Chapter 55: The Mortal Realm

The events at the Prince of Laiyang's estate were utterly shocking, immediately alarming both the immortal sects and the imperial court. For a time, crowds and chariots bustled back and forth through Yujun City, kicking up clouds of dust on the broad roads, making the city as lively as if the New Year had arrived early.

The refugees in the refugee camp had no clear idea of what had happened; they only heard that the malevolent spiritual bandits who had been running amok had been captured and slain, and that these bandits were actually subordinates of the Prince of Laiyang. Most astonishing of all was the rumor that the one who had exterminated the spiritual bandits and driven away the Prince of Laiyang was none other than the notorious founder of the Myriad Phenomena Sect, Ye Minwei.

Though no one knew what scheme the master of the Myriad Phenomena Sect was plotting, or whether her intentions were good or ill, she had ultimately rid the people of a scourge. The refugees finally set their minds at ease. Freed from the terror of being murdered or abducted, they cheerfully packed their belongings and hurried back to their hometowns, preparing to celebrate the New Year.

Along the long Chengping Street in Yujun City, the crowd flowed like a weaver's shuttle. Some refugees, heading toward the city gate, caught sight of a familiar figure and hailed her, "Yunchuan? You're all right! Why are you standing here instead of leaving? Are you waiting for your older brother?"

Ye Minwei stood amidst the flowing crowd. She wore a moon-white cloak trimmed with soft fur, its long, dense down swaying in the breeze and brushing against her cheeks. Her complexion was pale, though a touch of red seemed to pierce through due to the wind. Across the bridge of her nose rested a peculiar scrying stone, crystal-clear and translucent like an icicle hanging from the eaves.

She shook her head and said, "I'm seeing you off."

Though the refugees found it strange, they all smiled and bid her farewell, cheerfully hoisting their bundles and heading toward their home villages.

Standing in the congested street amidst the golden winter sunlight that bathed the alleys like a shimmering sea, Ye Minwei for the first time truly perceived the faces of the crowd. Their features faded from her mind in an instant—there was no dizziness or pain, only lingering impressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, like various colored dyes slowly bleeding into her.

This infiltration was completely beyond her control.

How marvelous; it was the first time she felt her mind acting independently of her will.

Previously, Ye Minwei had been like an assistant standing before a massive apothecary cabinet; as the torrents of the mortal world rushed before her, she would receive them, categorize them, and place them neatly in order. She possessed an instinctive and precise filing system inherited from the past, prioritizing urgency and distinguishing the primary from the secondary, ensuring that whenever she wished, she could pull open a drawer and retrieve whatever memory she desired.

She had been the absolute master of this apothecary cabinet, which merely listened silently and obeyed her commands. Recently, the cabinet had grown somewhat full, and she had even been contemplating ways to clear out irrelevant memories.

Yet at this moment, her apothecary cabinet seemed to have come to life on its own. It arbitrarily discarded memories and stored new ones, occasionally snapping open a drawer at random to toss certain memories at her, acting in direct defiance of her intentions.

So people's minds were actually this disobedient.

Perhaps because of this, the stories she had heard along her journey were filled with so many contradictions and helplessness.

Thus, in the fleeting lives of mortals, weeping as they arrived and weeping as they departed, birth, old age, disease, death, parting, and reunion rushed in and faded away in a succession so trivial and complex, so futile yet unsparing, ultimately converging into the vast human world.

"Ye—"

Hearing a familiar voice, she turned her head and saw Wen Ci at the far end of the crowd. His brows and eyes remained exquisitely flawless. He was dressed in a warm vine-yellow robe, with an ink-blue sleeveless vest and a persimmon-red hair ribbon. The bells all over his body were silent, making him look like a butterfly awakening in winter.

Ye Minwei thought that looking at Wen Ci from afar was quite like this. When he was in the crowd, his entire being seemed to radiate a rising vitality, like ripples stirred by a breeze across water—intensely and dazzlingly beautiful.

