Chapter 462: Making It Out Alive

The blue specks drifting from the Dream Wing Gu's wings could pull a person into a dream. A moment's carelessness was enough to fall under their spell, and waking up depended on the strength of one's willpower.

I had survived eleven Underworld Live Show live broadcasts, tempering my willpower into steel. Add to that my prior experience entering dreams with the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman, and the instant my eyes shut and I felt myself falling, I snapped wide awake.

Gripping the trunk tightly, I breathed a silent sigh of relief at the close call. Had I woken even a second later, I would have fallen from the canopy.

A fall from this height wouldn't have been fatal, but once I fell, catching the Dream Wing Gu again would have been tough. The little coward would certainly have bolted for a safer hiding spot.

The Blood Fox held only a fractured remnant of consciousness. Now the blood-red tint had receded from its eyes, leaving its pitch-black pupils clouded with a trace of confusion.

It was fighting hard to break free. Slowly, I saw streaks of blood surfacing from the depths of its eyes—the viciously bloodthirsty fox was trying to shatter the Dream Realm with sheer murderous aura.

"How overbearing—too bad you're one step slower than me." There was no way I would let a chance like this slip by. The Blood Fox lay right in front of me, practically defenseless. Unfortunately, I had lost my machete during the escape, leaving me with only one item that might pose a threat to the creature.

Before it could come to its senses completely, I reached inside my jacket and pulled out the porcelain bowl I had brought back from the Death Train.

The water inside this bowl refused to spill no matter how it was tilted. In all likelihood, it was the legendary Meng Po Soup, capable of wiping away the memories of a past life.

Deciding to give it a try, I flipped the entire bowl upside down over the Blood Fox's head. Water splashed everywhere, yet weirdly enough, all the flying droplets fell right back into the bowl without a single drop spilling out.

Still not fully out of the Dream Realm, with only a faint glimmer of clarity returning to its eyes, the Blood Fox was left completely bewildered by the sudden porcelain bowl.

With the overturned bowl resting on its small head, its rigid body slowly went limp before slumping into the fork of the tree.

"Did it work?" Holding back my excitement, I lifted the porcelain bowl. The cunning, ferocious Blood Fox with its towering murderous aura was gone, replaced by an ordinary Red Fox that stared blankly as its mouth opened and closed.

"Something's not right." A nagging sense that something was off tugged at me. Only after I checked the Blood Fox's mouth and looked inside the porcelain bowl did I realize that the Double-Faced Buddha's Good and Evil Relic had vanished!

"The Blood Fox had it in its mouth the whole time, and I just dumped the Sorrow-Forgetting Water straight over its head. Damn it, did this little bastard swallow the Two-Faced Buddha's sarira?!" I tried to pry the Blood Fox's jaws open for a closer look, but by now it had completely shaken off the Dream Realm. Its jaws snapped shut, its sharp fangs slicing a long, bloody gash across the back of my hand.

I yanked my hand back at once, on guard against a sudden attack. Yet the Blood Fox didn't come after me. It seemed to have forgotten who I was and why it had come here; for all I knew, it had even forgotten what it was.

I didn't dare make a sudden move. The Blood Fox was in a bizarre state. Having swallowed both the Sorrow-Forgetting Water meant for passengers on the Death Train and the Double-Faced Buddha's Good and Evil Relic, its eyes kept flickering between blood-red and pitch-black. A moment later, as if completely losing its mind, it lashed out blindly at everything around it before shooting out of the canopy and bolting into the distance.

"Looks like... I really let things get out of hand this time." Staring at the lowered waterline in the porcelain bowl, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The ideal outcome would have been scaring the Blood Fox away and taking the Good and Evil Sarira to complete the Underworld Live Show optional quest. Never did I imagine that a freak twist of fate would end with the Blood Fox swallowing the sarira.

"Forget it. It was only an optional quest anyway. Besides, even if the Good and Evil Sarira quest is a bust, I've got another quest with an even bigger reward right in front of me." I turned to look at the Dream Wing Gu. After scattering those blue specks, it looked rather drained, perching on a leaf and gently fluttering its wings with complete innocence.

"I won't hurt you. Come with me." I held my open palm out to the Dream Wing Gu. The tide of insects churned all around us, yet cowed by the savagery of the Plum Blossom Gu, the swarm didn't dare attack me.

