Chapter 72: The Dream Weaver’s Decree

Deep within the dreamscape.

A cluster of ice crystals slowly formed, then shattered.

A girl, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, sat upon a chair sculpted from frost and snow. Her long, silver-to-ice-blue gradient hair fanned out, gleaming with a cold luster in the non-existent light.

Her delicate face was pale, and her light grey eyes were half-closed, as if weary, or perhaps listening to a distant sound.

She lightly tapped a floating ice crystal before her, causing it to break.

Tiny fragments burst between her fingers, emitting brief musical notes—some clear as wind chimes, others deep as ancient bells. Some even held a small, fractured melody, as if clipped from a tattered ancient song.

She listened, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly, betraying neither satisfaction nor boredom.

A wolf-bodied, fox-tailed monster knelt before her. Dark red patterns crisscrossed its grey-black fur, and its scarlet vertical pupils were cast downwards, daring not to meet her gaze.

“Tubar,” she spoke, her voice light, almost a whisper to herself, “What is the situation within the dreamscape?”

The monster, Tubar, stiffened slightly before immediately responding.

“Currently, the main dream continues. However… most of the smaller dreams have been extinguished. One or two were extinguished only to rekindle, yet they are now difficult to ensnare with spells again.”

The girl did not reply at once.

She crushed another ice crystal, listening as it let out an almost imperceptible whimper between her fingers, then spoke softly.

“Continue to watch over the main dream; maintain it. It must not break.”

She paused.

“Today, she must die!”

Upon hearing this, Tubar prostrated themselves even lower.

The girl’s gaze fell upon them, her light grey eyes devoid of malice, holding only an indifferent coldness.

“Also,” she suddenly added, “I will say it again—when reporting to me, you are to appear in human form. Do you simply refuse to use the form I created for you?”

Tubar’s body trembled.

“I wouldn’t dare! It’s just that the human form… I’m simply not accustomed to using it.”

The girl tilted her head, watching them. Her gaze was not heavy, yet it felt like a cold blade slowly tracing across their face.

“Not accustomed?” she said, a hint of laughter in her tone, yet that laughter was colder than ice. “Then perhaps I should let Bakali take your place from now on? How would that be?”

Tubar’s body instantly prostrated themselves, almost flattening against the ground.

“Where is Bakali?”

She no longer looked at them, turning her gaze into the distance.

A deep greenish-brown mass wriggled out from the shadows, like an elongated kelp, its slimy surface gleaming with a wet sheen in the dream’s light.

It had no head, no eyes, only a constantly squirming body with fine serrations along its edges. It seemed to be in water, swimming directly towards the girl, then lying prostrate like a piece of decaying grass washed ashore.

The girl looked at it, her gaze softer than when she had looked at Tubar.

“Come closer.”

The kelp-like mass wriggled forward a few steps, its body constantly vibrating as if transmitting information. The girl listened for a moment, then suddenly let out a soft “Hmm.”

“Oh?” Her eyes brightened. “There’s a ‘musician’ using an ancient Eastern guqin?”

She raised her hand, and several ice crystals condensed in her palm, slowly rotating and emitting faint, wind-chime-like sounds. She listened intently for a moment, a slight curve appearing on her lips.

“Hmph~ How interesting.”

Tubar cautiously raised their head and spoke.

“That… perhaps I should go and— ”

But before Tubar could finish, the girl looked up at them, her gaze like that directed at a child who had spoken foolishly.

“You?” she said. “If it were a little second-tier girl, it would be no problem. But a third-tier one—can you handle it? Even though I’ve strengthened you considerably, I fear you only have seven or eight-tenths certainty, at best.”

She withdrew her gaze and crushed another ice crystal, hearing it shatter into a brief trill between her fingers.

“You would do better to exert yourself and directly—kill that flower in the dream.”

She stood, her skirt falling to spread a light blue shadow across the non-existent ground.

“You two, continue to guard your positions.”

She raised her hand, and the scattered ice crystal fragments flew back into her palm from all directions, gathering into a small, spinning orb of light. She slowly closed her fingers, crushing them all—

At the moment of their destruction, a song burst forth from her palm.

It was an ancient ballad, a melody drifting from afar, slow and sorrowful, like someone humming in an empty hall.

Those fragments transformed into specks of starlight amidst the song, then slowly dissipated.

“I shall go and meet her myself!” she declared, the corners of her mouth curving slightly, though the smile did not reach her eyes. “To… amicably exchange musical techniques.”

She waved her hand gently.

Tubar’s and Bakali’s bodies shattered like sand scattered by the wind, breaking from their edges into countless tiny light particles, dissolving into the dreamscape.

They arrived as dreams, and departed as dreams. Even this ‘gathering’ itself was nothing more than a dream.

The girl stood still, watching the direction in which the light particles drifted. Then, she too shattered.

Like a mirror cracking down the middle, a cold blue light shone through each fissure.

She stood in the center of the cracks, not looking at the disintegrating fragments, but only down at the last speck of ice crystal in her palm.

Within that speck of ice crystal was sealed a small segment of melody, very light, very slow, like someone walking alone in the snow, leaving a trail of increasingly distant footprints behind them.

She closed her palm, and the dream on this shore gradually extinguished.

****

Meanwhile, at the other end of the dream, the other shore.

Daylily stood in an old, rural village.

A setting sun, about to dip below the horizon, hung in the sky, identical to the twilight when she had first entered. Yet, the twilight here was quieter, so quiet it felt like returning to the past, like a beautiful dream of hers.

She had been walking in this dreamscape for a long time.

The sachet at her waist, attached to her orange-yellow long dress, swayed gently, emitting a faint, reassuring fragrance.

Her warm orange hair was half-tied, half-loose, with a few stray strands framing her ears. Her amber eyes glowed softly in the sunset.

But so far, she still hadn’t found Epiphyllum. Yet, she could feel it—Epiphyllum was here, very close!

The invisible thread from her sachet guided her hand, leading her here all along.

Perhaps this was where Epiphyllum lived as a child, or perhaps Epiphyllum was hiding in some corner of this dream, waiting for someone to awaken her.

“Master! Master! Wutong has sent the latest news!”

It was Xiao Xuan’s voice, tinged with anxiety.

Daylily stopped.

“News? What’s happening outside?”

“Based on Wutong’s guqin music, it seems she was attacked—” Xiao Xuan paused. “She just went through a battle. A manifested entity probed and has now fled. Soapwort’s magic power is greatly depleted, so she can’t fight again for now, but her body wasn’t injured.”

“That’s good,” Daylily let out a soft sigh of relief. “What about Wutong? And the new arrival… Gentian?”

“Wutong is also fine, just a little exhausted. Gentian is also unharmed.” Xiao Xuan’s voice lowered. “Wutong also said she hopes Master will break out of the dream quickly, as time outside has already begun to flow.”

Daylily froze for a moment, then nodded.

She now wondered if the flow of time outside was a good or bad thing.

Regardless, she certainly needed to speed up her own progress. After breaking out of the dream, she would go and rendezvous with them.

Just as she was about to continue walking forward, a figure suddenly rushed out from ahead and collided with her.

Daylily looked down and saw a little girl. She had pigtails and wore a somewhat dirty floral dress.

Her eyes were red and swollen, and fresh tear stains streaked her face, as if she had suffered some great injustice.

The girl looked up, saw Daylily, and froze. Daylily also froze.

Then the girl’s mouth twisted, and she burst into tears.

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