Chapter 276

Chapter 276

Hui Cui: “...”

Hui Cui: “................”

A very familiar feeling, he should be used to it by now. Ever since Lin awakened as a deity, he seemed to always inadvertently fall into dreams.

It was like this before Lin gained the authority over dreams, and it remained so after.

Speaking of which, is this a dream?

Hui Cui, who inexplicably turned into a pigeon, felt desolate inside, even beginning to suspect that the three Lins who designed this ritual were deliberately teasing him again.

No, no, when doing serious work, Lin wouldn't do this, he thought, but considering Lin's aspect as the Eye in the Mirror, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Fortunately, Hui Cui quickly rallied his spirits. The ritual had gone awry, but if this was a dream, then it must be Lin's dream.

The ritual designed by the three mirror avatars had no flaws. Even if something went wrong, it couldn't possibly connect to other entities.

The magic responding to the ritual from the Eye in the Mirror and the three mirror avatars ensured that the ritual would ultimately point only to the Eye in the Mirror. Even if the effect was incorrect, leading to entering Lin's dream, he could still use this to wake Lin up.

"But the effect shouldn't be incorrect," a familiar small voice said, "the entire ritual had no symbols related to 'dreams'!"

"Nor did we use any materials containing pearls," the same small voice added, "I repeatedly emphasized that only the continuously symmetrical 'mirror' symbols were correct on the ritual array."

"In that case..." a third small voice said, "the problem must lie with the other ritual materials, for example—"

"Hold on," Hui Cui interrupted, "Lin, can you explain this situation before we discuss further?"

The three Lins fell silent.

Alright, another unexpected aspect of this ritual was that the three mirror avatars, including the one shattered by Hui Cui's gunshot, were not successfully consumed.

They entered the dream along with Hui Cui, freed from the constraints of the mirrors, and gained bodies that could move freely in the dream, though they were not even as tall as Hui Cui's heel.

"Yes," one Lin gestured at Hui Cui's heel, saying, "the bone many people think is a bird's knee corresponds to the human calcaneus, which acts as the heel. The slender part of a bird's leg isn't actually its calf; it corresponds to the human foot arch..."

While explaining this to Hui Cui, the other two Lins were already trying to climb onto Hui Cui's back, making "ah-woof" sounds.

"Wait a moment." Hui Cui had to stop them again, carefully hopping to avoid them, then tried to control the movements of this body.

Otherwise, learning how to walk and fly like a pigeon while carrying the three Lins on his back might result in throwing them off.

At this point, the three Lins, their gazes burning, managed to regain some composure and explained, "We don't know why it happened like this either."

This explanation was true to the essence of how Pillar Gods respond to humans, almost white, with only the edges of the chest and a few flight feathers being gray-green, the pigeon looked at them with its familiar pink eyes, filled with helplessness.

One Lin looked up at the sky guiltily, another looked down at his feet nervously, and the third looked sideways, gazing at the uneven city below.

"This is indeed my dream," he said, "according to the Nameless One, such a scene would not be visible in the dreams of other deities."

Hui Cui followed his gaze, having been amazed by the view all along. If not for his vigilance, he might have already been immersed in observation.

Below, skyscrapers unseen in the underground city spread out across the land, divided into a chessboard pattern by straight or curved light bands, which were illuminated roads.

Vehicles, similar to those Hui Cui knew but larger, drove on the lit roads. These vehicles didn't seem to need to follow steel tracks; their headlights and taillights made them resemble the glowing fish kept by the Church of the Mother of Blood in the river, moving forward and stopping together.

The scene was wondrous enough, but it paled in comparison to the glowing canvases on the surfaces of the buildings by the river. Accompanied by the rhythm of music, these canvases changed in unison, casting a never-before-seen brilliance reflected in the rippling water below.

Many people walked by the river and on the bridges, and the light was reflected in their eyes and hair. Yet, few people paused to admire this breathtaking scenery; instead, they looked up, pointing at the dome, or as Lin put it, pointing at the sky?

Hui Cui also looked up at the sky, where deep black was tinged with pale red and blue, like a velvet curtain lowered by a deity. On this curtain, countless tiny holes had been punctured by someone, revealing the light source behind it.

Thus, countless points of light flickered in the sky, and if not observed closely, even Hui Cui would find it hard to notice that they were actually moving.

Moving, meaning that the light wasn't just passing through holes in the curtain to shine on the ground.

They were intensely glowing points, separated by an extremely vast distance, using cold light that had lost its warmth to announce their existence to the people on the ground.

This was...

"Stars."

Hui Cui murmured, just as Lin had said, they were "distant, tiny points of light."

"Though we don't know what price was paid," the Lin beside him said, "even if a price was paid, preserving the memory of them is worth it, right?"

Hui Cui didn't speak, and another Lin affirmed, "The main body must think so too."

