Chapter 138: The Unwaking Nightmare

The handwriting was exactly the same as on the thesis report; the little boy's father had written this sentence.

What surprised me even more was the back of the page. Alongside the father's handwriting, the lab report was covered in vicious, hateful curses written by other people.

"What are we keeping him around for? He's someone else's seed, yet he's freeloading off our family! Hurry up and send him away!"

"Let him go with that bitch and get as far away as possible."

"But isn't that letting him off too easy?"

"Then what do you want to do?"

Through these brief exchanges, I could almost picture that late night: the father calling everyone except the little boy into his study, gathering them behind the child's back to plot a highly secretive, sinister scheme.

Further down were seven listed reasons—seven reasons why the boy had to die.

These included this twisted family's unspeakable secrets, the need to protect the father's upstanding image as a university professor, and a massive insurance payout on the boy's life.

"Seven reasons in total. But these are reasons for the family to kill the boy, not reasons for the boy to kill his family..." I tried to look at it from a different angle. "Maybe the boy never actually intended to kill his family at first. Perhaps he only struck first out of self-preservation after witnessing their madness. He was forced into a corner. Looking at it that way, his motive for murder is easily explained."

I picked up the lab report and confirmed another number—"7".

Time was flying. The hands on the clock spun rapidly as the evil ghosts crawling at the doorway slowly closed in. Their tragically dead faces grew clearer in my vision—hideous, swollen, and ugly. Gripping the lab report, the vicious words written on it erased the last shred of sympathy I had for these spirits.

"You people really deserved to die!"

Overhead, the father's corpse swung back and forth, the arc of its sway growing wider. His mouth split into a grin, his bulging eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. He couldn't wait to break free from the restraint around his neck; he needed to snatch a scapegoat's soul to endure this day-and-night torment in his place.

"One and a half minutes left!"

The third question was "How many people did I kill?". It seemed effortless, but I couldn't shake the feeling that a trap was hidden inside it.

A total of four ghosts were crowding in: the father, the older brother, the older sister, and the woman who had died a tragic death at the door.

Three of their identities were certain. Only the dead woman outside the door remained a mystery. I had seen the mother's face in the family portrait tucked inside the little boy's clothes; the woman dead outside was not his mother, but someone else entirely.

Judging by the boy's diary, his father had brought another woman home after he graduated from middle school. This woman taught at a high school as a language teacher. After she showed up, the boy's life had become even more miserable.

"The woman wasn't part of the boy's family, which is why she died outside the door in the first place. That makes perfect sense."

There were four ghosts in total. It was obvious how many people the boy had killed. The number should be—"4".

Having solved the third question, I had already obtained one letter and three numbers. There was only a single minute left until 2:00 AM.

"The letters and numbers are enough. Could the fourth question be a deliberate red herring?" I picked up the combination lock on the window and entered "h", "6", "7", and "4" in sequence.

I rattled the lock. It was incredibly sturdy, showing no sign of opening.

"It won't open?! Which step did I get wrong? Does the fourth question have another meaning?" The evil ghosts crawled into the room, their wretched laughter echoing as they drew closer and closer. The hands on the clock kept turning; I had less than a minute left!

The fourth question was "Who am I?". I had actually been pondering this ever since I entered the room. This Dream Realm was definitely not born from Huang Xue's memories; it was a nightmare created by some other ghost. But whose nightmare was it? And who was powerful enough to forcefully drag me out of Huang Xue's dream and into their own?

To do something like this, one had to be extremely familiar with the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman. Although Daoist master Wan had the ability, he had no reason to harm me.

Excluding Daoist master Wan, there was only one candidate left: the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, who had once wielded the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman!

The medium for this talisman was originally a piece of human skin torn right off his chest. After our showdown at Xinhu High School, he had vanished. It was highly likely that he had hidden himself inside the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman.

"Daoist Priest Xianqing once said that once the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends bonded with the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman, he would become practically immortal. I destroyed his physical body, so his vicious spirit had nowhere else to turn but the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman."

