IVYSCP - Chapter 64
Chapter 64
At first Pei Yin refused to change her cultivation path to the Supreme Detachment Path, but her spiritual energy grew increasingly turbid. Continuing that way, she was bound to suffer cultivation deviation sooner or later.
Chu Qianshan told her:
"You like her, but does she like you? She will never know what you did before, and she will never know that you've bred a heart demon over her now. Why torment yourself like this?"
"Pei Yin, it's just a secret affection. It doesn't have to come to this."
"Ling Qingyue died by the hands of the Demon Race. Are you going to stand by and watch yourself become tainted with demonic qi?"
When Pei Yin heard those last words, her resolve wavered. She wept bitter tears, her voice so hoarse it was barely audible. "Fine. I'll change my path."
With Chu Qianshan's help, the change was not terribly difficult. The heart demon in her spiritual platform gradually faded. Pei Yin's expression returned to one of cold detachment.
She frequently entered secluded cultivation, and every time she emerged, her spiritual energy was much purer, and her spiritual platform bore one more array-formation seal.
Ling Qingyue's face was already streaked with tears.
"It's safe here. No one can hurt you anymore. You've already vanished once. I can't let you out."
"I'll protect you. No one will make you vanish again. I'll take you into my spiritual platform. No one can enter there."
So the "vanishing" Pei Yin had spoken of did not mean her death. It meant the heart demon inside Pei Yin's spiritual platform. Pei Yin's heart demon was her. After changing paths, the heart demon gradually faded, yet Pei Yin remained fixated on it. She had filled her spiritual platform with arrays not to protect her own soul, but because the heart demon had not completely disappeared. She was trying to protect her own heart demon.
Whenever cultivators bred heart demons, every one of them wanted nothing more than to exterminate them as quickly as possible, terrified it would ruin their cultivation. How could someone like Pei Yin exist? Just because her heart demon was her, she actually tried to shield it and keep it safe.
"What a bitter, astringent dream."
A voice thick with disgust startled Ling Qingyue awake. She looked up and found a yao beast, something like an elephant but not quite, something like a rhinoceros but not quite, hovering beside Pei Yin's divine sense.
It had a long trunk, and it was pointed at Pei Yin as though sucking up her divine sense.
"Don't touch her!"
Ling Qingyue rushed over, furious, and raised a hand to smack the beast's trunk.
The yao beast shielded its trunk and retreated, staring at the newcomer in terror. It spoke human speech. "You! Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
From that sliver of divine sense's dream, it had clearly seen that this person had already perished!
Ling Qingyue crouched down to inspect Pei Yin's divine sense. Only when she found nothing amiss did she breathe a sigh of relief, then regarded the bizarre-looking yao beast before her with extreme wariness.
The yao beast studied her, looking left and right, puzzled. "Why do you look different?"
Ling Qingyue frowned. A yao beast capable of human speech already counted as a major yao, yet the creature before her seemed sluggish and foolish, hardly threatening.
"What were you doing just now?" Ling Qingyue asked, shielding Pei Yin's divine sense.
The yao beast blinked. "Eating dreams."
Eating dreams...
Ling Qingyue's eyes widened. "You're a dream-eating tapir?!"
The dream-eating tapir nodded.
"If you ate her dream, what will happen to her?" Ling Qingyue asked cautiously. Knowing the creature before her was a dream-eating tapir only made her more vigilant. For all she knew, this ugly thing might also eat people.
The dream-eating tapir let out a coarse, sky-shaking laugh.
"..."
Ling Qingyue silently held Pei Yin tighter.
"I ate her nightmare, so of course she'll have a sweet dream and sleep well." The dream-eating tapir paused, then added with confusion, "How strange. I ate her dream. How can you see it?"
Ling Qingyue thought to herself that it was probably because of their recent excessive spiritual communion. Some resonance between their divine senses still lingered.
But she had no need to explain such things to a yao beast.
Seeing that Pei Yin's divine sense was still in slumber, Ling Qingyue did not hesitate to send that sliver of divine sense directly into her own spiritual platform.
The moment Ling Qingyue stood, a trunk brushed against her wrist, wet and clammy.
"..."
