Chapter 654: Lingshan
Qi Xuansu began explaining his recurring dream. “There was a pitch-black mountain. I didn’t recognize this place, but when I regained awareness, I found myself standing at the foot of the mountain. In front of me was a rugged, winding path. On either side, colorful flowers bloomed amid the grass, and the trees were adorned with equally vibrant ribbons. It looked as if there was some kind of celebration underway. The path twisted upward into the darkness and disappeared, its end nowhere in sight.
“I walked toward the mountaintop in a daze, as if I were in a dream. The wind howled past my ears, carrying the soft murmurs of a woman’s voice. The ribbons on the trees fluttered in the breeze, and flower petals covered the path, emitting a strange and captivating fragrance.
“I didn’t know how long I walked, but the woman’s voice by my ear gradually became clearer. It was a language I had never heard before—jarring and obscure, hard to comprehend. I felt as if I had lost control of my body. Suddenly, a woman appeared before me and started walking toward me. Half of her face was covered by long hair, but the half that was visible was strikingly beautiful, indescribably so.”
At this point, Zhang Yuelu cleared her throat and said, “Get to the point.”
Qi Xuansu continued, “The woman seemed to be a guide, leading me onward. I followed her up the long path until I arrived at the mountaintop, which was a vast open area. In the center was a large bonfire. At that moment, the woman vanished, but a tall, shadowy figure emerged in her stead. Though I couldn’t see the figure’s face clearly, I could vaguely make out long white hair, a robe with patterns of a starry night sky, and a pair of crimson eyes.”
That was Qi Xuansu’s first dream. But he altered it slightly and stitched together all his recurring dreams, skipping over the part where he saw eleven shadowy figures.
He continued, “That shadowy figure soon vanished, so I began to wander around. Without those eerie voices or the guide, my mind became much clearer. That was when I noticed many palaces dotting the area by the mountain road. The architectural style was very different from what we are used to. It was much more primitive, wild, and in complete ruins. The statues scattered about were broken, leaving only shattered fragments all around.
“I also discovered a battlefield of immense carnage that was covered in snow. Countless human-like ice sculptures stood there, still frozen in their final moments before their deaths. There were also many illusory human-like figures standing along the mountain path. Other than their slightly blurry outlines, they looked no different from real people. There were hundreds of them, but they seemed to have lost all consciousness, resembling clay or wooden dolls. It was as if their souls had been forcibly extracted by some powerful spell, while their physical bodies had already been reduced to ashes.
“I tried to walk toward the surrounding palaces and the battlefield below, but I found myself blocked by invisible walls, confined only to a small area. The only option was to ascend the path toward the bonfire. Whether it was the battlefield or the towering palaces hidden in the shadows, they remained nothing more than unreachable backdrops.”