Nightmare's Call Chapter 1

Nightmare's Call Chapter 1
A short-haired woman in white was sitting at the desk with her back facing him.
It was midnight, and the moon shone with a wispy light. The woman's hands were on the table,
and she was motionless.
There was no light or sound.
The night just seemed so still.
Lin Sheng was lying in bed, peering at the woman by the table from under his quilt.
He began to wonder as he remembered that he had gone to bed at 9.30 p.m. Now, judging from
the darkness outside, it was 4.00 a.m. at most.
When he woke up in his bedroom, the woman was already there at his desk.
Where did the woman come from?
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Lin Sheng squinted, but he had -5D shortsightedness and could only make out that she was a
young woman in a white dress.
The weird thing was, he had no idea where the woman in white had come from. His mother
never wore white, and his elder sister never did too. His sister was always in a uniform, plus she
had gone to college far away from home.
It was terrifyingly quiet.
Lin Sheng's brows were knitted together. He blinked to clear his vision, wanting to know who
the woman was.
However, it was too dark; there was not much he could see.
What made it more terrifying was the fact that he could not move his body right then.
In a trance, he seemed to hear someone talking. The voice was coming from right behind him by
the bedside. It was out of his field of vision.
The voice was very close, as though the person was staring at him while talking to his back.
He seemed to be able to sense that there were two people. Pairs of strange and cold eyes were
staring at him as the indistinct chattering continued. Goosebumps formed all over his skin.
Then, there was a clicking sound like someone had opened the door and walked in.
Suddenly, all the other sounds went dead. Lin Sheng snapped out of his trance only to find that
the woman in white at the desk was getting to her feet slowly and quietly. But her back was still
facing him.
Her long white sleeves were loose and empty like a long skirt, while the movements of her body
were stiff and unnatural like a robot's.
"I…" Lin Sheng wanted to say something, but he was horrified to find that he could not even
make a sound.
He was trembling like he had a cramp. All his muscles tensed up, and his teeth chattered. Cold
sweat drenched his undershirt.
*Tack, tack, tack, tack.*
Again, footsteps were heard at the doorway. The entity that made those footsteps walked right up
to the tail end of the bed and stopped.
Lin Sheng was terrified. He tried to pull himself under the quilt and relax his body so that he
could lie as flat as possible on the bed. That way, no one would know he was there.
He thought that as long as he lay flat, whoever it was may believe that it was just a thick quilt on
the bed.
Yet, he could not even move a muscle. His legs and back were experiencing a horrible cramp—it
was so bad that he had to use all his might to overcome the trembling and pain.
*Tack, tack, tack…*

The footsteps were approaching the head of his bed.
Lin Sheng's heart was in his mouth. He tried to close his eyes so that he would not see what was
coming, but the inexplicable sense of horror made even blinking impossible.
Suddenly, a pair of cold hands slipped under the quilt and grabbed his feet.
"Aah!" Lin Sheng screamed and bounced up from his bed. He was doused in sweat. His face was
pale, and his bloodshot eyes were wide open.
"Huff, huff, huff, huff…"
He gasped with his head lowered, drawing as much fresh air into his lungs as possible.
"I... I had the same dream again." He bent his leg and reached out to touch the spot where the
pair of cold hands had grabbed him earlier.
There was nothing there, as usual. There was no scar, and Lin Sheng felt no pain.
Despite that, the feeling was so vivid and real.
The sun had risen; it was now morning.
Lin Sheng climbed out of bed when someone knocked on the door.
"Why were you screaming earlier?" The worried voice of his elder sister traveled from behind
the door.
With both hands, Lin Sheng rubbed his forehead, which had a copious amount of sweat. He took
a deep breath. "I'm fine. Just had a nightmare."
"You'd better be. Did anything happen in school? You've been very jumpy recently," said his
elder sister.
"I'm fine, really. Just had a nightmare," Lin Sheng replied after a pause.
"Breakfast is ready. Get yourself out of bed and drink some warm milk, you'll feel better," his
elder sister urged with concern before she walked away.
Lin Sheng sat by the bed, the dream still lingering in his head.
It was not his first encounter with that dream. He had been getting the same dream for three
consecutive days. Each time, the dream would end with him not being able to move and someone
grabbing his feet.
He subconsciously reached down to touch his feet, then he got up. He went to his desk and
pulled the curtains open.
The blazing sun suddenly lit up the bedroom; he could even see the dust particles that were
floating in the air.
Lin Sheng was an ordinary high school student. After spending three years in Hui An High
School, he was about to take the college entrance exam.
His dad ran a grocery store, and his mom was a kindergarten teacher. Their combined annual
income was no more than ¥100,000.
His elder sister was still in college, which was a distance away from home. She had returned
home for a short stay and would go back to college in a few days. So, he was alone at home most
of the time.
Lin Sheng opened the door and remained silent. Outside was a clean corridor filled with sunlight.
He heard the clinking of dishes; his elder sister was cleaning up in the kitchen.
Lin Sheng entered the kitchen, picked up a glass of warm milk from the countertop, and gulped it
down at once.
His elder sister, Lin Xiao never liked to dress up. She was always in a white T-shirt and a pair of
jeans—not the tight-fitting type but the loose-fitting ones.
The only things that were unique about her were her grace and poise, as well as her dark hair that
cascaded down to her waist.
Lin Sheng put down the glass, grabbed a piece of hot bread, and nibbled it.
"Dad and Mom aren't home today. I'll take care of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But I'm
leaving tomorrow. You have to take care of yourself and not make me worry about you."
His elder sister turned and took off her apron before she sat on a high stool by the countertop.
She was also holding a glass of milk in her hand, and she took a sip as she babbled on.
"Mhm." Lin Sheng did not know what to say.
"Do you have enough pocket money? I've been doing some part-time work, and I earned quite a
bit during the holidays. Let me know if you need any money." Lin Xiao was always worried
about this and that; it was in her blood.
"I have enough," Lin Sheng said.
Lin Xiao thought for a moment. "What specialty products do you like? There's a trade fair near
my college. I've been there. They feature Kongxi specialties, and it's said that they make fine
porcelain dolls. I could post you one if you'd like. Many of my classmates like it."
Lin Xiao started to babble again.
Lin Sheng listened to her silently. It was only ten minutes later that he obligingly responded,
"There's nothing that I want."
"Okay, but don't always lock yourself in your room. Get out there and meet people. No girl likes
a nerd." Lin Xiao sounded helpless. Like her best friends in her dorm, she was family-oriented,
and her boring younger brother was her biggest concern. Whenever her best friend's elder brother
—who was dull and unmarried at forty—came to mind, she would feel a sense of urgency.
"I got it." But, Lin Sheng had always been that way.
There was silence for a while as the two just bowed their heads and ate their breakfast. They
quickly polished off all the slices of bread on the plate and the milk in the glasses.
His elder sister put her hand down and looked up at Lin Sheng. "Sheng Sheng, I work during my
free time in college, and I have enough money. If you're ever in need, call me."
"Got it." Lin Sheng bowed his head.

"Sheng Sheng." Lin Xiao suddenly reached out and pressed her hand on Lin Sheng's left
shoulder. "Sheng Sheng" was Lin Sheng's nickname at home, and only those who were closest to
him called him that.
"You're a man now. Please help Dad and Mom when I'm not around. They're having problems of
their own. A child has gone missing from the kindergarten where mom works in, and the child's
from mom's class. So, she has to deal with the problem. Although mom's fine, she has to bear
some of the responsibility; her pay's been cut."
Lin Sheng nodded. "Don't worry about me, Sis. I'm fine."
"But why do you look so ill?" Lin Xiao was worried.
"Really?" Lin Sheng was stunned.
"Go see for yourself in the mirror." Lin Xiao released his shoulder helplessly.
Lin Sheng hurriedly left the kitchen and went into the bathroom.
He saw his face in the mirror as soon as he looked up. It was pale, and his lips were gray.
"Did you have insomnia last night? Why don't you go and sleep again?" Lin Xiao was heard
saying outside the bathroom.
Lin Sheng touched his lips; they were dry and starting to peel.
"I-I just had a nightmare last night. I'll be fine after a while." Lin Sheng played down her concern
because he did not want his family to worry about him even though the nightmare seemed real.
"Fine then. I've got stuff to do so I'm leaving now. When you get back from school, reheat the
food. Don't worry about me. Dad and Mom will be at Grandpa's place today. That means you'll
be alone. Don't forget the key when you go out."
"Got it," Lin Sheng calmly responded. He then heard the sound of the door closing, and the
house returned to silence.
Lin Sheng stood in front of the mirror alone, looking at his face. He suddenly had a gut feeling
that his nightmare would not simply go away. "I hope it's just an ordinary dream."
Lin Sheng exited the bathroom and walked into the living room, where there were two ¥100 bills
on a long wooden table. The green bills changed colors and had different lusters depending on
the viewing angle.
Lin Sheng reached out and took the money without a word. He would have to live on this money
for the next two months.
Previously, his pocket money was ¥100 a month with school-provided meals. Now, it was ¥200
for two months. That was ¥25 a week, and slightly over ¥3 a day.
"With only ¥3 a day, I must live frugally." Lin Sheng got to his feet and entered his room.
He then changed into his school uniform. On the left chest of his blue-and-white uniform was a
school badge with a rooster pattern and the word "Hui An."
Lin Sheng packed his school bag, changed into a pair of color-matching blue-and-white
sneakers, and hurried out the door.
He walked out of the housing area, passing by some vegetable sellers before hopping on an old
bus at the bus stop next to the neighborhood's gate.
The bus rocked all the way for more than ten minutes. He finally reached his destination,
squeezed himself out of the crowded bus, and ran straight into school. The school bell rang as
soon as he stepped into his classroom.
Most of his classmates were already there as the class was about to begin. The teacher had just
walked into the classroom and was getting his teaching materials ready.
Lin Sheng quickly walked to his seat and sat down. He looked up at the lectern.
The foreign language teacher adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and slowly flipped open the
teaching materials while he occasionally cast his eyes over the students, who subconsciously
behaved and remained in their seats. Lin Sheng was no exception.
Today, however, his elder sister's words kept ringing in his head. Lin Sheng reached for the
meager ¥200 in his pants pocket, feeling a little depressed.
His grandfather had a sudden cerebral infarction and needed to borrow money for treatment. Lin
Sheng's family had exhausted all savings, and his elder sister was forced to work as well as study
at the same time.
When that came to mind, Lin Sheng sighed softly. "It may be a difficult time, but it's not too
bad."
He snapped out of his daze, and suddenly, the nightmare from last night crossed his mind again.
That dream was so realistic.
The school bell rang, and Lin Sheng put the thought to the back of his mind. He took out the
textbook from his bag to concentrate on the lesson.
Yet, no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, the nightmare, his grandfather, who was about to
undergo surgery, and his family's financial situation kept creeping into his mind.
Each lesson came and went, and the final class was about to end.
"Lin Sheng, are you okay?" The girl sitting in the front row tapped Lin Sheng's table.
"I'm fine." Lin Sheng glanced up calmly.
The girl had a slightly oval and stretched fox-like face as well as slender eyes that did not fit the
attractive category. Her loose and puffy school uniform covered most of her body, and the only
striking feature about her was her fair skin.
Her name was Shen Yan, and she was one of Lin Sheng's few best friends in the temporary class.
Shen Yan often borrowed erasers, pencils, and similar stuff from him.
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong?" Shen Yan was somewhat boyish, and she liked anime.
She rarely mingled with girls, and most of her best friends were boys.
"Nothing." Lin Sheng shook his head.

Shen Yan reached out and patted Lin Sheng on the shoulder. "You look a mess today. I know
that there'll be a gymnastic session later. Let me bring you there to feast your eyes!"
Lin Sheng forced a smile.
"What's with that reaction? Don't you guys like to go to the gymnastic club to see chicks...
Ouch!" Before Shen Yan could finish her sentence, Lin Sheng pinched the back of her hand.
Then, Lin Sheng retracted his hand.
This best friend of his had a problem; she liked to swear.
"Lin Sheng, are you out of your mind? Look out, here's my Invincible Sacred Palm!" Shen Yan
got to her feet, and her hand went straight for Lin Sheng's face.
But Lin Sheng managed to grab a book and block her move.
She was too predictable and such a simple-minded crazy lass.
"Why do you treat me like this when I show you kindness by taking you to see the good stuff?"
Shen Yan did not back down. Instead, she continued her attack.
Unfortunately, Lin Sheng blocked her every move.
A few classmates looked on with interest and laughed.
The history teacher at the lectern was inured to the farce. He glanced at them, rubbed his bald
head, and pretended like he did not see anything.
They were in the last few months of their third year in high school. Most teachers would close an
eye and let the students have some fun as a reward for their hard work.
Soon, the sound of the bell rang in the air, and the class was over.
"Xiao Yan, are you going to look for the new cassette tape at noon?" A girl came up to Shen Yan
and whispered into her ear.
"Of course. Why not? I need one last tape to complete my collection of Zhang Enai. This time, I
have to get it…"
The two girls started jabbering.

Lin Sheng cast his eyes on the girl with Shen Yan.
The girl was wearing a school uniform, but it was paired with a pure-white denim skirt, under
which a pair of long legs were exposed. Her skirt barely covered half of her thighs.
While she had safety pants on, her long legs still attracted a lot of attention from the boys.
Lin Sheng was no exception, but he had pretty good self-control. He just took a glance and
looked away.
However, the more he refrained from looking, the more girls with long legs sashayed before him.
They sat with their legs crossed, sometimes wiggling around.
Their skin screamed of youthfulness under the sun. Their seductive curvy bodies and delicate
skin were arousing.
"An Ling! You crazy b*tch! How dare you grab my boobs!" Suddenly, Shen Yan screamed. She
jumped up and chased after the long-legged girl, who turned around and ran.
Laughter filled the air, but it also gave Lin Sheng a headache.
An Ling, nicknamed Coco, was a little beauty in their class. She always tied her hair in a
ponytail, and she had gifted breasts as well as a near-perfect body thanks to all-year-round
gymnastics practice. So, she was kind of a red-hot girl in their class. It was said that some boys
from inside and outside the class had fought each other over her.
"Boring." Lin Sheng shook his head, packed his books, and put them in the desk drawer before
he went to the cafeteria.
The food in the cafeteria was appetizing.
In a sea of relatively empty rows of metal tables and chairs, Lin Sheng sat and ate silently.
Scrambled egg with tomatoes and two taels of rice were all he had for lunch. It was simple yet
fragrant.
Lin Sheng kept a daily routine. He would go to class every day, and once he was home, he would
do his homework and revision of past-year exam papers until late at night before he hit the sack.
He would get up the next day and repeat the same routine.
His parents usually went to work early in the morning and came back late. His elder sister, who
was also a student, was about to return to her college soon. She came home only because her
grandfather was seriously ill.
"This is really boring." Lin Sheng scooped up a spoonful of rice and stuffed it in his mouth. His
gaze traveled as the students in the cafeteria came and went, but things were mostly
uninteresting.
Coming from an ordinary family, he had no super talents or extraordinary IQ and EQ. Even at
school, his academic performance was only average and unremarkable.
This was because he lacked passion. But it was also for this reason that he could remain calm no
matter what happened.
The second reason was that he was a weirdo who had awakened memories of his past life. Nearly
thirty years of past-life memories had made him almost nonchalant of his current life.
The college entrance examination in his past life was not much different than the current one. To
him, it was only a number game, and it was dull to go through everything again.
"The level of technology here is only similar to a newly-formed China. Cars, airplanes, and tech
gadgets have become common, but it's still a far cry from the most prosperous period of my past
life." Lin Sheng sighed quietly.
After tasting the convenience of mobile payment and fast internet, now he was back to an era
where computer games were still pretty primitive.
He was not in a good mood. Nonetheless, adaptability was his biggest strength.
After more than ten years, he had long become accustomed to the life of an ordinary student.
Lin Sheng knew well the concept of the tall poppy syndrome. That was why he never showed his
mature side because being able to live in peace was not a coincidence.

After spending a busy day in school, Lin Sheng declined Shen Yan's invitation to go snacking in
the afternoon.
It was not that he was not interested—he loved the food on the snack street near his school. But
he could only spend ¥3 a day; he could not be spendthrift. Therefore, he boarded the free shuttle
and went home.
Lin Sheng sat in a window seat, looking at the old streets that swiftly flew past him. The curvy
reliefs of flowers and birds on the edge of plaques and the corners of walls reminded him of his
nightmare from last night.
*Doo.*
"Next stop, Old Town Textile Factory." The female voice speaking standard Xilin dialect jolted
Lin Sheng out of his daze. He grabbed his grayish-white bag, got to his feet, and gave his seat to
an old lady who had just boarded the bus. Then he held the overhead handrail and moved slowly
through the crowded bus toward the exit.
"Stop pushing!"
"Young man, be careful! Don't piss people off."
"Ouch, my foot! You've stepped on my foot! Are you dreaming?"
People began to grumble and make noises like touch-activated toys.
Lin Sheng could not care less. He was 1.75 meters in height and possessed a body with healthy
muscles beneath his uniform. Besides his fair skin, he looked pretty ordinary.
The automatic door swung open with a hiss. Lin Sheng jumped off the bus, took a deep breath,
and looked back into the coach.
Seven to eight people boarded the bus that he had just gotten off. It was packed like a can of
sardines. The door slowly shut and the bus left the bus stop.
His home was just in the Huilian residential area, which was ten meters right of the bus stop. The
gate to the residential area was an iron arc, and on it, a sign that read "Huilian Neighborhood"
hung askew. Every day, vegetable sellers would bring vegetables in their bamboo baskets and
sell them on both sides of the gate. People would stop by and haggle with the sellers.
The temperature in the late afternoon had dropped to the mid-twenties on the Celsius scale,
which was not as hot as the temperature during midday.
Lin Sheng walked past the rusty red iron gates straight down the slope into the neighborhood and
came to the fifth block. He turned right into the stairwell of Block 11. There were advertisements
of every kind—locksmiths, plumbing, moving services, and what not—covering the walls of the
corridor.
Lin Sheng walked up the stairs and suddenly felt something slimy under his foot. He raised his
foot and found that he had stepped on ice cream with the white creamy stuff staining the sole of
his white sneakers.
He knitted his brows as he scraped the sticky stuff off his shoe on the staircase. He had barely
cleaned it up before he continued his climb.
Arriving on the third floor, Lin Sheng took out his key, deftly opened the security door of the
first unit on the left, and walked in.
"Dad," Lin Sheng stood at the doorway and called out. But there was no one at home. After he
changed into his slippers and closed the door behind him, Lin Sheng walked straight past the
living room into his bedroom.
In his room, he could not help but look at the desk, which reminded him of the figure who had
sat in the chair in his dream the previous night.
He remained silent as he walked over and gently pulled the chair out to sit on it. He snugged
down on the soft fabric cushion and the hard seatback.
Sitting down after a long day at school, he felt drowsy.
So, Lin Sheng got back up. He did not dare sleep at the table because the scene from last night's
nightmare made him uneasy.
He would usually take a short half-an-hour nap when he got home every afternoon. The
nightmare from the previous night may have been scary, but it was just a dream, Lin Sheng
thought.
He hesitated but still approached the bedside. He took off his school uniform, climbed into bed,
and pulled the quilt over his belly.
The red sunset outside the window spilled into the bedroom like blood, splashing on the desk and
floor tiles. In his stupor, Lin Sheng's consciousness slowly drifted away. He had no idea how
long he ended up sleeping.

A soft cry suddenly woke him from his slumber. It sounded like a woman was sobbing, or was
she singing? He was not sure.
Sadness, desperation, and shrill cries were accompanied by occasional rapid breathing.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes. Again, he was lying in bed, unable to move.
There she was. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the white figure at the desk. But unlike the
last time, the woman in white was moving her shoulders rapidly and sobbing softly, as though
she was in fear.
*Tack, tack.*
*Tack, tack.*
*Tack, tack.*
There were footsteps again.
Lin Sheng could feel someone approaching from the corridor. The person was coming through
the living room toward his bedroom, and the footsteps were growing clearer as well as more
thunderous.
Meanwhile, the woman at the desk sobbed even louder, and her shoulders twitched even faster. It
was as if she was about to get up and run.
The footsteps were now very close. When the door slowly swung open with a click, Lin Sheng's
blood ran cold.
There was silence for a while.
Suddenly, someone lifted the quilt.
Lin Sheng's body felt numb. His eyes were wide open, and his pupils contracted.
Before he knew it, his quilt was tossed away and a figure pounced on him.
"Aah!"
Lin Sheng screamed and jolted up from his bed with his head in a muddle.
He panted. His body and T-shirt were soaked in sweat.
"I... I..." He wanted to say something but could not utter a word.
His mind went blank.
Lin Sheng sat motionless in bed for ten minutes.
He calmed his breathing until his heartbeat slowed down, no longer thumping like a drum. He
then looked around.
There was nothing unusual in his bedroom, only the faint glow of the silvery moonlight scattered
through the window.
Lin Sheng wiped the sweat off his forehead. Even his hands were wet with sweat.
"Hell, I even dreamt of that thing during a short nap." He slowly leaned against the headboard
and took a deep breath.
"It was the same dream, but this time, it was closer." The dream gave him the heebie-jeebies.
Nevertheless, he quickly calmed the rapid thumping of his heartbeat.

