Chapter 26: A Dream, A World

  My own road is still very long! The road stretches far and wide, I go up and down seeking.

  Pan Hao turned his gaze upwards, the thread of faith still slowly increasing, but behind him, the thread of faith was becoming more and more illusory, swaying back and forth, as if it would break at any moment.

  Pan Hao knew that it was just the beginning of the spread of the divine spirit, so he had many more casual followers. To make these followers go further, it's likely that they would have to appear in the temple on the day of its establishment and show their divinity again to make more followers devout.

  These days, Pan Hao finally figured out a clue, although Bailian Zhenjie has many records, but they are not very detailed, except for the self-contained divine position and divine technique, plus his own combined exploration of prayer techniques. The content of Bailian Zhenjie is more about cultivation and realm, involving fewer divine artifacts and divine techniques.

  Among them, entering dreams is a very basic technique of divine power manipulation that Pan Hao has explored. The divine spirit can enter the believer's mind through the line of faith between the divine spirit and the believer, dominating the believer's dream.

  Non-believers need to find a nearby believer, and after the believer reaches their destination, enter their dream. Although non-believers are not welcome to enter things that are not their own. However, under the powerful divine power of the gods, unless it is a cultivator from the same realm, otherwise, they cannot stop the invasion of the gods at all.

  Pan Hao enters the dreams of all kinds of people, scholars, women, merchants, soldiers... and so on. He sees all sorts of bizarre dreamscapes, which really broadens his horizons! These chaotic dreamscapes are also a kind of willpower, but Pan Hao can't absorb them because they're too jumbled. For him, it's no different from poison, there's no energy transmission channel, and he can't refine it with sacred fire or divine fire, so he can't extract the energy inside.

  In the Western world, there is a legendary dream demon that has the ability to enter and control other people's dreams, and can even devour dreams. In China, there are also legends of saints who attain enlightenment through dreams, with each dream creating a new world! These various legends have piqued Pan Hao's curiosity about the energy of dreams, and to some extent, the energy of dreams and faith are interconnected.

  It was night, and thick clouds blocked the moon's glow in the high sky. In a tall courtyard house, Pan Hao's spirit suddenly appeared, stepping on empty air, walking step by step towards a certain room.

  Pan Hao's spiritual vision gate appeared out of thin air, passing through it, and arrived in front of a luxurious bed. On the bed was a massive figure constantly making snoring sounds, with a maid-dressed woman leaning against him. This kind of complex relationship between masters and maids was still very common in wealthy families. Even from a young age, they would select some poor girls to be their sleeping maids.

  The person sleeping was actually Shen Baozi. Pan Hao felt that the death of Xi Wen's father must have a great relationship with Shen Baozi. It is even highly possible that Shen Baozi sent someone to kill him, and if so, Pan Hao would naturally seek justice for Xi Wen. At this time, Shen Baozi and his maid had already entered the land of dreams. Pan Hao's expression solidified, his body turned, and he drilled into Shen Baozi's mind, reaching Shen Baozi's sea of consciousness.

  Boom, Pan Hao entered Shen Baozi's dream and appeared in a magnificent mansion with countless beautiful maidservants coming and going, while Shen Baozi enjoyed the service of the maid, looking extremely comfortable!

  Suddenly, the sky and earth changed, the maid disappeared, and the luxurious mansion was shrouded in darkness. A gust of cold wind blew by, and Shen Baozi was startled, feeling goosebumps all over his body rising nonstop, with fear surging up in his heart.

  "Who is under the hall!" A loud noise of the alarm wood sounded, and a majestic voice asked. Shen Pangzi turned around and looked at the surroundings, which had unknowingly transformed into a public hall.

  On the hall, there was a middle-aged man wearing dark-colored clothes and hat with black dragon embroidery, sitting upright with his face blurry and invisible to ordinary people. His breath was majestic and awe-inspiring, dignified and intimidating to the evil spirits.

  "Mortal, kneel down!" The ghost guard beside him saw Shen Chubby standing still in the same place and suddenly scolded him. His staff struck Shen Chubby's leg, making a loud slapping sound, causing Shen Chubby to fall to his knees. At the same time, he also came back to his senses from his daze.

  "Your Majesty, spare my life!" Shen Pangzi's face was miserable and he loudly wailed. He didn't know where this place was, but whoever dared to wear dragon robes, besides the Emperor, could only be someone of equally noble status!

  "Shen Hai, do you know your crime!" A low and stern voice sounded from the hall. Shen Hai was shocked, his mind racing back and forth a thousand times, but he couldn't think of when he had offended such a great god.

  "Shen Hai, you who harmed people's lives for the sake of the inn, have you forgotten so quickly?" Shen Hai immediately became flustered and loudly shouted. "Your Honor, I really didn't lay a hand on Xi Zhuangzhu! That time was an accident!"

  "Tell me in detail!" Shen Pangzi had already been scared pale, and upon hearing that there seemed to be room for maneuver, he immediately poured out everything that had happened.

  The truth has come out, it turned out that Shen Pangzi had tampered with the inn to frame someone, and when he heard that Xi Zhuanggui was going to report him to the authorities, he didn't want things to get out of hand, so he went to intimidate Xi Zhuanggui. In the scuffle, Xi Zhuanggui accidentally fell into a well while trying to escape hastily. They quickly fled the scene, ultimately leading to a great disaster, and Xi Zhuanggui drowned to death!

  Pan Hao carefully observed Shen Baozi's mental activity and changes in his dreams, indicating that Shen Baozi was not lying. He let out a sigh, but Shen Baozi also had to bear a large part of the responsibility for Xi Zhanggui's death.

  "You may be spared from death, but you can't escape the punishment of living. Go through the eighteen layers of hell!" Pan Hao said to Shen Baozi who was kneeling below him.

  "Go, get up!" The ghost guard next to him instantly lifted Shen Baozi up and walked towards the outside of the main hall. "Don't! Spare my life, sir!" Shen Baozi tore his throat open and shouted loudly, wailing and howling. However, his voice gradually faded away until it disappeared from sight.

  Pan Hao suddenly stood up, and this matter was settled. This dream, under Pan Hao's construction, was almost indistinguishable from reality. The eight layers of hell had Shen Baozi endured, what with the Tongue-Pulling Hell, Knife Mountain Fire Sea, and the Oil Cauldron... These were no different in their realistic feel from reality itself, and it could be said that he had avenged that little girl Xi Wen.

  The next day at noon, the news of Shen Pangzi's madness spread throughout Quishui County. Everyone was talking about it, thinking that heaven had eyes and it was a great joy to people's hearts.

  "This is the result of doing too many wicked things, heavenly punishment!"

  "I think Shen Pangzi has offended too many people and is now being retaliated against!"

  "Serves him right!"

  In the tavern, between wine tables, people discussed this matter with great interest.

  At this time, Pan Hao and Xi Wen had officially moved into the new mansion they bought, and the yard was also renovated by Pan Hao. In addition to the servants and maids hired earlier, Pan Hao could be considered to have formally settled down in this world.