Chapter 28: “you’re Dreaming.”
Strangely enough, Lin Yan felt that sleeping in the coffin was actually more comfortable than sleeping in a bed. It wasn’t physical comfort, but mental. Although sleeping in a bed meant no sore waist or legs upon waking, there was always a vague feeling that he had forgotten something. Upon careful thought, he realized he had forgotten what he had forgotten.
This feeling of powerlessness over himself made Lin Yan feel utterly awful. In comparison, sleeping in the coffin gradually became acceptable, although turning over was inconvenient and he often bumped into the coffin edge when getting up. But every time he woke up, he felt refreshed, without that sense of having forgotten something.
So after staying at Wu Xie’s house for a week, Lin Yan unwillingly went from sleeping in the coffin three times a week to five days a week. To be honest, before, following Zhang Qiling through wind and rain was a lack of choice. Now with options, who would have thought the coffin would be superior. Thinking of this, Lin Yan felt sadness welling up. Did he have a grudge with this line of work? What was wrong with wanting to leave the plot and live a comfortable small life? This tiny request wasn’t even fulfilled, and who knows what thing was in his head! Really, which transmigrator was as miserable as him?
Fortunately, Zhang Qiling was a quiet gourd; Wu Xie didn’t care so much when making friends, and having shared life and death in the Lu King’s Palace was enough for him to trust Lin Yan, so he wouldn’t specifically investigate him; the only one who would dig deep, Wu Sansheng, had gone to Xisha. Strictly speaking, he was already an identified “black household.” As long as it wasn’t a place that seriously checked documents, he could come and go without issue, and no one would ask about his background, otherwise he wouldn’t know how to make it up.
Luckily, the centenarian Zhang Qiling was also a “black household,” which balanced his mind a lot. In a sense, he was on the same level as Zhang Qiling! So what if he couldn’t take trains, airplanes, or rent cars? They had buses! In this era, buses didn’t require an ID card! Thinking of future needs, when following Wu Xie rushing east and west, Wu Xie could take airplanes and trains without issue, but he might have to take buses, black cars, or three-wheelers. Every time he imagined this scene, Lin Yan felt himself on the verge of tears… This foreseeable future was truly too miserable!
It was all that thing in his head’s fault! Thinking of this, Lin Yan’s face gradually became ferocious. He didn’t know where that thing in his head came from, but Zhang Qiling seemed to know something about it.
On the way to the Qinling Mountains, he had asked Zhang Qiling about this. Zhang Qiling just told him that he could feel that thing was related to him, and his blood and senses being abnormal was because of this. Related to Zhang Qiling, wasn’t that related to the Zhang family, to the Kirin Blood bloodline, to longevity? In the original work, so many people exhausted themselves seeking longevity without success. Could he easily obtain longevity just because of that thing?
After the excitement, he quickly calmed down.
Pies don’t fall from the sky for no reason. Behind the huge temptation was definitely a price he couldn’t bear. At that time, he asked Zhang Qiling if he could separate from that thing and become an ordinary person—Zhang Qiling looked at him and showed a subtle expression that made his scalp tingle.
Although it was just the corner of his mouth twitching upward slightly.
But the gaze in his eyes was not kindly at all.
Lin Yan saw that Zhang Qiling felt some pity for his somewhat ridiculous idea.
He was stunned; the pity revealed in that smile seemed to mock his wild fantasies and overestimation of his abilities. Why did that smile look so unreal on Zhang Qiling’s face? But it was clear his hope of staying away from the plot was shattered, and it was also clear that thing was definitely not something good. Although because of it, Lin Yan’s blood had changed, his senses were sharper, and he gained a humanoid lie detector and eye contact ability, it was obvious this thing had side effects. The scariest part was that this thing seemed already bound to him, to the point that when Zhang Qiling heard his idea of becoming an ordinary person, he instantly showed some expression.
Relying on his ability to translate expressions, he saw in that instant that Zhang Qiling was thinking, “That existence that could extinguish even me like an ant, you think you can separate from it?”
That was absolutely, absolutely something even Zhang Qiling was helpless against, and the kind that was terrifying enough to extinguish him like an ant. As for why Zhang Qiling brought him along and said he would help him, he didn’t know. It better not be the bond from the Lu King’s Palace. In the Lu King’s Palace, he was just baggage; Zhang Qiling had saved him more than once. Even according to the original work, Zhang Qiling was outwardly cold but inwardly warm, but in the face of something that could threaten life at any time, why would the last patriarch of the Zhang family help him for no reason?
He could only guess that Zhang Qiling might have his own goal, but what the goal was, he didn’t know.
Whether it was related to the original plot, unknown.
Whether it was related to Wu Xie, to be determined.