"Fear isn't going to solve anything. I have to keep calm."
Lin Sheng knew that since he was little. The more panicked he was, the more likely he would
make mistakes, wasting time and energy.
It was only by calming down that he could quickly find the solution to a problem.
Lin Sheng took a deep breath while he leaned on the bed to calm his pounding heart.
About five minutes later, his mind was clear, and his emotions returned to normal.
"It gets closer with each dream. At first, the footsteps were only outside the door. Now, it has
entered the room, and the entity even flipped over my quilt!" Lin Sheng's intuition told him that
it was some kind of sign.
He had the feeling that if he allowed the owner of the footsteps to flip his quilt over and grab
him, something unimaginable would happen.
He had a hunch that it was a bad omen.
"I have to think of something should the same dream occur again." Lin Sheng decided. When
memories from his past life could even be awakened, anything was possible.
Just as Lin Sheng had anticipated, on the third day, he experienced the same nightmare again,
and this time, it happened in the middle of the night.
After having supper with his dad, Lin Sheng went back to his bedroom and hit the sack. Ten
minutes into his sleep, he dreamt again.
The footsteps outside the door were approaching quicker than the last time.
However, it seemed as if he was prepared for it; Lin Sheng woke up before the person who made
the footsteps opened the door.
The encounter this time confirmed his suspicions that it was not a fortuitous phenomenon. The
nightmare had to have some hidden meanings that he was unaware of, just like the past-life
memories that he had awakened for no reason.
In the days that followed, the nightmare still arrived on schedule as soon as Lin Sheng fell
asleep. He tried to take control of his body in his dream but it was to no avail.
Every time, the same fear struck him. In the dream, the woman in white who sat silently at the
table always maintained the same posture. She would twitch and sob in a strange manner, while
the footsteps came from the same direction in the corridor.
So, Lin Sheng used an alarm clock to wake himself up in advance to avoid accidents.
The loud alarm would go off each instance and wake him up just as the footsteps entered through
the doorway.
It was a precautionary measure that he had put in place...
And things went on this way for two weeks.
"My calculations show that since the third dream, the overall length of the dream is about thirty-
five minutes."
"There are fluctuations in the fourth to the seventh dream, all within the five-minute range. This
shows that the dream isn't long."
It was nighttime, and Lin Sheng was sitting in front of the desk lamp, carefully checking the
dream data that he had recorded.
"I should probably just take the average, then I'll have the approximate length of the dream."
The length started from the beginning of the dream to when the footsteps entered the room. Lin
Sheng obtained the data from his previous two dreams.
Spinning a pencil in his hand, Lin Sheng's face was calm. Had it not been for the sweat on his
forehead, he would not have believed that he had just experienced the same nightmare.
"What I need to do next is regain control of my body before the footsteps come through the
door."
Lin Sheng knew himself well. He was not a school bully or a genius. He only had one strength—
calmness. So, only by taking advantage of that strength could he win the tug of war with the
nightmare.

Although he had no idea what victory would mean to him, his physical instincts warned him that
he could not let the maker of those footsteps catch him...
Absolutely not.
Lin Sheng began to write, jotting down several points of data in his notebook. Then he closed it,
got to his feet, and looked out the window into the distance.
The moonlight was gentle, but he felt a chill. Lin Sheng turned around and was about to get into
bed but hesitated all of a sudden. "Bah, I think I'd better not sleep."
He remained silent for a while before he stood up again because as soon as he fell asleep, he
would face the same nightmare again, and the experience had made him begun to shun the bed.
But it was not a solution. Not sleeping would take a toll on his health.
Silently, he picked up his wind-up alarm clock, carefully set the time, and fell back in bed with
his clothes still on.
In the eyes of ordinary people, the bed was a warm and cozy place, but for Lin Sheng, he felt like
he was on hot bricks. He still had the nightmare, though with the alarm clock going off seven
times during the night, he finally made it to dawn without incident.
...
"What have you been doing lately?" Shen Yan looked at Lin Sheng in horror. The calm and
healthy friend of hers now looked pale with ugly dark circles. "You look as white as a sheet.
Young man, you need to learn some self-discipline," Shen Yan said, shooting out her mouth.
Lin Sheng yawned helplessly. Despite sitting in the noisy classroom, he was extremely sleepy
and about to doze off. The noise around him seemed to be muffled by a thick layer of soundproof
fabric; it did not bother him at all.
"I haven't been sleeping well for the past few days," Lin Sheng said.
"Did you have a wet dream?" Shen Yan got closer with a perverted look on her face.
"Get lost! It was a nightmare." Lin Sheng sounded dejected.
"A nightmare managed to turn you into this?" Shen Yan was dejected too.
"The nightmare's been repeating itself," Lin Sheng said in a whisper. There was nothing secretive
about it because many people had the same experience. It was just that their situations were not
as bad as his.
"You've been experiencing the same nightmare? Then you should go online and check it out. It's
said that some people can control their dreams freely and turn nightmares into sweet dreams. It
seems magical," Shen Yan said after some thought.
"Really?" Lin Sheng had checked, but he could not verify its authenticity.
"Really. I've had nightmares before. You shouldn't read horror stories before you go to bed, and
you mustn't have fear in your heart. Otherwise, you'll surely have nightmares," Shen Yan said.
"Is that so?" Lin Sheng nodded.
He had also checked those claims, but he could not verify them.
"You'd better believe it. I used to have nightmares, but after I discovered this method, I never
had a nightmare again. You dream what you scheme," Shen Yan said.
"Really?" Lin Sheng blinked and said nothing more.
"You look so dead. Do you want me to take you to the gymnasium afterward?" Shen Yan
became perverted again.
"Forget it."
"Tsk-tsk. Now, not even the gymnastic suits and long silky legs can evoke your interest?" Shen
Yan sighed.
"I just want to have some good sleep now." Lin Sheng felt helpless.
Lin Sheng got home after school in the afternoon and was surprised to see his parents at home.
His mom, Gu Wanqiu, was cooking in the kitchen, and his dad, Lin Zhounian, was sitting in the
living room reading the paper. His elder sister, Lin Xiao, was not there as she had returned to
college.
Seeing Lin Sheng arrive home, his dad put down the paper and looked at him worriedly. "Why
have you been looking so pale lately? Are you sick? Son, never underestimate the slightest
illness. Some illnesses can kill."
"I'm fine, Dad," Lin Sheng changed into his slippers. "It's just that I haven't gotten enough sleep
recently."
"You'd better be. Son—"
Before his dad could finish, Lin Sheng dropped his bag and entered his room. The door was
slammed shut with a bang. Then, there was silence.
"This kid…" Lin Zhounian looked at his wife, who had come out to see what was happening.
The two of them looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces.
"Dad's still ill. We mustn't let anything happen to our two children," Gu Wanqiu said.
"I'll keep an eye on them, don't worry. Now, go and make dinner." Lin Zhounian waved at her.
While lying in bed on a moonlit night, Lin Sheng's body was immobilized, and his limbs were
frozen. The only parts of his body that he could barely move were his fingers and brain. That was
also partially due to his hard work for the past few days.
*Tack, tack, tack.*

The footsteps came again.
Lin Sheng was calm as he tried to clear his mind. After experiencing the same nightmare so
many times, he knew he could not go on like that anymore because two weeks without sleep had
taken a toll on his health and life.
"Lin Sheng."
Suddenly, Lin Sheng heard a voice calling him, and his expression froze.
"Lin Sheng."
The voice seemed to be floating from a distant void, and it sounded sorrowful. But Lin Sheng
was only in a bedroom of less than six square meters.
"Lin Sheng." The voice rang out again.
Lin Sheng gritted his teeth, trying to stabilize his accelerating heartbeat. After his previous
experiences, he had noticed a pattern. Whenever he was in a panic, the footsteps would pick up
the pace and get closer, making him lose control of his body.
"Don't be afraid," Lin Sheng told himself. He turned and looked at the woman in white who was
sitting in front of the desk on his left. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened
his eyes again and saw a woman with a pale complexion right in front of his face, almost
touching his nose. They were less than a palm apart from each other. The woman's eyes were
wide open as if she had seen something terrifying.
Suddenly, a light flashed across his eyes. When Lin Sheng could see again, the woman's face
was gone, and the woman in white was still sitting motionless at the desk with her back facing
him. He trembled, trying to control his body.
*Tack, tack, tack.*
The footsteps were getting closer and closer.
"Lin Sheng." The call was also getting closer and closer, and the bedroom door slowly opened
with a click.
Lin Sheng struggled to rein in his body and emotions.
*Tack, tack, tack.*
The footsteps were closing the gap between them, slowly entering his bedroom and stopping at
the tail end of his bed.
Lin Sheng could clearly feel that someone was staring at him with a mysterious smile. It was
cold and lifeless. Somehow, he suddenly sensed a pair of hands slowly reaching for his quilt.
"Lin Sheng!" A sudden scream rang in Lin Sheng's ears, and his entire body felt numb.
"Let's perish together!"
Lin Sheng had no time to think. The color drained from his face, and with all his might, he flung
his quilt away, got up, and reached out to catch the person at the tail end of his bed.
"Aah!" There was a shrill cry.
Lin Sheng felt the world spin around him, and he could not see anything. He seemed to have hit
something yet caught nothing. Huffing slowly, Lin Sheng regained his vision after some time but
had no idea how much time had passed. He only found himself out of bed and standing at the
desk with his right hand firmly on the woman in white's right shoulder.
In a split second, the woman in white, whose back was facing him, shriveled instantly like a
leaky balloon and disappeared. Only her white dress was left on the chair.
Lin Sheng was rooted to the spot. He looked down, trying to examine the dress, which quickly
melted like white wax and disappeared altogether in a matter of seconds.
"I've succeeded!" Lin Sheng felt a sense of relief. Gasping and looking around, he found himself
still in his bedroom, but there was something amiss; except for the desk, bed, floor, ceiling, and
chandelier, the other details in his room were blurry. Lin Sheng reached out to touch the chair,
but he could not feel it, as though he was wearing thick gloves.
"Am I still in the dream?" Lin Sheng suddenly came to his senses. He had studied the way to
determine whether one was still in a dream, and one of the methods was to look at the
surrounding details.
Thinking for a moment, Lin Sheng bent over and carefully examined the texture of the wooden
chair. The curved texture and pattern on the black wooden chair did not look like wood grain at
all but more like the painting of some strange animal. Lin Sheng found it familiar but could not
identify its name.
"It appears that I really am in a dream." Lin Sheng was excited and was no longer in fear. He
could still move about freely. The bedroom, bookcase, bed, desk, and wooden chair were the
same as they were in reality, except the details of some corners were fuzzy like a mosaic.
Calming himself down, Lin Sheng slowly shifted his eyes to the tail end of the bed, where the
person who made the footsteps stood earlier but had now left.
Lin Sheng looked through the open door and noticed that the narrow corridor was bathed in a
dim red glow. He paused before he slowly moved to open the door.
Stepping out into the corridor felt like walking on cotton; he could not feel the floor. Lin Sheng
was aware that he was in the hallway of his home, but there was the illusion of walking on a soft
and fluffy carpet.
Through the glass window on the left side of the corridor, Lin Sheng saw something dark red
flowing slowly and quietly like thick liquid outside. He went on to touch it but felt nothing. "It
must be the special nature of dreams. I still remember the lack of the sense of touch in my
previous dreams." The thought crossed Lin Sheng's mind, but he did not stop. Instead, he
retracted his hand and continued to walk down the corridor.
His home in the dream was the same as it was in reality—the design and layout were all the
same. The corridor was only a dozen meters long, and at the end of it, the kitchen was on the left,
while the living room was on the right. When Lin Sheng got in between the kitchen and the
living room, he peeked around.
"Where should I go?" A blanket of fog seemed to be clouding his consciousness in the dream. He
had a feeling that he needed to focus his mind on remaining in the dream. Otherwise, he would
wake up immediately.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Lin Sheng went left, where the kitchen was. He wanted to
check if the food he had eaten and the dishes during the day were still there. His family members
would usually leave the leftovers on the table and cover them with a fly-proof food cover.
He gently pushed the door open and was startled. The sink, dining table, and chopping board
were all in their respective positions. The white tiles on the wall, the black and white lattice tiles
on the floor, and the freshly bought vegetables in the corner of the kitchen were all there. A few
red carrots were strewn around the grocery bag, a head of cabbage still had dew on its leaves,
and there were two tomatoes as round and big as apples. Those tomatoes were supposedly a new
variety that was more nutritious.
"Things are the same as they are in reality, but what is this?" Lin Sheng cautiously maneuvered
past the groceries. His eyes landed on a crack in the wall on the right side of the kitchen. The
crack, which looked like a passageway, should not have existed there. It was over one meter in
height and half a meter in width with black mist rolling within.
Lin Sheng stood motionless in front of the passage and saw that the kitchen was occasionally
distorted like a shifting phantom. He had no idea how long he had been standing there—probably
ten or twenty seconds. He had no perception of time in his dreams.
"This crack must have something to do with my previous nightmare," Lin Sheng speculated.
"The air here is the same as the air in my nightmare before this; I can definitely feel it!" As Lin
Sheng slowly inched closer to the passage, he could already feel a chill and stiffness spreading
across the part of his skin that faced the fissure. It felt just like the previous nightmare.
"I have to go in and check it out." Lin Sheng paused before he made up his mind. Since it was
just a dream, he knew that he would not die for real. Hence, curiosity finally took over his fear.
He calmed down for a while, then slowly stepped into the crack.
Lin Sheng felt as though he had jumped into a pool of icy water the moment he poked his head
in. It was pitch dark, and he heard the whining of the wind. Not even three seconds in the crack,
a light suddenly flashed before Lin Sheng's eyes, and the chill in his body slowly subsided. It
was still cold but more bearable.
When his eyes finally adapted, a European-style living room comprised of grayish-black stones
appeared before him. He found himself standing directly on one end of the rectangular living
room. On his left were a fireplace and an old brownish-red stove with the bust of a solemn curly-
haired man. Lin Sheng could not help but reach for the sculpture, which felt solid, cold, and
smooth to the touch. He was stunned and quickly pulled back his fingers.
"The feeling is much, much stronger this time... Just like the real thing." With that in mind, Lin
Sheng quickly looked back over his shoulder. The crack in the wall, from which he had passed
through, was now shrinking and disappearing rapidly.
There was still a faint light leaking through the cracks from the kitchen. Before Lin Sheng knew
what was happening, the crack suddenly decreased in size at an even faster rate and was
completely gone in the blink of an eye. Seeing what was happening, Lin Sheng was rooted to the
spot. He knew that he was in a dream, but…
He looked down and noticed that a dark gaseous substance in his surroundings had begun to
permeate his skin and seep into his body. It was as if the place was accepting and infecting him.
There was an unexplainable sense of security, which made him feel that he could stay a little
longer.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Lin Sheng started to look around the place.
There was a large dining table covered with an eye-catching white cloth that had turned grayish,
old, and tattered with dark red stains at the center of the hall.
The floor, which was black with yellow patterns, was made of unknown cold hard stones.
Overhead, a black petal-shaped candle holder hung from the yellow ceiling, and on it were
sixteen unlit white candles of different lengths also arranged in a petal pattern.
There was a large rectangular window on one side of the hall, while various oil paintings were on
the opposite pale-yellow wall.
Lin Sheng paused for a while before he headed toward the big window first.
At the window, he slowly drew the grayish-black curtains aside and looked out through the
square window pane. The scene outside was gray and gloomy with a few shadows of bare trees
swaying in the wind. Other than that, there was nothing but darkness beyond the wall.

Lin Sheng closed the curtains. He quietly turned to walk toward the other wall where there were
many oil paintings, but all Lin Sheng saw were fuzzy images. He could barely distinguish
portrait from landscape paintings.
"It's not much different from the previous dream... All details appear blurry." Lin Sheng was
calm as the sense of familiarity in the dream made him less nervous. He reached out to touch the
oil paintings. Like before, he could not feel them as if his hand was wrapped in thick cotton
cloth. Lin Sheng was very patient, though. He examined each and every oil painting. Only then
did he step back and look in the direction of the exit. There was a wooden door in the corner of
the hall, and it opened to other rooms.
Lin Sheng continued to walk, increasing his pace. Once he was at the wooden door, he put his
hand on the doorknob, which was in the shape of a horse head, and gently turned it. As the door
softly creaked open, he slowly stepped into the adjacent room.
A dark curtain with printed patterns hung from above the doorway. Lin Sheng drew the curtain
to both sides and finally saw the interior. He was greeted by two dark red bookshelves that faced
the door, and they were filled with neatly arranged books.
"It's a study room," Lin Sheng inferred. He paused, stopping short of going in farther. His past
experience told him that the text in the books would be illegible. Thus, he thought that he had
better explore other places.
Lin Sheng turned and went back to the hall, where he wandered around and quickly found
another door. He stepped through it and came upon a bedroom. He hung around for a while and
went back out when he found nothing.
In the corner of the hall, he soon discovered a basement under the floor where a massive amount
of wine bottles and a large dark red wine barrel were stored. The cellar was filled with the
fragrance of wine. Lin Sheng mooched around in the basement and began to figure out what kind
of place it was. "This is an old European manor."
Lin Sheng resurfaced to the hall when he felt that he was about to wake up. People in dreams
could always tell when they were about to wake up. "I better make use of this last moment to
check out the study room."
He wasted no time and ran straight toward the study room. Once in the room, Lin Sheng first saw
a low mahogany table at the center and a stack of gray-covered books on it. Next to the pile of
books was a silvery-gray candlestick, and next to that was an opened book. He curiously went up
to check it out. The texts in the books were written in a small font, but they were clear enough. In
spite of that, he had no idea what the words meant.
"Why is it that the writings are so clear?" Lin Sheng wondered. He ignored the books and set his
eyes on the other bookshelves, which were filled with various books. Picking up a book and
opening it, Lin Sheng saw that it was also written in the same kind of language in a small font.
"This doesn't look like Xilin but more like ancient Rehn." Lin Sheng frowned. He remembered
seeing ancient books with such writing on TV. Ancient Rehn, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, and
ancient Xiguang were the four oldest writing systems. Lin Sheng had read about the origin of
these writing systems in the many extracurricular books in his junior high school. Among the
four ancient writing systems, hieroglyphics and ancient Rehn were the most readily identifiable
and distinct. That was why he recognized it immediately.
"This is funny. Now I'm even dreaming of ancient Rehn," Lin Sheng said to himself as he
carefully browsed through the book in his hand. What was even more surprising was that he
found a new sense of unfamiliarity in the book's content, graphics, and text.
"Supposedly, what I see in dreams, however strange they are, should be familiar. But this
unfamiliarity…" Lin Sheng felt that something was wrong. Just as he decided to copy a
paragraph of the text and study it after he woke up, sudden vertigo struck him.
"It's time." He knew it.
The nascent ray of the morning sun came through the window and landed on the desk, creating a
pale-yellow reflection.
Lin Sheng was lying silently on his bed with open eyes and a calm expression. There was only a
hint of regret in his pupils.
"No way!" Lin Sheng jumped up abruptly, throwing the quilt aside to get out of bed. He
approached the desk and pulled the drawer open, taking out a pen. A moment of rustling later, he
had written down a row of text on a white sheet of paper. It was a line of ancient Rehn text.
Lin Sheng scrutinized the text, which he had written down from his memory of his dream. The
black Rehn text looked like a row of shredded metal—sharp and disorganized yet neatly
arranged in a line. It looked like debris, which was the most typical feature of ancient Rehn
writing. That was also the reason why Lin Sheng could point out its characteristics instantly.

