Volume One: Entering the City Chapter Fifty-Five: Li Xinran's Dream

Li Xinran, in a daze, felt herself in a familiar place. When she opened her eyes, she saw her own bedroom.

She made a soft sound of surprise, her face full of confusion. What was going on? Had everything before just been a dream?

She checked the time—it was still the same night she’d been on the phone with Lu Ningyu. Slipping into her slippers, she walked to the window and looked out at the familiar street. In her heart, she thought, so it really was all just a dream.

With this in mind, Li Xinran sat back on the edge of her bed and picked up her familiar stuffed animal. “Tomorrow, I’ll go out with them for a walk. Tonight’s dream was rather interesting, maybe they’ll find it amusing.”

“In that dream, all of them were there, along with some self-proclaimed experienced trial-takers with supernatural abilities. And I even met someone named Lu Yi.”

“Wait—why do I remember it all so clearly?” Li Xinran suddenly froze.

At that moment, the plush toy in her arms suddenly swelled, emitting a metallic clattering sound. The teddy bear’s arm ripped open, revealing a bright steel spring.

“Aah!” Li Xinran cried out in shock and quickly threw it aside.

After being tossed away, the plush bear continued to transform. Its furry paw extended several metallic claws. Then, it slowly stood up, its eyes glowing red, and began to walk toward Li Xinran.

Screaming, Li Xinran ran for the door, not even bothering to put on her shoes.

She frantically twisted the doorknob, but the door seemed welded shut. No matter how she shook it, she couldn’t open it.

The plush bear gave a strange sound and, amid a clanging of metal, slowly advanced on Li Xinran.

“No!” she screamed, crouching in the corner, clutching her head.

She had no idea why any of this was happening. She’d just had a strange dream—how had everything around her suddenly changed?

The plush toy had already reached Li Xinran, raising its sharp claws and slashing at her.

At that instant, a hand pierced through the door, grabbing the plush bear’s arm.

“Li Xinran, are you alright?” Lu Yi’s voice sounded from the other side of the door.

“Lu Yi,” Li Xinran replied, her voice trembling with tears. She hadn’t expected the man from her dream to appear in reality.

Lu Yi broke through the door and drew his Demon Hunter blade. The plush bear seemed to fear the weapon, instantly retreating.

“Why?” Li Xinran looked at Lu Yi with resentment. “We only met in a dream. Why are you affecting my life?”

At her words, Lu Yi paused. He didn’t quite understand what was happening with Li Xinran, but it seemed she thought everything was his fault, and she seemed to have forgotten something.

“Li Xinran, come with me.” Lu Yi didn’t want to linger here. Having experienced similar dreamscapes before, he knew it would not be simple.

But Li Xinran shook off his hand. “No! I don’t want to live in fear. Let me pretend none of this ever happened.”

Lu Yi then understood her state—she had forgotten she was in the middle of a mission.

He seized her left hand. “Li Xinran, do you remember this ring? I put it on you.”

As their rings came close, both emitted a faint glow.

“When did I put this on?” Li Xinran stared at her hand in amazement.

“You’re actually still dreaming. Don’t you remember? I just gave this to you not long ago. We’re in the middle of a mission, and we entered a hospital. Right now, your body is outside, but you can’t wake up no matter what. I entered your dream through this ring.”

Because Lu Yi had acquired dark power, the Demon Hunter blade resisted him more strongly, and he felt it slipping from his grasp.

“Hurry!” He wrenched the door open and pulled Li Xinran out at a run.

At first, Li Xinran was reluctant, but she soon saw something horrifying—her familiar rooms beyond the door were scorched as if by fire, black ash still drifting in the air. A single door divided two worlds.

This brutal reality forced Li Xinran to accept the truth she’d resisted, and she began to keep pace with Lu Yi.

He crashed through the main door, rushing downstairs, his mind full of questions. Why was Li Xinran’s dream her home, and why couldn’t she distinguish reality from dreams, while his own dream had been the mission’s introductory scene, where someone had spoken to him?

Yet a more urgent question pressed on him—how to escape the dream. He’d only gotten out of his by killing the burned man with the Demon Hunter blade.

But that man hadn’t actually died, and Li Xinran’s dream was different. How could he bring Li Xinran out?

As Lu Yi dashed out, a crash of glass came from above. Looking up, he saw the plush monster leap down. At that moment, Li Xinran screamed.

A sharp object had scraped her foot, blood flowing freely. Lu Yi caught her and sprinted forward as the plush monster landed behind them with a metallic crash.

“What do we do?” Li Xinran asked, clutching Lu Yi’s shirt.

He glanced at her bare feet in pajamas, then at the spring-loaded monster closing in. “What else? We destroy it.”

He set her down. “Find a place to hide.”

Taking a submachine gun from his team space, he eyed the fluffy, metallic beast, then put the gun away and drew the Demon Hunter blade, approaching cautiously.

The plush monster turned its half-bear head, its plastic eyes fixed on Lu Yi. It began to sway in place, and Lu Yi frowned—could it only attack Li Xinran?

Just as he thought this, the monster abruptly stopped swaying and slashed out with a spring-extended paw, which suddenly grew wide, crossing several meters in a flash.

Lu Yi, with his magic eye activated, dodged nimbly as the giant claw missed.

The monster clicked in apparent annoyance, its claw retracting. Lu Yi’s eyes lit up—if he could get close before the claw returned, he’d have a chance.

He rushed in and grabbed the extended spring with one hand, the Demon Hunter blade in the other, ready to strike.

But to his surprise, the monster spun its upper body, the spring lengthening with centrifugal force. Before Lu Yi could react, he was thrown into the air and crashed into a charred tree.