"So, finding it hard to accept and falling directly into decadence is strange," the third Lin said, "I'm not saying it's not a blow, but no matter where people are, whether they move forward, backward, or stay in place, they will encounter blows. They shouldn't lose their resolve because of it."

The young man spoke words only a young person would say.

But when Hui Cui looked down at him, he saw that his gaze, fixed on the stars, was no longer bewildered. He couldn't help but believe that this was someone who would surely rise again.

Because the three Lins had already withdrawn their gazes and started planning their next steps.

"What should we do next? The setting of this dream is very much like modern society. According to many novel plots... we need to find the main body within the dream?"

"Usually, yes. Do you remember where this is?"

"It looks like the commercial district near our home; I see the sign of a chain supermarket."

"My residential area... over there!"

The three Lins turned their heads in unison toward a direction, then turned their heads in unison to look at Hui Cui.

In their six eyes, words were written, and upon closer inspection, Hui Cui found that the words formed a sentence—

Fly! Let’s go up! Take us flying!

Having almost mastered this body, Hui Cui silently squatted down. The three little people, smaller than the heels of his feet, cheered and plunged into the warm feathers.

"Bigger than in the last dream," they said as they climbed onto Hui Cui's back using their hands and feet.

"…" Hui Cui decided to ask the original Lin about the "last dream" when he wakes up.

But at that moment, he awkwardly spread his wings, attempting—or rather, instinctively—flapped once.

Whoosh—

The wind passed through each rotating flight feather, as if Hui Cui's wings were a pair of Venetian blinds flapping downward. Logically, the wind should have leaked through the gaps in the blinds, but in reality, the airflow passing between the flight feathers lifted his body with incredible lightness.

The white dove took off from the rooftop of a building near the crossroads, circled once above the buildings, then flew in the direction Lin pointed.

Instinct told him to follow the human roads. He turned along the road and asked in the wind, "Was Silver Moon Maiden a good deity in those days?"

"Why do you say that?" the three Lins countered, then noticed the flower beds on both sides of the street and the lush trees lining the road.

"…The moon is very beautiful," Lin, unsure how to explain, said, "and so are the flowers and trees."

"Is the sky also?"

"Yes."

"And the black sun?"

"The sun isn’t actually black…"

Again, incomprehensible words, but this time Hui Cui tried hard to imagine a non-black black sun.

They entered a residential area, and Hui Cui noted that "residential area" refers to a cluster of apartment buildings. He flew toward a certain building and landed outside a window on the seventh floor.

"Why aren’t the lights on?"

"Maybe they haven’t come home yet. Mom and Dad aren’t here either."

"Hold on, at this time…?"

When one Lin noticed the time, the three Lins reacted together.

"F**k!" he said, "Junior high students already have evening study sessions, I forgot!"

Evening study? Lin was very studious back then?

Hui Cui thought, following their directions, and took off again, heading toward a cluster of lower buildings.

After flying over an oval-shaped playground, they could see the brightly lit teaching building. Whether it was due to a break between classes, Lin heard loud noise from afar.

Then came screams, cries of pain, and curses.

Lin gaped in shock as Hui Cui carried them over the corridor outside the teaching building. He saw a classmate wielding a blood-soaked broomstick, smashing it down on another classmate.

The sounds of violence startled other birds from the camphor trees outside the teaching building. At this moment, more composed than the three mirror avatars, Hui Cui asked, "Where are you?"

"I’m in—"

"The classroom near the stairs on the top floor!" another Lin realized, changing the class name to a location.

Hui Cui flapped his wings higher. Before reaching the classroom Lin mentioned, he saw a familiar figure rushing out of the classroom.

It was Lin, shorter and rounder-faced than the Lin Hui Cui knew now, with hair only reaching his ears and no bandage covering his eyes.

The boy wore a white short-sleeved shirt and green trousers, chased out of the classroom by several people swinging long sticks and chairs.

His face was full of panic, not understanding why his classmates had suddenly gone mad. He ran towards the stairs, but a tall teacher emerged from the office beside the stairs, waving scissors to block his path.

Although the people in these dreams attacked each other, it seemed their main target was Lin…

Hui Cui judged and was about to draw his gun.

No gun appeared.

Shocked by the scene, Hui Cui made a mistake. His previous experiences in entering dreams where he could still use magic and abilities led him to believe this time would be the same!

At that moment, Hui Cui and the three mirror avatars' hearts skipped a beat. Unexpectedly, a dark shadow darted past them at that moment.

The dark shadow rushed towards the fleeing Lin, then, bang!

The teacher blocking Lin was knocked over by the dark shadow. Lin leaped over the fallen teacher, landing on the steps behind and running down without looking back.

The dark shadow that knocked over the teacher also flew down, following Lin.

Hui Cui hurried to catch up, but his feelings were very complicated.

Because his bird vision allowed him to see clearly that the dark shadow that knocked over the teacher was nothing else but a pigeon with a chest and a few flight feathers of brilliant green, while the rest of its feathers were pitch black!