"Interesting." Lin Sheng smacked. He was in a profession that required a sharp perception of
texts in his past life. Right now, the unknown language had reignited his long-lost passion.
"I can't believe I've managed to copy the Rehn text from my dream. And it looks authentic." Lin
Sheng scratched his chin as old habits died hard. He wanted to translate it.
"This Rehn text... Translating it is not difficult; I can check the words one by one online. Others
may not be able to do it, but I've been studying ancient languages for six years. It's really not a
challenge." Lin Sheng was focused. He folded the paper carefully and kept it secure.
"This is the first time I've come across this language. I never thought it would appear in a dream.
I just hope that the translated text won't be a bunch of garbled characters." He was curious about
what the Rehn text meant.
Lin Sheng securely tucked the paper away, then got to his feet and put on his clothes. His daily
routine started all over again.
After breakfast, he changed into his school uniform and hit the road with his school bag on his
back. He soon hopped on the bus that carried him to school.
At school, the day went by uneventfully. There was a short break in between lessons, and after
lunch, there were more classes.
It was business as usual after school in the afternoon. Lin Sheng concentrated on revisions to
prepare for the next weekly test. He would only study the Rehn text, dismantle each word, and
look it up online during his free time.
"There's a mobile book fair. Do you want to go and have a look? I heard it's a big one with many
booksellers." The class was just over when Shen Yan turned and whispered to him.
"Mobile book fair?" Lin Sheng began to recall what it was. It consisted of a group of booksellers
who bought and sold old books. They were basically selling second-hand books. Before the
internet became prevalent, book-hunting was one of the few popular student hobbies.
"Let's go together. Maybe you can find something interesting," Shen Yan invited him. It
appeared that she was the most eager to go.
"I'm not going. I'm penniless," Lin Sheng said.
"Don't you have several hundred yuan? I saw the money yesterday. You have it in your pocket."
Shen Yan smiled slyly.
"I have to live on that money for quite some time."
"Don't miss out on this opportunity. Are you sure you don't want to go? Maybe you'll find some
good stuff for a bargain." Shen Yan made a face at Lin Sheng, her smile was ambivalent.
Lin Sheng was impassive. "I really have no money."
"It's just a few yuan a copy, and we can share it equally," Shen Yan got closer and said in a low
voice.
Lin Sheng understood what she was talking about. The so-called "a few yuan a copy" referred to
the most popular publications—the adult magazines. The magazines, which had photos of
handsome men and pretty women on the cover, were stuffed with erotic content. A copy of such
a magazine was usually sold at ¥4, which was the standard price. But the content varied from
magazine to magazine. Shen Yan was a girl, but she liked to buy them in secret.
"What do you think? These magazines will be our common property. And we'll take turns
reading them. After that, we can rent them out for fifty cents a day," Shen Yan said.
"...I'm not interested." Lin Sheng remained silent for a while before he managed those words.
"Wee!" Shen Yan looked at him and smiled. "We'll meet at the school gate later."
Shen Yan turned around and packed up her things. She never regarded herself as a girl. Her
relationship with Lin Sheng was like that of buddies. She was tomboyish, and she got along well
with boys. As a result, it gave the impression that she was just like an ordinary boy. Had it not
been for her growing breasts and butt, which always reminded others that she was a girl, Lin
Sheng would have treated her as a boy. After all, why on earth would a girl bring a boy to buy
adult magazines?
Lin Sheng was speechless. Shen Yan would be treated like a creep even in the society of his past
life, let alone the present one. Lin Sheng wanted to decline her invitation since he was trying to
focus all his energy into the texts that he had memorized from his dream. Curiosity was driving
him to translate the book as soon as possible.
"Why not. The second-hand bookstalls used to sell pirated copies of the Rehn language
dictionary. That would be a bargain and should be good enough for my purpose." With that
thought in mind, Lin Sheng's interest grew.
While he quickly packed his things, two students from another class came over to borrow study
notes from Shen Yan. So, Shen Yan asked Lin Sheng to wait for her at the school gate.
Lin Sheng carried his bag and stood at the school gate as groups of students in blue and white
school uniforms left their classes and walked out of the school. The golden ray of the sunset dyed
the students a shade of pale red. There were also loud shouts coming from the school field
nearby, where students were playing soccer. Some students rang the bell of their bicycles as they
rode past him. He stood on one side of the iron gate and took a deep breath. The mild weather
gave him the feeling that oxygen had displaced all of the carbon dioxide in his lungs.
"Let's go!" Shen Yan suddenly appeared out of nowhere and patted him on the shoulder. The girl
had tied her hair into a ponytail, and it dangled freely from the back of her head. She peeked over
her left and right side with a wicked smile.
"I brought a dark-colored bag today. We can buy more when we get there," Shen Yan said.
Lin Sheng wanted to tell her that he was not interested and would rather go home to translate the
text, but he did not want to pour cold water on Shen Yan's enthusiasm. Therefore, he paused,
stopping short of speaking his mind.
"I wanted to bring Ali along, but she has thin skin," Shen Yan said. It was not so much that Ali
had thin skin. She was actually too embarrassed to tag along because there was a boy following
them. Lin Sheng also knew Ali. She was Shen Yan's bestie and her only close friend in the class.
However, Ali was not that close to Lin Sheng.
While they were on their way, the two did not talk much. They walked along the roadside and
passed two street corners to arrive at an alley in the old section of the town. The lane, packed
with bookstalls, was only two hundred meters away from their school.
At dusk, there were more than a dozen bookstalls in the alley.
Some vendors laid their books on a rag above a plastic sheet on the ground, while some had
mobile carts selling pirated books, cassette tapes, CDs, and so on. They sold mini radios too.
The sky had not turned completely dark, but there were already patrons like Lin Sheng and
Sheng Yan hanging around in the alley. There were not many people yet, nonetheless, the
atmosphere was pretty lively. People just liked to spend time there, and they never thought of
leaving. Some even squatted and read books in front of the bookstalls.
There was only a single light source, which was a high-powered light bulb without a lampshade,
above the alley. The light bulb appeared to have 100 watts of output as it illuminated the entire
place.
Shen Yan enthusiastically maneuvered past the small crowd and came before the first bookstand.

She was a veteran. Knowing that bookstalls usually did not display the adult magazines in
prominent places, she immediately locked on to the hidden spots where the vendors kept their
adult materials.
Lin Sheng left her alone and went to search for dictionaries.
While he was still at the first bookstall, Shen Yan had already moved on to the third. Despite
that, Lin Sheng was not in a hurry. He searched carefully, and when he did not find the Rehn
dictionary he wanted, he moved on to the next stall.
Lin Sheng vaguely remembered that the stalls there had it. The translation dictionaries may have
been pirated copies, but they would save him a lot of money.
So, he went to stall after stall and soon reached the fourth one. In a pile of books on the floor, Lin
Sheng found what he wanted: a Rehn dictionary.
"How much is this?" Lin Sheng squatted down and pulled out the dictionary from the pile of old
books.
"Fifteen. No bargaining." It seemed that the stall owner with square glasses and a gray fabric
mask did not want people to see his face.
"The texts are blurry. I'll buy it for ¥5," Lin Sheng counteroffered.
"You can't get it for ¥5. At least ¥10, kid. You seem to be a regular here, you should know the
price," the stall owner said.
"Ten?" Lin Sheng shook his head and got to his feet, pretending to leave.
"All right, all right, five then. Take it." The stall owner accepted the counteroffer.
"Here you go." Lin Sheng quickly took out the small bills from his pocket and paid the stall
owner ¥5.
Picking up the dictionary, he checked it thoroughly. The printing was clear. It was an excellent
reproduction and was as thick as a brick. A pirated book like that usually fetched around ¥20.
After all, genuine ones were sold at about ¥40. He got it for so cheap only because it was not
popular. Not many people looked for Rehn dictionaries. It was also the only Rehn dictionary in
the stall. Plus, the crux of the matter was, the pages were about to fall apart since the binding was
about to give way.
"It doesn't matter.
"As long as it's useable," Lin Sheng said to himself. He could not wait to go home to begin
translating the text. The ¥5 he spent was way more than his daily budget; he would have to be
extra frugal from then on. After spending his money on a piece of scrap like that, he was having
a headache. But if he could restore it, who knows, it might even appreciate in value.
Soon, Shen Yan came up to Lin Sheng with a bag load of books in her hands.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"I've bought a dictionary." Lin Sheng waved the dictionary in his hand. Its red cover and white
spine were in stark contrast to the adult materials in Shen Yan's bag.
"This is…" Shen Yan stared at Lin Sheng with a distorted face as if she was meeting him for the
first time.
"If there's nothing else, let's go home," Lin Sheng said.
"Nice guise!" Shen Yan's mouth twitched. However, she knew Lin Sheng well; he had always
been that way. It was one of the reasons why she liked to bring Lin Sheng along as her cover.
"Look, I bought three at ¥4 each, totaling to ¥12. Let's divide the cost equally. All you need to
pay me is ¥6," Shen Yan said in a whisper.
"I have no money," Lin Sheng said. He used to buy and rent these adult materials out for a little
money. After all, most students in the school were not willing to spend money on such things
because they were nice to read but difficult to hide.
Hence, people rented them for a few cents—they did not have to worry about where to hide the
magazines, and it cost much less. Also, when there was not much to see and they got bored with
the magazine, they could rent a different one.
Another reason why Shen Yan brought Lin Sheng along was that she was a girl; she needed Lin
Sheng to be her frontman in the book-renting business.
"If you're not paying, the renting part…" Shen Yan was in a pickle.
"You can rent it to girls," Lin Sheng said.
"Boys are more willing to part with their money for this!" Lin Sheng had always been her
cooperative business partner until now when he suddenly changed. So, Shen Yan was upset.
"You can resell them. I've been having some other stuff recently, and I don't have time for this."
Lin Sheng did not want to continue the book-renting business. It would have still been acceptable
to him had it been regular books, but adult magazines were too low-class.
"Are you sure you don't want to continue? It could earn you a few bucks a day," Shen Yan said.
"I don't want to carry on." Lin Sheng shook his head. "You're a girl, it doesn't look good on you.
Just stop doing it for now."
"Aren't we partners?" Shen Yan felt helpless.
"I can help you get Yao Daiyu's help," Lin Sheng said.
Yao Daiyu was a student from another class, who also ran a book-renting business that included
adult materials. He would be happy to take in the magazines on a consignment basis. After all, he
had nothing to lose, and it also saved him the hassle of sourcing for books.
"Fine." Shen Yan was still reluctant.
Lin Sheng looked at her and knew that she was not happy. But he could do nothing because she
would not listen to him. Even though they were best friends, he had said everything he needed to
say. The ball was now in her court.
The two parted ways at the alley and went home separately.
Once he arrived home, Lin Sheng saw the note that his parents left him, saying that they had
gone to the hospital to take care of Grandpa. They left two dishes of food—a plate of scrambled
eggs with cucumber and a plate of red pepper shredded pork—which had turned cold on the
kitchen table.
Lin Sheng reheated the rice and quickly ate it with the cold dishes. Then he rushed into his
bedroom with the dictionary to begin studying the text that he had memorized from his dream.
...
His bedroom was both a sleeping place and a study room.

It was nightfall, and Lin Sheng turned on the desk lamp to continue working on the Rehn text,
word by word, under the yellowish light.
About half an hour later...
"Interesting!" Referring to the basic grammar rules found in the dictionary, Lin Sheng had
quickly translated the two phrases on the cover of the book.
"It really is standard Rehn text! I've never seen this language before. Other than a little
exaggeration in style, the two phrases are actually correct!"
Lin Sheng stared at the two phrases in front of him and was momentarily at a lost for words.
"So, the meaning of these two phrases should be…" Lin Sheng slowly wrote down the translated
words, one at a time.
Sharp object. Long sword. Method. Note. Handbook.
"When reading them together in a sentence, it means 'The Handbook of Swordsmanship'?" Lin
Sheng's eyes were wide open when he finally figured it out.
He had translated the Rehn text word by word, and the basic grammar of the language was not
complicated. Often times, a letter may contain several meanings, but when the different letters
were connected together, the result made Lin Sheng's jaw drop.
Under the desk light, Lin Sheng was immersed in studying the text that he had just translated.
He repeatedly checked the words using the dictionary to see if he had made any mistakes, and
after three rounds of verification, Lin Sheng was pretty sure that his translation was correct.
"If it's really a handbook of swordsmanship, then the book I saw in the dream..." Lin Sheng was
in disbelief as he remembered that nothing was repetitive despite the vast amount of text in the
book.
If those writings were authentic…

A strong sense of curiosity rose within him.
"How could it be? It was just a dream!" Lin Sheng smacked and lowered his head to continue
translating the last line of the text that he had memorized and written down. The first line was on
the front cover, and the last line was on the lower right corner of the back cover. He was initially
not sure what they were about. However, with the help of the dictionary, he quickly finished
translating the remaining words.
Fortunately, the Rehn writing system was not difficult to learn, and there were many experts of
the language in the country. Lin Sheng was glad that he had bought the dictionary.
After he was done with the translation, he picked up the note, waved it a little, and put it back
down on the table. His expression changed.
"What is this?" Lin Sheng looked perplexed. By now, he was dead sure that his dreams had gone
wrong. The black text on the white paper clearly read Class II Swordsman. Ravel's Handbook.
"Class II Swordsman?" Lin Sheng had found something life-changing. He remained silent for a
while before he scrunched up the paper and went to open the door.
The living room was dark; his parents were not home yet. He took a deep breath, walked quickly
into the kitchen, and wet the crumpled paper under the faucet.
Lin Sheng watched as the writings on the crumpled paper blurred and faded quickly under the
running water. When the writings finally turned into faint patches of black ink, he tossed the wet
paper into the trash can, dried his hands, and left the kitchen to return to his bedroom.
Without cleaning himself up, Lin Sheng took off his clothes and socks, then got into bed.
He could not wait to reenter the dream from the day before so that he could obtain a little more
content and see if the book was truly readable.
He wondered if he could still access his previous nightmare.
"I hope I can still dream about it." Lin Sheng was looking forward to it.
Without the feeling of fear this time, he closed his eyes. He regulated his breathing and emptied
his mind.
Time then ticked away.
Lin Sheng's consciousness gradually blurred. In a trance, he seemed to hear the sound of the
security door unlocking in the living room and someone walking in.
The person did not utter a word, and there was no other sound. Soon, footsteps were heard
coming from the corridor, and his bedroom door was pushed open. Lin Sheng could clearly feel
that someone was standing at the doorway, peering at him.
"Is that Dad or Mom?" Lin Sheng speculated. But he did not even know when the person left
because he quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Lin Sheng stood quietly in the gloomy manor's hall, next to the fireplace with a bust. In front of
the fireplace was a rectangular dining table covered with a tattered tablecloth. He slowly opened
his eyes and looked around.
"Am I really back?" Lin Sheng found it incredible. He thought that he would experience his
previous nightmare again, and he was prepared to confront it. But to his surprise, he had come to
this place instead.
"Where is this place?" Lin Sheng searched his memories but did not find anything reminiscent of
the manor.
"The scenes in dreams are supposedly places that I've seen before. Most of the time, it would be
familiar scenery, people, and things. But I have no idea what this place is." Lin Sheng knitted his
brows together, looking down at the long gray underwear that he had worn to bed.
"Even the loose thread isn't here?" Lin Sheng raised his right hand, where there used to be a
loose thread hanging from his sleeve near the elbow.
Pausing for a moment, he then walked straight toward the study room. He had checked the other
places in the manor, and now, the study room, specifically the opened book on the table, was the
only thing that interested him.
Lin Sheng twisted the doorknob and reentered the study room, which he had previously left.
The room layout was still the same as before; there were two mahogany bookshelves filled with
books, a stack of books on a low wooden table, a candlestick, and a large opened book.
Lin Sheng walked up to the low table. Sitting down, he carefully looked at the content of the
book—the dense text and graphics were clear.

"So realistic! It doesn't feel like I'm in a dream." Lin Sheng was amazed.
He reached out to grab the corner of the wooden table to make sure that he was not dreaming.
The tactile sensation was still the same as before—he could not feel anything as if his hand was
wrapped in a thick cotton cloth. But what surprised him was the perception of touch this time. It
was much more refined than the one in his previous dreams.
Lin Sheng retracted his hand and refocused his attention on the book in front of him. The sheer
amount of Rehn text gave him a headache.
"With my level of memory power, I can only memorize a little at a time. How long will it take to
finish reading a page?" Thinking of that, Lin Sheng felt depressed. However, he had no choice
but to translate it bit by bit. Perhaps, he would get more proficient over time.
"It looks like I'll have to return to my old trade." Lin Sheng used to work as an ancient text
translator in his past life. Fortunately, the Rehn writings in this world were akin to Old English
on Earth; it was relatively obscure but not hard to make out the rough meaning since Lin Sheng
was quite an expert at it.
"I'll just treat this like I'm learning another foreign language. If this book's really legible…" Lin
Sheng was full of anticipation and curiosity.
He was keen to know what this book in his dream was about. Was it just as the book cover
suggested and was about ancient swordsmanship? If this book was comprehensible, would it
mean that he could also translate and read the other books on the shelves?
Lin Sheng was on tenterhooks but quickly made up his mind to memorize the content on the first
page of the same book for the first time. It was the same book from which he deciphered the text
on the cover.
Time was ticking away.
Lin Sheng repeatedly recited a small passage from the first page with the aid of a light, which
seemed to have come from nowhere.
Memorizing a paragraph of ancient text without knowing the meaning was tough. Nonetheless,
Lin Sheng had been in the trade before so he used his own way to memorize the entire paragraph
on the first page.
The translation was painstakingly slow. Lin Sheng's lack of grammatical knowledge on the Rehn
language meant that he could only translate it one word at a time, just as the search engines did.
The problem was particularly apparent when it came to slang words.
After he experienced the dream for the second time and memorized the book, Lin Sheng could
now go to the manor every night. Each time he got in, he would write down a sentence or two
and translate them into Xilin, which was his everyday language. This went on for four days.
With the aid of the studies and experiences from his past life, Lin Sheng's translation became
better.
As the Rehn text was not a niche language, there were many related grammar books available for
download on the Internet. By referring to those materials during the translation process, Lin
Sheng was able to verify the results repeatedly. And soon, he finished the first page of the book.
"My memory is what's holding me back." Lin Sheng sat silently in one corner of the sofa,
recalling what he had translated the day before.
It was a Sunday. His uncle and cousin, Lin Zhenyu had come for a visit. Lin Zhenyu, who was
nineteen this year and a year older than Lin Sheng, possessed a gentle disposition. He wore a pair
of square glasses, sitting silently beside his father and reading a foreign language book with his
head down.
Lin Tao, Lin Sheng's uncle held a cup of tea in his hands with his brows knitted together as he
discussed the condition of their grandfather with Lin Sheng's dad. Lin Tao opined that Grandpa
was old and ill now; it was time to write a will. But he wanted to know what everyone thought.
There was a more urgent problem, though, and it was about the purchased of a grave plot for
Grandpa. Lin Tao was concerned about who should bear the cost of the purchase and whether
they should evenly share the cost. After all, some of them were on the breadline and could barely
contribute much. Grandpa was still alive, yet all Lin Tao cared about was his share of the estate.
Meanwhile, Lin Sheng's dad, Lin Zhounian, who rarely talked, listened on with a grim
expression.
Lin Sheng did not like his uncle and his family. His cousins, Lin Zhenyu and Lin Xiaoxiao, who
lived in clover, loved to frequent the bars and KTV. They also occasionally backpacked together
in search of life experiences. Naturally, their social circles and activities were a class higher than
that of Lin Sheng's.
In contrast, all Lin Sheng could afford to do was mostly visit the arcades and internet cafes. So,
Lin Sheng and Lin Zhenyu may have been of similar age, but they shared no common interests.
Lin Zhenyu's eyes occasionally swept past him, and it felt as if Lin Sheng did not exist. This
cousin of his was a top student, who had landed a top ten spot in the last weekly exam in his
school. Huaisha First High School, which Lin Zhengyu attended, was one of the top schools in
town. It was of a different league compared with Hui An High School, where Lin Sheng studied.
Lin Sheng could not care less about Lin Zhenyu and vice versa. Lin Sheng had his full attention
on the books in his dream. The translated text was still flashing across his mind's eye.
For a long time, I, Ravel, a Class II Swordsman of the Empire, have wanted to record a
biography on myself.
I have fought on the battlefield of Sharn and defeated seven elite enemy soldiers. I am not
extraordinary, but I deserve my reputation as a Class II Swordsman.
Now, I am old and returning to my hometown. In this desperate time, I want to leave my
legacy.
I can still see fire and hear explosions at the outpost. Shells pierce the air and glittering cold
weapons clash in conflict, while my comrades and I ruffle against each other's armor.
Some people fall, and some get back up. There is a loud bang coming from the shield tower at
the front, and smoke is rising like a stone column into the air. I am not afraid of death, but I do
not want to die for nothing.
That was it. That was the only part Lin Sheng had translated after he went through the trouble of
buying a dictionary and scouring the internet for grammar materials. He just pieced the words
together and discovered their meaning.
"An actual soldier left this book behind," Lin Sheng inferred.
After days of hard work, Lin Sheng finally grasped some of the ancient Rehn language's basic
vocabulary. He spent all day and night on the translation, eating, sleeping, and breathing the
Rehn text whenever he was free. He swore that he had never been so crazily enthusiastic about
learning. The books in his dream were like deadly poppies with a tempting aroma and appeal. He
was eager to know what the Class II Swordsman represented and whether he could learn the art
of sword fighting from the Handbook of Swordsmanship.
'The graphics I saw before could be an illustration of how to learn swordsmanship.' Lin Sheng
thought.
"Lin Sheng? Lin Sheng?"
Suddenly, a call jolted him out of his thoughts. Lin Sheng noticed a frowning Lin Zhenyu, who
had been calling him several times.
"What's up?" Lin Sheng quickly replied.

