brows and cupped his hands toward Xiang Haikui in apology.
“I’m truly sorry… We really thought this was just a Mirage Realm…”
“It has nothing to do with you guys.”
Xiang Haikui hadn’t entered in the first place just to save them anyway.
She also cupped her hands toward the Blood Asura.
“My apologies to you as well.”
The Blood Asura waved his hand dismissively.
“What do you have to apologize to me for? It’s me who should thank you for giving me the chance to come here. To me, this place is a treasure trove.”
Seeing how cool and composed he looked, Xiang Haikui guessed he almost certainly knew the way out.
Sure enough, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Yin Changli, do you know the way out?”
The Blood Asura observed Yin Changli.
Indeed, everyone has their own specialization.
Regarding the existence of the Prison of Nightmares, this guy was clearly hearing about it for the first time as well.
Even he himself had only learned about it after reaching the Tribulation Transcending stage and unlocking a higher layer of sword intent in the Dream Sword.
After learning of it, he had tried searching for one but found it completely impossible to locate.
Coming here really depended on sheer coincidence and luck.
Yin Changli pondered for a moment.
“Find the companion spirit of this nightmare space. Since nightmare energy flows in, there must be an inflow passage. The companion spirit should be guarding this passage.”
Though it was indeed his first time hearing of the Prison of Nightmares, after learning the underlying principle, many things worked on the same foundational logic.
Failing to stump him, the Blood Asura asked further, “Then do you know how to find the companion spirit?”
Without waiting for Yin Changli to answer, he threw the sword in his hand into the sky. The Dream Sword burst apart with a rumble, turning into a cluster of multicolored arcs of light that scattered in all directions.
…
Unsure of how he determined it, he began tracking one of the arcs of light.
Xiang Haikui, sitting alongside Yin Changli on a jade flute, gave chase behind the Blood Asura.
In this Prison of Nightmares, mountains and rivers were upside down, taking on strange and peculiar shapes.
Xiang Haikui couldn’t take her eyes off the sights, thinking to herself that the world was truly vast and full of wonders.
“Little Kui,” Yin Changli called out to her.
“Hmm?” She was currently sizing up a monster below.
Yin Changli fell silent for a moment.
“I might have to disappoint you. The spiritual energy here is similar to that of our world… After exiting through the passage, we likely won’t end up in the neighboring Three Thousand Worlds. For now, I won’t be able to take you back to your hometown.”
“There will always be a way.”
Although she was a bit disappointed, Xiang Haikui’s curiosity was currently running high.
“Mhm.”
“Then A-Mu and Jueshi Gaoshou are clearly from the neighboring world—how did they get in?”
“Fate, perhaps. The two of them didn’t enter through the passage. This place is easy to enter but hard to leave. If they hadn’t run into you, and if the Blood Asura who cultivates the Dream Sword wasn’t here, they would have been trapped until they died.”
Yin Changli gently patted Xiang Haikui’s shoulder.
“Take a close look at that youth’s flying treasure.”
The two of them were also pursuing the Blood Asura.
Jueshi Gaoshou’s flying treasure was a flower petal, while A-Mu was riding on the back of a wooden falcon.
Xiang Haikui asked, “What about it?”
Yin Changli said, “I heard that back then, the powerhouse who delivered those treasures was also riding a wooden falcon.”
Xiang Haikui was slightly surprised.
“Could he be a descendant of that senior?”
Yin Changli smiled.
“You see, this is the meaning of forging a good karmic tie—you never know when it will bear good fruit.”
Xiang Haikui shot him a sideways glance.
“Are you finally willing to admit that the person came to alleviate poverty and do good, rather than just dumping garbage?”
Yin Changli pursed his lips.
Xiang Haikui swung her legs.
“Senior, do you know what the biggest difference is between you now and you when you had amnesia?”
She hadn’t mentioned “him” and “him” in a long time. Yin Changli thought she had already merged the two in her mind.
“When I had amnesia, there was only you in my eyes. Now, there are other things as well.”
He immediately emphasized, “However, your importance hasn’t changed in the slightest.”
Xiang Haikui understood.
Indeed, she could finally merge her two bosses into one.
It wasn’t that she was seeing more traces of her puppy-dog boss in the present Yin Changli.
On the contrary, the shadow of her puppy-dog boss grew fainter and fainter.
A naive young boy would always grow up and turn into a scheming man.
Instead, Xiang Haikui was increasingly feeling the same love from Yin Changli that her puppy-dog boss had once shown her.
It was manifested in countless subtle details that couldn’t be faked.
The puppy-dog’s affection was more outgoing and expressive.
The scheming man’s love was more reserved and understated.
Yet at their core, they were one and the same—a fact she could feel deeply.
