“Is something wrong?” Huang Niuniu asked, inching closer. Had she noticed the look on his face?
Not good, Yu Han thought, schooling his expression. It would be bad if the observer found out they were onto them, though he couldn’t be sure if their faces could be seen from so far away. Who knew if the observer had some magical tool of night vision?
He grabbed her hand and went to his hut. They entered, and Yu Han closed the door. He lit a glowing stone, placing it by the brazier, then peeked out the window. The stone tanks and the grove couldn’t be seen from here, so the other side probably couldn’t see them either.
“H-Han’er, this is too soon—” Huang Niuniu said quickly.
Yu Han saw her blush in the bluish moonlight. “What nonsense are you saying?” He covered his face, then brought his mouth near her ear to whisper, but she squeaked.
“I-it tickles.”
“Shush. There’s a guy spying on your hut from the stone tanks.”
“Oh.”
“Fei Rui spotted him.” Yu Han turned to the crab. “Did you get a good look at his face? Could you recognise him if you saw him on the street?”
He doesn’t know what a boat is, but he knows about the palace. Okay, I’ll teach him more vocabulary later. Yu Han described the guy who was following their group—or more specifically, Huang Niuniu—earlier that day.
“Huh… can you?” Yu Han asked.
Yu Han shuddered. Fei Rui, since when are you a horror crab? I thought you were cute and cuddly like Huang Niuniu! He shook the thought away and said, “Leave it for today. We’ll see if he shows up again tomorrow. I’ll have to talk with Li Yao and Fang Zhao. However, if this is a problem…”
If the guy tried to approach Yu Han’s hut while they slept, they’d be defenceless.
“Y-you can do that?” Dreamsea?
“Don’t eat him. Can you knock him out?”
Fei Rui nodded with his two eyestalks. It was weird how quickly Yu Han was getting used to his body language.
He picked the crab up and put him on the windowsill. “Perhaps it's best to just keep an eye out?”
Fei Rui took Yu Han’s suggestion literally. He retracted one eyestalk and angled the other towards the yard through the gaps in the windowpanes.
“Niu’er—what’s wrong with you?” Yu Han asked.
She was puffing her cheeks out so much that he suspected they would pop.
“Nothing,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Stay here tonight—”
“Eek!”
“What?”
“N-nothing.”
“…Take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” Yu Han’s hut still had traces of the burnt mat. He hadn’t really cleaned in recent days. He made a mental note to get something like a futon if possible. If not, then a thick mat.
Yu Han turned off the glowing stone and lay down on the floor. It was hard and cool, yet somehow not so bad. His spine was straight, and as he moved, it made soft popping sounds.
Huang Niuniu was on the bed. She shuffled and rustled for a while.
“Don’t you dare try anything,” she said suddenly.
“I won’t!” Yu Han exclaimed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. But he wouldn’t. Thankfully, it was dark. If she could see his face now, he would return to the White Lotus Prefectural Kingdom and never come back. Ridiculous. Am I a teenager or something? …Wait. I am. Damnit.
“I’m telling you. Don’t you dare try it.”
“Come on, woman. I really won’t.”
“Really?”
“Geez.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Really?” Her voice grew smaller.
“Really!” Yu Han reassured her.
“Dummy,” she replied.
I’m not dumb… There was a ticklish feeling in his heart. She was so—
No. Better not think about it.
They were going to the hidden realm soon. He had Sima Yan at his back, and Huang Niuniu had stalkers. Fei Rui’s existence was reassuring, though. The crab was the best type of autonomous security system, with state-of-the-art anomaly detection and neutralisation functionalities preinstalled. A Level 10 bastion. Even a year from now, unless Fei Rui perished or decided to no longer accord with him, he could provide protection.
Protection.
Protection… Yu Han took a glance at Huang Niuniu. Her form was just a silhouette on the bed.
This world… did it have protection?
Yu Han, no! Get your head out of your ass. He was about to slap himself but stopped. The noise might wake her up. Her breathing was soft, slow, and deep. Was she asleep or just pretending?
She mothered him so much. She would probably be a great mum. But with the dangers on the horizon, if she were to have a child, it would bring more horrors than happiness.
She’s fond of me. I don’t know if that’s just a sense of dependency from what I did to Wu Di, or something more.
It’s not as if Yu Han had no inclinations. It’s just… he did not want to.
Logic aside, the very thought of such a close emotional connection… suffocated him.
He wasn’t ready. If something happened, he might run away and never show his face to her again.
He decided not to dwell on it. She was his friend. For now.
Second after Li Yao. Fang Zhao was the third. Fei Rui was the fourth.
But he liked Fei Rui better than Fang Zhao.
A warm feeling hugged his heart. It was nice. Yu Han smiled.
“Are you awake?” she asked.
“Go to sleep,” he replied.
“Look at this.” In the dark, Yu Han saw her raise an arm. Her palm glowed softly, illuminating the room with a cool blue light. She breathed in, then out.
Suddenly, from outside the window, a glowing speck of light floated in, followed by a few more.
Fireflies, Yu Han realised. There were many in these mountains, and more in the lagoons and swamps.
The crab’s one eyestalk followed the light into the room.
“You can’t eat them either, okay?”
“Can he not eat my stalker?” Huang Niuniu asked.
“Nope.”
“It’ll have to do.” She sounded disappointed. “You two big, strong men will keep me safe, won’t you?”