Recalling the showdown on the roof of the teaching building that night, the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends hadn't shown any panic or resentment even after his defeat was certain. Instead, he had left me with one final sentence.

"We will meet again."

That tone, that timbre—it was completely identical to the voice on the phone when my task first began!

"No wonder it sounded so familiar! Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, it was you all along!"

The fourth question was easily solved. This wasn't Huang Xue's dream; it was the Dream Realm of the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends, Guo Junjie.

He had used the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman to create an infinite, looping nightmare, trapping the souls of those who harbored malice toward him inside.

"Those you have hurt will eventually become your nightmare!"

The hand swept past the halfway mark. I only had thirty seconds left.

"What is the significance of this name? What is the purpose behind the fourth question?" I tested the initials of Guo Junjie's name on the final digit of the lock, but none of them worked. The evil ghosts had already crawled to the edge of the table; their reaching hands were close enough to grab my ankles!

"Get away!" I pressed my body tightly against the window, gripping the lock with both hands as my brain worked in overdrive.

"Where did I slip up? Where exactly did I go wrong? I've solved all four questions, so why is the password incorrect?!"

Only twenty seconds remained. The long rope choking the hanged father ghost overhead was about to snap. His terrifying, distorted face swayed in midair, and it felt as though it were creeping closer and closer to me!

"What crimes did they commit?"

"Why did I kill people?"

"How many people did I kill?"

"Who am I?"

"The first and second questions have fixed answers; there shouldn't be any mistakes there." In the final ten seconds, I actually calmed down, my thoughts operating in my mind like precise, cold machinery.

"The mistake is in the third question!" I swept my gaze over the ghostly faces before me. "The ones who were killed are the older brother, the older sister, the father, and the stepmother. But what about the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends' biological mother?"

Was it possible he had a change of heart and let her off? Given his personality, that was absolutely impossible. Furthermore, the diary described scenes like the boy walking four hours to a neighboring city to find his mother, only to be turned away at the door.

He had clung to hope, enduring the bitter cold and agonizing pain to seek out his own mother. Yet, after such a long and bitter wait, all he received in return was a cold "Get out."

A woman like that was unfit to be a mother. The Primal Destiny Divine Fiends had no reason to spare her.

I remembered the sound of running water from the bathroom. I hadn't checked what was hidden in the bathtub. "Could his mother's soul also be imprisoned in this house?"

"That has to be it. This way, their whole family is reunited."

The bathroom was probably hiding another wrongfully murdered ghost. I just hadn't gone over to check due to the lack of time, which created a blind spot in my deduction.

"That's right. The Primal Destiny Divine Fiends didn't kill four people—he killed five! Every 'family member' who had appeared in his childhood memories was brutally murdered and locked inside this infinite, looping nightmare!"

Time trickled away second by second. The hand was about to finish its final rotation.

Eerie, terrifying ghostly faces emerged from under the table, and a stream of thick red blood began flowing out from the bathroom in the distance!

"Five seconds!"

My hands trembled uncontrollably as I spun the combination lock, entering the four characters again: "h", "6", "7", "5".

"Click!"

The lock snapped open!

I was ecstatic. I threw the window open and planted a foot on the sill.

"Wait!" Halfway out the window, I suddenly froze. The outside wasn't a way out at all; it was a bottomless darkness like an abyss.

There was absolutely nothing. Not even a single ray of hopeful light could be seen!

The hands of the clock ticked down to the very end. The rope hanging the father from the ceiling snapped, and that twisted face, dead from suffocation, lunged at me from above. It was too fast. I only had one second to make a choice.

"To jump, or not to jump?"

Fierce ghosts howled, blood flooded the floor, and the head climbing up the edge of the table opened its maw to bite at my body!

"I can't worry about that right now! Jump!"

In the exact moment the hand hit the hour, I leaped out of the window.