Chapter 552

"Soon." Bai Bai Ziqi also put away that bit of surprise, smiled at the two, stood up and said, "I still have to wait for a few messages, so I'll go back first."

The two sent Bai Bai Ziqi out of the inn entrance and watched his back disappear at the street corner.

This High Envoy refused to take a carriage and insisted on walking back, saying that taking steps helps with thinking.

He He Lingchuan then let out a long sigh: "Sure enough, he wants me to return to Lingxu together."

This person is really not easy to fool.

"Don't worry, with me by your side, he won't make things difficult for you!" Fu Fu Shanyue patted him on the shoulder. "Isn't this quite good? You were going to Lingxu City anyway. Now you don't have to follow the merchant caravan, and you don't have to worry about customs clearance; the Cloud Envoy is personally escorting you."

He He Lingchuan smiled bitterly. What good intentions could Bai Bai Ziqi have by wanting him to go to Lingxu City? Fortunately, with Fu Fu Shanyue accompanying him, Bai Bai Ziqi couldn't openly deal with him on the road.

Walking back, Fu Fu Shanyue saw him lost in thought: "Thought of something else?"

He He Lingchuan was pondering the Gu raiser's bamboo tube and shook his head upon hearing this: "I was thinking, was that batch of treasures lost from the Qinggong more than ten years ago really stolen?"

Fu Fu Shanyue could only shrug his shoulders: "They said it was, so of course it was."

Is it useful to say it wasn't? He He Lingchuan remembered the portrait of the Green Sun National Master. Mai Xuewen mentioned the Green Sun National Master with ease, but intuition told He He Lingchuan that there was likely some kind of relationship between the two.

"From the portrait to the Snail Toad, everything is related to the Qinggong." He He Lingchuan exhaled. "The clues left by Mai Xuewen are very pointed; it's impossible for Bai Bai Ziqi not to notice."

Although the Elixir of Immortality case had been taken over by Bai Bai Ziqi, and most of the pressure had been lifted from He He Lingchuan, he could still feel that the road ahead was full of thorns.

Further down, this case was not something he could investigate. It wasn't even something Fu Fu Shanyue or the Chiyan Nation could investigate.

"Qinggong, huh?" Fu Fu Shanyue also sighed long: "This guy has really big guts; maybe there's someone supporting him behind the scenes."

The sky finally brightened.

Cheng Yu felt warm all over.

As soon as he opened his eyes, the daylight shone through the door onto his face, which was a bit dazzling.

This was the request he made last night, to face the door when sleeping.

The golden, warm sun in the morning makes one feel relaxed from the bottom of their heart.

Bai Bai Ziqi was sitting on a chair in the corner, and seeing him move, he said: "Ho, thought you wouldn't be able to wake up."

"Cen Boqing and I were just in an employment relationship; he paid, I killed, and I didn't even succeed." Cheng Yu looked at the warm light entering through the door, breathed a sigh of relief, and said decisively, "I haven't been involved in any of the Cen family's other messy affairs."

Bai Bai Ziqi laughed.

Cheng Yu pursued: "I'm not a major criminal in Cen Boqing's case, right?"

"You plotted against the Special Envoy of the Chiyan Nation's Crown Prince; if you were sent to the local magistrate for trial, it would be a major case." Bai Bai Ziqi was unhurried. "With me, it depends on the situation."

"What situation?"

"What means did you use to deal with the Chiyan Crown Prince's Special Envoy?"

Cheng Yu hesitated for a moment: "Nightmare."

Bai Bai Ziqi raised his chin, understanding: "So, you signed a contract with a Nightmare?"

Some curse masters can sign contracts with Nightmares to borrow their power to kill in dreams. Nightmares leave no traces; the victim has no injuries in reality, leaving no useful clues, and there is nowhere to investigate.

But this kind of thing is very rare; Nightmares themselves are few, and most of them can only create small nightmares for people and absorb a little fear to live.

Nightmares also devour each other.

The big guys who can really kill in dreams are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

How could this kind of dream overlord obey orders? To sign a contract with them, you have to offer enough benefits.

Cheng Yu nodded, feeling fearful.

"Did Cen Boqing and Wu Kai know?"

"They only knew that I could take lives in secret, but didn't know it was a Nightmare killing. I haven't told anyone about this kind of thing."

"Why did you suffer a backlash?" Bai Bai Ziqi asked him. "Did the Nightmare fail?"

"Not only did it fail, it was probably severely injured by the other party, otherwise its Golden Body wouldn't have shattered suddenly." Cheng Yu smiled bitterly. "Never expected it to be like this."

"Wu Kai confessed that you could curse a Monarch to death." Bai Bai Ziqi said again, "Was this borrowing the power of a Nightmare?"

"Yes." Now that things have come to this, Cheng Yu had nothing to deny. Pretending to be mysterious before was to raise his own price.

"Hmm, could it be that you invited a Dream Lord?"

The most powerful Nightmare is honored as the Dream Lord.

"..." Cheng Yu was surprised that Bai Bai Ziqi even knew this title.

"What is the honorific?"

Cheng Yu said in a low voice: "If you think about it, there will be an echo; I cannot publicly call its name."

"With my protection, are you still afraid of it?"

"It was originally an immortal who fell into a dream and became a Dream Lord, and it has devoured countless Nightmares itself." Cheng Yu still had fear in his eyes. "It can enter dreams in broad daylight, and ordinary evil-warding means simply cannot deal with it."

"Do you dare to call the means of the Heavenly Gods ordinary?" Bai Bai Ziqi pointed to the burning candle in the corner of the room. "With the protection of the Ever-Bright Lamp before the Holy Void, you will be safe. Speak, what is that honorific?"

