Chapter 248: Platinum Face, Three-foot Sword

And because of the Celestial Dao Grand Competition, the Qingcao Sword Sect had deactivated its Mountain Defense Array early, making this the perfect opportunity for the Dream Race.

Someone walked over.

It was the gray-robed cultivator, Shen San.

Shen San looked at the surrounding cultivators, who all seemed to be hovering between dream and reality, and declared,

“The talented ones, those with good potential, possess them. As for the worthless, weak ones, just kill them!”

“Of course.”

Behind him, countless Dream Demons moved as one.

Qiu Yuehan finally understood the Dream Demons’ objective.

Those attending the Celestial Dao Grand Competition were practically the most brilliant generation in the entire White Realm. If this generation were to be wiped out, the Human Race would suffer a devastating generational gap.

‘No, it’s more than that.’

‘If these demons were to possess the most talented individuals, infiltrate the major Sects, and then climb the ranks step by step, the consequences would be unimaginable.’

Qiu Yuehan glanced around. Most of the cultivators below the Fifth Realm were already frozen in place, lost in their dreams.

Only a rare few had woken up early, just as she had.

She thought no more. With a flash of her sword, she attacked Shen San.

~~~~~~~~~~

Bai Lu opened her eyes.

She looked at the sword in her hand. ‘Just a moment ago, I was fighting the wooden dummies of Lu Ban Palace.’

‘The Dream-Entering Technique?’

Incense burned in the ancestral hall.

A huge portrait hung on the wall before her.

It was a man wearing a Platinum Face.

This was from her induction ceremony, when she had offered incense to the portrait of the Chang’an Daoist.

Bai Lu paused for a moment, then said, “Get lost!”

Unlike most cultivators trapped in a dream, she wasn’t muddled or confused in the slightest. She was perfectly lucid. With her soft cry, the dreamscape shattered instantly.

The Fifth Realm Dream Demon that was trying to possess her didn’t even have time to use its abilities before it spat blue blood and retreated violently.

The dreamscape was pierced by a talisman-covered sword, which then viciously sliced the Fifth Realm Dream Demon in two.

~~~~~~~~~

Li Qingcao had returned to this rainy night for the second time.

‘What happened?’

‘Wasn’t I just sparring with an opponent from the Qingluo Painting Palace?’

His opponent from the Qingluo Painting Palace was also at the Peak of the Fourth Realm, and they both hailed from Major Sects. They had been in the midst of a heated battle.

Li Qingcao looked around.

He was certain he had fallen into a dream again.

He had experienced this exact same scene once before, back in the Glazed Dynasty.

It was all too familiar.

He was twenty years old this year. Back then, his name was Li Xingyang.

Li Xingyang had a childhood sweetheart. The year they both turned twenty, these two innocents, who had grown up together, were betrothed.

But a newly appointed high official took a liking to his childhood sweetheart.

So, as a matter of course, his sweetheart’s parents tore up the marriage contract and sent their daughter to the high official’s mansion.

Even though Li Xingyang’s family was quite wealthy, the saying goes that a commoner can’t fight an official. There was nothing to be done about the betrothal. But the young and reckless Li Xingyang refused to accept this, so he went to the official’s residence alone.

Full of youthful passion, he came to see his childhood sweetheart.

Just like now.

Li Qingcao looked into the mansion, which was adorned with lanterns and festive red decorations. Inside, “he” was holding his childhood sweetheart, their faces beaming with smiles.

“Xingyang, I’ve waited so long for you to marry me.”

His childhood sweetheart was just as beautiful as he remembered, unforgettable like the first new bud of spring.

The high official lay dead in a corner of the ceremonial hall, completely ignored.

Li Qingcao watched the new couple bowing in the center of the hall and let out a laugh for no apparent reason.

A perverse thought entered his mind: that the other one was the real thing, and he was the fake.

Back then, his legs had been broken and he’d been left in the mud like a dog. He was nothing like the triumphant, high-spirited Li Xingyang before him.

Li Qingcao’s twentieth year had been one of utter misery.

‘Everyone has some miserable moments when they’re young.’

“Hey. If I were you, I wouldn’t marry her.”

Li Xingyang, still holding his sweetheart, whipped his head around. “What did you say?”

“Do you know what she said when I saw her within those high walls?” Li Qingcao uncorked his wine gourd and took a long drink.

“She told me she’d seen how vast the sky was, how magnificent the world could be. She said that even being a high official’s concubine was better than marrying me.” Li Qingcao’s voice was calm. “But I heard later that she was tortured to death by his first wife.”

Worldly attachments are but passing clouds.

The past can be washed away with a jug of wine.

Let it all flow eastward, gone forever.

Li Qingcao took another drink. “When I was lying in that mud,” he said, “my master asked me, ‘The higher your Cultivation, the more people you are responsible for saving. Are you willing to wield your sword for the sake of others?’ Asking a man so full of resentment a question like that… don’t you think there was something wrong with my master?”

Before Li Xingyang could speak, Li Qingcao went on, “Do you know what I answered?”

Li Xingyang’s face twisted in a snarl. He realized his Possession technique was failing; the dreamscape was already starting to crumble.

“See? You don’t know. You can never become me. Ha!”

His sword moved like the wind, and in an instant, Li Qingcao ran Li Xingyang through.

“I am who I am. I achieved the Realm of Sword Heart Clarity ten years ago.”

The dreamscape shattered.

Li Qingcao looked around. Through the curtain of rain, he saw several Fifth Realm Dream Demons attempting Possession on the other cultivators.

Rage flared to the heavens.

“What foul demons dare attack the Human Race! Have you not yet tasted the bite of my sword?!”

~~~~~~~~~~

At the very instant the Grand Array sealed shut and plunged the world into darkness, several brilliant beams of light shot up from all directions, converging on a single point.

Inside the Grand Array, the Dream Demons’ Possession technique was far more effective. Only by destroying the array could they stop the demons and get a message to the outside world.

More than one person had the idea of breaking the array.