Tiny bumps rose all over her skin. Ling Qingyue tried to shake it off forcefully, but her arm was caught in midair, pulled painfully taut, and the creature did not budge.
The dream-eating tapir kept pressing closer. "Let me eat your dream too."
Ling Qingyue did not hesitate. "No!"
The dream-eating tapir consumed dreams through the soul. It was far too dangerous.
The dream-eating tapir just looked at her and did not release her with its trunk.
Ling Qingyue could not break free, but she also did not want to recklessly use spiritual energy and provoke this ancient yao beast.
One person and one beast stood locked in a staring stalemate.
Ling Qingyue realized that this dream-eating tapir had a rather mild temperament. At least it did not resort to forceful methods to consume dreams after being refused.
In the end, Ling Qingyue stopped glaring at her. Partly because her eyes hurt, and partly because the creature's appearance was simply impossible to look at for very long.
"Can you take human form?" Ling Qingyue asked.
The dream-eating tapir nodded. "I can!"
With that, she transformed into human form right in front of Ling Qingyue. Stark naked.
Ling Qingyue: "..."
She quickly averted her gaze, pulled a set of clothes from her Qiankun Pouch, and dressed her.
The dream-eating tapir did not seem to care for clothes that were too plain. She lifted a hand, cast a spell, and made the clothes on her body gaudily colorful.
The entire time, she kept hold of Ling Qingyue's wrist, as if afraid the person might run off.
"Just let me have one taste. That person's dream earlier made me so sad. Let me eat yours. Please." The dream-eating tapir tugged lightly at her hand.
Ling Qingyue sized her up, considering whether the creature had anything on her worth taking.
It seemed... she did not.
"Just one taste. Just one."
In human form, the dream-eating tapir looked like a child of fourteen or fifteen, with her hair up in two small braids, exceedingly cute and well-behaved.
Ling Qingyue nearly softened and agreed. She kept her face stern and shook her head. "No."
The dream-eating tapir asked in disappointment, "Then what exactly do I have to do before you'll let me have one taste?"
The corner of Ling Qingyue's lips quirked up.
"It's not entirely impossible." Ling Qingyue began setting conditions. "When you eat the dream, I can't be asleep."
A major yao like a dream-eating tapir could definitely manage that.
The dream-eating tapir pursed her lips, looking rather displeased.
Dreams that weren't being dreamt weren't fresh. They were just past, forgotten dreams.
After pondering a moment, the dream-eating tapir reluctantly nodded.
Having something to eat was better than nothing.
"If you eat my dream, shouldn't you give me something in return?" Ling Qingyue thought a moment longer, then added, "And besides, you ate that person's dream just now without her consent. That basically counts as freeloading."
The dream-eating tapir panicked at that. "I didn't, I didn't freeload. She was injured, and I healed her injuries. It doesn't count as freeloading."
"Injured?" Ling Qingyue's expression changed. "Was it serious?"
The dream-eating tapir shook her head. "Not serious anymore. I healed her."
Ling Qingyue breathed a sigh of relief and simultaneously sent a sliver of awareness into her spiritual platform. Pei Yin's divine sense was calm, a faint, elusive smile on her lips. She looked fine.
"Then shouldn't you give me something too, if you're eating my dream?"
The dream-eating tapir looked at the bloodstains on her body and hesitantly extended a hand. "Then I'll heal your injuries too."
Ling Qingyue blocked her hand and shook her head. "Not that."
"Then what do you want?"
Ling Qingyue asked, "Do you have any way to stop that person from having nightmares?"
The dream-eating tapir had thought she was about to ask for some impossibly rare treasure hidden at the ends of the earth. Hearing this, she immediately relaxed.
She handed Ling Qingyue a xun. "After she falls asleep, play this for her. It can soothe her sleep."
Ling Qingyue took it. It was warm to the touch, pure white like jade. A closer look made it seem like the white bone of some yao beast.
"Is that enough? Is that enough? Can I eat now?" The dream-eating tapir was getting impatient.
Ling Qingyue put the item away and nodded at her.
The dream-eating tapir's eyes lit up, and then she transformed back into her yao beast form. Her cool, damp, long trunk coiled around Ling Qingyue's hand.
Ling Qingyue: "..."
She had left out one condition.
