The curse master hurriedly pulled a cloth doll no bigger than half a palm from his pocket and threw it to the ground.

The doll transformed the moment it landed, growing to the height of a grown man. It was an azure-kerchief laborer summon.

“Carry me!” the curse master gasped. Casting again with injuries this severe would only make things worse. He was already coughing nonstop. “Quick! Quick, go!”

Fortunately, the puppet he had summoned was not weakened in the least. It bent down at once, hoisted him onto its back, and ran.

* * *

He Lingchuan suddenly snapped awake and sat bolt upright, startling even the Soul-Stealing Mirror at his bedside.

“You’re finally awake!” the mirror said with relief.

It was not that He Lingchuan enjoyed sleeping beside the thing. He simply had a habit of placing the mirror facing outward. That way, if someone tried to sneak attack him at night, the mirror would spot them first.

It could raise an alarm and confuse an enemy.

He Lingchuan grabbed the mirror and got to his feet. As he pulled on his boots, he snapped irritably, “And you call yourself the Soul-Stealing Mirror. Those filthy things invaded, and you didn’t snatch them away?” Actually, never mind stealing it, why couldn’t it even block them?

“What things?” the mirror asked blankly. “I didn’t see anything come in.”

“I don’t know. It was covered in faces, and even chopping off its head didn’t kill it. I was doing a mission in the City of the Dead when it suddenly burst out of the water and tried to kill me.” He Lingchuan was certain of it. “It definitely came in from outside.”

“Hiss... from your description, could that have been a nightmare?” The knowledgeable mirror gave a faint gleam. “How in the world did you manage to provoke something like that?”

“Two of them[1] got in, and you didn’t notice?”

“Nightmares are only supposed to appear in dreams, aren’t they?” the mirror cried in aggrieved protest. “How was I supposed to reflect that? Unless it ran right into me, there was no way I could catch it.”

He Lingchuan shot it a suspicious look.

Nightmares did not exist in reality; in theory, there was nothing apparently wrong with what the mirror was saying.

However, he still felt that something about this did not sit right.

“Did they get you?” the mirror asked with particular concern. “You don’t look like you’ve developed any fresh problems.”

“No.” At that, He Lingchuan suddenly remembered that the Generous Pot had not stopped the aberrant creature either.

Strange.

But then he recalled how the giant red figure and the juluo tree had dealt with the aberrant creature, and he vaguely guessed at the reason.

I guess it believes that it’s better to let them in first, then shut the door and beat them up afterward?

In any case, the aberrant creature had not escaped. In the end, it had been divided up between the juluo tree and the giant red figure, leaving only a head behind as a souvenir for He Lingchuan.

The mirror asked again, “And what happened to those two things?”

If He Lingchuan had woken up safely, then it was obviously the other party who had taken the loss.

Truth be told, even though it had not actually seen the nightmare arrive, it had sensed something.

But the mirror had not dared make a sound.

That thing specialized in wrecking other people’s dreams, and its own soul land was very similar to a dream, and one that was currently still in a damaged, unstable state. If a nightmare got inside and started tearing the place apart, it would truly be finished.

So when the nightmare passed through, all it could do was pretend to be an ordinary mirror.

“They got eaten by the City of the Dead.” He Lingchuan vaulted out the window and ran west. “What kind of aberrant creature is a nightmare, anyway?”

Eaten?

The Soul-Stealing Mirror, which had just been secretly gloating, suddenly shivered. By the look of it, its own luck back then had actually been pretty good.

“You don’t know?” First, it sounded astonished, then speechless. “You didn’t even know what it was, and you still managed to kill it in return? Honestly, the City of the Dead treats you absurdly well.”

“Less nonsense.” Ever since this blasted mirror had come out of its brief seclusion, it seemed even more talkative than before. Fortunately, He Lingchuan could ignore it automatically.

The mirror explained, still every bit the knowledgeable mirror, “Well, such nightmares are also called night-wandering gods.”