Two or three seconds passed. Knowing it had no way to escape, the Dream Wing Gu obediently fluttered its wings and settled onto my palm.

"This live broadcast is finally coming to an end." I breathed a sigh of relief and began climbing down. It was far easier than the trip up; the branches and leaves parted before me, leaving nothing in my way.

By the time I reached the bottom of the trunk, a full quarter of the lush old locust tree's branches and leaves had begun to wither. Moments later, something even more unexpected happened.

A fresh, tender twig grew out at a speed visible to the naked eye, then quickly withered away, leaving behind only a small cluster of white locust blossoms drifting down.

The Dream Wing Gu seemed to understand what these locust blossoms meant. Rising from my palm, it caught the falling blossoms and circled the tree three times, reluctant to part with it, before finally settling back into my hand.

"Just to bloom this one locust blossom, a quarter of the old locust tree withered away. Ten years to grow a tree, a hundred years to nurture a soul—is this their way of saying goodbye?" Looking up at the towering canopy, I felt as small as a child.

Over in Suolong Village, the locals had more than enough on their hands. In the end, the god-welcoming ritual had gone unfinished. Injured villagers stumbled back toward the village, carrying the deceased Lu Clan Ancestors on their backs or in their arms.

The bright red Soul Sedan Chair lay tilted on the ground, its white silk streamers fluttering in the night wind. Lu Shan stood dazed beside it; the dragon markings on her body had vanished the instant the Buddha statue shattered, and her face had returned to its original state—one half coldly beautiful, the other covered in scars.

Truth be told, I still had plenty of questions about Suolong Village and the Two-Faced Buddha's arrangements. But I also knew that pressing Lu Shan now wouldn't get me a single answer and would only invite unnecessary trouble. Leaving the villagers alone, I waved to Wang Shi and Feng Minglong. "It's time we got going."

Neither of them had seen what went down in the canopy, nor did they have any idea how perilous it had been. Right now, both of them were still standing there in a daze.

"Go where? Leave the village?" Wang Shi glanced at the distant mountains with some concern. "By all rights, this night should've been over long ago. There's a good chance this forsaken place really doesn't have a sun. I say we stay here. At least there are plenty of people in the village, so we'll have a fighting chance even if we run into that fox again."

Standing shoulder to shoulder with Wang Shi, Feng Minglong gave an earnest nod. "I agree."

"You two have the wrong idea." I walked over to the Deep Well and looked down into the pitch-black water. "When I say leave, I mean leaving this 'world'."

"Dream Wing, show me the way. Lead us back to where the sun rises."

I opened my palm. The Dream Wing Gu circled me a few times as if understanding my meaning, then fluttered unsteadily down into the well, trailing blue dream-dust that lit up the pitch-black water below.

"You two, stay close behind me!"

Without a moment's hesitation, I plunged into the well first. The pitch-black water pressed in on my body from all sides as I chased the speck of blue light ahead, swimming steadily downward.

Suffocation, dizziness, numbness—no pain could shake my resolve. I had to make it back!

The speck of blue light drew closer and closer. Just as I thought I was on the verge of death and had lost all feeling in my body, the world flipped upside down, and a bright beam of light broke through.

The pressure vanished at once, and with the last of my strength, I broke through the surface of the water.

Gulping down fresh air and letting the light shine on my face, I had never felt the beauty and reality of being alive so vividly.

Exhausted to the bone, I burst out laughing as I gazed up at the sky, which was already turning blue overhead.

"It's finally over!"

It took a long time for me to calm down. This live broadcast had been a trial of nine deaths and one life, far more perilous than any of the broadcasts before it.

Once I recovered a bit of stamina in the well and my five senses returned, a foul stench of rot suddenly hit my nose.

Looking down, I saw a corpse in a police uniform floating right beside me. "Old Wei, I'm taking you out of here right now."

I tied the well rope around Old Wei's body, climbed out of the well first, and hauled him up after me.

Once everything was done, I lay on the dirt beside the well gasping for air. Scanning my surroundings, I realized the buildings in this deserted village were nearly identical to those of Suolong Village in the Yin-Yang Boundary, only far more rundown by comparison.

"An entire village from the Yang Realm migrated into the Yin-Yang Boundary—what kind of unspeakable secret lies behind that?" A few thoughts crossed my mind, though I had no intention of looking into them right now—because ever since I climbed out, not a single sound had come from inside the well.

"Where are Wang Shi and Feng Minglong?"