Wen Ci had probably remembered that he shouldn't call her Ye Minwei, yet was unwilling to call her anything else, so he merely uttered her surname and stopped. Walking up to her side, he asked, "Didn't I tell you to wait for me at Fengyi Hall?"

Ye Minwei had already told Wen Ci about the nightmare beast, and they had agreed to go together to the Prince of Laiyang's estate—which had now been taken over by the provincial governor and the Canglang Villa—to retrieve the beast.

"I wanted to come out and look around the street. How is Axi now?" Ye Minwei asked.

Earlier, Wen Ci had been invited by Hui Nanyi and Hui Nanyi's master—none other than the master of Canglang Villa—to discuss Axi's "strange illness." Ever since she fell into a deep sleep that night, Axi had slept for two full days before waking up, only to return to her previous state of vanishing from time to time. Fortunately, A-yan had stayed constantly by her side, and every time they vanished, they had always managed to return in the end.

"Her condition is very complicated; she won't recover overnight."

Wen Ci fell silent for a moment, then turned his head to look at the bustling crowd on the street.

Every person passing by had a different expression, harboring their own joys, sorrows, and desires, each with wishes of their own, utterly unable to probe the thoughts of others. The consciousness of worldly people was like disconnected islands or rivers that never met, never linking with anyone else throughout a lifetime.

Yet deep within all those islands lay the exact same land, and all rivers would ultimately converge into the same ocean. At the deepest levels of consciousness, all seemingly unrelated, independent individuals melted into a boundless sea of awareness. The Wu tribe had given this sea a name: the Sea of Sentient Beings' Consciousness.

The vast majority of people would never perceive the existence of the Sea of Sentient Beings' Consciousness throughout their entire lives.

"However, oneiromancy is an interference with consciousness. If a person's consciousness is like a river, oneiromancy is equivalent to digging channels and diverting water in the dreamer's riverbed. But because the duration is short and the volume minimal, the riverbed quickly returns to its original state."

"Yet if someone persistently and repeatedly digs channels in the very same river, it will completely ruin that river—meaning, if an oneiromancer repeatedly borrows someone else's nightmare, the dreamer will soon go mad. This is what that man named Wei Jing did to Axi."

The nightmares of ordinary madmen were difficult to control, but with the assistance of the Dream-Guiding Bell, and with the dream's owner being a young child, the oneiromancer could use their nightmares as a sharp weapon.

"Axi is very special. Her consciousness underwent a mutation while being damaged; the river burst its banks, spreading everywhere and contaminating the consciousness of others. Thus, she can sense the intense desires of others and influence reality through the Sea of Sentient Beings' Consciousness. I came to Yujun because the sea of consciousness was disrupted by her; I sensed her presence and tracked her all the way here," Wen Ci explained.

Wen Ci did not fully understand the exact nature of what had happened to Axi either.

If the person who had once fallen into the land of wish-fulfillment had been Ye Minwei instead of him, perhaps Ye Minwei would have been able to figure out the underlying mechanism.

Hearing this, Ye Minwei was quiet for a moment, then raised her eyes to look at Wen Ci, her gaze piercing through the transparent crystal and landing on his eyes.

"Wen Ci, we've both raised monsters," she sighed, white mist drifting from her lips and passing over the top of her head.

She wasn't talking about Axi.

The monsters she spoke of were Wei Jing, Qin Jiaze, Sun Sheng who had initially intercepted and killed them using the Thread-Binding Box, and those desperate criminals who, over the past twenty years, had trampled on human lives without scruple in their struggle for power.

She had journeyed all this way holding onto the thought of uncovering the truth behind the refining of Azure Crystals, only to gradually realize that even though she had not killed countless people to refine them, the catastrophes in this world had indeed originated because of her.

Qin Jiaze had said that she had created a divine power that even she could not control, and perhaps that was truly the case.

Wen Ci, however, frowned. Crossing his arms, he stared at Ye Minwei and said, "A monster was a monster to begin with; meeting water, it turns into a water ghost; meeting a tiger, it turns into a victim's ghost; encountering power, it grows into a maggot within that power. Monsters have existed since ancient times. With or without you, they would still wield blades, swords, power, and wealth to harm human lives just the same. Are they creatures you raised? You flatter yourself far too much."

