The Dream Has Two Meanings

Noon.
Chen Dai walked in a daze along the mountain path.
He had been mistaken for the Suan Yu and imprisoned in the Wudu Forest for five years. Returning to the mortal realm, this world felt foreign, unable to align with his memories.
Occasionally, someone on the road would greet him: "Chen Dai, aren't you going to hunt in that demon forest today?"
"Chen Dai, you've reached the age for marriage! Don't delay any longer!"
The youth's eyes were vacant as he looked at these ordinary mortals, whom he had once resembled.
They lived at the foot of the Yujing Gate, protected by the immortal sect for generations, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. They bustled about for their livelihoods; they seemed to have no memory of the Suan Yu incident from five years ago.
But those were five years during which Chen Dai had been in a state of constant loss of control, day and night.
When another person greeted him, Chen Dai could not help but grab them and ask, "Uncle, do you remember the Suan Yu?"
The hunchbacked uncle carrying firewood was bewildered for a moment, his hearing failing him: "Sour? You want vinegar? My house doesn't brew vinegar."
Chen Dai smiled bitterly.
He had to apologize, shaking his head without saying more. Following his memories, he slowly searched for his home from five years ago. He was too exhausted, in dire need of a good rest, needing to close his eyes—
perhaps these five years were nothing more than a dream.
After pointing out the inn to the siblings, Chen Dai took a side path. As he lowered his head, his shoulder was suddenly bumped by someone.
A faint feminine fragrance wafted by.
Having been a demon for five years, Chen Dai was no longer the naive human youth of the past. He immediately raised his head with an apologetic smile: "Apologies..."
His voice faltered.
His amber eyes trembled violently.
Though the sunlight was scorching, a cold sweat instantly broke out across his back.
The young girl in red before him wore a sword at her waist, her figure slender, her face like peach blossoms, radiant as the spring season.
Such a young beauty, completely distinct from ordinary folk, was someone Chen Dai recognized—
in his memories, she was the female disciple of the immortal sect who had tricked the Suan Yu into marriage.
She was also the person he had resented for five years when he believed himself to be the Suan Yu.
With just a single glance, Chen Dai could not suppress his deep-seated hatred and fear. He clenched his fists at his sides, steadying his breath, and used his five years of experience as a great demon to convince himself:
*It is fine, it is fine. I am Chen Dai, not the Suan Yu. I have no grudge against this woman; she is a disciple of the immortal sect... I only need to walk past quietly, and we will never meet again in this lifetime.*
But fate always loved to play tricks on people.
The young girl in red was none other than Hua Shi, who had come from the Yujing Gate.
Walking through the mortal village, she was unfamiliar with the roads and still could not find the entrance to the Wudu Forest after a long while.
As she pondered her route, her jade slip received the latest message—"Senior Sister, where are you? The sect's soul lamp shows that the Suan Yu is dead. Could you have found and killed him?"
Hua Shi furrowed her brow.
For some reason, she felt an even more urgent desire to go to the Wudu Forest to see what had transpired.
Hua Shi called out to Chen Dai: "Hey!"
Chen Dai froze, turning his head.
Hua Shi's peach-blossom eyes rested on the youth's somewhat timid face.
In her eyes, which brooked no half-measures, she merely cast a casual glance before looking away.
Hua Shi: "How do I get to the Wudu Forest?"
Chen Dai remained silent for a moment before pointing the way.
Hua Shi nodded.
As Chen Dai turned to leave, a gold ingot struck the back of his neck from behind. He turned and saw the arrogant immortal sect woman departing on her sword.
She said haughtily, "A token of thanks, take it."
Chen Dai lowered his head, looking at the gold ingot on the ground.
His heart was a tempest of emotions—
the woman he had hated for five years actually had nothing to do with him. Yet, if not for her, the Suan Yu would not have swapped souls with him. He had suffered for five years...
yet this woman did not even know him.
How absurd.
Chen Dai squatted down, picked up the gold, and stared at it for a long time, his fist gradually tightening.