"What revision materials do you need? I've got a lot, and you can make a copy of them," Lin
Zhenyu said.
Lin Sheng was stunned and turned to look at his dad. Apparently, Lin Zhenyu did not make the
offer on his own accord but at his dad, Lin Zhounian's request.
As his son was about to take the college entrance exam, Lin Zhaonian was worried because Lin
Sheng's academic performance had always been mediocre. So, he figured that his son could learn
something from Lin Zhenyu.
However, Lin Sheng was not interested. He had the memories of his past life and was far more
mature than the average student. When it came to academics, he was so-so, but it was only
because he did not want to learn.
Not only was Lin Sheng not interested, but he also did not agree with the exam-oriented
education system there. He thought that it was merely a waste of time. Barely scraping by in his
studies only to pacify his parents, Lin Sheng was not willing to invest more effort and time in
competing for marks with other students because he already had enough of those things in his
past life.
"Revision materials? Thanks, but no thanks, Brother Zhenyu. I have enough here," Lin Sheng
replied.
"Fine." Lin Zhenyu could not have cared less. "Next week is Xiaoxiao's birthday. We're going
out to have some fun, do you want to join us?"
"I can't go. I'm strapped for time." Lin Sheng could not be bothered as he was too engrossed in
his dreams.
"You should expand your social circle. Plan for your future and think about where you want to
go." Lin Zhenyu always held a sense of superiority but pretended to be modest. "Spend less time
on video games and magazines. We should be responsible for our future."
Lin Zhenyu's father felt proud of his son while Lin Zhounian stayed silent.
Lin Sheng was tired of all the bullsh*t. He had no intention of arguing with Lin Zhenyu, but his
cousin seemed to enjoy flaunting his superiority.
"I know what I'm doing and what I want to do. Brother Zhenyu, you should worry about
yourself. I heard from my classmates that you brought a girl to The People's Hospital. Is it true?"
Lin Zhenyu was stunned, and his face froze. He thought that he had kept the secret well. Not
only had Lin Sheng learned about it, but he had now revealed it in front of his father too.
"Stop spewing nonsense!" Lin Zhenyu panicked. After all, he was just nineteen years old. There
was a lack of subtlety, and when those words came out, his father, as well as Lin Zhounian,
immediately wised up.
Lin Sheng shook his head silently. As the two elders began to question Lin Zhenyu, he revealed
everything he knew—including the appearance of the girl. Truth be told, Lin Sheng did not hear
about it from his classmates; he saw it with his own eyes at the hospital.
Leaving Lin Zhenyu alone, Lin Sheng got to his feet and exited the living room to quickly clean
himself up. He wasted no time since he knew that studying for the college entrance exam and
researching the ancient Rehn text would be time-consuming. Nothing could fascinate Lin Sheng
more than the ancient Rehn text.
...
Time flew. A month had passed since then.
Lin Sheng, incessant in his study of the ancient Rehn text, finally managed to translate a few
crucial pages of the book. He chose pages with graphics to save time, but it was not done
randomly. The pages were carefully selected based on the marks below the graphic illustrations.
Each illustration depicted a person holding a long sword, all in different poses, and the lines of
text were mostly annotations.
Lin Sheng discovered that the pages with graphics were explanatory while the rest of the pages
just contained stories. That was also the reason why he focused on translating the pages with
graphic illustrations.
Lin Sheng flipped through the pages of his notes, which he had written in Chinese characters.
His brows were knitted together as he sat at his desk, immersing himself in the translated
content.
"I've done five pages, all with graphics. There aren't many words, and the translation process is
much faster. I've been using the Chinese characters that I've learned from my past life for the
notes because it's a safer method to prevent any secrets from being leaked. But this content…"
Lin Sheng was hesitant. The translated graphics were apparently illustrations of swordsmanship.
Looking at the simple graphics that he had copied, Lin Sheng knew that the pattern and style, as
well as the accompanying text, described vital points and killer moves. They were obviously not
for show but skills for actual combat. "Is swordsmanship from a book in a dream real? If it isn't,
it would be too dangerous to learn it."
In the first illustration, a man was holding a sword and thrusting forward. There were many
arrows and annotations around his body. The move looked simple, but the essence of it was in
the annotations.
"The more important issue is that the weapons in this society aren't as advanced as those in my
past life. But firearms are rampant in this world, and cold weapons are only good for physical
exercise."
Lin Sheng frowned as a thought occurred to him.
"However, the swordsmanship from my dream could be something special. The book has
repeatedly mentioned the classification system." Upon further reading, Lin Sheng learned about
the classification system. In the book, Swordsman Ravel had mentioned higher-order warriors
whom he encountered on the battlefield. These higher-order warriors had superhuman bodies,
terrific strength, speed, and were almost like war machines with heavy body armor. The
descriptions of their battlefield completely overturned Lin Sheng's prior understanding of the
world.
Lin Sheng thought that the battlefield mentioned in the book was just from a common cold
weapon era, but the existence of the higher-order warriors had changed his views; if the content
of the book was real, then the higher-order warriors might also be true.
"Ravel mentioned that when a warrior attained Class III or higher, he could slowly train his
stamina and improve his physique," Lin Sheng recalled.
"If all of this is true…" Lin Sheng swallowed, looking at the graphics and text, which he had
translated. It could not be a figment of his imagination. A total of five pictures, when read in
sequence, formed a motion picture of a move that Swordsman Ravel was most proud of. It was
called Furious Blow.
"It's a simple yet effective move." Lin Sheng had not seen it in person, but he could feel how
badass the move was judging from the graphic illustrations. The little figure who wielded the
sword was about to strike his opponent at a certain angle from above. Once hit, it would kill his
opponent instantly.
Lin Sheng exhaled gently and closed the handbook.
"I'll try to see if I can find any other content in the book tonight. Perhaps, I should leave the
manor and check out other places. There are already so many things in the manor, what will
there be to explore outside? And how are the outdoors going to look like? Why haven't I seen a
single living thing even though I've spent such a long time in the manor? The scene outside the
window has always been dark."
With plenty of questions on his mind, Lin Sheng washed up, took off his clothes, and went to
bed.
When Lin Sheng went to visit his grandfather in the hospital during the day, he had an
unexplainable feeling the moment he saw his grandfather lying on the hospital bed. It was not
sadness.

His grandfather had never treated his family well the entire time. So, naturally, they did not have
a close relationship. But in his time of trouble, it was Lin Sheng's family that came to his aid.
Having said that, what Lin Sheng saw at that moment was not his grandfather but a dying old
man. The fragility of life like that of a candle in the storm was pricking him.
"I shouldn't overthink. Let's see if I can leave the manor in my dream tonight." Lin Sheng lay in
bed, and his eyes slowly closed. In just a few minutes, he entered the dream world.
After a short trance, he regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes. Taking a deep
breath, Lin Sheng looked at the low mahogany table in front of him and the Handbook of
Swordsmanship on it. "Here I am again."
It was still the same study room with no window, only a door leading to the hall. There were two
large bookshelves filled with large red books.
Lin Sheng went up to examine the bookshelves. Previously, he took books from the left of the
bookshelves. But now, Lin Sheng wanted to start from the right. Without hesitation, he pulled
out a book from the right side of the bookshelf and opened it.
"Aah!" He suddenly frowned and paused as he could not see the text on the book cover; it was all
blurry. It was the same for the text inside. Some text even appeared like garbled characters and
lines.
Lin Sheng's heart sank. He quickly put the book down before he picked another red book from
the shelf on the right and opened it. Just like the previous one, the text in it was also fuzzy.
Lin Sheng frantically flipped through the pages, trying to find anything legible. But he found
nothing.
Dropping the book and going back to the bookshelf on the left, he quickly pulled out a book
from the top half of the shelf. This time, he was relieved as the text in the book looked clear.
"Good…" But before Lin Sheng could exhale, he saw blurry pages again. Only the first half of
the book was legible, and the second half was blear. His expression changed, and Lin Sheng
could not help but feel anxious while he rummaged through the bookshelf even though he knew
it was just a dream. It took him a while, and after he browsed through dozens of books, he finally
got a rough idea of the situation.
"Only a dozen books in conspicuous positions on the left are legible. The rest are all obscure."
Lin Sheng sat down by the low table and fell into deep thought. "The books on the table are all
legible too, especially the Handbook of Swordsmanship. Plus, the graphics in it are extremely
detailed."
He quickly compared the books and found a problem. Of all the readable books, the Handbook
of Swordsmanship was the clearest, followed by the stack of books on the low table and the
prominent books on the left shelf.
"Interesting." Lin Sheng had a conjecture, but he was not very sure about it. "I'm not going to
worry about this. Let's first explore the outside of the manor."
He was becoming more and more fascinated with the dream. Standing still and keeping his cool,
Lin Sheng put the book down and slowly walked toward the exit.
In contrast to the time he first arrived, he could now perceive more of his surroundings—the
coldness of the air, the texture of the floor under his feet, as well as the friction between his
clothes and his skin. All these sensations convinced him that something was amiss in his dream.
"This isn't an ordinary dream. No dream could be so vivid and repeat itself for over a month!"
Lin Sheng was convinced that he had encountered something abnormal. But since remembering
past life memories was a possible thing, he was naturally able to accept and adapt to anything.
Lin Sheng pushed the door open and slowly stepped out. He looked to the left and right before he
ambled toward the main exit of the manor.
He came before the main door and peered up. The purplish-red door, which was made of a
certain type of metal with a light woodgrain surface, looked like a grandfather clock.
A pattern depicting a circle with four different animals in it was visible in the middle section of
the door. Lin Sheng had no idea what species those four animals were. They seemed like
cheetahs with long serrated tails.
Above the door was a diamond pattern that looked like a giant vertical eye, staring at everything
in the room.
Lin Sheng furrowed his brows and reached out to touch the door frame, where repeating letters
formed a chain pattern, covering the entire length of the frame.
"This door seems to be guarding something." Lin Sheng had a strange feeling. Once curiosity
overwhelmed him, he reached out and held the door handle. The handle, which had been carved
into the shape of a black python head with a pair of lustrous dark red eyes, felt cold in his hand.
He could even see the delicate scales on the snake-like handle.
He gave it a twist, and the door opened with a quiet click.

A vast foggy woodland appeared before Lin Sheng's eyes. There was a horse lane cutting
through the woodland and stretching all the way to the fog in the shade of the trees. Everything
in his surroundings appeared to be grayish-black.
Lin Sheng swallowed and slowly walked out of the door. Outside, he came upon three wooden
steps. Their dark red color appeared to be the result of paint splashes. The steps felt soft, and
they creaked when he stepped on them as if they were going to collapse.
Lin Sheng stood in front of the entrance and looked around. His surroundings were dark because
the trees were blocking the night sky, which was slightly bright but not bright enough to
illuminate the land and woods. It just barely allowed a person to see the outline of things.
Lin Sheng took a few steps forward. Sensing that he was on soft ground, he almost lost his
balance and immediately stopped.
A faint strange, rhythmic, and dull noise was heard coming from the distance. Lin Sheng looked
in the direction of the sound and noticed something moving seemingly fast in the fog.
"What is that?" Lin Sheng squinted and tried to make out what it was. However, whatever it was
suddenly picked up its pace like the pounding of the heart when a human was in a panic.
Before Lin Sheng knew it, a tall quick-moving figure who made a weird puffing sound had
emerged from the fog and rushed toward him.
The sound got increasingly closer, and Lin Sheng finally knew what it was: footsteps. His pupils
shrank. Lin Sheng continued to reverse until he tripped on the wooden steps and fell on the
ground.
"Damn!" he cursed. Before Lin Sheng could get up, the figure sped up like when someone fast-
forwarded a video. It appeared to be far away at first, but the next second, the figure with a
strangely-twisted posture got within meters of him.
"I!" When Lin Sheng was halfway into getting up, he suddenly froze. His head was flung into the
air in a blanket of bloody mist. It crashed into the ajar main door and bounced off before it rolled
down and stopped on the wooden steps. His black eyes were dilated.
The black figure wielded his sword, its tip touching the ground. Pausing for a moment, the figure
then lunged forward to slash Lin Sheng's body with his sword, and blood spattered with every
slashing motion of the sword.
Mutilated into pieces, Lin Sheng's body parts were strewn around the wooden steps.
...
Lin Sheng suddenly woke up in bed, panting. His body was in extreme pain, and he could still
feel the pain from the cut on his neck. "Am I dead?"
The fast-moving figure was like a terrifying monster. There was no hesitation but only madness
in the attack.
Unfortunately, Lin Sheng did not manage to see the figure's face as the enormous tension and
bone-chilling sensation had immobilized him at a critical moment—he could not even scream.
Leaning against the headboard, Lin Sheng instinctively reached for his neck. There was no
wound on his neck, but somehow, he felt the pain. Luckily, the pain was quickly fading.
"What was that dream about?" Lin Sheng could not help but shudder when he recalled the scene
of the approaching figure.
"Sh*t!"
Lin Sheng got up and sat on the edge of his bed. He ran his fingers through his hair and found it
drenched in sweat. "It's not the first time I've dreamt about dying, but this time, the feeling's
entirely something else."
Lin Sheng sat there and gasped, trying to calm down. Once his breathing returned to normal, he
got up and walked over to sit at his desk. Lin Sheng switched the table lamp on and began to flip
through the text he had translated.
"The most crucial part of the swordsmanship guide is the five illustrations. The rest are mainly
just stories," Lin Sheng muttered to himself as he looked at the translations.
"What was that figure in my dream? Is this information useful at all? What if the information and
the swordsmanship that exist in the dream are just figments of my imagination? Learning it may
cause irreversible damage to my body." Lin Sheng had heard that learning acrobatics or martial
arts the wrong way could result in physical disability. So, he was somewhat worried that the so-
called Handbook of Swordsmanship was just all in his head.
Sitting silently by the bed, Lin Sheng was unsettled. It was not until a while later that he fell back
in bed and closed his eyes. Yet, he could not sleep anymore because as soon as he shut his eyes,
the pain of being killed would strike him. And this went on until dawn.
At twilight, Lin Sheng had no choice but to get up. He cooked some noodles with the leftovers
from the day before and quickly ate them. After that, he put on his school uniform and headed
out to school.
Lin Sheng thought that his death was only a dream. However, throughout the day, he felt a slight
pain in his heart and a tingling sensation in his neck.
After muddling along for the entire day in school, Lin Sheng politely declined Shen Yan's
invitation to go to the cassette tape store and dragged himself back home. Lin Sheng tumbled
into bed and fell asleep the moment he got home, skipping his dinner.
This went on for two days before Lin Sheng recovered his spirit. He did not experience any
dreams during those two days. It was as if his previous nightmare was just an illusion.
His dad thought that he was ill and measured his temperature with a thermometer. But it turned
out that Lin Sheng was fine, and all his dad could do was urge him to get more rest. The college
entrance exam was necessary, but nothing was more important than one's health.
After dinner, Lin Sheng lay in bed and looked up at the ceiling in silence. Had the notebook with
his translations not been in the desk drawer, he would have thought that it was really a dream.
The house phone rang suddenly. His mom, Gu Wanqiu picked up the telephone. "Sheng Sheng,
your sister's looking for you."
Lin Sheng's heart skipped a beat. He quickly got out of bed, scurried into the living room, and
took the telephone from his mom.
"You should have put on a jacket." Gu Wanqiu held Lin Sheng's hand, and it felt cold so she was
worried. Going into Lin Sheng's bedroom, Gu Wanqiu came out with her son's coat.
Lin Sheng replied his mother with a smile. He put on his jacket and sat down on the couch with
the telephone in hand. Meanwhile, his elder sister did not say anything but just listened on.
Lin Sheng paused and switched the phone to his other ear. "What's up, Sis?"
"Nothing. I heard from Mom and Dad that you haven't been feeling well recently. Get more rest
and don't overstretch yourself. Getting into a good university is important, but your health comes
first." His elder sister, Lin Xiao sounded worried.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Lin Sheng made some calculations in his mind and said, "The
exam's still four months away; I'm not worried. The recent nightmares have just been affecting
my sleep."
"Is it because you've been reading too many horror stories?"
"I have no idea why. I haven't done anything except study." Lin Sheng played dumb.
"Is it because you don't have enough money?" Lin Xiao suddenly lowered her voice.
"No."
"Really?"
"Really," Lin Sheng said.
"Don't act tough, I'll send you some money. You're grown up now, and some expenses are
unavoidable," Lin Xiao said.
"No, really, Sis. You have enough to worry about on your side."
"I have enough here, don't you worry about me. All right, I'll stop here. Don't forget to get the
money," Lin Xiao said.
Lin Sheng heard a female voice calling his elder sister as if asking her to help out with
something.
"I have something to do here, I'll hang up now," Lin Xiao responded and hurriedly hung up.
Lin Sheng put the phone down and looked at the clock on the wall. It was nine in the evening.
His elder sister was still working at that hour, and for this reason, Lin Sheng did not want to
become a burden to her. But he knew she was stubborn and would send him the money anyway.
"Forget it. I have to sleep well tonight and begin my revision for the college entrance exam
tomorrow," Lin Sheng said. The college entrance exam in his current life was not much different
from the one in his past life. It was only a ticket to promotion. If he failed the exam and was not
accepted into university, he could only go to a vocational school and become a mechanic.
There were many vocational schools in Xilin, but they were relatively inferior to universities.
Also, the quality of the vocational schools was much lower than the quality of schools in Lin
Sheng's past life.
If a student failed the college entrance exam and ended up in a vocational school, it basically
meant that the person's future was over. There was a huge social gap in the society where few
mechanics could leapfrog the divide, and the pay for simple technical jobs was meager.
Returning to his bedroom and falling on his bed, Lin Sheng made up his mind; he would rest
well and not worry about the nightmare until he finished the college entrance exam. Covering
himself with his quilt, Lin Sheng said goodnight to himself, shut his eyes, and slowly fell asleep.
...
Hearing his own breathing reverberating in an empty room, Lin Sheng opened his eyes and
found himself in the familiar hall of the manor. Pieces of silver tableware were scattered on the
long table that was covered with the tattered white cloth.
"I'm here again?" Lin Sheng quickly looked around, and his heart sank. On the left was a wall
where fuzzy oil paintings had been hung, and on the right was a large square window. Through
the gauzy curtains, Lin Sheng could see the fog outside.
He quickly moved forward and arrived before the door, which was open before he entered the
study room. There he was, in that familiar place once more with the giant opened book of clear
text still sitting on the low table.
"Sure enough, I'm back again." Lin Sheng calmed down. Instead of looking at the Handbook of
Swordsmanship, he left the study room and went back out to the hall again.
At the window along the side of the living room, Lin Sheng gently drew the curtains open.
Beyond the rudimentary wall of the manor was the black forest. It looked like a monster
shrouded in the fog. In the yard, within the outer walls of the mansion, were several broken
wooden benches and a small swing. There was also something in the corner that looked like a
hoe.
Lin Sheng closed the curtains and went to check out the other windows, which did not face the
main entrance. The figure had come from the main entrance the last time.
Lin Sheng paused for a while, standing in the hall and falling into deep thought. Then, he turned
around and started to search the manor. "I need a weapon. It'd be better if it was a little longer
and wider."
Lin Sheng knew what to do. He did not intend to keep staying in the manor and the bizarre
dream in which he died because it could physically affect him in reality.
It gave him a sense of crisis, and he had the explicable hunch that if the shadow figure killed him
repeatedly, some nasty changes might befall him. It seemed like his physical instincts were
warning him.
Lin Sheng rummaged in the hall but found nothing.
Hence, he entered the study room. Yet, he discovered nothing except books there.
Backing out from the study room, Lin Sheng decided to search the kitchen. After he found a
pointed kitchen knife there, he rushed back to the bedroom.
There was a king-sized wooden bed in the middle of the bedroom. Additionally, there was a
wardrobe, a dressing table, and a large wooden box along the wall.
Lin Sheng opened the wooden box but saw that it was empty. So, he swept his eyes around and
walked up to the dressing table to pull open the drawer in which he found a few colored teenage-
style hair bands. But the colors of the hair bands looked old and faded.
He closed the drawer and checked out the other spots. Soon, something leaning against the wall
in the corner behind the curtains caught Lin Sheng's attention.
Lin Sheng strode nervously to the corner and grabbed the object—it was a cross sword without a
sheath.
As Lin Sheng took the sword, its silvery-black tip slid across the floor, producing a faint noise.
He carefully lifted the sword in his hands.
The long sword was not hefty—felt like five pounds—and its length was just right, about waist-
high. The crossguard and the blade formed a standard cross, though the shape looked a little
stretched.
When Lin Sheng clenched the hilt with both hands, he could feel the rough fabric wrapped
around the handle. The hilt and the blade formed a seamless body without any apparent joint
marks, and on the blade near the hilt, there was a vertical eye pattern that looked identical to the
one on the door.
Lin Sheng waved the sword to see how it felt. To his dismay, it was a little too clunky.
"Let's see if there's anything else." Lin Sheng poked around the bedroom for a while but still
found nothing. So, he had no choice but to return to the hall.
"I'll need to be more careful not to make a sound this time. If I manage, it should be fine." Lin
Sheng was a bundle of nerves when the thought of his previous death came to mind. But it did
not mean that he would not venture outside. After all, he knew that he would not die for real
because it was just a dream.
Lin Sheng was very curious about the world outside and would not be satisfied without going out
to explore a little.
With the sword in hand, Lin Sheng stood stark before the door and took a few deep breaths to
calm himself.
"This time, I'll do it as quietly as possible. It'll be all right as long as that thing doesn't notice
me."
He carefully reached for the snake-shaped door handle and gave it a gentle twist. The door
unlocked with a click and opened slightly, just enough for Lin Sheng to pass through.
Carrying the sword in his hands, Lin Sheng slowly slipped out.
Once he stepped outside, Lin Sheng could feel the chilly wind blowing in his face. He shivered
involuntarily as his body temperature plummeted and his joints stiffened.
"This feels more real than the last time. It doesn't feel like I'm in a dream."
Lin Sheng's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the strange feeling made him uneasy.
He stood right outside the door, peeked around furtively, and decided not to get down the flight
of steps.
"This wooden stairway squeaked too loud the last time. I think I should just jump directly onto
the ground so that I don't make any sound."
With a plan in mind, Lin Sheng slowly moved to the right of the staircase.
The humid and cold fog was surging slowly in his surroundings. Lin Sheng looked down and
saw old scratches as well as many small pebbles on the dark yellow floor under his feet.
He had to maneuver past the gravel with caution.
Holding his breath, he quickly reached the edge of the veranda and jumped down silently,
landing on the ground with a soft thump.
With his feet planted on the black soil, Lin Sheng peered into the distance. There was no strange
sound coming from the direction of the bridleway.
"I made it! I just have to remain vigilant, then I won't attract any attention." He breathed a sigh of
relief.
Shrouded in the fog, Lin Sheng started to anxiously scan his surroundings.
Behind him was the open hall door, from which he exited earlier.
On his left and right were all dark and dense woodlands. All he could see was the bridle path in
front of him.
Lin Sheng took a deep breath and slowly circumvented the manor by going to the left.
Soon, he arrived at the yard where the hall window faced.
The yard had a swing, which was made by tying a black wooden shelf between two dead tree
trunks with thick hemp rope.
There were a few decaying benches scattered randomly in the yard and a small withered garden
in the corner of the wall.
Lin Sheng wandered around for some time but discovered nothing. As such, he headed to the
back of the house.
He suddenly stopped in his tracks when he heard something.
Lin Sheng was rooted to the spot in the fog, with the manor on his right and the small yard on his
left.
Clenching the sword in his hands and planting his feet on the ground, he looked straight ahead.

