A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 553: Dream Entering

After class, Qi Xuansu wanted to find Yao Pei to discuss a particular statue containing divine power at the bottom of Xingye Lake. He figured that they had worked well together as accomplices in a previous heist.

However, the door to Yao Pei’s residence was tightly shut—a clear indication she was not there.

The Upper Palace was not massive, but it was certainly not small. Just within Gen Garden, there were already 99 archive towers and the grand Tianshui Core Tower, so trying to locate Yao Pei was no easy task.

After scouting around, Qi Xuansu noticed a slip of paper wedged in the doorframe. It read, “If you need me, meet me in a dream at midnight. I won’t wait if you’re late.”

Qi Xuansu was momentarily startled, immediately recalling the Qingping Society’s Dream Meeting. For a brief moment, he wondered if Yao Pei was also a member of the Qingping Society. But he quickly realized that she was not referring to that Dream Meeting. She probably meant the Diviner’s mystical ability of Dream Entering.

For Diviners, the ability to project one’s soul outside the body was a crucial mystical ability. When they were temporarily free from the constraints of the body, which were suppressed by one’s qi and blood, spellcasting became significantly easier. Their spiritual intuition became sharper, allowing a far more accurate divination. That was why some prophecies were foretold through dreams.

As a Banished Immortal, Yao Pei also had this mystical ability.

Qi Xuansu had never used the dream-entering ability of a Diviner before. Unlike the instinctive body-regenerative ability of Martial Arts Practitioners, dream entering was a learned skill.

Although the Xuan Jade granted Qi Xuansu some traits that allowed him to learn mystical abilities as if they were innate, the actual techniques still needed practice.

To put it in simple terms, running and jumping were most humans’ natural abilities, but learning to run faster or jump higher required more training and practice in refined techniques.

The true form of soul projection was achieved in the Yangshen Realm, which was the Zaohua stage of a Diviner, one step before attaining immortality. It was equivalent to the Three Corpses Severance Realm of a Banished Immortal and the Liberation Realm of a Rogue Cultivator.

Though the mystical ability was called soul projection, a Diviner would typically project the yin shen[1], also known as the yin spirit.

However, in the Yangshen Realm, the Diviner would project the yang spirit, which was capable of completely leaving behind the physical body and becoming a tangible, independent form of existence. In other words, a Zaohua-stage Diviner could entirely discard their mortal form and exist independently in the world, completely impervious to heavenly winds and lightning. This was the concept of extreme yin giving birth to yang—where illusion, when pushed to its ultimate limit, became reality.

Alternatively, one could choose not to abandon their physical body, instead creating an independent extension of themselves. Thus, allowing both forms to move freely, as if they were one and the same. From this perspective, the yang spirit and the Three Corpses were fundamentally different. The Three Corpses were part of oneself yet separate, whereas the soul was purely oneself.

An individual’s soul, which could leave and return to the physical body yet could not be seen by others nor exist independently for long, was known as the yin spirit. The yin spirit was much like one's own body in a dream—except far clearer and more distinct.

The most straightforward difference between the yang spirit and the yin spirit was that the yin spirit could not possess another soul, but the yang spirit could.

Many Diviners attempted to possess another entity before reaching the Yangshen Realm, but doing so always came with immense costs. One method was to forcibly seize another person’s body. This was highly risky because the soul could be counterattacked and killed. Even if successful, there was always the issue of incompatibility between the new body and soul. This not only led to a decline in cultivation but also introduced various hidden dangers, often preventing any further progress in cultivation for the rest of one’s life.

Another method was to possess an unborn fetus, essentially undergoing reincarnation. The risk was minimal, but it came with a major drawback known as Mystery of the Womb. The Diviner would lose their sense of self during fetal development and forget all past experiences. Additionally, they must grow from infancy to adulthood and rebuild their cultivation from scratch.

These drawbacks arose because a yin spirit was not naturally capable of seizing another soul, resulting in severe side effects. However, a yang spirit faced none of these issues. For the yang spirit, changing bodies was as simple as changing clothes. This was the most direct demonstration of the yang spirit’s ability to exist independently from its physical body.

Under normal circumstances, a yin spirit could only possess others briefly, temporarily controlling another person’s body and muddling their mind while co-existing with the host's own soul. This method had no major risks. Thus, before reaching the Yangshen Realm, a Diviner whose body was destroyed would be better off avoiding direct soul possession. Instead, it was better to temporarily attach themself to an object, find a suitable host, and reside within the host as another yin spirit.

However, the host could not be too strong. If their cultivation level was similar to that of the possessing yin spirit, then even a minor struggle or resistance could immediately expel the yin spirit, causing severe damage to it.

Qi Xuansu had previously experienced soul projection with his yin spirit when he confronted Yue Liuli. Compared to Diviners in the Dream-Entering Realm, those in the Thunder Realm had already stepped from illusion to reality. Their yin spirit could roam around in broad daylight and temporarily materialize into a tangible form.

At that time, Qi Xuansu had grabbed Yue Liuli’s wrist, leaving behind a dark handprint, which the common folk called a ghost mark. This was an example of temporary materialization—a process that consumed an immense amount of magical power.

Under normal circumstances, a yin spirit was visible but intangible, unable to interact with physical objects because it existed between illusion and reality. This was the fundamental principle behind dream entering.

The creator of the Dream-Entering Technique was the Daoist Master Nanhua, also known as Zhuang Zhou. Throughout history, only two figures were considered equals to the Primordial Daoist Ancestor—the First Emperor and this Daoist Master Nanhua.