He grunted, rolling to his feet just in time as a massive claw smashed down, barely dodging again.

One hand covering his mouth and nose, the other waving away the ash, he found himself ten meters from the monster. Judging by its claw-retracting speed, he could reach it before it was ready.

He had realized that while the monster’s attacks were powerful, each had a clear wind-up. As long as he learned the pattern, he could avoid harm.

The plush beast swayed again. Lu Yi gripped his blade tighter and charged, expecting another attack from the left.

But once again, he guessed wrong.

The monster drove its left claw into the ground, then, using the spring at its waist, launched its upper body. The right claw yanked it sideways, while the left, scraping up sparks, dragged toward Lu Yi.

He dodged, but the monster landed and retracted both claws, the springs on its legs making it seem to laugh at Lu Yi’s weakness.

Lu Yi scowled—the creature wasn’t as simple as he’d thought.

He eyed the Demon Hunter blade. If only he could control it at a distance, but last time, it had only flown to attack him.

The monster, as if done laughing, attacked with its right claw.

“If this dream is all darkness, let me give you a status effect,” Lu Yi muttered, throwing a vial of Purification Fluid at the paw and dodging away.

The vial shattered, white flames igniting on the claw, spreading rapidly. The spring turned rusty in an instant as if aged by centuries.

But before the fire could spread, the monster severed the spring itself. Lu Yi, surprised, dashed forward.

The beast clanged but did not attack with the left claw, leaping aside instead.

“Not this trick again,” Lu Yi muttered, changing direction to intercept.

Midair, the monster shot out its left claw, and Lu Yi dodged again. But he noticed its body was swelling, as if something might burst out to replace the right claw.

Not daring to waste time, Lu Yi quickened his pace.

The monster landed, spinning rapidly—this time, the left claw spun in a hemispherical sweep.

What to do? Retreat and wait? Impossible.

Gritting his teeth, Lu Yi leaped into the whirling wind, closing the distance. The elongated claw would retract slowly—a window of victory.

The monster, sensing this, slowed its spin, wobbled, and leaped again.

Landing, Lu Yi rushed forward, smashing a vial of Purification Fluid on the beast’s head. “Goodbye, teddy bear,” he said with a smile.

The monster’s leap was unstoppable. The vial shattered, soaking it in Purification Fluid, and it rose as before.

Though Lu Yi spoke boldly, he remained tense, manifesting the Demon Hunter blade in his left hand.

His face twisted with pain—the glass had cut him badly, and his right hand was numb except for the pain.

Fortunately, the Purification Fluid worked. White flames engulfed the creature, driving away its strange power.

The force of its leap carried the monster up over ten meters before it finally stopped rising. Then, amid an intense blaze, it disintegrated into fragments that rained down.

Seeing this, Lu Yi finally relaxed. He looked around. “Li Xinran, where are you?”

“Over here,” she called, poking her head from behind a charred bush.

She was covered in ash, her face marked with black smudges like a tabby cat.

Lu Yi couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Then, suddenly, the sensation of weightlessness returned—he knew the dream was ending.

Soon, Lu Yi found himself rising from beside Li Xinran’s bed. He looked at her as she slowly awoke. Their eyes met, and Li Xinran blushed. “Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. Didn’t I say I wanted to make you mine? Of course, I wouldn’t let you get hurt. If someone’s going to bully you, it’ll only ever be me,” Lu Yi said, waving his hand before her, then paused in surprise.

His hand felt perfectly fine—no sign of glass cuts, his fingers moving easily. But last time, the marks from being strangled had come out of the dream with him.

“Honestly, what do you mean, make me yours? You planning to write your name on my face?” Li Xinran teased, a hint of shyness in her eyes.

But seeing Lu Yi staring at his palm, she grew concerned. Was he also trapped in a dream? She quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Snapping out of it, Lu Yi grabbed the blanket at her feet, pulling it up and making her yelp.

He ignored her protests and examined her foot closely. His expression changed as he saw several healing scratches.

“What are you doing? That tickles—easy, it hurts a bit,” Li Xinran laughed, squirming from his touch.

“Look,” he said seriously, pointing at the scars.

Li Xinran’s laughter died. “What…what is this?”

“You didn’t have these before, did you? Aren’t these exactly where you were hurt in the dream?” Lu Yi pressed.

After a moment’s thought, Li Xinran looked at him in terror. “They’re almost identical.”

Lu Yi understood—he’d been cut on the hand, she on the foot. But only her wounds remained.

There were two differences: first, her wounds were from things native to the dream, while his were caused by his own, non-dream items; second, his weapon bore holy attributes, while hers either had none or were dark.

With this in mind, he turned to Li Xinran. “Xinran, it seems even this hospital isn’t safe.”

He hesitated. “You saw it yourself—injuries in the dream can follow you out. If the wound is deep enough, you might never return to reality. But we can’t stay awake forever, and who’s to say someone sleeping peacefully hasn’t already been pulled into such a dream? So you—”

“I know what you want to say. You want me to seek out the experienced trial-takers, right?” Li Xinran hugged him. “But you haven’t said what you’ll do. Are you staying here?”

Lu Yi was silent. He’d already asked for help from four local powerhouses. The level of danger was now such that even Helian Xun might not survive.

Li Xinran gripped his shirt. “I don’t care why you made this choice. Wherever you go, I’ll be there.”

She gazed at him deeply. “Didn’t you say you wanted to make me yours? Then keep me by your side, always.”

Lu Yi paused. He’d intended to send her to Fang Hao, but her words stirred his heart.

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Alright, we’ll stay together.”

But what Lu Yi didn’t know was that after he entered Li Xinran’s dream, strands of black energy began to seep from her body, drawn away by some force toward a certain part of the hospital.