He heard something dragging on the ground, and it sounded disturbingly all too familiar.
He tensed up and stood still, staring into the dark fog from the backyard, which was just around
the corner.
The sound gradually got closer and closer. Then, the owner of the sound finally emerged.
It was a weird person covered with black pustules. The figure carried a long black sword, and its
hilt was fused together with his hand. Other than that, the figure looked just like a typical human.
The human figure's face—his eyes, nose, and mouth—was fully covered with thick gray linen,
and there were some blood stains on it.
At about 1.9 meters tall, he was taller than Lin Sheng.
The human figure also spotted Lin Sheng the moment Lin Sheng saw him emerging from the
fog.
He then stumped toward Lin Sheng. His steps were slow, and the tip of his sword produced a
'shiiiing' sound as it was dragged across the ground.
"What the heck is this?" Lin Sheng's blood ran cold, and he shrank back involuntarily. But
compared with his last experience of death, not only did he calm down quicker this time, but he
also managed to think of a countermeasure.
He traced his eyes downward and noticed that the monster's right leg was crippled. Large chunks
of flesh were missing underneath his long pants.
"He doesn't look that impressive." Lin Sheng clenched the hilt of his sword and had no intention
of going away. He wanted to test how good the monster was.
Lin Sheng figured that since the entrance to the house was nearby, he could turn around and
quickly run back inside should things go wrong.
With an emergency withdrawal plan in mind, Lin Sheng decided to make contact with the living
creature.
"Hey, can you understand me?" Lin Sheng spoke in Xilin in a low voice.
The strange human figure did not respond but just continued to trudge toward him.
"Are you a resident here? I come in peace. Can you tell me what this place is?" Lin Sheng tried
to communicate with him.
When the human figure showed no response while he approached, Lin Sheng sensed that
something was wrong and began to retreat slowly.
Right when Lin Sheng and the human figure were less than three meters apart from each other,
the human figure suddenly lunged forth, thrusting his sword forward.
The tip of his black sword hit the cross-shaped sword in Lin Sheng's hand with a clang, and the
sharp percussive sound reverberated in the air. Lin Sheng lost his balance and almost tumbled to
the ground.
His blood ran cold, and he immediately turned around and ran, dragging the sword along as he
scrambled onto the wooden staircase. He slipped through the doorway back into the hall before
he slammed the door shut and snapped on the latches.
Just as Lin Sheng thought that he was safe, he heard the same hissing sound behind him.
He turned around slowly with all his muscles in a knot. To his surprise, a rotten swordsman with
the same linen cloth wrapped around his face was limping toward him!
"When did this thing come in here?" Lin Sheng was scared stiff. With his back against the door,
he clasped the hilt of his sword and felt a chill run up his spine.
"No! This is a different one!" Lin Sheng quickly figured it out. A large chunk of this
swordsman's right arm was missing as if something had bitten it off. The difference was hard to
miss.
"I'm in deep sh*t!" Lin Sheng did not want to die again. It had given him a severe hangover
feeling for the past days.
As the thing got closer, Lin Sheng identified the pustules on the swordsman's neck as small
blisters; they were dense and bulging.
Clenching the hilt of his sword and staring dead at his opponent, Lin Sheng's muscles tightened.
Suddenly, the rotten swordsman lunged forward, thrusting the sword in his right hand straight
into Lin Sheng's chest.
Lin Sheng roared and raised his sword in the air in an effort to parry his opponent's attack from
above, but he missed.
Lin Sheng felt a great pain in his chest and lost strength in his hand, but the momentum kept the
sword's motion going, and it sliced off the rotten swordsman's arm. However, it only slashed off
a small bit of flesh.
Looking down at his chest, Lin Sheng noticed that his enemy's black sword had pierced the left
side of his chest, instantly immobilizing him.
"Again…"
His vision went black, and Lin Sheng lost consciousness.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Sheng woke up on his bed at home. The sky outside was
gray, and the sun was about to rise as he heard roosters crowing in the distance.
"I died again." Lin Sheng touched the area on his chest where his heart was and felt a tingling
sensation. "It felt so real."
He slowly sat up and discovered that his underwear, which he had just changed into the previous
night, was now drenched in sweat. He got out of bed and quickly took a new set of clothes.
Following that, he entered the bathroom to clean the sweat off his body with hot water before he
put on the clean set of attire.
"I can't go on like this. I have to think of a way..." Lin Sheng sat at his desk, opening the drawer
to take out the translated notes, which were written in neat and tidy Chinese characters—the
most secure way he could come up with to prevent anyone in this world from understanding it
except him. It was the best encryption method.
"Having checked online before, the illustrations and annotations seem to suggest that the
swordsmanship is a real thing. But I've never learned anything like this. Nevertheless, it's not a
figment of my imagination but something real from another place!" Lin Sheng was absolutely
convinced now.
"The dream world is filled with dangers. A defenseless person like me will only be slaughtered
like cattle there. I could barely hurt that crippled monster." He stared at his notes and the
illustrations in front of him.

"I have to go out and explore if I want to find out the secrets of my dream. However, I couldn't
even defend myself against the wounded monster. I have to find a way..."
Lin Sheng sat in silence and soon thought of an idea.
"Since I already have the Handbook of Swordsmanship with me, I should try to find out if there's
any way to learn it. Only then will I know whether this thing's real or not and improve my self-
defense skills. After all, I still have a cross sword in my dream." Lin Sheng relaxed and made up
his mind.
Before his parents got up, Lin Sheng quickly ate his breakfast and headed straight to school.
After the morning class, he could not wait to leave and wander around downtown Huaisha.
In this era where the Internet was still primitive, Lin Sheng could only go out and scout the area
to find places where he could learn European swordsmanship, which was the rarest of the martial
arts in this part of the world.
Huaisha, where Lin Sheng lived in, may have been a small town, but it was a port town with
bustling international trading activity. Many foreigners went there and became the driving force
behind the growth of its local industries.
Lin Sheng first went to a street in Huaisha, where most foreigners stayed. Soon, he found what
he was looking for: two associations and a club.
The two associations charged expensive membership fees so Lin Sheng decided not to visit
them. Now, there was only one option left.
"It looks rundown, but I'm sure it's a lot cheaper." Standing in the middle of the quiet street, Lin
Sheng looked up at the shop on the second floor, where an inconspicuous wooden plaque with
three rows of little characters was hung.
Tengchong Swordsmanship Club
Blackmud Street Office
Blackmud Street Pigeon Association

Apparently, the three entities shared the same signboard. Below the sign was a dirty and
dilapidated stairway. The wooden steps squeaked loudly when people stepped on them. Two
hooligans were squatting on the staircase, puffing on their cigarettes while chatting.
Lin Sheng looked down at his school uniform, grabbed his schoolbag tightly in his arms, and
climbed up the stairs. When he reached the second floor, Lin Sheng saw three arrows drawn with
red chalk on the wall, each pointing in three different directions.
One of the arrows indicated that Tengchong Swordsmanship Club was on the right. He followed
that arrow and turned into the corridor on the second floor. After he walked a dozen meters, Lin
Sheng stopped in front of an open office door with a sign on it that read Tengchong
Swordsmanship Club.
It was pretty empty inside with only three rectangular black desks forming a large table in one
corner, and three people sitting there working on something.
Lin Sheng knocked on the door. "Hello, is this the Tengchong Swordsmanship Club?"
A girl sitting closest to the entrance turned to look at him. "Who are you?"
"I'd like to learn orthodox Naxi swordsmanship. Is it available here?" Lin Sheng replied.
"You've come to the right place." The girl suddenly smiled. "We're the most professional non-
profit hobby club in Huaisha."
"Hobby club?"
"Yeah, a club for people sharing a common interest," the girl explained. "Come in. Not many
people are interested in Naxi swordsmanship because boxing and MMA are the in-things now.
Martial arts like ancient Naxi swordsmanship require learners to bring their own swords. It's
quite troublesome and pretty impractical. So, no one makes it to the end unless they're really
interested in it."
The girl smiled and pulled a chair out for Lin Sheng to sit on. As they sat down, Lin Sheng's eyes
darted around the place.
The walls of the entire office were bare, and the chair under his butt was shaky.
"This is a non-profit club, hence the condition of our place." The girl smiled. "My name is Xu
Yi. You can call me Sister Xu. The fact that you found this place shows your immense interest in
Naxi swordsmanship."
"Yes, but I'm a newbie who knows nothing about swordsmanship. I can only learn the most basic
moves. Will you teach me?" Lin Sheng asked.
"No problem, as long as you're willing to learn." Xu Yi passed Lin Sheng a brochure. "This is the
standard fee structure. You can choose the package you want."
Lin Sheng took the brochure and glanced at it.
Basic Course: 18 Lessons. Two lessons per week. Tuition fee: 400.
Advanced Course: 18 Lessons. One lesson per week. Tuition: 1,000.
On the lower section of the brochure was an introduction of the club's two coaches: Chen Huan,
a woman, and Du Xinlei, a man; they taught students of the opposite sex, and both possessed
Third Grade National Athlete Certificates.
Lin Sheng's face twitched when he saw the coaches' qualification; third-grade athletes were
worthless. Generally speaking, anyone with slightly above average skills could already pass the
certification. In some remote areas of Xilin, there were even cases where people could buy the
certificate. Only first and second-grade certificates had value. It looked like this was only a
mediocre club. Nonetheless, he would give it a try since it was better than not learning at all.
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"Is there a trial lesson? I'm a student. You know, students don't have much money," Lin Sheng
said.
"Of course, the first lesson is free. What time slot would you prefer? Chen Huan's mainly in
charge of male students while Du Xinlei the female students," Xu Yi said with a smile.
Lin Sheng looked at the clock on the wall. "It's two o'clock in the afternoon now. I have no
classes this afternoon. Can I start now? How long is a lesson?"
"Forty minutes. Let me take you to Coach Chen Huan to see if she has time." Xu Yi talked to the
other two people, who got up and brought Lin Sheng out of the door.
They turned left and went up one more floor before they stood on the landing. There were two
large classrooms on both sides of the stairway, and shouts could be heard coming from the
classes. It was mostly female voices on the left and male voices on the right.
"Your class is on the right. Let me ask the coach first." Xu Yi got Lin Sheng to wait outside the
door while she entered the classroom on the right.
The room was as large as four classrooms in his school combined. The floor was covered with
thick cushions and surrounded by bare-bone concrete walls. There were also two rows of
fluorescent lamps on the ceiling.
A woman wearing tight-fitting gray trousers and a white short-sleeved T-shirt was holding a
black wooden stick, demonstrating for three boys.
The long-legged woman with her hair in a ponytail had fair skin and a small waist. Lin Sheng
gave her an eight just by looking at her from the side.
The woman noticed Xu Yi and turned to say hello. The two talked in whispers for a while. Then,
Xu Yi motioned for Lin Sheng to come in.
"You can take a trial lesson before you sign up."
"All right." Lin Sheng nodded and went forward. Looking at the simple stick in her hand, his
mouth twitched involuntarily.
"I'm Chen Huan, the swordsmanship coach here. Let's continue with the lesson." The woman
was comely with a petite mouth and a pair of apricot eyes that were filled with determination.
She had to be the stubborn type, Lin Sheng thought.
Standing behind the three students, Lin Sheng listened quietly.
"Once you get your posture right, the next step is your eyes. Pay attention to your opponent's
point of force, which is any muscle and tendon that will trigger motions."
Chen Huan held the wooden stick upright with both hands beside her right ear. "This is a Roof.
Since there's a new student here today, we're going to do some revision.
"A posture is a starter move designed for fast attacks that target the opponent's weak points.
"A Roof is one of them. It's the most basic swordsmanship posture, which all of you must
master."
Lin Sheng listened attentively and before he knew it, ten minutes had passed. Chen Huan just
explained the basics briefly and delved into the more difficult part quickly. Fortunately, she gave
the other students free time to practice, and they all moved to the side with wooden sticks in their
hands.
Chen Huan then asked Lin Sheng to pick up a stick from the corner of the classroom.
"First time?" Chen Huan asked.
"Yup, I'm a newbie." Lin Sheng nodded.
"Why do you want to learn Naxi swordsmanship?" Chen Huan swung the thick wooden stick,
creating an airburst sound.
Lin Sheng squinted, staring at the movements of her stick. "Because I'm interested."
"You're not sincere." Chen Huan smiled. "Well, since you have no foundation at all, I'll start with
the basics."
She held the stick and lifted it to the side of her right ear. "The foundation of Naxi
swordsmanship is divided into postures, basic moves, and sword skills. Our club mainly teaches
basic postures and moves. We won't talk about sword skills since you're still a long way from it."
"Understood." Lin Sheng nodded.
"Naxi swordsmanship is a delicate sword technique introduced by an ancient foreign kingdom.

Many people think that this sword technique is crude and chaotic, but this perception is a big
mistake." Chen Huan raised the stick over her head.
"This is also one of the basic postures. Roof is typically used when not wearing body armor. The
sword is above the head so that striking from above is more natural.
"The posture with the sword near the ear is only used when we wear body armor. Since the
helmet is tall, we place the long sword next to the ear."
"Got it." Lin Sheng raised the stick and made the same posture.
"After the postures, you have the basic moves. The basic moves of Naxi swordsmanship are
mainly thrust, strike, and swirl. If you register, you'll learn these three moves." Chen Huan began
to demonstrate the simple Roof and one of the basic movesthrust.
Soon, the forty-minute class ended. Lin Sheng had probably just scratched the surface, and the
next steppaying the feewas the most crucial part.
"I don't have money right now. Can I pay for it partially first?" Lin Sheng asked. He only had
over 100 in his pocket. His elder sister mentioned that she would send him money, but Lin Sheng
did not want to rely on her. As a spacetime traveler, he would be ashamed of himself if he could
not even earn some money.
"Partially? How much?" Chen Huan asked haplessly.
"One hundred. I'll take a quarter of the course first," Lin Sheng said. "I'll continue the rest of the
course after I pay the balance."
"All right." Chen Huan thought for a moment and nodded.
The two discussed the schedule, trying to make lessons on the weekends when Lin Sheng had no
school.
After that, Lin Sheng paid the money and got the payment receipt in one hand and a black stick
in the other.
Before he left, he had asked and learned that the club would be vacant after four in the afternoon.
As such, he could come and interact with the other students, as well as learn how to use the
protective body armor and helmets for apparent reasons.
Of course, he would have to pay if he damaged any of them.

Lin Sheng did not engage in a long conversation with his parents after he got home. After dinner,
he went back to his bedroom to quickly finish his homework before he practiced the
swordsmanship's basic postures using the wooden stick.
The long sword, which was also a cross sword, was the only weapon Lin Sheng could find in his
dream. And connected to it was the swordsmanship book that he had translated. So, Lin Sheng
was eager to prove whether the sword moves were useful.
Once he was done practicing the postures and the first basic move, Lin Sheng took a shower and
hit the sack. The night went by without a dream.
After school the next day, Lin Sheng hurried over to the club in the afternoon just to catch a few
students sparring in the classroom. He enthusiastically put on the armor, which was made of
bamboo, and wielded his wooden stick. Then, he began to spar with the other students. Since
everyone was still a rookie, the practice session naturally looked a little messy.
Lin Sheng did not dream again for the next several days. Instead, he went to the club to practice
what he had learned each day. No one in the club was as hardworking as Lin Sheng.
When Chen Huan saw the persistence in Lin Sheng, who always practiced late into the night
before going home, she decided to give Lin Sheng some individual attention.
Another week had passed, and Lin Sheng finally got the opportunity to enter the nightmare
again.
...
The sound of the tip of the sword being dragged across the ground was audible before Lin Sheng
could even open his eyes. And as soon as his vision was restored, he looked in the direction of
the sound and found that the rotten crippled swordsman was still in the hall, limping and lugging
his sword along. The swordsman was in front of an oil painting on the left side of the wall, and
the long black sword that grew from his hand emitted a sharp "shiiiing" as he moved.
Lin Sheng came to his senses and saw the silver sword, which he had previously taken out of the
bedroom, in a corner. Glancing at the rotten swordsman and seeing that the swordsman did not
notice him because the swordsman's back was facing him, Lin Sheng carefully circumvented the
big dining table to get to the sword near the door.
After learning the basics of the swordsmanship for a week, Lin Sheng had pretty much figured
out which move had killed him the last timeit was the simple thrust move.
Thrusting was the most natural move but also the hardest to master. In Naxi swordsmanship,
making the thrust move required the body to be in a sideways position with the arm extending
forward. This was so that the sword could thrust as far out as possible to kill the opponent while
dodging the opponent's attack.
Lin Sheng moved very slowly, and soon reached the door where the sword was. Keeping an eye
on the rotten swordsman, he quietly bent over to pick up the long sword with his right hand.
After a week of basic postures and thrusting practice, Lin Sheng was keen to try out his skill to
see if he could kill the monster.
"He's just a slow cripple. I just need to be careful, then I'll be fine." Lin Sheng estimated the
distance. The monster seemed to rely on hearing to judge his surroundings. As long as he did not
make a sound, launching a surprise attack from behind should work.
Making up his mind, Lin Sheng held the sword and inched toward the rotten swordsman. Once
he got close enough, he clenched his sword with both hands and slowly lifted it near his right ear
in the Roof posture.
Lin Sheng had been eating and sleeping with the Roof posture and thrusting move for the past
week. He imagined his fight with the rotten swordsman in his mind every single day. Now, the
day that he most looked forward to had finally arrived.
Under the dark night sky in the hall, Lin Sheng raised his long sword and gritted his teeth as he
and the rotten swordsman were just three steps apart.
Lin Sheng roared and struck down from above. In a split second, the rotten swordsman turned
around, drawing a black arc in the air with his right arm and accurately blocking Lin Sheng's
attack.
As the two metal swords collided, Lin Sheng felt numbeven painin his wrist. The sword in his
hand vibrated so much that he almost lost grip of it. But Lin Sheng gritted his teeth and pressed
his sword down with all his might while he kicked his opponent in the knee.
The rotten swordsman's legs were slow, and they failed to dodge Lin Sheng's kick. His knee
snapped with a loud cracking sound. Losing his balance, the swordsman's right hand dipped with
his sword. Lin Sheng's blade involuntarily followed, slipping off the swordsman's black sword
before cutting into something soft below.
Black blood splattered like black ink all over the place, turning the inky floor black. The rotten
swordsman stumbled to the ground with black blood spurting out from the left side of his neck.
With the sword in his hand, Lin Sheng looked on and was dumbfounded as the monster fell to
the ground. Black smoke rose from his body, penetrating and disappearing into Lin Sheng's
chest. In a split second, countless fragmented images flashed across Lin Sheng's mind.
Kneeling on the floor and letting go of the sword in his hand, Lin Sheng buried his head in his
hands. He wanted to scream but lacked the strength to do so because of his convulsions and
severe headache.
The black smoke began to evaporate from his body, and that went on for anywhere from ten
minutes to half an hourhe was not sure how long.
In his kneeling position, Lin Sheng struggled and removed his hands from his face. His eyes
were bloodshot, but it looked like there were black spiderwebs around his black pupils.
"Ravel Green..." With a complicated expression on his face, Lin Sheng stood up and peered at
the rotten swordsman who lay face down on the floor.
"Ravel, you said that you would love me forever. Have you forgotten?" A voice suddenly rang
out behind Lin Sheng. He turned around, and his blood ran cold when he saw no one behind him.
"Did I just experience a hallucination?" Lin Sheng gritted his teeth and gasped as he quickly
picked the sword up from the floor. The blade was damaged. It was chipped, and there were
many fine cracks around the chipped area.
"The sword is ruined. Perhaps it's too old. The fact that an old sword made of ordinary material
could last through a fight is good enough." Lin Sheng put his long sword down and cast his eyes
on the long black sword in the rotten swordsman's right arm.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Sheng recalled what he saw when the black gaseous substance rushed
into his chest. It was the memory fragments of Ravel, the owner of the manor. Those memories
and vague incomplete voices kept echoing in his head up to that moment before slowly receding.
He seemed to have experienced the bits and pieces of Ravel's life. Fortunately, however, the
number of memories flashing into his mind was minimal, otherwise, he would have gone crazy.
Lin Sheng bent down to examine the rotten swordsman's body to make sure that the swordsman
could no longer move for good. After that, he raised his sword, aimed it at the swordsman's right
arm, and struck down.
Despite the chip on the blade, the sword still made a clean cut on the rotten swordsman's arm.
Lin Sheng did not encounter much resistance, and that had to do with the high degree of decay in
the swordsman's body, which had weakened the bone... or else, it would not have been so easy.