However, at least he knew that in the current stage of being clueless, Zhang Qiling helping him was enough. No matter what, he did help after all.
After arriving at the Qinling Mountains, he originally guessed Zhang Qiling might take him to find that Bronze divine tree—he only remembered this divine tree, which was the most mystical thing in the original work, almost raising the ceiling of that world. He had seen some analysis posts saying that whether it was the Queen Mother of the West or the Wan Nu King, they all seemed related to here. That divine tree seemed to have a materialized ability, able to turn fantasies into reality, whether living beings or non-living things.
Zhang Qiling brought him here, was it to use magic to defeat magic? It seemed to make some sense. But Zhang Qiling quickly shattered his beautiful wish—he said the thing in Lin Yan’s brain, or rather soul, could only be suppressed, not expelled, because his body had already been assimilated. Unless he abandoned this body, he and that thing were inseparable. Of course, at the current stage, abandoning his body would naturally make his soul dissipate as well.
He took Lin Yan to an ancient tomb in some unknown place near the Qinling Mountains. It was clear it should be seal script. Although he didn’t recognize ancient script, couldn’t he still tell? He knew about the Qin Dynasty unifying the script when conquering the world; although he hadn’t studied Qin and Han scripts seriously, they were in the history textbook from nine-year compulsory education! The famous Qin Banliang, he had even made a plaster model of it!
Compared to the Lu King’s Palace, they were simply bulldozing here—mainly Zhang Qiling bulldozing, while he just followed behind shouting cheers, and after Zhang Qiling got injured fighting zombies, fed him a couple mouthfuls of blood. No choice, he didn’t want to suffer excessive blood loss every few days either, but after reading “Hurry up, we’re in a rush” from Zhang Qiling’s seemingly calm gaze, he felt he should still give it.
The good news was that his blood seemed increasingly effective. Before in the Lu King’s Palace, Zhang Qiling drank more than just a few mouthfuls; this time in the tomb, it felt like just taking two sips, but the injuries recovered just as quickly. He didn’t know if it was Zhang Qiling’s own strong recovery, or if he had gotten stronger, or if his blood made him stronger. It made him want to do a control experiment himself!
What finally stopped him was… He was indeed tolerant of pain, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt! Letting blood really hurt!
Watching Zhang Qiling battle zombies up close was a pleasing sight—provided it didn’t affect him. So Lin Yan stayed in the corner the whole time for close-up observation as he bulldozed. The basic process was roughly—enter tomb chamber → trigger mechanism → open coffin → take thing → kill zombie → continue taking things → go to next tomb chamber. What he didn’t expect was having to run through more than one tomb!
In the barren mountains and wilderness without tents, at night they just lit a bonfire, sky as blanket and ground as bed. If not for Zhang Qiling’s built-in insect-repelling skill, he didn’t know how to get through the nights. In just over a week, the two of them were like wild men. Zhang Qiling was fine; somehow this guy stayed clean even fighting zombies daily, unlike him covered in dirt with scruffy beard and tattered clothes. If seen, people might think he was a refugee.
But they did reap a rich harvest. Just the beads in the mouths of millennium zombies yielded three—one he had already swallowed, which gave him two days of diarrhea. There were also various other things like jade pendants, and notably, even a coffin! He didn’t know what Zhang Qiling was doing taking someone’s coffin. Then they traveled at least half a week more to find a tomb of a modern wealthy family and stripped the clothes off the tomb owner!
Under Zhang Qiling’s threat of “wear it yourself or shall I help you,” he tearfully put on the zombie’s clothes. Not bad, the quality seemed pretty good.
Although he himself felt nothing, according to Zhang Qiling, that thing had been suppressed. It would still continue to influence his body, but no need to worry about risks like “possession.”
So… it was fine?
Of course, Zhang Qiling doused him with cold water, waking him up. He said if things like pearl weren’t enough, he might not hold out until that thing fully assimilated with his body, and his soul would be assimilated. Then it would be unknown whether he was himself or the thing in his brain.
Finally, in a tomb, Zhang Qiling told him to hold the Black Gold Ancient Saber and chop a zombie on a platform. That saber was heavy as hell; he could only carry it over, then chop off the head before the zombie could corpse transform. It succeeded, but the result was a bit off—he didn’t control the center well and accidentally smashed his head into that platform. That platform was some kind of metal, emitting a rusty smell, and since he hit hard, he passed out just like that.
It was Zhang Qiling who woke him up. When waking him, his gaze was very peculiar, a complex look mixing “as expected” and “unexpectedly like this,” two opposing emotions.
He rubbed his head, not fully awake yet, when he heard Zhang Qiling say in a strange tone: “You had a dream.”
PS: Checked, and there are as many for daytime as nighttime, and many chose all-day. How about we compromise and do 5 PM?
