Chapter 56: Dream Beast

Right now, the Laiyang Prince's Mansion was overflowing with people.

The Prince of Laiyang had been sent to the capital in his youth to serve as a study companion to the Crown Prince, essentially acting as a political hostage. He did not return to Qizhou to inherit the principality until the new emperor ascended the throne and the former Prince of Laiyang passed away. Qin Zeze first observed a three-year mourning period for his father, and no sooner had that ended than his mother passed away as well. As a result, he had yet to marry to this day, keeping only a few concubines in his household.

Perhaps knowing that the Immortal Alliance would not easily let him go, and having little attachment left in the estate, Qin Zeze rolled up his spiritual artifacts and Ye Minwei's brain and fled far away the moment he vanished from the underground palace, never to show his face in the Laiyang Prince's Mansion again.

It was rumored that he had hidden the wealth accumulated by generations of Laiyang princes outside the estate. Given that collecting spiritual artifacts to refine the Azure Crystals was a perilous undertaking akin to licking blood from the edge of a blade, he had undoubtedly prepared an escape route long in advance for the day his crimes were exposed.

Government officials had been dispatched to ransack the Laiyang Prince's Mansion, while the Immortal Alliance investigated the matter of the spiritual artifacts. With the two factions coming and going in a constant stream, the mansion was bustling with activity. Yet few knew that right beneath their feet, in the underground palace, lay the Dream Beast of the Ancestor of All Phenomena, an object coveted by countless people for ages.

When Ye Minwei and Wen Ci arrived at the Laiyang Prince's Mansion, Hui Nanyi guided them toward the peculiar dungeon. The stone passage leading down to the dungeon was exceptionally low; Ye Minwei could barely pass by standing upright, while Wen Ci had to walk with his back arched and his head tilted. Fortunately, his bones and muscles were remarkably supple, or he would have cramped up entirely walking through this stone corridor.

Hui Nanyi remained at the entrance of the stone passage, leaving only the two of them—Ye Minwei holding the lantern in front and Wen Ci following behind. Their footsteps echoed softly in the quiet corridor.

The golden bangle had returned to Ye Minwei's wrist. As she twisted her wrist, the ring expanded and spun, emitting a surge of blue light that rippled outward along the floor.

"I can sense that dungeon," Ye Minwei remarked. "Indeed, it cannot be entered through spells. Any spell that comes into contact with it is actually bounced right back."

"That is likely the handiwork of Lin Xuegeng," Wen Ci said calmly. "She has already turned the Ghost Market into a land devoid of spiritual energy. Once inside the Ghost Market, all spells and spiritual powers fail. The situation here is probably similar."

Ye Minwei sighed sincerely, "How fascinating."

Wen Ci chuckled softly.

In the dim stone passage, the glow of the All-Phenomena Myriad-Tangle on Ye Minwei's wrist resembled fireflies. After a brief silence, she spoke, "I see the door."

Pausing for a moment, she instead asked, "Wen Ci, why do you not want me to remember?"

Wen Ci's footsteps paused for a fraction of a second.

Ye Minwei continued, "If you choose not to answer this time, I will not press further. However, once the door is opened and I retrieve my Dream Beast, it will be too late for you to get angry."

"Your reading of the room has truly improved quite a bit lately."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"I was not complimenting you."

After a short pause, Wen Ci said, "If I were to tell you that I will be angry, and that the moment you regain your memories I will leave you, would you still choose not to retrieve the Dream Beast?"

Ye Minwei sighed, struggling internally as she replied, "I would find myself in a very difficult position."

Wen Ci drawled lazily, "You would find it very difficult to retrieve your Dream Beast, recover your memories and cultivation, and then hunt me down from one end of the world to the other, is that it?"

Ye Minwei pondered for a moment and answered honestly, "Yes."

"I knew it!" Wen Ci said with suppressed fury.

"Then why the hell did you even ask me a damn thing!" he roared. "No matter what I think, you are still going to do whatever you damn well please anyway! Dragging me into a ceiling this low just to talk nonsense—my neck is about to snap! You need to reclaim your cultivation and spiritual power to fulfill our transaction, and until the transaction is completed, how could I possibly leave? Do you have any idea how difficult the people chasing me are to deal with?"

"Hurry up and retrieve your Dream Beast, then go find that accursed brute who stole your brain and swap it back!"

