Chapter 141: You Must Believe Me

The Middle Dream Layer was fraught with danger at every step, plagued by lingering spirits. I didn't dare let Huang Xue shout here. If she actually attracted something, we wouldn't even have time to cry.

"Shut up!" Ignoring everything else, I pinned her against the edge of the bed and clamped a hand over her mouth. "Calm down! Think about it—I have absolutely no reason to hurt you!"

A mist of tears welled up in Huang Xue's beautiful eyes. Afraid she might make a sound, I covered her mouth tightly. Her soft, moist lips pressed against my palm, creating a subtle sensation that would be hard to forget.

"This is just a dream!" No matter how real the tactile sensations felt, it couldn't change the fact that this was the Dream Realm. I took a deep breath and slowly released my hand from her mouth. "You can try to call the police all you want, but absolutely do not make too much noise or do anything drastic. I am only here to protect you."

The moment I finished speaking, bizarre footsteps echoed from the hallway outside. They sounded uneven, heavy and dragging, as if someone were struggling through a deep mire. The rhythm was completely erratic.

"Hel—" Huang Xue still hadn't given up, but I was prepared. The second she uttered a single syllable, I clapped my hand over her mouth again, pressed her down beneath me, and quickly pulled the quilt over us.

The commotion inside the room caused the footsteps to stop. The person outside seemed to have noticed something.

About ten seconds later, the door was pushed open, and a deathly pale face peered inside.

I pinned Huang Xue down with all my strength to keep her from making a sound, while my other hand gently lifted the quilt just enough to open a narrow gap.

The figure at the door wore a nurse's uniform and had a face as pale as paper. Her neck was as limp as a noodle; she had stretched only her head into the room while her entire body remained out in the hall.

Several long minutes passed before the grotesque nurse finally left. The erratic footsteps in the corridor slowly faded into the distance.

"Is she gone?" I stayed pressed against Huang Xue beneath the covers. We were so close that I could feel her violent heartbeat and the hot breath of her short, rapid gasps.

I threw off the quilt, but this time I didn't simply let go. Instead, I picked her up and carried her over to the window.

Pulling back a corner of the curtains, I pointed at the pitch-black darkness outside. "Huang Xue, look closely. Outside this room is not Jingying Manor. It's nothing but darkness hiding countless vengeful souls and malicious ghosts."

There wasn't a single speck of light. Nothing could be seen. Faced with this sight, a flicker of panic finally appeared in Huang Xue's eyes.

Normally, there would be two ever-burning lamps in the courtyard, and the surrounding surveillance cameras were equipped with infrared sensors. It was impossible for the area to fall into complete pitch-blackness.

"Believe me. You are currently in a dream."

Huang Xue's gaze slowly calmed down, and her chest stopped heaving.

Seeing that her condition had stabilized, I released my tight grip on her mouth. "You are in a very dangerous situation right now. For certain reasons, your Dream Realm has been taken over by the ghosts of those who died unjust deaths. I am the only person you can trust here, and I am the only one who can help you."

Perhaps acting out of selfishness, I didn't tell Huang Xue the real reason why ghosts had appeared in her dream.

"If you say this is my dream, then why are you in it? We've only met once. Don't you dare tell me it's because I was thinking about you during the day and dreaming about you at night."

"The reason is very complicated, and the process was bizarre. Unless you experienced it yourself, you probably wouldn't believe me even if I told you." I breathed a sigh of relief when Huang Xue proved willing to talk. She wasn't the stubbornly inflexible type of woman.

"How do you know I won't believe you if you don't say it?" Huang Xue knitted her curved brows. "Also, if you've felt me up enough, could you please take your hand off my waist?"

"It's a misunderstanding. I only did that because I was afraid you'd do something impulsive." I sheepishly pulled my hand back, maintaining a half-meter distance from her. I then explained the entire sequence of events, skipping over many secret and unnecessary details to emphasize three main points.

"First, this is your dream, and you need to wake up immediately. Second, this place is very dangerous, crawling with all sorts of vengeful spirits and ghosts. Third, do you remember a Wordless Ancient Painting hanging in your house when you were a child?"

In response to my questions, Huang Xue gave answers that left me feeling helpless. "First, you say this is a dream, but it feels like reality to me. How exactly do you want me to wake up? Force me to jump off a building?"

"Second, you say vengeful spirits and ghosts are roaming around, but ever since I woke up, the only thing I've seen is you sneaking around my room. Where are the ghosts?"

