Chapter 10: Homeward Gaze

Chapter 10: Homeward Gaze

Sang Xu turned to look at Han Rao and the others; their faces mirrored his own shock.

"This... this... this..." Ye Xin stammered, barely coherent. "Is this real?"

"What is the King of Dreams?" Han Rao pushed Ye Xin aside, scrutinizing the text on the mural. He found it was either in English or ancient seal script, and he only recognized the ABCs. He turned to Shen Zhitang. "Hey, beautiful, you're well-read. Do you know?"

"Even if I did, I'd charge for it," Shen Zhitang shrugged. "And I don't know."

"Then you two analyze it," Han Rao urged. "You and the good-looking guy—your brains are the sharpest."

Sang Xu brushed aside the vines hanging from the high platform and examined the mural closely.

It was unlikely the English text was added later, as moss grew in many places on the stone, even covering some parts of the characters. This indicated that the text had been there for a very, very long time, making it difficult to fake.

Now, the information could be summarized:

A stranger named Sang Wannian entered the dream. He arrived very, very early, likely reaching the dream's ancient era. Through a series of unknown efforts, he became the mortal representative of a deity, eventually marrying the deity and becoming the King of Dreams. Afterward, he established his own family within the dream, and this lineage has continued to this day.

Based on this information, the following inferences could be made:

First, to become the King of Dreams, one might need to establish a connection with or marry the deity.

Second, after becoming the King of Dreams, one might be able to stay in the dream long-term, no longer bound by the ten-day limit.

Third, judging by the scenes on the mural, the dream was larger than Sang Xu had imagined.

Previously, when Sang Xu first entered Ghost Gate Village, he noticed the village was encircled by mist, preventing people from venturing beyond it. He had thought the dream was like a game instance, with the area beyond the mist being unfinished terrain—empty and inaccessible due to invisible walls.

Now, it seemed there was still a world beyond the mist.

Moreover, it was almost certain that the dream was a self-contained world. But what lay within the mist? Were there other towns or villages beyond it? And what had happened to the people there?

Sang Xu shared his inferences, and everyone nodded in agreement. However, Shen Zhitang said, "Regardless of what the King of Dreams truly is, since we've already obtained the Heaven-Mending Pill, our primary goal remains to escape the dream."

Han Rao waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry, who'd want to marry a four-headed monster? I mean, could anyone even get it up?"

"Yeah, the Sang family ancestor had some peculiar tastes," Ye Xin remarked. "Do you think the Sang family ancestor placed his coffin on the Homeward Gaze platform because he missed home? Since he was a stranger, why did he choose to stay in the dream instead of returning home?"

No one knew the answer to that question.

Ye Xin’s eyes lit up, and he rubbed his hands together. "Should we climb up and take a look? I bet the Sang family ancestor’s coffin has plenty of good stuff inside—maybe even old relics like a Nuo mask? Since he said he left something for us, we should go get it."

"I disagree," Shen Zhitang said cautiously. "I think we should focus entirely on finding a way out and avoid unnecessary trouble."

Han Rao looked up at the platform; it was pitch black above, and nothing could be seen.

He shook his head too. "I agree with the pretty lady. Finding a way home is the most important thing."

Ye Xin thought they were too timid. Since they were all strangers, strangers should stick together—what was there to fear?

"Brother Jian Guo, what about you?" Ye Xin asked.

Sang Xu replied bluntly, "I’m not going."

"Alright then, how about you guys wait here while I go take a look?"

Ye Xin was too tempted by the Nuo mask. With such a treasure in hand, his chances of survival in future dreams would surely improve significantly.

It would be a shame not to take what their fellow stranger had left for them.

Everyone tried to persuade him, but he was determined to go. Sang Xu also tried to talk him out of it but gave up when he saw how stubborn Ye Xin was.

You can't deprive someone of their right to be a fool.

Han Rao scolded him, "You moron, you'd better hurry. Time's ticking—we'll only wait half an hour for you."

"That's enough," Ye Xin said, scratching his head. "If I really find something, you guys won't try to take it from me, right?"

Shen Zhitang rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. If you're brave enough to go up and grab it, it's yours. We won't fight you for it."

He turned and climbed the stone steps of the platform, limping into the darkness.

The remaining three waited below. Han Rao kept checking his watch as time ticked away.

Half an hour passed—even a snail would've been back by now—but not a sound came from above.

Everyone stood up and looked at each other.

Clearly, Ye Xin was in trouble.

But the question was, why hadn't he called for help?

"Ye Xin?" Shen Zhitang called out.

No response.

Han Rao picked up his gun. "Should I go up and take a look? Handsome guy, let's go together—we can watch each other's backs."

To be honest, Sang Xu really didn't want to go up.

But under their expectant looks, he couldn't bring himself to refuse.

...Could they go back to being the kind of people who only cared about themselves and not their teammates?

Sang Xu tugged on the vines and found them quite sturdy. "Alright, but let's not take the steps. Let's use these to climb up."

Since Ye Xin had taken the steps and run into trouble, using the vines was indeed safer. What if some ghost was hiding at the top of the steps, waiting to kill them? Han Rao nodded.

Sang Xu grabbed the vines, stepped onto the stone wall, and climbed slowly, like a snail. He planned to climb slowly and, once Han Rao was up, turn back midway and tell Shen Zhitang that Han Rao was also in trouble.

