The desert wind whipped up the sand and carried them into the dry little lake, causing the water to turn even muddier, highlighting the barrenness of their surroundings.
“Sugar Gem, run faster! Don’t be afraid to wake everyone up, we have important guests with us!” Peacock shouted forward with a smile before turning to help pull the camel carriage to a stop. Then he helped Malachite support the Nightmare Man down the carriage. It had been several days since he drank the wine and the vines around his legs had almost withered but he still needed help walking.
“Mr. Nightmare Man, other than us Phecda Warriors, the rest of the tribesmen stay inside the city. They do not have much interaction with the outside world and the children are as curious as always, so they might be a little bit impertinent around you… I hope you will forgive them.” Peacock was trying her best to buffer the Nightmare Man to the reactions of her tribesmen. The gazes that they might level at the Nightmare Man would be more than mere curiosity, they might be filled with fear, suspicion and malice if the way Sugar Gem looked at the Nightmare Man was anything to go by. However, that was understandable because the Nightmare Man was dressed in such strange ways with his white mask.
“They are just a group of simple-minded people.” Malachite said seriously, “They speak their mind directly.”
Gu Jun looked around again, at that moment he was really unsure whether he should be thankful that he could not see these other nomads or not… He studied the pair and it did not look like they were tricking him.
“Then have them come out.” The Elder Zoog patted his stomach, “Where are the people?” The 10 plus Zoogs who trailed along also looked around with open curiosity.
“Here they come!” Peacock suddenly said, she turned her head around to make the introduction, “That over there is our tribe leader, the rest are all the respected professors. I am sure they can help you with the questions that you have.” Then she walked forward to explain. “Leader and Professors, The Great Elder Atal has given the Pnakotic Manuscripts to this man.”
“Can you see anyone?” The Elder Zoog asked the other Zoogs and they all shook their heads in reply, “No.””They are so well-hidden.””The legend about this city is true, there is not even one loophole.”
Gu Jun shuffled forward with his walking stick as he trained his focus to sense his surroundings… This was not a dream… he had been trapped inside the old manor and had consumed numerous nightmares so he could tell that this was definitely not a dream. He was standing in a land of scorched sand, surrounded by strange-looking rocks and patches of dry grass! There was no nightmare, no abnormality but the lack of it was the biggest abnormality of all.
“Are you sure there are people here?” Gu Jun asked, “Is there a city here? Is there some kind of spell that you have not lifted?”
Both Peacock and Malachite were dumbfounded. Peacock hesitated, “What do you mean…?” She then added in a whisper, “Leader, Mr. Nightmare Man has been through some inhuman ordeal under the hands of the black merchants so it is natural that he is guarded around new people.” Suddenly they saw the nightmare man take out a small knife from his shirt pocket.
“Malachite, show me your hand.” Nightmare Man ordered the man, “And don’t move.” Malachite felt something was off but he obeyed the instruction. Once he did so, the nightmare man used the knife to slice at the flesh of his index finger. Fresh blood gushed out and Malachite groaned in both pain and confusion, “Sir…” The nightmare man used the sharp end of the knife to dig inside the wound and that caused Malachite to scream louder from pain, “Ah!!!”
Peacock was stumped, she had no idea why the Nightmare Man was doing this. But she quickly opened her arms to the emptiness and shouted. “Everyone, stop! Mr. Nightmare Man means no harm, stand back!”
“Not a mental projection.” Gu Jun grumbled. He walked towards Peacock with the knife. He did the same thing with her. She soon was bleeding openly, the pain did not make her disappear but it did serve to intensify her confusion and Malachite’s anger. ‘These two aren’t mental projection and not dreamers. They exist physically in this world, then why? What is going on?’
“None of you can see the rest, can you?” He turned to the Elder Zoog, the latter nodded. Gu Jun then asked, “Over your life, how many land’s travellers have you encountered?”
According to Atal, the land’s nomads visited him for the first time 3 decades ago and the visitation had been constant every few years.
“Erm.” The Elder Zoog did not quite get the meaning of this question. “To be honest, we do not focus too much on the land’s travellers. There are too many tribes in this world, and they are the least interesting among them.” Sensing the sharp gaze on him, the Elder Zoog quickly adapted, “Based on the ones that have shown up at Ulthar in the past, we have met more than 10 of them but most definitely less than 20!” The other Zoogs nodded in agreement, “That’s right, that’s right.””They always come in pairs and they will leave after visiting Atal.”
Gu Jun turned back to the confused pair. “So where are these 30000 tribesmen that you spoke of?”
“Mr. Nightmare Man…” Peacock could only respond with a frowning smile. “We do not quite understand what you mean.”
Gu Jun looked into her eyes and saw only the reflection of the emptiness around them but it was as if in her eyes, there was a crowded bazaar, curious and cute children, the serious guards and the respected tribe leader and professors…
‘Hallucination? Illusion? Or some kind of mental obstruction?’
“Then what about these sacred relics? Didn’t you say the people have brought a few relics back from the old world?” Gu Jun could hear his voice rising. He was being played a fool and that evoked the darker side of his emotion. Staring at the barren desert, an anger rose within him. If not for his strong will, he would have punished the duo already. The meaninglessness of the past few days of travel, the elaborate hoax that he had fallen for fed into his fury, and Gu Jun’s corrupted mental state. “There are no sacred relics to begin with, are there? That is merely a trick to get me to come here. The land’s travellers, the City of Kindle, they are all lies… to gain my trust to lead me here and you have concocted this whole charade to break my mind… Tell me, are you part of the R’yleh Cult or the Afterlife Cult?” Malachite, Peacock and the Elder Zoog could see the dangerous glint in the Nightmare Man’s eyes, his words were practically pushed out of his teeth.
Tragedy was about to descend soon. The Zoogs hurried to hide behind the carriage and did not dare to make a peep.
“No! We have not lied to you.” Peacock desperately tried to explain while waving her hands in the air. “Stay away, you are not his match! None of us are!” She shouted at the empty desert. She glared at Malachite and said directly, “He has extremely strong nightmare energy. He is probably just… testing us.” She then ran towards the lake while shouting, “Sir, look. This statue is one of the sacred relics, it is carved by the Phecda Hero, Gu Jun.”
Gu Jun turned to her voice and saw only the cluster of rocks around the lake shore but Peacock acted like she was in some kind of consecrated ground. She turned a relatively large rock around and shouted, “Look!”
Gu Jun’s gaze focused and saw that there was something carved on the stone that she had just turned over…
It was that seal, the seal from the Pnakotic Manuscripts.