Wen Ci's roar reverberated through the stone passage. Upon hearing this, Ye Minwei reached out with a satisfied expression and used the key given to her by Wei Jing to unlock the dungeon door.

There were four keys corresponding to four doors. While the unlocking process was intricate, the doors swung open smoothly. Passing through the final low-ceilinged door of the dungeon, they were finally able to stand up straight and look around.

The dungeon was not large, pitch-black to the point where one could not even see their own hand in front of their face. Ye Minwei produced a flint and lit it, illuminating the chamber. Curious, she looked around and murmured, "How did Lin Xuegeng pull this off..."

Wen Ci suddenly grabbed her arm, raised a hand, and said in a deep voice, "Look."

Following the direction of Wen Ci's finger, Ye Minwei saw a white Dream Beast sitting quietly upon the flat stone floor. Resembling smoke and mist, it blinked its eyes as it observed them. Although its form was hazy and indistinct, one could faintly make out that it looked like a tiny, exquisite white rabbit, no larger than the palm of a hand.

Ye Minwei fell silent for a moment before turning her head to look at Wen Ci. "I heard that my Dream Beast takes the form of a white deer."

Pointing at the creature, she asked, "Then why on earth is this a white rabbit? Could my Dream Beast possess transformation sorcery?"

That, of course, was utterly impossible; a Dream Beast could never change its appearance once born. The entire situation reeked of strangeness. With his brows furrowed tightly, Wen Ci held out a hand. "Show me the Life-Binding Pact you two signed."

Ye Minwei retrieved a paper scroll from her sleeve and handed it to Wen Ci. Unfolding it, the two of them meticulously read through the document from beginning to end.

On the parchment, in clear black and white, it was explicitly written that Wei Jing was to hand over the key to the dungeon holding the Dream Beast to Ye Minwei. However, the contract only stated "the dungeon holding the Dream Beast."

While Wei Jing had claimed verbally that the dungeon contained Ye Minwei's Dream Beast, the contract itself never specified whose Dream Beast it actually was.

Wen Ci fell silent for a long while, his fingers abruptly tightening. Anger flared within him as he snapped, "You've been tricked by this fellow! The thing locked in this dungeon is not your Dream Beast at all! Dammit, I should drag him out of his grave and beat him all over again!"

This little white rabbit probably belonged to some unfortunate cultivator who, much like Ye Minwei, had failed their dream-cultivation and manifested a Dream Beast, only to be unlucky enough to be captured by the Prince of Laiyang, locked away here, and used by Wei Jing as a prop for his swindling scheme.

As the two of them reacted to the scam—one with fury and the other with astonishment—the wretched little Dream Beast suddenly bounded into the air.

Having been confined for so long, it was evidently in high spirits at the sudden arrival of visitors. It hopped right over to their feet just like a genuine rabbit, and generously bestowed upon Ye Minwei and Wen Ci a fragment of memory belonging to its original master.

The eyes of both Ye Minwei and Wen Ci widened instantly as they stared at one another in mutual dismay.

They spoke simultaneously:

"Master Ceyu?"

"Xie Yuzhu?"

Meanwhile, in the Canglang Manor, Xie Yuzhu was anxiously awaiting the return of Ye Minwei and Wen Ci. Knowing that Ye Minwei was on the verge of retrieving her Dream Beast, her heart was a turbulent mix of excitement and unease.

She and Cangshu were cracking melon seeds around a hearth. Because Cangshu was sensitive to the cold, the brazier had warmed the room to a cozy degree, causing Xie Yuzhu to break out in a sweat amidst the dead of winter.

She gulped down a cup of tea to quench her thirst and said uneasily, "Master Cangshu, I can't help feeling things are going a bit too smoothly. Look at First Master—she didn't go to Yujun to find a Dream Beast, yet she just happened to run into the Prince of Laiyang, and the Dream Beast happened to be in his possession, and this fellow named Wei Jing happened to have the dungeon key, and happened to sign a Life-Binding Pact with First Master. How can everything be such a coinci-dence? It feels as though some unseen force has orchestrated it all. Could this be a trap?"

Cangshu chewed a mouthful of melon seeds, took another sip of the ginseng soup he had bummed, and let out a drawn-out sigh. "That is destiny, my girl."

"Destiny? Didn't you say our luck was terrible? How is it that First Master suddenly has such great fortune?"

Cangshu lifted his eyes and smiled leisurely. "How do you know this isn't your First Master's destiny?"

