Chapter 45: A Dream (1/2)

“What are you staring at me for?” Seeing Lu Yun look back in his direction, Miao couldn’t resist caressing his face. “Have you finally been conquered by my unparalleled looks, perhaps?” he said, a little bashful.

“I’d rather feast my eyes on the pretty girl from the certain death layout,” snorted Lu Yun.

Qing Han made a moue and blushed once more.

“You have to be careful, a dragon lies in wait over there,” Miao warned when he saw Lu Yun make his way along the tongue toward the floating summit. “If it comes back to life, it’ll certainly swallow me whole. Well... it’s already tried and failed, I suppose,” he mumbled as he followed behind.

The peak gradually enlarged in Lu Yun’s field of vision.

“A resurrection layout, sure enough…. A feng shui grand influence over the world as described by the sect records!” His eyes burned with feverish zeal as he recognized the structure on the peak.

The classics divided feng shui layouts into four realms: formations, layouts, influences, and grand influences over the world!

The one in front of him belonged to the highest tier. It commandeered nature’s blessings to invert yin and yang in order to bring back the dead! For a tomb raider and feng shui master, such a grand influence exuded an attraction that was impossible to resist.

Of course, the four-tiered classification was based on knowledge from Earth, and his perspective was much broader now that he’d arrived in the immortal world. Grand influences were certainly not the be-all and end-all of feng shui.

There absolutely was greater power to be found.

“This is…” He abruptly froze. “A bronze outer-coffin!” He squeezed out the words through clenched teeth.

“Isn’t that the one we saw when we first came in?” asked an equally baffled Qing Han. “Is it real, or illusion?”

“It’s real.” Lu Yun took a deep breath. Yuying quietly stood by, wielding the Panorama of Clarity and alert against lurking dangers. Her treasure kept the living layouts at bay, ensuring that they were too intimidated to approach.

……

The bronze outer-coffin lay peacefully at the center of the resurrection layout, the sole recipient of its restorative effects.

“Does that belong to you?” Lu Yun asked, his eyes riveted on the coffin. This metal container was identical to the one Miao had conjured at the entrance. Even the runes on the surface were the same.

“No.” Miao shook his head, rather aggrieved. “My body is over there.” He pointed at a tiny corner on the summit, outside the layout. Over there rested a small, fluffy thing the size of a human palm. Its figure gently rose and fell in rhythmic fashion.

“A fox?” Lu Yun gawked and looked at Miao. “Is that what you are, a fox?”

“A fox? I suppose you could say that.” Miao stared vacantly, then nodded, seemingly unaware of his own species.

“Also, you’re not dead.” Lu Yun’s Spectral Eye could discern the status of life from the creature.

“Really?” Miao blinked. “If so, why am I standing here?”

“You’re asleep.” Lu Yun scrutinized the small fox. Indeed, it was simply resting, its body undulating up and down with its breathing.

“And you’re dreaming!” The Dusk governor found the notion a little absurd. “This is nothing but a dream!”

“Nothing but a dream?” Miao repeated, dumbstruck.

“Correct. Right now, you’re merely a dream, while the rest of us are inside your dream. That’s why no one but me can sense your existence, because... you’re not real,” whispered Lu Yun.

The fox—or rather, Miao’s soul—hadn’t popped out of his body, and neither was he astral traveling. He was just dreaming, pure and simple.

The ancient Chinese legends spoke of Wei Zheng slaying a dragon inside his dream. [1]

As a mere mortal, Wei Zhen possessed no nascent spirit and couldn’t have sent his soul outside his body, yet he’d slain a honest to goodness dragon king merely by dreaming of it.

Miao’s case was strikingly similar.