A certain emotion gathered in the youth's chest, burning his viscera with a mixture of cold and heat. In the future, he would understand that this was called "grudge."
--
After nightfall, Jiang Xuehe passed through the Wudu Forest.
He had changed into a snow-white cloak, and to avoid frightening others, he wore his hood up as he came to the Wudu Forest to assist his unconscious junior sister.
His junior sister had somehow cast a strange curse on herself, causing her abdomen to bleed continuously. Jiang Xuehe wanted to examine her, but mindful of the propriety between men and women, he refrained from being abrupt. His junior sister had made him swear to help her, stammering out where she had discarded the corpses of her pursuers.
Di Ying worried: *I cannot let the people of the Yujing Gate discover that I am a little troublemaker who kills people indiscriminately.*
Late at night, Jiang Xuehe walked through the Wudu Forest, his snow-white sleeves fluttering like drifting snow. While searching for those corpses, he also pondered who the pursuers of his junior sister could be.
Jiang Xuehe's identity was indeed unique.
He had never spent a single day learning under his master, so he had no idea whom his master and junior sister had provoked. But it mattered not; since they had crossed his path, he would naturally handle these pursuers.
After the Suan Yu's death, the array of the Wudu Forest had shattered. The unclean spirits lingering here had lost their leader, wandering aimlessly like headless flies.
Whenever Jiang Xuehe encountered them, he would strike them down.
He walked and killed along the way, his white robes pristine, leaving a path of crimson blood behind him.
Jiang Xuehe finally found the place where Di Ying had discarded the bodies the previous night: a dozen young men and women lay scattered across the ground, the pale moonlight shining on their lifeless faces.
Crows cawed, flapping their wings as they flew from the branches.
Under the pitch-black sky, Jiang Xuehe stood calmly amidst the corpses, slowly casting his spell to dissolve the bodies.
His magic fell upon the corpses, dissolving them from flesh to bone, bit by bit. First into bloody water, then into soil, merging with the Wudu Forest.
This magic was silent and incredibly peaceful, highlighting the eerie, pure beauty of the hooded youth standing in their midst.
Watching the bodies vanish, Jiang Xuehe thought: *My junior sister likely does not know that there is no one in this world better at disposing of the dead than me.*
*No matter, it is best not to let her know. She is so timid... she even fears the ghosts she summons herself.*
Suddenly, a rainbow-like sword light poured down from behind.
Jiang Xuehe instantly leaped into the air, dodging the attack amidst the debris. When he lowered his eyes, he saw the sword fly back into the hand of a young girl in red.
Hua Shi raised her head, looking at the figure completely shrouded in a snow-white hood.
She asked petulantly, "Who are you? Where is the Suan Yu? Did you kill all the demons along the way?"
Jiang Xuehe did not wish to cause more trouble and turned to leave.
Hua Shi pursued: "Thief, do not run—"
Jiang Xuehe turned and clashed with her palm-to-palm, his hood flying back. This woman's strength was not low, which surprised him.
Hua Shi was also astonished: though she had not formally entered the sect, her cultivation had been guided by her father. Yet someone had evaded her attack so effortlessly?
Her interest was piqued: "Again!"
Jiang Xuehe did not want to entangle with her, retreating as he fought. This girl was connected to the Yujing Gate, and having suffered some backlash after summoning his primordial spirit yesterday, he could not easily employ his true strength.
Under the cold moon, they clashed repeatedly.
But just as Hua Shi's battle intent was at its peak, a bell chimed throughout heaven and earth.
The sound echoed from the direction of the Yujing Gate.
Hua Shi's arrogant expression shifted instantly. She looked toward the Yujing Gate, dazed and bewildered: "Uncle Sect Master failed his tribulation and ascended..."
The Sect Master had ascended without time to arrange his successor. With the disciples' selection underway and the Suan Yu suddenly breaking the array and dying...
the Yujing Gate was likely to enter a period of chaos.
She could not afford to pursue Jiang Xuehe and had to return to the mountain.
--
The bell's toll startled all Daoist sects. At this moment, Di Ying was trapped in a nightmare in her inn room.