He Lingchuan remembered the severed head’s shock and grievance when it said, “You’re clearly asleep! Why aren’t you in a dream?” Clearly, it had assumed it had entered He Lingchuan’s dream.

“These things appeared a very, very long time ago. No one knows their origins. One theory says that they transformed from part of a person’s soul, but they feed on the essence, qi, and spirit of ordinary people. If the victim dies in the dream, then their body dies in reality as well. Later, some spellcasters who specialized in curses discovered ways to communicate with them, thereby allowing them to kill people in dreams without leaving a trace. Someone simply goes to sleep and never wakes up, with no wound on the body and no discoverable cause of death.”

Never wakes up?

Something stirred in He Lingchuan’s mind. It sounded familiar, as if he had seen such a case somewhere before.

“Don’t just give me rumors. Do you have anything more concrete?”

Hah, this guy’s demanding quite a lot. “I do. As it happens, what I do is somewhat similar to what nightmares do, so I know they generally have two methods of attack: either they drag you into their world, or they barge into your dream and turn it into a nightmare.”

So they can alter the prey’s dream itself?

He Lingchuan suddenly understood. No wonder that nightmare in the limestone cave looked so shocked when it failed to change the environment.

Panlong City was not even He Lingchuan’s own home ground, so how could it possibly let the nightmare reshape it at will?

“Are nightmares really that powerful at transforming dreams?”

“Of course they are!” the mirror said. “Even if it starts out as your dream, a nightmare can turn it into its home field. Only by forcing you into endless nightmares can it wear down your essence, qi, and spirit, and weaken your soul before finally devouring you.”

Seen that way, after the nightmare invaded Panlong City, it had never once managed to use its strongest method.

He Lingchuan remembered the gigantic nightmare that had appeared underwater.

He and the juluo tree had killed its avatar, so its true body had come in person to take revenge.

Even though it was not on its own home ground, it had not even had time to alter the surroundings before He Lingchuan realized, at a glance, that he was no match for it.

The pressure that thing had put on him had been immense.

Except the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Before it could truly show its power, it had been swept away in one move by the giant red figure that arrived afterward.

He Lingchuan was moving fast. While talking with the mirror, he covered a kilometer in a rush and reached his destination: Tongfu Inn.

A man coming to take revenge in this sort of murderous mood obviously was not going through the front door. With one palm strike, He Lingchuan blasted open a wooden window and immediately tossed in a stink bomb.

The thing was colorless and invisible, but its stench was appalling. Any creature with a nose would have trouble enduring it.

The curse master was human too. He was not exempt from basic bodily reactions.

Sure enough, an angry roar erupted from inside the room, and two figures burst out through the window.

Hm, two?

The first thing He Lingchuan saw was a man hurtling out the window, hacking straight at him with three axe strikes in a blur.

The speed was terrifying. He had blinked only once, and the man was already in front of him, a faintly glowing axe sweeping sideways for his throat.

Fast!

He Lingchuan raised his blade to block.

Clang, clang, clang!

Three rapid collisions in succession, speed was put to the test against speed.

The enemy’s three savage axe strikes came like a violent storm, sealing off the space around He Lingchuan completely. He could neither retreat nor dodge, only meet them head-on.

The force riding the axe blade extended less than a third of a meter beyond it, condensed into something nearly solid.

It was not that the man lacked the strength to extend it farther; rather, this range was the sharpest possible, no different from the axe blade itself.

It was fortunate that He Lingchuan had experience fighting desperately in the highland. He leaned backward and tucked in his neck.

The edge of the axe wind passed almost flush against his Adam’s apple. Another half a finger’s breadth and his throat would have been struck dead on!

It had been a long time since he had met an opponent this fierce.

The second strike was aimed at his chest.

The third strike at the top of his head.

The violent wind sweeping off the man made He Lingchuan feel as though he were not facing a living person at all, but an avalanche crashing down at him, or one of Panlong City’s great cannons just after it fired!

Anyone even a little weaker faced with such overpowering pressure head-on would have likely been suppressed on the spot and immediately lost their head.

