Nightmare’s Call

The second floor was a smaller, but equally lavish hall.

Within two rows on intricately decorated display shelves were all sorts of white bones.

Most of them were animal bones, but probably a few of them were the oddly-shaped human bones.

However, Lin Sheng’s vision was not on the bones, rather it was on the silhouettes of three figures walking out of the bedroom.

Using the moonlight, he could see that the silhouettes were wearing the same black getup that Annie was wearing.

There were two females and a male, all of them armed, either with a sword, or a short flail.

The moment they saw Lin Sheng, they charged maniacally at him like a hound catching the scent of blood.

“Bloody hell!”

Lin Sheng looked up and darted forward, as he charged past the first person. The black sword in his hand flashed out like lightning, and cut through the second person’s neck, before blocking the flail attack from the third person.

*Clang!*

Lin Sheng’s immense strength exploded out, as he swatted the weapon aside before riposting with a horizontal strike.

The carpet was stained with a pool of blood.

Three bodies lay on the ground as blood gushed out of their necks.

Lin Sheng swept the blood off his black blade and hid in a corner, allowing the three strands of black lines into his body.

Following that, his body shuddered as his head ached violently.

A massive amount of chaotic information was surging into his mind.

From the memory fragments, all three of them were Kaarman’s adopted children. They sparred often with Annie and were about in the same league as her.

What Lin Sheng did not expect was his encounter with Annie was enough to tire him out and almost got him killed. But after activating that ability, he could take all three of them out so easily.

“This difference…and the ability of the three seemed to be a little different in the memory…”

After a moment, Lin Sheng had recovered from the headache and was frowning as he processed the information in his mind.

The Sacred Blood time limit had reached by then, but thankfully for Lin Sheng, the side effect of the ability was not as bad in the dream compared in reality.

He only felt slightly weakened, but that was about it.

“Annie and these three have all used this Ritual of Sacrifice, and I had gotten the same Sacred Blood ability like one of them, but the scale of the strengthening seemed to be not that great.

Lin Sheng started to wonder. In the memories that he had obtained, the person who had gotten the Sacred Blood ability had only half the effect of Lin Sheng’s when used.

He recalled that the moment when he activated the Sacred Blood ability, his body had strengthened many times over. Explosively, without comparison.

“Forget it, now’s not the time for this. I need to find more information about the Beckoning ritual!”

He then followed the memories to Bard the brute’s room.

It was closed, but not locked.

Lin Sheng gently pushed the door open as he stayed alert; as he made his way into the room.

There was a massive three-meter-long bed. And by the edge of the wall was a cupboard and a set of table and chairs as all sorts of white bones hung all over the wall.

Lin Sheng quickly walked to the table and pulled the drawer open.

There were three drawers in total, and within them were some scrolls and a black metal plate.

The scrolls disintegrated the moment he touched them and was useless.

The black metal plate, on the other hand, had words inscribed on it, and Lin Sheng immediately read through it.

“Father had said, Blackfeather City would soon be dragged into the dream, and I cannot imagine what will happen then. I’ve decided, we’ll leave together the day after.”

The writings were rather rushed, and Lin Sheng could imagine the panic the writer might have had.

“Dragged into the dream? What does that mean?”

He did not understand why that person would have inscribed that onto a plate, but that was not important now.

Lin Sheng placed the plate into his pocket and started rummaging through the rest of the place.

Bard’s room was very clean, and there were not many spaces to store stuff. But that did not faze Lin Sheng, he simply ran through Bard’s memories.

Soon, he came to the bedside and pulled out a small metal box out from the bottom of the bed.

The box was the size of a palm, and there was a yellow lock on it.

Not having the time to find the key, Lin Sheng tried to break it with the sword, but the box and the lock were surprisingly tough, and could not be broken.

He simply just took the box and left the room.

Weirdly enough, he had been on the second floor for quite some time now, plus the earlier combat should have certainly rung some alarm bells, yet no other monsters had appeared.

Lin Sheng held the box and stood at the mouth of the staircase for a moment.

He placed the box down and looked left as well as right before he cast his gaze on the staircase that led to the third floor.

He surmised that based on the memories, the people inside the Kaarman manor had foreseen disaster would befall Blackfeather City, and had planned to escape.

They would be dragged into the dream, as stated on the metal plate.

Lin Sheng could not imagine it. If the words were true, that the entire city was being dragged into the dream. What a disaster…

And even when he had absorbed so many memories, he still did not dare to believe it was true.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided to go up to the third floor to have a look. Perhaps Sir Kaarman had already run away? Then this would be easy pickings for him.

But the moment Lin Sheng lifted his leg, a surge of tension welled up inside him.

The moonlight outside was being obscured by thick roiling clouds as everything sank into absolute darkness.

Lin Sheng gripped his sword tight, he suddenly felt fear. He could sense that this darkness was different than the last.

Something was about to happen.

The moonlight on the carpet dimmed rapidly as the area around him sank into absolute darkness.

Shadows were moving rapidly as they swallowed everything they came into contact, and very quickly they were under Lin Sheng’s legs.

He quickly grabbed the box and held on to his sword tightly, his back against the wall until he was totally swallowed by the darkness.

A minute, two minutes.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes.

Lin Sheng had no idea how much time had passed. Since the coming of the darkness, the moonlight had not been seen since.

He stood still in the darkness.

And slowly, the time was up, and he should have woken up from the dream.

He noticed this and tried to walk forward.

But just as he lifted his leg and stepped forward, the floor disappeared underneath him.

An unknown sense of falling overwhelmed him as he felt himself plummeting downwards.

Tumbling… Falling…

Lin Sheng felt his sense dulling and knew that he was about to wake up. He hugged the black sword and the box tightly.

The box was Bard’s keepsake and may have had information pertaining to the Beckoning ritual.

And his black sword was his only weapon.

After his experience in Blackfeather city, Lin Sheng no longer treated it as a simple, mysterious dream.

While he would not really die in it, but not dying is even better.

He had no idea how long as passed before Lin Sheng regained his consciousness. He seemed to have returned to his bedroom.

He closed his eyes and could feel the weight of the blanket on top of him…

And the warm bedding beneath him.

He could now hear the ticking of the clock beside his ears.

He opened his eyes, and just as sudden, every sound around him disappeared.

His room was crimson red, like the sunset.

Lin Sheng turned around to the side of the bed and looked, the alarm clock was there. Yet, its needle was not moving.

He looked around. The room was still his original room; only the light from the window was crimson red, painting the room carmine.

It was a silent, peaceful crimson, yet oddly unnerving.

Lin Sheng closed his eyes.

*Tick tock, tick tock…*

The sound of the clock rang in his eyes again.

As he opened his eyes. It stopped.

Closing it again, the ticking started once again.

It was as if opening and closing his eyes were two different worlds altogether.