novelraw Chapter 110 – Finding each other within the dream
Chapter 110 – Finding each other within the dream
"This immortal gu house, is it..?" Bao Zhi looked around in confirmation.
"There is no doubt, this is Spirit Affinity House's number one immortal gu house, Sun and Moon Temple." Bao Zhi confirmed in his mind.
His divine sense entered his immortal aperture and flew at high speeds.
"A super grade blessed land, no less!" Bao Zhi was intrigued.
Super grade blessed lands had a territory of over 6700 square kilometer but did not exceed 13000 square kilometer after ascension. Only the ten extreme physiques could possess super grade blessed lands.
The rate of the time flow was even more shocking, it was at the upper limit of what was possible. In Bao Zhi's estimate, the immortal essence production exceeded sixty beads.
"Who is this person with such foundations at just rank six?"
His findings definitely pointed to the conclusion that this person has ascended with one of the ten extreme physiques and judging from the gigantic tributary of the river of time it could only be the time path related Desolate Ancient Moon physique.
"Spirit Affinity House, Desolate Ancient Moon physique..."
There weren't many people who could fit these criteria. They must have been exceptional people with great renown.
"Is there a problem, my dear Lian Lian?" A sweet and deep male voice whispered in Bao Zhi's ear, as he felt a hand embrace his waist.
Bao Zhi's movements froze for a moment. He almost lost control of the gu!
He chuckled twice awkwardly. But the sound was off pitch, as a girlish giggle sounded from his own mouth shocking him even more.
Upon realization, he felt a pronounced weight on his chest that moved with him, pulling at his unaccustomed shoulders to this burden.
"Hmm! Sure enough." Looking down, Bao Zhi saw the substantial swell of breasts beneath the robes. He noted the slim and tender fingers he was controlling the gu house with, the change in balance and the thin veil covering the lower half of his face. "I became a member of Spirit Affinity House."
He adjusted his mindset to play along.
"Oh, you! Not now...." Bao Zhi caressed the unknown man's chin with a gentle touch and pushed him away playfully. "I need to focus on controlling the gu house."
There were another three female gu immortals present, one of them chided the man in a stern voice.
"Hmph, you demonic scoundrel! If it wasn't for Fairy Lian Xiang taking pity on you, you would still be locked up by Heavenly Court." There was genuine disdain in her voice. She was the middle one.
Then the most senior among the three continued.
"Now that you are part of our Spirit Affinity House, you are also part of the righteous path. You better behave yourself in public and not dishonor our sect." Her voice trailed off at this moment. "Or I will have no choice but to ask Fairy Lian Xiang to lend you to me." She glanced back with narrowed eyes as she bit her lips.
"That means you will not see the light of day for two months when you became senior sister's little toy, ahaha!" The third woman added gleefully.
"The past is the past. Lian Lian is mine and I am Lian Lian's. There is nothing in this world that could change that." The man replied nonchalantly as he smiled from ear to ear.
Bao Zhi's ears were perked, he did not turn around as he listened in astoundment. "Fairy Lian Xiang?"
Who was Fairy Liang Xiang? She was a one in a generation genius, bestowed with the position of fairy of the sect.
Bao Zhi has heard of this person, she became a rank eight gu immortal and rose to lead the sect before eventually joining the ranks of Heavenly Court. She was a renowned figure of not just within Central Continent.
"This person is not simple. Rumors say she turned into a zombie when she was just a gu master and her zombie body was purified by the heavenly tribulation and earthly calamity of her ascension, it was as though as she was reborn. How unbelievable!"
His divine sense reached the center of Lian Xiang blessed land.
Bao Zhi was already convinced yet he still inspected the aperture origin core.
"As expected."
A huge pile of green grape immortal essence laid beneath the immortal aperture's origin core.
"If only my stolen aperture origin core could produce this much essence. But this all is illusory, I cannot take it outside the dream." He sighed in his mind.
