Chapter 15: Two Dreams—Part 2

In the dream, Ti Ying was feeling anxious.

However, her anxiety didn’t last long as she regained control of her body in the dream.

Ti Ying in the dream was somewhat puzzled, as if she didn’t understand why she had called Jiang Xuehe by the wrong name.

But the Ti Ying in the dream didn’t have much time to dwell on this.

She was about to tease her senior brother again when she heard the low growls of lesser demons outside the cave.

Ti Ying was confused and frightened, realizing that she could understand the meaning of the sounds the demons were making: the lesser demons had discovered the trail of the immortal sect disciples the demon lord had been watching and were reporting back to her.

Suddenly, Ti Ying in the dream, lost interest in her senior brother.

She got up to leave, but a hairband suddenly flew from her senior brother’s bound wrist and wrapped around her waist.

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Mk Zkdt oyp rwzzle cynj yde pvwxczle.

Tla vlxrla oyp fwpv yp cye yp Mk Zkdt kd alyzkvu. “Zsw’al cwzzukdt xl!”

Fbl oyp eayttle cynj yde jdllzle sd vbl xyv, qynkdt bla cswde pldksa casvbla. Mbl bykacyde, yqvla rwzzkdt bla esod, bwdt zssplzu sd vblka pzktbvzu oakdjzle asclp.

Mk Zkdt oyp yddsule.

Mbl uswdt xyd’p byde alynble swv, cawpble ynaspp bla nbllj, yde vwnjle bla byka clbkde bla lya.

Mk Zkdt’p blyav valxczle yp kq vswnble cu y qlyvbla. Fbl oyp ewxcqswdele yde rwggzle vs qkde vbl uswdt xyd kd vbl ealyx zkqvkdt bla nbkd.

Fs nzspl.

Fbl nswze pll bla pldksa casvbla’p lulzypblp yde vbl nszsa sq bkp rwrkzp nzlyazu.

Ti Ying felt extremely flustered.

She heard her senior brother slowly saying, “Didn’t you say that if I stayed with you, you wouldn’t go kill the disciples of the immortal sect?”

The Ti Ying in the dream chuckled.

She sneered at him and said, “Humph, I was just teasing you. You, an immortal, really think you can convert me, a demon? I am a demon, I don’t have human emotions. I don’t like you at all, I don’t care about you. Are you feeling sad?”

She spoke harshly, “You deserve it.”

Ti Ying hadn’t quite grasped the meaning of “liking” when she saw her youthful face in the dream, with a sweet smile on her lips but a gradually darkening expression in her eyes.

An ominous aura surrounded her.

Ti Ying, within her dream self, let out a whimper.

She was somewhat frightened by her dream self.

Meanwhile, her senior brother watched her silently.

Even Ti Ying, who entered the dream, felt that her dream self seemed a bit too wicked… a bit worse than her real self.

As Ti Ying was lost in thought, she heard her senior brother’s gentle voice say, “Even if you’ve turned to the path of demons, you can still cultivate the Great Dao. Sister…”

Ti Ying, still thinking about how nice his voice sounded, suddenly saw her dream self push his hand away.

Ti Ying was arrogant, “I will kill all the disciples of the immortal sect, I will kill those who destroyed my sect… Are you here to kill me? Who wants to cultivate the Great Dao? Give up on me, I won’t do it!”

She pushed him away, eager to leave and carry out her plan to kill.

She calculated whom to kill today and whom to kill tomorrow, no longer caring whether her murderous thoughts would deepen her demonic nature.

And her senior brother raised his sleeve again.

Since they were too close before, this time he didn’t use the hairband. Instead, he reached out with his slightly cool hand and held her waist.

Ti Ying stumbled back onto him, twisting her waist and glaring at the young man in frustration.

Ti Ying impatiently said, “Do you really think I won’t…”

“Little Ying,” Jiang Xuehe said calmly, “Senior brother will accompany you.”

Ti Ying was stunned.

In the dream, both she and the bewildered Ti Ying within her own body looked up together, gazing at this young man.

Ti Ying saw him lift his wrist.

