Nightmare’s Call

It was evening, at about 7 pm.

Lin Sheng had moved all of his items to the newly rented place. After sending the movers away, he chased away Khadula as well while he quickly unpacked.

After taking a shower, he called his family to check things out.

The sky had totally darkened by then. This time, Lin Sheng did not sleep early to enter the dream as he sat alone in the hall of the rented house.

The hall was empty, with only a television, fridge and table set in it. The walls were painted white, and the coat of paint new.

Lin Sheng sat in the center of the room as he closed his eyes to recall the two Ashen Seal that he had mastered.

The first one was Sanctuary. His mental strength was like flowing water as it naturally made its way along the lines of the Ashen Seal. Barely a minute later, a full circle of meditation was completed

The second one was the Furious Howl. This was the Ashen Seal he had obtained from Snowgale Fortress, but he had found no use for it. While he had mastered it, he had no opportunity to use it. His fighting style was no crap talk and straight-up brawl. If he can’t win he’ll run, if he can win he’ll fight. So he did not have the opportunity to use Furious Howl.

However, the meditation of the Furious Howl seal only took two minutes.

Lin Sheng closed his eyes as he could feel that the Steel Lord’s spiritual clusters slowly thawing and melting away as a large amount of shapeless and colorless spiritual energies were entering his body, as they took the hue of his mark and aura.

Lin Sheng could feel that the sacred power cluster within him was growing explosively as every second saw an improvement to the result of his training.

The sacred power cluster was like a glass that was constantly being filled with water as it roiled and swirled.

*Hum…*

The faint white glow of sacred power radiated all over Lin Sheng’s body. His entire body glowed, and could not be hidden by his clothes.

This phenomenon lasted for a good twenty minutes. And twenty minutes later, Lin Sheng felt the total sacred power within him had increased by more than two-fold. A surge of sacred power slowly entered his bloodstream and circulated across his whole body.

He felt like he was soaking within a comfortable hot spring, absolute bliss.

Within his gut, the core of his sacred power, two marks slowly formed and floated about it.

Lin Sheng closed his eyes to sense it, and very quickly he could tell that the two marks were the two Ashen Seals that he had mastered. Sanctuary and Furious Howl.

“The books said that the more Ashen Seals a paladin masters, he would be able to gain more perks when he levels up. A shame, I only have two so far.”

Lin Sheng felt a little disappointed. But now that there was a marked increase in his sacred power, that meant his self-healing ability and resistance all increased as well.

“So I think this is about Level 5 now?” Lin Sheng guessed.

He then rose to wash up and change. After that, he lay in bed and readied himself to enter the dream realm.

“Brother… I want to sleep together with you!” Khadula appeared out of nowhere and clambered onto the bed excitedly as she stared at Lin Sheng with expectant bright eyes.

“What for?” Lin Sheng was speechless.

This felt extremely weird, as if he had put on female makeup on the left side of his face, and kept his right side normal before the two sides of his face started teasing each other.

“Having your right hand love your left hand, your femur loving your fibula, what the bloody hell for?” Lin Sheng spat.

“It’s certainly something! I’ll only sleep tight when I’m hugging you…”

Khadula had changed into a one-piece black nightgown as her legs, clad in white socks slowly inched closer toward Lin Sheng.

Her white hair ran down and onto the white bedsheet, as her small but well-endowed chest and thin waist, alongside her perky hip formed a very alluring curvature.

“Do you like it?” Khadula slowly got close to Lin Sheng’s face, a floral fragrance emanated from her body.

“Khadula, how many people had you eaten so far? Do you still remember them?” Lin Sheng suddenly asked.

“Ugh… about three thousand plus I guess?” Khadula pondered for a bit. “All of them have become one with me!”

“So that means I’m actually sleeping with three thousand people in my bed?” Lin Sheng said flatly.

“How can that be?!” Khadula was stunned.

“Alright, go stand guard outside, and don’t disturb me for nothing.” Lin Sheng patted her on the head.

Khadula fell into a deep mental conflict as she got down from the bed in a stupor and started thinking about Lin Sheng’s question.

Everyone she had eaten, was not dead, rather they were absorbed into her body, and they lived on together. She was, in fact, simply a massive monster that had absorbed a large number of humans.

If she did that with Lin Sheng, that meant that three thousand people would do that to him as well at the same time… but the master was hers alone! She would not share him with anyone!

Thus, Khadula fell into a never-ending cycle of dissonance.

Lin Sheng took control of Khadula and sent her own of the room as she patrolled in her black smoke form. Only then did he relaxed and lay on the bed as he slowly sank into the dream.

If she was not messing around, Khadula was indeed a powerful bodyguard. Now that he had totally absorbed the Steel Lord’s spirit, he could now start to hunt again…

…

*Tick tock, tick tock…*

Amid the ticking of the clock, Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.

The layout of the small sanctum was still the same as last time. Rows upon rows of pews, intricate and holy-inspired stained windows and the sacred tome on the prayer dais.

It was the same as when he left.

Lin Sheng looked at himself. He was wearing a suit of Blood Armor he found in the Warrior’s Guild with a bundle of short axes on his back.

As he got up, he headed straight to the storeroom. Standing before the assessment obelisk, he held his hands out to grab the two handles.

*Hiss…*

Sacred power flowed into the obelisk, and the markers were lit up by the rising sacred power. And soon it went past Level 4 and hit Level 5, before stopping right after pipping through the mark.

“It’s Level 5!” Lin Sheng was relieved. “Absorbing the Steel Lord’s soul cluster is almost equivalent to absorbing god knows how many other normal mobs.”

After confirming his sacred power had indeed reached Level 5, Lin Sheng pulled his hands back as he did not dawdle and walked out of the sanctum.

As he stood on the street, he swept his gaze past a few buildings close by as he looked passed the Warrior’s Guild toward the end of the street.

The further he went, the closer he got to the core district of Blackfeather city, and the closer to the core, the possibility of him running into stronger monsters increased as well.

Lin Sheng stood before the gate of the Holy Sanctum as he took a few deep breaths and made his way to the city center.

The black buildings on both sides of the street all looked like prowling beasts of various sizes, as they stared intently at Lin Sheng.

With the grey mist permeating all over and the street lights dim, it felt like monsters would pounce out of every corner at any moment.

Lin Sheng slowly made his way past the Warrior’s Guild, heightening his alertness as he swept his gaze on the signage on both sides of the streets.

“The Caen Manor.”

“The Hundred Leaves Pub.”

“The Anducil Manor.”

“The Tamlyn Manor.”

“The Raven’s Haberdashery.”

Name after name of buildings swept past his gaze.

He did not enter at random to search. Blackfeather City was just too big, and if he were to scour every building in the city, it will take him forever.

He needed to make full use of the time here, and try to garner as much occult knowledge that can be brought out of the dream as possible.

With big strides, Lin Sheng quickly picked through the signage on the buildings on both sides of the road.

After making his way through two streets and was close at the end of the third, Lin Sheng suddenly stopped as he looked at a white building with a golden dome that looked like a mausoleum.

A sign hung outside the building, with the following words clearly etched upon it: Blackfeather City High Magic Research Center.