Chapter 10: Scenes from a Fantastical Dream (Part 2)

  That faint sound, I don't know where it came from. At first, it was barely audible, but later it became a melody.

  The sound of the zither is faint and sorrowful, like weeping and complaining, with three parts of gentleness and three parts of sadness, as if the person playing the zither has endless sad things hidden in their heart, and can only express them through the melody.

  Shen Bailian still remembered Ruan Ci at first, but the sound of the guqin became clearer and clearer, as if it was gradually approaching from all directions, and she couldn't help but listen to it.

  The sound of the zither became increasingly mournful and piercing, with each pause revealing a sharper tone. It was clear that the person playing the zither could no longer contain their inner sorrow, and instead was being pulled by the music itself. The melody turned urgent and agitated amidst the jumbled sounds, each note seeming to strike at the heart. Even Shen Baiying, who didn't understand music, couldn't help but feel a sense of despair wash over her.

  Gradually, a sob was mixed in with the sound of the strings, seemingly from a young woman, probably the one playing the zither. Her voice was tender and delicate, though she was crying, it was as mournful and touching as the cry of an oriole. All that could be heard was her crying: "…you've actually forgotten all the feelings of the past, then what's the point of me remembering! You... you're so heartless, fine, very good, one day I'll make you pay back everything you owe me!" The words were full of resentment and grievance, clearly she had been deeply hurt.

  Shen Bailian heard it in her ears, but her mind was already moving, thinking: Who is this woman? This voice... this voice sounds so familiar.

  Just then, the sound of "ding, ding" was heard several times. The strings of the zither could no longer withstand the plucking and snapping, and the music came to an abrupt halt. The woman's crying also suddenly stopped without a trace.

  A thick fog enveloped the sky, and Shen Bailian didn't know how long he had walked. The surroundings were quiet and still, with no one in sight. His heart began to feel anxious. Suddenly, a gentle breeze caressed his face, carrying a faintly sweet fragrance that Shen Bailian was very familiar with. He had helped his mother make incense every day, so he could distinguish it clearly - it was the iris incense that Shen Danqing often used to scent her clothes.

  Shen Bailian hurriedly followed the fragrance and ran a few steps forward, but unexpectedly, her foot suddenly splashed into the water. The mist gradually dispersed, revealing the scene behind it. Only then did she see the sparkling waves, the clear water rippling, and the soft yellow sand stretching out before her, vaguely resembling the shape of Bailian Zhou Lake Beach.

  Shen Bailian walked onto the lake beach, trudging through the sand for a few steps, and saw a flash of red behind a large rock. Turning around the rock, she saw someone lying on the sand, half their body buried in the pebbles, the other half submerged in the water, their entire body crimson, with silk clothes fluttering in the water.

  Before Shen Bailian could walk closer to take a look, the person suddenly struggled to sit up from the gravel, with a head of black hair tumbling down their back, revealing a pale face. Their distant mountain-like eyebrows were furrowed, and their autumn water-like eyes were lifeless. It was actually Shen Bailian's mother, Shen Danqing.

  "Mother?" Shen Bailian was shocked, but Shen Danqing seemed to have not heard.

  She was seen opening and closing her lips, panting constantly, with an extremely painful expression on her face. Her hands were grasping and releasing, reaching towards the clear blue lake water. With a gurgling sound, white foam rose to the surface, and amidst it, a streak of blood slowly floated up. The bloody water mixed into the lake and gradually spread out. Shen Qing's hands seemed to have found something underwater, and she scooped up an object from beneath the surface.

  Shen Bailian had not yet seen clearly what the object was, when he heard a loud wail, and the voice was very loud, coming from Shen Danqing's hands. He was stunned, thinking blankly: This baby... Could it be that this baby is me?

  As soon as this idea arose in his mind, he paid extra attention to Shen Danqing and took a few glances. He indeed felt that although his mother's face was more haggard than he had ever seen before, it was still younger than what he remembered.

