The Sword Rises with the Five Elements, Chapter 92: Lucid Dream

Shopkeeper Hu cast out the bait and waited for the fish to take it of its own accord.

Su Ye had come the moment he caught the scent.

“Shopkeeper Hu, what are you muttering about?”

“I wasn’t saying anything. You must have heard wrong.”

“Don’t think I can’t hear you just because Hong’er is busy refining artifacts in the courtyard,” Su Ye said with a laugh. “My ears are sharp.”

“Fellow Luo’s conduct is the sort of reaction one has when encountering something new and fresh,” Shopkeeper Hu said with a sly grin. “You, on the other hand… it’s hard to say.”

“It’s hard to say for you too,” Su Ye shot back without the slightest weakness. “As a royal relation, watching your people suffer under demonic evil, you don’t seek a remedy. Instead, you sit here pondering business.”

Shopkeeper Hu was much like Su Ye and rarely angered, but at that moment he felt a touch of irritation.

“Am I not helping you search for a way to save the people? Must one wear a perpetual scowl to count as a savior?”

“How much is it worth if I sell you the credit?”

“I’m not foolish enough to take on that karma,” Shopkeeper Hu said, regaining his composure.

“Then let’s back up a little… what exactly is your method for saving the people?”

Shopkeeper Hu was momentarily speechless, then let out a wry laugh.

He had hunted hawks all his life, only to be pecked in the eye by one.

“You rascal… you simply cannot shake that slick tongue of yours. Even when you’re powerful enough to shake heaven and earth someday, will you still be this way?”

“What was your cultivation level when you first started?”

“Qi Gathering.”

“And now?”

“Half a step into Proud Cloud.”

“If you can remain greedy for money from beginning to end, why can’t I stay slick-tongued?”

“…”

“Hong’er says I can become a savior, but honestly, I’m not sure I want that to happen for real. Just saving her is exhausting enough. Saving the world would be far too miserable.”

“Then don’t save it. Keep your peace.”

“If the Human Emperor heard that, he’d skin you alive,” Su Ye said. “Between heaven and earth, each person has his own duty. My lot in life is to bear hardship and find sweetness within it. A savior, though—that’s a dazzling title. What a fine chance. I can’t very well hand it to someone else.”

“In the end, you still can’t bear to part with the name.”

“To be remembered in the annals of history is the highest honor. Who, when all is said and done, wouldn’t be tempted by that?”

“Very well then, you’ve passed.” Shopkeeper Hu stroked his goatee and smiled. “Projecting the sea of consciousness outward is something only the Mystic Truth realm has just begun to touch. I’ll teach you some of the basics in advance.”

Su Ye’s self-created Ten Directions Dream Domain required him to infuse his sea of consciousness into an illusory body.

For the moment, his physical body would lose its awareness and become no different from a wooden stake.

If anyone discovered the weakness of the Ten Directions Dream Domain and found the hidden original body, they could cut him down as easily as felling a tree.

A marvelous technique it might be, but its flaws could not be concealed.

Only after sealing up the loopholes could it truly be called a superior art.

With two fingers, Shopkeeper Hu formed a seal and passed on a simplified method for cultivating the sea of consciousness to Su Ye.

“Su brother, do you still have any treasures in your gourd that can be upgraded in rank?”

Having awakened her talent for artifact refinement, Luo Jinghong was so eager she looked as though she would refine even the pebbles by the roadside into spirit stones.

“All the ordinary Pure Jade Bottles have already been raised to the level of spirit treasures by you. There really isn’t anything left that can be improved,” Su Ye said, sounding faintly embarrassed.

Shopkeeper Hu produced a jade gourd from within his own jade gourd.

“Inside are just some scrap odds and ends. Fellow Luo may take them to pass the time.”

Luo Jinghong accepted the jade gourd with a sweet smile. “Thank you, Shopkeeper Hu.”

She returned to the Great One Creation Cauldron with light, quick steps, humming a little tune, her face bright with delight.

“You’d better watch out, or I’ll go bang the drum before the magistrate and accuse you of abusing a disabled person,” Su Ye said, and the corners of his mouth betrayed him.

“The Phoenix Jade Pendant nourishes the soul, and her artifact-refining process is becoming more and more skillful,” Shopkeeper Hu said with a laugh. “For her now, refining artifacts is enjoyment, not an ordeal that drains the spirit.”

“Then hand over the scrap junk in that jade gourd to me for free,” Su Ye said with sudden cold precision.

“Not a chance!”

