Chapter One Captive

  When I was a kid, I grew up by my grandma's side. Every time I got scared, she would hold me and pat me to sleep. At that time, although I was very small, I had already reached the age of memory. As for the things I could see that were different from others, only my grandmother knew in our family. Every time, she would smile at me and say: "Don't be afraid, this means my little dreamer is different from other children." Later, after grandma passed away, I was taken to live with my parents. Because of their busy work, I started living on my own at home when I was very young.

  Since that strange dream I had that night, I've become increasingly sensitive. Before dawn breaks, I turn on all the lights and hide under the covers to count numbers.

  When I counted to 478, the sound suddenly disappeared, and everything in front of me turned black. I lifted up my quilt, and with the light from outside the window, I found my phone beside me. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, now it won't...

  As expected, something good is not auspicious and something bad is in the middle. I felt a hand patting me from behind, scaring me so much that I didn't dare to breathe. What to do? Pretend to be dead? No way, no way, I slowly turned my head with mechanical movements, strangely, there was nothing to see.

  Again, a slap on the head, I suddenly lifted my head, but there was nothing. I tried to calm down and said: "Stop messing around, I'm a Dreamweaver." In fact, I had already been scared to death by this thing that I didn't know what it was.

  I waited for half a day and still couldn't see anything, how could this be? Although I can usually see some strange things, they have never touched me. At most, they just stare at me for a while before leaving. Just as I was thinking about it, a burst of laughter came over, and I lifted my head.

  Good heavens, what kind of person is this? No, he can't be human. His silver hair and eyes gleam like a cat's, his skin is snowy white and almost translucent, his nose is high-bridged, his lips are pale and thin, and his ears are pointed and long. He wears a dark blue robe embroidered with gold flowers that trails to the ground, just like those legendary demons who can enthrall people's hearts, making me feel suffocated. But the aura he emits isn't as cold and sinister as I expected.

  "Are you an elf?" I blurted out involuntarily.

  He smiled, walked up to me, slightly bent down, looked at me and said: "My name is Qiu, from today on, I am your guardian angel." There was a strange feeling in my heart that couldn't calm down for a long time, all I knew was that I would trust him.

  Tonight's night view seems especially beautiful, with the light shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Everything is so dreamy. Looking at him in front of me, who seemed unreal, I asked softly, "Was it my great-grandfather who sent you to protect me?"

  "No, I have a contract with your family that spans generations. I am ageless and immortal, the guardian of the Xi family's dreams. And you too must fulfill your mission." He stood up and walked towards the window.

  I roughly understood what the prisoner was saying, and I carefully opened my mouth, fearing that I would destroy the enchanting beauty on his body. He always patiently answered until I asked about the ancestor who could open the eyes of heaven. A different expression appeared on the prisoner's face, as if it were a feeling of worship or nostalgia. This god, who was emitting a faint sadness all over his body, had a warmth in his eyes for an instant. "You will know when you need to."

  He didn't want to say and I didn't ask again. I always feel that he seems to be trapped by something, unable to move forward or backward.

  "If there's nothing else, I'll stay in your necklace forever until you find the next successor. I'll be by your side." The originally silent atmosphere was broken. After hearing this sentence, my uneasy heart calmed down a lot, at least for now.

  Although I have a lot of questions for him, it's better to take things slow for now. He doesn't seem to like me very much.

  From that day on, the prisoner told me to get rid of my habit of turning on the lights when I sleep. He said that as a dream walker, how could I be so timid? In the future, it's not allowed to be afraid of the dark at night. Although I was very unaccustomed to it at first and would often wake up, touching the pendant would calm me down a bit. That's how we started living together, with him guiding me every day.

  Ghosts are both familiar and strange to us humans. What exactly are ghosts? Different people always have different ghost stories to tell.

  The prisoner said, "Ghosts are formed when people die and cannot be reincarnated or refuse to be reborn. However, ghosts are not only formed after humans die; in the underworld, they are a type of ethnic group. The power they possess is not something that can be obtained by simply dying and becoming a ghost. They are a powerful existence. This world is divided into three dimensions: the divine realm, the underworld, and the human realm. What is known as hell or the afterlife is like a bridge, a passageway connecting the three realms. There are also demons, which are not creatures of the human realm. They are formed when animals with lifespans over 500 years die. They are similar to ghosts and enjoy preying on humans. Only species that live for 500 years in the human realm can become demons and have the qualifications to go to the underworld. In the underworld, everything starts anew, constantly cultivating oneself is the only way to become a strong being. After all, this method is not easy, so the number of demon tribes is far less than that of ghost tribes."

  "Are there any other races in the underworld?" I asked casually, after all, such things can only be heard in some mythological stories.

  The prisoner slightly furrowed his brow, with a complex expression, and hesitated for a long time before speaking. After a while, he half-closed his eyes and looked at me, saying: "There is, also the Demon Clan."

  "Why don't you say that the demon tribe is very scary?" It seems like there's something going on intuitively.

  "You don't need to worry about them. For tens of thousands of years, the demon clan has been very calm, they are in a completely sealed state in the underworld and will never set foot outside their territory."

  I stared at the prisoner for a while, but I didn't find anything on his face. However, I could still feel that something was off. It's always calm before a storm, and I didn't think the demon clan would withdraw from the conflict without reason. But I hesitated and didn't say it out loud. After all, I'm just a human and don't understand the underworld yet.

  "Of course, they have a longer lifespan than humans, about two thousand years, and only a few top-notch strong individuals can live forever. Like humans, they go through different stages: the first five hundred years are their youth, the next thousand years are their mature period, and the last five hundred years are their terminal period. This is indicated by their right ear, where a red gemstone represents youth, a blue gemstone represents maturity, with colors ranging from light to deep. When the gemstone disappears, they enter their terminal period. You'll know more later."

  In a daze, my ordinary life as plain water began to ripple with small waves that grew bigger and bigger.