A moment later, Lin Sheng sat in the kitchen, carefully examining the black sword that he had
severed off the rotten swordsman's arm.
At the length of an arm and width of a palm, the black sword had a smooth glass-like coating on
its surface. Its hilt had a black crossguard, and just like the silver sword earlier, it was a cross-
shaped sword. On the blade near the grip was the mark of a vertical eye identical to the one on
the silver sword.
"It looks like Ravel's the rotten swordsman." Lin Sheng could make out the identity of the
swordsman once he saw the fragmented memories in his mind's eye.
"The most unbelievable thing is that I can absorb his memories!" He reached for the hilt of the
black sword and gently lifted the sword.
The black sword was a tad heavierabout one and a half timesthan the previous silver sword.
Waving the sword in his hand, Lin Sheng found it surprisingly handy. With that sense of
familiarity, he planted his feet on the floor as energy began to rise from his legs to his waist, then
to the shoulders and arms. With the aid of this new strength, he accurately thrust the sword
forward in a straight line, leaving behind a black trail along with a faint airburst.
"What just happened?" Lin Sheng was startled. The smooth thrusting move was completely
instinctual without any hesitation as if he had practiced the move many times before.
After a pause, Lin Sheng waved the sword again to try out other moves. The other moves did not
feel the same as the thrust earlier, no matter how many times he tried. So, he may as well just
practice the thrusting move.
His repeated practice of the move produced airbursts in the kitchen. Lin Sheng found the move
absolutely awesome.
"Wait a minute! This seems similar to the move that the rotten swordsman used before." It was
this very move that killed Lin Sheng the last time, and he had only begun to notice the familiarity
as he practiced it.
He stabbed the sword forward again. As simple as it may have seemed, the basic move became
more potent than it appeared with limb and body coordination.
"The attack point is the samethe heart on the left side of the chest." Recalling the fragmented
memories that he had seen, Lin Sheng could vaguely deduce that they were the last memories of
the rotten swordsman.
"There's nothing wrong with acquiring the rotten swordsman's fragmented memories. After all,
anything can happen in dreams." Once he calmed down, Lin Sheng began to enjoy his newfound
strength.
Taking the black sword and leaving the kitchen, Lin Sheng went to examine the body of the
rotten swordsman in the hall and made sure that everything was all right. After that, he grabbed
the body by its clothes to drag and toss it outside through the doorway. He then closed the door
and snapped the latches on.
Since there was no water in the manor, Lin Sheng wiped the black blood off his hands, using the
curtain as a rag. Then he returned to the study room and sat down, wanting to continue his
memorization of the swordsmanship notes. Very quickly, Lin Sheng was surprised to find that he
could understand some of the words in the handbook. With the combination of context and
illustrations, he could roughly make out the meaning.
"This must be the result of acquiring Ravel's memory!" Lin Sheng was overjoyed. He could not
believe that killing a monster in his dream had given him such an advantage.
He quickly scanned the Handbook of Swordsmanship and finished it in its entirety. Just as he
had expected, content on the swordsmanship was only a tiny part of the handbook. Only a few
pages with illustrations mentioned Ravel's famous sword technique: Furious Blow.
Lin Sheng gave it a quick read in combination with the previous and latter pages.
"Furious Blow isn't so much Ravel's famous sword technique but a kind of conventional long
sword technique. It's just that Ravel really mastered it so it became famous."
He flipped the pages, his eyes scanning the text. "Unlike what the book title suggests, most parts
of the book talk about Ravel's travels, battles, experiences, and stuff like that; nothing more than
blowing his own horn."
Shaking his head, Lin Sheng put the book down. After he acquired some of Ravel's memories, he
could recognize quite a number of new words when he reread the books, which he had difficulty
understanding earlier.
Lin Sheng stood up, scanned the bookshelf, and quickly found another book that he could read.
This book was different from the other large books; its cover was blank, there was content only
in the first half of the book, and the writing was all scribbled.
"It looks like a notepad." Lin Sheng began to carefully read the text at the top of the first page.
The sky has turned dark again. Dunn comes again.
He is leaving to seek help, but things have become irreparable. Leaving will only bring a more
horrible outcome.
As the subsequent line was illegible, Lin Sheng simply turned to the next page.
The nights are getting longer, and the winds colder. Dunn has left. My last best friend, I wish
you a safe journey.

Lin Sheng found it surprisingly easy to read since the text was written in simple language. So, he
continued to browse through the pages.
I am old, and my physical strength has declined dramatically. Polly has also grown up. She
struck down my sword for the first time today. I am very pleased.
Many chickens and ducks have gone missing from the manor lately. I do not know if they are
dead or something else.
The wind is freezing
I hope everything can go back to the beginning.
Except for the parts that he could not understand, Lin Sheng found page after page of the author's
daily lifethey were bits and pieces about Ravel and his granddaughter, Polly. But Ravel's words
contained a faint sense of despair and depression as if some grave danger was looming in the
world outside.
Lin Sheng kept flipping and soon found these on the last few legible pages:
Did something also happen to Blackfeather City's patrol troop? Even the last shield has It is
hopeless now. It looks like I will have to go to Lhasabelle and get my new sword. The old sword
can no longer hold up.
With the protection of my armor, Polly will be all right. She will be able to make it out safely.
Lin Sheng knitted his brows together as at that point, the text got blurry. But he had learned a
few essential things.
First, there was probably a place called Blackfeather City.

Second, the place where Ravel went to collect his sword was called Lhasabelle. It was likely a
place for buying and selling weapons. Perhaps he could find some protective gear there.
After spending a week in the club, Lin Sheng was no longer totally clueless about such weapons.
He had learned online that a full set of body armor was absolutely vital for improving survival in
the cold weapon era.
'Blackfeather City Lhasabelle' Lin Sheng repeated the names in his mind, feeling that his dream
was getting as real as it was interesting. He could not wait to find out what happened to
Blackfeather City and why Ravel, a Class II swordsman, had turned into a rotten monster.
Lin Sheng shouted as he thrust the wooden stick forward repeatedly. Standing among a group of
students, Lin Sheng appeared inconspicuous, but if one were to take a closer look, his moves and
postures were the most authentic.
Chen Huan observed him carefully with her arms crossed, and she knitted her brows together.
"He's improving fast!" she whispered.
By her side was Xu Yi, who was sipping hot water from the mug in her hand. "It's only been
three weeks, but this kid's a born swordsman. It looks like we've found a gem."
Chen Huan shook her head and said, "Even if he's a gem, there's no way to send him to an
official competition because we're not a proper institution. Even coaches like us have to register
for exams elsewhere. If he wants to get the certification, it would have to be at his own expense."
"He's just a beginner; it's too early to talk about that." Xu Yi smiled. "But if we can train him
well, who knows, he might win some competitions and make our club famous."
"I hope so." Chen Huan was somewhat enthused.
Truth be told, in the world of sports, youthfulness was an asset. There were Naxi swordsmanship
competitions held in Xilin, and as long as Lin Sheng could make it to the city-level
championships, he would be much better off than staying in the club.
The entire swordsmanship club relied on the patronage of a few rich kids to stay afloat and cover
its daily operational costs. Chen Huan and Du Xinlei's original intention for recruiting students
was to earn some money to keep their club running, and reduce expenses at the same time.
"We're just half-baked coaches, if I may say so," Chen Huan said. "I've only learned Naxi
swordsmanship for two years while Du Xinlei three."
"It's not complicated and entirely dependent on the talent of the learners. There are just so many
moves to learn, after all." Xu Yi smiled and took another sip of hot water before she continued,
"It was Chen and a few others who came up with this idea for fun. Only Du Xinlei and you have
taken it so seriously. Had they been concerned about losing money, they would not have set this
club up."
"You're probably right." Chen Huan forced a smile, and just as she was about to speak further, it
was time for the students to spar.
"Well, everyone, pay attention. The sparring session starts now. Please refrain from attacking the
head and lower body. Whose body gets touched first loses." Chen Huan clapped her hands and
began to instruct everyone to put on their armor.
Drenched in sweat, Lin Sheng lowered his stick. He felt like he had just woken up in a body of
water. A strange sense of familiarity had corrected his moves the entire time during practice.
"This is weird. Could it be that whatever happens in the dream affects reality?" Lin Sheng
became a little nervous.
Since killing the rotten swordsman in his dream, he had not given it much thought until the
practice session when he vaguely felt something amiss. His moves and agility were on another
level now, as though he had practiced them many times; some of his moves were fluid while
some still seemed to be rudimentary.
Lin Sheng stood transfixed with the wooden stick in his hand. He had tested a few moves earlier
and found the crux of the problem.
"My basic move, the thrust, is way better than the last time." Lin Sheng's pupils contracted as the
changes in his dream came to mind. "I acquired the memory and skills of the rotten swordsman
after I killed him in the dream. Now, even reality has"
Feeling confused, Lin Sheng paused. He was fearful but simultaneously looking forward to the
supernatural phenomenon.
"If Ravel whom I have killed really exists, does it mean that there's also a place called
Blackfeather City?" Lin Sheng began to have butterflies in his stomach when he realized that his
dreams were not what he initially thought them to beonly a little special. If such things could
happen in his dream, did it mean that similar changes also occurred in other parts of the world?
"Is this world still the ordinary world that I've come to know?" Lin Sheng clenched his wooden
stick a little tighter.
"Lin Sheng, Feng Xia, you two spar." Chen Huan's voice jolted Lin Sheng out of his thoughts.
Lin Sheng looked around. Feng Xia, who was relatively more skillful among the students, was
already standing opposite him with full-body armor on and a black wooden stick in her hand.
She pulled her visor down and stood in the Roof posture by raising her stick near her ear.
Lin Sheng finally snapped out of it. He quickly put on the bamboo armor and helmet, then
proceeded to pull down his visor. Through the wire mesh, he could see his opponent.
The other students also began to find their sparring partners. All the students there were novices,
and Lin Sheng had a second change of classmates in just a few weeks because most of them only
lasted for a few lessons. Once their initial enthusiasm died down, they stopped coming.
There was no surprise to this phenomenon. Who would still want to practice swordsmanship in
this era when a bullet was all it took to solve problems? Not to mention, one had to get a permit
to carry a sword.
"Ready, three, two, one, go!" Chen Huan had divided the students into groups. She raised her
right arm and waved.
Lin Sheng quickly lifted his stick and charged aggressively at his opponent. Feng Xia, a 183-
pound girl, standing at 1.7 meters tall, the same as Lin Sheng, quickly riposted with a quick
forward sweep.

However, Lin Sheng changed tactics midway. It turned out that he was only faking the strike
from above, and his actual intention was to thrust his wooden stick straight at Feng Xia.
Lin Sheng's black stick hit Feng Xia first before Feng Xia's strike from above could hit Lin
Sheng. Dropping her stick with her hand pressed on her stomach, Feng Xia squatted down and
cried in pain.
Standing still with his thrusting posture frozen in place, Lin Sheng looked a little unresponsive.
He had just instinctively pulled off Ravel's famous thrust.
"It really works." His face did not reveal much of an expression, but deep down, Lin Sheng was
stunned. The thrust maneuver was so much more fearsome in actual combat than the other
moves.
Feng Xia was the one who made the first move, but when the speeds on both sides were similar,
the straight-line distance between the stick and the opponent became the factor that separated
victory from defeat.
"One more round!" After a short break, Feng Xia got to her feet with her stick and threw herself
into the same posture again.
Lin Sheng was silent for a moment, eager to know whether he had really undergone any changes.
Soon, Lin Sheng hit his opponent in succession, and Feng Xia screamed in pain.
It quickly caught the attention of the other students.
The wooden stick in Feng Xia's hand was struck off her hand. Unwilling to concede defeat, Feng
Xia stubbornly went to pick her stick up again.
"That's enough. The difference of strength between you two is too large. Let me try." Chen Huan
walked over to stop Feng Xia. "Lin Sheng has made tremendous improvement. He may only
know one move, but he uses it better than anyone else."
Feng Xia was adamant. "I just didn't get enough rest yesterday. Otherwise, I wouldn't"
"It's not your fault." Chen Huan shook her head and interrupted Feng Xia. Holding a wooden
stick up to her ear, Chen Huan stood opposite Lin Sheng.
"Your fighting style reminds me of the battlefield swordsmanship materials I saw before. The
military mainly utilized the Naxi swordsmanship's thrust move."
"Coach, you?" Lin Sheng was hesitant.
"We are sparring." Chen Huan, bowing slightly with her eyes lowered, was extremely serious.
Lin Sheng stood with his mouth agape. Noticing Chen Huan's silence, he knew that he had to
take on the challenge. After all, Lin Sheng was also keen to know how good he had become after
he acquired Ravel's muscle memory.
The two stood face to face, holding their wooden sticks in the air like they were real swords.
Xu Yi stood to the side with a hint of interest on her face.
"The rest of you, step aside. Let me begin."
Astonished by someone having the guts to take on Coach Chen Huan, a few students stopped
their practice to watch the battle.
Feng Xia cupped her hands and moved to the side, observing Lin Sheng. She did not think that
she had lost; it was just a lack of rest the day before.
"Let's see how this kid gets crushed!" Feng Xia murmured. After attending the class for over two
months, she was the most senior student in the class and naturally found it shameful that a
newcomer could defeat her.
"Begin!"
Loud shouts ensued as the two sticks collided. At that moment, everyone including Xu Yi
seemed to see two swords, not sticks, in the fight.
Lunging forward and pressing her wooden stick against Lin Sheng's, Chen Huan bent her elbow
to try to knock Lin Sheng's weapon away. This move, which she had yet to teach her students,
looked like a simple combination of grab and sword techniques but took her a long time to
master.
Chen Huan did not hold back as she wanted to defeat Lin Sheng in the first round to defend her
pride as a coach. But Chen Huan was shocked when she discovered that they both were
maintaining an equally long distance from each other.
Unable to beat Lin Sheng in the first round, Chen Huan was forced to change her tactics.
Otherwise, she would only lose face if the battle dragged on.
"Awesome!" Xu Yi's face turned solemn.
"Distance calculation is the heart of Naxi swordsmanship. Its primary purpose is to first get in a
position where the opponent can't reach you, then look for opportunities to strike the opponent's
weak point.
"However, Chen Huan couldn't even get the upper hand just now. There's something in this
rookie."
"Really?" A new student was in awe. With a little foundation before joining the club, this new
student had practiced with Chen Huan many times, and each time, Chen Huan would defeat him
in an instant. Now, seeing how Chen Huan and Lin Sheng had been evenly matched for several
rounds, the student was amazed.
"His improvement's too fast!" a male student said in a low voice. "I remember that he just started
coming three weeks ago. Has he learned this before?"
"Unlikely. I think he's born for this kind of sport." Xu Yi shook her head.
Just as they spoke, there was a change in the battle. Each time Chen Huan attacked, Lin Sheng
would dodge with much agility. How would she face her other students when she could not even
defeat a three-week-old newbie? So, Chen Huan became anxious. She wanted to win and had to
win decisively. Yet, the more emotional she got, the more anxious she got and the more mistakes
she made in her moves. Her face soon turned red.
At first, Lin Sheng did not realize what was happening because he was immersed in the
instinctive control of his muscle memory. When Lin Sheng finally noticed Chen Huan's strange
movements and expressions, he realized that he had overdone it and quickly revealed an opening
by slowing down his riposte on the right on purpose.
Seeing the opportunity, Chen Huan was delighted and quickly struck Lin Sheng through the
opening. Hit on the right rib with his chest wide open, Lin Sheng retreated several steps back.
Just as Lin Sheng was about to concede defeat, Chen Huan, with eyes turned red, roared and
struck down from above with both hands. She knew that Lin Sheng lost on purpose, but the
battle had dragged on for too long, and it would not look good on her to be bogged down by a
student. She needed to maintain her reputation by achieving an absolute win.
Not allowing Lin Sheng to concede defeat, Chen Huan decided to further take advantage of Lin
Sheng's good-will by launching a quick attack from above.
Wanting to stop the sparring session and not seeing what was coming, the surprise attack caught
Lin Sheng off-guard. In a split second, he instinctively clenched his stick with one hand and
thrust it straight forward while his body moved sideways.
Chen Huan's wooden stick struck down from above with full force but barely scraped Lin
Sheng's mask. Had the stick hit him on the head directly, he would have been badly hurt even
with the helmet on.
Almost at the same time, Lin Sheng's wooden stick struck Chen Huan in her abdomen. Dropping
her stick to the floor, she groaned and squatted down with both hands on her stomach, appearing
to be in acute pain.
Sensing that things had gone terribly wrong, Lin Sheng quickly went up to check on Chen Huan.