But next to the aperture origin core he discovered something unusual. It was an immortal gu with its weak aura leaking out. It was just like a lifeless piece of rock, yet Bao Zhi could tell this was definitely no rock!
The moment Bao Zhi picked the gu, it transformed in his hand. Dazzling with multicolored rainbows and undulating rays of starlight it was like nothing like he has seen before.
"Could this be... the legendary immortal gu, rank nine Love gu?"
Love gu appeared different to each person, this fact was well known. Thus, it was pointless to record its appearance.
Bao Zhi's divine sense returned from the immortal aperture. He began to mull over the significance of his findings.
"Spirit Affinity House owns Love gu, and now I became the fairy of Spirit Affinity House. So Love gu is in my possession."
"Love gu should play a key role, seeing how just its reveal was important to the previous stage."
"But there is big problem if I look at the bigger picture."
"Spirit Affinity House did not exist back in Red Lotus' era!"
Yet there he was, within the dream one of Spirit Affinity's delegation on Red Lotus' wedding.
Spirit Affinity House was established in the previous historical era, which would later be called the Medieval Antiquity Era. This was the era where Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable, Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable appeared.
Before the Medieval Antiquity Era was the Olden Antiquity Era almost one million years ago. This was when Limitless Demon Venerable, Reckless Savage Demon Venerable and lastly Red Lotus Demon Venerable lived.
...
After their arrival to the inner court, Bao Zhi excused himself and left the gu immortal's company.
The information was still fresh in his mind, he knew where he needed to go.
Flying above the city as a gu immortal made navigation much more convenient.
"There you are." He descended onto a mid sized street.
Bao Zhi was hidden from the eyes of the people, but even if they saw him, it would be nothing unusual in Emperor City.
He undid his concealment killer move and approached the food stall.
While he was waiting in line, he was experimenting with killer moves within Fairy Lian Xiang's immortal aperture.
A short while later he unleashed a time path investigative immortal killer move at the old woman serving the steaming buns before him.
Bao Zhi could detect nothing out of the ordinary.
"This person might really be Qinyang, but within the dream realm I can't tell her apart from anyone else."
The dream realm clearly operated by its own rules regarding the scenario, Lian Xiang could only detect and old woman, just like how Red Lotus could only see Zhou Yang when talking to Qinyang in Silver Wind Valley.
"Is death really the only way to awake someone?" It seemed rather odd to Bao Zhi.
If he choose to kill this food seller, Qinyang might wake up for a moment, but then she would be right back at the beginning by failing the dream realm exploration. How pointless!
"In here fake and real are intertwined. I wonder if illusions can also be as good as the real thing!"
His divine sense once again entered the immortal aperture. Fairly Lian Xian naturally had both rank five divine sense and connecting heaven gu.
Bao Zhi connected to Treasure Yellow Heaven and purchased various gu worms of qi path, wood path, refinement path and even some of formation path.
These were the paths Bao Zhi had the greatest expertise in and qi path for its relevance to the killer move he wanted to assemble.
"Without Perception Warp as the core, I can only hope to recreate the mortal version." He began to construct a version of his human qi manipulation technique.
The gu he had now and the ones he had access to back in Xu Lian's blessed land were different when he was creating Concealed Human Qi. After that, he created the variation killer move Alive in Suffering, Human in Perception which was later elevated to Alive in Aspiration, Human in Perception.
Using these results as stepping stones, Bao Zhi quickly managed to recreate some of the effects of human qi manipulation within the dream.
Luckily, being one of the ten extreme physiques meant having a great amount of human qi.
It was already his turn at the food stall.
He looked into the old woman's eyes deeply.
After a moment, the woman broke eye contact to tend to the steamer, muttering that the buns are ready.
"Eat something, you are too thin!" She criticized as she packed in an extra bun.
Bao Zhi didn't reply and continued to probe her invisibly without accepting the buns.
"What do you want? There are no fancy shops around here." The woman raised her voice. "Hmph! So beautiful, why are you alone? Where's your husband?"
Bao Zhi narrowed his eyes disapprovingly and switched his killer move. His own appearance started to wobble and distort.
