He Lingchuan stared, dumbstruck, as Sun Fuping drifted farther and farther away. It was only when that wisp of red mist merged back into the giant figure’s body that he finally came back to himself.

Of course.

Sun Fuping had died inside the Generous Pot’s illusion realm, so his soul had very likely been trapped in the soul land.

Judging by this, he would never be freed.

Only then did He Lingchuan begin to feel the strain of running out of air.

He had held his breath too long. If he did not get back to the surface now, he would be kicked out of the dreamscape.

That giant red figure at the bottom seemed to move with leisurely calm, but each casual sweep of its body carried it dozens of meters forward.

In no more than two breaths, it vanished into that extreme cold darkness.

He Lingchuan also swam with all his strength back toward the surface. The moment his head broke the water, he gulped in mouthfuls of air.

Just a little more, and he would have suffocated in the deep water, experiencing yet another new way to die in the dreamscape.

The spider silk net bag was still hanging from the stalactite. But somehow those unknown roots had already reached all the way here, wrapped themselves around the severed head several times over, and were greedily siphoning away its power as if sucking up jelly. That was why the monster head had still failed to grow a new body.

Fortunately, these roots were very thin and had not drained it dry in one go.

He Lingchuan grabbed the net bag and gave it a yank. The roots snapped at once, leaving only a few strands still wound around the grotesque head.

These fine roots seemed strangely forceful only toward the creature’s head.

It was trembling violently. The moment it saw He Lingchuan appear, it shouted at him, “What happened down there? Where is my true body? Why can’t I sense my true body anymore?!”

As if He Lingchuan would bother answering it. He lifted his head and looked again at the rock wall. The aberrant creature’s body had now been completely drained. It was now nothing but an empty husk, while the roots still remained.

After a moment’s thought, he simply swam over to the rock wall and began climbing upward along the roots.

What sort of plant is this that it can even eat aberrant creatures?

He wanted to find out.

Interestingly, after climbing up, he discovered that the crack the roots had pierced through was actually quite large, and it was more than wide enough for a person to crawl through.

Following the roots as they grew thicker and more tangled, climbing upward and then crawling forward for a short stretch, he suddenly saw light ahead!

Am I close to the ground?

No, there was water ahead again, but this water was clear, and soaking in it felt pleasantly warm.

A hot spring?

He Lingchuan swam out of that cave and immediately saw stream fish darting back and forth, with water lilies in bloom.

He could even hear children laughing.

When he surfaced and looked around, a familiar scene came into view—

the little bridge and stone railings by the lake, the broad square across from it, and the shops lining both sides of the street.

Turning around, he saw a green tree growing at the water’s edge, lush and flourishing.

Wait, isn’t this... South Gate Square of Panlong City?!

Just moments ago, he had still been fighting monsters in an underwater limestone cave in the northwestern region of the Chipa Highland. How had climbing along some tree roots brought him all the way back to Panlong City?

He Lingchuan wiped the water from his face as question after question surfaced in his mind.

Some children on the bank ran over to stare at him. An old man also ambled up and held out a hand to help. “Come on up. Have you been drinking too much?”

If not drunk, who would jump into the river here?

He Lingchuan thanked him for the kindness and leaped ashore on his own.

“Bats, bats!” a little boy cried, pointing at his net bag. “That bat looks like a monkey.”

“Huh? That’s what you’re focusing on?” The grotesque head is even more terrifying and eye-catching. Why are the children not mentioning it?

The boy asked him, “Can they fly?”

“They can.” He Lingchuan held the net out toward him. “Besides the bats, what else do you see?”

“Nothing much.” The boy peered into it. “Hm? Why did you put a big rock in your net?”

“A rock?” There’s no rock in my net.

“How can it be a soul land?!” the grotesque head in the net suddenly spoke, its voice full of shock. “You’re clearly asleep! Why aren’t you in a dream?”

“You think this is my fault?” He Lingchuan was just as surprised. The fact that this thing could accurately say the words “soul land” meant that it definitely was not native to the dreamscape.

Is this thing some kind of invasive outsider species?

No wonder that giant red figure wandering outside the soul land attacked it. It seemed to have always served as this world’s guardian.

The children chattered noisily around him. He Lingchuan casually handed out a few copper coins. “Go buy yourselves some candy.”

The children ran off happily.

At last, he had some peace and quiet. Only then did He Lingchuan get a chance to study the green tree in front of him more closely.

Were the roots that had pierced the rock wall the roots of this juluo tree?

Judging from the location, it should be.

Leaning over the railing and looking down, He Lingchuan found that the hole underwater had disappeared.

Of course. He had passed through this place dozens of times, and the path along the riverbank had always been neat and intact. There had never been any cave opening here.

Did this tree split space itself, bringing me directly back from the northwestern region of the Chipa Highland to here?

Or perhaps it’s the opposite? Maybe it extended its roots from here all the way into that cave in the northwest of the Chipa Highland so that it could seize the aberrant creature and enjoy a lavish feast.

Looking at the little juluo tree again, he saw that its formerly thin, sickly trunk had grown much thicker, now as wide around as his two arms could barely encircle together. It had also shot upward by another stretch, now standing about five meters tall, and its canopy had begun to spread. Only now did it show a tiny hint of its ancestor’s dignity.

This juluo tree was unlike every other plant in Panlong City. It had grown from a seed from the Baoshu King that He Lingchuan had brought in from the outside world. It inherently possessed the power to span the firmament.

Is that why it could sense foreign intruders?

And since it ate the aberrant creature, does that mean that the nourishment it needs to grow is also somewhat... yin-flavored?

Questions kept surfacing in He Lingchuan’s mind one after another, but right now, he had something more important to do.

