Chapter 276: Wrong Person

Gu Qingyin led Huo Xingchen quickly down the stairs, only then having a moment to take in the changes in her surroundings.

Unlike the clean and tidy state she had seen yesterday, the place was now dilapidated, as if it had been uninhabited for a long time. The wall plaster was peeling, and the floor was covered in dust and a mess of footprints.

Passing the second floor, she glanced toward Niu Niu’s bedroom. A similar mess of footprints extended from the top of the stairs to the bedroom door. ‘They must have gone back to their rooms last night,’ she thought. ‘What about now? Are they still here?’

The thought flashed through her mind, and Gu Qingyin continued downstairs, where she saw two people slumped unconscious over a table.

Village Chief Liu was gone, and the food and wine on the table had vanished. The two of them were just lying on the dust-covered surface, as if everything from last night had been an illusion.

Having already had the experience of waking Huo Xingchen, Gu Qingyin didn’t waste time trying to call out to them. She first laid them flat on the floor, then placed a Soul Stabilizing Talisman on each of them and waited, observing quietly.

Once the most urgent matter was dealt with, Huo Xingchen began to recount what had happened last night.

Before bed last night, Huo Xingchen had been planning to get up in the middle of the night to investigate the dog kennel. Even as he lay down, his mind wasn’t fully relaxed; he only intended to rest for a bit. But the moment he was in bed, he couldn’t stop himself from falling into a deep sleep.

And then, he had an incredibly realistic dream.

In the dream, just as they had planned, Gu Qingyin woke him up when the night grew still and quiet, and they went together to the dog kennel in the yard.

And just as they’d suspected, there was no vicious dog in the kennel—only an empty chain, proving that a dog really had once been there.

“What about your dad and Uncle Huo?” Gu Qingyin asked. “You didn’t dream about them?”

“I did. They split up from us to investigate.”

Huo Xingchen found it incredible as he said it. After all, his dad and Master Huo had never gotten along, so how could they possibly work together? It was obviously wrong, but in the dream, it had felt completely normal to him.

“This dream is being manipulated,” Huo Xingchen said thoughtfully. “The person controlling the dream must think they have a good relationship, so they were assigned a task to investigate together.”

Gu Qingyin nodded in agreement. ‘With Huo Yunjing and Master Huo’s terrible acting, I have no idea how the Dream Master could have thought they were on good terms.’

Huo Xingchen continued his story.

“In the dream, my dad and Uncle Huo waited for the village chief to go back to his room and fall asleep before they started searching the whole house. There was nothing downstairs, so they focused on the bedroom.”

To be safe, Huo Yunjing even used a hypnotic talisman before entering the bedroom to make the “people” inside sleep more deeply. But the moment he opened the door, he was ambushed.

A large net fell from the ceiling, dropping right over his head. It was then pulled upward, hoisting him into midair.

Of course, Huo Yunjing didn’t just give up. He struggled with all his might, trying everything he could, but who knows what that net was made of. It remained completely undamaged, and he couldn’t break free at all.

Hearing this, Gu Qingyin couldn’t help but interject, “That’s not logical.”

Huo Xingchen nodded. “It wasn’t logical that I could see what was happening to my dad and Uncle Huo either, but I saw it. In a dream, everything revolves around the Dream Master. If he thinks my dad can’t break free, then my dad really can’t break free.”

Seeing this, Master Huo stopped wasting time trying to rescue Huo Yunjing and started investigating on his own.

On the large bed, Village Chief Liu and Aunt Liu were both lying stiffly on their backs. Their hands were crossed over their abdomens, they were fully clothed, and they had no blanket over them.

It was clearly not the posture of a living person.

Master Huo moved closer to examine their bodies, but just as he approached, the two people on the bed snapped their eyes open in unison and lunged, hands outstretched to strangle him.

In the outside world, Master Huo would never have been caught so easily. But this was a dream. The Dream Master decided he couldn’t dodge, so he was caught effortlessly and was unable to break free.

Two Special-level Heavenly Masters, renowned in their own right and standing at the pinnacle of the Mystical World, were like a pair of helpless weaklings in this dream, subdued without the slightest effort.

Gu Qingyin was speechless. It all sounded too much like child’s play.

“And then I woke you up?”

Huo Xingchen nodded. “Yeah. At first, I could just hear your voice in my ear. Then the whole world started to shake. I lost my balance, and I woke up as I was falling.”

“Then why haven’t they woken up yet?” Gu Qingyin frowned, looking at the two men on the floor.

Huo Xingchen also looked worried. “Maybe it’s because they were captured. It’s not so easy for them to escape the dream.”

“What happens if they can’t escape?” Gu Qingyin asked. “Will they be assimilated by the dream and become its servants?”

Huo Xingchen shook his head.

“What about me? What was I doing before you woke up? And Niu Niu—you didn’t see her in the dream?”

Huo Xingchen thought for a moment. “After we checked the kennel, I didn’t see you again. I didn’t see you at all before I escaped the dream. Niu Niu… I guess she was in her room. I didn’t see her either.”

“Is that so.” Gu Qingyin looked thoughtful. Then, her hand suddenly formed a claw and she struck out at Huo Xingchen, her movement not particularly fast.

Huo Xingchen’s eyes sharpened. He instinctively stepped back, on guard, only to look up and meet Gu Qingyin’s wry, knowing gaze.

Huo Xingchen froze for a second, his expression unnatural as he asked, “Mom, what are you doing?”

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not your mom.” Gu Qingyin’s suspicions were confirmed. She held nothing back, multitasking as she unleashed a water dragon with one hand and summoned lightning with the other, more than doubling her attack speed.

“Huo Xingchen” was caught off guard and forced into a messy retreat, but he didn’t forget to cry out in an attempt to save the situation. “Mom! Have you gone crazy?! I’m your son!”

Gu Qingyin’s assault didn’t let up, but her voice was calm and deliberate as she said, “First, my son wouldn’t be so wary of me. Second, the only thing I showed any interest in after entering this courtyard was the dog kennel, which is why it’s the only detail you included in your fabricated story. And finally, I fell asleep too, didn’t I? Since they all entered the dream, it makes no sense for there to be only one exception.”

“Am I right, Niu Niu?”

As “Huo Xingchen” retreated, the disguise melted away, revealing her true face. But she was different from the innocent, adorable girl from before. Her eyes held the steady maturity of an adult, and her expressionless face was etched with a hint of solemn gravity.

“How did you find me out?” Her voice was still that of a child, but paired with her heavy tone, it sounded utterly bizarre.

Gu Qingyin’s lips quirked into a smirk. The spell on her hands changed, and a Ten Thousand Feet Light Prison took its place, rushing toward Niu Niu from all directions. Then, she answered unhurriedly, “You removed yourself from the picture too cleanly.”

Niu Niu was only focused on what was in front of her and didn’t expect an attack from behind. In an instant, the Light Prison had her trapped.

Gu Qingyin smiled genuinely. “It seems your Dream Master isn’t as incredible as your story made him out to be.”

Niu Niu’s expression darkened, but she remained defiant. “It’s useless even if you’ve escaped. Your son and those other two men are in a situation that’s no better than the one in my story.”