Xie Yuzhu loathed it when Cangshu spoke in riddles. Just as she was about to retort, the heavy doors were pushed open with a loud crash. Her two masters strode into the room one after the other, stirring up a chilling gust of wind as they walked with hurried, anxious steps.

Xie Yuzhu bounded three feet into the air, rushed to Ye Minwei's side, and looked her up and down. "First Master, have you recovered your memories and cultivation?"

Ye Minwei shook her head. Wen Ci turned back to shut the door, fixing a solemn gaze on Xie Yuzhu as he said, "Yuzhu, we have something to ask you."

With that, Wen Ci shifted his gaze to Cangshu, who tactfully stood up as if to leave. However, Ye Minwei stopped him with a wave of her arm. "It's too cold outside, you stay here," she told Cangshu.

Cangshu sat right back down with practiced ease, seamlessly resuming the fake identity he and Ye Minwei had previously adopted to take advantage of the situation. "Still my good sister who cares for me!"

Wen Ci frowned and stared at Cangshu for a moment, but ultimately said nothing more.

Finding this posture rather baffling, Xie Yuzhu couldn't help but feel a growing sense of tension.

She watched as her First Master pressed her down onto a round stool by the table, stared directly into her eyes, and asked, "How much do you know about Master Ceyu of the Fuguang Sect?"

Upon hearing the name "Master Ceyu," Xie Yuzhu's eyes lit up instantly. Pointing excitedly toward the ceiling, she declared, "Master Ceyu is my father's master! I am intimately familiar with all her stories!"

So they were just asking about anecdotes from the Immortal Alliance; she had thought something catastrophic had happened. Relaxing, Xie Yuzhu mustered her energy and launched into a torrential stream of Immortal Alliance gossip, rattling off details as if reciting family treasures.

Master Ceyu was the Sect Leader of the Fuguang Sect, the most senior among all current leaders of the Immortal Alliance, and the only founding sect leader still living in the mortal world.

Ceyu had entered the path of cultivation at the age of six. While other people's natal swords were delicate spiritual blades, her natal sword was a towering Mo-dao saber taller than a grown man, far too heavy for a robust warrior to lift. That Ceyu-Moon Blade had swept across the world without a single defeat, helping Master Ceyu forge a formidable reputation. After practicing cultivation for sixty years, she stumbled upon an ancient manual of spells, mastered techniques such as the Phoenix Decree, and used them to establish the Fuguang Sect.

Under her leadership, the Fuguang Sect grew steadily in strength. When the Taiqing Altar Assembly was established three hundred years ago, the Fuguang Sect was ranked among the three major seats. Everyone revered Ceyu's cultivation and achievements, respectfully addressing her as "Master."

Among the three major sects of the present Immortal Alliance, Ye Minwei had defected from the Xiaoyao Sect and its foundational treasure, the Floating Boundary Stele, had been stolen, while the Baiyun Sect had been slaughtered; both sects were more or less depleted of their vitality. Only the Fuguang Sect remained peaceful and unshaken, standing tall as arguably the foremost power in the Immortal Alliance.

Yet the Fuguang Sect seemed to harbor no ambitions, continuing to resolve various matters through consultation with the other two sects at the Taiqing Altar Assembly. As for the sect leader, Master Ceyu herself, she had been in closed-door seclusion for over twenty years, ignoring worldly affairs entirely—truly as steadfast as a mountain and indifferent to the mortal realm.

Just as Xie Yuzhu finished her eloquent and enthusiastic introduction of Master Ceyu's legendary life, Wen Ci's expression grew increasingly complex. He spoke slowly, "We went to the dungeon beneath the Laiyang Prince's Mansion and found a Dream Beast, but that Dream Beast does not belong to Ye Minwei."

Xie Yuzhu gasped in astonishment. "Not First Master's? Whose could it be if not First Master's?"

Recalling the person she had just been praising with such fervor, she asked in sheer disbelief, "It couldn't... it couldn't belong to Master Ceyu, could it?"

Ye Minwei nodded.

Xie Yuzhu sucked in a breath of cold air, clamped a hand over her mouth, and muttered in shock, "Oh heavens, oh heavens! How could this be? So... so Master Ceyu has been in seclusion for all these years simply to conceal the fact that her dream-cultivation failed? I've heard that the higher one's cultivation, the greater and more perilous the power boost after dream-cultivation, which is why timing is everything for a dream-cultivator—and it's true! Not only did you fail, but even Master Ceyu failed!"