Chapter 34: Nightmare Labyrinth

Hu Jinhua left the Yin Aunt's place and went to seek out a second household.

This time it was a shaman who lived in Zhaojiagou; in his early years, he had broken his leg while climbing the mountain to gather herbs, and though his family had gone to find him and saved him, he gradually became a useless person, and fearing his family would abandon him, he began to play the god and act the devil, and people called him "Zhao Shendian".

Every time this Zhao Shendian performed rituals, it was as if he were having an epileptic seizure, his whole body convulsing, his eyes rolling back, and foam spilling from his mouth, while he held a bamboo tray with rice and beans on it, tapping it there, and in the end, he would look at the distribution of the rice and beans in the four cardinal directions and ramble to the person who had come, speaking ambiguously about good and bad fortune and talking about taboos.

When Hu Jinhua arrived at this Zhao Shendian's home, it went even more smoothly than at the Yin Aunt's place; in his home, there were not even any gods enshrined, only slips of paper written with "No Taboos" and "Gods and Ghosts Do Not Offend".

Hu Jinhua observed carefully for a while longer and finally chose to enter the dream directly.

Zhao Shendian's dream was gloomy, treacherous, and desperate; when Hu Jinhua's thought-body entered it, he could only see a sky covered by pitch-black clouds, demonized mountains and forests, eerie and strange bird calls, and the howling of wolves in the distance.

That pitch-black mountain path was filled with thick fog, surrounded by layers of treacherous shadows, with no path forward visible and no path back, and there was much malice surrounding it.

Upon entering this dream, Hu Jinhua also felt it was somewhat tricky, because this Zhao Shendian had actually cultivated a "Nightmare Evil Realm".

The Dharma Realm is constructed from the thoughts of all living beings and possesses inconceivable power, and the dreams of all living beings are also a part of the composition of the Dharma Realm.

If one dreams the same dream for a long time, repeating and deepening it, it will make a person unable to distinguish reality from the dream, becoming superstitious, rambling, and insane.

This is what later generations call "mental illness".

Including schizophrenia, delusions of being a God Immortal reincarnated to descend to the mortal world to undergo a tribulation, or seeing countless monsters around oneself all wanting to harm oneself, and also having distorted perceptions of things...

This kind is called "Madness", also called "Ghost Syndrome", and it counts as the same type of major illness as Xu Jia's previous "Soul Separation Syndrome".

That is, there is a problem with the "Soul".

Zhao Shendian was currently trapped in a mountain filled with fog, panicked and unable to find his way out no matter what.

The nightmare was like a spider web, and he was the flying insect trapped in the web, struggling hard but unable to break free.

His madness was not the playing of gods and devils that outsiders spoke of; he was truly mad.

He was trapped in the obsessions of the past; the obsession turned into a nightmare, the nightmare turned into a Nightmare Evil Realm, and the nightmare wove a Nightmare Labyrinth.

Inside the Nightmare Labyrinth was the terrifying scene he had encountered on the mountain back then.

As long as he closed his eyes, it was a nightmare.

Twenty years ago, because his mother was seriously ill, he went up the mountain to gather herbs out of filial piety.

But he encountered spirits playing tricks on him; before dusk, he had intended to go down the mountain, but he could never find the path down, circling around and around in the same place.

When night fell, Zhao Shendian was chased by something—he didn't know if it was a wild beast or a monster—and in his panic, he ran blindly through the mountains, failing to see where he was stepping, and fell from a steep slope, breaking his leg and lying in despair on the spot, waiting for death.

But perhaps the spirit had grown tired of playing, for it did not kill him, so he began to save himself, holding on until daybreak, holding on until the morning when the villagers dared to go up the mountain to look for traces of people, and they saved him.

Although Zhao Shendian had a lame leg, he had not yet gone mad in his early years, and he only had nightmares occasionally.

When he grew older and no one was willing to marry him, he became a famous bachelor, receiving strange looks and mockery from those around him, which made him associate this with the teasing he had received from the monsters on the mountain back then—what was the difference between that and being teased by these people now? The association gradually deepened, and he often had nightmares, recalling that year; it was this single accident that had ruined his life... and so, by day, he recalled the good times of the past more and more, but the more he recalled the past, the more he became severed from reality.

With the repetitions, an implication was formed, and the nightmare was born, torturing this miserable and pitiful man.

It caused him to often be unable to distinguish between dream and reality, leaving him in a state of madness.

But it was precisely this madness that actually caused him to open his "Yin-Yang Eyes", allowing him to see things that others could not, which is how he gradually gained fame.

In this village, if a child was prone to disaster, they would take him as a godfather, hoping the godfather would help them block the disaster.

He was an existence akin to a "Village Guardian".

Hu Jinhua's divine sense entered Zhao Shendian's dream, which was to break into a Nightmare Labyrinth.

He saw that the malice, fear, confusion, and other negative emotions within this fog all began to manifest.

The malice turned into a pack of wild dogs, chasing toward Hu Jinhua with fierce appearances.

The fear forced Hu Jinhua to feel that he was weak, and before he knew it, he had turned into an ordinary Miscellaneous Fur Fox being hunted by a pack of wolves.

The confusion turned into a road full of thorns and countless choices of forks in the road; it seemed that every fork was a wrong choice, allowing for wild dogs behind and hungry wolves in front.