Zhou Xia's voice suddenly spoke up, "It's been so long. Why haven't you called me?"

...But he said he was sleeping and didn't want Sang Xu to bother him?

Come to think of it, Sang Xu was curious about where he slept. Not in an urn, right?

Zhou Xia asked again, "What are you doing?"

"Going up to save someone," Sang Xu whispered. "Could you help me check what's going on up there?"

"Save who?" Zhou Xia glanced around and noticed Ye Xin was missing. "That skinny monkey? Why do you rescue every random person? Does being a good guy make you feel good?"

"Please," Sang Xu said in a hushed tone.

Zhou Xia snorted, sounding very displeased.

Sang Xu recalled how the livestreamers Liu Jianguo often watched acted all cute. It seemed like whenever a streamer put on a sweet, fake voice and called their viewers "hubby," Liu Jianguo would shudder and then shower them with rockets, planes, and 666s.

Sang Xu took a deep breath and said, "Husband, I'm begging you."

"What did you call me?" Zhou Xia asked.

His voice sounded irritated, and Sang Xu thought he disliked being addressed that way, so he weakly explained, "Um... it means 'husband'."

Zhou Xia paused and asked, "You call 'husband' 'laogong' where you're from?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Hmph, you sure know how to give orders."

Sang Xu didn't know why, but he seemed to have changed his mind.

"I'll go take a look. Just this once, no next time," Zhou Xia said.

Sang Xu took off his glasses. In his blurred vision, Zhou Xia walked up the stone steps not far away and gradually disappeared into the darkness. Sang Xu held his breath and waited. Han Rao had already climbed a fair distance up the vines and looked down to see Sang Xu hadn't followed. "What's wrong, brother?" he asked.

Not long after, Zhou Xia suddenly materialized beside Sang Xu.

"That idiot is too far gone. Leave this place, immediately."

Sang Xu immediately let go of the vine and jumped down, saying, "Come down quickly, let's go."

"Huh?" Han Rao didn't understand.

Shen Zhitang knew how to read a situation. Seeing Sang Xu's reaction, she immediately knew he might have noticed something wrong that they hadn't. "Brother Han, we've done our best, it's enough," Shen Zhitang said. "Brother Jian Guo has the Nuo mask—his senses are sharper than ours!"

Seeing both of them getting ready to leave, Han Rao didn't want to stay behind alone either. After a brief moment of consideration, he slid down the vine. The three of them quickly picked up their backpacks and got ready to leave. At the last moment before leaving, Sang Xu put on the Nuo mask and looked up.

The platform was shrouded in deep darkness, and nothing was clearly visible. But just then, a grotesque square face peered over the edge of the platform, directly meeting Sang Xu's gaze.

The face was at least twice the size of a normal person's, with long, thick whiskers. Those dried-up, yellowed "vine tendrils" hanging from the stone platform weren't vines at all—they were the beard on its face. Its crimson eyes glared with malice at Sang Xu, their gaze venomous and eerie.

Sang Xu was utterly stunned.

He had seen this square face before—on the mural of the stone platform.

It was the ancestor of the Sang family, Sang Wannian.

Now, seeing the face up close, he realized how lifelike the mural was, capturing the most distinctive features of this face perfectly.

Sang Wannian pointed at Sang Xu, as though he meant to speak. At the same time, Sang Xu felt a sharp, needle-like pain in his chest, and a sudden, intense urge to kneel.

Zhou Xia's crimson figure appeared in front of Sang Xu, facing Sang Wannian, blocking his gaze from falling on Sang Xu. Coldly, he said, "Get back."

As soon as he spoke, the stabbing pain in Sang Xu's chest vanished. The bizarre face contorted slightly, as if in fear, and quickly withdrew.

Sang Xu turned around, took off the Nuo mask, and caught up with Han Rao and Shen Zhitang. Without wasting another moment, the three of them quickly moved away from the Homeward Gaze platform.

Ye Xin had vanished without a trace, and the group fell into silence. That kid was a riot, and without him, the atmosphere underground felt even more oppressive.

Han Rao asked, "Handsome, what exactly did you see?"

Sang Xu frowned and said, "I saw Sang Wannian on the platform, and he seemed... off."

Hearing this, Han Rao and Shen Zhitang immediately understood. After all these years, if Sang Wannian was still alive, even as an Outlander, he must have turned into a monster. And Sang Wannian was definitely no ordinary monster—he was surely several levels above those ancient corpses.

Both of them felt relieved they hadn't gone up, especially Han Rao.

"I told you," Han Rao said angrily, "a guy who messes with four heads, three eyes, and eight arms—how could he be a good person? He's a total freak. Those messages he left on the mural were definitely meant to lure us up there." He sighed, patted Sang Xu on the shoulder, and said, "You saved me again."

Shen Zhitang said, "Now we've learned our lesson. From here on, aside from looking for a way out, we're not doing anything unnecessary."

Han Rao fully agreed. "So where do we go next?"

Shen Zhitang said, "'Cross the bridge without looking back, return home in ten days.' We haven't returned home yet, probably because we crossed the wrong bridge. Among the Eight Scenes of Yin Mountain, there's one called 'Naihe Bridge.' I suspect that Naihe Bridge is the one we're really looking for."