The woman was about to recoil in shock, but the change was already done, she composed herself.
"Young man, what a trickster you are!" She cackled.
Bao Zhi changed his appearance to that of his own.
"So you do not recognize me?"
Now it was the woman staring back at him strangely as if going through a mental list of all lost lovers and relatives.
Bao Zhi changed his killer move, dispelling the illusion and manipulated the human qi of the woman again.
Darkness. Cold. A piercing pain within the very soul!
This is what the moment before death felt like. Bao Zhi could be considered an expert on this matter, having it experienced twice already. The sensation was very realistic!
"Ahh!" The woman shrieked and fainted on the spot.
Bao Zhi caught the frail body before it fell to the cobblestone of the street.
"A sense of death without dying. So did it work?" He forcefully woke the woman.
Her expression changed from fright to confusion and curiosity. Bao Zhi's lips curled faintly, he could tell this was Qinyang in control.
Qinyang slowly opened the eyes of the old hag she currently embodied and blinked twice. The lingering sensation of a soul-piercing cold still danced across her mind.
She looked up and saw the ethereal beauty of Fairy Lian Xiang leaning over her, the thin veil fluttering in the gentle breeze of the busy street.
"Bao Zhi?" She could immediately feel the unmistakable effect of the original Alive in Aspiration, Human in Perception killer move that Bao Zhi used before entering the dream realm.
She squinted, taking in the magnificent robes and grace of Fairy Lian Xiang.
A slow, wicked grin spread across her wrinkled face as she began to cackle, her old body shaking until it hurt.
"Oh, this is too good! I didn't know your grand ambition included packing these two extra baggage!"
"Nonsense." He replied, his voice off-pitch and feminine, which only made Qinyang laugh harder.
Bao Zhi maintained the serene facade of Fairy Lian Xiang, albeit the veil on his face wouldn't let it on if he didn't, and set her down amidst the festive street of Emperor City.
Next, he shared the discrepancies he found in the dream realm.
Qinyang's experience was very shallow in comparison, she didn't notice anything wrong even in the previous stage regarding the rules.
However when it came to being book-smart, that was one of Qinyang's strong suit.
"If a dream is starting to reach its limits, it will draw upon the memories of the person who entered it. This would explain why Spirit Affinity House could appear here."
"Does this mean the dream will eventually be filled with our own memories?" Bao Zhi noticed the issue immediately. "Then it would be troublesome to tell real and fake apart."
"That will not happen for two reasons."
"First, my method to wake up doesn't depend on memories."
"Second, we will definitely die by soul erosion if we stayed that long in a dream realm."
"..." Bao Zhi's veil continued to hide his face. "Let's go and get Love gu to Red Lotus." He added.
"Are you planning to message Spirit Affinity House to deliver Love gu? Do you have the authority? And will they reach in time?"
As for reply, Bao Zhi took her inside Fairy Lian Xiang's immortal aperture and flew back to the heart of the city.
Utilizing the authority of the Spirit Affinity House, Bao Zhi entered the inner court, weaving through auspicious lights and gathered gu immortals.
Waiting for an opportune moment, he approached the young Hong Ting, the future venerable, whose piercing eyes seemed shadowed by the weight of a countless failures.
Bao Zhi opened his aperture and Qinyang stepped out, producing rank nine Love Gu on her palm.
"Take it." Bao Zhi said, his voice not too loud yet firm. "This is the key to saving what you cherish."
The young Hong Ting took the object. But his face twisted not into joy or gratitude, but into confusion. "What is this? Leave me! Are you trying to recruit me into Spirit Affinity House? What a scandal!" His voice lacked the weight of a man who had traversed the River of Time a thousand times.
"Oh no." Qinyang and Bao Zhi looked at each other in realization.
"It isn't him! He's another dreamer, just like us!" She transmitted in panic.
It was already too late, the other party has also found out their fake identity.
"Guards! Master!" Red Lotus' shout broke the harmonious atmosphere.
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