“No, it’s that when you lost your memory, you were pure-hearted to a fault, thinking of things in ways that were simple and wonderful. Back then, I didn’t dare leave your side for even a moment, terrified that some bad person might trick you away.”
Xiang Haikui looked down at her toes.
“As for now…”
“I…”
“No need to explain.” Xiang Haikui understood completely.
“I don’t think your former self was better, but right now you two represent two total extremes.”
Yin Changli gazed at her profile.
“What brought on such a realization?”
Surely it wasn’t just because of her guesses about “alleviating poverty” and “dumping garbage.”
“My dad lost the power of the Divine Arrow, and you said he’ll forever be an ordinary mortal from now on,” Xiang Haikui said.
“You didn’t even hide a secret you kept locked away for so long from me, yet you hesitated and stumbled when explaining why my dad lost that power. When you looked at me, your eyes carried a hint of pity… Plus, you asked quite a lot about my mother earlier…”
Yin Changli realized she had guessed part of the truth. Fearing that letting her overthink would only make things worse, he simply spoke candidly, “Your mother either died at the hands of a thief, or she herself was that thief…”
After listening to his speculation, Xiang Haikui raised her head.
“Then, is there any other possibility? What if my mother’s death was just a normal case of natural causes, and while my dad was grieving, that “chest” produced a fluctuation that a supreme expert detected, leading to the power being stolen?”
“Or what if there was no ‘thief’ at all, and my dad naturally lost the power of the Divine Arrow simply because he fathered me? Take your Shanhai Kunpeng Clan, for example—they’re born as fish, but after siring offspring, they transform into birds and forever lose the ability to live underwater.”
“Aren’t there countless other possibilities?”
Yin Changli let out a quiet “Mhm.”
“Yes, there are many possibilities. I’ve thought through everything you just mentioned as well, but I merely picked the ones that were most likely…”
Xiang Haikui tilted her head toward him.
“How is it that these two most tragic and miserable options are the ‘most likely’ ones?”
“Perhaps…” Under her gaze, Yin Changli felt a slight touch of unease and lowered his eyelashes subtly.
“Perhaps it’s because I’ve grown accustomed to it.”
Grown accustomed to murder and pillage.
And grown accustomed to honeypots and honeytraps.
“If you ask me…” Xiang Haikui realized that beneath Yin Changli’s confidence, there sometimes lurked a rather deep pessimism.
The reason he believed those two scenarios were most likely was that those two scenarios would cause her the greatest harm.
As he pondered, he had already plotted out all of her future heartbreak and anguish.
Something that hadn’t even been proven yet had become a heavy burden sitting right at the bottom of his heart.
Wasn’t he just asking for trouble?
She felt an urge to seize this chance to have a heart-to-heart with him.
Yet, aside from her ability to hurl insults with sharp fluency, her communication skills in other areas were completely lacking.
Thinking until her head practically went bald, she abandoned all “communication techniques” and spoke straight to the point, “In truth, you’re just quite pessimistic. I noticed it back when you lost your memory.”
Yin Changli straightened his back.
Both of them were sitting sideways on the jade flute, barely a shoulder’s breadth apart. Xiang Haikui snapped her fingers right in front of his eyes.
“Whenever you saw falling leaves leaving their branches, you’d start waxing poetic with grief. Seeing a single mandarin duck die in the lake, you’d sigh about life-and-death separations…”
Yin Changli listened quietly, but at this point, he really couldn’t hold back.
“And compared to you, who slaughtered the remaining mandarin duck, stewed them both in a pot, ate until your belly was stuffed round, and called it ‘following each other in life and death’—that counts as being optimistic?”
Xiang Haikui froze for a moment, then snapped fiercely, “I was kindly giving you advice! Why are you mocking me?!”
“I’m not.”
Yin Changli shook his head, caught between tears and laughter.
It was just that her sudden mention of it brought back memories of that time.
Xiang Haikui said, “I don’t know about other things, but my mother definitely had no ulterior motives toward my dad. Though I was young back then, I still remember things clearly. My mother was the most ordinary housemaker. Because our family was poor, she pinched every penny and calculated every detail—when buying vegetables, she’d haggle over a single dime… a single copper coin with vendors for half a day.”
That was why, when Xiang Haikui mentioned to Xiang Heng that Lord Qingni of the Demon City harbored feelings for him, Xiang Heng had suddenly brought up her mother with a melancholic sigh.
It was nothing more than his regret that for all the years Shen Yun stayed with him, she had endured poverty the entire time.
“I can place a bet with you: there’s nothing wrong with my mother.”
Yin Changli nodded repeatedly, making no attempt to argue with her.
Xiang Haikui suddenly furrowed her brows again.
“There’s another point in your theory I find hard to understand. If my mother was some kind of demonic creature and my dad was a divine arrow, how could they produce a pure human like me?”
Two different species giving birth to a third species completely unrelated to either of them?
