Chapter 1502 - 811: Daydreaming

At the moment of leaping into the dream sea, Chen Yi felt an emptiness around him, with no solid ground beneath his feet, as if he had fallen into a void with neither form nor substance.

But soon after, countless bizarre and dazzling scenes rushed towards him.

Here was the "collective dream sea", formed by the convergence and sedimentation of the consciousness of millions of citizens in Chang'an City.

How could one describe it?

It was completely illogical, with a very rough art style, patches of yellow, white, red, and green colors staining and colliding with each other, forming a vast, chaotic, and ethereal background. On this chaotic backdrop floated, were stacked, and half-submerged countless... rubbish.

A broken mast from a sunken ship lay next to a dressing table, with a blurred copper mirror and an open rouge box spilling sticky red. Not far away, half of a pavilion with flying eaves jutted out, its cut edge jagged as if bitten by a giant mouth. Shadows of dancing and singing flickered silently within. Further away, enormous abacus beads, legless tables and chairs, a tattered flag with the word "wine" on it, and even half an acre of withered rice field... everything seemed like fragments torn from different dreams, discarded and squeezed into this vast, disorderly space.

Most of them had blurred edges and lacked details, like... Chen Yi thought of an apt metaphor, like shaders not yet fully rendered.

The scene before him looked more like a bizarre, gigantic landfill, countless objects slowly churning and floating, like undulating waves.

Chen Yi, holding Yin Weiyin, traversed using the Wind Control Skill for an unknown length of time, the sense of time becoming exceedingly thin here. Perhaps only a moment had passed, or maybe several hours.

Until Yin Weiyin gently stirred in his arms and whispered, "Put me down..."

Chen Yi scanned his surroundings and then chose a relatively intact floating object, the top of a three-story pavilion. He twisted in mid-air and lightly landed on the remaining flying eaves, carefully setting Yin Weiyin down.

Yin Weiyin's feet faltered but she steadied herself, breathing lightly, her complexion returning to normal.

"Just now... what kind of dream was that?" She shuddered, glancing back the way they had come, "The shape of the Year Beast, so ferocious, it seemed... aimed directly at me?"

Recalling the sudden rage of the giant beast upon seeing her, she still felt a chill down her spine.

Standing beside her, Chen Yi's small figure looked somewhat empty in his loose clothes, yet his eyes were as calm as an adult's.

"I don't know."

Yin Weiyin frowned deeply, trying hard to remember, "I have never seen a real Year Beast, only depictions in sect texts and folk illustrations. The appearance of that fierce beast just now matched almost perfectly what's recorded in a very ancient 'Supplement of Strange Beasts in Mountains and Seas'... But that book is old and incomplete, even my master said it's a collection of rumors by cultivators from a past dynasty, not necessarily believable."

"To dream of an exotic beast exactly like what's recorded in ancient texts..." Chen Yi mused, "Either the Dream Master happened to have read the same old text and was deeply impressed, or... they have truly seen a Year Beast."

Yin Weiyin turned to look at Chen Yi, somewhat surprised, inspecting him up and down again, she said, "You... haven't changed back?"

Chen Yi was taken aback at her words.

Looking down, he found his hands and feet still so tender, probably even shorter than Little Fox, needing to slightly raise his head to match Yin Weiyin's gaze when speaking.

When you're small enough, everyone looks like a big cart...

Chen Yi internally complained.

He couldn't help but ask, "Is it that every place you pass through has an irreversible change for a time?"

"I don't know. In dreams, all phenomena arise from the heart, nothing is surprising." Yin Weiyin paused, then said, "It might also be that the Dream Master's Divine Sense is exceptionally powerful, causing residual effects."

"Alright, better be cautious," Chen Yi finally said, his gaze casting deep into the dream sea.

There, the heavy chaotic colors rolled, faintly revealing silhouettes of larger, more twisted clusters of buildings, like a sunken ancient city or the shadows of incomprehensible massive constructs.

"According to my master, to explore the Dragon Vein disturbances, one must head towards the Royal City... let's go that way."

A glint of gold flashed in Chen Yi's eyes.

After concentrating for a moment, Chen Yi used the Heavenly Eye to find the direction,

Even in the dream, the aura of the Imperial City stood out unmistakably.

He was about to habitually grab Yin Weiyin's arm to take her along with the Wind Control, yet this time, Yin Weiyin was a step ahead, grasping his wrist instead.

The touch surprised Chen Yi who glanced at her.

The female crown looked back at him with a smile,

"What's the matter, Brother Yi."

This Chen Yi was rare to see; usually so strong, he now seemed so... adorable. The more he thought about it, the more ticklish his heart felt. Yin Weiyin suddenly wanted to hug him tightly, to relish the feeling like the Prince of Annan embracing Chen Yi, though it wasn't the right time, she silently recited the Supreme Forget Love Technique.

"Nothing," Chen Yi replied coldly.

Usually, Yin Weiyin's hand felt soft, boneless, and cool in his palm. But right now, his hand in hers seemed so small, her slender fingers almost enclosing his entire hand.

Yin Weiyin looked down at their clasped hands, one large, one small, starkly contrasting.

Her eyes narrowed playfully; even after finishing things, she would prefer to linger here a bit more, her wrist gently tightened, holding his hand more firmly, she said in a calm tone:

"This dream sea is tricky and variable. My Wind Control Technique is more refined, I fly naturally faster. Since you've pinpointed the direction, let me take you there, to spare you... yes, save you some energy."

Her words were quite dignified, Chen Yi looked up at her, seeing only her cool profile, he opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, he merely responded with an 'mmm', refraining from poking through that perhaps even her not fully understood notion.

His dear Great Yin, your birthday is approaching, so let it slide.

Yin Weiyin said no more, pinching the Wind Control Technique with her other hand, lightly touching the broken flying eaves underfoot, and leaping upward with Chen Yi, swiftly heading in the direction Chen Yi had pointed.

The closer they got, the more apparent the overwhelming sense of gravity became.

The floating debris began to dwindle, and the chaotic background gradually gave way to a different, somber, uniform hue.

Who knows how long it took, a shadow of a sprawling complex of buildings appeared in the dream sea ahead.

That outline... Although somewhat distorted by the force of the dream, with the angles of flying eaves bizarre, and palace wall lines alternately blurred and sharp, but the general structure bore at least a seventy-to-eighty percent resemblance to the Western Jin Chang'an Palace that Chen Yi had seen from afar.

Though lacking the golden splendor of daytime, it retained its majestic and solemn aura.

Yet, as the two approached closer and Chen Yi's gaze followed the twisted palace walls upward, his pupils suddenly contracted.

There, atop the continuous palace buildings, lay a massive shadow that defied description.

It looked like a dragon.

A giant dragon silhouette, stretching thousands of feet, tightly coiled around the grand palace buildings, its scales under flying eaves and dougong brackets. Its body meandered like mountain ridges, producing a suffocating pressure from afar, except at the dragon tail, there wasn't a tapering tip but... instead, another ferocious dragon head!

A dragon head devours its tail, two dragon heads, front and back, no... Chen Yi found not just two, but one, two, three, four... five, a total of five dragon heads extending endlessly in a head-and-tail linked manner, enwrapping the palace so tightly like a human centipede!

Chen Yi was shocked, pondering whether to continue exploring or get closer for a better view, when

just then, a slightly hoarse voice abruptly sounded next to the two's ears:

"Hah, daytime dreamers are rare indeed..."