The dream-eating tapir kept her word. She did not make her fall asleep, yet Ling Qingyue still felt dazed and groggy.
She dreamed of Shangtianqiong, dreamed of her master, her senior sisters, Yue Shouming, Yu Liuli, and Pei Yin.
How wonderful it had been back then. Friends and mentors were all around. Everything she did was joyful, carefree.
She dreamed of what had happened in Pei Yin's dream just now. She had pinned someone beneath the peach tree, kissing and biting, completely unrestrained.
So... that really had happened.
Then why had she forgotten it later?
It was as if the dream-eating tapir sensed her confusion. The dream rewound, letting her understand what had happened.
It turned out Yue Shouming had gotten her hands on a jug of One-Day Drunk from who knew where. The three of them had gathered together, you a cup, me a cup, and finished it clean. The most famous line about One-Day Drunk was "One-Day Drunk, drunk for one day." It contained forget-sorrow herb. Whatever you said or did while drunk, you would forget it all.
After witnessing Pei Yin's dream, Ling Qingyue wanted nothing more than to charge over and punch her past self. What had possessed her to drink One-Day Drunk? And after drinking, instead of sleeping properly, she'd gone around randomly kissing people!
Days at Shangtianqiong raced by. Soon came the Demon Race uprising, her death in the Cangshan Northern Region, and then the dream arrived at Linshui Town.
Ling Qingyue suddenly became somewhat alert.
She saw Lin Zhao, saw Xue Zizai, saw the familiar faces of Linshui Town, and the person who had watched over her as she grew up.
That person's face slowly sharpened into focus, yet Ling Qingyue found it terribly unfamiliar. Only those eyes felt like something she had seen before.
The woman's face was disguised.
Ling Qingyue ignored the face and fixed her gaze solely on her eyes.
The young Ah Xi in the dream called her "Aunt Lan."
Aunt Lan.
Ling Qingyue had no such person in her memories. The name was probably fake too.
At the dream's end, Aunt Lan left Linshui Town. She smiled at Ah Xi.
Ling Qingyue met those eyes. The feeling of familiarity deepened and deepened, a familiarity like something she had just encountered not long ago.
The dream-eating tapir finished eating, shifted back into human form, and licked her lips.
Ling Qingyue was no longer groggy and sensed a slight movement within her spiritual platform.
Pei Yin was awake.
Ignoring whatever the dream-eating tapir was doing, Ling Qingyue's consciousness entered her spiritual platform's soul form. The moment she saw Pei Yin, she threw herself at her fiercely.
Caught off guard, Pei Yin was tackled down. She shielded Ling Qingyue's head with one hand and wrapped the other arm around her waist.
"What's wrong?"
Thinking of Pei Yin's dream, Ling Qingyue's nose stung with tears. "I'm sorry."
Before Pei Yin could ask, Ling Qingyue spoke through a choked voice. "I... I didn't forget on purpose. I drank One-Day Drunk. I won't ever get close to Xiao Yue and the others again. I'll only be close with you."
Pei Yin stilled. She had just been dreaming that Ling Qingyue had returned with her to Cangshan, that they had formed their Dao bond and traveled the world together. It had been bliss beyond measure.
Sweet dreams were rare, but what Ling Qingyue was saying to her now, upon waking, was no less a sweet dream coming true.
"So how did you remember?" Pei Yin asked softly.
Ling Qingyue held her tight and answered in a muffled voice. "The dream-eating tapir ate your dream. I saw it."
"A dream-eating tapir." Pei Yin murmured the words. "No wonder..."
No wonder she had suddenly dreamt such a lovely dream. It was because of a dream-eating tapir.
"Did you... see anything else?" Pei Yin's tone carried a hint of probing.
See anything else? She had seen everything. Changing paths, breeding the heart demon.
Ling Qingyue lowered her head and bit her. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Pei Yin suddenly let out a muffled groan. The tail of the sound drifted, laden with barely suppressed strain.
Ling Qingyue froze. Only then did she remember they were inside her spiritual platform, in the state of soul and divine sense. This kind of closeness was ill-advised.
She rolled off Pei Yin, then felt the distance was too great and nudged herself back, shoulder pressing against shoulder.
"Pei Yin, I'm back. You don't have to guard that heart demon anymore."
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