Chapter 2364: Floating Life Temporarily Lodges in a Dream Within a Dream

He easily found the door Liu Baobao had mentioned and knocked lightly.

Inside was quiet, with no movement. Zhu Xiuer also heard nothing unusual.

He Lingchuan knocked three more times, but still no one answered.

Meanwhile, the door of another household next door creaked open a crack, and a child about eleven or twelve years old showed half a face, saying to He Lingchuan:

"The Great Salman has gone out again, you came too late."

He Lingchuan was not surprised at all: "When did he leave?"

"Last night."

Dong Rui snorted: "What a coincidence, as if he knew we were coming."

The child sized them up, tone disdainful: "Who are you?"

In his mind, the Great Salman of Zhao Man Du was a top-notch expert; who could force him to leave in the middle of the night?

These two guys are too full of themselves.

At this moment, Zhu Xiuer moved behind He Lingchuan. The door gap was narrow, and the child hadn't noticed Zhu Xiuer before, but now a thick, sturdy, hairy long leg flashed before his eyes, startling him into a stumble backward, and the wooden door slammed shut with a bang.

He Lingchuan had no choice but to speak to the door: "I lived in Heishuicheng over ten years ago; this time I'm revisiting the old place and have come to pay respects to the Great Salman."

He could hear the child's heart pounding fast. After a while, the other side said: "The Great Salman left instructions before departing: today's visitors may enter directly."

Dong Rui wondered: "Could the Great Salman have calculated that you would come?"

"Not the first time." He Lingchuan's curiosity also peaked, so he walked back to the black door and gave it a light push—the door was locked from inside. He confirmed there was no barrier here, then climbed over the wall and jumped in.

The courtyard behind the door was not small, and unlike ordinary homes that grow vegetables and raise chickens and ducks, it had a clump of bamboo, with a set of stone tables and chairs placed under a large jujube tree.

Beside the bamboo stood a stone guardian, carved into the shape of a round egg, with a seam on it.

The room door was half-closed; He Lingchuan gently pushed it open and entered. The furnishings inside were ordinary and unremarkable.

If not for the fact that this was the residence of the Great Salman of Zhao Man Du, he would have thought he had entered just any ordinary home—except it was excessively clean and tidy.

The three walked back and forth through several rooms; everything was neat and orderly, but lacked any sense of lived-in life.

In ordinary homes, there are always a few things left lying around casually.

On the round table by the entrance, a candle holder pressed down a letter, with a few small characters on the envelope:

Lingchuan, please open.

Is this letter left for him? He Lingchuan picked it up, unafraid it might have been tampered with, and gently unfolded the paper.

The letter contained only fourteen characters:

Floating life temporarily lodges in a dream within a dream.

Worldly affairs are like hearing wind in the wind. 【Note 1】

Zhu Xiuer also leaned in, a dozen eyeballs staring together at the paper:

"A verse? What does it mean?"

One reason he dislikes humans is that they love riddles too much!

The letter had just these two lines, headless and tailless, no signature, no hidden content.

He Lingchuan said nothing, one hand pressing on the Floating Life Blade.

Does "Floating Life" refer to this blade?

This was once the personal blade of Zhong Shengguang; after it broke, He Lingchuan reforged and took it over. He does not know what past this blade had before, but the name "Floating Life" came to him spontaneously when the blade was finished, blurted out in inspiration.

This is his own chosen name; no one gave him a hint.

From this association, could "dream within a dream" not be the dragon world inside the Great Vase?

After the Floating Life Blade was forged, he began his nightly wanderings in the dragon world. Saying this blade is the link and carrier between him and Longcheng City is also not problematic.

And when He Lingchuan first entered the dragon world, he always did so while asleep at night, indeed believing it to be a dream.

If this verse can be explained reasonably, what then does the next line mean?

As he pondered, a sudden gust of wind blew from somewhere, making the bamboo grove in the courtyard rustle softly, accompanied by a sharp sound, which actually carried a hint of the clamor of golden spears and iron horses.

He Lingchuan listened to this sound, and suddenly remembered!

Before leaving Cangyan, he had a dream in which he saw Zhao Man Du's Great Salman and asked him questions. At that time it was dark, the wilderness indistinct, but the sound of wind shaking bamboo was exactly the same as now!

Could it be that he and the Great Salman met and talked in this very place?

He took two steps to the courtyard, lowered his head, and found the source:

That round egg-shaped stone guardian—whenever a strong wind blows over it, for some reason it emits a sound of slaughter and battle, stirring the heart. However, this courtyard seems to have soundproofing measures, so the sound does not carry out to disturb the neighbors.

At that time he listened to that sound of slaughter and battle, and asked the Great Salman several questions.

Strangely, he cannot recall exactly what he asked, as if it had something to do with the Great Vase or the dragon world; but the Great Salman's answer, at this moment, instead surfaces in his mind:

Causes arise from emptiness, all phenomena are impermanent, all forms are false and illusory. 【Note 2】

After saying these sixteen characters, the Great Salman still asked him: "Did you remember?"

He Lingchuan then shook his head: "I can't remember; I always feel these sentences want to drift away from my mind."

In the dream, his mind was never as clear as in reality; it seemed as if a layer of mist still floated in the dream, both obscuring the path ahead and confusing his known knowledge.

"That's because the time hasn't come yet." The Great Salman was not surprised, "Not remembering doesn't matter; just leave it in the dream. With your nature, you should soon recall it."

Now, He Lingchuan has indeed recalled it.

What these sixteen characters mean is actually very easy to understand.

He Lingchuan sat down at the stone table in the courtyard, took out the newly obtained verse and glanced at it twice, then fell into a daze.

Dong Rui also sat down at the table, Zhu Xiuer curled up like an octopus, nestling beside the bamboo grove.

They also did not disturb him.

The wind passed, leaving sound behind; also unknown how many times the stone egg had sounded, He Lingchuan then took a long breath and stood up.

Dong Rui immediately asked: "How is it, got any clues?"

Zhu Xiuer said, "Your complexion looks terrible."

"It's nothing, just a bit mentally exhausted." He Lingchuan stretched, putting away his heavy and solemn expression, "Let's go, to the Panlong Ruins."

At that moment, Zhu Xiuer suddenly said, "Five people entered the alley, coming this way."

The residence of the Great Sama is at the end of the alley, usually few people come. He Lingchuan pointed to the back of the woodshed: "Let's go."

The three jumped over the back wall and left, Zhu Xiuer left a small eyeball spider on the tree in the courtyard.

Just as they left, those few people also arrived at the Great Sama's door, reaching out to push the door.

He Lingchuan also monitored their every move through the eyeball spider, at this moment he raised his eyebrows.

These few were all in military armor, the leader was actually an acquaintance again:

Shan Youjun.

More than ten years ago, he recruited several skilled fighters from the private army of the Li family in Dunyu, Shan Youjun was one of them, and even later the Grand Steward of Yangshan, Ding Zuodong, was introduced to He Lingchuan by Shan Youjun.

After He Lingchuan fell into the water on the northern front of the Ying Kingdom, Shan Youjun naturally defected to his father He Chunhua, and has remained so until today.

Now he wears bright armor, dressed in the Shen Kingdom's battle armor robe, his personal guards behind him have sharp eyes, also being skilled fighters.

Note 1: From Tang • Li Qunyu's "Self-Relief".

Note 2: From the Diamond Sutra.