There was a hairband wrapped around his wrist.

The delicate pink color, the soft and light chiffon—those were things that belonged to a young girl and shouldn’t have appeared on him.

He slowly took off the hairband.

Holding Ti Ying’s wrist, he lowered his gaze and slowly tied the hairband around her wrist.

Ti Ying’s delicate and slender hand rested in his dry palm, his aura enveloping her, making her mind dizzy again, giving rise to many inexplicable fears and anxieties.

The cave was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

His fingertips brushed against the back of her hand.

As light and casual as a passing cloud.

Ti Ying’s earlobes were soft, her lowered eyelashes were trembling slightly, and her lips were pursed.

Ti Ying heard her senior brother’s calm voice: “On the day you turned to the demonic path, I wasn’t by your side. Such a thing will never happen again.”

“Little Ying.”

Ti Ying felt gloomy, lowering her head to look at the hairband wrapped around her wrist in circles.

As the young girl entered the nightmare, she was only dazed, confused, frightened, and overwhelmed.

As he lowered his head, his black hair fell onto her wrist, and a voice as clear as snow whispered in Ti Ying’s ear—

“Senior brother favors you.”

The hairband is securely wound around Ti Ying’s wrist.

Amidst the dripping rain and wind, the howls of myriad demons, and the thunderous crashes outside, she kneeled before him, bowing to the tinkling flow of water and lifting her head to gaze at the person as pure as jade.

Bowing and lifting her head, both scenes were infinitely beautiful.

As lightning streaked across the sky once again, Ti Ying tumbled out of this dream.

—

Ti Ying, whose spiritual energy had been greatly depleted, had nightmares throughout the night, not just one.

In reality, when Jiang Xuehe returned to the inn and lifted the curtain to feel the temperature of the girl’s forehead with the back of his hand, Ti Ying entered her second dream.

So cold, so quiet, so painful.

In the dream, Ti Ying trembled, hearing the chaotic and excited voices around her—

“Master, this will be enough to drain all the spiritual power from the little witch’s body and strip her of her spiritual roots, right? She’s our village witch; won’t her spiritual roots fetch a good price, allowing us to exchange for many good things?”

“In that case, our village will be able to accumulate wealth for thousands of years, and become prosperous and talented, right?”

“Master, you have to be careful, our little witch is very powerful… oh, she’s waking up!”

Ti Ying opened her eyes.

The sky was like dripping ink.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the overcast sky pressing down on her.

Chants of spells echoed like distant and melancholic songs, enveloping the surroundings. She couldn’t move at all, and a piercing pain, like needles, surged through her body, flowing along her seven meridians, causing her increasing agony…

Ti Ying was bewildered.

She found herself lying flat on a spacious platform-like altar. The altar was covered with talismans, and there was sparse smoke rising from the village, with talismans flying like withered butterflies.

Below the altar, villagers kneeled in full. They looked like frenzied animals, yet also like devout believers, gazing up at the young girl on the altar with fearful eyes.

Ti Ying moved her hands and feet slightly, lowering her head to look at the wrists of the child whose flesh had been marked with a red mark using a spell…

Chanting surrounded her incessantly—the voices of the villagers.

Thunder rumbled in the sky.

The first raindrop fell, splashing onto Ti Ying’s forehead.

With the slightest movement, a tearing pain made her scream, “Ah!”

But the piercing screams of the young girl didn’t escape, for her mouth was gagged with a strip of cloth.

As she struggled, the villagers kneeling below intensified their chanting: “Quickly, quickly chant. Don’t let her break free, don’t let her speak to offend the spirits!”

Amidst the chanting, wisps of souls floated from heaven and earth, each one hovering near the altar, drooling with anticipation, their eyes fixed greedily on the young girl on the altar.

In some places, there were sacrificial rituals for witch maidens.

For a long moment, Ti Ying couldn’t discern whether this was reality or a nightmare. It felt as if she had returned to the village where she had lived as a child, back to when she was ten years old…

She was back to when she was ten years old.

She was trapped in the “Tenfold Annihilation Curse.”.