"Third, and the most ridiculous point—when my father brought the Wordless Ancient Painting home, I was only a few months old. Do you really think I'd remember something from back then?"

Huang Xue rattled off her points in a single breath before leaning back against the windowsill, looking at me with the eyes of a girl who had just encountered a pervert.

Facing her dagger-like glare, I simply rubbed my chin in indifference, took a step forward, and backed her against the wall.

"What are you doing?!"

Staring straight into her eyes, I said slowly, "You're lying. My exact words just now were, 'Do you remember a Wordless Ancient Painting hanging in your house when you were a child?' But your answer was that you were only a baby when your father brought the ancient painting home."

"Huang Xue, I never mentioned who brought that painting into your house. So please, tell me everything you know. This is crucial!"

"You're not making any sense!" Huang Xue tried to push me away with both hands, but given her frail constitution, her hands felt soft and powerless against my chest. "I don't know anything! I was just a baby back then. Any memories from before I was three have long since blurred into nothing."

Realizing she couldn't budge me, Huang Xue gritted her teeth. "Seeing as my first impression of you wasn't too bad, get out of here right now, and I'll pretend tonight never happened. Otherwise, I'm telling Huang Boyuan everything!"

"Huang Boyuan? Why don't you call him 'Father' either? You refer to him directly by his name. It seems both you and your sister have zero respect for him. What exactly happened when you were kids?"

"That's none of your business!" Her past memories seemed like an unhealed wound in her heart; even the slightest touch sent a piercing pain through her entire body.

Huang Xue's voice lost control, her pitch rising sharply. The moment the words left her mouth, the sound of footsteps suddenly rang out in the hallway outside.

"Crap!" I grabbed her hand, but this time she fought back fiercely and even let out a scream. Left with no other choice, I slapped my hand over her mouth and forcibly dragged her into the large wardrobe nearby.

"Behave!" Pinning both her arms with one hand and covering her mouth with the other, I didn't have the luxury of showing tender affection as I squeezed into the wardrobe with her.

I shut the wardrobe doors and peered through the crack to observe the situation outside.

Creak... A bone-chilling sound drifted in from the doorway. The door to the room had been pushed open.

A figure wearing a nurse's uniform staggered inside, trembling. She limped, her steps uneven, bobbing high and low.

Perhaps the two instances of human voices coming from this room had drawn her attention. She paced around the room several times, unwilling to leave for a long while.

Noticing the nurse's strange gait, I shifted my gaze downward. It was only then that I saw the damp bloodstains clinging to the hem of her white uniform dragging across the floor. 'Was one of this ghost's legs chopped off?'

I focused on watching her, completely unprepared for the sudden, sharp pain that flared in my palm. Caught off guard, I released my grip on Huang Xue.

"You actually bit me?!"

Breaking free from her restraints, Huang Xue slammed the wardrobe doors open with her body and ran toward the nurse. As she ran, she screamed, "Someone broke into the room! Go get the Security Guard!"

In her blind panic, she didn't notice the hem of the nurse's uniform dragging along the floor. She stepped right on it and slipped, tumbling to the ground.

"What is this?" She reached out to touch whatever she had just stepped on, brushing it with her fingertips. "It's wet... and sticky?"

Bringing her fingers up to her eyes, Huang Xue's expression changed. "Blood!"

A terrible premonition suddenly seized her heart. Slowly, she lifted her head.

At that moment, the nurse had her back to her. Even from just her back, she looked completely unfamiliar. "I know every single nurse here. You don't belong here! Who are you?!"

Sitting on the floor, Huang Xue was engulfed by boundless terror. She didn't receive an answer. Instead, she watched as the nurse—whose body remained perfectly still and facing away—slowly rotated her head a full one hundred and eighty degrees! It twisted completely backward!

With a cruel smile and a deathly pale face, her pitch-black, hollow mouth slowly opened. "That's right... I'm not human to begin with!"

The nurse's neck stretched out, looming from above as that horrifying face slowly drew closer.

Huang Xue's entire body turned rigid and icy. She sat paralyzed on the floor, terrified out of her wits. Her lips trembled, all color drained from her beautiful face, and she lacked even the courage to scream.

"Five Directions Divine Generals, lend me your dharma might! Suppress all things, hastily as decreed!"

In this moment of life and death, a golden talisman flew out of the wardrobe behind her!