Chapter 120 Chapter 119 Dream
Ji Ma initially wanted to teach a lesson to the old maid who spent her days clapping her hands. However, the number of times she could enter dreams each day was limited, so she chose to directly invade the dream of the short, stout woman who posed a threat to her.
With a thought, she lunged toward the dream seed that was emitting black smoke, and the building beneath her swiftly retreated. In the blink of an eye, she passed through a wall and landed in an ordinary room. On a bed, a shadow floated like dark clouds in a dream.
As Ji Ma entered the dream, she encountered some obstacles. The other party seemed particularly resolute, but with a bit of effort, Ji Ma successfully entered the dream. She was surrounded by gray mist.
She wasn’t dreaming.
Ji Ma snapped her fingers to induce the dream’s owner to recall a recently memorable event. As the saying goes, “What you think of during the day, you dream of at night.”
As her fingers snapped, the surrounding mist dissipated, revealing a new environment around Ji Ma.
It was an interrogation room in a dungeon.
Incredibly noisy and harsh voices came from all directions; pleas for mercy and cries of injustice flowed incessantly. Ji Ma listened carefully, only to find it was just pure noise. She deduced that the dream’s owner disliked the prisoners’ cries for mercy and regarded them as mere noise.
Inside the interrogation room, a man was shackled against the wall, his chest covered in bloody whip marks. The shackles restrained his hands, pulling him upward so that his toes barely touched the ground. His ugly face was marked with pockmarks and pain. The dream’s owner—a short, stout woman—sat at a plain table, beside her was a scribe.
Ji Ma slapped the scribe’s shoulder, causing him to vanish and be replaced by her. She took the scribe’s position.
At that moment, the short, stout woman spoke:
“You are being sentenced to the gallows for assisting slave raiders in stealing citizens’ property.”
“They are not property; they are people.”
“A bunch of lazy bums who wouldn’t work without a whip; they are born to be slaves,” the short, stout woman said. “Name a few accomplices you know.”
The man, with his pockmarked face, recounted his companions in detail.
“Get that down,” the stout woman instructed Ji Ma, having taken her for the scribe.
“Okay.”
Ji Ma replied, focusing on the pale yellow paper before her as the quill stood up of its own accord, scratching across the paper and leaving markings.
Ji Ma glanced at the man being interrogated. He was a blacksmith, strong in build. He had been captured for allegedly supporting the holy knights and had initially only needed to pay a fine to go free. However, during a body search, they found a erased slave tattoo on him. Based on this, he was deemed a slave raider.
This man had been tortured for two days and eventually confessed to being a slave raider. Consequently, he faced the punishment of having all his property confiscated and being enslaved for life, thrust into the mines as a miner, a place notoriously difficult to escape.
“He claims to be a freed slave,” Ji Ma said. “Is that true?”
“A simple deduction would reveal it’s a lie,” the stout woman stated. “Would a freed slave stay in Sand Forest City?”
“If not in Sand Forest City, then where?”
“In the wilds among slave raiders.”
“What about those who stay in Sand Forest City?”
“Trained slave raiders.”
“Right, there’s a task for you—there’s a prisoner suspected of being an extraordinary person,” Ji Ma said. “If you have his blood, can you determine his extraordinary abilities?”
The stout woman suddenly turned her head to look at Ji Ma. She appeared very clear-headed, as if awakening from a dream.
Ji Ma’s heart skipped a beat as she suddenly realized this seemed like a trap. During the day, she had drawn her own blood to con her way into a night dream.
“Do you think I would tell?”
The dream trembled slightly, and Ji Ma felt it beginning to break free from her control. She exerted a bit of strength to reclaim her control.
This did not resemble the performance of someone waking up from a dream. Although I don’t currently have the body of a demon lord, my soul is still that of a demon lord.
Ji Ma encouraged herself and replied, “No, but you can think about it.”
A smile appeared on the stout woman’s face, and she turned her head back to continue looking at the “slave raider.” She said:
“Of course not; I was just planning to trick her. I consulted a mage who told me some legends—some people see succubi in their dreams, who tempt them; those who dream of a succubus often experience nocturnal emissions the next day. I deduced that the abilities of nightmares might be related to dreams, so I extracted a few drops of her blood to deceive her. And with the ‘Dreamless Potion’ taken before sleep, if I dream anything, either the potion is ineffective, or she controls my dream. Before sleeping, I decided that if I dreamt, I must wake up within the dream.”
No wonder it felt like waking up from a dream just now; it turned out to be self-suggestion before sleeping… how cunning.
Ji Ma felt troubled; the other party hadn’t awakened, but once she got up, as long as she remembered having a dream, it would spell disaster for her.
“No, you won’t remember what dream you had.”
Ji Ma spoke softly.
The dream was wiped away; everything around her blurred into gray mist.
Ji Ma grew larger in the dream, flapping her stronger wings and escaping the stout woman’s dream. She returned to the dream world, a blurred realm composed of black and white.
The stout woman’s vague figure lay on the bed, with gray dreams hovering above her.
Ji Ma was uncertain if she could make the stout woman forget that she had dreamed. It was her first attempt, and logically, most dreams would be forgotten by the dream’s owner, but she couldn’t be sure the stout woman would forget; her will was extraordinarily strong.
There was nothing she could do about it. However, Ji Ma thought of King of Shadows Akanius; perhaps he could help. If she was right, that guy had already replaced the great guy, Flourish, and become the underground king.
