In the room, Lu Jiayao crouched with his rear sticking out, peering furtively through the wooden door. Beside him, Li Zhuohua stood straight as a sentinel, gripping her sword, and asked, "Well? Has Xue Qingqing come our way?"
"No, no," Lu Jiayao reported while keeping watch. "Miss Xue sat for a while, then got up to fetch water."
"How strange," Li Zhuohua mused, leaning back slightly with one foot propped against the wall. "Xue Qingqing wanted us to drink her tea and share her quarters, yet she didn’t push further when we refused. She just calmly went to pour water? If it were me, I wouldn’t bother pretending—I’d just start slaughtering openly!"
Indeed, if she were evil, she’d be the type to act without hesitation—no pretense, just bloodshed.
Meanwhile, Wen Shuangbai was busy pasting talismans around the room. As she worked, she remarked, "That suggests her actions must have some restrictions."
Perhaps certain conditions needed to be met.
So far, based on Xue Qingqing’s behavior, the sequence seemed to involve entering the cabin, drinking tea, and then sleeping in assigned rooms.
But they hadn’t drunk the tea, and Xue Qingqing hadn’t attacked. Did that mean tea wasn’t a strict requirement?
"How dull," Li Zhuohua grumbled, plopping down cross-legged by the door. She planned to stand guard there all night.
"What do you think Miss Xue really wants from us?" Lu Jiayao asked, still glued to the door crack.
"Definitely not your body," Shen Hefeng retorted, eyeing Lu Jiayao’s protruding rear with disdain. If Xue Qingqing weren’t outside, he’d have kicked Lu Jiayao out already.
Li Zhuohua shrugged. "Who knows? Whatever it is, we’ll handle it when it comes."
"..."
Wen Shuangbai glanced at Xie Ziyin, who sat at the foot of the bed, leaning against the wall while flipping through a medical text. His expression was thoughtful, and she noticed how intently he had been observing Xue Qingqing earlier, occasionally pausing to reflect.
He seemed to have noticed something—ever since entering the room, he’d been searching the book with clear purpose.
Curious, Wen Shuangbai approached, pasting a talisman on the wall behind him. "What’s your take on this?"
Xie Ziyin looked up, his face contemplative. Wen Shuangbai waited patiently for his answer.
After a moment, he studied her expression and quipped, "With my eyes?"
Wen Shuangbai: "..."
Her expression flattened. Without hesitation, she switched the talisman’s direction and tried to slap it onto him.
Enough with the nonsense!
Xie Ziyin dodged swiftly, catching her wrist. His eyes crinkled in amusement. "I wasn’t wrong—"
Before he could finish, Wen Shuangbai swung her other fist. "Xie Ziyin, you’re insufferable!"
He leaned back against the wall, letting her punch land on his shoulder with a wince. "A reminder—I’m a healer. Not built for brawling."
"Tch." Wen Shuangbai scowled and stepped back, looming over him from the bedside. "Have you figured something out or not?"
"Yes." Xie Ziyin’s smile faded slightly as he flipped to a page in the medical text and handed it to her. "Take a look."
Having researched carnivorous plants recently, Xie Ziyin had combed through numerous books. Something about the cabin’s events reminded him of a passage he’d read.
Wen Shuangbai skimmed the page and quickly grasped the key point. "You think this is about dreams?"
Xie Ziyin nodded. "This book came from Qi Manor in Zhuoguang City."
Since the emergence of the Sacred Tower, which sealed away corrupted lands, the world had known peace. Many ancient evils from five centuries ago had vanished.
But back then, sinister creatures and malevolent spirits roamed freely—some, like man-eating plants, while others could kill through dreams.
The medical text described a case where a patient claimed to have wandered into a place, fallen into a deep slumber, and nearly never awakened. Fortunately, a companion roused him, but afterward, the man suffered from distraction and dwindling cultivation, forcing him to seek treatment.
The healer recorded both the remedy and the incident for future reference.
After reading, Wen Shuangbai passed the book to Shen Hefeng and Li Zhuohua, then turned back to Xie Ziyin. "So you think Xue Qingqing lured us into the cabin and offered tea to make us sleep, so she could attack us in our dreams?"
"Possibly," Xie Ziyin replied solemnly. "But there’s another possibility—we might already be dreaming."
The three around him: "..."
Meanwhile, outside the door—
Lu Jiayao kept watch on Xue Qingqing’s movements. He saw her finish pouring water, tend to the bonfire, then head toward her own room. Just as she turned to close the door, the woman in white suddenly lifted her gaze, locking eyes with Lu Jiayao through the crack.
Her lips curled into a slow, eerie smile.
Lu Jiayao yelped and stumbled backward, landing hard on the floor.
That scared the life out of him!!!
The trio, already unsettled by Xie Ziyin’s theory, nearly jumped out of their skins at Lu Jiayao’s outburst.
Shen Hefeng’s hair stood on end. "Lu Jiayao, are you trying to scare us to death so you can keep Sky-Questioning Pavilion’s rewards for yourself?"
"Don’t spout nonsense, Brother Shen!" Lu Jiayao clutched his chest, his heart still pounding. "Xue Qingqing just—she smiled at me out of nowhere!"
"Then smile back and scare her to death," Shen Hefeng snapped before rounding on Xie Ziyin and Wen Shuangbai. "And you two—thanks to your theories, I won’t sleep a wink tonight."
Wen Shuangbai rolled her eyes. "You plan on sleeping? Shen Hefeng, wake up. Tonight, everyone pretends to sleep. If anyone actually dozes off, trouble will follow."