An excerpt in his book detailed, “Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering around, joyful and carefree, doing as he pleased. He was completely unaware that he was in fact, Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly, he woke up and realized he was indeed Zhuang Zhou. Yet he did not know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamed of being a butterfly or if the butterfly was now dreaming of being Zhuang Zhou. There must be a difference between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly, which he called the ‘Transformation of Things.’”

Dream entering worked when one awakened within a dream as a yin spirit, while the physical body remained asleep. This was the most challenging aspect, but Sun Hewu had once mentioned a similar principle when teaching Qi Xuansu to control the Demonic Blade’s madness. Thus, Qi Xuansu had already gained some insights into it.

By using dreams as a bridge, one could connect two different dreams, allowing travel from one’s own dream to another’s. The advantage of this technique was its discretion. Aside from the dream’s owner, almost no third party could detect the intrusion.

The only limitation was that the target must also be dreaming. In this regard, Martial Arts Practitioners were almost entirely dreamless, and Diviners typically replaced sleep with meditation, making this technique of limited practical value.

If Qi Xuansu’s previous soul projection in battle was a pursuit of reality, where he could briefly materialize and even inflict harm, then this dream-entering state was the opposite. It was a pursuit of illusion, an existence so ephemeral that it was nothing but a single thought, almost indistinguishable from a hallucination.

Having already experienced the Qingping Society’s Dream Meeting, Qi Xuansu did not think that mastering this technique was particularly difficult.

As midnight approached, Qi Xuansu retrieved a small portion of Soul-Returning Incense from his silver crimson fish talisman and lit it. Before long, he drifted into a dream.

Since he lacked the guidance of the fish talisman, Qi Xuansu did not enter the Qingping Society’s Dream Meeting this time. Instead, he awoke within his dream and found himself observing the Wanxiang Daoist Upper Palace from a peculiar vantage point, like that of a higher being.

Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person could only see what was within their direct line of sight. Due to the natural limitations of the neck, one could not see their own back, the top of their head, or the back of their skull without the aid of external objects.

However, Qi Xuansu’s current perspective was free from the body’s constraints and capable of rotating at will. It offered an all-encompassing third-person viewpoint from above. Although this view was still anchored to his physical body’s location, meaning he could only observe a portion of the Wanxiang Daoist Palace, it still felt akin to an Immortal gazing upon the mortal realm. It was no wonder the West referred to it as God’s perspective.

He could even see through walls and rooftops, gazing down at his own slumbering body in a meditative posture.

Within this perspective, Qi Xuansu noticed countless hazy, ethereal bubbles floating around him. They seemed veiled behind a layer of mist, much like frost-covered glass panes. He could vaguely see silhouettes shifting and scenes changing inside, yet he could not discern them clearly.

Qi Xuansu quickly realized that these bubbles were dreams, and he was likely inside one of these bubbles, looking outward from within. This peculiar perspective must have been the result of the dream bubble itself.

He also noticed that—given his current cultivation level and without a special medium like the fish talisman to serve as a guide—his yin spirit could only venture approximately 10 kilometers away from his physical body. However, within this 10-kilometer radius, he could move through the heavens and earth freely, travel vast distances in an instant, pass through walls and buildings as he pleased, and even jump directly from one dream into another adjacent dream.

It was no wonder so many Diviners abused dream-entering, forcing the Daoist Order to repeatedly issue strict decrees prohibiting the misuse of this mystical ability. If discovered, severe punishment was inevitable. In a way, this was yet another case of one’s desire to do evil increasing due to the possession of a certain ‘weapon.’

Qi Xuansu looked toward Kun Garden and saw that there was not a single dream bubble there. Clearly, the Deputy Palace Masters had long outgrown such lowly indulgences as dreaming. At this hour, they were either awake, substituting sleep with meditation and qi cultivation, or simply sleeping in a dreamless state for the entire night.

Similarly, Zhen Garden and Dui Garden, where high-ranking Daoists resided, had very few dream bubbles. In contrast, Xun Garden and the Lower Palace were filled with numerous bubbles of varying sizes.

Qi Xuansu had no intention of approaching Kun Garden because he was afraid that the Sages would detect his presence. Instead, he headed toward Xun Garden, which was closer to him, planning to find someone to practice on first.

While drifting through Xun Garden, he suddenly spotted a familiar person’s dream.

That person was Lu Shuihan, a descendant of the Lu family from the Taiping Sect. Among his generation, he and his two companions were considered exceptional talents. Lu Shuihan was currently a fifth-rank Prospective Mage, while Bai Yuru and Zhao Huang were sixth-rank Apprentice Mages. The three of them had previously had a minor misunderstanding with Zhang Yuelu, which resulted in her giving them a lesson.

Qi Xuansu hesitated for a moment before silently slipping into Lu Shuihan’s dream.

The setting was a luxurious private estate, where Lu Shuihan stood with his head bowed and fists clenched, radiating humiliation and resentment.

Around him stood many other noble scions, each displaying different expressions. Only one man was seated, cradling two exceptionally beautiful women. Judging by their noble demeanor, these women were not common courtesans but daughters of aristocratic families.

The seated man and the two women were exchanging flirtatious banter. The man’s face was obscured, but the women were smiling coquettishly, their postures suggestive. Their bold and intimate actions showed no trace of embarrassment, despite the many onlookers.

For a conservative country bumpkin like Qi Xuansu, this was quite an eye-opener. He could not help but sigh at how these noble heirs entertained themselves.

Within a dream, Qi Xuansu could keenly feel the dream owner’s emotions, like Lu Shuihan’s rage, resentment, and helplessness. Thus, he knew what kind of dream this was meant to be.

1. Shen means spirit, the guiding force for one’s emotions and intelligence, and a gateway to connecting oneself to the universe. ☜