Fortunately, He Lingchuan’s mastery of the saber had been forged amid raging winds and crashing seas. His understanding of momentum and force was deeper than that of ordinary fighters.

More importantly, he had seen attacks even stronger and sharper than this.

The true energy from both his dantians surged through him, allowing him to forcibly withstand those three opening axe strikes.

Only then did he notice that the axe wind also carried fine ice crystals, light as snow powder. At first glance, they seemed insignificant, but the moment they touched his body, a wave of biting cold spread through him, and his movements instantly began to slow...

These ice crystals had a slowing effect of their own. A few more and he would probably start shivering from the cold.

By the time he had taken all three blows, He Lingchuan had already used up twenty percent of his true energy. Both arms ached, and the webbed skin between the thumb and index finger[2] of his left hand had split open.

The other man seemed surprised too, letting out a faint sound of astonishment. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

This kid took three Whirlwind Axe Strikes directly and is still standing? Wait! Even the weapon in his hand is still intact?!

At that moment, the second figure arrived.

It had tried to come through the window, but its body was too huge. With a crash, it burst the window apart and even smashed a hole in the wall before charging toward He Lingchuan.

Its momentum was terrifying, though it was not as fast as its companion. He Lingchuan saw what it was at once.

It was a giant bear.

When all four limbs hit the ground, its shoulders stood nearly two meters high, taller than an ordinary man. Head-on, it looked round and massive, like a battering ram.

When it ran, the whole building shook.

If that thing stands upright, what then?

Facing the man in front of him already felt troublesome enough. Add a giant bear to the fight, and what then?

The enemy naturally sensed his predicament, and the axe-light rose again.

The giant bear had also reached him, ready to crush him from both sides.

This was exactly how they liked to bully their opponents. More than once, they had struck together and beaten enemies straight into bloody paste.

They found it very satisfying.

And it was at that precise moment that He Lingchuan suddenly dropped.

With a whoosh, he fell straight down.

They had been fighting on the roof to begin with. Tongfu Inn was actually built quite solidly; otherwise, the roof never could have withstood a frenzied bear’s full-speed charge.

In truth, it was the clash between He Lingchuan and his opponent that put the greatest strain on it.

All He Lingchuan had to do was kick once, and the section of roof beneath them gave way. Wood and tiles crashed down in a noisy avalanche to the floor below.

The man and the bear fell with it.

But while still in midair, He Lingchuan flicked out a hand, and a sleeve arrow nailed itself into the wooden beam opposite.

He yanked on it and pulled himself out from under his opponent’s axe. Then, with a few agile movements, he sprang lightly up onto the beam.

In the blink of an eye, the man and the bear had both landed on the floor below.

Falling debris was naturally nothing to either of them. He Lingchuan saw with his own eyes that when a heavy beam came crashing down, the man did not even bother to dodge, letting it hit him squarely on the shoulder.

Bang.

The beam snapped in two. The man merely brushed his shoulder and flicked away the splinters.

What a tyrannical body. What tremendous true energy.

“Who are you?” He Lingchuan studied the two opponents. “Why did you curse me?”

The man was even taller than he was, broad-shouldered and thick-built, his whole face hard and vicious. He even wore an eyepatch over his right eye.

One glance told you he was a ruthless character. He Lingchuan would not mistake the brutal killing aura pouring off him.

How many people has this man slaughtered to develop such an aura?

But can someone like this really also be skilled in curses? I honestly doubt it.

The man thumped his axe against his chest. “Tongxin Guard, Fan Sheng.”

The giant bear also opened its mouth and spoke. “Tongxin Guard, Fan Bao.”

They’re different species, yet they share the same surname? He Lingchuan tilted his head. “You two are brothers?”

1. He should be referring to the Hundred-Faced Nightmare and its avatar. ☜

2. This is also called a purlicue, but I believe that term is also sometimes understood to only refer to the space between the thumb and index. In Chinese, this webbed skin is actually referred to as 虎口, which literally translates to tiger mouth. ☜