Lifting the net bag, he rushed into a shop on the street and called to the old man inside, “Uncle Li, I need to borrow your rear courtyard!”

Uncle Li was weaving something out of grass and did not even lift his head. “Go ahead.”

This was the place where Sun Fuling bought ice lanterns in winter. In summer, when ice lanterns could not be made, the old man sold little woven grasshoppers, ponies, and other bamboo-and-grass handicrafts instead, all of which were very popular with children.

The rear courtyard was empty, filled only with bamboo strips, vines, and other odds and ends.

He Lingchuan lifted the aberrant creature’s severed head and held it in front of him. “What exactly are you?”

“What happened to my true body?” Ever since being chopped off, the head had remained in a state of shock.

Everything it had seen so far had gone far beyond anything it could comprehend.

“It’s gone,” He Lingchuan said briefly. “If you want to follow in its footsteps, I can arrange that for you right now.”

Interestingly enough, the roots he had torn away in the cave were now tightly wrapped around the creature’s head. They neither sucked it dry nor left it.

A human head with three eyes, tightly bound in several tree roots. Eerie was nowhere near enough to describe the sight.

However, the head had not grown another body, and He Lingchuan instinctively felt that it had something to do with the juluo tree’s roots.

“No, no!” the head cried out violently. “I don’t want to die!”

“Why were you after me?”

“Someone designated you as an offering.” The monster head confessed. “We like young and strong divine souls. Tasty!”

“Who?”

“I don’t know who he is.” The head still retained its old arrogance. “We don’t care.”

“Where is he?” One of He Lingchuan’s eyebrows twitched. “I want his exact location, as well as what he looks like!” So this ghostly thing came from the real world? In other words, someone out there’s making a move against me. Good, very good.

The clue had delivered itself right to his doorstep.

“You won’t kill us, right?”

“That depends on how well you cooperate.”

“He’s about a kilometer to your west, at Tongfu Inn. He’s skinny and dried-up looking, with a long face, as he’d fall over if the wind blew too hard.”

He Lingchuan picked up the net bag and slipped back out onto the street, where he ran into two patrol guards.

He separated out the monkey bats and handed them to the guards, asking them to take them to A’Luo at the Bureau of Medicine.

As for the human head wrapped in tree roots, He Lingchuan sprang up into the juluo tree and wedged it securely in a fork between the branches.

In the eyes of Panlong City’s native inhabitants, it was just a large stone anyway. As long as nobody got interested in it—and the children could not reach it—that was enough.

“No, no, no, don’t leave me here!” The grotesque head sensed the aura of the juluo tree and immediately turned pale with fright. Isn’t this the tree monster that had nearly sucked me into a dried corpse earlier?

“Help me keep watch on it.” He Lingchuan patted the tree trunk. “Don’t eat it yet. I still have a use for it.”

The juluo tree had at least received a bit of the Baoshu King’s wisdom and intelligence; though this one was still young, when He Lingchuan had grabbed the net bag back in the cave, it had not fought him for it. That alone showed the little thing was conscious.

After that, He Lingchuan found a quiet corner with no one around, sat down, shut his eyes, and let his whole body relax.

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake...”

He used to think the only way to leave a dreamscape voluntarily was by killing himself, but that experience was not especially pleasant. Later, he thought it over and realized that could not be right. He was the broken saber’s master, so why should he not be able to come and go freely?

After trying several times, he found that if he focused like this and deliberately willed himself to log out, he could indeed withdraw back into reality very quickly.

* * *

When the Hundred-Faced Nightmare was dragged into the deep sea by that giant red figure from beyond the soul land, almost no one noticed that, in the real world, a star in the eastern night sky suddenly flared brightly and flashed several times.

Only several times.

After that, everything seemed to return to normal.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Tongfu Inn.

With a sharp crack, the idol on the table suddenly broke into several pieces.

The curse master, who had been sitting there with closed eyes chanting spells, abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood and cried in disbelief, “Lord Hundred-Face? How is this possible?!”

The only answer he got was the idol fragments collapsing across the tabletop with a clatter.

Nightmares differed in strength. The former self of Hundred-Face Nightmare had been an immortal’s soul. Its power was something neither its own kind nor humans dared deny.

This specific nightmare rarely took action, but it had never failed before. Precisely because the curse master trusted so completely in the Hundred-Faced Nightmare’s strength, he could not believe what he was seeing.

Even the mighty ruler of the State of Mang, a monarch of towering ability, had died at its hands. He Lingchuan, by contrast, was only a commoner, with no origin energy protecting him, so he simply could not comprehend or fathom how it was defeated by the other party.

It was as absurd as a six-year-old child defeating a boxing champion in the ring.

But facts were facts, and no matter how horrified the curse master was, he had no choice but to consider his next move.

The door banged open with a slam, startling him badly. He looked up to see the guest from the next room stride in and ask, “You failed?”

The curse master flew into a rage. “You, you just barge in without invitation?”

The man glared at him. “Did it work, or didn’t it?”

“It didn’t. It was broken.” The curse master was already short of breath, swaying as he forced himself to stand. “The other side is formidable. I fear that he may come after us.”

There were fragments mixed into the blood he had spat out. His heart meridian had already been injured. What he most needed now was to lie down and recuperate quietly; at the very least, he would not be able to get out of bed for half a month, or else the damage would linger into the future.

This was a backlash from a curse. At best, he would be crippled; at worst, he would die.

However, the curse master could not afford to think about any of that. Even something as powerful as the Hundred-Faced Nightmare had gone and never returned. If he stayed here, his own chances were probably grim as well.

“You spellcasters really are useless, every last one of you.” The other man braced one hand against the wall. In the darkness behind him, a huge shadow stirred, and a foul, bloody wind rushed into the room. “Go. Leave this place to me.”