Corpse Retriever

Dense ghostly yin aura roared out like a burst dam, as though someone were wildly smearing a single black ink across countless colorful paintings.

Before long, every conscious thought within the dream would be assimilated.

And this was only inside the dream. In the real world, even broader scenes of horror were unfolding as well.

Karma converged into a great river, and that river became the vessel of the Great Emperor of Fengdu’s wrath, guiding it toward every correct destination, namely every branch of the family behind that hand.

Everything had happened suddenly, yet beneath it all was a cold and perfect order.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Is the dream about to collapse?”

The figure replied, “Worse than collapse. It’s going to be completely tainted. Kid, you should be getting quite a bit of merit from this one. It’ll be very pleased.”

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Because I did the right thing?”

The figure replied, “Because you did more than what your role required.”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “While borrowing a knife to kill, I was also the knife myself?”“Exactly. There are some special kinds of existences in this world that even it doesn’t have a good way of dealing with. If given the chance, do you think it would want to use this opportunity to stab that Great Emperor too and let him bleed a little?

“You helped thread the needle in all this, so naturally it will reward you. But don’t ever think you can really talk sentiment with it. Once you grow up, you’ll become one of the targets it wants to eliminate as well.

“And because of me, it probably won’t even be willing to give you the chance to grow up.”

“That’s fine too. Working old test papers is boring.”

“As long as you understand that, I’m not worried. I believe the real you has already begun to grasp its temperament. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to come this far and lay out a scheme like this.

“All right. I may not be able to leave this dream, but I can still help support it for you.

“Go to the other dreams now and bring your people out.

“Remember, the nature of the dream has changed now. Be careful. Don’t die in here.”

“What happens if I die?”

“You won’t die in real life, but you’ll probably become an idiot.”

“That sounds even harder to accept than death.”

At this point, the situation had already drifted off course in ways no one had predicted. Once the Great Emperor had been completely enraged, the changes in the dream placed Li Zhuiyuan and the others in equal danger.

But the one who had caused that deviation was this “figure,” and he also had the ability to offset that danger.

Li Zhuiyuan activated the surrounding formation. The zodiac forms created from the twelve earthly branches kept shifting and cycling.

By the riverbank, the boy holding the black umbrella appeared once more.

He reached out and grabbed Yin Meng, who still appeared as a little girl in the dream.

“Come with me. We’re leaving.”

Yin Meng nodded and let him take her hand without the slightest resistance.

That made Li Zhuiyuan think of something. Only what he had fully mastered “in the future” could be displayed in the dream now. So the reason this girl was so obedient to him... was it because in reality, listening to him had already become instinct for her?

The boy and girl vanished from the spot together.

The next instant, Yin Meng appeared in the amusement park, staring blankly at the suddenly changed surroundings.

Li Zhuiyuan then continued on to the next dream.

The next dream was a hospital half-submerged in floodwater. Li Zhuiyuan stood on a boat and drew near the third floor.

At one of the windows, he saw a blood-covered young man in a state of panic.

After the Great Emperor of Fengdu flew into a rage, the turtle had retreated.

If Li Zhuiyuan had arrived earlier, he would have seen the turtles in the water and clinging to the outer walls of the hospital.

Tan Wenbin, still badly shaken, let out a long breath of relief the moment he saw the boy. He even smiled.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed in front of himself and said, “Get down here.”

“Got it!”

Without a word of hesitation, Tan Wenbin climbed out the window and boarded the boy’s boat.

Looking at him, Li Zhuiyuan felt he had digested things even more thoroughly than the girl before him.

That was actually a good thing. He had come to take them away. If they had started acting hesitant, second-guessing him, and stubbornly refused to leave the dream, that really would have given him a headache.

Reaching out to grab Tan Wenbin’s wrist, Li Zhuiyuan led him off the boat.

With a splash, the two of them fell into the water.

A moment later, Tan Wenbin also appeared in the amusement park.

After looking around at the surroundings, he scratched the back of his head in confusion. “I’m already a high school student. Why would I dream something this childish?”

After bringing him back, Li Zhuiyuan went off to find the others.

The figure looked at Tan Wenbin and asked, “Then what kind of dream do you want to have?”

Tan Wenbin answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, “Obviously one with some adults-only content.”

The figure sized him up from head to toe and said, “You really are something.”

That was not mockery. The figure could tell that Tan Wenbin had just gone through a nightmare. But now that he had merely changed environments and had his immersion broken a little, his spirits had immediately bounced back.

He was the sort who would take an inch and open a dye shop with it.

He looked unserious on the surface, but in truth his will was firm.

Tan Wenbin looked at the figure and asked in puzzlement, “Why are you so blurry? I can’t see you clearly.”

The figure replied, “And if someone in this world wasn’t blurry, you think you’d be able to see them clearly?”

Tan Wenbin said, “No, no, you misunderstood. I’m worried you can’t see me clearly.”

“Heh.” The figure chuckled twice, amused. “Kid, just what exactly is it that you’ve digested so thoroughly?”

“Huh?”

Tan Wenbin had no idea what that meant. He then looked toward Yin Meng, who still appeared as a little girl, gave a surprised sound, and asked,

“I feel like I’ve seen this little sister before?”

…

Picking up Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin had gone smoothly, but when Li Zhuiyuan entered this dream of fire, he ran into trouble.

This had nothing to do with whether someone had digested things thoroughly or not. The problem was simply that the other person’s emotions were already on the verge of collapse.