These were all deep memories from before Hu Jinhua had become a spirit, the Demonic Obstacle in the depths of his heart, and also the "Dog Tribulation" of the fox clan. Although Hu Jinhua felt fear in his heart, he inexplicably remembered Xu Jia's appearance, so he was no longer terrified and instead turned back.

"I act under the order of the Dharma Lord, Master Xu; Jijiru Luling!"

Instantly, the Mountain-Roaming Military Officials were summoned by Hu Jinhua from outside the dream into the dream, appearing by his side as if he had gained a squad of bodyguards.

The Mountain-Roaming Military Officials each underwent deformation and distortion in the dream, standing a zhang tall with human structures, yet their faces were green-faced and fanged, with red hair and animal horns, wearing vine armor and holding mountain-cleaving blades; a fierce, wanton, and lawless sense of wildness gave Hu Jinhua a great sense of security.

Thus, the fear receded, and Hu Jinhua's body size became enormous, just like when he had entered Niu Congcong's dream, a zhang tall, with golden fur between his brows.

The next moment, the Military Officials began to fight with the wild dogs that the nightmare fear had manifested.

The nightmare here was composed of a mountain forest labyrinth, and these Military Officials were "Mountain-Roaming Military Officials", so they were instead fighting on "home turf".

The various officials tore these illusions apart as if tearing down a canvas and swallowed them into their bellies; those wild dogs were split in two by the mountain-cleaving blades, whimpering once before turning into nothingness.

Having solved the wild dogs, Hu Jinhua's natal Military Official held a mountain-cleaving blade, slashing open the thorns on the path ahead and breaking through the illusions.

It was just that this labyrinth was very troublesome; along the way, just as the thorns were slashed, there would be a cliff in front, and one more step forward would mean falling to one's death, as if entering a second layer of dream space.

If one gave rise to the intention to retreat, tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves would immediately appear behind, along with various evil ghosts and monsters, waiting to take advantage of one's fear to pounce and devour.

These were all things Zhao Shendian's fear had hallucinated.

Of course, there were also some real ghosts and spirits from the outside world who were trapped in his nightmare, relying on bullying and intimidating Zhao Shendian's soul trapped in the dream to squeeze out his vital energy for their own cultivation.

When Hu Jinhua was carried by the Military Official to fly over the cliff, he found Zhao Shendian's soul somewhere at the bottom of the cliff.

He saw him in the state of having broken his leg, lying on the ground in despair.

Hu Jinhua felt heartache looking at him, giving rise to feelings of sympathy and compassion, so he walked forward: "Don't be afraid, I have come to save you."

Seeing such a large fox, an unusual movement appeared on Zhao Shendian's face: "Are you the Mountain God?"

"I am a Fox Immortal! Today I have come specifically to ferry you and help you dispel the nightmare!"

But then Hu Jinhua swept his tail, and in the dream, he possessed heaven-reaching power, sweeping away a large expanse of haze; in truth, it was all being swallowed by the Mountain-Roaming Military Officials.

But this was only a partial effect; what truly drove away the haze was the hope ignited in the heart of Zhao Shendian's soul.

For so many years, how he had longed for someone to pull him up, or perhaps if someone had helped him when he was being chased by those things back then, the ending might have been different.

For a moment, the light of day shone down.

And outside the dream, the Military Officials under Hu Jinhua had already captured quite a few ghosts and spirits that had been causing trouble in the Nightmare Labyrinth, using Black Qi to weave them into ropes and tying them into a string.

They were all the ones who had previously entangled the children of the village, causing them to be frightened, suffer from persistent high fevers, and cry incessantly.

Thus, the parents sent the child to Zhao Shendian to be his foster father to ward off the disaster; the spirit-demon entangling the child saw that inside Zhao Shendian's body there was a Nightmare illusion, an existence similar to an independent "Dharma World Grotto-Abode," so it stopped entangling the child and transferred into Zhao Shendian's body instead.

This was Zhao Shendian's greatest ability: using his own body as a vessel to imprison spirit-demons.

However, these were not very powerful spirit-demons, and the Military Officials were enough to resolve them.

Zhao Shendian woke up at this moment, his face already streaming with tears, his consciousness having cleared; he had obtained a sliver of redemption in his dream, but returning to reality, it was so miserable and cold, so how could he be willing to return to reality?

Yet the next moment, he heard a voice: "Zhao Shendian, do you still remember me?"

Although Zhao Shendian was disabled, he struggled to turn over to look, and a fox was sitting right in front of him, exactly the same as the Fox Immortal from his dream just now, and hope ignited once more: "This disciple pays respects to Lord Fox Immortal!"

"Because you have been trapped by the obsession of the Nightmare for many years, the High Immortal has dispatched me to come and assist you." Hu Jinhua paused and said: "Are you willing to become my disciple?"

Zhao Shendian was now filled with gratitude toward Hu Jinhua, fearing he would sink back into the nightmares of the past and not wanting to continue living in a muddled state in reality, so he hurriedly agreed: "This disciple is willing!"

"Good! You only need to take red paper and write the position of the Fox Immortal Hu Jinhua upon it, offering one stick of incense daily, and this Immortal family will naturally protect you, bestow upon you many fortunes, and can even cure your leg ailment, bring about your marriage, and make your days increasingly prosperous."

Zhao Shendian rose and knelt on the ground, and just as he was about to lift his head, Hu Jinhua had already vanished.

(End of this chapter)