Volume One: First Steps in the City Chapter Fifty-Six: Teleportation?

A series of knocks quickly shattered the atmosphere between the two. “You’re friends of Xu Anxuan, yes?” A nurse appeared at the door, pushing Xu Anxuan in her wheelchair.

“Yes,” Lu Yi and Li Xinran answered at once, rising to help Xu Anxuan back onto her hospital bed. Moments later, a doctor in a white lab coat entered, frowning as he perused the medical chart in his hands.

He looked up at Lu Yi and Li Xinran. “The results have reached me. The brain CT doesn’t indicate any major issues, and the other tests haven’t shown anything abnormal either.” As he spoke, his gaze shifted to Xu Anxuan, who still lay unconscious on the bed.

“Doctor, then what should we do?” Li Xinran asked anxiously.

The doctor sighed. “I’ll request a multidisciplinary consultation.” He offered a few more instructions before leaving the room.

“Lu Yi, what now? Xu Anxuan isn’t going to stay like this forever, is she?” Li Xinran looked at the unconscious Xu Anxuan, worry etched on her face.

“She won’t. As long as we can get her back alive to Mist City, there will definitely be a way to wake her.” Lu Yi attempted to reassure her.

Li Xinran nodded helplessly. She fetched a small basin of hot water and gently wiped Xu Anxuan down. But as she reached Xu Anxuan’s arm, her expression abruptly changed. “Lu Yi, come look at this.”

At Li Xinran’s call, Lu Yi hurried over. There, on Xu Anxuan’s arm, was a straight scar, as if slashed by a sharp blade.

“What’s this!” Lu Yi touched it with his hand. It felt identical to the scar on Li Xinran’s foot. Could it be that Xu Anxuan wasn’t unable to wake, but was trapped inside a dream?

“Lu Yi, how about putting my ring on her finger? Maybe you can help her.” Li Xinran suggested anxiously.

“It won’t work,” Lu Yi replied, frowning. “Any equipment we put on her won’t take effect. Only if she accepts the ring into her equipment template will it work.”

“Then what do we do?” Li Xinran gripped his hand.

Lu Yi took a deep breath, racking his brain for any possible solution. Suddenly, he recalled Cedric once saying that the jade slip recorded some basic methods.

Closing his eyes, he found in his mind a spell for entering another’s dream.

“Don’t worry, I have an idea,” Lu Yi said, opening his eyes to Li Xinran.

“Really?” Li Xinran’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Lu Yi nodded. “In a moment, I’ll enter her dream. Stay here and make sure no one disturbs me.”

Li Xinran nodded solemnly. Seeing this, Lu Yi closed his eyes and began to chant a strange incantation. Then, opening his eyes again, he said, “Draw the curtains.”

Once the curtains were drawn, Lu Yi closed his eyes and recited the incantation again. When he finished, he pressed his right hand to Xu Anxuan’s forehead, then slumped sideways onto the bed.

Lu Yi felt himself falling endlessly, surrounded by swirling black clouds. He muttered to himself, “This feels very different from entering dreams with the Spirit Link Ring.”

No sooner had he spoken than he felt solid ground beneath his feet.

Looking around, he found himself in a narrow alley, the sky above utterly devoid of light.

A few streetlights cast a dim orange glow, but the light illuminated only small patches around the lamps, useless for anything else.

He looked toward one streetlight; the ground beneath was scorched black, as if charred by fire. Nodding slightly, he thought this must be connected to that incident.

He glanced around. If this was Xu Anxuan’s dream, where was she?

He looked both ways but abandoned the idea of calling out, worrying that if the enemy didn’t know he had entered, shouting might only bring trouble.

Choosing a direction, he set off. With his first step, a stone skittered away, rolling beneath a streetlight.

Paying it no mind, he soon reached a crossroads and frowned. Was this some sort of maze?

He passed through several more intersections, growing increasingly uneasy. Was the enemy aware of his entry and had set up a maze to trap him?

Lu Yi considered exiting the dream and re-entering in hopes of arriving somewhere else.

But he quickly realized a problem: he’d focused only on entering the dream, not on how to get out. There were two ways to exit: one, set up a formation before entering, specifying a time to wake; the other, also using a formation, which could be triggered from within the dream. But he’d done neither.

He stood awkwardly for a moment. “Damn, seems the only way out is to destroy the monster in this dream.”

Just then, his left eye caught a shadow flicker in the distance. Snapping to attention, he broke into a run in pursuit.

Alleys—one after another, whose count he soon lost. But at last, Lu Yi could clearly hear running footsteps ahead.

At a corner, he collided with someone. No, not someone—a little girl.

She was gasping for breath but, even after being knocked down, stubbornly scrambled to her feet, ready to run again.

At first, Lu Yi hadn’t planned to intervene, but a quick glance revealed a small scar on the girl’s arm, in exactly the same place as Xu Anxuan’s.

Lu Yi recalled that after Li Xinran entered a dream, she’d forgotten everything about the city. Could it be that Xu Anxuan, after entering the dream, had become her childhood self? He reached out and scooped the girl up.

“Let me go, let me go!” she shouted, flailing her small fists. “Villain, stay away from me!”

“Is your name Xu Anxuan?” Lu Yi gently fended off her blows while asking.

“No, it’s not!” She shook her head repeatedly, but seeing that Lu Yi wasn’t hurting her, she looked up. “Uncle, you’re not a bad person, are you?”

“Bad person?” Lu Yi was baffled.

Just then, heavy footsteps echoed through the alley. Lu Yi turned, but the poor lighting made it hard to see. As the footsteps drew closer, a figure emerged under a streetlamp.

He was over six feet tall, dressed all in black, and wore a grotesque demon mask. Enhanced by the magic eye, Lu Yi could clearly see his eyes—hollow and numb. In his hand gleamed a sharp dagger.

There was a flash and a crack—the black-clad man’s head sprouted a hole, and he collapsed under the streetlamp.

Lu Yi lowered his pistol. The girl tugged at his sleeve. “Uncle, let’s go! You can’t kill the bad guy!”

“How could that be?” Lu Yi smiled, ready to reassure her, but then he saw another shadow speeding toward them.

He ducked instinctively as something cold swept over his head, clipping a few strands of hair. Lu Yi’s face hardened. He scooped up the girl and retreated to another streetlamp.

Now he noticed the black-clad man had vanished from under the lamp. From where the man fell to Lu Yi’s current spot was at least fifty feet, and in an instant, the figure had gone from crumpling to moving that entire distance.

Impossible, Lu Yi thought. He’d assumed this quest line wouldn’t be much harder than the initial one with Xie Ruidai.

Yet here was a being who could teleport fifty feet in a blink—difficult even for Lu Yi with his enhancements. How were newcomers supposed to survive such a test?