Her cheap senior brother had told her that nightmares arose when her spiritual energy was severely depleted, being merely lingering thoughts in heaven and earth that should not be taken as real. Yet she truly disliked this feeling.
Especially since...
the protagonist of this nightmare seemed to be Di Ying herself, yet also not her.
In the dream, Di Ying discovered that her sea of consciousness was churning with black mist, her spiritual energy blocked, unable to sense the vast Daoist magic.
Panicked, she found herself inside a mountain cave.
She comforted herself: *It is fine, it is fine. I was trapped when I was young too; I am not afraid.*
She groped in the darkness, enduring tears and fear, feeling her way along the cave wall. The cave was winding. As she turned a corner, she saw a figure dressed in violet feather robes sitting with his back to her.
Beside a small waterfall, the figure sat serene and elegant, yet somehow familiar. Di Ying found her body moving uncontrollably toward him.
The figure revealed his profile.
Di Ying was shocked in her dream: *My cheap senior brother!*
*Why am I dreaming of him?*
Just as a wave of joy at seeing a familiar face washed over her, she heard her dream-self speak slyly: "Senior Brother, does it hurt to be bound by your junior sister?"
Di Ying: "..."
She walked around to stand before the young man.
She instantly froze: the young man sat upright, and what she had assumed was a casual posture was actually a state of magical confinement.
The magic shimmered with black mist, resembling the energy on her own body...
The young man in the dream opened his eyes.
Di Ying looked at him in confusion and hesitation: he truly resembled her cheap senior brother, yet... her real senior brother was covered in wounds, while this dream senior brother was as clean as a crane, exceptionally elegant and refined...
even more beautiful than her senior brother in reality.
The young man in the dream spoke: "Xiao Ying, do not disrupt Lord Qingmu's ascension grand ceremony. Do not oppose Lord Qingmu and the immortal sects. Though you have fallen into demonhood, you are still my fiancée. I am here to take you home."
Di Ying was terrified: *Why does he call me Xiao Ying?*
*And demon? What demon? Aren't there no demons in this world?*
*What fiancée... what on earth!*
*Take me home? Where is home?*
Di Ying felt an inexplicable sense of dread, yet she saw her dream-self blink and smile warmly: "What home? We do not even belong to the same sect. I call you senior brother, but do you truly believe you are my real senior brother? Senior Brother, there is a small difference between you and me.
"You are an immortal, yet you deliver yourself into the hands of a demon like me, and you still wish to advise me? It seems you have misunderstood the affection of our past days."
The dream senior brother asked, "What did I misunderstand about you?"
Di Ying was dazed.
The bound immortal leaned forward slightly, his eyes as deep as cold pools staring at her, their breaths mingling. His beautiful eyelashes fluttered lightly, radiant and mesmerizing.
He whispered, "What did I misunderstand about you?"
At such close proximity, his cold, snowy breath brushed against her nose, making her incredibly self-conscious.
Di Ying, who had never experienced romance, felt her heart flutter. Staring into his eyes, she broke into a cold sweat.
She heard her dream-self stiffen before smiling naturally: "Well, I might indeed have liked you once..."
The demoness Di Ying in the dream had a dark, ruthless expression. Finding it amusing, she leaned closer and tapped the young man's brow with her index finger: "If Senior Brother wishes to redeem me, why not stay by my side and redeem me with your own self?"
The youthful Di Ying could not comprehend what her dream-self was raving about.
She felt terrified of this dream.
She had never heard of demons, nor did she know what they had to do with her, much less what a fiancée was or what "redeeming me with your own self" meant.
She struggled desperately to wrest control of her body from her dream-self. After a long while, she managed to blurt out: "Jiang Xue... Senior Brother, I have become very strange. I am not myself. Run quickly..."
The dream young man's eyes flickered as he stared at her for a long time.
He said, "Have you been consumed by demonic energy to the point of forgetting my name? I am not called Jiang Xue, Xiao Ying."
Di Ying was almost driven mad with anger: *Truly a nightmare! He dares to talk back to me!*
*Who cares what his name is!*