  Isn't this Ah Niang's dream? Shen Baiying thought to herself, and couldn't help but take a few more steps forward, wanting to see her childhood appearance. But then another strange gust of wind came, and the white mist blocked her view like a curtain, covering up the lake shore. The lake water, sandy beach, red-clad mother, and that tiny infant all vanished in an instant, disappearing who-knows-where.

  Shen Bailian's mind was shrouded in a thick fog, even more unpredictable than the dense fog before his eyes. He racked his brains but couldn't make sense of it, and the scene in front of him kept changing, leaving him unsure what was real or fake, virtual or actual. He had no idea how he ended up like this, and if all this was just a product of his own mind, then this dream was indeed too bizarre.

  While lost in thought, a voice could be heard faintly in the fog.

  "This time it was a young man, with an entirely unfamiliar voice, who only heard him say loudly: 'Qingyang Shixiong, we have a mission on our shoulders, let's hurry to Huangshan and not delay, the matter of Shouyang can be discussed another day.'"

  The person who spoke was a young man, and all he said was: "Killing demons and saving people from water and fire is what we should do. What's the hurry? If we didn't know about this matter, it would be fine. But since our master's message has been seen by us, how can we ignore it? Besides, Mount Huang is so big, even if we find that thing, who knows when it will be? The people of Suoyang can't wait that long."

  Shen Bailian followed the sound and walked over, and in front of her, the cool mist gradually transformed into a house gate, but it was already inside a courtyard. The two people who were speaking were standing inside a room on the east side, with the window wide open. Shen Bailian looked through the window and saw that both people inside were wearing white-based blue-trimmed long gowns with wide sleeves. The slightly thinner one was probably the young man, and the tall one was Qingyang. Both of them had their backs to the window, so they hadn't noticed Bailian yet.

  That young man hastily said, "The Water Spirit Pearl is a treasure among treasures! If it weren't for the female descendants of Nuwa from the southern border who rebelled, how could it have fallen into our hands in the Central Plains? Luckily, Master's divine powers are vast and he calculated the pearl's descent. If we had delayed for a few more days, perhaps the Ten Continents, Three Islands, or other sects on Mount Kunlun would have discovered it, and by then we would have been one step too late, fearing that we would have missed our chance."

  "Alas, that's not necessarily the case. The Water Spirit Pearl was originally a treasure from the Southern Border, and although our Master is doing this for the sake of our sect, it still has a hint of taking advantage of someone in their time of need, which is quite unseemly."

  That young man shook his sleeve, just waiting to persuade again, suddenly turned his face back, and at a glance, he saw Shen Baiying standing still in the courtyard. Suddenly, he shouted: "Who are you? How dare you spy on me here?" Before Shen Baiying could answer, he had already grasped the sword hilt, and his robe sleeves were blown up like wind, a blue light shot out from his sleeve like lightning, shooting straight at Baiying's face.

  "Ah——!"

  Shen Bailian sat up with a start from the low couch, her chest heaving violently as she thought to herself: That person is so formidable, just by raising his hand and waving his fingers, he can conjure up blue light to scare away monsters. Could it be that he's the most ruthless cultivator among humans that Mother had mentioned? The last scene of the dream was truly terrifying, and she sat there stupidly for a while before suddenly realizing that she was still safely in her bedroom.

  It was already the second half of the night, and both inside and outside the house were quiet. Shen Bailian's heart was slightly at ease, but then she remembered that she was still sleeping in her mother's room, and she was afraid of disturbing her mother, so she hastily turned around to look, only to see the moonlight casting a mottled pattern on the wall, the lotus-leaf bed empty, and the quilt already cold. Shen Danqing had gone who-knows-where.

  Shen Bailian was suddenly wide awake, stumbling and jumping on the ground, putting on her outer shirt and rushing out of the house door. At this time, the monsters in the city were still in a state of drunken dreams, Shen Bailian couldn't seek help either, so she had to search alone by herself.