Fearing she wouldn’t understand if he explained the underlying mechanics, Yin Changli used an example close to her everyday knowledge, “When a horse and a donkey mate, what they produce is a mule.”
Xiang Haikui’s face darkened in an instant, and her toe kicked right toward his ankle.
“Watch your tongue! Why are you resorting to insults now!”
…
The group flew through the Prison of Nightmares for nearly two months. As expected of someone who navigated dreamscapes year-round, the Blood Asura—their lead navigator—managed to dodge the vast majority of monster birds with his slick, theatrical maneuvers.
However, once the novelty wore off, Xiang Haikui felt so dizzy from flying that she was ready to throw up.
The Blood Asura finally began his descent, landing outside a dense jungle.
“The companion spirit should be living right here.”
“I think so too.”
Looking down from high above, Xiang Haikui had spotted over a dozen grand, imposing palaces right in the heart of the jungle. Patrols of monsters swarmed both outside the palaces and throughout the surrounding area, operating with impressive scale and strict order.
It appeared the companion spirit viewed itself as a sovereign ruler.
And in this Prison of Nightmares, it truly was a sovereign ruler.
She turned to consult the others,”How should we play this? If we just pay a direct visit, it probably won’t just kindly send us out, right?”
The Prison of Nightmares was choked with violent, tyrannical energy, leaving her with the distinct feeling that as the master of this place, the companion spirit likely wasn’t going to be very easy to negotiate with.
Jueshi Gaoshou and A-Mu stayed dead silent, keeping their presence completely in check.
Having been trapped in a dreamscape for decades without finding an exit—or even figuring out what kind of place it was—they simply had no face to offer any opinions.
Wiping away the corrosive matter from his Dream Sword, the Blood Asura remarked, “Normally, one would try peaceful measures before resorting to force. However, I must remind everyone that this Prison of Nightmares has likely existed for a long time. The power of its companion spirit is not to be underestimated…”
“You’re trying to say you can’t defeat it,” Yin Changli mercilessly exposed his true meaning.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s my first time encountering a spiritual creature like this as well, and I can’t say for sure whether I can win either.”
Since waking from his slumber, his cultivation level had recovered to ninety percent.
Before reaching total completion, he indeed lacked that last bit of absolute confidence.
Just as the Blood Asura was about to mock him, he heard Yin Changli continue, “However, fighting it to a draw should not pose much of a problem.”
“Let’s not. What if that fellow turns out to be a tough nut to crack, and decides to drag us all down to hell with it when it realizes it can’t win? That would be downright fatal. Our only goal is to get out—if we can avoid fighting, let’s avoid it at all costs.”
The Blood Asura decided not to give him a chance to show off.
“So my suggestion is that we sneak inside, split up to search, and see if we can locate the passage.”
He raised an arm and pointed far off into the distance.
“But do not go near that very back palace—the companion spirit is inside.”
Yin Changli nodded.
“It seems to have suffered severe damage to its vital energy and is currently in secluded cultivation.”
The Blood Asura added, “And it’s been in seclusion for quite some time. If we conceal our aura, odds are it won’t be easy for it to detect us.”
A-Mu was utterly baffled as to how they managed to deduce all this.
“What if the passage happens to be right inside the palace where it’s in seclusion?”
Gazing across the sea of monster guards at the sprawling complex of palaces in the distance, Xiang Haikui said, “Then that just means we’re out of luck, and fighting will be our only option!”
A-Mu pressed his hands together and uttered a quiet prayer, “May great fortune be on our side.”
Though he said that, he couldn’t spot even a single trace of worry on Xiang Haikui’s face—if anything, an unreserved flicker of excitement gleamed in the depths of her eyes.
Once everyone had reached a consensus, A-Mu pulled a wooden centipede out of the cloth pouch at his waist.
“I haven’t been of much help along the way, but I think this might come in handy.”
Xiang Haikui watched curiously as he placed the wooden centipede on the ground.
It immediately drilled a hole into the earth.
When they descended into the hole, Xiang Haikui was completely dumbfounded.
In the mere blink of an eye, that wooden centipede had already dug a straight underground tunnel extending from the edge of the jungle all the way to the central palace.
The monsters patrolling above the jungle didn’t sense a single thing.
This saved the group an immense amount of effort, allowing them to travel through the tunnel directly under the palace complex.
Before splitting up to search for the passage, Jueshi Gaoshou pulled out five morning glory flowers.
“Using this allows us to transmit our voices at any time, and everyone will be able to hear each other.”
Basically a voice call group chat, Xiang Haikui thought as she accepted the morning glory flower.
Transforming into a gecko-sized little flood dragon, she crawled up from underground.
Her cultivation was inferior to theirs, so changing her form was the safest bet.
“Wait a moment,” Yin Changli called out to the Blood Asura via private voice transmission.
