Nightmare’s Call

Lin Sheng frantically flipped through the pages, trying to find anything legible. But he found nothing.

Dropping the book and going back to the bookshelf on the left, he quickly pulled out a book from the top half of the shelf. This time, he was relieved as the text in the book looked clear.

“Good…” But before Lin Sheng could exhale, he saw blurry pages again. Only the first half of the book was legible, and the second half was blear. His expression changed, and Lin Sheng could not help but feel anxious while he rummaged through the bookshelf even though he knew it was just a dream. It took him a while, and after he browsed through dozens of books, he finally got a rough idea of the situation.

“Only a dozen books in conspicuous positions on the left are legible. The rest are all obscure.”

Lin Sheng sat down by the low table and fell into deep thought. “The books on the table are all legible too, especially the Handbook of Swordsmanship. Plus, the graphics in it are extremely detailed.”

He quickly compared the books and found a problem. Of all the readable books, the Handbook of Swordsmanship was the clearest, followed by the stack of books on the low table and the prominent books on the left shelf.

“Interesting.” Lin Sheng had a conjecture, but he was not very sure about it. “I’m not going to worry about this. Let’s first explore the outside of the manor.”

He was becoming more and more fascinated with the dream. Standing still and keeping his cool, Lin Sheng put the book down and slowly walked toward the exit.

In contrast to the time he first arrived, he could now perceive more of his surroundings—the coldness of the air, the texture of the floor under his feet, as well as the friction between his clothes and his skin. All these sensations convinced him that something was amiss in his dream.

“This isn’t an ordinary dream. No dream could be so vivid and repeat itself for over a month!” Lin Sheng was convinced that he had encountered something abnormal. But since remembering past life memories was a possible thing, he was naturally able to accept and adapt to anything.

Lin Sheng pushed the door open and slowly stepped out. He looked to the left and right before he ambled toward the main exit of the manor.

He came before the main door and peered up. The purplish-red door, which was made of a certain type of metal with a light woodgrain surface, looked like a grandfather clock.

A pattern depicting a circle with four different animals in it was visible in the middle section of the door. Lin Sheng had no idea what species those four animals were. They seemed like cheetahs with long serrated tails.

Above the door was a diamond pattern that looked like a giant vertical eye, staring at everything in the room.

Lin Sheng furrowed his brows and reached out to touch the door frame, where repeating letters formed a chain pattern, covering the entire length of the frame.

“This door seems to be guarding something.” Lin Sheng had a strange feeling. Once curiosity overwhelmed him, he reached out and held the door handle. The handle, which had been carved into the shape of a black python head with a pair of lustrous dark red eyes, felt cold in his hand. He could even see the delicate scales on the snake-like handle.

He gave it a twist, and the door opened with a quiet click.

A vast foggy woodland appeared before Lin Sheng’s eyes. There was a horse lane cutting through the woodland and stretching all the way to the fog in the shade of the trees. Everything in his surroundings appeared to be grayish-black.

Lin Sheng swallowed and slowly walked out of the door. Outside, he came upon three wooden steps. Their dark red color appeared to be the result of paint splashes. The steps felt soft, and they creaked when he stepped on them as if they were going to collapse.

Lin Sheng stood in front of the entrance and looked around. His surroundings were dark because the trees were blocking the night sky, which was slightly bright but not bright enough to illuminate the land and woods. It just barely allowed a person to see the outline of things.

Lin Sheng took a few steps forward. Sensing that he was on soft ground, he almost lost his balance and immediately stopped.

A faint strange, rhythmic, and dull noise was heard coming from the distance. Lin Sheng looked in the direction of the sound and noticed something moving seemingly fast in the fog.

“What is that?” Lin Sheng squinted and tried to make out what it was. However, whatever it was suddenly picked up its pace like the pounding of the heart when a human was in a panic.

Before Lin Sheng knew it, a tall quick-moving figure who made a weird puffing sound had emerged from the fog and rushed toward him.

The sound got increasingly closer, and Lin Sheng finally knew what it was: footsteps. His pupils shrank. Lin Sheng continued to reverse until he tripped on the wooden steps and fell on the ground.

“Damn!” he cursed. Before Lin Sheng could get up, the figure sped up like when someone fast-forwarded a video. It appeared to be far away at first, but the next second, the figure with a strangely-twisted posture got within meters of him.

“I!” When Lin Sheng was halfway into getting up, he suddenly froze. His head was flung into the air in a blanket of bloody mist. It crashed into the ajar main door and bounced off before it rolled down and stopped on the wooden steps. His black eyes were dilated.

The black figure wielded his sword, its tip touching the ground. Pausing for a moment, the figure then lunged forward to slash Lin Sheng’s body with his sword, and blood spattered with every slashing motion of the sword.

Mutilated into pieces, Lin Sheng’s body parts were strewn around the wooden steps.

…

Lin Sheng suddenly woke up in bed, panting. His body was in extreme pain, and he could still feel the pain from the cut on his neck. “Am I dead?”

The fast-moving figure was like a terrifying monster. There was no hesitation but only madness in the attack.

Unfortunately, Lin Sheng did not manage to see the figure’s face as the enormous tension and bone-chilling sensation had immobilized him at a critical moment—he could not even scream.

Leaning against the headboard, Lin Sheng instinctively reached for his neck. There was no wound on his neck, but somehow, he felt the pain. Luckily, the pain was quickly fading.

“What was that dream about?” Lin Sheng could not help but shudder when he recalled the scene of the approaching figure.