Qinghan had been suffering from various weird dreams, ever since he had been sucked into this damnable mountain.
At the beginning, when he was sucked through the hole in the white fog, he was caught in a serious, even life-threatening condition due to the injuries. Thanks to the bronze ring on his left hand, however, he slowly healed as it gradually released the magical white flow. During the first few days in the Luo Shen Mountain, Qinghan had dreamed a lot, and he attributed it to his poor health.
After a couple of days, however, when he felt almost fully recovered, the dreams were still haunting him in his mind.
These dreams contained a variety of feelings, including happiness, sorrow, fury, and horror… His brain was occupied by these dreams and simply couldn’t get rid of them.
In one of his dreams, his sister had been saved, and popped up in front of him, and called his name in the most affectionate way, “Brother!”
In another one of his dreams, he was in a bridal chamber with Qingcheng, whose slim body clung to his.
In yet another one of his dreams, Xue Wuhen posed a vicious smile, and said to him, “I’m off the hook, no one can harm me. Qinghan, I’ll make your life difficult in the future!”
Ye Tianlong also appeared in one of his dreams and told him that his father was actually assassinated, rather than that he died in an accident.
……
Dreams upon dreams, sometimes Qinghan even failed to distinguish reality from fantasy. Because, all the episodes in his dreams seemed to be so real.
Sweet dreams made him reluctant to wake up; sad dreams broke his heart and left him with the urge to commit suicide; angry dreams fed him with limitless murderous intent, propelling him to tear everything around him up; horrible dreams terrified him so much, that he refused to open his eyes after he had woken up…
Several times, he was so convinced in the authenticity of these dreams that he had almost killed himself, or gone mad. Thanks goodness, he was blessed by the bronze ring, because whenever a dangerous moment appeared in his dream, the ring would timely release the refreshing flow that would drag him back to reality. Whenever he woke up, his face was full of drips of cold sweat.
Eventually, he figured out that these dreams weren’t dreams at all, they were illusions! The first trial of the Luo Shen Mountain was the Illusion Trial, in which one could die unconsciously, or become completely mad.
These illusions, nevertheless, would enter Qinghan’s brain one after another, at frequent intervals. Moreover, Qinghan found it extremely hard to avoid being plunged into these fantasies, as if there was an invisible magical power that swayed the coming and going of these “dreams”.
Being put in such a circumstance, Qinghan didn’t know what to do, as he was terrified of dying in his dreams…
One early morning, when Qinghan woke up, he did some exercises as usual, before he started to cultivate. Even in those sober moments, he didn’t dare to roam randomly around in the mountain, for he had no clue where dangers might be hidden.
Later, he took out some of the limited dry food and a bottle of water. He had to survive on a simple breakfast like this. During these days, he took in less food because he was extremely worried that his reserve of food wasn’t enough to sustain him for a long time. One day, he pessimistically thought that he could die of hunger or malnutrition in this damn Luo Shen Mountain, or he might be submerged so deeply in his dreams that he would never wake up again…
Amidst his desperation, a voice suddenly sounded out.
“Are you Ye Qinghan?”
Horrified by this abrupt voice, Qinghan’s body juddered for a second. Then he swept his eyes in all directions to spot where the sound came from. In the end, he rubbed his head in great confusion, because he couldn’t find anybody around him.
“Yeah, I’m your little grandpa Ye Qinghan! Who are you?”
The response didn’t come immediately but after a few seconds.
“Fuck you!”
“Come on, it’s me who should be your ancestor!”
“I’m really your ancestor, Ye Ruoshui!”
“Get lost, I said I’m your ancestor! Ye Ruoshui? Don’t treat me like a naïve kid. He died hundreds of years ago! Oh, this illusion is for some retarded idiot. Hey, change it to a better one that matches with my intelligence!”
“Errr… How shall I explain this to you? Alright, you’re now temporary out of the Illusion Trial, and I’m Ye Ruoshui, I’m not dead. You may wonder why you cannot see my physical body, that is because I am talking to you with my soul. This is real!”
“Okay, okay, this is no illusion, and you are Ye Ruoshui. Ha, you revived somehow? Come on, only a moron would believe your words…”
“Alas, since you don’t believe my words, I’ll talk to you later after you’re through the upcoming illusion. Good luck!”
Suddenly, the voice died away, just like a breeze that came and left unnoticed.
“Is this an illusion or not?”