At that, Li Zhuohua handed the book back and pointed at the silver-haired man sleeping peacefully on the bed, then poked Wen Shuangbai. "But Junior Sister, your senior brother Yin Xuan’s been out cold for a while now."
Everyone: "..."
—
Moments later, the five gathered around Yin Xuan’s bed, whispering urgently.
Lu Jiayao hovered worriedly. "Will Senior Brother Yin be alright?"
Li Zhuohua, arms crossed, assessed him. "He looks fine—just sleeping soundly."
Shen Hefeng ran a hand through Yin Xuan’s silvery locks, then compared it to his own rough black hair, muttering, "Brother Yin’s hair is so smooth. Maybe it’s because he sleeps so much?"
Wen Shuangbai crossed her arms and studied the situation carefully. Though her senior brother didn’t seem to be in any trouble, falling asleep under these circumstances might not be a good thing. Without hesitation, she shook him awake.
Yin Xuan blinked in confusion, his gaze landing on the five pairs of eyes fixed on him. Slowly sitting up, he asked, "Did I just fall asleep?"
The group nodded in unison. "Yeah."
Yin Xuan murmured, "That’s strange..."
Noticing his odd behavior, Wen Shuangbai asked, "Senior brother, what’s wrong?"
"Logically, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep." He only allowed himself to rest deeply within the safety of his home, the Endless House. Outside, especially during the Holy Tower trials, he merely closed his eyes out of laziness or to mislead his opponents—never truly sleeping.
The current situation was undeniably eerie.
Xie Ziyin checked Yin Xuan’s condition but found nothing unusual. "Did you dream of anything?" he inquired.
Yin Xuan shook his head. "No, I rarely dream."
Wen Shuangbai and Xie Ziyin exchanged a glance.
"Either way, no one sleeps tonight," Wen Shuangbai declared after a moment’s thought. "We need to stay alert and act as the situation demands."
No one objected. The six of them took the wakefulness pills Xie Ziyin handed out and settled on the floor by the bed, chatting idly to pass the night safely in the little wooden cabin.
As the conversation flowed, Lu Jiayao suddenly said, "I miss home. I really want to see my parents in Qingzhou."
Shen Hefeng scoffed. "Aren’t you a little old to be homesick?"
Li Zhuohua chimed in, "I miss my mom too."
"Come on, you two," Shen Hefeng grumbled. "The rest of us are orphans—spare us the sentimentality."
As far as he knew, Yin Xuan’s family had been wiped out by demons, Xie Ziyin’s parents were long gone, and Wen Shuangbai’s father might as well not exist. Of the six, only Lu Jiayao and Li Zhuohua had families to return to.
Yin Xuan smiled gently. "Don’t worry about me. I’m fine."
"Speaking of which," Wen Shuangbai turned to Shen Hefeng, "Shen the Second, I’ve never heard you talk about your family."
In the original story, Shen Hefeng had been an early antagonist—disposable, with no backstory. Even as a teammate now, Wen Shuangbai hadn’t pried into his past.
Shen Hefeng fell silent.
Wen Shuangbai backtracked. "You don’t have to say anything if—"
"It’s not a big deal," the baby-faced Taoist muttered, hugging his knees. "I was born into a merchant family—fairly well-off. But when I was five, my parents drowned in a river during a business trip. My grandparents took me to a temple, where a monk claimed I was the one who’d cursed my parents and would bring death to them too. Terrified, my grandparents and uncles abandoned me. I begged on the streets for years until a street fortune-teller taught me some tricks. Turns out, I was a divination prodigy!" Shen Hefeng puffed up with pride. "So I went to Qingling Mountain to study. The moment I arrived, the master of the Sky-Questioning Pavilion was so impressed he refused to let me leave, declaring me the next grand diviner and future head of the pavilion!"
The five, who had been ready to console him, fell into stunned silence.
The awkward pause stretched until Lu Jiayao broke it. "When we get back to Qingzhou, you can all come to my place for a meal! My parents can be yours too!"
His teammates, however, were less than enthusiastic.
Xie Ziyin declined flatly. "Thanks, but no."
Wen Shuangbai: "Same."
Shen Hefeng: "Ditto."
Li Zhuohua: "I already have a mom."
Yin Xuan, ever the peacemaker, added, "But we’d love to eat."
"Right, food is always welcome," Wen Shuangbai agreed. "Lu Jiayao, make the arrangements."
Li Zhuohua: "I want roast chicken!"
Shen Hefeng: "I’ll settle for nothing less than a full imperial banquet."
Lu Jiayao: "..."
Wen Shuangbai listened to their banter with a smile before falling quiet, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed ahead.
She didn’t miss the parents of this world, but she did long for her mom and dad from the modern era.
The thought made her glance sideways at Xie Ziyin—only to find him absently rubbing the spot on his shoulder where she’d punched him earlier.
She rolled her eyes. "Really? I didn’t even hit you that hard."
Xie Ziyin snapped out of his thoughts and tilted his head at her. "What if it’s not because it hurts?"
Wen Shuangbai blinked, momentarily thrown, before steering the conversation away. Softly, she asked, "Hey, Xie Ziyin... do you ever think about your parents from before?"
Her modern parents?
Xie Ziyin shook his head. "No."
"Oh?" She opened her mouth to ask why but held back, not wanting to dredge up painful memories. "I see."
He studied her puffed cheeks for a moment. Normally, he never shared personal matters—but for her, he made an exception.
"Though," he murmured, so quietly only she could hear, "I do think of my grandmother sometimes."