"Yet, it was I who gave them power."

"The order of the mortal world is to subtract from the deficient to supplement the surplus; power naturally flows toward those who are more powerful. It is not because of you, but because the world built by humanity has always operated this way. Naturally, they build lofty pavilions, and naturally, those pavilions will collapse."

"Ye Minwei, this is not your debt to bear," Wen Ci said, pronouncing every single word distinctly.

A cold wind swept across the street, blowing Ye Minwei's strands of hair across her eyes. She quietly gazed into Wen Ci's eyes for so long that it made him feel ill at ease.

Ye Minwei asserted with certainty, "Look, I was right. No matter what I do, and no matter what others say, you will always claim that I am right."

Wen Ci was choked by her words, let out a cold snort, and turned his head away.

After a moment of silence, he said, "Believe it or not... Fine, let's pretend it's entirely your fault. What will you do from now on? Will you never study spellcraft or spiritual artifacts again?"

Ye Minwei sighed regretfully, shook her head, and said, "I can't do that."

In fact, just before descending the mountain, she had still been pondering the exact methods she had used in the past to refine Azure Crystals. Although she would remember once she retrieved the nightmare beast, and although her current brain was disobedient and sluggish, she remained immensely patient, deriving unceasing joy from it as if by instinct.

"What I said was also true: no matter how many times you, Ye Minwei, are reborn, you can only ever live out the shape of Ye Minwei. Even if this world is turned upside down, you will remain just as you ever were," Wen Ci said decisively.

As if thinking of something, Ye Minwei said earnestly, "This brain of mine right now is actually quite nice; it helps me understand the principles of the mortal world. Once I study it further, I can also find ways to pacify the disasters and chaos I brought about."

Looking at Ye Minwei, even though he didn't want to show too pleasant an expression in front of her, Wen Ci couldn't help but let out a laugh.

Full of anticipation, Ye Minwei continued, "I'll be able to remember you very soon."

The smile on Wen Ci's face faded.

"The performers at Fengyi Hall said that in the past, you used to spend the New Year with me every year, performing the music, dance, and variety arts you had learned just for me. I had forgotten all about it before—what a pity."

Lowering his gaze, Wen Ci said with ambiguous meaning, "Do you find it a pity?"

Ye Minwei tilted her head, observing Wen Ci for a moment with the meager discernment she had recently acquired, and remarked, "You don't seem to want me to remember?"

Wen Ci let out a sneering laugh. "Me? How could I possibly control you? I've never thought of pruning you; it has always been only you who prunes yourself."

His choice of words was quite peculiar. Before Ye Minwei could fully chew over their meaning, she saw Wen Ci turn and walk away, saying, "Let's go. We're heading to the subterranean palace to fetch your nightmare beast."

When Qiu Sheng pushed open the window of Fengyi Hall, she caught sight of the two figures walking side by side down the street in the distance. Her disciple was hopping around excitedly beside her, chattering about how she had heard that Grand Master Wen had arrived in Yujun and would be coming to Fengyi Hall to share the New Year's Eve dinner.

Leaning against the window frame, Qiu Sheng thought to herself about what kind of absolute fright those little brutes would experience upon meeting such a youthful Grand Master.

Eight years ago, when she had accidentally encountered Wen Ci in Yujun, she too had been stunned for a long time and dared not recognize him. The temples of her own hair had already turned gray, yet Master Wen—who had been young and handsome back when she was merely a child—was still exactly the same, without the slightest change.

That had also been winter, with the New Year drawing near, yet Master Wen had stood all alone beneath the Ming'an Terrace, watching their charity performances.

She had asked Master Wen if he wasn't going home to spend the New Year with *that person*.

Wen Ci had merely replied indifferently, "We had a falling out."

She knew that Master Wen loved music, dance, and variety arts, and that celebrations everywhere were grandest during the Spring Festival, yet he would always return to the deep mountains to spend the New Year, unable to stay and enjoy the sights.