“Did you just call us fat?”
“When I breathe with my Bioluminescence,” Huang Niuniu said, “wisps come. They breathe with me.” Her light glowed and dimmed, sometimes like a heartbeat, other times like a tide. Yu Han noticed the rhythm.
“Calm Before the Storm Breathing Technique?”
“You’re smart. I love it.”
“Does it work?”
“I gained twenty true qi yesterday. Even with the pure qi assimilating elixir, maybe nine or ten was from this,” she said, moving her palms in the air. The dozen-odd fireflies danced in the air, creating a mesmerising swirl of light. “There were wisps in the water puddles. In the sky, the trees. They give me parts of themselves and take my light.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Thanks.”
“I can cultivate in my dream,” Yu Han said. “It’s not worse than your speed.”
“Are we having a competition?”
“I don’t want to leave you behind.” Yu Han laughed. “I don’t want to be left behind either.”
Huang Niuniu shifted to her side, looking down at Yu Han. Her green eyes glowed in hues of teal and yellow. “Good night, Han’er. Good night, Fei Rui.”
“Sleep tight, Niu’er.”
He closed his eyes. Soon, he appeared in the white space of his dreamscape. For a while, he lay there, looking at the shell-like ceiling. Then a strange feeling pricked his chest.
He sat up.
There was a cave entrance on his dreamscape wall, appearing like a dark pit in the white surface. Through it, he saw the speleothems on the other side. Stalactites from the ceiling, stalagmites from the floor. Columns where they both connected, and helictites growing in random directions.
The crab reached up to Yu Han’s waist now. The eyestalk retracted in reality was poking out here, while the opposite was withdrawn into his shell. “Can you really see both inside the dream and outside at the same time?” Yu Han asked. “Why did you call it a dream sea?”
“You know your tribulation?” Yu Han was overjoyed. That meant the crab was at his experience cap. If he broke through before the hidden realm excursion, that would up the safety margin by a lot.
“You don’t need to tell me,” Yu Han said. “But if you need some help, you can ask.”
Fei Rui clicked and clacked to the cave entrance, then called Yu Han over.
He stood up and felt a slight difference in his being. The dreamscape and the crabscape connected to it somehow felt a lot more real.
Why? He hadn’t levelled up. It must be the accord.
He stepped through the boundary of the two scapes. A cool wind brushed his face. Sometimes this wind would go through the barrier, too.
Fei Rui described each speleothem in the crabscape. He would tap one, then pinch another.
“Human.”
Yu Han looked up. The ceiling was densely covered with rock formations. But through some of the cracks, rays of light shone through.
What is… outside? Are we really… undersea?
Yu Han giggled, humming the tune. He had a guess that his own dreamscape was like the inside of a clam’s shell. The creases on the white wall bore a resemblance to that. The texture of the walls was also similar to aragonite and calcite crystals. He had tried licking them, but they didn’t taste salty.
If it wasn’t, that was fine. If it was a clam shell, though, why was it hollow? And… could it be opened? And if so, was the outside a sea of… what? A sea of dreams? Or maybe it was a cave like Fei Rui’s crabscape.
The crab appeared with half a coconut shell filled with water.
“Don’t splash that on me,” Yu Han said.
“It’s fine. I won’t drink then.”
“Damn it, crab…” Yu Han wiped away at his face. “Where do you even keep these coconut shells?”
“Sure, why not?”
He followed the crab through a branching path in the tunnel. There were nine of these, alongside the primary vein. One cave, ten destinations.
Do they go on forever? Is it just Fei Rui’s crabscape, or is there more to it?
They arrived at a clearing, small enough that only two or three Yu Hans could fit inside. Shield formations covered the walls, and the centre of the clearing had a rimstone dam. It was filled with the strange water halfway through, inside which were many objects.
A proud Fei Rui started gushing about his prized collection.
Multicoloured pearls, not just white and blue. Coconut shells. Shells from other molluscs, too, of all shapes and sizes. Bits of coral, sponges, and sea quartz. Small, nearly fossilised starfish, sand dollars, and sea urchins. There were a few pretty fish scales that reflected light, under which were teeth from unknown creatures. Maybe sharks?
But one item stood out.
The dried dragon-skin parchment.
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Huang Niuniu - Cow girl. Nice, sweet, and after the ship arc, unpredictable.
Fang Zhao - Red-eyed cripple. Noble Young Master (one of the good ones?).
Xiao Zhuzi - His name literally means Little Bamboo, former beggar.
Hu Feng - Farmer’s son. Maybe a bit perverted.
Li Weidong - Almost drowned trying to clear his Tribulation.
Dong Tianlan - Granddaughter of Elder Scribe. Has an eternal frown.
Dong Chou - Ninth Scribe Official of the Outer Sect. Probably has high blood pressure.
Yong Lefan - Sarcastic Senior Bro with a stone book.
Shi Miao - Mysterious white-haired girl who may or may not resort to violence.
Song Yinuo - Mysterious pig-tailed spoiled brat.
Duan Xiaolong - Is cool. Has monkey.
Sima Yan - Son of Riversong Commandary City's City Lord. Is a-hole.
Pang Jiming - Sima Yan's lackey #1.
Ma San - Sima Yan's lackey #2. Bushy beard's less bushier brother.
Tan Ruoxuan - Pony-tailed Law Enforcement Lady.