Li Zhuiyuan walked through the temple gate. Inside were corpses strewn across the ground and blazing flames everywhere.

A young man was lying prone on the floor, smashing his fists against the stone tiles over and over. A large section of the tiles had already cracked apart, and both his hands were bloody.

“Hey.”

Li Zhuiyuan called out to him several times in a row.

The boy did not know the young man’s name, so that was all he could call him.

But Lin Shuyou gave no response at all. He remained sunk in his own fury and pain.

In truth, Lin Shuyou’s condition was the real reaction of someone trapped in a Dream Ghost’s dreamscape. Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin, because of the karmic entanglements behind them, had dragged those two beings into the matter, causing the Dream Ghost to lose control over their dreams. That had actually made them somewhat safer. At the very least, they had not suffered this level of torment.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, trying to pull Lin Shuyou up, but Lin Shuyou shoved his hand away and continued curling up in the corner.

Just then, a faint voice drifted over.

“I can help you take him out.”

Li Zhuiyuan followed the voice and looked over. Within the blaze consuming the main hall, a familiar figure emerged. It was the Dream Ghost.

It was terrified. It was panicked. It had originally thought it might be able to slip away amid the chaos and survive. But the truth was that once the Great Emperor’s wrathful will descended into its dream, it had no path left to escape.

Now, the Dream Ghost’s only hope was the young boy standing before it.

Since this terrible disaster had been brought here by him, then he ought to have the power to protect it.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at it expressionlessly.

The Dream Ghost continued, “Not only can I help you send him and the other one away safely, I am also willing to become your most loyal servant and obey your will for the rest of my life.”

As it spoke, the Dream Ghost dropped to its knees and bowed to Li Zhuiyuan.

In order to survive, it no longer cared about anything else.

If the Evil Book had been here, it probably would have used what little yellowed paper it still had left to write out lines and lines of mocking ridicule. The whole message would have come down to one thing:

“Pah. In your dreams!”

Some things in a person’s bones were very hard to change with age, and the younger they were, the more extreme those things often became.

If the Li Zhuiyuan who had gone to college could treat the Evil Book with such cold rationality, then the Li Zhuiyuan who had not yet returned to his hometown, whose heart held no warmth at all, would only be even more resolute in this regard.

Most importantly, whenever he looked at it, the image of the red Hanfu girl being rammed by the bumper cars surfaced in his mind.

He knew that had been the “torture” it designed for him.

True, he had not been broken by that torture. True, the girl in red had smiled at him and had not blamed him.

But since you dared to design a scene like that for me,

then you

deserve to die!

Li Zhuiyuan did not even want to make use of it, let alone negotiate with it. He did not want it to gain even the slightest shred of hope at a moment like this.

Even the boy himself felt a little confused. Why was he being so emotional right now?

It could only be said that the girl truly occupied a special place in his heart. The “future” him had already made protecting her into an instinct.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I’m sure that one has countless ways to make you wish you were dead. I’m looking forward to it.”

The Dream Ghost raised its head in disbelief and stared at the boy. It had never expected him to speak with such absolute finality.

Once all hope was gone, the Dream Ghost’s face twisted savagely. It shook the candle in its hand.

Lin Shuyou and Runsheng had once been precious bargaining chips in its grasp. But now it no longer intended to treasure them. It would crush both chips completely.

Lin Shuyou suddenly went completely still.

The Dream Ghost said, “Kill him!”

At this point, all it wanted was to drag as many people as possible down into the grave with it.

Lin Shuyou rose to his feet and charged at Li Zhuiyuan.

Relying on the formation, Li Zhuiyuan now also possessed partial control over this dream. His figure kept vanishing over and over, dodging Lin Shuyou’s attacks.

The Dream Ghost tried to compress the boy’s space to move, but to its shock, it discovered that it could not do so at all.

Li Zhuiyuan, meanwhile, found himself in a difficult spot. Lin Shuyou’s earlier breakdown had already made it impossible to bring him out of here. Now that Lin Shuyou had been controlled by the Dream Ghost and reduced to its puppet, the chances of taking him away had become even lower.

Li Zhuiyuan even began to consider whether Lin Shuyou, in his current state, was still worth taking away at all.

After all, his consciousness had already been completely annihilated. He was effectively dead. Even if he were brought back, he would only be a vegetable.

Without the shared experiences and memories of the “future” to support it, the boy at this point did not know Lin Shuyou at all, so his way of thinking remained extremely rational.

Rather than waste time here, it would be better to try bringing out the next person.

Before entering, Li Zhuiyuan had hypnotized Lin Shuyou and the others and left behind a slip of paper as a safeguard. At this moment, all he needed to do was pierce that paper, and Lin Shuyou would recover.

But the problem was that Li Zhuiyuan had forgotten about it.

That was reality. No matter how thorough the plan, all kinds of accidents would still erupt without warning and throw the previous arrangements and rhythm into chaos.

Seeing that Lin Shuyou still could not catch the boy, the Dream Ghost shouted furiously, “Use your full strength!”

Earlier in the dream, the role assigned to him by the scenario had been that of a useless person who could not perform spirit-writing and was hated by the Yin gods.

So in the dream, when Lin Shuyou witnessed Uncle Qin destroy his family temple, all he could do was vent his helpless rage and the grievance buried in his heart.

But now, he had in fact broken free of the original dream’s restraints. It could even be said that he had lost himself completely and become a beast driven only by instinct.

His master’s command was:

Use your full strength.

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