"Lin Sheng!" Xu Yi shouted at Lin Sheng. "What did you do?! This is just a training session.
Why did you use so much force?"
Walking over and squatting next to Chen Huan, Xu Yi checked her injury.
Lin Sheng's purposeful loss and Chen Huan's willful pursuit happened so fast that no one in their
surroundings noticed what had happened.
Lin Sheng stood in the same spot silently. He just followed his instinctsevading, then riposting. It
was Ravel's muscle memory that controlled him.
It seemed that the blow was a heavy one to Chen Huan even with the bamboo body armor. For a
while, she could not get to her feet. But if Lin Sheng had not fought back, Chen Huan would
have struck him good and proper. Chen Huan obviously did it on purpose, pretending not to see
that Lin Sheng was taking a dive.
"How long have you been learning this? Stop fooling us by claiming to be a newbie!" Xu Yi said
coldly as she got to her feet.
"What do you mean?" Lin Sheng was stunned.
"Stop pretending! Are you here for a dojo challenge?" Xu Yi felt that she had guessed correctly.
"Take your money back and get the hell out of here! You're not welcome here!" Xu Yi showed
Lin Sheng the door. After taking a look at Chen Huan's injury and seeing a large bruise on her
abdomen, Xu Yi could not believe that Lin Sheng could be so ruthless.
Lin Sheng did not say anything.
It was just a misunderstanding. Chen Huan deliberately made use of the opportunity to attack Lin
Sheng to save her own face. Had he been an ordinary student, things would not have developed
that way. But Lin Sheng was anything but an average student.
Nonetheless, he had achieved what he wanted and tested how potent Ravel's swordsmanship
was.
"It looks like you're not going to explain yourself. Goodbye, then." Lin Sheng saw that Chen
Huan had no intention of clearing the air, and the other students had begun to resent him with Xu
Yi influencing the narrative. He felt that it was pointless to stay there any longer.
Taking off his armor and dropping the wooden stick on the floor, Lin Sheng walked to the
classroom's exit. It was only then that he noticed the incident had attracted many onlookers.
Many of them were female students from next door, and some were people he had never seen
before.
"Excuse me." Lin Sheng headed directly to the office, where he was given a refund of his 100.
With his money in hand, Lin Sheng went straight downstairs.
The sky was getting dark. Standing downstairs, Lin Sheng looked back at the signboard of the
Tengchong Swordsmanship Club. He never thought things would end up that way, with him
having to leave the club after just three weeks of lessons. Chen Huan seemed like a good coach
at first, but it turned out that to save face, she
Not wanting to harp on it anymore, Lin Sheng shook his head since he could not explain what
had happened to himself either.
Just as he turned around and was about to leave, someone called him.
"Wait a minute, buddy!"
Suddenly, a tall man rushed up to him from behind and patted him on the shoulder.
"Bro! Don't go just yet. Have you ever thought of joining another club? You've got some great
skills there. Even the b*tch, Chen Huan, wasn't a match for you! You're a master!" The man,
who had strong perfume on his body, came up to Lin Sheng. Being a little taller than Lin Sheng,
the man was a hunk. His voice was coarse, but his native Xilin accent sounded a little strange to
the ear.
Xilin people mainly had yellow skin tone. But these yellow-skinned people were generally much
fairer than those in Lin Sheng's past life. Meanwhile, the blacks and whites there were relatively
less socially divided than those in Lin Sheng's past life. The current whites were only slightly
fairer than the ones with yellow skin tones.
Foreigners were common in the port city of Huaisha. They mainly came from the countries in the
Riehen region on the other side of the ocean. That was the most developed region in the world.
Lin Sheng turned around and looked the man up and down. He was white and had dark blond
hair as well as a golden nose ring. The guy was baring his upper body with a pair of loose gray
breeches.
"Hello, my name is Russell. I'm the manager of Steelscale Club. I saw it; you fought well!" the
man said.
"Russell?" Lin Sheng was startled; the name sounded pleasant to the ear. "My name is Lin
Sheng. Did you just say that you were the manager of Steelscale Club?"
"Let's not talk here. Come with me!" Russell held Lin Sheng's hand and ran. Soon, they turned
into a street corner and arrived at another sword club. It was one of the other two clubs that Lin
Sheng had visited before. It charged an expensive fee.
The clubhouse was renovated like a luxury hotel on the outside with two black lion statues on
either side of the entrance. On the inside, everything seemed to be roundthe lamps, the hall, the
columns, the counter, and even the face of the receptionist was round.
Russell brought Lin Sheng straight to the second floor. There was a beautiful and spacious
sparring room where two swordsmen wearing armor and helmets were fighting each other.
"Madillan! Shayeen! Come here, I've brought back a master!" Russell yelled as soon as he
entered the room. "This guy has just given the long-legged lass in Tengchong a bloody nose!"
Russell exaggerated.
"What?" The two swordsmen stopped their sparring and looked in his direction upon hearing
what Russell said. One of the swordsmen was a black youth, while the other was a mixed-race
girl.
Russell pointed at the black man. "Madillan, the CEOChief Executive Officer of the club." Then,
he pointed at the mixed-race girl. "Shayeen, the CEEChief Equipment Engineer of the club. Oh,
yes, she is a mix of Xilin and Io." Finally, he pointed at Lin Sheng. "Lin Sheng, the master who
beat Chen Huan black and blue!"
Speechless, Lin Sheng's eyes swept across the classroom, which looked almost like a dance
studio with an expensively padded floor. However, the padding material looked like it was made
of expensive black marble with patterns. On the left was a large piece of ceiling-to-floor mirror
that allowed the swordsmen to correct their posture and movement. Inlaid racks were in the
corner where sets of expensive metal armor and helmets were kept. There were also different
types of swords on the weapon racks.
"What do you think? The conditions here are much better than next door's!" Russell guffawed.
"Over here, we lack nothing but masters. Are you interested in joining us?"
"What do you mean?" Lin Sheng looked at Russell in bewilderment.
"One thousand yuan a month. You have to teach at least five times; that will be 200 per lesson.
Any problems? Even Chen Huan wouldn't get this price," Russell offered.

Madillan came up with a broad smile on his face, revealing a full row of white teeth. "Hello,
friend. The three of us set up this club with our own money to learn Naxi swordsmanship and
other ancient martial arts."
"Madillan, he can take on three of us at once!" Russell said in an exaggerated tone of voice.
"He's kidding. I'm just a beginner." Lin Sheng was flattered for a while before he calmed down.
"Beginner? It doesn't matter. We need a beginner who can beat Chen Huan!" Madillan grinned.
Shayeen took off her helmet and gave Lin Sheng a closer look, but she said nothing.
"What will be my duty if I join the club?" Lin Sheng asked again.
"Five times a month, each time with a tuition fee of 200, teach us Naxi swordsmanship," Russell
explained. "We're different from Tengchong in that we're not open to the public. Membership is
by invitation only."
"To put it bluntly, we need a tutor," added Madillan.
"What about your previous tutor?" Lin Sheng was puzzled. The place was beautifully renovated,
and it offered high pay. They should have had tons of people coming to apply for the position.
But where was everyone?
"Tengchong has beaten them all." Russell was crestfallen when he talked about the matter.
"Well, let's not talk about that. Let's start practicing!" He quickly brought Lin Sheng over to put
on some protective gear.
Two minutes later, three people were standing opposite Lin Sheng, panting. They were in full
sets of armor and were each holding a cross sword in their hands. Yet, their postures were
somewhat unnatural. Russell and Madillan were gasping with their hands on their chests, while
Shayeen was standing motionless with her hand pressed on her right leg.
"Great!" Shayeen shouted.
"Come on, stay here. We'll pay you 1,500!" Madillan slapped his thigh with his hand.
For a while, Lin Sheng did not know how to respond as he looked at three pairs of earnest eyes
before him.
Back at home that night, Lin Sheng still could not make sense of his encounters earlier in the
day. He was driven out of Tengchong Swordsmanship Club and immediately invited into
Steelscale Club, which only had three official members. It felt like a dreamseriously unreal.
At the dinner table, his dad, Lin Zhounian held a bowl in his hand and looked at Lin Sheng, who
was sitting across the table. "How've you been doing recently? How are your studies?" He picked
a piece of stir-fried meat with tofu and placed it in his bowl, waiting for Lin Sheng to reply.
"Same as usual," Lin Sheng replied when he snapped out of his thoughts.
"Grandpa's condition has stabilized, but we still need to take turns taking care of him. You have
to take care of yourself." Lin Zhounian sighed.
"I understand." Lin Sheng nodded.
"While on the way home downstairs, I heard Aunt Zhang say that the price of beef has gone up
sharply." Lin Sheng's mom, Gu Wanqiu began to ramble about the sales and subtle changes that
happened somewhere in town, which she had heard from her neighbors. What amazed Lin Sheng
was that his mom spent most of her time working in the kindergarten and was rarely at home.
How did she get all the news?
Lin Zhounian would interrupt his wife to join the discussion from time to time, but Lin Sheng
would just sit by and listen on silently.
After the meal, Lin Sheng offered to wash the dishes and clean things up. When everything was
done, he took a shower before he hit the sack. He could not wait to enter the dream world again
to explore the secrets of the mysterious Blackfeather City. Lin Sheng had inherited some
fragmented memories after he killed the corrupted swordsman, and ever since that encounter, Lin
Sheng had begun to look forward to the experience.
A deep fog permeated the manor's surroundings.
Lin Sheng carried his black sword and treaded forth slowly on the right side of the horse trail.
The gravel and withered grass produced small crunches whenever he stepped on them, and the
sound of rustling tree leaves could be heard in the wind.
Lin Sheng scanned his surroundings and saw dark dense forests on both sides of the path where
black tree branches swayed back and forth. He started to imagine what would happen if
something suddenly lunged out of the darkness.
Up ahead, a black oil lamp hung from a lonely lamppost at a Y-junction with two dry corpses
sitting back-to-back, leaning against it. The dead bodies were dressed in black clothing, and their
faces were indiscernible as messy, weed-like gray hair covered their faces.
Lin Sheng was stunned for a moment. He held his sword and plucked up the courage to move
closer. With the exception of the howling wind and two dead bodies, there was nothing else
around. But as Lin Sheng got closer, he felt inexplicably lonely as if he was in the middle of an
empty football field.
"I'm at least four or five hundred meters away from the manor. I guess I won't be so unlucky to
bump into the monster again." Lin Sheng knew his limits; he could not beat the monster's speed
and strength. Although he had inherited some of Ravel's memories, his real strength was still
inadequate. This was because, firstly, there was no change in his physical strength so his powers
and speed still remained the same. Secondly, the only skill that Lin Sheng acquired from Ravel's
fragmented memories was the thrust technique, which was the most basic of the basic moves.
"In terms of real strength, I may not even qualify as a backup fighter in Ravel's world." Lin
Sheng forced a smile. But when he thought of the possibility of acquiring more fragmented
memories, he began to look forward to killing more monsters.
Thinking of that, Lin Sheng held his sword and slowly got closer until he was less than a meter
from the bodies. As he jabbed the arm of one of the corpses with his sword, the body fell to the
ground, and the head detached itself from the neck, exposing a hidden dagger in the arms of the
corpse. "Is it completely dead?" Lin Sheng squinted. When he tried to pick up the dagger with
his sword, the dagger dropped into the mud.
Just then, a hissing sound suddenly came from his right. He quickly turned, looking in the
direction of the sound.
In the darkness, a monster with a black sword growing on his right arm slowly limped toward
him. Its head was wrapped in a white headscarf stained with blood, and the skin on its neck and
arms were covered in festering pustules.
"Not again!" Lin Sheng clenched his black sword, staring intently at the monster. Armed with
Ravel's fragmented memories, he thought that he could try to take the monster head-on.
"A surprise attack isn't going to work, and there is no escape." Lin Sheng took a deep breath,
holding his sword with both hands and slowly raising it beside his ear.
The rotten swordsman hissed as he got closer and closer. Lin Sheng's mind was totally focused.
A gust of wind suddenly blew past, and Lin Sheng charged at the rotten swordsman, aiming for
the neck of his enemy. As his black sword pierced through the air, a bursting sound could be
heard.
The move would be lethal if it hit its target. Strength and swordsmanship did not help when the
body was decaying. The rotten swordsman would not stand a chance if he got hit.
However, the festered swordsman was not a sitting duck. He swung his black sword upward in
an arc and intercepted Lin Sheng's blade in time.
The swift riposte that came straight out of Ravel's memories bounced Lin Sheng's sword back.
He leaned to the right, avoiding the incoming sword of the decaying swordsman.
"Go to hell!" Lin Sheng swiftly swung his sword in a downward movement, trying to cut off the
enemy's wrist. A muffled sound was heard. The swordsman was able to make a quick change of
direction, blocking Lin Sheng's attack.
Both of them were forced to step back respectively. However, Lin Sheng lunged forward again
in less than a second, thrusting his black sword straight at the rotten swordsman's chest.
Yet, the swordsman blocked his move again. Lin Sheng was forced to retreat a couple of steps.
Now, both of them stood face-to-face at a distance.
The keys to Naxi swordsmanship were timing, angle, speed, and distance. A stalemate would
ensue if one's skills were not better than another.
As the fight continued, a hissing sound began to travel from afar.
After a while, Lin Sheng figured out that the swordsman was an entirely different type of fighter
from Ravel. Although the swordsman's attack was not aggressive, his defense was pretty
formidable. This could be seen from the successive blockade of Lin Sheng's attacks.
Exhausted, Lin Sheng began to gasp for air as his body reached its limit. Despite the weeks of
continuous practice, one thing was undeniable: he was only a high-school student with very little
training. It was already outstanding that Lin Sheng could play with the rotten swordsman for so
long.
Each time their black swords collided, Lin Sheng would feel his arms go numb. He needed to use
all his strength to avoid losing his sword. But the rotten swordsman fought only with one hand.
This meant that there was a large gap between them in terms of strength.
"This is too much!" Sweat was running down Lin Sheng's forehead and temples. He was gasping
breathlessly for oxygen.
Right then, the dream had become as real as reality; goosebumps began to rise on his skin while
the chilly wind blew.
"I need to end this quickly. Otherwise, running is the only option!" Making up his mind, Lin
Sheng kept an eye on the rotten swordsman while he glanced at the ground around him from the
corner of his eye.
Very quickly, he thought of a simple plan. Lunging forward again, Lin Sheng aimed straight for
his enemy's chest.
However, the rotten swordsman quickly blocked it and reciprocated with a riposte. While he
fenced off the attack, Lin Sheng slowly moved toward a darker area nearby. When he got close
enough, he bounced back, turned, and quickly fled.
The rotten swordsman was stunned for a moment before he gave chase. Not realizing that there
was a sharp rock protruding out from the ground under his feet, the rotten swordsman tripped
and lost his balance.Before he could recover his balance, a black sword was already coming his
way.
It was Lin Sheng who had turned back, striking him with the black sword from above.
The black sword struck the rotten swordsman's head in the dark, cutting as deep as a third into
his head before getting stuck.
Lin Sheng continued to put pressure on the sword but still failed to cut the head in half.
"This is bullsh*t!" Lin Sheng gasped, drenched in sweat.

"The human skull is much harder than other parts of the body. Slicing a skull in half is just
impossible." Despite all his might, the sword could only go as deep as one-third of the skull,
which he felt was pretty impressive already.
His angle and speed of attack were impeccable, while the black sword was as sharp as it could
get. Nonetheless, it could only go so far.
A black mist rose from the body of the decaying swordsman. Like a strand of thread, it flew and
permeated Lin Sheng's chest before he knew it. By the time he realized what had happened,
chaotic images began to flood his mind as if someone was stuffing things into an already full
suitcase. He felt like his head was about to explode, and he sweated profusely.
After three breaths, Lin Sheng managed to suppress his headache and scan his surroundings. To
his horror, three more rotten swordsmen had appeared around him and were coming toward him.
"Goddamn it!" He turned around and quickly ran. While he turned around, he cast his eyes on the
lamppost, on which were three arrows showing directions to different locations: Blackfeather
City, Ravel's manor, and Black Morass.
The most useful thing Lin Sheng obtained after he acquired the fragmented memories was the
ability to understand the language. At least, he no longer ran around like a headless chicken like
when he first came.
Lin Sheng ran straight into the darkness in the direction of Blackfeather City. He had probably
alerted many dangers in his surroundings, but he could not care less. His focus was to receive the
full memories in his mind first.
After running and gasping a dozen times and feeling physically exhausted, the memory infusion
was finally completed.
"Mercenary? Women? Wine? Gambling?" Lin Sheng briefly browsed through the images in his
new memories. But to his disappointment, there was almost no memory about fighting, only bits
and pieces of daily living.
The memories seemed to belong to a wandering mercenary, who would work for whoever
offered the highest price and spend all his money on gambling as well as women if not drinking.
The information was garbage. It appeared that Lin Sheng had put too high a hope in it in the first
place.
"Not everyone is a good man like Ravel"
However, as a consolation, he did gain some muscle memory of basic tricks and training
methods.
"At least there's something."
After a while of running and hearing no more sound behind him, Lin Sheng slowly stopped. He
now found himself standing in the darkness in the middle of a street suffused with thin fog. For a
moment, he was even unsure whether he was on solid ground.
There were broken wooden fences on either side of the road, and in some spots, indiscernible
pieces of tattered clothing were hung on the fences.
Lin Sheng clenched his black sword and continued to go forward while he sorted out the
mercenary's memories in his mind. Most of the memories were useless, but upon digging deeper,
he still managed to find something informative.
"A sudden occurrence of cold wind and dense fog, and everyone was infected with some
unknown disease?" Lin Sheng knitted his brows together. He quickly found a familiar name: La
Chapelle.
"Hmm, it looks like a blacksmith shop that's ranked third in Blackfeather City."
Lin Sheng quickly looked for the direction to La Chapelle but could not find it in the mercenary's
fragmented memories. So, he continued to move ahead down the street for a few minutes before
a large hole-ridden grayish-white structure appeared in front of him.
"It looks like a city gate!" Lin Sheng was hesitant for a while. "This must be the Blackfeather
City that Ravel mentioned."
Looking ahead, he was about to continue his journey, but Lin Sheng suddenly felt his heart
palpitate.
"Time's up. That's okay. At least, I'll have time to digest the mercenary's memories."
As he stood still on the spot, looking at the large and dark city ahead, his mind suddenly blacked
out, and he lost consciousness.
Lin Sheng slowly woke up and sat on his bed. He felt a little hapless when he found that his
underclothes were drenched in sweat.
"Another piece of clothing to wash!" In an era without fully automatic washing machines, he had
to use a bit of elbow grease.
Getting out of bed, he fumbled into the washroom with the help of the faint moonlight. After he
cleaned himself up with warm water in the thermal flask and changed into a set of clean clothes,
he returned to his room and lay back down in bed.
His alarm clock, which was in the shape of a black pig with large ears, on the bedside table
showed three forty in the morning. Lin Sheng still had enough time to work on the memories.
"Let me see There should be something useful."
He lay in bed and began to recall the mercenary's fragmented memories.
The sky outside started to get brighter as time went by. Lin Sheng had fallen asleepagain. In a
trance, he seemed to hear his parents in the washroom. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly
awoke from his sleep. He may have regained consciousness, but his mind was still thinking of
the fragmented memories.
"Ahh, it's Sunday! I can sleep a little longer!" Lin Sheng suddenly realized what day it was. But
since he had woken up, there was no way he could fall back to sleep again.
Still lying on the bed, Lin Sheng began to carefully study the mercenary's memories while he
listened to the noises in the hallway and corridor. Finally, a very minute detail caught his
attention.
"In Blackfeather City, mercenaries usually received their assignments through the Blackfeather
Trade Union, which was located between the Valent Sanctum and the tax department. The
Valent Sanctum?"
Lin Sheng got out of bed and sat in front of his desk. Pulling the drawer open, he took out his
notebook and jotted down the name.
The Valent Sanctum.
Written in Chinese, the characters looked particularly eye-catching on the white notebook. He
shut his eyes, and Ravel's memories of the place began to surface in his mind. Combined with
the mercenary's memories, Lin Sheng began to piece the information together.
"The Valent Sanctuma place where warriors are trained and sacred runes are passed down?
Sacred runes?"
It was all that Lin Sheng managed to piece together after cross-referencing the memories
belonging to Ravel and the mercenary.
"The sacred runes" A weird expression appeared on Lin Sheng's face.
"Perhaps I could go there and try my luck. Who knows, I may find some articles and books that
possess supernatural powers. I'm sure there's something about the sacred runes!"
Up to that point, all the fragmented memories Lin Sheng had gotten were of pure physics and
had nothing to do with the supernatural. But if the small temple could lead him to the
supernatural realm, he was willing to take the risk. He had dreamt of this in his past life as well
as the current one.
Once he made up his mind, Lin Sheng put on his shirt, placed the notebook back in the drawer,
and went into the kitchen. He found some big buns on a plate and a glass of preheated milk. His
parents had gone to work.
Pulling out a chair from under the table and sitting down, Lin Sheng began to eat. After he
gobbled up three large meat buns and gulped down the entire glass of milk, he changed into his
workout outfit and headed out the door.
There was no need to go to Steelscale Club that day since he had just given a class the day
before. So, he hopped on a public transport heading toward Rainbow Park, which was not far
from home.
Rainbow Park was one of the only three parks in Huaisha. Close to the sea with a great view of
the beach and coconut trees, the park was a hotspot for wedding photography.
However, Lin Sheng did not go there for fun but to collect his money. Armed with the memories
of his past life, making some pocket money was literally a walk in the park for him.