This was undoubtedly the cruelest Daoist curse in the world—summoning resentful spirits within a radius of a hundred miles, imprinting them onto the cursed individual, and transferring all the hatred and resentment from the spirits onto the living person.

From then on, these spirits were bound to the living person day and night, following them, entangling them.

The cursed individual had to remain conscious on the altar while the spirits imprinted one by one for ten days and ten nights. Only then would the curse be complete, ushering in a lifetime of endless calamity.

Each person cursed with the “Tenfold Annihilation Curse” would be stripped of everything precious, including their senses, their voice… even their sanity.

Yet, in laying down such a vicious curse, in transferring such evil thoughts and resentment from one person… in a certain sense, it was surprisingly a spell imbued with benevolent intentions.

It sacrificed one person to fulfill a wish—a profoundly beautiful wish.

Ti Ying was in intense pain, her spiritual roots gradually being stripped away, accompanied by the chilling aura of the “Tenfold Annihilation Curse” and the coldness within her body…

And those numb and eerie faces of the spirits, one by one, lunging toward her.

She screamed, “Get away! Get away! All of you, get away!”

But her mouth was gagged, and she couldn’t make a sound.

Amidst the thatched roofs and earthen walls, these spirits made her drenched in cold sweat, with stars dancing before her eyes. She watched them one after another, entering her body, stripping away the spiritual roots from her sea of consciousness…

It was as if she had returned to when she was ten years old.

She was lying on the altar again, alongside that “Tenfold Annihilation Curse”…

In the midst of her vague and agonizing suffering, she heard the chanting around her, mixed with the fervent and urgent wishes of the people:

“May our village become a land of golden prosperity and beauty, where men rise to success and women find happiness in marriage. May our village be blessed with talent and fortune, with prosperity and vitality lasting for generations!”

“May the little witch die quickly, sparing herself and us from suffering.”

“Hurry, hurry, paste more of the talismans given by the Taoist priest!”

Ti Ying’s face was covered in water.

She couldn’t tell if it was tears or sweat.

Yellow talismans fluttered down from the dark sky, the spells carrying the power to bind her.

Trading with spirits.

But the price was her.

It was ten-year-old Ti Ying.

Those spirits, dark and swarming like locusts, rushed toward her. In immense fear and pain, she couldn’t distinguish reality from illusion and couldn’t understand the reasons.

She cried out loudly:

“Master! Master, save me! Why am I still in that village? Why am I still under that curse? Master, didn’t you already rescue me?”

“Master, Little Ying will listen to you obediently; Little Ying won’t argue with you or be willful anymore… Save me, save me!”

The sky was pitch black, with thunder and lightning crashing.

But the ten-year-old girl couldn’t wait for someone to save her.

The rain fell softly, the wind whispered, and amidst the despair, a clear silhouette with a hood stood in the mountain mist, clothed in black against the snow.

She faintly hoped.

At the end of the illusionary dream, the voiceless little girl cried out in her heart:

“Senior brother, senior brother!”

“Save me—”

“Save me—”

—

In reality, Jiang Xuehe, meditating, heard faint sobbing.

He immediately rose from his seat and left the outer room, circling around the screen and lifting the curtain. “Junior sister?”

He knelt on one knee by the bed, seeing the girl trembling violently under the covers, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. Afraid of causing harm, he leaned down to feel her forehead. Suddenly, Ti Ying, who was having a nightmare, grabbed his arm, clinging to it like clutching onto a piece of driftwood.

She sobbed, “Senior brother…”

Confusing her two nightmares, she cried as if her soul was about to break in her sleep: “Didn’t you say you would favor me?”

Jiang Xuehe looked at her tear-streaked cheeks, feeling like his heart had been struck by a club, his usually calm mind momentarily shaken.

The hood lay at the edge of the bed—the young man hesitated for a long time.

With the candle flickering and the sudden silence, he slowly leaned in, a long and silent tug-of-war with the boundaries between man and woman.

His hair fell onto her trembling, curled wrist. “How would I favor you?”

“Tell me.”

The green curtain hung down, and the moon was high in the sky.