Ji Ma pushed the window open, lightly leapt out, and unfurled her wings, flying above the city in just a few moments. Ever since she fully mastered the powers of nightmares, she felt much more at home in dreams, making flying much easier.
A wisp of black smoke emerged from the noble district.
Undoubtedly, it was King of Shadows Akanius, who had replaced the great one. Ji Ma’s mind shifted, grabbing hold of that dream seed from the noble district—a mansion rushed toward her. She passed through the mansion’s walls and entered a room, where she encountered Akanius’s dream.
It was a pure white dream, like a white cloud in a blue sky. Within the cloud, it seemed to bloom with colorful flowers; Ji Ma focused and realized they were fireworks.
Out of curiosity, she reached out and touched the dream. The dream suddenly enlarged and swallowed her; this time entering the dream was much harder. The protective consciousness of an extraordinary person was several levels stronger than that of an ordinary person.
Ji Ma spent quite a while entering the dream without alerting its owner. She was merely testing her ability’s limits. Last time, she was discovered immediately entering King of Shadows Akanius’s dream, but if she went unnoticed this time, she could attempt to create chaos around a virgin.
Upon entering the dream.
A biting cold wind whipped around her like a knife from all directions. Ji Ma shrank her head and looked around at a silent, charred wasteland. Several burned beams lay across a black wall, and the weather was cold, filled with an indescribable sense of despair.
Akanius must have a profound impression of this winter to have frozen me like this.
As Ji Ma pondered, she imagined a down jacket that tightly wrapped around her. The cutting wind eased, and it wasn’t as cold anymore.
In the overcast sky, an explosion echoed.
Ji Ma looked up and saw a warm, vibrant color amidst this lifeless world.
It was fireworks.
One after another, the fireworks launched with shrieking sounds from the noble district, their bright light adding a dreamlike color to the noble district.
Could it be that King of Shadows Akanius aspires to be a noble?
Ji Ma shook her head; that analysis was completely off. She looked down and caught sight of two children, thin to the bone and wrapped in several rags of burnt clothing, staring at the fireworks from a house with only three walls left standing.
The two children were watching the fireworks. Ji Ma quietly approached, avoiding their gaze, and stealthily peeked out from behind the charred window frame.
“You ate my bread, so you have to work for me,” said one child with matted white hair, extending his hand. “We promised that when we grow up, you’d help me burn down the nobles and avenge our brothers.”
The other child nodded and stretched out his skinny hand, hooking the white-haired child’s pinky and saying, “Okay.”
The two formally hooked pinkies, not realizing Ji Ma was lurking behind the window.
Although I am currently bronze rank, since fully mastering the powers of nightmares, I could avoid drawing the attention of the golden-ranked Akanius.
Ji Ma felt a surge of happiness at her newfound strength. Just as she was about to go outside and wake up King of Shadows Akanius, she paused. She suddenly remembered the cruel joke he had played on her and decided to get back at him.
Ji Ma’s thoughts shifted, and a fragrant loaf of bread appeared in her hand, sprinkled with a pinch of fine salt. She held the plate, stepped over the charred threshold, and called out:
“Free bread, little brats, do you want a piece?”
Little Akanius and the other child’s eyes widened.
“I want, I want,” shouted the child sitting on the ground, rushing out, but was firmly grabbed by little Akanius, who shouted, “It’s a trick! They want to lock you up and hang you!”
As expected of the King of Shadows, so cautious.
Ji Ma continued, “This is Daddy’s special bread; take a bite, and you’ll remember the mountain-like love of your father. Today’s opening day, our first promotional event—just call me ‘Dad,’ and you get it for free.”
Little Akanius eyed her with suspicion but released his grip. The other child rushed over, shouted “Dad!” and took a piece of bread, biting down hard.
Ji Ma beamed at little Akanius, saying, “Good, call me Dad.”
Little Akanius, stiff-faced, walked over and said:
“Your good son, the great Flourish, is really unfilial.”
What’s going on?
Just as Ji Ma was puzzled, she suddenly noticed the child who had bitten the bread was getting plumper, bigger. In the blink of an eye, he became the portly figure of the great Flourish.
Ji Ma jumped up in fright.
After eating the bread, Flourish yelled, “I want, I want more.”
“Get lost!”
Ji Ma felt sick, waving her hand to toss the bread outside. Flourish ran out like a dog.
Turning around, she discovered little Akanius had vanished. In his place was the King of Shadows Akanius, clad in a gray cloak, sitting on a broken wall, coins rolling across the back of his hand.
Ji Ma gave a sheepish smile. “You’ve woken up; the great Flourish was really your brother.”
“I heard you’re currently undergoing pre-marital training with the great philanthropist,” King of Shadows Akanius said. “How’s it going? Does the first day feel particularly great?”
“Don’t talk nonsense! I’m here to discuss serious matters.”
“Hasn’t our collaboration already ended?” King of Shadows Akanius replied. “I’m not a holy knight, and I’m not interested in heroic rescues; it doesn’t matter how much you offer me.”
“Is it because you’re waiting for the Rainbow Festival auction too? After all, that’s when the nobles gather; it’ll be quite lively.”
The coins on the back of King of Shadows Akanius’s hand came to a halt.
“Just right, I want to kill the entire family of the great philanthropist as well. We can unite again; I’m also waiting for the Rainbow Festival auction.”