After he got off the bus ten minutes later, Lin Sheng entered the park through the main entrance
and met the person he went to see in front of an ice-cream store on the right.
Shen Yan was standing there with another girl. While they chatted, they stomped their feet to get
warm. They were both dressed in white. One was wearing a workout outfit while the other a
hoodie and a pair of jeans. They looked pretty eye-catching.
"You're early!" Lin Sheng went up to say hello.
"We've been waiting for you." Shen Yan breathed a sigh of relief when Lin Sheng showed up.
Dressed in a tight-fitting outfit and sporting a clean ear-length haircut, Shen Yan was by no
means pretty. But her tall and slim body screamed youthfulness.
"This is Chen Lin. She's been my bestie since I was little." Shen Yan patted the long-haired girl
next to her.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lin Sheng, Shen Yan's classmate," Lin Sheng said politely with a smile.
"Nice to meet you too." The girl appeared shy, and her voice was very soft.
"Where's the money? I still have something on. Let's split the money," Lin Sheng reminded.
Shen Yan quickly pulled out a waist bag from behind her and unzipped it without hesitation.
"We got 124 of sales in total last week. We're sharing it fifty-fifty, so 62 for each of us. Any
issues?" Shen Yan counted 62 and shoved it into Lin Sheng's hand.
"That's all?" Lin Sheng knitted his brows together. It would have looked a lot in the past. This
was part of the income from the book-renting business that he and Shen Yan operated in school.
"This is a lot considering that it's only one week!" Shen Yan retorted.
Lin Sheng shook his head. Compared with his first month's salary of 750 that Steelscale Club
paid him, the 62 looked meager although it meant a lot to a student.
After they divided the money, Shen Yan invited Lin Sheng to go shopping and food-hunting. But
Lin Sheng declined.
He did not go far. After he found a quiet corner in Rainbow Park, Lin Sheng began to practice
his basic movements.
The heart of Naxi Swordsmanship was calculation and timing, but the unknown school of
swordplay that Lin Sheng acquired from Ravel and the mercenary was more than that. If he
wanted to turn the muscle memory that he learned from the fragmented memories into intuition,
he needed to repeatedly practice expediting the process.
After completing the movements, Lin Sheng sat down to take a break. Just then, a girl who was
pushing a drink cart came from one corner of the park.
The cart, wrapped all over with white paper boards and selling a variety of drinks, looked neat.
Lin Sheng went up and took out some small change.
"One bottle of mineral water, please." He handed 1 to the girl.
The girl was wearing a cap. With the combination of her shoulder-length hair, fair skin, and
charming big eyes, she exuded a faint vibe of innocence. Hearing Lin Sheng's words, she quickly
took a bottle of mineral water and gave it to him.
"Here you go."
"Thank you." Lin Sheng took the bottle, uncapped it, and drank its contents.
"Oh, you come here to work out early in the morning? A student like you has the stamina," the
girl said with a smile.
"I woke up early this morning so I may as well come out to do some workouts," Lin Sheng said.
"To be honest, it's pretty dangerous here early in the morning." The girl appeared mysterious.
"I've also woken up pretty early and come here previously. Had I not been lucky back then, tsk
tsk"
Lin Sheng did not respond. Apparently, she was waiting for him to ask her what that was all
about. But Lin Sheng did not want to listen so he pretended to not hear her.
"Have you heard about the fatal robbery? It happened right at the rear entrance of Rainbow Park,
where I pass by every day! I never thought such a thing would happen there!" The girl seemed
unstoppable as she babbled on.
"A fatal robbery?"
"Yup. People say that they only cleaned up the scene this morning. Before that, there was a
police barricade to stop people from passing through," the girl muttered while she scratched her
chin.
"By right, it shouldn't have been so bloody if the victim had cooperated. While I was pushing my
cart, I passed by the spot once and saw blood everywhere! It looked completely like a torture
scene!"
"This is very close to the city center, yet I've never heard of this incident in the news." Lin Sheng
frowned.
"Who knows? Probably it was too gross, and the people at the top ordered for it not to be
publicized." While she spoke, the girl shook her head. "I've also heard that people could hear
gunshots earlier."
"This case doesn't seem so straightforward." Lin Sheng was basically convinced that it was not a
robbery-gone-wrong. Apparently, some department was making use of the incident to attract
people's attention.
Nevertheless, it had nothing to do with him. His priority now was to concentrate on his training
to elevate his capabilities. Only through repeated practice could he digest the fragmented
memories and integrate them into his combat intuition.

What could Lin Sheng do even if he could sense that the government was trying to conceal
something? He could not care less about the so-called conspiracy. Since the powers that be were
determined to hide it, they must have had a reason to do so.
After his practice, he hopped on a bus and headed home. He resumed his study and revision to
prepare for the coming college entrance exam, which would make or break his future.
If he still refused to buckle down and be serious, he would end up being a dead loss.
Therefore, Lin Sheng went into overdrive and studied hard. With his IQ being more developed
than other students his age, he had an unfair advantage over them in many subjects except Math.
His strategy in tackling that subject was repeated revision.
Time flew while he did his revision, and the day of the week on which Lin Sheng had to teach in
Steelscale Club arrived.
Over in Steelscale Club, Lin Sheng taught Madillan in the ring. He only defended, he did not
attack. Their swords produced a series of loud clanging sounds when they clashed.
"My dad's asked me not to go out recently, especially into the wilderness," Russell said listlessly
while he leaned against the wall in a corner.
"Mine too. It's probably because of that case earlier," Shayeen said calmly.
"What happened? I asked my dad, but he didn't want to talk about it," Russell asked quietly.
Shaking her head, Shayeen said, "I have no idea too. My grandpa's the only person in the know.
He's never mentioned it one bit. He just reminds us to be careful and not go to quiet places."
"Hmm, it reminds me of that arson case at the port where a dozen containers went up in flames.
Mind you, it was near the sea. I wonder how much fuel was needed to burn all of the containers.
Did it not make sense?"
Russell's mouth twitched. "Come on, anyone with a good sense would have known that
something was wrong."
"Let the adults worry about it. Meanwhile, we just need to mind our own business and not stick
our noses where they don't belong. Practice your sword skills, youngsters!" Shayeen waved her
hand impatiently as she did not want to talk anymore.
"You're right. If I still don't knuckle down, Madillan will surpass me." Russell shut his visor,
held his sword, and walked toward the two individuals in the ring.
Lin Sheng flung away Madillan's sword and stopped, waiting for Russell's turn.
Following the ritual before sparring, the two drew an "X in the air with their swords.
"Were you talking about the case that happened in Rainbow Park?" Lin Sheng suddenly asked.
"Yes, that's the one. You may not know, but the city police have sent their entire force there. On
top of that, there are vehicles constantly entering and leaving their station there," Russell said all
of a sudden.
"Wasn't it a fatal robbery?" Lin Sheng asked casually.
"Who knows? It could be a narrative for the unsuspecting public!" Russell sneered. "And why
would they need to mobilize the entire city police force and putter about so long just for a
robber?"
"Indeed." Lin Sheng nodded in agreement.
"Forget it! Let's concentrate on our sword practice. Those things don't concern us. Come on, it's
my turn!" Russell yelled.
Lin Sheng nodded in acquiescence and braced for Russell's advances, which were more form
than substance; his movements were all for show.
Right from the start, he began to correct Russell's mistakes. While doing so, the words of the girl
with the drink cart kept ringing in his head.
"While I was pushing my cart, I passed by the spot once and saw blood everywhere! It looked
completely like a torture scene!"
Also, there were Russell's words...
"My dad's asked me not to go out recently, especially into the wilderness"
Not just his, but Shayeen's family had said the same thing. They were obviously worried that the
alleged fatal robbery would pose a safety concern to Russell and Shayeen.
"Hey," after a while of sparring, Russell suddenly spoke, "Master Lin, you're a real swordsman,
aren't you?"
"What do you mean? I don't quite get you." Lin Sheng appeared baffled.
"There are two distinct camps in the world of Naxi Swordsmanship: the showmanship and the
swordsmanship," Russell explained.
"Master Lin, why don't you teach me a couple of beautiful yet practical movements?" he said
with a cheeky grin.
"I know no such thing." Lin Sheng shook his head.
He had inherited a little swordsmanship skill from Ravel, a veteran soldier, and the mercenary, a
private military contractor, who mainly exercised practicality in their fighting skills.
"What a shame," Russell swung his sword and grumbled.
"Are you sure you don't know, Master Lin?" an unyielding Shayeen, who stood beside him,
chimed in.
Lin Sheng thought for a moment and said, "There may be such swordsmanship, but I've never
learned it."
"What are all of you thinking? You should already be grateful for having a master instructor.
Stop whining." Madillan looked baffled.
"What's the use of learning swordsmanship if it doesn't look cool?" Annoyed, Russell spread his
hands.
"Swordsmanship should look cool, without which there is no point in learning." Shayeen nodded
in agreement.
Madillan seemed to be divided now. Lin Sheng looked them, disheartened, not knowing what to
say.
Born with silver spoons in their mouths, they were uncommitted and would give up at the drop
of a hat. Lin Sheng finally understood why no instructor wanted to teach them because these
three chaps were hopeless. The game was not worth the candle, but he did not want to lose this
high-paying job just yet.
Lin Sheng was hesitant after he pondered for a moment. "Perhaps it is for self-defense?"
"Self-defense?"
Hearing the proposition, the trio's eyes fell on Lin Sheng.

"Carrying this huge sword is cumbersome enough, not to mention you'll most likely be hit by a
bullet before you can even draw your sword. Don't you think so?" asked Shayeen, shaking her
head.

Her family was in the arms dealing business, so she knew that better than anyone else there.
"Not everyone has a gun," Lin Sheng said. "If you think the sword is slow, try me."
"Seriously?" Russell became excited. "I've had professional training in knife techniques for self-
defense before; close-quarters combat within two metersit was a special kind of training. Why
don't we spar?"
Lin Sheng knew that if he still did not show his true worth, these rich kids would probably find
some excuse to fire him within the next few days. He did not want to lose his job yet.
"Why not!"
He wanted to test his strength too. He had only fought the rotten swordsmen in his dream.
Perhaps, he could take this opportunity to gauge how good he was in the real world.
Shayeen and Madillan immediately champed at the bit when they heard the two throw down the
gauntlet.
Lin Sheng still used the same sword but had changed into a slash-resistant suit, while Russell,
still wearing his protective gear, swapped his sword for a dagger. They stood facing each other in
the middle of the sparring ring.
"Master Lin, may I remind you that Russell is no amateur. His family previously hired a retired
commando to train him," Shayeen said matter-of-factly.
"Thanks for the heads-up." Lin Sheng pulled down his visor and signaled Russell to start.
Wiping away his cheeky expression, Russell drew out his dagger and held it in a reverse grip.
They were two meters apart from each other. At that distance, Lin Sheng did not even have
enough time to draw his sword, and Russell would stab him in the chest with just a lunge.
Looking on, the two spectators in the sparring room were on the edge of their seats.
"In Naxi swordsmanship, winning and losing usually happens in a split second. Unless both sides
are evenly matched, the fight won't take long," Shayeen said in a low voice.
"Now, let's see how Master Lin manages"
Just then, a grating loud clank was heard.
Russell was flung out, and he crashed hard on the floor while the dagger dropped from his hand.
Lin Sheng looked down vacantly at Russell, his sword dangling beside him.
"WhatWhat just happened?" Madillan was bewildered.
"II don't know!" Shayeen did not see what happened too.
Before everyone could grasp the situation, an embarrassed Russell had bounced back up swiftly
and aimed his dagger straight at Lin Sheng's waist from the side.
*Claaank!*
In a flash, Russell was down on the floor, faceup. Before the others could make a sound, he
roared like a beast, got back up to his feet, and pounced on Lin Sheng.
*Claaank!*
Sparks flew, and Russell was sent flying away with his dagger. This resulted in a long cut in the
floor mat.
He struggled to get back up but was too exhausted after tumbling twice in succession.
Lin Sheng tilted his sword sideways and walked up to him calmly. With just one swing of his
hand, the sword tip reached Russell's neck, stopping short of slashing his throat.
Russell's shock, confusion, and embarrassment were reflected in the mirror-like blade.
"Would you like to learn?" Lin Sheng asked.

Russell swallowed.
Since the founding of the club, he had hired a dozen instructors, all of whom were masters of
Naxi Swordsmanship, but none were as threatening as the one before him.
The feeling was...
"This is too awesome!" He suddenly guffawed uncontrollably, with Madillan and Shayeen
joining in on the hee-haw.
Lin Sheng pulled back his sword. Seeing how excited they were, he suddenly did not know what
to do.
After he left the clubhouse, Lin Sheng still went home on the bus as usual.
Although he now had money in his pocket, beating his long-established habit was hard. He only
wanted to remain low-profile when he just started out, but over time, it had become a habit.
"To put in bluntly, this is nothing but laziness."
Standing in the bone-chilling wind and glancing back at the bus, which slowly disappeared into
the distance, Lin Sheng pulled his collar together and gradually moved along the tactile paving in
front of a row of shops.
Very few pedestrians and street food were in that part of the town, so the nightlife was pretty
much absent there.
While he was on his way home, Lin Sheng thought about his sparring moment with Russell
earlier.
"I finished off my opponent almost without having to unsheathe my sword. The close-range
riposte that I learned from the mercenary's memories is absolutely impeccable.
"With accurate judgment, the metal pommel alone is enough to repel an opponent's attack. It
should be a close-quarters combat technique.
"It's a shame that my physical strength isn't up to par. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to redirect my
opponent's momentum of attack to win."
He was able to fling Russell away during the sparring session, not because of his own strength
but by using Russell's attack momentum as leverage. It was an instinctive move contained in the
mercenary's memories and a necessary technique to use when one confronted a much stronger
opponent.
"Generally, it uses the solidness of the sword's material to leverage the opponent's strength."
Theoretically, the stronger the opponent was, the more damage it would cause to the
opponentprovided that the sword was strong enough.
The sparring session earlier had given Lin Sheng a more in-depth understanding of such a
technique.
While Ravel's memories did endow him with the basic thrust move, the mercenary's memories
had enriched his other combat experience, albeit not by much. He could not even qualify as a
student in Ravel's world, but dealing with Russell was easy peasy. While the chap claimed that
he had undergone training, in reality, he was no more than a novice.
After Lin Sheng entered through the gate of the apartment buildings, he walked all the way to the
stairway below his unit. There, he saw advertisement leaflets strewn all over the ground. There
was a photo of a beautiful unknown woman with a line of text at the bottom that read "Baby
Reward" .
Lin Sheng kicked the leaflets, which fluttered in the wind, away before he climbed up the stairs
slowly. The lightbulb in the stairwell was blown again. He quickly ascended the third floor by
leaping up three steps at a time.
The security door of his house was wide open as his dad, Lin Zhounian was carrying goods out
of the house. Lin Sheng still managed to find a way in even though several bag loads of snacks
were almost entirely blocking the entrance.
"Give me a hand in moving these things downstairs," Lin Zhounian quickly called out when he
saw that Lin Sheng was back.
"Mhm," Lin Sheng replied.
With an extra pair of hands, the father and son quickly moved the dozen or so bags of goods
downstairs and loaded up his trishaw.
"Alright, go to sleep. I need to deliver the goods, it's urgent," While he spoke, Lin Zhounian
shoved a roll of money into Lin Sheng's hand.
"Your class teacher called. There'll be a tuition class for the college entrance exam. This is for
your tuition fee as well as pocket money. Don't ask your sister for money, she's not having it
easy out there too."
After he spoke, he waved at Lin Sheng, and before Lin Sheng could say anything, he slowly
paddled away on his trishaw.
Lin Sheng looked on. Once his dad began to gradually disappear into the darkness, he then
looked down at the roll of money in his hand. The 100 note and two 20 notes, full of creases,
were stained with his dad's sweat.
Such was life. Aside from running a grocery store, Lin Zhounian would occasionally deliver
large orders to customers all by himself. Making deliveries in the evening was normal. He made
20, or 30 at best each trip. It was hard-earned cash.
A while of silence later, Lin Sheng turned around and went back up to his house on the third
floor. He changed into his slippers, cleaned himself up, put on a fresh nightdress, and habitually
gulped down a glass of water before he slept.

Lying quietly in bed, his mind started to wander.
"I really need to improve our life."
After a long moment, Lin Sheng sighed and leisurely closed his eyes.
A nip in the air rushed at his forehead the second he opened his eyes. He instinctively rolled to
his left to dodge it.
A black sword landed right where he was standing in earlier, and the impact created a rather big
pit in the ground.
The wielder of the black sword, a rotten swordsman with a bloated body, pulled the sword out of
the ground. He turned around and charged at Lin Sheng again.
"Not again!"
All Lin Sheng could see was an inky shadow in the dark. He quickly rolled to the side and ran as
fast as he could. There was still moonlight illuminating the place the last time he cam, but this
time, it was pitch-black. He could see nothing around him.
"I've got to find some light!"
The thought of bumping into other monsters kept him from stopping. He did not want to die
again without knowing what was happening. After all, it would take a few days before he could
recover from the neurasthenia after each death.
Lin Sheng did not know how far he had run, but he definitely did not hear any other sound
behind him anymore. Out of a sudden, he hit something like a rock under his feet and almost
tripped over.
A glow finally appeared in the sky as the moon came out of its hiding place behind the dark
clouds.
Lin Sheng stopped and panted while he carefully looked at his surroundings.
He saw a tall gray wall up ahead. Dotted with holes and looking like a piece of decaying cheese,
the wall surrounded a city.
Lin Sheng took several steps forward until he was just a few meters away from the city wall.
"I can't believe that I got here in under one breath. Is this Blackfeather City?" He reached out to
touch the city wall. The wall did not feel the way it looked; it was made of super solid material,
and its sharp sections had a metallic feel to the touch.
"It's becoming more and more real. This dream" Lin Sheng's heart sank a little. Right then, he
began to doubt if he was dreaming. He retracted his hand, grabbed his black sword, and went
into the city via the main gate. At three meters tall, the entrance felt cold and quiet. A chilly wind
rushed at him from behind as he walked through the gates. Lin Sheng instinctively shrank his
neck, trying to avoid losing too much body heat.
Upon passing through the gate, a ruined gray city block appeared before him. There were broken
carriages on the streets, while some shredded unknown debris were carried up in the air by the
wind. The dilapidated shops and houses creaked in the wind, as though they were about to
collapse at any time.
Lin Sheng looked into the distance, and everything he saw was gray. The fog was still shrouding
the deepest part of Blackfeather City, and visibility was virtually zero.
"There isn't even a single living thing here?" Lin Sheng was on his guard the entire time because
he did not believe that there were no monsters in that big city. Holding his black sword, he
searched around and quickly found a road sign to the right of the city gate. Made of some kind of
black metal, the road sign showed the directions to five different places. But the letters of three
of the place names had faded and were illegible while the remaining two were barely
recognizable.
"Els Square and Blackfeather City Hall?" Nonetheless, Lin Sheng managed to read those two
names.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 1

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Nightmare's Call Chapter 1

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Nightmare's Call Chapter 1

There was no light or sound.

The night just seemed so still.

Where did the woman come from?

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It was terrifyingly quiet.

*Tack, tack, tack, tack.*

*Tack, tack, tack…*

"Huff, huff, huff, huff…"

Despite that, the feeling was so vivid and real.

The sun had risen; it was now morning.

"Mhm." Lin Sheng did not know what to say.

"I have enough," Lin Sheng said.

Lin Xiao started to babble again.

"Got it." Lin Sheng bowed his head.

"But why do you look so ill?" Lin Xiao was worried.

"Really?" Lin Sheng was stunned.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 2

"I'm fine." Lin Sheng glanced up calmly.

"Nothing." Lin Sheng shook his head.

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Then, Lin Sheng retracted his hand.

This best friend of his had a problem; she liked to swear.

She was too predictable and such a simple-minded crazy lass.

Unfortunately, Lin Sheng blocked her every move.

A few classmates looked on with interest and laughed.

The two girls started jabbering.

The food in the cafeteria was appetizing.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 3

"Young man, be careful! Don't piss people off."

"Ouch, my foot! You've stepped on my foot! Are you dreaming?"

People began to grumble and make noises like touch-activated toys.

Sitting down after a long day at school, he felt drowsy.

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There were footsteps again.

There was silence for a while.

Suddenly, someone lifted the quilt.

He panted. His body and T-shirt were soaked in sweat.

His mind went blank.

Lin Sheng sat motionless in bed for ten minutes.

Nevertheless, he quickly calmed the rapid thumping of his heartbeat.

He had a hunch that it was a bad omen.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 4

It was a precautionary measure that he had put in place...

And things went on this way for two weeks.

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"Get lost! It was a nightmare." Lin Sheng sounded dejected.

"Is that so?" Lin Sheng nodded.

"Really?" Lin Sheng blinked and said nothing more.

"You'd better be. Son—"

Nightmare's Call Chapter 5

*Tack, tack, tack.*

"Lin Sheng." The voice rang out again.

*Tack, tack, tack.*

The footsteps were getting closer and closer.

*Tack, tack, tack.*

"Let's perish together!"

"Aah!" There was a shrill cry.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 6

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"It's time." He knew it.

Nightmare's Call Chapter 7

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Tack, tack, tack, tack.

Tack, tack, tack…

Tack, tack, tack.

Tack, tack, tack.

Tack, tack, tack.