Chapter 57: Chapter 57 Nightmare Beast
The night seemed to be shrouded in a layer of eerie gauze, and the woman’s singing became more and more oppressive.
In the hall, Xu Zimei smiled at Ministry Councillor Hu, then drew the Tyrant Shadow from behind his back and stabbed himself in the abdomen.
As the Curved Blade entered his body, there was no gush of blood as imagined; instead, Xu Zimei’s entire body became illusory.
Xiao Guizi and his two companions exchanged glances, each swallowing hard.
"It’s just suicide, what is there to be afraid of,” Lin Ruhu blurted out, and with that, he also took a knife and drove it into his own belly.
Seeing this, Ministry Councillor Hu and Xiao Guizi nodded at each other, then clenched their teeth and made the same move with their knives.
...
The bodies of the four men lay quietly in the hall, the night growing thicker, the dim light from the nearby lamp beginning to flicker.
As the Curved Blade entered their bodies, Xu Zimei and the others felt no pain at all, only a sense that the scene before their eyes was becoming surreal, the hall’s vista starting to distort.
When their vision returned to normal, Ministry Councillor Hu was surprised to find themselves seated at the dining table in the side hall.
The leftovers on the table had not been cleared away, the fish in the bowls emanating a faint fishy scent.
"How can this be?” Ministry Councillor Hu was somewhat confused.
He remembered that after dinner that night, he had clearly seen the servants clean up the table before they went to the hall.
Ministry Councillor Hu stood up, and at the entrance to the side hall, the only two remaining servants of Hu Residence were standing.
The two servants had their eyes closed tight. Ministry Councillor Hu heavily patted their shoulders twice.
Neither of them showed any reaction, appearing to breathe steadily, just as if they were asleep.
Looking at the puzzled gazes of the crowd, Xu Zimei stood up and said with a smile, “Night is coming, and the whole Ten Mile Town will be enveloped in dreams.
And before the dawn arrives, people will return from the dream to reality.”
"You mean to say that everything we’ve experienced since our dinner, including committing suicide, was all a dream?” Ministry Councillor Hu asked in astonishment.
"Shallow dreams wake with a start, yet deep dreams cannot be escaped but through suicide,” Xu Zimei explained.
"I understand now, that’s what happened to Wang Tao before,” Xiao Guizi suddenly lit up, exclaiming, “Wang Tao and the others patrolled Hu Residence for an entire night that day; all of that was just a dream.
In reality, everyone had already fallen asleep, easy prey for the slaughter.
No wonder, when daylight came the next day and the dream returned to reality, we found that Wang Tao had already been dead for six or seven hours.
It turns out that he was already killed by someone during the dream that night.”
"That’s one way to understand it, like tonight, we actually already fell into the dream after we finished eating,” Xu Zimei nodded and said, “As for what happened later, including clearing the table on Ministry Councillor Hu’s orders, our going to the hall, and even the suicide, all were merely experiences within the dream.”
"I see,” Ministry Councillor Hu nodded in realization, then asked in confusion, “Young Master Xu, who then is the murderer?”
"We need only to see who’s missing from the people who were eating with us to know who the murderer is,” Xu Zimei replied with a smile.
The group looked at one another, all wearing faces of confusion.
Xiao Guizi pondered aloud, “Aren’t all of us here?”
"Are you sure?” Xu Zimei asked, a sly smile curving his lips.
The next moment, all three of them widened their eyes simultaneously, as if a flash of insight shot through their minds, and they shouted the name together.
"Hu Yingying!”
"How is that possible, my daughter is only four years old,” Ministry Councillor Hu staggered back two steps, refusing to believe it.
"Wasn’t your daughter severely ill for a period of time before the calamity struck Hu Residence?” Xu Zimei looked at Ministry Councillor Hu earnestly and asked, word by word, “Are you sure she truly is your daughter?”
Ministry Councillor Hu’s face turned deathly pale as he carefully thought about his daughter’s recent behaviors.
Indeed, his daughter had seemed a bit strange to him since she recovered from the severe illness, but he never paid much attention to it, attributing it to the unpredictability of a child’s character.
The plaintive and desolate singing continued to echo in his ears, but unlike the elusive feeling in the dream, this time the singing sounded very real.
Ministry Councillor Hu walked out of the side hall, searching for the origin of the singing.
Along the way, Xiao Guizi asked with confusion, “Brother Xu, since all of us were deeply trapped in the dream before, why didn’t she just kill us all at once, instead of one by one?”
"To be precise, it’s not that she didn’t want to kill us all at once,” Xu Zimei said with a smile, “but rather she was farming us.”
"Farming?” Xiao Guizi muttered to himself, apparently not quite understanding the term.
Xu Zimei just smiled and did not elaborate further.
Ministry Councillor Hu led the way, with the singing growing clearer and clearer until they all stopped in front of a small courtyard.
"This is the courtyard where Ying’er’s room is located,” Ministry Councillor Hu said with an embarrassed expression.
They walked into the courtyard and kicked open the door at its center.
The singing stopped abruptly. In the room, in front of the window, Hu Yingying sat on the windowsill in a pure white long dress, swinging her slender legs in the air.
She looked at the intruders with surprise, holding something resembling a harmonica to her lips, gently blowing into it.
Beneath Hu Yingying’s feet lay a small red creature without limbs, resembling a dolphin in appearance.
At the arrival of the guests, the creature slowly opened its eyes, its light body drifting in the air like a jellyfish.
Its nose and mouth were so small they could be almost ignored, and its round, bulging eyes looked very cute and innocent.
"Ying’er, is it really you?” Ministry Councillor Hu’s voice trembled as he spoke.
"Daddy, what are you talking about?” Hu Yingying asked with pure, innocent eyes.
"You are not Yingying,” Ministry Councillor Hu fell silent for a moment, then slowly retreated to one side.
Hu Yingying was not flustered and merely looked at the people with a mocking expression.
The red creature hovered in the air, looking ready to attack at any moment.
"Ah, I’m saying, you folks from Divine Gate should have stayed in Old Land, what are you doing stirring up trouble in Extreme West Region?” Xu Zimei stepped forward and asked with a smile.
"It seems there is someone among you who has seen the world,” Hu Yingying let out a light yelp and said, “It was you who broke through my dream world, wasn’t it?”
"Your dream world?” Xu Zimei shook his head and laughed, saying, “If I’m not mistaken, all the dreams here were set up by this little fellow, right?”
Xu Zimei looked at the red creature, clicking his tongue and said, “Nightmare Beast, the seventh-ranked existence on the list of remarkable creatures in the world!”