When business was involved, Shopkeeper Hu was more shrewd than a monkey.

—

With the Divine Phoenix Jade Pendant for nourishing the soul finally complete, Luo Jinghong recovered the happiness she had long been missing.

Influenced by her, Su Ye, his mood agitated and uplifted, returned to the bedroom and lay down on the comfortable bed.

He closed his eyes.

Hoo…

Shopkeeper Hu, who was responsible for overseeing Su Ye’s cultivation, hurriedly shook him awake.

“You need to try dreaming while awake, not actually falling asleep.”

“That was awake-dreaming… I dreamed that you were shaking me.”

“That wasn’t a dream! I really was shaking you.”

Su Ye had ventured alone into Grand Qian and always remained on guard.

Now that he had returned to an environment that felt utterly safe, his taut nerves finally loosened.

The fatigue he had accumulated spread out over the soft bed, seeping into every pore and every crevice of his bones.

He wanted to do nothing at all, only sleep until the sky and earth went dark…

Shopkeeper Hu sensed the movement of Su Ye’s thoughts.

Knowing that he had held everything up on his own, he could not bear to disturb his peaceful dream.

“Su brother,” Luo Jinghong’s clear voice came through the wooden window and into Su Ye’s sparsely furnished room, “can I help the Demon Suppression Bureau refine artifacts now?”

Su Ye woke at once, keeping his body still as he slightly raised his head.

“To do your best for the common people is your ideal. If you cast away even your ideals, the longer you live, the longer your suffering will last… just don’t overwork yourself.”

“This time I absolutely won’t make the same mistake again.” Luo Jinghong turned away with a sweet smile and ran back to the bronze cauldron to help the Demon Suppression Bureau refine artifacts.

“Do you believe her?” Shopkeeper Hu asked.

Hoo…

Shopkeeper Hu turned to look at Su Ye. Seeing the sleeping youth, he could not help feeling a little heartache.

At his age, he ought to have been cultivating immortality in comfort under his master’s guidance.

He should have been earning sect contributions, joking around with senior brothers and junior brothers, and quietly falling into tender affection with the female disciples.

All those beautiful things that Shopkeeper Hu remembered with such nostalgia had nothing to do with him.

The most severe demon-purging calamity in the sixty years since the founding of Grand Qian was about to descend upon the world.

Fate would inevitably thrust Su Ye to the forefront of the storm.

Eighteen years old.

Too young…

Shopkeeper Hu sighed softly, tucked the blanket more securely around Su Ye, and murmured so quietly it was nearly soundless, “You’ve worked hard.”

“I heard what you said.”

“You weren’t asleep?”

“I was talking to you in my dream.”

“How will you prove you weren’t just pretending to sleep?”

“Remove the defenses around your sea of consciousness, and I’ll lead you into the dream…”

Shopkeeper Hu did as he was told, put away his protective spirit treasure, and relaxed his mind.

A gentle, silken pull drew his spirit away from his sea of consciousness.

He found himself walking among the clouds.

Beside him stood Su Ye, eyes bright with a smile.

Looking down upon the mortal world, all was peaceful.

The markets were prosperous, no trace of demonic miasma lingered, and the common people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

“Father, I sold off all your treasures… I met a few famous performers at the pleasure houses, and their looks were truly something else… Unfortunately, I lost our entire fortune at the gambling hall. Stop lying there and get up to make money.”

“Your son is certainly filial,” Shopkeeper Hu said, bursting into laughter at the words.

“That’s your son.”

Shopkeeper Hu nearly burst into tears.

“I seek immortality. I should never have had descendants!”

His tone was resolute, as if he had made up his mind to die.

Su Ye swept his right hand before him, then smiled at Shopkeeper Hu.

“Look again.”

The Treasure Pavilion was doing an especially roaring trade… all the divine spirit treasures were stored in the warehouse.

Even immortals from the heavens came to his shop to buy treasures.

Shopkeeper Hu clapped his hands and laughed heartily. “Good, good, good…”

Without realizing it, he had returned to wakefulness, and the end of his own laughter still rang in his ears.

He lifted his head and met Su Ye’s gaze, the youth barely suppressing his amusement.

“Do you believe it now?”

“No… you comprehended it too quickly. It doesn’t feel real.”

Su Ye’s mouth curled nearly to his ears, and a flash of sharp light gleamed in his eyes.

At one glance, Shopkeeper Hu seemed to see his own precious son, the one who had squandered the family fortune.

He broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.

A long moment passed before he came to his senses.

He didn’t have a son at all.