The Blood Asura asked, “What is it?”
Yin Changli said, “You three go search. I will head to that back palace to keep an eye on the companion spirit, just in case. If an accident happens after you find the passage, I will stall it. You won’t need to worry about anything else—just open the passage and lead them out.”
The Blood Asura paused for a moment.
“You know how to exit the Prison of Nightmares?”
Yin Changli replied, “I don’t, but no place has ever managed to trap me.”
Provided he had no worries weighing him down.
“Fine.”
…
Xiang Haikui crawled around the palace, searching room by room, but failed to find anything unusual.
It wasn’t until she stepped into a long corridor that she felt a powerful nearby field of energy, causing a wave of intense discomfort to wash over her.
Sensing this energy field, she arrived in front of a secret chamber. Using a stealth talisman given by Yin Changli, she slipped straight through the secret chamber’s restriction.
Though effective, this stealth talisman lasted for only a split second, and her form immediately revealed itself once she was inside.
“There’s something weird about this room,” Xiang Haikui reported via the morning glory flower.
—”What’s weird about it?”
It was the Blood Asura’s voice.
Xiang Haikui: “There’s an extremely heavy pressure pressing down so hard I can barely catch my breath.”
She was forced to turn back into her human form from her gecko-dragon shape.
“The room is completely empty, except for a bronze mirror embedded right in the center of the floor.”
It had a diameter of roughly one meter.
“The edges of the bronze mirror are carved full of runes, looking quite like an array formation disc.”
Feeling an itch to try it out, Xiang Haikui extended her foot toward the array disc.
—”Throw a spirit pearl onto it first and test it out,” the Blood Asura suggested again.
“Alright.”
Xiang Haikui pulled her foot back, pulled out a spirit pearl, and tossed it onto the bronze mirror.
Like a marble hitting the ground, it bounced several times with a series of quick clack-clack-clacks.
She waited for a moment.
“Doesn’t seem to have any reaction…”
So she tossed another one. This time, after hearing just a single clack!, the runes around the border of the bronze mirror suddenly lit up with a brilliant glow!
Xiang Haikui instantly unleashed her sword aura to protect herself and swiftly took several steps back, watching as the bronze mirror shot a beam of golden light straight toward the ceiling.
The golden light diffused across the ceiling from a single point into a full surface, and an image gradually manifested on the luminous plane.
Xiang Haikui tilted her head up, her pupils shrinking tighter and tighter.
What the image displayed was a vast, solemn, and grand palace supported by dozens of jade pillars.
The perspective was that of the “master” sitting high at the head of the hall, looking straight out toward the distant palace doors—and right in the center sat a person cross-legged: Jing Ran.
“Yin Changli!” Xiang Haikui transmitted her voice through the morning glory flower, her tone slightly hurried.
“I see the Emperor…”
–“Hmm?”
“He’s meditating, and judging by the surroundings, it doesn’t look like his private chambers.”
Xiang Haikui described the environment in detail. The revelation was so far beyond her expectations that, for a moment, she didn’t even have time to dwell on her personal grudges with Jing Ran.
“Could it be that the passage out of this Prison of Nightmares is actually connected to the Upper Realm?!”
A long pause followed before Yin Changli’s voice came through, filled with equal perplexity.
–“What’s going on? That sounds like the Palace of Heavenly Deities where the Celestial Clan enshrined the Xuantian Mirror. Even if the Prison of Nightmares were connected to the Upper Realm, it shouldn’t be inside the divine palace…”
“The Xuantian Mirror?” Xiang Haikui was aware of this divine mirror; Jing Ran had mentioned it to her before.
It was the prized treasure of the Celestial Clan, used for divining good and ill fortune.
–“Could it be that the Celestial Clan… Impossible. Shuluoye never mentioned a word about the Prison of Nightmares…”
Hearing the heavy gravity in his tone, Xiang Haikui didn’t even have time to ask further before Jing Ran—reflected in the mirror’s light above her head—suddenly opened a pair of cold, sharp eyes.
…
Jing Ran withdrew his protective golden light and looked toward the Xuantian Mirror enshrined on the high platform above.
His cold, aloof expression suddenly softened, yielding to a flicker of astonishment.
He rose and walked toward the Xuantian Mirror.
This divine mirror usually only displayed written words.
Why had a human figure appeared today?
Though somewhat blurred, the figure bore a striking resemblance to Xiang Haikui—wearing a blue gauze dress, styled in a topknot, with a carved wooden sword box slung across her back.
“Mirror Spirit?”
Jing Ran stopped before the Xuantian Mirror and let out a cold laugh.
“Why have you taken on this form? Are you mocking me for my reincarnation tribulation, claiming I failed utterly because of her?”
Inside the mirror, Xiang Haikui remained motionless, her lips pressed tightly together in total silence.