The Holy Venerable's Ever-Bright Lamp? Cheng Yu looked at the candle and indeed felt the power of calming the heart and spirit from the flame. He gritted his teeth and finally confessed: "It is the Hundred-Faced Nightmare. It once told me personally that its current cultivation has surpassed its time as an immortal."

"Hundred-Faced, huh?" Bai Bai Ziqi stroked his chin. "How did you avoid it before?"

"I originally had a 'Dreamland in a Bottle', which I used up in the Cen residence. My divine soul was hidden in it to recuperate, but it was awakened early by Cen Boqing, and the soul injury is hard to heal."

Speaking of this, the candlelight in the corner of the room suddenly flickered.

The warm sun illuminated half of the partition, and this flash was very inconspicuous, but it happened to be opposite Cheng Yu, so he still captured it.

Bai Bai Ziqi also looked back and frowned. "Since the Hundred-Faced is so powerful, how could it be defeated by He Xiao?"

"The power of the Hundred-Faced is not something an ordinary teenager can contend with." Cheng Yu gasped. "I have always suspected that he received extremely powerful protection, which allowed the Hundred-Faced to suddenly fail."

"Perhaps he has some magic weapon to protect himself?"

"Magic weapon?" Cheng Yu couldn't help laughing out loud. "If a few mere magic weapons could block the Hundred-Faced, it wouldn't be qualified to be called a 'Dream Lord'; that would at least reach the threshold of a divine artifact!"

"Divine artifact..." Bai Bai Ziqi pondered. "What kind of divine artifact would it be?"

"It can merge into the blue sky, can suppress evil and ward off spirits, can protect He Xiao's divine soul, and can severely injure the Hundred-Faced." Cheng Yu felt a bit dizzy; it was probably because his soul injury hadn't healed, and he gasped after saying a few words, his mind in a daze. "I feel there aren't many such treasures in the world, right? And I also feel that the Hundred-Faced attacking me in return has something to do with He Xiao."

"Oh?" Bai Bai Ziqi pondered. "Are you saying that He Xiao can turn the Nightmare against you and drive it to attack you?"

What level of monster is the Hundred-Faced? This is not something an ordinary person can do.

"Extremely likely!" Cheng Yu pressed his head. "I haven't heard of the Hundred-Faced ever suffering a loss at anyone's hands."

At this time, the Ever-Bright Lamp flame flickered again, and then, extinguished.

Cheng Yu pointed at it, suddenly nervous: "This..."

"Something is indeed looking for you, without any scruples even in broad daylight." Bai Bai Ziqi sprinkled a handful of incense ash toward the foot of the bed.

The incense ash drifted and floated, but it seemed to hang onto something and couldn't fall.

That object was originally transparent, but it was hooked out with a rough outline—

It looked like a human, with a body, legs, and hands, but it didn't look like a human, because the neck and hands were too long, like a tree monster.

And it had two heads.

It was right next to the bed, stretching its long heads to look at Cheng Yu.

If it weren't for Bai Bai Ziqi's handful of incense ash, no one would have known it was there.

This kind of malicious secret peeping was truly hair-raising. Even Cheng Yu shivered all over, his scalp exploding.

After being discovered, the Nightmare turned into a strange wind and rolled toward the door.

The incense ash marked its path of movement, and just as it reached the door, Bai Bai Ziqi slashed with his sword, actually cutting the strange wind neatly into two halves.

The sword carried a faint golden light.

Both heard a faint, strange cry, angry and miserable.

Immediately after, the strange wind spontaneously ignited, and pale flames swept through the entire partition. However, neither of the two in the partition felt the heat of the flames.

The strange wind wanted to escape, but the barrier constructed by the four candles in the corner of the room trapped it in the middle. The candlelight was blown until it was precarious, flickering.

It repeatedly rammed into the barrier, like a fly hitting a window.

Bai Bai Ziqi said disdainfully: "This is the Dream Lord? Hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once."

Cheng Yu was a bit stunned: "It, it..." How could the Hundred-Faced be so weak? As the two spoke, the strange wind tried its best and finally blew out one candle flame. The invisible barrier was broken, and it finally escaped.

Bai Bai Ziqi didn't move to stop it.

"Perhaps it doesn't want to tangle in broad daylight. Or perhaps..." Cheng Yu thought for himself, his eyes brightening. "After being defeated by He Xiao, its power was greatly reduced, and it is no longer a Dream Lord!"

Bai Bai Ziqi couldn't help laughing: "And you hid from such a thing for several days, and even used up a precious 'Dreamland'?"

Cheng Yu was speechless.

He only remembered the power of the Dream Lord, but forgot that if even he, the summoner, suffered a backlash, how many times more damage would the Nightmare itself have suffered? It was also severely injured; where was its former majesty!

Thinking this through, he relaxed completely, and the stone in his heart disappeared.

Bai Bai Ziqi asked him again: "Is the contract you signed with the Hundred-Faced still there?"

Cheng Yu shook his head: "Probably after I returned to the Cen residence, I found the contract automatically dissolved."

That's why he was so panicked at that time.

"Dissolved is fine, then you can deal with it freely." Bai Bai Ziqi asked him, "Can you stand up? I want you to go to the county dungeon and compare notes with Cen Boqing. I fed you a lot of good medicine earlier; you should be able to get up."

Cheng Yu tried to sit up and found that his sick body was indeed no longer heavy.

"Will you really help me deal with the Hundred-Faced?"

"Of course." Bai Bai Ziqi said sincerely, "I need your help for my next case."

Cheng Yu was curious: "What is it?"

Bai Bai Ziqi smiled: "Once Cen Boqing's case is concluded, you will naturally know."

It's the middle of the month, asking for monthly tickets!

(End of chapter)