  Although the country of Ju Chao was a small country a thousand years ago, its ancient city also occupies a large area at the bottom of the lake. On the huge stone platform in the city, there is a temple built for the worship of the bird god, and on the other four sides, east, south, west, and north, there are hundreds of residential buildings, with aquatic plants growing densely between them, bronze human-faced statues and ancient green tripods standing upright, if one searches carefully, it's likely to take until dawn.

  Shen Bailian swam back and forth, startling schools of fish, even the people's faces behind him and inside the large cauldron were not spared, but still did not see his mother's figure. Shen Qingping was not good at socializing with demons, and in recent years, he had hardly stepped out of the threshold a few times, let alone leave the city. So at first, Shen Bailian didn't even go to look near the city gate.

  Until he had wandered through several small alleys in the northeast of the city, he unknowingly passed by the east gate when a faint fragrance suddenly wafted over. The scent was one he had smelled once before in his dreams, and it was the osmanthus fragrance that his mother often used. Mixed with it was the scent of lavender. He followed the fragrance to the foot of the city gate, where the moonlight shone brightly on an object on the ground. As he picked it up, he saw that it was Shen Qing's sachet, which still contained the osmanthus incense balls he had made himself with lavender.

  He was even more suspicious: Ah Niang had not loved going out for many years, how could she be at the city gate at night? Had she gone outside the city? He also thought: So to speak, Ah Niang may have gone out for a stroll before, she didn't like crowded places, so it's possible that she often strolled around at night to clear her mind. I sleep in my own room every day, even if she goes out, I wouldn't know. If she hadn't fallen ill these past few days, how would I have discovered that my Ah Niang wasn't as reclusive as I thought? It turns out, I also quite like sneaking out, it seems this habit was inherited from her.

  He indulged in wild thoughts for a while, then put the sachet into his bosom and kicked off the sandy ground to swim out of the city gate. However, Hongze Lake was vast and boundless, stretching over 800 miles, with its bottom even wider and broader. Although the moonlight was bright, it was still dimmed by the layer of lake water, not to mention that the aquatic plants outside the city were dense and lush, like a forest, making it difficult to find the monster.

  As he treaded on the water, gazing around in a daze, he suddenly seemed to sense something and glanced up at the top of his head. At this moment, the lake's waves surged, as if an invisible giant palm was stirring the water all over the lake, causing the waves to churn and even disturbing the bottom of the lake. Shen Bailian had lived in Tongjun Lake for nineteen years and had never seen such a scene before, so he floated up to the surface of the lake in a daze.

  The round moon was bright and white, its clear light separated by a thin layer of lake water that rippled ceaselessly, revealing a crystal green glow, extremely beautiful. Shen Bailian only exposed one head above the lake surface, but saw the moonlight like water, almost merging with the lake waves, a layer of silver traversed the lake surface, making it even more clear and desolate.

  Just then, a loud crash suddenly sounded, as if it had exploded right next to my ear. Shen Baiying had just lifted her head when she saw a massive bolt of lightning strike down from the sky, churning up the lake's waves to over ten feet high. The blue waves filled the air, and the thunderclap shook the lake surface, creating a lot of white foam. The whirlpools that had gathered on the lake's surface for days were stirred into a mess, and the white mist at the center of the lake was blown away by the strong gusts of wind.

  The night was clear and bright, with a full moon hanging in the sky. This thunderstorm is really strange! Shen Bailian wiped away the water droplets on her face, steadied herself in the water, looked up, and couldn't help but stare blankly...

  But the sky was like a curtain, under a jade plate, reflecting three or five figures, all with wide sleeves and long cuffs, jade crowns and white robes. What's even stranger is that those people were standing in mid-air, suspended motionless, surrounded by several narrow and long halos, which were similar to the shape of their long swords on the ground, as if they were sword shadows coming and going. The moonlight was like water, shining on the faces of these people, a cold and stern look, at first glance, not a good person to get along with.